ViceCapades is a (new, I think) Slate Video series that follows the charming young Samantha Henig, who’s done some writing for Slate, on her journeys into subcultures of vice. In this (first, I think) installment, Samantha finds an excuse to get drunk with her friends.
The long illegal absynth has made a strong resurgence as a drink of choice in New York. After some rudimentary research, Samantha sets out to answer the question on everyone’s mind: is it really a hallucinant?
Leave it to US Americans to remove the good stuff. Having recently lost my absynth virginity, I concur with the sentiments of the impaired panel. Thujone or not, absynth can make for an interesting experience.
What will follow on the next journey of ungodliness?
With buzz growing about Strike.TV‘s anticipated launch (possibly in the next few weeks), we caught up with founder Peter Hyoguchi, also a writer and director, about what’s in store for the upstart web channel.
Founded amidst the throes of the 100-day WGA writer’s strike early this year, what began as a fundraising platform for the WGA Industry Support Fund, is now gearing up as full-blown destination for professional high quality short form content.
What makes Strike.TV stand out from other original web content sites, Peter says, is that it features shows written exclusively by professional writers. Many of those writers, he says, are well known and have built-in audiences in their genre. Most notably, the writers, all of whom are WGA union members, retain the rights to their shows, with Strike.TV only licensing the shows for distribution.
Hyoguchi says they now have a cadre of close to 50 shows slated for release, spanning the genres of drama, comedy, sci-fi, horror and even family oriented content. The shows on the slate range in episodes from as few as 3 to as many as 34 episodes, with more in the works should the shows find a strong audience. To start, Strike.TV is launching with 6 shows. Released today is a sneak peak behind the scenes with Timothy Dalton and Steven de Souza of Unknown Sender.
Unknown Sender, written and directed by Steven de Souza and starring Timothy Dalton and Joanne Whalley
John’s Hand, starring Garret Dillahunt (No Country For Old Men) and Kali Rocha (Grey’s Anatomy)
Global Warming, starring Kirsten Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Aasif Mandvi (Jericho, The Daily Show)
House Poor, created by The Office writer-producer Lester Lewis
The Challenge, starring Bob Newhart and written by sitcom veteran Lloyd Garver (Alf, Family Ties)
Five or Die, written and directed by horror director Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Psycho II)
Hyoguchi is excited about where TV on the web stands today, saying “the internet’s pre-Howdy Doody today,” referring to the 1947-debuted TV show which essentially spawned the advertising-supported television model that exists today. While he notes that there have been some early successes like lonelygirl15 and quarterlife, “we still haven’t haven’t see a true hit show yet,” the kind that reaches a true global scale. For a show to reach that kind of mass appeal, it’s going to come from a professional team, he notes.
Each show on the Strike.TV network will be distributed across several of the well-known video hosts (YouTube, blip.tv, Veoh), but viewers will need to head to Strike.TV for the HD quality versions hosted on the site’s proprietary video player. The site will also be the place for premium add-on content like cast and crew info, behind the scenes footage and fan interaction with show creators.
Hyoguchi says they have been working with some advertisers and agents already, who are excited about the quality of the original series. The plan is to connect show creators with direct advertising sponsorship, which will then be shared via profit participation agreements with everyone involved in each show from the writers, the actors to the grips and gaffers. It’s definitely a new model for creating content, with the talent (professional writers, directors, actors, etc.) essentially doing the shows on spec, in hopes of a nice return on the back-end should the shows become hits. The first three months of revenues will go to the Entertainment Assistance Program of the Actor’s Fund.
We’ll keep in touch with the team over at Strike.TV as they gear up for the August release. Until then, here’s the Strike.TV trailer, giving a little taste of what we can expect.
Noam Chomsky’s Minimalist Program, published in 1995, makes a big deal about the economy of derivation and representation in linguistics, based on the idea that the structure of a phrase or sentence should be no more complex than is needed, or that grammatical structures exist for a reason. Believe it or not, this is actually quite a contentious theory within the linguistics community
Created by The Phantom Editor, Mike J. Nichols, economy of representation is certainly a central tenet of the show.The first several episodes are all under two-minutes, comprised of little more than one liners, high production values, and 45+ seconds of intros and outros set to a Shane Tassart theme song, which isn’t the best content:credit ratio, which makes me think these guys spend more time marketing than they do writing their script. But those long credits have a purpose beyond listing who’s in the show.
