Buzz abounds for Pink, whose highly anticipated Season Two promo “Magnum Cum Laude” launched today on YouTube and MySpaceTV. The vid, which crams highlights from Season One, features some great tracks from Mark Ronson (Stop Me) and Switches (Drama Queen), and boasts ‘Nearly 5 Million First Season Views’ and ‘2008 Webby Nominee.’ Private jets, fencing, and girls with guns? We can’t wait until September 16.
Hollywood meets Silicon Valley next week when Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, founders of LA-based Katalyst Media, the production company known for its TV reality shows Punk’d and Beauty and the Geek, make the pilgrimage to the tech world’s mecca and its premiere debutante ball, TechCrunch50.
The duo will be showing off a first-look of their new interactive web series Blah Blah Blah, an animated teen girl gossip show cleverly spoofing the DIY vlog movement. According to Katayst, hosts Britney, Tiffany and Krystle are “like if Beavis & Butthead were drama queens, had PMS, cat fights, fashion reports, shopping sprees, and of course, lots of juicy GOSSIP!” Pop cartoonist Todd Goldman, also known for his kitschy David & Goliath clothing line, provides the animation mojo to the series. 
This isn’t exactly Kutcher & Co.’s first dabble on the ‘InterWebs,’ lest we mention the deal that really went nowhere back in 2006 with AOL to produce a slew of web series to be pushed out through AOL.com and their AIM chat service. But now rebranded from Katalyst Films to Katalyst Media, the company is much more a typical Valley VC-backed startup, having raised a hefty $10 Million Series A round back in January. Despite some raised eyebrows, presenting at TC50, modern-day web startups’ most coveted coming out stage, isn’t really that odd at all.
Now able to run the site in-house, they aren’t locked in to strict distribution deals. “If people steal our stuff, it’s fantastic” says Kutcher on the issue of video rippping and re-posting. Here’s the TechCrunch50 promo video that got some buzz this week with Ashton and Jason feigning outrage at TC founder Michael Arrington’s strict confidentiality and other various TC50 reqs.
The All-For-Nots series finale aired last week. The show is a “Spinal Tap meets the Monkees for the Facebook generation” and follows the on-tour, indie stylings of a band out of Tall Bikes, Brooklyn.
The self-described “Synth-Pop Indie-Electro-Folk-Emo-Dance-Gazer-Punk-Americana-Pop Prog-Rock-Emo” group is real in that they play real shows (I was at their first) with real music, but fake in that their origins are inorganic – they were studio-constructed especially for the web by Michael Eisner’s Vuguru and Kathleen Grace and Thom Woodley of Dinosaur Diorama Productions.
For 24 episodes the docu-comedy has taken audiences along for a roadtrip across America to finally end up Hollywood, where Larry books the band a spot on Letterman (not to be confused with The All-For-Nots real-world appearance on Kimmel). Johnny, Caleb, Paul, Shirley, and Farrah make it out to LA for their big break into rock ‘n roll celebritydom, but two problems arise: Letterman is filmed in New York City and Larry’s booked the wrong gig.
(Don’t worry, though, there’s a resolution worthy of a feel-good Disney flick that makes everything okay.)
But now that the series is over, what about the band? Will the The All-For-Nots make a “transition from ‘faux’ band funded by real money to ‘real’ band funded by no money”? I spoke with co-creator and co-star, Thom Woodley (he plays Paul in the show) to find out what happens from here:
[Ed. note: Big things coming this week from Tubefilter, so keep an eye on the site as we make an announcement in a few days that will shake things up a bit. Stay tuned!]
It’s Tuesday and time for our picks of the week. This week we’re looking back at some of our favorites that haven’t been active in a while but are definitely worth another look. Web series are evolving every day, but sometimes you have to look back at where we’ve been.
Internet Commenter Series
The first episode of the Internet Commenter Series debuted just over a year ago (August 17th, 2007), but its parody remains just as relevant today. As the internet has expanded from tech savvy households into the mainstream, combined with the anonymity that the internet provides, we have discovered just how dumb some people’s thoughts really are. In this series, the staff at CollegeHumor shows us what things would be like if people’s real world behavior mirrored their online etiquette. It was ranked #4 on our Top 5 Internet Culture Parodies of All Time List.
Supermarket of the Stars
Originally a 2004 short film called Supermarket of the Stars, in which actress Illeana Douglas pretends to give up acting to work at a grocery store, it later became a pilot called “Illeanarama – Supermarket Of The Stars.” Though never picked up, the pilot became an instant hit on YouTube, being nominated for three TV Guide Awards by the end of 2007. Douglas is bringing back much of the cast in her new IKEA-backed series, Easy To Assemble, later this fall.
