Remember these guys? 

Damon Wayans (left side), one Wayans brother behind the early 90’s hit sketch comedy series, In Living Color and many subsequent comedy projects, has apparently happened upon a novel idea: he’s betting web comedy will sell and has recently announced a shiny new web portal to feature “videos about an African American leprechaun pimp, a thieving airport security guard and an adulterous Burger King” among other funny-or-not-so-funny things with WayOutTV.com.

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Whoa.  How’d he dream this bit of brilliance up? WayOutTV.com will feature videos from aspiring young comedians handpicked by Damon Wayans.  Mr. Wayans may be a bit naive to the ways of the web: “People want our content because we’re dealing in funny,” and though I find his brand name to be bland and boring, the concept just might have stronger legs than other recent Hollywood comedy sites like FunnyOrDie and MyDamnChannel.  Why?

The Wayans family itself is a well-known brand associated with a very specific type of comedy.  Those who develop quality, highly branded content on the web will likely see a strong community emerge around the content, as we’ve seen with Next New Networks.  Those who have attempted to develop undifferentiated catch-all comedy warehouses have already struggled.

Others have caught on, however.  We’re beginning to see the emergence of narrow comedy brands like the recently announced Independent Comedy Network.

“I’m there, overseeing this, working with the talent, nurturing them,” Wayans has said.  Let’s hope he’s building a distinct multi-dimensional user experience around the great comedy that’s made the Wayans name a brand.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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It’s not until our two presidential candidates officially emerge with their nominations that the flurry of television campaign ads really begins. Until then, get your political TV ad fix at the ongoing online exhibition by New York’s Museum of the Moving Image titled The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004.

Launched in 2004, the exhibition, which will be updated and upgraded to include 2008’s commercials, presents ads from every presidential campaign year since 1952 when war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower battled Governor Adlai Stevenson (the first time) for the country’s top executive office.

The low-tech site (there are no links to specific vids or embeds allowed) contains over 250 commercials and nearly four hours of viewing material, and has a searchable database and navigation organized by both year and theme. Each year’s page contains commentary, historical background, election results, and the commercials themselves, which are both entertaining and – dare I say – educational.

Among the highlights in the online exhibition is the cutesy, campy animated “I Like Ike” commercial that is so far removed from today’s attack ads you’ll hardly believe that candidates no longer use catchy jingles. Also on the site is the controversial 1964 pro-Lyndon B. Johnson “Daisy ” commercial, supposedly only shown once, that captures a little girl preciously plucking petals from a daisy until a nuclear bomb explodes.

My personal favorite features a stern Nancy Reagan. “I deeply, deeply resent and am offended by the attacks that President Carter has made on my husband,” she says to the camera like a disappointed grandmother. “He is not a man who is going to throw the elderly out on the street and cut out their Social Security. That’s a terrible thing to, to do and to say, about anybody.”

Despite Adlai Stevenson’s initial criticism that ads were insulting to voters’ intelligence (“This isn’t Ivory soap versus Palmolive,” he reportedly remarked), presidential campaign commercials have prevailed. Since America welcomed television into her homes, there have been ads toting and maligning the character of hopeful elected officials.

Similarly, since 1996, candidates have had websites, and in 2000, we saw the first web-based campaign ads (also featured on the Moving Image’s Desktop Candidate page). By 2004, advertising online was a viable form of campaigning for presidential candidates, and, of course, now they’re all over the web (and a great place to watch them is PrezVid).

But presidential ads are more than just ploys for votes. David Schwartz, the Moving Image’s Chief Film Curator and co-curator of “The Living Room Candidate,” explains the commercials as a “series of time capsules – short films that use all the techniques of Hollywood, including script, visuals, editing, music, and performance – to sell a candidate, raise doubts about the opponent, and compress the key issues of a campaign into thirty seconds.”

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Sarah Ricard
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I know it’s Fashion Week in New York because there’s a big ass tent in the middle of Bryant Park, a few friends of mine are going to after parties hosted by clothiers, and I occasionally see packs of uncharacteristically tall, well-dressed, waifish women (and now waifish men) turning heads strutting down the city’s streets.

The 60+-year-old event that draws all the big name labels, buyers, and stars commands a bit of a presence on the island of Manhattan. It’s also getting more coverage than ever online, though in traditional ways.

