Penske Media Corporation, which owns publication/blog brands like BGR, Deadline, Hollywood Life, HollyBaby, ENTV, MovieLine, TVLine, and OnCars, has now acquired Variety, the entertainment news publication that has been around for over a century.
Variety was founded in 1905 by Sime Silverman, and now it has been purchased by Penske from Reed Elsevier for an officially undisclosed sum (though the New York Times is reporting $25 million). Reed Elsevier has owned the publication since 1987.
Variety President Niel Stiles said, “We are enthusiastic that PMC will become the new steward of the great Variety franchise, which Reed Elsevier has built over the past 20 years, and the Silverman family for the 80 years before that. PMC is uniquely positioned to preserve and build the market presence of Variety. Their shared values and complementary assets provide for many new opportunities for the business model and brand.”
Jay Penske, Chairman and CEO of PMC, said, “Since 1905, Variety has been the world’s premier entertainment news source, and is today one of the most recognized global media brands. We are thrilled to welcome Variety and its exceptional team into the PMC organization. As a company we plan to rapidly build upon Variety’s foundation, while extending this invaluable brand’s presence across web, broadcast, mobile, and international markets.”
Brooks Barnes at the NYT reports, “There was some trepidation in Variety’s genteel newsroom on Tuesday about how Deadline, known for its aggressive reports, might affect news-gathering; other Variety staff members were glad to be free of Reed, which rarely invested in the newspaper.”
The Variety business currently includes Daily Variety, Weekly Variety, Conferences & Events, and Variety.com’s archives, which include film and TV information dating back to 1914.
Variety.com gets about 320,000 unique monthly visitors according to comScore data, compared to Deadline’s 2.4 million. Variety.com, however, has a paywall. It will be interesting to see if this is lifted under Penske.
A new series of The Walking Dead action figures is about to be released from McFarlane toys. The toy maker has teamed up with AMC to create the latest series, which includes main characters Shane and Rick, as well as zombies from the first two seasons of the hit show.
“Like the first series, humans include multiple interchangeable accessories and several points of articulation for limitless possibility and customization. Each zombie figure features unique, gory play action,” AMC notes in a blog post.
Figures to be available include (images from Amazon):
Shane Walsh
(image)
Deputy Rick Grimes
(image)
Bicycle Girl Zombie
(image)
Well Zombie
(image)
RV Zombie
(image)
There is also a black and white zombie 3-pack, according to AMC.
The figures can be found at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Clarktoys.com, FYE, GameStop, Hastings, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Toys ‘R’ Us Canada. They’re currently available for pre-order.
The Internet has been a tremendous promotional tool for AMC’s The Walking Dead, and Facebook, in particular, has helped keep fans engaged and hungry for the next season.
Last month, AMC released a social The Walking Dead Facebook game, as one example of this engagement in practice. Now, the show has reached ten million Facebook fans. That’s a sixth of the fans rapper Eminem has, and he’s been around for like 15 years. Not bad after just two seasons on television.
“Thank you to all our amazing fans for helping us reach this awesome milestone!” The Walking Dead says in a status update, sharing the following image, paying homage to The Social Network:
As of the time of this writing, 140,276 people like this.
By the way, the current number of Facebook like for The Walking Dead page is well over ten million at 10,040,657.
WWE has launched a new mobile app for iOS and Android, giving fans access to to a “second screen TV companion experience,” which activates during Monday Night Raw. The app features live polls and content during that time.
The app also comes with exclusive videos and content, access to the social media streams for every WWE “Superstar” and “Diva,” as well as news from WWE.com.
It also takes advantage of users’ location to provide access to tickets purchasing for local events, and other WWE shopping. The location feature also lets users follow social conversations from their area.
“Our fans have proven they want to consume WWE content day and night and now, through our new mobile app, they can stay completely connected to the action wherever they are,” said Jason Hoch, SVP Digital Operations for WWE.
In the Google Play Store, the app has an average rating of 4.4 (with 1,418 total ratings at the time of this writing).
There are no official talks for the release of a feature film of AMC’s The Walking Dead, as far as we know, but according to prominent horror movie news site Bloody Disgusting, there are non-official talks, or “rumblings,” among those working closely with the show’s crew and AMC itself.
…I have some friends working closely with “The Walking Dead” crew and AMC who confirm with me rumblings of a feature film. But before you get your panties in a bunch, we’re only in the third season of the popular zombie show – adapted from Robert Kirkman’s astounding comic book – and when I say rumblings, I strongly suggest the idea has been passed off in non-business conversations. The show was originally shopped as a feature film before it went network, so the idea of ending the series with an hour and a half feature would be exciting. But as I stated before, “24,” “Lost” and “The Sopranos” had been rumored for years, and they all failed to make the jump. Emphasis added.
