2007 was a formative year for internet-TV.  In fact, I think 2007 was the year in which we witnessed the emergence of a truly a distinctive medium and art-form fueled by open distribution.  Josh Cohen and I were continuously impressed with the staggeringly imaginative, moving and meaningful video content created just for the web. 

As the year came to a close, we began to discuss the must-see internet-TV episodes, and were overwhelmed by far too many incredible episodes to mention within just one post.  That said, we choose ten remarkable episodes of the year to share on this final day of 2007. 

For those not particularly familiar with internet-TV, this is a good starting-point, as this nascent industry and medium have grown with and around these exemplary shows that constantly push the medium and community.

To all the people creating original video content for the web: thank you.  It’s been a pleasure observing what happens when talented people of varying skills, perspectives and backgrounds gravitate towards an open medium. 

Here are ten hilarious/moving/though-provoking/ground-breaking pieces, in no particular order…

1. Internet People – Meth Minute 39

###2. Joanne’s Conscience of Crisis – Rocketboom

3. Facebook – Wallstrip

4. “Songs You Already Know: Scared” – ZeFrank

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5. “Rod vs Henry” – We Need Girlfriends

6. “Lets Talk About Sex” – Patrice O’Neil Show (EXPLICIT)

7. “Iraqi’s Celebrate Victory in the Asian Cup” – Alive in Baghdad

8. “Acorn Rainbow” –  Wreck and Salvage

9. Naomi Wolf – The Alcove with Mark Molaro

10. Episode One – iChannel

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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Through a mysterious “formula” that takes into consideration “view counts, most shared, most discussed, top rated, and general popularity,” YouTube has released a list of its “Most Memorable Online Videos from 2007.”

Aside from the incredibly awesome, wild animal Battle at Kruger (which was facilitated by a Zapruderian stroke of happenstance) and Obama Girl (which one could argue has brought an interesting new dimension to political discourse), it’s basically a list of TMZ or MTV pop culture phenomena devoid of any “cultural benefit.” Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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This past summer, the CBC – our neighbor to the north’s oldest broadcasting service – launched an online video contest dubbed Exposure,  hosted by the illustrious Lara Doucette of Tiki Bar TV (Tilzy.TV page) and the new media Renaissance man with an affinity for Jeff Goldblum, Billy Reid.

Out of hundreds of entries vying the grand prize of a $25,000 online entertainment development deal, the sometimes lewd, all times amusing Kirby Ferguson won it all with his depiction of a hardcore yogi who twists himself up in “Yo! Gah!”

While the CBC and Ferguson’s project is still in the works, the network wants your ideas to make more entrees into the world of online video. This time, no contest is necessary. ###

Straight from the InsideTheCBC employee blog, the solicitation is an “open call” for proposals of “original online content.” Submitters are politely asked to take into account a number of factors (new media business models, audience appeal, etc.), and their submissions will be evaluated on a variety of criteria (cost, innovation, revenue potential, etc.).

The call also reveals a different approach to web video than what we’ve normally seen in the space:

“There is much competition for limited resources and success in the new media area is uncertain; it’s important, therefore, that we concentrate our efforts on fewer projects that have larger potential impact, while offering public value.”

Methods like this one are in stark contrast to the more-lines-you-cast-more-fish-you’re-gonna-catch, throw-spaghetti-against-the-wall approach endorsed by many independent content producers and, in a slightly more calculated way, from new media studios like Next New Networks and For Your Imagination.

Maybe this is the rigid mentality of a behind-the-times, old media company, or maybe it does make sense to offer more vetting and show development for creators. Or, maybe this is simply the necessity of a small budget. Either way, it’s interesting that they’re foregoing the contest this time and instead using their resources to sift through an influx of ideas. It’s probably a smart move, and I’m surprised other studios and broadcasters haven’t done the same.

Perhaps major US studios are already inundated with pitches from people they already know, but shelling out the cash to have a few low-level employees or interns filter the slushpile seems much more cost effective than covering the infrastructure and marketing costs for a contest that isn’t necessarily likely to receive many submissions.

On the surface, it also appears to embrace the democratization of media. Anyone with a good idea who can send an e-mail is eligible. That’s the lowest barrier of entry I’ve seen yet.  Just be wary about your rights.

[via Podcasting News]

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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A new book, One City by Ethan Nichtern, sits on the stand beside my bed.  Nichtern describes the global interdependence of humanity which he calls “the real internet.” 

