Reel Pop

SuperDeluxe's Bathtub Talk Show

By Andrew Wallenstein
Those crazy kids at SuperDeluxe.com are taking a novel approach to that hoariest of TV-show genres: the talk show. Craig Bierko, star of the upcoming Fox sitcom "Unhitched," plans to host an online talk show in a bathtub which he will share with assorted guests including John Malkovich. I want to make fun of this, and yet I'm sure I'm going to watch at least once, so who are we kidding?

Tweaking the talk-show format has been done before -- see "The Jeannie Tate Show," live from a soccer mom's minivan--but this takes it up a notch. For my money, the bar has been set by "Between Two Ferns," the talk-show satire on FunnyorDie with Zach Galifianakis.

Daily Links: Take Your Seth Away

• Family Guy creator making web show for Google
  Plus Justine Bateman, nee of Family Ties, is making a new vid site, which currently reads like a student thesis struggling to impress a teacher.
• YouTube to add live video this year
  Ha, I wonder if that would re-popularize appointment viewing.
• Celebrity f*cking videos are your new bicycle
  Silverman/Damon + Affleck/Kimmel + Rogen/Banks = inane. Basically just a succession of tarted up Hee Haws. Or Hollywood Squares. Re. Tart. Ed.
• China and MySpace to stream Olympics
  Plus Todou.com, China's most popular vid site.
• The two forms of online video
  Professor Alex Juhasz (who taught a course on YouTube at Pizer College last semester) has been writing at length about the aesthetic and experience of YouTube.

'Quarterlife' heading to Bravo

Two days after bombing its debut on NBC, the series is heading to Bravo, according to James Hibberd back at HQ. "Quarterlife" has garnered about 6 million viewers online so far (though that bumped during the TV debut) but only 3.1 million viewers Tuesday.

Daily Links: Squeegee Clean

• Disney launches digital production unit, "Squeegees"
  Stage 9 Digital Media to field 20 shows; "Squeegees" initial 10 episode run on abc.com and YouTube, sponsored by Toyota.
• Social networks using video to compete with YouTube
  Bebo planning reality show, "The Gap Year," and a drama, "Sophia's Diary."
• YouTube gives advice to magazines about online video
  tip #1, make an editor/reporter a star, not just a behind-the-camera mope.
• Airwolf, A-Team beating current shows for traffic on Hulu
  It's a killer helicopter. What's not to like?
• Vid search site Blinkx adds CBS, Weather Channel shows
  Snooze.

Lessons from the 'quarterlife' bomb

One day in the near tech-o-fied future, when all video is online video and we've got cat5 cables jacked into our nose, we're going to laugh about all this handwringing over what content belongs where. Which'll hurt. Because, like, we have cat5 cables in our nose. But until then, it's our epistemological duty to dissect "quarterlife's" ratings bomb (which I sadly predicted, and show creator Herskovitz acknowledged) and discover some lessons therein. To wit:

The poor ratings on NBC don't mean 'quarterlife' sucks
Like I said in my review, it's a well-done series with good acting and a compelling (if somewhat derivative) storyline. The series garnered a few million viewers online, and was easily the best produced entertainment on the web. Television doesn't have to be the ultimate arbiter of quality. There's an audience out there. But ...

Herskovitz regrets 'quarterlife' TV move

By Andrew Wallenstein
THR had to travel to Harvard Business School to hear it, but Marshall Herskovitz was there having, shall we say, second thoughts about "quarterlife" airing on NBC. Prolly had something to do with the abysmal ratings of the premiere, which our own Steve Bryant predicted. Now let's see if cancellation will come mercifully, or NBC Universal will just move it to cable.

To remember waaaay back when Herskovitz and NBC were young and in love, visit quarterlife.com for a video interview the show's creator did with the network's head honcho, Ben Silverman.

Model Dating: Hawaii

From the scribes behind MENSA-level TV gems "The Simple Life" and "The Tom Green Show," this ripe.tv schwing-a-thon promises to hook-up average joes with professional hotties. Launched yesterday, "Model Dating: Hawaii" (what, no Hoboken?) consists of three six-minute clips: An intro vid, explaining the premise; a second vid re-explaining the premise in Chinglish; and a third vid that tells you how to apply for a date. Visuals-wise, it's bikini'd T&A shots looped together -- like a 1-900 dating service commercial, without the promise of talking to someone who really shares your interests. Worse: each vid is bookended with commercials -- a 15-second preroll and a two-minute postroll. The resulting user-experience is so egregiously bad that it's hard to consider the show as anything other than ad-laden, pandering smut. Which of course means, on the Internet, it'll do just fine.
Model Dating: Hawaii

Akimbo Thinks Outside the Box

By Andrew Wallenstein
Akimbo CEO Thomas Frank stopped in at THR this week to talk up the new direction for his company. If you're not familiar with the brand, Akimbo made for a name for itself in recent years by striking enough deals with content companies to launch its own set-top box that gave TV viewers an alternative (or supplement) to exorbitant cable subscriptions. But then Akimbo discontinued the box mid-last year, though it still provides content for the more successful AT&T Home Zone.

Now Akimbo is back, and in much different form. Today the company formally announced its shift from hardware to software, not to mention b-to-b from b-to-c, offering content companies a do-it-yourself solution to online video distribution. Akimbo is now something of a virtual Swiss Army knife that allows programmers to self-publish through whatever means they choose to explore--streaming, download-to-own, a combination of both, etc.--rather than the costly alternative of outsourcing that to other distributors or aggregators like, well, what Akimbo used to be.

The irony isn't lost on Frank, who surprisingly comes from the content side of the business, being former head of programming at Dick Clark Prods. He sees Akimbo benefiting from the constant shape-shifting that marked its early years. "I was able to take the best of these technology stop-starts," Frank told me. "I don't have to be in the hardware wars anymore."