Mr. Disgusting adds that “nothing is even close to official and don’t expect there to be any real talks for another few years.”
The show is extremely popular, and already has a cinematic quality to it. It’s hard to imagine that it could not easily make the transition to the big screen. Zombie movies in general are also quite popular (some more than others). That very fact, combined with the popularity of the show itself, should make a feature film, if timed right, a pretty big hit. Probably not Avengers big, but certainly big as zombie movies go.
On that note about timing, as Mr. Disgusting reminds us, both the X-Files and Sex And The City made relatively successful transitions to the big screen. Two features of the latter came out after the show itself was already over. The fist X-Files film, however, came out right in the middle of the popular show’s 9-season run. I wonder if a Walking Dead feature would be better timed sooner rather than later, while it’s still generating a great deal of buzz.
Actor Matthew Modine, who recently appeared in The Dark Knight Rises, but will forever be known as Private Joker from Stanley Kubrick’s classic Full Metal Jacket, wrote a book called Full Metal Jacket Diary, which was released in 2005. Now, Modine has released an iPad app based on the book, which he describes as an “appumentary,” and an “entirely reimagined, interactive, audiovisual experience.”
The project was partially funded on Kickstarter, having successfully reached and exceeded its fundraising goal from 295 Backers.
It comes complete with a behind-the-scenes look at the two-year production of the film, as well as the complete text of the book. There are five chapters about the filmmaking process, a four-hour audio experience narrated by Modine, over 400 high-res photos and personal documents (scanned from original negatives and source material), and “all new remembrances” written by Modine.
There are also three bonus galleries with photo restoration comparisons, a feature that lets you store your favorite photos and audio clips, links to related content on the web, and of course, the ability to share photos via Twitter.
Here are some screen caps:
“When I first set out to make my book, the goal was to create something that Stanley would have been proud of and wanted to own,” said Modine. “The goal with this app has been no different.”
“If Stanley were alive today, I think he would love the iPad,” he added. “He was always interested in the latest technologies and in many ways, he was ahead of his time. 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey featured devices that could be one of the earliest inspirations for tablet computers. This app will give a new audience and a new generation access to my diary and photographs in ways I never imagined possible.”
This was posted to the official Facebook page last month:
the app will be available on august 7th. i have been beta testing it and it is wonderful. there is a terrific team of developers, artists, musicians, and sound engineer that have worked incredibly hard to create an experience that they hope will be unique and like no other. Powered by socialditto11 likes · 3 comments
Apparently the app took nearly as long to put together as the actual movie.
The app’s producer, Adam Rackoff, said, “Matthew and I have been working on this project for almost two years. We found most of Matthew’s original camera negatives and spent months carefully scanning and restoring them in high-definition, perfect for the new iPad’s Retina display.”
“We did extensive research and searched through dozens of family scrapbooks, photo albums, and boxes to find original letters, documents, Polaroids, and newspaper clippings that would help enhance the diary’s story,” he added. “The app also features photographs by cast members, Stanley’s long-time assistant Leon Vitali, executive producer Jan Harlan, Matthew’s wife, and Kubrick himself.”
Hugh Jackman is one of those people who actually has a lot of followers on Google+. His verified, official account is in nearly 3 million people’s circles. For Google+, that’s pretty popular.
The next Wolverine movie, simply called, “The Wolverine,” is getting a lot of attention on the web today, as new images are making their way around. SuperHeroHype has posted some, which show Jackman, in character, looking more like Rob Zombie than Wolverine. Here’s one:
It’s a far cry from this picture posted to Jackman’s account today:
"Without a doubt, it’s my family. I have two beautiful kids, an incredible wife, and it’s just about being with them.” – Hugh on what makes him the happiest
By the way, has anyone else noticed that Hugh Jackman’s Google+ profile (at least the public stuff) pretty much just consists of pictures of Hugh Jackman?
"By the time I was 22 and started to get into acting, I was shocked at how challenging it was, because the essence of acting is knowing who you are and I didn’t have any sense of who I was."
“The things that I really cherish are the everyday moments, like sitting around cooking pancakes together… or watching a movie together and cuddling up.” – Hugh on his favorite part about being a dad
Viacom has now cut off online streaming of some of its shows from its sites, to all viewers, so now even people that aren’t DirecTV customers no longer have convenient online access. CNN reports:
Fans can no longer watch full episodes of shows like “SpongeBob Squarepants” and “iCarly” or “Jersey Shore” and “The Daily Show,” which is sure to further anger the 20 million DirecTV subscribers who continue to find a dark screen when they change the channel to Viacom-owned nets like Nick, MTV, Comedy Central and VH1.
