The question is, how much reporting can you actually do in a five-minute span of time? Even given my bias against longer videos, sometimes you simply need more time to tackle a given subject. Project: Report winner Arturo Perez Jr. triumphed with his third round entry Abilities, a heartfelt portrait of a community for adults with developmental disabilities. Not exactly a hard-hitting investigation, especially given the too-short time frame: while Abilities manages to convey a strong message about learning to see “the person behind the disability,” it raised so many other questions (What kind of obstacles do Camphill California and its residents face? Why are communities like this important?) that I felt unsatisfied. The topic could easily supply several episodes of material, so the piece as it stands feels a bit superficial.

But before I gave up on the concept of five-minute journalism, I checked out Perez’s second round entry for Project: Report, Little Change… Big Difference — and it was great. Focusing on San Francisco’s decision to ban plastic bags from grocery stores, the video features representatives from both sides of the issue, sums up the environmental and economic factors involved, and makes its argument in a compelling way — all in four minutes, even! The difference, I suppose, is in the specificity of its focus, and the ability to cut between the different elements of the story efficiently — while the format might not be excellent for broader portraits of a community, the bullet points approach works really well.

As the winner of Project: Report, Perez will receive a $10,000 grant to “travel abroad and work with the Pulitzer Center on a story of global importance” — he also receives equipment from sponsors Sony and Intel to make that easier. What he chooses to cover with those resources should be interesting to see — especially if he gets more than one five-minute episode in which to do so.

First of all, let’s talk about where things ended up last year. The big news items for video startups (and young, internal ventures at big companies) in 2008 were acquisitions, layoffs and shut-downs — and of course fundings. Many of the companies we cover raised funding last year, though the pace of new investments slowed along with the economy. (As for including a category for IPOs…yeah right.) To recap some of the highlights (and lowlights):

Acquisitions: There were no blockbuster acquisitions in 2008 — at this point it seems impossible that anyone will ever match 2006’s Google-YouTube. At $160 million, Yahoo-Maven was probably the biggest deal that’s directly relevant to our space, but that deal has faded, along with the products involved. Other than a couple biggies on this list, you’ll be forgiven if you hardly recognize any of the names.

Vidmeter by Visible Measures, NBCU buys LX.TV, Maven Networks by Yahoo, Revver by LiveUniverse, Weblistic by Spot Runner, Bebo (the social network has significant investment in original video) by AOL, MediaXstream by Secure Media Solutions, Kontiki by MK Capital, FanLib by Disney, CNET (which has many video assets) by CBS Interactive, Navic by Microsoft, Omnisio by Google/YouTube, Radiance Technologies by Comcast Media Center, Visual Connection by KIT Digital, Illumenix by TubeMogul, ClearStory by The FeedRoom, SportVU by STATS, TIOTI by Vizimo

Layoffs: These stories sped up considerably as the year went on. Most, if not all, failed to put an end to tough times for the companies involved.

Digeo, Crackle, MeeVee, Akimbo, SuperDeluxe, Vudu, Seesmic (twice), Heavy, PermissionTV, ManiaTV, Break, Revision3, Smashface, 60Frames, Vuze, Spot Runner (twice), Veoh (twice), BitTorrent (twice), Current Media, Qik, Strands, Brightcove and DivX. (Not to mention public companies like TiVo, Netflix, Akamai, Viacom, NBCU, Adobe and AT&T.)

Shut down: This category was actually smaller than we might have expected, given how tough it is to succeed in this business. Last year, when we asked a panel of online video experts — from video makers to professors to VCs and media execs — what would happen in 2008, one of the most common answers was that me-too video sites would shut down. Here’s what they told us:

• “If you are running an online video company that features non-premium, commodity content and you missed the Internet ‘network effect’ enjoyed by YouTube and a few others, it might be time to cash out.”
• “Sadly, the second-tier video sites this year will sell to larger companies or fade away.”
• “Any of the companies who have raised $15 million or more and are running out of funds now are in serious danger.”

