Reel Pop

Woody Allen Goes "Speechless"

By Andrew Wallenstein
George Hickenlooper, co-creator of pro-writer's guild online series "Speechless Without Writers" sent over a still shot (above) of himself directing another guy who knows a little something about direction: Woody Allen. Next week, Allen will join a list of growing list of stars who are making their opinion on the strike known (without talking of course). Also coming soon: Ray Romano who teams up with director Steven Pink.

Here's what Steve Bryant had to say about "Speechless" earlier this week.

Gay Bashing in Halo

Videogame players are homophobes.

That's the lesson you're likely to take away from watching Halo 3: Homophobia Evolved, a 2-minute YouTube collection of clips culled from one gay man's experience playing the Xbox game Halo 3 on Xbox Live. The clip shows several instances where the players, who can talk to each other during online sessions through voice mics, repeatedly taunt the clip's author, who was playing using the gamer tag xxxGayBoyxxx.

Is xxxGayBoyxxx's experience a common one? As a Halo player myself, I can say that "gay" and "faggot" are probably the most oft-used words in the light banter and sometimes aggressive verbal jousting in the game. It seems as though every slur and piece of invective can be whittled down to those words. Or "nigger". Or something having to do with Arabs and horses. It's not pretty, and I don't condone or tolerate it.

But while it's tempting to explain away homophobia online as a function of the (mostly) young gamers' indiscretion or outright prejudice, I think there's something else going on here. While I agree there's an unfortunate substrate of prejudice among the gamers and general populace, the hate speech can also be contextualized by the unique online environment in which gamers play.

To wit: When you "meet" someone in Halo online, you have only two indicators of who they are -- their gamer tag and their voice. You never see their face, you probably don't know where they're from (unless you look at their profile), and you don't know their age. Your competitors are probably from an entirely different city, state, or nation. Faced with this absence of context, people rely on the basest of psychological tropes, i.e., homophobia. How else to deny the sameness of the other than by inverting his/her sexuality.

And then of course there's xxxGayBoyxxx's name. It's a goad, akin to approaching someone on the street and confronting them with your sexuality. It's as if he's saying "here I am, judge me." His gamer tag is an invitation. I have no doubt, should xxxGayBoyxxx change his tag to xxxZealousDemocratxxx he'd be on the receiving end of red state rage.

MTV to put South Park archives online

Following the warm online reception for thedailyshow.com's complete archives, MTV will put every clip from South Park online in its entirety. MTV Networks Chairman and Chief Executive Judy McGrath explained the decision by saying that placing versions of TV shows online doesn't hurt television ratings, and may actually help.     "One does not diminish the other by any stretch of the imagination. That is kind of our hat trick."

It's hard not to throw your hands up and say "duh" when you read those words, considering that's the exact argument video enthusiasts have been making for years now. I'd link to something to prove the point, but it's hard to link to the entire Internet at once.

Related: NBC will stream shows on Netflix.

Even Media Moguls Get the Blues

By Andrew Wallenstein
Moment of humorous candor at the Sanford C. Bernstein Media Symposium in New York on Thursday: If Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger could go back in time, he'd venture back to 1999. It was then as chief of the ABC televison network that he put "America's Funniest Home Videos" on the air, where it has remained ever since. Given he greenlighted a long-running TV show comprised almost entirely of what we now call user-generated video, Iger couldn't help but wonder if he should have found another use for that material given the success of a certain website out there that built its empire using pet tricks and crotch kicks.
"I was stupid though—I should have created YouTube,” Iger admitted.
Oh, Bob. Even if you had the foresight to take all that Camcorder footage to the Internet, you might recall that broadband penetration was about a fraction then what it is now.
Don't beat yourself up about it. But if you do, post it on YouTube.

Tay Zonday's Dr. Pepper Commercial

What to think of Tay Zonday, the bass-voiced poet of Chocolate Rain (12M views and counting) who recently lent his boyish baritone to a Dr. Pepper Commercial (Cherry Chocolate Rain, 300k+)?

The video's basically a remixed version of Chocolate Rain that places the androgynous Tay (really, why hasn't he cameo'd on Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians yet?) alongside dancing vixens and an (unnamed?) rapper. And it's wonderfully self-conscious, reflecting Tay's own incredulity at "this crazy internet thing." At one point, he flashes his grill. If there's anything disturbing about the commercial, it's all the chocolate that's splashed around, bukkake-like, on Tay. And a stuffed squirrel. The song's always been vaguely scatological.

Tay's follow-up songs never did gain much traction. Here's hoping the Dr. Pepper commercial isn't the apex of his post-YouTube career.

YouTube Republican Debate

For those who missed the Republican debate last night, e.g., me, the question videos and responses are up on YouTube. I'll pick my favorites in a bit.

Late Night Talk Show up for eBay auction

I'm not one for pimping strange eBay auctions -- there was a period around 2001/2002 when the media was infatuated with the strange, attic-like effluvia for sale on the site -- but this recent item's timely and caught my eye: The Scott Connor Show's 2008 season is up for bidding.

From what I can tell from the show's Web site, the show aired last season on a New Mexico CBS affiliate. And Scott Connor looks like a skeevy mongrelization of Criss Angel and Jeff Goldblum. But, he has been "endorsed by the Houston Police Officer Association and the Houston Police Bicycle Patrol Division," so allay your amateur hour fears.

Last season's shows available here. It's basically The Man Show's scantily-clad nymphets (fish nets? Really?) combined with a backing band and, well, lines like this: "I'm sorry I'm late, I was watching a guy be arrested, he had no arms and one leg and he was arrested for driving. That makes him the third worst driver in history, behind women and old folks."

Crickets.

Writer Boi

The problem with kitshcy rap videos is they make the rapper seem both accomplished and insincere. But given that Writer Boi has a surfeit of strike-related time on his hands, we'll forgive him his vanity.

Related: This video from Singapore's Media Development Authority, in which middle-aged suit jockeys argue their media competency with lines like "market trends are like my very best friends / my eye on KPIs every now and then".

