Jon M. Chu and his Legion of Extraordinary Dancers want to get jiggy with a choreographed dance of your design. The troupe of lithe modern music interpreters have teamed up with Coke Zero to find a crowd-sourced routine to which they can manipulate and contort their bodies into unbelievable positions in sync with hip hop-driven beats.

The Create a Dance from Zero campaign features prominent players of The LXD asking viewers from around the world to choreograph and videotape their own dance moves, one or some of which will be performed by The LXD as the center of a global marketing effort for Coke Zero. Chu and company want interested individuals to hit up the contest’s participation page to download a song to groove to and then upload the finished product to YouTube.

If you want to learn how to do The TOE Tappy, Shake Arm and Piz, or Hit That P Diddy! you should give the submissions a watch. The best part? The LXD principals make video comment on the uploads.

And if you want your jig to be part of a global advertising initiative for a zero-calorie soft drink or are just interested in Jon M. Chu checkin’ out your swagger, cut a rug for Coke Zero and The LXD today.

Filed under: Branded Entertainment, Featured, News, The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (LXD) by Joshua Cohen
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Tubefilter’s been playing host to casual happy hours in New York City over the past several months, providing a time and place for online video professionals to get to know one another over some moderately priced cocktails and intriguing conversation. Those events have been great, to be sure, but now we’re kicking them up a notch.

On September 20th, join us and FourScreenMedia as we present a new kind of networking event at the intersection of video and advertising: Multi-Screen Mix-Up NYC. It’s totally free for industry professionals, and gives said professionals (including online content creators, advertising agency executives, traditional media veterans, and more) a chance to mix, mingle, and do business while learning about the latest in the industry from leading names in advertising, technology, and entertainment.

Our inaugural event will be at Copia in New York City’s Midtown this Tuesday, September 20 from 6:30PM to 8:30PM and will feature a short presentation from the always enlightening and entertaining My Damn Channel Founder/CEO Rob Barnett. For those few who are unfamiliar with Barnett, here’s a primer.

Barnett worked in television at MTV and VH1 and was President of Programming at CBS Radio before he founded My Damn Channel in 2007, a new media studio with a decidedly simple premise: Sign talented individuals and “get the hell out of the way.” In the past four years the site has been home to original web series from established celebrities and comedians like Harry Shearer, David Wain, Sarah Silverman, A.D. Miles, Josh Gad, and more, and launched the cult phenomenon You Suck at Photoshop.

Brands like HBO, Puma, Trident Layers, Southern Comfort, IKEA, Lincoln, and (most recently) Subway work with My Damn Channel because of the quality of the site’s content, the capacity of its distribution, the efficacy of its branded entertainment and surely Barnett’s honest, no bullshit take on internet showbiz.

Be sure to RSVP here for the Multi-Screen Mix-Up and a very special thanks to our sponsors – AdoTube, Kantar Video, SAG New Media, VideoNuze, PGA New Media Council, OMMA Global, and MWW Group – for making the event come to be.

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P.S. For those on the West Coast looking for a great event to attend next week, check out our panel and learn how to run your social media presence like it’s on steriods. Tubefilter’s Social Media Week Special Event – Gettin’ Social in Online Video featuring Klout, EQAL, and Attention Span Media – is sure to be an awesome one. Plus, there will be beer thanks to theStream.tv. RSVP here.

Filed under: Featured, Industry, Multi-Screen Mix-Up, News by Joshua Cohen
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A recent story about Fridgeezoo on Tasteologie features an adorable ThinkGeek video of a little milk carton shaped creature from Japan explaining the importance of keeping the refrigerator door shut, something Americans apparently forget to do to the tune of $1.7 billion in wasted annual electricity costs.

Videos like that one are created to help sell ThinkGeek’s “stuff for smart masses” and have been making fans smile and order nerdy knickknacks for more than four years. From pranks to office tours, ThinkGeek videos teach viewers about not only ThinkGeek products, but also the quirky world of the company itself (probably prompting more than a few to check ThinkGeek’s job listings to join in on the fun).

We caught up with John Frazier, ThinkGeek’s Director of Video Marketing, to talk about the gloriously geeky world of ThinkGeek.

Tubefilter: How long have you been making videos that feature ThinkGeek products?
John Frazier: We started making videos around 2007 – they were short little things, designed to demonstrate some of the products that were tougher to get the point across. Our first video was for a long plastic ribbon that had grooves in it, much like a record player. Pulling on the ribbon with your thumbnail dragging across the grooves generated a voice that said, “I love you.” It was really cool but hard to explain properly in just photos and text.

