[Ed. Note: This is a guest article from Break Media’s CEO Keith Richman who spent a little time hunting down some underdogs—the Best Web Videos of 2009 that didn’t break through. Their flagship site Break.com is known for its male-friendly and click-worthy comedy vids, so his list leans a little in that direction. Most are virals, or really not-so-virals, with a few foreign commercials in there, though it’s nice to see a web series make his list.]

The end of the year is a natural time to take stock of the most popular online videos that captivated us all year long. But just because a video is funny, creative, and/or clever doesn’t mean it will automatically become a web sensation. Web video content creators (everyone from college kids in their dorm room to marketers creating branded videos) are learning the hard way that there is a lot that goes into creating a viral video, beyond just putting something good out and hoping for distribution via organic word of mouth. In fact, the surprise viral online hit is increasingly becoming an anomaly, and without a strategic plan in place, even the coolest, and most novel videos online will have difficulty achieving blockbuster numbers.

To illustrate this, I’ve compiled a list of a few of the top videos posted online this year that I think could have been much bigger hits. Why didn’t these videos go viral? It’s simple: no distribution. If you’re a web video content creator, producer, director, or publisher, you need to consider distribution and marketing for your video as the essential way to gain visibility online. So what does that mean? Well, first of all it’s important to make sure your video is placed on the destination site(s) that will reach your target audience. Decide if it’s best to post it first on a niche site where you know your video will be well-received, or if it’s better to take a broader distribution approach (usually it’s the former). Know the correct channels that will target an aggregated audience of loyal followers, especially if your video is the first installment in what will be a recurring web series.

And yes, social media is part of the equation. Determine which social media platforms you are going to use to plug your video. Twitter and Facebook are obvious but effective choices. Marketing will be a key component to making sure your video gains traction online.

Here is a collection of original videos, branded videos, and user-generated videos from across the Web that make my list of “the best videos of 2009 that nobody ever saw”:

• Johnnie Walker (280k views)- “The Man Who Walked Around The World” is an online video gem, in that it is rare to see something as high quality as this on the Internet that really works. And this does—it’s got all of the elements and quality you expect to see on TV or film, packaged in a Web clip.

• CrazyDomains.com Ad Featuring Pamela Anderson (12k views)-Pamela Anderson, bubble bath? What’s not to like?!

• Bondi Beach Gets Flipped (340k views)-This branded content video created by Flip Camera has a great energy to it—you just can’t take your eyes off of it.

• Raisin Bran Reformed Alien (143k views)- Raisin Bran created a really funny and clever branded content video, narrated by alien Miles Melman. The alien featured here is reminiscent of the Geico Gecko—someone (or should I say “something”) unlikely takes on very human characteristics.

• Bouncy Ball Flash Mob (15k views) is a childlike clip. While Flash mobs are getting kind of tiring online, this video offers a really creative take that differs from the norm.

• Cult Raw Energy Unrated (warning: NSFW) is a hilarious clip that truthfully represents what men do.

• Old Friends is a good sketch comedy series that hones in on something everyone can relate to—bumping into the one college friend you never want to see again. Its success at capturing something familiar and relatable is why it makes this list.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Comedy, Guest Editorial by Guest Author
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Here comes the battle for mobile web series viewing, and Dailymotion today lobbed its two-pronged attack on the field with its new iPhone and iPod touch application. The French-based video site is popular in several countries, and fittingly the app is available in 9 different languages—English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek. There are 14 themed channels like “Funny,” “College,” “Gaming” and “Travel” which sort out the site 12 million videos that have been made available for mobile viewing. Amongst the featured videos today are a handful of web series like TempsMort.tv, Legend of Neil and Compulsions.

Dailymotion supported iPhone viewing since early 2007 via the phone’s built-in Safari browser, but now the navigation and organization of what to watch just got a lot more manageable. Users will also have the choice of two versions—a free, ad-supported one and an ad-free premium app available for $5.99.

The best feature from a web video creator’s point of view is the ability to record video from the iPhone (if you have a 3GS) and upload directly to your Dailymotion account. So far none of the other major video sites have built in this feature yet. Also in the announcement today is word of upcoming news in 2010 for further distribution of the site’s video content “across all three major screens.”

