Lots of chatter this week about live web series, but who says scripted series can’t have a little live streaming fun too? The Legend of Neil dropped its season 2 finale (above) yesterday and followed it up with a live chat last night on UStream with the cast that drew over 10,000 total viewers. First watch the episode to see if the show’s involuntary protagonist Neil/Link (Tony Janning) will ever get princess Zelda (Angie Hill) out of the hands of the evil Lord Gannon and his lackey Wizrobe.
Highlights from the live chat, which featured Janning and co-creator Sandeep Parikh and cast members Felicia Day, Angie Hill, Mike Rose and Eric Acosta will be posted on Atom later today.
Legend of Neil is clearly the online network’s biggest original series hit so far—check out the tagline under the Atom.com logo (right). The Comedy Central owned site is doing their part to market the series, at least in an online fashion, with a series of posts on the site giving fans some behind-the-scenes action like a two–part director’s commentary. An excerpt from Parikh, who also stars as Zaboo on The Guild, adds some color to the remarkably raunchy musical episode (below) starring Felicia Day as the Fairy.
“So, the Fairy song, yes it’s raunchy as all hell, and yes, Felicia was a bit nervous about rolling with the lyrics. At the same time, I knew (and secretly deep down I believe she knew) that once she got rolling with it she would just own it. She’s got a potty mouth when improvising, which is how I knew her originally and why I always wanted her to play the fairy. Such dirty words from such a sweet girl, how can that not be funny? Answer: it can’t”
The idea of a cast/crew live streaming chat isn’t exactly new, and a number of series like Tiki Bar TV and The Guild have made us of going live to take fan questions in real time. There was even the finale of San Francisco-based EXIT Stage Left which actually shot its finale, a full scripted episode, live back in June.
What a night last night—thank you to everyone who made it out to the sold out Tubefilter Hollywood Web TV Meetup, the night was teeming with creative energy. It started off with a packed panel session, “Going LIVE!” where we got into the nuts and bolts of live streaming web series. The entire panel, which can be watched now on demand (above), reached over 700 concurrent viewers on the live stream through Stickam.com and here on Tubefilter News. A higher-res version of the panel will be available soon.
We took a clue from panelist Tyler Crowley’s live web series,This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis, and did what Jason calls “making love to the sponsors.” So you might catch a few shout-outs to our sensational sponsors—Ooyala, AMD, Sony Creative Software, Showbiz Software, and Blip.tv. As fellow panelist Brian Gramo of TheStream.TV quipped, “you can’t TiVo past that” when we showed the sponsors some love.
In all over 550 attendees made it out to the Meetup, all buzzing with a renewed energy that brighter times are here for web series. You could feel it and see it in the faces of creators and enthusiasts in the room. Rob Welkner of Coin-Op TV Live made a nice writeup of the Meetup, with his co-host Hailey Bright on the panel. As Welkner concluded,
“Overall the Meetup helped verify what we at TheStream.TV have known for over three years now – that live streaming Internet TV is here to stay and a viable way of providing entertaining and interactive content.”
J. Sibley Law, creator of a series called The Oligarch Duplicity, was the winner of the spiffy new HP laptop from AMD. The super-fast ATI graphics card, also from AMD, went to Aaron Kaiser of AntiKaiser Productions, and the Sony Vegas 9 Pro software went to Workshop the Series co-creator Nate Golon.
With the news breaking yesterday about our acquisition of NY-based Tilzy.tv, it was great having Tilzy’s Josh Cohen and Jamison Tilsner on hand in LA to get the new Tubefilter crew off on a high note. For NYC web series folks, we’ll have info soon about the next New York Web TV Meetup so be on the lookout for it!
Ami Armstrong, Jonathan Stern, David Worthen, Scott Sanders and Mike Farah (Photo by: Alexandra Wyman/Wire Image)
I’ve been to a ton of panels on the Future of Web Series Production, but most of them take place at conferences like Digital Hollywood, which are dedicated to new media. On Sunday, October 11th, independent film organization Film Independent (FIND) got into the act at the FIND Filmmaker Forum with a panel entitled “Going Online: New Stories for New Media.”
