According to Wired, Hollywood Has Finally Figured Out How to Make Web Video Pay. The title of the article is a tad misleading, but it's still a good read and offers up a look at some of the new web series coming down the pike State-side, including an animated superhero series from Seth Meyers called The Awesomes, an animated talk show from Ashton Kusher and most exciting for me, Assassins, a series about a secret society from Tom Fontana.

I've been watching (and posting) tons of web serials, but I haven't found too many I really get (Dr Horrible doesn't count as a web serial -- it was a mini-series or a special or something other). The Guild is the exception. I like it a lot. It was written and produced by Felicia Day and when you start watching it, you'll realize how under used she is in Dr. Horrible.

I'm going to go watch a few more episodes. Here's the first to get you started:

Lucky Chance is a 20x2 minute TNT "micro-series" that is also shown on the web. Challenger (as in Dodge) gets a credit below the title.

Illeana Douglas has shot a 10 part web series called Easy to Assemble, slated to launch in late September. The series is set in IKEA and features a whack of celebrity guest appearances including Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Justine Bateman and Ed Begley Jr. Producer SXM is quoted on Tubefilter: “This is really the story of an idea which refused to die and ultimately found a home and sponsor outside traditional television.”

Easy to Assemble is a new evolution of Illeanarama: Supermarket of the Stars, which was pretty funny.

More episodes here on YouTube.

Strike.tv has a new post up on the blog -- this one from former LonelyGirl15 writer Mary Feuer. Feuer describes Strike.tv as an opportunity to

...to present our work, free of interference from the people we usually have to take notes from, in an organized way.

As to when we're going to get to see some of this work? Feuer says:

So we've made the shows; pretty soon we'll be presenting them to you.

Okay... still waiting...

Here's a web series that makes me laugh: Gaytown. The premise? Everyone in town is gay except Owen. You can find all ten episodes of Gaytown on Crackle. Here's the first of them:

I want to like Imaginary Bitches. I like the name. I like the acting. I like the look. But the storyline in this web serial leaves me cold.

The series focuses on young and single Eden who has two imaginary friends who are both bitches. It's written and created by Andrew Miller and stars his wife Eden Riegel who's best known for her work on All My Children. The series has a real story department with six writers. Practically every review compares Imaginary Bitches to Sex and the City.

But to me the premise is flawed. The fact that Eden's bitchy friends are imaginary means she has to continually repeat whatever she's heard them say. And this in turn gets her into trouble. So why does she keep quoting them episode after episode? It doesn't work for me.

What do you think?

This is exciting. Not only did I accidentally come across (ok, they friended me on Twitter) Tubefilter--a blog that "follows the best scripted episodic shows on the web"-- but they bring the news that a Dr Horrible sequel may be in the works.

According to the site, when fans asked Joss Whedon about the possibility of a sequel in a live chat, he responded:

It’s over! Let it go! Or, okay…. We’d love to, but it wouldn’t be simple and it wouldn’t be soon. And frankly, Neil needs to work on his singing. The voice has promise, but…

We Feel Fine is one of my favourite time waster sites. It's pretty. It gives you a whole new way to spy on others. And finally in its 2007 findings, Toronto ranked highly on the sexiness scale. Go over there and play with it. It's fun.

TV, eh? is my weekly source for Canadian TV ratings and now I have a source for the top BitTorrent TV Downloads: New TeeVee.

Here are the top downloads for the week ending July 14, 2008:

Rank  Last Wk  Title

1           1            One Piece

2           4           Heroes

3            3            Lost

4            2            Prison Break

5           5            Grey’s Anatomy

6            9            Dexter

7            7            Smallville

8            6            South Park

9            11           Supernatural

10          10           How I Met Your Mother

11          12           Desperate Housewives

12          13           Family Guy

13          8            The Simpsons

14          17          Stargate Atlantis

15          14           The Office (U.S.)

16          16           Battlestar Galactica

17         21          House M.D.

