Science fiction author Robert Silverberg fuels the fire of consumption paranoia by warning that at current rates of production, the world will soon deplete its supply of a handful of periodic elements. Within a few years, we can expect to run out of gallium, within a decade indium and hafnium, within 20 years zinc, and within the present century copper.

Valleywag says, “It’s one thing to use up the world’s supply of a complex substance like oil. It’s another to extract and deplete Earth’s entire stock of a chemical element.”

The latter sounds way more dooming. If oil wells dry up, we got alternative energy. If we run out of a chemical element – by definition “one of those bodies into which other bodies can be decomposed and which itself is not capable of being divided into other” – it seems there would be few, if any alternatives.

At least I think so. I’m no chemist. I don’t know the difference between wondeflonium and indium. That’s why Martyn Poliakoff, with a haircut that’s fulfilling so many genius stereotypes and a team of chemists at the University of Nottingham created the Periodic Table of Videos – to help people like me know wtf they’re talking about when discussing science.

The site is less than a month old, but there are already 118 fantastically informative installments featuring Poliakoff and company experimenting with and explaining the properties and history of each element in the periodic table,

My fave so far is mercury. Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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If I asked you to find thirty original web shows in under five minutes, where would you look? You definitely won’t find that many on sites like CollegeHumor or Break.com, at least not easily. You might find some shows on YouTube and MySpaceTV, but you’ll have to dig pretty deep through a lot of amateur content to find anything even watchable. You would probably come back to me and tell me that there’s no way to do it, but you would be wrong. In fact, I could give you a list of of thirty-three original shows, all sponsored by Comedy Central, in less than 10 seconds. How? At the recently relaunched Atom.com, where they appear to be going ahead full steam with web content, much of it featuring well known filmmakers or actors.

This list of shows includes Stickman Exodus and Border Patrol, which were both featured along with the launch of the site, and other series like I Love the ’30s and Monster Ballz. There’s no shortage of original, funny content here; in fact, Atom’s huge selection actually seems detrimental to the viewership. With so many choices, the shows are having a tough time getting together a following. A couple of videos have a large number of views (one episode of Tiny Hands featuring Nick Swardson and David Cross has 245,000 views), but the majority have views in the sub-1,000 range.

Two shows that stand out for their hilarity are Windowseat, brought to us by Radical Axis (of Aqua Teen Hunger Force fame), and Moonwalk 1986, created by Josh Koppel and Matt Peccini. The premise of “Windowseat” is simple; our poor protagonist seems to get screwed over for airline seating every time he flies. He is always forced to sit in the window seat, next to characters who range from a psychic who channels dead spirits to a spoiled 10 year old child actor who insists that his boats and houses make him “a man.” The show is minimalistic, with basic animation, but the script is hilarious and the simply designed characters are fun to watch.

Moonwalk 1986 is about two astronauts who seem to be permanently walking on the Moon’s surface, while having ridiculous conversations about everything from baby names to dreams they’ve had. This is another show that leans heavily on its dialogue, but luckily it’s extremely sharp and well written. In the pilot, we get this insight on why we faked our first landing on the moon in 1969: “It’s the American way, really. We needed to beat the pinkos to the moon, so we did the only thing we’re any good at: we made a B-movie with some sappy dialogue and tacked on a feel good ending.”

Unfortunately for both of these shows, only the first episode of Windowseat has broken 10,000 views so far, but we hope that Atom figures out a way to help viewers sort through the content better; if they don’t, they’ll be letting a lot of great talent will go to waste.

Filed under: Channels, Comedy, Comedy Central, Production Companies, Reviews, Web Series by Arjun Sharma
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“Easy to Assemble”, a new 10-episode scripted web series starring Illeana Douglas (Cape Fear, Ghost World, Six Feet Under) and produced by SXM, was shot last week to launch in late September. In an unprecedented agreement for retail chains, IKEA is funding Douglas’ vision for the new show (she wrote and produced it), in which she will be playing a fictional version of herself working at the Burbank branch of the furniture giant. Shot on location, the show will feature a healthy collection of celeb cameos, including Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Justine Bateman, Ed Begley Jr, Craig Bierko and Robert Patrick. The actors were said to be intrigued by the creative possibilities offered by internet video, such as playing against traditional typecasting.

The show has its origins in a 2004 short film called Supermarket Of The Stars, in which Illeana Douglas pretends to give up acting to work at a grocery store. The film was then turned into 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. In a paean to the possibilities of web video, SXM stated, “This is really the story of an idea which refused to die and ultimately found a home and sponsor outside traditional television.” This sounds like a series to keep an eye on. SXM’s Thomas Bannister added, “without sounding too immodest it’s going to be really really funny and creative.”

CORRECTION: The orginal version of this story incorrectly credited Illeana Douglas as the director of the series. She is in fact the writer and producer but not the director. Chris Bradlee and Kyle LaBrache (Supermarket of the Stars, Pittsburg, Fired) are the directors. The story has been updated to reflect this correction.

