Earlier this year there was Felicia Day appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, not to promote her recent movie (Red) or increasingly frequent TV appearances, but for her Dragon Age internet series. That was a turning point. Now tonight on ABC, YouTube’s hottest action directors Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch are sitting down on the couch with Jimmy Kimmel.

Folks, online video stars have arrived.

For those who long ditched their TV Guides, the show airs tonight on ABC at 12AM on the east coast, 11PM central, then again at 12AM on the west coast. Broadway and Glee guest star Kristin Chenoweth joins them on the show tonight. So tune in web video fans, this is a big deal.

Back in March, Freddie posted a lengthy treatise on “The Sercrets of YouTube Success” that is well worth a read. In a nutshell—”Focus on content, not on viewers.”

I think too many people get hung up on ideas. From my experience, ideas are worthless. Execution is more important than anything else. Future First Person Shooter has been done hundreds of times by people with camera in one hand and airsoft pistol in another – the idea is completely unoriginal, but I believe our execution is what set that video apart. Nobody cares how many ideas you have – you won’t get subscribers from ideas alone. It’s about making those ideas into a reality. (Freddie Wong)

Freddie and Brandon’s latest, “Future Motion Control Gaming” (released Sept. 3)

Filed under: ABC, Action, Articles, Director to Watch, Featured, News, News-Current Events, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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Images in flip books and stop motion animation flicker in front of the eye. When done well they create mysterious moments of whimsy that more sleek and perfectly formatted techniques cannot capture. So what happens when a group of photographers with a a penchant for old-school cameras and celluloid get together to create a community around their their art? If they’re talented with eyes for movement, they can create magic.

Dedicated to the world of analogue photography, lomography enthusiasts can be found all over the world. Their golden rules include: take your camera everywhere you go, use it anytime day or night, try to shoot from the hip, don’t think, be fast, and to not worry about any golden rules.

When it comes to group projects, lomographers are a crafty crew. Every Lomography gallery houses a giant tiled collage of lomo images and other exhibits that fill the space with something fun to see at every turn. Check the website of any lomography store and find a calendar of activities: lomowalks, analogue printmaking, parties, and photos safaris.

But maybe no other format celebrates lomography with more enthusiasm than when a group of photographers set out to shoot a LomoMatrix video. The combinations of analogue images combined with stop motion turns these photo stunts into mesmerizingly fun moving pictures.

Lindsay Hutchens, manager of the Los Angeles Lomography Gallery, describe the process of creating a LomoMatrix, “The photographers sit in a circle. People take turns going into the center of the circle to make movement that everyone captures from different angles. The photos are then scanned and animated with iMovie or Final Cut. Each video has a choppy, flip book style.” Hutchens adds, “LomoMatrix videos are a fun interactive community activity. We hope to do one soon in Los Angeles.”

Hutchens sent us a link to the amazing Lomo Caterpillar shot in London. Twenty photographers walked through the streets of Soho using cameras with different types of films. Their video features a circle segment and a charming final bow.

To find more LomoMatrix and other lomography based video projects, the Lomographic Society has a YouTube Channel. But only visit it if you have several minutes to spare. It’s addicting.

Watching LomoMatrix videos made around the world may just inspire a trip to the Lomography store to pick up a camera and set up a shoot with fellow lomographers. And if you’re not insipired by what you’ve seen already, this next video should do the trick.

With more than a million hits since he uploaded his video 500 People in 100 Seconds to YouTube on August 23, 2011, Eran Amir is quickly becoming a sensation. Shot in Israel, his 500 people hold up more than 1,500 developed pictures creating a stop-motion animated video inside a stop motion animated video.

The possibilities of finding creative ways to incorporating lomography into video are only limited by the imagination of the photographer. Pick up your camera today.

Filed under: Art, Featured, Nerd, News by Julie Wolfson
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Modern Warfare fans having fun at this past weekend’s Call of Duty XP event got an extra perk when publisher Activision revealed new kick-ass web content during a panel presentation. Titled Find Makarov: Operation Kingfish, the film is hyper violent action fest that bridges the plots of Modern Warfare & Modern Warfare 2. Featuring characters and elements from the blockbuster action games, the short produced by digital agency We Can Pretend and the visual effects company The Junction, is another video game inspired short film and in my opinion, by far the best yet. (see below)

Call of Duty fans have been itching to reload on content ever since Modern Warfare 2 sold than 4.5 million copies and generated 300 million dollars in sales in it’s first 24 hours back in 2009. Itching for sequel news, the fans latched onto a website in February 2011 featuring a mysterious countdown, the title of the website: Find Makarov. For those who aren’t versed in the murky Tom Clancy on steroids plot intricacies of Modern Warfare “Vladamir Makarov” is the big bad guy of the series and a website bearing his name and featuring MW2’s fonts and color schemes could only mean one thing: Activision was about to reveal MW 3.