Well, it turns out doomsday wasn’t quite nigh… But it’s a good bet that many of the startups on the layoffs list will be forced to make even deeper cuts in 2009.

Stage6 (DivX’s video portal), Akimbo, Firebrand, AllPeers, Peerflix, Streamcast Networks, Pickle (after being acquired by Scripps), Red Swoosh (after being acquired by Akamai), SanDisk’s Fanfare and TakeTV, Starz Entertainment’s online service Vongo, Skyrider, ClickStar, Moblogic (after CBS acquired Wallstrip), Mobuzz, Jumpcut (after being acquired by Yahoo), Eyespot (though the assets were acquired by PixelFish),

But people are watching more and more online video, from user-generated video to TV episodes to a growing portion of web video originals. Here are the consumption stats:

Unfortunately, global video stats are hard to come by, but here’s one impressive measure of how much video has infiltrated our lives: comScore says U.S. online video watchers watched 273.1 minutes of online video in the month of November 2008, up from 195 minutes in November 2007. And the number was only 151 minutes in January 2007. A 40 percent increase in consumption in a single year is massive, and there’s no reason to think it will go away.

And what about the money? Here’s what we’re looking at for market size:

eMarketer has been looking at video advertising revenue closely. First it said 2008 would net $1.3 billion in U.S. video ad revenue, but then halfway through the year it revised that estimate to $505 million. By the end of the year, that number was bumped up to $587 million. Notwithstanding the whole “track record” thing, here’s this year’s eMarketer forecast: $850 million in U.S. online video ads 2009.

As for paid video, it’s the red-headed step-child of video business models — but it’s also being opened up in new ways by services like Netflix, which includes unlimited online streaming with most of its physical DVD rental plans, and sports services like the exemplary MLB.tv. ABI Research forecasts $2.49 billion in worldwide — N.B. worldwide, not just U.S.! — revenue for paid video over broadband, more than double the $1.16 billion it estimated for 2008.

So what’s next on the agenda? I am generally uncomfortable with predictions, given how self-serving they are (plus I hate to be obvious or wrong). But here are some of the most provocative and specific video-related predictions I’ve seen from people who take an active interest in the space.

• Rise of video use by marketers for SEO — “a short cut to the top of Google” (Kevin Nalty)
• Growing market for cheap video stock footage (Robin Good)
• Influence of video on politics deepens with President Elect Barack Obama’s fireside chats (Alex Castro)
• Closure of most of the startups on this list: Revision3, ON Networks, NextNewNetworks, 23/6, Funny or Die — “Normal people have no idea what any of these things are.” (Rex Sorgatz)
• “The biggest trend in online video is where and on what people will watch” (Hulu CEO Jason Kilar). Is this a smoke signal given the source? Hulu was the break-out story of 2008, but it’s only available on the web right now. Meanwhile, the push to bring web content to the TV, driven by Netflix, is gearing up to be a prominent storyline in 2009.

So, there you have it, a cornucopia of data points and pointers. Of course, when it all comes down to it, silly things like founder dynamics, funders’ indulgence, and luck will likely have as much a part in your success or failure as the market. What’s sad is that we may not see a lot of new startups this year, just at a time when some of the best ideas about online video are being crystallized into shows, products and services that people actually want and enjoy. But if you’re lucky enough to have a little runway left, we hope to see you out there.

Photo by Flickr user dierken.

And as I read recently of complaints by Lipstick Jungle’s creators that its cancellation threats are unfair because much of its audience isn’t measured, I had to wonder if maybe they weren’t just whining.

Could the increasing number of options for watching TV shows that fall under the guilty pleasure category mean they are slipping in the conventional rating systems? Soap operas are some of CBS Interactive’s most popular online programming, I’ve been told. I’ve also heard concern from networks that younger-skewing shows just aren’t as economically viable these days, because their audience could care less about the TV. BitTorrent, YouTube, TV Links, iTunes — it’s all at their fingertips.

But I wonder if as online viewing goes more mainstream, this wouldn’t be a broader concern for shows that people prefer to watch in private or when nobody else is around. I don’t mean anything salacious, necessarily, I just doubt that I’m the only one who would rather not admit I know what Blair Waldorf’s latest blackmail scheme was.

