Speaking of stories, both good and bad, here’s some advice on how to tell them.
In a vintage interview Eliot found from way back in Fall of 2006, Ira Glass – whose kinda nasal, calmly, cadenced voice has told fascinating tales across radio waves for the better part of three decades – edifies Current producers and viewers on the age old art of storytelling.
If you’ve spent any time in suburban America, you’ve seen the contracting agrarian landscape replaced by tidy subdivisions. Our ever-shifting economy and way of life requires different uses of land, but what about the people behind that shift?
Common Ground, a new piece on MediaStorm, explores the different lives touched by a single patch of land. Photographer Scott Strazzante followed two families on the same land for 14 years; one farmed the land, the other is one of many that now inhabits the tightly planned community that sits atop it.
It’s a calming, charming, melancholy piece about the similarities between very different lives.
Machinima.com has hired the internet phenom Felicia Day to write a sitcom set in a place close to her heart–a popular video game. Five short-form episodes will eventually be combined into a half hour pilot with plans to hit the web this fall, and it’s rumored audience feedback will affect the creative direction of four more such half hours. Machinima, or machine cinema, is an example of artistic computer game modification where game tools are used to render CGI using real-time 3-D engines.
If there were royalty in the world of online web series, Felicia Day would be the Grand Duchess. Her first creation, The Guild, garnered almost two million views, higher than some of the popular shows on television. She co-starred alongside Neil Patrick Harris in the sitebuster Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, created by Joss Whedon, creator of the television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which features Day in eight episodes.
With her natural talent tucked into clever, current, interesting and honest choices, there’s no telling exactly what she’ll reveal next. Day handed off a rough draft of The Guild: Season 2 to her co-producer within the past 24 hours.
Tubefilter was lucky enough to catch up with Felicia Day to talk about her new project.
Tubefilter: What’s the show about?
Felicia Day: The project I’m working on with Machinima.com is a sitcom set inside a game world. I’m still developing it, so that’s all the detail I can go into.
TF: So will it remind us in any way of The Guild?
Day: I guess it’s the reverse of The Guild in that it’s a sitcom using game machinima and characters, vs. The Guild being about gamers’ real world lives.
TF: Who are the characters?
Day: I wanted to take some archetypal characters from sitcoms and place them in a fantastical world. I’m sad the sitcom form is no longer considered “viable” because it’s what I grew up on and love, so I took it as a challenge to mix old and new together and create something funny and enjoyable for everyone, gamer and non-gamer.
TF: Is anyone coming back from The Guild?
Day: No this is a completely separate project. It’s great to have both on my plate; I can bounce back and forth between them.
TF: Is the show cast?
Day: The actors are TBD. We’re still in the script stages. Getting a good script is the most important thing in making anything. If you don’t have that, you shouldn’t bother with anything else. I’d love to have some real gamers do the voices.
TF: When can we expect to see the first episode?
Day: The Machinima.com project will hopefully be out this fall.
TF: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Day: The Guild: Season 1 DVD is available on the site, so check it out if you’re a fan!
When a web series awash with cash, created by innovative web producers with a track record and backed by a big name with uber experience, fails to impress, or… uhh… performs below our bleakest expectations, it’s time for some reflection. So, what went wrong?
ForeignBody, a 50-episode series created by Big Fantastic and backed by Michael Eisner’s Vuguru is unloved and unwatched, reports Silicon Alley Insider.
First, lets note that in a film studio-like model, winners (think Dark Night) pay for losers (think Speed Racer). This is a hits driven model. Variable returns on individual projects are expected, and huge success can mitigate many nonsuccesses, so this isn’t necessarily a bad sign for the business. There’s no sure bet in something so subjective as web drama, and we applaud Vuguru for testing the boundaries of the waters in which we all have begun to sail. Experimentation is key.
But, again, why has this particular series underperformed?
The internet loves its cult director superheroes and sexy sci-fi, sure, but who would have predicted a Muppets reign over web video in July 2008?
First we had patrioticeagle claiming the July 4th blogbuzz, and 500,000 YouTube views later, America was a much better place:
The real Hensonfest really began a couple weeks later, though, when Classical Chicken started its march to 345,000 views, Habanera to 320,000, and Ode to Joy to a whopping 1,480,000:
The sudden abundance of authentic-looking, hilarious (though oddly classical music-focused) Muppets videos didn’t smack of coincidence, and suspicions were soon raised.