“Once again it’s viewers who suffer when media companies stall in their negotiations. But the scale of Viacom’s overreaction is unprecedented,” said John Bergmayer, a Senior Staff Attorney for the Washington-based public interest group Public Knowledge.
“Viacom has decided to take a service away from all Internet users in its attempt to punish DirecTV,” he added. “It is apparent that Viacom puts little stock in the Internet and the online future of video if it is willing to use all Internet users as a pawn in its negotiations.”
“We hope that Viacom and DirecTV can work out their differences quickly so that people can continue to access Viacom’s popular content lawfully,” he said.
And that’s just it. Those who want it bad enough, will probably seek out access that isn’t so lawful.
Some Viacom content is still available via shows websites and mobile apps, and on Netflix, and probably other similar services. In fact, The Daily Show – one of the shows pulled from online access – still has clips accessible via its Android app.
The answer is no, but this video does exist, so enjoy.
I’m not going to bother with a lot of explanation on this one. It’s Game of Thrones and it’s lightsabers. What else do you want from me? I will say that effects-wise, it looks pretty good.
The video was made as its creator’s first attempt at rotoscoping in Adobe After Effects. Not bad.
About a month ago, Google ran a doodle on its homepage, celebrating the anniversary of the opening of the first drive-in theater. It even came with a special, playable video:
Google irked some people with the doodle for choosing the opening of the first drive-in, as opposed to the anniversary of D-Day, which fell on the same day, but many were delighted with the memories of American tradition the doodle conjured up.
Today, I was interested to see a piece of content come through my Google Alerts, that carried the title: “Google Killed A Part Of America’s Past.” It’s a short opinion piece from The Daily Nonpareil in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I’m not sure why it was coming through today, nearly a month after the fact, but it says:
As I accessed the Internet today for the first time (June 5), I was flabbergasted of what I saw on my homepage (google.com): A Google Doodle of Drive-Ins! When you click on the Google Doodle it provides some information provided by Google about drive-ins and how they were first started. But what they failed to mention is how they “destroy drive-ins and America’s past.” Being a Council Bluffs native, I have my share of memories growing up and going to the drive-in to see movies with my family on the weekends.
I wanted to bring this to the attention of local readers that our local “company” that took away a historic landmark dares to educate people about the past, when they indeed killed a huge part of it!
Google, as you may or may not be aware, has a data center in Council Bluffs, and the company did indeed bulldoze a drive-in, in order to set up shop. An InformationWeek article from 2008 confirms:
Some local landmarks are getting bulldozed to make room for Google. A drive-in movie screen was the first to go. The nearby Presbyterian Church is slated for demolition, too.
On its Council Bluffs Data Center page, Google says: Google is very happy to be located in Council Bluffs, IA. We announced our plans to build a data center here in early 2007, and today we are a fully operational site that has already begun benefitting our users around the world. We have had an excellent experience in Council Bluffs as we’ve built out this $600 million investment, and we look forward to being a part of the Iowa community for many years to come.”
According to CinemaTreasures.org, the drive-in was closed in late 2007, and was demolished. “At that time, the owners were hoping to build a new twin-screen drive-in theatre at another location,” it says.
VirtualTourist.com member Rich62, who uploaded the lead image to that site in 2006, captioned the photo:
THERE ARE STILL A FEW DRIVEIN MOVIE THEATERS AVAILABLE IN AMERICA, AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM.
Six years later, it appears that there are even less.
Google hosted the touring cast of the Broadway musical American Idiot for a Q&A session. The musical is based on the hit 2004 Green Day album of the same title.
Bradley Horowitz, the VP of Product Management for Google+, posted some photos and video of the event to his Google+ stream.
Wonderful cast of American Idiot at Google. (image) (image)128 (image)18 Powered by socialditto
Here’s the full hour-long YouTube video, which people seemed to enjoy, based on the feedback on the social network:
The event was part of Google’s @Google Talks series. Other recent talks include Dr. Victoria Sweet, Chris Johnson and Hank Willis, and author Beatrice Peltre. You can see all of the videos Google uploads from these events here.
Are you a fan of the hit ABC shows Bachelor, Bachelorette, or Bachelor Pad? If so, you’re more than likely aware of Steve Carbone, AKA Reality Steve, the popular blogger who provides exclusive details and spoilers about the shows and their contestants.
Despite his fame among his fans, the production companies behind these shows do not share the same feelings. In December, NZK Productions filed a lawsuit against Carbone claiming that he had exchanged money for information from contestants of last season’s Bachelor. After a 7 month legal battle, both sides were able to reach a settlement this month.