Another European video site, Babelgum, has also making waves in the States lately building out its curated channels of web series offerings. Babelgum’s free iPhone app (see right) has been on the market for about a year, and isn’t as slick or intuitive as Dailymotion’s new app. The opening screen defaults to a clunky jumble of thumbnail clips (that rearrange when the iPhone is shaken). The bright sides are the exclusive they have on Funny or Die videos for mobile, as part of a two-year deal announced back in July.

Babelgum also built the iPhone app for MetaCafe, another French video site that gets some occasional play with US users. Its app also suffers from the gimmicky thumbnail interface however.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Marc Hustvedt
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Ok, the headline we actually borrowed from the show’s own logline, which sums it up pretty well—”It’s like an all-you-can-eat Corvette buffet!” Vette Garage, a new indie reality web series obsessed with everything Corvette, and the people that make them even faster than they already are.

The series is niche, sure, and so are the companies it features, like Utah-based performance parts maker Pfadt Race Engineering which makes custom mods for racers and Corvette junkies looking to soup up their rides. The first three episodes of Vette Garage, which premiered in late November, center around the Pfadt team as they prep for the annual SEMA Show.

Shot in HD, the images are crisp, professionally cut and skillfully mixed so we pick up the office chatter and phone calls we’d expect from modern docu-reality format. “You eliminate the need for a lot of that negative camber, because those bushings deflect so much you lose a full degree of camber just in bushing deflection,” says Pfadt’s CEO and chief engineer Aaron Pfadt on the phone with a vendor. Bushing deflection? Yes, this series doesn’t dumb it down for the layman. You instead have to come up to its level if you’re going to keep up. And for most self respecting Corvette lovers, that’s inevitably the appeal.

It’s a low budget shoot nonetheless, and funding for each 10-minute episode was cobbled together by the show’s creator Patrick Gamm and his producer Daniel Bowler. Still they manage to deliver a compelling behind-the-scenes look at “famous (and not-yet-famous) Corvette shops, customizers, race teams, restorers, tuners, manufacturers, and rising stars in the Corvette world,” as Gramm puts it.

“We are documenting their reality and telling their story. And, when the cameras roll, whatever happens, happens.” Gramm adds, “A lot of companies are doing some pretty cool and amazing things for the Corvette world, but few would ever know if it weren’t for us filming it.”

For distribution, Gramm and his team went pretty wide, hitting most of the major web video sites like YouTube, blip.tv and Dailymotion. There’s also a few niche greasemonkey sites they went out to like Streetfire.Net and Cardomain. And taking a nod from other niche web series, it’s cozied up to fan forums like DigitalCorvettes, where Vette-heads have been chatting up each of the three episodes out so far. They’ve even cut in a brief 30-second ad spot in the middle of the episodes.

Back in the early days of online network Next New Networks, Gramm actually had a similar series with NNN called Vette Dogs that ran for 18 episodes back in 2006-2007. The series was a little rougher, and seemed to spend more time inside the cars than the reality show format of Vette Garage. Gramm also had a follow-up web series, sticking to what he knows, Vette Girl: An American Adventure in 2008 that is planning a return in 2010.

Filed under: Articles, blip.tv, Channels, Featured, News, Reality, Web Series, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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Dallywood, beyond my original conception, is not at all about dallying. After all, buddiesJeff Hoferer (also the creator) and Bryan Massey are far too busy checking their IMDB Star Meters, psyching each other up before auditions (and then consoling each other), or staring at their vision board to be wasting any time. It took me a while to figure this out, but the physical location where the budding actors are not dallying isn’t in Hollywood, it’s in Dallas (hence the name). They’re kings of their own backyard scene, big fishes in a presumably little acting pond.

Hoferer and Massey (both keep their real names for their characters, presumably to keep their Star Meters churning) bond over auditions and bookings in an industry lingo that sounds familiar, but I’m guessing has its own Texas twang. They, of course, lack the post-pubescent charm of Clark and Michael, and the wisdom, bitterness, and writing chops of the Easy to Assemble crowd (both among many series with interior nods to the machine that is the entertainment industry).

Another thing that Dallywood lacks is funny. Hoferer himself seems to have inadvertently put it best when, in episode 4, after listening to buddy/neighbor Massey recount a bogus love anecdote involving a cupcake and a femme banal, he begins to hang himself from an IKEA plastic chair.