Gary Vaynerchuck, the hyperactive wine connoisseur cum media star has met his match. Jim Cramer, the investor and hedge-fund manager cum media star appeared on the Thunder Show in what Gary says was “HANDS DOWN the coolest episode of WLTV EVER !!!!!!!!!!!!”
Cramer’s appearance aids the announcement of Vaynerchucks upcoming contribution to Mainstreet.com, a website purportedly aimed at helping young people make real money. Gary will discuss wine as an investement.
I’m not sure the analysis of 2005 Bordeaux market as analogous to the oil market exactly works, but the discussion is interesting nonetheless.
It’s really a job for William Sledd. The 24-year-old, ultra-fab, out-of-the-closet, pretty-in-pink YouTube phenom and amateur fasshionista would be the Internet’s perfect envoy to a Red Carpet event bedazzled with Hollywood celebrities. (Think a young Mizrahi with more to prove. Could be amazing, I know.)
So, People.com and the video-sharing site yesterday announced a contest presented exclusively by Revlon “for an aspiring Red Carpet Reporter who could win the opportunity to interview celebrities on the Red Carpet in Hollywood this September.” Here’s Michelle Beadle – People.com’s intrepid Red Carpet reporter with humble beginnings – breaking it down:
The appeal of web video advertising (versus TV) is the potentaial for dynamically placed contextuallyrelevant ads but, so far, not much has seemed to work; text overlays never strike me as particularly well-placed, and graphic overlays also apparently aren’t very effective, but “advertisers consider [pre-roll] highly effective.”
Could this possibly have been the answer we’ve been looking for? Chris Albrecht at NewTeeVee says the re-emergence of the pre-roll is an indicator of YouTube’s impending migration to the living room. That makes sense…after all, pre and mid-roll breaks do seem to work well for longer-form content on Hulu, and they’re not even that obtrusive.
YouTube’s (and others’) difficulty generating revenue around video content represents technological and institutional barriers, not a medium unsuitable for advertisers. A recent survey of Diggnation viewers shows just how powerful niche video content can be for advertisers: 100% of viewers recalled a single sponsor, 93% could name 2 or more, and 48% purchased a product or service, CEO Jim Louderback recently noted via email. Remember the preroll before last Revver video you watched? Who advertised on the last TV show you watched?
Monetization of web video content is not quite as straightforward as it has become for most of the web, but innovation that appeals to creators, advertisers, consumers and the not-evil overloards is soon to emerge. In the meantime, there is a growing opportunity in linking specialized products to targeted video content.
Dynamically inserted is the future of video advertising. Creative integration of relevant sponsors is the big short-term opportunity.
In keeping with the trend of expanding its online content, NBC will be debuting a new web series based on Heroes on July 14th. Back in May it was announced that the show would be called Manhunt, but NBC appears to have settled on the title Going Postal. According to the trailer, the show will be about postal worker Echo de Mille, a mailman with a super-destructive voice, and will lead into the third season of Heroes. The series features Kiko Ellsworth, Rebeka Montoya, and Angela Petrelli, and is created by Tim Kring.
NBC appears to be using this summer to extensively develop its online content. From the 2008 Olympics (which will be extensively covered online), to its work with Hulu, to its exclusively web-based spinoffs of The Office and Heroes, NBC is trying to get ahead of the curve in the web world. If this strategy pays off, we can probably expect the other networks to ramp up their efforts in the near future.
There’s a whole lot more to Blank White Cards than the name might suggest. The brainchild of Gawker blogger Nick Douglas, the show is a daily nibble of sketch comedy in sixty seconds or less, set in a harshly lit white void that features a cast of two: Nick alongside buddy, Jared Horney.
The two, with the aid of director Justin Morrison (aka Break a Leg‘s resident porn star, Chase Cougar), are trying their hands at the infinitely amusing straight man/comic foil routine made popular by the likes of Abbot and Costello, Lucy and Ethel, and Kenan and Kel. The show feels like a comic strip has come to life, as each episode is self-contained with an out of context beginning and an ending that’s satisfyingly abrupt.