In the midst of a weekend filled with sessions covering the art and business of indie film, the panel gave the producers, writers and directors in attendance a look into the possibilities the smallest screen has to offer. The session was specifically focused on creating content for the web, as opposed to using the web as a means of distribution for feature films. Producer Ami Armstrong (Mr. Nice) moderated, and panelists included Jonathan Stern (Producer, Centrifugal Films), David Worthen (Sr. Vice President, Fox Digital Studio), Scott Sanders (Director, Black Dynamite) and Mike Farah (Producer, Funny or Die).
Armstrong kicked off the session with the question, “Who’s actually watching all these videos online?” The general consensus was that while so far the young male demo has dominated, there is an emerging female audience for web content. Panelists cited breakout shows In the Motherhood, an MSN online original that was picked up for broadcast television by ABC, and Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy.
Stern, producer of Wainy Days, Children’s Hospital and Hot Sluts, says that he is starting to put together a few shows created by women over 30. “It’s almost easier to get a female-driven show going right now,” says Stern, “because the sponsors are looking for it. The Axe’s of the world already have a foothold in that space.”
Worthen adds, “What is now happening in the creative process is that some of the female writers have petitioned me because they want things that aren’t ‘Smacking Your Balls On A Skateboard.'”
To which Stern immediately responds, “Where can I get that skateboard?” (***Note to future panelists: bringing a sense of humor to your panel will forever earn you the gratitude of your audience.)
Entities like the CW have done a lot to develop a younger female audience, and companies such as Alloy Entertainment, part of Alloy Media + Marketing, have shown that they are interested in capitalizing on that online. Teen.com TV features both web shows that expand Alloy properties such as the young adult novel series Private, as well as originals like Haute & Bothered, which Armstrong produced.
Just as with independent film, before you can find the audience for your projects, you need to find the money to produce them (though I know several marketing execs who might disagree). Brand sponsorship is the current flavor of the month – witness the huge outpouring of love at the recent My Damn Channel premiere for the IKEA-sponsored Easy to Assemble. But Worthen reminded the audience about “the Dr. Horrible model,” where users pay a specific amount per download via services like iTunes. Others have tried a hybrid approach, releasing content for free for a limited window to build buzz before going the transactional route.
Content aggregator Funny or Die is supported by advertising on the site as a whole, as opposed to individual sponsorship for specific videos. Several times throughout the panel, Farah reinforced that FOD does not pay for nor purchase content. The site, which has an in-house production team, does try to help out the groups they’ve formed relationships with whenever they can, letting them use their equipment or throwing a couple hundred bucks their way to secure a location. Ultimately, though, for creators who showcase their work on the site, the rewards are more about being recognized for their efforts than being paid for them.
Farah tells the story of the comedy group Honor Student. Not a lot of people were watching their videos, but as Farah describes it, “The right people were watching.” Funny or Die started making pieces with them, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell loved what they did and eventually some of the group’s material made its way onto FOD’s HBO program. Says Farah, “We can’t offer $100 bucks per video, but we can offer that.”
One of the reasons that FOD doesn’t pay for content is because they feature so many celebrities in their videos. “Everyone has an agent, whether it’s Will or a kid from UCB,” jokes Farah. “If we waited to make a deal for every video we did, we wouldn’t have a site. It would take forever to make our videos.”
This is a predicament with which independent filmmakers are heartbreakingly familiar. There are dozens of stories about celebrated Sundance underdogs that took years of blood, sweat and tears to bring to the big screen due to the eternal process of getting stars attached in order to secure financing. All of the panelists encouraged the audience not to wait, and to take advantage of the low barrier of entry offered by the Internet.
Says Armstrong, “There is currency and compensation in being able to share your work and demonstrating what you’re able to do.” Go out and make the things you are passionate about, and that will lead you to the things you can make money at.
Of course, even when you have a hit series, making money is never simple. Witness the saga of cult-favorite Wainy Days, an official honoree for Best Comedy Series for the 2009 Webby Awards, and winner of the 2008 Webby Awards’ Best Comedy Series as well as the 2009 Streamy Awards’ Best Guest Appearance for Paul Rudd. Stern gave the audience the inside skinny on the ups and downs of getting the series out into the world.
