Archive for May, 2011:

EQAL Looks for Celebs, Brands, $3.5 Million in Funding

Almost four years after Bree’s death on Lonelygirl15, the creators of one of the most engaging and popular original web series endemic to the YouTube generation are no longer producing video.

EQAL co-founders Miles Beckett (CEO) and Greg Goodfried (President) have long since abandoned serialized dramas in favor of building online communities around already established household brand names and entertainment properties. They devoted a portion of the $5 million in Series A funding the company raised back in 2008 to accomplish those community-building efforts (the other part of the cash was used to develop a technology platform and finance some of EQAL’s last web serials). Now, EQAL is raising more cash to build more online communities even better.

Based on recent SEC filings, Techcrunch reports the media company is looking to raise $3.5 million (of which, it’s raised $649,994 so far). I caught up with Beckett over e-mail to try to get more info about the funding round. I was moderately successful. While Beckett wouldn’t disclose who’s investing (in 2008 investors included Spark Capital, Ron Conway, Marc Andreessen, Georges Harik, Michael Parekh, Conrad Riggs, Scott Banister, and Cyan Banister) or EQAL’s revenue, he did talk about EQAL’s mission and trajectory:

EQAL has come a long way in the past 2 years. We having shifted from producing video content to creating highly engaged online communities for celebrities and brand. We are taking scattered audience from across the web and unifying them within these online communities.

Current celebrities and brands for which EQAL is creating those online communities include, but is not limited to Paula Deen, Randy Jackson, Alicia Silverstone, Alison Sweeney, Lauren Conrad, Chelsea Kane, Taye Diggs, Elle & Blair Fowler, Michelle Phan, Kraft, Walgreens, HauteLook, and Smart Balance.

And a fun fact for all those still living in and/or nostalgic for the Breeniverse. The news about EQAL’s new raise comes almost exactly five years to the date after the first LG15 video was uploaded to YouTube.

LIVE Now: Hollywood Execs Discuss Social Media and Online Brand Building

For those of you who get the Tubefilter Reload, our events newsletter (sign up here) you’ll notice all the exciting partner events we’re promoting.

We’ve teamed up with the Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors, a prestigious Hollywood alliance of television and new media content creators to present a panel this morning entitled “Social Media for Content Creators: Engaging new audiences to grow your show, your business, and your brand.”

We’ll be live streaming the panel from the Beverly Hills Hotel on the Tubefilter Stickam page:

Video chat by Stickam.com

The panel is moderated by Sharon Waxman, Founder, CEO & Editor-and-Chief of The Wrap and features the following speakers (from left to right):

Sharon Waxman – Moderator
Curt Marvis – President, Digital Media, Lionsgate
Lori Dicker – Senior Vice President, Digital Media Innovation with Moxie/Zenith Media
David Luner – EVP Interactive & Consumer Products, FremantleMedia Enterprises
Sallie Olmsted – Executive Vice President, Convergence, Rogers and Cowan
Doug Shwartz, Producer and Writer of Soul Surfer

A stellar lineup that should make for a great conversation. Enjoy! (Disclaimer: As the Chair of the New Media Committee on the Caucus, I served on the panel committee for this event.)

Dr. Drew, ‘Loveline’ Web Series Picked Up by AOL

Had my parents never subjected me to objectively uncomfortable discussions about the anatomical differences between men and women and the basics of human copulation, I would’ve still had a perfectly normal, perfectly healthy childhood with a full understanding of the idiosyncrasies of knockin’ boots. That’s because I listened to Loveline.

The nationally syndicated call-in radio program with a mandate to offer candid medical and relationship advice to listeners whose sexual deficiencies run the gamut of your imagination functioned as the moral and behavioral compass of my adolescence. Whatever Dr. Drew Pinsky and Adam Corolla said in straightforward diagnoses or colorful metaphors I took for gospel. And I think it kinda worked out!