“I think my readers know, I think the contestants of this show, and I certainly know, that what I do brings attention to their show,” recalled Carbone when we spoke with him recently, “so I don’t know why they would go after the guy who has spoiled their seasons for the last 3 years.”
The root of the lawsuit was that Carbone was offering money to contestants in exchange for information. Although he denied this claim from the beginning, Carbone did admit that he offered 3 contestants money for information but said he was rejected.
“They came after me thinking that that’s how I get my information – that I’m telling these people to breach their contracts, which wasn’t the case,” he said.
As he explained, since the middle of the season was a little dry, he was hoping to add to it. Other publications such as US Weekly pay to get their exclusive stories, and since RealitySteve.com was profitable, he decided to make an attempt at it.
“I shouldn’t have offered anybody money for information,” said Carbone. “I learned my lesson – shouldn’t have done it.”
Carbone told us that, since he knew what he did wasn’t legally wrong, he felt he could have won. However, his mounting legal bills led him to settle.
“The bottom line was it was gonna cost way to much money in the end,” he said. “There was no guarantee that I would’ve ever gotten all my legal fees back, and I just couldn’t take that chance.”
His fans came through with some financial help, after blogger Matthew Chan suggested that Carbone incorporate a donation button on his site. Chan also set up a petition on Change.org explaining how Reality Steve was being wrongfully accused.
Carbone told us that he very thankful for both Chan’s kindness and the support of his fans throughout the ordeal. Although he still has a hefty bill to pay, he’s grateful that they came through for him on both the financial side and the encouragement side.
As for the settlement, Carbone was hesitant to settle at first because he didn’t want to have to give up his civil liberties. The terms that he did agree to though only prevent him from initiating contact with the cast, crew, and other employees of the Bachelor regarding issues of the series.
“I’m still gonna be able to do what I do, and I was happy with their latest settlement,” he said.
He went on to say that readers should expect the same content they always have, which, of course, means more spoilers and juicy details. Although some people have suggested that the current Bachelorette season has been impacted by the lawsuit, Carbone disagrees. According to him, he’s not 100% sure on the ending yet and that’s why he hasn’t revealed it. But, he said, as soon as he is certain, he’ll publish it.
TwitVid, the service once known as the go-to destination for uploading videos to share on Twitter, has rebranded itself as Telly, and now has much bigger ambitions.
WebProNews spoke with TwitVid and Telly founder Mo Adham about the launch. He tells us that the goal is to “solve the problem of video discovery.”
You may not have any trouble discovering videos on YouTube, but Telly goes far beyond that, including videos from YouTube, Hulu, CNN, and ESPN, not to mention Twitvid’s own 10-million strong library and others. Eventually, Adham tells us, more videos from the web at large will be included. So some day in the not too distant future, you may find our own hosted WPN videos, for example, when you use Telly’s search feature.
“iPhones and Android devices have caused an exponential growth in the amount of video published on the web,” says Adham. “How can users find great video to watch, and how do video creators, both big and small, reach relevant viewers when over 100 hours of video is uploaded every minute? This is a big problem that we understand well, and today Telly is taking the first step in reshaping how online video is viewed and distributed in today’s world.”
Like TwitVid, Telly is much more than just a way to search for videos. It’s something of a social network. You can share videos with friends, discover videos from friends, and collect videos that you come across, storing them for easy access from your profile. But don’t worry. You don’t need another social media account. You just sign in with Facebook or Twitter.
TwitVid has typically been more associated with Twitter, but Telly comes with Facebook Timeline integration. As we’ve seen with other apps, that can provide a tremendous boost to user adoption. It will be interesting to see how Telly is able to take advantage.
The service lets you follow specific people, as well as interests. There is a main stream and an activity feed (similar to Facebook). In the activity feed, you can see things like “Matt Forte watched 5 videos”:
Of course, you can always post your own videos directly to Telly.
Last year, TwitVid launched a major redesign, turning itself into less the place to upload videos for Twitter, and more into a YouTube alternative. Telly seems to be the next evolutionary step for the service, and is perhaps the most promising. Getting the “Twit” out of the name should only help the company establish itself as its own entity, and not scare away non-Twitter users and people who simply associate the service with Twitter.
Telly is ultimately the product of two acquisitions TwitVid recently made: Cull.tv and Frugalo. The former is an online video service, which will be phased out, and the latter was actually a daily deals service. Don’t expect any daily deals from Telly though. This was only a talent acquisition, Adham tells us.
