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« February 2008 | Main | April 2008 »
Tennis ubermensch Andy Roddick's engaged to marry Sports Illustrated swimsuit hottie Brooklyn Decker, who -- besides being absurdly hot -- also happens to be the co-star of 'She Says, Z Says', an SI vid series in which gray-tufted football writer Paul Zimmerman makes his weekly NFL picks. All the series vids are on YouTube -- each with only a few hundred views -- and embedding's been disabled. Here's episode one.
From abstinence nut to desperate slut? Justine Bateman, nee Mallory on Family Ties (and former PSA anti-sex troubadour) will be starring in a multi-episode arc in the upcoming season of "Desperate Housewives". Goodie. YouTube has a bevy of Batemen vids from years past -- including interviews with brother Justin and Rock the Vote commercials -- that charm in that oh-remember-when-celebs-were-moral-guardians kind of way. Huzzah.
Peter Safran, eponymous head of Safran Co., has signed up with Microsoft to produce several short form scripted shows for the latter's Xbox console. The first of the new shows debut this fall.
Microsoft just returned my Xbox, after I shipped it in for repairs when it started flashing the red ring of death. Despite being a pretty intense gamer, I've never rented any type of video on the platform. Something about having to purchase Microsoft Points strikes me as highly obnoxious. For now I'm sticking with Netflix, but here's a comparison chart between Xbox, Netflix and Apple TV for those interested.
Among the many maxims of received wisdom online -- caps lock is rude, Robert Scoble can pass the Turing test -- perhaps none is so oft-repeated as this: YouTube commenters are teh stoopid.
For the most recent apparent evidence, look no further than the site That's a Spicy Meatball, where the proprietor has created a side-by-side comparison of comments left below posts on popular old school community site Metafilter and below videos on YouTube. Check it yourself, but it almost goes without saying that Metafilter comments evidence a good amount of critical analysis skills/ironic appreciation, whereas YouTube comments evidence nothing more than basic emotion: rage, praise, and spam (spam: another word for greed).
Sign of the apocalypse? Proof that online discourse is devolving? Hardly. Rather, the simple fact is that YouTube and Metafilter have completely different content and, with that content, different audiences. While comparing the sites' comments evidences the difference in quality of engagement among social-media platforms, it does nothing to demonstrate that the quality of discourse online has devolved as a whole. Here's why:
Metafilter and YouTube have different types of content.
As I write, the front page of Metafilter contains the following: Analysis of Japan's nuclear industry, a link to a NYTimes profile of MAD cartoonist Al Jaffe, a video of a monkey on a bike, and a link to a collection of digital sprite artwork. YouTube's most viewed vids today page: Black Rabbit Vibrator, Obama!!! (exactly 0 seconds long), something called I'm Out of Toilet Paper!, and a LisaNova vid with a thumbnail of boobs. You'd hardly expect the latter to galvanize hyper-literate discussions.
Metafilter and YouTube have different types of users
Metafilter attracts digerati. Its demographic is like a small set of venn diagrams overlapping relatively rarefied aspects of the arts, current events, and politics. YouTube attracts everyone, from all different walks of life.
I have no idea what the politics behind the comparison site are: whether the creator wanted to prove that YouTubers were dumb, or that MetaFilter was a superior online agora. But by making such an imbalanced comparison, he/she has only demonstrated what everyone already knew, i.e, the sites simply speak to different constituencies.
Wanna learn something: A better project would have been a comparison between comments on Metafilter and a site like Big Think.
By Andrew Wallenstein
It all started with a seemingly innocuous talk-show appearance by actor Ryan Phillippe on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on March 20. Then it snowballed into the kind of backlash that gives publicists acid reflux. A bizarre, offhand remark by Leno to Phillippe, directing him to give the camera "his gayest look" during a broadcast has spurred the creation of My Gayest Look, a protest site of sorts in which various offended parties pose for pictures in which they flip the bird and make other obscene gestures.
After watching the footage, I can't say I see what the hubbub is about. Yes, Leno's comment was ridiculous, but it seemed less like a burst of latent homophobia and more like a weird echo of their earlier conversation, which centered on a homoerotic commercial Phillippe filmed when he was 19. Michael Richards, this isn't.
"Sports Illustrated" recently opened its vault of archival material, which includes cover images, articles, photo galleries and a good deal of video, e.g., this timeless paragon of true fandom, the dancing fat dude.
While notable for its freely available media, SI Vault offers a rough user experience. Videos, when selected, open in new tabs (or windows, depending on your settings), and summarily resize your browser. Each clip, many of which are no more than a few seconds long, is preceded by both a pop-out ad and a preroll ad. Viewing more than one video in a row requires a great deal of patience. And finally, the clips don't all use the same playback technology, which means from time to time you'll run across something like this and be asked to download a plugin.
Great idea to open the vault, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
Continue reading "'Sports Illustrated' opens vault, videos" »
(Illustration from Jackassworld.com)
By Andrew Wallenstein
When MTV's "Jackass" franchise made the move this year from movies and TV to the Internet, fans of its patented blend of comic sadomasochism had reason to rejoice. Surely JackassWorld.com would allow these gross-out artists to push even further beyond the boundaries of good taste in a medium with few content restrictions.
So who could have foreseen "Jackass" would be upstaged online, and by one of its own people?
By Gretta Parkinson
It's no secret that the best place to find clueless, sometimes creepy, mostly sweet but painfully shy and somewhat oblivious geeks, freaks and losers is online. That's why VH1 is teaming up with the world wide interweb to cast the second season of last year's "The Pick-up Artist," starring Mystery (pictured above), some wingmen and an army of dudes whose ultimate dream -- talking to women -- is also their worst nightmare.
