Just like the markets, this week was all over the place on Tubefilter News. Looking back at the top stories of the week, it’s clear that politics was on the mind of readers as they voted up a terrific interview with Sarah Palin-impersonator Sara Benincasa, who does “the best Palin impression this side of Tina Fey.” Channel101 fans know a good thing when they see it and have been voting up The Pop in their online charts, keeping the green-screen Popeye parody pumping out fresh new episodes. Voters Readers were split on their reviews of the new 60Frames series Infamous which launched this week after a less-than-glowing review from one of our writers. (See the comments on that story for the reaction.)
Canadians are continuing to offer up their style of web series, and we caught up with the creators of the Nirvana The Band The Show for an uncut interview. (Worth reading this weekend in case you skipped over it.) Yes, it is long, but that’s what weekends are for, right? And who isn’t excited that the darling Tatyana Ali of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, now a beautiful, successful Harvard-educated bombshell, is taking her skills to the web with her upcoming Buppies series?
At 5’11,” with a figure made for runways and cheekbones that go up as high as her legs, Izzy is blond, striking, and beautiful. At 30 years young, she’s also over the hill. It’s a tough truth for a girl to accept, but it’s not easy to book modeling gigs when you’re a decade older than your competition, and it’s near impossible when you refuse to sleep with high-powered men of the fashion world.
Always the object of Terry’s (played by Jordan Mahome) affection but never the girl who stays for breakfast, Izzy (played by Australian supermodel Alyssa Sutherland) is looking for a career change. In a novel twist on the interconnected lives of models and musicians, she finds a gritty band with a good sound, but no direction that’s in need of a manager who knows her way around town.
Such is the beginning of Huge – an online series that weaves the lifestyles of rockers, models, fashionistas, and downtown Manhattanites into a “postcard for the city,” showing what it’s like to be a New Yorker caught up in the New York scene every boy and girl dreams of (at some point, even if you don’t want to admit it).
The only thing better looking than the actors is the production. There’s a reason. The 22-minute pilot cost over $200,000.
I’m not sure if the title of The Fold — a web series that just released its fifth of six episodes of its first season — is related to Nicholson Baker’s book The Fermata, in which the narrator, Arno Strine, can stop time, and refers to the a state of suspended animation in which he is free to control anyone as “the fold.” Given the tone of the series from director and co-writer Matt Lambert, I would imagine that he is somewhat familiar with Bake, who, though not through Sci-Fi, may be one of the more notable contemporary writers concerned with sexual perversion.
In the fourth episode, we begin to learn a little more about what exactly “The Fold” is, though it’s still somewhat unclear – I think it is something similar to what Baker’s describes, except maybe with a component of virtual reality .
If you haven’t figured it out, this show is for geeks, despite being extremely explicit. Like very NSFW. I don’t think I’ve seen Internet video that was this NSFW except for, well, porn.
The Fold was co-written by Polly Frost and Ray Sawhill, a husband and wife duo who are known for their erotica (Frost’s most recent book, Deep Inside, was reviewed by Ron Jeremy). Frost also writes a horror column, and together they produce an audio saga called Sex Scenes. Now you can see where they get the NSFW part. Jamison recently met up with the trio to discuss The Fold, erotica, film and digital media…
The Battery’s Downseason finale, “The Bronx is Up,” has got it all: big, showy numbers, a venerable who’s-who of Broadway, and even a drop-in from gossip king Perez Hilton.
The NY-based musical comedy web series has wrapped up its first season this week with a two-part finale. Best of all, things are looking up for our adorable, stars-in-his-eyes protagonist, Jake Wilson. Wilson, who even himself sings: “my life is cliché,” is certainly not telling a unfamiliar story — he plays a down on his luck actor, living in New York, trying to make it on Broadway. That being said, the show is no less enjoyable to watch, as Wilson genuinely has chops as a singer, actor, and director (triple threat, much?)
Wilson has not lost his sense of humor about the business, or himself, and he’s got a joyously wacky imagination. Romping around the subway, and Central Park in cute clothes, while singing and dancing just doesn’t happen often enough these days. Where else can one get a visit from their animated fairy godmother, Broadway star, Alice Ripley, while tripping from a drug-laced glass of beer?
