Still nothing like the big screen when web series look this good. Seriously, at the risk of selling out my 640 pixel comrades, there is something that happens when you sit back and watch some of these web series we all get excited about in their full uncompressed HD glory. And The Bannen Way, the high octane thrill ride shot on the RED One camera, is well worthy of some cinematic screen time. That and sharing the experience with a few hundred fellow vicarious adrenaline junkies.

This Friday evening Sony’s Crackle is hosting a special LA screening of the complete first season of The Bannen Way at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. It’s the latest in a series of screenings at the Egyptian that show the internet some love, with previous screenings including Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, The Guild, Strike.TV and Funny or Die.

On hand for a special Q&A after the screening will be Bannen stars Mark Gantt, Robert Forster, Michael Ironside, Michael Lerner and director Jesse Warren. Also on the program for the night is a sneak preview of Shane Felux’s much-awaited sci-fi drama Trenches, which recently signed on with Crackle for release later this year after hanging out in Stage 9 purgatory.

The live screening event starts at 7:30 PM and tickets are $11 on Fandango.

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Wedding Central, a 24/7 destination for wedding-themed programming, is taking the leap into original web programming with the premiere of Bridal Breakdown, a show that pranks brides right before their wedding day by making them think they are a part of a NYC-based documentary on weddings…and then use their crew of actors to make the brides-to-be think their wedding dreams are about to be left at the aisle.

Full disclosure: I may be a little TOO excited about this series. Being a lady on the “always a bridesmaid, never a bride (and okay with that)” path, I think I may take a little too much sadistic joy out of watching how women handle obstacles purposefully thrown into the path of them achieving “the happiest day of their life”. Not ever planning on having one of your own, it’s easy to sit back and watch the trainwreck with glee.

But beyond my personal beliefs on the institute of marriage, I do believe that the core of this series has its heart in the right place. Beyond all the stress of picking out the perfect dress/venue/flowers/cake/ring/napkins/etc/etc/etc, a wedding day is supposed to be FUN. As one of the bridesmaids responsible for the prank in the first episode states, “She is a total Bridezilla. Maybe now she can just tone it down a little bit. Hopefully. After she kills me.”

On a technical note, the series isn’t very easy to find on the Wedding Central website. You will first have to click the “Videos” tab at the top of the site, which takes you to the websites “Featured Videos”. On the right side of the video player is a tab labeled “Bridal Breakdowns”, which will take you to the series.

Bridal Breakdown premiered Monday, February 8th and will release a new episode each Monday for six weeks.

Scotty Iseri started his one-man web series with modest goals—create something funny that would cause a few people to take notice. Scotty Got an Office Job, the low-fi production which debuted last January, consisting of just Iseri and his web cam set in an office cubicle, did in fact get some not-to-shabby attention from the likes of laughingsquid, Tubefilter and even the New York Times. While press clippings do wonders for family dinners, they still don’t exactly pay the bills. With the second season winding down, the cubicle comedy was still without any sponsors on board or major distribution deals.

But when a call came from literally the other side of the world, longtime freelancer and writer Iseri had an offer too good to pass up. Australian PR firm Klick Communications had been following Scotty’s office antics and offered to sponsor a third season of the series—to be shot entirely in Klick’s Sydney-based offices. The one year-old firm has an impressive stable of clients like Havaianas, Southern Comfort and Australian Traveller Magazine.

Iseri packed up in late October for an all-expense-paid five week relocation to Sydney, staying in Fraser Suites Sydney (one of Klick’s clients). The plan was to shoot between 12 to 15 episodes, though by the end 18 episodes were in the can. Rather than release episodes weekly as he had before, much of the shooting was done in advance allowing for a more measured rollout over several months.

“We really enjoyed seeing the new episodes each week and once joked about working in an office with him and it went from there,” said Klick Director Kim McKay who initially found out about Iseri’s series on Twitter. “We also thought he might need a job as things didn’t appear to be going so well where he was.” (Scotty was “fired” at the end of Season 2.)

“As a creator, I realized how lucky I was to work with a forward thinking company,” added Iseri. “Fortune favors the bold, and the bold things are succeeding. It’s really cheap to fail on the internet—the consequences are less than if you made a commercial for broadcast.”

The series picked up a healthy dose of local press in Australia, with Iseri himself asked to speak at Social Media Club Sydney next to rapper-turned-Twitter-star MC Hammer.