Each day, without much care or attention, I interact with, and rely on, people from across the world, past and present.  From my “alarm clock made in the Phillipines” to my “socks from China” which arrived “thanks to the archaic energy of petroleum” to the shower water that “has pulsed through an intricate web of ducts and unseen pipes that some forgotten engineers constructed decades ago.”

I would not have been stimulated by this eloquent articulation were it not for a web of influences and relationships that lead to my interest in democratized television and, in turn, my introduction to The Alcove with Mark Molaro. 

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The Alcove is an anomaly in the age of hyperactive consumption of media on the internet ###and, yet, it speaks directly to the promise of the open medium.  It’s one of the only active forums for long-form, in-depth conversation on cultural issues on the internet, and it’s done with an integrity and intellectual curiosity that pays homage to a long tradition of journalism.  It’s a program that can speak to its core constituency without the concern for sensationalism to drive ratings that has come to dominate broadcast journalism. 

Others, like

Molaro, who has been called “The Charlie Rose of the internet” by Paul Levinson, the Chair of Communications and Media Studies of Fordham University in New York, has interviewed thinkers and media-creators from Aronson-Rath and Arun Rath of the PBS Frontline series “News War,” to Naomi Woolf renowned author of The Beauty Myth, to Wallstrip’s (Tilzy.TV Page) Lindsay Campbell. 

“My objectives with the program and with the guests we invite is to do the most in-depth and authentic interview with them at that particular time – what I hope will amount in some way to an ‘interview of record’. I am looking guests from all political, social and economic backgrounds,” Molaro wrote in an email. “I see [it] as being an ‘alcove’ in the true sense of that word – a place away from most media – one that takes its time with its guests and seeks authenticity, intimacy and depth with our guests. The key for our guests is that they have something to say and a passion for saying it.”

Molaro credits Bill Moyers and Charlie Rose as major influences, and The Alcove has certainly taken much from the profundity of these television giants by creating an atmosphere for open dialogue, but he could stand to learn more from his forerunners. 

In terms of style and presentation, Molaro has a lot of room to grow.  He lacks the spontaneity of Rose, the earnest concern of Moyers or the bullishness of Russert.  His posture is just a little too stiff, his questions just a little too planned…often too prefaced. He lacks the  audacity to occasionally interrupt to clarify a point or to question a presumption.  He needs to relax, to interact, to let his genuine personality shine through in sincere conversation.  I see that authenticity lurking beneath the surface of an intuitive interviewer who’s not yet fully found his on-screen voice.

Critiques notwithstanding, this is one of the smartest, most though-provoking television shows period; I’m constantly inspired by the challenging insights of his roster of esteemed guests. 

Molaro, formerly a documentary filmmaker, created The Alcove when he realized that his favorite aspect of filmmaking was “interviewing.” “I found that my guests could see my interest in them and their work, and they opened up.” 

Molaro sees The Alcove “blend[ing] into the changing waters of TV…quite seamlessly. We’re taking our time to be smart and cautious so as to grow in a realistic and organic way.” 

I’m personally looking forward to “many, many more interviews in 2008.” 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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In a likely act of subterfuge to divert her subjects’ attention away from the expected, yet no less despairing loss of Borat and Ali G, Queen Elizabeth II took her Annual Christmas Day Broadcast to the phosphor screens of cyberspace by way of her newly christened YouTube channel.

During yesterday’s 50^th anniversary of the royal message’s inaugural television broadcast – and the first time it’s been made immediately available to a web surfing public – the Queen addressed the Commonwealth and touched on the timeless topics of helping the disadvantaged and honoring the armed forces’ fallen.

Her Majesty hasn’t completely embraced the new medium – trimmings like leaving comments and embedding the clips have been disabled – and she may just be as pointless and ineffectual on the web as she is everywhere else, but the videos do offer some insight into regal marketing for an unfamiliar individual on the other side of the pond. Couple it with Downing Street’s coverage of Prime Minister’s Questions and you have a decent overview of the inner workings of a constitutional monarchy.

