David Lynch may have been one of the very first of Hollywood’s creative upper echelon to experiment with online video, though no one aside form his obsessive fans would know it.
At a not-so-low price of $9.97/month (or a slightly discounted $99.07/year), Twin Peaks fanatics and Lynchian cinephiles can navigate a labyrinth of material mundane, surreal, and exclusive to the web.
Last year we took a look around. For those membership fees you’d expect dreamlike sequences with one of Lynch’s Lauras (Palmer, Harring) sans clothes, but instead you’ll find the director’s 2006 Cannes video diary, which is sort of spectacular in its weirdness; Dumbland, his animated comedy series about life’s stranger unhappy moments; and an exclusive experimental section with bizarre videos like ‘Coyote #1,’ which finds a coyote sniffing around an empty living room at night with the caption: “The coyote is hungry and wants to kill and eat the small creature. The coyote doesn’t yet know the creature’s powers nor what surprises this environment may hold.”
And, of course, there’s the daily weather report:
Genius? Annoying? A little of each? I can’t tell, but I THINK that’s the point. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how Lynch’s forthcoming series with ON Networks will look.
YouTubers have long fussed about the seeming impossibility of converting views to income, but Jill Hanner may have found a way. Better known as YouTube’s XgobobeanX, Hanner creates free-form, sketch-like videos that feel more like her stream-of-consciousness than a series. Whether you’re a fan of the genre or not, she’s a master of that open-diary style that’s driven new media.
Her videos have collectively seen millions of views, and Jill attributes her popularity to her involvement with the tight-knit community of die-hard YouTubers. Just last week, she covered that very community for PopTub at the YouTuber meetup at Grand Central Station in New York City.
I sat down with Jill a few weeks ago to discuss her series and involvement with the YouTube community.
Before you dismiss Jess and Lisa of The Veronicas as just another vapid teen pop group, consider this: remember in Heathers, the seminal 80’s classic, when Veronica (Winona Ryder) meets J.D. (Christian Slater) for the first time? He says “You a Heather?” She replies “No. I’m a Veronica.” That moment is what the Australian pop duo is named after. I will forgive a lot of fashion victim accessorizing (Leopard print cat ears? Sunglasses indoors?) for that back-story.
With a lifetime of making music behind them, twins Lisa and Jess write their own songs and actually sound great live. They enjoyed big time pop stardom down under, and now they are trying to parlay that success to the screaming legions of teeny boppers in the US market. Their new web show, The Veronicas: Untouched: Stars on the Rise aims to follow the young pop stars on their journey. In the series, the Australian singers are up-front and open; they don’t seem to be “handled” by a huge PR team, like their American pop tart counterparts.
Although at times the series feels a little like VH1 Celebreality with the twins’ frequent bleeped cursing and fighting, it’s still charming to watch The Veronicas try to make a go at stardom, American style. And, no, it’s not just that they’re shrill complaints are delivered with delightful Australian accents; they’re also kind of funny. After a particularly F bomb heavy exchange, Jess remarks, “At least we’re not like the two brothers from Oasis. We don’t start punching each other out on planes.”
At the end of the pilot, we discover that The Veronicas are going to be opening for tween sensations, and fellow family band, The Jonas Brothers. With that kind of exposure, the group is likely to blow up stateside. And with their candid, no holds bard web series, we’re sure to have a real glimpse into how the twins will handle this new chapter in the life of The Veronicas.
MSN UK and Endemol UK announced today the launch of their new interactive sci-fi web series Kirill, starring British actor David Schofield (Pirates of the Carribean, Gladiator). Pure Grass Films, a UK-based web production outfit known for their Beyond the Rave series with MySpaceTV, co-produced the series.
Schofield plays a Kirill, scientist at CERN, the backers of the recently completed real-life (and possibly terrifying) Large Hadron Collider who is communicating from 50 years into the future after a massive disaster has hit the planet. In his dystopian future he’s a “desperate, driven, vulnerable fugitive keeping himself alive by fear and stubbornness.”
The show’s site is run off of Microsoft’s Silverlight video technology, which means you’ll need to sit through the 30-second download if you didn’t do it already watching the Summer Olympics on NBC.com. There’s also a YouTube UK official channel that’s a little more friendly to embedding and viewers who pass on the Silverlight install. MSN is also showing off a number of their interactive tools with the series like Live Search and social netoworking site Spaces.
