Web TV Prom

If you didn't go to your high school prom or want to relive your youth, well, here is your chance.  ThisWeekIn and Tubefilter are throwing an incredible event on Wednesday, September 22nd for charity for the Los Angeles-based non-profit, Our House, a grief support center.  The night promises to be quite memorable with a host of web celebrities nominated for Prom King and Queen from iJustine to Mark Gantt of The Bannen Way to Shanrah Wakefield of Oz Girl.

Tickets are $25 before September 15th and $30 after September 15th.  You can grab your tickets at Eventbrite.  If you cannot make the event, don't worry, ThisWeekIn will be live streaming the event, so you can watch from the comfort of your couch in your prom dress.  You will definitely see me there, but now for the big question:  What to wear?  Any suggestions?

What:  Enchantment Under the Web Prom
Where: Busby's East
             5364 Wilshire Blvd
             Los Angeles
When:  Wednesday, September 22nd
             8PM-11PM
Cost:    $25 for the Early Bird Special
            $30 after September 15th.

Behind the Scenes of Urban Wolf

I came upon this series at last year's iTVFest and The Web Files interviewed Laurent Touil Tartour on the red carpet.  Along with Oz Girl and MERRIme.com, this series had quite a bit of buzz surrounding it.  When it was announced in March that Sony/Crackle.com had licensed worldwide global distribution rights for Urban Wolf, no one was surprised.  The series is THAT good.  Fast forward to the iTVFest Fundraiser in April where someone whispered that Laurent had just signed a deal with Michael Bay's The Institute, and I knew we had a big web series success story on our hands.  The show launched May 13th on Crackle.com and I have to say, I was really inspired by his story.

Once the details for The Web Files interview were in place, I was asked to submit my questions to Laurent because of the language barrier.  Now let me preface this by saying I NEVER give my questions out before, but I knew Laurent was a bit nervous, so I sent some general questions over with the caveat that my interviews are free flowing.  I thought he would be fine throughout the interview, and I was right, he was.  Laurent is charming, smart, and a good storyteller.  Obviously, his charm came through on the screen as Web Series Today made a comment about my flirtatious interview with him. Hey, he's French, he's got an accent, that's a good reason to flirt!

I'm so pale, our makeup artist, Melissa Anchonodo, is doing her best to warm me up with bronzer.  I was that day glow white.

The reason this series stands out amongst the pack is its cinematic feel and the utilization of mise en scene.  You don't hear the main character utter a word until Episode 7, and boy, is it effective.  The other thing you have to remember is that Laurent is French, so he dove straight into the web series world through the festival circuit.  I think this is really important to point out. I have been talking about Publicity and Web Series lately and I truly believe that this a great way to stand out from the pack. Laurent hit Comic Con, iTVFest, AFI DigiFest, and Sundance New Media Lab all within the past 10 months.  Of course, the challenge is getting accepted into the festivals, but I think it is an avenue web creators should continue to explore. 

Finally, if you notice in the photo below, we have no poster on the wall.  Yep, that was added in post by our amazing graphics artist, Michael "Cobra" Ledin.  Cobra is one of my Technical Directors for Toyota Live during the year, and he kindly offered up his expertise for this episode.  He's a wizard with a computer and he is pretty darn funny too.   

So, go ahead, be inspired, and watch our interview with Laurent Touil Tartour on The Web Files:

Publicity and Web Series

A few months back I did a post on the Dos and Don'ts on the Red Carpet and I think it is time to write a companion piece called Publicity and Web Series.  I am going to throw out a few guidelines that are specific to The Web Files, but I know there are new media journalists out there that are seeing some similar issues.  Liz Shannon Miller at NewTeeVee has posted some helpful guidelines for submitting your show to her for review, but what is pure comedy is the email she received this week.  It made me realize that it was time to write the post that has been formulating in my head for awhile.  


