If you watched the Flagpole Sitta lipdub and still harbored thoughts that Connected Ventures didn’t maintain the coolest, most envy inducing of work environments, then check out the videos from CollegeHumor’s All Nighter.

From 9PM Thursday, May 1 to 9AM Friday, May 2, the kids at CH relived collegiate life, got hopped up on Brawndo, and completed their assignment of 10 comedy shorts in 12 sleepless hours.  The cram session started off with a strong musical number, hit its peak of REM-deprived curiosity at around 3AM or whenever it was that they deemed decoupage ripe for comedy, and ended with a strong, 80’s, where-are-they-now, outro.

Aside from Ben Schwartz’s cameo, my favorite is the hand-in-warm-water chain. It’s emblematic of what CollegeHumor does best. A clever, new twist on an old legend/prank/other vehicle for nostalgia, where creativity and excellent camera work drives the comedy.

But take a 30-minute break from your regularly scheduled programming and watch all 10. They’re great examples of how you can make quality web programming on the cheap, without big budgets, fancy sets, and special effects (though having access to a ridiculously cool workplace probably helps).  

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Office culture has proven to be a limitless supply of satiric material, with the most prevailing theme being that we all kinda suck at our jobs, or our jobs kinda suck.  From Jack Donaghy, the easily distracted president of NBC in 30 Rock, to the apathetic software programmer, Peter Gibbons, in Office Space, the dominant portrayal of the modern-day worker resides somewhere between incompetent and unforgivable.

Yet, there are certain jobs that you would hope were off-limits to such ineptitude, and I would think that “suicide hotline counselor” would be at the top of that list. 

But what if your local suicide hotline was as poorly manned as the neighborhood Foot Locker? Or filled with employees as ineffectual as Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch? 

A light-hearted satire in a grim setting, Head in the Oven is a three-part web series directed and written by Maggie Carey (The Jeannie Tate Show) in which three women run a suicide call-in center for 8 hours a day.  

“I saw this headline for a suicide hotline that’s hours were changing to nine to five,” Carey said about the origin of Head in the Oven. “It was basically saying ‘If you have a problem – if you’re thinking about doing something like this – you better have those thoughts during working hours.’”

Still, it’s hard to imagine that the real-life inspiration for the fabricated office could be run by people as lazy, insensitive, self-centered and uninterested as the three broads who work at Head in the Oven.  If Sylvia Plath had their number, she still would’ve been a goner.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Sarah Ricard
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Like Your Social Networking in Show Form?

If so, you’d best make friends with Revision3’s Social Brew, a 30-minute show each Monday exploring the ever-widening world of social networking services, from LinkedIn and Facebook to Twitter and Pownce. Here’s the debut episode, let loose last week:

Those high Rev3 production values are immediately on display (whatever you might think of that jaunty modern theme song), as is the show’s trust in host Irene McGee and a supporting “Brew Crew” cast to drive its standard news/talk format. Time will tell whether the crew gels enough to validate this decision, but after a few minutes you’ll likely agree that there are some dialogue/rapport issues to be smoothed out.

We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt though (and not just because Josh, the Floor Director suggests at the 29:20 mark that there was little rehearsal), as shows like this sometimes need a few episodes to find their flow.

###It should help that McGee is an on-air veteran with a varied background – a dramatic, media maniuplated stint on The Real Word: Seattle in 1998, a  and subsequent success on the San Francisco radio show/podcast No One’s Listening.

There’s potential with the rest of the Brew Crew as well – Neha Tiwari’s focus on IRL meetups should provide some interesting stories; Moujan Z’s “SBNN” reports and sketches between segments are episode highlights; and we’re sure there will be something to “Music Guy” Johnny Hwin’s role as long as his vibe reaches beyond laid-back California dude.

All of this brings us to my main concern about Social Brew, and that’s the trouble with covering something like social networking through episodic web video. Like Jamison, I prefer “ text to talking heads” for most of my web coverage, and the social networking news cycle is one of the most competitive for eyeballs.  Social Brew will never keep up with the Techcrunch and Mashable firehoses when it comes to straight news (the pieces on services like Politweets and ping.fm felt dated to me, and for good reason ).

Of course, Social Brew may be aimed at a more casual audience, but there are ways to keep web junkies watching by focusing less on commoditized news stories and more on social networking perspective and individual sagas.  You can add more humor (we know that stuff works), more interviews with influentials (like this episode’s one with imeem’s Dalton Caldwell), or more guinea pig and investigative/storytelling stuff (McGee suggests that she’ll join online dating sites during the show, which could be entertaining).

