Larry Kless' Weblog: Web series

Showing posts with label Web series. Show all posts

Thursday, May 19, 2011

blip.tv: "We're Building the Next Generation Television Network" - Mike Hudack, CEO, blip.tv

Blip.tv was founded six years ago in May 2005, by a group of five friends who love web series, and has grown to become one of the Internet’s largest independently owned and operated video properties. CEO and founder Mike Hudack says that what they've doing all along is building the next the generation television network. Since it's founding, New York City-based blip.tv has cultivated some the world’s top web series producers, advertisers and video distribution platforms with the mission of making original series both profitable and scalable. This past week, blip.tv relaunched its new blip.tv destination site to better curate and promote the best original web series on the site and make them more discoverable. Additionally, blip.tv announced that it's reached more than three billion views to date, and on pace to reach one billion views per quarter.

I caught up with Hudack at NewTeevee Live 2010, where he discussed the founding of the company, its vision and where he sees it going. Hudack says the world has fundamentally changed since the early days of NBC in the 1940s, which was originally founded to sell TVs, and that we've gone from an economy of scarcity where you can only put out one show at a time, to a world where you can put out any number of shows. He attributes this to the less expensive production costs, which has given rise to a new generation of stars and producers.

"There are more independent show producers today than there have ever been in history," says Hudack, "and that will keep happening, and our job is to make those shows sustainable and profitable over the long term, and scalable – help people go from 10,000 people watching to a 100,000, to a million people, and some people really make money."

Thousands of shows are using the platform and distribute to most of the video Internet, including YouTube, AOL, MSN, iTunes, and to the TV set through partnerships with Roku, Google TV, Boxee, Verizon FiOS, TiVo, Sony TVs and others. Blip.tv works with advertisers to associate brands with the targeted audiences of web series and shares all advertising revenue with producers on a 50/50 basis. Top show producers on blip.tv have made over $500,000 in revenue in 2010, with largest check paid out to a producer at $143,000 in Q3 2010.

Some of Hudack's favorite web shows include, The Philip DeFranco Show, Old Jews Telling Jokes, Big Book of Lies and Status Kill, all of which he says are some of the best examples of what you can with web television today. His advise to anyone interested in producing a web show is to pick something that you are fanatical about, and that the best shows are the ones people make for themselves.

"The other thing that's so important is need to pick white space," suggests Hudack, "so if you make another police procedural drama people are going to say, "oh, I can watch CSI, NCIS, Law & Order", you name it. But if you make a show for an audience that is not being served well by the traditional entertainment system and it's something you're passionate about – you will be successful, I promise. You gotta work hard too."

Just a year ago blip.tv raised $10.1 million in funding and has been growing very quickly building out the platform, adding global sales teams all over the US and in London, and in the last year rapidly transitioning to HTML5. For Hudack, it's been remarkable to watch this industry grow into an industry, because it wasn't here before and he says it's not there yet, but getting there. Right now there are a number of sustainable web shows and more and more people are consuming web shows as their prime time viewing as they shift from television to the web.

"The Internet is a very different place than television," Hudack says, "and we are literally building a television network for the Internet, instead of a television network for television."

About blip.tv
Blip.tv is the place to discover the best in original Web series from both professional and up-and-coming producers. It gives viewers free access to a wide variety of dramas and comedies, series about sports, videogames, food, fashion and more, and makes it easy to find what you want when you want it. The company currently distributes series to iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, roku, Verizon FiOS, TiVo, Sony TVs and elsewhere. Blip.tv hosts more than 300 million video views per month and shares all advertising revenue with producers on a 50/50 basis. Please visit http://blip.tv for more information and follow blip.tv (bliptv) on Twitter.

About Mike Hudack

Mike Hudack is a co-founder of blip.tv and serves as the company's president and CEO. He is responsible for blip.tv's overall business strategy, focusing in particular on community relations along with syndication, distribution and advertising partnerships. Prior to blip.tv, Mike worked as a developer and administrator for the National Hockey League, where he managed the team responsible for one of the biggest IT projects in the history of the League — consolidating and re-developing the NHL's internal applications, which serve hundreds of employees using dozens of technologies. Mike also developed the content management system for NHL.com and redesigned the software used to bring scores and statistics from dozens of simultaneous hockey games to fans in real-time.

Mike has spoken at SXSW, Streaming Media West, Beyond Broadcast, the Open Media Developers Summit, TelcoTV and dozens of other conferences and has served as a guest lecturer at NYU and elsewhere as an expert on video, blogging and citizen journalism. He has created and maintained more than a half dozen independent media projects, including warstories:CC, warblogs:CC and the Index of Evil. His independent projects have been covered by the Washington Post, USA Today, the PBS Newshour, NPR and Forbes, among others. Follow Mike Hudack (mhudack) on Twitter

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Safety Geeks: SVI at The Streamy Awards, Season Two will go 3D and John Cleese to Join Cast!

One of the highlights of my Streamy Awards adventure was to finally meet some of the cast and creative team behind the comedy web series Safety Geeks: SVI, which chronicles a CSI-like team that investigates safety accidents, leaving a swath of comedic chaos and destruction in their wake. According to Dave and Tom, the comedy team who created, wrote and produced the series, imagine Inspector Clouseau as a team of people, trying to make the world safe, and ironically making it more dangerous. Add in a dash of Adult Swim sensibility, and that is Safety Geeks: SVI.

