Like Katherine Heigl‘s hapless character in 27 Dresses, Zoe Bell (who just so happened to work as a stunt double on 27 Dresses) has always been the bride’s maid and never the bride.
In February 2009, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Crackle will debut Angel of Death, an action-packed thriller about a remorseless assassin who, after a Crocodile Dundee knife to the skull, hallucinates, becomes haunted by her victims, and seeks revenge on her mob employers that ordered all the hits in the first place. Alongside co-stars Lucy Lawless, Doug Jones, and Ted Raimi, Bell plays the ass-kickin’ (literally and figuratively) lead:
Take the This is SportsCentercommercial campaign, minimize the camera time of all ESPN personalities who aren’t Kenny Mayne, extend the 30-second spots to a series of 15 three to five-minute episodes, and add a few NYC improv comics and you’ll have a close approximation to the little bit of wonderful that is ESPN’s second (I count the soapy spoof Endless Drama as the network’s first) online original series, Mayne Street.
Presented by Nyquil, produced by ESPN vets Todd Pellegrino and Josh Shelov in association with P3 Entertainment (which was also behind Cheap Seats, whose Randy and Jason Sklar currently star in another sports-centric online original, Back on Topps), and set mostly in and around the streets of New York City and the dish-laden ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut, the series depicts the fictionalized business life of Kenny Mayne.
That includes overzealous bosses bent on product integration, faking coverage from the Beijing Olympics, taping SportCenter outros and pants-less intros, and showing guests of ESPN studios where Chris Berman urinates.
It’s been six months since the final episode of the first half of the final season of Battlestar Galactica. Three weeks remain until the first episode of the second half of the final season. In the meantime, we have Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy, ten webisodes written by Seamus Kevin Fahey and Jane Espenson, marking the first new BSG material since June 13, 2008. As of this writing, only the first three parts have streamed (via the Sci Fi Channel website and, thankfully, Hulu). Part four is due today.
There already are a couple spoilers worth dispensing with, both for the end of the first half of the season and for the start of the second half to come. You’ve been warned. [Ed note: He’s serious, there are some general BSG plot spoilers so be careful.]
The Face of the Enemy flatly indicates that the devastated planet at the end of Revelations indeed was Earth. What’s more, since Espenson has said that the webisodes occur within the events of the next actual Battlestar Galactica episode, it’s clear that the fleet does not stay at Earth for very long.
But those are just incidental artifacts of when the events depicted in the webisodes happen to occur. Important, in the larger scheme. But what about the events of the webisodes themselves?
The Face of the Enemy is a murder mystery. Six people, including Lieutenant Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and two Eights, are trapped in a raptor that’s been separated from the rest of the fleet after a jump. By the end of Webisode #3, one of the six is dead. To complicate the situation, Gaeta discovers that he already knows one of Eights, a revelation which sets up a second mystery: Why was Gaeta, as shown by the briefest of flashbacks, apparently helping this Eight back during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica?
Remember: After the escape from New Caprica, Gaeta almost was executed by a secret tribunal for collaborating with the Cylons, only to have Chief Tyrol realize that Gaeta had been feeding information to the resistance. The new flashback clearly is meant to make us wonder if Gaeta really was a collaborator after all.
Espenson was responsible for this season’s episode “The Hub,” one of the best things the show has ever done. I’m less familiar with Fahey, but Espenson’s strength lies in her ability to make plot and character inseparable, an approach already evident in the first third of The Face of the Enemy.
The advance buzz about these webisodes was the reveal that Gaeta and Louis Hoshi are involved in a romantic relationship, the first male homosexual couple to appear in the show. I’ve all but ignored it here because in terms of story, the important part is that Gaeta is involved, not that he’s gay. Far more important are the two mysteries deftly established in these first three parts. My suspicion is that the public mystery of the murder is but an excuse to examine the private mystery: Just who is Lieutenant Felix Gaeta anyway?
[This guest article was written by Tubefilter reader and BSG fan, The One True b!X who can be found online at PIE SPOILERS!!! wherein he muses and pontificates upon not pie but television. He also has some super rad prints of his original photos for sale.]
Rocketboom was the internet’s first breakout video blog; its steadfast devotion to quirky, quippy coverage of interesting things found nowhere else has kept it thriving since 2004.
Lisa Nova is a YouTube institution. She’s been posting sketch comedy with abundant fanfare since 2006, but I’ve long wondered why this staggering talent has not been applied to a bigger, more collaborative project (on the internet – I’m not counting her stint on Madtv).
Now she is. With what appears to be a value-building collaboration, Lisa Nova will add to Rocketboom’s slow-growing network with two additional episodes each week, says the blog of Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron.
For those who have never seen The L Word (count me among them), Strike.TV’s Anyone But Me appears to replicate that same gestalt, though with the high school lesbian set rather than yuppies. (What better way to potentially tap into the txt msg ad mkt?)
