Based out of Austin, Texas,  a city well-known for its cinephiles (like the nerd-mavens of Aintitcool), Spill delivers weekly-updated movie reviews of the latest theatrical releases. The format is free-form discussion with on-the-cheap animated characters: Korey, Cyrus, Leon, Caryle and floating robot head Co-Host 3000.

The site was launched in May of 2007 on the Ning social networking platform by Miva Inc., a digital advertising and media company, in a naked attempt to reach the 18-34 male demographic.

The Spill style of movie review is a seemingly free-flowing discussion between two, three or four animated characters, tightly edited to no longer than six minutes. But make no mistake, the characters of the Spill Crew take their jobs seriously, even Co-Host 300, and give both gut reactions and cautioned analysis to each film. Semi-raunchy humor and good-natured ribbing occurs between crew members.  The rating system ranges from “Same Old Bullshit” to the highest honor of “Better Than Sex.” For a rogue’s gallery, The Spill Crew shows surprisingly good taste and delivers insights into the updated crop of movies.

The Spill Crew slams R-rated turkeys and Ben Stiller in their review for The Heartbreak Kid. They praise the efforts of independent British comedian Simon Pegg and the minds behind Hot Fuzz. Reviews are intercut with movie scenes as well as some animated sight-gags from the Spill characters. Personalities are not of the outsized cartoonish variety, but each Spill Crew member has their own tastes.

Sometimes it’s more fun to watch reviewers pick apart a crappy movie than sing the praises of a masterpiece. If you’re in that kind of mood, watch the Spill Crew count the ways that Dane Cook can ruin a movie in their review for Good Luck Chuck.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Greg Rock
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News broke of Bill Maher’s new late-night summer talk show – Amazon Fishbowl – in January 2006, when the pilot “preview” episode was filmed at the Sundance Film Festival. The premiere aired in late May 2006.

12 episodes (and weeks) later, the HBO Real Time star had interviewed dozens of actors, directors, reality TV stars, and musical guests.  Episodes aired each Thursday at 11pm EST/8pm PST throughout the summer, with archived content available on the site at all times.

Though Bill Maher is known for his political satire and musings on his hit HBO show, he said that he’d attempt to avoid politics – although he didn’t – in this broadcast, which was to be solely a venue to promote artists. Presented and sponsored by Cingular and UPS, the show aired its final episode at the end of the summer of ’06.

Bill Maher’s tongue-in-cheek appeal does well outside of the HBO format, particularly because of the internet’s lack of strict FCC regulations.

Showcasing interviews with celebrities like Stephen King to Teri Hatcher, and musical artists spanning from 50 Cent the Indigo Girls, the show follows a typical talk show format without all the gimmicks. Taped in front of a live studio audience, Maher begins with an opening monologue, usually citing big news in entertainment, such as Lance Bass’s coming out; then, he does three celebrity interview segments, in which he meets one-on-one with guests to talk about and promote their latest projects. At one point in each show, a celebrity makes a personal delivery of an Amazon product shipped via UPS, surprising a fan with his or her own DVD, CD, or book. Musicians are also interviewed before performing to close out the show.

Viewers can choose to watch an episode in its entirety, or skip around, watching different segments on their own by clicking on the playlist.

Maher turns out to be a rather charming host, allowing guests like Daniel Powter to feel comfortable playing songs other than his tired hit, “Bad Day.”

His friendliness is apparent in his interviews with guests as well; at one point, Teri Hatcher gets a case of the giggles while promoting her new book, Burnt Toast, when she mentions that she and Bill are friends, and that she’d never been interviewed by a friend before. Their playful banter makes for a relaxed, carefree interview.

His decision to at least somewhat avoid politics also pays off, allowing him to focus on the artists and their projects, and taking his monologues into a Perez Hilton-esque direction.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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Hometown Baghdad is a Chat the Planet production. Like Alive in Baghdad, Hometown Baghdad is a joint effort teaming American producers and other crew with Iraqi filmmakers to shed light on the every day reality of living in post-Saddam, post-Shock and Awe Baghdad. The series follows the hopes, fears, frustrations, and aspirations of three brave young Iraqi men – Adel, Ausama, and Saif – who long for normal lives.