The effects of the democratization of media, while fully visible in the political fray, have not yet woven themselves into the fabric of haute couture. There are no college kids with Nokia N95s lining the catwalks, no fashion geeks cornering Santo and Donatella Versace for impromptu cellphone interviews, and no trained Ground Hounds asking onlookers what they though of the latest lines. Everything feels more or less like good, ole’ fashioned television (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

With the exception of David Jr. (who had some coverage of six months ago’s Fashion Week, but doesn’t look like he’s filming anything this round), bigger brands with internet savvy and a fashion sense are the only way to catch the action without an invite. If you’re a persona non grata like me, yet still interested in watching models wear funky clothes while doing that walk, here are the best places to look:

Nylon Magazine TV – www.youtube.com/user/NylonMagazineTV

Nylon Magazine, the way cooler, hipster version of whatever beauty and fashion rag you’ve been skimming through at the newsstand, has some informative and fast-paced Designer Diaries highlighting those with shows, remixed runway vids accented with tricky editing and phat beats, and even a short avant-garde film. Even if you’re not that into fashion, this is one channel to watch.

###Chic.tv – www.chic.tv

Given its name, and that it brands itself as a “24-hour lifestyle video magazine,” Fashion Week is Chic.tv’s Super Bowl. Industry vet Janice Prishwalko hosts most of the daily coverage, interviewing doe eyed models new to the NYC runway, make-up artists who’ve been there before, and everyone in between. There are also plenty of shots of the shows and inside the extravagant tents.

Elle Magazine – www.youtube.com/user/ellemagazine

Elle’s YouTube page has more up-to-date vids than the lifestyle, beauty, and fashion mag’s flashy video player, and there are fewer ads to suffer through. Their slickly produced Cheat Sheet vids go “backstage, front row, and everything in between,” though I almost prefer the raw footage from the runway, replete with bad audio.

Ford Models TV – www.youtube.com/user/fordmodels

Similar to Elle, it’s much easier to watch the videos on Ford Models Tv’s YouTube channel than on their Ning community site. Here, the models control the camera and take you on backstage tours, offering access behind the runways presented by those that actually walk down them.

New York Magazine – http://video.nymag.com

New York Magazine has its fair share of typical, well-produced interviews and clips from the runway, except when they ask models how they think their asses look in G-Star denim (it sounds funny but it’s annoying) and don’t display links to specific videos (annoying) and don’t allow embeds (really annoying).

If you head over YouTube’s Fashion Week 360, you can also catch videos from Style.com, the New York Times, and the ultra chic American Express Fashion Network.  YouTube is supposed to feature segments from “freewheeling fashionista” William Sledd, but none have appeared since his kinda endearing, kinda irritating introduction.

I was surprised that LX.TV doesn’t have hair-to-hell Fashion Week coverage, but I suppose NBC has them busy on other projects. They do, however, have a clip of the super fab Andre J. celebrating his favorite NYC boutiques. If you haven’t seen Andre before, you should give this one a look:

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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The Surrealists used to play this game called “exquisite corpse.” Breton, Duchamp, Miro, and other members of the movement would socialize and sip absinthe in some sufficiently avant-garde Parisian parlor while passing sheets of paper back and forth. An artist would begin at the top of the page, draw whatever came to mind, fold the paper down to conceal his work, and pass the dutchie to the left hand side so the next player could contribute. A fun activity with some entertaining results.

With an open tab at a bar in New York City, Dan Meth recently played a similar game. This one involved a thick stack of 5X7 note cards, a sharpie, a backlit animator’s tray, 5 hours, and a lot of alcohol.  Although this was a solo experiment, Dan’s declining motor skills make it seem like there might have been others involved.  They also produced some entertaining results, which were showcased in an installment of the aberrant animator’s online series, Meth Minute 39.

Dan apparently had such a good time drawing under the influence that he thought others should partake. On January 23rd, he and Frederator organized Drinking and Drawing – an event with over 140 contributors, 1,300 of those 5X7 note cards and of course, more alcohol.

###The whole thing took place in a corner of M1-5 in NYC, and was partially MCed by an intern in a gorilla costume. There were 14 rounds of 10 people each. Each person had 16 cards and 10 minutes to make their contribution to the exquisite animated corpse. You were to start drawing off of the last card from your predecessor, and leave your last card as a starting point for the next person in line.

Mine sucked, but there were some well-known animators in attendance whose didn’t. When you put all of us together, I’d say the overall quality is well above average sprinkled with a few moments of brilliance.

But it’s really less about the end result than it is about getting together with friends, associates, and randoms to have a good time. Like the original exquisite corpses, the actual end-product is a focus point for posterity, an artifact of the actual experience. I’m looking forward to the next one.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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If web video has made one overarching contribution to our society (besides porn), it could be argued that the opportunity for us nobodies to “broadcast” ourselves has surpassed all others. Case in point: Chris Crocker.

Weeding through the mire that is user-gen video, it helps a great deal to be pointed to a site from a reliable source. Which is why I had my expectations set on ‘high’ when I learned that the New York Times online Op-Ed video page showcased vids from PurpleStates.tv, a web-based reality series that follows the literal and figurative journey of five regular ol’ U.S.-of-A’ers as they travel the country, exploring the candidates and their political positions, from the debates to campaigning. And even though the series was meant to stop with Super Tuesday, new video is still cropping up on their site.