Wilson landed guest star spots from a huge list of stars for the show– John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening, Rabbit Hole), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Spelling Bee, Saved), Tyler Maynard (The Little Mermaid, Altar Boyz), just to name a few. Wilson tells us, “The Broadway community is such a small world and I have many close friends in Broadway shows and on all sides of the business. Theatre people are always eager to help each other out and I have been extremely lucky to be working with such amazing people.”
As for scoring Perez Hilton, Wilson says he simply met him at the closing night of a musical based on Perez at the NY Fringe Festival which starred his best friend and fellow TBD regular, Andrew Keenan-Bolger. They struck up a conversation, and the rest, as they say, is history.
A second season is in the works, says Wilson, though he’s just not sure yet if it will stay on the internet, or make the leap to TV. Either way, he assures us that “there will definitely be more TBD in store.” “Many people don’t realize that the show is completely self-funded, edited, and filmed,” adds Wilson, who is coming westward to LA for some meetings later this month looking to score some more formal backing for the series.
The entire first season of The Battery’s Down can now be seen at: www.thebatterysdown.com. Taking a hint from the year’s other musical comedy sensation, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the official soundtrack of the show will soon be available on ITunes along with a special edition DVD shortly after.
Don’t get me wrong; I love a good Quentin Tarantino movie, but I was under the impression people stopped ripping him off sometime around Jackie Brown. I was wrong. 60 Frames’ new series, Infamous, seems to be stuck in the late ‘90s when Tarantino imposters were still running amok. Starring AJ Wedding (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Craig Bonacorsi (Medium), Infamous is about Tom and Anthony — two out of work actors in LA. Like most unemployed thespians, they have a day job to make ends meet. Only instead of serving soy lattes, they pump people full of lead. They are hitmen. Wedding and Bonacorsi, along with Pharaba Witt, created the show, based on their own experiences and conversations as struggling actors (I was not able to find any evidence of them being assassins). The first two chapters, directed by John Asher (aka Mr. Jenny McCarthy), are currently available on the show’s website; subsequent installments will be released every Thursday.
Infamous starts out strong with Episode 1: “Hookers and Guns.” Although the dialogue is too post-modern for its own good – the characters discuss whether fat Jon Favreau is more talented than skinny Jon Favreau (I prefer Swingers and Made-era Favreau, myself) – the premiere episode allows the show to develop its concept and characters. When Tom complains about an acting class, Anthony suggests he use their next hit to strengthen his talent; improvise a bit. Their zebra robed target – an actor himself — is happy to assist with Tom’s exercise.
During the second episode, “Iceman/Maverick,” Infamous starts to lose its footing. The opening borrows liberally from Pulp Fiction, with a blood and expletive soaked argument between the friends as they stand over a fresh kill. As a result, the guys show up late to a meeting, where their short-tempered boss, Wayne, is berating their rival, codenamed “Jack” (Dexter’s Sam Witwer). Especially noteworthy are Jack’s goofy facial expressions, if you’re into that sort of thing. I know I am. Unhappy with his alias, Tom requests a change from “Goose” to “Iceman,” to complement Anthony’s “Maverick.” Why not just call them Jules and Vincent? Too blatant? While the two discuss Top Gun in an exchange cribbed from Tarantino’s Sleep With Me monologue, Wayne beats a co-worker who interrupted his phone call.
As the credits don’t list any writers, I’m assuming Infamous is improvised. It may serve these guys well to pound out a script instead of studying Pulp Fiction the night before. Rather than using cool elements from other movies and trying to be hip, Wedding and Bonacorsi should allow their show to find its own groove. Hopefully, Infamous will pick up in the next few episodes. The show’s concept is fresh and has a lot of potential. The creators need to focus more on the execution and pump the breaks on the pop culture banter.
Actress and R&B singer Tatyana Ali, widely recognized for her role as Ashley Banks on the popular ’90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, is producing and starring in a new online series Buppies, a Sex & The City for the young Black generation. Under the direction of Julian Breece, whom Tatyana met while attending Harvard, Buppies follows Quinci Allen and her close group of friends as they navigate the ups and downs of Hollywood, relationships, social cliques and the occasional sex scandal. The show’s title is derived from the contraction of black and yuppie–a play on words describing black urban professionals.