The CW has expressed frustration over its inability to nail down viewership numbers for Gossip Girl in the face of the show’s supposed popularity (at least as measured by things like press coverage). The network even pulled Gossip Girl from online streaming last season in an effort to drive up viewership (it resumed streaming this season, but still posts it a few days after it airs, longer than any other network). Lipstick Jungle seems to be facing a similar problem. Here’s the bit about the show from the Daily Beast this morning:

The Nielsen scores do not reflect the number of people who TiVo episodes or watch the show on websites like NBC.com or Hulu—where Lipstick has a cult following. If these numbers were included, Candace Bushnell told The Daily Beast, the network would be crazy to talk cancellation. “These kinds of serial shows tend to be what people TiVo and then watch all in a row on a Saturday morning,” she says. “Over 50 percent of our audience is not accounted for in the numbers.”

Does the data support this theory? A recent report said both Gossip and Lipstick had above-average DVR numbers. Gossip Girl is almost always at the top of the iTunes charts, but I can’t say the same for Lipstick Jungle on Hulu. According to NBC’s integrated measurement system, mobile, VOD, downloads, and streaming amount to at most a tenth of the show’s viewership.

Meanwhile, it’s not as if building an online audience is a bad thing. It’s just not a thing that keeps shows on the air these days

If you have any more data or personal testimonials, please do let us know and we’ll follow up.

The move, however, failed to have the desired effect: Gossip Girl continues to be popular on iTunes and unpopular on TV — where it’s getting fewer than 2 million viewers per episode. In fact the CW’s president of entertainment, Dawn Ostroff, told television critics last weekend that the network is looking to a new survey by Optimedia that includes “television, downloads, iTunes, mobile” in its rankings. “‘Every viewer must be counted, and no viewer should be left behind,’ Ostroff declared,” according to one account.

Optimedia’s survey ranks Gossip Girl as the 15th most popular show on television, as opposed to the below-100th place it takes in Nielsen’s ratings. But notably, Optimedia also measures “PR mentions and word-of-mouth ‘buzz’,” according to a press release — the intangibles that seem to be Gossip Girl’s biggest and most perplexing asset.

One way or another, we’re breathing a sigh of relief. Had Gossip Girl numbers gone up, networks might have started pulling down streaming episodes all over the place.

But who cares about talking man-dogs when you have naked nerds?

IFC and Nerve.com have partnered up to produce season three of Young American Bodies, which premieres on May 27th (seasons one and two are up now). Karina did an excellent review of the series last year, and from the promo, it looks as though this season will deliver just as much messy hair and and just as many sexy situations.

Speaking of hipsters, IFC has enlisted POYKPAC, the team behind Hipster Olympics, to create Good Morning Internet, a spoof of morning talk shows that will air in June.

In July, Mary Van Note will launch The Mary Van Note Show: Gavin Really Wants Me which follows her comedic attempts to get the boy of her dreams — hunky San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Each episode has her taking instruction from a dating manual, implementing tactics like using “wing men,” getting gussied up, and…stalking.

Rounding out the summer season in August is Get Hit, a “how-to” for achieving viral video success on the web as taught by the guys behind The Ball-Kicking Fight Club. They’ll walk you through the process of funding, writing and distributing a potential viral vid.

IFC wouldn’t disclose specific play counts for its first original series, the Webby-nominated Getting Away with Murder, which indicates it wasn’t a huge hit even by Internet standards. But Jennifer Caserta, executive VP of marketing communication, scheduling and alternative platforms for IFC, was steadfast in her commitment to original productions. “We’re going to put more content on the site, and be the voice of independent content,” said Caserta.