Season One of Safety Geeks SVI is directed by Roger Tonry and introduces P.O.S.H. (Professional Occupational Safety Hazard) team, which is made up of offbeat characters Dave Beeler as Reginald Syngen-Smythe, a retired at birth trillionaire, Tom Konkle as Budwin Yacker, a former head of O.S.H.A. with a safety-scared childhood and Brittney Powell as Dr. Randi Minky, a curvaceous and beautiful former stripper turned abnormal psychologist, Mary Cseh as Sparky Van Der Graaf, the computer expert hub of POSH control and Benton Jennings as Hopkins, the ever faithful and condescending butler to Reginald. In the first episode, the P.O.S.H. team intercepts an emergency call of an unfortunate accident at a warehouse, which sets off a series of more unfortunate accidents that are inadvertently caused by the P.O.S.H. team.

The cast are all professionals in LA who put their heart and souls into this web series on deferred salaries because they believe in Dave and Tom and the project. Safety Geeks was a nominee for Best Visual Effects and was a winner of two awards in Special Effects, Comedy or Drama Series and Special Effects, Comedy or Drama Series in the Los Angeles Web Series Festival 2010. The show was shot entirely on green screen and all of the backgrounds are either CGI, photo plates or 2D for 3D composites. The visual effects were created by Thor Melsted and Mike Smith who also worked for free and for long hours using their own equipment to create some 1300 visual composite effects shots – more than the first three Star Wars movies combined, very unusually, that's in a comedy. A number made more impressive by the less than $10,000 budget and post-production team of three people.

The series premiered in HD exclusively on Koldcast.TV and was recently released as Koldcast's first web TV movie that reassembled all the episodes into a continuous web movie. Watch it in HD in it’s entirety on KoldCast.TV at: http://www.koldcast.tv/video/safety_geeks_svi_the_web_tv_movie

In this short video from the 2010 Streamy Awards, I caught up with some of the cast and crew of Safety Geeks: SVI, including Dave Beeler, Brittney Powell, Benton Jennings, Mike Smith and Thor Melsted, who shared some exciting news about Season 2. They told me that they are repurposing Season One as a 3D and will be shooting Season Two as a full stereoscopic 3D experience. To their knowledge they will be the first web television series to pioneer this technology. The other exciting news is that new cast members will be joining show, including the great John Cleese, who is actually a fan of the show. Missing from this interview is Tom Konkle, who like Elvis, had already left the building.

Since I missed Tom in this interview, I contacted him and asked him to share what's in store for Season Two, and his thoughts on the evolving web television space. He had this to say:

"I think most important for the Safety Geeks show is exploring the characters now that we know them as an audience and build more absurdity into the situations they find themselves in while creating real relationships between them. This season will be about the team as family and how they work together as a dysfunctional one and how relationships might blossom, especially unlikely ones such as the one Randi and Budwin might find themselves in and destructive ones like the one Reg finds himself in over his head. Adding some exciting new characters and hopefully a few names you'd recognize might up the game as well.

We have a lot of ideas that we are excited about with regard to the production, storytelling and character aspects of the new season. Will they be able to keep the team together? Will he see that he is being manipulated? Can Budwin and Dr. Randi stop more accidents happening and will they be together? Can an OSHA inspector shut down the team? Having to put aside petty differences with Sparky, and using Hopkins knowledge of Reginald’s past as a guide and trap, season two takes the team balls deep into industrial intrigue, a new arch nemesis, and possibly losing forever the founder of the team to the sexy allure of hazardous, workplace practices.

The space is evolving fast. We want to stay in the game and make a decent enough income that we can still do this. Views aren't enough we need our fans and we want to interact and create new fans. I think before big business totally takes over our fans and creative spirit will be the only think that makes them take us at all seriously and we hope they do because we love doing these shows."

- Tom Konkle Producer/Actor/Writer/Director

Tom also forwarded a few links for all the Safety Geeks fans out there:

This is the true stereoscopic Safety Geeks trailer for people with 3D computer screens and 3D TVs
http://store.yabazam.com/Safety_Geeks_SVI_p/dc115100.htm
Invention with Brian Forbes @ http://www.daveandtom.com/invention.html
Safety Geeks: SVI @http://www.safetygeekssvi.com
Archaeology of Comedy @ http://aoc.mevio.com
The 2010 Safety Geeks Pin-Up Calendar @ http://www.lulu.com/content/lulustudio-calendar/featuring-brittney-powell/7970354
Safety Geeks: SVI | Facebook
Tom Konkle (SafetyGeeksSVI) on Twitter

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Streamy Awards 2010 Craft Award Winners

UPDATED: Last night the Streamy Awards kicked off the first of its 2010 awards season at the Barnsdall Theatre in Hollywood, California for the 2010 Streamys Craft Awards which was short and sweet and over in 45 minutes. Liz Shannon Miller commemorated the spirit of the event through giving a rundown of the the event through a series of bullet points on NewTeeVee. The Streamy Awards ceremony on Sunday kicks off with a live online Red Carpet Pre-Show starting at 4:00 p.m. PT, broadcast exclusively on Ustream.tv and streamys.org.

The live online broadcast of the Streamy Awards Ceremony, hosted by actor/comedian Paul Scheer, begins at 5:30 p.m. PT on streamys.org. Or, you can download the FREE 2010 Streamy Awards iPhone app and watch it live on your iPhone. The app was developed by Metranome, the Official Mobile Apps Partner of the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards. Check the Streamy Awards blog for updates and be sure to vote for your favorite Audience Choice Award finalist. A full list of all the nominees is here, a big congratulations to all the nominees.