Vuze Ready for Indie TV

By Andrew Wallenstein
IPTV service Vuze is looking to talent agency UTA to help deepen its content offerings, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Here's why Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa thinks he can get the edge over the likes of Joost and Babelgum in the P2P marketplace.
The inspiration came from the International Television Festival in May, where Vuze served as the submission platform for video content producers to have their online videos and TV pilots considered for top prizes in their respective categories. After surveying the 84 different submissions that came in from around the world--two from past Emmy winners--he realized "people were creating indie TV. It costs less and less to produce certain types of entertainment, so why not bring that in order to augment what we already do," Bianrosa said.
Vuze wants to play a role--with UTA's help--in giving producers a place to ply their wares outside traditional distribution channels. "What we need is to raise awareness in teh talet community about the existence of additional ways to monetize content," he said.

One Year of Yahoo's "Live Sets"

By Andrew Wallenstein
Yahoo threw itself a one-year-old birthday party Tuesday night in the Fox Studios' concert space where it has been shooting "Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music." True to the sponsor in the title, guests milled around a parked Nissan GT-R, enjoying cocktails that came with ice cubes encased in plastic molds glowing Yahoo's signature purple. Matchbox 20 (pictured after the jump) were kind enough to stick around to perform a midnight-ish set, just hours after taping an upcoming edition of "Nissan."

Speaking Out on "Speechless"

Part of me wishes the writers would keep striking just so I can keep watching their publicity stunts online. To wit, the now famous clip from Daily Show writer Jason Ross, who video'd himself on the picket lines in New York City explaining why writers didn't believe the studios' argument that Internet video's not profitable enough to offer residuals. Exhibit A, Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone's $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube. Ross: "When you're not paying him, you owe him $1 billion. When he's not paying you, he's not paying you."

If only that clarity of message made it through in "Speechless", a series of professionally-produced, pro-writer videos released over the Thanksgiving holiday and now available at speechlesswithoutwriters.com. Created by George Hickenlooper (Factory Girl) and Alan Sereboff (The Red House) "Speechless" is a series of 15-second to 4-minute long black-and-white public service announcements starring a who's who of high-profile actors (read about the series inception here).

There's Holly Hunter, who discovers her script has been outsourced to India. William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman who, instead of speaking, whistle. Eva Longoria and Nicolette Sheridan, who are completely (blessedly?) silent.

Laboratory Conditions

In the process of scouting locations for their first feature film, 72 degrees, Chicago-based media company Coudal Partners created Laboratory Conditions, a five-part series on the town of Los Alamos. Completely entrancing, especially for anyone who, like me, is obsessed with nuclear technology.

Related: The New York Times on the Manhattan Project, and photos of Russian missile silos.

Our Shared Guitar Hero Future

Off Topic: The NYTimes' Rob Walker on one of my favorite video games, Guitar Hero III:

Guitar Hero offers a connection to all this, but departs from it in an obvious way: You’re not actually playing the guitar. No matter how good you may get at Guitar Hero, if you decide to take up the real instrument at some point, you’ll be starting from scratch. (The reverse is true as well: Slash, the guitarist of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver fame, recently confided to Conan O’Brien that while he enjoys Guitar Hero, and his actual playing is included in the new version, he stinks at it. “It’s two different animals,” he said.) This isn’t to say that Guitar Hero doesn’t require the steady acquisition of a measurable skill. It does. It’s just not a skill that involves creating music. But maybe that kid at Best Buy isn’t fantasizing about the end of the long and tedious road to attaining musical virtuosity and stardom; maybe, like the controllers of the various warriors and outlaws and strategists whose triumphs unfold in digitally created worlds, what he really wants to be is a great pretender.

Interesting. But I have no doubt whatsoever that during the next year we'll start seeing Guitar Hero enthusiasts start creating original scores via either an upcoming version of the game or some kind of hack/plug-in. The future of music is interactive gaming, bet on it.

And for those of you who doubt there's any skill involved in Guitar Hero, watch this video of an absurdly talented faux shredder.

The Video Equivalent of a Bread Sandwich

By Andrew Wallenstein

Can't make up my mind as to whether Firebrand, a new TV/online content venture that consists entirely of commercials, is a brilliant pomo masterstroke or a futile exercise in corporate hubris. On the one hand, commercials are those things I used to watch before I got Tivo. But the only reason I skip them is that 97% are awful and have no relevance to me.

But if you curate the best and make them accessible in a slick interface...sure, why not? Just don't pat General Electric and Microsoft, which launched Firebrand, too hard given I doubt they would have had the cojones to try this had Time Warner's TBS not already deployed a variation of this concept, VeryFunnyAds.com, and seen some success.

Can't Wait For This Debate...

By Andrew Wallenstein

Nothing restores my faith in democracy like the upcoming CNN-YouTube debacle, um, I meant debate, than to see the pressing issues foremost on the minds of the online vox populi. Here's what CNN senior vp David Borhmann told Wired.com:

"If you would have taken the most-viewed questions last time, the top question would have been whether Arnold Schwarzenegger was a cyborg sent to save the planet Earth," says Bohrman, the debate's executive producer. "The second-most-viewed video question was: Will you a convene a national meeting on UFOs?"

(singing) And I'm proud to be an Americaaaan....

Top 12 most influential videos

In celebration of their 12th year, The Webby folks posted a list of the 12 most influential videos from the last decade. It's hard to argue with most of the selections (lonelygirl15, the Star Wars kid, the Macaca incident), though they're stretching a bit by arguing that OK Go's "Here we go again" helped "topple the hegemony of MTV" -- MTV's hegemony long since having been toppled by a variety of other factors, including YouTube itself.

A few other vids that could be contenders on this list: Michael Richards' racist rant at the Laugh Factory (demonstrated the career-ending power of video), geriatric1927 (demo'd YouTube's ability to appeal across generations), Evolution of Dance (absurdly high view count because it's not in English), and Numa Numa (the origin from whence all modern parodies spring).

Also: I'd like to see a list of the most influential genres of online videos, e.g., police violence, political parodies, confessional, etc.

VH1 Finds Online Vein for Celeb Junkies

By Andrew Wallenstein

The reality TV show just about everyone will be talking about soon isn't premiering until January, but VH1 is cranking up the marketing machine already online. "Celebrity Rehab" is said to include footage of has-beens like Crazy Town lead singer Seth Binzer engaging in drug use on camera, and the good folks at the network want to make sure you can see it online so you can check out the full story later when the series airs.

