Netflix’s newest series will find one Game of Thrones star living life in the American wilderness. The streaming video service ordered a six-part adventure drama series called Frontier, starring actor Jason Momoa.

Led by San Andreas director Brad Peyton, Frontier will investigate the North American fur trade business of the late 18th century, which often consisted of situations like hatchet fights and dangerous encounters between European settlers and local Native American tribes. Momoa will star in the period drama series, which is produced by Take the Shot Productions alongside Peyton and Jeff Fierson’s Factory Backwards banner. Peyton will executive produce alongside Fierson, John Vatcher, and Take the Shot’s Rob and Peter Blackie (who co-created the show) and president Alex Patrick.

Netflix will release Frontier in 2016 for subscribers in all regions except for those in Canada. That stipulation stems from the fact that Discovery Canada commissioned the six-part series, and has rights to premiere Frontier on its linear TV channel in the country. Netflix will then distribute the Momoa-starring drama on its platform starting in 2018.

“We jumped at the opportunity to bring this action-packed series to our global viewers,” said Erik Barmack, VP of Local Originals at Netflix, as reported by Variety. “The creative team behind the series has a very exciting vision for Jason and the show, and we’re thrilled to be working with Discovery Canada on getting a vast, worldwide audience to enjoy it.”

“Frontier presents an outstanding opportunity for our company and we are thrilled to be in business with Netflix and Discovery on this exciting project,” added Patrick.

Frontier will drop in all non-Canadian Netflix regions and on the linear Discovery Canada TV channel in 2016.

Filed under: Articles, Netflix, News by Bree Brouwer
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Smart Girls at the Party has released yet another web series to add to its growing list of originals. The digital video network, launched by actress Amy Poehler in 2008 and owned by Legendary Entertainment, debuted its new female-centric talk show web series She Said on November 16, 2015.

Co-hosted by comedians and real-life fiancés Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher, She Said is described in a release as “a new kind of talk show that tackles sensitive and personal topics, with a lighthearted and candid ‘she said/she said’ look at the world.” In the debut episode of She Said, Esposito and Butcher discuss body-positive women’s health issues like getting their periods and going to the gynecologist. Future episodes will cover topics like women in sports, coming out, and female representation in film and TV.

She Said joins several other original series Smart Girls has released over the last few months. Back in August 2015, the female-centric YouTube network debuted the comedic science series Experimenting with Megan Amram, as well as the literary review show Book Report with Aisha Muharrer. In October, Smart Girls launched the supernatural-leaning makeup series The Other Side with Annamarie Tendler. The digital network then partnered with the ASPCA to launch the pet-skewing series Heavy Petting for Adopt a Shelter Dog month.

You can watch all future episodes of She Said on the Smart Girls’ YouTube channel or the series’ dedicated website. New episodes will be released every Monday.

Filed under: Articles, News, Web Series by Bree Brouwer
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Over the past six months, the Ad Council has turned to YouTube stars to promote its important messages, and its latest partner is Meg DeAngelis. The nonprofit agency known for creating public service announcements teamed up with the young vlogging star to further its campaign against texting and driving.

As part of her pact with the Ad Council, DeAngelis included a warning against texting and driving in one of her recent videos. The video is titled “Ten Things You’re Doing WRONG Everyday!” and is mostly filled with simple life hacks, but in its middle section, DeAngelis takes a quick detour to talk about a serious issue that victimizes many teenagers. “No matter how of a driver you think you are, no matter how good of a texter you think you are, it’s never the right thing to do,” she says in the video.

DeAngelis’ crusade against texting extends beyond her YouTube channel. She will also serve as one of the judges for Project Yellow Light, a program that encourages students to join the fight against distracted driving. Young filmmakers can submit short videos to Project Yellow Light until April 1st, 2016; the winning entries will be made into Ad Council PSAs and earn scholarships for their creators.

Ad Council’s partnerships with YouTube stars have been fostered by its Creators for Good program, which it launched earlier this year. Since then, top online video creators have discussed subjects like bullying, tolerance, and dating violence in earnest videos aimed at their young fans. DeAngelis’ reminder about texting and driving is a worthwhile addition to the growing playlist of YouTube PSAs–even though she didn’t deliver it in rap form.

Filed under: Ad Council, Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Peter Bragiel‘s (aka pdrop on YouTube) may not have the massive subscriber base of other travel vloggers online, but that hasn’t stopped the creator of the series In Transit from finding sizable audiences for his well-shot worldwide adventures. In his latest expedition, Bragiel embarked on a new journey to learn Spanish. He then headed to Cuba to test his skills and brought the language-learning software company Rosetta Stone along for the ride in branded series #HolaToHavana.