Telly has been designed with the living room in mind, but later this year, Adham tells us, mobile and tablet apps will be on the way.
You can access Telly at Telly.com. TwitVid will eventually redirect to Telly. Adham says they’re slowly shifting it over.
The company is based in San Francisco, and is backed by Azure Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Google is celebrating the opening of the first drive-in theater with a new doodle on its homepage. When you click the play button, the show begins.
The doodle comes with some appropriate sound effects and video (including an Android dashboard figure, a monster movie and the intermission screen). The only thing missing is a couple making out, though a girl does put an arm around her boyfriend. It ends with a popcorn tub that says, “Google”.
Google has uploaded the video to YouTube if you want to just watch it here:
When you click the doodle, Google shows you “The history of the drive-in theater” as the top result. It’s an Inventors page on About.com, which gives us a lesson on this classic form of entertainment:
Richard Hollingshead was a young sales manager at his dad’s Whiz Auto Products, who had a hankering to invent something that combined his two interests: cars and movies.
Richard Hollingshead’s vision was an open-air movie theater where moviegoers could watch from their own cars. He experimented in his own driveway at 212 Thomas Avenue, Camden, New Jersey. The inventor mounted a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, projected onto a screen he had nailed to trees in his backyard, and used a radio placed behind the screen for sound.
According to this account of the drive-in theater’s history, the drive-in opened on Tuesday June 6, 1933 on Crescent Boulevard, Camden, New Jersey, and it cost 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person to get in.
Update: Google is now showing a Wikipedia result over the About.com result. This result says: “Hollingshead’s drive-in opened in New Jersey, June 6, 1933, on Admiral Wilson Boulevard at the Airport Circle in Pennsauken, a short distance from Cooper River Park.” It cites The New York Times as the source of this info.
As Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable points out, some people are complaining that Google chose to go with this doodle instead of a D Day Google, as today is also the anniversary of that.
A study from The Hollywood Reporter and Penn Schoen Berland came out a couple of months ago about how Facebook and Twitter affect people’s experience with television and movies. It’s kind of old so I normally wouldn’t think it was worthy of devoting a short article to, but I came across a post on AllFacebook earlier today that cited a peculiar statistic from the study: 88% of Facebook and Twitter users consider visiting or posting to those sites as a form of entertainment.
I’m deathly curious to learn how those other 12% regard social media because… how could anybody regard Facebook and Twitter as anything but entertainment? I realize that over the past few years the two sites have been monetized in such a way that they’re now considered legitimate if not necessary marketing tools for business, but the reason that’s only even possible is because there were people getting their kicks and jollies on that site first.
I have this vision of people out there shackled into some kind of social media drudgery where pecking out their account password on the keyboard is akin to clocking in for a severely underpaid and under-appreciated job. Social media’s fun, social media’s dumb. Social media’s kinda great, social media’s full of hate. Social media keeps us together, social media and rainbows forever (sorry, I was being slow with rhyming “together).
Seriously, though, I do wonder if there are people in this world to whom Facebook and Twitter are something to be taken solely as a serious endeavor. Entertainment is such a broad term, too, raising the speculation of what other choices the researchers gave participants for the study. If it’s entertainment, other differing words I imagine as alternative choices are “work” or “distracting” or even “internet.”
So then, readers, let us know how you regard social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I’m not going to give you any choices to pick from because I want this to be open-ended, so feel free to explain your answer if you are so compelled. Remember, though, please be honest, because this highly scientific data will be verified by a team of dark matter physicists at CERN this summer.
We always like to look at stories about how the web has changed (and continues to change) the media landscape, whether that be journalism, entertainment or anything else. When I was growing up, one of my favorite shows was MTV’s The State – a sketch comedy show that was simply too short-lived.
Many of the actors from the show have gone on to appear in and write numerous movies and TV shows. One member of the comedy troupe, David Wain, for example, wrote and directed movies like Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models, and Wanderlust. He also Does Wain Days for My Damn Channel (which recently launched a new YouTube channel). You probably know Michael Ian Black, as well – another member of the state, who manages to keep Twitter interesting and humorous on a regular basis (in addition to his various movie and television roles).
Both of those guys (and the rest of the cast) are great, but I don’t think many fans of The State would argue that Kevin Allison was one of the best parts of the show. And that’s who we’re talking to today. Allison isn’t as much in the movie and TV spotlight as some of his peers, though he does make occasional appearances. Kevin spends more of his time podcasting and focusing on his show RISK! – a live show/podcast he created and hosts.
“I spent a lot of time telling stories as characters after the State broke up, but I had a breakthrough around 2008, when I started telling stories as myself,” Allison tells WebProNews. “I found that when I did that, I saw people’s eyes light up and it was much more like being in conversation with the audience. I realized that I had found my voice, which, it turned out, was simply my real voice all along.”