Between its engaging cast, slick production, and opportunity for a more personal approach, Social Brew could provide a collective release for the faux social and over-networked digital masses.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Colin McDonald
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Ambling in the midst of a drunken haze and rainy night in 2003 Brooklyn, four friends – Lauren Antler, Alan Harris, Matt Jablin and Seyi Peter-Thomas – formed the short-form comedy collective Collars Up.  The details are sketchy, but popping one’s collar like a fratacular college kid or an 80s tennis pro was a significant part of the outing’s shenanigans, and the name just stuck.   

The personnel of the group has changed over time, and so has its approach to creating content.  There are scripted shorts on CollarsUp.com, but the best videos, and their recent passions, are the improvised films posted about once a month. 

The group plots out a storyline, scouts a location, obtains necessary props, makes sense of the narrative, and then the actors have at it, making up dialogue on the fly.  The results are surprisingly good – on par or better than much of New York’s live improv theater.

Some of the standout include Powerhouse, a twisted comedy about a couple having problems trying to conceive, and another couple who’s overeager to help. At first, it could be like any number of SNL skits (an overly-uptight character interacts with an obnoxiously laidback character), but the sketch takes an unexpected silly, absurd, kinda sick turn. 

###In V-Day, Collars Up tackles the calamities of celebrating Valentine’s Day in an office, particularly in a situation where everyone but you is partnered up and receiving special deliveries. Less succinct than Powerhouse, the story meanders, but the comedic timing and characterizations are on point. The underlying thesis is that Valentine’s Day is the crappiest of all holidays, and showing how women love to make each other feel bad is always good comedic fodder. 

Lil Buh is another one to watch. It’s a very-not-scary horror film in which unsuspecting yuppies displaced to the ‘burbs get a visit from a shady character who they believe is an escaped murderer from a nearby women’s prison. Throughout the two-minute short, you’re never quite sure where it’s going, but when it wraps, you’re glad there wasn’t ample foreshadowing to predict the ending.

Alan Harris is the only remaining member of the original four who forged Collars Up. He’s joined by a talented cast of NYC comedians and actors: Becca Greene, Marci Clark, Will Nunziata, Mackenzie Condon and Eric Hollerbach. If you dig the improvised shorts, find more info on the crew on their website, which showcases their individual work, performance reels and commercial spots.

Give it all a gander.  The crew certainly knows how to make good stuff.  

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Sarah Ricard
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Short answer: Yes. Longerish answer: This post.

Special Delivery is what happens when you take the tired concept of Candid Camera comedy to the web, where the reins of production are handed to savvy young creatives with room to wax risqué, unhindered by stodgy networks and unbridled by 30-minute timeslots.

Launched in early march, the Frito-Lay/Cheetos-sponsored 18-episode MySpace series gets straight to the gotcha! punchline in 4 minutes or less. Handymen and delivery guys walk into squirmingly uncomfortable situations (an out-of-closet proposal gone wrong, pizza oriented obstacle courses, alien probes) to the delight of hundreds of thousands of viewers:

Errr…hundreds of thousands of viewers on MySpace. The same videos are up on YouTube, but nobody’s watching. As Silicon Alley Insider points out, “of the 12 episodes of Special Delivery added within the last month on YouTube, only one has more than 1,000 views. Meanwhile, episodes of Special Delivery found 254,778 viewers on last week and 155,011 the week before.”

Tubemogul says the discrepancy is due to differing demos. I disagree. This one’s all about being featured.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Organized by a handful of Harvard undergrads, ROFLCon (Rolling On the Floor Laughing + Convention) took place in Boston last week on MIT’s campus. Its esteemed institutional pedigree belies what the conference was all about: stupid #$%@ on the internet.

It was a dissection of online phenomena, a look at the memetic web through an academic lens, a voyeuristic Q&A display of in-jokes and niche celebrities that brought little bits of digitized wonderful into existence. And it was awesome.

Attendees learned about Tron Guy’s life both inside and outside the anatomically accurate (he’s not wearing underwear) Bruce Boxleitner suit (aside: I’m no Manchurian Candidate so I mean it when I say Jay Maynard was one of the kindest, gentlest, most level-headed people I’ve ever met. Yes, he’s wearing a homemade costume based on the main character of a 1982 motion picture, but he knows he’s geek, owns it, and takes all the thousands of instances of ridicule in stride. But I digress…). How Matt Harding found viral fame from combining terrible dancing with interesting backdrops. Why the Brothers Chaps have an office in a suburban mall (it’s “inspiringly depressing”). When pictures of cats accompanied with bastardized English can be funny. And so on.