Let's leave the decline-of-Western-civilization diatribes for others; I'd like to focus on more practical concerns. First, it must be tough to be a Viacom-owned network and do this kind of online leakage given the $1 billion lawsuit against Google keeps your video off of YouTube; you won't find the footage there last I checked. But VH1 knows the power of online marketing too well; its reigning hit, "Flavor of Love," became popular via YouTube clips.

Second, is VH1 essentially giving away the goods by putting these videos out? At this point, is there any real reason to even watch the show now that you've seen the highlight reel?

Third, how on earth does the guy from Crazy Town even afford cocaine? Did anyone buy that album?

Coverage here from NY Post and Fox News

A "Bible" Worth Following

By Andrew Wallenstein
Indie rock darlings Arcade Fire launched a Web video application earlier this month that caught my eye and made me wonder why others outside the music industry aren't experimenting more with innovative programming. Check out this spooky music video in support of the title track from new album "Neon Bible." There's a demonstration of interactivity here that is artful and positively pregnant with possibility. As recounted in this Billboard article, Arcade is just one of a few rock acts thinking outside the box. Looking forward to seeing more of this.

How Dan Ackerman Greenberg could end the writer's strike

Over the holiday, Techcrunch published a post by a Stanford student who claims to run clandestine marketing campaigns for a variety of entertainment and consumer brands (Hollywood studios, record labels, etc.) meant to ensure those companies' promotional videos go viral.

Through a combination of savvy production methods (e.g., keep the videos short, create a good thumbnail) and surreptitious view count jiggering (e.g., cross-comment on message boards, blogs, and Facebook/MySpace/Digg with fake accounts) Dan Ackerman Greenberg claimed to have achieved 20 million views for clients over 3 months, with videos ranging from 100,000 views to 1.5+ million views each.

Lo, the outcry from the guardians of the meritocracy. To judge from the 400+ mostly-outraged comments on the post, plus the slew of response posts on technology blogs, you'd think Ackerman had revealed the concept of Payola for the first time. "So basically it’s all about using various forms of spam? Classy," read an early comment on Techcrunch.  Another:  "If fake videos and fake comments, why not fake views, fake click-throughs, and fake campaign success? I’m sure it pays just as well."

Others, like the dependably-rational Matthew Ingram, argued that it's hard to believe "that everyone is so shocked at this company’s 'astro-turfing' and 'sock puppet' approach." Agreed: For anyone who isn't intentionally blinkered, there's a surfeit of recent examples: Wal-Mart/Edelman's fake blogs, Digg's vulnerability to gaming, Whole Food's CEO's fake online identity.

So that part of the conversation is tired before it's even begun. Have money, will market.

But here's an angle you probably haven't considered: as odoriferous as Greenberg's biz practices may seem, you may actually want Hollywood to use marketers like him, if only because he's helping Hollywood (and advertisers) make a buck online. The more bucks made online, the more rapid and successful their forays into the online marketplace. The more successful they are -- and the more successful marketing companies like Greenberg's -- the harder it is for studios to claim they can't afford to pay content residuals. And who does that help? The writers.

See? Greenberg's actually helping the little guy.

Facebook Gets Political With ABC News

By Andrew Wallenstein
In the never-ending quest to get younger demographics to pay attention to politics, Facebook and ABC News are linking up for the social networking's first partnership with a news division, reports The New York Times.

A first glimpse of how these two organizations are putting their resources on the page is not especially revealing. First, it's not entirely clear how one would even find the pages of the nowhere-near-household-name ABC reporters who are turning their own Facebook pages into windows for tracking the race. That strategy actually makes a lot of sense given the non-stop news cycle of a presidential campaign meshes well with Facebook, where people are accustomed to logging on many times a day just to check on the latest in their friends' lives. Facebook is also an elegant platform for mixing the often confusing interplay of media churned out during a campaign, including text and video.

But it is video that is in suspiciously short supply on the pages of the "off-air reporters" (oof, imagine having that title at a TV network). Eloise Harper (image at left) didn't seem to have any last I checked, and Sunlen Miller had a link not to her own dispatch, but an edition of "World News WebCast" that I didn't have the patience to sit through to find her.

There were plenty of blog postings though, which are drawn from ABC's "Political Radar" blog, which offer no shortage of minutiae from the campaign trails. For political junkies, Facebook is a cool way to interface with a a major news organization; for the 99.1% of us who are allergic to presidential stumping, I don't think Facebook will change anything. As one Curtis Bartley posted as a comment on a "Political Radar" dispatch devoted to a uneventful Hillary Clinton church visit (punctuation added): "My God, what is next? Will the press tell us when this woman goes to the bathroom?"

CNet News also makes an interesting point in its own coverage: "ABC News doesn't seem to have caught onto the fact that Facebook's user base sees the site as a platform for social recreation, not information consumption."

Sony BMG allows users to edit music vid clips on Yahoo

Not sure what to think about this. On the one hand, allowing users more freedom to creatively tinker with copyrighted works is a good thing. On the other hand, this is obviously a half-step that, while helping layusers to use/promote BMG music, will do little to prevent piracy.

The problem is that the tools that enable piracy are already widespread. If I wanted to mashup a music video with a webcam journal entry, it'd be as simple as opening any one of a number of free video editing tools. Combine that fact with the reality that I probably wouldn't be prosecuted for doing so. If I uploaded the clip to YouTube or any other site, Sony BMG would simply issue a takedown notice. And that's if they even find the video. So there's ability without disincentive.

YouTube's anti-bullying site is called...Beat Bullying?

Really? Really? YouTube's latest mini-site in the UK, a public service anti-bullying play, is called Beat Bullying. Apparently it's a partnership with a non-profit of the same name. Guess that's British dry humor?

One of the celebrities involved in the effort is Patrick Stewart, an accomplished stage actor perhaps best known for his role as Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. If you know the show as ST:TNG, you've already been bullied within an inch of your star fleet lapel pin.

Related, sorta: The parents of a young girl who hung herself after a relationship hoax on MySpace are seeking justice.

ABC's "Lost" Goes "Missing" Online

By Andrew Wallenstein
The New York Times notes that ABC's new-media strategy on "Lost" could be a model for hashing out a deal between producers and networks trying to divvy up digital revenues. The production in question is "Missing Pieces," a set of 13 multi-minute clips produced by the show's creators originally for Verizon Wireless' VCast service that as of last week migrated to ABC.com.