As part of the roll out, the story elements for Kirill were seeded via two supporting character blogs — CERN scientist Stuart’s and journalist Vivenne Villars’ (Vee Vimolmal).
Guardian UK is reporting that a staff of nearly 50 people worked on Kirill for six months, according to Pasa Mustafa, head of Endemol UK’s digital studios. “We’re in the same game – to push the medium further. Everyone on the team felt it was very important to place someone well known in Kirill, which is why we chose David Schofield,” Mustafa said.
The five-week series is being touted as the first interactive sci-fi web experience, though NBCu’s Gemini Division might have already taken that crown. Two episodes will be released each week with episodes said to come in at around three minutes each.
664 – The Neighbor of the Beast recently wrapped up a 20-episode season of pseudo-Satanic mayhem. The series features married couple Arthur (Arthur Laurie) and Tracy (Tracy O’ Connor), who have just moved in to 664 Styx Road. Which is the house next door to Lou. Which is short for Lucifer.
Their first day in their new home is Halloween, so there’s some confusion about the costumes and non-costumes, but the nature of the living situation eventually becomes clear: Their neighbor is the devil, and there’s a lot of baggage that goes with this type of suburban community.
The only puppet show I ever watched regularly on TV was Crank Yankers, which was quite possibly one of Comedy Central’s most juvenile original series. The show featured puppets making prank phone calls to various stores, featuring the voices of celebrities such as Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel, Dane Cook, and David Alan Grier.
Considering that I could only remember one puppet show that isn’t aimed at young children, I was surprised to see the number of these racier puppet shows online. Even more surprising was that they all had the exact same problem- they’re not very funny. If I had to guess, I would say the average age of a person who finds them entertaining is probably 14, which is unfortunate considering how much work has gone into some of these series.
Apollo’s Pad
Apollo’s Pad, from Galleon Holdings PLC, is the truly disgusting tale of two guys, Apollo and Mickey, and all the weird stuff that goes on in their life. It’s difficult to be more specific than that without going into the vulgar details. Here’s the description for one episode: “Apollo indulges Mickey in some serious pampering. Don’t watch this episode whilst eating breakfast. Hmm. Y’know, I’ve been working too hard. Maybe I deserve a spa day too…I don’t want any motherf***ing seaweed wraps though! Tank me up on battery acid, vanilla ice cream and shot of raspberry rat poison, then smother me in Vaseline and put me in a cage with Margaret Thatcher … paradise baby. Paradise.”
This show truly exemplifies the internet tradition of “WTF.” You’ll spend the entire time wondering who the twisted people are behind this show (that honor goes to Len Dunne and Stephen Green), and you may lose your lunch. My recommendation? Skip it; Apollo’s Pad makes Crank Yankers look like Meet the Press, and not in a good way.
Ask Palpatine
If you didn’t like the Star Wars movies, I would advise you to skip over Ask Palpatine. For everyone else, this show is surprisingly funny; it features Emperor Palpatine in puppet form answering “viewer questions” about either the Star Wars movies, or the previous episodes of the show itself. Questions answered include, “Why did you build a flaw into the Death Star?”, “Are there any Jedi tricks to sway the ladies?”, and “If you can read our minds, why do we have to send you emails?”
When I say that I find the show “surprisingly funny,” I mean that I had extremely low expectations. The entire series is a one camera interview with Palpatine, who isn’t an interesting looking character, and the voice acting is amateurish, but as I watched more and more episodes, the show started to grow on me a little bit. Make no mistake- if I had stumbled across an episode in my spare time, I probably wouldn’t have taken a second glance. Having been forced to watch all the episodes, I can see why some people find it funny. It’s cheap, but it looks like the creators have fun making it, and it has a small but loyal following (about 3,000-5,000 people), plus the occasional breakout episode garnering over 30,000 views. On such a small budget, that’s all a YouTube show can really ask for. It’s a show that only works on the internet; if you like Star Wars, or middle-school humor, this series is worth checking out.
P-Dash News
Created by Keith Patterson, P-Dash News is a comedy show featuring parodies and spoofs of current events. In one episode, host “Rahiem Drinkwater” interviewed the actual David Blaine during his recent stunt of hanging upside down for 60 hours, and asked him if he was aware that the “bat union” was mad at him for “stealing their thunder.” In another episode, we get a peek at a trailer for a movie that claims that Iron Man ripped them off; in the alternate version, “Iron Man” is a dry cleaner who runs around the city with two irons in his hands.