And though IFC is having a little fun with the concept of TV “seasons,” Caserta said she would love to take a seasonal approach to content programming, and “redefine what a season is.”

paidContent has the rundown on the slate of none-too-highbrow original programming:

On the talent side, WBTVG has lined up director/producer McG (Terminator 4, the “Charlie’s Angels” movies) and writer/producer Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl) and Big Fantastic (producers of the internet series Prom Queen). TheWB.com currently has seven short-form shows being developed for site, including Sorority Forever, which execs are describing as ”Prom Queen meets The O.C.; Exposed, billed as a thriller concerning a college student with a hidden past; Chadam, a 3D animation project based on the surreal character that appears in videos by the alt-rock band The Used; Rich Girl/Poor Girl, a class-based comedy set in Los Angeles about two teen girls who switch places; Lockdown, a show about a model being kept prisoner in her own home; a reality series about a high school musical production called High Drama: Against All Oz; and an untitled series about a fictional Hollywood rock club.

WBGTV is also launching a separate youth-oriented portal, complete with its own virtual world. Between the two sites, Mattel, McDonald’s and Johnson & Johnson have signed on as advertisers.

“This is not about supporting TV; this is about creating a separate business, and we regard online video as a separate form of storytelling,” WBGTV president Bruce Rosenblum said.

We appreciate Rosenblum talking the talk and walking the walk. But while this all sounds worthy of many hours of guilty pleasure, it just doesn’t make sense not to combine it with current CW shows (one of the most popular of which, Schwartz’s Gossip Girl, was just taken offline to avoid competing with its broadcast slot — huh?). The web doesn’t really care if the parent companies have changed. The content should also be massively syndicated and syndicatable. Yes, it should be on Hulu (with which Warner Bros. recently signed a deal) — update: TheWB.com’s content will be on Hulu, and the site also may include licensed third-party video — and but also everywhere else. The portal beta launches in “early May,” according to the release, so we’ll have to see then.

NewTeeVee: So tell me a little about Waverly Films — where you guys come from, how you guys met.

Christopher Ford: We all met at NYU Film School, and we were friends mostly because we wanted more constructive criticism than we were getting in class. So we started a little group to go over our scripts and storyboards. Then, when we graduated, we kind of stayed together like a herd.

NewTeeVee: Did you guys enter the first Sketchies contest?

Ford: No. Actually I saw the ads for it when I was uploading all of our stuff to YouTube. I think it was around then.

NewTeeVee: June ‘07?

Ford: Yeah, we didn’t use to have our stuff [on YouTube], and finally we were like, “Why the hell not?” So I spent three days uploading.

NewTeeVee: Was there a reason you hadn’t uploaded to YouTube originally?

Ford: Well, we had our own web page, and we wanted to be in charge of it. And at first we got pretty good hits from our Fatboy Slim music videos. This was before YouTube existed, so when it came into being we were already doing video on the Internet and we thought, “Well we don’t need THESE dot-com geniuses!” I think we all regret that now.

NewTeeVee: You guys have a pretty good YouTube following now, yes?

Ford: Yeah, it’s fantastic. That’s why we wish we started earlier.

NewTeeVee: So the reason you didn’t do the first Sketchies contest was because you were only just getting onto YouTube?

Ford: Yeah, pretty much. Also I think we were still “contest shy.” We recently won a Buffalo Wild Wings video contest and I think it emboldened us to enter Sketchies2. I now think they are really good opportunities. Not just for a chance to win the prize — I mean for everyone. The sponsor gets an ad, the contestants get exposure, viewers get more content. And the content is a little more focused. I think the trend of having the little “obstructions” is good creatively.

NewTeeVee: You mean the required elements, like “instrument road trip”?

Ford: Yeah. I mean, people can always just stick something in there to meet the requirements. But I think it helps you be creative when you don’t have to start from a blank page.

Instrument Road Trip

NewTeeVee: What do you think helped you move to the final 20?

Ford: I think our #1 selling point was that our entry was really short. I think the fact that we have a pretty good subscriber base probably also helped. Oh and the fact that it was SO FUNNY, of course.

Sherlockbot & The Case of the Purloined Piggybank

NewTeeVee: What have you thought of the other finalists’ shorts?

Ford: No names, but there’s some I like and some I don’t. I think they all appeal to someone, though. I did notice that most people stuck their “indubitably in there!