We all know that publicity is a key component to driving viewers to your show and keeping the buzz out there in the web series world.  I would imagine most of the Streamy-nominated shows have seen a nice lift in viewership over the last six weeks, you want to keep that momentum going.  How do you do it?  Here are some suggestions:


1. Festivals:  I have really started to pay attention to what is happening on the festival circuit from ITVFest to NY Television Festival to SXSW.   Take a look at the success stories from ITVFest 2009....Al Thompson with an Atom.com deal, MERRIme.com with distribution on The Frisky, Oz Girl's Streamy award (and more news to come), and Urban Wolf's distribution deal with Crackle.  It is thrilling to watch the success happen in less than a year's time.  The festival circuit is a great place to start to create some buzz, so head on over and submit your series.


**Update:  This category continues to grow and I want to make sure to get some of those higher profile festivals out there for you to check out:  iTVFest, NYTV Festival, AFI DigiFest, Comic Con, and Sundance's New Media Lab.  Good luck! **


2.  Networking Events:  There seems to be a new media event, launch party, red carpet, screening, or meet-up each week.  While we see a lot of the same faces over and over, it isn't a bad thing to stop in and hand out a business card or two if you are ready to launch your show.  In fact, we nabbed our first two interviews for The Web Files at Geek Out 2009 by meeting Tay Zonday of Chocolate Rain fame and Brett Register of The Crew.  Without them, we wouldn't have had such a successful start to The Web Files. 


3.  Reviews and Interviews:  Now some of you are lucky enough to have new media publicists who take care of all of your publicity needs.  There are some fantastic representatives out there who are working  hard to promote the heck out of your show.  I can name seven publicists off of the top of my head that we have worked with on a consistent basis.  If you can afford a publicist, go for it.  It is tremendously helpful and it takes a lot of the burden off of your plate. 
    However, I know the reality of budgets in the web space and you are probably doing the publicity at the same time you are producing, writing, and starring in your show.  So, how do you give your series that extra push?  I have already given you Liz Shannon Miller's tips for "How to Pitch Me Your Web Series".  Everyone needs to remember this word, "pitch".  You should pitch your show in an email the same exact way you would pitch your show in a meeting with distribution executives.  In fact, this should be excellent practice for all of the meetings you will be taking after your web series is a huge hit, an award winner, and it opens doors on even bigger platforms.  That is exactly how the pitch should be handled.
    So, while I DO want links to your reviews from Tubefilter and NewTeeVee, here's what I don't particularly enjoy:  
          -"Check out my link.  You should interview me."  
          -"Why haven't you interviewed me yet?" or "When is it my turn?"
          -"The Streamys are over, so let's sit down so you can cover my show."
          -"Come interview us. We have an event tomorrow."
Yes, these are all direct quotes.  So, you can see I am getting some unprofessional emails and it is a little surprising.  I certainly can't email the studio publicists and say, "It's time for The Web Files to interview your talent.  We will be there tomorrow."  I have to pitch my show and let them know why it would be beneficial for their shows to be interviewed by us.  I submit a formal email with links, a press release and talent bios.  I want them to see The Web Files as a professional media outlet, not some hack entertainment web series.  Please treat your show with the same respect whether you are dealing with a small show like ours or a huge network like E!  You spent so much time and effort on the creative side of the business, remember that once it is completed and you are dealing with publicity, monetization, or distribution, it is all business. 
     The other issue is contacting us a day before your event.  If pre-production took a month for you, it will be the same for us.  We have a crew to organize, a show to plan, and we have to make sure I am in town. (Easier said than done during my travel season.)  I love covering events, but some notice is appreciated and it is necessary for us to produce a quality show for you.  I want to make sure I have done my research on the talent and we want to have our core crew on hand. Trust me, they are GOOD, so a little calendar courtesy goes a long way in our world.  


4.  Press Releases:   A simple and free way to get the word about your show out there on the net.  PRLog just requires a short registration and it is a fantastic way to get the word out about your news of season premieres, finales, distribution, and events.  We have utilized this service quite a bit and we always see a lift off of the press release.