Whereas so many American-made Iraq War documentaries examine the experiences of U.S. soldiers serving on the front lines, Hometown Baghdad goes into the oft ignored private hells of average citizens who must contend with Islamic militias, American military, infrastructure breakdowns, and the onset of despair for their country and their own livelihoods. Hometown Baghdad captures all this and more, much more: its portraits are simultaneously sad and absurdist, bleak pictures that perfectly translate the sense of impossible dislocation that comes from attempting to live as safe and sane an existence as possible in an urban battlefield. The very first episode, “Brains on Campus,” documents the destruction visited to Adel’s school by extremists poised to wipe out modern academics. The title refers to the brains of a murdered student that were covered over by an incongruous marble structure because they were irremovable from the ground. Episode seven, “Symphony of Bullets,” has multiple subjects cowering in their homes, afraid to leave due to the ceaseless cacophony of gunfire. Over the course of the series we not only learn a virtual taxonomy of pain and fear from Adel, Ausama, and Saif, but we learn about them, how Saif reacts to being forced to give up his dream of finishing dentistry school, or how Adel expresses his anger through heavy metal. It’s a terrific tapestry, though one that should ideally not exist.

The most engaging episodes of Hometown Baghdad are, unsurprisingly, the most emotionally wrenching. In “Mentally F’ed Up” Adel uses a camera (a good amount of footage was shot by the subjects themselves) to interview his younger brother after the child had just witnessed a man dying on the street from a gunshot wound. It’s harrowing viewing, especially when Adel comes to a crushing conclusion about such pernicious influences.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Michael Joshua Rowin
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After educational film producer Gaylon Emerzian (known on the show as Miss Gaylon) once shot a film in which a little boy was taught how to make his own pizza, she never forgot the look of satisfaction on his face. When she moved to Evanston, Illinois in 2005 and discovered that her neighbor’s children, 8-year-old Olivia and 10-year-old Belle, had inherited their Italian family’s love of cooking, she decided to make an online show featuring the two sisters teaching other kids not only how to cook, but to cook food that’s both healthy and fun.

The show has become so successful that the girls have been booked for live demonstrations. Guest spots on the show have been auctioned off on eBay to private and corporate bidders like Chicago’s Healthy Schools Campaign, and the girls even won the James Beard Foundation’s award for Best Webcast in 2006, the first year that such a category existed for the prestigious American Culinary Awards.

The informational videos are brief but adorable. Belle and Olivia show kids how to make food that doesn’t require adult supervision (ovens, stoves, and knives are off-limits without parental permission). As a result, there’s a Rachael Ray level of ingenuity involved with those restrictions: cold soups that do not need a stove, artistic jello molds, and tofu and tuna salads with kid-friendly twists. 

Directed and produced by a professional filmmaker, each episode looks like something you’d find on TV. The shows are uploaded with five segments each week, all revolving around a single theme, such as Leprechaun Lunch and Citrus Circus. Since most kids are not exactly restaurant quality chefs, there are how-to guides for basic skills and kitchen measurements to make the whole process a little bit easier.

I like to think of myself as both a good cook and an adult, so it was a surprise to learn so many simple, easy recipes for Middle Eastern foods that could all be prepared in under 10 minutes.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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Environmental Countdown is a website that utilizes the newfound interest in online video to show how people in America are working to change the inevitable destruction of the natural world, which is why it’s teamed up with the NRDC and Ford to sponsor AmandaAcrossAmerica. The site follows Amanda Congdon – the former anchor of famed online news program Rocketboom and co-president of Oxmour Entertainment – as she travels across America and speaks to bloggers, politicians, activists, and those involved with helping the environment and their communities at large. The installments began with a Lonelygirl15 spoof on September 19, 2006, and ended with an homage to Matt on November 21, 2006.

The heavily-stylized videos appear daily from Amanda’s travels, showing users in-depth interviews, random clips, and moments of spontaneous commentary. Most are within five to ten minutes, but length tends to vary. She has a hosting style that’s refreshing. She’s a knowledgeable vlogger who can talk politics, technology, current events, environmental issues, and even art, all with a light-hearted tone and an insightful curiosity. Besides talking with the everyday Joe here and there, her status in the internet community has allowed for some fascinating conversations with online celebrities like Craig Newmark, Andy Carvin, and Atrios, providing something of an insider’s perspective to the some of the biggest names in the geographically scattered industry of bloggers and vloggers.

