NextTV

Bedheads by Pete Monro and Laura Beckner

A fun series about two people who just keep missing each other that won us over during 2009’s Web Series & Short Film Competition. This is truly a testament to wonderful story-telling done on a micro-budget.  This is why we do our competitions…to provide a platform for great, self-motivated artists to connect to relevant players in the industry.

See all episodes on thebedheads.com . Words from the creators below…ENJOY, then go to their site to see all of their great webisodes (ep. 5 has Hugo Nicolson from Radiohead…all are fun).

Bedheads – The Trailer from Laura Beckner & Pete Monro on Vimeo.

Here are the creators telling me a thing or two about the series.

Pete:  As is the case with many films, TV shows, and now webisodes, mobisodes, and whathaveyou… Bedheads was born out of Laura and I wanting to work on something together and not having a whole lot of funding and/or resources that come with studio backing.  Obviously this is nothing new.  But we were dealing with a fairly new horizon.  The Internet and the Web Series.  The market seemed to already be over saturated by something that had hardly been around for more than a couple years.  So much of what we had been seeing was sketch comedy.  We wanted to do something that wasn’t sketch, something with a narrative so that viewers can check in every couple weeks and see how the show has progressed.

Part I: MY CONVERSATION WITH JOAN VOGELESANG, PRESIDENT & CEO OF TOON BOOM ANIMATION

The market for well-trained animators, even in this global economic downturn, is extremely robust.  There are over 35,000 animation jobs available right now, worldwide, and the tools to realize your vision keep getting more and more accessible.  TOON BOOM ANIMATION, under the leadership of Joan Vogelesang, has become a huge part of this equation.

Along with Karina Bessoudo, VP of Marketing, Joan has been incredibly generous with her time (and resources) as a judge and sponsor of the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition.  These are major players, working with nearly every major animation studio (from Disney on down), as well as individual animators young and old.  They have won every major award imaginable from Emmy’s to Parent Awards.  They can list as credits Disney’s very latest animated features to tv classics like The Simpsons…and everything in between.   Toon Boom Animation has become synonymous with innovation, automation and accessibility in the world of animation software, and now they are bringing those same assets to the live action world, beginning with their Storyboard Pro software (donated to our winners, along with the top-of-the-line animation software). SO…The fact that they have so wholly embraced the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition speaks volumes to their corporate and personal philosophies.  Their commitment to building communities, educating, and generally supporting emerging animators world-wide. 15 years after their software first began to revolutionize the animation world, you would think that Toon Boom would no longer need to reach out so forcefully to emerging animators.  This is a different kind of company.  With over 300,000 members in their community and thousands being added daily, their work at the grass roots level is as impressive as their mastery of the studio-world.

I recently spoke with Joan, the President and CEO of Toon Boom.  In writing about her and about Toon Boom, I hope to shed light on the worldwide animation landscape and how you can fit into it.

Joan came from the high tech world, not the entertainment industry. Prior to joining Toon Boom and entering the world of animation, Vogelesang held senior level marketing and sales positions at IBM Canada and served as the Vice President of Product Line Management for Philips Electronics and later as the Vice President of Business Operations at Hitachi Data Systems. And in 1998, when she came to Toon Boom, she was the Chief Operating Officer for QSound Labs, Inc, an audio technology firm.

When she came to Toon Boom , the animation landscape was quite different. With a revolutionary new technology in tow, she led the charge to automate the animation process, freeing artists from the incredibly arduous, costly and time-consuming tasks of drawing every single frame of every single movement a character might make.

It was easy to see the effect of Toon Boom’s animation revolution on our industry.  Suddenly, a process that took years could be accomplished in months.  Work could be outsourced to various studios with ease, decentralizing the process and making for a much more efficient ‘assembly line’.  Warner Brothers, Disney and all of the major players in town embraced the company and its software, while individual animators found it incredibly useful and accessible as well (both seasoned and beginning animators.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will explore today’s animation business by sharing more of my conversation with Joan with you. Understanding how to utilize resources provided by companies like Toon Boom can truly change your career.