My Damn Channel provided the production budget for Wainy Days. As a result of the series’ popularity, there have been a number of requests to put the episodes out on DVD. However, Wainy Days was shot under the old SAG contract, which stipulated that if they went forward with a DVD, they’d have to pay the actors upfront as though they were doing a feature film. The price tag? Oh, a mere $100,000 or so. Big bucks in the web universe. Wainy Days petitioned SAG to switch over to the new contract, which is based on percentages and is therefore much more affordable, however, the union wouldn’t budge.
Armstrong asked Stern if My Damn Channel had been interested in forking over the $100,000 to cover the costs of the DVD, and Stern said that he didn’t think they’d make enough in sales to cover the investment. He says, “We’d have to sell 20,000-25,000 DVDs. In the independent world, 5000 is a hit.”
SAG sounds like the bad guy in this episode, but Armstrong offered some insight on the Guild’s position. “There’s a lot of paranoia about people being taken advantage of,” she explains. “With magazines folding, brands still have those budgets to spend on ads…and they want to put them on the web. The Guilds want to make sure that if people are getting paid, their members are getting part of that.”
She adds, “It’s a high class problem to say, ‘I now have the money to make something, and now I have to jump through the hoops of the Guild.’ Things changed when digital tools became available and people could make low budget films. SAG responded by coming up with low budget agreements, which they are still adjusting.”
Hopefully in the future, the Guilds will take this lesson from their adventures with independent film and continue to evolve their contracts for web video. As the industry continues to grow and morph, ideally the Guilds will find that sweet contract spot that allows for the pursuing of additional revenue streams while at the same time fairly compensating professional artists.
Over at Fox Digital Studios, crossing the streams (Ghost Busters, anyone?) is now a priority. Worthen says, “We look at the idea and ask if can we have a run on iTunes. FX? Can we get a shout back from Fox Broadcasting Company? Is it an idea that Fox 21 studios may want to produce into a TV show? What are the home entertainment possibilities for VOD, transactional, and traditional DVD?”
It wasn’t always this way for Worthen and his colleagues. He laughs, “Originally, people used to come through and ask ‘What the F is going on here?’ Now, from the very top of this huge conglomerate has come a mandate to make digital work. A homerun for us does well on the web, but also can occupy a number of other windows of opportunities that this conglomerate provides.”
There are still a few dots to connect between making a living as a web content creator and hitting that homerun. Producers Armstrong and Stern freely admitted that their web projects don’t yet pay all the bills, and that they are still – by necessity – active in all parts of the entertainment business, including traditional television. Sometimes their web ventures function as back-door pilots, sometimes they are creative experiments.
Says Farah, “Old Media isn’t going to work forever, but it isn’t gone and broken. It’s breaking down into new things. We’re in this adolescence, so that’s the opportunity to make the things you couldn’t make before, and at the same time, to be developing the things you can’t make without a brand or larger company being involved.”
Tamara Krinsky is an actress, journalist, new media producer and regular contributor to Tubefilter News. She has appeared in web series such as Back on Topps and The Shaman, along with a variety of film, TV & theater projects. As a reporter, she focuses on entertainment, science and tech news. She hosted the weekly tech show THE SPOTLIGHT for TomsGuide.com, was a correspondent for PBS’s WIRED SCIENCE, and was a Webby honoree for the independent film series AT THE FEST, which she produced and hosted. She is currently the Associate Editor of DOCUMENTARY Magazine. In addition to her adventures on camera, Krinsky became intimately acquainted with the business of web video while working for 2.5 years at the entertainment marketing firm Crew Creative, where she strategized and produced online content for clients including the Discovery Channel, TLC, Warner Independent Pictures, Picture People and Overture Films.
Cheers took half a year to become the show we all remember and love. Seinfeld took an entire season to find its groove. New series often need your patience as they figure out what they are, and if you hang in there you might just be rewarded with truly unique programming. New TV shows these days tend to be cancelled before ever firing on all cylinders, but this is the web and we do things a little different here. My experience with The Fast Foodie is a great example.
The Fast Foodie is a comedy mockumentary starring Jerry Duppa (Hannes Phinney), “America’s preeminent fast food journalist.” Each episode follows Jerry, almost always from inside his trusty Volvo, as he scours the streets in search of fast food delicacies to write about on his blog. The series is the creation of writer-producer-director-editor-hyphenate Matthew Bardocz who shares the writing duties with Phinney, and is produced independently on what appears to be a shoestring budget.