VH1 launched its 10-week online casting competition for "The Pick-up Artist 2" this week, enabling charm-challenged wannabe studs to prove just how badly they need help. After three rounds based on Mystery's "how-to" techniques, online users will choose a winner from the hosts of "friend-zone" guys, "token old" guys and "you're not gay?" guys to be one of the show's eight cast members.
Once they're cast, contestants will participate in a grueling, eight-week boot camp, which, unfortunately for them, doesn't include building a house of cards or swimming with your shirt on. If all goes according to plan, they'll re-emerge as lady-killing lotharios, the most improved winning the title of "Master Pick-up Artist" and a $50,000 prize. And at the very least, they'll have learned to make some good conversation (and hopefully, some eye contact) with members of the opposite sex.
In an Ishtar-esque display of WTF, CNN announced this week the debut of a new Saturday morning comedy news program in which anchors will remind viewers via tepid puns why they should change the channel.
The 30-minute "Not Just Another Cable News Show" will air Saturdays at 7 p.m. ET and repeated twice later in the evening. It will be followed each time by News to Me, a series on popular Web videos.
One can only hope that, as with Fox's ill-fated "1/2 Hour News Hour," clips from the show will be leaked online, thus providing the Web with another cathartic moment of collective bershon.
Judging from the smattering of similarly oriented media lately -- Fox, followed by the HuffPo's 236.com, followed byCNN -- there's apparently a consensus among news orgs that their competitive position in the news marketplace is enhanced via homegrown comedy. I'm sure that judgment is based on sound data, data which probably says a large portion of their audience watches (and learns more from) shows like "The Daily Show." Thus, the ideation "we need to do comedy news too".
But that's misunderstanding both the problem and the solution. The problem is that news orgs like CNN -- despite their vaunted budgets and global scope -- are vested less in news and more in infotainment. To suggest that adding more entertainment to that mix will win back viewers who are looking for news is bunk. The solution, obviously, isn't to compete with comedy news but to do better journalism -- an idea which is unfortunately akin to saying "let's make less money". Thus it always has been, and always will be.
Just so you know why nobody's returning your emails: The total number of streams during the first round of the NCAA tourney surpassed the total number of views for the entire 2007 tournament, CBS announced at the end of last week. CBS credits dropping registration requirements (duh) and implementing social tools, e.g., Facebook groups. More data on hollywoodreporter.com.
Following through with their November announcement, MTV has released all twelve seasons worth of full South Park episodes online. When the plan was announced last year, 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." In other news, duh.
Episodes play in a pop-up window, and are preceded by a 15-second commercial (currently for Toyota). Each show has two additional 15-sec commercials (also by Toyota) interspersed throughout the clip. Vids are of moderate quality, but load times are negligible, and the player can be pushed full screen. As with ABC's online experience, the vid player offers a theater mode in which the non video screen real estate is dimmed.
Delta Airlines is racking up view counts for its new flight safety instruction video, which stars a redheaded actress named Katherine Lee -- and dubbed Deltalina by Flyertalk forum geeks -- who bears some small resemblance to Angelina Jolie.
Forcing an unflappable smile and prone to exaggerated body language -- e.g., a flirtatious finger wag slightly evocative of Robert Patrick's T-1000 -- Deltalina chats up flight safety while her more aesthetically challenged coworkers (hi fat dude) demonstrate seatbelts and floating devices.
Related: Virgina America's equally-entertaining, though sadly babe-less, in-flight safety video.
YouTube announced the winners of its second annual video awards today, with many of last year's most well-know vids -- e.g., "Chocolate Rain," "Human Tetri"s -- taking home awards. Winning in the Series category was "The Guild," which has been recognized several times lately, including at SXSW and for the Yahoo Video Awards. Also racking up a win in the Commentary category: Michael Buck, for "The What the Buck Show."
Here's the full list, and the winners from last year's awards, too.
And if you haven't had enough already of "Chocolate Rain" and the YouTube Video Awards, check our T.L. Stanley's take on the event in sister blog Gold Rush.By Gretta Parkinson
It's true what they say. You never really know what your mother went through until you're a mother yourself. But what about those less fortunate bearers of the Y chromosome who won't ever get that specific opportunity? How about a "Mom Simulator"?
It's a video teaser brought to you by the clever people behind "America's Favorite Mom," a multimedia contest presented by Teleflora that culminates in a primetime special on NBC scheduled on Mother's Day. Featuring three Apatow-ian slacker-types hooked to machinery that allows them to feel the joys of "baby's first steps," "breast-feeding" and "birth," this promo successfully capture that unique brand of crazy that could only be found in moms ... until now.
Early online vid pioneer and perpetual litigant Veoh isn't seeing good performance on its TV show offerings.
According to CEO Steve Mitgang, network content only accounts for 15% of the site's traffic. More popular: User-generated content and made-for-web episodic content. Veoh has a smattering of content partnerships, the largest being with CBS. Veoh also pulls content from Hulu, though the company's have no official business relationship.
I suspect that Veoh's low TV episode traffic has something to do with the site's confusing value proposition. Veoh seems to have tried every approach to the market, beginning with hosting porn, trying to encourage UGC uploads and networking (they have a partnership with UTA), and most recently hosting network content. But Veoh isn't a leader in any of these verticals, and have been overshadowed by more successful brands, e.g., YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe and Dailymotion.