Daily Links: No YouTube to See Here, Curry On

• TMZ to launch branded channel on MySpaceTV
  Says sites share demographics, but will only show two to three new clips per week, and those clips will have already aired on TMZ.com. Ummm...fail.
• Background on DivX Stage6 shutdown
  Arrington gives good info on boardroom infighting, but pumps drama over the fact that the site still wasn't profitable. IOW, despite its success and relatively rosy future, Stage6 couldn't attract enough users to offset streaming costs (they had to download a plugin!), and its main source of revenue (a Yahoo toolbar) wasn't even part of the site's value prop. Ummm...fail.
• Pakistan lifts YouTube ban
  Nothing to see here, curry on. Oh!
• WGA ratifies new contracts
  Separated rights, residuals, distributor's gross.
• Vid Startup TidalTV gets $15M funding
  Flash-based, Hulu-like service plans to open to public in March
• Rocketboom's Know Your Meme series
  [via Waxy] In which they analyze themes within memes. I stopped watching Rocketboom literally a year ago, and it's good to see they've actually gotten better.

Exclusive: New Originals from MySpace, Ripe

THR's Alex Woodson scores two exclusive stories today on new original programming online. First, we've got the goods on a new MySpace series, "Special Delivery," beginning today (see above) in the vein of "Candid Camera." Secondly, Ripe Digital scores comedian Jamie Kennedy to host a new series subtly titled "Model Dating: Hawaii."

DVR Strategy No Match for ABC.com Ambitions

By Andrew Wallenstein
ABC's controversial plan to disable fast-forwarding of commercials on VOD got plenty of attention in the blogosphere yesterday, from AllThingsD to TechDirt. While I get that this kind of DVR-counterattack is interesting, I wouldn't be so quick to lose sight of a point in the plan that seems to be getting glossed over, pertaining to the unspecified "expanded opportunities" ABC's affiliates are granting the network in online distribution.

Perhaps I should have seen it coming when I attended the Jack Myers Future of Media Breakfast at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles last week. Albert Cheng, executive vp digital media at Disney-ABC Television Group, spoke about the network's outsized ambitions in attracting advertisers to ABC.com with a zeal that struck me for someone who is typically pretty soft-spoken.

The Momentum at ManiaTV

By Andrew Wallenstein
Really interesting stats out of research firm Compete today showing that online original programmer ManiaTV cracked the top 10 video properties in January, surging 40%, ahead of the likes of Heavy and Metacafe. Shows you what having name-brand talent like Tom Green and Dave Navarro can do if you give it time. Up next: National Lampoon struck a deal for a series based on its live production, the Lemmings Comedy Troupe, to premiere in April on ManiaTV.

Quarterlife Will Flop on NBC

The Marshall Herskovitz TV pilot-turned-web-drama-turned-TV-show-again "Quarterlife" makes its debut on NBC tonight. The online series tells the "Melrose Place"-esque tale of pretty people suffering their newfound white collarhood prettily, only this go round the story's modern'd-up with webcamming: Dylan (played by Bitsie Tulloch) is uploading confessionals to a cammer's site, and what she says has unexpected consequences for her friends. But when the show hits the tube, I think it will fail.

When I reviewed "Quarterlife," I was impressed by not only the high production quality, but Herskovitz's ability to tell an emotional story that doesn't get bogged down in the gee-whiz artifice of online esoterica. While the characters tend to be caricatures in mainstream fare's inimitable no-matter-the-character-flaw-everybody's-hot kind of way, the series demonstrated that online video series could be more than slap-shod productions. This was quality entertainment, and it was only online.

But when "Quarterlife" hits the tube, it won't benefit from that positive association. Like a star collegiate player entering the NFL, "Quarterlife" will be competing against tougher opponents. Tonight, those opponents are relatively toothless ("Jericho" on CBS, "Primetime" on ABC). But when "Quarterlife" moves to Sunday on March 2nd, it'll be up against "Cold Case," "Family Guy," and "Oprah's Big Give." Just speaking form anecdotal experience, I'd say every dude I know will be watching "Case" or "Family," and every woman 30+ will be watching "Oprah."

Assuming I'm right on the audience demo, that leaves twentysomething (quarterlife-ish?) women watching on Sundays. That's interesting, give that recent surveys show that women are more likely to create online content and watch mainstream fare online. It will be interesting to see if those types of viewers follow "Quarterlife" to the bigger screen. Somehow, I don't think there'll be enough for the show to succeed.

Loving Ben Affleck Can't Be Wrong

By Andrew Wallenstein
It was hard not to be star struck Sunday night, what with Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Harrison Ford, Don Cheadle and Robin Williams sharing the screen. Except I'm not talking about the Oscars; it was a howlingly funny sketch that aired after the event on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," tastefully titled "I'm F**king Ben Affleck," that managed to squeeze more A-list wattage into a few minutes than the Oscars managed in three-plus hours.

Whether Kimmel topped girlfriend Sarah Silverman's original "I'm F**king Matt Damon" is not the question here. It's what the Oscars and really all of mainstream Hollywood has to learn from the sketch, which may have premiered on TV but is likely to be seen by exponentially more viewers on YouTube, just as the "Damon" one did. After the lowest-rated Oscar in history, you have to ask yourself why many of the stars mentioned above took the time appear in this bizarre, racy sketch but didn't show up on the red carpet (the only one I remember seeing in both was Ford, who really needs to lose the earring). For A-listers whose every public appearance is quite calculated, that tells you plenty about what is more culturally relevant right now: viral video or stuffy award shows.

AtheneWins

A faux-reality series from a Belgian pro gamer, AtheneWins is a rambling, in-joke-rife vlog about a World of Warcraft player's oversexed lifestyle. Starring Athene, "number one best Paladin in the world", his bird-chested and shirtless friend Furious, and a gorgeous, apparently mute girlfriend known only as The Bitch, the vlog -- which is the #63 most subscribed YouTube channel -- purports to edify viewers on the getting of game both in-world and out. Hence the thumbnails of a scantily-clad The Bitch, and associated video titles, e.g., "How to Get a Horny Bitch" and "Taming a Horny Bitch". But click through and, instead of finding pimp pedagogy, you get Athene waxing poetic on nature-vs-nurture psychology, the fighting style of hobos, Internet memes, and his mother's advice.

While the series has moments of hilarity, it's not exactly accessible unless you're a gamer familiar with MMORPG ling or willing to delve into the earliest vids to understand the show's backstory. And yet as far as views go, the series is wildly successful. This is probably because it takes advantage of three key strategies: Use a hot girl (in this case, hilariously mute), make riotous claims about a passionate niche community (in this case, gamers), and spam your videos (in this case, on every site possible). The result's a views-getting combination of titillation, aggravation, and entertainment.