The Loveline hosts’ understanding, concern, and acceptance of the wide array of human conditions, all while keeping their entertainer hats on, is palpable. You can hear it yourself (for a small fee) by exploring the Loveline archives or, in the near future, by clicking over to Aol.

Andrew Wallenstein at Variety reports the internet portal is adding the radio show to its online video programming lineup. Excerpts from the Dr. Drew and now Mike Catherwood hosted Loveline “will be captured on camera and mixed with humorous animated segments re-enacting predicaments by the show’s callers.” Think Doogtoons or The Ricky Gervais Show, except with live action components and sex, drugs, and relationship centric.

No word yet on when you’ll be able to catch the Loveline original series online, but we’ll keep you posted. Until then, mahalo.

Boyz II Men Sings ‘Chocoloate Rain’ with Tay Zonday

Martin Sargent was an early historian of all things online ephemera. From ZDTV‘s Screen Savers and Unscrewed to Revision3’s Infected, Web Drifter, and finally Internet Superstar, Sargent’s menage of comedy, talk, and variety programming explored the intersection of the internet, technology, and pop culture’s underbelly. He searched deep inside the crawlspace of the memetic web to find and deliver web gems (like the real-life Peter Pan and that elementary schooler saying hey to his future GF) to the unsuspecting masses who weren’t even aware phenomenon like this existed.

But since Sargent left the biz, there’s been one individual who has carried the torch of weird into the the dark corners of the internet and emerged with entertaining and enlightening results. That individual is the star of Tosh.0.

Comedian Daniel Tosh has played the role of host on his near-eponymous Comedy Central series since June 2009. The program does what Sargent always did except with better graphics and a bigger budget. That includes visiting an all growns up Nintendo 64 Kid, to saying hey to the Boom Goes the Dynamite Guy, to setting up Tay Zonday with a soulful crew of backup singers to remix the song he sings when he’s not stepping away from the mic to breath, Chocolate Rain.

Tosh got Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman, and Wayna Morris – aka Boyz II Men – to accompany Zonday on the best/only official iteration of the song that made Zonday an online sensation since he filmed that Dr. Pepper commercial.

It’s certainly not any kind of web redemption for not becoming Paris Hilton’s BFF, but the internet gets a new tune, Zonday gets to dress in his Gatsby whies alongside one of the most famous R&B groups of all-time, and Tosh gets a big congratulations form the internet for making it all happen.

5 Takeaways from the Digitour

Six million subscribers, one billion combined views: last Wednesday The Digitour came to the Tubefilter Meetup, and they brought it. Hard.

Live stream views topped 55,000 on Tubefilter’s Stickam page during the panel, as viewers connected to the live chat through the Tubefilter Twitter feed.

Web superstars and Digitour performers Dave Days, DeStorm, and MysteryGuitarMan, along with Executive Producer Sarah Evershed of The Cloud Media, shared insights learned from the tour, the highs and lows, lessons learned and surprising successes.

You can watch the complete panel discussion below, but here are some highlights:

  • Lawrence, Kansas boasted the biggest turnout with the wildest fans
  • Cash sales were high, as younger fans lined up to buy tickets with their allowance money
  • Attendees ranged from toddlers to the elderly
  • Collaboration and cross-promotion was as crucial to success on stage as it is online
  • Converting an online audience isn’t automatic—performers had to hit the streets and pass out flyers and stage stunts to compliment their social marketing campaigns

Take a look at the wonderful photos from Bernie Su on the Tubefilter Facebook page.

A special thanks to our Meetup Sponsor Openfilm, which launched the Are U The Next Web Celeb? Contest from the Tubefilter Meetup. The contest boasts a $20,000 prize to take your web series to the next level.

Also a big thanks to our Community Sponsors SAG New Media, ValleyGirl.TV, and Blip.tv, who was on site demoing the newly designed website. And, of course, big ups to Dan Dominguez aka DJ SRSLY for providing the audio vibe.

