The Ad Selector displays two or three advertising options (which are comprised of different brands, brand categories, or commercial length) before the selected content begins. Viewers then choose their preferred advertising option and sit back to watch both their chosen content and commercials.
It’s not the type of video advertising you see on every site! That, and because of the quantity of ads Hulu delivers every month, make this sendup of the service by Slate V’s Scott Blaszak especially good.
It’s like the Vacationeers’ plea for a faux crowd funding campaign. A kinda insidery online video and entertainment industries joke about something relatively new and popular that quickly escalates into absurdity. I would also totally pay to watch Ben Silverman try to convince The Office writers to structure an episode around a McFlurry.
It’s the first Monday of September, and that means it’s Labor Day for us Statesiders, and just another Monday for practically everyone else. There are no holidays on the internet, and thus another Monday means another weekly video blog from Tubefilter of online video news worth knowing.
This week we’ve got more on the Hulu Japan launch and what is missing, big news from our favorite DIY fashionistas Threadbanger, a brief history of Labor Day and the man that made it happen, the latest from Sniper Twins, plus a crazy new Man vs. Food inspired web show from a Chicago-area BBQ joint, Uncle Bub’s.
Here is is, please watch, like, comment, share, enjoy:
New York video creators Sniper Twins are out with a brand new video, “Keep it on the Cheap” which spits a catchy rebuttal to the consumerist shop-to-save-the-country nonsense. Full video:
DIY fashion channel Threadbanger is back, finally, and the latest update video from host Corinne Leigh explains the re-boot of the former Next New Networks vertical. Plus check out their newly launched Tumblr.
It’s Back to School time, and CandySliceComedy is looking out for girls this year”How to Be Popular” video full of advice.
We are hitting both coasts this month with Tubefilter Web Video Meetups. In LA, on September 22nd we are featuring a special Social Media Week edition of the Meetup called “Gettin Social in Online Video” featuring speakers from Klout, EQAL and more.
And in New York, we kick off our Multi-screen Mixup NY series with FourScreenMedia on September 20th at Copia on 56th St. as we present the the premier networking event at the intersection of video and advertising. The event will feature a short presentation from the always enlightening My Damn Channel CEO Rob Barnett.
Comedian Jamie Kennedy is launching a hidden camera show HAHA,JK!, a short-form online series in the vein of his three-season WB television comedy The Jamie Kennedy Experiment.
The new series, starring Kennedy, is featured on his new humor site HAHAJK.com.
In the first episode, “The Assistant,” comedian Dave Sheridan interviews an unsuspecting job applicant for a personal assistant position to an eccentric millionaire. Expected hijinks ensue, including a bit featuring Jessica Sutta of the Pussycat Dolls.
Each seven-minute episode is preceded by one of three special thirty second commercial spots starring Kennedy for the series’ brand sponsor, Ask.com. The Kennedy Ask.com spots—which play like short skits—run across the engage:BDR display network of 1500 comScore beaconed premium websites. It’s just like what Google did with Seth McFarlane‘s Calvalcade of Cartoon Comedy for Burger King on the company’s AdSense Network.
engage:BDR strategically places in-banner video ads to secure substantial audience impressions so they don’t need to rely on viral distribution. The spots, which feature the catchphrase “Don’t Ask Jaime,” include Ball Girls, Out of the Closet, and Sunscreen. Check them out. And if you see a guy around that looks like this, be careful how you act. You could be on camera.
But which elected leader of which state in our union is more terribler than the other? Unfortunately, there are a lot of really good/horrible candidates. But that’s why Al Gore invented the internet before he invented global warming, so we can answer such questions by way of tragically comic awards.
The Transport Workers Union of America created the Worst Governor Ever Award in conjunction with the Workers’ Rights are Human Rights campaign to expose the “extreme agenda of reactionary governors and let Americans send a message to the governor of their choosing that he or she is the worst governor ever.”
It’s not really but kinda sorta like Stephen Colbert’s Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow Super PAC or Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity. The TWU created an entity that focuses on bringing serious but often overlooked and underoutraged political issues and morally suspect individuals to the forefront of political conversations by way of putting those political conversations in a new and engaging context. A lot of individuals watch C-SPAN as an alternative to Ambien and not everyone reads Paul Krugman. An award like this and online videos like these make for far more effective ways to engage those individuals in political discourse and educated those individuals about political issues.
