Channel 101 New York‘s short, Mister Glasses, is built on the idea that modernist architecture, and the pronunciation of that phrase, is inherently funny. It is, at least the first few times you hear it, and the structural integrity of the joke doesn’t degrade too much as the show goes on.
Played by writer and director Mitch Magee, the keystone of the series is ‘Mister Glasses’ – a stoic caricature from a Truman Capote New York; an enlightened modernist architect by trade with an unidentifiable European accent and a dash of Kermit the Frog.
Its simple, b&w, ’50s stylized look is seamless down to every minimalist detail. With an American sitcom noir facade, non sequitur and arbitrary make up the foundation of the funny, buttressed by well-placed narration, methodical interactions, and Art History 101 humor.The supporting characters – Kitty, Hard Hat and Sean – add to the absurd. They’re two-dimensional archetypes based on sidekicks from classic American television that rely on gimmicky gestures and various oldschool Dennis the Menace “Oh boy!” exclamations to convey their character traits.
In fact Justine Ezarik (that’s her real name) had such an impact on the waifish headliner of NBC’s Last Call, that he totally requested to her to host The Really Big Internet Show. According to Variety, it’s “a daily five-minute webcast that will feature the day’s most talked-about original online videos.” produced by Daly and Madison Road and scheduled to start this July.
I give it ‘til late August…Halloween tops. Site unseen and despite wrangling an entourage of prominent YouTubers (Happyslip, KevJumba, Brookers) to back-up cute as buttons iJustine, there’s no reason to watch. Though old and new media keep trying, this concept has never been a hit.
Wrapping something as easily accessible as YouTube clips in a pretty package doesn’t entice viewers enough to watch. In order to keep viewers tuned in, you must either have A) some seriousadded value or B) show people what they wanna see but haven’t discovered yet. Unless iJustine can drop witty criticisms with ZeFrank-like regularity, or get tapped into what’s about to go viral, The Really Big Internet Show ain’t makin’ it big at all.
Media pundits love to talk about how today’s youth gets its news from The Daily Show. Whether that’s true or not (I’m thinking not), what about those who are informed on current affairs but lacking in the pop culture department? Sure, there’s The Soup, Best Week Ever, and What the Buck, but what if you want your juicy celebnews distilled down to the simplest possible form – stop-motion crayon animation?
Well, Erika Adickman has you more than covered. While answering phones outside the writers’ room of ABC’s Notes from the Underbelly, she picked up a couple Crayolas and began doodling her pop culture musings. Those drawings found the focus of a digital camera and with some guidance from her mentor, Friends writer Adam Chase, have now become the ironically reluctant but informative web series, Pop Waffle.
The series is much more than a recap of celebrity gossip in a composition book. It’s a showcase of great music, each episode featuring songs from not-quite-mainstream pop artists like Kate Nash and Ben Kweller. Erika says that she spends substantial time searching for songs that sing to her; friends and fans also suggest music that they think “sounds really Pop Waffle.”
It’s smart commentary on our dumb, sensationalized celebrity culture, piqued by her use of elementary school media.
From Sarah Silverman’s tawdry balladeering about “f**cking Matt Damon,” to Craig Bierko bathing John Malkovich from behind, to the ubiquitous online prevalence of Sacha Baron Cohen in the months leading up to the release of Borat, actors and comedians have turned to the Web to develop an “in” reputation with smaller audiences – video viewers who are, at the very least, somewhat attuned to viral culture. In doing so, they have conquered a large corner of the Internet and developed it as fertile soil for comedy of the absurd.
While the loose, no-holds-barred tone of absurdist comedy hasn’t necessarily permeated the surface of mainstream culture (for example, HBO’s Flight of the Conchords continues to garner only a small portion of the audience that tunes in for Comedy Central’s brainless Mind of Mencia), experimental hilarity continues to thrive on sites like Funny Or Die and My Damn Channel.
So it goes without saying that an actor and comedian like Zach Galifianakis should have no trouble entering the sphere, building an online presence to compliment his budding offbeat career, which includes The Comedians of Comedy, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Funny Or Die Tour, and an unexpected [serious] cameo in Sean Penn’s Into The Wild.
Naturally, when Absolut Vodka decided it was time to spread word about their product online, someone had the brilliant idea to enlist the talents of Galifianakis and Adult Swim staples Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job.
After a decided, if predicted, win in West Virginia, Hillary Clinton stands poised to take on some daunting delegate math. Some find her endurance frustrating, others claim it may irrevocably damage the Democratic party, and others want the former first lady cum junior senator to push on, with or without the Democratic party. Whatever the case, this election has created unprecedented fodder for new media satire. Lets run though a few of the gems of this primary’s jabs.