AtheneWins on YouTube | AtheneWins on MySpace | AtheneWins' DVD, Wrath of the L33t King

Daily Links: Hollywoulda Coulda Shoulda

• Economist: Hollywood and the Internet
  The best, concise psychological reason why Hollywood is averse to technological change: "Hollywood's value system is not necessarily about growth," says Dan Jansen, who runs the Boston Consulting Group's media practice. "It's about recognition for films." So true. Whenever I have a conversation with a producer or creator, they are woefully uniformed about even the basics of Internet distribution.
• SurveillanceSaver
  Screensaver app displays live images from surveillance cams around the world. Released last year, recently updated.
• AdAge: Creatives Have a Crush on Obama
  "In advertising and marketing," says Shepard Fairey, "things are simplified to accentuate the positive and utilize soundbites that are really powerful; it's about economical communications, and [Barack Obama] is really good at that." Related: typographers on Obama's use of the Gotham typeface.
• Video Vigilante busts hookers and johns in the act
  LA Times trend piece about amateur journalists leads with OK's Video Vigilante, who's actually been taping johns for a decade (but only started YouTubing in December). New York's own Jimmy Justice, who films cops breaking the law, joined YouTube in January.
• Hot Belgrade thieves on YouTube
  1M views, via CNET: A persistent amateur cameraman followed the women as they loaded up with chocolates at a corner shop, came out giggling, then went after designer bags, shoes, and clothes at Belgrade's swankiest stores in its vandalized main shopping street.
• Christian Mom Comedian a Hit on YouTube
  After video gets 1.5M views, slotted to become a regular on Good Morning America.
• YouTube down for 30 minutes on Sunday
  Apparently a problem with a DNS server in Pakistan. Conversation over at Techcrunch, where one brilliant commenter says "this just helps underline the overall ridiculousness of ALL religions." Yes. And you.

AOL Rolls Out Red Carpet to Rivers

By Gretta Parkinson
Just when you thought there was no place in Hollywood for women over 40, you realize...there isn’t. Unless, of course, it’s online. After getting axed last year from the TV Guide Channel and from E! before that, red carpet mavens Joan and Melissa Rivers have finally landed a gig at AOL’s StyleList.com.

The award show fashion ‘icons’ (read: has-beens) will pick up where they left off with the best and worst of Oscar’s red carpet. Best being the Oscars, worst being the Rivers’. Not that the nip and tucked twosome isn’t charming in their own cosmetically enhanced way. It’s just that once you’ve been downgraded to web only and replaced by Lisa Rinna’s lips, you have to wonder if Tinseltown hasn’t turned its fickle back on you for the final time.

What I Learned From YouTube, the Song

Last semester, Alex Juhasz taught a course about YouTube at Pizer College. In that inimitable, academically immersive manner, all work for and by the class was done online, an attempt to mirror YouTube's own "amateur-led pedagogy".

One of the results: "What I Learned from YouTube", a music video (a cover of a Delilah song? Not sure, but it's funny) by two students that excoriates the site for being filled with vacuous comedy fluff. Not a new sentiment, but one you're probably accustomed to hearing from middle-aged entertainment executives instead of students.

Among the students' criticisms, one in particular leaped out at me: We may be playing air guitars / But soon we'll both be stars / Cause youtube is our best chance towards fame. An interesting comment there, as both a white collar parallel to inner city sports star hopefuls, and an acknowledgment that YouTube is a mass marketing vehicle. Interesting to think, after all these years of breathlessly extolling the virtues of democratic media, that the generation using that new media considers it to be nothing but another mass appeal crap machine.

This is perhaps a function of their being digitally in situ, and thus not removed enough from prior media experience to understand the marked change that YouTube represents. But it's also telling that online video sites are being criticized even in their infancy, suggesting that even as technology revolutionizes distribution, it's slow to change (can't change?) the sociology of hitmaking.

A few lyrics:

What I learned from youtube
Is a multitude of things like
How to fold a shirt real quickly
But some videos are so shitty
Yes its true
Lonelygirl15 we mean you
Fu-uh-ck you

Daily Vid Links: You Don't Know Jackass

• Jackass stars programming Jackassworld.com for a day
  MTV's web site for the show featured Jackass 2.5 in December.
• Tay Zonday speaks on fame, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and the objectivity precept
  Best interview ever: "You look at the video ratings, and it’s rated four-and-a-half stars, but all the comments are full of as much vitriol as you can think of. I think that’s just the nature of the beast of the Internet. And it’s how all of us are, too. You get 15 products, and they work perfectly well, and you don’t think about them. But you buy a rice cooker, and it sucks, and you go to epinions.com, and you post a review. So you must feel motivated to post a review of something you have an issue with, and if you just kind of like it, you’re like, 'Hey, I use it.'"
• MTV and CollegeHumor team up on Jake and Amir
  Amir:cutely selfish::John Krasinski:cutely awkward
• Human Giant preview on iTunes
  I grilled a burger in Prospect Park for Jason Woliner once. True story.
• Korean paper Cho Sun on the mobile video "pocket theater" trend
  Korea's always been a few years behind Paul Reubens.
  

The Real Joke at Comedy.com

By Andrew Wallenstein
Were Comedy.com just the 72,394th new Web site to make a go of it online in original comedy, it might not be worth blogging about. But the news out today on the man behind the site is funnier than anything on the site: Dean Valentine, former president of former broadcast network UPN. He ran UPN from 1997-2001, a span which yielded what might possibly be the most notoriously awful comedies in TV history, especially "The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer."

If you happened to blink in October of 1998, you may have missed the brouhaha over this bomb, in which Chi McBride played Abraham Lincoln's black butler during the Civil War. Yes, you read that sentence correctly, as did the critics who savaged the sitcom for racial insensitivity and for just plain sucking. Valentine was also responsible for other comedy bombs like "DiResta" and "Reunited" (I don't remember them either), which were part of his grand plan to reach out to the great swaths of blue-collar viewers who didn't really relate to NBC's "Friends." Either that audience segment didn't exist, or Valentine wasn't the man to reach them.

In either case, Valentine's UPN tenure is worth noting given he is back at the helm of a comedic venture. "Desmond" sequel is a must.

