In a world with limitless TV channels, it makes sense to empower those who will eventually create the content for the new TV. Justin Johnson was Next New Networks‘ first hire and has, from the beginning, been dedicated primarily to creating awesome promos. But when the Internet-TV studio began developing niche programming, Justin knew exactly what to push for: a DIY channel for young filmmakers, Indy Mogul (Tilzy.TV Page).
Enter Erik Beck. Erik had been working a “soul crushing job” as a temp in a loan office in Oakland when Justin pushed him to submit a pilot episode of BackyardFX . He’s s the quintessential 21st century filmmaker — self-taught, sickeningly creative and inventive with a signature self-effacing grin — that I believe embodies the ambitions of his scores of viewers. Check it…
Anyway, Justin and Erik tell the story better than I… Read On…
Yesterday, Wallstrip(Tilzy.TV page) founder Howard Lindzon announced that his daily “pop culture meets stock culture” web series was getting a new face. At the top of today’s episode, departing host Lindsey Campbell said new host Julie Alexandria would be “starting soon.”
37 seconds into the episode, without any further introductions or hullabaloo, in what’s possibly the smoothest transition in hosted entertainment history, Alexandria seamlessly continues the episode where Campbell left off, even sporting the same purpley black, silky, low necklined top as her predeessor. Those Wallstrip production peeps are smooth.
Since 1998, Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, known collectively as the JibJab Brothers or Grevan, have struggled to build an Internet empire based on nothing but humor and flash animation. After weathering the dot-com bust of 2000, Gregg, a Wharton MBA and former Investment Banker, and Evan, an award-winning animator, continued to crank out Internet videos and ads.
The two became 2004 viral superstars with the release of This Land , a two-and-a-half minute political parody sung by animated caricatures of George W Bush and John Kerry. Set to the tune of the old Woody Guthrie Song, accolades and even a Jay Leno appearance followed. Since then the brothers have made it their mission to build JibJab into a clearinghouse for funny online videos, featuring their own work of course, where users can upload whatever they think makes people laugh, like this…
I think addressing the potentially toxic cycle of consumption in westernized countries is important. This two-part series by Free Range Studios, “The Story of Stuff” — just released on Terra(Tilzy.TV Page), a non-profit dedicated to educating the world about local, national, and international environmental issues through independent documentary filmmaking — raises some very serious and thought-provoking issues. We should all be aware of our (likely disproportionate) consumption, but I wonder if this description of the global economic system is a bit heavy-handed, over-simplified and moralistic….
With the men doing as much of the heavy lifting in parenting as the women these days, never has there been a better time for suggestions, counsel, and the sharing of child raising war stories among guys. That’s whereDadLabscomes in.
Austin, Texas-based school teachers Brad Powell and Clay Nichols, co-hosts of the video blog and founders of the DadLabs company along with Troy Lanier, cater to the need-to-know demands of a new generation of fathers with their humorous and irreverent takes on everything from diaper changing to toy buying while always providing firsthand (the three have no less than seven children between them) and sage advice.
Since Fall 2007, after the trio made DVDs likeDue Dads: The Man’s Survival Guide to Pregnancy , they’ve taken their show to the video blogosphere and enrolled the distribution and marketing expertise of web production studio by For Your Imagination.
###Brad and Clay, or “Daddy Brad” and “Daddy Clay,” as they call themselves, are terrific hosts. Even if you aren’t a dad, or even if you hate kids, you’ll still be entertained by their laidback but concerned approach in episodes exploring every absurd nuance of child rearing. Episodes are released four times a week and usually fall into four categories: “The Lab,” where they test out theories and methods of parenting; “The Lounge,” where they discuss parenting issues, often with guests; “Daditude,” where the lighter side of parenting is revealed; and “Gear,” where products are showcased and explained.
The only thing more hilarious (in a pathetic sort of way) than watching guys coping with parenthood is watching them get totally frustrated and pissed off about it because, heck, we know they love the rewards when all’s said and done.
This is an entertaining show that links a very strong and growing community. We’ll be interested to see how they incorporate interactive elements for dads.
39 inches in the past 7 days at Vail. 24 inches in the past 3 days at Jackson Hole. 7 to 10 FEET at Mammoth in California. It hurts. It really does. And up until a few seasons back, a powderhound like me, while trapped at the office, had only numbers to bring the pain.
I’d try to mimize the effect. Whatever. Whateverman – I’m sure it’s cloudy. The snow’s too heavy. It’s a weekday – no one’s there anyway… But now, thanks to “Snowcasts” around the continent, I see that it’s sunny. The snow is light and dry. And everyone is there but me.
I say this every time a major television broadcaster finally allows its digital content to be distributed far and wide across the web: It’s about time.
Beet.TVhad the scoop earlier this week that MSNBC.com has made available the embed code for its video library(which includes NBC Nightly News, Dateline, To Catch a Predator, Today Show and a lot more), making it the first major news network to allow free range distribution of its content on third party sites. Below, Senator Hillary Clinton talks about her comeback victory yesterday in New Hampshire.
Considering the incredible success YouTube has seen since it allowed its users to share its vids on outside sites some 2 years ago, I’m constantly perplexed that it’s taken this long for others to catch on. Though it’s better to see those walled gardens come down late than never.
If Cera’s portrayal of the awkwardly reserved George Michael in Arrested Development doesn’t make you laugh, and the behind-the-scenes depiction of a writing duo whose relationship degenerates into a hostile codependency in the mockumentary Clark and Michael(Tilzy.TV page) isn’t convincing you, and Waters representation as one-half of another co-dependent friendship that specializes in womanizing without significant results in Derek and Simondoesn’t do the trick, this clip will:
Mark Gagliardi doing his best David Hasselhoff and slurring his way through Drunk History Vol. 1 while the period actors mimic his whiskeyed lesson plan and narration is worth a watch or two. But what makes me smile the most isn’t the video, it’s the thought that these young, creative kids are having fun creating ridiculously funny content for the sake of having fun creating ridiculously funny content.