Check them out for yourself at www.toonboom.com and read their animation blog at: http://betterflashanimation.com/

EMPIRE HOTEL by Oded Turgemon.

 Here is a great ANIMATED submission to last year’s NexTv Web Series and Short Film Competition.  Submissions like this convinced us that we needed a category dedicated solely to animation this year.  Awesome judges, sponsors and prizes.  But I digress.  I love this one! 

EMPIRE HOTEL follows the adventures of Bellboy, who, after witnessing a terrible crime by the mafia, is deported by the FBI to Caramba Island, as part of the witness protection program. There, he is placed on staff at The Empire Hotel, a dilapidated relic fighting to stay in business as a tourist destination on the cursed, barren island.

Creator/Director, Oded Turgeman is a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem, where his short films screened at over 130 festivals worldwide. He wrote and directed two short films shown on Israeli television, directed nationally broadcast television commercials, and produced a pilot for prime time Israeli television. In 2005, Oded moved to Los Angeles to attend The American Film Institute Conservatory’s directing program. He won the Hollywood Foreign Press Association International Filmmaker Award for “Pooh’s Prayer,” and his thesis film, “Song of David,” won several awards including the Jury Prize at the USA Film Festival. In 2008, Oded and his partner Roby Freireich co-founded The Operating Room, a company dedicated to developing and producing distinctive and original feature films and television programs.

Click HERE to submit to the 2010 Web Series & Short Film Competition. Short Film & Web Series Competition.

Web Series, Short Films, Documentaries, Animation, Pilots, Trailers, Spec Commercials, and more…

Yet another really good one from the 2009 Web Series & Short Film Competition.  DPShorts has made a bunch of these really funny, smart shorts…great for a sketch comedy show if you ask me. Really worth watching if you want to laugh.

MY APARTMENT by DPShorts

The inspiration for this film came from a sexy, lady friend in Toronto who e-mailed “I haven’t seen your New York apartment. Shoot some video and post it online.” In the end, I think she got to see more than she’d bargained for. But… creative inspiration? Who really knows where it comes from. Or where it goes.

If you enjoy this video, visit www.dpShorts.com for more.

Click HERE to submit to the 2010 Web Series & Short Film Competition. Short Film & Web Series Competition.

Web Series, Short Films, Documentaries, Animation, Pilots, Trailers, Spec Commercials, and more…

Another great one from the 2009 Web Series and Short Film Competition. Like a good play or novel, the longer you stick with it, the deeper the experience gets for you.  I watched an episode and liked it.  I watched 2 and became hooked.  An hour later I was calling Lorin up asking for more.  Below are 3 installments.  Click here for more WEBISODES.

And now a brief note from the creator, Lorin Wertheimer.

The series, Speedie Date, has gone through a number of drafts – and media.  It started off as a short, two-person play which I wrote and rewrote, cutting it down from its original 17 page length to a slim 8 pages (what we ended up shooting as episode one).  With the encouragement of director Kristiina Hackel, I wrote a few more episodes, then turned them into a full-length play.  Unhappy with how the play read, I decided to try it as a screenplay.  Both Kristiina and I liked the screenplay, but weren’t sure what to do with it: we didn’t have the resources to produce it.  When the Writers’ Strike happened in 2007, a call went out for web series.  I suggested turning Speedie Date into a web series, and Kristiina was enthusiastic.  I took five episodes from the screenplay and wrote five more in about a week and a half.  The premise, two strangers coming together for a fixed amount of time, made it awfully easy for me to come up with characters and scenarios.  All in all, we shot ten episodes in four days (that’s sixty-eight pages, the equivalent of almost an entire movie script in a tenth of the time)!