UPDATE 4/10/10: Here's The Web.Files #35 – Streamy Craft Awards, which Web Files’ host, Kristyn Burtt, who is also a Best Web Series Host Streamy Award nominee, gives a NY shout out to the nominees and winners of the craft categories for the 2010 Streamy Awards hosted by Jim Festante. The Web.Files is a weekly entertainment talk show that exclusively covers the "web celebs” involved in creating the best, most-watched, highest-rated, and most talked about series on the web. The show is created and hosted by entertainment reporter and media host Kristyn Burtt and produced and directed by Sandra J Payne.

Without further ado, here are the 2010 Craft Award winners...

Overall Series

Best Reality or Documentary Web Series
The Secret Life of Scientists

Best Foreign Web Series
OzGirl

Best New Web Series
Odd Jobs

Best Companion Web Series
The Office: Subtle Sexuality

Best Experimental Web Series
Auto-Tune the News

Technical Categories

Best Editing in a Web Series
The Bannen Way (Zack Arnold)

Best Cinematography in a Web Series
Riese (Christopher Charles Kempinski)

Best Art Direction in a Web Series
Green Porno (Rick Gilbert)

Best Sound Design in a Web Series
Fear Clinic Fear Clinic (Kunal Rajan)

Best Visual Effects in a Web Series
Fear Clinic (Jason Bergman, Nicholas Onstad, Bethany Onstad, Jason Knetge, Erik Porn, Ikuo Saito, David Dang)

Best Animation in a Web Series
theGoob (Magnus Jansson)

Best Original Music in a Web Series
Auto-Tune the News (Evan Gregory, Andrew Gregory, Michael Gregory)

Best Live Production in a Web Series
Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show

Best Interactive Experience in a Web Series
Valemont

Best Product Integration in a Web Series
Easy to Assemble (IKEA)

Best Mobile Experience in a Web Series
Valemont U

In other Streamy Awards news, Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube, has been selected by the International Academy of Web Television to be the inaugural recipient of the Streamy Visionary Award. Also, Streamy Awards technology partner Unicorn Media has announced that they will provide their Media-as-a-Service™ solution to power both the live and video-on-demand (VOD) broadcast of the 2010 Streamy Awards. For the Streamy's, Unicorn Media is integrating with PLYmedia for multiple language subtitling in support of a global viewing audience. Unicorn's dynamic media synchronization technology will also enable the management of live and VOD iPhone streaming.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

I'm Going to the Streamy Awards!

I'm going to the 2010 Streamy Awards! Thanks to my friends at Popscreen, I'm extremely excited to announce that I'll be attending the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, April 11 starting at 5:30pm PT. Presented by the International Academy of Web Television and co-hosted by Tubefilter and NewTeeVee, The Streamy Awards is the ﬁrst awards program of its kind to recognize outstanding achievement in global web television arts and sciences for broadband distribution across 35 creative categories, from acting and directing, to editing and special effects. Now in its second year, the annual ceremony, and its live online broadcast, is at the focal point of the digital entertainment revolution and brings together top talent, decision-makers and influencers shaping the online entertainment industry.

Streamy Awards excitement kicks off this week in LA with 2010 Web TV Week, a full week of web television and digital entertainment related events from April 5 to 11, in celebration of the 2010 Streamy Awards. See Marc Hustvedt's post, Web TV Week Kicks Off in LA: Babelgum, blip.tv, HRTS, Streamys!, for more information. The Streamys Craft Awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday, April 7th at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood and will recognize that many editors, cinematographers, art directors, producers, and other artistic and technical teams behind the Streamy Awards nominees.

The Streamy Awards live Red Carpet Pre-Show starts next Sunday, April 11 at 4 p PT, broadcast online exclusively on Ustream.tv and streamys.org. The live online broadcast of the Streamy Awards Ceremony, hosted by rising actor comedian Paul Scheer, begins at 5:30 pm PT exclusively on streamys.org.

Over 175 shows and individuals were nominated in thirty-five award categories which includes The 12 new categories. According to Marc Hustvedt, Tubefilter News Editor and Streamy Awards Executive Producer, Academy voters had their hands full this year in pairing down the submission of some 2,000 web shows from over 100 different countries. Last year’s inaugural Streamy Awards received over 100,000 unique public submissions from over 89 countries, hundreds of thousands of votes for 10 Audience Choice Award Finalists, and a groundswell of support from both the traditional and new media communities. See Marc's post on Tubefilter News for a summary of this years nominees. Many web creators have produced Streamys Attack Ads to promote their series and grab the attention of web television fans. Laurie Percival collected a handful of them here.

Voting has already begun for the 2010 Streamy Awards Audience Choice Award for “Best Web Television Series” and were announced on March 22nd in a special video presentation featuring comedian and actor Nick Thune, who also stars in the Web series Nick’s Big Show on MTV Network’s Atom.com. You can vote every day for your favorite Streamys Audience Choice Award Finalists. Head to vote.streamys.org to support your favorite show.

Audience Choice Awards Finalists
The Streamy Awards Audience Choice Finalists for Best Web Television Series are:

Keep up to date on all the Streamy Awards News by following @streamyawards on Twitter and become a fan at www.facebook.com/streamys. I look forward to seeing my web TV friends and meeting many of the creators and stars of my favorite web series.

See you the Streamys!

