Archive for November, 2011:

‘Sheriff of YouTube’ TheWillofDC Joins Cheaters Panel on Monday

Do Cheaters Never Prosper?
Gaming the System in Online Video

Some exciting updates! “Sheriff of YouTube” TheWillof DC will be joining us at the Tubefilter Meetup on Monday.

It’s time to get dirty.

Join us as we explore the seedy underworld of “cheating“—a controversial practice among online video producers. What is cheating? Is it really wrong? Where do you draw the line?

We’ll be surveying the most ingenious techniques in use and decide whether they qualify as “cheating” or not. By discussing and defining “cheating” we can more successfully identify the industry’s best practices in online video distribution. It is our top priority to ensure Tubefilter continues to be a platform for constructive dialogue and a safe environment for opposing views of both attendees and panelists.

From category jacking and bait-and-switches, to alliances and straight-up bribery, we’re going to get down and dirty with some of the worst (or best) offenders.

You won’t want to miss this.

Panelists:

Benny and Rafi Fine, TheFineBros

These YouTube veterans, whose channel is ranked #36 Most Subscribed Channel of All Time and #12 Most Subscribed Comedians of All Time, boast an encyclopedic knowledge of the wide-open opportunities on Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube itself that video producers exploit to pump up views and subscribers.

Will of DC William Hyde, TheWillofDC

A dedicated YouTube Partner since 2009, Will is an expert in creative video marketing and has earned the title “Sheriff of YouTube” among fans. His weekly news shows YouTube News and YouTube Winners and Losers feature the latest on the YouTube Community with a focus on the top 100 YouTube Channels of All Time.

Moderator: Drew Baldwin, Tubefilter

Drew is the Co-Founder of Tubefilter and Executive Producer of the Streamy Awards.

 

This year we’ve been exploring how YouTube and its partner program have opened a clear path to online video monetization.

As we’ve learned from our contentious Beyond YouTube event, advertising revenue share on YouTube is just the tip of the iceberg: producers are maximizing their online video business with their own websites, platforms like Blip.tv, smartphone apps, merchandising, licensing, and more.

Being a successful online video producer is about being both a creator and a marketer. And in our Social Video on Steroids, the experts shared how to engage and drive audiences using best practices in social media marketing and promotion.

Sponsored by King of the Web, a place to discover and reward internet awesome.

Do Cheaters Never Prosper?
Gaming the System in Online Video

Community Sponsors: Blip.tv, PlaceVine, and SAG New Media

Media Partners: NATPEPGA New Media Council and WGA New Media

Photo Booth by Snap Yourself!

RSVP Required: tubefilter.com/cheaters

Schedule:

7:00PM – Doors Open (pre-seating)

7:45PM – Panel

8:45PM – Networking Mixer

‘Danger 5’ Kills Nazis with Dinosaurs and Spy Movie Cliches

When you watch a new original web series (or an Australian TV-show-turned-web-series), it’s usually easy to describe it as “this show meets this show.” But good luck finding a simple way to describe Danger 5. Created by the same guys behind Italian Spiderman, Dinosaur Worldwide’s Danger 5 is a five-part action comedy series about 1960’s inspired spies fighting Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Last week the first episode – ‘The Diamond Girls’ – gets straight to the biscuits as spies Jackson, Tucker, and Pierre attempt to poison the Fuehrer. When their attack fails due to Hitler’s security team of diamond skinned women, their Colonel decides to make additions to the Danger team. Specifically, female agents Claire and Isla.

By the way, that Colonel has the head of a falcon and that’s only the beginning of the zany world the next four installments of Danger 5 explore. The trailer promises the series will be packed with action, robots, gold weapons, and Nazi Dinosaurs. DINOSAURS!

Beyond the draw of the bizarro characters, Danger 5 offers a level of production value not often seen online. Much like Italian Spiderman nailed the 1970’s Italian Cinema aesthetic, the new Dinosaur series pays careful homage to the 1960’s Spy genre with its elaborate set pieces, over the top fight sequences, and practical effects. It dances a fine line between retro and new media, using high saturated colors and off-sync sound to give the 60’s feel, but not enough to alienate audiences accustomed to high definition.

Falling back into the “this meets this” habit, Danger 5 is early James Bond meets original Star Trek. It’s Archer meets Team America. It’s the type of show I imagine Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds would enjoy if they lived in the web series era and need a break from killing Nazis themselves. If that’s not helpful, you can click here to see how the Dinosaur Worldwide website describes Danger 5.