As a dedicated "Lost" fan who is none too happy about having to wait until February for new episodes, I was hoping for a little something to tide me over. No such luck. In the triple-decker sandwich that is the "Lost" mythology, the two vignettes that have been released so far are mere crumbs.

Response from Steve Bryant: Agreed. Especially the Hurley minisode, which was almost painful to watch. A strange 2 minutes of straightforward dialogue for a show that prides itself on oblique call-and-response.

Which reminds me: The minisodes don't conform to Lost's typical scene structure, thus making them appear non-Lost-like. Each televised episode of Lost hews to a tight structure -- plot progression, followed by flashback, followed by plot progression. Each flashback informs the present, so that when the flashback ends you have a better conception of who the characters really are. The minisodes drop this device and thus, in my opinion, lose much of the character's pathos.

UGC Is Dead, Pt. XXVI

By Andrew Wallenstein
So good of Business Week to shovel a few more clumps of dirt on the coffin of user-generated content. This just in it's not: Advertisers would prefer to deal with professional content producers.

For the record, I sang this song before it was cool to pile on UGC like jocks on Corey Haim in the penultimate scene of "Lucas" (sorry, was up late watching HBO the other night).

But as I read this umpteenth obituary for UGC, a prediction popped into my head. Watch some savvy entrepreneur figure out a way to sift through the 95% of useless crap that comprises UGC and monetize the hell out of that 5%. Just when we thought UGC was dead and buried, someone will zag to PGC's zig and we'll all be hailing the Big Comeback.

UGC is dead. Long live UGC.

The New Breed That Never Will Be

By Andrew Wallenstein
LA Times columnist Patrick Goldstein probably had the salivary glands of striking writers working in overdrive with his column today predicting the eventual emergence of the "writer-entrepreneur," who will bring his cinematic vision to the Internet without the need of established networks or studios for distribution.
It's a swell fantasy that I would only welcome, but this paragraph offers a clue as to why Goldstein may be offering nothing more than a pipe dream:

MTV's Secret Online Puppet

It's not exactly a secret that MTV Networks is backing VBS.tv, the video extension of the studiously naughty Vice magazine, though that's the big reveal in  The New York Times today. Still, it is an arrangement that should give you pause concerning how befuddled the conglomerati are about online video. Here's the formerly pre-eminent youth brand--MTV--hiding its identity behind a barely-on-the-radar magazine brand. Just goes to show how even mega-billion brands feel they can be their own worst enemy online, where they don't fit in with the anarchic sensibility projected by fresher upstart no-names.

Addendum from Steve Bryant: The above was written by Andy Wallenstein. Vice is hardly a no-name. Been around for 13 years. And they're doing the kind of journalism on VBS that would make Kurt Loder turn green with envy. If Kurt Loder weren't a robot.

NBC Buys Quarterlife

NBC has acquired Herskovitz's and Zwick's Quarterlife, and it will begin airing mid-season. Reviews have been mostly positive, including mine -- I'm particularly enamored of the show because it doesn't "require" interaction and stands on its own. THR deputy editor Andy Wallenstein agrees, but notes Zwick and Herskovitz's shows are often critically-acclaimed, but don't do amazing in the ratings.

Online Videos 2007

A few weeks ago a New York Magazine writer got in touch with me asking for online video recommendations. I suggested MK12's History of America, which I stumbled upon back in April when researching the origins of the opening credit sequence for the Will Farrell movie "Stranger than Fiction." And waddya know, their latest issue's about online vids and includes an interview with the MK12 guys.

Also of note: Young American Bodies,  What Celebrities are Watching (including recs from doc producer and my former roommate, Thom Powers), and The Ten Video Games that Should Be Movies (and the Directors Who Should Make Them).

Will SyncTV Breed Unicorns, Too?

By Andrew Wallenstein
Is it me or does today's news on SyncTV, a new TV service from Pioneer Electronics, seem utterly, when-pigs-fly preposterous?

It's not the technology that makes me skeptical. I have no doubt this product can execute on its groundbreaking premise: enable consumers to buy individual TV channels for downloading. Launching in beta today, SyncTV also claims to have great video quality, works on both PC/Mac and attractive price points (single-digit dollars per channel).

Just one niggling doubt comes to mind: programming.

The Inevitable "Quarterlife" Parody

Quarterlife Trailer Parody

Add to My Profile | More Videos

You know you've truly gone viral when the parodies start coming. Funniest moment: Just watching Kenny mimic "Quarterlife" star Bitsie Tulloch's body language, flopping around on the bed like he's having a seizure.

NBC's My So Called "Quarterlife"

By Andrew Wallenstein

“Quarterlife” has set a new standard for circuitous routes to a TV-network pickup. First passed on by ABC, the drama series resurrected itself last week on MySpaceTV, only to have the ensuing buzz rekindle interest from NBC, which has scheduled it for midseason.

From the moment “Quarterlife” began, its timing felt portentous. Just as the WGA strike got under way, here is this beautifully scripted gem airing on the Internet instead of on TV, which soon could be hurting for the written word for quite some time.

(Listen to Wallenstein's audio review of Quarterlife on NPR)

The 2 Husbands

The carnival slop genius of reality dating shows is pathos: Pity the botoxed post-rocker on Rock of Love, hate/love/envy the doe-eyed beefcake on The Bachelor. The audience, playing along at home, either feels superior ("I would sooooo be better for Brett Michaels than that back-fatted hussy"), or swoons ("Brad Womack is so sizzly!"). Or whatever. It's as much a competition on the couch as it is on the screen.

And so you'd think that The2Husbands, a new faux-reality comedy show* that pokes fun at contestant culture with a series of scripted submission videos, would hit the funny bone. After all, they're spoofing the conniving women (and men) who consider reality TV to be a shot at easy money. But after watching only a few videos, the single joke -- omg, people are greedy -- runs its course.

Too bad, because the premise is pretty funny. Here's how it works: Two men put themselves up for marriage, agreeing to wed the woman who best makes her case. The women choose one of the bachelors, submit a video about why they'd make the best wife, and vie for votes on the site. The woman with the most votes after November 26th wins and, along with her new husband, gets $50,000.