In the most recent Saturday Night Live, which had all but expired prior the advent of its viral internet hits, and which recently launched a political website, leads the charge with some pointed observations about the candidate’s….errr …stamina,
and, earlier, a comment on the media’s alleged favoring of Obama. ###
Even earlier, Larry David, creator and star of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and the funny behind hit sitcom Seinfeld, responds to Hillary’s “3AM Phone-Call” advertisement:
“I don’t care if it’s 3 a.m. or 10 p.m. or any other time. I don’t want her talking to Putin, I don’t want her talking to Kim Jong Il, I don’t want her talking to my nephew. She needs a long rest. She needs to put on a sarong and some sun block and get away from things for a while, a nice beach somewhere — somewhere far away, where there are…no phones.” (I recommend the audio version)
Keeping things in perspective, The Onion notes that “living bullshit” is “the earmark of a true winner,”
Hulu is NBC Universal and News Corp.’s joint venture, streaming on-demand television shows and choice movies from the flagship networks and studios of both media conglomerates straight to your computer screen. It’s the YouTube of professionally produced, broadcast fare. A way to deliver old media shows on the new medium.
Connections and Deals:Prom Queen is a product of Michael Eisner’s Vuguru. The All-For-Nots are backed by Vuguru and Mark Cuban’s HDNet. Nuff said. Hulu already has a partnership with Sony so getting CSpot on board was a non-issue. And FearNet is more of an on-demand cable network than it is a website with original programming.
But one of these things doesn’t look like the other. All save one are polished shows affiliated with a network or have been slapped with old media’s seal of approval. The other is a lo-fi, unscripted videoblog with a loud, emphatic host who screams about wines.
###So does this mean Hulu’s opened up the floodgates? Is Gary heralding the arrival of videobloggers and web producers, ushering them onto the same stage as traditional television shows? No.
There’s now doubt about it – the Web 2.0 generation is one comprised heavily of nostalgia…or maybe it’s that things from our childhood are just more accessible.
We wear tee shirts that quote Saved By The Bell. We worship CollegeHumor‘s beautifully-executed takes on minutia meant exclusively for us. We’re gluttons for pop culture references from our past. These wistful lusts for memories can’t be satiated; they’re so strong that we’ve rejuvenated flailing cable network VH-1, the channel that formerly played Amy Grant music videos in heavy rotation before its paramount shift to B-list actors constantly recalling commercial jingles – the type of segment that begat the phenomenon that is I Love The 80’s.
So it should go without saying that Zachary Johnson and Jeffrey Max of production co. Fatal Farm chose wisely in parodying easily-identifiable pop cultural landmarks from the ’80s and ’90s. But the brilliance of the duo that once made the internets believe “GoogleTV” was an actual product lies not in pointing fingers at the cheesy opening credits to television shows like Baywatch, Doogie Howser, M.D., and Cheers. Instead, they add their own truly unique twisted signature element, making each short in the series worthy of its own moment in the canon of viral video infamy.
###In re-imagining each open, Fatal Farm turns the aesthetic of each show on its head, most often by adding one essentially dark or perverted element. Doogie Howser has a stalker; Bea Arthur gets beheaded (or is that “bea-headed”? LOL!); the already-frightening “manimals” of Zoobilee Zoo all share one overlooked, hilariously nauseating costume ornament.
The videos are, indeed, so sick, you won’t likely look at the actual programs the same ever again. To the credit of the guys behind Fatal Farm, they simultaneously pay homage to the very things that help define our generational personality, while also “culture jamming” the very notion of how a specific medium is traditionally meant to appear. Besides surfing for nostalgia, isn’t that what the Web is all about?
Eric Spiegelman handles Internet video production and digital distribution for GreeneStreet Films.
Beautiful Agony is not porn. It can’t be – there’s no naked. There’s no sex. There’s no nasty talk – indeed, no dialogue at all. I can watch it safely on the plane without the crotchety guy next to me complaining to the stewardess. Yet these are the most erotic productions I’ve ever seen.
In each video of the Beautiful Agony series, someone masturbates herself or himself to orgasm. All of the dirty work happens off-camera; the frame reveals nothing below the shoulders. What you get is a study of someone going through the phases of sexual release – tense breathing and expectation, the occasional contortion of neck muscles and eyebrows, an outburst followed by glowing relaxation. Each video is unique. Like snowflakes and fingerprints, it appears that no two people climax the same way.
Each is intensely intimate. In the video I keep going back to for reference, a blonde girl stares directly into the camera, eyes widening at key moments. My eyes respond, as though she’s looking into them. Watching it feels like cheating. I don’t forward it on to my friends.
MoveOn.org, the political action group known for divisive left-wing politicking fueled by tactics sometimes as questionable as those they denounce, recently held a second nationwide video contest to support their chosen candidate, Barack Obama. With 1100 submissions and more than 5.5 million total votes cast, MoveOn found a winner, Obamacan.
Nicely done. They got an emotionally-driven, switch campaign television spot AND filled YouTube with 1100 pro-Obama videos to live alongside the manyothernotable probama vids already there. But I wonder, do these videos really make a difference? Do 30-second snippets aimed to appeal to emotion really enhance the national conversation already drowning in abstraction?
I like Obama. I voted for him but, as he’s said, “I think the American people are smarter than that.”
