Today Diet Coke announced a new live and online entertainment and lifestyle program Style Series, to be hosted by former West Coast Editor of Glamour and broadcast fashion expert Rachel Zalis. The show will feature celebrity appearances, interviews and performances. The December 9th premiere will host renowned fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, Grammy Award winning artist Robin Thicke and international Grammy Award winning superstar Rihanna as the show’s first guests. Sounds like a safe bet for a major brand that has been timidly moving into the web television market.

Following the top down strategy of old-fashioned marketing campaigns, the unimaginative Style Series will be heavily publicized and distributed by New York-based Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG), which will promote the show through online video banners on entertainment and lifestyle focused websites across the DBG Video Network, People.com, InStyle.com and Yahoo, newsletters, mobile TV pre-roll spots, WAP banners, and outdoor digital billboards in Times Square. There’s no mention of any social media integration, and there doesn’t seem to be anything on YouTube.

It is disheartening to see that a major brand like Diet Coke would play it safe with its content and release strategy when there is so much untapped creative and marketing talent on the web today. Forward thinking companies like Microsoft, Sprint, and Lexus have been able to expand their reach by leveraging web creators that know how to reach an audience and create real engagement. My prediction is Style Series will just be another flash in the pan that will only sustain itself as long as marketing dollars keep it afloat.

Filed under: Articles, Documentary, Featured, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Drew Baldwin
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Josh’s Top Five Ways to Get Women: 1) Become a famous rockstar. 2) Become a vampire. 3) Start the BEST SITE EVER about web shows and original online entertainment Become a famous actor. 4) Be Don Draper. And tied for 5) Become a douchebag and/or Kill a lot of people (Note: In no way do I condone those last two).

It’s morbidly sick and twisted, but some very confused ladies think serial killers are hot (which can be okay, but ONLY if you’re talking about Dexter). In fact, it’s more than some very confused ladies. The exact number lies somewhere between “too few to merit a Wikipedia page” and “enough to have an acronym.” That acronym is SKG – Serial Killer Groupies. 

Why they do it (Romance fantasies? Celebrity status? Hybristophilia?) is any criminologist’s guess, but they’ve been doing it for a while. SKGs have an infamous history with the media and mass murderers dating back at least to Rosalind Bowers‘ infatuation with Henry Theodore Durrant (who brutally murdered two women at a Baptist Church in San Francisco) in the 1890s.

Since then (among many other amorous incidents), Carol Anne Boone had Ted Bundy‘s baby while he was on trial for murder, Scott Petterson received marriage proposals within an hour of being put on Death Row, and new media studio 60Frames released a “dysfunctional family comedy” with a SKG as the star. It’s good. 

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Funny or Die – the Will Ferrell-fueled HBO-funded comedy club treehouse where a Judd Apatow film credit gains you automatic entry – has stayed relevant thanks to hit, after hit, after hit. If someone in Hollywood’s in-crowd wants to make fun of Tom Cruise or get out the vote, it’s to this domain name they come a-knockin’. 

The site’s overall mandate may still be unclear (Is it an aggregator of funny videos? Or is it an off-shoot of Will Ferrell’s brand? Or is it something else?), but the fact that it’s able to wrangle such A-list talent (in droves, even) means that when it stops treating original online videos like a playground and starts taking the medium seriously, it’s going to have a helluva lot of talented people to work with. 

Exhibit A: Prop 8 – The Musical.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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A few weeks ago, Daisy Whitney asked Josh and me to make some predictions for web video in 2009. Our short list of thoughts, predictions and predilections have made their way from New Media Minute to ABC News to MediaPost, and are now here in their unadulterated form on Tilzy.TV! Help us add to the list.

1. 2009 will be all about brands, not just shows.
A show is just one opportunity for audiences to experience your characters, to taste the flavor of your brand. Create a meal (show), but be sure to serve up pleanty of appetizers and snacks (shorter videos) and some dinner conversation (interactive elements).
Your brands should be immersive experiences. I want to engage with them actively and passively, when I’m on the go, and when I want to veg out on my couch. Figure out ways to offer various experiences to match my various moods.

