Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Cyphers

I have a thing for conspiracy theories and inexplicable phenomena. It just fascinates me.  
Cypers is a drama web series about a diverse group of female characters who discover unexplained phenomena, and how this unearthing affects their personal and professional lives.

Cypers reveals the danger that lies just beneath the surface of an average New Mexican town, where serenity and blissful innocence mask a sinister reality, and it's based on true life controversial corporate stories. All the characters are drawn together by a series of inexplicable phenomena, and must struggle to decipher and expose a dark corporate conspiracy that reaches far beyond their town. While searching for the catalyst to these appearances, they uncover treacherous organizations obsessed with controlling food and water supplies. Each character is drawn, willingly or unwillingly, deeper into each organization’s conspiracy.

Here is the pilot episode:


For further episodes and more information on cast and strange phenomena, go to: http://www.cyphers-episodes.com/

Monday, May 30, 2011

Kiefer Sutherland Confesses

More and more well-known TV actors make their way to the web. Best examples are Lisa Kudrow starring in Web Therapy and Neil Patrick Harris in the musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's already becoming a particular category of web series. Now even Kiefer Sutherland is starring in a 10-part, scripted, online-only series, called Confession.

It's a drama about a hit man (Kiefer Sutherland) spilling his secrets to a priest (John Hurt). The story begins on Christmas Eve, when the hit-man enters a church to confess his sins to the priest. Through a series of flashbacks, the confessor’s journey is revealed. Check out the trailer:


In terms of basic style and structure, it looks as if the creators made a close study of the many mysteries and thrillers that have already come and gone in the short history of web series. But as I've said before the nature of web series is just better suited for comedy than drama.

Friday, May 27, 2011

YouTube's success continues...

Have you watched anything on YouTube today? I certainly have and lots of other people, too.

YouTube claims that more than 48 hours of video are now uploaded to the site every minute. That's a 100% increase compared to last year and a 37% increase compared to six months ago.
They also said that last weekend the site surpassed three billion views per day. This is a 50% year-on-year increase and the equivalent of almost half the world's population watching a YouTube video each day.

Today, I read that YouTube is teaming up with FightGameTV to broadcast a mixed martial arts and kickboxing tournament this weekend, in what FightGame says is YouTube's first ever broadcast of this kind.
The Google-owned video site is apparently trying new pay-per-view live streaming on its US site, following the roll-out of YouTube Live last month and its first experiments with paid video rentals last year.

Will you check out the martial arts tournament?

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Wankers

The Wankers is a new comedy web series about a reluctantly related family that comes out tomorrow!
The show is a single camera, 30 mins sitcom with laugh tracks. It is filled with A-Z comedy that tastefully deals with sexual addiction, religion, pot smoking and elderly abuse. The show has no rules and active audience participation with cheers, booing, laughing and vulgar remarks similar to Jerry Springer’s audience. The Wankers is directed by Connor Daly and Kevin Boston. 

Here is the Trailer:


The Wankers airs a new video every Wednesday at 11am PT, known as #WankersWednesdays.  Will you check it out tomorrow?
For further information, go to: http://thewankersshow.com/

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Sundance for the Facebook crowd

The 2nd annual New Media Film Festival just came to an end. Did you check it out if you live in L.A. or even submit a web series?

The New Media Film Festival (also called "Sundance for the Facebook crowd") honors stories worth telling and presents the Best In New Media. It shows content in categories include 3D, Apps, Animation, Digital Comics, Shot on RED, Docs, SRC-Socially Responsible Content, LGBT, Webseries, Mobile, Features, Shorts & Music Videos, and Judges from Pixar, UTA & Industrial Light & Magic, moderators Charlotte Huggins (Journey To The Center Of The Earth), Alison Savitch (Bangkok Dangerous), and Jeanette DePatie along with Interviewer Joshua J. Stecker (Script Magazine) joined programming of films from around the world.


This year's programme included films starring actors Jason Alexander, Sally Kirkland and Sid Ganis in the 35mm Los Angeles Premiere of Not Your Time (Jay Kamen Productions), along with Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, and Will Wallace starring in the preview of Flatland: Search for the Third Dimension in 3D, the World Premiere of Staycation U.S.A. 3D (directed by Ned Wiseman), and absolutely stunning images from the Hubble Telescope and Casini Mission in Cosmic Journey 3D.