But my best attempt at describing the program is “it’s everything I never knew I wanted in a web series.” Oh, it’s also AMAZING! But give it a watch for yourself. And if you find a better way to describe Danger 5, I’d love to hear it.

Clevver Snags Three YouTube Original Channels, Launches Latino Programming

Clevver Media scored three YouTube Original Channels—the most number of channels awarded to any single producer—and like fellow trifecta recipient Maker Studios, one of the channels is also in Spanish.

Last month YouTube announced a slate of nearly 100 Original Channels as part of its $100 million premium content initiative. Only  six other producers were given three channels: Bedrocket MediaBermanBraun,Demand MediaElectusIconicTV, and Maker Studios.

Clevver repeatedly enjoys status as one of the Top 10 YouTube Patner Channels according to comScore, and generates over 60 million views a month across its current YouTube channels, which include ClevverTV, ClevverMovies, ClevverMusic and ClevverGames.

“We are taking advantage of the YouTube initiative to broaden our audience reach with channels targeting new demographics for Clevver Media,” said Michael Palmer, Clevver Media’s Co-Founder. Indeed, the first of Clevver’s three new channels is ClevverTeVe, which brings the leading Hollywood headlines to a Latino audience completely in Spanish. Latino celebrity entertainer Gwendy Rodriguez hosts.

“The YouTube original channels initiative will also enable us to expand our international reach,” Co-Founder Jorge Maldonado added. “Our new ClevverTeVe channel is designed to tap into the rapidly growing Latino market, hungry for high quality and up-to-date entertainment news content.”

The ClevverTeVe channel launched November 11 with three original programs:

  • Teve Hollywood – An up-to-the minute daily entertainment news show covering the latest headlines from Hollywood.
  • Radar Latino – A daily news show covering today’s hottest Latin celebrities and entertainment headlines.
  • Teve Moda –  Twice a week, the show will feature the latest celebrity fashion coverage hot from the red carpet at major events and premieres

Clevver’s other new channels slated to launch this winter:

  • ClevverNews will deliver daily, up-to-the-minute entertainment news featuring the hottest celebrity interviews, pop-culture and Hollywood headlines with a positive, upbeat angle for fans who have graduated from teen focused ClevverTV.
  • ClevverStyle provides a positive and upbeat destination for today’s modern woman. The channel will offer the best fashion and beauty advice from savvy hosts, famous style experts and celebrity guests.

Kourtney Kardashian is the Latest Mommy Blogger

Watch out Dooce. Move over Soleil Moon Frye. Make way Daphne Brogdon. There’s a new mom in the wide world of video blogging, and she has one helluva disposable income, a famous family (or infamous family, depending on whether or not you like reality TV and basic social units that made it into American pop culture by way of a sibling’s sex tape), the backing of a cable television network, and a pretty great fashion sense.

Kourtney Kardashian is the latest mother to get in front of a camera and talk about her adventures in parenting. Of course, those adventures in parenting don’t touch on hot button child-rearing issues or other concerns that may be more familiar to the 99%, but so far focus on multi-colored baby moccasins and the importance of layering for the sake of fashion while living in New York City.

And actually, I think that’s okay. It’d be easy to critique this show with a lot of snark, but not every program (parenting or otherwise) always needs to be about something with some gravitas. Kourtney’s Mommy Blog is the reality TV version of Momversation or (insert your favorite mom-oriented online video program here). It’s superficial, pretty to look at, and unoffensive and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Sometimes, we want to be entertained and educated. Other times, we want to chillax and see a closet full of adorably small Ralph Lauren jackets and size two golden sneakers. (Of course, there’s an argument about how showcasing this kind of unattainable – for most Americans – level of consumerism is bad for the world at large, but let’s save that argument for a different article.)

Kourtney shot 10 episodes with E! Online while she was filming the latest season of Kourtney and Kim Take New York. Future installments will cover some of “her favorite things, questions she gets asked a lot, and just things that she’s found helpful” while being a mother. Check them out weekly at EOnline.

Is Herman Cain’s ‘9-9-9 The Movie’ Any Good?

Republican presidential candidate (and sometimes frontrunner of the GOP Horse Race) Herman Cain released a video on his YouTube channel on Sunday that attempts to lend some context and clarity to his seemingly impossibly simple solution for the perennial woes of the American tax system.

Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan for Economic Renewal proposes a 9% business flat tax, 9% individual flat tax, and 9% national sales tax and purports the aforementioned reforms will “expand GDP by $2 trillion, create 6 million new jobs, increase business investment by one third, and increase wages by 10%.”