Click To Play

There are essentially two variations on the Purple States theme. The first is a professionally edited op-ed piece that runs on NYTimes.com. It includes footage of the “citizen team” – five unique personalities of various backgrounds and beliefs – traveling the country, interviewing candidates, fellow citizens and each other. The other, far more comprehensive footage of each journalist is on the official Purple States site, which includes every video (some less compelling than others) blogs by each team member, and a forum for viewers and posters to connect to discuss the issues.

The team did not seek out to host Purple States, but rather was randomly recruited by a survey research company, which – surprise! – turned into an audition. In this regard, Purple States is a refreshing change from most reality series, in which 99 times out of 100, the participants just want to be on TV.

###The team chosen represents a diverse cross-section of the American populace, including Elizabeth Gotsdiner, a 23-year-old florist from Iowa, 50-year-old Bert Sobanik, a laid-off manufacturing professional and libertarian from New England, Tamara Briggman, a 33-year-old Baptist mother of three and former teacher from South Carolina, republican Tanya Amador-Daigle, an art gallery director from Florida, and Alex Ritchie, a grandfather from southern California who lives with his daughter and his Mexican-American son-in-law and an independent who leans to the left.

With the goal of becoming the premier citizen-driven news show on television and the net, Dr. Cynthia Farrar, who is known for orchestrating non-partisan, media-based conversations with randomly selected folks and who made a name for herself on public television, founded Purple States as the “synthesis of old media with the connectivity of the internet to make democracy accessible and engaging to large numbers of Americans.”

And that – the “engaging” part – is where I come in. It’s a lovely notion to have a web community where political conversations unspool as organically as they would in your local town hall, where everyone has an equal chance to partake in a free exchange of ideas, regardless of race, gender, age or bank accounts.  And, it’s pretty cool that due to the accessibility of the format, viewers are able to engage so directly with the citizen journalists, spout their own opinions and learn from each other.

One problem with Purple States, however, is inherent in its concept. Bert, Tanya, Elizabeth, Tamara and Alex are not professional reporters for TV or print. Their blogs are unedited and, at times, they have as much TV charisma as a car dealer starring in his own commercial. While the stuff on NYT is more polished and, shall we say, TV-ready, the endless amounts of video on PurpleStates.tv is rough, rough, rough.

Still, in big picture of user-created video, Purple States stands out as an honest, valuable socio-political experiment, even if sometimes the banality of regular folks like you and me is not always interesting.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Sarah Ricard
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The nature of video search has made how-to video guides a low hanging fruit.  Think about it: it’s 3AM and you need to know how to create the basic drone of a didgeridoo.  Where will you turn?  The all-knowing internets, of course.  

It’s an idea that none too few internet entrepreneurs have discovered, so we’re left with a plenitude of how-to video sites with various models of content procurement, from in-house production to collections from the web to user-generated and submitted to student-commissioned to a combination therein. 

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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On Monday, with up-and-coming kings of comedy Zach Galifianakis, Demetri Martin and Nick Swardsdon in tow, Will Ferrell kicked of his Semi-Pro sponsored Funny or Die College Comedy Tour at Kansas State. Though mostly a promotional tool for the movie, the eight shows around the country are also spreading the FOD gospel and introducing taste-making college kids to comedians they’ll surely soon be seeing a lot more.

Marc Campbell is hoping to use his live venue to similar effect.

The former banker and Upright Citizens Brigade alum just launched The Independent Comedy Network – a new media studio founded on improv principals and dedicated to working “with professional talent to develop and distribute original comedy series online and beyond” – and believes his ability to access and showcase talent through his Westside Eclectic live comedy venue in Los Angeles will set his funny apart from the many competitors.

Of an anticipated 40 original series slated for release in 2008, five debuted with the site’s launch. Do they have what it takes to stand up against offerings from Funny or Die, My Damn Channel, College Humor, 60Frames, Super Deluxe, etc., etc.? Here’s a look:

Inappropriate Workplace

Click To Play

This series revolves around Duane, your everyday desk jockey who gets unassumingly involved in highly inappropriate workplace situations. The first involves a menstruating boss and plastic applicators. It’s quick, funny, and despite my description, safe for work.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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As a writer, it’s pretty daunting to cover FactCheck.org when you consider that the entire outfit spends all of its resources uncovering bad intel. (In fact, they would probably say that I what I just wrote about them is somehow not wholly accurate…) Now, imagine being armed with a cell phone and illegible handwriting, and calling FactCheck’s Director, Brooks Jackson – veteran reporter for the Associates Press, the Wall Street Journal and CNN for 34 years – to ask a few questions about their new web show, Just the Facts! All I can say is About Us pages come in handy.