Daily Links: Kiss My Flash

• Adobe to add DRM to Flash
  Flash is the de facto standard for Web video. If Adobe's intent is to reduce piracy, DRM will have little effect. The EFF makes excellent points here about how DRM will effectively lock users into Flash. Another idea: Hollywood's pressuring Adobe to give them some way to protect their content. If so, Hollywood's shooting itself in the foot, as DRM (in whatever form it takes) will probably only make Flash less user-friendly. That'll open a market for DRM-less streaming tech, and we'll see new sites pop up using that technology. Hi there, square one.
  
• AdAge: Marketers losing confidence in TV
  87% of ANA respondents said they were going to be spending more on Web ads in the coming year.
• Google launching AdSense for video
  Banner ads within vids. More details at NYTimes.
• Battlestar Galactica deleted scenes streaming online
  Promo for DVD
• NewsClipper collates news video from around the Web
  Allows embeds of news vids from ABC, CNN, etc. Murky copyright issues here.

For Hollywood, the Web can be Constructive Interference

Earlier this week, NBC's Jeff Zucker kerfluffed the blogonets by touting NBC's move to year-round scheduling. Fox's chief scheduler, Preston Beckman, retorted by touting Fox's similar designs, which date from August 2004. Regardless which was first, both moves are part of the Net's gradual deprecation of the anachronistic spring upfronts and fall season debuts, a process which began as a way to staunch the flow of viewers to cable during the summer months.

Now, in addition to competing with cable, the Nets need to build synergies with their own Web media. That media is 24x7, neverending, constant. NBC and Fox (and ABC and CBS) must be constant, too.

A year ago I wrote an editorial for THR about why Hollywood must produce constant media (I can't find the full piece, but here's an abbreviated version). My argument mostly considered the emotional consequences of 24x7 Web media, i.e., if we're constantly exposed to online shows and events (viral vids, etc.) then we begin to rely on that media for entertainment. This is especially true during programming lulls, e.g., the summer months and the strike. The low buzz in the online background swells, sine wave-like with higher amplitudes and higher frequencies, until it has our attention.

Consider these graphs:

This graph estimates the buzz/viewership generated by movies (blue) and TV (green) without the interference of online media. For argument's/lazy's sake it's simplified, with constant strength waves lowering in amplitude/reach in the summer months (for TV, when reruns traditionally dominated) and rising in summer (for movies, when blockbusters debut).

This graph is Hollywood with the benefit of online media. (This is also me demonstrating my poor Photoshop skills, b/c these things look like the Teletubby landscape). Web media and chatter is constant. When "Lost" goes dark for six to seven months, those viewers flock online. Same for other shows. Same during the strike. Consider the glut of comedians online now, pimping their shows and resumes. Consider short vids like "Drunk History," which garner views in the millions. Consider the launch of the Independent Comedy Network, Ice Cube's UVNTV, Hammer's Dance Jam, Revision3's new shows, "Quarterlife" episodes, etc., etc. None of these shows are beholden to the traditional television format. They publish whenever, and in TV's vacuum -- whether strike or simply between seasons -- they will flourish.

The Net's challenge (and the studios) is to build off the Web's chatter. To use the high-frequency, low amplitude buzz as constructive interference. Not just try to create viral videos, but to build online experiences that will replace the traditional upfront buzz-building mechanism. Releasing television shows on TV year-round is one thing, but you're still pubbing slower than you could be online. So using the Web to seed the ideas -- pilots released on Yahoo and MySpace or on their own sites, shows that play online until they get enough buzz to jump ("Quarterlife"), etc. -- so that the networks always, always have something to tout -- that's the goal. Otherwise you're an anachronism that may as well publish a station ID tag for half the year.

I'm NOT arguing that TV is dead. Not by a long stretch. I'm simply saying that nothing builds allegiance more than frequency. Use the online frequency to your advantage.

Daily Links: Kojak Moment

• NBC jettisons "season" concept
  "There are many more opportunities to introduce programs to viewers over the course of a year than over the course of a few weeks in September." Also, .com plans to stream classic shows like A-Team, Kojak.
• American Idol on iTunes
  Performances by "Idol" semifinalists go on sale on iTunes this week for 99 cents per song
• Interview with Quarterlife creator Herskovitz
  "Because this is an online show we’re delivering episodes to NBC without ever showing them the script. That has literally never happened on TV."
  
• LA Times: Why filesharing isn't stealing
  Echoing an argument often made by our friend Mike over at Techdirt, i.e., something in unlimited supply (digital files) can't be stolen.
• Larry Lessig considering run for Congress
  Stanford professor and copyright expert has argued several copyright cases before the Supreme Court. Also wrote some kick ass books ("Code" being my fave), and would be the only congressman who knows the Intarnets are neither a series of tubes, nor a big truck.
• iTunes DRM-removal company DoubleTwist launches
  Founded by DVD Jon and backed by Euro VC money.

Michael Bay Blows Verizon Away

By Gretta Parkinson
First it was M. Night Shyamalan who engaged in a little self-parody via TV commercial for American Express last year. Not to be outdone, another A-list director is doing same: Michael Bay, in a new spot advertising Verizon FiOS and its superfast Internet speeds.

On the subject of Michael Bay, I'm most likely to sympathize with with Kyle from "South Park" who in episode 506 ("Cartmanland") said,"Michael Bay gets to keep making movies and Cartman gets his own theme park; there is no God."

But that was before "Transformers," and Bay's manipulative placement of my surrogate father, Optimus Prime, in the (almost) unforgivably mindless "Transformers." I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little choked up during the shot of the Autobots driving in on the freeway. But I digress.

The point is that in the Verizon spot Michael Bay lets us know that he knows exactly how ridiculous he is, which not only reaffirms my faith in the Divine, but also makes me laugh a little.

Daily Links: Pirate Baywatch

• Yahoo! filters Pirate Bay results
  But not Mininova or Isohunt.
• DailyMotion Offers HD
  Meh. I don't see HD vids drawing traffic away from YouTube. It's about critical mass, and the adoption curve for vid content on TVs. One more year at least before online vids are consumed in large quantities on sets. Speaking to that point...
• LA Times: Connecting the Net to your TV
  " For now, the capabilities are modest. Viewers can't surf the Web as they can on their computers..."
• BBC offers show on iTunes
  Stop gap until the launch of Project Kangaroo
• Marketer's Cheat Sheet to Viral Video
  Good tips, but I still say "let's make a viral video" is as dunderheaded as "let's make an Oscar winning movie".