“So I thought the best way to learn about storytelling was to do it in public constantly,” he continues. “I started the live show and podcast RISK!, where people dare to share stories they never intended to tell in front of a live audience. At RISK, I’m the host of the podcast and live show and I still tell a lot of true stories of my own.”
“If it weren’t for podcasting, my career would not be what it is today, because I am one of those people that doesn’t fit so easily into the stereotypical things that Hollywood or the TV industry is looking for,” he adds. “I’m kind of an oddball, an idiosyncratic characer. So, you know, a lot of comedians like me, who have not found their place in the TV or movie realm, are putting their truest voices out there by self publishing their stuff through podcasts.”
As most podcasters will probably tell you, using the web as the medium of choice gives them a much different kind of connection with their audience that really wasn’t possible not too long ago.
“RISK! itself and the way the show is run have developed largely because of interactions with fans on the web,” Allison tells us. “They’ll invite us to tour to places we never would have known about, or submit stories or songs, or make suggestions of other types of things they’d like to hear on the show. Even a great deal of the staff of the show were fans who contacted me online about coming aboard in real life.”
“I feel like I can be more intimate and experimental with a public audience through this medium than I can through anything I’ve ever done before,” he says. “It really is a straight-from-the-artist-to-the-audience sort of experience, kind of like what happens in small room comedy clubs where there’s not a lot of oversight from some sort of corporation or standards and practices. And so it’s the ultimate in free speech and freeing up my own self expression.”
Obviously YouTube has been a huge element in the web success of many, many Internet celebrities, and even for some who have managed to grow much larger than the “web celeb” status. Don’t forget Justin Bieber got his start on YouTube.
“YouTube has been great for us because it allows us to share videos from our live shows with fans who otherwise might never get to know what our live shows are like,” says Allison. “It also helps us spread the word about what we’re doing, since when people look for people who’ve been on our show on YouTube, they’ll stumble upon RISK! videos.”
Allison, of course also uses other social networks to promote RISK! and connect with fans, but he feels like there’s such a thing as worrying about too many different ones, so he mostly sticks to Facebook and Twitter.
“It changes over time,” Allison says about Facebook. “Originally it was hugely helpful because it helped me to reconnect with dozens and dozens of comedians I hadn’t seen in years and friends of theirs who were also performers. Several years ago when RISK! first started, people paid more attention to event invites. I think facebook changes every couple of years because the site is trying to control how people use it, and so we have to adjust with their way of changing things, but I don’t know, it’s still very powerful for just saying what we’re up to and hearing back from people. It’s pretty necessary for an artistic endeavor to hear back from the people listening to it, positive or negative.”
“Frankly I think it’s pretty much the same,” Allison says of Twitter. “Our fans on Twitter are always telling us what they thought of shows and retweeting our episodes and talking to storytellers about how much they loved their stories. It’s great for spreading the word about RISK!”
“We’re not on google+ because we don’t know what it is supposed to be,” Allison says. “It’s kind of like facebook, right? After a certain point, you have to focus on getting your work done and not necessarily being on every single social network.”
“We stick mainly to facebook, twitter and YouTube, as well as the RISK-show.com website, of course, and they’re all great for keeping in touch with our fans.”
There may be some valuable advice for anyone in Kevin’s words. New social networks come and go all the time, and it certainly is a lot for people to worry about, and like he says. At some point, you do still have to get something done. You just have to evaluate the pros and cons of being on any of them, and determine which ones are worth your time and energy.
The State may have gone off the air in the 90s, but thanks to the web, it has never truly gone away. Thanks to the web, people who didn’t even watch it back then, or even know it existed can enjoy it today.
“Well, even though MTV constantly pulls the State content off YouTube, I think a lot of new fans were introduced to State sketches through YouTube,” says Allison. “And also it was web campaigns that finally convinced MTV to release the State DVD box set.”
Here’s a classic (before MTV pulls it down):
Note: While it’s great what the web has been able to do to keep The State alive, it’s never been like it was in the 90s. Unfortunately with MTV’s DVD release, the music in the sketches have been altered for the worse.
“As for my connection to the State fans, because I was not doing big corporate work like the other State members after the group broke up, I kind of fell off the face of the earth, so it was good to find out through the web that some people still knew who I was and were rooting for me,” says Allison.