FactCheck.org is the non-partisan, non-profit official site of The Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of UPenn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. The APPC was established in 1994 to address public policy issues, and now its FactCheck site is a go-to “consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.”

Just the Facts! – which launched last week as a complementary vidcast to the website’s regularly-updated debunkeries of Those Who Run the World – is a weekly summary of the high points (or rather, low points) of misleading speeches, arguments, campaign ads and statistics purported by our leaders and candidates.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Sarah Ricard
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For Your Imagination is an internet-TV studio that’s just barely a year old, and it’s already behind some of the best video content on the web, including, but not limited to, Patrice O’Neil – Coming Soon (Tilzy Page), Break A Leg (Tilzy Page), DadLabs (Tilzy Page) and The Shirtless Apprentice (Tilzy Page).  A diverse platter of offerings for sure.  Serving it all up is FYI founder and CEO Paul Kontonis.

Paul has a long and accomplished career of marketing great products, so I believe him when he says he sees a near future in which advertisers gain the recognition they desire through video for the exact demos they target without causing the disruptions that viewers hate.  He sees an integration of brands and shows in a way that maintains creative integrity while engaging consumers.  I recently sat down with Paul to discuss the new business of internet-TV.

We’ve seen much of what Paul envisions already taking form.  To varying degrees, brands have become integrated into the shows they sponsor.  As far as I’m concerned, those that do it the least obtrusively leave potential consumers happiest. 

For Your Imagination is a community-conscious creative company that’s just begun to build audiences, attract brands and, most important, create some kick-ass content.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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I’m always amazed when television networks with deep pockets and years of observing active innovation manage to screw up an online series, but it happens almost invariably.  It’s amazing!  At least Bravo has the semblance of a digital media strategy, albeit slightly flawed.  Last week, the cable network announced The Week Without Pity, an internet-only video series made especially for one of Bravos’ many homes on the web, TelevisionWithoutPity.com.  The others include BravoTV.com, BrilliantButCancelled.com (Tilzy Page), OUTzoneTV.com (Tilzy Page) and getTRIO.com

The Week Without Pity actually rests on pretty smart idea that’s ostensibly easily executed: a snarky voice offers a quick tour of TV highlights from the week under the banner of “the week’s best, worst and addictive guilty pleasures.”

The show itself is relatively well done — if you like that sort of cautious, corporate wannabe irreverence — but, at the end of the day, it fails to engage.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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November 11, 2011: America is submerged in fear and ignorance by a fascist, officially Christian regime. Desperate for hope, the people await the Messiah.

Among the many pretending the role is one man, an African-American preaching radical politics, who might very well be the real deal. But the Powers That Be, as aided by the media, are out to defame The One and install their own white, corporate-friendly, status quo-loving new Jesus to placate the masses.

That’s the intriguing, if far-fetched, premise of Tony Torn and Ruth Margraff’s short, five-part web series The Grand Inquisitor. Part Bush administration era parody, part update of the conclusion of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, The Grand Inquisitor aims zeitgeist-exploding big despite its approximately 25 minute total runtime.

If only it followed through – Torn and Margraff have seemed to bitten off more than they can chew in trying to take on so much post-9/11 angst in such a small format.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Michael Joshua Rowin
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If you need a primer on those spoofy web vids derivative of the original Obama Girl, CNN’s correspondent to the offbeat and eccentric, Jeanne Moos has a good rundown in her Political Video Awards. Seriously. It’s worth a watch.

If you could use an overview of the campaign ads created and endorsed by the candidates, public appearances by the politicos and their supporters, and more constituent-generated contributions, Jeff Jarvis’ Prezvid (Tilzy.TV page) is a definitive source.

If you want live Super Tuesday coverage on the web, you got some options.

Massive traditional media outlets and television networks are offering more simultaneous and original online coverage of the 24 primaries and caucuses than the internet has ever streamed.

###Beginning at primetime, Newsweek editor, Jon Meacham will report and analyze the latest returns with journalists from The Washington Post, Slate and The Root. CNN and ABC News are reporting to have all-day coverage, while MSNBC does the same, except wins major points for getting a handle on this internet thing way before it’s competitors and allowing the simulcast and Brian Williams’ mug to be easily embedded all around the web:

Of course, some of the most interesting and innovative coverage won’t be broadcast by traditional journalists or media outlets. MTV’s think is giving two citizen journalists in each of the Super Tuesday states Nokia 95s with which to stream live video updates of what exactly is going on at polling stations and caucuses.

And “fiercely independent” and internet-age news network, Veracifier (Tilzy.TV page) is teaming up again with citizen journalism outpost and training grounds, The Uptake.  The two will release their “Ground Hounds” all over the country to sniff out original coverage and stories starting at 7PM EST: 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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