The Webby Awards 2012

A week ago the best of the internet was celebrated in New York. The Webby Awards is the Internet's most respected symbol of success. Past winners have been included industry leaders such as Twitter, Google, iTunes, BBC News, The New York Times, Funny or Die, Wikipedia....

The 16th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. Webby Awards are awarded in over 100 categories. The winners are selected for recognition based on excellence in the following criteria:

• Websites & Mobile: Content, Structure and Navigation, Visual Design, Functionality, Interactivity and Overall Experience
•  Interactive Advertising: Creativity, Integration, Overall Experience
•  Film & Video: Concept & Writing, Quality of Craft, Integration, Overall Experience 

Winners are chosen by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences which is a global organization of industry experts and technology innovaters, such as musician David Bowie, Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, Martha Stewart, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom, Arianna Huffington, Flickr cofounder Caterina Fake, R/GA chairman Bob Greenberg, "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. And the Webby People’s Voice Award, which is chosen by the public in an online voting system. A record 1.5 million people voted online this year.

Some of this year’s notable wins were Pinterest, Spotify and Google+, as well as Facebook, which beat out Twitter and YouTube in the category of “People’s Special Achievement Webby for Social Change.” Another 2012 Webby highlight was Instagram which was honored as the “Webby Breakout of the Year” in light of its billion dollar acquisition by Facebook.
Icelandic singer-songwriter Bjork received recognition for her album Biophilia, which incorporated touchscreen technology  in a multi-dimensional, digital album, and Juliette Lewis and Graydon Sheppard who received special “Best Actresses” awards for their wildly popular YouTube series "Sh*t Girls Say".

But it wasn’t all about fun and glamour, President Obama, former Vice President Gore, and U2 singer Bono were among those featured on a video tribute to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs: 

World's Greatest Web Stars’ First (and Worst) Works – Fred Figglehorn

I have mentioned Fred Figglehorn a couple of times before and I find him quite annoying. But fact is that Lucas Cruikshank a.k.a. Fred Figglehorn won Choice Web Star at the Teen Choice Awards, had apppearances on Hannah Montana and iCarly and the third Fred Film is coming out this year.You have got to give him credit for that.

My friend Frank Chindamo writes a column on Tubefilter now called the First Draft Series. It highlights and critiques the first online video work of the world's greatest online video stars. So, if you want to find out how and why Fred became such a great success, please read the full article:
http://www.tubefilter.com/2012/05/10/fred-figglehorn-first-drafts-series-web-stars-first-worst-works/

Here is a little teaser: Lucas was Kelly: The girl with a bladder infection before he became Fred.

Frank teaches also webisode production at USC and Chapman University. His students have included Streamy Award-winner Bernie Su and half-a-billion-hitter Freddie Wong. If you are interested in his USC Webiosode class, it's open to the public and starts June 25th: www.GreenlightYourself.com

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NEWS: Tom Hanks and Sylvester Stallone will star in animated web series

What is it with older Hollywood stars and animated web series lately?

Earlier this year I have read that Tom Hanks will be starring in an animated futuristic series called Electric City that he has been developing for years. It will premiere on Yahoo in June.
You could argue here that Tom Hanks has already gained experience in the animated genre when he played 5 different characters in The Polar Express. 

But Sylvester Stallone? Ok, there are some spoofs on YouTube like that one:

But apart from that, I have never really associated him with animated movies or series. At least the topic of the animated web series called Soul Survivor seems to fit the Rocky and Rambo actor. He will play a “last-of-his kind mercenary”, whatever that means.

But Electric City and Soul Survivor are both high-profile example of how the Internet is becoming a new frontier for animation - pretty much in the same way as cable television was in the early 1980s. The Web is creating new opportunities for artists and filmmakers to distribute experimental and often irreverent entertainment to millions of viewers worldwide without having to go through the traditional gatekeepers: the major studios and television networks.

I'm particularly excited about Electric City, because it is supposed to be highly interactive. The nonlinear elements will range from deep integration with social media to a 3D interactive map.

Held Up

Last weekend, I watched Marvel's The Avengers at the cinema and it got me into a superhero mood. That's why I would like to present to you Held Up today.

It's a 16-part comedy web series starring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Kaitlin Olson, The Wire's Cyrus Farmer, Jon Dore from The Jon Dore Show and writer-producers Randy and Jason Sklar.

Set in a bank branch, the outlandish series centers around a bored teller named Ray (Dore) whose life changes dramatically after his bank is held up by two teams of dim-witted robbers dressed as Rocky I (Farmer), Rocky II (Olson) and Batman and Robin (the Sklar brothers). Over the course of the series, the hostages fall victim to a comedic version of the Stockholm Syndrome and begin sympathizing with their captors.

Here is the trailer:

It’s a character piece, and one of things the Sklar brothers are most proud of is the love story that develops between Ray and Rocky II. You can watch Held Up on http://www.crackle.com/c/Held_Up

350 South - an American journey

Most of the web series I write about are scripted, but of course there are also unscripted web series out there. One I find particularly interesting and inspirational is called 350 South: an American journey. It's produced by international production company beActive Entertainment and is described as a “fully participatory documentary experience” following Irish and American environmentalists on their year-long journey from Alaska to Argentina.

How did they come up with this idea? On their website http://350south.org/ you can read that Irish guy Ian Lacey moved to Denver, Colorado in 2010 to work for an environmental non-profit organisation called The Wilderness Society. There, he was recommended a book by Swedish adventurer Goran Kropp – a man who cycled from Stockholm to Mt. Everest in Nepal, climbed it without the aid of bottled oxygen, came back down and cycled home again. Ian just knew he had to take on a similar human powered journey.  And within minutes, after looking at the National Geographic map on his bedroom wall, it seemed that cycling down the Americas could be a pretty nice way to spend a year. Ian had recently met Lee, a friend who worked in a coffee shop during the week and went rock climbing and snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains on the weekends. After chatting about the idea, they both realised it was about time they did something that matched their adventurous spirits. There and then, they decided to cycle the length of the Americas in 350 days.

They will cycle through 15 countries in total – USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. And you can follow Ian and Lee on Facebook, Twitter and watch their video diaries on YouTube or their website. Extended versions of the diaries are now also showing on Setanta Sports Ireland.

Here is Episode 1 of their video diary:  

 

And of couse, they are not doing it just for fun. They want to raise €100,000 for the Carer's Association of Ireland. So, if you wanna support them, please donate here http://www.mycharity.ie/event/350south