The best thing to come out of last week’s San Diego Comic-Con was the leaked trailer for the Winning Entry in Hollywood’s “How-do-we-add-a-sequel-to-a-successful-move-franchise-that-was-awesome-but-we-inevitably-ruined” Contest – X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In Summer 2009, Hugh Jackman’s going to be back with Liev Schrieber as Sabertooth (sweet!!!) and Will.i.am as Kestrel (ummm???). Someone pass me some Waitmate.
The second best thing to come out of last week’s San Diego Comic-Con was the announcement by Joss Whedon that’s there’s most definitely going to be a sequel to his original web series that crashed a good portion of the internet, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Karina reports from Whedon’s panel:
Every Tuesday, the staff at Tubefilter News picks out three shows that we think you should watch.
This week’s picks are:
The Rascal
The Rascal is brilliant for simple reasons. The premise is funny, the characters are well-written, and the overall humor is unapologetically campy. Check out the greyhound meth in episode 7. Seriously.
Happy Tree Friends
This delightfully twisted series pushes the definition of NSFW; in fact, it’s NSA (Not Safe Anywhere). Each episode starts off pleasant enough, but death and chaos aren’t far behind. The best part of the series is how unexpected it is; no matter how familiar you are with the show, each episode is a delightfully nauseating surprise.
Cockpit
Cockpit is a comedy about the employees of Mile High Airlines and what really goes on behind the cockpit door. They hate to fly and it shows.
Considering they’re only a couple 20-sided dice away from being live-action role playing games, it’s amazing that Renaissance Faires are as popular and prominent as they are, with multi-colored canvas tents popping up in the summertime all over the US. You’d think they’d be havens solely for D&D geeks and nerdy actors with affinities for Elizabethan English and shouting dated exclamations and enough disposable income to afford the period clothing (aside: this combat armor looks sweet). But then you realize they serve grilled turkey legs, have faux knight fights, and showcase other fun novelties from the early Renaissance without any of the street sewage or fear of dying from the Plague. Take all that into account and the fact that nearly every woman wears a corset and you can begin see the more mainstream appeal.
Accessing that popular love for times of yore while targeting the Faire subculture is just what one creator of the hipster-centric web series The Burg and The All-For-Nots is aiming for in another online original show, All’s Faire.
Created by Thom Woodley (who’s one half of Dinosaur Diorama Productions and new to the Ren Faire scene) and Bob McClure (who plays Jed in the The Burg and Thom tells me is a Ren Faire expert), the show stars a cast of characters familiar to whomever watched the ironic, slacker stylings on The Burg or The All-For-Nots. It’s a Wet Hot American Summer-esque spoof with a “we need to save the Faire!” narrative.
Only the trailer’s available now, but a website with more video teases should be up and running within a couple weeks. We’ll let you know. With this premise, cast, and crew, this one’s got potential. Hazzah!
FM78.tv, an internet production company run by Justine Bateman, Jill Kushner, Peter Murrieta, and Alan Sereboff, will release their first show Candy, Inc. next spring, and Tubefilter News had a chance to talk to Bateman about the show, as well as her opinions of the online video industry.
Tubefilter: How did the idea for Candy Inc. come about, and what exactly is it?
Justine Bateman: Candy Inc. was originally a pilot script I wrote last year. Two of my three partners (Jill Kushner and Peter Murrieta) are writing the entire 18-episode mini-series with me. (Alan Sereboff is the fourth partner) The idea came about because I just love candy factories. When I was a kid, I remember watching footage on TV of candy being made and being comfortably mesmerized. 
The story is about a woman, CJ ([played by] me), forced to work at her dad’s (Buck Henry) factory because of her increasingly frequent screw-ups out in the world. She assumes she can keep her head down and “do her time” but she’s horrified to find she actually has an intense gift for running a candy company. She feels she must keep this quiet for she fears her father, Harris Stubbs, would then make her stay there forever. All CJ wants to do is go back to managing (poorly) her band, the T-Cups (they’re 12 years old) and to be reunited with her trust fund. Adding to the drama is the fact that Jim Richards (Jeff Garlin), the company’s CFO, is making CJ’s life miserable. He is convinced that Harris is retiring any day [and] believed he was a “sure thing” to take over the company-that is, until Harris’ only heir appeared.