Really vain? Bored at work? Really vain? Check out the preview of 3D VideoStar, a new face-mapping technology from avatar creation co. Oddcast, which lets you superimpose your face onto a movie star's mug.
The technology hasn't been released yet, but there are demos on site that show subjects' faces being mapped into Sweeney Todd, Indiana Jones, and a Konami videogame. The effect varies in efficacy, and works best --like all special effects -- when the camera doesn't linger. Very Vanilla Sky.
The latest venture from serial entrepreneur and online vid evangelist Jeff Pulver, PrimeTimeRewind aggregates online video feeds from the major television networks and presents them as choices on a rotating 3D cube -- like the Rubik's toy, and just as impossible to solve.
Using their mouse or keyboard controls, viewers rotate the cube horizontally to choose one of the six networks (Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, USA, and TNT) and vertically to choose among four genres (action, comedy, reality, and drama). And there's the first problem. A "cube" with 10 facets is not a cube. It's an Escher-like impossibility.
Once you've selected a show to watch, the cube gives you the choice of watching the vid, in which case you're taken to a second page where the latest video from that series plays. On the side of the screen, PrimeTimeRewind lets users post comments and rate each show.
PrimeTimeRewind's in alpha right now, so hopefully Pulver and crew will abandon the cube metaphor. But even looking past the bad UI, one has to wonder what the business model here is. Advertising? Around embeds of network content? Seems shaky at best, and completely at the mercy of the networks' decisions on how to publish their content.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Sci Fi Channel's loss is SciFi.com's gain. News out of the upfront presentation Tuesday: "Starcrossed," which the network announced back in January was being developed as a half-hour comedy, is now being turned into an original Web series for the brand's dot-com. Makes sense when you consider that its creator and star, David Hewlett (pictured) of "Stargate SG-1," has a pretty rabid fan base online; MGM debuted his independent film "A Dog's Breakfast" on iTunes for that same reason. This is Hewlett's blog for the movie.
To be released in the winter, "Starcrossed" is said to be a "Larry Sanders Show"-ish look at an actor starring on a fictional sci-fi show. "Galaxy Quest" fans rejoice.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Come on, Paramount Pictures. Was it really worth it to skimp on paying Mike Myers' just a little extra to participate in the new online promotion that started this week for the June 20 release of "The Love Guru?" For a series of comic insights delivered by the title character -- they call them "sutras," natch -- Paramount didn't get Myers to reprise the role. Instead, they pulled a Conan O'Brien and superimposed another actor's mouth over an image of the Love Guru (whose name is Pitka). Lame. And after watching the first sutra, here's some advice: Brevity is the soul of wit. 3:35 might seem like a pittance to you movie folk, but online it's practically a miniseries.
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall," the latest movie from the guys behind "Knocked Up," is the subject of a poorly conceived viral blog and video campaign. The latest video, released yesterday and showing leading man Jason Segel talking to a handicam about vampires, has about 822 views.
I'm not sure I understand the objective of this campaign. Why amateurize the blog by placing it on Blogspot, but then put Segel's highly recognizable mug all over the place? And why pimp the blog like it's the work of a disgruntled auteur, but then write copy on it that says "click here to see why "Sarah Marshall" really sucks -- but only if you're over 18!" My ability to suspend belief does not extend to MPAA ratings disclaimers.
The problem here is that the blog's purpose is to embellish on the plot, but all it really does is reveal the movie's marketing artifice.
Hate to see this happen to Segel, who should've received every high five ever for the Slapsgiving episode of "How I Met Your Mother."
"If you have a slower modem, you will not be able to enjoy the growing multimedia aspects of the Internet, such as graphics, sound and video." -- from Internet Power!, 1995.
Entrepreneur and geek archivist Andy Baio digi-transcribes a few pre-Internet Archive VHS tapes about the entertainment possibilities of the early dub dub dub, circa 1995 -- a year you better not remember as the time when Ross owned a monkey named Marcel. Making an appearance: Windows 3.1, the AOL 2.0(?) homepage, and tapered jeans. For more (not necessarily entertainment-related) nostalgia, hit up Rex's history of Wired magazine, and founding editor Louis Rossetto's response.
By Gretta Parkinson
Would that the good Lord might have given me some artistic abilities. Then I might have a prayer at competing against rabid Radiohead fans for a chance to produce an animated music video for one of the songs from their latest album, "In Rainbows."
Multiplatform animation network Aniboom is offering talented people that chance, provided they can come up with a storyboard, or sketches, or maybe even something more complicated to impress the band. Between now and April 27, animators can submit their entries to a panel made up of people from Aniboom, TBD Records and Adult Swim, which will select 10 semifinalists to produce a one-minute animated video on a $1,000 budget. Fans get the chance to rank the videos and vote for their favorites on aniboom.com and MySpace, but ultimately the members of Radiohead, including Thom Yorke and that crazy eye of his, will give the creators of their favorite video $10,000 for a shot at the real deal ... a world premiere on Adult Swim! Granted, that means a handful of "Space Ghost" fans, but still! That's TV!
Could this be another ploy by Radiohead to cement their status as the coolest band ever? Probably. But they pretty much already did that last year with their decision to offer their seventh album DRM-free digital--allowing fans to pay whatever they felt like paying.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Gotta hand it to CBS Interactive -- they understand the value of good timing. CBS Corp.'s digital division has been talking up a storm as of late -- Monday's OMMA Global Hollywood event featured a keynote from chief marketing officer Patrick Keane, and CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith held a press conference last week with his team in Los Angeles. What better time to raise your visibility with tip-off for March Madness on Thursday, which will quite likely set records for online video viewership. Here's more details from THR's Paul Gough on CBS's full-court press.