Barackula

The latest electo-tainment vid lampooning slash celebrating (lampoon-a-brating?) the great white-ish hope, Barackula's a rock horror musical depicting a young Harvard Law School Obama, who must battle a secret society of vampires to save his immortal soul. Which is cool, in a shoulda-seen-that-coming, blaxpoitation-still-has-legs, wait-where's-Sam-Jackson kind of way. Which is probably a testament to a wacked out mediascape, in which self-de-suffragettes like Obama Girl are rump-tastical media darlings. If someone could please produce an Obama movie involving pirates (Bargh!ack, Matey?) -- or maybe a spoof novel, called The Audacity of a Third Book -- I think we'd have the allegorical bases covered.

Despite the glut of preceding Obama vids -- the aforementioned OG, Will.I.Am's Yes We Can -- Barackula acquits itself as the most well-produced and entertaining electo-tainment yet. It's a little tortured, allegory-wise, i.e., I get it, I get it, the jazz-handed vampires are undead political functionaries subsisting off the blood of innocent voters, and Barack has to convince them to change. And politically, it's translucent -- Obama? Fighting evil incarnate? And Democrats are more nuanced than Republicans how? There's the irony, right. In the left's rhetorical battle against GWB's zero-sum, you're-either-with-us-or-against-us eschatology, Obama's elevated into an action hero. Or maybe a prophet. Jesus Christ, YouTube Star.

Barackula also represents the zenith, thus far, of political coattail meme media. That's not a bad thing: Pick a public figure, mashup his/her image with an entertaining motif, viral success. (It's worth noting, though, that Barackula's available on its own site, not as a YouTube vid).

All in, Barackula's a schlock-filled, highly-entertaining vid. It's actually more of a pilot than anything, with one 5-minute vid completed and online, with more to come (though the producers say they don't have a set schedule yet). If there's time in the electoral cycle, the series'll likely get picked up. And won't that be a happy President's Day.

Barackula.com

What Yahoo Video Does Well, and Why it Doesn't Matter

Yahoo relaunched its video site this week. It's good. Really, really good actually, and superior to just about all of its competitors in terms of clean design, simple and intuitive nav, higher resolution vids, and bigger screens. Even the most mewl-happy noob could figure the site out. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter.

The first reason why is easy enough to suss: Yahoo has only 3% of the online vid market, way behind GooTube's 33%. Hard to have a party when all your friends are at someone else's house.

But the second, more subtle and interesting reason, may be that the vid-watching public has become so accustomed to YouTube's layout — which, honestly, is feeling more and more cluttered these days — that it’s becoming more difficult to acclimate one’s self to any new site.

Speaking just for myself, I spend so much time on YouTube that, while I can appreciate Yahoo’s new design, I still feel as awkward using it as when I’m, say, trying to navigate a friend’s unfamiliar TV cable channel guide.

Daily Links: We Named the Dog Indiana

• LiveUniverse Buys Revver for ~$5M
  Good site, good community, but failed because it could never attract a mainstream audience. The victim of YouTube's superior accessibility and looming shadow.
• Google tests video ads in search results
  And to think the search company once sported such a SPARTAAAN!! design.
• Yahoo relaunches Yahoo Video
  Bigger player, better resolution, trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Nobody Cares.
• World's longest list of sweded movies
  Rad.
• This Hillary4U&Me video makes me want to punch someone in the larnyx
  No more subsidies. We have enough corn.

Chad Hurley Dances to Britney Spears

There can be no greater collision of dweeb with douche than the YouTube party at Tenjune. I witnessed the revolting coupling accidentally (I swear) last night. And there I saw a be-scruffed Chad Hurley jiggy himself to the dulcet tones of Britney Spears.

Almost as awkward as that one time I went to the Google Dance and saw a group of teenage googlers grinding to a live cover band's version of "Right Here, Right Now". True story. Wish it wasn't.

Sadly, I have no photo to confirm that I saw Chad's knee knockery (I did) after attending the sooper sekret YouTube Videocracy event (I did not). But Deep Focus' Ian Schafer attended, and reports that YouTube plans to offer:

• Active sharing -- actually already available; turn it on and your username shows up next to videos you're watching, and a list of watched videos appears in your profile.
• Updated video editing tools
• Video recommendations (like Amazon's recs)
• Analytics tools for marketers, so they can see where traffic to their videos is coming from.

YouTube's the new Nielsen.

Daily Links: Tooly High Harmony

• YouTube to upgrade video editing tools, offer viewing recommendations
  Plus marketers are getting Analytics-esque tools to understand where a video's views are coming from.
• Crowd-sourced media needs top-down control, too
  Dumb writers, smart filters, no editors. Or: smart writers, dumb filters, no editors. Or:
  smart editors, smart filters, no writers. Or: ...
• Nielsen: Dudes like UGC, chicks like network TV
  Also, chicks have cooties.
• Hulu signs TimeWarner?
  Deal said to be nonexclusive.
• Vid startup Seesmic gets funding
  Called "The Twitter of Video" for the short snippets of video people record of themselves talking about minutiae.
• Where to watch the Oscar-nominated live action short films
  The what?

WayOutTV

By Gretta Parkinson

What's funnier: a cursing, drunken, toddling landlord? A sticky-fingered airport security guard? Or a leprechaun pimp?

The answer: I'm glad the writers' strike is finally over.

Damon Wayans ("In Living Color," "My Wife and Kids") is the next comedian hoping to cash in on Internet comedy with a new website, WayOutTV.com, that will feature videos produced by his favorite funny up-and-comers. Personally, I like the idea better when it was called FunnyOrDie.com.

Wayans plans to launch the site later this month, thereby joining the not-so-exclusive professional comedian website club which already boasts a membership including the likes of  Jeff Foxworthy (MyBlueCollar.com) and Harry Shearer (MyDamnChannel.com). He may be out of luck if he's vying for online revenue (right, WGA?) but with his years of sketch comedy experience, he might actually make people laugh. That is, if he can pull them away from their televisions.

iReport

A forum for amateur news auteurs (n'auters?), itchy fingers upon their camphones, the just-launched iReport.com (covered pre-launch here) marks CNN's effort to make good on the much-ballyhooed, rarely realized promise of crowd-sourced journalism. It's not a new idea -- remember Backfence? Bayosphere? Bueller? -- but one given new purchase by CNN's imprimatur, not immodest financial backing, and the chance that every citizen will have a vaguely pro sports-esque shot at instant infotainment stardom.