The show is the first project of HazraH Entertainment, an independent film company founded by Tatyana and her sister Anastasia Ali that specializes in avant-garde, urban entertainment. HazraH partnered with Breece and his producing partner Aaliyah Williams to create Buppies. “The series focuses on a specific sect of the urban population,” Anastasia tells us. “There’s nothing for our demographic–the black sitcom is virtually non-existent on TV. And the web provides a great opportunity to address a general need for original content for black audiences.”
“I’m very excited about Buppies, as its my first project as a producer,” Tatyana tells Tubefilter. “It’s so important that we have fresh, truthful and provocative images and storylines to entertain us. We wanted to offer something sexy, hilarious and very heartfelt, making the uncensored web space perfect for a show like Buppies. As an actor, Quinci Allen is the kind of dream role that doesn’t come around very often. She’s sexy, smart and very complicated. I hope people will enjoy the series as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.”
Anastasia likens production on the web to the Wild West. “We can take chances to test the market and gain a greater understanding of our demographic and discover what they find entertaining, what sparks their curiosity.” The series’ teaser, which features high production values, a gorgeous cast, some hilarious moments, and lots of juicy conflict, hints at a controversial male bisexual romance that has already stirred up quite a lot of buzz in the blogosphere.
HazraH Entertainment is pursuing the hybrid model of Crackle’s Angel of Death, starring Zoe Bell. The goal is to employ a grassroots strategy to build an audience online and translate the momentum into sales of DVD’s that will include special features and reveals not included in the web series. Anastasia also tells us that they plan to create a lifestyle culture around the concept of Buppies with the intention to create an opportunity to maket merchandise, music, and beyond.
It’s refreshing to learn that Buppies cultivates a positive portrayal of young African Americans that extends beyond the typical clichés of Hollywood, but still remains truthful. And the show is in fact a commentary of the microcosm that is Black Hollywood which Tatyana and Anastasia experienced first-hand when the family moved from Long Island for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. “When I first read the script I was surprised by how real it felt,” Anastasia tells us. “I think Buppies will make people look at African Americans in a different way, as real people with real thoughts and real concerns.”
Not to say the show won’t dramatize certain character types for comedic effect. One character, which Anastasia describes, “if Suge Knight had a child it would be her,” throws a birthday party for Tatyana’s character who can’t even get in.
The Buppies cast include Tatyana Ali, who plays a talent publicist, Robin Thede as her southern-belle friend from college, Ernest Waddell as a a corporate lawyer-by-day aspiring rapper-by-night, Preston Davis as a bi-curious junior sports agent, and Chante Carmel as her fierce, no-nonsense best buddy from high school.
HazraH has completed production on the forty-minute pilot for Buppies, shot on location in Los Angeles and Malibu, which they intend to divide into four 10-minute episodes. Two 12-episode seasons are planned to follow. If everything goes according to plan, the full series will launch in early 2009. But we hope to get a few more teasers before then.
UPDATE (June 26, 2009): The series, which may have been picked up by BET, is now embroiled in a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Last year’s standout sci-fi web series Sanctuary, which was picked up in January for cable TV, is set to premiere Friday at 9 PM on the Sci-Fi Channel in the US and on The Movie Network and Movie Central in Canada.
Vancouver-based Stage 3 Media launched the series back in May of 2007 on a subscription-based model, charging viewers for a season pass. It’s unclear how many actually subscribed to the series as many ended up watching the free versions ported over to YouTube (above). HD versions of the original are available for $2.50 over on the Vuze Network.
From the start the series had the inside track at the Sci-Fi Channel, as the creative threesome behind the series all had roots on the network’s long-running hit Stargate SG-1. Sanctuary star Amanda Tapping also plays Col. Samantha Carter on SG-1 and writer-creator Damian Kindler (CEO of Stage 3 Media) wrote and produced SG-1 along with series director Martin Wood. The pickup from web series to cable is still notable though, as this will be the first to use live-action actors against a primarily green-screen CGI set.
Much of the original CGI work had to be re-shot this spring to get it up to the level needed for HD cable. The two-hour premiere Friday will be entirely new although much of the original series footage will be used throughout the season. All of the original cast, including Robin Dunne and Emilie Ullerup, are said to be in the new cable version.