TF: How important is the ThinkGeek video connection?
JF: We found that our customers really liked that new dimension of interaction. We had always been this kind-of skunk works of geek-chic. With that veil slowly being lifted, people wanted more. They wanted to meet the monkeys in charge of the asylum and be a part of it.

Video is obviously a fantastic way to engage our customers, generate viral buzz, and celebrate geek culture. Too many people hide what makes them geeky, and we think that’s totally wrong. It needs to be brought out into the open and held up for all to see. They need to shout “I think this Star Trek Bathrobe is cool,” so that others can join in and grow the community. About six months ago, we added a new videographer, Zack Trolier, to the department, and he’s been instrumental in helping us do that.

TF: From the videos it looks like working at ThinkGeek is all fun and games. Is your work environment as big of a party as it looks in all of the prank videos and the new shark tour of the office?
JF: Haha! You might be surprised to know just how much work is involved in our operations. Everybody here takes their work very seriously. There’s a certain passion that comes with what we do, and that translates to a lot of heads-down srs bznz. Granted, we decorate our workspaces with art and posters and action figures… I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have fun at work!

TF: How do you choose which products will star in the ThinkGeek videos? Take us through the video planning process.
JF: We look at every product that’s scheduled to launch. If it’s better explained in motion, we do a video. If it helps us celebrate geek culture, we do a video. If, however, we just come up with a really cool concept for a video, we’ll do a video.

Once we have a long list of potential videos, Zack and I kick around our ideas. We come up with rough drafts of scripts, sometimes storyboards. If we’re really stumped, we’ll fill a conference room with in-house geeks, fill them with sugar and caffeine, and let the creativity issue forth like a Brundlefly eats a donut.

Then we divvy up the work – Zack shoots this one, I’ll shoot that one. We both edit, score, title, and push the videos up to YouTube, and link the videos up to the products on the site.

TF: In regards to your Fridgeezoo how much energy do you think was wasted during the making of that video about a product designed to help people keep their refrigerators closed to save energy?
JF: We’re happy to take the hit so that others may learn from our example. If, however, you need precise numbers – that video took about 20 minutes to shoot. If the average American refrigerator loses up to 120kWh of energy every year due to open doors, and electricity costs $0.1099 per kWh, that amounts to 1.2 cents worth of power during the shoot.

Still, that sorta thing is cumulative. If everybody had a Fridgezoo that gently reminded them to “shut the fridgin’ door,” that’d be a huge savings.

TF: What new ThinkGeek products will be featured in upcoming videos?
JF: We’ve got some Doctor Who toys lined up. Something cool for Batman fans. A sweet piece of interactive electronic jewelry…new requests come in every week. It can be hard to keep up.

TF: One more thing. The purple kitten T-shirts worn in the Boombox Speaker Cushion video are awesome. Where can we get one?
JF: Google is your friend. He’d tell you to have a look at Amazon for “10 Kittens T-shirt,” but beware. Therein lies burning awesome.

Get your own other objects of burning awesome at ThinkGeek.com today.

Filed under: Featured, Interviews, News, Web Series, YouTube by Julie Wolfson
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He’s baaack! Tommy Wiseau, star of cult classic The Room, is back in a brand new online series from Studio  8.

The Tommy Wi-Show, distributed on the Machinima Network, follows Wiseau as “he is repeatedly abducted by different races of mysterious aliens and transported to distant planets, where he is forced to test popular video games. Each weekly episode has Wiseau playing a different game and delving deeper and deeper into strange, unknown areas of the universe.” Yeah, you read that right. It’s going to be awesome.

Brock LaBorde and Jared Richard, who directed and produced the Atom.com comedic horror pilot The House That Drips Blood on Alex (starring Wiseau and premiering at San Diego Comic-Con), are teaming up with director Payman Benz for The Tommy Wi-Show.

“For the past year Studio 8 been trying to make Tommy Wiseau’s dreams come true, and one of those dreams is to host his own talk show,” LaBorde told Tubefilter. “This has been an idea in our heads for a while, and The Tommy Wi-Show is the first step towards making Tommy’s dreams a reality.”

LaBorde also told us to expect to see “lots lof classic and new games, lots of aliens, and lots of screaming.”

