The long awaited HBO Lab series, Hooking Up, which draws on YouTube’s most subscribed personalities, has finally arrived.
The first episode finds the lovely Meg Henley (played by Jessica Rose, original star of LonelyGirl15) pining away for Nick Fisher (played by sXePhil, a guy famous for shaving his head) through a succession of flubbed pings on the fake campus of Bask University.
I don’t think this is a show meant to be played to the college demographic, at least I hope not. Instead, perhaps this hyper-kitschy version of college is simply a lens through which to exploit the oddities of electronic interaction.
Either way, it’s too soon to tell whether this sillyness of digital-aged miscommunication will lead to an entertaining payoff. Others aren’t nearly as optimistic.
New York based husband and wife team Stuart Culpepper and Karin Williams recently picked up the award for “Best Web Series Pilot” at the 2008 NY Television Festival. Their dramatic sci-fi microseries, The Prisoner, is a mysterious exploration of a secret prison, torture, and “the limits of personal freedom in the context of a global war on terror.” (No, this isn’t a web version of 1960’s British cult hit, The Prisoner.) The show functions as a game for viewers, allowing them to decode messages and unravel the mystery of this underground world. (Hint: start here and crack the code.) Tubefilter talked to Culpepper and Williams via telephone about their plans for the show.
Tubefilter:You guys recently won “Best Web Series” at the New York Television Fest, so congrats! What did you think of the festival?
Stuart Culpepper: The festival was — we were kind of taken aback by that in a regard- because we really thought it was going to be kinda of a small sort of indie kind of a festival. I don’t think we were at all expecting how professional, how well run —
Karin Williams: Yeah, it was great, I don’t know if you had a chance to be there. But there were a lot of interesting events and panels, we met a lot of interesting people.
TF: What was your inspiration for making The Prisoner?
SC: Karin and I run a production company, and we always want to try and use the company not only in a money making incarnation but we also want to use it as a way to develop and do new things, our own projects, and we’ve done feature films and other things as well, and we were fascinated by new TV. By iTV. And all these different iterations of how people were accessing motion media. And we wanted to make something for that; we didn’t have a specific —
KW: That was really it. We just wanted to explore the idea of – can we create a show in little three minute episodes? Or four minute episodes, and how can we design shots for the small screen rather than for the much bigger screen that we’re used to working with.
TF:I notice that you guys have really great production value – Is that something that you guys did with a large team or a smaller team? How did you guys assemble your production crew?
KW: We had a pretty big team. (laughs)
SC: (laughs) It was huge.
KW: Who were all volunteer, by the way; they were really terrific.
SC: Everybody came together because again they thought it was an interesting thing to do and also they were drawn to the subject matter. I mean, at the time we were doing it the subject of torture was in our culture in the news in a more painful way, and so lots of people showed up. I think total cast and crew on our biggest days were 75-80 people.
TF: So did you guys pre-shoot the whole series? Or are you going to shoot it as it goes along?
KW: We shot the entire 12 episode series at one time. I believe it was a … ten day shoot?
SC: It ended up being ten days.
TF:It seems like the series looks like it’s going to unfold like a mystery, so should your viewers make note of the scrambled words at the end of the pilot and is that something that’s going happen throughout the show.Read On…
So your show isn’t winning any popularity contests on YouTube and it didn’t make it into Revision3 Beta‘s minor league of webisodes? Blame it on your lack of a professional light kit and don’t fret. If you’re going to be in or around San Francisco this Saturday, you’ll have a chance to charm the studio that’s home to Diggnation and Internet Superstar in person.
Revision3 is looking for “a broad range of show hosts for programming focusing on a wide range of topics such as music, technology, sports, news and video games.”
Bring the thunder, your resume, and headshots (if you have on) to their studio in Dogpatch, SF (2415 3rd Street, Suite 237) on October 4, from 11AM to 1PM. More details on the Revision3 Blog. Break a leg.
Web series like Street Fighter: The Later Years and videos like Minesweeper: The Movie have already given us a look at the inner lives of our favorite video game avatars, but never has the plight of the pixelated been given so much dramatic heft as in There Will Be Brawl, a crime-noir set in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Despite the punny title, there are no Daniel Day-Lewis impressions or examples of the There Will Be Blood meme to be found (“I drink your mushroom?”).
The plot instead takes POYKPAC and Galacticast one step further and fits more in the mold of crime thrillers such as Se7en or Gone Baby Gone. There’s the usual dark, gritty cinematography, uniquely grotesque criminals, and cynical first-person narration. The only difference is references to Nintendo games (or more specifically, the Smash Brothers series) are cleverly inserted into every corner of the noir cliche.