I was excited when I first heard the concept. In a world filled with Yelps and Chowhounds, we all know “foodie” types who fetishize Korean BBQ and obsess over where to truly find the country’s best crab cakes, and this seemed like the perfect way to satirize them. But unfortunately the first four or five episodes disappointed me. Sure, Jerry ate lots of fast food, but I didn’t feel the foodie element. He just talked about how he enjoys a McRib (eww) or a Butter Burger (double eww), but not in that elitist nitpicky way in which real foodies boast about how only they know where to find the most authentic fish tacos in the Southwest.
Phinney did a fine job playing the title character and was very believable as a man who spends his life moving from drive-thru to drive thru, but these early scripts weren’t giving him much to sink into. The often feel like Bardocz just pointed a camera at him, said “improvise some stuff about salads” and then tried to edit together the best one-liners (which might just be what actually happened). The production values were on the low end as well, with a single camera in the Volvo’s passenger seat framing the unlit Phinney who was often completely silhouetted by background daylight.
But there were elements I liked too – Jerry’s only human interaction being with drive-thru window clerks, his doctor warning him to stop eating the very fast food he reviews, and Phinney’s acting in general. So I kept watching, and by the time episode 6 (below) rolled around, there was a noticeable jump in quality.
First off, it just looked better. The camera got out of the passenger seat to cover more angles, the silhouetting problem was fixed, and it was assembled more professionally in general. But the biggest improvement was the writing. Episode 6 starts off with Jerry getting a Facebook message from a woman in Canada suggesting he try a north-of-the-border specialty called poutine, which is fries covered in beef gravy and cheese curds. Like a real foodie, Jerry is thrilled by the idea of new and exciting fast food and drives all the way to Canada for a taste. But we soon realize his reasons for such a trek had more to do with meeting up with the woman herself. He leads a lonely life and was hoping for an actual person to connect with. By the end of the episode you really feel sorry for him, hitting that elusive “funny with heart” combination so many shows try for.
Whether or not The Fast Foodie becomes the next Cheers still remains to be seen. But if it keeps on this path, it might just become a web series you look forward to every week. All it needs is your patience.
We’re live streaming, right now, from the October Tubefilter Hollywood Web TV Meetup from Busby’s East! Time to get down and dirty about the future of live streaming web television. Watch as we talk to our panel of live streaming experts, cut through the hype, and drill down on what could be next big trend in web series. We’ll cover:
Watch LIVE now at stickam.com/tubefilter Want to ask the panel a question? Head to the chat room on Stickam or tweet us @tubefilter with the hashtgag #tubefilter.
And one more special thanks to our sponsors for making this event possible and supporting the web series community:
Brady Brim-DeForest, Marc Hustvedt, Jamison Tilsner, Josh Cohen and Drew Baldwin
(Photo by Wm. Marc Salsberry)
Today we have a little news of our own. Ok we didn’t break the story, PaidContent did, but why not hear it again from the source? Tubefilter announced today that it had entered into an agreement to acquireTilzy.TV. The New York-based media company, founded by Jamison Tilsner and Josh Cohen, has been an integral part of the web video scene since early 2007.
This is a new chapter for Tubefilter as a company. We’re bringing onto the team a pair of experienced and passionate co-founders in Josh Cohen and Jamison Tilsner. These guys get it, and share our deep concern for the web creative community. As of today articles from the Tilzy.TV site have been migrated over to Tubefilter News and are now integrated into the site with a decal to indicate articles that were originally published on Tilzy.TV.
Sure, there was a friendly East Coast-West Coast thing between Tubefilter and Tilzy, but at our core we all firmly believe in the same thing—that there’s something monumental happening with the birth of open web entertainment. That’s what brought us together, along with NewTeeVee, to co-host the first ever Streamy Awards this past March.
“Their digital entertainment upfronts this past Spring, the OnFronts, rallied the entire industry—including independent and global online entertainment production companies, brands and agencies—signaling that online entertainment’s future is bright,” said Brady Brim-DeForest, who is taking on the role of the company’s CEO. Plans for the next OnFronts are underway.