Monday, March 1, 2010

And the Nominees Are... The 2nd Annual Streamy Awards Nominees Announced Today

The 2nd annual Streamy Awards, celebrating the best in web television from 2009, announced their official nominees this morning in a live webcast via Ustream. Now in its second year, the Streamy Awards includes a total of 35 categories of web series honoring overall series, directing, writing, acting and craft awards. 12 new Streamy Awards categories reflecting technology advancements and creative innovations embraced by the web television community this past year have been added to the 2010 program – including awards for Live Production, Foreign Series, Vlogging, Interactive Experience, Branded Entertainment, and Mobile Experience. The nominees were selected by the Academy of Web Television (IAWTV), a member-run non-profit organization comprised of leaders and stakeholders within the growing web television industry, and the official presenting body behind the Streamy Awards.

According to Marc Hustvedt, Tubefilter News Editor and Streamy Awards Executive Producer, Academy voters had their hands full this year in pairing down the submission of some 2,000 web shows from over 100 different countries. Last year’s inaugural Streamy Awards received over 100,000 unique public submissions from over 89 countries, hundreds of thousands of votes for 10 Audience Choice Award Finalists, and a groundswell of support from both the traditional and new media communities. See Marc's post on Tubefilter News for a summary of this years nominees.

While many of the nominees were predictable based on both the star power and popularity, with returning nominees like The Guild and Legend of Neil, I was glad to see that two of my favorite web series, Safety Geeks: SVI and The Web.Files each made it into a category. Liz Shannon Miller noted that this years nominees included celebrities, underdogs and our very own Avatar in the form of The Bannen Way from the Sony Pictures' web television network Crackle. She pointed out the dilemma that The Streamy Awards will probably always have:

"to find the right balance between celebrating homegrown heroes, helping lesser-known talent get new recognition, and honoring the Hollywood influx that has increased the medium’s profile. But that very dilemma is itself a larger metaphor for the current state of this industry. The intrusion of old media into new media is an issue we all go back and forth on, I think."

The live Awards Ceremony will be live broadcast online on Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 7:30 PM at www.streamys.org. The newly formed 90-member International Academy of Web Television completed the first round of selections of nominees in 24 categories. The video in this post is a replay of today's announcement with Shira Lazar and Jim Festante who announced 10 of the 35 categories of official nominees for the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards, that included:

Best Comedy Web Series
Best Drama Web Series
Best Hosted Web Series
Best News or Documentary Web Series
Best Companion Web Series
Best Male Actor in a Drama Web Series
Best Female Actor in a Drama Web Series
Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Best Guest Star in a Web Series

Click here for the full list of Streamy Award nominees

Congratulations to all the nominees!

About The Streamy Awards
Presented by the International Academy of Web Television, the Streamy Awards recognize excellence in global web television programming for broadband distribution across 35 creative categories, from acting and directing, to editing and special effects. Members of the International Academy of Web Television review shows submitted through a free, public submissions process and vote on the final nominees and winners for each category. The Audience Choice Award for Best Web Television Series is selected by members of the public. Winners of the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards will be announced on April 11, 2010 at the Streamy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, CA. Founded in 2009, the Streamy Awards are co-hosted by a consortium of new media companies including Tubefilter Inc.(www.tubefilterinc.com) and NewTeeVee (www.newteevee.com). For more information, visit www.streamys.org, follow @streamyawards on Twitter and become a Fan at www.facebook.com/streamys.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Streaming Media West 2009: Web Television Comes of Age

Streaming Media West 2009 saw record numbers with 2,768 attendees converging on the San Jose Convention Center to hear from some of the brightest minds and see the latest innovations in the online video industry. One of the highlights of the conference for me was to program this panel session, "Web Television Comes of Age", that assembled an all-star cast of web television pioneers who discussed what's working, what's not and what's coming next in this "coming of age" medium of online entertainment.

With the growth of online video producer community and channels of distribution in the last year, and the success of Streamy Awards now in its second year, web television is finally recognized as a legitimate entertainment platform. But in our current economy it's still difficult to gain sponsorship and maintain a sustainable business model. Advertisers haven't fully endorsed online video and studios are just dipping their feet in the water. Storytelling is also changing, according to several panelists, who are innovators in transmedia storytelling and social entertainment. And at the end of the day, it really comes down to telling a good story with compelling content that attracts an audience and creates a dialogue and conversation.

So without further ado, I present the video from the session, and I'm especially pleased to do so on the eve of the triumphant return of the pioneering web show EPIC FU. Again, my thanks to Dan Rayburn, Streaming Media West Conference Chair, for finding a place on the schedule for this session and also to Marc Hustvedt, for moderating the session and to our great panel of speakers, Zadi Diaz, Brent Friedman, Thom Woodley and Jenni Powell. See my previous post for speaker bios and also Red Carpet interviews with Zadi and Brent.

Web Television Comes of Age
Track B: (B102) 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Original episodic web television has grown up in a short time and is now recognized as a respected and legitimate entertainment platform. But in our current economic downturn some web television studios have been forced to close and the reality is that it's still really difficult to create a sustainable business model. Some creators say that until the web can provide the reach and a real source of revenue for independent producers, there's no way it will ever truly become the future of TV. In this session, hear from some of the producers in this growing space on what it takes to create, market and sell a web television series as we debate the future success of web television.