Luigi is the down-and-out narrator, Wario and Bowser are gangland kingpins, power-ups are drugs, and Princess Peach is a Carcetti-esque politician trying to save her dystopian city from grizzly murders, bloody turf wars, and brawling itself into oblivion.
Filmaka, a web hub for independent filmmaking, known for their monthly short film competitions has ventured into the web series waters. Their first regular series Runaway Stars,requires a fair amount of suspension of disbelief to watch all the way through. Maude, an uber-hot, celestial-looking documentary filmmaker is following some aspiring musicians who ran away from Idaho to “make it.” We see most of the show through her camera’s point of view. The funny thing is, Maude just happened to stumble upon our protagonist musicians in the middle of nowhere when their car breaks down somewhere on the way to California (see Episode 3 shot entirely in an off-road of a local LA hiking canyon.)
Maude handily has a working car in which she will drive everyone to LA, and doesn’t hesitate to make out with Duncan, leader of the band. In fact, pretty much every woman on the show does not hesitate to make-out with dreamy Duncan. This is perhaps the show’s saving grace as Duncan is always guaranteed action, and he’s undoubtedly good-looking, so the action is usually enjoyable to watch.
Drummer Lenny, seems the most troubled, although his troubles feel almost comical as he stares into the camera seriously in what may be an attempt at a drug-addled Boogie Nights moment asking for his mom. (See Episode 6.)
Kubrick, our possible comic relief, is happy go-lucky even with his girlfriend gets pregnant and seems super conflicted about having her baby. Blissfully optimistic, for Kubrick all is always good.
This mini soap is certainly addled with cliché drama, as it seems to be almost a parody of the soap itself. What’s unfortunte is that it rarely involves actual songs or performances. Unlike it’s more well-known predecessor in the band-within-a-show genre, The All-For-Nots, this garage band unfortunately may not being seeing the Kimmel Stage any time soon. New episodes of the show can be seen Thursdays on Filmaka.com.
Dubbed the Oscars of the Inernet (even though it’s not quite as selective), the Webby Awards is the “leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites.”
In addition to the 25 categories from last year, the 2009 ceremonies will include winners in Best Host of Reality/Variety Series, Best Individual Performance (“which will honor everything from a poignant dramatic performance to an intricately executed dance routine”), Best use of Interactive Video and Best Video Mashup/Remix (i.e. Hillary/1984, Shining).
But before you jump to enter, remember the Webbys is a successful, for-profit organization with entry fees that might be prohibitive, especially considering you need to pay a separate fee for every category in which you want to be considered. If you register before the October 31 early bird deadline, you can catch a little bit of a break, but even with a $195 price tag (Viral and Student Film and Video categories are discounted to $150), it can quickly get expensive for independent content producers.
New York based comedian Sara Benincasa is a radio host, writer, citizen journalist for the MTV News Choose or Lose Street Team, host of “Family Hour with Auntie Sara” every Saturday night at Ochi’s Lounge/Comix in NYC, and she happens to do the best Sarah Palin impersonation this side of Tina Fey. Her popular Sarah Palin vlogs have earned her national attention. She’s even getting prime billing in The Huffington Post’s comedy channel 23/6.com.
Over the past few weeks, she’s been interviewed by all kinds of traditional media, including Newsweekwho called Benincasa’s Palin “all wide eyes and flat accent … clueless yet ruthless, guileless yet cruel—and freaking hilarious.” Here’s what Sara herself has to say about her vlog, instant internet fame, and her future on the web.
TF: What started as you just messing around with your friend has become a huge phenomenon, with mentions of your vlog in Newsweek, The Huffington Post, Wired, and CNN to name a few. Were you surprised by the reaction you got?
Sara Benincasa: Oh my goodness, we were absolutely shocked by the response. We were just having a good time, blowing off steam about this wacky candidate who’d just been announced the previous day … The more I learned about Palin, the more menacing and hilarious she became. Diana and I like to dress up in weird costumes, so she did my hair and makeup and we turned the camera on and just improvised for an hour and a half. And the first several vlogs came out of that improv session. I cut one and put it up Labor Day morning, and by the end of the day we were getting comments and emails from around the world. The next day, Wonkette picked it up, and then Mediabistro, and then Newsweek, and then a bunch of other blogs, plus ABCNews.com, CNN.com, and actual TV-style CNN.
TF: What differentiates your impression from a lot of other Palin impersonations is that you imagine her in a more three dimensional way, where she’s very human, even kind of likable. Do you have any affection for the real Sarah Palin? Read On…
With the sixth and final episode “Origin,” Stickman Exodus draws to a close today on Atom. Tubefilter has been following the hilarious saga since its debut on the newly relaunched site Atom.com, which chronicles the bloody struggle of stick figures as they attempt to escape the merciless hands of a doodling middle-schooler with a penchant for violence.