Okay, that’s probably a bit too harsh. Dallywood does have its moments. In episode 2’s ‘STARmeter,’ after Massey catches Hoferer with a tissue box and moisturizing lotion in front of the computer, he runs through the usually rote and overplayed list of self-congratulatory euphemisms, and scores nicely with ‘crisping your Glover.

Their latest installment, ‘Best Actor in Texas‘ really starts to gain some traction. This is thanks to arch enemy Roger Bottoms (he of the “#1 Actor in Texas” t-shirt), who steals the show and gets things hopping (he’s played by Massey, but credited as Bottoms). Wearing a cowboy hat and a bristly chopped brush of a blond mustache, Bottoms pumps up the intensity. First in the audition waiting room – alongside Massey on the couch in touch of flawless screen editing – and subsequently as Bottoms and Massey mano a mano in the studio, competing for the same stunt role.

And it’s here that Dallywood finds its pace. In its heart it wants to go slapstick. And when it comes to stunts, Massey knows his stuff. Just check out his IMDB page.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Comedy, Web Series by Michael Shaw
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Ok, it’s Friday before the holidays, and this is admittedly an innocuous story we’ve been following, but ever since the news of YouTube star Fred’s first full length feature film—Fred: The Movie—getting made, we’ve been hooked. Like which name actor they are casting to play Fred’s dad. Even the New York Times decided to jump on the Fred movie bandwagon with an in-depth look earlier this month. We did learn that “budding British singer and actress” Pixie Lott  co-stars.

And what to our wondering eye did appear on craigslist last night, but news that there’s a yard sale in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood on Sunday for props, set dressing and costumes from the film’s shoot this fall. We’ll probably get up early on Sunday (7 AM start) and attend this, if only to talk to some die hard Fred fans in the flesh. We will try to get some of these fans on the record, perhaps on video, for your enjoyment.

Also for your amusement, we’ve included Fred’s official “Christmas is Creepy” music video (above) which blew past 3 million views this month. The four-track album is available on iTunes and features another popular single “Christmas Cash.”

Fred star Lucas Cruikshank is also attached to star in Emo Boy alongside Jaime King in the movie based on the comic book series from Steve Emond. If you feel like wagering on the success of Fred: The Movie, it’s already trading over at Hollywood Stock Exchange. Today’s quote: $14.22 (up$.13 today), which is off slightly from it $15 “IPO” on November 25th.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Fred, News, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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Quick Clicks – web series and web video bit from around the internet today…

American Idol co-creator Simon Fuller is prepping a reality web/TV hybrid series with Hulu called If I Can Dream, which will follow three aspiring actors, a model and a musician trying to make it in Hollywood. Hulu will stream new episodes each week exclusively on its site when it launches in early 2010. MySpace, Pepsi and Clear Channel are also involved in the project. [THR, NewTeeVee]

Break Media, which owns popular video site Break.com along with a slew of other male-focused sites, announced a partnership with VOD platform Clearleap via the Clearleap’s Content Marketplace, making selected videos and web series available to cable and IPTV providers for their VOD offerings. [Break Media Blog]

Anyone But Me launched the much awaited second season to their web drama, with the help of promos from celebs Zachary Quinto, Liza Weil and Eric Stoltz. The season’s opening ep “The Real Thing” (below) see Vivian and friends dealing with a day of “unexpected encounters” in New York. [AnyoneButMeSeries.com]

Ashton Kutcher’s cancelled CW show The Beautiful Life: TBL has found new life online, as Katalyst has scored HP as a sponsor and released the rest of the season on YouTube. There were only five episodes done (and two aired) when it got the axe, but Katalyst plans to air all five. “What we feel like we’re doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first,” Kutcher told Reuters. “A show that couldn’t find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web.” [MTV.com]

The Legend of Neil, the gamer comedy web series from creator Sandeep Parikh and Atom.com, is making the web syndication rounds with Season 2 scoring a front page skin on Dailymotion this week as part of their Zelda movie Hero of Time promotion. [Dailymotion]

Got something for Quick Clicks? Shoot them over to tips[at]tubefilter.tv

Filed under: Anyone But Me, Articles, Channels, Hulu, News, Production Companies, Quick Clicks, The CW, The Legend of Neil, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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This has been an exciting year of achievements for the Web series industry, from the first Streamy Awards dedicated to recognizing excellence in original online entertainment to exciting new series developed by talented independent producers, resource-rich traditional entertainment studios, and Internet TV channels that also produce original content.