Filed under: Comedy, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Rob Crawford
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It’s said that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and so the shrills of “TASTELESS” spouting from every corner of the media have done nothing but reinforce the provocative New Yorker cartoon that just may have shed sufficient light on the ludicrousness of the lies circulating about the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama.

Jon Stewart comes to the rescue, as usual, with some biting commentary on the outraged commentary on what was intended as ironic commentary.

And some satire about satire… Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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1-800-GOOG-411 is starting to pay off. Google created the free, automated, directory assistance service (that, in my experience, works incredibly well) in order to obtain massive amounts of data to create/perfect its speech recognition algorithms. Now it’s applying those algorithms to video search.

On Monday, Google unveiled a speech-to-text widget for political videos. Type in a word and it will search through all the videos uploaded to YouTube’s Politicians channels, displaying relevant videos with highlights where the search term is uttered.

Google says it only takes a few hours after upload for a video to be transcribed, and while only official videos on the Politician’s channels are indexed, and though the system’s not 100% accurate, it’s a great start. It’s only a matter of time before the technology becomes integrated into all of YouTube and speech is added as a weighted element to the site’s search.

Being able to find every instance of a word in a specific show, series, or genre would make for interesting research projects and a lot more sweet supercuts. Like Ben says, it certainly won’t hurt Google’s ability to place more targeted advertising either.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Like a viral video, the successful online show dedicated to World of Warcraft is a kind of Holy Grail of new media.

The massively multiplayer online game produced by Blizzard Entertainment and pimped by Mr. T and Bill Shatner is part of a $41.9 billion global industry and boasts 10 million active users (which is more than the populations of at least 119 countries), each with enough disposable income to cover the cost of a decent computer and the $14.99/month fee, and most of whom spend hours a day in-game with addiction levels ranging from passive to problematic.

Gamers make for an incredibly attractive audience, but no one’s been able to create a WoW-centric show that speaks their language. ON Networks tried unsuccessfully with ON Warcraft. Next New Networks failed with Total MMO. But DECA may have chosen wisely with Project Lore.

The digital entertainment company responsible for Boing Boing TV, Bush League, and Cool Mom is behind the new site that’s “all about putting the best multimedia MMORPG game guides in one place.” It comes complete with “a daily video show and blog about all things WoW” and Alex Albrecht – one-half of Diggnation and one-third of The Totally Rad Show – as a front man.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Heavy.com is a company that knows its market well. Rather than try to be all-inclusive in its video selection, it focuses entirely on the male 18-34 year-old market and provides content aimed directly at that demographic, a unique but risky strategy. Their plan is bold, but it’s not like they’ve tried to hide their approach from the public; it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who the target audience is with the testosterone charged content (no emotional dramas here) and ads from the likes of the US Army and the X Games. It’s pretty clear that teens and guys in their 20s are the focus of the site.

Heavy’s original series are at the center of their “focused content” strategy, though many of them spoof existing TV hits. With shows like, “Behind the Music that Sucks,” “Over the Hills,” and the hilarious “Flex and the City,” these are shows that aim to get guys laughing. You can also check out the different channels that Heavy has put together, like Red Bull Flugtag 2008, Game Box (video game trailers), and Contagious (viral videos). Categories available to browse through video include “Cars,” “Animals,” and “Video Games.” Heavy has set itself up to be a ‘No Girls Allowed’ type of club, although I’m sure that hasn’t deterred the female demographic completely.

Heavy appears to be doing well; they have a diverse selection of advertisers on their site, and they told Tubefilter that they have another show in the works that should be out in a few weeks. They’re keeping the details under wraps until the show gets closer to launch, but we’ll fill you in on the details as soon as they release them.

Filed under: Channels, Comedy, Reviews, Web Series by Arjun Sharma
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For anyone who has ever gotten their feet drenched in beer at a frat party, seen Elle Woods bond with her sorority sisters in Legally Blonde, or wondered what the secret Greek initiation ceremonies are really like, TheWB.com‘s new fall series Sorority Forever, premiering September 8th, is the show to watch.

Sprinkled with mystery and secrecy, Sorority Forever is sure to be the new captivating show of the fall. The series, created by television mega-producer McG and rising web production powerhouse Big Fantastic, will star Jessica Rose (lonelygirl15, Greek), Taryn Southern, and Jessica Morris, and will have forty episodes, released daily.

McG isn’t just dabbling in web-only content. In addition to creating Sorority Forever, McG and Wonderland Sound and Vision bring to life Exposed, another show featuring a college student with secrets to hide. Producer Gary Auerbach, (Laguna Beach and Newport Harbor) will bring his reality show-finesse to the online realm with Rich Girl/Poor Girl, where, you guessed it, a rich California girl switches places with a poor one.