18          15          My Name Is Earl

19          19           One Tree Hill

20          23           Scrubs

We've seen a lot of new media creators using the web as a stepping stone to conventional media. Think Quarterlife, Sanctuary for All and most recently Ze Frank. But not so the Spiridellis brothers who are behind JibJab. The offers came but Gregg and Evan were committed to the net.

While most LA-based creators would have leveraged the opportunity to run into the arms of big media, Evan ad Gregg shunned the television and film offers pouring in and doubled-down on new media. They went to work leveraging the phenomenal success from the election to start rebuilding their business.

Their web site offers a great history of their struggles to build a web entertainment company and some of their strategies for making money. It's worth a read.

Here are Evan and Gregg Spiridellis in an interview:

JibJab from Gregg Spiridellis on Vimeo.

Here's their latest campaign video:

We are all by now aware that Dr Horrible's arch nemesis is Captain Hammer, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have other enemies lurking out there. One of them appearts to be Dr Steel who has been leaving comments on blogs all over the internet about Dr H stealing his personna.

In fact, Steel has been striving for world domination a lot longer than Horrible and there are some similarities between the two villains that extend past their scientific bent. For more on this topic check out the Coilhouse report.

And why not check out Dr Steel's digs as well? He's got plenty of video and other cool stuff over there for you to look at and buy.

I can't wait to see Wall-E, but until I get to the movie theatre I can keep my Pixar needs satisfied by watching the Pixar channel on YouTube.

New TeeVee reports that Ze Frank is finishing a movie for Universal, co-written by South Park scribe Erica Rivinoja. Here he is on The Sound of Young America:

Ze Frank on The Sound of Young America from Jesse Thorn on Vimeo.

Neil Patrick Harris at the Emmy nominations on Dr Horrible:

It's odd that I'm way more excited right now about 'Dr. Horrible' than the Emmy nomination. It wouldn't surprise me (to see an online TV category) in the future. We're in a tricky, uncharted territory on the Internet. If people know that millions of people will watch it, we're going to see more shows like this. I'm not saying 'Dr. Horrible' is the most high-brow of shows, but it's good. We're not reinventing the theatrical wheel, but it's certainly an amazing 22 minutes of show so far, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Jed Whedon, one of the two brothers with whom Joss worked on Dr Horrible (the other being Zack) gave this excellent quote to USA Today:

We're getting about 1,000 hits per second,

Dr Horrible, on the other hand, had this to say about his famously successful heist last week during which he stole the Wonderflonium he needed:

I say successful in that I achieved my objective. It was less successful in that I inadvertantly introduced my arch nemesis to the girl of my dreams and now he's taking her out on dates and they are probably going to french kiss or something…

I think I love Neil Patick Harris. His performance is nothing short of amazing.

Act II is there for the watching. Have you seen it yet?

Metacafe is holding their first film festival:

Metafest is a juried online and offline film festival presenting the best in international creative and contemporary short form video entertainment.

There are over $10,000 in prizes. Deadline for entry is September 10

Via Bill Cunningham comes the news of iHollywood Forum's Virtual Venture Forum:

On Sept. 3, iHollywood Forum is launching its first Virtual Venture Forum for young companies involved in digital media, mobile, networking and green technology. Thirty select companies will pitch online before a panel of VCs and strategic investors and an audience of up to 200 invited guests from around the world.

Each company presents for 5 minutes using an online WebEx conference room, supported by live video, audio conferencing and slides. Their presentation is judged for an additional 5 minutes by a 3-person panel of VCs and/or strategic investors. Up to 200 invited executives from around the world will listen to the presentation and text questions to the presenting company. At the end of the day, the audience votes on which company they believe is most worthy of funding in each category. The grand winner receives a “Best of Show” award and press release over BusinessWire announcing the news.

The forum will be held Sept 3 from 9 to 12 (Hollywood time) and deadline for applications is August 3.

Act One is 13 minutes and 39 seconds of delight and charm.

The act consists of three sections. First off, we have Dr Horrible (who is anything but) in his lab doing a direct to camera. His two missions and the stakes of the series are quickly established as is Dr H's true nemesis:

My nemesis is Captain Hammer. Coporate tool. Dislocated my shoulder. Again. Last week.

There are two songs in this first section and we meet Dr. H's love interest, Penny and his sidekick, Moist.

Do you need anything dampened? Or made soggy?

The second section takes us to the street, where Dr H is undertaking a mission which will help him accomplish his goal of taking over the world and simultaneously bring him the respect of other villains including Bad Horse. But just as he is mid-plan, Penny appears to distract him. What ensues is a scene of total, unadulterated brilliance: Dr H torn between his need to steal the Wonderflonium and chatting up the woman he loves. The scene is wonderfully written and perfectly performed.

In the final section of the act, Dr H is in the process of stealing the Wonderflonium when Captain Hammer appears to try to foil the plan. It's a fun, funny action sequence set to yet another song. The act ends with a split decision for Horrible; Hammer gets the girl, but Horrible gets the Wonderflonium.

The piece is filled with quotable dialogue and funny lyrics. The shooting and art direction are terrific and the acting is nothing short of brilliant.

You can watch the first act of Dr Horrible for free for just a few days. Better to download it from iTunes for $1.99 to have it for posterity.

Go Joss.

Because the status is not quo.

Freeze ray. Stops time. Tell your friends.

In response to my query about whether the Dr Horrible site was down or the problem is a lousy internet connection, someone sent me this great link: "It's just you." Type in the URL for the site you're can't connect to in order to find out whether it's working. It's a great little site. And you don't have register to use it or remember a password!

Alas, I still can't reach Dr. Horrible.

I can't get onto the Dr Horrible site. Is it overloaded or is it my internet connection which has been pretty slow today?

If you're having the same problem as me, you can always check out what NewTeeVee has to say about the launch and also their review.

I'm sick of passwords. I hate them.

Someone needs to come up with a better way.

Soon.

Have you seen the Dr Horrible companion comic?

Woohoo! The first act of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog comes out tomorrow.

The always insightful and plain speaking Mad Pulp Bastard draws our attention to YouTube's latest announcement about pre- and post-roll advertising.

Here's Bill's very astute recap of the entire financial landscape for digital production:

- We now have a way to generate cash flow for web-premiere content while it is online.

- Sony has paved the way for web-premiere content going to DVD and beyond. (ANGEL OF DEATH), and we also have Strike.tv

- We have Cafepress online manufacturers/store (and others) to sell merchandise derived from content we own.

- We have digital cameras and editing software that is both inexpensive and of broadcast quality.

- We have online networks who will handle distribution throughout the world - or territory by territory.

- We have free online marketing tools - social nets, chat rooms, forums, widgets, Twitter, etc...

- We have free online storage to allow post-production and other folks (CGI artists, composers, etc...) access to the footage to contribute in an open source environment.

I don't have to fly someone to Hollywood to work.

So what do we need beyond this?

-- financing (tax credits, limited partnerships, actual cashflow, ad partners)

-- More Talent (in front of and behind the camera)

-- a restructuring of the business toward salaries ( Reasonable pay for a longer term with benefits and reasonable work hours) and stock options/ownership instead of big, unionized pay scales geared toward short-term workloads -- a theater company model ???

Can you see the day when Indie producers are pitching ad agencies instead of Hollywood?

Yes, Bill. I can see the day and I think it may fall this year.

Twitter has turned the corner and become Facebook: a space for people trying to get your attention -- for whatever reason.

I get notified of new followers on a daily basis and when I go check them out, they’re following 2000+, their tweets are in Spanish and all they have to say is check out this URL.

Twitter is one of the few single click social networks -- with one click you’re following someone. That doesn’t mean they’re following you, but they will get a notification that you’re following them. And chances are they’ll click through to see your Twitter profile.

Twitters are – I believe – an ADHD lot; friendly to many and willing to click on anything. Twitter-quette has been to greet and follow your followers.

That’s going to change fast. The influs of people following 2000, 3000 or even 5000 Twitterers isn’t interested in being part of a community. S/he wants a one-way relationship -- look at me. S/he sure doesn’t want to play Bingo with Ze Frank.

I’m not following someone like that; someone who doesn’t care about my end of the conversation.