And that’s exactly what they’re going for. Read On…
The Office is going online again tomorrow, with the debut of another season of webisodes to hold over fans through the summer months. This isn’t the first time that The Office has turned to online content; last year, The Office: The Accountants was a breakout success, garnering both a Webby (Television – People’s Voice) and a Daytime Emmy (Outstanding Broadband Program – Comedy).
NBC will try to repeat their success this year with The Office: Kevin’s Loan, in which Brian Baumgartner’s character tries to pay off his gambling debts. This season will also star Oscar Nunez, Leslie David Baker, and Craig Robinson. The first episodes will be available on July 10th at noon PT, exclusively on NBC.com. It remains to be seen if we’ll get a chance to watch the webisodes on Hulu in the future; for now, we’re stuck using NBC’s own low quality player. Even so, you can bet that lots of fans of The Office will tune in, and there’s a good chance we could see a repeat performance at both the Emmys and the Webbys.
Tay Zonday – the baby-faced baritone who steps away from the mic to breathe and whose ”cheesy,” racially undertonedChocolate Rain has been seen over 25 million times – was on Ustream.tv last week. He broadcasted live from his kitchen for a couple hours, performing parlor tricks and answering an interminable barrage of questions from 500 or so chatty fans while trying to sell them T-shirts. And ringtones.
Microfame is a tough row to sow. One’s initial success can’t bear fruit forever. And if micro celebrities can’t make it rain hits, lucrative Dr. Pepper spots and television, radio, and high-profile party appearances can quickly dry up and turn into kitschy sightings at geeky conferences, or worse, irrelevance
It’s the life cycle of real fame sped up in internet time on a smaller scale. Think Gary Coleman. Or MC Hammer.
In December 2006, brothers Yuri and Vlad Baranovsky hypothesized that a professionally produced internet sitcom, filmed in hi-def, with real actors, real scripts, multiple locations, a full cast, and a fleshed out production crew could sustain itself or become the object of affection for some moneyed television network’s broadcast schedule.
To test the theory they launched Break A Leg, an internet sitcom replete with all the elements of the above plus a plotline that’s as complicated as the show is well-produced. The setting is a bizzarro San Francisco-centric Hollywoodland where swinging gamblers make for hit TV shows, the Child Actors Guild lives in the sewers, Gary Coleman is played by Patrice Oneal (obviously), and neurotic, Jewish, TV writers (sorry, was that redundant?) are in mortal peril.
So far, their experiment has yielded inconclusive results. Though admired by Tilzy.TV and beloved by a strong fan base and sponsored by Holiday Inn Express’s The Smart Show (for a second time), the series hasn’t made enough cash to support production costs (currently, it’s an all volunteer cast/crew) and isn’t slated to air on primetime TV.
So, the Baranavosky’s are taking a break. In Yuri’s words, “after all the plot twists and turns, puns and porn, it’s time for a nap. This definitely isn’t goodbye but more like ‘gone fishing – be back soon.’” But they’re not leaving before their Season Finale has aired.
The Digital Journalist straightforwardly bills itself as “the monthly online magazine for digital journalism,” and its accomplished staff consistently offers smart, thorough coverage of the news, technology, and people influencing the field around the world.
The publication came to my attention through its companion Vimeo account, which features incredible videos from the journalists covered in the magazine each month. Award-winning Getty photographer John Moore is featured in the July issue, and his piece Zimbabwe – Photographer’s Journal is a prime example of the quality content the magazine produces:
The Digital Journalist’s focus on distinguished, singular voices and their painstaking reports makes for a coherent collection that seems to stay fresher than other news video, perhaps because artful storytelling is always compelling. By featuring professional journalism with a personal feel, the series bridges the gap online between successful, desk-bound news shows and the direct but often shaky work of citizen journalists.
Though prevalent and successful in the text-based blogosphere, low production values, unpolished reporters, and lack of resources make it more difficult to translate that amateur newshound phenomenon to web video (though everyone from CNN to YouTube to the hobbled project, Global Report from Instablogs is giving it a shot).
Trouble earning some needed cash on your web video series? You’re not alone. As The 