Moderator:	Marc Hustvedt, Co-Founder, Tubefilter & Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News, Tubefilter
Presenters:	Thom Woodley, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Dinosaur Diorama Jenni Powell, New Media Consultant (LonelyGirl15, The Guild, Legend of Neil) Brent Friedman, Co-Founder, Electric Farm Entertainment (The Gemini Division, Afterworld, Valemont) Zadi Diaz, Creative Director, Co-Founder, Smashface Productions

Monday, January 11, 2010

2010 Streamy Awards Voting Deadline Draws Near, Public Submissions Close January, 15th (UPDATE - Deadline Extended to January 18th)

The second annual Streamy Awards season is in full gear and kicked off last month with the launch of new Streamys.org website, never-before-seen footage from the 2009 event and the call for entries for the 2010 awards. Now with only days left for the Streamy Awards Submission deadline you still have time to vote for your favorite web series. Votes can be cast until this Friday, January 15 using the Public Submissions Form. Content creators and individuals directly associated with online episodic programs have until Friday, January 22 to submit via the Certified Submissions Form.

UPDATE 1/16/10: The deadline for Public Submissions has just been extended to 11:59PM PST on Monday, January 18. Certified Submissions will still close after 11:59PM PST on Friday, January 22, 2010.

Last year’s Streamy Awards received over 100,000 unique public submissions from over 89 countries and hundreds of thousands of votes for 10 Audience Choice Award Finalists. Big winners were Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and The Guild, and both Joss Whedon and Felicia Day, who provided heartfelt acceptance speeches that both inspired the audience and legitimized the art and craft of the independent web series producer.

Day called herself, "a square peg and I’ve been trying to fit into a round Hollywood hole for a very long time." She thanked all the Hollywood establishment for beating her down and forcing her to pick up a pen and write her own web series. Whedon referred to himself as “the establishment guy" noting that while the television industry is in a funky state, web television is on the rise and web series producers are the pioneers, "of what’s going to be not just the new media, but the media."

See more videos from the 1st Annual Streamy Awards here.

Nominees and winners will be honored at the second-annual awards program to be held on Sunday, April 11, 2010 in Los Angeles. Submissions will be accepted via the Streamys web site at www.streamys.org beginning today through January 22, 2010. This year's Streamy Awards features 12 new categories.

"to include different types of online series, recognize more talent and technical areas of excellence, and highlight viewer experiences unique to the medium."

The new categories include awards for Live Production, Foreign Series, Vlogging, Interactive Experience, Branded Entertainment, and Mobile Experience. After the close of public voting and content creator submissions, nominees across the 36 categories will be honored by the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV), a member-run non-profit organization comprised of leaders and stakeholders within the growing web television industry, and the official presenting body behind the Streamy Awards. The Streamy Awards are co-hosted by Tubefilter and NewTeeVee.

With the growth of the independent producer community and new channels of distribution in the last few years, the groundbreaking success of the 1st Annual Streamy Awards shined a light on the community of web television innovators in this emerging entertainment art form. Web television is finally recognized as a legitimate entertainment platform.

"The 2010 Streamys is about advancing open entertainment and its benefits to both consumers and creators by showcasing the staggering creative expression online. Our goal is to propel the new entertainment ecosystem by empowering a growing group of creators while helping everyone else find content that they love."

Follow The Streamy Awards (streamyawards) on Twitter
Become a fan of the Streamy Awards page here: http://www.facebook.com/streamys

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Streaming Media West: Web Television Comes of Age, Panel Session and Speaker Announcement

I'm pleased to announce the web television panel session that I'm programming for Streaming Media West that will be on November 17 at 11:30 am in San Jose, California. While so much focus in blogosphere is on video platforms and the technology and business that powers the industry, it really comes down to telling a good story with compelling content that attracts an audience and creates a dialogue and conversation. There are many success stories in the independent film and video space and the explosive growth of online video producers and viewers has given rise to web television.

The first annual Streamy Awards was a watershed event that shined a spotlight on a new breed of independent producers who have found some success in producing low-budget web television series based on their own unique vision. But in our current economic downturn some web television studios have been forced to close, and the reality is that it's still difficult for web series to gain the reach and sponsorship, and many are still trying to find the right business model.

That was my vision for this session, which I think captures the essence of where we're at right now in the coming age of web television. A big thanks to Dan Rayburn, Streaming Media West Conference Chair, for finding a place on the schedule for this session and my thanks to Marc Hustvedt, Co-Founder, Tubefilter & Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News, for taking on the role of moderator and to our great panel of speakers.

Web Television Comes of Age
Track B: (B102) Tuesday, November 17, 2009 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Original episodic web television has grown up in a short time and is now recognized as a respected and legitimate entertainment platform. But in our current economic downturn some web television studios have been forced to close and the reality is that it's still really difficult to create a sustainable business model. Some creators say that until the web can provide the reach and a real source of revenue for independent producers, there's no way it will ever truly become the future of TV. In this session, hear from some of the producers in this growing space on what it takes to create, market and sell a web television series as we debate the future success of web television.

Moderator:

Marc Hustvedt, Co-Founder, Tubefilter & Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News
Marc is a co-founder of Tubefilter, Inc. Los Angeles-based web television company and the Editor-in-Chief of Tubefilter News, the leading authority in episodic web television and web series. He is a veteran entrepreneur, investor, writer, speaker and web TV producer. He is founder of the International Academy of Web Television and Executive Producer of The Streamy Awards. He's crazy about web series, web television and the revolution in digital entertainment and thinks it just getting started. Tubefilter's mission to grow the audience of web television. Tubefilter News helps you discover and keep track of the stories you care about.

Speakers:

Zadi Diaz, Creative Director, Co-Founder, Smashface Productions
Zadi Diaz is a new media producer and co-founder of Smashface Productions, a new media production company focused on developing original programming for the web, bridging new and traditional media, and building and cultivating online communities. She is currently the co-creator and host of EPIC FU, a popular Streamy and Webby award-winning web series about internet culture, as well as co-founder of Pixelodeon, a screening festival recognizing innovation in global online video.