“For us, it was about partnering with a talented creator (Scotty) and really trusting him,” said McKay. “We had always been entertained by him so we know that if we put too many parameters around the series it wouldn’t be fun for him and the end result just wouldn’t be as funny. We played gags on him but it was his decision what made the series. A web series is a fun and cost effective way to build brand awareness for almost anything—just create stories that you would like to see, not the stories you think you need to tell.”

And what about office pranks and goofing off, did they increase during Scotty’s time at Klick? ”They sure did,” said McKay. “While Scotty was trying to play it straight early on our team had a lot of fun turning the tables on him, the poor guy!”

McKay and her team at Klick even made a For Your Consideration video for the Streamy Awards, giving an inside glimpse of just how lucky Iseri really was…

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It’s not often that I get the opportunity to attend a screening of a web series and find myself greeted with fresh-baked cookies and Earl Grey tea. It’s even less common when the series I’m about to screen is a raunchy Western comedy where more than half the characters are played by plastic toys. But this is exactly what happened when I traveled to Laser Pacific Laboratories in Hollywood to get a sneak peak at The Ballad of Mary and Ernie.

Written, produced, and directed by Robert Stadd, The Ballad of Mary and Ernie is the story of a big sheriff in a small town. And that is meant literally…Ernie is about 50 feet taller than almost everyone, including his fiancee, Nan, who will do just about anything to keep her giant cowboy to herself. But then Mary Venezuala comes to town and saves Ernie from an evil gunslinger. Oh, and she’s big too, sending Ernie into confusion about his origins and who he’s given his heart to.

Stadd’s background is in visual effects, having been inspired to do the project by working on a set with a fully-built miniature town that was about to be torn down. “It just came to me”, explained Stadd. “Western. Big sheriff, little town. So I did some tests and thought, ooh, this is going to be good … and then it all started to gel: the webisodes thing, the fact that cameras are getting better. I was working on Public Enemies, I was the visual effects supervisor, and the whole time I’m thinking about this … it was just percolating in my mind. So as soon as I finished last summer, I went, okay, I’ve gotta do it. I basically just sat down last July and wrote the scripts.”

For his title roles, Stadd cast James Lane as Marshall Ernie and Vanessa Celso as Mary Venezuala. Both are seasoned actors with Lane appearing in such shows as 24, NCIS, Everyone Hates Chris, The Unit, and Celso appearing in the original web series Road to the Altar.

I talked to Lane about the particular challenges of working with a predominately plastic crew. “A lot of the time I was just acting to nothing”, said Lane. “I would look down at the ground and there would be nothing there but an X. I got used to it. It actually helped a lot when I could hold the doll and try to give them some kind of a character. And we’d have the script supervisor, she would read their lines for me and that helped. She started getting into it and that helped me. I also co-produced this with Robert so I’ve been around for most of the ride, watching all the post. Just the magic that he made with this. Before I’m just acting with my bare hand and then he blue screens things and paints things out.”

The Ballad of Mary and Ernie is now available on its own website. Episode 2 will be released on February 10th with an additional three episodes airing every 10 days. Stadd has plans for additional seasons of the series. “I definitely want to do more of these … I hate to leave them because the characters have so much they still wanna do.”

Photos courtesy of The Ballad of Mary and Ernie

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You really can’t script a better Super Bowl—two best-in-breed Pro Quarterbacks in Peyton Manning and Drew Brees marching their nearly-undefeated teams into the big game. Brees’ Saints are the scrappy first-timers to the dance, carrying the hopes of a wounded city galvanized by the unlikely success of this band of brothers. Then there’s the always calculating Manning, one of the only true player-coaches left in the game, himself a seasoned general on the field marching his Ring-sporting champs back into the stadium where they won it all in 2007.

But the latest episode (above) out from 12 Angry Mascots of their popular web series NFL Writers Room, thrashes all notions that this game is actually determined on the field. Atom.com picked up the latest episode, and probably the last of the season of the ESPN The Magazine commissioned comedy, in a exclusive distribution deal for the Super Bowl edition.

The New York based comedy crew delivers a three and half minute gem written and directed by Scott Rogowsky, who stars in the series alongside fellow mascots Emily Axford, Chris Chuang, Zach Lombardo, Tom McCaffrey, Zach Norton, Nicole Shabtai and Trevor Williams. (8 out of 12 isn’t bad for three minutes.)