P-Dash News is aimed specifically at the African-American audience, a demographic that is certainly underrepresented in terms of web content. However, the show has yet to get any sort of consistent following (at least on YouTube)- except for one hit video that got 212,000 views, the rest of the videos range from a few hundred to a few thousand hits. The show has potential, but needs to find its target audience, a difficult task for any series. My recommendation: it’s a love it or hate it kind of show, but it has the potential to be popular.
The Rag (show)
The Rag (show), created by Tim Lagasse, Jim Napolitano, and James Godwin, sets itself up to be different from the other puppet shows we’ve featured; it has its own style, it feels well produced, and it uses an entirely different type of puppet from the other shows. Despite these differences, it relies on the same juvenile humor and character spoofs. One episode from 2006 features Arnold Schwarzenegger lamenting not being able to run for president, until he announces that he has a “friend” who is going to run (it ends up being him in blackface, with the offensive alter ego “Colonel Arnie Schwarzenegro”). My recommendation: it’s set up to be funny, but falls far short of its full potential.
I can’t help but wonder why none of these puppet shows seemed to be able to knock their comedy out of the park for more than one episode. Part of it seems to be the medium itself; in the up close viewing style of the internet, it seems pointless to watch a video of a puppet. Crank Yankers relied much more on audio, and celebrity guests, both of which helped it become successful. However, when a puppet show has to create its own story, it seldom works out. I had the same problem with Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Team America, another outrageously disgusting and juvenile puppet project. These shows could probably take a leaf out of Family Guy‘s book, and use juvenile humor to make a larger, more intellectual joke. Until then, they are going to remain on the fringe of web video.
The 15 seconds of footage doesn’t look too bad, eh? I was like, “Oh, they’re trying pull me in with the ‘actor writhes around on the sidewalk in his briefs’ bit,” but then they showed the scene with the dog. And the dog started licking. Well done, FNB Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television.
From Nosferatu to True Blood, it’s been pretty much vampires all day, everyday. And anyone that’s spent any time in Joss Whedon’s universe knows that there is a veritable treasure chest of humor that can be found in the mythology, as well. Recently, however, it feels like this horror genre has been…wait for it…sucked dry (zing!). Until now.
Most vampire films or series tend to glamorize the life of the vampire. They lead us to believe that all vampires wear sweet, long coats, listen to Bauhaus on repeat, and act all broody. Pretty cool, I KNOW. But what if it wasn’t?
Blood Brothersis the comedic tale of two slacker vampires that really have nothing going on in their boring, blood-sucking lives. When they are not playing Battleship and riffing on the idiosyncrasies of being a creature of the night, they face the occasional vampire hunter or deal with the unreasonable demands of a girlfriend.
“For nearly 150 years, The Program has pursued its secret mission to identify and develop the ‘abilities’ of individuals with paranormal powers.” This is the introduction to In2ition, the new interactive supernatural conspiracy thriller from Take180, which has produced three original web series since its soft launch in July. Hope Fox, played by up-and-comer Emily Pennington, has abandoned friends and family to go on the run when The Intuitive Genetics Program abducts her boyfriend Zain (Hector Bucio). Hope uses her special powers to guide herself—think Bourne Conspiracy meets Minority Report, except she needs your help.
In an interactive twist characteristic of Take180’s web series, the plot of In2ition is guided by audience participation. From the site: “As Hope goes on the run, the only people she can trust are Belinda and the members of SAGE—a small group of resistance fighters who oppose the The Program. By participating in challenges, you’ll become a member of SAGE and help Belinda and Hope evade Program agents and discover the dark truth behind Zain’s disappearance, Mrs. Fox’s true identity and The Program’s real motives.” Challenges include “Submit a video of yourself as a SAGE member giving directions to Hope and Belinda,” “Design an original outfit for a bad-boy character,” or “Submit a video of yourself as a SAGE member warning people about the IGP and the evil Mrs. Fox.”
The interactive element has been a welcome challenge for writer-director Chandler Evans, who created the 12 episode series with audience participation in mind. “In2ition is about a young teenage girl who has lost her voice—this show is about empowerment of young adults,” Chandler tells us. “And through the interactive challenges in the series, In2ition provides an opportunity for our audience to find their voice.” Chandler cites X-Files and comic books as his primary inspiration for the series, and says he was determined to create an accessible hero. “We all have the potential to change and express ourselves in great ways,” Chandler adds.