Aside from the videos, the best part about the Worst Governor Ever project is the ability to send your selection an immediate email correspondence noting how you voted him or her for the title. Geinus, fun, and (hopefully) effective.
I caught up with Mary Matthews, the Transport Workers Union of America’s Interactive Media Producer/Director, to ask her about the initiative and how it all came to be:
Tubefilter: Tell me the genesis of the Worst Governor Ever award. Mary Matthews: We were sitting around talking about all these governors, their war on workers, the middle class, the poor, etc. and literally could not figure out which one of them was the worst governor ever. Originally, I thought of it as a one time video, but the TWU new media department worked together to develop it as a campaign where people could vote, social network their vote, and contact the governor directly they voted for about why they voted them Worst Governer Ever.
TF: Is this the first project like this the TWU has done? MM: Yes. This project is in connection with TWU’s long-term Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights campaign, which directly addresses these attacks happening across the country on the middle class and working families by way of direct actions, workshops, summits, and all kinds of efforts to bring workers to this movement and the movement to the workers.
The Worst Governor Ever campaign is a direct connect, engaging people to vote, participate, communicate their displeasure with their leaderships and make their demands for change.
TF: You don’t usually see unions use a little comedy to promote initiatives or bring attention to political issues. Have you seen any other unions do anything like this? MM: I’m not aware of any union making a humor campaign such as ours, but here is nothing funny about what these governors are doing to dismantle workers right, working families and communities at large.
A budget is a moral document. It shows us what we value as a society, what we hold most precious and dear as a people, a community, a nation. These governors have cut millions of dollars in education, healthcare, transit and basic infrastructure that keeps this country running every single day. When you put all the crazy legislation and polarizing politics together in one place, as you see in the Worst Governor Ever videos and on the Worst Governor Ever.com site, it is completely absurd.
By the way, TWU had a much more serious approach in another video, Dear Governor, which addresses the same issues but very differently.
TF: What’s the response been from the people in the TWU? MM: The response has been great, within our own union, in labor at large and with the American people. Thousands of votes continue to pour in. We have gotten some great press coverage, especially at state level, where press is covering these specific governors. They all want to know where their Governor is in the polls. We were also featured on the main page of MoveOn.org.
This is a very passionate subject, nation wide, and it has really tapped in to the competitive nature of folks as well. They really want THEIR Governor to be the Worst Governor Ever.
TF: What about outside the TWU? Have any specific governors been especially irate and/or vocal about the campaign? MM: Gov. Jan Brewer’s office (AZ) stated: ” It is a badge of honor to be nominated Worst Governor Ever by these people.” We responded by quickly making her a physical badge of honor as a Worst Governor Ever candidate.
Rick Scott’s (FL) communications director e-mailed us a direct response with questions re: Rick Scott’s merits as a Worst Governor Ever contender, which we answered and then never heard back from them again. The Pink Slip Rick campaign has partnered with us, in addressing Rick Scott of Florida’s terrible attacks on working Americans.
Tubefilter: What’s your end goal here? MM: We have created a place online for people to go to express their passions and concerns, with not only a vote, but an opportunity and means to connect directly to these governors, to express their disappointment and displeasure with their leadership, or lack there of. The Worst Governor Ever Facebook page has quickly become an ever-growing community of folks sharing information, links, personal stories of the fight for working families and the middle class.
But what’s our ultimate goal? To finally determine once and for all who is the Worst Governor Ever, as determined by the American people themselves.
Help the TWU accomplish their goal by casting your vote for the best/worst governor at WorstGovernorEver.com.
No one has truly been able to make a final edict on whether games based on wars and tragedies are in good taste. A film all but canonizing those on United 93? Few had a problem with that. A TV show exploring the emotional trials of those who survived the falling of the World Trade Center? Very well received, and still popular.
Games dealing with modern-day warfare seem to be the only entertainment properties that take criticism for dealing with the subject matter. It’s probably due to the interactivity. While it’s only a multiplayer game, and you’re shooting at other (and more than likely also Western) opponents, is it okay to play as a terrorist, fighting for a successful bombing or to totally annihilate a member of an American special forces squad? We don’t really have an answer, though philosophers are working on one. But if game sales are any indication, the whole thing is largely viewed with a collective shrug.