The men the women are vying for? One's gay: "Ok ladies, what's better, watching him watch baseball, or having someone to go over every page of US Weekly until 3 in the morning?" The other's a habitual Internet contestant who finagled a date with a British rapper after raising $10,000 online. IOW, caricatures of the wouldbe husbands in "real" reality dating shows, where the opportunism is glossed over with a thin patina of beefcakery.

The videos women "submit" to the show poke fun at the dating stereotypes. There's the jappy girl who's only interested in the money. The homely wife who's only interested in the money. The bartender who's...only interested in the money. Get it?

There are a few other stereotypes in play, e.g., the ditzy girl who swears this is all for love. But by and large the show misses the real comedy of dating shows -- the interaction between the contestants as they connive and scheme against one another.

*from The Barbarian Group (makers of ye olde Subservient Chicken)

Collared Greens

You might be a redneck...if you're making about a zillion dollars with one of the more sophisticated multimedia strategies around.

Don't let the aw-shucksiciousness of Jeff Foxworthy fool you; much as you want to deck the guy for that ridiculous redneck catchphrase, he and his comedy cohorts Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy have built themselves a bustling franchise. The latest iteration is MyBlueCollar.com, the first extension of the FunnyOrDie venture that does without the "Or Die"; apparently Tony Hawk was not extended the same courtesy.

Will I be caught dead watching MyBlueCollar.com? No chance. But millions of others will if the sprawling mini-empire Foxworthy & Co. have built through production outfit Parallel Entertainment is any indication. The sheer volume of TV series, specials, movies, concerts, etc. these guys are attached to is mind-boggling, from TBS series "The Bill Engvall Show" to upcoming theatrical film "Witless Protection" (even I have to admit that's a funny title).

Now they've got an online arm that at the very least will serve as a promotional platform for the other tentacles of the Blue Collar business. And I wouldn't be surprised if it became the most popular piece of Or Die Networks in due time. Maybe there's more Wi-Fi in trailer parks than one might assume.

Since FunnyOrDie launched in April, the site has seen its traffic plummet since the success of "The Landlord." Now they've added Judd Apatow as a partner to FunnyOrDie. But keep your eye on Blue Collar.

Posted from a double-wide by THR deputy editor Andrew Wallenstein

LocateTV

LocateTV: Enter the name of the show you're looking for, and this site'll tell you when it's on TV next, DVDs available, and where it's available online for download and streaming.

YouTube HD

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said yesterday that YouTube would begin to offer HD videos in the next 3 months.

It's an interesting move, and highlights the difficult position YouTube is in. Their popularity is based almost entirely on ease-of-access -- they stream millions of videos a day, but to do that, they use a low bit-rate. Streaming HD movies would contribute significantly to overhead costs.

But that cost is, for now, balanced by a) the relatively low number of consumers who demand HD video (or have the connection speed for it) and b) the relatively low number of people who are uploading high-quality vids. YouTube suggests uploads be 640x480 resolution, but Chen said folks still upload 320 x 240. Blow that out in HD and see how it looks.

A few smaller vid sites, like Vimeo and Stage6, currently offer HD videos.

Battlestar Galactica Razor

Given their techie bent, it's no surprise that SciFi continues to do well with online video. I've been watching Battlestar Galactica: Razor, a series of two-minute vids positioned as flashback prequels for the fourth season. Each vid appears once on television before becoming available online. Too infrequent for a standalone series, but perfect to complement a show. And perfect if you enjoy tarted-up cosmo-drama dialogue, e.g., "Let's frack those toasters, rook."

The vids aren't BG's first online series. SciFi experimented last year with the Videomaker Toolkit, which allowed fans to create stories by remixing scenes and sound effects.

Label Maker

Nothing to do with online video -- unless you're a futurist musing on the future of TV/movies -- but very, very chill: RCRD LBL, the new ad-supported free download site from Engadget founder Peter Rojas, launched today. The WSJ has the exclusive with some good background information on the fetid music industry. Download options so far are pretty strong: Tracks from Cold War Kids, Battles, New Young Pony Club, many more.

Rant and Wave

MySpace has institutionalized what was already an online video institution with the new MySpace Rants. I guess the hook is to localize the rants with city-based segments? First up: my homebase, NYC.

Indie Kids Suck

Strangers in the Night

Lot of speed dating options going around lately. First up: WooMe.com, an online video-based speed dating service that lets you schedule 1-minute meetings with potential suitors. You sign up, allow people to join your meeting, and once the meeting begins each person is paired up round robin style. Very similar to SpeedDate, except you're given more profile information about the people you're talking to.

Also on the dating tip, but not video-based: CrazyBlindDate.com. Sign up, choose times and locations you're available, and let the service do the rest. No photos, no video, just completely blind.

The Danny Diaries

Much as I hate to admit it, I love Danny Bonaduce. His VH1 reality series "Breaking Bonaduce" was a masterpiece in the unscripted TV canon. Plus, his current morning radio gig in the Los Angeles market with Adam Carolla on 97.1 FM keeps me from craving Howard Stern on satellite radio.

But alas I cannot recommend his new animated series from CBS Mobile, "Danny Bonaduce: Life Coach," which produces new episodes every two weeks on CBS.com, the network's wireless partners and the jillion different sites in the CBS Audience Network. The premise had promise: Given Bonaduce's well-documented troubles with the law, drugs and the rest of humanity, why not make him counsel the treasure trove of celebrities who seem to be following in his footsteps?

Pointedly satirical, nonsensical and scatological," "Coach" feels like a castoff from Heavy.com. The jokes are obvious, and don't have the zing of a show that goes after the same humor, Comedy Central's "Drawn Together." There's too much time devoted to pointless ancillary characters like Catchphrase the Cat and a mysterious conch shell (don't ask).

I want so much more from Il Duce, whose Marlboro-laced voice is perfect for animation. I dig the fact that he is in on the joke that he IS a joke. But maybe he doesn't translate well into animation given he is practically a cartoon in real life.

This post submitted by the confessional deputy editor of THR, Andrew Wallenstein

Ze Frank strike #2

On the occasion of the 2nd week of the WGA strike, Ze Frank posts new videos: "A spokesperson for Tom Cruise admitted that they pay seems high, but said it takes a lot of money to build a robot version of Katie Holmes."

