Weekend Web Watch: Streamys Edition

We are into our fourth week of Weekend Web Watch and we dust off the vault to bring out one of my favorite episodes of 2009 and a three category nominee for the Streamy Awards: Oz Girl. They are nominated for Best Drama Web Series, Best Foreign Web Series, and Best Female Actor in a Drama Web Series for Sophie Tilson. It seems like a million years ago that we shot this episode, but it was in the middle of iTVFest that we sat down with the young and talented cast. They had an absolutely magical week at the festival and everyone wanted to find out what all the buzz was about. So step back to August 2009 with The Web Files and Oz Girl: Oz Girl

Be sure to go back to our Behind the Scenes archives for photos and scoop on The Web Files shoot with Oz Girl: Behind the Scenes.

Good luck at The Streamys, Oz Girl! See you on the red carpet.

Behind the Scenes of MERRIme.com

We made it to Episode 20! Thank you for watching and keeping up the momentum of The Web Files. We strive to bring you the best in web series, web celebs, and new media creators. I know we haven't covered it all and our list of shows to interview continues to grow. I think it is a good sign of growth in this industry.

I have to say that I love this show, MERRIme.com. It fits into my Sex and the City sensibility. While Carrie and Samantha have moved on to the big screen, Merri comes along and fills in that chick TV mold. Kaily Smith and David Weidoff have done an incredible job with this web series. It was filmed under their production company umbrella,Red Ladders Entertainment, "dedicated to developing and producing new works for Film, TV, Theatre, and the Web." As a viewer and a fan of Web TV, what stands out to me is their high production value. Kaily and David have openly discussed acquiring financing for MERRIme.com and they worked with a budget of under $50,000. It may sound like a huge budget, but Kaily reminded me that each episode cost around $2500. When you phrase it like that, it really demonstrates the quality of work that can be done on a smaller budget.

Overall, it is a well-produced series too. The writing is tight, they hired a publicist to get the word out to higher profile publications, they entered both iTVFest and NY Television Festival, and they called in some favors to a few name actors. I am not saying these are the right steps for every web series, but I am seeing benefits to the festival circuit after talking with Nick Carlton of Oz Girl, Jeremy Redleaf of Odd Jobs, and Kaily and David. I think the festivals are really putting web series producers on the map.

My favorite photo from the shoot: Makeup Artist, Melissa Anchondo, applying makeup to David Weidoff as a bus passes by on Ventura. Hollywood is so glamorous!

Some of the fun footage that wound up on the editing room floor includes Kaily and I singing a bit of musical theatre. Maybe it is better it wound up there? No way! We both attended the famed musical theatre summer camp, Stagedoor Manor. If you listen to the two of us talk, it truly was some of the best summers of our lives. It is hard to explain if you didn't attend, but talk to any of Stagedoor alumni....Jon Cryer, Zach Braff, Mandy Moore, Natalie Portman, Josh Charles, and they will tell you the same thing. We are all musical theatre geeks at heart.

This episode was shot at Vivian's Millenium Cafe in Studio City in their backyard patio. We had to battle the noise from a furniture construction shop on the other side. They did not want to stop working while we shot the episode, but I think we won in the end. It was also our first episode with e.l.f. Cosmetics as our official sponsors, so we appreciate them joining The Web Files fold. Finally, check out our 20th episode with MERRIme.com. Thanks for watching!

The Web Files in the News: October

There has been some fantastic news in the web series world and we are so excited by the leaps and bounds content producers are making in the industry. It thrills me when I hear that shows we have interviewed are gaining the recognition they deserve. So, we are happy to throw our continued support to:

1. The cast and creators of The Crew for not only launching Season 2 yesterday, but for securing an exclusive deal with Babelgum.. I truly appreciate this cast and the show's creator, Brett Register, because they were one of our first interviews when we were launching The Web Files. Be sure to check out our interview with them and our behind the scenes look: Interview and Behind the Scenes.

2. More good news abounds with the cast of Oz Girl. Nick Carlton just inked a distribution deal with Virgin's V Australia as a part of their on-demand in-flight entertainment for Oz Girl. Nick also launched his own digital media/entertainment studio in Melbourne called
Carlton Digital. This 19-year-old truly is a forced to be reckoned with. You can find our Web Files interview here and the behind the scenes of the shoot here. Many thanks to Marc Hustvedt at Tubefilter for linking to our interview in his feature piece on Nick's breaking news:
Tubefilter.

3. One of my favorite people, Mathieas McNaughton, continues to be one of our greatest champions. He featured our episode with the amazing Tim Street on his blog:
LG15 Today.

4. Finally, a new friend to The Web Files is Larry Kless who kindly picked our Tim Street interview as his "Web Video Pick of the Week". I think Tim's interview has resonated with many web series producers and new media creators, so I am thrilled that this episode of The Web Files is gaining attention. Thanks, Larry. Check out the article here: Kless Blog.

Thank you for all of your support. We will continue to bring you the latest in-depth interviews with established and up-and-coming talent in the web series world. Get ready for Wednesday, we have Hayden Black with his upcoming series, The Cabonauts!