So I suppose my question is: What about 9/11? What about making the event not only a plot point of a game, but the premise?
Our very own Jenni Powell was sent clues by the game developers, beckoning her to join in to play The Darkest Puzzle, an alternate reality game that seeks to “solve 9/11”.
One of the first videos from The Darkest Puzzle‘s YouTube channel immediately shows the falling of the first tower, with a flashback to what was on television just an hour and a half earlier, as multiple networks cut in from their frivolous programming to cover the very first plane crash. The coverage was synched up, holding for excruciating minutes until, seconds before the end, we watch the second plane crash, live, all over again. No one with a heart beating in their chest can watch this and not feel something.
The gamemasters clearly intend to elicit emotional reactions. Academic papers and snippets of old Yahoo Groups have shown that discussion of creating an ARG based on 9/11 began as early as September 12th, 2001. Many believed it was one way for some people to make sense of the attacks. Certainly, around that time information was sparse and confusion was high. But now, nearly ten years later, we have a team following through.
Videos and messages posted by (mostly) confirmed Cloudmaker accounts warn of history repeating itself. Jenni herself found these messages from a Blogspot that players were privately invited to read
And reading everything over, these seemed to be the main questions being brought to the table before the blog came to a halt:
Why were they so quick to attribute the attacks to Al-Qaeda?
Did Flight 93 really go down in Pennsylvania?
Did the Pentagon attack actually happen?
Were there explosives in the WTC that aided the demolition and was this possible due to security lapses the weeks before the attack?
Why was the wreckage sent to China for destruction when it should have been considered evidence?
Other information suggests the war in Iraq was relevant. One article linked to is a real ABC News story about Israelis arrested after filming the WTC attacks and celebrating. Discs sent to early-adopter players had screencaps of old Blogspot commenters in 2001 discussing the moral quandries of making a 9/11 ARG. The creators are, in fact, questioning their own creation.
The lack of a central information source makes it so ARGs are never simple to play. It’s largely left up to players to propel the story forward and casual observers may never find out where the story goes. Whether The Darkest Puzzle succeeds, unlike many ARGs that use the same techniques of storytelling, will depend largely on its destination. Some truth-seeking 9/11 conspiracy hullabaloo? Or an engaging piece of interactive historical fiction? Only time will tell.
As it stands now, “on-the-fence” probably most accurately describes many of the players and lurkers attitude towards the game. But the game will be played, the hardcore will defend it, those who refuse to understand will despise it, and while it may be at the point for us to be wary of playing into and encouraging some conspiracy theories, those of us always in search of the next ILoveBees will shrug, laugh uncomfortably, and watch the next video intently, waiting for a clue that probably doesn’t exist.
UPDATE: A previous version of this article referenced Cloudmakers as involved in the creation of the ARG, this is not the case and has been corrected.
Whitney Adams of Brunellos Have More Fun and Claire Thomas of The Kitchy Kitchen have turned the task of creating a short video into an artful fun romp. We dare you to watch an episode of their series Take Out and not have a smile on your face. In each video sommelier Whitney Adams chooses a wine to drink with a dish of take-out food. Thomas then shoots video of Adams exploring the pairing by drinking the wine with the dish and exploring the combination. For anyone wondering if Ricky’s Fish Tacos goes well with a 2009 Von Buhl Armand Kabinett reisling, the answer is yes.
Shot in the style of a music video with superimposed text and cut away images of the tasting notes and flavors Adams finds in the wine. In the videos she may also be petting a cute dog or sharing a pizza with friends ensuring that all who watch would be happy to live in her delicious world.
Tubefilter caught up with Adams and Thomas between tastings to find out more about how they bring their take on drinking wine to the small screen.
Tubefilter: How long have you been involved in the wine industry? Whitney Adams: About 3 years. It all started when I was general manager of an Italian restaurant here in LA and because of certain circumstances had to take over managing the wine list and doing staff education. I fell in love. It just all made sense to me in a way that other things hadn’t. My interest in Italian wine was the starting point and is still my passion and focus. But working in retail now, I’ve been able to taste and fall in love all over again with so many amazing wines from all over the world.