One of the interesting takeaways from CBS came from Keane, who took Nielsen to task for not giving a full picture of the audience that sees its TV shows on both living-room sets and online. "Jericho," for example, may have premiered in the midseason at a 4.2 rating, but it adds a not-insignificant full rating point when various online windows for the show are tallied up.
"We want Nielsen to have a cumulative audience," Keane said. "They're not measuring what is the total opportunity."
Fair enough. But it will be interesting to see whether this full rating point matters much as CBS deliberates over whether to actually bring back the series for another season. As THR's James Hibberd spells out in his recent column, "Jericho" could use all the help it can get.
The latest vid series from AOL's newly acquired third-place social net Bebo, Sofia's Diary -- originally a Portuguese mobile show from 2004 -- is a new, interactive teen soap-o-drama co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Campbell Ryan.
The deets: 17-year-old Sofia, having caught her boyfriend smooching another gal, "blows up" the chemistry lab and is shipped by mom to London to live with dad, his wife, and their toddler son. Sofia consequently has a new school/new friends/new job, and she huffs herself between them powered by the limitless internal combustion flames of teen aggravation, her only expression a woe-is-me bershon.
"Diary" -- like Bebo series "Kate Modern," and the YouTube phenom lonelygirl15 which inspired them both -- works via fan interaction. When an episode's posted, a viewer poll asks multiple choice questions to determine what direction the show'll go next. I've only seen rough cuts of episodes one and four, which may suggest that the producers established set waypoints to guide the main action, and left the intervals up to choose your adventure-type choice.
Unlike its interactive reality show predecessors, "Diary" isn't filmed via handcam. The action's steady and shot prettily, and even when Sofia looks directly at the viewer and talks to the video recorder in her room, the film quality doesn't change. That's an interesting departure from form, suggesting that viewers have become accustomed enough to being spoken to / included in the action (to being the 4th wall, or to the 4th wall no existing) that they no longer need visual cues, e.g., the fish-eye lensing of a webcam.
Sofia's Diary | originally based on a Portuguese mobile show from 2004 | More on Bebo's tie-ups with Sony, Endemol
By Andrew Wallenstein
The Internet gods definitely dig Felicia Day, creator and star of online series "The Guild." Things started nicely in Austin, Tex., where she won for best original digital series at the SXSW/On Network Greenlight Series Awards. In the following days, she has picked up nominations in similar categories at the Yahoo Video Awards and the YouTube Video Awards.
In the modestly budgeted world of online video, that's like being honored by the Oscars, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild in one week! Coming out of nowhere to such fevered heights of awards glory, one is tempted to draw comparison to Marion Cotillard, the French actress who won every piece of hardware in sight this year for her star turn in "La Vie en Rose." But Day has an intelligence and pluck that reminds me of another awards-friendly actress-writer, Tina Fey. And what the hell, throw in a little Claire Danes circa "My So-Called Life" given the reddish hair dye and ghostly pallor.
Said pallor feels right for her role in "Guild" as ringleader to a circle of sarcastic MMORPG-addicted shut-ins. After seven episodes of watching them crack wise via voice chat, you might get addicted, too.
Bro Search - Watch more free videos
By Gretta Parkinson
What's a guy to do when he bangs his best friend's wife in a drunken stupor? Why, find a new best friend, of course! But only after six months of kicking his own ass, because that crap is messed up.
In case you've been wondering what Dax Shepard has been doing since "Let's Go to Prison," this is it. Well, not really. But Break Media has signed on to launch a new Web series featuring the "Punk'd" star as attorney Chuck Geiger, creator of Bro Search, a kind of eharmony.com that helps "dudes find other dudes to do cool [stuff] with and bro out."
As good as it is to see Dax in something other than "The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show," his appearance in an online series begs the question, why? The online shorts medium has so far been a great way for A-listers to prove their comedy cred (Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, everyone on funnyordie.com) but thanks to Ashton Kutcher and "Idiocracy," we already know Shepard can deliver the laughs. Maybe it's his way of saying sorry for "Employee of the Month." Which he should. Because that's 103-Jessica-Simpson-and-Dane-Cook-filled minutes of my life that I'll never get back.
Here's the full review on HollywoodReporter.com, published yesterday, and pasted below:
NEW YORK -- Here's a prediction: After watching a three-minute episode of CBS' new daily online show "MobLogic" -- the curtly bedazzling intro montage, the expertly concise man-on-the-street soundbites, the coquettish deadpan of host Lindsay Campbell -- you'll narrow your eyes, furrow your brow, and think, "Wait a minute: That was by the Tiffany network?"
True. With "MobLogic," the second show from the guys behind the financial-minded video blog "Wallstrip" (acquired last year by CBS for $4 million), CBS Interactive has delivered a visually compelling news and entertainment show with nary a trace of overproduction. Delivered daily via a bounty of Web media (iTunes downloads, YouTube embeds, HD podcasts, etc.), "MobLogic's" m.o. is mostly mob logic, i.e., man-on-the-street interviews. Host Campbell, also nee "Wallstrip," chats up midtown passers-by about a single daily news topic. She invokes, they emote.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Score one for DRM-free distribution given the news this week that Comedy Central is re-developing "Gay Robot," a project from Sony Pictures Television and Adam Sandler's Happy Madison production company. After the cable network rejected it in 2005, Sony dumped it on Bittorrent in order to gin up interest. Strangely enough, it came back in the form of animated series, which really twirls my knobs because if you're going to do a show about a gay robot, I want the real thing! But since dreams never die online, take another peek above at the original live-action "Robot" still kicking around on MySpace.
Oldie but goodie: Slut-O-Meter, a site that "evaluates the promiscuity of the subject you enter by comparing the number of Google search results with and without "safe-search" enabled." (Google vid explaining the original concept here). Given the salacious details about the now-former NY guv's V-Day romp -- hint: he bangs hookers -- I thought I'd run his name through the meter. Turns out he's a squeaky clean -10%. Why the negative number?
If you're wondering why some subjects have a negative promiscuity, well, you're not alone. In general, this happens when the number of safe results is greater than the number of unsafe results (or if there are no unsafe results whatsoever). We're not quite sure why this is the case, but we believe that Google is not telling us the truth.
So Google must be banging hookers, too?
Other folks at top of mind:
Damn I'm virtuous. Or this thing's broken. Also: Steve Buscemi's a man whore.
By Gretta Parkinson
It's like "Reading Rainbow" meets "Faerie Tale Theatre," only instead of being inspired by a soft-spoken Shelley Duvall, it's the warped brainchild of someone more like Tony Montana.
My Damn Channel's "Bedtime Stories" is just one of the new Web series to be featured on the comedy site in its new partnership with independent video sharing destination, Dailymotion, which premieres its debut episode, "Goldilocks," this week.
This isn't your grandmother's "Goldilocks and The Three Little Bears." These animated shorts tell "spiced up" versions of classic children's tales, including strung out woodland creatures, 9mms and the phrase "no live witnesses." Which is awesome! Exactly what this all too innocent and peaceful young generation of Web users needs to see. And it's funny. Like "South Park" without all the pesky plot development and with better animation.
In addition to "Bedtime," Dailymotion will play host to a number of twisted comedy and music videos from My Damn Channel's comedy veterans, including "Horrible People" written and directed by A.D. Miles ("Wet Hot American Summer"), "Cookin' With Coolio," and "Wainy Days," a totally fictional documentation of comedian David Wain's ("The State," "Reno 911") lovelife. And with other My Damn Channel contributors like Harry Shearer and Andy Milonakis, who needs a TV? Wait ... Andy Milonakis? Maybe we won't unplug that cable just yet.
Czech painter Jeremiah Palecek recreates iconic viral vid images from the last few years -- dramatic chipmunk (above), Tom Cruise Scientology, Diet Coke and Mentos -- and recently asked YouTubers to suggest topics for him to paint. His YouTube account name: PotheadPundit. God bless you, sir.
The second offering from Eisner-helmed online media studio Vuguru, and the second series from the guys behind acclaimed vid series "The Burg", "The All for Nots" is the mockumentary-style tale of a Brooklyn band struggling with touring, girlfriends, and groupies.
The first episode (chopped into parts 1a, b, and c) introduces the band members: An oblivious pretty boy frontman, a brooding bassist, a shy female drummer, and a geeked out keyboardist, the latter wearing that familiar anti-MySpace tee "Tom is NOT my friend" (the band members all have profiles on Bebo, a choice that's the ironically rebellious equivalent of not being a joiner). We're also intro'd to a braying blonde groupie and a critical bassist from a band called Sea Monkey Do. Could the self-deprecating humor be. Any. More. Obvious.
Though proffering a derivative brand of "Spinal Tap"-like faux-reality humor -- awkward glances at the camera, hyperbolically flawed characters, pregnant silences -- the just-launched series is commendable for its achingly self-conscious hipster patois, e.g., episode 1C's critic: "They're not punk. They're not even rock. They're just suck. Balls for suck! No, wait, that's not it."
Compared to Vuguru's first series, "Prom Queen," the meta-twee is a little more involved -- the band was "discovered" by a real-world indie rock critic (who also cameo'd in episode 2) and they're a "real" band that's touring the states. It's a good gimmick, an accolade which pretty much sums up the rest of the show, too.
"The All for Nots" | Vuguru
Vid site Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Uni, is now open to the public. Announced almost exactly one year ago -- and in private beta for the last few months -- the platform offers access to full-length movies and TV episodes with limited commercials and a variety of access options via Hulu itself, distro partners like Yahoo, and via embeds. When originally announced, the site was almost universally derided site unseen as a clumsy attempt by two lumbering congloms to compete with YouTube. But since its beta debut, Hulu has only impressed with a rich variety of features, beautiful vid streams, and a generous sharing and distribution scheme.
When I wrote my first impressions on the service back in October, I was still preoccupied with Hulu's competitive position vis-a-vis YouTube. Since YouTube has been the gold standard in online video -- since it was such a radical and accessible departure from traditional experience -- there's a tendency to consider it THE WAY to distribute video. But that's overlooking the multiple ways viewers consume video, and how preferences change as options expand.
Competition among platforms is a multivalent thing, encompassing content, distribution/accessibility, design and positioning. The latter's the tricky one.
Where once YouTube was a prime destination for all types of video -- full TV episodes, short clips, movies broken into ten part chunks, etc -- these days I see it best used as a short form device. Short, unassociated clips consumed in rapid succession. Like Tic Tacs. Or Twitter. YouTube, to me, is the Twitter of video. It's the status update of the world, delivered through vids that go viral, uploaded clips from "The Daily Show," Olberman's rants, Smosh vids, product debuts, and thousands and thousands of webcam confessionals.
Hulu will never -- and should never, IMHO -- have that degree of social buzz about it. It doesn't need UGC or user uploads. It needs only to be the best as what it does, i.e., deliver long form content with superlative quality and a variety of accessibility options. When it comes to professional vids, Hulu is the gold standard.
By Gretta Parkinson
MyLifetime.com, Lifetime Television's online destination, is launching an original online series today called "Gift Intervention," a show that seems to be specifically tailored for really bored ingrates. "Intervention" will offer recipients of bad gifts a chance to "fight back." Which means it's just the type of show all of your crappiest friends have been waiting for.
This series, judged solely on its premise, doesn't fly. But in the interest of fairness, one has to watch. Before I pressed play, I thought, there could be a slim chance that host Lizz Winstead, a comedienne and the co-creator of "The Daily Show," might make this something worth tuning in for ... or rather, linking to. She might focus on the ridiculousness of someone needing to "vent" or "confront" a gift giver -- maybe by highlighting an outburst or two -- then "Intervention" could be good watching.
But she didn't. All she did was lure an unsuspecting woman named Anne to the Mall of America, just so her friends could embarrass her for buying them a gift she genuinely thought was "cute" and strip away her dignity in front of an unrecognizable pseudo-celebrity and any number of Internet viewers. Granted, a slipper-wearing pig chalkboard could be considered an odd housewarming gift. But since when is it OK to say to a friend who gave you something for no other reason besides the fact that they care, "What the hell is this? And would you please take it back?"
I hope you're happy, myLifetime.com. Anne, well-known in her circle of friends as the gift-giver, may never give again. That's not funny. That's sad.
By Andrew Wallenstein
From Akamai to Limelight, there's no shortage of companies out there facilitating the delivery of Internet video. But little-known start-up GridNetworks got a big boost in that field today with infrastructure giant Cisco joining its opening round of investors. But the money isn't in the key part, according to Tony Naughtin, president and CEO of the Seattle firm, who chatted me up last week about the deal. Now when he pitches media companies on letting GridNetworks power HD-quality broadband video, GridNetworks will be able to deliver scale by embedding its P2P technology in all the hardware Cisco produces, from Linksys routers to the Scientific-Atlanta set-top box. "Cisco allows the dispersion of grid technology to audiences big enough for major companies to take notice," Naughtin said.
Here's the release on the Cisco-GridNetworks deal.
THR's Randee Dawn is in Austin, Texas, where she had this to say about the SXSW Interactive conference.
SXSW likes to ensure there's plenty of buzz during the conference, but organizers are accustomed to that buzz being about the films, or the speakers, or the bands hitting the stage. But the buzz hit a controversial peak yesterday afternoon following the public interview between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Business Week's Sarah Lacy, held before a crowd of nearly 1500.
Zuckerberg, who eschewed a keynote speech, opted to sit down for an hour-long interview with Lacy, who has a book coming out in May called "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0." And although the interview started out well, it quickly deteriorated, based on reports from the crowd, which included bloggers, reporters, filmmakers and regular conference attendees.
Based on eyewitness reports, Lacy came across as "flirty" and "pushing her book" and "as a bad interviewer." Audience members reported that she stated, rather than asked, questions, and when Zuckerberg "danced" around the value of Facebook, she returned to the same subject multiple times. Although that is a familiar interview technique, the audience did not take to it well, and began to side with Zuckerberg's evident frustration. Then, when Lacy announced -- rather than asked about -- Facebook's new French operations, Zuckerberg sarcastically noted that he would have liked to make that announcement.
"Oops" didn't cover it -- and the tide quickly turned thereafter. Bloggers in the audience began liveblogging the sinking interview in progress, while Lacy turned defensive, trying to defuse the tension in the air. But by then it was too late -- Zuckerberg offered single-word, bemused answers and the audience began doing what commenters always do on blogs -- participating. "Ask something interesting!" shouted one, and shortly audience members began "leaving in droves," according to one filmmaker.
Since then, it's been all anyone wants to talk about at SXSW: Was Lacey a victim of gender bias in tech reporting? Was her demeanor appropriate? Was she "arrogant"? Any interviewer can have a bad interview; it's how you save yourself from drowning that makes the difference ... and in this case, it appears Lacy was unable to realize she even needed a life preserver.
Paramount announced today the launch of Voo-Zoo, a vidshare Facebook app that will eventually let users trade clips from thousands of films in Paramount's vault. Here's the Voo-Zoo group on Facebook (recent news: "we're stealth") and the direct link to the app.
Sporting a simple Flash layout, Voo-Zoo currently lets you choose clips from among 24 movies ("Zoolander," "Red October," "Top Gun," etc.) and send those clips to friends. Each time you send a clip you get a v-point, and each time a friend views the video you get another v-point. You can use your v-points to add specific clips to your personal vault, where you can view the clips at your leisure. Though the points system's apparently intended to add a competitive aspect to the collection of clips, there's currently no leaderboard or explanation of why the system is necessary.
After a clip plays, the Voo-Zoo player offers links to add the clip to your profile (yes, yet another app to add to your profile), send to a friend, and buy the DVD. None of those buttons were working when I tried the app out this morning, nor were videos playing correctly on my profile.
All in, if it works correctly, Voo-Zoo looks like a convenient way to share clips, and a low-cost way to buttress DVD sales. That said, it'd be even more convenient if Paramount were offering digital downloads of the movies in lieu of promoting physical formats.
