Tubefilter News

In a constant effort to improve the accessibility of Streamy-nominated content to members of not only the voting body of the IAWTV but to the public at large, the International Academy of Web Televison hosted bi-coastal Streamy Awards finalist screenings on March 11th, 2010, with one occurring in New York and the other in Los Angeles (which was also streamed live via Stickam). Each screening included a viewing of finalist nominees of 11 of the overall Streamy Awards categories and a presentation of various New Media professionals and creators.

Held at NYU’s Cantor Film Center and supported by NYU Tisch School of The Arts, The Writers Guild of America East, The Producers Guild New Media Council, and The New York Television Festival, the New York screening included a discussion with MyDamnChannel Founder and CEO Rob Barnett. Barnett presented his experiences in successfully providing popular entertainment content to the web including Wainy Days, The Iceman Commeth, and distributing Easy to Assemble, just to name a few. He revealed that beyond picking out the content to be developed, he takes a very hands off approach to the actually creative process, instead choosing to let the creators of the shows do what they do best: create. The audience of the New York screening, which was open to the public, consisted of a wide range of enthusiastic content creators, IAWTV members, and NYU students.

The Los Angeles screening was presented as a part of the the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) LifeRaft Live Stream series, a professional development program that provides insight into the business of acting through seminars. Following the viewing panel discussion with nominated producers and creators, all of which were part of SAG signatory shows, was presented to an audience of IAWTV and SAG members. Moderated by Drew Baldwin, Co-Founder of Tubefilter, the panelists included Aaliyah Williams and Anastasia Ali (producers, Buppies), Ernest Vecchione (creator, Sex Ed), Sandeep Parikh, (creator /writer/director, The Legend of Neil), and Jonathan Stern (producer, Wainy Days). Panelists shared their insights across a wide array of experiences; from how funding and distribution effect production, to the importance of social media tools such as Twitter; and fielded questions from not only the audience in attendance but from the internet viewers, with the Stickam feed count exceeding 73,000 viewers, with a peak concurrent audience of 3,266 (per Stickam).

Fox’s digital content studio 15Gigs has inked a multi-series online distribution deal with web comedy network My Damn Channel that kicks off with The Iceman Chronicles premiering today. Technically, Iceman had already rolled out YouTube and picked up some strong early reviews.

15Gigs, which came together last summer, has been Fox Television Studios’ (FTVS) measured experiment with short-form original web content. Instead of building out a destination site of its own, it took the strategy of developing series and matching them with appropriate established distribution channels. For the most part this has meant using the 15Gigs YouTube channel as their home base, a key part of their digital playbook.

Teaming up with four year-old My Damn Channel is the next play in that book, aligning themselves with a proven brand that has racked up a string of awards for its selective comedy series like You Suck at Photoshop, Wainy Days, Pilot Season and the more recent addition of Easy to Assemble.

“We’ve been huge fans of My Damn Channel and we couldn’t be more excited to get this partnership going, said Rachel Webber, Director of Digital Strategy and Development at Fox Television Studios about the deal. “It’s an honor to be standing beside the likes of Easy to Assemble, You Suck at Photoshop and Wainy Days, and we’re very happy to be bringing the talent we work with—especially Drama 3/4, creators of Iceman Chronicles—into this mix.”

My Damn Channel’s CEO Rob Barnett also revealed that new series are part of this deal too, writing in a blog post today: “Fox has chosen us as one of their premium distribution partners for original Web series they’ve produced and we plan to start developing and producing original, new series together as well.”

The first 2 episodes of Iceman are now up on My Damn Channel’s site, with new episodes released every Thursday.

I’ve been to a ton of panels on the Future of Web Series Production, but most of them take place at conferences like Digital Hollywood, which are dedicated to new media. On Sunday, October 11th, independent film organization Film Independent (FIND) got into the act at the FIND Filmmaker Forum with a panel entitled “Going Online: New Stories for New Media.”

In the midst of a weekend filled with sessions covering the art and business of indie film, the panel gave the producers, writers and directors in attendance a look into the possibilities the smallest screen has to offer. The session was specifically focused on creating content for the web, as opposed to using the web as a means of distribution for feature films. Producer Ami Armstrong (Mr. Nice) moderated, and panelists included Jonathan Stern (Producer, Centrifugal Films), David Worthen (Sr. Vice President, Fox Digital Studio), Scott Sanders (Director, Black Dynamite) and Mike Farah (Producer, Funny or Die).

Armstrong kicked off the session with the question, “Who’s actually watching all these videos online?” The general consensus was that while so far the young male demo has dominated, there is an emerging female audience for web content. Panelists cited breakout shows In the Motherhood, an MSN online original that was picked up for broadcast television by ABC, and Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy.

Stern, producer of Wainy Days, Children’s Hospital and Hot Sluts, says that he is starting to put together a few shows created by women over 30. “It’s almost easier to get a female-driven show going right now,” says Stern, “because the sponsors are looking for it. The Axe’s of the world already have a foothold in that space.”

Each week, the staff at Tubefilter News gets together and picks shows that we think you should check out.
This week’s picks:
Roommating

Roommating follows the story of Joel and Erin, two roommates who met on Craigslist and have a common appreciation of judging people and Vietnamese food. We got a chance to talk to Joel a few [...]