Yet this was not the case, Activision said they had nothing to do with the video, even announcing it as a hoax. Fans were stumped, conspiracy theories regarding the Battlefield 3 / MW3 showdown began to take hold.

Finally all was revealed when the countdown hit zero and the first Find Makarov video was revealed. With a first person point of view that seems inspired by YouTube FX wunderkind Freddie Wong the short explodes with the essential aspects of the Call of Duty Arsenal: slow motion head shots (lots of them!), familiar gray landscapes filled with fire and death, and killer sound effects. Not satisfied with the buzz and views (over 8 million to date) the creators wanted to go bigger.

With the view count as ammo, producer David Fradkin of We Can Pretend called Activision to propose a sequel titled “Operation Kingfish.” In an interview with video game news outlet Joystiq, Fradkin details Activision’s initial response:

“The first thing they said,” says Fradkin, “is the script that we sent them, the original script, was way too close to the game. We can’t do it, we’re stepping on their toes. Then we kind of started about, ‘Ok, these are the elements we can use, these are the elements we can’t,’ talking about it and making the script that you saw.”

With Activision fully endorsing the team (and financing the project) the final video is yet another reminder of what used to cost millions can now be made on computers in half the time and budget (“Kingfish” took two months from start to finish). The basic plot follows a doomed mission in the Ukraine and stars MW franchise characters such as John Price and Soap MacTavish. Director Jeff Chan wisely focuses on the action: it’s bloody, explosive, and full of easter eggs for all the Modern Warfare fans.

There are no updates if this is going to be a continuing series, but at E3 this year Activision announced plans for “top Hollywood talent” to create content for their subscription service Call of Duty Elite and so far production companies Scott Free and DumbDumb are the only names annouced. With “Operation Kingfish” being the first piece of content released by game studio, they are locked and loaded to go on quite a kill-steak of high quality digital content. Gamers and action film fans should be prepared.

Tim Goessling is a contributing writer for Tubefilter and has never hit prestige level in Modern Warfare 2. You can read more of his writing at thislalife.com

Filed under: Action, Articles, Featured, Gaming, Machinima, News, Production Companies by Tim Goessling
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Halloween can be hard, I know. You don’t want to end up standing in line outside a Ricky’s, staring at physically improbable models of comic book-level disproportions waiting to purchase whatever leftover Scream mask is still on the shelves because you waited too long to figure out your costume. You also want to make sure you top that getup you wore a couple years ago when complete strangers wanted to take your picture and you won the holiday.

That’s why you should really just order the Codex from The Guild costume from HalloweenCostumes.com today.

Yeah, that’s right. Everyone’s favorite avatar from one of the internet’s most favorite original web series has her own eight-piece costume that you can own on backorder starting October 1st for the low price of $49.99. (This could be you!)

I caught up with The Guild creator and Codex’s real life counterpart, Felicia Day to find out how the costume came to be.

Tubefilter: How’d a Codex costume end up at HalloweenCostumes.com?
Felicia Day: We solicited help for The Guild Season 5 cosplayers over our Twitter and Facebook, and one of the employees over at Halloweencostumes.com was a fan and saw the posts. She arranged to loan us a TON of stuff to use in the season, which really saved us SO much when we were trying to pull off a real-looking convention on a web budget.

About a month ago they approached us about making the costume, and it felt like a perfect fit.

TF: Will you be dressing up as Codex for Hallowen?
FD: Not sure if I’ll be cosplaying Codex…seems a bit self-aggrandizing. Since we have so many great costumes leftover from the season, I might snag Tink’s Robin Hood. I loved that one.

TF: Will we be seeing any other Guild character costumes in the future?
FD: We’ll see how this one sells first. I am still blown away that I see people wearing outfits from our show at every single convention. Such an amazing tribute, I would love to offer more. We’ll see.

Day’s wasn’t lying about people dressing up like Codex at conventions. If you want to join them, get your own Codex costume here.