For more, see our review of NFL Writers Room from November.

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And we were just getting into it! Riese, the steampunk-infused fantasy web series drama that has been unfolding online since its launch back in November, has been pulled down due to request from its new distribution partner Fireworks, the digital distribution arm of UK-based ContentFilm. The series had just begun Chapter 2 this week, releasing its six episode before the takedown occurred earlier today. This is the same firm that had picked up international distribution rights for recent web series like MTV New Media’s college mystery Valemont and Endemol UK’s sci-fi thriller Kirill.

Just trailers are left online on their YouTube channel and on KoldCast TV, which was the primary online network distributing the series. No word at this point when or if the series will return to the internet.

An excerpt from a blog post today by creators Ryan Kopple and Kaleena Kiff explaining the takedown (emphasis added):

We also recently partnered with Fireworks, a digital distribution branch of ContentFilm, based out of the UK. They’re largely responsible for the transition of the webseries Valemont from internet to television, and they handle a number of many other well-known webseries as well.

What does this mean for Riese? It opens up a number of opportunities. For one, it increases the chances that we can keep making this show and letting you become further involved in the world of Riese. Additionally, it boosts the possibility of us being able to distribute the series on other platforms (episode downloads, DVDs, and television).

Now, for the bad news. While Fireworks is negotiating deals on our behalf, we’ve had to remove our episodes from online streaming. We’re not happy about it by any means – we want all of our fans to enjoy Riese whenever they want – but we also understand that it’s a necessary move in order to keep a project like Riese afloat. The few of us that are responsible for producing Riese on a day-to-day basis are realistic that we cannot sustain it without the support of Fireworks and our viewers.

We hope to have everything back up as soon as possible, and we’ll keep everyone posted as we move forward. I know a lot of people will be bummed out, but just know that this slight delay could mean a whole new future for Riese. We don’t want to disappoint you all, but I know you’d be even more disappointed if we left the rest of this epic tale untold.

So far fans seem to be supportive of the move on based on comments on a fan Live Journal community, with most saying they are bummed but wish the best for the creators. One fan wrote: “While I am a bit bummed that the episodes have been taken down, as I was JUST about to rewatch them, I’m also UBER excited about the new opportunities this will open up for this franchise! I will be eagerly awaiting the return of Riese and hopefully you guys will have inked a deal for iTunes distribution, so I can buy a season pass!”

We reached out to KoldCast TV CEO David Samuels, who is a big supporter (and web distributor) of the series:

When KoldCast TV licensed Riese, a top-notch series, only KoldCast and YouTube distributed it and we were thrilled to be working with Ryan Copple. We worked very hard to introduce the series to our international audience which is now in 138 countries. As is the case in our industry, we monetized the series through pre-roll ads which, at this time in our space, does not fully monetize any individual programming, whether at KoldCast TV or any other distribution platform. When Ryan reached out to us to share the basic details of the new opportunity that landed on his plate, we learned that foreign rights were a material component of the opportunity. At this time, KoldCast does not geo block our Network programming, making it impossible for Riese to close their proposed deal. Nonetheless, Ryan gave us the opportunity to complete the remaining term of our two-year licensing agreement. If we had done so, we would have stood in the way of a genuine opportunity for the show to have a shot at generating greater revenues in foreign markets. While legally entitled to do so, we told Ryan that such a decision was contrary to our support of filmmakers around the world and that we would step aside in support of the show. Though painful to give up such a great series, it was the right thing to do for Ryan and all those who have worked so hard to achieve their dream. It goes without saying, we wish them the best of luck and we will still be big fans.

Really, this kind of shoots the series in the foot here, stranding the core online fan community that helped garner the series its early support. Sure, this was by most accounts not an inexpensive production—with the budget estimated around $200,000 for the indie series—and seeking paid international distribution options makes business sense. But in terms of fan strategy this just seems careless. Online entertainment has proven an effective launching pad for concepts, storylines and talent precisely because of that early dedicated fan support. Suffocating that community and throwing into a digital catalog for the rest of the year could prove to be an expensive mistake. Here’s to hoping they get them back online shortly.