The story follows Dr. Helen Magnus (Tapping) and her somewhat reluctant protégé, Will Zimmerman (Dunne) as they attempt to round up a host of dangerous creatures and monsters running rampant around London. Magnus isn’t just any old doctor however. She is a 157-year old doctor from Victorian England who runs a sanctuary for all manner of abnormal creatures. The duo are joined by Magnus’ spunky daughter Ashley (Ullerup) and her quirky tech wizard Henry (Ryan Robbins). There’s also a mysterious and sometimes deadly time-traveling teleporter named John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl) adding layers of complexity and drama to the outfit.
Producer and star Trapping still took quite a risk on the series despite her Sci-Fi connections. “I did make this enormous leap of faith whereby I said okay, I have to stand behind this project,” said Trapping in a recent interview. “I put my money in it. I put my name attached to it and I’m executive producing it. … I’m very hands on; more so than I probably should be.” Sci-Fi has ordered a full 13-episode season of the series. Check out the extended sneak peek at Sanctuary before its premiere Friday.
Your thoughts – this marks another web series picked up after a successful run online joining In the Motherhood (ABC) and Quarterlife (NBC, briefly). Do you think the web is just a “laboratory for network” as CBS head Les Moonves called it?
When we spoke withJon Lajoie last April, his career was in its infancy. It has since reached adolescence.
The Montreal-based comedian first blipped on the internet-famous radar last December, when editors at Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Funny or Die spotted his talent for belting out earnest and melodic observational comedy. After High as F@%k hit the homepage, hundreds of thousands of soon-to-be fans fell in like with his lyrical illustrations of irony, carefully crafted songs that juxtapose “what is expected and what ends up unfolding.”
Lajoie is now repped by UTA, can count Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, and at least two Kids in the Hall amongst his growing fan base, is the object of affection of multiple record labels fighting to produce his upcoming album, and is gearing up for a 20-30 city concert tour through the US and Canada that kicks off in December. He’s also winding down a positively reviewed mini summer tour and will be playing at New York City’s Blender Theater at Gramercy on Friday.
While in route to his NYC gig, I caught up with Lajoie for a few minutes on the phone, where he told me about the transition from online to Hollywood, the difference between internet dollars and real dollars, his upcoming pilot for HBO, and how it feels to meet your idols. When we said this guy was going places, we were right:
Tilzy.TV: The last time we spoke was in April. What have you been up to since?
Jon Lajoie: A lot. I went to LA a bunch of times. I met with management and people down there. I signed a talent hold deal with HBO to develop a pilot. Been doing my live shows. Those have been going well. Good reviews and all that. And I want to record an album, so I have a bunch of record labels proposing deals. So…trying to stay happy in the middle of all this.
In the last few years, Derek Waters has had quite a presence on the web, creating and starring in Derek and Simon,Road Trip, and appearing in the upcoming WB series, Downer’s Grove. But not until Derek started getting his friends drunk, did he hit on a venerable web phenomenon.
If you haven’t already caught Drunk Historywith such comedy phenoms as Michael Cera, Jack Black, Danny McBride, and now, Paul Schneider, the premise is simple–each actor must play puppet to the drunken narrator recounting a fuzzy version of his or her favorite historical event.
Tubefitler caught up with Derek Waters to get the scoop on what your history book never taught you, as we examine the age-old question of whether it’s beer before liquor, or liquor before beer.
Tubefilter: How did all this Drunk History business get started?
Derek Waters: I was with a good pal, Jake Johnson. It was a good night of drinking and Jake was telling me about Otis Redding. I love Otis and know his music very well, but Jake was telling me that Otis knew he was gonna die on that plane right before he got on. I didn’t really believe the story, and kept picturing him next to Jake, saying “shut the f–k up.” I wanted to shoot that, and have Otis Redding stuck having to do everything Jake said he did. But then thought music is a very common discussion over booze. How about something more important–like history? I got together with my old friend Jeremy Konner (the series director), told him my idea, and we started shooting the next week.
TF: Do you love history, or drinking, or both?
DW: I love history more, but before this I liked drinking more. I’m learning sh-t I should have learned a long time ago.
TF: History is endless, but also repeats itself. How many drunk histories do you plan to conquer?