The Tommy Wi-Show will  premiere on Sunday, September 25, 2011 on Machinima.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Featured, Hosted, Machinima.com, News, Web Series, YouTube by Drew Baldwin
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There’s something unique about the NBA that allows us to expect more the league’s superstars. Maybe it’s the fact that it is the only professional sport where you can sit close enough to hear every word, feel every thundering dunk, and see every tiny movement of a player’s body. Perhaps more than any other sport, basketball allows for more individual creativity from each player (there’s so slam dunking in baseball). People feel a connection to the players almost more than any other sport (witness for the national Crucifixion of Lebron James for evidence).

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that superstar Kevin Durant has a web series called Kevin Durant’s 35th Hour where he wants to show he’s just a “regular person.”

Technically speaking, Durant who plays small forward/shooting guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder is not a regular person. Regular people aren’t 6’9’’, 230 pound athletes, capable of ripping three pointers and throwing NBA Jam style explosive dunks. Yet his new web series opens with a series of quotes to establish that he’s just like us, “Just because I play basketball doesn’t mean my life is different or I go through things differently. I still put my pants on the same way everybody else does.”

Yet Durant still lives and breaths basketball and the series first episode (above), titled “Capital Punishment” is centered around an August 20th exhibition game at Trinity University in Washington D.C.. We see Durant playing video games (he prefers Madden & NBA 2k11), telling a hilarious story about Megabus on the way to the game, signing autographs, and dominating on the court.

Produced by online brand managers Creative Endeavor and Durant’s management company Goodwin Sports Management the video has hip-hop instrumentals on the soundtrack and flashy video edits that really give off the vibe that Durant is really chill bro who happens to be excellent at basketball or as Durant calls it ,”the greatest game in the world.”

With it’s crossovers, alley-ops, and slams the market for the series is definitely basketball junkies. However, he’s not the first, there is a small set of web video that involves basketball players who are (or who have managers) who know that the Internet is key to the brand of player. Lebron James has the animated YouTube mini-series The Lebrons. And earlier this season Kobe Bryant dropped a web film sponsored by Nike and featuring serious star power. Interesting to note is that Durant’s teammate Nate Robinson also has a web-series and is represented by the same management company.

So in a busy crop, Durant must do something different. A preview of later episodes show him doing normal every man stuff like bowling which is good because if he wants to reach a larger audience, he can’ just show basketball highlights. Durant has reputation in the league as being relaxed and very hip (here he is chilling with Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips and if achieves a balance of normal and ballin’ his new series should succeed in furthering the connection to his fans, and maybe making some new ones.

Tim Goessling is a contributing writer at Tubefilter. He’s a lifelong Celtics fan and thinks there are a lot of fake tough guys in the league (that’s a Durant quote). You can read more of his writing at thislalife.com

Filed under: Articles, News, Reality, Reviews, Sports by Tim Goessling
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One very generous and supportive fan of Felicia Day’s hit web series The Guild with a penchant for non-profit organizations that support after-school music programs and a few thousand dollars of disposable income ($3,300 to be exact) will make a cameo appearance in an installment of this Season Five of the gamer-oriented series with mass appeal. He or she will be happy to know he or she will be in good company. A helluva lot of celebrities are making cameo appearances this season, too.

You may have noticed Author Neil Gaiman and original members of the Battlestar Galaticast Richard Hatch and Erin Gray showed up at the Megagame-o-ramacon in last week’s episode. This week’s installment reveals even more of those super secret guest stars Day and company hinted at earlier this year, but have kept hidden all season.

Chuck’s Zachary Levi, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Eliza Dushku and Tom Lenk, Los Angeles Laker and Eliza Dushku’s Rick Fox, Dollhouse’s Dichen Lachman, Eureka’s Colin Ferguson and Amy Berg, Hercules himself Kevin Sorbo and StarWars.com blogger Bonnie Burton all show up in ‘Social Traumas.’

Here’s the setup to whet your geek and entertainment appetites:

Zaboo’s “Seat Savers” reach the breaking point as his Master Chief henchmen confront a big star (special guest Kevin Sorbo). Codex encounters Tink’s secret origins while Bladezz and Vork hobnob with “the fancies” at an exclusive celebrity party.