NewTeeVee: What do you mean?

Ford: Oh, that most teams went off “living the dream” and then made someone say “indubitably.” So we were right that doing it the other way around would be different. Oh, and of course we love POYKPAC’s. They are our neighbors.

NewTeeVee: I heard POYKPAC’s side of the feud war yesterday, but I’d love to hear your take on it as well.

Ford: Uh-oh. What did they say?

NewTeeVee: They talked about running into you at frisbee, and complimented your athleticism.

Ford: Well, that’s a bunch of lies. They cornered me in a dark Bushwick alley and told me they’d kill my whole family if I didn’t cooperate with them.

NewTeeVee: And what did you say?

Ford: I said I’d think about it.

A Phone Is Ringing in Brooklyn…

NewTeeVee: Do you think the points made in their first attack video bear any merit?

Ford: Actually the most spot-on thing, that really blew me away, was how they used a picture of Christopher Reeves for Duncan [Skiles].

NewTeeVee: The resemblance is strong?

Ford: He looks like a cross between Reeves and Conan O’Brien. But the best part is that he hates it. So I had a big laugh at that.

NewTeeVee: Christopher Reeves was a very handsome man!

Ford: I know, what’s to complain about?

NewTeeVee: Let me ask you about what will happen now that you have won.

Ford: We’re going to Disneyland! Well, not really. But emotionally we are.

NewTeeVee: Are you looking forward to meeting with the UTA guys?

Ford: I really am. UTA is where it’s at. I’m represented by UTA for TV writing, so I’ve heard about their new online division. Apparently it’s very plugged in.

NewTeeVee: Do you hope that this victory will lead you towards more online opportunities, or more offline opportunities?

Ford: Well, both. It would be great to have this open some doors for our feature pursuits…just open them a tiny extra crack. But we also love producing stuff for the Internet, whether it’s our clip of the week or a web show.

NewTeeVee: Anything else you want to say, in these moments of triumph?

Ford: Probably just to continue thanking everyone who voted, and apologize to the other finalists. But I know that POYKPAC is going to be JUST FINE.

NewTeeVee: So you don’t apologize to them?

Ford: Well, they turned their campaign negative first. I think everyone on YouTube understands what cruel villains they truly are.

NewTeeVee: So this is a case of good triumphing over evil, then?

Ford: It’s like Nixon and Kissenger triumphing over the Kremlin. So, yes.

YouTube Sketchies2 Winner Announced; WaverlyFlams takes home $40,000 in cash and prizes for “Sherlockbot & The Cast of the Purloined Piggybank.” (YouTube Blog)

Bunch of No-Shows at Cali FCC Hearing; AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable skipped the public session on net neutrality. But Larry Lessig showed up with a powerful lecture. (GigaOM)

MediaXstream Buys Secure Media Solutions; transport and managed network service provide acquired production applications, consulting, and managed workflow solutions provider, terms undisclosed. (PEHub)

Break a Leg Creator Hearts YouTube; says recent stories surrounding his $1,600 for two million plays misses the point. (Break a Leg Blog)

NewTeeVee: So, was the Sketchies2 contest the first contest you entered as a team?

Taige: Unfortunately, no.

NewTeeVee: Why is it unfortunate?

Taige: Well, we’ve entered two other contests, and never made the first round.

NewTeeVee: Did you enter the first Sketchies competition [in June 2007]?

Ryan: Yes, we did. We had a piece called Human Resources, and I really liked it. But they had thousands of entries, because there were no constraints to the contest. It was just “submit a comedy sketch.” So everyone was submitting whatever they had lying around, and the number of submissions was really astronomical. With Sketchies2 it was lower, because of the instrument-road trip thing. [Entries in the first round were required to use those elements as part of the sketch.] So I think the selection process was a little less unwieldy this time around.

POYKPAC Goes to England

NewTeeVee: Is POYKPAC Goes to England the first sketch you’ve done where you appear as “yourselves”?

Taige: Yes, yes it is. It was fun. I think it made us all want to parody ourselves a bit.