In a promo video for #HolaToHavana (which is part of Rosetta’s Embrace Conversation campaign), Bragiel notes how Cuba has always fascinated him, but because of the country’s rocky history with the U.S., he was never able to visit the Caribbean island (at least not entirely legally). In December 2014, however, when the U.S. officially restored ties with Cuba, Bragiel decided it was finally time for him to head to the country.

The travel vlogger says in the #HolaToHavana promo video he’s a firm believer that in order to better understand a nation’s culture and connect with locals, you need to speak their language. Bragiel contacted Rosetta Stone’s Creative Director Andy Steenberge about partnering for one of the young adventurer’s travel series. Steenberge and Bragiel settled on the idea of learning Spanish and going to Cuba, and the language-learning company used Bragiel’s trip to initiate the Embrace Conversation ad campaign to encourage consumers to delve into a culture through that culture’s native tongue.

Four months before he embarked for Cuba, Bragiel started learning Spanish through Rosetta Stone. The vlogger decided to test the efficacy of Rosetta’s teaching software by using Spanish around Los Angeles before his Cuban trip. One documentary-style #HolaToHavana video shows Bragiel ordering a meal from a food truck and fruit from a stand, both completely in Spanish. He manages to order correctly both times, and even impresses the fruit stand lady who tells him, “Your Spanish is very good.”

Bragiel’s trip to Havana officially started on October 6, 2015, when he flew from his home town of Los Angeles to Little Havana, Florida. From there, Bragiel wanted to take a sailboat to Havana, but had to resort to motoring to the island instead as the weather patterns during this time of year meant there was no wind to fill the boat’s sails. When he got to Havana, Bragiel documented his experience in the city through breathtaking, wide-angle shots of the city’s beaches and streets, intimate one-on-one interviews with the locals, and close-ups of some of the city’s delectable cuisine. The YouTube vlogger also spent some time in the Cuban countryside, filming slow-motion shots of the landscape and learning how to roll his own Cuban cigar after helping his host family till their fields.

You can watch all of Bragiel’s current videos for the Embrace Conversation initiative on the campaign’s dedicated site. You can also find short clips and photos from Bragiel’s Cuban travels on Rosetta Stone’s Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, News, Peter Bragiel by Bree Brouwer
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Dragon Ball Z is perhaps the most beloved anime series of all time, but its highest-profile live-action adaptation was lackluster, to say the least. Therefore, independent content creators have a big opportunity to do the series justice, and the latest channel looking to accomplish that goal is Black Smoke Films. The French studio’s fan film, titled “Dragon Ball Z: The Fall of Men,” has received millions of views and thousands of laudatory comments since launching on YouTube last week.

It is easy to draw comparisons between “The Fall of Men” and “Light of Hope,” a separate fan project that premiered its pilot earlier this year. Like “Light of Hope,” the new fan film takes place within the History of Trunks saga, which stands as one of Dragon Ball Z’s darkest plot arcs.

The main difference between the two fan projects concerns their respective faithfulness to the original anime. While “Light of Hope” creators Robot Underdog stayed close to the source material, Black Smoke chose to take some liberties with it. Characters encounter fates that differ from the animated canon, the plot twists in new ways, and the villain, Cell, is portrayed more as a menacing monster than a cartoonish adversary.

It’s not the story choices, however, that have allowed “The Fall of Men” to pull in more than 6.8 million views. Black Smoke has delivered superb production values on a tight budget, and they have a created a unique look for their Dragon Ball Z story. A climactic fight scene between Trunks and Cell is full of energy, and it delivers the sort of action fans crave. If you’re one of those fans, you’re probably going to want to check this one out.

Filed under: Articles, Fan Film, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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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. 

One of the finest pilots to come out of this year’s New York Television Festival stretches the “odd couple” setup as far as it will go. In Saving a Legend, created by Murf Meyer and James Chupka, an evangelical teenager decides to embark on a mission from God in order to redeem his washed-up porn star college roommate.

The protagonists of Saving a Legend are Freddie Legend, played by Meyer, and Luke, played by Griffin Newman. In the pilot, which aired at NYTVF, we see Freddie and Luke arriving at an unspectacular state school for very different reasons. Luke is there to redeem as many sinners as he can, while Freddie is taking advantage of the free tuition he received for being older than 40. Naturally, they are paired up as roommates, and the comedy flows from their ridiculous interactions with one another.