Those XBox Live and Zune users with access to new episodes of The Guild every Tuesday already know what’s up! The rest of you will see the action for yourselves via MSN, Bing, and WatchTheGuild.com on Thursday. And The Guild isn’t done with their super secret cameo reveals yet. Stay tuned.

Update: Here’s the embed for your viewing pleasure.

Filed under: Channels, Comedy, Featured, News, The Guild by Joshua Cohen
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The coolest part about MSN’s celeb hub Wonderwall is that massive meta mosaic of the latest celebrity images serving as a gooey replacement to a strict headline-driven news site. Go ahead, it’s hard NOT to click on one of the stories, if only to reveal more of the photos. Fittingly, the site has its own original video programming too, including the titular 7 Wonders of the Wall, which is back today with news Chevy Cruze and MSN have renewed the hosted series for a second season.

Renewals of branded entertainment series are always a good sign that something was working, both for the brand and the network, in terms of converting eyeballs into real measured engagement. The first season, which ran from May 2 to for 15 weeks through August 12, received what the network is calling “millions of visits,” though actual viewership numbers are not being shared publicly.

BermanBraun, the production company that produces the series did comment however that the show helped drive more traffic to Wonderwall, which it also manages. “Average monthly video views on Wonderwall increased three to four times after 7 Wonders launched,” BermanBraun digital topper Paco Vinoly told us.

“The second season of 7 Wonders is very much a validation of our strategy of building video across all our sites,” added BermanBraun’s Head of Digital Video Ian Moffitt. “We are all very excited to have Chevy Cruze as our sponsor again, and looking forward to building the Wonderwall video brand even further in partnership with them and MSN.”

The series is a quick, under 3-minute daily—every Monday through Friday—run-down of the top stories “on the wall,” with host Brian McFayden fast-talking through the latest celeb news. New this season will be “surprise guest appearances by celebrities in the news,” according to show producers. The new season order is for an additional 15-week run on site.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, Channels, Hosted, News, News-Current Events, Production Companies, Web Series by Marc Hustvedt
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It’s hard avoiding the irony that a discussion on last Tuesday’s episode of What’s Trending about the perils of impulsive, unconfirmed tweeting can have serious consequences. The story centered around two residents of Veracruz, Mexico facing up to 30 years in prison for their tweets about an alleged drug gang attack on a primary school, in what some had called a case of “Twitter Terrorism.”

I was even a guest correspondent on that episode, filling in for Melissa Jun Rowley on Shira Lazar’s six month-old weekly online news show, and the conversation circled around vetting news before reactively re-tweeting it.

Then on Friday afternoon, the show’s offical @WhatsTrending Twitter account posted a tweet reporting that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs had died. The tweet, though quickly removed within minutes, spread rapidly around Twitter and into the blogosphere, with many citing CBS News as the official source of the false report, given that What’s Trending aired on CBSNews.com.

By Saturday, CBS News summarily cancelled its relationship with What’s Trending and removed it entirely from the CBSNews.com site, with all previous links re-routed for the time being to the show’s Facebook page. The producers of the show, Lazar and Damon Berger, issued a brief apology on Twitter and on Facebook, but those didn’t stop CBS News execs from their decision to part ways.

Today the show continued, albeit without its primary distributor, with a live broadcast from its Hollywood studio starting off with a more thorough apology to being the show. In it Lazar reference the errant tweeter as a “junior staffer,” but acknowledged that ultimately the show was responsible for its actions.

Lazar’s opening statement today:

Last Friday, a miscommunication in the newsroom resulted in a junior staffer at What’s Trending sending a tweet that contained an unchecked, unconfirmed and ultimately untrue report about Steve Jobs. The tweet was retracted in less than a minute and a hastily written apology was written by us and our distributor, followed a bit later by a more formal apology. Unfortunately, by then the original tweet had already made its way around the internet, and who did it or how it happened no longer mattered.

We love Steve Jobs, he is an inspiration to us at What’s Trending, and his work influences our entire company on a daily basis. We are immeasurably sorry for what happened and we apologize unreservedly to him, his family, his friends, his fans and anyone else who was or is affected by our actions last week. We also want to apologize to CBS News and AT&T for any negative attention this has caused.

While mistakes do happen this mistake was a particularly terrible and unfortunate one that has left our organization humbled and deeply apologetic. We look forward to getting back to business this week, to follow the high standards of journalism to insure this never happens again, and to continue delivering thoughtful, verified and substantiated news on the topics important to all of us.