TF: When can we expect the series to debut, and what kind of release schedule are you planning?
Bateman: I wish it could be sooner, but the launch date will probably be in Spring ’09. There will be a viral campaign preceding that. We plan on shooting 3 hrs worth of material (roughly 6 30-minute episodes). Then they’ll be sent out in 8-10 minute chunks once a week.
TF: Why did you choose the online realm for this series? Are there advantages to using the internet, as opposed to traditional broadcast media?
Bateman: We see the opportunity to be in on the ground floor of the future of entertainment. We see the occasion to be some of the pioneers that set the templates for not only the business deals that are now taking place for internet production, but for the next phase of scripted product itself. We believe that the work not only has to be AS good as what’s on TV and in the theaters presently, but in many ways it has to be even better. It’s easier to click off a site than to change the channel on your TV (depending on how far the remote control sits from you on the couch), so we have to be wicked good. Not only does the scripted material have to be stellar, but everything specific to Internet production has to be incorporated. We have the viral campaign, the secret viral campaign (for those on our mailing list), MySpace pages for the characters, e-mail addresses for the characters, etc.
We are also working with video click-through where you will be able to travel to different story lines while you are watching the video itself, and are exploring an opportunity to turn the show into a casual video game as well.
One of the advantages [of online media] is that you are reaching a world-wide audience right away. You do not have to, like in broadcast TV, wait until you have deals set with each foreign country to show your work internationally. Another advantage is real audience immersion into your show and your story line through some of the means I mentioned above. I’m really excited about that aspect of our Internet productions. There are many other advantages, too.
One of the disadvantages is that only about 50% of homes in the US currently have [a broadband] Internet connection so you’re only reaching, at capacity, half the potential folks. Another disadvantage is that because of the massive amount of websites, sometimes it can be a challenge for a content creator to find a concentrated audience, but I think this problem is already being softened by certain distribution sites rising to the top as far as audience size (beyond the obvious YouTube).
TF: What has it been like getting some of the top names you’ve signed on to join an online web series?
Bateman: One will always find actors happy to work on well-written projects with other talented actors and directors in production scenarios where they will be treated fairly and with respect. For too long the media corporations have somehow forgotten that they are dealing with artists and not with products or inventory items. Artist want to do what they do best and when situations present themselves where they can be creative and be compensated fairly for it, they get onto your boat.
TF: In terms of money, which is the biggest hurdle most web shows face today, what is Candy Inc.‘s strategy for monetization?
Bateman: We are currently in talks with a large candy company to sponsor the show (you can see the natural tie-in). Though there are many different financing models, for Candy Inc. we like the sponsor-funded model, a la the first days of TV, because of the rich opportunity for a major candy company to be involved. We also have relationships with ad agencies, marketing consultants, and other product companies themselves for the rest of our slate.
At FM78.tv we will show the fact that you can make a living as an artist in the future. After the project is launched, we will all benefit from the standard split ad-revenue deals we have with various distribution sites. From that money, we will be paying the actors, writers, and directors residuals. We think it’s abhorrent that the AMPTP (the negotiating arm of traditional media) wants content creators to eliminate residuals from our earning future.
TF: What is your long term goal for FM78.tv?
Bateman: Our long-term goal is to have been some of the pioneers of the future of entertainment as it takes the biggest turn it has made since the beginning of film. This new point of distribution is not only changing the format of content and destroying the old business grid of the TV and film business, but all these new business grids that are being created right now for internet production will be the structure upon which an incredible creative renaissance can rest. Some really incredible creativity is going to burst out because of the changed grid.
I think it’s the best time to be a content creator in all the history of the entertainment business. The future of entertainment is awesome.
I never liked Dilbert. When Scott Adams first published the comic strip about a hapless engineer and self-obsessed, anthropomorphic dog in April of 1989, I was too busy hugging my Odie plush doll and trying to get rid of cooties to understand anything of micromanaged office culture.
