Anchor Cove

On January 6, 2010, noted humanitarian organization 4chan has pledged to bring porn to the porn-starved masses on the internet. The means of delivery will be flooding YouTube with porn video uploads.

The protest is fueled by outrage over the suspension of YouTube user Lukeywes1234, an unsuspecting young kid who looks like a cross between the numa numa guy and the chunky kid from the Goonies. Apparently 4chan took a liking to young luke (he is kind of adorable in a geeky young kid with glasses way, not that i would identify with that or anything …) and subscribed to him en masse — In fact, his video plea to get to 50 subscribers by February became an NPR-pledge-drive-on-acid when he went from around 11 subscribers on January 2 to over 14,000 by 5am GMT on January 4. YouTube filled with humorous tributes to him, and then HE WAS SUSPENDED. Its not clear yet if the Iranian government was involved in this terrible squelching of free speech. Some reports say luke is only EIGHT YEARS OLD, and he violated YouTube’s terms of service by lying about his age, like 95% of all YouTube users.

You can currently catch lukey’s videos on this copycat channel while it lasts: http://www.youtube.com/user/lukeywes12344

see, he is cute:

Also, I believe his “super luigi” web series qualifies for a Streamy nomination. Make the dream real.

References:
* 4chan Presents: YouTube Porn Day (NSFW) (Jan 4, TechCrunch)
* Internet Love Machine: The Story of LukeyWes1234 (Jan 3, Black Sun Gazetta)
* Lukeywes1234 Story As The King Of Internet (Jan 5, Fresh Buzz)
*Lukeywes1234 on Encyclopedia Dramactica

There has been vigorous and sometimes heated discussion in our forum recently discussing the 2010 Streamy Awards, which is basically the Oscars (without the stars, glitz, or money) for webseries. The open nomination period opened on December 15, and closes on January 22, 2010.

* Streamys Submission Page
* Anchor Cove Forum discussion thread

A primary matter causing drama is that a series called The Bannen Way released its first three episodes a few days before year end (as reported by tubefilter and newteevee) in order to be eligible for nomination. The Bannen Way was not scheduled to debut until January 6 (on Sony’s Crackle website), is only watchable in the United States, and apparently anticipates a later DVD release. I guess this meets the Streamys broad eligibility requirement, ““Any original production produced for broadband distribution with a minimum of three (3) episodes released in the 2009 calendar year can qualify for consideration for the Streamy Awards and Audience Choice Award. The series must be available online, either via a major video sharing site or unique URL.”

Does it exclude porn? Because many webseries do like to show a little cleavage….

Behind the drama, there is more serious discussion going on of the purposes of the Streamys (apparently its not to get the winners more easily laid) and its support of small time artists vs. big hitters.

You can read more about the Streamys in the forum, or you can bypass the discussion and simply submit your nominations at the Streamys Submission Page. Or you can simply wait to see who wins sometime this spring and see if the winners were actually any good.

News broke today that CBS is moving Harper’s Island, after only 3 aired episodes, from Thursday to Saturday nights at 9 pm. As HarpersIsland.tv notes, “This is not a good sign folks. Saturday night is the graveyard for shows the network wants to burn off.” CBS, however, has previously said they are committed to airing the full 13 episode season of the show, and is citing supposedly good DVR viewership numbers to help justify the move. Perhaps CBS thought it was simply following the lead of LOST in “moving the island.” (Insert groan here.)

In response to the move, Harper’s Globe, the online-only companion webseries to Harper’s Island, announced today that it would be moving its normal weekly Wednesday videos to Fridays, to keep the shows in sync.

Harper’s Globe is also struggling to build its audience. Excluding the week 1 episode (which benefited heavily from a YouTube front-page feature), the average weekly videos of Harper’s Globe are averaging a scanty 40,000 views. And the daily content videos (which are later combined into the weekly videos) are only netting about 2-3,000 views. While many webseries’ creators would probably kill to get a regular audience of 40,000, there were high hopes that the novel relationship between Harper’s Island and Harper’s Globe (whose harpersglobe.com URL appears at least once on every TV episode) could generate a large online audience.

You can’t have gotten onto the Internet in the last week and not seen Britian’s latest singing sensation, the celebrated-for-being-frumpy Susan Boyle. No question, that woman can sing. And her recent amazing tear-jerker performance on “Britian’s Got Talent” is all over YouTube – with probably over 100 million views spread over its multiple postings.

So, this morning, I wander back over to YouTube to see what new videos are most-viewed today, and I find that all Top 9 are again from Britian’s Got Talent. And the top one, and most of them, are of Hollie Steel.

Hollie is a 10 year old girl, and during the show (and the official video clip) she prances about on stage in her ballerina costume, and, well … I’m sure her family thinks she can dance. Then Darth Cowell is shown making his typical smirks, and he motions as if he is going to stop the performance. And — suddenly — Hollie stops dancing and starts singing with an incredible voice.