The producers of the show insist that the show will continue to broadcast weekly and are working out additional distribution options. Today the episode went live on Ustream and Livestream, with guests Chris Hardwick, Paul Scheer, Terrell Owens and rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Without the CBSNews.com site, the show will work to drive viewers to its newly launched whatstrending.com site. The show’s primary sponsor was AT&T, and it’s not clear whether the sponsor is remaining on board at this point. It’s logo is missing from the new site, and was scrubbed from the opening graphics on today’s show. The producers aren’t commenting on the fate of the sponsorship.

Arguably this was a tough story to watch unfold, given my proximity to the show as a guest correspondent last week. But what it illustrates are the high stakes that come with top-tier distribution and sponsorship deals. With all the talk of creative freedom online, when major partners are involved, the stakes are high and the room for error is minimal.

Was the tweet a mistake? Absolutely. And for a venerable news org like CBS News, the tolerance for misreporting, particularly something as significant as the Apple icon’s death is zero. The show itself is still groundbreaking, and arguably the most polished half-hour live show on the internet right now. It brings intelligent people together to talk about top news stories in an informative way. Bias aside, I’d for one like to see this show continue, and signs seem to indicate it will.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, CBS, Featured, Hosted, Live Streaming, News, News-Current Events, What's Trending by Marc Hustvedt
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Meltdown Comics held the premiere of TV writer and producer Jane Espenson’s latest original web series Husbands last Sunday night as part of the Nerdist Writers Panel series. Audience members were treated to three episodes of the program after a charming, crowd pleasing introduction by Streamy Award-winning writer/executive producer herself, Jane Espenson (Battlestar Galactica).

The show is a unique take on a familiar premise. A couple wakes up in Las Vegas to discover they’re married and stuck together for the rest of their lives (or until they do something like get a hold of this DIY divorce kit). The twist? They are both men and Nevada just made same-sex marriage legal. Now, famous athlete Brady (Sean Hemeon) and actor Cheeks (Brad “Cheeks” Bell) have to navigate married life with constant interruptions from nosy best friend Haley (Alessandra Torresani).

Husbands is a result of the friendship between Espenson and Cheeks formed after Espenson became a fan of Cheeks’ YouTube channel GoCheeksGo. Espenson reached out, Cheeks responded, the two hit it off, and a decision to produce a web series together soon followed. They reached out to director Jeff Greenstein (Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace) and actress Alessandra Torresani (Caprica) to round out the cast and crew.

“Jane decided she wanted to do this, she wrote the check and we made the show.” Said Greenstein, reflecting on how the series came to be. “We just went out and did it.”

Financed entirely by Espenson, the series was a departure from working on studio financed series and proved a challenging, yet fulfilling experience that taught the seasoned television and web series writer a thing or two. “I learned to see production as an extension of the writing process,” Said Espenson. “Before I always thought that my job was done when the script was done. Changing something on the set or in the editing room, it doesn’t mean I failed to get the scripts right, it just means I’m still writing this project.”

The writing process for Husbands was different than her other series, as it featured no involvement from outside parties. “In a way it’s great to not get notes from the studio or a network on a script,” Espenson said when discussing the difference “The downside of that is if you are watching the scene, if you go “does this scene work?” we don’t have the reassurance of knowing that a million people have looked at it. You have to have the faith of your convictions a little more.”

Since it was unknown territory for Espenson, she contacted friends who had success creating independent web series. “Felicia (Day) gave us advice early on,” Espenson mentioned during the panel. She also went to long time collaborator Joss Whedon for advice, even taking a page from his playbook and casting a familiar actor for a cameo. Husbands will feature an appearance from Captain Hammer, Nathan Fillion.

The chemistry between the cast and crew was amazing, evident during the panel and in the show itself. Husbands consists of eleven two-minute episodes that can either be combined into a full-length 22-minute pilot, or watched as standalone installments.

Distributed through Blip.tv, the series premieres Tuesday night and is worth watching. When asked why a viewer should tune in, Espenson simply said, “To laugh. That’s the main reason.”

Husbands succeeds in that respect. It offers truly hilarious moments between heartfelt interactions that examine a unique relationship. What’s next for Husbands is still unknown, but actor Brad “Cheeks” Bell hopes it will transition to TV. “I would love to see it on television” Cheeks said after the premiere. “I think it would be a huge hit.”