Though filming, writing, and directing are Zadi’s main focus, she also speaks on panels and teaches people around the world about social movement media and media literacy. Her work has been highlighted in the New York Times, Forbes, CBS Evening News, MTV, The Associated Press, The Guardian, and many other national publications. She is a Film Independent Project:Involve Fellow, a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), on the advisory board for PBS Engage, as well as a member of the Transatlantic Network 2020, an international initiative founded by the British Council.

Brent Friedman, Co-Founder and President, Electric Farm Entertainment
Brent V. Friedman is a founding partner in Electric Farm Entertainment, a leading digital media company specializing in science fiction. Brent created, wrote and produced EFE’s first two groundbreaking webseries, Afterwold and Gemini Division, distributed by Sony and NBC respectively. Brent is presently serving as Executive Producer on EFE's next webseries, Woke Up Dead, done in conjunction with Sony. He is also the Co-Creator and Exec Producer of Valemont, EFE's collaboration with MTV. Upcoming is Prophet, another webseries Brent created and will produce for Disney.

At EFE, Brent works on the bleeding edge of online storytelling. Producing high-end webseries that are distributed globally on all three platforms: broadcast, broadband and mobile. These unique "entertainment experiences" offer audience full immersion and interactivity. Additionally, EFE partners with major brands such as Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, Kodak and Verizon to integrate their products and services into the content and into the narrative itself. The result is a dynamic new form of branded entertainment with an innovative, lucrative business model. He got his degree in Creative Writing from UCLA and currently resides in Washington.

Jenni Powell, New Media Consultant
Jenni has been deeply involved in innovative online communities for several years, dating back to the cult internet series Nobody’s Watching (over 40M views) and later becoming a central figure in the web video breakout lonelygirl15 fan community. This led to her creating the fan-favorite parody series LonelyJew15 which landed her a job at lonelygirl15’s production company EQAL. She has a strong background in production working for Upright Citizen’s Brigade (UCB), A&E’s Deadliest Catch, and Lifetime’s Lisa Williams Life Among The Dead.

Online, Jenni has worked on many popular web series such as the smash Microsoft-sponsored hit The Guild, Streamy Award-nominated With the Angels, Poor Paul, The Crew and Comedy Central’s Atom.com standout The Legend of Neil. She freelance writes for popular web entertainment site Tubefilter News and consults on and produces various transmedia entertainment projects around Web

Thom Woodley, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Dinosaur Diorama
Thom Woodley is a writer, musician and web video pioneer based in Brooklyn, New York. He's creator and producer of web video series The Burg, The All-For-Nots and All's Faire. Ten of his scripts have been staged in New York, Boston, and Pennsylvania and two have been optioned. His short film Go for the Gold! was independently released to regional festivals in 2004.

He is also a member of the bands Infidels and [bert], which have toured the United States and released four CDs, and the comedy music duo Dawghaus, who have performed at numerous comedy festivals around New York City and released sketch videos. Temp of the Year, 2001. Thom is also a copywriter at Euro RSCG New York, specializing in digital advertising and branded content.

About Streaming Media West
Attended by more than 2,500 executives last year, Streaming Media West is the only show that covers both the business of online video and the technology of streaming, downloading, Webcasting, Internet TV, IPTV, and mobile video. Covering both corporate and consumer business, technology, and content issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast, and education markets, Streaming Media West is about more than just streaming!

Streaming Media West 2009 combines cutting-edge exhibitors and intensive conference sessions with more than 100 speakers, giving you the chance to hear and see the best and the brightest minds in the online video industry—at the podium, in the Exhibit Hall, and among the attendees. We look forward to seeing you at the show!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Web Video Pick of the Week: The Web.Files Episode #14 Tim Street

One of my favorite new online video shows is The Web.Files, a weekly entertainment talk show that exclusively covers the "web celebs” involved in creating the best, most-watched, highest-rated, and most talked about series on the web. Launched this past July 2009, The Web.Files is created and hosted by the lovely and talented entertainment reporter and media host Kristyn Burtt and produced and directed by Sandra J Payne. The Web.Files is uploaded on Wednesdays to Blip.TV, where it is featured as a hot series on the front page each week and has racked up tens of thousands of views.

The idea for the show began during Kristyn Burtt's red carpet coverage of the March 28, 2009, Streamy Awards. Burtt found that the people she was talking with that night had fascinating stories to tell and that she’d like to be the one to help tell those stories to the world through a weekly talk/interview show. Burtt then contacted award-winning filmmaker, Sandra J. Payne, whose SPwrite Productions, LLC, was about to launch its first web series, “Life with Kat & McKay” on its new portal, PurseDog. The two decided to join forces to produce the The Web.Files and have profiled more than a dozen "web celebs" including Marc Ostrick, co-founder of eGuiders, comedy duo Dave and Tom creators of Safety Geeks: SVI, YouTube star Tay Zonday and many others.

In this episode, Kristyn Burtt, speaks with veteran new media guru Tim Street, Chief Creative/CEO of Ape Digital, blogger at 1TimStreet.com and creator of French Maid TV, among many other ventures. Tim began his focus on web entertainment in 1999 and is one of the pioneers in the web series field. He has attained respect for his business model in the web video world as one of the few series producers to figure out how to monetize online video through sponsored entertainment. Tim recently produced a free eBook, 10 Things You Should Do Before You Upload Your Online Video, and regularly shares his insights on how to be effective online on his blog and at industry conferences and web television events. He'll be a featured speaker this next week at Blog World Expo in Las Vegas, October 15-17, 2009. This video offers a rare view of the man behind the sunglasses in a candid and insightful conversation.