The stick figures progress through the seemingly infinite landscape of a composition notebook in search of the “promised page.” Throughout the series they come across a victim of a game of hangman, enjoy colorful delights when the notebook temporarily falls into the hands of a benevolent little girl with crayons, and battle a sex-starved uterus during sex-ed. In “Origin” we learn the beginnings and evolution of the Stickman journey (complete with slo-mo battle sequences) and the lesson of never giving up.
Stickman Exodus creator Chris Ford of Waverly Films told Tubefilter, “It was a great experience. The reaction online was fantastic. I’m really happy with it.” Stickman Exodus was the most popular of the four original series released during Atom’s relaunch this past June, which included Border Patrol, Benny Escaped Convict, and Stephen and Stephen, and was featured on Comedy Central’s Atom TV.
“We always knew it was a strong series and we’re happy to see the internet audience agrees,” said Kate Zuparko, Marketing Coordinator for Atom. “People have been excited by the series. We’ve received great feedback, and we’re extremely happy with its reception.”
Atom is committed to developing new original web content. They release one to two Atom Originals a month (either series or one-off shorts), and next week they plan to release an urban legend comedy show Never Do This, a series of PSAs warning against ridiculous acts (and their consequences), such as inserting a Q-tip too deep into one’s ear. Just last week writer/director Sandeep Parikh inked a first look deal with Atom, who committed to develop two pilots in addition to a sequel to his hit series Legend of Neil, which has generated 700,000 plays since debuting on Atom.com in August and reached over 400,000 more viewers when it made its television debut on Atom TV on September 15.
“Sandeep’s funny and inventive first season of Legend of Neil has resonated with the Atom audience online, on Atom TV and on all of our platforms,” said Atom’s VP of Development and Acquisitions, Megan O’Neill. “He really understands the Web and we are thrilled to be creating more content with him.” Parikh gave us the dish on working with Atom and Comedy Central as a presenter at our August Hollywood Web Television Meetup.
As for Stickman Exodus, will we ever get to see our stick figure friends ever make it to the promised page? We still don’t know. Ford tells us, “Waverly is planning on doing more, bigger and better Stickman projects in the future.” Let’s hope–for everyone’s sake–that prophecy comes true.
ICN’s latest comedy series,Invisible Friend, which premiered Monday, stars the comedy group Very Angry Neighbors as a group of friends dealing with a bit of an unusual problem. Their boy Doug has accidentally killed their invisible friend Allison after a black-out night of boozing and now enlists his friends to help him handle the situation. Feeling a little like Weekend At Bernie’s meets Memoirs of an Invisible Man, the pilot draws you right in to the action without a whole mess of expository setup. The first few episodes screened at the 2008 NYTVF a few weeks back with the audience longing for more. New episodes come out every Monday on ICN.tv.
Drunk History
Episode 4 of Derek Waters’ Drunk History is out this week and showing no signs of letting up. This one features Paul Schneider (Lars and The Real Girl) as the drunken guest star historian. He even interrupted midway through by his mother calling him on Mother’s Day. “I drank a lot of booze Ma…vodka and beer…Happy Mother’s Day.” That doesn’t throw him though as he gets right back into the tale of President William Henry Harrison untimely demise from pneumonia after just 32 days in office.
Tiki Bar TV
This venerable web hit has been going strong since March 2005 mixing up cocktails and tales of intrigue from a modest apartment Tiki Bar set. Today Wizzard Media announced a distribution deal with Joost that will allow Tiki Bar TV to beam out its hijinks in high definition with other high quality internet and traditional TV shows. Another Canadian import, this pioneer in the video podcasting scene is headlined by a colorful cast of characters including the drink-perscribing “Dr. Tiki” himself, Jeff MacPherson, lead bartender “Johnny” played by Kevin Gamble and the sultry vixen “Lala,” Lara Doucette.
Iron Sink Media, creators of Soup of the Day and Roommates are back with new web original Model Ball. Debuting yesterday, episode one of Model Ball on its YouTube channel is nearing 50,000 views–not bad for debuting less than 24 hours ago.
On the surface, it seems a little trite – getting a bunch of hot girls to play to softball. But this isn’t a show selling out by simply dumping some Gatorade on the girls in white baseball tees, and having them run around the field. This is a story with conflict, rivalries and perhaps a little passion.
The show stars Tarah DeSpain (WeHo Girls, Roommates) as model Holly McBride, who looks less like a runway model, and more like the hot girl next door, as her screw-off cousin Jake McBride (Tim Pilleri) makes a bet that he can win the beer league softball championships with a team full of models. Episode one sets up the bet, just giving the audience a little bit of a teaser. Not a bad start, but throw in a love story with entertaining rival softball jerk wad, Gary (Levin O’Connor), and I’ll be coming back for more.