Tubefilter: Where can we find you pouring, drinking and selling wine? Adams: I’m a sommelier at Terroni and Italian buyer and general do everything kind of gal at Domaine LA wine shop. You can also find me talking about what I pour, drink, and sell on my blog- Brunellos Have More Fun or my podcast The Crush on Homefries.com.
Tubefilter: Where did the idea for the Take Out series come from? Adams: I’ve been wanting to do some video content for my blog for a while now. One night a friend asked if I would start pairing wines to take out food on my blog, since she never knew what to drink with her Thai or pizza delivery. I thought that would be a great concept for the videos. I thought of only one person I would want to direct the videos and that was Claire Thomas. I approached her about it and she was game! And she had a ton of wonderful ideas to bring to the table. It has become a true collaboration.
Tubefilter: How do you choose the pairings? Adams: I start with the food first. And I think about how I would want to experience the moment and the food. Then, I come up with of a few wines that fit a certain profile in regards to texture, acidity, fruit and how those elements will play with the flavors and textures of the food. Then I narrow it down to one. My criteria is does it make my mouth water to think about drinking this wine with this food? If yes, we’ve got a winner.
Tubefilter: What camera do you shoot the footage with? How are the videos shot? How many people are on set to make it happen? Claire Thomas: I always shoot my tabletop videos with a [Canon] 5D, but because of the loose, intimate vibe of Whitney enjoying wine with her friends, I played around a lot in post with vintage film grains to get a soft, almost Polaroid look. I’ve been working with my DP, Yayo for about a year now and we have a total short hand. I board the shoot ahead of time, and we discuss the angles and ideas, we slap the lenses I use for food photography, lots of macro lenses, and have fun playing around. It’s basically the two of us running wild.
Tubefilter: What is the editing process? Thomas: It’s me on my couch with my laptop. I start with rough cuts and then go on a massive music hunt. Once I find the perfect song, I polish the edit and color correct. My cousin in-law works as a colorist, so he hooked me up with a whole slate of different vintage film grains treated in different ways, which gives a really fun texture to the video. My aunt created graphics to emulate 19th century wine labels and bistro menus. She did a knock out job. I’m so happy with how the whole thing came together.
Tubefilter: In the videos there are inset shots of the tasting notes and flavors. How did that idea come about? How is that section of the video set up and shot? Thomas: I had this idea of the videos feeling sort of languid and relaxed, and then having a beat of quick cuts, so the tasting notes were a natural fit. Whitney always has the most inventive descriptions- I mean, sparkly diamonds was one! – which leant themselves to being visualized.
Tubefilter: How many videos do you have planned in the series? Adams: There are several in the works to be filmed next month. We’ve expanded on the Take Out theme and, really, the possibilities are endless within this format. So, we’ll keep producing them as long as we have interesting new ideas.
Tubefilter: What are some of your favorite wine related series? Adams: I like the things that “Finkus Bripp” of Wine on the Rocks is doing with wine media and enjoy the premise of the Stanley Tucci show on PBS, Vine Talk. I love the idea of seeing a group of people/friends enjoying wine and discussing it.
Tubefilter: Do you have more video series planned? Adams: Claire and I are having a lot of fun. We are excited to see where this will take us and how we can develop the series and make it even better.
For more wine related topics check out Adams weekly podcast The Crush in which she and Christina Pickard cover the world of wine, cocktails and food pairings.
The Monogamy Experiment stars actress/director Amy Rider (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and is a unique mockumentary/documentary hybrid that intertwines a scripted comedy with real interviews.
The scripted action begins when Rider’s character and that character’s boyfriend Nigel (Brayden Pierce) visit a relationship counselor and – yadda yadda yadda – the couple then begins a 30-day open relationship (which, these days, is all the rage).
“I thought it’d be interesting (and funny) to make a mockumentary where you take a committed monogamous couple and throw them in a situation where they have to test out 30 days of an open relationship,” Rider said over e-mail. “But while I wanted to do a mockumentary, I felt like there’s a big social relevancy in the subject matter that I didn’t want to get lost in the whole comedy and mockumentary aspect.”
