Anna Akana and Ray William Johnson introduced their new studio with the bombastic Riley Rewind, but Akana’s latest product is much smaller and more introspective. She stepped behind the camera to helm Hallucination, a three-minute short film about a mental health patient.

Hallucination was written and directed by Akana and is a sharp departure from the vlog-style videos she usually features on her channel. The film stars Alexis Dickey as a mentally ill woman who is stalked by a figment of her imagination. Hallucination, which was DP’d by online video vet Lan Bui, looks great, though the story itself is ultimately a simple one. Still, it’s artistic yet easy to digest, making it something along the lines of ‘Vimeo entertainment for the YouTube crowd.’

Akana plans to create 11 more shorts before the year is up, which will help fill out the catalog of her Runaway Machine studio. Meanwhile, Johnson will use the studio for his own series of projects; while he is not involved in Hallucination, he and Akana will likely work together on several more films, as they did for Riley Rewind, which debuted last December.

Akana’s vlogs showed her knack for clever editing, and Hallucination only furthers that point. It’s not perfect, but it’s intriguing enough to get us excited about her next short piece.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now.  Read previous installments here.

The Aussies are cooking up some quality web content, and the latest hit from Down Under is The Cleanists, a web series about a mismatched group of professional cleaners.

The Cleanists is written and directed by Tristam Baumber, who, despite his country of origin, seems most inspired by American sitcoms. In an interview with Splitsider, Baumber references Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Larry Sanders Show and Seinfeld.

The series that The Cleanists most resembles, however, is The Office. The four leads are basically Dwight, Michael, Jim, and Pam in yellow t-shirts, and the show derives its humor from the power struggles between them. The series also employs the same documentary-style camerawork, which is pulled off exceptionally well, resulting in a comedy that looks and sounds great.

By the second episode, multiple plots twist have come out of each house visit, with ten installments representing the series’ complete run. Ultimately, there are few web comedies of higher quality; The Cleanists‘ execution is fittingly tidy.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT:

• BFA. The title here stands for ‘Baltimore. Friends. Artists.’ That establishes both the setting and the professions of the lead characters.
• Olanzapine. This series is spun off from a short film shot in two days and is inspired by campy superhero TV shows.
• Jack & Emma. After failing to make it in LA, a pair of showbiz types return to their small hometown.
• Caledonia. This Scottish thriller quickly veers into a supernatural world filled with creatures from folk tales.

Got a series you’d like to see featured in the Indie Spotlight? Be sure to contact us here. For best coverage, please include a full episode in your e-mail.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Indie Spotlight, News, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

18 year old Bethany Mota is one of YouTube’s top beauty icons, and her forward-thinking style is making waves in the fashion industry. Most recently, Mota appeared on Entertainment Tonight, where she shared with viewers some items from her personal clothing line, which is currently available through Aeropostale.

Mota, who has more than five million subscribers, is the most popular teenager on YouTube, and her unique outfits and bubbly personality have made her one of the site’s most respected fashionistas. Her clothing line, titled ‘The Bethany Mota Collection‘ and launched last November, brings her style to the masses. “It will fit a girl who’s a little bit more edgy, or a maybe a little bit more girly or feminine,” she told ET. “I really like to mix a lot of styles into my line while keeping it very affordable and amazing quality because that’s what’s very, very, very important to me about my line.”

Items from Mota’s line can be purchased through the Aeropostale website.

In addition to promoting her clothing line, Mota has also been featured in profiles from several major outlets and, according to Forbes, has made Aeropostale a more attractive option for potential buyers. Not bad for a girl who still lives with her parents and makes videos in her bedroom.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News, Uncategorized by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

It’s been more than a year since Jason Kilar announced his departure from Hulu, and his new startup is finally beginning to take shape. An report in Recode shares some information about Kilar’s Fremont Project, which will apparently be a ‘Hulu for magazines‘ of sorts.

The Fremont Project will reportedly allow users to pick and choose newspapers and magazines to add to an online collection, which would then be accessible through a single app. The Recode article notes the similarity to Flipboard, a similar app released back in 2010, but Kilar’s company will possibly aim for exclusive windows to attract users. That detail is reminiscent of how Hulu became popular; it was far and away the easiest way to legally watch TV online at the time, and The Fremont Project’s strategy seems to be aiming for a similar appeal.

The Fremont Project will also likely avoid the critical problem that plagued Hulu by separating from the companies that will provide content for the app, thus affording Kilar much more leverage. Nonetheless, his team is apparently in talks with several major publishers, including New York Times, News Corp., Hearst, Time Inc. and Conde Nast.

As he attempts to attract content providers to his service, Kilar is also continuing to build his team. Over the past couple of months, he has poached several former Hulu executives, including SVP of Advertising JP Colaco. Even so, The Fremont Project is still in the very early stages. We can expect more details (and a sexier name) to arrive in the coming months.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Studios by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Filed under: Articles, News, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

Filed under: Articles, News, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
6 Comments »

With the Super Bowl right around the corner, most brands who plan to advertise during the Big Game have already posted their spots on YouTube. Unsurprisingly, Budweiser’s yearly Clydesdale ad has drawn the most pre-game activity, with other Super Bowl regulars like Toyota and Volkswagen also netting large view counts. The more interesting trend has been driven by brands like Sodastream and Newcastle, which have both drawn huge audiences by making fun of the concept of Super Bowl advertising.

Sodastream’s ad features Scarlett Johansson and plays with the notion of “uncensored” online content. As in every Go Daddy ad ever, this tag proves misleading; the Sodastream spot wasn’t censored because of anything risqué but rather because it mentions rival brands Coke and Pepsi, a no-no during the Super Bowl. The ad’s design is clearly aimed at the YouTube viewers who will automatically click any thumbnail they find remotely sexy. Judging by the 6.7 million views the ad has received, I’d say the strategy worked.

Newcastle’s recent ad campaign also plays with the conventions of Super Bowl advertising, but in a more novel and innovative way. The campaign is titled ‘If We Made It‘, and it takes a comical look at the Super Bowl commercials Newcastle would have made if it made Super Bowl commercials. A video starring Anna Kendrick has been the most popular, scoring over 2.4 million views.

The most brilliant part of Newcastle’s campaign is that it doesn’t hinge on an expensive Super Bowl ad slot. Instead of paying millions to get on TV, Newcastle is simply taking advantage of the increased interest in ad videos caused by pre-game hype. With so many Super Bowl ads going online, more brands are likely to follow Newcastle’s lead and forgo the TV entirely.

Or those brands could just make an ad with some Clydesdales and get 23 million views. That works, too.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, Featured, News, Super Bowl by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »