After shutting its doors last spring and then being resurrected by original founder Drew Massey (who bought back the company from investors), maniaTV is ready to get back to its roots: producing original celebrity-driven content. “Our focus is really on helping original personalities in Hollywood unleash their creative energy online,” said Massey, who chatted with Tubefilter via e-mail. “We were the first to do so with Tom Green Live and Dave Navarro’s Spread TV and we’re continuing that focus.”

“While MTV sadly continues to sell its soul with shows about Guidos, rich kids’ cribs, well-hung guys and raunchy puppets, maniaTV is unleashing the creative energy of Hollywood’s most original personalities to deliver a new lineup of Live and Original Celebrity TV Shows,” continued Massey. “Although we’re a gnat compared to MTV, and we’re still in the early days of TV online, we have dozens of personalities wanting to work with maniaTV. Celebrities appreciate the fact that maniaTV is a creative show factory for Internet TV that empowers them to produce their own shows and to work directly with top youth brands as sponsors—effectively cutting out the bigwig red-tape and overhead.”

The site will be releasing at least three new original series this summer starting with frat-brother friendly Celebrity Rush. Hosted by ExtraTV star Jerry Penacoli, he describes it as: “imagine Animal House meets Inside the Actor’s Studio. That’s Celebrity Rush.” The show is a weekly interview series taped live on the UCLA campus and will feature live audience participation. It is scheduled to being airing in August.

Some other projects in the works include Comedy Club Live, which will feature known as well as undiscovered comics and hosted by celebrity comics such as Jamie Kennedy, Wee-man’s Wrecked, a 10 episode series featuring Jackass star Jason Acuna, as well as new seasons of Tom Green Live and Navarro’s SpreadTV.

maniaTV is also developing some original concepts, including action sports show the Next Tony Hawk as well as several other of their special brand of celebrity-headed talk shows. “We broadcast on maniaTV and distribute as well,” concluded Massey. “We are big believers that the market needs one big network for original premium shows created for this medium. So that’s our core focus.”

The spiked hair and fire breathing magic skills of Scam School’s Brian Brushwood primed the crowd, in an opening act that probably could have its own Vegas offshoot some day. Then there was the #OMGConan hoax, an organized prank led by Rev3 co-founder David Prager that generated 426 tweets from the audience blasting out that Conan O’Brien is joining Revision3. This was of course full-circle to the web network’s credulous offer back in January for Conan to have his own Rev3 show.

Oh, and the crowdsurfing. Alex and Kevin floated over the sea of outstretched arms. Even live streaming TWIT.tv’s Leo Laporte joined in on the fun to cheers of “Leo! Leo! Leo!” as he was whisked up while carrying his lighted unipod to stream his ride. Was this the first live streamed crowd surfing shot first person?

In the parlor game of us spectators, one of the questions batted around was just how much PC-maker Alienware paid for the ultimate product integration—swapping out Kevin and Alex’s usual laptops for two of theirs. Best bets from those in the know seemed to say it was at least $50k for the privilege of that placement. Some speculated it was a six figure deal. Either way, not cheap to free known Apple-lover Kevin Rose from his MacBook Pro.

Spotted up in the VIP section were a number of web series vets like Taryn Southern, Tim Street, Brett Register, iJustine, Phil DeFranco, Shira Lazar, Tony Valenzuela and others—all there to witness first-hand just how big this video space has actually become. It left us all thinking, who needs Conan when you have have these guys?

The episode was shot live, but to tape, meaning the edited version won’t be up until later this week.

Photos by George Ruiz.

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In a constant effort to promote Streamy-nominated content to the public and members of the voting body of the International Academy of Web Televison, the IAWTV hosted bi-coastal Streamy Awards finalist screenings on March 11th, 2010. The events took place in New York and Los Angeles (the LA screening was also streamed live via Stickam) and included clips from nominees in the 11 overall Streamy Awards categories and a presentation of various new media professionals and creators.