Like the characters in its hotter, older predecessor, Vivian and Aster are lipstick lesbians. They’re also teenagers and deeply in love. And at the level of sophistication with which they carry themselves (these kids today…), you’re not inclined to cast aside their amorous inclinations as “experimentation” despite their young age.
It looks like Thomas Dekker is trying to become the sci-fi series poster boy. First his jaunt as the cheerleader’s not-so-gay best friend in Heroes, recently the iconic John Connor in Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, and the lead in this summer’s greenscreen-heavy sci-fi web series IQ-145. The series completed its 12 episode season in August, before Bebo picked it up for a re-release this fall.
Created by Billy Dickson (One Tree Hill) and Chad Cooperman (Heroes: Destiny) IQ-145 is a story about Nate Palmer (Dekker) who is recruited by a secret organization to help search for his father’s last experiment, a stolen nano-micro-co-processor chip, but will soon discover that it is he that is the experiment. In his journey he is helped by his judgmental partner Beth (Linsdsey McKeon), his school friend Jen (Amber Brook Wallace), and their boss Jake Berringer (Brad Rowe). And in case you didn’t figure it out, the title IQ-145 refers to having a level of IQ that is qualified as genius, 145.
Each episode begins with a spoken narration by Nate, usually centering around his past, thoughts, or experiences. These are usually overlaid with a montage of various characters at various points in their work. Running about 5 minutes a piece, episodes feature heavy visual effects and production work.
At first glance, IQ-145 is an eye opener. The effects are so eye popping that your subconscious begs you to click over to Best Buy and order that Hi-res 30 inch LCD monitor so you can experience this series in all it’s visual glory. Actually, in every technical aspect, this series is top notch. The production team knows it’s got muscles and is flexing it at every opportunity. Not only is a penthouse apartment a penthouse, but it is set to a beautiful metropolis cityscape with helicopters and search lights flowing by. Every scene from a police station, to a park, to a lobby, all appear to be green screened and green screened exceptionally well.
With the production and effects so strong, what also works exceptionally well is immersing the viewer into the IQ-145 universe. The geek in everyone will go nuts with all the heads up computer interfaces, beautiful skylines, and fantastic attention to detail in every scene.
Alas, despite all the stellar visuals IQ-145 has a weakness: its story. The narrative is complex and dense. Nate’s monologues are so especially thick that they tend to cause more confusion than clarity. The pacing of the story is especially frustrating, the slow playing scenes lend themselves to enjoying the slick looking art direction, but leaves a fewer antsy to get the show moving. In the sci-fi genre we’ve come to expect some intense action scenes and/or big climactic moments, but in IQ-145 these beats are generally regulated to smaller character moments that are in themselves very unfulfilling. When you partner this with an overarching story that literally drags you end up with a series that is beautiful to watch, but hard to get through.
IQ-145 also rocks a very robust web destination at www.iq-145.com, complete with cast info, a director’s blog by Billy Dickson, a very slick looking graphic novel, cast interviews (including an extensive nine part interview with Thomas Dekker) and High Definition streams of all 12 episodes to date. The website is definitely worth checking out. Like the series, it does an ample job of user immersion. Given the HD streaming of it’s episodes and ease of clicking from one to the next, it is the best place on the web to watch IQ-145 in it’s entirety. If you get confused, there’s a pretty active fan community to fill in some of the holes.
Wow, what a week at Tubefilter and in the world of web series. We’re still looking for that guy that told us December in Hollywood is always slow times so we can smack them silly. This week saw dealslandedleft and right in digital media and plenty of news of our own as well.
Early in the week we were lucky enough to score a reviewer’s copy of the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog DVD which officially started shipping today. Our review gave some peeks inside the much-anticipated DVD, and even outing the TV network that passed on the web series after Joss offered it to them. Doh! And to top it all off today, we announced a partnership to co-host the 1st Annual Streamy Awards, to give web series the big-time awards show they deserve. So nominate your favorite shows, creators and talent today!
Earlier this year, Bad Horse announced his organization would officially accept applications for entry, and the 10 most immoral, wicked, and punny evildoers around would be welcomed into the League. Out of some 500+ entries I chose my fave five (and got one of them right!), but below is the nefarious set who actually made the cut.
As TV networks scale back on expensive dramas, opting instead for cheaper late-night talk, I wonder whether show hosts will run out of stuff to talk about…or if viewers will get talked to death and turn instead to the web, where scripted series still reign supreme.
So what the hell is Crackle doing with yet another late-night-esque talk show? Just wait, I think this Bob Kushell guy is on to something…
This past year was truly a monumental year for online video. Major production studios, independent new media producers, seasoned media executives and a swath of talent ranging from Hollywood celebrities to overnight internet sensations contributed to the development of a distinctive and vibrant new medium.