Why isn’t the US government doing something like this? An easy access repository on YouTube for presidential propaganda and nostalgia would allow for more people to be exposed to and enraged or elated by our own head of state. Videos of the First Dog I could do without, but the American equivalent of footage like Roses for the Rose Queen, 1917 would be very cool to watch.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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The winter solstice was three days ago. That means, while nestled up in a family friend’s chateau for the holidays in northern New Hampshire at a latitude of roughly 44N, I engage in any activities that require natural light before 4PM. Fifteen minutes later it’s pitch black. That leaves an excess of afternoon and evening indoor-time for eggnog with a Captain Morgan’s kicker and, after all the teenagers here monopolized Rock Band, a lot of internet TV.

Here are the 10 best snowy white Xmas vids form 2007 that this Jewish desert rat has seen.

10. Doogtoons and Ask a Ninja: A Very Ninja Christmas Pt. 1. Pt. 2

### Doug Bressler of Doogtoons and Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask a Ninja have been collaborating on “Special Deliveries” since way back in April of ’06. Here, Bressler colorfully animates the Ninja’s tale of Santa’s revenge for that “incorrigible zombie snowman, Frosty” brutally murdering Mrs. Claus.  Of course, Mr. Claus is a huge ninja himself, “both literally and metaphorically.”

9. for tax reasons: IM IN UR MANGER KILLIN UR SAVIOR

Ben Levin went from being that pharmaceutical-infused, lovelorn, annoying dude that you have to drive home after a concert to teaming up with Matt Burnett and getting all LARP on the internet. IM IN UR MANGER KILLING UR SAVIOR even comes complete with geeky commentary pointing out its egregious roleplaying errors and inconsistencies.

8. The Killers: Don’t Shoot Me Santa

Reportedly directed by creative mind Matthew Gray Gubler, this music video mixes sock puppets, a Nevada hoedown, and a rockin’ synth-pop sound with typically depressing Brandon Flowers lyrics that will even out your holiday cheer.

7. The Revision3 Gazetter: VC Baby

Though Here Comes Another Bubble satiated whatever hunger I had for hit songs retuned with geeky, cute, techbiz lyrics, I’ll watch anything with iJustine.

6. Dominic A. Tocci: North Pole is Melting

In this sing-a-long with a happy beat but grim environmental outlook, one of Santa’s Elves elucidates how the fat man in the red suit, and the world, should go green.

5. Homestar Runner:

4. Professor Brothers: Prisoner Christmas

Famous for his alternative narrative to the first Harry Potter flick and turning American presidential myths into crudely animated, fabulous fairy-tales, Brad Neely has found another hit with the Professor Brothers. Here, the insane profs rock out and educate their students on what Christmas is like in the can.

3. Jon Lajoie: Cold Blooded Christmas

Jon Lajoie is an “everyday normal guy” French Canadian comedian from Montreal. His comedy has been waxing popularity on YouTube and Funny or Die over the past six months with hits like “Friends with God” and his  2Girls1Cup anthem. This is his “Christmas Story,” or “How I Lost My Uncle.”

2. Baby Cakes: The In-House Carol

Another one from Brad Neely, but starring his overgrown, eccentric, infantile creation, I Am Baby Cakes. The John McClane references are entirely unexpected, bloody and priceless.

1. POYKPAC: The Amazingly True Story of Christopher Cringle

It’s a Christmas creation myth with pagan influences built on the back story of Kal-El, from the same Williamsbrug, Brooklyn crew behind the “Hipster Olympics” and “Mario: Game Over.” This one just might be their best.

Merry Christmas and Happy viewing!

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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The talk of capital chasing film and TV writers to the web is exciting.  It signals an ever-increasing wave of talent gravitating towards the open medium (with minds to monetize it) where they’ll be free to license and distribute work in the most suitable ways for the content and its creators, and, in turn, an online media environment with more eyeballs and a market ripe for new and innovative entertainment products.

This is not, however unfortunate, the death-rattle of big media.  Trends are changing, people are spending more time in front of their computers and less time in front of their TVs.  For an online world with ever-richer experiences, this makes sense, but there is still one major impediment to the complete hegemony of internet-tv: the last mile.

The lean-back experience of browsing television channels with a Time-Warner remote control is still far easier than on a PC browser.  Nobody uses AppleTV.  Joost has very little content, and it’s too closed.  Even VeohTV and Miro, both of which have proclaimed utmost openess, are cumbersome, difficult to use, and lacking a critical mass of quality content. As long as traditional television remains a superior experience for long-form entertainment–and it will be for a while–the studio system as we know it will remain a predominant provider of in-home entertainment.