Held at NYU’s Cantor Film Center and supported by NYU Tisch School of The Arts, The Writers Guild of America East, The Producers Guild New Media Council and The New York Television Festival, the New York screening included a discussion with MyDamnChannel Founder and CEO Rob Barnett. Barnett discussed his experiences in successfully bringing popular entertainment properties to the web, including Wainy Days and You Suck at Photoshop, and how and why he distributes shows like Easy to Assemble. He revealed that in addition to being very choosey about the content he develops, he takes a very hands off approach in the creative process. Barnett chooses to let the creators of the shows do what they do best: create.

The Los Angeles screening was presented to IAWTV and Screen Actors Guild members as a part of the the Screen Actors Guild LifeRaft Live Stream series, a professional development program that provides insight into the business of acting through seminars. A panel discussion with Streamy nominated producers and creators – all of which were part of SAG signatory shows – followed the screening. Drew Baldwin, Co-Founder of Tubefilter, moderated the panel, which included Aaliyah Williams and Anastasia Ali (producers, Buppies), Ernest Vecchione (creator, Sex Ed), Sandeep Parikh, (creator/writer/director, The Legend of Neil), and Jonathan Stern (producer, Wainy Days). Panelists shared their insights across a wide array of experiences; from how funding and distribution effect production, to the importance of social media tools such as Twitter; and fielded questions from the audience in attendance and online viewers (the Stickam live stream view count exceeded 73,000 views!).

The IAWTV and the Streamy Awards are still very much growing organizations. The success of these types of events is vital to continuing to expand their exposure and engagement beyond the two coasts. But most importantly, they’re great opportunities to expose more people to great web shows, and they provide the kind of face-to-face dialogues and interaction that can be lost when you create and watch content that mostly lives online.

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Inspired by the Playstation video game of the same name, Infamous shows us a world where everyday people have the regular occurance of having to deal with the fact that they are suddenly shooting lightning out of their body or hearing someone’s thoughts. A world where anyone can suddenly find themselves with superpowers and have the tough decision of whether to use their abilities for either good or evil…or sometimes a little of both. “[Co-creator] Greg [Washington] and I are both avid comic book readers,” said co-creator Joey Barto. “So, the story is kind of an extension of that. We love revenge stories, we love dark stories, we love anti-heroes, and this is a really great story about a very dark, dark anti-hero.”

Created by Barto, Washington, John Chambers, Harvard Taylor, and Travis Barth, produced by Newborn Productions and Cultivate Media Productions and shot locally in Shreveport, Louisiana, the series sets out to prove you can create high-quality, complex, and visually stimulating content outside of the heavily debated “Los Angeles Bubble”. Said Washington: “We have built a great relationship with two local studios here in Shreveport; Fairfield Studios and Crain Video, that have donated equipment and studio space for the production of Infamous.”

“Shooting in Louisiana, Shreveport in particular, gives us so many incredible options for backgrounds,” continued Washington. “Shreveport has passed for California, New York, New Orleans, Texas, and many other states because of its unique structure and setup. It is the perfect location for a production like ours with a very limited budget. And Southern hospitality has been extended above and beyond.”

The show is two episodes into its run and is quickly establishing an audience. “The sky is the limit as far as goals for the series,” explained Washington. “In our first week we were contacted by KoldCast TV to distribute our show on their network. Our fanbase is growing everyday, and other professionals we have met in the business are asking to help out any way that they can. Our production value has grown by leaps and bounds.”

“Our first season is twelve episodes, and we’re going to break it up into arcs,” continuted Barto. “Each set of three we’ll present to you with pretty much one full show. Kind of like a comic book back in the day.”

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With over 15 million views, season 1 of Married on MySpace is the most watched web series MySpace has ever produced, according to numbers from the company. Endemol USA and MySpace are hoping to match and perhaps even surpass that success by bringing the popular, fan-driven show back for a second season.

The season premiered this week with the unveiling of this seasons couple, Graeham and Dehlia, as they begin their journey to the alter…and they are at the mercy of the viewers to choose every aspect of the ceremony. The audience is currently being asked to vote on the what wedding bands the couple will give each other to express thier lifelong devotion to ech other with (my vote is on the “White Gold Wreath”, it’s stunning!). Future episodes will have audience members choosing the dress, location, planning of the bachelor and bachelorette parties (someone better jump out of a cake, I’m just saying), etc.