The video where Amanda travels to Philadelphia and spends some time with Duncan B. Black (he of the famous pseudonym Atrios) is like vlogger porn – which, I would like to make clear, is not the same thing as a porn vlogger.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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Homestar Runner is the ever-increasingly popular work of Mike Chapman and Matt Chapman, known simply as “The Brothers Chaps.” Launched in 2000, the site has grown exponentially, and seems to be on the cusp of claiming its role as part of the zeitgeist, having been mentioned in such mainstream pop cultural outlets as the now defunct Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel series. Beyond the Flash site, the cartoon series has prospered thanks to a series of DVDs and other merchandise that with some appropriate backing could – almost – give Disney a run for its money. But, as the series remains independent of larger conglomerates, the family-run business has prospered as an alternative to more sterile, politically correct animation. With everything from a music video by the band They Might Be Giants to its own extensive Wiki – which helps to introduce viewers to the sprawling cast of characters – Homestar is one of those hugely popular websites that people seem to know of, regardless of whether or not they’ve actually viewed the cartoons.  

The title character, Homestar Runner, is an armless, none-too-intelligent athlete, perpetually clothed in a propeller cap and giant red t-shirt. His various exploits – including swallowing an insect while jogging, teaching Coach Z how to lose the accent, and writing on walls – involve recurring characters who are as ridiculous as Homestar himself. A sneaky yellow rodent, reminiscent of Pikachu, known as the Cheat, a haughty monarch called the King of Town, and Homestar’s granola girlfriend Marzipan make up a few. They appear in five minute cartoons, shorts, live action puppet shows, music videos, and video games, which range from Atari style action games, to an oddly popular text-heavy role-playing game known as Peasant’s Quest. The most popular segment features Strong Bad – who is reminiscent of the trendy Mexican professional wrestlers, Luchadores – caustically responding to viewer’s emails, a la David Letterman. Viewers wait impatiently for him to dissect the obviously intentional nonsense that comprises most of the emails, and mock everything from the sender’s name to the bad spelling/grammar contained therein. It is perhaps this interactive element that has elevated Homestar’s cultural status.

The Strong Bad emails are the strongest feature on the website, which is extensive to the point of being cavernous – you could get lost in here for days. It is also highly self-referential – a running joke in the email segment became the recurring series Teen Girl Squad, featuring colorless stick figures with names like “So and So” and “The Ugly One”.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Nicholas Mosquera
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Space Geek was created by astrophysicist, Dr. Jean-Marc Perelmuter.

Doctor-P, as he likes to be called, has been a contributor to AlienZoo (a site dedicated to covering alien, ET, and UFO topics), has published a book called The Sinusoidal Spaghetti (about an astrophysicist with Tourette syndrome), and was a physics professor at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia (a position he said he had to leave because he “got saturated with the academic world”).

This show is his attempt to “place science at the service of humanity and not vice versa.”Space Geek has various two to eight minute informational videos on topics such as Celtic Astronomy, Comets, Global Warming, Vacuums, Evolution, and the Expansion of the Universe.

The videos are written, produced and hosted by Doctor-P and shot in his garage in front of a green screen that’s put to exquisitely good use. The low budget graphics and general production style are reminiscent of Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and perfect for educating those of us with short attention spans.

Doctor-P’s hosting style is spastic and excited as he explains the mysteries of the Universe, but still patient and informative, using a combination of historical anecdotes and modern analogies to educate his viewers. It’s evident that former professor thoroughly enjoys his subject matter as well as the opportunity to teach to a much bigger, broader classroom.

Aside from the videos, other features of the site include a Cosmic Calculator that shows you how many times in your lifetime the Earth has rotated and orbited the Sun, how many new stars have been created in the Milky Way galaxy and by how many Solar Systems the Universe has expanded. The first chapter of Doctor-P’s book, The Sinusoidal Spaghetti, is also available to read or print.

In his video, “Ice Cream Trucks in Outer Space”, Doctor-P describes comets as cosmic ice cream trucks that preserved and delivered the building blocks of life to earth. But as he explains, “The creator may be the destroyer.”

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Matthew Warren
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Love her or hate her (and be honest, you love her), Amanda Congdon was the first famous face in online video content. After two years of hosting Rocketboom, the wildly successful show that she co-founded with Andrew Baron, she travelled the country for her vlog Amanda Across America, overseeing operations with partner Mario Librandi at their production company Oxmour Entertainment, supposedly designing a multiplatform comedy show for HBO, and, of course, preparing for her own vlog on ABC News, which debuted in December 2006.

It’s hard to imagine a more industrious vlogger. While the vlog is the main component of her collaboration with ABC, she also appears regularly on the network’s online news channel ABC News Now and acts as a commentator-cum-personality on ABC’s traditional media, from “Nightline” to “Good Morning America.”