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This does, however, present an increased opportunity for hybrid products like those created by Next New Networks which are actually designed to be consumed in an active environment.  The entertainment product becomes more than the videos themselves; it’s a multi-dimensional experience that links communities through various interactive elements…in addition to video. 

The dispute between studios and writers is over the distribution of revenues realized from broadband video distribution.  But lets be honest, the accounting practices suggested by the WGA would require “restructuring the fundamental financial model of the commercial production business” with micro-accounting that seems highly improbable.  Instead, the WGA should focus on negotiating fair rates for the economic system that has emerged on the true open market of internet-tv: work for hire.  It’s the same model that works for almost every other creative profession, from architects to painters to photographers. 

So should Hollywood writers ditch TV for startup capital?  Only those seeking to create interactive entertainment specifically for the browser-based web.  For those more comfortable within the confines of linear television, big media might just present another opportunity…if writers and studios are willing to negotiate reasonable accounting methods. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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My latest distraction has been the 12^th Annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. The event was held a couple weeks ago at the Kodak theatre in LA, broadcast on CBS, and can be viewed on-demand through a CBS-branded site. Aside from a cheesy, “Eye of the Tiger” intro that network producers probably thought was hysterical, the marketing party with a runway in the middle looks awesome.

But then again, I’ve always had a thing for ethnically ambiguous women with inconceivable BMIs, sporting high heels, Newtonian push-up bras, extravagantly funny hats, and too much glitter. And wings. I love a girl with wings.

To breakup the clips of the catwalk, CBS cut in “Up Close & Personal” segments with the Angels. These included answers to generic questions (“Where did you grow up?” “How’s it feel like to be a model?” “What charities do you work with?”) and requisite montages of pre-pubescent and teenage photos that were themselves broken up by clips of the model on a variety of catwalks.

Similar to the state I’m in when mesmerized by Discovery Channel’s beautiful Planet Earth, I could watch Izabel Goulart vacuum clean and be happily entertained. CBS needs to drop the overproduced, sit-down-interview Q&As, and Victoria’s Secret should hand its models cheap video cameras and have them shoot themselves doing absolutely anything.

Basically, it should do exactly what Ford Models (Tilzy.TV page) is doing and just raised a chunk of cash to do more of. ###

Click To Play

Transitioning into a new media age, the agency is leveraging its assets of beautiful people to become a mini-studio, incubating and marketing its talent through entertainment that costs next to nothing to produce. Their undisclosed investment sum will help the company accelerate its global expansions and give it the financial resources to produce a lot more content from around the world.

Despite, or perhaps as a result of their simplicity, clips of models trying on clothes, models giving bikini reviews, models doing gymnastics and yoga, and models involved in other activities have acquired more than 20,000 subscribers on YouTube alone.

We all know that sexy sells, Ford has simply figured out more ways to easily create and sell it. Other entities need to leverage existing resources to do something similar if they want to stay relevant within the digital world.

A similar model could work for literary agents or publishing companies handing out cameras to writers, sports teams with athlete, bench, and locker room cams, or hip, internet start-ups with camera-friendly employees (it’s been relatively successful for Vimeo). Will Ferrel, Adam McKay, and Judd Apatow have also created quality entertainment for Funny or Die by using downtime on movie sets to their advantage.

Yes, not having legs like Alejandra’s is a drawback, but organizations can definitely come up with other means of attractcting an audience without necessarily being that attractive.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Originally from South Africa and now residing in England, Mike de Jager is a professional guitarist. He has been involved with NWOBHM and played for Judas Priest founder Al Atkins on a 2006 UK tour and on his “Demon Deciever” album, among various other gigs. In June 2006, de Jager brought his love for guitarists to the web with the launch of Guitarist TV.

The low-budget site is mostly a vehicle to showcase the videos, which are categorized into the embedded player’s three channels: performances, interviews, and guitar lessons. The main videos last anywhere from three to ten minutes and consist of one song, performed either in a music video or live at the Birmingham Symphony Hall in England. The roster of performers includes of heavy metal band members gone solo, as most are introduced with the words, “former lead guitarist for…”. Headlining is Joe Satriani, guitar guru and heavy metal legend. His guitar “scratching” and fret-picking are surprisingly melodic, despite the genre; he even sounds like a jazz musician at times, improvising and carrying his 10-minute solos to new levels of creativity.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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I think there’s some hazy, undefined rite of passage where you reach a certain age and all of sudden popular culture begins making references to vestiges from your childhood. My generation is post-college, all growns up, and – just as Harry Potter will be the “fundamental lingua franca of the 2025 hipster” – its video game, commercial, television, music, and other obsessions are now part of the ethos of the mainstream and provide a ripe lexicon for its burgeoning comics and writers. 