2. There’s still very little money to be made in online video, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create. Don’t believe us? Ask Michael Eisner.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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Felicia Day addressing the crowd at the Hollywood Web Television Meetup (Photo by Brady Brim-DeForest)

Wow, wow, wow! Thanks to everyone for making it out to the hugely successful December Hollywood Web Television Meetup last night which packed the James Cagney Boardroom at the Screen Actors Guild with nearly 300 members of Hollywood’s burgeoning web television community. Studio executives, agents, managers, actors, writers, producers, show creators and fans lined the walls to hear presentations from Cristian Cussen, Director of Content and Marketing at MySpaceTV and web superstar Felicia Day, creator of the hit indie web series The Guild and star of Joss Whedon’s summer sitebuster Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Cristian Cussen led off the night, talking about a number of MySpaceTV’s successful web series partnerships like Prom Queen, Sorority Forever and Roommates, before getting into what was on the minds of a good chunk of the crowd—how does he find new web series and what are they looking for? He said his team is always looking through the millions of videos throughout MySpace to find unique and entertaining content, some of which ends up getting signed to a formal deal with the company. He also noted that they look at content verticals, like sports or gaming, and try to fill out what they think is missing. One area in particular they are looking for are original animated web series. (Who has one?)

Web superstar Felicia Day screened an episode of Season 2 of The Guild, which recently landed a healthy sponsorship and distribution deal from Microsoft and Sprint. She talked about the origins of her web video career, offering inspiration to many creators in the crowd looking to grow their own series like hers. Felicia shared some poignant advice to creators on making something that is authentic and niche for the web rather than trying to appeal to everyone.

Faces in the crowd included folks from Buppies, StrikeTV, Private High Musical, Speedie Date, FOX TV Studios, The LA Report, Crackle, 60 Frames, FLUX, Ask A Ninja, Gold The Series, We Need Girlfriends, Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild of America, Acting School Academy, Evil Genius Entertainment, NAS Productions, Leaving Bliss, Rooster Films, Casanovas, Big Fantastic, Jenn 2.0, Jesus People, Attention Span Media, Fine Bros, Barrio Speedwagon, Valley Peaks, Roommating, Captain Films, Hulu, There Will Be Brawl, MySpace, Iron Sink Media, E! Entertainment, MTV Networks, Voxx, Looking for Grace, Baum Squad Prods, Angelic Productions, With The Angels, ACME Brand Comedy, Synergy Talent, Neighborhood Watch, ITV Fest, Prom Queen, Webutantes, My Life Is A Diet, Thruline Entertainment, Abrams Artists, Dirty Bomb Diaries, Dave and Tom, Barry Holiday, Sony Pictures Television, After Judgement, Digital Content Partners, Tomboys in Fishnets, The Guild, Sorority Forever, MGM, Geekscape, Psychic Style, TechZulu, SAG Foundation, lonelygirl15, Pink Hamsta, Power Hour, Psychic Bunny, Girls Entertainment Network, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Below the Line, Warner Bros, Einstein Tech Partners, Studio 8, VH1, Get A Clue, MWG Media Entertainment, Marx&Trotsky, UTA Online, Digital Family Reunion, Runaway Stars, Web on The Rocks, Mingling Media, Markyr Media, Disney Studios, Animation World Network, Bunnygraph Entertainment, Blue Fountain Productions, and the Open Viewing Foundation, off the top of my head.

And congratulations to Charles Horn, Emmy-nominated and award-winning comedy writer for StrikeTV’s Sketch Toons, on winning an autographed copy of The Guild Season One DVD in the business card drawing with Felicia Day.

Special thanks to Jonathan Dingman who has some terrific photos from the event on his Flickr page. And thanks to Web on the Rocks host Andrea Ball captured the night on Qik video. You can also see the entire set of photos from the event on the Tubefilter Flickr stream.