By the time I was of age to join a white-collar workforce, the office humor genre swelled with better, funnier parodies that taught a 20-something all he needed to know about working for the man.
I think I also saw an episode of UPN’s animated Dilbert series when it first came out. Unfortunate, I know.
Lucky for Adams and fans of the nerdy guy with the perpetually upswung tie, Dilbert’s moving picture legacy won’t solely be remembered by the above. RingTales, the same talented studio responsible for the New Yorker’s animated cartoons, has resurrected the comic strip for a second animated life.
While going through Hulu and watching some of the latest original web series, Tubefilter News has discovered that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is back on Hulu for free, this time in one piece as a 42-minute feature. This release comes shortly after the rumors we reported on last week were confirmed – it was announced at Comic-Con that there will, in fact, be at least a fourth part (sequel) of Dr. Horrible. “The idea is that there will be another part,” said creator Joss Whedon at the conference while interrupted by huge cheers, “so we’re not gonna tell you about it yet.”
Are the two events related? It’s unclear at the moment, but in the meanwhile, we’ll do the only responsible thing we can, and bring you all 42 great minutes of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Update: TechCrunch has confirmed that the Dr. Horrible is now viewable to an international audience via Hulu. The question is: how long will it stay up? You can read Joss’s reasoning on the official Hulu blog.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Amazon.com Exclusive)
This is a little complicated, so try to follow along. It all started with an anonymous video blogger aptly dubbed “A*NON” who witnessed a real-life stabbing on the streets of downtown LA back in early 2007. She posted the video on YouTube, where it quickly amassed some 150,000 views before YouTube pulled it down. At the same time, A*NON also launched a MySpace page, which was subsequently pulled down as well within 24 hours of the YouTube video going down. After some back-and-forth with YouTube, the young blogger was able to get the video back up. (It now has about 220,000 views.)
A*NON’s MySpace page grew into a cult vigilante following, centered around the lone anonymous video blogger. A*NON tapped into the discontent with traditional media outlets, who she professes aren’t always giving the full truth of the story. Her stinging commentary (and video sharing) on social taboos such as rape accusations and video-taped executions, cut through the web video clutter, acting as a MySpace version of Banksy, the infamous street graffiti artist. After numerous requests for interviews, including NPR, A*NON chose to remain in the shadows and instead connected with screenwriter and director Mel Robertson to adapt her story into a fictional web series.
From this, the two co-wrote the series dubbed FEED which debuted last week at AfterEllen.com. The series centers around a news-obsessed blogger who takes the media into her own hands when a video she’s posted online shows up on the five o’ clock news, threatening the lives of everyone in the video, including the blogger and her new group of underground digital vigilantes.
Just in case you’re still not confused, the series is based on the semi-fictional book (of the same name) written by A*NON under the pen name “Maura Knight.” Maura Knight is the name of the lead character in the series, the “news-obsessed blogger” and bisexual ex-reality television producer-turned-waitress played by Amanda Deibert (Unfabulous, Dog Days of Summer, Christmas Wish List.) Whew. To say this story has layers is an understatement. There is a definitely an indie quality to the series, which attempts to capture the gritty realism aesthetic that captivated A*NON’s early fans. The producers (Heroine Films) have added some star-power to the show, signing Guinevere Turner (Go Fish, The L Word, American Psycho) to the role of Keira Roberts, and rising young talent Erin Kelly (Loving Anabelle, Waking Madison) as Tara Franklin.
FEED pilot “Beheading” from Feed Series on Vimeo.
The addition of Guinevere Turner to the cast has helped the show find some early traction in the gay and lesbian online communities, signing a deal with 365gay, LOGOonline and AfterEllen.com to air new episodes of the series every other Friday. The 15-episode show, which now has two episodes out, can be seen unedited at the FEED site along with Current, Vimeo and YouTube. Showrunner Mel Roberston says they are about 75 percent done with shooting the first season and has managed to keep the budget under five figures. Look for the series to kick into narrative format in episode 4, after the faux-reality-style first three episodes. For now, Robertson insists on keeping the real A*NON’s identity under wraps, and apparently very few people involved in the production have ever interacted with the cloaked blogger.
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