The Winnies

One of the best indicators of the immense cultural chasm between Hollywood and the online video world is the way both camps treat awards ceremonies and shows. Hollywood, despite the pomp of Golden Globes, Emmy's, and Oscars, is buttoned-up and prestigious. Online video awards are more like T-ball: Everybody gets to play.

Now, adding to the Teletubby-like hagiology of online video awards shows (Bloggies, Vloggies, Webby's, etc), comes The Winnies, a very tongue-in-cheek awards party in LA hosted by Irina Slutsky. The rules:

2. Find a trophy -- either get an old goofy one at the thrift store or find one in your garage or steal one from your kids -- the trophy will be you "ticket" to attend the party and will helps us "reuse and recycle" stuff that's already out there instead of wasting money on "made in Hong Kong" trophies.

3. About 2 weeks before the party, I'll send each video producer or star who is attending the name of another producer or star who is attending.the Winnies -- this time will everyone a chance to look over that ONE person's videos and decide what they should get an award for on Nov. 30!

3a. The award can be funny, serious or both -- but it can't be mean! So whether its for the "best moustache in the vlogosphere" or for "best episode about spirituality," its all good.

4. YOU will be responsible for giving out that award on Nov 30 --- and to make sure everyone has a chance to get on stage, we are going to call 10 (or so) random numbers -- if the number corresponds to your seat number during the award ceremony, you will come up on stage and hand out your award!

5. We are going to rent a Lottery Ball Machine -- the kind that blows the little white balls with air -- and a girl in a bikini will call out the numbers -- if you hear your seat number, come on down!

This party is FOR YOU, BY YOU and ABOUT YOU!

The Wisdom of IT Crowds

Not sure whether to back-pat or pimp-slap "The I.T. Room", a new scripted Web video series that's not half-bad (which by Internet standards means it is totally awesome). The concept is cute: four office I.T. types doing their thing in corporate hell. The execution is even better: nicely shot, but not too slick, courtesy of an outfit I've never heard of, Motiv Films.

What irks me about "The I.T. Room" isn't even its subtle shilling for Dell Computers, which is sponsoring the program. Beyond a logo in the screen frame, I don't recall seeing Dell pop up anywhere in the first episode. Can't rule out a character making an impassioned speech on the superior quality of Dell in the fourth episode, but as long as nobody goes all "Office Space" on a Gateway PC with baseball bats in an open field, that's fair. As branded entertainment goes, "Room" at least makes sense given its subject matter, which is more than I can say for 98.3% of the advertiser integrations out there.

But here's what gets my goat about "Room": Isn't this kind of a rip-off of the U.K. series "The IT Crowd", which NBC had planned to remake but has since scrapped the idea? Isn't a lawsuit from "Crowd" network Channel 4 kinda inevitable? Just when I start to take a shine to some Internet programming, it would be my luck to have it pulled out from under me....

Posted by THR deputy editor Andrew Wallenstein

Two Girls One Cup

The Internet is like scat peekaboo. Here's how the game works:

An acquaintance forwards you an innocuous-looking link that actually reveals a popular and revolting pornographic image, e.g., the very not safe for work Goatse, Tubgirl, or Meatspin.

Then they take a photo of you seeing that image for the first time, e.g., Goatse reaction shots. Riveting. Meta. Kinda like taking a photo of the photographers photographing the Most Photographed Barn in America.

Same game, new subject: Two Girls One Cup, a months-old scat porn video recently popularized when Perez Hilton published a link to it on his site. The incredibly NSFW video shows a poo-based romantic dalliance between two women, and its been parodied to great effect and views by musician John Mayer (who also sent the sanctimonious New York foodie community into titters the other day when he facetiously suggested he would begin writing a food blog about the junk food he eats).

And so: Reactions to Two Girls One Cup. Somehow they all remind me of Munch's The Scream, just a little livelier. Start here.

A Man in Fuller

If the Guardian's report Sunday is true, the very notion that Google is in discussions with British media mogul Simon Fuller should send more than a few content folks in Hollywood quaking in their boots.

Not that there's any more than a vague idea about what such a collaboration entails--the article characterizes their plan as a revolutionary distribution change akin to Apple's iTunes--but the very fact that these two superpowers are breaking bread is nerve-wracking.

If Google allowed this news to be leaked, it is undoubtedly a shot across the bow of Hollywood at a time when the writers strike is already weakening the industry. But what is this all about really? Fuller, who has scored international mega-hits from the Spice Girls to the "Idol" TV franchise, is a creative genius, not a distribution wonk. And even if he were, the niftiest distribution scheme in the world won't make a helluva difference without programming from him that won't be available elsewhere.

The pre-hype here reminds me a lot of Joost, which also boasts backers capable of gamechanging technology, Niklaas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, investors of Skype. But for all the attention Joost has gotten, it hasn't set the world on fire yet either. There is a tendency to assume that hitmakers bestow a Midas touch on whatever they turn their attention to, but that's not always the case.

But if Google is trying to do an end run around Hollywood, there's a big question looming :So does this mean Google is a media company? I'm so confused.

Posted by THR's deputy editor Andrew Wallenstein

WBTV coming to Hulu?

The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik quotes WBTV Group president Bruce Rosenblum: "It's more likely than not that we're going to make a deal."

Quarterlife's Crisis

Quarterlife, the new web series from the creators of "thirtysomething" and "My So-Called Life" (and possibly being courted by NBC) debuted yesterday.

In my review of the show, I said that Quarterlife was riveting, and I meant that. It's by far the best show I've seen produced for online. But in his Web Scout column for the LA Times, David Sarno makes two good points: One, the series is simply TV production values on the web; two, the series' two-a-week pub schedule may be too infrequent to build momentum with an audience.

Yep, Quarterlife is just like TV, but on the web. That's a good thing. Not every web show has to have a web aesthetic (whatever that is), or a web format, or a web interactive component. I'm not sure who issued the fiat that everything online has to be short and interactive, but it's bunkum. The web allows for those qualities, and employed correctly those qualities can make a web show transcendent. But first and foremost, we all just want quality.