Filed under: Featured, News, The Guild by Joshua Cohen
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Filed under: BBC, Featured, News, Reviews, Studios, Web Series by Chris Landa
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The New York Television Festival announced its official selections for the 2011 Independent Pilot Competition at the beginning of August. Earlier this month, the seven-year-old celebration and showcase inspired by the independent film movement with the goal to “construct a new and innovative platform for program development” released this year’s programming schedule.

Be sure to reserve your tickets now to one of the duder, Odessa, Night of the Zombie King, and other screenings of original web series favorites before their creators turn on that Al Thompson marketing hustle and sell out the standing room.

Other not to miss NTVF events include Friday, September 23’s Digital Day presented by MSN, where a host of experienced and talented online entertainment professionals, entrepreneurs, and creators will drop a combined several decades’ worth of knowledge for the audience’s edification. Yours truly also will be emceeing the MSN Pitch LIVE! event. (Free advice to all those participating. Ride in a lot of elevators between now and when it’s your time to shine on stage.)

Check out the schedule to see what’s in store for the rest of NYTVF. I’ll see you there in late September.

Filed under: Industry, New York Television Festival, News by Joshua Cohen
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You’re the online video hosting, distribution, and advertising network of choice for thousands of creators of original web series. You just launched a newly redesigned, curated destination site, intended to highlight and showcase quality online programming in an easily navigable environment for current and would-be consumers of online video content. Because you often sell out of your ad inventory, you’re hoping this new site will attract more viewers, which will create more inventory against which you can sell more ads.

You’re certain the new site will naturally accrue more users over time, but you know it doesn’t hurt to accelerate that growth by marketing the property and its premiere content. And if an advertiser that wants to target young creators and consumers of online video programming is on board to craft a branded campaign that shares a few of your marketing initiatives, even better.

Such is the case with blip.tv and the Capital One Journey Student Rewards Card. Labor Day and Freddie Mercury’s birthday already came and went, but there’s still one week left for the the new media company’s and the credit card for college kids and vikings’ branded Endless Summer campaign.

The initiative is part four-week promotion for the Capital One Journey Card and part four-week promotion of quality online programming. Here’s the gist direct from blip.tv Director of Audience Development, Rick Rey:

Endless Summer is a curated festival that celebrates some of our favorite new web series, hosted by producer/actress Paula Rhodes (A Good Knight’s Quest) and sponsored by the Capital One Journey Card for students. Each week we’ll handpick a selection of awesome blip.tv episodes from different genres – like Sci-fi, Comedy, Women in Web Series, and Gaming – and we’ll release an interview with one of the web’s most popular producers from that genre (including Tony Valenzuela, Sandeep Parikh, Taryn Southern, and Sean Plott).

Produced by Big Fantastic, the weekly interviews give viewers a chance to meet the talent behind some of the web’s best content and learn about their journeys to becoming successful web series producers. After the interview, Rhodes also goes on a fun summertime journey of her own with, accompanied by that week’s interviewee.

If you’re wondering how the Capital One Journey Card is integrated into the campaign, those italics in the paragraph above should give you a hint. “Capital One wanted a content experience that drove home the brand essence of the Journey card,” explained blip.tv SVP of Advertising Sales & Creative Services, Evan Gotlib, “So each of the four content creator interviews represent the crux of the integration.”

The brand message and the Capital One presence is further reinforced by the branded Endless Summer page, content bumpers and end caps on the videos, and a sleek Facebook widget on both the blip.tv and Capital One Facebook pages.

“The whole idea here is that in the summer there is nothing but re-runs on TV,” Gotlib noted. “In Endless Summer we’ve got new episodes of terrific web series launching every week…it’s the place to be for new content.” Be sure to make your own journey over to blip.tv/endless-summer before this year’s autumnal equinox and check out the content for yourself.

Filed under: blip.tv, Branded Entertainment, Featured, News by Joshua Cohen
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Series on the internet, or web series if you’re in the camp that still embraces that term, generally fall into one of a few general buckets. There’s all kinds of buckets of branded series, of high-polish dramas, sketch comedies, and at least a dozen or so types native to YouTube. But the bucket that gets the worst wrap of all, and with due cause, is the dreaded made-for-acting-reel series.

That bucket, it turns out, seems to be rampant in actor-heavy enclaves of Los Angeles and New York, and a large chunk of the inbound emails we get every day. Take Self Storage, an indie comedy series on KoldCast TV (and YouTube) that dropped us a review request at the launch of their second season last month. It’s in the bucket for sure, but it’s at least in the better half.