Weaving audience contribution into the storyline every week isn’t the only challenge Chandler is dealing with, however. Production was delayed nearly a month when one of the lead actresses, Courtney Ford (who plays Hope’s sidekick Belinda Randolph), was replaced by Ogy Durham, which meant re-shooting segments of the pilot episode and covertly replacing the photos and social media on the site—as if she herself was abducted by The Program.
With Episode 5 in production and a highly anticipated abduction promo featuring internet darling iJustine soon to be released, things seem to be back on track. Chris Williams, CEO of T180 Studios, is thrilled by the audience response to Take180’s participatory platform. “Many creators out there are producing content and throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks. At Take180 we’re making sticky walls—and when the audience is emotionally invested they have a reason to come back,” he told us at the T180 Studios in Beverly Hills, CA. “The programming on Take180 is not choose your own adventure, it’s create your own adventure. When you’re online, you’re interacting, and we’re taking advantage of that opportunity with In2ition and our other shows My Alibi and The Juice Box.”
Bebo’s The Secret World of Sam King has attracted quite a regular fan base since it’s launch in August of this year. The show has racked up over 400-thousand views, enough for Bebo to announce a second season of the music-heavy show.
Additionally Bebo has committed to a launch of six new web series come early 2009 under the banner “Bebo Originals.” The success of Sam King and other Bebo wen series like KateModern andSofia’s Diary have laid the groundwork more teen-focused shows.
A testament to the growing teen market, Sam King’s episodes that have gone most viral featured guest appearances by the Jonas Brothers and the Pussycat Dolls.
This final episode of Sam King leaves little surprises. Audiences were briefly left to question if Sam was going to get to keep his job at Universal Records, but after upcoming smooth crooner Nick Harrison rocks a solid concert organized by Sam, it looks like this web heart throb (who could be a Jonas from a British mother) is safe, for now. Teeny boppers everywhere can rejoice.
Have you noticed additional hipsters in Echo Park lately? That may be because production on the Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl, The O.C.) scripted drama Rockville, CAis now in full swing at popular LA music venue, The Echo. Lines were already long outside the club, but they may get longer, as the club now doubles as the fictional venue Rockville for the show.
The show chronicles a youthful group working in the music industry and their adventures in and around the east side of town. It also stars some familiar faces especially among the teen set, including Andrew West (Privileged), Alexandra Chando (As the World Turns), Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars,) and Mighty Rasta aka Terry Tate.
But the real stars of the show may turn out to be the bands. Music supervisor and executive producer on the show Alexandra Patsavas (she launched at least a half dozen music careers as music supervisor on The O.C. and Gossip Girl) calls the show, “the hottest indie music venue on the web.”
The acts listed to play on the show read as a virtual best of your Morning Becomes Eclectic playlist, including Phantom Planet, Earlimart, Eagles of Death Metal, Lykki Li, The Kooks, The Duke Spirit, Frightened Rabbit, The Little Ones, Nicco Stai, Passion Pit, and White Lies.
The show will launch on TheWB.com 2009 with a 20 episode run, with the possibility of more if all goes well. One thing is for sure, with a little something for everyone, the featured guest bands will have viewers rocking out at their computer screens.
At first glance, Luke 11:17 seems to be a typical story of stardom and hypocrisy. Luke Vincent is a best-selling author and motivational speaker for recovering addicts. Yet after his lectures, he buys heroin, shoots up, and sleeps with loose women. And then kills them. Wait…what?!?!
Maybe it’s not that much of a shock. After all, audiences love a killer. From the Joker to Norman Bates, it’s fun to root for the bad guy. In the last few decades, we’re even warmed to serial killers as protagonists, the most successful examples being the well-coiffed Patrick Bateman of American Psychoand the affable star of Showtime’s current hit, Dexter. Patrick and Dexter may be psychopaths, but they’re high functioning psychopaths. They’ve got regular jobs, homes, and relationships. Well, maybe not so normal relationships.
Luke falls squarely into this category, and the first season of this eight-episode web series plays it pretty much by the numbers, though with impressive flair.
“For nearly 150 years, The Program has pursued its secret mission to identify and develop the ‘abilities’ of individuals with paranormal powers.” This is the introduction to 