The core of Saving a Legend is the juxtaposition of its two leads, and Meyer and Newman certainly have a palpable chemistry. What really makes the show’s pilot stand out, though, is Chupka’s direction, which is particularly strong for a comedy. There’s a lot of fun camerawork here, and as a result, Saving a Legend succeeds as both a visual feast and a snappily-written farce. Go check it out.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Disillusioned. A magician tries to put his tricks to good use.
• Club 5150. An intervention sets the stage for a dark comedy filled with crazy characters.
• The Grossmalerman Show. A contemporary artist hosts a strange and loony live show.
• Unproductive. College students created this series, which deals with the drama surrounding a class project.

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 by Sam Gutelle
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The Onion has released its first branded project through Facebook’s video content solution Anthology. The satirical media company’s creative services division Onion Labs worked with various computer manufacturers to launch the web series Help! I’m Turning Into My Parents!, starring Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson.

In the PC-branded series, Thompson (who also recently landed a gig as the brand personality Miles Mouvay for Fandango) plays the role of a Dr. Phil-style talk show host called Dr. Jimm. The fictional self-help expert meets with a variety of adults to help them overcome their fear of technology and avoid becoming their out-of-touch parents.

The Onion originally partnered with Facebook back in April 2015 when the social site first announced Anthology, the social network’s initiative to partner brands with video publishers for custom content campaigns on the platform. In the case of Help! I’m Turning Into My Parents!, Onion Labs worked with PC companies Dell, Lenovo, HP, Intel, and Microsoft to feature their products in the series.

“Through our Anthology partnership, Onion Labs leverages Facebook insights to create more strategic creative content for our clients,” said Julie Scott, Onion Inc.’s VP of Account Management, to AdWeek. “The combination of insight-driven creative and contextual targeting is already proving successful for Onion Labs, Facebook and all the partner brands involved in the campaign around educating consumers about the amazing things the next generation of PCs can do.”

You can catch all nine episodes of Help! I’m Turning Into My Parents! on the official Dr. Jimm Show Facebook page. New episodes will be released through December 15.

Filed under: Articles, Facebook, News, The Onion by Bree Brouwer
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Dunkin Donuts is running its first partnership with an online video star, and it has turned to Viner Logan Paul as its influencer of choice. Paul, who has 8.8 million followers on Twitter’s six-second video capture app, has created Vines and Instagram photos in support of the international breakfast chain.

The deal, which was set up by Collective Digital Studio and ad agency Hill Holliday, is centered around Dunkin’s DD Perks service and its mobile app, which was most recently updated in October 2015. I’ve embedded one of the Vines born from the partnership below; the photo above comes from Paul’s Instagram.

Paul’s fans can also connect with him by ordering new gift cards that have his face emblazoned on them. The cards are pretty snazzy, and they make this promotion a little more than your typical brand-influencer partnership.

Beyond Dunkin Donuts, Paul has also participated in brand intiatives run by several other companies, including Hanes and the truth campaign.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Snapchat has another revenue stream thanks to a shiny new feature. The popular messaging app, which deletes text and video messages after just 24 hours, has launched an in-app store which allows users to pay $0.99 for Lenses.

Snapchat originally introduced Lenses back in September 2015, the same time the short-term messaging app started allowing users to pay $0.99 for snap replays. Users choose from a selection of free Lenses by holding down on their mobile screens while taking a snap. Snapchatters then add filter-like Lenses, including a Lense which made users look like they were vomiting a rainbow, before taking the snap and sending it to friends and followers.

Now, just like Snapchat did with replays, the app allows users to pay $0.99 for old Lenses by visiting the new store. Users can access the store much in the same way they use Lenses, by holding down on the screen when in selfie mode and flipping through the free Lenses selection until they get to the paid sticker-style decorations. A purchased Lense is permanently saved and stored between the free and paid Lenses. Snapchat plans to release about 30 paid Lenses per day, alongside about seven Lenses users can select for free on a daily basis. Paid lenses are now available in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and a few European nations, with Snapchat planning to add support for more countries in the future.

Snapchat recently figured out a way to monetize Lenses from an advertising standpoint, too. In October 2015, the disappearing messages app introduced the ability for brands to sponsor Lenses as an ad unit. Snapchat reportedly charges brands $450,000 per sponsored Lense on off-peak days, and up to $750,000 for each Lense on on-peak days (including holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas).

Snapchat is reportedly valued around $16 billion. The app claims over 100 million daily users and more than four billion video views per day.