If you wanna know What's New, What's Next? then visit their website: www.NewMediaFilmFestival.com

Friday, May 20, 2011

Being Bin Laden

Did you know that Osama Bin Laden was working on his first reality web series? Well, neither did I.

But that is the premise of a new web series called Being Bin Laden.  It's created, written and produced by Ricky Blitt, stars Steven Weber as Osama bin Laden, and Fred Savage also shows up as Osama’s Jewish, soon-to-be-son-in-law.

Have a first look:


This is just a taste of the full pilot, which will be screened at this year’s Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. To get tickets for the screening, please visit: http://tempweb.hahaha.com/microsite/Film/Film

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Waterloo Road Reunited

If you live in the UK, you probably know the award-winning British television drama series Waterloo Road on BBC One. The series is set in a troubled comprehensive school in Rochdale, Greater Manchester and focuses on the lives of the schools teacher and students, and confronts social issues, including affairs, abortion, divorce and suicide

Back in November, the BBC announced an online spin-off show, called Waterloo Road Reunited. This series follows former characters of the main show, and their lives after leaving Waterloo Road. Here you catch up with the lives and loves of favourite ex-pupils including Bolton, Michaela, Janeece, Philip, Aleesha and Paul, as they make their way in the world away from the classroom with mixed results.

The first episode of Waterloo Road Reunited was shown on 2 March and here it is again, in case you missed it:

 

By using a combination of scripted episodes (shown online and on red button), fictional social media networks, audio and interactive fan sites, Waterloo Road Reunited allows the audience to extend their relationship with their favourite characters from the screen to online.

For new episodes and updates, visit the blog on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waterlooroadreunited/

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Twitter Talkshow

The UK's Channel 4 has commissioned a new multi-platform comedy talkshow, including interactivity via Twitter. It's called King of... and will be hosted by presenter and journalist Claudia Winkleman who will encourage viewers on Twitter to follow @C4Kingof and join in and continue discussing the topics by using the #kingof hashtag. @C4Kingof will then retweet the best comments and at the end of each episode pronounce someone King of Tweets. The audience at home is asked about their opinions on all kinds of subjects, to find out which musical, newsreader or supermodel, for example, is considered leader in their field.

King Of… is not the first show to try to put Twitter at the core of its concept. Two years ago MTV launched a talkshow fronted by British model and TV personality Alexa Chung in the US but canned it after two seasons. Spanish TV channel Veo7 last year launched a talkshow called Twision, which relies entirely upon the hosts' interactions with the audience via Twitter.

Well, I will check out King of... live at the BBC TV Centre in London next week. You can either join in via Twitter or if you are in London and want to be in the audience too, apply for a ticket: http://www.sroaudiences.com/shows.asp

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Cox joins TV Everywhere

Cox Communications just introduced a new website that will enable its subscribers to view tens of thousands of videos online. Cox subscribers can now sign in to www.cox.com/tv and gain access to more than 15,000 pieces of content from cable and broadcast networks.

With the launch of the new video portal, Cox is joining a number of operators and programmers that are offering access to on-demand and even live content online under the patronage of "TV Everywhere". This new portal will have a mix of broadcast content from ABC, Fox and NBC (sourced from Hulu), as well as content from cable networks TBS, TNT, TruTV, Adult Swim, HBO, EPIX, Cinemax and Vutopia. At launch, Cox TV Online will have between 15,000 and 20,000 pieces of content, with the number of assets fluctuating over time as titles are added.

At the moment Cox TV Online is only available on PCs, with the exception of networks like HBO, which have their own multiplatform apps. HBO just recently released apps for iPad, iPhone and Android mobile devices. And Epix is available on more than 100 connected devices, including the Blackberry PlayBook, connected TVs and Blu-ray players from Samsung, Google TV devices, Roku broadband set-top boxes and Android tablets from Motorola, HTC and LG.

Get ready for TV Everywhere! 

Monday, May 9, 2011

NEWS: Web-to-TV-comedy and Tech-comedy show

The Canadian web-to-TV animated comedy Chilly Beach has been picked up by Hulu for the US. The 65x22' series, produced by March Entertainment for Canada's CBC, ran over three seasons and has now joined the line-up on Hulu and its subscription service Hulu Plus via a deal with distributor Duopoly.