Puppets Explain Blogs (and $10,000 Still Buried in New York)

What’s better than a gang of goofy puppet pirates leading the online masses on a Gooniesesque adventure through New York City’s five boroughs to find an honest to God buried treasure chest filled with $10,000 in gold coins? How about all of the above in addition to the knowledge said treasure chest is still at large.

The puppeteers behind the cryptic map to childhood fun and adult supplemental income, We Lost Our Gold released the eighth and final episode of the their original web series on September 10, 2010. The program tells the story of a crew of blundering swashbucklers who hid their fortunes only to forget the hiding place. Individuals are meant to watch the story, pick up the clues the pirates are laying down, and venture to some soft spot of earth somewhere in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, or The Bronx with shovels in tow to dig up a real life chest of coins. But no one’s done that last part yet.

While the treasure is still at large, the puppet masters behind the very expensive resume builder (it’s the creators’ own cash that’s buried in that chest) are looking to breathe new life into the hunt without revealing more clues. So, they stuck their hands into two of their old creations, Mario and Fafa the Groundhog, to keep their puppetry on point and get new and old viewers tuned in.

In the Glove and Boots Blog, the odd couple of Mario and Fafa talk shop in weekly installments about whatever comes to mind, be that a summary and examination of the current state of videoblogging or how Ralph Macchio should buy the rights to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air so he can have his kids star in a reboot.

They’re great, for sure, but let’s get back to booty. I recently caught up with one of the unnamed We Lost Our Gold creators to ask him about puppets and where his treasure is at:

Tubefilter: It’s creeping on a year since you released the final episode of We Lost Our Gold. Did you anticipate it would take this long for someone to find the treasure?

We Lost Our Gold: This is a tough question. A lot of people, a lot, didn’t believe that this was for real. We thought they would. The idea that someone would bury money just for the sake of creating an actual buried treasure seemed to have most people doubting our intentions. Honestly, I think the premise came across as some sort of scheme or trick, which was the exact opposite of what we were trying to do.

Frankly, at this point, we’re surprised it hasn’t been found. Plenty of people out there are much smarter than we are. If you watch the videos and enjoy the story that’s unfolding, it should be glaringly obvious where the clues are.

TF: Can you give us any clues? Please!?!

WLOG: I’ll give you a big one.

I believe the person that finds the treasure will have watched and enjoyed the entire series as a story…before sitting down with a thinking cap on, and pen and paper in their hands. I think people are so focused on finding every single clue in the beginning, that they are missing the big picture.

TF: Wow! Any chance for more clues in the future? Or is the We Lost Our Gold canon closed?

WLOG: We are very proud of the We Lost our Gold series, but it is complete.  All the clues are in there.  When we came up with our ‘treasure hunt’ idea, we were so excited we put all our other characters and ideas on hold just to make it happen.  Now it’s inspiring to get back to what we originally had in mind. We definitely aren’t finished with the pirates, but we have many other ideas and concepts we want to explore.

TF: Why puppets?

WLOG: As far as pay, meals, and egos are concerned, they’re very pleasant to work with.

Check out Mario and Fafa on YouTube and take a crack at finding some buried treasure at WeLostOurGold.com.

Jerry Bruckheimer Pitch Meeting: I Don’t Hate It

Jerry Bruckheimer Pitch MeetingA $346 million global take so far, and the fourth-highest worldwide debut ever, should assuage some concerns in the Bruckheimer and Disney camps that they might have taken one too many trips to the Pirates well this past weekend. Its soft $90 million North American opening raised some plucked Hollywood eyebrows, but international fans don’t seem to mind that the franchise’s fool’s gold might be losing its luster.

Hence, it’s time for a good online video spoof to pop up. Sure, YouTube this weekend was awash with spoof videos of the mega-blockbuster—like the Family Guy dubbed version of the trailer—but what made waves in Hollywood circles was a crack at Jerry Bruckheimer himself. Filmmaker Nathan Gotsch whipped up the gem that is “Jerry Bruckheimer Pitch Meeting” and shortly thereafter the video popped up on Nikki Finke Friday, making the industry rounds.