Trapped In The Closet
You have to appreciate R. Kelly’s pioneering musical web series that really opened the door to celeb-driven musical series (Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog). It’s now fully up at IFC.com where you can catch all 22 episodes of the ground-breaking 2007 ‘hip-hopera’ series.
When I first watched I’m Sorry Melissa I thought it would be along the lines of those websites where scorned lovers can sexually sanction unfaithful exes by revealing humiliating details of their past relationships. Unfortunately for the voyeur in me, the series is more of a straightforward relationship saga than the format would like you to believe, without any of the sordid pieces of intimate intel.
Created by Wayne Parillo and produced by On the Leesh, it’s mostly home video style talking heads, like The Blair Witch Project of romantic comedies.
The series begins with Wayne apologizing to his ex-girlfriend Melissa for cheating on her. Wayne thinks he deserves another chance, because unlike “most guys” he came clean without being caught, making his cheating more of a misdemeanor than a felony.
Hulu doesn’t have full, streaming episodes of Gossip Girl – which had its “kind of okay” season premiere yesterday – nor is its Mad Men selection up to date. But apparently there’s a whole lineup of television shows airing and premiering this Fall that people enjoy watching that aren’t Gossip Girl or Mad Men. And a lot of those shows, Hulu does have.
Today the site announced its Fall Premiere Lineup. Over the next seven weeks Hulu will air series debuts and season premieres from shows like Sons of Anarchy, Prison Break, Ghost Hunters, Bones, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. You’ll also be able to watch some shows a full week before their broadcast TV debut, – including Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, Chuck, Life and 30 Rock.
Read On…
I see that from these boys shall men of nothing
Stature by seedy shifting,
Or lame the air with leaping from its hearts;
There from their hearts the dogdayed pulse
Of love and light bursts in their throats.
O see the pulse of summer in the ice.
– I See The Boys Of Summer, Dylan Thomas
Just a little high art to spice up your day, folks! And a little overture to a great comedy series about two lusty yet oblivious dudes whiling away the summer on a Central Park bench.
From social networking upstart Moli, Park Bench is an award–winning series that takes the form of three minute slices of buddy comedy. The sheer professionalism and quality of the writing, acting, and cinematography is what sets it apart from the endless parade of sketch comedy videos available online.
The boys on the bench are Adam and Matt, who on the surface seem to be something of an odd couple. Adam is an excitable and awkward hipster-nerd and Matt is a slightly Bro-ish ladies man who has a new girlfriend he “really likes” in almost every episode.
More updates on the Dr. Horrible front, which is prepping for the next installment of the sitebuster web series from creator Joss Whedon. September 2nd will be the release date for the web musical’s soundtrack on iTunes.
With the upcoming DVD coming together, Bad Horse and his fellow ‘Evil League of Evil’ cohorts, are accepting 3-minute video applications to join the ELOE and earn a spot as one of ten videos included on the DVD extras. So far the site isn’t quite ready for submissions, but check back again soon.
“When people are supposed to be submitting, it’ll be abundantly clear how,” Whedon promised. “Everyone will know.” Dr. Horrible himself, Neil Patrick Harris added, “I would encourage people sending in their submissions to know that the Evil League of Evil is no joke. It’s legitimately hard-core to get in. I would know.”
MTV Movie Blog is reporting there are also plans for a DVD featurette on the aftermath of the first episode’s release, which exploded with over 200,000 hits an hour, and then dominated the top of the iTunes TV downloads chart. “It blowed up real good, as they say,” Joss said. The featurette is also supposed to explore the growing fan-derived content popping up all over the web.
In case you need even more Dr. H to tide you over before the DVD comes out, check out the original webcomics that Whedon and his crew are releasing over on MySpace. The first one, “Be Like Me,” tells the origin story of Dr. Horrible’s nemesis Captain Hammer in a web-friendly 8-page comic. Whedon has hinted at upcoming ones that will explore the origins of more of the Dr. Horrible cast, including Moist and Fake Thomas Jefferson. Eventually, fans can even order these in print form as part of the MySpace Dark Horse Presents Collection.
The Rascal, a fast-paced, action-packed comedy on Crackle, achieves what few other web series do–- it fires off action and laughs at lightening speed, while looking convincingly high-budget. Even in the rare times when one location may double as Los Angeles in one instance and Dubai in the next, The Rascal still manages to make you laugh.
Ever since The Rascal was featured as a Tuesday pick, we’ve loyally followed this small-time criminal on his big-time escapades, and through his twisted love triangle of romance. Monday, September 1st will bring the season finale of The Rascal to Crackle. The Rascal himself, aka Jay Rondot, gave us a recap on the show, and a hint at what’s to come.
