Launched: May 2007
Distributed by: CBS, at clarkandmichael.com
Located: Los Angeles
Updated: Series Completed
Talent: Michael Cera & Clark Duke

Stand-Out Episode: Episode Three. If you don’t find the first 25 seconds funny, Clark And Michael probably isn’t for you.

The Angle:
Clark And Michael stars… Clark and Michael. At least, semi-fictional versions of the two actors. Think Curb Your Enthusiasm, but with even more awkward silences (if that’s possible). The premise is that the duo have written a show, and this 10-episode series chronicles their attempt to sell that show to the networks. The series is filmed in a mockumentary style, with cameras following two awkwardly hilarious stars because they themselves hired the crew to follow them around to capture their efforts to get the show picked up. From the New York Times recent piece on Cera:

So without commercial sponsors and focus groups, “Clark and Michael” unfolds in weekly bursts of 7 to 10 minutes long, filled with the awkward silences that Mr. Cera likes so much and plenty of absurdist low-key mockery of life on the show-business fringe, including one scene in which Mr. Cera, after having a script rejected, cries in a bathtub and refers to a well-known screenwriting guide. “We wrote symbols and themes and motifs,” he moans. “We read the whole Syd Field book.”

Our Thoughts:
There’s no doubt that Cera is darn close to being crowned the new king of awkward comedy. Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz has stated that he pushed Cera’s character George Michael into even more awkward territory than originally planned, because he knew that Cera could handle it. Clark & Michael is Cera’s first big writing/directing coming out, and his comedic chops shine just as brightly in those roles. Clark Duke, an old friend of Cera’s, might not have as much comedy cred, but his egotistical, arguably alcoholic alter-ego on C&M plays perfectly off of Cera’s understated mannerisms.

Matt Kirsch has explored whether C&M is a true web show, or a sitcom premise that was just a little too niche to actually make it on TV, and got shunted online instead. In VidHammer’s opinion the show exists (creatively) in a fairly unexplored middle ground between the two mediums. On the one hand the quick-hit episodes are only 7-10 minutes long, there’s all kinds of meta humor, and quick, jarring edits are used to great comedic effect. Yet compared to most web video, the pace of an episode seems almost glacial - much more TV-like. Long setups are the norm, as are plenty of leisurely editing choices.

Critically, the show is great, but we do have to wonder how Clark And Michael made sense for CBS financially. The videos ran at a spun-off website and not on any CBS portal, and the only advertisement is a banner ad for Cera’s upcoming Superbad - more or less a house ad. Why did CBS Interactive online content supervisor Matt Kaplan buy the show? We’re glad he did and it makes a pretty good case to argue that CBS “gets it,” but was that reason enough to fork over the money?

Resources
Clark & Michael IMDB
Michael Cera IMDB
Clark Duke IMDB
Michael Cera New York Times Interview
Collider.com Clark And Michael Interview
Hollywood Reporter Review

Launched: April 2006
Distributed by: ScrewAttack.com and GameTrailers.com
Located: Brea, CA
Updated: Bi-Weekly
Talent: James Rolfe

Stand-Out Episode: - WARNING - Dialogue NSFW
The Angle:
The Angry Video Game Nerd is a pretty simple concept. James Rolfe plays oldschool 80s-era videogames, usually pretty awful ones, and rants and raves about how awful/nonsensical they are. Despite achieving an incredible level of success (it’s not unusual for every episode to amass 1 million views), the formula hasn’t changed much. Usually Rolfe’s on-camera persona gets more an more worked up by the awfulness of the game he’s playing until he explodes in a profanity-laced (and oddly hilarious) outburst like this gem, taken from his review of the original NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Cowabunga? Cowa-f*ckin piece of dog sh*t! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick. This game is as appealing as a f*ckin’ ooze-infested dirty f*ckin’ sewer rat sh*t. I’ve had more fun playing with dog turds. Shredder’s my ass and Splinter’s my balls. This game is an inside-out asshole regurgitating putrid anal fecal matter. I’d rather f*ckin yank all the hairs out of my scrotum. I’d rather drink diarrhea vomited out of a buffalo’s anus. It suckin f*cks, it f*ckin sucks, AND I DON’T LIKE IT.

…okay, so that looks worse in print than it actually is in the video. After seeing all the game’s faults deconstructed for about six minutes, it makes for a satisfying, laugh-inducing conclusion. At least for the gamer generation. Rolfe has an odd, nerd-ish charm that sells the anger, and it’s especially funny when the subject of his attacks are a game that frustrated you in your youth.

Our Thoughts:
The Nerd has gotten a little more tame in recent months, since his series was picked up by the MTV-owned GameTrailers.com. It’s also gotten a little more complex, including the addition of a surprisingly catchy theme song. But even 15 months later, each bi-weekly episode remains a must-watch for thousands of video games. Especially those that remember being abused by old 80s games.

We take web video seriously here at VidHammer, but not so seriously that we’re going to debate the merits of a nerdy guy going on crazy, angry tangents about awful oldschool videogames. The appeal for a specific audience is pretty obvious. The fact is this stuff is funny, plain and simple. The new episodes aren’t as good as some of the earlier ones, and sometimes it seems as if Rolfe is running out of fresh ways to express his extreme anger, but the show’s a must-watch for current or lapsed gamers, assuming the profanity isn’t too over-the-top for them.