As we draw to the close of 2009, an opportunity has arrived that will give Web series content producers another  distribution channel for greater audience discovery and revenue opportunity – Video on Demand (VOD).

Perfect Storm
A Perfect Storm is converging around VOD that can be a win for all concerned (especially the audience), but only if thoughtful strategies are implemented now to ensure its success moving forward. In a nut shell:

• Discovery will be simplified through VOD for consumers who still prefer to watch their entertainment on a TV set (and let’s face it – many do).

• Popular Web series in the online world like The Guild, After Judgment, Dr. Horrible and others will make their debut to a significantly larger audience.

• Though there is a generational gap in awareness about Web series (also tied to level of geekiness), there is a shared appreciation for quality entertainment content.

• A VOD revenue model for content creators, who deserve to be rewarded for their quality content.

In order to take advantage of this opportunistic moment, the Web TV industry should consider recommending industry standards to VOD partners for how audiences can best discover the “Web Series” category and individual shows. This would include suggestions such as what the On Demand Menu should be (such as a “Web Series” menu button) to category strategy (should audiences be able to search Web Series by genre (e.g., Comedy, Drama) or channel (e.g. Revision3, blip.tv) or both? Recommended industry standards would certainly simplify audience discovery—which is what we all want!

The VOD Landscape
There are a growing number of choices for consumers to watch streamed Internet content on their TV sets, through game consoles such as Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox, to Blu-ray players, traditional broadcast cable boxes and not-so-traditional Internet streaming set-top boxes. Why some folks have been predicting the death of the set-top box is baffling given the market reach potential for original online entertainment. What matters now is how Web series can get in on these developments to expand the industry’s audience reach.

Following is a very brief snapshot of some of the activities happening at the moment.

Cable Set-top Boxes
Have you noticed how long the On Demand menu is growing when you press Channel 1? Here’s what’s going on and how two of the major cable companies are presenting their On Demand menus for us to find our favorite shows – and soon, Web series.

• Time Warner Cable: I have Time Warner cable in Los Angeles and now have to press the down page button to see all of my options. The most noticeable arrival this year was the “Prime Time” VOD channel, where TV series from some traditional broadcasters and select cable channels are listed by the channel’s brand, with their respective shows available for viewing when clicking though. The window for episode updates is typically one week from the first time broadcast, though sometimes it’s longer.

• Comcast Cable: Alternatively, Comcast in the Bay Area offers a VOD “TV Series” channel on their VOD menu, with the following sub-channels available when you click through: HD, All TV Series, Now on TV and Season Catch. When you click on “All TV Series” the show titles appear in alphabetical order by indexed alphabetical categories (i.e. A-F) to then scroll through.

And don’t forget satellite program distributors DirectTV and DISH Network who also require set-top boxes and have their own menu content and design for show discovery.

Internet Streaming Set-top Boxes
This is where the action is right now. Exciting new content deals have been announced over the past few months in the emerging Internet streaming set-top box category. Most talked about in this category are Roku for their Roku Players and newcomer Boxee, with their newly announced first set-top box due out in Spring 2010.

• Boxee: Boxee recently previewed a beta of their first set-top box being manufactured by D-Link, which will be available in Spring 2010. They have a loyal following of Web-based users and are looking to extend their brand to audiences that also want the choice to watch their favorite shows on a big screen TV. (See our coverage of the launch event.)

• Roku Player: Over the past few months Roku has announced exciting content deals to create VOD “channels” with the likes of Revision 3, Pandora, Blip.tv and others for streaming through its Roku Players, in addition to their movie content streaming for Netflix and Amazon. They have a line of three boxes to choose from, depending on your budget and whether you want HD and/or Wi-Fi features.

HDTV Sets Pre-Loaded With VOD Channels?
That’s right! Look for new Internet-ready TV sets to come with bundled VOD channels offering up their selected programs for streaming. This is similar to the bundling strategy software companies maximize with computer manufacturers. Here are a few TV manufacturers dabbling in this right now:

• Vizio has been busy cutting content deals with distributors for branded pre-loaded VOD channels for their high end VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA) connected HDTVs. These will be available soon. Viewers will be able to watch VOD channels for Revision3, Showtime, Pandora, Vudu, Netflix, Blockbuster OnDemand, Amazon Video On Demand and Rhapsody – so far. Some will require a fee. And you can access your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and the Yahoo Widgets Engine.

