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Comedy Central’s Secret Girlfriend: The Makings of a Crossover Hit?
It’s the perfect web video fairytale. Boys can’t get a break in Hollywood despite working on other people’s hit shows. Boys turn to digital to get an original series funded and distributed. Boys make up concept about cute girls. Show doesn’t get watched much in part because it’s constrained to a particular mobile platform. Boys get deal to convert show to TV series for a 12-episode run on Comedy Central. Pilot gets slotted right after season premiere of juggernaut show South Park.
| Secret Girlfriend | Starts Weds 10:30pm / 9:30c | |||
| Season One Preview | ||||
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That’s the story of Secret Girlfriend, a new show premiering on Comedy Central at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday and made by Ross Novie, former assistant director on Arrested Development, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Office and his writing partner Jay Rondot. In a twist on the now-ubiquitous single-camera documentary style, the show is shot from the perspective of its unnamed protagonist, a 20-something single guy. The viewer effectively assumes the role of the protagonist as he encounters strip clubs, booty calls, pool parties, girl fights and pool parties — and that was just in the first episode. Novie calls it “the first TV show in America from a subjective point of view.” I can’t say I’m rooting for the premise (why, exactly, are all these hot girls throwing themselves at him/us?) but the first-person format is a worthy gambit.
Before MySpace Can Be an “Entertainment Portal,” It Needs to Rehaul Video
News Corp head Rupert Murdoch has, via an aside to the Wall Street Journal, let it be known that his new agenda for MySpace is for it to be an “entertainment portal,” rather than “a place for friends.” But while the site has put significant resources into some forms of entertainment — for instance, through its MySpace Music subsidiary — it has let video fall by the wayside.
MySpace Video, which for a time was called MySpace TV and featured lots of original windowed programming like Prom Queen, lonelygirl15 and quarterlife as well as premium content from partners like Hulu, has reverted to its prior name. It only has one original program running at the moment: Married on MySpace. The wedding reality show seems to be doing OK, though recent views are down from over a million per episode to around 100,000. (Show creators like Marshall Herskovitz have noted the immense power of being featured on MySpace and the letdown when you are not.) And MySpace only worked out a deal to give Married social viewing capabilities partway through the season.
Murdoch still has a significant asset to work with (though personally I can only get videos to load and play properly on MySpace if I click my heels together fast enough). comScore lists MySpace as the second-most popular U.S. video site by streams (to YouTube, of course), while Nielsen ranks it fourth below YouTube, Hulu and Yahoo.
Roommate Comedy and Online Video: A Brief Overview
Oh, the woes of being an urban twentysomething! You have to work at a thankless job! And juggle a complicated love life! And deal with your family’s disappointment in your chosen lifestyle! But worst of all — you have to live with a roommate.
The drama of living with a roommate is one that’s been mined repeatedly for web content, to the point where you can’t help but compare the series that have arisen. Hence, I thought I’d look at a few that have come up recently, and scale them according to both hilarity and realism (drawing upon both my expertise in being a critic of online video and my expertise in being an urban twentysomething who lives with a roommate).
Roommating Sharply written and brilliantly acted, this indie series starring and created by Joel Church-Cooper and Erin Gibson isn’t new on the scene, but it’s frankly one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. The addictive antics of a purely platonic dude and lady are both hilarious and disturbingly authentic — essentially, it’s like they’re saying what real roommates are thinking. This pays off in adventures with guns, politics, and porn. It earns an A-plus.
Hilarity: 10 (Seriously, it’s comedy gold.) Realism: 7 (It’s like real life, but slightly more absurd and definitely more witty.) Read more of this story
Angel of Death (Keeps) Killing with 4.7M Views
Crackle.com’s high-profile action web series Angel of Death has generated 4.7 million views since it debuted on March 2, according to a Crackle representative. Angel of Death, which cost roughly $1 million to produce, was notable because it was written by famed comics writer Ed Brubaker (our earlier interview with him embedded here) and featured star Zoe Bell of Death Proof.
During a recent interview with comic book podcast iFanboy, Brubaker said Angel of Death had been seen by “7 million people.” This was kind of vague, so we contacted the folks at Crackle who said Brubaker misspoke, and provided the more specific, yet completely different metric of 4.7 million total views.
Knowing how easy it can be to fudge web series numbers, we asked Crackle for the individual episode view breakdowns. Crackle declined, but Visible Measures, with their online video tracking kung-fu (involving publicly available Crackle feeds), provided the following breakdown of Angel of Death views on Crackle:
The 2009 Online Video Webby Award Nominees
We’re in the middle of the online video version of awards season. Hot on the heels of the recently concluded Streamys, the nominees for the 2009 Webby Awards were announced today. Here’s a breakdown of some of the competition (be sure to cast your vote for the People’s Voice Award, voting ends April 30), for a full rundown, visit the Webby Awards Nominees.
For Best Animation, 23/6’s Get Your War On will go up against Better than Prince by Soixan7e Quin5e, NYTimes.com’s The Animated Life – Newscycle, MTV’s Perfectland and Atom.com’s Stickman Exodus.
In the Best Writing category, Web Therapy from Is Or Isn’t Entertainment, The Onion News Network, Prop 8 the Musical, Puppy Love by AB BABY Productions and ABC.com’s Ugly Betty Presents: Mode After Hours will compete against each other.
Dictated But Not Read Captivates In Capturing the Temping Zeitgeist
- Editor rating:
- Premiere: April 1, 2009
- Length: 13 minutes an episode
- Budget: Medium
- Cast
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- Lucie: Claire Wellesley
- Jonathan: Jonathan Frakes
- Crew
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- Writer / Director / Executive Producer / Cinematographer / Editor / Sound: Marty Rossum
- Awards
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- 2009 Streamy Awards: Best Comedy, Best Drama?