A mockumentary from a quintet of Austin, Texas-based amateur comedians, "Wingmen" follows the travails of Jordan, Zach, and Aaron, the feckless co-hosts of radio talk show "Wingmen: Your Source for Dating and Relationship Advice." When Aaron's girlfriend dumps him on air, his subsequent cuss-laden tirade gets the show canceled and fined by the FCC for indecency. After threatening the station manager with violence, the trio decide to make ends meet by founding an online dating service. The show suffers from obvious kinks, e.g., a documentarian who doesn't know why he's filming but also thinks the doc will make his career, and banter that lapses into pace-shattering redundancies. But occasional one-liners and conversations are strong enough to keep the momentum, as with wheelchair-bound ladies' man Zach's on-air advice "you never know if it's going to be a bad baby or not, it's a 50-50 shot, maybe you made the world a worse place by giving birth." "Wingmen" was recently nominated as a finalist at the SXSW Greenlight Awards.
Wingmen | The Greenlight Awards
UPDATE: Full review here.
The second news comedy (newscom?) program from the guys behind WallStrip, just-launched MobLogic's a CBS-owned 3 min. daily vid covering news, politics, and pop culture (Tiffany network's Mini-Me?). Lindsay Campbell, also nee Wallstrip, hosts, discusses the aforementioned range of topics (e.g., superdelegates, Super Tuesday, Fidel Castro) via man-on-the-street interviews -- quoting Campbell: "of the people, for the people, by a big ol' media corporation." Editing's snappy, snark's tempered by professional delivery, but efficacy of the format's in question: Are jaywalking-esque comments from randoms a good use of time? Does the media need another general interest newscom? Why not combine snark with investigative reporting? Or at least a more specific topic, i.e., like WallStrip? Review in the paper next week.
MobLogic | WallStrip
By Gretta Parkinson
It certainly helps to have friends in high places. Even better if they're people like Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, proprietors at FunnyOrDie.com.
"The Foot Fist Way," the first North American Tae Kwon Do comedy, written by and starring Danny McBride ("Hot Rod") was completed in 2006, but nobody cared. But now that Ferrell and McKay have put their stamp on it by featuring the red band trailer on FunnyOrDie (until recently, probably because of the clip's "restricted" nature), Paramount Vantage is sponsoring its theatrical release May 30.
On the movie's official Web site, fans can watch the trailer, take the "Student Oath," visit the main character's MySpace page and even submit themselves for Student of the Week. Congratulations, Bill Lyon from Pittsburgh, Pa.!
The latest video offering from "I'm big in Ireland" social net Bebo*, "Conquering Demons" is the behind-the-scenes daily vlog component of a same-named and in-progress snowboarding docu. Filmed entirely in the French Alps, the docu, by first-time Italian filmmaker Carlo Mancini, is investigating the "psychology of fear" in extreme sportsmen by interviewing athletes before and after performances (i.e., "tell me about your mother's ... basejumping?"). Meanwhile the vlog -- by professional snowboarding filmmakers Project Lockdown -- will capture the on-slopes action, the docu-making process, and connect with fans through Bebo. A psych-out pincer move, with the athletes exposed to both docu-making and vlog-making in the same go. Sponsored by Oakley.
Conquering Demons
* Bebo's home to popular show Kate Modern, and will soon launch a new series called Sofia's Diary. Also, Bebo's big in Ireland.
"Evolution of Dance," the jiggy vid long the No. 1 most-viewed item on YouTube, has been ousted from its spot by a fan-made music video for the Brazilian band CSS. But according to data-smith Andy Baio, the video's high view count may be the result of some spurious behavior.
If you look at the ratio of views-to-ratings, you'll see the CSS video has a very unusual 21,487-to-1 ratio. In other words, for every 21,487 views, someone leaves one rating. To compare, the average ratio for every other video in the top 10 is a more reasonable 590-to-1. This ratio is representative of other popular videos, too; the median ratio for the entire top 500 is 545-to-1. Skimming down the list, you can see some other strange videos that might raise eyebrows.
Claims about artificially inflated viewership numbers are nothing new. But Andy's methodology is by far the most objective and thorough to date. Assuming Andy's research is proven accurate, inflated view counts have the potential to affect a lot of parties, from trend watchers and talent agents to advertisers paying by CPM. It's in Google's best interest to ensure view counts are trustworthy, but as anyone with experience reporting on Google will tell you, the company is very reticent to admit click tracking problems.
p.s. It's interesting to note that both videos are about dancing, a subject which has a good deal of cross-cultural appeal. However, as Virginia Heffernan pointed out many moons ago, the Evolution of Dance clip appeals across language barriers -- and hence to a much larger demographic -- simply because there is no speaking, English or otherwise. The new CSS video, however, is pretty much all Portuguese (although I think I heard Italian too?) English. Certainly one of the most recognized languages worldwide, but even so: hard to believe a new pop song in any language could surpass the near-globally recognized sounds of America's most popular tunes.
Update: Andy interviews the video's creator.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Alas we hardly knew ye, Firebrand, the soon-to-be-defunct website where the cream of the commercial crop got an online/TV showcase. It launched last October with the financial backing of NBC Universal (the New York Times reports the venture "burned" through at least $30 million), but with little traffic traction to show for it, Firebrand has been tossed on that scrap heap in the sky along with ThisJustIn.com, another conglomerate-backed (Time Warner) entertainment site that went nowhere fast.
Here's what I had to say about Firebrand when it first launched.
There are two levels of referencing pop culture. The first and easiest is to simply reference an image. This is what Sen. Hillary Clinton did with her "Sopranos" spoof (a sight gag referencing the "Sopranos" finale) and, in a slightly more complicated manner, with the Nicholson endorsement. Spots like these resonate because the viewer recognizes the images. They're "in" on the joke. (For a parallel in commercial media, check out DirecTV's TV spots, which recreate footage from popular movies.) The spots also have a secondary purpose: To convey that Hillary is attuned to popular culture. That she's "cool" without air quotes.