The innards: Wouldbe journos/everymen create an account (screen name and phone number, "quick contact info so your story can be considered for CNN"), upload up to 100Mb of photos or video, and then choose an assignment from the drop-down menu, e.g., "Salute to troops", "Middle East beauty", "Young People who Rock", or "Stories from Second Life". What, no assignment called "Ow, My Balls?"

Financially, iReport makes a great deal of sense. As the news industry balkanizes over the Web, the pressure for mainstream news to embrace 24/7 terror or titillation -- does that sound pretentious? Sorry, I'll rephrase: most of CNN's "news" pieces blow (hi Sanjay!) -- incorporating feeds from unpaid, Cloverfield-like witnesses provides high-margin filler, allowing CNN to hire more people to man the bicycle pump inflating Lou Dobbs.

But seriously. iReport has potential. After they work out the kinks -- like, say, removing 6-month old videos from the home page -- iReport will surely draw legions of young viewers who spend less time watching the news channel, and more time viewing Pipeline feeds and refreshing CNN.com. I have no doubt that the hippest j-schools are, even now, creating courses around iReport. Can there be any doubt that CNN's next doe-eyed, lip-glossed, plat-blonde'd newscaster is out there right now, eagerly uploading her campics?
iReport.com

Daily Links: Winsome Picket

• Writers vote to end strike
  "This now gives us a foothold in the digital age." Mixed metaphors aside, spoken in 2008, this somehow this reminds me of that Roseanne episode where the Conner family buys a VCR and Darlene says "Congratulations! We've just leaped into the '90s!"
• Video game crit vid series Zero Punctuation goes to G4
  Even if you hate video games, you must watch the episode lambasting Bioshock. "Yahtzee! You charismatic stallion!" [via]
• Streaming vid ad rev worth $6.6B by 2012
  That's not a little.
• Johnson and Johnson Web ads depart from TV formula
  Walking the razor's edge with animation.
• Collection of TV Signoffs
  As a famous, artificially biracial king of pop once crooned, "do you remember the time?" [via]

Daily Links: That's so Maven

• Yahoo confirms Maven acquisition
  Will host video for Y!'s media partners and incorporate Maven’s video-ad insertion technology.
• UK to ban file-sharers
  Bill similar to last year's anti-piracy efforts in France, would apply 3 strikes yer out rule via ISPs. [via]
• Nielsen to track TV viewing online
  Idea floated last year, to begin tracking by end of 2008.
• Memphis Grizzlies' Rudy Gay asks YouTubers for dunk inspiration
  If I performed in an itinerant dunking troupe, I'd call my act Slamson and Delilah. Just sayin.
• Stop sending me Wire spoilers!
  Slate's David Plotz is irked by YouTube clips purporting to reveal future eps of the HBO show.

90 Day Jane

An ego-romping record of an anonymous wouldbe suicide, this blog -- and its lone YouTube video -- posts daily, counting down to its author's zero hour. This is tech'd-out macabre, with comments. And widgets. And comment threads. Could be a hoax. Could be viral marketing. Could be an artist. But in the meantime, the video's drawn almost 28,000 views. Natch, it boasts an alluringly half-naked, mightly be-nippled, raven-haired hottie.

How very Hollywood. Like the latest dunderheaded tech-pocalypse, Untraceable, in which a net savvy bogeyman rigs a death machine to his site's traffic stats. The more people visit, the quicker his victim dies. Could we have the opposite here? The more people visit, the less likely Jane is to suck a tailpipe. Or however people kill themselves these days. By being anonymous, probs.

All too meticulous to me. The photo too pretty. The posts too confessional, too many office details that would tip off coworkers. And too clean. Real suicides are so much less elegant. A fiver says this is promo marketing for a new video series. Color me suckered. And annoyed.
90 Day Jane | YouTube Vid

Cookin' with Coolio

The latest in career denouements (rebirths?) given purchase via online video (hi David Hasselhoff, hi Ron Jeremy), this MyDamnChannel cooking course pimps the inestimable gastronomic skills of Artis Leon Ivey Jr., aka Coolio. Flanked by tits-tacular assistants and his obsequiously hee hawin'  cousin, Jarez, the artist formerly known as relevant drops 11 episodes worth of knowledge on kitchen-ography, with the first concerning how to cut tomatoes for Caprese Salad: "See I'm pretty good with this knife. And I'm pretty good with a sword, nunchakus, and a pistol. And my dick."
Cookin' With Coolio | Related: Ron Jeremy's Techsmart | Coolio signs with MyDamn Channel
 

NCAA March Madness Streams: No Blackouts, All Games Shown

In a move sure to depress productivity numbers even lower, The NCAA and CBS'll stream every tourney game online this year without blackouts. The decision marks a change from last year, when games were blacked out to protect local affiliates and partnerships, and is based on the idea that streaming numbers are additive to total viewership rather than cannabilistic. Well duh. If you're at work, you're not watching TV at home during the day anyway. And I doubt anyone at home with a TV will opt to watch on their 'puter instead. No updates on the NCAA's YouTube channel, which was very successful (highest viewed vid 700k+) despite a disabled embed setting. This year, the NCAA created a Facebook bracket competition. Top prize, $10,000. More info at paidcontent.

Links: Money or Die

• Strike end in sight
  New WGA terms are here. The proposed contract says content made for online vids should cost at least $15,000 per minute, $300,000 per program, or $500,000 per series.
• Netflix CEO: Consumers love buying set-top boxes
  In a WSJ interview, Hastings says consumers will buy set-tops if the content is compelling. As proof he cites the Wii, but that console offers a completely different value proposition. Smart man, bad analogy.
• The New Yorker's Naked Campaign
  Caricatures of caricatures. Illustrator Steve Brodner draws the presidential candidates and discusses the race for the White House.
• Aimee Mann's Christmas Trilogy
  Months-old mockumentary-style vids, recently reposted online, featuring Weird Al, Will Ferrell and Jon Krasinski looking quizzically into the lens (apparently searching for another talent beyond looking quizzically into the lens?). [via]
• Top Gun Sweded
  The most non-crappy film uploaded to Filmmaking Frenzy's sweded film contest. Worth your time. Seriously.
• YouTube decimates competition. Again.
  December was the highest vid-share traffic month ever, but at 33% share, Google's pretty much wrapped up the high-volume game.