If the reality show and college drama genres aren’t your thing, TheWB.com has an animated series, called Chadam, created by Alex Pardee and produced by Jason Hall, as well as High Drama: Against All Oz, from James Percelay. The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz also has a show in the works with executive producer Alexandra Patsavas, set in a Hollywood rock club (and currently untitled).

From sororities to reality shows to animation, TheWB.com’s got you covered this fall with a variety of new shows on the way, mixed in with some old favorites. The beta site launched in May, and will feature older TV shows such as The O.C., Friends, and Everwood in addition to the new web content. If you can snag a beta invite, you can check out the site today. It will open up to the public in August.

Filed under: ABC, Drama, News, Production Companies, TheWB.com, Web Series by Allie Siraco
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Felicia Day is quite the web-celeb these days, starring in Joss Whedon‘s Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog, which posted episode one yesterday over on its traffic-slammed site, DrHorrible.com. Loyal fans of Day remember her from the hit web series, The Guild, which racked up over 6 million views, a win for Best Series of 2007 at the Yahoo Video Awards and the 2008 SXSW Greenlight Award for Best Digital Series. The comedy series follows the lives of a misfit group of six computer role-playing game addicts and their interactions on and off-line.

Fans fear not, all this Dr. Horrible buzz doesn’t mean that’s it from The Guild. Day and team will be at Comic-Con in San Diego next week (July 24-27) where you can buy an early copy of the 10-episode Season 1 DVD. Heading to Comic-Con? Fight the crowds and make your way over to the California Browncoats booth, tables A7/A8. Those that can’t make it down to San Diego can order a copy online starting August 1st. The DVD will include all sorts of the extras you’d expect after shelling out $20, such as two never-before-seen gag reels, cast interviews, and both the director (Jane Selle Morgan) and cast commentary tracks.

Word is a Season 2 is in the works, though no official comment yet. Until then, here’s a look back at episode 1:

Filed under: Comedy, News, The Guild by Marc Hustvedt
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As Zack de la Rocha told us long ago, it’s important to “know your enemy.” This is something Nas needs to keep in mind the next time he decides to slam a conglomerate.

In response to Fox News’ outrage over Virginia Tech’s decision to let the Queens “gangsta” rapper play a tribute concert at the university after the horrendous shooting last year, Nas has recorded Sly Fox and filmed an accompanying video, directed by Rik Cordero.

I’m definitely down for the cause and it’s always great to see artists take on the corporate Leviathan, but Nas was a little sloppy in this diss track.

First, in one of the opening lines, he says the “sly Fox” owns YouTube. Huh? Ever hear of Google, Nas? I’d like to say that I’m nitpicking, but this is egregious. Especially when News Corp., Fox’s parent company, owns MySpace – the only site that seems to be cutting into YouTube’s dominant market share at any detectable rate.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Alex Woodson
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18-24 year-old guys watch the most online video, so fratacular, phallocentric entertainment dominates the medium, so we’re used to seeing clips where hot chicks get pranked, series where silly, vapid girls prancing around is central to the script, and shorts with hot ladies acting drunk. With the latter, on or off-camera alcohol consumption generally leads to some act of faux promiscuity, not well-lubricated talks of women’s power and privilege.

So, it’s a welcomed respite from the internet’s omnipresent, user-generated T&A when a girl goes on camera, fully clothed, completely hammered, slurring her way through a description of some grand feminist act.

Last week such a rarity was uploaded (no, I’m not talking about Tracie Egan and Moe Tkacik) starring stand-up comic, Jen Kirkman. She plays the role of drunken scholar and hiccupidly narrates the third episode of Derek Water’s Drunk History.

Like Virginia says, it’s an “I will Survive” story of a woman who “would not be defeated by the laws and ways of men!” featuring Danny Mcbride as a miscast, myth-defying George Washington.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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We’re starting a new feature here on the Tubefilter News blog. Every Tuesday, the “Tubefilter Tuesday Picks” will showcase three shows worth watching, chosen by the Tubefilter Staff.

This week’s picks:

Drunk History

In this series, featuring cameos from the likes of Michael Cera and Jack Black, a drunk historian attempts to narrate historical events while actors act out what he describes, to hilarious results. For example, look for Alexander Hamilton (played by Cera) pulling out a cell phone in the first episode.

The Googling

In this series from sketch comedy troupe The Vacationeers, we explore the not-so-distant future of Google Maps, Google Moon, and Google SMS in a world where the company has reneged on its promise to not “be evil.” The show became a success off of the first video, about Street View, but the Google SMS episode (Part IV) was our favorite.

net_work

Follow the story of two internet video producers who have what can safely be described as a strange office environment. Check out the pilot episode–in which we find out what makes the perfect viral video.

Filed under: Comedy, Production Companies, Reviews, Web Series by Tubefilter News
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