Filed under: Articles, Hollywood Web Video Meetup, News, Tubefilter by Tubefilter News
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As we hinted at earlier, broadband TV network KoldCast TV, who distributes numerous HD-quality web series including The Midwest Teen Sex Show, Poor Paul and After Judgment, has signed a partnership deal with TiVo allowing for their roster of web series to be available to their over 4 Million DVR subscribers.

While the official announcement of the deal is yet to come, we confirmed that is in fact a go, with the first batch of ten web series expected to be on the service by the end of next week. The full list of the first ten series has not yet been announced, though we do know that After Judgment and Poor Paul will definitely be on that list.

The web series will live on a new platform called TivoCast, which is available to TiVo subscribers with either a Series 2 or newer TiVo DVR (that’s about 4 Million). Out of that 4 Million, over 850k subscribers have started using the free TivoCast service. Koldcast CEO David Samuels tells us they have already tested the software and it is “very, very cool.”

Also notable is that a number of the Strike.TV web series are showing up on KoldCast as part of a deal between the company and the writers-backed content portal. Though there were some initial delays in getting all of the series out to partner sites, KoldCast TV now has the largest collection of Strike.TV series outside of the Strike.TV site itself. Up there now are Mary Feuer’s With the Angels, Lester Lewis and Mindy Kaling’s House Poor, Tom Holland’s 5 or Die, Unknown Sender, Daryl from OnCar and Side Effects and Faux Baby (above).

The new is definitely exciting for show creators who will finally have a pipeline into the living room and on the ‘big’ screens that traditional TV shows have long dominated. There’s now a healthy slate of web content on the TivoCast platform include Barely Political (home of Obama Girl), Channel Frederator, Epic Fu, Rev3’s Diggnation, Indy Mogul, The WB.com, Gary V’s Wine Library TV, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls at The Party amongst others.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, Industry, News, Strike.TV, Web Series by Marc Hustvedt
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Generally, judging objects by appearances (or in this case, a name) is a foolproof method for gauging the approximate substantial qualities of said objects. Thus, if I had not known any better (and I had not) I would’ve judged Chad, Matt & Rob by my own mental bookcover as three boring, ordinary frat boys making mediocre sketch comedy. Unfortunately, my tried and true method completely failed me here.

These four LA residents (Chad Villella, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Rob Polonsky, and Jonah Goldstein) have put together quite a portfolio of that rise high above their low-standard-setting name(s). Shall the children be punished for the sins of their fathers (or mothers)? No, no they shall not.

What have we here, then? Alien attack pranks gone awry, movie spoofs gone awry, innocent games of cops & robbers gone awry! Sure, it sounds textbook, but alas, fool me twice….These fine, upstanding (I’ll assume) young men possess a finely-honed sense of absurdity that matches their impeccable comedic timing.

Quality writing aside, the fact that they are also reasonably skilled actors sets them apart from many of their peers. All three are equally capable playing the straight man or the buffoon, which keeps both the premises lively and the audience on its toes.

In addition to about a dozen shorts, Chad, Matt & Rob have also recently produced an ingenious choose-your-own-ending video adventure – The Time Machine.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Alex Crowley
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Of all the different shades of geek in the world, the absolute pinnacle of insufferable may be found in the Hardcore Gamer. Of course there are plenty of thoughtful, sporting, considerate people who play video games, but you’d be hard pressed to play Xbox Live for more than a few hours before running into a bragging, bigoted, and screamingly obnoxious l33t speaker.

If you’ve been unlucky enough to meet one of these guys (or play against them), you’ll find a lot to laugh at in Arby & The Chief, an independently produced web series by Jon CJ Graham under the banner of Digital Ph33r and hosted by Machinima.com. When I say independently produced, I mean it – the entire series (over two hours of material and counting) is written, edited, and performed by Graham.

Oh, and don’t let the “machinima” part confuse you. The majority of Arby & The Chief isn’t computer generated imagery rendered using real-time, interactive, 3-D engines. It’s more like a live-action version of Toy Story where Woody and Buzz Lightyear are obsessed with first-person shooters.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Ana Hurka-Robles
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One bit of humor the makers of Porntourage and I can agree upon is that Ted Levine stuffing his junk between his legs in Silence of the Lambs is the funniest thing ever.