2008 was the year that web television finally came into its own. Watch streaming video over the internet (even just a few years ago) used to be an exercise in tenacity, filled with buffering errors, server timeouts and user profanity. I remember cursing out my shaky internet connection to get through early Rocketboom episodes or choppyYacht Rock clips. But things have changed in the past five years, and today millions of people all over the world are streaming countless hours of web video every second.
It’s finally time to recognize web series and the people behind them with an awards show dedicated to this thriving creative community. So today we are announcing that Tubefilter has teamed up with some of the leading web video publications, NewTeeVee and Tilzy.TV, to co-host the 1st Annual Streamy Awards.
This will be the the first awards program of it kind to recognize web series—everything from scripted comedy, drama, reality, political, hosted—and the creative talent both in front and behind the camera. And the best part, there’s no charge at all (it’s free) to be nominated. Here’s how it works.
Nominations and Voting
Anyone can nominate their favorite web series, stars and creators starting today at Streamys.org in any of the 25 award categories. From the nominations, an independent non-profit organization called the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV), will select the final nominees in each category. The most-nominated entries in each category will automatically be one of the final five nominees. There’s also an Audience Choice Awards that will go to the web series (of any format) that receives the greatest number of public votes. The winners will be announced live at the 2009 Streamy Awards Ceremony held in Los Angeles on March 28, 2009.
Award Categories
Overall:
Best Dramatic Web Series
Best Comedy Web Series
Best Hosted Web Series
Best News/Politics Web Series
Best Reality Web Series
Audience Choice Award
Directing:
Best Directing for a Comedy Series
Best Directing for a Dramatic Series
Writing:
Best Writing for a Comedy Series
Best Writing for a Dramatic Series
Acting:
Best Male Actor In a Comedy Series
Best Female Actor In a Comedy Series
Best Male Actor In a Dramatic Series
Best Female Actor In a Dramatic Series
Best Ensemble Cast
Best Guest Star In a Web Series
Hosting:
Best Web Series Host
Technical Awards:
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Art Direction
Best Visual Effects
Best Animation
Best Original Music
Special Awards:
Visionary Award (honoring significant achievements web TV)
Best Ad Integration in a Web Series
Best Artistic Concept in a Web Series
Important Dates
December 19, 2008: Nominations open (today)
January 23, 2009: Nominations close
March 9, 2009: Audience Choice Finalists Announced
Second week of March: Final Nominees Announced
March 28, 2009: The Streamy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, CA
Since the Awards will honor achievements in 2008, eligible web series must have at least three installments released at some point in 2008 to qualify. And if you’re a web series creator, make sure you grab a Streamy Awards badge to encourage fans to nominate your series.
Inaugural sponsors for the Streamys include Blip.tv and TubeMogul, with more to be announced soon.
Machinima.com, flush with cash after recently raising $3.85 million in capital, has announced the Machinima Comedy Lab, where the site is bringing on fifteen traditional TV writers, each to develop a comedy web series pilots. The series will be greenlit for up to four episodes each before they decide whether to further produce the series.
Bill Freiberger: Drawn Together, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The Simpsons
Eric Horsted: Boondocks, Knights of Prosperity, Futurama
Ken Keeler: Futurama, The Simpsons, Wings
Stacie Lipp: King of Queens, Roseanne, Married With Children
Christina Lynch: Wildfire, The Dead Zone, Unhappily Ever After
Peggy Nicoll: WordGirl, Daria
Bill Oakley: Mission Hill, The Simpsons, Futurama
Max Pross & Tom Gammill: The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Monk
Mike Rowe: Family Guy, Futurama, Comedy Central Roasts
Loren Segan: Wildfire, The Dead Zone, Spyder Games
Patric M. Verrone: Futurama, Muppets Tonight!, The Simpsons
Maiya Williams: Mad TV, The PJs, The Wayans Bros.
“This is the future of comedy in new media – a fast and low cost way for writers to create shows that attract an existing audience,” said Patric M. Verrone. “We’re thrilled to break ground and forge a relationship that empowers independent production and gives writers both creative freedom and financial participation.”
Machinima as a medium is a production technique that literally implies the convergence of machine and cinema. The animation is constructed using interactive 3-D engines and environments instead of professional 3D animation software. Typically, this means using an existing game engine and often very popular ones like Halo or Half-Life. Creators have been making machinima videos for over a decade (especially longtime web creators Rooster Teeth and their Red vs. Blueweb series), but what really kicked it into the mainstream was in 2006 with Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Emmy-winning “Make Love, Not Warcraft” episode of South Park, much of which was built inside the uber-popular online game World of Warcraft.
“As an emerging entertainment network, we’re dedicated to bringing aboard top creative talent,” said Allen DeBevoise, Machinima.com chairman and CEO. And he means it. Back in July, Machinima.com tappedThe Guild creator-star Felicia Day to write and develop a game-based web series which is currently in the works. The company seems to be doing something right over there, as their YouTube channel, in less than 14 months, has become the seventh all-time most subscribed channel.