With all these decisions needing to be made, the series is bursting at the seems with product placement opportunities. Current sponsors include include Hewlwtt-Packard, JCPenney, the FOX Searchlight film Our Family Wedding, The Knot, and Hearst.

Married on MySpace: Season 2 will have a 13-episode run that will conclude with a wedding ceremony that will reveal which details were chosen by the audience. Three words people: White Gold Wreath.

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From the trailer you get the idea that Tyranny is a distant relative of 70’s American thrillers, where corporations rule the world and your mind. From the three episodes I’ve screened, I was convinced it was another dystopic, post-apocalyptic thriller. Dystopia, I know, but I think timing wise, this is more pre-apocalypse. At any rate this series from creator John Beck Hofman is gripping while still competently executed for its scope.

Hofman plays Daniel McCarthy who in 1999 volunteers for a Berkley Grad student’s experiment that records his every thought and action throughout the day. Shortly thereafter he realizes he has lost memory of the last eight days and can now see the future from 2011 to 2013. And it ain’t pretty. Food shortages, bio-engineered pandemic, and picketers galore…future? Hmm, that sounds awfully similar to a certain planet I know right now. The rest of the cast is impressive, with Bond girl Olga Kurylenko starring alongside Hofman and web series standout Bitsie Tulloch from Quarterlife and lonleygirl15.

Daniel becomes part of the resistance against a shadowy corporation that we will eventually learn is controlling this chaos, presumably to get richer, while the poor get poorer. Power, money, mind control, you know the drill. Maybe a little too well. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how I feel about the show and this somewhat familiar concept, but I guess the bottom line is that after three eps, I want to know more. And that’s about all a creator needs, right?

The show, which premiers today on Koldcast TV, is technically good. It has a kind of gauzy look that seems to have become the staple of the post-apocalyptic genre, though it reminds me a little too much of daytime soaps. Lots of camera movement and relatively simple double-exposure effects are surprisingly effective in getting me on board with the inherent anxiety of the concept. Basically, good production value on what I’m going to assume is a modest budget.

Episode one (above, top) had me locked in as it opened with some amazing imagery of a tubed-up man floating like a full grown fetus in a greenish solution, intercut with a blue orbs, mathematic chicken scratches, and flashes of a woman in various locations. “This is going to be mindbending,” I’m telling myself…and from then on, the show gives so little information with each episode that it truly becomes mindbending, without being confusing, or boring. Like I said, I want to know more.

Each ep of this 22-episode thriller hovers somewhere between less than seven minutes and greater than three and at that rate will easily be able to sustain the mystery, which I’m hoping feels as complex, though not as complicated as a show like Lost. The look, length and what seems to be some intelligence in the writing conspire to make for what I hope will be a sustaining show. I also like the fact that its discussing a not-so-distant, and not-so unrealistic future that is nonetheless scary as hell. Take a look at it and I have a feeling you’ll be coming back (it’s a weekly series) and maybe, just maybe Hofman will show us some fresh insight into something we’ve seen before in one way or another.

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Known as the last great race on the earth, the Iditarod is an 1150-mile sled dog race across the most dangerous and extreme terrain of Alaska. Fifty-eight year old Kathy Frederick is one of the oldest female rookie competitors to ever compete in this treacherous race and I, Leslie Morgan will be documenting her journey.

This is, in a nutshell, the premise for the unique documentary web series 1150 Project created by the one-woman producing dynamo Leslie Morgan. The series is literally unfolding right now, as Leslie follows Kathy currently racing in this year’s Iditarod. Tubefilter chatted via e-mail (as she is currently still in Alaska working on the series) with this inspiring creator to get the inside scoop on this truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Tubefilter: What was the inspiration behind this project? How did you and Kathy meet?

Leslie Morgan: I have been interested in finding a documentary project about someone living out a dream, Lemonade: The Movie and David Lynch’s The Interview Project inspired this web series. I met Kathy online after a mutual friend told me about her and her website. When I saw she needed a volunteer for three months to help her out managing her household I thought I could help her, but I also wanted to document her journey. I have been interested in producing a web based project for some time and thought rather than taking months to try and make a feature why not try to film and edit in Alaska, posting episodes as I go.