5.  Timing:  Yes, timing is important in terms of publicity.  Take it from the master, Felicia Day.  When she is writing The Guild, she puts herself in a media blackout creating more of a demand for her when she returns.  I am sure she wants to avoid the distraction, but it is a brilliant idea.  When your show is launching, ending, there is distribution news, casting news, or a red carpet event, that is when you want to hit the PR wire.  That is exactly when we want to interview you too. We want launch our episode with you because it is a win-win in terms of buzz and viewership.  In fact, the next six interviews we are shooting involve: a Streamy winner, a launch, distribution news, casting news, DVD release, and a new media event.  As they say, timing is everything.


6.  Patience:  I think Liz said it best, "Please be patient with me. I eventually watch everything I’m sent, but I only write one review a day and you web series creators have been freakin’ BUSY."  I know at The Web Files, we are doing our best to keep up with your emails.  We do have an official list and we banter back and forth as to why we should do a particular series now or later.  It is an ongoing discussion and it changes each month.  The best example of that is our interview with the series, Chick.  It had been on our list for a long time, but the timing felt right in early 2010.  I even wrote about the timing in my Behind the Scenes post for Chick.  The show did extremely well for us in terms of views and we received more emails about this show than any other episode so far in 2010.  Chick has a lot of heart and I think that resonated with many viewers, so I was thrilled we gave a smaller show a boost and we felt like we did it at the right time.  


Where can you hone your PR skills? Well, I know there are several new media workshops going on in the month of May with NewMedialocity and WebTV Workshop, or you can go back to the basics with UCLA's Extension program and sign up for PR 101. I am hoping the Web TV seminars address the publicity issue in depth because it will be beneficial to many content creators.


I hope this was helpful to you from a media perspective.  I would love to hear your comments on this topic because I know many of you will have even better suggestions from a creator's point of view.  So, let's get some dialogue started! 


To submit to The Web Files:  TalkToTheWebFiles at Gmail dot com
We look forward to learning more about your web series!


**Update** I received an email from a content creator accusing me of being part of the LA web series "bubble" and some unknown clique out here.  I have to take issue with this.  We do not have a travel budget for The Web Files right now.  If you know of someone that would like to sponsor us, we would gladly take you up on that offer and cover web series all over the country. 
   Please do not accuse me of not supporting web series.  I have worked hard along with everyone else at The Web Files for FREE since May of 2009. We want to tell your stories and we are doing the best we can on our limited resources.  We are happy to cover any web series that is visiting LA and we try to take advantage of that situation whenever we can make that interview happen.  So, please keep me in the loop of your travels, especially if you are coming in for Digital Hollywood or itvfest.  Off my soapbox.  :) kb

PS.  I must be doing something right if I got my first piece of hate mail.  Yay!

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.

2009 in Review: August

This month will definitely be done in 5 photos although some of you are betting I will break my 5 photo rule again. I have a feeling you are right. August 2009 brought a few of my favorite shoots for The Web Files because we were featuring an international show and one that I picked as an up and comer. (I think I have been proven right on this too! That makes me feel good to see their success.)

Our shoot with Oz Girl in West Hollywood. This was a last minute shoot when we figured it was a great opportunity to grab these talented kids while they were all in from Australia. They were the hit of iTVFest and I look forward to seeing more from the cast. Episode: Oz Girl.

If you know me well enough, you know that I am a musical theatre geek at heart. Here I am with my friend, Crabby, at our annual trip to the Hollywood Bowl to see their musical theatre offering of 2009. This year? Guys and Dolls with Jessica Biel as Sarah Brown. Yes, I said Jessica Biel.

The crew from The Web Files and the crew from Movies You May Have Missed. A show that I pegged as a rising star in the web space and their success has proven me right. With over a million views in December alone, be sure to watch their weekly Wednesday release. Here's our episode with them: MYMHM and the episode I did on their show: Mildred Pierce

Bring your puppy to work day! My puppy loves to hang out on set and she is welcome at Dance Channel TV when I shoot. Here we are shooting a segment for Gotta Dance movie with my puppy at my feet. Here's the segment: Gotta Dance.

Our makeup sponsors came on board in August and we want to thank Ted Rubin at e.l.f. for continuing to offer great support to The Web Files.

See? I did it in 5 today. Find out if I succeed tomorrow with the start of my month long gig in Dallas. Lots of fried food pictures coming your way.

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!