Break a Leg, Prom Queen and Scary City are Tubefilter's. Dr Horrible is based on Jeffrey McManus's estimate of 250K budget which Joss has pretty much confirmed. I guestimated the TV number based on 44 minutes at 1.5K.

Put this together with CPM numbers from Tubemogul via New TeeVee today: the average CPM for those monetized videos is $12.39. That's 12 bucks and change for every 1000 viewers you draw.

So if your video is 3 minutes and you've got a middle of the road budget of 2K/min your episode costs you $6,000. At a CPM of 12 bucks you need half a million viewers just to recoup.

I'm going to go dig up some numbers on how many viewers scripted webisodes are typically getting… More math coming soon.

Stay tuned.

Felicia Day is all kinds of wonderful. There was that turn in Dr Horrible, but that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her talent. She also wrote, produced and starred in The Guild which is one of the best web serials around.

Here's a video of her on the Dr Horrible panel at ComicCon caught Twittering instead of paying attention. For those of you who don't know Twitter, this is akin to passing high tech notes in class... Only she was on stage at the time.

If you can't get enough of Felicia, you can follow her on FriendFeed.

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 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.

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 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.

Have you seen the Dr Horrible companion comic?

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

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.