The video clip is expertly done – you see the gasping reactions of the crowd and judges thinking – just like you are now thinking — oh that girl couldn’t really dance but OH MY GOD SHE CAN SING LIKE SHE’S FROM HEAVEN. OMGOMGOGM!!!1111

You can’t help but notice the manufactured tearjerker setup that this is. Of course, Hollie Steel can sing; she is an amazing singer. But the whole thing feels so — um — duplicated from last week? I realize its just a TV show, but the manipulation is getting a little TOO obvious. (Others agree:
Was Hollie steel audition another set up – Digital Spy forum / Some dude and his cats on youtube with 150,000 views noting the setup )

You can’t see this in the official clip, but other copies online of the full segment show that there was NO WARNING that Holly was going to be a singer and not a ballerina. She says she wants to dance for the Queen backstage, and then she sings? Notice how she has a microphone on her the whole time?

TOTAL SETUP! But I expect nothing less from the British media juggernaut. I guess this works well enough on British TV, but the setup works even better on the internet. Let’s watch Hollie get famous overnight.

Youtube recently came up with “Spotlighted” videos as a replacement for the famous front page “Featured Videos” item. Having a video featured on the front page of youtube has long been the primary path to fame and fortune for many popular youtubers.

But, as viralvideowannabe.com reports in a good post discussing youtube’s recent front page changes, featured/spotlighted videos are no more. Now, technically youtube says spotlighted videos will appear on some days, but only based on some trend – like when a group of videos on one subject randomly shows up on the front page. But with that caveat, “featured videos” as we knew them are gone.

I am sure this change is all a part of YouTube trying to become more profitable, as we’ve heard so much about lately. But getting a Feature (back when that meant 500K to a million views minimum, before YouTube cluttered up their front page worse than a 16 year old girl’s myspace) has long been the carrot inspiring a huge amount of the better content on youtube. Many of those featured in the past have now become partners, and are among the small percentage of youtubers who actually generate ad revenue for the site. So, if you take away the incentive that created this youtube-exclusive group of celebrities (like Whatthebuck, Smosh, etc.), isn’t youtube severely harming its own future revenue pipeline?

I am sure I am not the first to note that youtube’s moves to embrace hollywood feels like the old mp3.com saga (1998-2002) all over again.

TV By The Numbers has concluded that Harper’s Island has no chance of returning (even if retooled to tell a new story) after the 13 episode season:

Newcomer Harper’s Island was advertised as a 13 episode limited run series that could return in another incarnation if the results were good. They aren’t. It’s going to be canceled. After its 13 episode run, it’s done.

It looks like we are finally finishing the gauntlet of web series awards now that the nominees for this year’s Webby awards have been released, and amazingly The Guild isn’t nominated this time. There are an almost ridiculous number of awards at the Webby’s (I didn’t count but I’d say at least 100) broken up into 4 categories: Website, Online Film & Video, Interactive Advertising, and Mobile.

For the sake of brevity let’s just look at the nominees in the Online Film & Video category specifically related to web series.

Comedy: Long Form or Series

• Swift Kids for Truth by 23/6A hilarious collection politic attack ads narrated by children. You should check them out when you have an afternoon free.
• Goodnight Burbank by Evil Global CorporationBy the same production team that makes Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary, is this Larry Sander’s style show about behind the scenes of a fictional 11 o’clock newscast.
• Onion News NetworkThe video complement to the Onion which is getting to be just as amusing as the print version. If you’ve never heard of The Onion before just click the link, you’ll be glad you did.
• Wainy Days by My Damn ChannelPreviously nominated for a YouTube video award, is this amusing comedy by David Wain.
• You Suck at Photoshop by My Damn ChannelMade by Big Fat Brain (one of the many content creators that produce work for My Damn Channel) comes brilliant take on DIY instructional videos, but narrated by angry/sad guy in a failing marriage. This is one of the best new online comedy series in a long time.

Drama: Series

• Afterworld by The Lippin GroupA sci-fi series where overnight all electrical technology dies and 99% of the human population goes missing. I’ve heard great things about this series but have never been able to get into it due to the CGI static still style animation.
• Groundhog Crossing by Red TettemerCommissioned by the Pennsylvania tourism office is this bizarre, but kind of adorable, series where the Punxsutawney groundhog’s shadow feels guilty about causing six more weeks of summer and runs away. The series consists of the groundhog’s journey to find his shadow and return to Punxsutawney before Feb 2nd
• KateModern by LG15 StudiosThe Lonelygirl15 spin-off set in London. Generally considered the better show, but for some reason I never find myself watching it. It is also currently nominated for two BAFTA awards.
• Lonelygirl15 by LG15 StudiosThe classic story of guy meets girl, girl has a rare trait in her blood, guy loses girl when she is kidnapped by a secret society that wants to use her blood to help extend its members lives and guy seeks revenge.
• The West Side by Exit StrategyDescribed as an urban western, this series is simply fantastic and you are doing yourself a great disservice if you haven’t checked it out yet.

Both My Damn Channel and LG15 Studios have had a great year by getting nominated twice in their categories. Also this year My Damn Channel has picked up a YouTube Best Series nomination and LG15 Studios has earned two BAFTA nominations.

