Two more show have joined the LifeforceTV lineup bringing the total now to eight. First we have Goodiebag TV, created by Toronto local, Kirby Ferguson, which showcases a variety of irreverent comedic sketches, and rants. Kirby has been creating video online for many years now, and has strong knack for entertaining in the short form.

The second show, takes things in a completely different direction. Radio Free Krakow, created by Winnipeg natives, Ryan Fitzgerald, and Timo Puolitaipale is a sci-fi series “that enlists the audience to join a paranoid hacker in his digital guerrilla war against a fascist criminal network”. Their show is premiering on LifeforceTV and the first episode of their by-weekly series is now online.

Be sure to check out both the shows, and leave your comments for the creators in the comments section or forum on LifeforceTV.

Table Topics is back, after a short hiatus while we moved studios. Tune is this week to find out what Lilly, Jamey, and Natalie think about Billy Bob’s response to Jian Ghomeshi introducing him as an actor on his CBC show Q. The girls cover topics like this twice a week on LifeforceTV and throughout our syndication network.

We’ve been busy building partnerships with Canadian content creators to offer their shows through LifeforceTV. The first two additions to the network are ‘Team Epic‘, the story of a group of ad-hoc superheroes, and ‘Handful of Minutes‘ a review show on the many things you didn’t know you needed to know about. We’re very pleased to have these shows as part of the network and we’re looking forward to announcing new partnerships as they unfold. If you have, or know of, a Canadian web series that should be on LifeforceTV, please contact us.

I’m writing this from our office after our all too short 50-hour trip to LA. It may have been short, but it was well worth it. We had a great time celebrating with all the winners at the first annual Streamy’s, and witnessing first hand all the hard work from the producers that went into pulling off an event of this size. We’ll be looking forward to sponsoring the awards again next year, as they continue to push forward, and recognize the world of webTV.

For pictures from the awards, check out the Streamy flickr, Kodak’s flickr, and WireImage. And here are the winners:

Overall Series

Best Comedy Web Series
The Guild

Best Dramatic Web Series
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy

Best Hosted Web Series
EPIC FU

Best Reality or Documentary Web Series
The Shatner Project

Best News or Politics Web Series
Alive in Baghdad

Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Directing

Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
(Joss Whedon)

Best Directing for a Dramatic Web Series
Pink
(Blake Calhoun)

Writing

Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
(Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon
Best Writing for a Dramatic Web Series

Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy
(Jane Espenson, Seamus Kevin Fahey, Ronald D. Moore)

Acting

Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Neil Patrick Harris — (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)

Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Felicia Day — (The Guild)

Best Male Actor in a Dramatic Web Series

Alessandro Juliani — (Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy)

Best Female Actor in a Dramatic Web Series
Rosario Dawson — (Gemini Division)

Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series
The Guild

Best Guest Star in a Web Series
Paul Rudd — (Wainy Days)

Best Web Series Host
Alex Albrecht — (Project Lore)

Craft Awards

Best Editing (*)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog— (Lisa Lassek)

Best Cinematography (*)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Ryan Green)

Best Art Direction (*)
Tiki Bar TV — (Kim Bailey)

Best Visual Effects (*)
Backyard FX — (Erik Beck)

Best Animation in a Web Series
The Meth Minute 39 — (Dan Meth)

Best Original Music (*)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Jed Whedon)

Best Ad Integration in a Web Series
Back on Topps — (Skype)

Best Artistic Concept in a Web Series (*)
You Suck at Photoshop

* indicates awards presented at the Craft Awards reception on March 26, 2009.

Images courtesy of Kodak

This Saturday, the first ever Streamy awards take place at the historic Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles. Lifeforce Entertainment is pleased to be an official Patron Sponsor of the webTV awards, and we’ll be spending our weekend in sunny LA, taking lot’s of pictures to post here from the trip.

We’d like to congratulate all of the nominees for their hard work on their shows, and single out fellow Canadians Tiki Bar TV, Take Me Back, and of course Battlestar Galactica.

If you’d like to watch the awards, but can’t make it to LA, they’ll be broadcasting them live on March 28th, at 7:30pm on the Streamys website.

Thanks to our friends at Blip.tv, all the Men’s Room episodes are now available to watch on Boxee. It’s web entertainment and your HD TV, together at last.

“New Frontiers of Television: The “Give it to me now or I’ll just find it myself” era . . .”

Panelists include:

• Andra Sheffer (Executive Director, Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund)
• Cam Bennett (Executive Producer, MTS TV)
• John Gill (Media Consultant)
• Valerie Creighton (President, Canadian Television Fund)
• Chantal Leblanc-Everett (Head of Production & Development, Lifeforce Entertainment)

and…

Finding Your Audience: When the audience has so many options where do you find them?

Panelists include:

• Lazlo Barna (President, E1 Television)
• Charlotte Engel (Production Executive, Documentaries & Alternative Programming, CTV Inc.)
• John Gill (Media Consultant)
• Tom Hastings (Executive in Charge of Production, Drama, CBC TV Arts & Entertainment CBC)
• Chantal Leblanc-Everett (Head of Production & Development, Lifeforce Entertainment)
• Desiree Single (Manager of Programming, Central Region APTN)

We’re moving offices March 1st.

The new address will be:

80 Western Battery Road, Suite LPH08
Toronto, ON M6K 3S1

Our phone and emails will remain the same, but sadly our left over business cards are now as useless as streaming video with dial-up modem.

Please bear with us while we get our new office up and running.

Chantal, our head of production and development, has been invited to speak on the ‘New Media Broadcasting and Cancon panel’, at the annual Prime Time conference in Ottawa. The prime time conference is put on by the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association, and is billed as a networking event for hundreds of Canada’s most prominent business leaders, decision-makers and policy experts in the television, film and interactive media production, distribution and exhibition sectors, as well as the broadcasting and telecommunications industries.

Chantal joins panelists Brian Anthony from the Directors Guild of Canada, Jacob Glick from Google and Daniel Hawes from March Entertainment, to “discuss the challenges and opportunities and what the CRTC could do to ensure that Cancon in new media broadcasting is better supported and promoted, and that Canadians have access to that content”.

For a conference that usually focuses on traditional broadcast and distribution, we’re happy to see new media and online video getting recognized as a viable entertainment medium. If you’re going to be in attendance, make sure you say hi to Chantal. We’re sending her with some fresh-baked cookies to give out as a peace offering to all the broadcast folk.

The next meetup takes place on Monday February 23rd, at Paupers Pub in the Annex. Details for the meetup can be found here, or on the Facebook group.

If you’re in Toronto you invited to join us, have some drinks, and do some networking. Admission is free.