• Sony’s BRAVIA W Series of HDTVs also offers VOD streaming to selected channels including over 20 providers including Amazon Video On Demand, YouTube, Sports Illustrated, Sony Pictures, Sony Music, Slacker and Epicurious.com.

• Samsung is also in the game and was one of the first to introduce Yahoo widgets on an Internet-connected TV. It’s unclear what their content partnership strategy is for Web series, though they do have a number of content partners.

Look for more consumer electronic manufacturers to do integration deals with Internet TV Web sites and individual content creators for pre-loaded VOD channels over the coming year as we watch more TV sets morph into computers with Internet connections.

Tubefilter News will be covering these and other new ways you’ll be able to view your favorite Web series from the annual 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

Filed under: Articles, Devices, Industry, News by Pam Kulik
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[Ed: This is the latest installment of our new weekly web series critic column Pass The Mustard. No sugar coating, no doublespeak, no hand holding. Just brutally honest reactions from one guy: Ned Hepburn. We’ll throw a handful of web series at him each week. Agree, disagree, love him, hate him, but please don’t punch him. Got something clever to say in retort? Leave a comment below. He’ll probably read it and embarrass you later. His opinions are his own, so take them or leave them. See last’s week’s column here.]

So this week, I got sent four shows. And I learned a lot about myself, and hopefully you’ll learn a lot about you. And then we can all learn a lot about each other. Say it with me: Friendship.

Also, I pan four web shows. I didn’t even mean to! That’s just what I got sent! So there’s that. Enjoy!

Love Pop Trash
Friends. Romans. Countrymen. What do I think about this? What do I indeed think about this. Is it good? Sort of. Is it bad? Kind of. I watched all of the episodes in the time it would talk to make most people to make microwave dinner, which I think is the fault of this show. How do you build a narrative in two minute episodes? They have character here, but nothing I can damn follow. God dammit. I’ve had whippits that have lasted longer than this thing. With a little more push on story, this could go further, especially the narrative between the mall cops. Other than that, it doesn’t hold my attention any longer than I remember this computer is also a machine I can view porn on.

The Facehunter Show

I LOVED BRUNÖ. Oh wait this isn’t Brunö. This is a guy with a bow tie doing a similar thing. This is giving me a headache. I can’t get into it. It’s mind numbingly pretentious, but, like how I like, I at least appreciate the fact that it knows that. Other than that it’s just awkward. I remember this guy’s original blog – when he wasn’t talking – and I enjoyed it a lot more then. I just can’t get into him talking.

Listen, I hate to shit on web shows – I really do. But this encapsulates the kind of vanity project that turns so many viewers off. Are you going for anything other than the 250 people that might “tooootally” get this show, Francois McCameraFace? This might appeal to the NYLON crowd, and for that, TADA.wav, I salute it. It might appeal to you if you can tell your Wintour from you windbreaker, other than that, I had to turn it off after two plays.

Sperm’s World

OH BOY. Really? Is this what you’re giving me this week? A web show about a sperm?

No. Capital N. Let’s just pretend I didn’t watch this. I liked this better when it was called Family Guy and it was the year 2003. Yawnsville.

Mommy XXX

Now, I like porn. And I like web videos. And I like porn web videos. And out of the four that I got screened this week, this was the most watchable. This is the most “episodic” web show I’ve seen, and wouldn’t be out of place on a (slow) night on A&E. (That being said, have you ever been to what we Los Angelenos call “The Valley”? This is that show. This is The Valley in a show. If you live in the area code and understand how blah-zay ‘the valley’ can get, you might understand how this show fundamentally is; as in, it’s a million fucking miles from Shakespeare).

I’ll put it this way. It’s like an Errol Morris documentary that I didn’t learn anything and Philip Glass was out to lunch. It’s aiming for greatness but seems to stop at the mall before it gets the library to learn anything. If they eased up on the “Gshaw! We’re filming a porn star!” thing, they might have something. It tries to be a popcorn show when it would serve better as an actual case study. Really, trust me. It’s close to brilliance, but shoots for schamltz. Why does it do that? Irony is a dead scene, friend-o.