Going forward, Tubefilter is now a bi-coastal media company, with offices in Los Angeles and New York. This allows us to expand our operations and with that our News coverage, adding a strong crop of writers with solid backgrounds in web entertainment. And in terms of events, the Web TV Meetups will now be signature events on both coasts, bringing together online creative communities for some quality face time.
So we ask you to join us. For Tubefilter News, keep sending in your tips for web series gems and the stories behind them. We’ll continue charting what is happening in the web series space, delivering insight and analysis of the best original web content. We’re also working on some pretty nifty things coming down the pipe—things that will help solve some of the pain points we’ve noticed while growing with this emerging industry. Here’s to the road ahead.
There’s no question the set-top box market is a crowded one. It’s also a messy one, with conflicting interests with the cable co’s tying up the race to true convergence in our living rooms. But Roku might be pulling off a sneak-around with its next rollout bringing on a whole new crop streaming original web content.
I have one of these scrappy, nondescript $99 boxes sitting on top of my underused Apple TV. So far the Linux-based interface is light, but the real winner has to be its deftly simple clicker. That, and Roku might have found the sweet spot at $99, much less than Netgear’s pricey $179 option.
For the most part, Roku’s swift sales, which were recently quoted in the “multiple hundreds of thousands” of units, are closely tied to the rollout of Netflix’s popular streaming movie service. (It hooked me) The tech inside the box was actually developed by its founder Anthony Wood seven years ago while he was still working at Netflix.
Now the privately held (and profitable) company is adding content partners beyond its initial three—Netfilx, Amazon Video on Demand and MLB.TV—and some notable web series shops are getting front billing. The latest to jump on is online network Revision3, who’s CEO Jim Louderback announced the deal on Friday, even showed off a demo on the latest TekZilla episode (above).
Back in July came word that web series distributor Blip.tv had inked a deal that would send its thousands of web series to Roku boxes. (Disclosure: Blip.tv is a sponsor of the Tubefilter Web TV Meetup) Also joining them on the next upgrade—dubbed The Roku Channel Store—will be Mediafly, MotionBox and even Leo Laporte’s TWiT TV.
As to when exactly this new upgrade will hit the boxes, Roku’s Brian Jaquet said the launch is “very soon,” but didn’t specify a date. So no word whether it will be out in time for Netflix’s first stab at web series, Splatter, which is set for a Halloween debut. With more content, the simplicity factor does stand to wane a bit, but apparently some new personalization tools will help make management of shows to watch a little easier.
“The Roku Channel Store will allow customers to personalize their experience, adding or removing channels as they please,” said Jaquet. “We think this is important as more and more content comes to the Roku. We want customers to have a choice to add or not add channels that they want to take advantage of.”
While now it remains a $99-only option, with no sub fees, the company hasn’t ruled out some extra ads coming into play down the road. “Many of the content owners who are coming to the Roku player already offer ad-insertion on their online offerings and those ads can be brought to the Roku platform in the same way,” Jaquet pointed out. “We are also looking to implement other ad-engines that we can offer content owners or aggregators if they care to take advantage of that.”
Still the switch from one time fee to subscription model, we’ve seen before from DVR maker TiVo. Jaquet pointed to the existing customer subscriptions already in place for MLB.TV and Netflix. “As for a subscription on top of that from Roku to use the Roku player, we don’t see that happening at this time,” said Jaquet.
The race to the living room is still an open field, and with content distributors like Blip.tv and Revision3 making deals directly with OEMs (the TV makers) like Sony and Vizio, it’s not clear how long the need for a set-top boxes will stick around. But seeing as though my two-year old HD plasma is doing just fine, the $99 option sure beats shelling out $2700 for a new Sony Bravia.
Fall Web TV Week is finally here! It kicks off tonight with the October edition of the Tubefilter Hollywood Web Television Meetup in Los Angeles at 7:00 PM. The night gets under way with a special sold-out “Going LIVE!” panel all about live streaming web series streamed LIVE at 7:20 on Stickam and right here on Tubefilter.
And we’ve said it before, but we really can’t say it enough. Thank you to our Meetup sponsors—Ooyala, AMD, Sony Creative Software, Blip.tv and Showbiz Software. AMD wants to show off their new AMD Vision processors and they’re giving away some screaming laptops graphics cards to some lucky Meetup guests. And we have a full Vegas Pro 9 suite from Sony Creative Software to give away too.