Amanda on ABC is exactly like Rocketboom. It’s is an interactive news program where viewers submit large and small happenings to get discussed by Amanda, who selects stories with an emphasis on the tech world and things that could be referred to as “quirky.”

In the February 28, 2007 episode, Amanda discusses a refrigerator that throws beer cans, the evolution of the emoticon, statistics behind blinking, and how sleep patterns match personality traits. She covers everything, and it should also be said that she covers everything with an absurd amount of speed. If anything, the four-minute episodes released each Wednesday feel like Rocketboom on fast-forward. This headline-only format can sometimes be off-putting, particularly when there’s only a two-second delay between an audio package of incarcerated reporter Josh Wolf and “Let’s look at eight beautiful bald women.”

Her ease in front of the camera, quirky sentiments and tastes, and knack for turning her own material into something fun to watch was what won over most viewers on Rocketboom and it seems like that’s exactly what ABC wanted to replicate here. Viewers are strongly encouraged to send in stories, feedback, and even videos to be featured on the show.

The site also contains a blogroll (which is noteworthy only because it might be the first time a network news employee has endorsed competitive news bloggers like Atrios with a featured link on the ABC News site) and the video player even has an “Amanda’s Favorites” list, showcasing funny or interesting videos that Amanda found online and felt like sharing.

Despite basically being a knockoff of Rocketboom, all the episodes are great. Amanda also has the ability to mock her own criticism, which she sometimes concurs with. “Today, more topics with less time on each one!” In the vlog’s second episode, she picks up a lot of blog press by saying, “As I was driving to work today, I was thinking about just how much JavaScript sucks. I was thinking how messy it looks when it pops up and clutters my desktop and how most video blogs are now embedded in the page. Then I thought, “Yeah! Let’s go with JavaScript for my new show on ABC.com!”

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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Paul French was an average man from Canada with a simple website and a typical blog. As inspiration for new blog entries became scarce, however, he teamed up with friend and fellow Toronto native Garner Haines to make a two-man sketch comedy vlog, Hockey Strike, which they launched in August 2005. Haines plays “Scott,” French plays “Dave,” French’s television set plays “The TV,” and that’s about all the cast and props their budget will allow, a deficiency that they are proud enough of to proclaim in their tagline: “No rules! No limits! No budget…”

Scott, Dave, and The TV find themselves in debacles such as zombie invasions and police raids once a month for about five minutes of quickly resolved, zany sketch comedy. All episodes are as low-budget as you can get and often take place in someone’s house. Scott and Dave are two slackers who can’t get it together in spite of their many misadventures (sometimes they even die) and their slackerdom is played for laughs, though the laughs can be a little hokey. The show has gotten steadily better, though. In the beginning, their shows were standalone one-offs, but recent episodes have actual plot arcs and running jokes that accentuate the show’s absurdity. For example, when French moved to a new apartment between the first and the second season, the explanation for the displacement was that the aliens who abducted the two hosts in the season finale had changed everything about the Earth that Scott and Dave knew and loved in the two hosts’s absence – even The TV. Sprinkled through the archives are occasional podcasts and audio commentaries for various episodes, which are sometimes funnier than the sketches themselves. (When asked what friend and tertiary cast member Casey thought about the first episode of the second season in the webisode’s commentary, she says, “Well, you know, I wish I could have been in it more. You cut me out.”)

I’m partial to the episode where Dave and Scott realize that The TV has been shrunk by the aliens when they altered Earth, which depresses the men more than anything. (In reality, French’s old TV broke between seasons and he had to get a newer, smaller one.) Scott, who has a shrink ray, tries to reverse its function and enlarge the television, but winds up getting himself shrunk instead. By the way, the camera only moves three times during the whole episode. This is as low-budget as it gets, people.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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For those trying to find a good view to watch the booming industry that is fine art, Sotheby’s (the largest international art auction house in the world) is offering intimate encounters with some of the world’s most expensive art and offering unprecedented access to live webcasts of multi-million dollar auctions, normally reserved for the social elite. Beginning in 2000, Sotheby’s was the first consumer art organization to hold auctions on the internet, sparking the launch of other major auction houses into cyber space, driving company stock prices markedly upwards, and providing outsiders a rare chance to witness a billionaire spend $95 million dollars on a Picasso portrait In September 2006, Sotheby’s Private View introduced regular video segments to supplement its auction coverage and strengthen the company’s brand while getting up close and personal with the subculture of the art world, some of its most recognizable paintings, and a handful of its most renowned specialists.