Google is partnering with Paramount Pictures to add Paramount movie rentals to YouTube and Google Play. A Googler laid out the following highlights in an email to WebProNews:
Nearly 500 titles available for rent including new blockbusters like Captain America, Hugo, and The Adventures of Tin Tin together with classics like Coming to America and the Godfather
These Paramount Titles will be available to users in the US and Canada on Google Play and YouTube (www.youtube.com/movies)
In 2011 we focused on signing deals with the indie and major studios and scaling our rental service globally:
– We now have movies from 5 of the 6 major studios (Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers) and over ten indie studios: Lionsgate Films, Magnolia, Starz, Weinstein, etc.)
– In the last 10 months we’ve launched rentals in Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and (last week) France
Rentals will be priced at $3.99 for new releases; most older movies are $2.99. Almost all titles will be available for 48 hours once you begin watching. New releases HD version will be $4.99. Older releases HD version will be $3.99.
Malik Ducard, Director of Content Partnerships for YouTube, says, “Paramount Pictures is one of the biggest movies studios on the planet. We’re thrilled to bring nearly 500 of their films to movie fans in the US and Canada on YouTube and Google Play.”
This is a huge deal for Google as it tries to make a bigger impact on the movie rental scene. The competition in this space is getting more interesting by the day. Content selection is obviously one of the main factors that consumers take into consideration, and original content is ultimately going to be the determining factor for many, when it comes to using a service like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. That’s why they’re all going the original content route. There just may be room for all to co-exist into the future. Don’t forget, Redbox has a streaming offering in the works.
Now, news comes that Eli Roth (pictured above: image from his Facebook Page, not the show), director of horror classics Cabin Fever, Hostel and Hostel Part II (not Hostel III), has a new show called Hemlock Grove on its way to Netflix, which Roth has deemed his “new BFF”:
The body of a young girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of the abandoned Godfrey Steel mill. A manhunt ensues—though the authorities aren’t sure if it’s a man they should be looking for.
Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a foreboding biotech facility owned by the Godfrey family—their personal fortune and the local economy having moved on from Pittsburgh steel—where, if rumors are true, biological experiments of the most unethical kind take place. Others turn to Peter Rumancek, a Gypsy trailer-trash kid who has told impressionable high school classmates that he’s a werewolf. Or perhaps it’s Roman, the son of the late JR Godfrey, who rules the adolescent social scene with the casual arrogance of a cold-blooded aristocrat, his superior status unquestioned despite his decidedly freakish sister, Shelley, whose monstrous medical conditions belie a sweet intelligence, and his otherworldly control freak of a mother, Olivia.
At once a riveting mystery and a fascinating revelation of the grotesque and the darkness in us all, Hemlock Grove has the architecture and energy to become a classic in its own right—and Brian McGreevy the talent and ambition to enthrall us for years to come.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it will star Famke Janssen and Bill Skarsgard, and the 13-episode first season will be available early next years to Netflix Instant customers.
All I know is that fans of Roth’s work in film will certainly be interested in checking the show out, as a Roth-directed film has not been released since 2007, unless you count “Nation’s Pride,” the Nazi propaganda film within a film in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which he also starred in.
Roth has been involved in production roles on a handful of films since then, as fans await film projects he’s hinted at in the past, which may or may not still be happening (Endangered Species and Thanksgiving).
This isn’t the first time Roth has ventured into television (if Netflix counts as Television – which it should), though it is at the directorial level. He’s made numerous appearances on various TV programs, and recently hosted Curiosity: How Evil Are You? on the Discovery Channel.
Comedian and actor (Parks & Recreation) Aziz Ansari is joining the ranks of high-profile comedians that are cutting out the middleman and releasing their work straight to the internet masses. On Tuesday, he released his new standup special, Dangerously Delicious on his own site for $5. For that one-time fee, viewers unlock 3 streams and 5 high-quality downloads. The hour-long special was filmed at the Warner Theatre in DC in June, 2011.
“I wanted to release it online because I saw how many people viewed clips from my last special online on sites like YouTube,” he says on his site. “I also like releasing it myself because there are no commercials, bleeps, or any of that stuff. This is exactly like it was if you saw the live show. After seeing the success of Louis CK’s special (which was released in a similar fashion) and numerous people asking me if I would do the same, this seemed like the best route.”
Ansari brings up Louis C.K., who kicked off this direct comedy thing with his special Live at the Beacon Theater. Back in December, 2011, Louis C.K. released the standup special direct to fans, available to download on his site for $5. Within the first 12 hours, fans had made 50,000 purchases, earning him $250,000 – which broke the cost of production. About a week later, Louis C.K. reported that they had hit the $1 million mark, so he divvied it up and gave about three-quarters of it to charity.