Tyler: Also, Ryan hates holding his breath when passing cemeteries. I think people could tell that moment was genuine.

NewTeeVee: What about POYKPAC goes to England do you think attracted the attention of the UTA agents judging the first round?

Ryan: Half of the entries were like, “Guys! ROOOOOAD TRIP!!!! Hey, who left all these musical instruments in the car?” They kind of used the two constraints in a very similar fashion. We tried to use them in a way that we thought no one else would, and I don’t know. Maybe people picked up on that.

NewTeeVee: How quickly did you come up with the idea for your second short, Voice Talkers?

Taige: Ryan had the idea on the second day.

Ryan: As soon as we knew we got in, we found out the theme, and started thinking about it.

Voice Talkers

Taige: We had talked about doing something with voice-over in it before, but nothing ever seemed right.

Ryan: The thing I hadn’t seen before was this family take on it.

Taige: Because Ryan and I do voice-over work, as well as my Dad.

Ryan: I always thought it was so funny that something like that could be genetic. Or that it would be an inherited craft, like running a deli or something.

NewTeeVee: Do you feel like it is?

Taige: I hope it is.

Ryan: Taige and his dad both have the voice, so it must be.

NewTeeVee: Taige, does your father play your father in the sketch?

Taige: Yeah, he was pretty excited to do it. He’s been watching our sketches and was an actor in college, So I think he was happy to help.

NewTeeVee: What have you thought of the other videos in the competition?

Taige: Overall, I was impressed. Better than the finalists of the first Sketchies. And most groups really upped their game for round two, which was fun to see.

Ryan: I think that had a lot to do with the fact that they ran the contest differently from the beginning. I mean there was no one that made me think, “They’ve won it.” It certainly wasn’t us either, so it made things very interesting.

NewTeeVee: And a few days ago you released the first in a series of anti-Waverly Films ads. What spurred you to do this?

Ryan: WELL. We have a couple of mutual friends. And early in the contest, they contacted us, because they didn’t want to make a “Vote for us” video. They’ve done that a few times in the past, as have we, and they felt like they might be reaching their threshold with their fans, I think.

So they approached us with this treaty, which basically set forth the idea that neither of us would post a “Get Out the Vote” video to our subscribers. They didn’t want to do it, but since we’re the only other finalist with subscribers anywhere near their range, they knew they’d have to do it if we did.

And since they do have more subscribers, it behooved us to take the deal. It was a benefit to us to not have them post that video. And everyone, really.

Taige: No one likes those videos.

Ryan: But I guess this past weekend we found ourselves hanging out at Central Park with some friends, and Ford from Waverly was there. We’d met him before, because those guys live in our neighborhood, and basically came up with the idea to start the feud.

Tyler: Also, we played frisbee.

Ryan: We did do that. Ford is a nimble athlete. Let that be known.

Tyler: And he was playing in loafers!

Ryan: Anyway, we parted ways, basically saying, “OK, we’re going to post an attack ad against you guys, then you’ll do one, then we’ll do a rebuttal.”

Who is Waverly Films?

NewTeeVee: How has finaling in the competition affected you so far?

Taige: Lots of anxiety.

Ryan: I’m not that anxious. I haven’t really ever thought we were going to win. Which is a means of protecting myself more than anything. While you guys have been stressing out about the contest, I’ve been slowly constructing an emotional wall around myself.

Taige: MTV wants us to enter into their latest contest, but we’re actually really busy gearing up for our web series right now.

NewTeeVee: What web series is this?

Taige: We’re in preproduction for a web series for IFC.

Ryan: We’re going to do 15 3-5 minute episodes and see where it goes from there.

Taige: We actually found out last night that IFC is painting our faces in a mural in Williamsburg.

NewTeeVee: So, what will you do if you win?

Taige: Tyler has claimed that he will sh** on our floor, which I think will be the silver lining if we lose.

Ryan: Yeah, I’m really conflicted about winning because of that. I don’t know if that’s just one of those things you say. But he keeps saying it.

Tyler: It’s true. Print it.

Taige: After that…pay the rent, I guess.