If you are looking at an enjoyable series to watch, check out Husbands at Husbandstheseries.com or watch the premiere this evening at 6:00 PM PST at Streamin’ Garage.

Filed under: Comedy, Featured, News, Web Series by Chris Landa
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It’s Monday and our weekly video blog is up and about today. Lots of Polish commenters jumped in to show their love of Poland’s #1 most subscribed YouTuber, Niekryty Krytyk. I don’t speak a lick of Polish, but from what I can tell he runs a pretty slick, well-paced show over there.

Krytyk, who’s name roughly translates to ‘Roofless Critic,’ counts a number of US-based creators like Nostalgia Critic, Angry Video Game Nerd and Ray William Johnson as his influencers. Lately he’s been on a tear in Poland, racking up 129,000 subscribers so far and almost half of them coming in the past three months.

Also featured in the vlog this week are Russian vlogger AdamThomasMoran and the UK’s Alex Day. And in slightly related news, there are signs that the US economy is still in dire straights with even pudgy kids with webcams facing the pressures of outsourcing. Dinga Chika Awesome Performance:

We profile Machinima’s new music video series, and the stunning live-action paintball fight effects of the Porter Robinson video for his new single “Spitfire.” Today they released the latest in the series, “Black Label Society featuring Zakk Wylde – Crazy Horse”

And who really needs American Idol when you have YouTube? There is so much musical talent busting out under the seams on the world’s largest video site, that it’s a new find every day if you’re up for weeding through the burgs of off-pitch wonders. Luckily 22 year-old North Carolina native Drew Chambers is anything but off-pitch in his covers of Adele, Beyonce and Lady Gaga. “Me Singing “Rollin In Deep” by Adele”

Rapping talent is everywhere too, like the female version of fast-rapper George Watsky, Lega-C, and Minecraft lyricist Hoj, who busts out a remix of Megaman.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Industry, News, News-Current Events, Vlog, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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Enough people get their news from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to warrant a few articles about the subject from major world newspapers and university publications and for Daily Show correspondent John Oliver to say, “That cannot be true, but if it is true, this country is in real trouble.”

Regardless of whether or not it is true, those people that watch The Daily Show are certainly less informed than those people that watch The Daily Show and visit IndecisionForever.com to see The Daily Show’s original web series, where “correspondents explain complex political issues somewhat accurately.”

The so far 10-episode series of The Daily Show Correspondents Explain features the program’s familiar faces (like Aasif Mandavi, Jason Jones, John Oliver, Olivia Munn, Samantha Bee, and Wyatt Cenac) applying their customary straightfaced sardonic spin and didactic tone to the explanation of political institutions and ideas (like the White House, Political Scandals, Life After the Presidency, and seven more). The installments are a natural online extension of the cable television action. They’re good, too. But don’t take my word for it. The the voting body of the 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards feels the same way I do.

Over the weekend The Daily Show Correspondents Explain beat out 30 Rock: The Webisodes to take home the Emmy for Best Special-Class Short Format Live-Action Entertainment Program. That’s a mouthful of a category, which The Daily Show says is showbiz-speak for “videos on the internet.”

Filed under: Comedy Central, Companion, Featured, News, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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StoryCorps is a independent non-profit organization founded in 2003 with a mission to “provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.” Over 30,000 interviews from 60,000 participants have been collected by way of fixed and mobile story recording booths and later preserved for posterity and study by future oral historians at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Of those 30,000 interviews, a choice few get animated. For the 10th anniversary of 9/11, StoryCorps selected three poignant stories to bring to commiserable cartoon life.

There’s the story of Jon Vigiano Sr., a retired New York City firefighter whose two sons followed him into service and whose two sons both were killed on September 11, 2001 after responding to a call from the World Trade Center. And the one about Richie Pecorell and Karen Juday, who were engaged when Juday, who worked as an administrative assistant at the WTC, died in the terrorist attacks. And the one about Michael Trinidad, who “called his ex-wife, Monique Ferrer, from the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower to say goodbye.”

Maybe it’s because we’re not used to seeing cartoons depict things so sad, or maybe it’s that these stories are told with the voices of the people that actually lived them and aren’t intercut with emotionally indulgent voiceover from local or national broadcast news reporters, or maybe it’s simply the subject matter, but these animated StoryCorps are particularly moving. If you watch any more 9/11 memorial videos, these should be them.

Filed under: Animated, Featured, News, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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