Private High Musical’s Taryn Southern..The Guild’sFelicia Day, Jeff Lewis, Sandeep Parikh,Sean Becker and Kim Evey…The Bannen Way creators Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren….Blip.tv founders Mike Hudack and Dina Kaplan…lonelygirl15’s Jessica Rose and Yousef Abu-Taleb…Legend of Neil’s Tony Janning…The Crew’sBrett Register, Craig Frank, Angie Cole and Cathy Baron…EPIC-FU’sZadi Diaz and Steve Woolf….Prom Queen creators Chris McCaleb, Ryan Wise and Douglas Cheney…Saftey Geeks’ Dave Beeler and Tom Konkle…Coin-Op TV’s Robert Welkner and Hailey Bright…EQAL co-founders Greg Goodfried and Miles Beckett…A Comicbook Orange’sCasey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan…The Fine Brothers….Tim Street…This Week in YouTube’sLon Harris..Next New Networks’ co-founder Tim Shey…The Burg’sMatt Yaeger…Elevator’sWoody Tondorf…Harper’s Globe’s Melanie Merkosky…With the Angels’Carly Jones….and many, many more!
Top photo: Jessica Rose, Shanrah Wakefield and Taryn Southern. Photo by Bernie Su.
Today, I am happy to announce that Tubefilter, Inc. has agreed to acquire New York City based web television news and events business, Tilzy.TV, LLC. This is an important day for Tubefilter, and an important day for the web television community. This acquisition not only strengthens Tubefilter’s core competencies as a news and information business, but also positions us to capitalize on the impending period of growth in the online entertainment industry.
Tilzy and its co-founders, Joshua Cohen and Jamison Tilsner, need no introduction. They have been a staple of this community for the past three years — having not only reported on its growth, but also having played an important role in guiding it. Their addition to Tubefilter management, effective immediately, will add considerably to our already strong leadership team.
Since our inception, Tubefilter’s strategy for growth has been to focus on building value through innovation. In the past year, we have worked diligently to build out a content ecosystem for the web television industry through such industry firsts as the Streamy Awards and our Hollywood Web Television events. The addition of Tilzy’s annual Onfronts to our portfolio of properties will ensure that we are best positioned to create value up and down the content food chain.
As we transition into this new phase of growth, our team will continue to expand. In preparation, we are reorganizing management to better play to the strengths of its individual members, to improve operational efficiencies, and to prepare for a robust expansion of our core business offerings. As Tubefilter’s newly appointed CEO, I am proud to introduce the members of our new management team:
Drew Baldwin Senior Vice President, Product
Brady Brim-DeForest Chief Executive Officer
Joshua Cohen Chief Information Officer
Marc Hustvedt SVP & Editor-in-Chief of Tubefilter News
Jamison Tilsner Chief Operating Officer
I am both proud of this team’s past accomplishments, and excited to see what we will accomplish together in the coming year. Over the next few months Tubefilter will launch some exciting new initiatives — as part of that process, we will turn to you, members of the community, for guidance and counsel. I look forward to connecting and engaging with you. Know that our door is always open, our email inboxes only a click away, and our browsers always posed to watch the latest and greatest web television content you send our way.
Congratulations to all of the members of the new Tubefilter team. Here’s to another great year in Web Television,
It’s been sixteen hundred years since people worshiped Greek Gods. So if the only way for them to prevent their extinction was to figure out a way to get the world to believe in them again, how on earth would they go about it? On the internet of course!
Shot mockumentary-style, O-Cast features twelve Olympian gods of Greek mythology broadcasting their new lives as 20-something New Yorkers living in one apartment. Apollo is an androgynous musician who experiments with his immortality. Hades dresses like Frank Sinatra. And Zeus loves hot pockets…metaphorically speaking.
Created and produced by New York University graduates Anne Richmond and Bryan Dechart, Richmond also plays the role of Hestia, the goddess of the Hearth and Bryan is the director for the series. “The cast ended up being a lot of people from NYU,” said Dechart, “but we brought in a few actors from other schools.”