And in order to not get lost in the whole comedy and mockumentary aspect, Rider points the camera towards an impressive list of television actors, who sit down for one-on-one interviews to discuss their vantage points on intimacy and relationships. Those television actors include Brian Krause (Charmed), James Kyson-Lee (Heroes) and Amy’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager co-stars Camille Winbush and Renee Olstead.
“They were all so game,” said Rider. “They understood the nature of just creating random stuff and putting stuff out there. None of them are divas.” And the real interviews offer a nice thought-provoking balance to the loving, but bickering fictional on-screen relationship of Amy and Riley.
The series was “shot within a tight knit group of friends” and it’s obvious to any viewer that said tight knit group of friends had a helluva lot of fun making it. “The initial goal was always just to get off our butts and create something fun,” admitted Rider.
The fast-paced program consisting of a 17-episode first season with new episodes released every Monday. If you want a quick, fresh series to watch, or you’re trying to give your significant other the hint that you think a sprinkling of infidelity isn’t such a terrible thing, click on over and give The Monogamy Experiment a try.
They describe their show as The Jersey Shore meets Jackass, which seems quite fitting for this New Jersey-based couple. Though I might throw in my favorite part of MAD magazine—Spy vs. Spy—to characterize the artful narrative that’s taking place here. What began as some idle time-passing fun with a video camera getting his girlfriend to attempt some less than flattering challenges, ended up spreading wide amongst the male-heavy Break.com audience.
Since make the shift over to YouTube in November 2009, the couple has broken through the 500,000 subscriber mark and netted over 81 million total views. Jesse and Jeana sat down with us for our Tubefilter Interviews series with top video creators. Check out the interview below, though we are still wondering, as their fans are, just when—or maybe if—these two will end up tying the knot. (It’s their number one most asked question in their comments.)
While the escalating battle of the sexes continues between these two, they have branched out from their standard format, adding both a second YouTube channel (BFvsGF) and a new series where ultimate prankster Jesse reviews pranks submitted from fans around the world.
Their first video on YouTube (November 10, 2009) 3.5 million views:
Before YouTube, Break.com was their spot. “Another Chick Tries Cinnamon Challenge” 4.7 million views:
You might not know Julie Ann Emery. In fact, when you look up Emery on IMDb, a user-generated list appears on the side titled, “The Best TV Actresses Whose Faces You Know But Names You Might Not.” Perhaps most often recognized for her supporting role in Hitch, Emery has been consistently working in film and television for a decade and has a career many actresses would envy.
But like so many independent web show creators before her, Emery had an itch to go beyond her acting roots into writing and directing. Noticing many of her talented actor friends were out of work, the New York-based Emery started to write Then We Got Help, a series about four couples who collectively — and comedically — attend weekly therapy sessions to work through their problems. Each week Emily (Emery) shoots videos of the sessions, and the show is filmed docu-style, which has helped the show’s reputation as organic and honest.
“I specifically shot us for the Internet,” Emery said in an interview. “I like where our limited budget led creatively. I like that Emily’s an amateur documentarian. I like that aspect of it. I think it lends a certain of charm for us.”
Then We Got Help concluded its (generously) fan-supported second season last month and recently screened at the International Television Festival. Emery is currently exploring options to keep it going.
The show is a collective effort in more ways than one. Shot in her living in Queens, Emery and her cast film on a hectic schedule that has her bedrooms transformed into dressing rooms and her mom running craft services. “She cooks like its Christmas all day long. It’s amazing — and she stays under-budget,” she said.
The filmmaking process — roughly three episodes and forty pages a day — is tightly organized by Emery and her husband, actor Kevin Earley (Kenny, on the show). Each couple on the show rehearses with Emery before each shoot, even via iChat if necessary, to get the cues and emotional tones right. Then We Got Help relies heavily on its realistic and constantly overlapping dialogue, whose successful execution rests firmly on the actors’ shoulders and requires the right combination of planning and spontaneity from the director.
“I tend to chase the moment,” Emery said of her shooting style. “I tend to throw myself under the bus as a filmmaker for the moment…I’m an actor myself, so of course I’m going to approach it from that point of view.”