###There was a general nonchalance, a palpable casualness you don’t usually experience at conferences. All the speakers appeared unaffected by cewebrity status and surprised that a whimsical, “dumb idea” they “happened to put online” could receive so much attention.

That happy, this-is-pretty-sweet-that-this-conference-is-actually-going-on atmosphere was my favorite part. A close second was BBS archivist Jason Scott’s history lesson, explaining how having fun with new technology is nothing new.

Rocketboom has a synopsis:

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Todd created Improve Everywhere in 2001, after convincing a group of bar patrons that he was musician Ben Folds. “As an actor new to the city, I discovered I could create my own theatre rather than waiting around for someone to give me stage time,” Todd wrote.

Since its inception, Improv Everywhere has performed over 70 missions involving Todd’s professional “agents” (actors) and thousands of untrained civilians.  Everyone gathers to a central location and then follows simple instructions (go shirtless in an Abercrombie, function in slow-mo in a Home Depot) that generally cause some sort of cheery raucous. 

While Improv Everywhere is well-known among New Yorkers (the annual No Pants! Subway Ride is always a big hit), it’s only recently penetrated outside of a small network of performance ariststs in the know and savvy locals.  An appearance on the Shotime version of Ira Glass’ This American Life garnered some mainstream attention, but for all intents and purposes no one really knew what Improv Everywhere was until they hit it big on YouTube.  Through online video the group’s Frozen Grand Central has become an international sensation: ###

Since this video was posted on the IE YouTube channel in January 2008, it’s been seen 11+ million times and spawned at least 59 freeze events organized in 29 different countries.  Talk about a viral video. 

While some have been quick to group these “missions” as part of the recent flash mob craze, Todd believes there’s a distinction between the two. “Improv Everywhere was created about 2 years before the ‘flash mob’ fad…We’re out to prove that a prank doesn’t have to involve humiliation or embarrassment; it can simply be about making someone laugh, smile, or stop to notice the world around them.”

This simple goal – to provoke a smile, free of humiliation – is evident in all of Todd’s work and is driving force behind the group’s undeniable adorableness.  Duplicitous at times, his well-documented stories always aim to make people happy.  Mission accomplished.  

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Julia Lipkins
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Majestic Dragon, an animated short by Victor Vazquez and Jordan Fish, has been doing well on Channel101’s NY incarnation for three episodes.  The show succeeds in using minimal elements – black line drawings, a single voice talent in Vazquez and neat animation tricks – to create a singular world, which borrows tropes from Medieval fantasy and 20th Century industrial drear.



In the second episode, the protagonist, simply named…Majestic Dragon, interviews for a job at an anonymous looking office building, and has an awkward interaction with the interviewer when his Spanish language origins are brought up.  It’s both an intelligent flirtation with race/class dynamics (or does it mock intelligent race/class commentary?), as well as a familiar gag about uncomfortable job interviews.

Vazquez delicately taps universal feelings, like friendship and acceptance, and imagery, to make Majestic Dragon relevant to the viewer, while his unique and off-kilter delivery is charming without being cute, nostalgic without being sentimental. 



Jordan Fish, the editor and animator for the show, as well as the creative talent behind the MGMT’s interactive music video, had this to say about Majestic Dragon: “I love being a passive facilitator for Victor’s cozy, mesmeric genius. But you know these stories aren’t just about a dragon, right? It goes way beyond that. It’s about peace.” 

Call him an overzealous artist, imparting grandiose meaning upon simple, crude animations, but he’s serious and on some level, he’s right. 



###What makes Majestic Dragon appealing is Vazquez’s ability to suggest meaning with the sparest of content.  His humor does slap you in the face; you may not get it at first, but you will find yourself repeating lines from the show to yourself later in the day, and cracking up a little.

But to give a better idea of what to expect from the show, even through the simple art of comparison, Majestic Dragon is not as crude as David Shrigley, not as indulgent or cutesy as James Kochalka, and not as pedantic as Dr. Katz, but could be said to resemble the art and humor of all three. 