Being at NYU sparked some interesting outside-the-box ideas for funding the series. Said Dechart, “…our first step was to throw the biggest party we could.” “NYU students are constantly holding fundraisers for their directing projects and thesis films at NYU,” added Richmond. The event ended up being a party affectionately called The Olympian Orgy, held at a local bar and lounge donated to the production for free. Attendees were charged $10 at the door and a raffle was held with prizes including pieces of artwork created by the cast and crew as well as season tickets donated by local theatre companies. Richmond had this to say about the success of the event: “at a time when so many people are saying no, we were swimming in a sea of yes and it was really moving.”
Dechart expanded upon the funding of the series. “The first three episodes were funded by the party and by the production company I started with illustrator Cameron Lewis four years ago, FLYbyNIGHT Studios. A smaller percentage came out of pocket and from a few donations. O-Cast is fiscally sponsored by Coyote Laboratory, Inc (founded by O-Cast fight choreographer and Associate Producer, Turner Smith.) Via Coyote, we are now welcoming tax-deductible donations to help pay for rest of Season One. Donation information is available on our website.” Concluded Richmond: “(it is) important to mention that everyone is working for free. It’s a constant process to raise enough money just for the materials needed to make the show happen.”
O-Cast will premiere Monday October 26, 2009. For those in the NYC area, there will be a free premiere screening of the first three episodes on Thursday October 22 at Katra.
Sometimes in life, you meet someone that makes such a fantastic first impression on you that you know you’ll be into any project they bring to the table. And when that person has the talent to back it up and is just generally a great human being, it inspires you all the more. Actor-creator Brendan Bradley is one of those people for me. Having first met Bradley shortly after his relocation from New York to Los Angeles on the set of the short film September 12th, we were reunited on the set of The Legend of Neil, where he played the male fairy alongside Felicia Day (fairy vomit never looked so good!).
So I was more than pleased to hear that Bradley had developed his own series, entitled Squatters. Set in present day Manhattan, the comedy follows the absurd lives of two 20-somethings, Alex Selkirk (played by Erik Scott Smith) and Hank Pitman (played by Bradley). Having become fed up with the hiked-up cost of living, the two have vowed to squat for an entire year.
I was able to sit down and talk with Bradley about his series and he was kind enough to provide Tubefilter with an exclusive clip from the show, featuring Parikh, Smith, and a snowglobe. (see below!)
Tubefilter: What’s the general format and plot of the show?
Bradley: The show was originally scripted as a half hour comedy about two guys in New York City who make a bet to live without an apartment. While looking for a “home” for the show with regular networks, I was encouraged to produce the show on my own as six minute webisodes.
Tubefilter: What was your inspiration behind the show?
Bradley: Living in New York for over six years, I had several experiences being “between places.” At one point, I spent a few nights in a movie theater. I was actually couch surfing when I thought, “there are probably a bunch of other regular dudes technically homeless right now.” The show indulges in the perpetual question, “What if I didn’t have to pay rent?”
Tubefilter: Who did you cast for the series? I know you’ve got The Guild‘s Sandeep Parikh in there. Was this before or after he cast you as the Male Fairy in The Legend of Neil?
Bradley: Uh, yeah. Vomiting on Neil showed me the the full depths of Sandeep’s crass humor. As a director, I really wanted to roll a camera and see just how offensive he could get. We also have Take180’s My Date crush, Brian Ames showing off some hot Mixed Martial Arts moves and ABC Family’s Ryan Sypek being…well, hot and perfect. At the forefront of our ladies is Cooper Harris from this summer’s cult sensation Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus…If you can keep a straight face while a shark eats the golden gate bridge, I want to work with you. While in New York, we also stole Anna Koonin from All My Children and Marty Lodge from the current Broadway revival of Oleanna opposite Julie Styles.
Tubefilter: Was this produced independently or through a production company?
Bradley: My credit card is weeping as you ask that question, if that’s any indication. So far the show has been entirely independent, but the recent discussions of joining forces with another production entity would allow us to sleep more regularly…and maybe restore my credit, maybe.
Tubefilter: Has it been shot yet? How many episodes are you planning and how long?
Bradley: The first three episodes are complete, and we’ve got seven more planned for the season. The second season is already written. It’s been such a blast to shoot, because the point is the guys DON’T have an apartment. So, whereas in so many web series you get stuck every episode in the ubiquitous apartment, our backdrop is New York City … to give you an idea, our pilot opens on the New York City subway!