“An exclusive look inside Jerry Bruckheimer Films…kind of.”

“The reaction to the video has been great — all day Friday I was getting reports about different networks, studios, etc. where everyone was watching and talking about the video,” Gotsch tells us. “I also heard a rumor that everyone at Jerry Bruckheimer Films was watching it, and that Jerry had been told about the video, but I have no idea if he has actually seen it yet.”

Something tells us Bruckheimer is in good spirits today after that monster of a weekend, which should help mitigate concerns of any Bruck-back from the spoof. “One of my friends works for someone that Jerry has worked with for a long time, who thought the video was very funny and said he thought Jerry would find it funny as well,” Gotsch adds. “Obviously I hope he’s right and that Jerry has a sense of humor about this—I mean, look—he’s got the number one movie in the world right now (Pirates 4) and we made a little Internet video that some people are tweeting about. I think Jerry wins.”

Sometimes it doesn’t take a full-on web series to show off your creative skills, and Gotsch, who doesn’t regularly make web videos, hopes the attention to the Bruckheimer video will help open some more doors for his career as a creator. Maybe he should give this online video things a more serious look. His previous exploits on YouTube, from back in 2006, were some Congressional campaign commercials for a fictional candidate named Josh Jennings that Gotsch posted online and ended up on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News.

“At the urging of some people in the television business who know what they’re talking about, I developed them into a sitcom called Josh Jennings for Congress and shot the pilot on spec last year,” Gotsch adds. “Right now there’s a cable network that’s very interested in the show and I am hoping the success of ‘Bruckheimer Pitch Meeting’ will open doors at a few other places around town as well.”

Watch Andy Warhol’s Self Portrait Sell for $34 Million

I once went to a Contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s. Not to buy anything, obv, but because private art collections are more or less private and auctions present the only opportunities one may get in a lifetime to stare and gape in mock, shock, and awe at a select group of historically significant and/or very pretty world famous paintings and photographs. Plus, they’re surreal affairs, phenomenon both fascinating and nauseating to witness. Unless your last name is Rockefeller or FancyPants, you’re rarely in a room with a few hundred individuals who count their money in stacks of millions.

If you want to experience it all firsthand, you can make your way to your local neighborhood international auction house on days when the hammer drops to watch all the hullabaloo and hobnob with high society (auctions are usually free to attend), or you can catch Christie’s In the Saleroom. The original web series delivers the action from the auction to a computer screen near you.

The latest installment features Christie’s auctioneer Christopher Burge entertaining a 16-minute bidding war for Andy Warhol’s Self Portrait, 1963-1964. The piece was originally commissioned in 1964 for $1,600. The final selling price came to $34.25 million, the most expensive lot in a very good night for Christie’s.

The best part of the above is Burge’s growing irritation (and subsequent delivery of bits of comic relief) at the seemingly absurd $100,000(!) bidding increments for an objectively cool, four-panel photograph estimated to be worth $20 to $30 million. That’s not at all how these things usually go. In the same auction, Burge gets up to the final selling price of $30 million for Mark Rothko’s Untitled #17 in less than 180 seconds thanks to bidding increments in the much more appropriate millions of dollars range.

There’s an Original Web Series for That

Farhad Manjoo is the resident tech and social media mores expert for online current affairs and cultural publication Slate. In addition to penning articles answering age old new media questions and modern hypotheticals, Manjoo also plays host on a SlateV web series about smartphone, web, and social media applications.

I know what you’re thinking. “Between The Daily App Show and Revision3’s AppJudgement I already have much too much of my time dedicated to original web series showcasing and explaining how to use third party applications on my iPhone. There aren’t enough minutes in my day for one more!” But I’d argue Manjoo’s concise, straightforward, and kinda funny explanations of the latest and greatest applications available, hand model cohost, and Lamda Lamda Lamda persona make Killer Apps one to watch.