Julie Mann stars alongside Kimberly Trew as Dana and Shoshanna, two down-on-their-luck college grads somehow relegated to shacking up at a self storage facility. I’m still not sure what exactly they do for a living, but their loyalty to each other given the situation is applaudable. I mean even Johnny B Homeless couch surfed solo.

As an overall series, Self Storage is slightly flawed, though not from the likes of Ocean’s Eleven and Hung star Eddie Jemison, Dave Holmes and other very watchable actors here. It struck me a few episodes in that it wasn’t the acting at all that derailed this for me. Mann is every bit adorable and there’s a charm in her and Trew’s desperation as Dana and Shoshanna.

You see, given the simple, yet orignal premise—however implausible it may be—and the cast, I wanted to really like this series. I was rooting for it. Instead I left this one feeling a bit dirty, and not in a Blue Movies type of way, instead resigned to wondering why the quirks of this pair of de facto homeless girls weren’t working for me. (Peeing in a litter box?) That, and the writing is plagued with little room for depth in the curt five-minute episode structure.

Still, Self Storage is finding its way and is now back for a second season (launched August 17), this time with a sponsor on board—StorageOutlet.net, a local Southern California chain of 18 storage facilities. While a major brand would have balked at the racy fare, the local brand saw an opportunity. For a chain that calls itself “outside the box,” I’d have to agree, how many other storage marts have their own scripted internet comedy? It now releases the series on its YouTube channel as well as the show’s own channel.

On the story front, Jemison returns with his Barbie-stroking creeper of a character. The first ep (below) makes a relevant reference to TV’s bid-happy Storage Wars, and the girls are on to a new storage mart, with a handful of new guest stars.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News, Reviews, Web Series by Marc Hustvedt
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In June we told you how video game publisher Activision was looking for top Hollywood talent to create linear programming for Call of Duty Elite, the still-in-beta subscription-based social networking and multiplayer online addendum to the ever-popular Call of Duty: Black Ops and the yet-to-be-released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Since then, Activision has found its top Hollywood talent.

Activision tapped acclaimed director Ridley Scott, his acclaimed brother Tony Scott, and their acclaimed production outpost RSA Films to produce Friday Night Fights. John Gaudiosi at The Hollywood Reporter writes the original web series will be exclusively available to those subscribers of Call of Duty Elite’s $50/year premium service package and will “focus on video game competitions between rival groups” (like Republicans and Democrats) that “will settle their differences by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” (instead of by way of fisticuffs, which would be way too violent. ZING! Video game violence humor!).

Activision also tapped Will Arnett and Justin Bateman’s DumbDumb production shop to create two more original web series for Elite. The animated Cocked Hammers and the screen captured n00b tube!, which will feature comedic play-by-play commentary from Arnett and Bateman over user-submitted CoD:MW3 gameplay clips.

Friday Night Fights will be Ridley Scott’s latest foray into the online video space since he dropped his online Blade Runner redux and released YouTube’s Life in a Day. Arnett and Bateman are producing their CoD Elite programs coming off the analytical and comical success of their branded entertainment show for Denny’s, Always Open. The web series and CoD:MW3 are set to debut November 8.

Filed under: Comedy, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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YouTube’s Margaret Healy once called William Hyde, better known online as TheWillofDC, “the Oracle of YouTube” for his savant-like crunching of the mountains of stats and numbers within YouTube’s top subscribed channels. He’s arguably one of the foremost expert reporters on YouTube channels, so it’s no wonder we’ve had Will has a semi-regular contributor to Tubefilter.

Originally from the East Coast—and yes, once living in Washington DC—Will built up quite the following himself with his twice-weekly main shows, Winners & Losers and YouTube News, bringing his channel to a lofty 307,688 subscribers as of this writing.

We caught up with Will for a little one-on-one time on the Tubefilter interview couch at VidCon 2011 with Dana Ward, watch the full interview here:

And while we had him freshly back from a trip to a whirlwind trip through Europe that hit up Spain and Poland, he’s thinking internationally and we asked him for his thoughts on what’s ahead on YouTube.

Tubefilter: Are there any hot newcomers you’re noticing a big spike in this week?
TheWillofDC: adamthomasmoran, essentially the Russian raywilliamjohnson has really started skyrocketing after a year on YouTube. It almost make me wonder why every languge doesn’t have a =3 equivalent. The Spanish version, an actual subsidiary of =3 is doing fantastic and now this Russian independent content creator has struck gold. I am waiting eagerly for a Mandarin Chinese version of the popular =3 format.