The problem with Hillary's references, though, is that they're all negative symbolism. The "Sopranos" spot may have made headlines, but the underlying emotion of the referenced scene was anxiety and trepidation. What's the implication? Bill and Hillary's family might get murdered? Bill and Hillary are mobsters? Chelsea can't parallel park?
The problems continue with the recent Nicholson endorsement. Hillary's adopting the aegis of the most over-the-top authoritarian to not only pump her image as a tough chief executive, but also poke fun at the image of the aggressive alpha male. This is some seriously exaggerated footage, and it almost works. The problem, again, is the character choice. Hillary's invoking psychotics. A deranged serial killer trying to poison a city. An alcoholic, axe-wielding murderer. A colonel who endorses corporal punishment. If Hillary's just going for the endorsement, why muddy the waters with Nicholson's characters?
In borrowing pop culture to make political arguments, Hillary's trying to argue that while she may not be as youthful and energetic as Obama, she's just as hip as the senator from Illinois. But by using such awkward references, she's proved the opposite.
By Gretta Parkinson
Have you seen this guy? I'm talking about YouTube account holder Pruane2Forever, also known as Sexman. That's right. Sexman. A self-described Canadian Eminem fan who "loves to make videos and have a good time," this ostensibly pre-adolescent (he lists his age as 54) cinema buff is taking the Internet by storm, one baffling review at a time. His reviews of "Rambo" and "Jumper" have racked up YouTube hits in the six-figure range.
In addition to fame, Sexman has gained a fan following and the title of "official film reviewer" for filmdrunk.com. Although, I'm willing to bet that even with his newfound celebrity, Sexman remains one of the biggest misnomers of all time. With his bowl cut, elfin features and a voice undergoing the awkward transition of puberty, Sexman is likely the type of kid who probably gets stuffed in his locker on a regular basis. But on the Web, no one can touch him.
The comeback cornerpiece of Stanley Kirk Burrell, aka the typewriter-toe'd MC Hammer, DanceJam's a fancy-footed vid share site stocked with Step Up/Stomp the Yard/You Got Served hopefuls. Unlike most vid sites, Jam's both entertaining and didactic: You can watch battles, where viewers pref one dancer over the other, or browse video examples and lessons by dance type, e.g., hyphie, chicken noodle soup, buckin, and tuttin (inexplicably, no Humpty Dance or its risque cousin, "The Burger King Bathroom"). At its core, Jam's a competition -- users profile up, upload videos, and win accolades, fans and votes. While that process is similar to almost every other vidshare site, Jam's balletic specificity -- and the site's almost unquestionably good design and spare use of Flash -- set it apart from its peers.
DanceJam
By Andrew Wallenstein
Are we getting to the inevitable point where celebrity endorsements made online are strange enough that they actually backfire? We're either there or pretty damn close judging from a new pair of promotional spots issued for Hillary Clinton from Jack Nicholson and a second installment in support of Barack Obama from Black Eyed Peas front man Will.i.am (see below).
This pro-Clinton spot splices together clips of various Nicholson movies from "Batman" to a "A Few Good Men," interspersed with text touting the candidate. It's topped off by a few seconds from Nicholson himself. That Clinton utilized an aging celeb on YouTube is a strange choice to highlight for a campaign that could use younger voters on her side. Plus the clips aren't all that clever; they beg for parody that will only make it look silly.
That said, you would have to add up all the B-list celebs in the Will.i.am spot to get the Hollywood wattage Nicholson delivers alone. Hist first video for Obama was brilliant, but as Advertising Age points out, this one veers uncomfortable close to the tone of a "Hitler rally."
My full review of ABC's new online-only show "Squeegees" -- the first show from the new Disney digital production unit, Stage 9 -- will appear tomorrow in THR. I'll link it up when it's live. But for now I wanted to post a little more about something I didn't get to cover much in the review, i.e., why networks need to produce videos that appeal to more specific cohorts, instead of regurgitating network fare intended for a broad audience.
To make "Squeegees," ABC hired Handsome Donkey, an online comedy troupe that garnered some praise last year for their frat boy-ish comedy videos. Take a look at their vids. Le Montage: a spoof on movie montages and their inevitable feel good endings. Photograph: A spoof on a Nickelback song, and horrendous music video filmmaking techniques. Bad Candy: on ill-conceived confections. These are all highly specific, mostly guy-oriented vids. Dude humor for dudes.
Now watch "Squeegees." It's about as basic as sitcoms come. Instead of riffing on cultural themes, the show uses gag humor. Naked dudes hanging from straps. Stupid dude eating glass. This is lowest common denominator fare, made to appeal to a general ABC audience.
That's what I don't understand. Why treat online video like TV? Why create something meant to appeal to a broad spectrum, when what the Web does best is coddle small(ish) groups of devoted viewers. If ABC wants to push boundaries -- and don't tell me that hookup in the office scene was a boundary pusher, 'cause it was laughable -- then they should identify specific parts of their larger demo and appeal directly to them.
In its rush to copy the success of short form online videos, ABC has only managed to copy the format of the videos. That's the wrong tack to take. The real value is in the content.
P.S. The intro to the show reminds me of that crappy video Ben Stiller made from Winona's tapes in "Reality Bites." Just sayin. Fail.
Steve Bryant has been covering online media for five years. He lives in New York. Tip Jar: Got an idea or thought for Reel Pop? E-mail Steve
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