I first consciously realized that kids my age had crossed this threshold last year when I stumbled upon Power Pad from Team Tiger Awesome (Tilzy.TV page). It’s one of the Texas-born, LA-based sketch comedy group’s first shorts, and is jam packed with late-80s/early-90s goodness (the Mr. Belvedere intro and beginnings of a philosophical thread about aging in Thundercats being my favorites):

Nick Mundy, Clint Gage, and Michael Truly are the threesome behind the Awesome and, with independently produced series like 28 Days Slater to Super Deluxe-sponsored viral one-offs like Halo Nights, have leveraged their intelligent brand of “frat boy, early-90s, pop culture bullshit” into representation by William Morris and shorts that pay the bills and generate a whole lotta laughs.

A few weeks ago, I was able to catch up with two-thirds of the team and learn more about how they got together, where they’re going, and why they want to be the Poison of the internet.  They mean like the band, not a toxic substance.

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Check out the crew’s latest below that Mundy mentioned above. It’s an epic, good vs. evil, mythological twist on the origin of Santa Claus that ran out of funding and had to employ the use of cheesy sets and camera hungry talent. Like the majority of Team Tiger’s catalog, it’s good, funny, and pretty awesome. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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I don’t think I like this.  Not sure I even want to write about it, to play into it.  It’s one thing to create a campy faux sitcom like this one to promote a brand, but Garnier has begun to patronize.

The premise goes something like this:### Like many other brands, Garnier created an online show to promote a new line of hair gel.  The show’s apparently idealistic creator became angered by the product plugs and tries to expose the excessive commercialism of the advertisement with a blog, citing his gripes, and featuring videos of his extended altercation with aloof, greedy executives. 

“I will take you on a journey where a family man and humble artist is slowly and painfully corrupted by promises of fame and fortune – a simple trip where good intentions, nice people, and a great idea are ruined by Hollywood attorneys, advertising leeches, and New York shampoo shills. You will see a man, who formerly advocated concepts such as creative integrity and artistic vision, reduced to parroting advertising industry idiotisms like “branded content” and “product placement”. YES!”

Entertaining commercials and deep brand integration can be meaningful media, but when marketers create a fake controversy around the integrity of content, it strikes a nerve.  They’re reinforcing their tactics under the guise of crazed denouncement, and it works because this product and tactic appeal to the same privileged urbanites that create marketing campaigns…or approve their financing.  

“It’s a little bit of a wink to the industry,” Cheryl Vitali, senior vice president for marketing for the Garnier and Maybelline New York brands at the L’Oréal division told the New York Times.

The videos themselves are a playful homage to the famous sitcom, Three’s Company, with a slightly less-subtle innuendo worn with a wink.  Actually, I think the videos are really well done.

But the framing of this media within a fake controversy, dismissive of a conversation about the integrity of branded media that we probably should have, makes me want to bury my head from this onslaught of increasingly inventive (intrusive) and ironic (cynical) branding.

Then again, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? These tactics have created enough interest to make me and many others write about Garnier’s new styling gel, so it must be a success. 

Don’t forget: This is all brought to by Garnier Fructis Style Bold It! Endurance Gel and Power Putty. 😉

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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The All-For-Nots are not a real band, except when they are. Confused? Let me explain.

They’ve been constructed – a la NBC’s The Monkees or MTV-cum-Diddy’s O-Town by Kathleen Grace and Thom Woodley of Dinosaur Diorama Productions – for a soon-to-be released, self-titled web series that showcases the band’s and their documentary crew’s on-tour antics as they bounce from gig to gig across the Northeast.

The show is Grace and Woodley’s sophomore effort after their first online serial, The Burg (Tilzy.TV page), caught the eye of Michael Eisner, who liked its comedic, slacker-stylings so much that he teamed its creators up with his new media production company, Vuguru, for another project straight out of Hipster, Brooklyn.

The band is fake, but it’s comprised of real artists, with original songs, with fake names and personalities, who play real shows. Monday night was their first.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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