Yahoo Live

Yahoo Live
Glomming off the popularity of Ustream.tv and Justin.tv, Y! Live's a live-streaming platform that launched Feb. 6 for all-comers and egoists. From the FAQs: "Do you find yourself particularly attractive? Do you lipsync in your bedroom and actually sound good? Are you a narcissist? If so, then this service is for you." Visitors are encouraged by prominent links and graphics to start their own channel, though there are less visible links that list popular and recently live channels as well. Though the site had a big post-launch traffic day when RealNetworks' CEO Rob Glaser streamed an Obama rally, Y! Live is (admittedly) a very beta product that does little to differentiate itself from its competitors. Until they find direction -- or hell, add a pause button to the streams -- Y! Live looks like just another example of Yahoo's severely attenuated focus.
Y! Live | Y! Live blog

5 Awesome Geeks

5 Awesome Geeks
A smarmily-composed troupe cam show, 5AG stars a quintet of teen dweebs gabbing about ... not much. What grabbed me was the format -- i.e., each cammer vlogs an assigned day -- which 5AG shares with its predecessor and inspiration, 5 Awesome Gays. Though 5 Awesome Geeks only has five episodes under its belt, and 5 Awesome Gays hasn't posted anything but an intro clip, as syndication gimmicks go, both series are worth a look.
5 Awesome Geeks | 5 Awesome Gays

In the Motherhood Back on MSN

By Gretta Parkinson
In case the prospect of parenthood doesn't scare you enough, some of Hollywood's loosest cannons are launching a second series of webisodes Feb. 13 on MSN titled In the Motherhood, an online community created by moms for moms. It's a place where moms can write and submit stories about their wacky adventures, read other mother's posts to feel better about their own ill-behaved children, or they can just watch the mini-sitcoms staged by the three actresses and a number of adorable underage extras.

Basically, it's an online destination for women who've run out of things to watch on their TiVos while their kids are napping. Jenny McCarthy, Chelsea Handler and Leah Remini do a pretty good job -- they even manage to get a little "edgy." Spoiler alert: hilarity ensues!

In Treatment: HBO Has Abandonment Issues

By Andrew Wallenstein

Though it's all too cool to bash HBO in the post-"Sopranos" era, I will do nothing of the sort regarding its new series "In Treatment," a thoroughly riveting drama set entirely in the office of a psychotherapist played by Gabriel Byrne. It took me a few weeks to find the time to sample the series, but now I may have to seek out an addiction specialist to get me to quit.

But as it turns out, you don't necessarily need a subscription to HBO to get hooked. The network has taken the unprecedented step of making the first 15 of the show's 45 episodes online, free to all. While strangely counter to the HBO on Broadband plan just announced last month, which applies a nice subscriber-only bear hug, I can't recall any TV network moving this far beyond the traditional premiere-episode sampler approach that is practically de rigeur for any new show (e.g., midseason NBC abomination "Lipstick Jungle" pilot on Yahoo).

So why is HBO suddenly giving away the milk for free given how notoriously protective the network is of its cash cow, the subscription business? Well, if you are a subscriber or not, "Treatment" is an acquired taste. Maximizing sampling opportunities is essential for getting viewers hooked on a very demanding series: It airs half-hour episodes five nights a week. Early ratings indications are not good, so HBO is going to do everything in its power to make sure this show isn't abandoned before its time.

As far as nonsubscribers go, imagine someone bingeing on 15 episodes of a show they grow to love, only to be cut off midway -- that's like cutting off a crack addict. Perhaps HBO is taking a bold step to incentivize new subscribers by giving them more than just a taste, but less than the whole store.

Don't be surprised if you see other networks start mimicking the multi-episode freebie approach.

P.S. Have you seen HBO's promotional microsite for the show, Heslistening.com? Freaky, but not quite deaky, trip into the synaptic pathways of the brain belonging to the show's shrink.

Online Vid Speed Dating Site WooMe gets $$$

I kinda think WooMe, which just got another round of funding, rocks hard, if only because it solves the problem of regular online dating (which requires so much tedious profile-filling that it leaves you too tired for one-night stands). Though there's always CrazyBlindDate for the inveterate lazy-monger. But I kinda sorta think WooMe would be a perfect partner for MySpace Roommates. Have the hotties burn through a bunch of dudes, pick the ones they like, those guys appear on the show. No ma'm, I have zero moral qualms about denigrating the show while also suggesting ways to sleep with its actresses.

We Need Girlfriends

The N.Y. Times profiles "We Need Girlfriends", a sometimes cloying, sometimes hilarious Queens-based Web series that THR reported was acquired by CBS back in November. Maybe this was the Times' anti-Fashion Week piece? Anti-MySpace Roommates piece? Whatever the reason for the piece today, it's a good backstory. I look forward to the as-yet-unannounced Wall Street dickhead spin-off, "We Need Personalities."

MySpace launches Roommates Part Deux

The tits-tacular MySpace series, "Roommates", a barely disguised version of "We Live Together", is returning for a second season. Original sponsor Ford is back, along with new sponsor Freshlook Color Contacts. The first season garnered over six million views, according to MySpace. New episodes appear MWF at 4 p.m. ET. My review of the first season, in which I was obviously retarded and wondered aloud whether guys would watch a show about hot girls (6 million hormones can't be wrong?), is here.

'Yes We Can' Sets Obama to Music

An endorsement from a celebrity is a cursed thing, with the Hollywood imprimatur typically undermined by insinuations that the star's acting more from a sense of self-importance, the idea that his or her twinkly visage can sell more than just Wheaties. It's a career move.

I don't get that vibe from the recent "Yes We Can" vid, a multiceleb song with lyrics matching excerpts from Obama speeches, and produced by the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am. I don't often think art and politics mix -- at least not in service of a politician -- but "Yes We Can" is a well-produced, artful production, an almost poignant counterpoint to both retardogram Bushisms and the rumpshaking puffery of Obama Girl.

Andy's .02: Agreed that this is a more artful take on celebrity political endorsements. Particularly like John Legend's vocals. And I'm at least 10% more likely to vote for Obama now that I know Nick Cannon has thrown his support behind the candidate.