Shadow World contains installments of the video project David S. Kessler filmed throughout 2007. As he describes it, “Set under the el tracks in north Philadelphia [sic], [Shadow World] is an exploration of this unique, fascinating and often intimidating space that (at least for this year) I call home.”
He interviews a variety of individuals who are now most likely deaf to the constant rumblings of the elevated train located above a little corner of the city of brotherly love at Front St. and Kensington Ave.
Kessler has already received attention for his work filming the seedy, unpleasant, but often persevering and courageous elements of North Philadelphia, and there’s good reason why.### Using only a small digital camera and a tripod, he captures the deteriorated urban environment of one of the city’s rougher and more squalid neighborhoods and interviews the funny, honest, boastful, sad and dispossessed characters that inhabit it. Without adding sound and without judging the people who speak to him, Kessler has put together a startling portrait of “the other side of the tracks.”
The twenty-five episode series runs a gamut of personalities, all of them edited into fragmented glimpses of the el and surrounding areas, though their humanity is never lost. The most compelling aspect of the project is how, through the inclusiveness of the internet, it has allowed many of its subjects, and those who have their own take on the subjects, to chime in with support and comments.
Much of Shadow World is fairly depressing (although simultaneously eye-opening) in certain cases it can be purely beautiful and inspiring. One day Kessler captured scenery after a recent snowfall, and the results are quite lovely, with the urban blight somehow adorning it. And the last episode is an interview with a good humored, optimistic Puerto Rican storeowner who plans on making it in America.
Though largely a study of broken dreams and lives, Shadow World, like the subjects who make it what it is, still holds onto hope.
Treehugger launched in July 2004 by Graham Hill, who created the consumer-oriented site when he realized that changing the way products are made on a large scale could not happen without the help of green innovators and designers. The success of Treehugger led the company to create original content on a new platform, Treehugger TV(Tilzy Page
), which launched in March 2006.
“We suspected that at a certain point in TreeHugger’s life that we would need to attract significant investment or partner up with a large media organization if we were to really take our message to the masses and fulfill our mission,” says the Treehugger blog.
Cool. I wonder how they’ll use the extra $$$ to fufill that mission. Hopefully with more of the same great content. It’s always uplifting to see financial success come from altruism.
YouTube might be ruining hip-hop beef, but it’s doing its best to find rap’s next best thang.
The video sharing site announced Monday its OntheRise Rap Edition contest where, from August 10 through August 17, aspiring battlers and would-be rhymesmiths can submit their original music videos, with original beats and original lyrics for a shot at a singles deal with Interscope Recods, $10,000 to Guitar Center, and a spot on YouTube’s homepage.
Fans will pick the winner from 20 finalists hand chosen by 50 Cent, Common, and Polow da Don. As far as mainstream goes, that’s an eclectic selection committee. Hopefully they’ll display at least a few socially conscious rappers to show that hip-hop is alive and well, instead of a probable slew of thuggish ruggish G-Unit wannabes that make Nas’ claim seem on point.
The contest comes nine months after YouTube’s last effort to find undiscovered musical talent. In November 2006, the Underground Contest highlighted relatively unknown rock acts from around the US. Oakland’s poppy, British-invasion style Maldroid took home top video honors with its a-ha influenced “He Said, She Said”. The video launched them into popularity without ever having sold a single song or album or played a live show.
If you take their New York Times profile at face value, it seems that Big Think hasn’t thought a lot about all the pre-existing web video venues for smarties.
In creating a “YouTube for ideas,” site founders Peter Hopkins and Victoria Brown (who were developing the site while they both were working on the ever thought-provoking Charlie Rose) and ex-Harvard President Lawrence Summers (who left the prestigious Crimson after he caused all hell to break loose in the world of female academia) seem to operate under the assumption that the internet is at a loss for intellectual vids. This isn’t the case.
Since 2006, Fora.tv(Tilzy.TV page) has been collecting, organizing, and distributing video coverage from the kind of public events you see on CSPAN or advertised in the back of phrenic-conscious publications featuring “poets, authors, activists, madmen, government leaders, and visionary thinkers.” For nearly a year, TED Talks(Tilzy.TV page) has made its primary focus to showcase presentations from the invite-only TED conference, so the visionary messages of its speakers can reach far beyond its 1,000-person audience of intellectual elites. Even YouTube has smart stuff, if you know where to find it.
So, Big Think isn’t the first thought-centric video site, but it might be the slickest.
###All the footage on the site, at least so far, comes from exclusive, original interviews shot in a way that accentuates the interviewees to the fullest. Their words are the only things audible and they pop with a clarity amplified above a white void of background noise. It makes politicians, musicians, scientists and other esteemed minds appear that much more prolific, offering their insights from an abyss of pure knowledge.
Vids are also parsed and organized by the site’s editors for easy consumption around tangible themes (Art, History, Technology, etc.) and metaphysical ideas (Identity, Life & Death, Wisdom). Its slim pickins for now, but once they use some more of their investment money to beef up production, I envision a highly useful, pointed directory of people smarter than me thinking about whatever they think about.
Until that happens, I’m sticking to other sites to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. As on-topic and visually appealing as Big Think tries to be, there’s still a lot of value in watching intelligent minds wander while speaking to the public.
Above: Moby gives advice to young artists. Unsurprisingly, “not selling out” doesn’t come up.