Chilly Beach follows the adventures of the quirky residents of an obscure Canadian resort village and in particular two beer-loving, hockey-playing best friends who have spent their whole lives largely oblivious to the outside world. Featuring performances by Steve Ashton and Dwayne Hill, the show also carries guest voiceovers from William Shatner, Joe Flaherty and Leslie Nielsen, among others.

And, Comedy Central Digital just launched an online-only talkshow that covers entertainment and technology. The 'Tech-comedy' show The Download will broadcast through ComedyCentral's website, fronted by writer and comedian Jordan Rubin, who formerly worked as head writer for the MTV Movie Awards.

The series debuted last week with four weekly episodes. Each week, the show's hosts will interview guests from the comedy, entertainment and technology worlds, who will discuss social media and gadgets. Guests lined up so far include actor Jerry O'Connell, DJ Samantha Ronson and musician and Beastie Boys collaborator Money Mark.

Samsung is sponsoring the show and will use the programme to showcase its Samsung Smart TV. The internet-ready device supports apps such as Skype, Twitter and photo sharing service Picasa, which will be worked into the show.

Have you watched these new shows yet?

Friday, May 6, 2011

Inner Demons Preview

Last night I checked out the Facebook Fans Preview of Inner Demons and this morning I'd like to encourage you to do the same! Inner Demons is an upcoming internet web series created by Ryan McCalla and Tommy Larkin. This supernatural, action and mystery web series follows a small group of characters and shows how their lives intertwine as they each try to battle their own inner demons and attempt to make the world a better place.

A ragtag group of stranger’s lives begin to intertwine over the course of a year as they each struggle to overcome their own inner demons and personal problems. They are united in a race against time to prevent Mephisto from bringing forth hell on earth. Each character has their own reasons for wanting to see Mephisto fail and be banished back to hell, but Mephisto is not without his resources. He sets about trying to weaken them and divert their attention away from him and his hunt for “The Key”. The strangers become a family as they all come to realise that one common goal ties them all together, their determination to prevent Mephisto from unlocking and opening the gates of
hell.

Here is the Facebook Fans Preview:

 

It's only the rough cut of their Supanova trailer - so sound, music and visuals are not yet finalised. But if you're intrigued now, go to their website to stay updated: http://www.innerdemonstheseries.com/

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Glee's Brittany hosts web talk show

Companion web series of hit TV shows are usually not that great, but Fondue for Two in which Brittany S. Pierce (Heather Morris) from Glee hosts her own web show is worth a look!

Fondue for Two is a simple setup, an internet talk show shot from Brittany’s bedroom, where the deadpan bombshell dishes up some hot gossip over some actual hot fondue. The first episode stars fellow gleeks Mercedes (Amber Riley) and Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) with her cat Lord Tubbington.
Check out the sneak peek:


 There is no official word yet from FOX on how many of them are planned, but given the fast-growing online fan base for anything Glee, I guess there’s a good chance we’ll see more of them. The sneak peek video already broke 135,000 views on YouTube...

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

TV Gameshows -> Facebook Games

We haven't talked about convergence in a long time, have we? One big trend currently is to turn TV gameshows into games for social networking sites. 

Just recently Facebook has sealed a deal with developer iWin and Endemol USA to create social games based on two of the best-known TV gameshows: Deal or No Deal and 1 vs 100. They will debut on the Facebook platform starting later this spring.

The news continues the trend of TV gameshows becoming games on social networks, as exemplified by FremantleMedia North America's version of Family Feud on the same social network last summer, produced with iWin. The potential offered by such moves was illustrated by the fact that Family Feud returned to air later that year with much higher ratings. FremantleMedia has also put a game based on The Price is Right on Facebook.

But not only TV gameshows are turned into social games, also web series.
Fox International Channels (FIC) has tapped the UK's Two Way Media to create a Facebook game based on web series The Booth at the End. The game, called The Deal, has been developed to tie in with FIC's roll-out of The Booth across its networks after it picked up the Vuguru-produced psychological drama from Content Digital at Mipcom last year.