Slate V releases Killer Apps episodes once every few weeks. In the latest, Manjoo and his trusty professional hand model sidekick (I like to think it’s this lady above the wrists) review augmented reality apps that read and translate foreign languages for you. ¡Ingenioso!!

Hulu Delivers 470 Million Minutes of Video Ads in April

hulu-video-ad-viewsHulu receives only 18% of the views of the online video behemoth that is YouTube (the exact numbers are 26,193,000 visitors to 142,720,000), but the on-demand streaming video destination for premium TV shows and movies delivers a helluva lot more ads.

According to the latest comScore numbers, Hulu delivered a total of 470 million minutes(!) of video ads in the month of April. That’s roughly 7.8 million days(!) and 21,461 years(!) worth of online video advertising. I would like to tell you how many millions of minutes of ads YouTube delivered last month, too, but whatever YouTube’s video ad numbers were, they don’t make comScore’s Top 10 list.

That 470 million minutes from Hulu may seem like an eternity, but it’s actually a 9% drop from March when the site delivered 520 million minutes of video advertising. At least part of the decline is due to a 5% or so decline in unique viewers of content on Hulu, from 27.5 million last month to 26.1 million in April.

Unique viewers of video on Facebook also dipped down 4% for the month of April, while AOL slip is numbers was far more severe. Unique video viewers to the online portal fell 30% month over month, from 57 million in March to 40.1 million in April. Vevo climbed up to take the #2 spot form AOL, while YouTube/Google Sites are still on top with 142.7 million uniqe viewers. That’s almost three times the numbers from Vevo, its closest competitor.

Have You Met the Startup Guys?

I used to go this meetup called the New York Open Coffee Club. Startup entrepreneurs, mostly denizens of, or visitors to NYCs then burgeoning and now established technology scene meet in the early AM and talk shop over cups of coffee and croissants. Discussions range from what’s going on in the cloud, to how that latest acquisition by that multi-million dollar online destination with VC cash to burn was over and/or undervalued, to how we’re all psyched that the future is all about crowd-sourced disruptive social couponing and that’s a cool thing for the future to be about.

Fun, right?! Kinda! But I stopped going. I’m all about talking to people about social tech, but at a certain point you cross the threshold from conversing about things interesting and innovative to things absurd. I ditched setting my alarm an hour early every Thursday morning to go to a networking event where guys like these are in the crowd.

The Startup Guys were conceived by CollegeHumor writers Josh Ruben and Streeter Seidell and do stellar job of both capturing and mocking the ridiculousness that can sometimes be the social media and tech scenes. If you hear someone talk in sentences like “A-B testing over a variety of markets, HTML5 compatible, of course, with a focus on user-generated-crowd-sourced brand integrations by tablet and/or cloud-based computing systems” with a straight face, run the other way.

Sesame Street’s Bert Talks Socks with SNL’s Andy Samberg

Just when you think Sesame Street is no longer palatable to an adult audience and has an entertainment flavor profile crafted especially for kids, the pop culturally hip and online video savvy individuals at the Sesame Workshop kick it up a notch.

BAM! There’s Cookie Monster auditioning for SNL. BAM! There’s Oscar the Grouch making his Oscar predictions. BAM! There’s Bert doing his best Charlie Rose impression interviewing Andy Samberg. (Sorry. I just watched this video of Emeril.)

That last one went live earlier today. Samberg tries to keep a straight face for five minutes and 20 seconds while sitting across from an animated puppet who talks about reading depressed Russian novelists and longing for 5th Century European footwear.

Bert’s no Zach Galifianakis or Michael Showalter, at leat not yet. But I’d still add Conversations with Bert to my list of Must Watch Online Original Faux Interview Series. Part two of his never-before-seen Andy Samberg conversation drops Sunday, May 22, the day after the Saturday Night Live season finale. Stay tuned.