Got a show you want to throw mercilessly at Ned? Email tips[at]tubefilter.tv

Filed under: Articles, Pass the Mustard, Reviews, Web Series by Ned Hepburn
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Battelstar Galactica’s follow up prequel series Caprica has pushed out their full pilot online (above) before its series premiere Jan 22nd on SyFy, and it reminds us that this may not be the only time the show flirts with web viewers. Streamy Award winner Jane Espenson is behind the series, along with fellow Battlestar writer Ronald Moore.

Tubefilter’s Drew Baldwin spoke with creator and Executive Producer David Eick ealier this year at the Caprica premiere screening at PaleyFest09, and asked whether we can expect a Caprica web series, he said, “it’s a possibility.”

Arguably, this isn’t much to go on. It’s probably just a good excuse to show our readers the Caprica extended 90-minute pilot. Battlestar did release a well-received web companion series—The Face of the Enemy—which picked up a Streamy last year, so this wouldn’t be new ground for this group. We do hear that SyFy is looking to build out more web-only series for its site, and this might be a natural fit. Alessandra Torresani, Eric Stoltz and Esai Morales star in the TV series, and who knows if they would be involved in the companion web series.

Filed under: Articles, News, Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi Channel by Marc Hustvedt
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The Guild season 3 may be wrapped, but that didn’t stop the hit show from celebrating one of its favorite holidays, Christmas. For those that remember, last year’s ‘The Guild Christmas Carol Raid’ made our favorite holiday videos list.

This year they have taken it up a notch (or six) with an interactive YouTube video adventure of sorts, showing off their latest faux merchandising. The full set of six parody commercials, “The Guild Sells Out” hit the interwebs today. The videos were written and directed by special effects artists Greg Aronowitz, who crafted the oversized avatar weapons and props for The Guild’s viral megahit Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? music video. The Guild’s Felicia Day and Kim Evey produced the videos.

While I wish the toys themselves were actually for sale—like the Codex Answer Orb — the commercials do promote something fans can buy, the Season 1 & 2 DVDs on Amazon and those trendy Guild t-shirts on Jinx.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, News, Production Companies, The Guild, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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Well that was it, the last Hollywood Web TV Meetup of 2009—nay—the last Tubefilter Meetup of the decade! As an industry, we’ve come a long way since our first Meetup at Blankspaces back in summer of 2008, when Tubefilter was a fledgling startup trying to bring attention together this active and growing web community.

Since the launch of the 2010 Streamys website yesterday afternoon,there have already been thousands and thousands of submissions from around the world. Attendance at the Meetup was fantastic, and over 13,000 viewers tuned into the live stream at Stickam—last night was truly a testament to the fact that this industry and community has really come into its own. And you all are a piece of that, so congratulations.

Tim Street, a longtime supporter of the web series community and Tubefilter (see the blundering guerilla interview of me he took at that first Hollywood Web TV Meetup), reinded us to “savor this moment in time,” and made an inspiring call to action for web series creators to join the International Academy of Web Television (the IAWTV), the voting body behind the Streamy Awards, and who just announced its Board of directors and new Chairman, Michael Wayne of DECA. For those of you interested in shaping the Streamy Awards and the future of web television, please apply to the IAWTV.

Before kicking off the panel, our CEO Brady Brim-DeForest introduced an exclusive preview of Sony Crackle’s upcoming action packed The Bannen Way (sorry live viewers, you had to be at the Meetup to see it!) and then the official trailer, which by all accounts looked phenomenal. Creators Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren truly outdid themselves, and it showed. As Editor-in-Chief Marc Hustvedt asked the enthusiastic crowd during the panel, “can you believe that was a web series?”

Watch the video of the full panel discussion below:

One big last minute surprise was the addition of Larry Tanz, the newly named (like 2nd day on the job new) President of Vuguru, former Disney chairman Michael Eisner’s web production studio. Sony Pictures Television’s SVP of Digital Networks Eric Berger also weighed in on the panel from the studio’s side on the panel. And as expected, Chris McCaleb and a wise-cracking Ryan Wise from web TV powerhouse Big Fantastic had plenty of stories to share from working on studio web series. The trailer for Prom Queen: The Homecoming, which debuted at the Meetup having not even been seen by the Vuguru, was killer, to say the least.