Tubefilter: What’s the current plan for the show? Looking for advertisers? Product placement?
Bradley: Clearly, fantasizing about not paying rent resonates with a lot of people. We have a lot of enthusiasm from a number of production companies and networks about the project. We’re still exploring all our options – we just want to find the best “home” for our characters.
Keep up-to-date on the news around the series and to learn more about the cast and crew head to the show’s website at squattersseries.com
The week started off with news that web network Revision3 is dipping its foot in the scripted side of the web series pool, snatching up Web Zeroes as its first scripted web series. PG Porn creator James Gunn returned with his latest web series, Humanzee, one that no doubt riles up the Jane Goodall set. It’s offensive, sure, a little too offensive for its original patrons XBox Live and Spike.com. But as web video evangelist Tim Street would say, it succeeds in stirring up those multiple emotions.
Sony’s zombie-com web series Woke Up Dead came out with early numbers yesterday, announcing that it had 1.4 million streams on Crackle.com in just ten days since its premiere. And yet-to-be-released Mercury Men is already getting people worked up in anticipation, releasing a behind the scenes look at the sci-fi series’ production design. It even had us speculating that it might be an early Streamy Awards favorite in that category.
Next week kicks off the fall version of Web Television Week, headlined by the Tubefilter Hollywood Web TV Meetup on Monday. We have been graciously thanking our sponsors—AMD, Ooyala, Sony Creative Software and Blip.tv—who really support the creative web series community that gets bigger every day. Show them some love and find out more about them.
Lots of chatter this week about live web series, but who says scripted series can’t have a little live streaming fun too? The Legend of Neil dropped its season 2 finale (above) yesterday and followed it up with a live chat last night on UStream with the cast that drew over 10,000 total viewers. First watch the episode to see if the show’s involuntary protagonist Neil/Link (Tony Janning) will ever get princess Zelda (Angie Hill) out of the hands of the evil Lord Gannon and his lackey Wizrobe.
Legend of Neil is clearly the online network’s biggest original series hit so far—check out the tagline under the Atom.com logo (right). The Comedy Central owned site is doing their part to market the series, at least in an online fashion, with a series of posts on the site giving fans some behind-the-scenes action like a two–part director’s commentary. An excerpt from Parikh, who also stars as Zaboo on The Guild, adds some color to the remarkably raunchy musical episode (below) starring Felicia Day as the Fairy.
What a night last night—thank you to everyone who made it out to the sold out 
In all over 550 attendees made it out to the Meetup, all buzzing with a renewed energy that brighter times are here for web series. You could feel it and see it in the faces of creators and enthusiasts in the room. Rob Welkner of 
Armstrong kicked off the session with the question, “Who’s actually watching all these videos online?” The general consensus was that while so far the young male demo has dominated, there is an emerging female audience for web content. Panelists cited breakout shows In the Motherhood, an MSN online original that was picked up for broadcast television by ABC, and Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy.
Of course, even when you have a hit series, making money is never simple. Witness the saga of cult-favorite 
Cheers took half a year to become the show we all remember and love. Seinfeld took an entire season to find its groove. New series often need your patience as they figure out what they are, and if you hang in there you might just be rewarded with truly unique programming. New TV shows these days tend to be cancelled before ever firing on all cylinders, but this is the web and we do things a little different here. My experience with 
I was excited when I first heard the concept. In a world filled with 
We’re live streaming, right now, from the October 
“Their 
Being at NYU sparked some interesting outside-the-box ideas for funding the series. Said Dechart, “…our first step was to throw the biggest party we could.” “NYU students are constantly holding fundraisers for their directing projects and thesis films at NYU,” added Richmond. The event ended up being a party affectionately called The Olympian Orgy, held at a local bar and lounge donated to the production for free. Attendees were charged $10 at the door and a raffle was held with prizes including pieces of artwork created by the cast and crew as well as season tickets donated by local theatre companies. Richmond had this to say about the success of the event: “at a time when so many people are saying no, we were swimming in a sea of yes and it was really moving.”
The week started off with news that web network Revision3 is dipping its foot in the scripted side of the web series pool, 