And, actually, in a way, it’s a lot like Calvin and Hobbes, which, coming from me, is a huge compliment.  And I’m not just saying all this because I’m in a band with Victor. 

 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Owen Roberts
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An undergrad degree in Roman History taught me that when propagating a fledgling religion, it’s best to have your soldiers emblazon iconography on their shields before battle and appropriate pre-existing rituals. After watching far too much Tudors (it’s terrible, but I’m hooked in an almost-so-bad-it’s-good kinda way), I’ve learned that it also helps to have a printing press. And spending a lot of time watching online videos, I’ve seen that another great, more modern tactic is YouTube.

To fight back against all the haterz, the Church of Scientology is distributing some good old-fashioned religious propaganda on their very own YouTube channel. You can’t share the videos, you can’t comment, but you can peruse a couple hours of info on the ills of modern pharmaceuticals and other tenants central to the offspring of L. Ron Hubbard, presented in Hallmarky, after-school special, sanctified blandness.

Modern methods of religious edification and proselytization aside, the most interesting question is how the hell did they come up with that tricked out YouTube player? That thing has more customizations than any lay player I’ve seen. Part of the site’s new API? Pretty fancy.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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The ‘G’ may be silent, but the duo behind the Gnooze has a lot to say.



Marta Costello and Brian Bartelt worked together at 6 News Lawrence, a really local cable news channel in Lawrence, Kansas when they realized that they were meant for something bigger than coverage of headlines like “Local has bat-infested attic” (which,btw, is a story that Marta actually covered).



“I became jaded,” says Marta, the Gnooze‘s spunky blonde anchor with a signature mole and a stereotypical newsy tone.  “I decided that all of my high hopes and dreams of going into journalism to make a difference in people’s lives was not to be found in local TV news reporting.” 



In August of 2007, Marta and Brian discovered how they were going to satisfy their need to make an impact.  Armed with a blue screen and a camcorder, the two shot the first episode of the Gnooze, a daily three-minute satirical look at current affairs.  

But don’t call them another news–oriented comedy show on the web.  In fact, don’t call them a comedy show at all.  Creator/Producer Brian says they’re here to inform.



###”Jon Stewart will occasionally say, ‘we don’t have to worry about the information because we’re on Comedy Central.  We’re a comedy show at our core.’  And while we try to keep Gnooze comedic and entertaining, we try to keep it informational at its core.”



This is a commitment Marta takes most seriously as well, especially when she learned of viewers who rely on her as their sole source of news.

“I haven’t reported on Jeremiah Wright at all because my sense is that it’s all just a lot of ‘he said, she said’… Americans are sitting on the edge of their seats asking about what Revered Wright said today instead of how many soldiers died in Iraq… it’s my job to deliver what the audience needs to hear about, not necessarily what they want to hear about.”

And the audience likes it.  Nearing their 150th episode, the Gnooze has increased from an audience of nobody to (what Brian and Marta say is) roughly 10,000 viewers a day – and its growing.   The respectable numbers and a passionate fan base have led to a few dollars from ad revenue but the creators still describe their show as a “hobby”, relying on day jobs to cover the bills. 



Even if they’re soon able to take on the Gnooze full-time, it’s likely the future of the program will look a lot like the present, save for more people watching.  And that’s OK. The show’s found a good balance of pro-am production quality, topical information, acerbic commentary, and cheery delivery that creators clearly enjoy producing and is easy to like.

Marta’s also in the running for Project Breakout’s Breakout Broadcaster (say that 3 times fast) competition.  If she wins, the Gnooze will be able to attend the Democratic and Republican conventions as press.  Tell me that wouldn’t be fun to watch!  You can vote for her here.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Reed Kavner
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Will internet-TV have a  go-to guide?



I recently received an invitation to attend a “trek” to TV Guide organized by the Technology and New Media group at NYU’s business school. I asked the panel, led by middle managers in departments ranging from product management to finance to human resources, “What do you see as your core competency and who’s positioned to compete?”



The question seemed to baffle the panelists – which I find sort of baffling – but an answer ultimately emerged: “Nobody.”  Ha.



This begs a series of questions: what’s TV Guide’s strategy, what other companies are positioned to compete, and is the historically editorial-driven TV Guide (which owns some potentially important patents) ready to deliver?  I’m going to harness a few guesses. 

