by Marc Hustvedt on March 14th, 2010
If there was any ever doubt that a web series—without any moonlighting Hollywood celebrities or TV network backing—could galvanize throngs of faithful fans into a live rock concert adoration, well, it ended last night at SXSW. Before a sold out crowd of over 2,200 at Stubbs BBQ one of Austin’s legendary outdoor concert stages, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht took a page out of the rock star playbook at the live Diggnation taping Saturday night.
The spiked hair and fire breathing magic skills of Scam School’s Brian Brushwood primed the crowd, in an opening act that probably could have its own Vegas offshoot some day. Then there was the #OMGConan hoax, an organized prank led by Rev3 co-founder David Prager that generated 426 tweets from the audience blasting out that Conan O’Brien is joining Revision3. This was of course full-circle to the web network’s credulous offer back in January for Conan to have his own Rev3 show.
Oh, and the crowdsurfing. Alex and Kevin floated over the sea of outstretched arms. Even live streaming TWIT.tv’s Leo Laporte joined in on the fun to cheers of “Leo! Leo! Leo!” as he was whisked up while carrying his lighted unipod to stream his ride. Was this the first live streamed crowd surfing shot first person?
In the parlor game of us spectators, one of the questions batted around was just how much PC-maker Alienware paid for the ultimate product integration—swapping out Kevin and Alex’s usual laptops for two of theirs. Best bets from those in the know seemed to say it was at least $50k for the privilege of that placement. Some speculated it was a six figure deal. Either way, not cheap to free known Apple-lover Kevin Rose from his MacBook Pro.
Spotted up in the VIP section were a number of web series vets like Taryn Southern, Tim Street, Brett Register, iJustine, Phil DeFranco, Tony Valenzuela and others—all there to witness first-hand just how big this video space has actually become. It left us all thinking, who needs Conan when you have have these guys?
by Marc Hustvedt on December 2nd, 2009
YouTube planning a live streaming push? In a recent interview with YouTube’s Hunter Walk, he confidently hinted that “There is really no particular technology challenge to us delivering any type of video.” Speculation is still abound as to whether they’ll tee off against (or just buy one of) the upstart live portals like UStream, Justin.tv, Livestream or Stickam. [NewTeeVee]
Web Series Pin-Up Calendar? Sure, why not. If you’ve got it flaunt it. Indie comedy series Safety Geeks: SVI launched their very own cal with cast member and former Playboy Playmate Brittney Powell. We’ll have to make room in the office for this one right next to our Tiki Bar TV pin-up cal from Lala (yes, we really have one). [Amazon]
Break.com is offering up some holiday cash ($600) for successfully pie-ing your Aunt Rita in the face. The site is offering the cash, as they often do, for entries into the “Holiday Fails” contest making it to the homepage. [Break.com]
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century still gets sci-fi junkies going. The teaser trailer (below) to the upcoming web series, which is really just a fancy looking spaceship flying by, hit the internets today. The project was first announced back in January, and has taken its time so far. [Sci-Fi Block]
John Hodgman talks Apple’s Tablet PC on Diggnation today (bel0w). Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht interviewed Hodgman, (you know the “PC” from Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads) and Albrecht quipped that he “was shocked at how cheap the price point is going to be.” As expected the Apple blogs are going nuts about this.
by Marc Hustvedt on November 12th, 2009
Revision3’s Diggnation, its super popular weekly web series of internet culture, finally has its own home on the social news site which gave it its name: Digg.com. It seems like a no-brainer, but for some reason despite the close alliance between the show and the site it hand’t happened until now. There is of course the Kevin Rose connection, who is a founder of both Rev3 and Digg, and co-host of Diggnation along with Alex Albrecht.
As part of the new partnership between the two companies, all of the Digg related shows—Diggnation, The Digg Reel, Digg Dialogg along with less frequent Digg Townhalls and Diggcetera—will have a hub at newly launched DiggTV. For the Revision3 series, the site is just embedding the Rev3 player. While Digg users already made up a large part of the series viewers, the new distribution channel for the shows means regular placement, and reminders to watch, in front of the 10 million-plus Digg.com monthly audience.
by Marc Hustvedt on November 11th, 2009
Revision3 is getting serious about comedy lately. The online network that basically cornered the web with hosted tech-friendly shows—Diggnation, TekZilla, HD Nation—debuted its second scripted comedy web series today with INST MSGS. The 13-episode series dramatizes real-life web chatter like personal IM conversations, Tweets, Facebook status updates and even Craigslist postings.