Cain’s video, 9-9-9 The Movie – Slaying the Tax Monster explains all of the above and more by way of informal animation with lots of numbers, nondescript human beings, primary colors, a friendly voice over, and five minutes and fifty seconds of exposition on the fundamentals of taxation in the United States. Take a look:

I’m no James Carville, so for a political critique of the short film, let’s see what a few Capitol Hill-oriented journalists have to say. Alexander Burns at Politico thinks:

It’s the kind of thing that Cain fans may enjoy, that Cain detractors will laugh at, and that shows, in any case, how little Cain’s message has evolved since the summer.

Maggie Astor at International Business Times writes:

The return-to-roots strategy of the movie makes sense in that Cain’s “9-9-9” plan is the most eye-catching part of his platform…On the other hand, returning to the “9-9-9” plan may reinforce the growing perception that Cain is a one-trick pony, especially since the shift in strategy comes on the heels of several foreign policy missteps and unclear statements on hot-button issues like abortion.

And Lucy Madison at CBS News believes:

When it comes to analyzing the basis for Cain’s claims, however, that the 9-9-9 plan would be a simple route to economic success, the film falls short.

But what about in terms of the actual production of the film? Is the animation engaging? Is the short any good? I’m less of a Dan Meth than I am a James Carville, so I asked Cold Hard Flash editor and animation expert Aaron Simpson to offer up his take on how Cain’s film holds up.

Here’s Simpson on Slaying the Tax Monster’s design and eyeballs: 

The design isn’t overly-slick, which helps enforce the grassroots nature of Herman Cain’s message. With the exception of a few caricatures, the character designer made a curious and stingy decision regarding eyeballs. These organs are the most expressive part of our faces, and I think an opportunity was missed to connect with the viewer, especially when the characters depicted are often the common man.

And here Simpsons’ take on the film’s adult-oriented animation:

While this is more of a ‘motion-graphics’ piece than a character animation, the animation itself is capable, full of bouncy, natural-looking walk cycles, and stimulating enough to keep us interested when the content of the video gets more nuanced. The animation producer helped the Cain team avoid a trap that can befall many who venture into animation for the first time – allowing the results to veer into the kids realm. If the characters or production design start to look like a Disney creation, a somewhat serious message can become hostage to those less serious undertones.

So, while the critics at Politico, International Business Times, and CBS News find fault with the film’s message, it seems at least from a visual perspective, Cain’s film is more or less a success. But for better or worse (depending on which side of the aisle you’re on), a few thumbs up on his latest YouTube upload from animation enthusiasts probably won’t do much for Cain’s chances in that horse race.

Facebook Second Only to YouTube in Online Video Viewers

One big news item to come out of comScore’s latest Online Video Rankings is the total US internet audience viewed over 42.6 billion videos in the month of October, which makes for an all-time monthly high.

One predictable news item to come out of the same Online Video Rankings is YouTube maintained its position as the #1 video site across the categories of Total Unique Viewers (160+ million), Videos Viewed (almost 21 billion with a “b”), and Minutes Per Viewers (424.2, which equates to 7.07 hours).

One unexpected news to come out of the Rankings is Facebook’s jump to the #2 spot behind YouTube in that comScore Top 10 List of Total Unique Viewers. The world’s largest social media site saw 166+ million unique visitors in the month of October. Of those 166+ million, 59.8+ million of them watched a video on Facebook. That puts Facebook ahead of its closest competition, Vevo.com, by just under three million monthly views, and in front of the rest of the usual suspects on comScore’s charts by far more substantial numbers. For those keeping score at home, back in September, Facebook occupied the fifth spot behind YouTube, Vevo, Microsoft and Viacom.

And one more unexpected news item in the Rankings is the Top 10 List of YouTube Partner Channels saw a couple of name changes just a month after the chart appeared almost entirely stable. Schmooru and Warner Bros.’ (powered by The Ellen Show) claimed the #4 and #8 spots with a respective 9.8 million and 7 million viewers, bumping Revision3 and ClevverTV out of the top 10. Vevo, Warner Music, and Machinima still rounded out to the top three spots, with the music video networks account for the lion’s share of the viewers.

Check out the rest of the movers and shakers in comScore’s October Online Video Rankings here.