Tubefilter News: Ho
w was The Rascal born?
Jay Rondot: Because it was the internet, we (Jay works with director and writer, Ross Novie) really wanted to come up with something fast-paced, and it kind of came out of 24. There’s so many high points that keep building on each other. It just gets more and more insane, and we thought it would be fun to do something about a bad guy about a bad guy going from small time to big time, building on this hyper-kinetic pace, and wondered what a show would be like with all high points. But once we made a series out of it, we slowed it down a little. But we really liked the idea of, “holy shit, what? It just got more insane, it just keeps escalating.”
TF: The Rascal has a unique home-base–a lab inside of a semi-truck. Where did he acquire such a thing?
Given all the political action this week, it seems Generate picked the right time to launch its entry into the politico-satire race. Republicrats, a 25-episode series debuted on MSN this week. Republicrat cadidate Sean Masterson, a former Fresno TV weatherman, is running for president. One-half Republican, one-half democrat, he’s claiming to be truly the people’s candidate.
The series is created by and stars comedian Sean Masterson, known for creating another Generate-backed series, Home Purchasing Club. There’s basically one running joke in the show which is the candidate’s complete lack of any principled positions. “Opinions divide America,” says Masterson in his speech “That’s why I don’t hold any divisive opinions about anything.” He is “looking to the American people to make every major decision in his campaign,” which means everything from selecting his VP running mate to choosing a First Lady, which viewers can do by submitting their own videos to the MSN site.
In watching him make the publicity rounds, like a recent stop at a local LA morning show, I can’t help but think that Masterson’s candidate feels a bit like Colbert-light. Maybe its because he just doesn’t commit fully to the character, like he’s with us poking fun of the fictional candidate rather than fully immersing himself in him. That said, Steven Colbert set the bar pretty high in this race. It could also be that his lack of any political slant means the humor really isn’t at the expense of either side, making it tread the wimpy middle road of political satire. There are some funny moments so far, and the campaign staff add a little depth to the show. The office mockumentary scenes come off a bit dry at times, again feeling like a copy-of-copy of a format badly overused in web series.
The MSN-exclusive deal means you pretty much have to head to MSN to watch the show, though they have set up a YouTube page if you can handle the lower picture quality. MSN-only also mean YouTube is the only choice for embedding, which from the looks of it hasn’t exactly helped out with its view count. The first episode has a fairly impressive 173k views, but the drop-off in subsequent eps is pretty jarring. There rest are averaging just a few thousand.
At this point, MSN and Generate have yet to confirm any sponsorship deals for the show, though they are looking to sign one as the series progresses. This is another series from Santa Monica-based Generate, which earlier this year landed a $6 Million venture round from Velocity Interactive Group. Really their own breed of web studio, the Jordan Levin-run firm also has a sizable talent management side, repping web heavyweights such as Kathleen Grace (The All-For-Nots (creator) / Dinosaur Diorama), Beth Dover (Ask Anything With Beth and Val), Aaron & Matt (Chad Vader/Blame Society Prod.) and Mather Dickel (Horrible People.) Generate recently announced that their hit series Pink will be back for another season September 16th, which should by then overshadow the waning interest in Republicrats, which fittingly ends November 4th, Election Day 2008.
No question this week had a studio theme to it as we’re seeing their fall online efforts come into focus. At Warner Bros., the relaunch of TheWB.com as a web-only destination for older TV content and original web shows marked the studio’s first big web rollout. The web studio veterans at maniaTV are shifting gears into the scripted web show world, adding to their roster of music and gaming shows, with the release of their action-comedy Midnight Rida. EQAL, the lonelygirl15-built web studio announced more details on LG15: The Resistance, the follow-up to their long-running hit. And even ESPN in getting in the scripted web game with its debut entry, Mayne Street, starring long-time ESPN personality Kenny Mayne.
Top stories this week:
European club football (or soccer) is back in full effect and, thankfully, so is the web show, I’m on Setanta Sports.
Hosted on the website of Irish sports broadcaster Setanta, the series parodies sports chat shows popular in the States and abroad. It stars a puppetized version of Inter Milan‘s eccentric Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho (formerly the manager of London’s Chelsea0, along with his puppet co-hosts, former England and current Mexico manager Sven Goran-Eriksson and pugnacious Manchester United and England forward Wayne Rooney.
And it’s hilarious. Well, if you get Roy Keane references.
At the heart of the weekly series is Mourinho and his everlasting adoration of Mourinho:
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