On her blog Red Carpet Closet, Kristyn said,

"I really hope that web series producers and those interested in the new media industry listen carefully to what Tim has to say in the interview. He has a lot of valuable information to share and with his new e-Book on the way, you will get a Top 10 of things to do and not do before you upload your first web series. So many of us have jumped into the web world in the last 2-3 years. Can you imagine creating something for the Internet in 1999? Well, that is exactly what Tim did. He knows what he is doing and he was doing it way before any of us knew that you could tell stories via the web."

For behind the scenes photos and scoop, go to: Red Carpet Closet: Behind the Scenes of Tim Street

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Dr. Horrible Hijacks the Emmys, Declares "Television is Dead"

In what was a long, drawn out and over-produced spectacle of Hollywood award shows, the 61st annual prime-time Emmys, had an interesting web television moment when Dr. Horrible hijacked the show. Neil Patrick Harris, adding to his hosting duties reprised his role as the evil character from Joss Whedon's acclaimed web series musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

In the middle of the broadcast Dr. Horrible interrupted the program and mockingly declared,

"Do not adjust your set America. Your so-called Emmys have been hijacked by Dr. Horrible. I have hacked into your broadcast to declare that television is dead. No more corporate entertainment. No more self-congratulatory award shows with athletic and luminous hosts. The future of home entertainment is the Internet."

His arch nemesis Captain Hammer played by Nathan Fillion, also appeared along with cameos from co-stars Felicia Day and Simon Helberg. The hit web television also won a Creative Arts Emmy in the Outstanding Special Class – Short-Form Live-Action Entertainment Programs category earlier in the week.

In his acceptance speech creator Joss Whedon said,

"This is our small proof not only that things can be done differently in this business, but that the greatest expression of rebellion is joy.”

On a related note, earlier in the evening Julia Louis-Dreyfus joked that viewers were witnessing “the last official year of network broadcast television." While that may be sometime in the future you can bet that they'll be back next year.

Realted:

Saturday, September 5, 2009

'The Guild' Season 3 Gets Embedded

The Guild Season 3 - Episode 1: Expansion Time premiered this week on MSN’s Parallel Universe after last week’s exclusive roll out on XBox. On her blog Felicia Day talked about the premiere of Season 3, the challenges involved in the production and the big difference in their syndication strategy.

Felicia said:

"Last season it wasn’t embeddable so it’s cool to be able to spread it around this season, thank you MSN and Sprint! Also, it’s now available on Zune and Xbox for all, so download away. Starting next week the eps will be rolling out weekly on all platforms, FYI."

On Tubefilter News, Marc Hustvedt talked about the open embedding:

"MSN is now allowing embedding of The Guild episodes after being notoriously closed off last season and forcing viewers to head to the cluttered video.msn.com site. This is a savvy move for MSN, and a necessary response to the significant amount of attention that Season 2 received once it was released on embed-friendly YouTube earlier this year. Fans of the web series are known to share and post videos on blogs and social networking sites all over the world. And let’s face it, web series need to free to live where people are out discussing and congregating around them."

Marc said that it will be interesting to see the difference in total views on MSN following the success of their "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar" viral music video which was the #1 video on YouTube with over 3.5 million views to date and was #1 in iTunes music videos and Amazon MP3s. The Guild also recently secured a DVD distribution deal with the same company that released Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog DVD earlier this year.

The Guild was also recently featured in the Wall Street Journal which noted that while the web series has a very loyal fan base which continues to grow it's still a modest venture. The article pointed out that overall profitability for web series is low and there's been a shift to more celebrity-backed projects.

Felicia Day » Blog Archive » Guild Season 3 Premieres!
'The Guild' Season 3 Hits MSN, Open Embedding Allowed
'The Guild' Season 3 Begins on XBox, Inks Retail DVD Deal
Felicia Day and The Guild's Path to Level 80 Digital Success | Not Quite Conversation | Fast Company
Larry Kless' Weblog: Web Video Pick of the Week, "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar"
How the Web Series ‘The Guild’ Stays Successful - WSJ.com

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Web Video Pick of the Week, "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar"

You got to love it when a web series makes their own music video to not only promote their upcoming season but also to have some fun. The cast from the wildly popular independent web sitcom The Guild, created by web video heroine Felicia Day about about a group of online gamer, don their armor and bring sexy back with this web video gem that asks, Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? With a pulsing dance beat and seductive moves that are straight out of Britney or Beyonce video, Felicia and crew hit a home run with the geekiverse. Who wouldn't wanted to hang with her in her MMO (Massively multiplayer online game)?

With over 2.1 million views on YouTube with over 12,000 comments in less than a week it's prime example of viral marketing done right to promote Season 3 of The Guild that premieres exclusively on MSN Video, Xbox Live, and Zune on August 25th. The video was directed by Jed Whedon who also composed the music with lyrics by Felicia Day who was producer along with Christian Agypt.

On her blog Felicia says,

"I don’t have time to do a proper blog post about it, but our video “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” is going CRAZY around the internet! #1 Music Video on iTunes, #1 mp3 on Amazon?! Really? It’s you guys supporting us that’s doing it! When I get a chance I will write some thoughts about this whole crazy experience, but for now, enjoy!!"