Michael Eisner Sees One-Man Play, Makes it a Web Series

Marc Wolf’s one-man Off Broadway show took an interesting twist during its transformation into a digital series. For starters, it was originally titled Another American: Asking and Telling. The play, based on Wolf’s interviews with over 150 gay and lesbian military personnel (as well as others) deeply affected by the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, premiered at the 99 seat DR2 theatre in New York City.

In a miraculous twist of fate, one of the theatre patrons was former Disney CEO and Vuguru founder Michael Eisner. He liked the show and left the theatre with the idea of turning Wolf’s work into the digital program that would soon become Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Adapting a one-man show isn’t a normal occurrence in the web series world, but Vuguru brought in a director and well known creative consultant to turn the play into a multi-platform property. “Turning a one man show into an engaging project to be seen as a whole or in chapters is a challenge,” said Kristin Jones, Vuguru’s Chief Creative Officer. “But John Walsh (director) and Mary Harron (creative consultant and director of American Psycho) had an amazing vision and knew how to best showcase Marc Wolf’s amazing performance.”

In the play and subsequent series, Wolf portrays a broad range of people who have differing opinions and experiences with the military’s now-repealed “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, including Charles Moskos, the author of the policy. “Each of these characters has such an incredible story to tell, and encompasses such a range of emotions” said Jones when asked about how the play appealed to Vuguru.

As a viewer, I agree. The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell more than effectively captured my attention and was a joy to watch. Wolf embodies the characters with such commitment, it’s easy to embrace them, as well as the format of the series. You can check it out for yourself in episodic format on SnagFilms or in a feature length format on Amazon.com, Comcast Xfinity and FIOS Video on Demand. It’s a unique one-man series definitely worth a watch.

Muppets’ Miss Piggy Tells Golden Globes All

With the Jason Segel-starring and scribed Muppets movie on pace to gross more than $40 million at the box office by the end of Thanksgiving weekend and the uncanny ability of Jim Henson’s puppet creations to maintain a perennial place in US pop culture, it’s no wonder Kermit and company were everyone’s favorite choice to replace Eddie Murphy as host of the next Oscars.

The powers that be at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences want to put on a show hosted by a human, but they also know the American people like their Muppets. That’s why we’ll most likely see a few of them alongside Billy Crystal and Hollywood’s finest, bestowing honors amongst exceptional individuals in the film industry come February

The Golden Globes don’t want to be left out.

A representative from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with a nondescript, non-US accent recently caught up with Miss Piggy to talk love, Vogue Paris, a love of assistants who will get you coffee, and what she’ll be wearing to the Golden Globes if nominated in the category of Best Female Actor. It’s an impromptu interview with fastball questions, but Miss Piggy handles it all with honesty and aplomb.

The fact the HFPA got the queen of the Muppets on camera means I think we’ll most likely be seeing Miss Piggy and her friends at a few different awards shows come 2012.

AFTRA and WGA on ‘All My Children’ Cancellation: Prospect Park M.I.A. from Bargaining Table

AFTRA and the WGAw released statements responding to Prospect Park’s decision to pull the plug on the  All My Children and One Life to Live web series.

In a statement released by Prospect Park, principals Rich Frank and Jeffrey Kwatinetz blamed the unions for the decision to kill the project:

“While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program’s inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision.

AFTRA, the union that represents the actors on the shows, released a statement in response:

“Despite initial progress in our negotiations with Prospect Park toward resolving a fair agreement to cover the performers appearing on these programs, we were perplexed and disappointed that for the past month Prospect Park has not responded to our repeated inquiries to resume those discussions. We now conclude from the press reports that Prospect Park faced other challenges unrelated to our negotiations, which prevented continuation of those discussions.”

WGAw, the union that represents the writers, also released a statement:

“We were disappointed to learn that Prospect Park’s financing fell through. Prior to the end of last week, we were close to a fair deal for the writers.”

Are Unions Really to Blame in Decision to Kill ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’?

Independent production company Prospect Park announced yesterday that they are abandoning plans to develop ABC soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live as an online series.

Last July the producers announced plans to adapt the shows for a TV-focused online network. ABC announced last april that they were canceling the shows. All My Children‘s final episode aired September 23,  2011with a revised ending so that Prospect Park could pick up where the story left off. One Life to Live‘s finale is scheduled for January 13, 2012.

Prospect Park principals Rich Frank and Jeffrey Kwatinetz released a statement explaining the reasons behind killing the project:

“While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program’s inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision. In the end, the constraints of the current marketplace, including the evolution and impact of new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion.”