Tyler: We’ve been borrowing a camera from a friend for months. So we’d love to be able to give him some money. And his camera back…

NewTeeVee: What will you do if you lose?

Ryan: You’ll probably see us hanging out in front of our mural a lot.

Taige: Eating lunch, protecting it from taggers.

Ryan: It’ll be all we have left. Truthfully, if we win, we’ll be able to make videos with a budget higher than $0. So that’ll be nice. If we lose, we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing. For free.

First up, FunBox Comedy! William Weissbaum, Matthew Roop-Kharasch and Paul Malewitz, like many participants, originated as a sketch team before branching out to video production. We spoke to the team via email about the brainstorming process, being recognized in grocery stores and men vs. tigers.

Photo credit: Heather Landis

NewTeeVee: What spurred you to sign up for the Sketchies?

FunBox Comedy: If you want a lot of people to see your material, YouTube is the place to do it. If you want to prove that you have the best comedy shorts on YouTube, you have to enter the Sketchies. We were chomping at the bit waiting for the entry rules to appear. The refresh button on our keyboard was completely worn out. (We have fancy keyboards with refresh buttons.)

NewTeeVee: What was your sketch for the first round of the competition about?

FunBox Comedy: Three friends head off on a spring break road trip to Daytona Beach. One of the guys decides to bring a bard along to sing of their adventures and their deeds! However, having someone sing about everything you are doing is not as fun as it sounds, and it doesn’t even sound that fun.

Bard Spring Break (Round 1 Entry)

NewTeeVee: What about it, do you think, attracted the attention of the UTA judges?

FunBox Comedy: With only three minutes to tell the story, we tried to focus on having a full arc for the video and characters that were quickly identifiable. We had a lot of fun showing the passage of time and how grating traveling with a bard might be. Also, there was a song about peeing.

NewTeeVee: What was your reaction to making it to the second round of the competition?

FunBox Comedy: We were actually hosting a live show that night, and the show almost had a “repeatedly checking the Sketchies website” theme, but thankfully for our audience, we went with 17th century dandy fops instead. We weren’t able to check until later, but once we saw the results it was high-five city!

NewTeeVee: How did you generate your idea for the second round sketch?

FunBox Comedy: We usually start with individual brainstorming time and come together and pitch our ideas to each other. We were in the process of doing that when we took a break and got into a traditional “who would win in a fight” conversation. Somehow the argument got down to man vs. tigers. Right when Paul was making an excellent point about claws, Matt stopped us and said, “This is a sketch.”

Astounding Tales of the Hunt (Round 2 Entry)

NewTeeVee: Did you already have the idea for a team of master hunters?

FunBox Comedy: The inspiration was from Masters of the Universe: The Motion Picture where four interdimensional mercenaries — Beastman, Sarod, Blade and Karg — hunt down Courtney Cox . We just replaced Courteney Cox with Paul.

NewTeeVee: What difficulties did you run into during production?

FunBox Comedy: One of the big problems was getting the wide shot in the cabin. The room wasn’t wide enough so we had to put the camera in the back yard and build a tent around it to block the light. That shot ended up being 5 seconds of the finished product. Plus, we had the usual fun of smiling at passing joggers as they watched us spray blood onto our actors.

NewTeeVee: What do you think of the videos you’re competing against?

FunBox Comedy: The quality of videos in this last round has really been surprising. When you compare the videos from the semi-finals to the finals, it really becomes obvious that everyone is bringing their A game (and spending more money). With $40,000 on the line, spending that extra $100 on a light kit doesn’t seem so crazy.

NewTeeVee: Has making it to the finals gotten you any additional exposure/attention?

FunBox Comedy: It really has. We were just made YouTube partners. We have been contacted by several online sites and magazines about providing content, and we were featured on G4TV’s Attack of the Show. Plus, Matt got recognized for the first time at a grocery store. He had no idea what to do. It was adorable!

NewTeeVee: Do you plan to use your newfound fame for good or evil?

FunBox Comedy: FunBox has been, and always will be, Chaotic Neutral.