A couple other web series that I noticed nominated in other categories are: PINK – Webisode 07 “Feels Like The First Time” for Drama: Individual Episode, Street Fighter: The Later Years, part 5 for Comedy: Individual Short or Episode, and Drawn by Pain for Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics.

At the Weddy Awards website you can check out all the nominees and honorees and vote for the people’s choice awards (registration required). Voting closes May 1st.

Ok, well maybe Jess didn’t land a job reprising her role of Bree in a television version of Lonelygirl15, but she is starring in the upcoming web series Blood Cell, a new horror-thriller from 60Frames Entertainment, directed by Eduardo Rodriguez. Jessica is mostly known for her comic goofy characters such as Bree (Lonelygirl15) and Jen (Greek), but she has tried her hand at the horror genre before… but not with a lot of success.

Her first film was the Razzie-winning I Know Who Killed Me, a film so bad that even Jess couldn’t speak well of it when she was chatting with fans on IRC a few weeks back. It is hard to assume Blood Cell will be a huge step up, considering the plot is basically the same as the forgettable 2004 film Celluar. Jess plays Julia, who gets a late-night call from her BFF who tells her she’s been kidnapped and if Julia’s phone loses its signal her captor will kill her.

I’m cautiously optimistic about the series, but even if it does turn out to be a stinker, at least it is only 18 episodes long, so we won’t have to sit through 255 episodes to see if she will live or die. Check out the trailer below, and you can sign up for email updates from the official site.

The LA Times quoted 60Frames CEO Brent Weinstein as saying “It’s not just comedy, thrillers can work, dramatic series can work — this is something that we think really can prove that there’s an audience out there.” Although, I might be a tad cynical about how well this horror series will work out, I completely agree with the sentiment. It seems like in the world of web series just about every genre other than comedy is seriously lacking and I’m excited to see that is starting to change.

Anchor Cove – April 1 — anchorcove.net

Based on information gathered from public sources in recent weeks, plus confidential informants, Anchor Cove has learned that the Creators of Lonelygirl15 (Miles Beckett, Greg Goodfried, and Amanda Goodfried) are set to soon announce groundbreaking news: A new partnership with America On-Line and the ABC network to broadcast new online shows exclusively on the internet channel “EQAL.”

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

The EQAL channel will be a “farm league” for potential future network shows, and will soon grow to include many new shows. That development model will start with the announcement that “Lonelygirl15″ will debut as a new series on TV on the ABC network this fall, with Jessica Rose reprising her role as “Bree.”

Can you say: AWESOME!!!

The TV version of Lonelygirl15 will be newly filmed half-hour episodes,  with Bree vlogging away from her bedroom, just like the original started on YouTube.  However, in a move certain to make teenage girls around the world jealous of Jessica Rose, the role of Danielbeast will be played by Zac Efron (of High School Musical Fame). Zac, like LonelyGirl15, is represented by the Creative Artists Agency.

Reports claim that the show will include many of the elements of the original Lonelygirl15 plot, but with top-label musical artists and a larger cast. For instance, unlike the original online version, Bree’s parents will appear onscreen more often and storylines will also explore their backstories. Bree’s dad, to be played by David Hasselhoff, will be a brilliant scientist who drinks a little too much and loves cheeseburgers. And to avoid copyright issues over the stuffed version, “P. Monkey” will be played by a live pet monkey, who will also be a wiz at fighting the Order. Watch out Carl! Here comes flying monkey poo!

Sources claims Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried first hooked up with America OnLine when AOL purchased Bebo — strongly impressed by the success of KateModern, and looking to break bigtime into online video. Meanwhile, ABC has been looking for a new star vehicle after Jessica Rose’s strong performance last year on ABC Family’s Greek. The whole deal grew out of these connections.

The news will be formally announced by this Friday; but expect strong denials before then, as the ink is not even dry on the contracts and all subject to nondisclosure agreements.

You can search for information on EQAL on the California Corporations website. The thread where news of the new EQAL channel first appeared on Anchor Cove is here.

I am so excited I think I’m gonna cry!

For Your Imagination, the online video production company responsible for Yahoo! Best Web Series nominee Break a Leg as well as close to a dozen other series, announced today that they had raised $1 million in seed funding from ConsensusOne Ventures. In January 2007 ConsensusOne first invested $1 million and along with this addition investment they are helping For Your Imagination work on a round of Series A funding.

For Your Imagination CEO Paul Kontonis told NewTeeVee today that the company’s gross revenue last year was $350,000 while their net expenses were $850,000, but that one of their series DadLabs is close to breaking even and that the rest of the company is showing growth.

With other web video production and distribution companies such as Next New Networks, ON Network, and Revision3 all already having found venture capital, as well as unconfirmed rumors that the producers of lonelygirl15 might be looking for venture capital to expand under the name EQAL, it seems just about everyone is trying to become a major player in the online video world and there is no lack of investors to try and make that happen. I just hope some of these companies can figure out how to monetize their content, because the last thing we need is another online bubble bursting.