Tubefilter: What trends should new and up-and-coming creators be aware of in terms of what’s working in online video?
TheWillofDC: 70% of YouTube’s total viewership is from outside north america. The past year we’ve seen a select few international YouTubers really take command and hold a sizable audience comparable to any north american YouTuber. I think right now people should focus on not limiting their audience to America only. If you speak a 2nd language you should be utilizing that in some way to make special videos or a channel dedicated entirely to utilizing that foreign language. Also I’m surprised at the lack of captions on videos. I think in the future the way everyone annotates now everyone will have their videos captioned.

Tubefilter: What’s next for you in the months to come?
TheWillofDC: I’m finally done with all my summer travels thankfully and can start putting content creation into overdrive. I have a gaming channel I want to start up again and my main channel has a brand new set that looks AWESOME and will really enhance the new look and feel for YouTube News and Winners and Losers while I’m always going to do news and statistics I have a desire to start doing more interviews and hosting gigs which is where my focus will be for the next year.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Interviews, Maker Studios, News, RayWilliamJohnson, Web Series, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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This year Tubefilter has been exploring how YouTube and its partner program have opened a clear path to online video monetization.

And as we’ve learned from our last panel Beyond YouTube, ad revenue share on YouTube is just the tip of the iceberg: producers are maximizing their online video business on platforms like blip.tv and with their own websites, smartphone apps, merchandising, licensing, and more.

It’s clear that being a successful online video producer is about being both a creator and a marketer. But how do you engage and drive audiences?

Join us at Social Media Week Los Angeles as we explore how to get social in online video—and discover what tools and techniques help market your online video business and help you measure your success.

Thanks to our Meetup Sponsor theStream.tv for hosting the panel and the networking mixer!

Gettin’ Social in Online Video
Thursday, September 22, 2011

Panelists:

Amber Buhl
Director, Sales, Klout
Former sales and Marketing Solutions roles at Hulu, Yahoo!, and Comcast Networks

Garrett Law
Co-Founder and COO, Attention Span Media
Social media agency and Fanatical audience development platform 

Miles Beckett
Founder and CEO, EQAL
Builds influencer networks around celebrities and brands

Greg Goodfried
Founder and President, EQAL
Builds influencer networks around celebrities and brands

Moderator: Drew Baldwin, Tubefilter

A part of Social Media Week

Sponsored by theStream.tv, the leader in live interacting streaming video content

Community Sponsors: SAG New Media, PlaceVine, and blip.tv
Media Partner: PGA New Media Council
Photo Booth by Snap Yourself!

RSVP: tubefilter.com/gettinsocial

Gettin’ Social in Online Video
Thursday, September 22, 2011

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Hollywood Web Video Meetup, Industry, News by Drew Baldwin
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Monday, September 5, 2011 wasn’t only the last day women can wear white in the presence of Anna Wintour without feeling less than until the Spring equinox, it was also the birthday of one of the greatest musicians to ever live and second-most famous Zoroastrian (behind Zoroaster) of all-time.

Freddie Mercury would’ve been 65 years young this year. Google celebrated the occasion with a particularly pretty, cool-toned, pastel-colored collage of a Google Doodle with soft drawings of Mercury in larger than life poses throughout various stages in his career. An animated video accompanied the image, conceived by Google Doodler Jennifer Hom and featuring a sometimes 8-bit Mercury, Queen, and screaming fans flashily enacting a rendition of Don’t Stop Me Now, a greatest hit of Queen that Mercury wrote.

The video’s fantastic, but it has something in common with previous video accompaniments of Google Doodles celebrating famous celebrities’ birthdays. There’s no view count. Kinda strange, right?

Google’s uploaded at least 1,380 videos to its official YouTube account. That includes everything form tutorials on how to add a picture to Google Images (currently at 14,484 views) to lessons on how to search the stars in Google Earth 4.2 (currently at 21,046,486 views). Out of all those videos, only Charlie Chaplin’s and Freddie Mercury’s B-Day celebrations don’t list the view counts.

Obviously Google doesn’t want users to know how many people visit Google.com and click on the Doodle. But why? Google commands and impressive 65% of the search engine market and YouTube gets almost triple the total unique viewers of its next closest competitor. What’s the big deal about possibly revealing a little bit about the clickthrough rate for an image on Google’s homepage?

Your guess is as good as mine. Listen to one of the world’s best vocal talents ever and then let us know what you think.

Filed under: Featured, Music, News, YouTube by Joshua Cohen
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