As for the series' publication schedule, Sarno's right to be concerned. Twice a week does not a habitual viewer make. Especially considering the short nature of the program, and the lack of advertisements (unlike network TV) to remind viewers of the pub schedule.

NBC's video download service launches, blows

NBC Direct, the network's episode download beta, went live at nbc.com on Saturday. I don't have access, since I'm on a Mac, but here's what you can expect:

• Full episode downloads of several popular shows, including 30 Rock, The Office, Scrubs, etc.
• The shows are available for 7 days after the original air date
• Once downloaded, the shows must be viewed within 2 days, at which time the file becomes useless.

For these conveniences, NBC adds the following inconveniences:

• The service is PC and MSIE only
• Requires Windows Media Player
• Requires the latest Windows security update

Download Squad put together a video tutorial of the app. Thanks, guys.

NBC's service is interesting in that the company is also participating in Hulu, the recently-launched vidshare co-venture with News Corp. Recall also that NBC's Zucker recently lambasted Apple's iTunes for not providing much revenue to NBC. NBC's obviously experimenting at this point, and personally, I think it's the right thing to do. This first release sucks, but give them time. They're on the right track.

Lost mobi/minisodes begin today

ABC will start streaming minisodes of "Lost" today and for several Mondays hereafter. The shows are new material, and were originally intended to stream (as "mobisodes") through Verizon.

iTune-up

Is Steve Jobs rethinking the iTunes business model?

Tantalizing clue comes from blog The Evan Series that Apple will try a rental model online. Truth be told, I never understood why iTunes is a download-to-own model to begin with; sure, it’s a higher price point than video on demand, but surely there is a bigger market out there for renting movies and TV than buying outright. Then again, methinks this is wishful thinking considering Jobs hasn’t exactly displayed flexibility with the iTunes model. If NBC can’t adjust price points on one dinky series, is Apple really ready to make a much bigger wholesale change? Dare to dream.

Still, tempting to believe given yesterday’s news of Apple’s deal with IAC’s Ticketmaster.com that combines concert ticket sales with digital albums online. Innovative, but not quite the gamechanger that Apple would have with online VOD.

Posted by deputy editor Andrew Wallenstein

NBC to acquire Quarterlife?

NBC is apparently in talks to acquire Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's high-profile Web offering "Quarterlife" ahead of its Sunday debut on MySpace. NBC and MySpace declined comment.

The show debuts Sunday. Here's my review from Monday. Highly recommended watching.

Strumgeist89 vs. Seung-Hui Cho

A Finnish teenager and avid YouTube contributor yesterday shot and killed several of his classmates in a town outside of Helsinki before turning the gun on himself. The media reaction has been predictably hysterical, leading with the fact that the teen "predicted" the killings with a YouTube post hours before, and citing text from his YouTube account, Sturmgeist89: "I am the law, judge and executioner. There is no higher authority than me."

YouTube as oracle? As abetting technology? As evidence of...what exactly? What lesson does YouTube's involvement impart? The news articles are strangely lacking in commentary on this one. They lede with YouTube, but cast no aspersions, make no analysis.

Could be because we're all deeply confused.

You may recall that one of the underlying motifs of the Virginia Tech shooting commentary was that the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, was a loner with a MySpace or Facebook account.

Several reports at the time pointed to that lack of digital camaraderie as supporting evidence for his status as a "loner." Meanwhile, the news ran riot over MySpace and Facebook profiles, delving into the comments, the pathos, the digital memento mori.

YouTube's involvement in the Finnish shooting is a non-story. YouTube is simply (intricately) a commons. The hidden message behind the articles that cite YouTube is that despite the presence of this all-seeing, all-knowing, user-generated warren of videos, we're still at the mercy of human pathos. No video site will change that now, or in the future.

Nut Job

I stuck around after moderating a panel at the Future of Television conference Thursday to glean some online video wisdom from Jordan Hoffner, head of premium content partnerships at YouTube. Expecting to understand what the hottest new trend on the Internet would be, imagine my surprise when he revealed which video is currently capturing his imagination: an amateur artist's rendering of the Virgin Mary by making peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches under the watchful eye of time-lapse photography.

Of PB & Jesus' mom, Hoffner said, "It was engaging, entertaining short, and original -- it takes me to a place where user-generated content is something that is a good thing for the whole industry.

Talk about sticky programming. Now if I'm the brand tamers at Skippy, I¹m signing this guy up for commercials. Watch the Bible Belt run out of the crunchy blend in no time.

Posted by deputy editor Andrew Wallenstein

Topps of the Heap

There is no more bitter reminder of the growing obsolescence of non-digital media than baseball cards, which currently inhabit a few dozen cardboard boxes in a bedroom closet in the house I grew up in. If even 1 percent are in mint condition managed to weather the ravages of competitive "flipping," no doubt they too have since probably disintegrated into dust in the 20+ years since I acquired them.

All this is by way of saying how odd I found it that former Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner announced he was acquiring leading card manufacturer Topps. What could be more counterintuitive than shelling out for the media equivalent of the buggy whip?

In a one-on-one at Media and Money on Wednesday with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, Eisner acknowledged his own family thought he was crazy for buying Topps.

"But they said the same thing about Disney at one point and other things I have done," Eisner said. He even unfavorably compared himself to his old friend Barry Diller, who couldn't be heading any more headlong into digital at IAC (although that strategy isn't exactly looking swell these days, either).

Still, the more Eisner talked about Topps, the less I became convinced he could "take this brand that means sports and youth and fun and take it into the digital age." Though he spoke movingly of the emotional connection males of a bygone generation once got from just smelling the chewing gum Topps packaged with the cards, I don't think that translates to any connection with Topps as a brand. Baseball cards were just an extension of the game, and it didn't matter whether the card manufacturer was Fleet or Donruss (don't ask me how I remembered them).

Eisner didn't get into specifics about his plan for Topps' digital future, but my eyes nearly rolled out of my head when he mused, "I think it would be fun to make Bazooka Joe into an action hero."

Just what the multiplex needs, a forgotten animated gum pitchman as movie franchise.

posted by Andrew Wallenstein, deputy editor, Hollywood Reporter

Martha, Martha, Martha!