DW: I don’t know. It’s more about the people I find to be the narrators. I just find people I find interesting, then ask them what their most passionate moment in history is. I for sure wanna keep doing stories that are new to me and others that went to public school.
TF: How did all these celebrities start jumping aboard your drunk history train?Read On…
Now that media is democratized, the only scarcity is exposure. The common YouTuber has all avenues of distribution and tools of production necessary to create a hit entertainment product, but the power of marketing and promotion resides with the established brands.
Talent is not the most valuable commodity in the online video marketplace. Being featured is. With millions of videos uploaded to the web every day, a quality program can linger in obscurity indefinitely. Yes, there’s a laundry list of gems that have been discovered, but for every series picked up by a traditional TV network or online studio, there are likely tens of shows whose names we don’t know but probably should.
The cream doesn’t always organically rise to the top. Sometimes it’s scooped out and placed there.
And that’s where Revision3 Beta comes in. It’s a “development hub,” a “farm team” for talented web personalities that have potential to make it to the big leagues of internet fame, if only given a chance.
Not exactly. The show debuted as a short on Channel 101 in 2006 to scattered acclaim before being picked up by SuperDeluxe for an ill–fated run of creative frustration and low popularity as the comedy video-sharing site slid into the deadpool.
But Cakey deserves another look – it’s not a flawless piece of work cooked up for the web video world, though it could have been more fortunate there.
The episodes can get repetitive and the story of a boy with rapid-aging disease and his talking cake with superpowers from space is bound for a pretty niche audience. But the series is certainly original, well-produced, and bound to make you smile and wonder in the face of sheer absurdity. Let’s start with the trailer, shall we?
The Pop is a brilliantly dark take on the classic Popeye story in the highly-stylized graphic novel ilk straight out of Frank Miller’s Sin City. And this thing delivers.
Adapting the time-tested sailor man to this gritty adult world was no easy feat. The series is created by Abed Gheith and Sevan Najarian, who most recently crafted the visual effects for Sandeep Parikh’s The Legend of Neil. They shot entirely in Najarian’s living room using old lights they picked up from Disney and a home-made green screen held up by c-stands. You wouldn’t think from watching it though, as the intensely detailed world draws you into itself in a way the old cartoon version never could.
The story picks up with Popeye returning to the harbor town of Sweet Haven, still addicted to “the green stuff” but trying to rekindle the flames of romance with his estranged Olive Oil (Kate Freund). Flanked by his burger-scarfing sidekick Wimpy, Popeye squares off against his age-old nemesis Bluto (played by Gheith), and busts up their seedy spinach smuggling operations. Bluto and Popeye still vie for Olive Oil’s flighty heart, and it’s clear she hasn’t made up her mind either way.
The LA-based duo originally made the first episode as a pilot for the monthly Channel101 competition where viewers determine whether series go on or are cancelled. After taking second place overall, they were inspired to make another, which is now up on the site. Najarian says they are writing Episode 3 right now and should have it up on October 26th. He says they’ll keep making episodes “as long as fans want them” (which means you need to head to their YouTube page, subscribe and leave some comment love asking for more).
Najarian and Gheith also host a semi-regular live video podcast called Almost Every Tuesday on their Mighty Money site, which doubles as their production company. Some might also remember their controversial 2005 viral work, House of Cosbys, which garnered up plenty of buzz (the first Channel 101 series ever to go three consecutive months at #1) and some legal heat from the powers that be. This time, it looks like The Pop plays safely in the parody realm.
As hoped from The Pop, we get some killer payoff from the spot-on live versions of the gang, including Popeye’s priceless tag, “I am what I am,” and Wimpy’s “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”
They say the best shows have you clammering for more. What do you think? Want to see more of The Pop?
Just like the markets, this week was all over the place on Tubefilter News. Looking back at the top stories of the week, it’s clear that politics was on the mind of readers as they voted up a terrific interview with Sarah Palin-impersonator Sara Benincasa, who does “the best Palin impression this side of Tina Fey.” Channel101 fans know a good thing when they see it and have been voting up The Pop in their online charts, keeping the green-screen Popeye parody pumping out fresh new episodes. Voters Readers were split on their reviews of the new 60Frames series Infamous which launched this week after a less-than-glowing review from one of our writers. (See the comments on that story for the reaction.)