###

In October, TV Guide was acquired by Macrovision, a DRM-technology provider.As part of its new strategy, TV Guide Network plans to deploy several thousand digital video-processing devices that will let it enhance programming for individual operators by providing new features for inserting localized content and transcoding video.  This will “allow the TV Guide Network to offer operator-specific content for even very small cable systems.”



Like Hulu, Joost, Veoh, X-Box, TiVo and Apple TV, TV Guide will aim to develop THE market-leading interface and collaborating filtering technology that “combines the best of TV and the best of the Internet by offering viewers a unique, TV-like experience enhanced with the choice, control and flexibility of Web 2.0.”



Though Joost claimed it prematurely, nobody’s done it yet, and I don’t see a clear winner emerging, not even TV Guide. 



Why not?  The fundamental benefit of TV distributed over IP is its openness, the ability for anyone to access and post anything.  And that’s also its pitfall.  How do you filter the cr@p?   The problem is that, aside from Apple TV, each of these systems is a walled-garden (presumably, TV Guide will follow suit) and all, including Apple, are competing as much on content deals as they are on technology.  Also, media giants like Time Warner and Comcast have an interest in maintaining the status quo.  What ‘s emerging is a fragmented labyrinth of content offerings. 



The eventual winners will create an open standard platforms with a functional lean-back interface and a recommendation engine.  Presumably, this technology will be based primarily on users’ behavioral data, so collecting user-data on already trafficked websites will be a key to success.  Here’s an early snapshot:

Hulu is noteably young, but, in my opinion, has the best content and most elegant interface, which will drive exponential month-on-month traffic increases.  TV-Guide  will benefit by remaining platform agnostic. Joost’s website traffic is probably not an accurate indicator of its standing, because it’s a downloaded application, but the company seems to have fumbled big time. 



In lieu of a catch-all recommendation behemoth, former TV Guide critic and creator of Entertainment Weekly, Jeff Jarvis, seems to anticipate the adoption of human-powered micro-guides, the first and best of which is his own PrezVid.

 

It’s a hotly competitive space, but I question whether a Google-like hegemon will emerge. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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I never watched Smallville because Tom Welling couldn’t possibly fill the Metropolis-sized Superman void left by Dean Cain after Lois & Clark was cancelled in 1997. But after a decade of healing, it might be time to get my cheesy, classic-comic-book-turned-wholesome-family-programming fix when TheWB.com launches this May.

After their television network morphed into the CW in 2006, the Warner Bros. Television Group is bringing Warner Bros. Television to the web. Old (newer CW shows like Gossip Girl aren’t slated to be available on the site, which, I agree, is weird) popular “female-centric programming” (Gilmore Girls, Everwood, What I Like About You, and I suppose Smallville) will be available on-demand on the new, defunct network’s broadband site, and syndicated to several video-watching destinations, including Hulu.

So why create your own site when you already have a deal with Hulu, who can do a lot of the heavy lifting? If Hulu is going to be the YouTube of professionally produced content, it’s important to have a strong presence there, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only place shows should live. To maintain brand identity, keep some level of control, and give fans a more robust space to interact with their favorite programs, it’s important to create branded destinations around like content.

Plus, Warner Bros. will use the TheWB.com and it’s effeminate brand associations to popularize a handful of upcoming, girl-targeted web series.

###At least seven new shows will be introduced alongside Viralcom and Jeannie Tate under the umbrella of Warner Bros. Studio 2.0. From paidcontent:

On the talent side, WBTVG has lined up director/producer McG (Terminator 4, the “Charlie’s Angels” movies) and writer/producer Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl) and Big Fantastic (producers of the internet series Prom Queen. 

TheWB.com currently has seven short-form shows being developed for site, including Sorority Forever, which execs are describing as ”Prom Queen meets The O.C.; Exposed, billed as a thriller concerning a college student with a hidden past; Chadam, a 3D animation project based on the surreal character that appears in videos by the alt-rock band The Used; Rich Girl/Poor Girl, a class-based comedy set in Los Angeles about two teen girls who switch places; Lockdown, a show about a model being kept prisoner in her own home; a reality series about a high school musical production called High Drama: Against All Oz; and an untitled series about a fictional Hollywood rock club.

If Celebutantes is any indicator, McG’s online series is going to be ridiculously good. Add online veterans Big Fantastic and Gen Y, teenybopper king Josh Schwartz to the mix and (aside from the Coen Brothers alleged 60Frames series) that’s the most talented directorial line-up I’ve seen in the world of web video. Color me giddy and call me a schoolgirl, but I’m excited to watch.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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