On all other matters of comedy, there will be no such agreement. A Levine reference is dropped in not one but two episodes of this short-lived web series. I mention this because A) who doesn’t love Goodbye Horses or Ted Levine and B) the series is short on jokes.

This question must now be asked: can you REALLY parody a parody?

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joe Eddy
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Before he left The Hollywood Reporter for the greener pastures of Thrillist, Steve Bryant wrote a list of online video lessons learned. In said list is one of my favorite quotes about the medium: “Boobs evolved for thumbnails.”

No content producer or new media studio has cracked the code for internet success and strategies on how to make “Teh Best Webshow Evar!!!1!!” are in a perpetual state of flux (Where should you release your episodes? On what type of schedule? How long should they be? Does it have to be interactive? How interactive? Etc? Etc.).

But underneath all the trials and errors lies that tried and true TNA method of garnering an audience. Entire YouTube careers have been based on cleavage (see Athene Wins and Hot for Words) and it’s a well known phenomenon that in a regular old web series, the episodes with the most (or disproportionate) view counts are going to be the ones where the thumbnail is the most lascivious.

But that was the old YouTube. Now, there’s a new YouTube with quality standards that penalize the use of profanity and sexually suggestive material. A Youtube for all of us.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Just a reminder that tonight we’re hosting another Hollywood Web Television Meetup at the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile. Sponsored by Tubefilter, the monthly Hollywood Web Television Meetup brings together Los Angeles’ rich, diverse creative talent for the purpose of sharing resources, finding opportunities for collaboration, and helping talented content creators to shape the future of web television.

• Felicia Day
  Creator of the hit series The Guild (which just locked a killer distribution deal with Microsoft and Sprint for Season 2) and star of web phenom Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
• Cristian Cussen
  Director of Content and Marketing at MySpaceTV

8:00pm-10:00pm
Screen Actors Guild
James Cagney Boardroom, 1st Floor
5757 Wilshire Blvd at S Curson Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Enter your business card for a chance to win some great door prizes including an autographed copy of The Guild Season 1 DVD! Attendees should park in the structure and SAG will validate. Here’s a handy map to find your way.

Please RSVP to meetup@tubefilter.tv or Upcoming, and join Hollywood Web Television Meetup group on Facebook.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Hollywood Web Video Meetup, Industry, The Guild by Tubefilter News
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According to an official post yesterday on the Flight of the Conchords channel on Funny Or Die, the first episode of Season 2 of the quirky HBO comedy will premiere on the humor site on December 17th, almost a full month ahead of its network launch in January 2009. HBO had announced a second season for Flight of the Conchords in August 2007 with a premiere set for 2008, but then delayed the launch until sometime in 2009.

The Emmy-nominated television series about a pair of hipster Kiwi musicians trying to make it big in New York found a strong cult following on the tube and online, but never achieved mass scale audience. The show’s hipster irreverence and entrepreneurial spirit, fueled by a snarky, inside joke style, make the show a great match for web audiences—web darling Kristen Schaal made a splash with a popular blog for her character Mel.

Nevertheless HBO, whose tentative entry into the web market with a smattering of under-incubated projects like Runaway Box, HBOlabs’ Hooking Up, and the acquisition of a small equity stake in Funny Or Die, is not leveraging the web to the the advantage of its branded shows, but is rather placing safe bets—and this stunt with Flight of the Conchords reeks of a market test for a series they are unsure about, or at best another half-assed attempt to generate buzz to reach their television audience.

HBO just doesn’t get it on the web, which comes as a surprise to me because it’s a studio that has been a leader in premium branding and content development. Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, said “the future of internet content is as a lab for the network.” I disagree. HBO should stop seeing the web as simply a vector back to television, but a powerful and relevant end in itself where more fully engaged audiences can be cultivated.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Funny Or Die, HBO, Industry, News, Web Series by Drew Baldwin
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