It’s Friday again, and it sure was a busy week. Here are the top stories of the week on Tubefilter News in case you missed them. There was definitely a focus this week on show creators; the trusted creatives who pour blood, sweat and tears, not to mention a few credit cards, into the shows we have the privilege of enjoying.

On our top 5 net-culture parodies we presented five shows that tapped into some internet and gamer memes to become memes themselves. Whether it’s having longevity (Homestar Runner, Red vs. Blue), gaining cult status (Pure Pwnage), or having an episode go viral (The Website is Down), this list is a must-read in case you’ve been offline for the past year. The Bannen Way set the bar high with its pro-style trailer, which we lauded as ‘sexy’, ‘seductive’, and ‘stunning’. Editor Marc Hustvedt put together a list of 7 tips for web producers to gain an audience and keep them happy, which we posted online and presented at Wednesday’s well attended Hollywood Web Television Meetup. The August Meetup featured speakers that included new media folks from SAG, and The Guild actor and Legend of Neil creator Sandeep Parikh.

• The Top 5 Net-Culture Parodies of All Time
• 7 Tips to Launching a Successful Web Television Series
• Slick and Sexy, ‘The Bannen Way’ Trailer Released
• Tubefilter Presents the Hollywood Web Television Meetup – Wednesday August 20

Filed under: News, Web Series by Tubefilter News
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If you’re fan of web video, odds are that you took in the cheeky insideriness of the Tumblr Documentary. But did you notice that all of those reblogs came from the Tumblr of the summer-long Movie Night series?

While the documentary got mega-famo, it’s one of many interesting videos made by a circle of California filmmakers, meant to entertain one another live and in person every couple weeks, all while improving their creative and production chops.

Each Movie Night has a theme that offers inspiration without too much constraint. For example, “documentary” night spawned the Tumblr video gold as well as this exploration of an I-can’t-believe-it’s-real-but-yes-it’s-hilariously-real alcoholic beverage (by the way, most Movie Night work is pretty NSFW):

“80s Action Movie Remake” night was even more gloriously all over the map, resulting in a couple of badass trailers, Lethal Weapon 2 remade/sweded in fifteen minutes, and, of course, The Goonies “done with no planning from memory only”:

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Colin McDonald
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Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow; Black Snake Moan) has been tapped by MTV to direct $5 Cover a new music-themed web series set in working-class Memphis. This of course follows Brewer’s track record of featuring his home city and a gripping immersion into the eclectic Memphis music scene. The plan is for 15 episodes of the series, running about 8-min each. The budget of around $350,000 for the first batch works out to about $23,000 an episode or $3000 a minute, right in line with most of the studio-backed web projects.

David Gale, EVP at MTV New Media, MTV’s newly-minted online arm, actually signed Brewer to a production deal over a year ago while Gale was still heading up MTV Films. This will be Brewer’s first leap into the web telelvison scene, after intially pitching the project as a feature. Shooting for the project is just wrapping up this week and no set release date has been announced for the series. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.

Filed under: Drama, News, Studios, Web Series by Marc Hustvedt
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College Humor is prepping for its six-part MTV series with a pilot set to air this Fall.  Kelsey at Beet.TV went to the company’s NYC HQ to get some details from CHTV‘s Original Content Director, Sam Reich and Senior Writer, Amir Blumenfeld.

She came away with no info regarding the series, but a great interview about the basics of their operation.  Sam plays a great straight man in real-life and Amir pretty much acts like Amir, except not as obnoxious nor aggressive, but equally misguided.

As entertaining as a CHTV Original.  The improvised line is priceless.   Well done, guys.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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That cable DVR sitting on top of your television is a nightmare for advertisers. With audience attention spans shrinking and marketers bombarding consumers from every angle, who wouldn’t fast forward through the commercials on that Tivo’d rerun of Sex And The City? Enter lovebites, the microseries that premiered on TBS in 2006 during commercial breaks of the syndicated Sex And The City repeats. The series is about a 25-year-old woman named Callie (Audra Blaser) who is “smack dab in the middle of a quarter-life crisis—juggling life, love, work, dating, designer shoes and, of course, her hair!” Yes, Callie’s hair figures prominently into many of the storylines of lovebites’ two minute episodes. That’s because the show is produced by ad agency JWT to promote Unilever’s Sunsilk hair care products and was part an innovative new marketing strategy to create “advertainment” that would maintain the viewer’s interest during commercial breaks; thus protecting ad dollars.

The concept of the show was adapted from a popular Quebec comedy television series by Paul Reiser’s Nuance Productions, and Reiser served as co-writer and producer on the series. lovebites centers around Callie’s job [as an assistant editor at Elle Magazine], “her friends, love, shopping and all things incorporated with being 25, female and single.” There are frequent visits to her stylist for “hairapy” and her job at Elle even provides for a convenient cameo by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, all sandwiched in-between short little cartoon jingles promoting the Sunsilk brand (the product placement within the episodes is actually quite subtle.) Whatever your opinions are on “advertainment,” there’s no denying the result: lovebites was able to maintain the same Nielsen rating as the Sex And The City episodes during which it aired. Many of the episodes are now available to view at TBS.com and if you’re a part of the Sex And The City demo you’ve probably already seen it and find the micro-series just as witty, cute and hilarious as its full-length predecessor. If you’re not, you’d probably rather watch a real shampoo commercial.

Filed under: Drama, Production Companies, Reviews, TBS, Web Series by Bobby Bender
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I don’t care what this guy doesn’t say, Arj Barker is very funny.

If you’re only exposure to the American comedian is from watching him dole out emphatic yet terrible womanizing and cultural advice on Flight of the Conchords you might only think he’s “funny” (though you have to remember it’s hard to top Murray – he owns that show).