Frustrated with the limited distribution and costly entry fees associated with the film festival circuit (Note: Brad and Marc are USC alums who worked with Andy on The Futurist – a time-traveling indie flick with a prophetic Iron Man twist – and met Diahnna through other film projects), the foursome explored the possibilities of creating character-driven drama on the internet.
It was during a point in the history of online video when only comedy shows and Rocketboom filled computer screens, when Lonelygirl was still an innocent, overprotected teen trying to make YouTube friends, and when Big Fantastic’s SamHas7Friends was the only other episodic show delving into dark drama.
The creators of Satacracy88 formed It’s All In Your Hands and decided to differentiate by incorporating an element innate to the internet – the audience. Brad explained over the phone, “The web’s naturally a forum where user and creator have access to one another in an unprecedented way. One minute we knew we were gonna make a show online and the next minute we knew were gonna make it interactive, because we could.”
The result is a monthly, labor of love shot on the weekends, stylized from late ’90s comic books and early ’90s choose-your-own-adventure elementary school stories that follow Angela’s (played by Diahnna) trip of mascara-laden, narcotic self-discovery through satanic cults, RPG-like quests, sophisticated mercenaries, and her own subconscious. At the end of each episode, viewers got to vote on what happens next.
But in a surprise twist, after 24 episodes and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama for Broadband, Brad, Andy, Marc, and Diahnna voted to end the series.
Two years ago, allowing audiences to make a binary, A or B choice on behalf of your protagonist was novel, but that level of interactivity has been colored remedial by today’s standards. iChannel’s a show completely driven by YouTube comments, Where are the Joneses? was scripted through a user-generated wiki, and Nowheremen ’s altnerate reality game has fans combing the web for clues.
Brad and crew and looking to get the audience interacting in a “different, more fluid way” in a new show set to launch this Fall based on the world of Satacracy88 dubbed, Knights of a Hundred Sorrows.
I recently spoke on the phone with all the creators to talk about Image comic books, a break-neck production schedule, getting that Emmy nod, and what’s next.
(My apologies on the quality – I’m new to this audio thing.)
On Networks, the Austin-based online TV network that runs a slate of original HD series, is streaming two very different travel shows in its lineup.
In City by City – sponsored by the high-end Swiss watch company, Carl F. Bucherer – a sexy, savvy female host (Manjit Devgun) takes viewers on a virtual journey to some of the trendiest hot spots in 18 different cities worldwide. From Vienna to London to Berlin to Milan, City by City doesn’t travel with the riffraff – you’ll not see trips to the Berlin Zoo or the world’s largest Ferris wheel – but to what they consider the “best-kept-secrets, posh shops, unrivaled local cuisine and lavish accommodations” in some of the world’s most thriving metropolises.
The show has a modern sensibility, accompanied by über-chic mood music – the kind of atmospheric beats you might hear in a swanky yuppie bar or a Diesel store – and the camera always seems to find the most beautiful people in the room. If the featured venues were located in the US, you might call them “Eurotrash,” but since they’re actually in Europe…well, you get the idea.
A totally different travelogue show (both in style and in content), Beautiful Places strips away the glamor, the modernity, and even the people, to take you through cyberspace to some of the more breathtaking natural wonders in the world.
###At the Grand Canyon, host Tony Farley narrates the journey to Havasu Canyon, an awe-inspiring gorge of turquoise waterfalls, travertine pools and graveful willows. In between pieces of his monologue, Farley leaves you enough dead air to take in the natural sounds of the environment – namely, the whooshing torrent of water as its flows over red rock.
There are times when the show feels as though it’s about turn into Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey. Farley’s soothing voice, along with the mellow natural landscapes are unlike a lot of web vids made with ADD viewers in mind. To that point, it’ll be interesting to see how Beautiful Places performs, but ON Network boasts that of 130,000 podcasts, it was ranked among iTunes’ top 21 “Best New Video Podcasts of 2007.” So folks are definitely diggin’ the chillax vibe.
Whether you’re looking for a sweeping mountain vista or hot new boutique hotel, ON’s travel slate should have you covered. But if you want to make the trip (physically or virtually) to the most popular sightseeing destinations around the globe, you still might want to consult your Frommer’s.
Television is no longer a passive, appointment experience. Television shows are multidimensional brands of which the actual 30-minute or hour-long show is only one component. Brands engage consumers in different ways at different times of day and under different circumstances.
But it can be much simpler. This (extra) segment from a recent episode of The Office says a lot, I think. A few simple clippings from the cutting room floor become a snack, a preview, a lure…
Channel 101 New York‘s short, Mister Glasses, is built on the idea that modernist architecture, and the pronunciation of that phrase, is inherently funny. It is, at least the first few times you hear it, and the structural integrity of the joke doesn’t degrade too much as the show goes on.
The technorati fell in love with 
There’s now doubt about it – the Web 2.0 generation is one comprised heavily of nostalgia…or maybe it’s that things from our childhood are just more accessible. 