A lot of the show, Emery noted, is “dirty.” The sound is dirty in that the dialogue overlaps, a style Emery borrowed from Rod Lurie, with whom she worked on the short-lived series, Line of Fire. Their visuals are dirty, too, its roving images captured on a Canon FS20, the camera Emery’s character shoots on in the show. The sound in particular makes the editing process harder on her, but it also adds to the show’s realism.
“There are people that perhaps criticize that aspect of it, but that’s a different generation. I’m in my thirties, and I think people my age are more used to a cacophony of sound,” said Emery. “I started to trust that more as an editor…I knew it could be done. It just can’t be done in a classic editing way. You can’t go: line, line, line.”
As Hollywood remains a difficult place for female directors and showrunners, Emery hopes the web will remain fertile ground for breeding a new, more diverse generation of artists.
“I feel the Internet is creating an opportunity for women and minority voices, to be perfectly honest, that maybe have a harder time getting those early opportunities in their careers. They’re starting to be noticed. I hope that never changes,” she said.
“Web television is going to change a lot in the next five years,” she added. “I hope we don’t lose this aspect of web television where you can come in without a ton of money and still a story that’s important to you.”
The parlor game of who’s going to shell out the billions to buy Hulu aside, the video network is still making headlines this week. Today it officially launched Hulu Japan—its first country outside of the U.S.—with a subscription-only service featuring content from NBCu, CBS, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney/ABC and other partners.
The move to go 100% ad free with Hulu.jp, offering its “hundreds” of movies and “thousands” of TV episodes at ¥1,480 per month (or about $19.25 US), is a bit of a surprise, though makes sense given its four-screen streaming strategy in a country much more accustomed to consuming content across multiple devices, particularly on smart phones.
The monthly fee allows subscribers access to the full catalog across the whole gambit of connected devices—via the web, through Sony and Panasonic internet-enabled TVs, gaming platforms (just Sony PS3 and XBox 360 for now), and smart phones like the iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
Where’s the Japanese Content?
As of launch, one notably missing chunk of content are Japanese TV and films, making this a pure-bred American import for the time being. But it’s in the works, according to Hulu’s SVP of International, Johannes Larcher. “As we’ve done in the U.S., we will rapidly and continually add content to the service,” he wrote this morning. “The content lineup will only become more robust over time, including the addition of Japanese-produced content and content from across the Asian region in the near term.”
Also notably missing for Japanese subscribers is US Hulu’s most popular TV series, Family Guy, instead offering up FOX’s King of The Hill as the only animated series.
And as for web originals like Dorm Life, Leap Year, Goodnight Burbank and the rest? Don’t expect them any time soon, as this international deal falls outside of the advertising rev-sharing deals that these series signed for distribution on US Hulu.
What it does signal however is a willingness for the US studios to come to terms on a flat-fee internet distribution service outside of our borders. A UK launch for Hulu was in the works, but later scrapped over content licensing hurdles back in 2009. Now it’s back on the planned docket with Spain and the UK next up for Hulu’s expansion overseas.
“As we celebrate the launch of Hulu in Japan, we are conscious that this is just the first of more markets outside of the U.S. for Hulu,” added Larcher.
Hulu knows a thing or one billion about online video advertising. The on demand premium streaming video destination for major motion pictures and television programs delivers roughly 1,000,000,000 online video ads every month to 24 million or so individuals in the United States at a rate of about one ad per every four-and-a-half to five-and-a-half minutes of programming.
It’s the first Monday of September, and that means it’s Labor Day for us Statesiders, and just another Monday for practically everyone else. There are no holidays on the internet, and thus another Monday means another 
The new series, starring Kennedy, is featured on his new humor site 
Governors 
Kumail Nanjiani has a wonderful 
Whitney Adams of 
Tubefilter: What camera do you shoot the footage with? How are the videos shot? How many people are on set to make it happen?
The Monogamy Experiment stars actress/director 
There really is no better embodiment of dysfunctional bliss than the couple that is 
You might not know Julie Ann Emery. In fact, when you look up Emery on 
“I tend to chase the moment,” Emery said of her shooting style. “I tend to throw myself under the bus as a filmmaker for the moment…I’m an actor myself, so of course I’m going to approach it from that point of view.”
The parlor game of who’s going to shell out the billions to buy Hulu aside, the video network is still making headlines this week. Today it officially launched 