On the other hand, if s/he play Color Wars, post funny Tweets, @me once in a while and direct me to interesting web content, I will become a follower.

Is it different when I use Twitter for storytelling? I hope I can make it different. I hope I am learning something here: no mass followings, as tempting as it is. Instead, let them come to you.

My characters have been and will continue to be active community members. They talk one on one with their followers, look at their blogs and take an interest in their lives. Sure they are fictional but they're still members of the community and understand the importance of participating.

And they have the added bonus of bring story to the environment.

To keep up-to-date on what’s going on in online video comedy and drama check out NewTeeVee’s NewTeeVee Station, an editorially-driven guide to quality online video.

If you want to find out what’s going on in the world of online video, according to their website…

NewTeeVee Station is your cheat sheet, cataloging the world of web video with an engaging voice and a critical eye. It’s also a community site, giving you increased power to express what you like, what you don’t, and what else you want to watch.

In a recent review, they give IFC’s The Mary Van Note Show three stars while the community gives it five.

What do you think? Here’s the first episode:

On July 4th, Strike TV was launched… or at least their website was launched.

Strike.TV is the first ever online network created by Hollywood storytellers that brings original, high-quality video entertainment to the world.

We empower professional film and television story-tellers by offering them creative freedom, welcoming them to retain ownership of their material and helping them monetize and distribute their work across the Web.

So far the site offers a trailer, a blog and under the contact button, the information that for the moment they’ll only be empowering members in good-standing of the WGA and DGA…

…with a COMPLETED web series, pilot or film that you're looking to monetize and distribute across the internet…

There’s no word on when the first real content will appear, but you can sign up for email notification.

Here’s their trailer:

www.strike.tv Teaser from StrikeTV on Vimeo.

(I'm sitting beside a lake in the Laurentians watching the hummingbirds and goldfinches, but thanks to the clever person who installed the wireless here and DMc (who's new site design is aweseome) I can keep up on world developments such as the one above.)

What formats will we use for dramatic web serials? TV series has three basic formats we can borrow and adapt: Anthology, Closed and Serial.

We don’t see anthology series often on television anymore,. They’re like mini-movies; each one stands alone. Every episode tells a complete story about a group of characters. Next week it’s a new story about new characters. Usually all the episodes are based on the same theme. For this summer’s Fear Itself, all the episodes are horror stories. Another example of an anthology series is Twilight Zone.

Serials are like Lost, 24 or Heroes in which there is a long story that is told or arced out over many episodes. This category also includes soap opera like the Young and the Restless so you may hear a serialized show referred to as a soapy. Or someone might call it arced, meaning that story “arcs” or plays out over many episodes. Most of the webseries I’ve seen fall into this category; Young American Bodies, Quarterlife, Take Me Back. This format has advantages and disadvantages. On the advantage side, you have room to develop long and interesting stories—which is a plus especially on the web where our episode lengths tend to be so short. On the disadvantage side, the series can be heard for new viewers to “break into.” I had a lot of trouble figuring out what was going on on Young American Bodies despite watching many episodes. The serialized components were so strong, I couldn’t follow the story without going back and watching many many of the previous episodes. Not quite the way to build an audience of new viewers, but serialization does reward loyal viewers and offers the ability to tell long rich multi-layered stories.

One of the important features of television serials is the cliffhanger. Episodes are written in such a way that they leave the viewer hanging, on the edge of their seat, wanting to know what happens next. Young American Bodies didn’t do that for me, but Take Me Back does it in spades.

The final format is series with closure. They have continuing main casts (unlike anthologies) and each episode tells a story that begins and ends in that episode. Most sitcoms follow this form; Friends, Seinfeld, Arrested Development. A web example of closed series is Wainy Days.

I think the best format for web series is to combine closed stories with longer serialized stories. I think a completed hit of story with a beginning, middle and end gives a viewer a kind of satisfaction that they are craving from an entertainment experience. The arced elements or longer narrative serve to keep bringing them back to watch the next episode.

You Suck at Photoshop does this. There’s a discreet and completed story every episode and in season one a story thread that held it all together was the dissolution of Donnie’s marriage. That was a lightly arced season.