Creators Ann Le, Justin Simien, and Mathieu Young developed the series after Simien spent some “research” time at work perusing the Missed Connections ads on Craigslist. You know, those shot-in-the-dark type postings hoping some unrequited eye contact stands a chance at something more. There’s also the Craigslist personals, another gold mine that Simien and his cohorts mined heavily. The opening episode (above)—”My Women”—is one of these treasures, bringing to life an actual rant of someone in Detroit’s dating biography.
From there Simien put out the call to friends to send him stored IM conversations and other social media scraps they had on hand. “I was surprised at how much people saved their IM conversation and how much people actually would send me,” said Simien. “It’s so public but it’s also so private,” he added, “These things we would never say to each other face to face always struck me as really interesting.”
Though the first episode is mostly narration voice over, Simien does tell us there are some “talkies” coming up in future weeks. For those roles they cast a handful of known actors like comedian Phil Van Hest, Dileep Rao (Avatar), Abigail Spencer (Mad Men), Josh Cooke (Four Kings) and YouTube’s Liam Sullivan from the 30 million view “Shoes” video. There’s even a special musical episode in the works.
by Marc Hustvedt on August 31st, 2009
While we’re on the subject of promo videos for web series, we couldn’t pass up this latest one from the guys up at Diggnation. Sure, sitting down for a full episode of Kevin and Alex’s antics can run you about a full hour of your day, but a one-minute promo is sometimes all you need to remind you to check back in on the boys.
Host Kevin Rose performs a complete fail of a golf putter chip shot from the stage of their most recent episode, a live show from Phoenix. With co-host Alex Albrecht egging him on, Rose drills the oversize ball smack in the face of an innocent audience member, prompting a justified use of Keyboard Cat. (If you’re one of the three people on the internet that doesn’t get this ref, then study up over at another useful web series, Rocketboom’s spinoff series Know Your Meme.)
by Drew Baldwin on June 22nd, 2009
What a busy beginning to the summer! May and June were filled with web television events: Shira Lazar’s GeekOut! ‘09, the Independent Television Festival Launch Party, launch parties for new web series The Gloomers, Road to the Altar, and The Day Player, new Web TV Meetups in New York, and of course Tubefilter’s monthly downtown New Media Vault events.
We heard a lot of feedback since our last Hollywood Web TV Meetup in April at Avalon Hollywood, and we are thrilled to announce Tubefilter’s July Web Television Meetup at Busby’s East in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile is going to be our best one yet! Web television juggernauts Alex Albrecht and Hayden Black will be sharing with us their secrets to becoming the “undisputed sexiest men in web television,” and offer some sneak peeks of their upcoming projects. This is truly the meetup you do not want to miss!
by Pat Miller on May 8th, 2009
From Will It Blend? to the infamous Diet Coke and Mentos recreation of the Bellagio fountains, the Internet has always been an excellent place to show off the wonders of the nerdy mind at work.
Take that model and apply it to the world of film and special effects, and you have the driving force behind Film Riot, the new show from web studio Revision3, the same company behind everyone’s favorite Streamy-nominated social bookmarking show, Diggnation.
Ever wanted to figure out how to make it look like you’re shooting someone? How about blowing up someone’s head? Ripping an arm off? All of that stuff shows up in the trailer (above). Apparently the head-combusting will be the basis for the first episode. Other future episodes will focus on ghosts, explosions, lightsabers, and car crashes. Who needs film school when you have Ryan Connelly, Josh Connelly, Tim Allen, and Film Riot?
by Marc Hustvedt on February 18th, 2009
We feel sorry for the lovely 72-seat Theatre Asylum as I’m pretty sure they had no idea what they were bringing upon themselves by booking a live improv show tonight in LA with A-list web stars Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), Alex Abrecht (Diggnation, Project Lore) and Sandeep Parikh (The Guild, The Legend of Neil). Day, the creator-star of the certified hit web series The Guild, will be showing off her improv skills along with fellow Guild stars Jeff Lewis (”Vork”) and Parikh (”Zaboo”).
Also performing in the “Hammer Don’t Hurt Me” show are Tara Perry, Tanya Repanich, Eddie Repanich and Brooke Seguin. Tickets to the 9 PM show are $10, if you can still snag one. You might want to try the RSVP line: (323) 463-2942 or get there early and start groveling.