Filed under: Articles, News, Snapchat by Bree Brouwer
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ABC is getting on board with the streaming service trend, but not in the way you’d expect. According to Variety’s sources, the broadcast network is working on a new original series starring comedienne Iliza Shlesinger. The project will be the first in a string of new originals ABC will reportedly host on its new non-subscription streaming option, internally dubbed “ABC3.”

Produced by Avalon Television, the untitled Shlesinger series will be a short-form scripted comedy which Variety notes will be “thematically similar” to the Forever 31 comedy pilot the stand-up actress was working on for ABC. That show’s premise followed a group of friends and their shenanigans as they try to work their way into adulthood. The new Shlesinger-starrer will live exclusively on ABC’s WatchABC app, which allows users to watch both free and pay-TV-required live, current, or past episodes of the network’s content.

Sources said the Shlesinger comedy is only the beginning of the “ABC3” streaming initiative. ABC has plans to launch more series, both long- and short-form, on the WatchABC app, which the broadcaster will use as something of a testing ground to incubate new projects before they move to linear primetime TV. Insiders noted ABC executives are working to find more talent for WatchABC originals, a slate of content which could eventually fall under the “ABC3” banner. The initiative will likely take a different name when it launches some time in 2016.

At this point, ABC is still determining which business model is best to use for releasing all its upcoming digital originals. The broadcast network is possibly considering offering some of the series for free, while others will be accessible only through a pay-TV subscription. In any case, ABC’s streaming initiative looks much different than the subscription-only options presented by its competitors. CBS, for example, has its All Access service, while NBC recently launched the comedy-centric SVOD SeeSo.

Filed under: ABC, Articles, News by Bree Brouwer
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As you may have heard, the “Happy Birthday” song recently entered the public domain, and no one is more excited about that development than Stephen Colbert. Colbert’s Late Show team has cooked up more than 1,200 versions of the iconic tune, all of which are addressed to individual names.

The Late Show’s “Happy Birthday” renditions are all derived from a single clip recorded during the show’s October 12th episode, when legendary singer Darlene Love appeared as the musical guest. Love teamed up with Colbert’s house band to perform a soulful version of the timeless birthday salutation, and the Late Show team went to work from there. It filled in the line “happy birthday dear _____” with just about every name you can think of and used a text-to-speech program to sound them out. On November 11th, the birthday of Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste, The Late Show’s personalized birthday messages all went live on a new YouTube channel.

As you can imagine, the Late Show team had to dig deep to come up with 1,200 names to feature. All common monikers are included, as are deeper cuts like Whoopi, Zabeth, and Malachi. If you have a friend named Legolas, even he can finally get the birthday greeting he deserves.

Given the epic scale of the Late Show’s birthday project, you’re unlikely to find many names left unrecognized. If, however, you have a truly outlandish onomastic suggestion for Colbert and his team, you can share it with them. Not finding your name or someone else’s name?” reads the description within each birthday video. “Suggest it here. We may or may not make it. You don’t always get what you want for your birthday.”

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Music videos drive massive viewership figures on YouTube, but according to one recording industry exec, those videos are still a secondary revenue source. At the UK’s recent Music Futures conference, British Phonographic Industry (BPI) CEO Geoff Taylor claimed vinyl records generated more income for local labels than YouTube videos.

The BPI serves as a trade association for British labels, giving Taylor a comprehensive knowledge of the local recording industry. According to him, the “14 billion music streams” UK labels received on their YouTube videos in 2014 did not generate enough revenue to eclipse vinyl sales. He didn’t offer exact figures for each of these formats, but The Guardian reported that 1.3 million vinyl records were sold in 2013. Given that those records regularly sell for more than $30, Taylor’s claim is believable, though it might say more about the resurgence of old-school record players than the state of the YouTube ad industry.

The Guardian reached out to YouTube for comment, and the video site didn’t deny Taylor’s claim. Instead, it extolled its own ability to pay labels and artists while also noting its unparalleled ability to provide exposure and worldwide recognition. “Music videos on YouTube can be discovered by over 1 billion people in over 80 countries,” reads the company’s statement. “To date, we’ve paid out $3 billion to the music industry – and that number is growing year on year.”

At the same time, YouTube does seem to be interested in improving revenue streams for its music videos. It just launched a new app called YouTube Music, which includes several enticing features for users who purchase monthly subscriptions. Should the app catch on, YouTube could soon generate enough revenue to invalidate Taylor’s claim–even with the spending power of vinyl-loving hipsters factored in.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Music, News, Uncategorized by Sam Gutelle
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