Iron Sink has some more than ample experience in interactive web series with Roommates, the 2007 web original drama made for MySpaceTV, and Soup of The Day, which allowed for the first time tens of thousands of MySpace members and online users were able to interact and influence the Soup of the Day characters. So far there hasn’t been much in terms of interactivity from the Model Ball team, aside from the start of a fairly dull video blog from lead character Holly.
There’s also plans to cross-pollinate the stars of various Iron Sink shows to help spread the fans around a bit. Given DeSpain’s YouTube fame as one of theWeHo Girls, and Pilleri’s role as producer of the cross-town hits NoHo Girls and VanNuys Guys, they are no strangers to racking up millions of views. In fact, posting the first ep of Model Ball on those A-list YouTube partner pages is probably what led it to the top tier of the most-viewed today.
New episodes of twenty-episode series will play on ironsink.com every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as well as YouTube and their MySpace page.
Just when you thought you had seen the gamut of web series product integration ideas comes Back on Topps debuting today from Michael Eisner’s web studio Vuguru. The premise is simple, a fictional web series about two sports nut brothers working at a real-life sports card powerhouse. But that’s where it gets interesting. You see that real-life sports card maker, Topps, was actually bought by Michael Eisner earlier this year for $385 million via his investment company, Tornante.
Created by and starring the sports comedy duo The Sklar Brothers (ESPN’s Cheap Seats, Layers), Jason and Randy, The real-life twin brothers play Leland and Leif Topps, would-be heirs to the Topps fortune who show up one day to the office to find out their uncle Marvin has sold the company behind their backs to Eisner. Now the pair find themselves working for a shrewd, heartless new boss Gaylen Briggs, who is just looking for an excuse to fire the bumbling brothers.
Sure, they consider walking out. “You’re thinking about folding up, going home, that’s it?” asks co-worker Beverly, “Yup, like the ’04 Yankees.” Leif replies. A little motivational pep talk later and we have a 17-episode story on our hands. The two decide to make use of the documentary film crew that new CEO Gaylen has following them around to make a web series set at Topps. And, surprise, even Eisner (via phone cameo) loves this idea.
Vuguru creative director Steve Cohen likens the show to “The Office meets the SportsCenter commercials.” And just like those SportsCenter spots, plenty of sports stars will be making acting cameos such as NBA players Kevin Love (in the premiere), Baron Davis, Greg Oden and even former player Dennis Rodman. Of course Topps built its name on baseball, so expect some MLB players throughout, including David Wright, David Ortiz and Russell Martin.
The Sklar Brothers have a healthy mix of sports and comedy roots both on TV and the web, and Topps seems like the perfect mix of their past works. After four seasons as hosts of ESPN’s Cheap Seats, Jason and Randy created the Hollywood agent office comedy Layers for the Turner-backed SuperDeluxe video site. They’ve also guest starred on Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Grey’s Anatomy.
This is the fifth original series from Vuguru who first struck a chord with web fans via its teen thriller Prom Queen and later its follow-up Prom Queen: Summer Heat. This year’s indie-music themed The All-For-Nots and mystery book prequel Foreign Body have fared moderately well, but still not at the level Prom Queen hit. This one clearly takes a higher level of interest for Eisner’s camp, who are looking to revive the once-dominant Topps brand in a declining sports card market. Coming along for the ride is lead sponsor Skype showing off its free video calling services within the show and in brief post-roll ads.
FOXSports.com will get a 12-hour exclusive release of new episodes which come out every Tuesday. Other distribution partners include YouTube, Veoh, Hulu, Blip, Bebo, Metacafe, Dailymotion, MobiTV (for mobile phones), iTunes and backontopps.com.
The narrative looks something like this: Michael Eisnerbuys legendary trading card companyTopps, and replaces the family-run regime with the no-nonsense Gaylen Briggs, a humorless CEO whose singular focus on the bottom line leads him to intimidate with camera crews.
Disaffected company heirs, Leif and Leyland Topps (played by the Sklar Brothers – creators of hit web series Layers) aim to preserve the spirit of the company they love with a webshow full of that signature droll.
The show is a card-collector’s dream, with guest appearances from droves of athletes, but it’s a funny and charming story even for the nonfan. It premiered today on FoxSports.com and will be available beginning tomorrow at BackOnTopps.com.
We had the pleasure of talking to the Sklar Brothers about their newest series…
Tilzy.TV: How’d you two get involved with Back on Topps? Read On…
The long awaited HBO Lab series, Hooking Up, which draws on YouTube’s most subscribed personalities, has finally arrived.