Auctions are aired live on the site in accordance with the times listed on the Sotheby’s calendar. In addition, the page hosts high-quality 5 to 15 minute informational videos, which allow users to explore the work of specific artists and learn to spot the details that make a masterpiece. Spend an evening with Tobias Meyer, auctioneer and head of Sotheby’s worldwide contemporary art department to learn about Mark Rothko’s break-out year, in which the artist made “a gesture towards greatness.” Or allow, Jan Six, expert on Old Master paintings, and Martin Bijl, painting restorer, to walk you through the rebirth of a Rembrandt. An exploration of the last years of furniture innovator and architect, George Nakashima’s life provides a distinctive perspective on his ever-changing thought process, and the unique way he looked at a simple piece of wood. The art looks beautiful and the commentary, while straightforward even for the layperson, presents much more than a superficial look at its subject matter, providing viewers with informative insider expertise.

The episode featuring Vietnamese fishermen’s’ accidental underwater discovery of 76,000 pieces of Chinese export porcelain, circa 1725, from the Ca Mau shipwreck provides fascinating insights into art, history, and childhood fantasies of buried treasure.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Anusha Alikhan
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Founded in 1990 by two high school students – Chris McCawley and Craig Macnaughton – Mise-en-chien Productions is a Toronto-based production company that makes live-action and animated shorts for television and internet. After a number of films and awards, the company launched the video comedy project All Day Breakfast in 2000. Macnaughton is the cameraman and editor, while McCawley performs along with Cathy Gordon and Christina Jol. All four ADB team members help write the shorts.

The videos on the ADB menu vary in comedic style, from improv to sketch, and slapstick to satire, but many focus on food, and not necessarily breakfast (except for Peaches and Scream, which is a pretty sick interpretation of breakfast). There is a slew of David Cross-like false advertisements for hamburgers, as well as animated shorts of a puppet named Puppo, who’s a robot and a boy, and his best friend Fleetloop, who looks like a vacuum cleaner. Besides Dog Given Rights, a 10-minute film about a indignant dog which was screened at a number of festivals, each video is generally a minute or two long and the quality of shooting and editing ranges from very professional to simply a guy holding a camera.

My favorite ADB video is probably One bite burger – a poke at the fast food restaurant’s constant reinvention of the hamburger into increasingly bizarre forms as well as the industry’s laughably transparent advertising techniques. A sexy voice whispers, “this burger is so good, we’ve already taken a bite out of it,” imitating the ubiquitous ads that seek to lure customers with sweeping close-up shots of their sandwiches, creating a little land of hamburger deliciousness in which to entice the viewer.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Kate Dundon
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Josh Shipp is a hugely successful motivational speaker who focuses primarily on issues that effect teenagers, like drugs, alcohol, sex and depression, and brands himself as a young, alternative person that gives advice “with attitude.” He has written several self-help books, and is one of youngest speakers to be invited to join the National Speakers Association. Since 2005, he has been the spokesperson for National Foster Care Month. He has traveled all over the country to give his speeches in colleges, high schools, and middle schools.

Josh created and produced Hey Josh TV, which was launched in November of 2006, to give troubled young people a venue to voice their problems and get advice.

Hey Josh TV is kind of like a Dear Abby for the digital generation. Viewers can anonymously email their problems to Josh, and if their problem is selected, he will give them advice on his podcast. He addresses two problems within one podcast every week. Viewers can also send a video or call in their problems. Josh addresses questions like how to gain back someone’s trust, how kick an addiction to anorexia, or how to emotionally deal with having an abortion.
Episodes are all about three minutes long, and they keep viewers’ attention with quick cuts and a high production value. Josh is a comedian in addition to being a motivational speaker, so the segments are very funny, though sometimes to the detriment of the quality of advice.  His calendar, as well as the various speeches and workshops he provides, can be also be viewed on the site. 

My favorite podcast on Hey Josh TV is probably episode 10, which addresses addiction to Myspace as well as New Year’s resolutions.
Ever witnessed a Myspace friend (or an ex-boyfriend) go way overboard with Myspace and harass you or someone you know? Although Josh doesn’t give any real advice on how to end this addiction, he does do an amusing Jeff Foxworthy-like routine: “you might be addicted to Myspace if…” As for addressing a viewer’s concern over her failure to fulfill her New Year’s resolutions, Josh says the best thing anyone has ever said about resolutions: “New Year’s resolutions blow.”

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Kate Dundon
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