THR deputy editor Andrew Wallenstein had this to say from the Media and Money conference in Manhattan, where conference sponsors Dow Jones and Nielsen Co. convened some major media muckety-mucks:

Perhaps somewhere on the sparkly new website Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne kept touting in the opening panel here there is some kind of monogrammed pearl-handled shoehorn with which she could remove the foot she indelicately placed in her mouth.

Asked by the moderator, MIT researcher Michael Schrage, what her boss thought of Google’s growing domination of online advertising, Lyne replied, “Martha loves Google. She loves watching that stock go up.”

Yeah, maybe alluding to Stewart’s fervent interest in the stock market isn’t the slickest move. And MSLO just posted third-quarter earnings last week, with analysts noting its stock price finally reaching pre-ImClone scandal levels.

Hollywood Scab Writer

Hard to know if this dude's serious. But. Videos and blog entries from an opportunistic, Kirk Cameron-esque (before his ascension to the right hand of Ray Comfort) writer in LA.

SubFans

This is fascinating, if not unexpected: There are ad hoc groups of language mavens who translate American TV for international audiences and post those episodes online simply because translations done by European networks are so poorly done. The unpaid translators are known as "subfans."

So I guess intentionally incorrect translations would be known as SubFanFiction.

NBC discussing YouTube return with Google

From the Ad:Tech conference: NBC is discussing a return to YouTube with Google, although right now they say they're completely focused on Hulu. Ron Lamprecht, SVP, digital distribution at NBCU, said the company will continue to be cautious on video until the ad dollars move there, i.e., "The faster that people want to choose to stream content versus watching on TV. We're very focused on mobile, we look at video and see less than 5 percent of the audience has used it. We know it's going to be big, but we're still talking about a small group of people, albeit a very attractive demographic. But it really depends on the audience as for how quickly we will be able to really take advantage of these investments."

Ze Frank on Writer's Strike

Ze: "The WGA's original plan was to encourage their members to write badly, however it was pointed out that fans of the show Rules of Engagement might not notice. Just kidding, David Spade and Heather Locklear totally make sense."

Oprah on YouTube

Oprah's on YouTube, and it's awesome. I've always wanted to see backstage vids -- Oprah behind the handycam, her voice shrill and commanding as the camera catches the expectant and terrified faces of everyone around her.

NTV's blog drama plans

I read with interest this report that says NTV is planning to broadcast a drama in which the story can be changed by viewers contributing to the show's blog. The blog started publishing last Friday (but I'm having difficulty finding it, and the article doesn't provide a link).

Site unseens, this interactive drama seems more interesting than the other interactive fair I've seen in the States lately, like MySpace's Roommates, which is little more than softcore porn. But isn't it interesting that most (if not all) of the interactive series being created these days revolve around the plights of female victims. Where're the interactive male-focused storylines?

Review: Quarterlife

There is a moment at the beginning of Quarterlife, when a webcam turns on and a girl's face appears, that captures perfectly our capacity for at once loving and loathing ourselves. "My name is Dylan," the girl says. She pauses, quickly adds "Kreiger," and then explains haltingly: "My...my name...Uh..."

Tragedy! Even this simple declarative sentence has gotten away from her. So she gives up and sings: "My naaaame is Dylan Kreee-ger."

Sound familiar? That self-conscious twinge, the hesitant fumblings for a voice. It's footage common to any number of amateur video blogs; in Quarterlife, the new web series about finding one's place in adulthood from Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick ("My So-Called Life", "thirtysomething"), it's aped to excellent effect. Here we have a pretty post-grad girl, trudging through an unfulfilling magazine job ("I'm doomed to be an editorial associate"), envious of her roommates, silently crushing on her neighbor, and suffering through it all on her webcam.

Isn't that dangerous, to build a story around such a personal medium. In lesser hands, there'd be a tendency to over-focus on the webcamming, on the typing of URLs, on buffering icons and comment strings and the gee whiz of it all. Not here. Herskovitz and Zwick simply use the webcam as another camera, interspersing intimate shots with broader action. Like a reality show contestant explaining what just happened, this is Dylan Kreiger's so-called quarter-life.

As she uploads her own insecurities, Dylan outs those of her friends. There's roommate Lisa, the sexy bartender/aspiring actress who sleeps with boys to assuage her self-esteem problems. There's roommate Debra, the dependable one who's moving in with Danny, the lecherous TV adman. Danny's partner and roommate is Jed, who happens to be in love with Debra. They have to resolve that small problem while filming their first ad for a Scion dealership. All the while, Dylan's battling an out-of-touch editor at Women's Attitude who steals her idea for a new section.

And it's riveting. This is probably because Quarterlife doesn't seem to care about you. It doesn't pander to the audience, doesn't entreat you to view the character's profiles on MySpace or comment on their photos or write in to try and change the plot. Quarterlife doesn't need you to interact. As a series, it stands on its own. It seems not to care about what everyone is saying right now (this very second!) in the comments field under every video.

And that's odd, considering Quarterlife isn't just a series. It's a media platform, complete with a vlog-based social network (quarterlife.com) designed to be a support network for "creatives" fumbling through post-collegiate life. You couldn't create a more self-conscious show unless you spent 30 minutes pointing a webcam at your pierced navel.

But Herskovitz and Zwick have managed to suss the tension that exists online between presentation and interaction. They've created a show that's compelling as a standalone drama, but which offers further interactive rewards for those interested enough to pursue them.

Quarterlife premieres November 12 on MySpace. The social network is accepting members now.

Graph: Interaction vs. Presentation

Online video presents a challenge for media companies that rarely existed in the television years -- the tension between interaction and presentation. Their challenge now, as has been widely documented, is to combine the best of both worlds and create professional programming that fosters participation. Below, a simple graph (very much a work in progress) showing one way to think about the media market.

Daily Show Archives: Indecision 2000

Ever since Viacom opened up Comedy Central's Daily Show archives, I've been meaning to post a collection of some of my favorite videos. Problem was, a lot of the old clips didn't work. Now they do. So below, apropos of nothing (besides the archive section working, and not slapping up pre-rolls before every single clip) a few segments commenting on the beginning of our 7-years-in national nightmare, the 2000 Gore/Bush election.

November 6, 2000
"Bush was actually spending his time in Pennsylvania, drenched in a downpour of ticker tape made from shredded grammar manuals."