Resources:
James Rolfe’s Homepage
YouTube Profile - 12th most-subscribed of all time.
Angry Video Game Nerd FAQ

Launched: July 2007
Distributed by: Self-distributed at thewestside.tv
Located: New York City
Updated: Infrequently

Talent:
Creators: Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zachary Lieberman
Starring: Damian Washington
Original music by: Ben Campbell
Associate producers: Damian Washington, Catherine Corley, Felipe Colón

Latest Episode: Episode One

The Angle:
Their words:

The West Side is an urban western, created by Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zachary Lieberman. Set in a unique, alternate universe, it melds together elements of two disparate film genres: the grit of an urban setting with the tradition of the American Western. The show is presented free on the internet as a contemporary version of the serial novel; new chapters in the dozen-episode storyline will be posted as quickly as they can be produced.

Our Thoughts:

The mixing of the two styles is intriguing. Sometimes it comes off as a little ham-fisted and obvious (a plastic grocery bag tumbling through the wind replaces the ubiquitous tumbleweed), but even this short, dialogue-light introductory episode makes a good case for “gangstas” being the modern-day equivalent of wild west gunslingers. I buy in to it.

It’s a little unusual to be profiling a serialized web video after just one episode has appeared, but there are a couple special things about The West Side that we felt were worth highlighting, even this early on. The first is that creators Bilsborrow-Koo and Lieberman seem to have taken the concept of episodic distribution to heart creatively, and aren’t just doing it to build hype, or to avoid undertaking a big production schedule right from the off. Instead, the distribution seems to be a wholly creative decision:

To us, visual storytelling on the web is not about posting a one-minute clip every day and pushing for max audience numbers and ad revenue—it’s about quality of storytelling, regardless of delivery medium.

The second reason to profile the show at this point is that it’s clear, after just one episode, that these guys have very real film chops. The lighting, the composition, even the sound mixing is on another level than nearly all of the video being put on the web today. That’s not to say it’s objectively better - it’s just overtly film-like, whereas much web video seems to almost pride itself on being as “unfilmlike” as possible.

Technical difficulties (hard drive failure - ouch) have delayed episode two, but we’ll be there whenever it finally does drop.

Have your own web show and want VidHammer to profile it? Send us an email at mail -at- vidhammer.com

Launched: May 2007
Distributed by: Next New Networks, at IndyMogul.com
Located: East Bay, CA
Talent: Erik Beck
Runs: Weekly

Latest Episode:

The angle:
Backyard FX is hosted by self-proclaimed “zero budget wizard” Erik Beck. The quick (never more than 6-7 minute) videos show how to create practical film special effect, followed by an always-entertaining “screen test” to show off how the effect actually looks when completed. Episodes have covered how to make zombie make-up, a robot, aging make-up, a giant sandwich (a must-watch, in my opinion), and a gunshot effect, among others.

Our Thoughts:
The show is only a couple months old, but already looks to be a big winner. I have never had even a remote interest in film-making, but the clips still appealed. Learning how to make fake brains or convincing zombies is just interesting stuff, even if the viewer won’t actually be using the practical advice themselves. It helps that the episodes don’t overstay their welcome. It quickly shifts from intro, to explanation, to the final screen test, and you’re left wishing it wasn’t 7 days until another episode is available.

Host Erik Beck, besides clearly knowing his stuff (anyone know his film background?), also comes off as very likable. The show’s oddball humor occasionally misses the mark, but hits it far more often.

The strong viewer interactivity, the short running time, the host himself, and nearly all other aspects of Backyard FX make this one an example of Web Video done right.

Resources:
About Indy Mogul
Facebook Group
Myspace Page
1M Streams News Story

Along with tech lawyer Joyce Kim (who is also sister-in-law to Jason Calacanis), the weekly show will be 10-minute talks with various tech CEOs and start-up entrepreneurs.

Malik will handle the editorial and Revision3–founded by Digg founders Jay Adelson, Kevin Rose and others–will deal with production, distribution and ad sales.

The episode itself, while inoffensive enough, didn’t really do much to put the show on the map. Some general sloppiness didn’t help either - the audio sometimes sounded muffled, and at one point you can hear a door slam in the background. Very bush-league. Om, as intelligent and knowledgeable as he is, needs more practice in front of the camera, as well.

Still, I enjoy Malik’s interviewing style. He manages to continually push and ask real, challenging questions, while remaining as charming as ever. His two guests this week were HotOrNot CEO James Hong, and Seagate CEO Bill Watkins. Hong was pressed about whether his company’s much-heralded Facebook application actually has any, you know, revenue potential, and Watkins got grilled about why the heck his company’s revenue fluctuates so wildly quarter to quarter. Malik managed to accomplish this while keeping everything friendly and cordial, despite pushing the issue when he felt he wasn’t given a real answer.

Ultimately for those interested in the Silicon Valley scene, I will, for now, give The GigaOm Show a tentative thumbs up. The show does nothing to push web video forward as a medium (it’s people talking on a couch for 30 minutes), and this first outing wasn’t especially impressive, but there’s potential here. It could develop into a more serious, level-headed examination of the space than some of the more “edgy” video being produced today.