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French web series The Coat, a post-apocalyptic drama, will make its head to the international content market MIPTV as part of the Content 360 cross-platfrom competition. The 12-episode series, all in French, is created by Mathieu Cailliere, Benoit Lamouche and Sebastien Petitjean. Seven episodes have been shot and are available for viewing on the show’s site, with five more slated for production. [WorldScreen.com]

The AP (Associated Press) is launching its own web series—Beyond the Medal—starting February 12 at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. It will push out the daily series, hosted by Jesse Csincsak to some 900 of its paying partner sites as well as its own ad-supported hub for the Games: wintergames.ap.org. [Mediaweek]

Atom.com is hiring a full-time Marketing Manager to work out of its Santa Monica, CA headquarters and help build brand awareness and social media strategy. A “deep familiarity with the web video industry” is required, and if you’re reading this here, it’s a good sign you stand a chance. Apply here: [Tubefilter New Media Job Board]

Revision3 put out its latest numbers this week, announcning it had served up over 1.5 Billion minutes of video in 2009, a stat they look at closer than the 70 million views that came with those minutes served. In terms of revenue, the internet TV network said it grew revenue 30% over the year, with the average ad deal for its shows up 50% from advertisers including new sponsors Klondike, Ford, Adidas, Coors, Patron, Nokia and Panasonic. [Revision3 press release]

Break.com officially outdid themselves from last year, completing a massively larger “Big Game Snack Food Stadium,” which is made up of a whoopping 110,428 calories of football game junk food. The making-of video (below) shows the caloric monstrosity coming together piece by piece. Who got to uh, dismantle, it? [Break.com]

The Big Game Snack Food Stadium – Watch more free videos

More Superbowl videos, as Comedy.com put out a definitive list of their “50 Funniest Super Bowl Commercials Of All Time.” They, like many Americans, are enthralled by those talking E*TRADE babies. Cute, but we thought #36, Cadbury’s dancing eyebrows (below) should have been higher. Robbed! [Comedy.com]

Funny or Die claims to have video documentation of the origins of the phrase “That’s What She Said” in a new video out (below) with Tom Lennon and a woman that looks a lot like Megan Mullally. [Funny or Die]

Got something for Quick Clicks? Shoot them over to tips[at]tubefilter.tv

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Streamy-winning director Blake Calhoun (Pink) has announced his latest web series project today, a sci-fi drama set in space called Continuum. The series will star Harper’s Globe and loneylgirl15 star Melanie Merkosky (left) as Reagen, a young woman who awakes on a space ship without any memory of what she is doing there. Her only companion on board is the ship’s computer, a female spin on 2001’s “Hal,” voiced by Taryn O’Neill (Compulsions, After Judgment). Also announced for the cast is Brad Hawkins (Pink) as Tipton.

Calhoun and co. are calling the project “a futuristic thriller in the noir-ish tradition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.” Loud Pictures, Calhoun’s production company is producing along with Alternative Fuel, a multiplatform company he co-founded with Pink producer Mike Maden. Also producing is CJP Digital Media, with Wilson Cleveland involved on distribution and marketing of the series, as it does for The Fall of Kaden, IKEA-backed Easy to Assemble and Spherion-sponsored The Temp Life.

Similar to Pink’s start, which began as a purely indie production before being picked up by Generate after its successful first season, Contiuum is starting out independently backed. Production will begin on the first ten episodes of the sci-fi project in Dallas and Los Angeles beginning February 22. Calhoun also has Exposed still in development over at Warner Bros. for its online channel TheWB.com, a project on which he is teaming up with director McG and his Wonderland Sound and Vision outfit.

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Society’s changing digital lifestyle was the focus of PBS’s award-winning series, Frontline, this week. The episode, “Digital Nation,” explores how our favorite technologies and gadgets can lead to addiction and impact our brain’s ability to think and learn. [Watch it above or on PBS.org.]

Amazon has some touch screen-action in mind for its popular Kindle e-reader with the reported purchase of Touchco, a start-up that began as a project at the Media Research Lab at New York University. As Apple has proven with the iPhone and new iPad, touch screens are a key ingredient for cool devices. [VentureBeat]

Get ready for LIVE TV on the iPhone. After months of wrangling, AT&T has finally approved the use of Sling Media’s SlingPlayer Mobile app over its 3G network. App users can now stream live and recorded television content from their Slingbox home entertainment system to their iPhone (as soon as Apple approves the newly updated $29 app). [TheAtlantic]