Here are some photos from the event which you can add to through the Hollywood Web TV Meetup group pool on Flickr. Thanks to all who made it out and watched online. Happy holidays and here’s to 2010!

Special thanks again to Stickam.com for supporting and producing the live stream of the Meetup!

Filed under: Action, Articles, Crackle, Hollywood Web Video Meetup, Interviews, Live Streaming, News, Web Series by Drew Baldwin
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Next New Networks officially announced their “Next New Creators” program today, which works with upstart indie web series and brings them into the NNN mix in a slightly less formal way than some of the network’s originally developed shows. The 4 year-old online TV network—which is really a family of channels like Barely Political, Threadbanger, Indy Mogul, and Channel Frederator—had been working with a select group of shows over the past year in non-exclusive fashion.

Auto-Tune the News, the breakout musical satire series from the Gregory Brothers, is probably the most notable of the early crop of shows to come out of the program, grossing over 35 million views on YouTube and other sites. Other web series like those that were tapped for NNN’s new foodie site, Hungry Nation, were also in the program including Daniel Delaney’s street food escapes on Vendr.TV and Max and Rebecca Lando’s Working Class Foodies and LushLife NY’s 12 Second Cocktails. For Grace Randolph’s Beyond the Trailer (above), the company chose to roll it into their established Indy Mogul channel which averages a reported 3 million views a month. From the partnership, the show itself surpassed 500,000 views a month according to NNN’s numbers.

Essentially the program lets shows that are getting a footing on their own take the next step by plugging into the company’s vast distribution and marketing apparatus. Key partnerships like featured placements on YouTube and Yahoo can help fasttrack undiscovered shows into broader audiences. The have an open submission form on the site for creators to apply for the program, which they say is a non-exclusive partnership. “Next New Creators’ brings creator-owned content into our online TV networks with simple, creator-friendly deal structures,” they wrote on site.

We asked Kathleen Grace of Next New Networks what kind of shows their were looking for. Grace herself is an indie web creator having crafted hipster comedy The Burg and indie rock tale The All-For-Nots with her Dinosaur Diorama partner Thom Woodley.

We’re looking for creators with promise. People that are building their audience, have an outstanding idea or talent and can produce consistently. We’re looking for shows that can match some of our current networks or networks we’re hoping to launch. MovieBuzz with Peter Rallis is a great example. He compliments Grace Randolph’s Beyond the Trailer and has shown he has the tenacity for web video. It’s a tough game. He’s really has honed his voice and built a fan base. I love that with the addition of Peter Rallis Indy Mogul has become a place where you can see the life of a movie from start to finish. From production with Erik, to the upcoming releases and news with Peter, to interviews with young filmmakers with Bobby (and now Sundance!) and finally, reviews with real movie goers with Grace. From soup to nuts we’re covering the art and the industry of movies. I hope to have more of a spectrum like that across our networks and in our future networks. I am also looking to build networks that dovetail with our current roster. Looking at the success of Threadbanger, one of the biggest fashion/style brands online, I want to grow our style brand with a street fashion network. And with this year’s successful launch of Barely Digital, I want to get into video gaming.

And what about scripted web series, are you looking for those too?

I know Next New Networks was built on what are considered “non-scripted” formats, but with shows like Nite Fight, Tech Know, and Bobby Miller’s Reel Good Show we’ve been doing it more and more. Also all of our shows tell a story beyond the simple “how to” or showcasing awesome animation. That is what makes NNN unique- we look for and foster creators who can entertain while doing a how to, showcasing animation, cooking a dish, or briefing you on the latest in cars. Erik Beck shows you how to make a fake tongue, but also follows it up with an original short starring Matthew Fox. So yes, I think with the right talent, mix of interactivity, and if the show resonates with our audience we’re interested. I would be interested to see if someone could come up with a great interactive series that stretches what is traditionally defined as scripted narrative.

SF-based online network Revision3 tried a somewhat similar tactic with its “Revision3 Beta” program last year which was supposed to incubate series that might make the jump to its main network lineup. While the site is still up, there haven’t been any shows make it from Beta to the main lineup. We spoke to Revision3 today that confirmed the program is inactive. They did mention that some of the creators that participated did in fact go on to land jobs in the web video industry from the exposure.

Filed under: Articles, Auto-tune The News, Channels, Hosted, News, Next New Networks, Web Series, Yahoo!, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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