They continued, “After five months of negotiations with various guilds, hundreds of presentations to potential financial and technology partners, and a hope that we could pioneer a new network for the future, it is with great disappointment that we are suspending our aspirations to revive One Life to Live and All My Children via online distribution. It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our ability to meet our deadlines to get OLTL on the air in a reasonable time period following its Jan. 13, 2012 ABC finale impossible.”

Moving a network television show online is an ambitious project, and the obligation to maintain the same quality, format, and length as television presents significant production costs. When coupled with the scarce advertising dollars and revenue opportunities online (compared to television), these costs may pose too much risk for potential backers of an untested platform. It seems more likely that the business model just didn’t work, and the producers are looking for a place to lay the blame.

UPDATE: AFTRA and WGA respond to Prospect Park’s decision to abandon ‘All My Children’

How to Kill a Turkey and Happy Thanksgiving!

The Perennial Plate is a cleverly named “online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating.”

Founded in February 2010 by Daniel Klein (a filmmaker and wouldbe chef with a serious culinary pedigree, including stints in Michelin star restaurants like The Fat Duck , St. John, Mugaritz, Bouchon, Applewood, and Craft) and Mirra Fine (a camera operator, graphic designer, and freelance writer), the program filmed its first 52 episodes in and around Minnesota, capturing the diverse farming, food cultivation, and cooking practices of the The North Star State and its neighbors (like mushroom hunting, Great Lakes fishing, and cheese making).

For their second year of weekly episodes, Klein and Fine took The Perennial Plate on a roadtrip across the United States to farm, hunt, cook, and eat with their “food heroes,” imbibing on everything from insects in Rhode Island to lobster pie in Maine. But before they started on their cross country adventure, the pair spent their last Thanksgiving in Wisconsin at Living the Dream Farm, where they selected a live turkey, cooed it into submission, and ran a very sharp knife along the bird’s neck to kill it before butchering the bird for their big holiday meal. They also caught the whole thing on camera.

It’s the second time Klein and Fine filmed the live slaughter of a Thanksgiving turkey. The first time was in the premiere episode of The Perennial Plate and inspired Fine to give up meat for good. After watching, it’s easy to see how the experience could have that effect.

You don’t have to pose naked for PETA in your spare time to have an emotional response to seeing the killing of an actually-cute-in-its-own-kinda-way animal to feed another. And whether or not you’re a herbivore or omnivore (or leaning towards the former after seeing the above), it’s good too see the process of how what you eat gets to your plate.

Personally, I’m not joining team vegetarian anytime soon, but watching the slaughter at LTD farms certainly gives me a greater appreciation for what I’m eating. And that’s definitely something to be thankful for. Happy holidays! And enjoy your Thanksgiving meals, whether they be comprised of turkey, tofurkey, or some kind of culinary monstrosity.

Turbaconepicentipede is the New Turbacon is the New Turducken

Last year it was a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig. More specifically, it was a quail, in a Cornish hen, in a chicken, in a duck, in a turkey, in a pig, all layered, deboned, held together with veal and pork sausage meat, filled with bacon stuffing, lathered in a Jack Daniels glaze, and covered in candied bacon strips. It was baked, then smoked, then garnished with Wendy’s Baconators, then eaten.

This year it’s the same thing. Except times 10.

Harley Morenstein, Sterling Toth, Muscles Glasses and the rest of the Canadian crew of gonzo food pornographers otherwise known as Epic Meal Time have grossly expanded on their Turbacon creation of 2010 and conceived of a new culinary monstrosity dubbed the Turbaconepicentipede. It’s a bunch of Turbacons lined up in a row, positioned like the characters in Tom Six’s biological gross out horror flick.

The calorie count of the Turbaconepicentipede totals 802,420. That’s enough consumable energy to feed 13 fully-grown men a USDA-approved diet for one month. It’s also enough food to throw what looks to be one helluva party with some of the biggest names in YouTube (including Smosh, Hannah Hart, Jenna Marbles, CorridorDigital, Jimmy Wong, The Fine Bros., and more).

Epic Meal Time’s success is accelerating in step with its rising caloric intake. The channel hit a total of one million YouTube subscribers last June, just about 260 days after its launch (which is shortest amount of time in which any channel’s crossed the seven-figure mark). Now, just 155 days or so later, Epic Meal Time is on the verge of gaining its two millionth subscriber. That’s at a rate of around 6,000 subscribers per day over the last five months, as opposed to the 4,000 subscribers per day the channel gained on its initial climb to one million.