The Guild was inspired by Felicia's love of World of Warcraft which she had been addicted to for two years. She dreamed up the idea and wrote the sitcom pilot that follows the lives of the Guild players both online and offline and pitched it to a web video audience rather than TV studio wonks. The rest is history which was actually made in the short span of two years through her collaboration with Jane Selle Morgan, Kim Evey, Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis and many others she knew in the business. It launched in the late summer of 2007, and for the first season was financed solely by Paypal donations from loyal fans.

The Guild went on to become a web video sensation and locked up exclusive distribution of Season 2 on Microsoft's triple platform and a sponsorship deal with Sprint. Earlier this year it received numerous honors at the 1st Annual Streamy Awards garnering Best Comedy Web Series, Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series, Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series (Felicia Day).

YouTube - The Guild - Do You Wanna Date My Avatar

SUPPORT The Guild purchase the MP3 @ AMAZON AND ITUNES!

Amazon MP3: http://bit.ly/amazonavatar
iTunes VIDEO: http://bit.ly/itunesvideo
iTunes MP3: http://bit.ly/itunesavatar

Contact the Guild or become a fan on Facebook or a follower on Twitter.

Vote for Comedy Duo Dave & Tom's "Fate of the Duel" on Atom.com's Star Wars Fan Film Challenge

Longtime online sketch comedy duo Dave Beeler and Tom Konkle (better known as “Dave & Tom”) know how to make comedy and in own their words, like chocolate and peanut butter, "they are two great tastes that taste great together." Dave & Tom started performing together in 1999 in the seminal British comedy revue, Beyond the Fringe and went on to form Pith-e Productions in 2005 to create comedy content for the emerging new media of online video. With over 12 million aggregate views, their work can be seen on over 200+ web portals and their new comedy web series, Safety Geeks: SVI which chronicles a CSI-like team investigating safety accidents, leaving a swath of comedic chaos and destruction in their wake airs exclusively in hi-def on Koldcast TV.

In a recent New York Times article, Dave & Tom spoke about the success of original web television series and the rise of web video viewership and growing attention spans. Tom told Brian Stelter that, “A few years ago, three minutes ‘watching’ your computer felt like a novelty; now, it’s as familiar as your television set.”

Their latest online short "Fate of the Duel" a Star Wars parody, was selected as editor's pick on Revver and is a finalist on the Exclusive Star Wars Fan Film Challenge at atomfilms.com. There's still time to vote for their fanfilm, follow the link to the voting and look for their video at the bottom center of the page. Be sure to vote and clicking the thumbs up is not a vote for the film. The voting continues until July 10th at 12:00 noon PDT and opened on the 1st. Watch it and rate it and you'll be helping Dave & Tom make George Lucas laugh.

Star Wars: The Fate of the Duel

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Spoofs | Star Wars Fan Movies

The video is about a lone Jedi (Dave) who is abandoned to his fate on a Sith world, where he encounters a dark Sith (Tom). Tom says this is a fan film done with great love and affection for Star Wars, one of the films that made them want to entertain for a living. He also pointed out that it is truly a two man operation. Tom directed he film with no help other than Dave. No one else was there at the video shoot. Tom set up all the shots and did all the video recording and all the sound later. When Tom was in the shot he set it up and stepped into the frame while Dave hit the record button on the camera. Tom also did all the post production editing and sound and Thor Melsted did the composites of the buildings and lightsabers.

They'll be at ComicCon International in San Diego promoting Safety Geeks:SVI and, as finalists, have been invited to the Awards Presentation by LucasFilms.

Follow Dave and Tom on Twitter:

Press inquiries:
Dave Beeler
dave [at] daveandtom dot com
323.464.4728

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Fine Brothers Make Political Satire a Political Statement with Anti Prop 8 Web Series

Prop 8: The Web Series Benny and Rafi Finechallenges Prop 8 the ruling that banned some 18,000 same-sex marriageCalifornia. The series shows what would happen if other rights were taken away from you just like rights were taken away from same sex couples in California recently. The series has had a successful run thus far. It was written up in Variety and Tubefilter when it launched and the first two episodes have been viewed nearly 75,000 times the brothers’ YouTube channel, as well as on CollegeHumor, FunnyOrDie, DailyMotion, MySpace and other sites.

Even still, many sites are shying away from the content due to polarized atmosphere caused by the issue. “As you can imagine, despite personal opinions some of the companies did not want the controversial and possible backlash the series can create, and in a weakened economy, it’s hard to find folks willing to spend money at all in web video currently, let alone for a political message,” said the Fine Brothers. "We created the show out of our own pocket and are using our web celebrity and fanbase to raise awareness for equal rights in our style of comedy. We plan to continue to be involved in the movement until marriage rights are legal for all couples, same sex or otherwise, in California, and the rest of the country."

The third episode of their show "Prop 8: The Web Series" has just been released, this time showcasing in their usual absurdist style what would happen if a proposition was passed to bring back Slavery.

"Prop 8: The Web Series" - Episode 3 - Slavery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-OCbNfCTnI

The Fine Brothers say they'll produce more videos through the time a decision is made on the case by California Supreme Court. “We hope the ruling ends the issue specifically of Prop. 8, at which time we will refocus our efforts to providing content related to federally legalizing same-sex marriage,” they said. “We also hope to get in touch with the leaders of the cause locally, and help them produce official content if they saw us fit to do so.”

Related:

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from FOD Team, Jack Black, Craig Robinson, John C Reilly, Rashida Jones, and Sarah Chalke