Ansari used a promoted tweet to get the message out:
The benefits of comedians bypassing networks are numerous. First, of course, the money goes straight to them. And they can release their own product, completely free of editorial interference. But then again, all of the promotion then resides squarely on their shoulders.
And this “experiment” is far from thoroughly tested and proven to work. Louis C.K. is a rare comedian who commands a huge following – not the least of which use the internet to spread his videos and quotes virally. To put it simply: Louis C.K. is freaking huge on the interwebs, so it makes sense that his standup special, released in this fashion, would do extremely well.
But Aziz Ansari is also a popular comedian. And so is Jim Gaffigan, who plans to follow this model in a few weeks. On April 11th, Gaffigan will release his new standup special Mr. Universe on his website for $5. One dollar of that will immediately go to the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
The direct-to-consumer content delivery thing is really just underway. When more comedians begin to try it out, we’ll get a better idea about its success vs. the traditional model. All I have to say is that if Ansari’s special is anywhere near as funny as Louis C.K.’s, he shouldn’t have a problem selling it once word gets out.
My Damn Channels has launched a new YouTube channel as part of the new YouTube original content rollout, along with a new live show called My Damn Channel Live. My Damn Channel Founder and CEO Rob Barnett (pictured here with writer/director/actor David Wain) tells WebProNews about the launch.
Already being the biggest video site on the web, it’s very possible that YouTube will become known as one of the first places people go to watch content on their TV, as more and more consumers get rid of cable/satellite. The early channels could one day be looked upon with a sense of historical significance, similar to how we now view he early cable channels.
“My Damn Channel LIVE is the first, daily, live comedy show from YouTube’s original channels, but we’re closing in on our 5th birthday and we first launched both on our site and on YouTube in 2007 , so our ‘history’ is already LONG in web years,” Barnett tells us. “The new live show feels similar to the early years of MTV but now technology hands us the possibility to create a new kind of television on the Internet.”
It [the new live programming] means our audience gets to have a ton more fun than ever before,” he says. “We want our viewers to be part of our programming in every human, social and technical way possible. Since the show is online, we can react and change on the fly with the audience driving our staff and our host Beth Hoyt to play with them.”
Hoyt will interview celebrity guests, interact with viewers in real-time and premiere videos from over 30 new My Damn Channel original comedy series. The show is live Monday through Friday from a new studio inside the company’s Hell’s Kitchen headquarters in New York.
On how the new channel is better than the old My Damn Channel, Barnett tells us, “My Damn Channel LIVE gives us the chance to deliver a ton of new original video to our site and our YouTube channel every day. We’ll have great celebrity guests every week including talent from our other favorite YouTube channels. And on every show, we’ll also be premiering new episodes from more than 30 new My Damn Channel original comedy series. Also, Daily Grace has been one of the best stars on My Damn Channel for years and we’re making a major announcement next week about Grace, My Damn Channel and YouTube.”
On what makes YouTube the ideal platform and separates it from other web video platforms, Barnett says, “We would not have launched our company as successfully back in ’07 without the backing of YouTube. Its platform, tech, size, and community give us the chance to paint a whole new picture about what TV can be.”
As a David Wain fan from way back (The State days), I had to ask Barnett how much David Wain we can expect from the new channel.
“As much as the law will allow,” he says. “We started My Damn Channel with episode #1 of Wainy Days and after 40 episodes, 5 years, 5 seasons we have no intention of stopping. David’s going to be one of our first special guests on our LIVE show and we’re going to announce a very cool promotion with David and Wainy Days for an event tied to the new Wainy Days DVD.”
Singer Cee Lo Green appeared at a fundraising event for President Obama in Atlanta, and sang his hit song “F*** You”, otherwise known buy its edited-for-radio title “Forget You”. The star decided to sing the dirty version, at least at first, and flip off the crowd. Some have decided this was inappropriate for such an event, but what do you expect when your entertainment has a hit single called “F*** You”?
The performance itself, is strangely missing from YouTube, but here’s FOX News talking about it, with a clip:
Some other segments of Cee Lo’s performance are still available on YouTube.
Here he is performing Billie Jean…I mean “It’s Alight”:
And the hit Gnarls Barkley song “Crazy”:
And “Fool For You”:
At least the president didn’t come out and sing “F*** You” himself, as he has developed a reputation as a singer of late. He did, however, reportedly say, “Whoah. Got some ‘Luda’ on there?” when someone’s phone interrupted him with a Ludacris ringtone.
2128 
456 
“I think my readers know, I think the contestants of this show, and I certainly know, that what I do brings attention to their show,” recalled Carbone when we spoke with him recently, “so I don’t know why they would go after the guy who has spoiled their seasons for the last 3 years.”