Clark and Michael also combined closed and serial to tell the story of two young writers trying to break in in Hollywood.

What variations on TV's three basic formats have you seen?

I was over on Nerve checking out their video. They have a bunch of original series including Young American Bodies, the Mary Van Note Show, Boys and Girls, Tight Shots and Annie Mated. They also have a system in which you can rate each video on three scales: sexy, funny, smart. When I saw that, I was hopeful. Who wouldn't want to watch stuff that's sexy, funny and smart?

After watching several dozen webisodes, my conclusion is that they need a fourth scale, for story. The videos are well-rated by the audience. Some are beautifully shot. There's definitely sex: talk about it, doing it and even full frontal. There's even a few laughs to be had. But there didn't seem to be much in the way of story.

After watching about a dozen episodes of the third season of Young American Bodies, a daily soap, I was just starting to figure out some of the character dynamics. I enjoyed watching it, but it bewilders my story sense. I can't figure out why half the scenes are included. In the third season premier (embedded below), there's no beginning middle and end as far as I can tell. I don't know why those five scenes are included or why the scenes start and end where they do. What about the scene with two women and a muffin? Does that serve a purely character function or does it push the larger story forward in some way? I don't know, but viewers rated that episode a 9 for sexy and a 9.5 for smart.

Tight Shots is about making a movie or living together or both. There didn't seem to be any structure or storytelling technique to the episodes I watched, just kind of a meandering improv.

I just don't get these shows. They aren't using a traditional story structure that I'm familiar. They don't have cliff hanger endings and I find it hard to identify the dramatic beats in the scenes. What I do recognize from TV is titles and tail credits wedged each and every teeny little 5 to 7 minute webisode. And advertising here taking the form of pre-rolls. I think I may have to watch a lot more of these shows to decipher what's going on.

When someone like Joss Whedon decides to create something specifically for the web, I get excited. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, check it out. It made me laugh.

Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog is billed as a internet mini-series and it starts in two weeks, with content appearing July 15, 17 and 19. I can hardly wait.

Here is Joss Whedon's message about Dr Horrible:

Dear Friends,

At last the time has come to reveal to you our Master Plan. BEWARE! Those with weak hearts should log off lest they be terrified by the twisted genius of our schemes! Also pregnant women and the elderly should consider reading only certain sentences. Do not mix with other blogs. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this blog. You must be this tall to read. ‘Kay?

It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, “It’s Show Business – not Show Friends”? Well now it’s Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.)

ONE WEEK ONLY! AN INTERNET MINISERIES EVENT!

"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" will be streamed, LIVE (that part’s not true), FREE (sadly, that part is) right on Drhorrible.com, in mid-July. Specifically:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom – that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)

And now to answers a few Frequently (soon to be) Asked Questions:

1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

2) What happens when it goes away? Does it go to a happy farm for always like Fluffy did when mommy was crying and the neighbor kept washing his fender?

No, Dr horrible will live on. We intend to make it available for download soon after it’s published. This would be for a nominal fee, which we’re hoping people will embrace instead of getting all piratey. We have big dreams, people, and one of them is paying our crew.

And somewhat later, we will put the complete short epic out on DVD – with the finest and bravest extras in all the land. We’ll go into greater detail about that at Comiccon, but we’re changing the face of Show Friendliness a second time with that crazy DVD.

3) Joss, you are so kind, and generous, and your forehead is like, huge, like SCARY, like I think I can see Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint hanging off it… what can WE do to help this musical extravanganza?

What you always do, peeps! What you’re already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs… let people know who wouldn’t ordinarily know. It wouldn’t hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community – communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It’s time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen.

Wow. I had no idea how important you guys were. I’m a little afraid of you.

4) Joss, do you ever answer a question simply or coherently?

Shledzguohn?

There’ll be more questions, and more long, long answers, but for now I’m just excited that we’re actually making this happen. We (and a lot of other people -- gushing to commence soon) worked very hard on the show and we hope/think you guys will be pleased.

Until July 15th , I remain, yours truly, -j, of the firm j, j, m & z.