Tubefilter: Had you had experience in dog sled racing before this?

LM: I had never experienced dog sled racing before. Initially what I was interested in exploring was an older female single woman taking on this type of physical challenge and why. It wasn’t until I was here and in the project that I came to really understand the world of a dog musher.

Tubefilter: What was the biggest challenge you had to face producing the series?

LM: There were a few challenges. Financing I think is always a challenge, which is why I set up a paypal account on the site as well as an Indiegogo page to help get donors to contribute so I could actually go. The other challenge is having lived in Los Angeles for seven years I am not accustomed to snow and negative temperatures so the environment was definitely a challenge as is being a one woman show on it. I take the footage, edit it, upload it, manage the site, promote it etc. It’s obviously a lot easier when you have a team, even a small team of people behind you to help with even some mundane tasks.

Tubefilter: How are you integrating traditional web series episodes and a livestreaming component?

LM: I essentially wanted to do a live broadcast with Kathy every Tuesday night so people who were following the episodes and the site could ask questions about the dogs, how Kathy was feeling etc. So I got a Ustream channel. I wanted a way to involve the audience directly and I felt utilizing a live broadcast could make the audience feel more a part of everything. Plus I am a firm believer that involving the audience on every level just helps grow the project. The idea of making your audience a part of the project instead of simply a passive bystander has been important to me since working in radio and music where we would have street teams go out and promote shows or bands. I think film, tv and especially those involved in new media have a great opportunity to integrate their audience so that they become an active part of the whole process.

Tubefilter: What’s next for this project?

LM: Well first: finishing it. So far I have 9 episodes up and my goal is to finish out with about 20, but I may do more. I guess if people want to keep watching I will keep the project going. I would love to eventually create a feature compiling the webisodes along with additional footage that you did not get to see. Also a really amazing part of the Iditarod is the teacher training portion. I have connected to a few teachers who use the Iditarod as part of their curriculum and may be interested in using my content in their classrooms, which is really incredible to me. I would love to continue to build from this project and the idea of being able to potentially go into classrooms and speaking about the project and having kids start to create their own projects could be the next extension of this particular project.

Tubefilter: Do you have any other web projects in the works?

LM: I have several ideas of web series I would love to do, one involves true stories of women facing challenges, two others are narrative. Ideally I just want to continue to creating and producing web content whether it be for myself or another company. If anyone needs a content producer let me know! I’ll need a job after this adventure ends at the end of the month!

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The Annoying Orange

Are you high or 14 years old? Do you live in the suburbs? It’s completely fucking absurd – like, X-Files absurd – that this series has over 20 million hits. That must mean that Satan is on his way. This is the kind of thing that the movie Idiocracy predicted. This is pure, pure unfunny highly concentrated, in droplet form, just purely nonsensical riffing from an Annoying Orange. It’s either high concept art or it’s just plain terrible. It made me want to drink alone on a balcony overlooking the city, listening to sad bastard music, wondering “Is this all there is in life? This?” and then keep drinking scotch. It was F. Scott Fitzgerald levels of ambivalence to humanity after watching this one, folks. This was terrible.

Wiener & Wiener

Do you want to know something? I was at the grocery store and found a thing called a Grapple. It’s an apple that’s been crossbred with a grape. It’s not bad. Anyway, Weiner and Weiner is a lot like the Grapple, because it’s not bad but it’s completely strange and I have no idea what to make of it. It’s good? Bad? I don’t like it? Maybe I do? It doesn’t make any sense except it kind of does? It’s like Urban Outfitters: The Show. Not only do all the actors and actresses look like they work there, but there’s a definite and palpable feeling of the decision to forgo plot for style points.

The Basement

Actiiiiiing! This is totally the college kids, right? This is totally This Crazy Idea For A Web Series And Then We Did It, isn’t it? This succeeds for being a live action Scooby Doo ghost story with some swearing. It’s not bad after you watch a few episodes in a row, and works best when watched all together. It’s pretty neat, I have to admit.