But have we considered what happens if "Yes We Can" catches on? Will Hillary Clinton do a virtual duet with Melissa Etheridge? They've got the same vocal timbre, right? John McCain and System of a Down? Mitt Romney/Bjork??

I'm Getting Tired of Staged Viral Videos

I go back and forth between lauding staged virality as the ascendence of culture jamming's ethos, or the denouement of factual discourse. Neither's true, and I overreact. Really, I just get tired of having my expectations dashed.

The clues to faux-hood are usually pretty easy to suss: The obvious elision of defining landmarks or data (like the bird poop vid, sans definitive station logo), tight camera angles that obscure telling details, lack of back chatter on industry message boards (back to the bird poop, the affected station would've been called out by other stations), etc.

It's tempting to label staged videos as just another form of fiction, and one finely tuned to the unique quandaries of our surveillance-happy (and online vid happy) times. I think there's truth in that. But I also think there's laziness there, too. To wit: that fleeting mustard burp of virality, Pauly Shore punched, which was fake. He basically fooled everyone into looking his way (though, to be fair, he did the same with "Encino Man." And "Biodome."). Without the fakery, no one would've cared.

Or take the vid Bride Wig Out. Great vid, highly entertaining. I'm a little more sympathetic to it because the editors behind the vid created a new work that smartly exploited a cultural assumption, i.e., weddings drive some women-folk nuts. And yet all that video turned out to be was advertising for a women's marketing company. It's like watching the Blair Witch Project and learning the witch is Snickers. Or getting a secret decoder ring only to find the secret message is "Drink your Ovaltine."

TV Without Pity Does, Um, TV

By Andrew Wallenstein

Have been waiting for some kind of upgrade over at TelevisionWithoutPity.com since NBC Universal's Bravo purchased the site last year. That has come in the form of "The Week Without Pity," a weekly Web video series that looks back on the week in television. Given there's maybe, oh, four TV shows on right now in original episodes due to the strike, this probably isn't the best time for a program like this, but what can you do? Bravo hands you a check, and you can't just subsist on written summaries of every episode of watercooler TV shows like "American Idol" and "House."

So what does TWOP do? They migrate their special blend of snark and more snark into videos that I hesitate to call videos because "Week" is really more a slide show of stills set to a voiceover cracking wise about what's hot (not much) on TV right now. Foolish me expecting we'd see actual full-motion excerpts from TV shows in a Web series about TV.

Movie Piracy: Shrinking DVD Windows, Not Academy Screeners to Blame

The shrinking time window between movie and DVD release -- not Academ screeners or online video -- is responsible for film piracy, according to entrepreneur Andy Baio's annual report.

This year Baio, who's been tracking film piracy since 2004 (and who's startup Upcoming.org was acquired by Yahoo a few years back), concluded that Region 5 DVD transfers from overseas -- those DVDs shipped abroad to coincide with the film's release -- are likely the main source of pirated films, as opposed to watermarked screeners. Among his wealth of data:

• all but six of the 34 nominated films were available in DVD quality by the last week of January
• the DVD release window has shrunk from an average of about four months to about three months over the last few years

More info and downloadable Excel/Google Spreadsheets files here.

Independent Comedy Network to Launch Five Original Series

Independent Comedy Network, an online vid site founded by Upright Citizens Brigade alum Marc Campbell w/ an assist from a former JP Morgan'er, announced its first five (of 40) original online series:  2/8 Life, Warthog, Inappropriate Workplace, Annals, and Plea Bargain Advertising. No vids up yet besides the trailer, but if that's any indication, the shows will be chuckle-worthy. More info on the site's funding here.

Of the five announced series, three are set in workplace environments, making me wonder if The Office casts too large a shadow on comedy writing. Is situational workplace comedy the new family sitcom? That...depresses me.

National Geographic Pulls a YouTube

By Andrew Wallenstein
I was curious to see how the National Geographic Channel would make the transition to short-form video this week in its newly launched site, NGCvideos.com. There's something compelling about watching a classic, dare I say stodgy brand reinvent itself on a new platform. And though I associate Nat Geo with musty magazines collecting cobwebs in my grandparents' attic, there is also something quite relevant about the brand in comparison with YouTube: Both are about striking visuals that leave your mouth agape. Just check out the Nat Geo video above featuring "cow jumping."

What's smart about what the channel is doing here is that this site is not primarily a promotional platform relentlessly marketing its TV presence; yes, there's some of it, but it is mostly a source of 1,000 different short-form videos culled from Nat Geo's library, from the surface of the moon to the savannahs of Africa. Leave it to a company that has chronicled the survival of the fittest in the wild to skillfully adapt to the Internet jungle.

Greatest American Hero Returns

By Andrew Wallenstein
Believe it or not, as its theme song once drilled into our heads, the 1980s ABC series "Greatest American Hero" is coming back via the Internet. Entrepreneur Caesar Collazo is bringing it back in the form of webisodes beginning July 4, and get this: a woman, Kimmy McKinley (above) will now be in the role originated by William Katt (though who could tell the difference given his shiny blonde curls).

Personally, I would have preferred a "Manimal" revival.

Super Bowl Ads Go Overtime Online

By Andrew Wallenstein

Maybe I ask too much of Madison Avenue, but I went into this Super Bowl expecting to see new creative heights being hit by this year's ads. After all, with viewers now trained to expect the advertising experience to continue online, surely marketers understood that the big game was just the first window in which their spots would be seen; and if you don't believe me, ask Comscore.

So I figured we'd see ads this year that really took into account the potential for viral afterlife. Something that made you just have to go online for repeat viewing or to pass along to a friend. But, no, it was the same collection of instantly forgettable mind mush...nothing funny or visually memorable enough to merit online viewing. It would stand to reason that considering it cost $2.7 million to get 30 seconds of airtime, a marketer might want to cobble together something that could live on just a little longer.

If by chance you missed the big game, AOL Sports has a nifty area where you can see all the ads you missed. Not that you missed much.

Steve's .02: I would add that the frequency and success of online vids makes the Super Bowl's own vaunted snack-size ads less compelling.

Stats about the game's effects on online traffic are mixed. Akamai reports that Super Bowl advertisers' web sites saw no dramatic increase in traffic, as opposed to years previous. Meanwhile, according to Google Tren