You might argue that that the mockumentary/vlog hybrid Dictated is treading similar ground as previous series, such as quarterlife, but the truth is that while we’ve listened plenty to Angelenos in their mid-20s, the voice of a disaffected 28-year-old Sherman Oaks temporary worker (“temp”) has rarely had a chance to be heard. And as a spokesperson for this subculture, Lucie (Claire Wellesley) is a compelling lead, bringing pathos to the world of temps working specifically in the entertainment industry.
Struggling with familial pressure to set up a Roth IRA while working for $18 an hour, Lucie is haunted by memories of her recent firing, the mystery behind which adds some powerful stakes to the ongoing narrative (and has also been spun off into an upcoming ARG component). Part film noir vixen, part screwball comedienne, Wellesley adds both pathos and wit to the proceedings: a delightful running gag is her continual inability to remember to pick up a present for her best friend’s baby shower, despite the fact that she lives next door to a Kids R’ Us. Read more of this story
My Two Fans Cheers on Fandom
- Editor rating:
- Premiere: March 9, 2008
- Length: 5-7 minutes
- Budget: Medium
- Cast
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- Kate: Barret Swatek
- Franklin: Todd Felix
- Teddy: Bill Escudier
- Crew
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- Creator: Lauren Iungerich
Created by Hollywood veteran Lauren Iungerich, My Two Fans tells the story of Kate. After a bad public breakup, Kate won the affection of Teddy and Franklin, who quickly begin cheering her on, offering her advice, and giving her support during rough patches. So far it’s hard to say whether or not they’ve dramatically improved her life, but even if they haven’t, she at least seems less lonely. My Two Fans invokes the spirit of broad 80s sitcoms, all the way from the title to the poppy music to the acting. And while pointing that out could be interpreted as a slam, it really just means that there’s a familiar and comfortable tone to the proceedings.
The 16-episode season is being distributed via all major video sites on a bi-weekly basis, augmented by short and fun “Fan Tips” segments. The acting is great, especially Barret Swatek (a veteran of quarterlife and 7th Heaven), who manages to be likable, flawed and funny — a tough mix for any actress. The chemistry shared between her and her fans is friendly and unforced, giving their quasi-improvised interactions a fresh and natural rhythm. The only major flaw in the direction is the overall pacing, which lets scenes drag on well after the joke has been told. Each episode run 5-7 minutes, but they could easily be much shorter. Read more of this story
Vid-Biz: Super Bowl Ads, KoldCast, quarterlife
Super Bowl Ads Duke It Out Online; Pepsi was the most buzzed about advertiser online, according to Collective Intellect; movie trailer videos went the most viral, according to BayTSP; amateur-made Doritos ad won the Hulu user vote (it also won USA Today’s panel, as we noted yesterday). (AdAge, BayTSP release, Hulu)
KoldCast TV Launches Pilots Channel; idea is to help web series creators attract funding and sponsorship; meanwhile the site also launches four new series of its own. (release)
quarterlife Makers Go Back to TV; Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick will go back to the oldteevee they know to create drama show A Marraige for CBS. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Veoh on iPhone; but portal launches a formatted site, not a dedicated app. (Veoh blog)
News Video Experts Chat; hour-long panel put on by YouTube last month is now online, Andy Plesser says it was interesting, but we haven’t watched yet. (YouTube, Beet.TV)
RockYou Adds Video Ads; startup customizes brand experiences for social networks, now with video. (release)
Paid Distribution Becomes a Mainstay of Web Series
So you’ve made your awesome web show, now what? You’re not successful unless you get an audience. And attracting views for your video series is not a simple feat.
Distribution and promotion are recurring conundrums in online video, as we saw (most recently) on Friday, when we took a close look at John August’s pilot for The Remnants on Friday, which without a sponsor and a logistical miracle seems unlikely to add further episodes. Devoid of the rigid infrastructure of TV, and in the face of the trillions of other things competing for people’s attention online, how are you going to get them to show up to watch your show on a regular basis?
A TubeMogul survey of 50 web series found they lost 64 percent of their audiences from their first to second episode. We’ve seen similar trends in our own research. Ad Age’s Michael Learmonth, who requested the TubeMogul study, concludes the answer is to pay for distribution.
Paid distribution and distribution guarantees — where shows cut deals to get placement as if they were ad campaigns — are phenomena we’re seeing more and more these days. To be distributed like an ad, a video doesn’t necessarily have to be branded content, though any integrated sponsorship would travel along with the video itself. And (duh) sponsors are much more willing to participate if they know people will actually see your video.
Vid-Biz: UMG, YouTube, Apple Sued
Universal Music Making “Tens of Millions” from YouTube; between YouTube and other streaming sites, company has gone from making nothing on music videos to nearly $100 million today. (CNET)
YouTube Responsible for 25 Percent of All Google Searches in the U.S.; if it was on its own, YouTube would be the second-biggest search engine. (TechCrunch)
EZ4Media Sues Apple Over Apple TV; patent violation suit centers around Apple hiring three employees — Nick Kalayjian, Bruce Edwards and Wendy Goh — a year before the set-top box was introduced. (Information Week)
Gay Star Trek Episode Goes Online; long-buried script originally written (but rejected) for Star Trek: The Next Generation revived, updated and turned into a fan film webisode. (io9)
ManiaTV Launches BarBeQuay; new web series starring Jonah Ray is a talk show that takes place at parties he throws where the guests answer questions through comedic performances. (MediaWeek)
Zwick and Herskovitz Still Planning quarterlife Season 2; Herskovitz says a series needs 1 million viewers per episode to erase the divide between Internet and TV. (Variety)
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