Copy & Pastry

This show grew on me after a few episodes. It’s actually pretty fucking funny – highlighting a very oblique sense of humor… which you don’t see in web shows very much. When this show is good it reaches a very watchable mix of Kids In The Hall and Napoleon Dynamite. When it’s bad, it still better than most comedy web shows. It even sort of looks like a super low budgeted HBO comedy series. Whatever they’re doing right here they’re doing right across the board, and I’ll have to admit that despite the horribly punny name (Copy & Pastry? Really?) this is a very weird and funny show.

THIS WEEKS MUSTARD: Copy & Pastry

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Included in President Obama’s commencement address at Note Dame University last year was a desire to find ways to communicate about a workable solution to the problem of unintended pregnancies. A Southern California-based independent media company called Yellow Line Studios wanted to help give that desire a voice. And so they created Bump+.

Using the device of a fictional reality show, Bump+ follows the stories of three women, all in their first four weeks of pregnancy, as they weigh the pros and cons of continuing to full term. Denise is almost a child herself, though this is her third pregnancy with signs they were results of domestic abuse, Hailey is a sorority girl who seems to care more about what being on the show can do for her than her pregnancy, and Katie is facing the tough decision of what to tell her husband when he returns from Iraq…because the father isn’t him.

Launched on the eve of the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the show has been releasing 2 episodes a week since February 1st, all the while fostering an open and honest communication with and between its audience. Though the production itself is clearly not trying to present itself as a true documentary, the comments show a sincere desire to communicate with the fictional women involved and in the end, the audience influences the final decisions of the women. Several alternate endings were shot and however the story is lead, the project intends to follow-through with it. One of the women may decide to keep their baby while another opts for abortion…one may choose an entirely different option altogether.

Depending on how the series actually turns out (the final episode of season 1 is scheduled to launch on March 15th), the series could be seen as glorifying the abortion issue. Hopefully, it will be clear that it wasn’t the wishes of the production itself to take any particular stance on either side of the debate, but to allow an audience the opportunity to talk out all the sides together, as well as share personal stories people have faced when it comes to pregnancy and parenthood. It’s an issue almost everyone will face at one point in their lives and the format of a place online paired with a visual story to embody the discussion is a unique one that can hopefully be utilized in the future on a wide range of issues.

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Lazy Sunday has to be credited as one of the breakout viral videos that launched YouTube into a household name. (Ironically, it’s not actually on YouTube any more – just Hulu) The SNL Digital Short was one of the first from Lonely Island crew after Andy Samberg joined the cast back in 2006. Last night in a reprise of the hit video, Samberg and Chris Parnell performed a live version of Lazy Sunday (above) with The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. [LateNightWithJimmyFallon.com]

The Legend of Neil has been greenlit for a third season from Atom.com, according to tweets from creator Sandeep Parikh. Atom won’t officially confirm this, but we’re pretty sure this is a go. The Streamy-nominated series has been Atom’s most successful original web series for the past two years. [Twitter]

Auditude announced an advertising agreement with Dailymotion today, saying that they will now power the Paris-based video site’s catalog of more than 12 million videos. The technology from Auditude will support advanced video ad formats, enhance content targeting, enable multi-party demand and manage business rules and sales rights Dailymotion’s hundreds of licensed content partners. [Press Release]

I’m Dating a Porn Star, a new adult comedy web series pilot debuted this week from Crossroads Films, the creators of critically acclaimed Old Friends. It stars Old Friends‘ Tim Curcio and is shot by OF’s Matt Cady. For now, producer David Title is looking for some fan support in terms of views, as “it was deemed a bit too dirty for traditional distributors.” Judge for yourself: [blip.tv]

Anyone But Me continues to rack up award nominations, this time in Canada with 3 nominations in TVGuide.ca’s Soap Opera Spirit Awards and another 4 noms in Time After Time/Soap World Awards. This adds to the series three Streamy Award nominations including Best Female Actor nod for Rachel Hip-Flores. Episode 5 of the indie drama was just released today (see below). [Anyone But Me]

Coma, Period signed a distribution deal with online network KoldCast TV (below) adding to its existing distro with Strike.tv. The comedy series from Lead Ballon about a man stuck in his subconscious has been well received so far from critics, and rocks a pretty witty Twitter stream from its fictional protagonist Dan Humford. [Coma, Period]

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

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