But if you’ve seen the Marijuanalogues you know why I included the adverb “very.”  He’s also the only person I know not affiliated with nerdcore to make fun of something inherent to the internet.

Again, very funny:

Reading about the release of his new, straight-to-Australia DVD reminded me of another very funny thing Barker’s been behind.  The animated series Arj and Poopy, starring himself, hapless and unibrowed, and his cat, anthropomorphized and flatulent.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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What exactly is a stoat (besides kinda cute)? In Benny the Escaped Convict produced by Not a Weasel a stoat is in fact (as the animation company’s name would imply) not a weasel. Nor is it one of those inbred meerkats that Animal Planet fanatics are so fond of (including me…I loved Flower… 🙁 …).

And while some of the NSFW humor in this Atom original series does revolve around the public misconceptions of the subtle distinctions in the Mustelidae family, most of it is centered on the derogatory observations of the small, yet heavily armed, title character.

The show’s simple premise revolves around Benny’s encounters while on the lam, never expanding beyond his flight from the five-oh. However, plot is obviously not creators Nye Warbuton and Ryan Levin’s main concern.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Amy Raugust
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It’s fascinating how web series relate to the TV form they emulate, and Unleashed is no exception. The internet cartoon about animals (mainly dogs) who are trying to make it as actors in the film biz feels like a 90s sitcom. Not Friends or Seinfeld, but more like Mad About You, or maybe the later King of Queens. The point is it’s not groundbreaking, but not uninteresting either; it’s by turns very funny and then not funny at all.

Unleashed has been on since July of 2006, and is now in its sixth season. The show began with 18 eps a season, then in Season 3 switched to 9 slightly longer eps, so (if my calculations are correct) that’s approximately 72 episodes so far. That’s a lot of show. I spoke to series creator Ben Zelevansky, who told me that they’ve had a steady, if slow, progression of viewership, which “has plateaued at times, but never decreased.” So what does all this mean? There’s a formula that’s working – just like those old sitcoms.

Despite its ups and downs, the show maintains a simple but consistent production value. Voices are spot-on, animation is right for the show, and length is fine. The characters, on the other hand, range from engaging to barely tolerable. The telephone banter between Dog and his agent Stan is the best of the show – I could watch that for hours. Other favorites are Season four’s Mutt, Stan’s cousin from the old neighborhood who sounds suspiciously similar to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, and season six’s Fran, Stan’s sister, who covers for him while he’s in the hospital. But there’s a smattering of other not so funny characters – Polly (Dog’s female friend), Rex the celebrity dog, the acting professor.

All told, the laughs are hit and miss. I would wager there’s about a fifty-fifty shot you’ll get something funny. But the characters are likeable, and that counts for something. I guess like those sitcoms of old what you get here is a little comfort food, you know what you’re getting and you like the taste, but it ain’t fine dining. But also like those sitcoms of old, they’ve hit upon some kind of formula that as Zelevansky says, will last “until someone makes us stop.” Because…well, it works.

Filed under: Comedy, Reviews, Web Series by Jonathan Hludzinski
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When NBC/MSN first laid out their plans to webcast 2,200 live hours of Olympics coverage, I was happy. I envisioned watching the badminton quarterfinals at four in the morning and catching the marquee events, on the sly, from my desk at work. It hasn’t exactly panned out that way.

While early-morning fringe-sport watching is definitely doable, an idea like that always sounds better than it is. As for the marquee events, NBC has kept those locked up on the television screen.

The network presented Phelps Mania live on TV in the Chinese morning/East Coast primetime, but chose the mind-boggling strategy of forgoing any form of live coverage of track-and-field glamor events like the 100m and 200m.  Instead, NBC showed them on tape delay in primetime, 12 hours after they happened.

Luckily, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt has made that inexplicable blunder largely irrelevant.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Alex Woodson
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Here at Tubefilter we work closely with web show creators and regularly sit down to discuss what’s working and what isn’t in the web television space. We decided to synthesize some of best tips we’ve gathered from leading creators in order to help you launch a hit web series and build a strong loyal audience. Each of these tips could be a whole post in and of themselves so think of these as starting points for the discussion of a launch strategy. (You do have one, don’t you?) You can get a nifty PDF of the tips here.

We presented these tips last night as part of our Hollywood Web Television Meetup. Special thanks to host Tyler Malin (Secret Fun Time) and to our panelists – Sandeep Parikh (Creator of Atom’s The Legend of Neil) as well as Bob Jensen, Nayla Wren and Steve Graham from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) for sharing some terrific insights on creating quality web television. For those that couldn’t make it, stay tuned for more info on next month’s meetup. In the meantime, you can join the Facebook group.

Filed under: Hollywood Web Video Meetup, News, Tubefilter by Marc Hustvedt
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Combining film noir, green screens, graphic novels, and stars with names you recognize appears to be the recipe du jour for web series backed by major motion picture studios.  To see the latest releases made with some of these ingredients, watch the The Cell from Sony’s online entertainment arm, Crackle or Gemini Division from NBC. 

To watch a series with them all check out Crackle’s just-launched good-cop-bad-mayor, low-dialogue drama, Coma.

Produced by Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment and Anonymous Content, the story goes like this: Mr. Blonde Bob Budd Lennox (played by Michael Madsen, who’s reprising that badass role that comprises 70% of his filmogrpahy) is an straight cop who looks super-cool smoking cigarettes and is on the trail of a metropolis’ crooked mayor (played by George Hamilton) who’s in league with the Mob. 

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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The first time I watched The Bindlestiffs, I was at a loss for words. I wanted to know – is it a true story? Do these people exist? Or is it a mockumentary, with great set design and a top notch makeup crew? The answer? Find out after the break.

Read On…

Filed under: Documentary, Reviews, Web Series by Arjun Sharma
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