Indie Spotlight: Colorful Characters Assemble For A “Movie Night”

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. 

This edition of Indie Spotlight is sponsored by Tongal.

Like many other web series featured in this space, Movie Night is, at its heart, about young professionals trying to make it in the big city. How, then, does it stand out? The answer lies within its unique setting.

After completing a $6,000 Kickstarter campaign last year, the team at By-Law Production has released all 12 episodes of Movie Night at once. The series following a group of five friends (plus one annoying newcomer) who gather together for their regular movie night.

There is plenty of the usual banter about relationships and jobs, but Movie Night also spits out a high volume of movie references, joking about everything from Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner to Garry Marshall’s recent tendency toward holiday-themed romcoms (dim-witted Jaynee, played by Beth Crudele, wonders why Marshall hasn’t made a Flag Day romcom yet, “because who doesn’t love flags, right?”)

The pace is fast, the jokes fly out of characters’ mouths at a frequent clip, and the cozy living room setting helps trim the fat that often bogs down other similar web series. Film buffs will get the most mileage out of Movie Night‘s nonstop references, but the series also has enough charm to serve everybody else.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Don’t Walk. This series, which stars comedian Max Silvestri as a fish-out-of-water Midwesterner in New York City, is one of the first web series on the new Thundershorts website.
• Somewhere in Palm Springs. A crudely-animated web series about a group of hipsters hanging out by a Palm Springs pool.
• Bushido Man. An action-packed martial arts adventure split across several webisodes.
• Gifted Corporation. This detective story contains a generous helping of the supernatural.

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.

This edition of Indie Spotlight is sponsored by Tongal. Tongal is changing the way creative work gets done, by making it accessible to people everywhere. For brands, studios, and causes, Tongal’s innovative platform provides continuous access to a global network of creatives, offering fresh ideas and insights, and top filmmaking talent to bring them to life. Tongal’s collaborative, merit-driven process enables everyone to focus on the work they do best. The result is outstanding content delivered with great speed and efficiency. Tongal is based in Santa Monica, California.