Looking for a second opinion before purchasing an Internet-connected TV? Then check out the Annual TV issue of Consumer Reports. (Fee) They rate over 20 TV sets starting at a list price of $1,000 that can stream online movies. Lab tests showed that setting up the devices and using them to access online content was easy, and that “picture quality was decent if not quite up to the claimed resolution. [Broadcasting & Cable]

“Checking in” for Charity – Location-based mobile social network Loopt is putting mobile check-ins to philanthropic use. For every check-in you make at a Chipotle, Panera Bread, or Whole Foods location around the country, Loopt will donate $1 towards the Haiti earthquake relief. Half of the proceeds will be given to the American Red Cross and the other half will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. [TechCrunch]

3D News Update: Sony is busy converting its extensive archive of movies into 3D to watch on Blu-ray. Titles may be released starting next year. Sony will also start selling nine new 3D-ready Bravia televisions this summer. And for you gamers, PlayStation 3 consoles will be able to run games in 3D by summer as well, after downloading required updates (when available). [Bloomberg/New Zealand Herald]

Making and distributing web series back in 2001 wasn’t anywhere nearly as simple as today’s creators have it—this was 4 years before YouTube popped up and streaming video over the internet was neither easy or cheap. But that didn’t stop young actor-writers Sam Maccarone and Dian Bachar from showing off their skills to anyone who would watch it—online. By 2001, the pair had launched their second original web series Roommates: The Series after a successful start with their 1999 comedy series Captain Jackson, which netted them a healthy dose of press coverage and paid gigs.

Now nine years later, after moving on to film and TV projects, the duo are returning to the internet and bringing back both series with new episodes starting February 15th. Check out one of the 2001 episodes (above)—”Sam’s New Friend.” We caught up with Maccarone to ask him about what is most likely the web’s longest ever hiatus for a series and his plans for their new comedy site—TheTVFantastic.com, where the two series will live, along with other new originals.

Tubefilter: You guys were some of the earliest web series creators, what was it like back then and how did you distribute?

Sam Maccarone: Dian and I actually had a really popular web series before Roommates: the Series in 1999 called Captain Jackson, so we have definitely been making shows online for a while. We made up a site called Bongcaster and just offered them for free to the public. Back then it was streaming video and we would literally pay 30 cents every time someone watched an episode. It also looked horrible. Very blocky and pixelated. And the sound got off sync after a minute or two. It was annoying. But the show did well and we got articles about us in all kinds of magazines. Our investor finally pulled out of Captain Jackson because it was too much money. Me and Dian somehow became roommates in 2000 and by 2001, we had a new investor and began cranking out Roommates: the Series episodes. At the time, we still had to pay every time someone “streamed” our movies. The charge was for bandwidth. By 2003, we were getting so many hits that our investor again said, “no way.” Roommates the Series was dead…

Tubefilter: What made you decide to return to the web after finding some success with film and TV?

Maccarone: Around that time I sold a script to National Lampoon and went into production on TV: the Movie. That kept me busy for a year and then that turned into more movies and a few TV shows. Dian starred in everything I made. During all this, I watched youtube spring up. The whole time I was making features, I was watching these kids crank out awesome content and was actually kind of jealous!? there’s something sweet about making 2 – 5 minute movies. You have this small amount of time to try and make as big of an impact as you can. I’ve been dealing with shifty, cocky, shady film producers for 8 years now and I wanted to return to making films where we have control. I know Dian feels the same way. So it just seemed like the right thing to do. All music and visual f/x are created by Tim Montijo who did all the original Roommates. I also brought on legendary documentary filmmaker Chapin Wilson (Hands on a Hardbody) to produce. Chapin and I just finished a documentary about the Delorean Time Machine and super fans who replicate it for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Tubefilter: You’re launching a new site on the 15th of this month—TheTVFantastic.com—what exactly is going to be there?

Maccarone: thetvfantastic.com is a site where we will bring back all of our old characters and some new. New episodes of Roommates: the Series go up this month, and in March, we will begin releasing new Captain Jackson episodes. We promise at least a new Roommates or Captain Jackson a month. Maybe more. Lot’s of surprise cameos, lots of naughty R-rated humor. It’s good to be back on the internet! We will be selling merchandise and action figures. There will be contests where winning viewer submitted scripts will be filmed by us. And of course, a good old message board so anyone can tell us what they think.

Tubefilter: Can you tell us who you’ve have lined up in terms of talent this time around?

Maccarone: All I can say is that in the coming months, we will have a lot of cool celebrity surprises.

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