NewTeeVee: What will you do if you win?

FunBox Comedy: First off, a sushi/karaoke party for all the people who were nice enough to help us pro bono. Then it will be back to work. The new equipment will really help bring to life all those ideas we have sitting in our “great idea stack.” Also, with $25,000 to spend on props and locations, it’s pretty safe to say that FunBox will be focusing mostly on period pieces.

NewTeeVee: What will you do if you lose?

FunBox Comedy: Pretty much the same thing. Replace sushi/karaoke with a BBQ at our place and then it’s on to making more videos. Equipment and money aside, FunBox is about writing and making films. That’s what we are going to continue doing.

Yahoo Filtering Out Pirate Bay Search Results; following moves by Denmark and Kuwait to filter out the file-sharing directory, a search for “The Pirate Bay” fails to even turn up a link to its home page. (TorrentFreak)

Hollywood Group Sues China Over Piracy; the Motion Picture Association is going after file-sharing site Xunlei Technology Co., seeking $1 million in damages. (International Herald Tribune)

Variety Launches Entertainment Social Network; “the Biz,” a partnership with Jobster, will allow media professionals to search for work and pitch projects. (Variety)

Nielsen Acquires Audience Analytics; company’s Audience Watch software will help Nielsen track ITV and VOD metrics. (The Hollywood Reporter)

YouTube Kicks Off “Sketchies II”; winner of the sketch comedy contest will take home $25,000 in cash and $15,000 in video gear. Last year had Lonely Island, this year has Lisa Nova. (YouTube Blog)

Toshiba Exiting the HD DVD Biz; says the decision was made following “recent major changes in the market.” (release)

The first, Waffle, was nearly conceptual in its simplicity. For the second round, FriendBuddies trotted out the tried and true ad-spoof trope. In the final round, they gave a starring role to a pug for Rodney & Zak — since talking dogs, and pugs in particular, are always funny.

Now the team gets a budget and equipment to produce an original short for Sierra Mist’s Lemon Squeeze site, as well as a meeting with an agent. As of this post, first and second runners up have yet to be announced.

The contest is unique in that entrants must make a new video as they progress from round to round, eliminating the “one-laugh wonders.” It’s exciting to see a contest that is designed not only to produce some fun user-generated advertising but also to showcase a larger selection of work from talented videomakers. It’s like a mini version of Spielberg’s On The Lot, except maybe people will watch this one.

You can still view the the entrants first-round videos here. We’ll put up an update when YouTube makes round two live, which was scheduled to happen yesterday. At the end of round one we have Chocolate Cake City, the people who brought you the original Brokeback to the Future, with Ketchup (embedded below).

LisaNova also made it into the top ten with her Behind in the Scenes-Pirates of Caribbean, which of all the entrants has by far the most views, 400,000+ (that’s not just from the contest; it’s been out for a month).

My personal favorite is Secret Circus Comedy’s new take on global warming (embedded below).

Update: Round 2 voting is now live. Go check it out. You have until June 27 to rank the top ten finalists.

“We’ve seen an evolution on YouTube from one hit viral videos, to people building passionate audiences that tune in to see every new video,” said YouTube’s head of product marketing Jamie Byrne in the release. Running these heavily promoted contests is certainly one way for YouTube to attract and develop talent within their own system.

Contestants have until May 31 to submit their video. A panel of Hollywood professionals will choose the twenty best, and then online voting will determine the top ten. Those ten will be asked to produce another sketch, with users choosing the final five. In the third and final round, the top five will be asked for one more sketch, with the winner again selected by a poll. The winner will be announced on July 12.

It’s another sign that you can throw all the technology you want at a new media platform, but without content, you’re not likely to attract much of a crowd. YouTube is banking that even without professionally produced content on their site, they’ll still grow. “What our users want to watch is themselves,” co-founder Chad Hurley recently told the Associated Press.

On that note, I got to thinking about when “sketch comedy” was new and different and exciting like YouTube is now. Can’t decide if I should submit a funny video about that seminal moment to YouTube, or just pitch the idea to the producers of Caveman…