One thing I am struck with every time I watch is what an incredible job our cast and crew did, given the constraints with which we were working.  Constraints aside, I hope you’ll agree, the performances are amazing.  The actors bring the characters to life in an amazing way.  What you can’t see is the tireless effort our bare bones crew put into creating the sets, shooting with no time and minimal lighting, and editing with footage that was incomplete.  All this came together due to the diligence of director Kristiina Hackel, who gave her full attention to the minutest details.

If you enjoy Speedie Date, please tell a friend about it.  If we are able to get enough of a following, we might be able to get funding to make more episodes.

Click HERE to submit to the 2010 Web Series & Short Film Competition.

Web Series, Short Films, Documentaries, Animation, Pilots, Trailers, Spec Commercials, and more…

Did you ever look around and ask yourself: Is everyone around me getting together and annoying me on purpose?  Well…what would you do if you discovered that a multi-million dollar organization existed only to annoy you?

ANNOY CHARLIE SMITH by Seaton Smith is another really fun submission to the 2009 Web Series and Short Film Competition that proves just how good micro-budgeted indie filmmaking can be.  You can imagine the fun we had exploring the work of so many talented and diverse artists.  Seaton Smith has a unique voice and a great cinematic sense.  This web series could be a big-budget action movie, if the concept were…different.  Enjoy.

For more of this go to:

http://annoycharliesmith.wordpress.com/

Or you can subscribe to the youtube page and skip the middle man. http://www.youtube.com/user/AnnoyCharlieSmith

Click HERE to submit to the 2010 Web Series & Short Film Competition.

Web Series, Short Films, Documentaries, Animation, Pilots, Trailers, Spec Commercials, and more…

The Lost Nomads were finalists in last year’s Web Series and Short Film Competition with their collection of incredibly funny sketches (anchored by the one below), directed by Ty Clancy. Since becoming finalists in our competition, the BBC has expanded the sketch into a pilot called GIGI: ALMOST AMERICAN.

To see more hilarious sketches go to their website: www.thelostnomads.com. I recommend that you watch at least one of their Miss Piggy sketches…great stuff.

Gigi2 from Ty Clancey on Vimeo.

After winning the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition’s Grand Prize with his short, MIDLIFE, Michael Swingler is on his way to adapting it into a feature.  With $140,000 worth of cash, goods and services provided by our grant and New Mexico (one of the generous sponsors) on board to help facilitate prep, location scouting, airfare, etc…, lead by producer, Judith Levine, Midlife’s team has begun the task of expanding their short into a feature film.  Below is a trailer for his winning film, chosen by our amazing panel of industry insiders.  The film screened at PARAMOUNT last week and will again next week for industry pros.  Would love to hear your feedback. Submit YOUR work at www.nextventertainment.com/web

Creative Director of Funny or Die, and former SNL head writer, Andrew Steele, joins  NEXTV WEB SERIES & SHORT FILM COMPETITION judging panel

Here is an article written by Variety about him:

Funny or Die has tapped “Saturday Night Live” scribe Andrew Steele to serve as the creative director of the comedy website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

Steele will oversee development and production of a range of programming that Funny or Die is developing through its recent partnership with HBO (Daily Variety, June 11). Steele will also be tasked with keeping the original vid pipeline stocked for FunnyOrDie.com.

Funny or Die has been looking for a seasoned comedy writer to oversee its operations ever since it struck the deal with HBO, which calls for the company to develop 10 half-hours of programming for the pay cabler. Steele is a 12-year “SNL” vet who was one of three head writers on the show in recent years. He worked with Ferrell and McKay during their respective tenures on the NBC latenight mainstay.

“When we were talking about who we wanted to hire, we kept saying, ‘We need someone like an Andrew Steele,’�” McKay said. “Finally, Will just called him. We’re overjoyed that he said yes.”

Ferrell quipped: “He’s one of the funniest people on the planet, not counting South America and parts of Russia.”

Steele will coordinate the unconventional HBO development deal, which calls for Funny or Die to field traditional half-hour comedy formats to five-minute bits. It’s an eclectic assignment that is a good fit with Steele’s varied experience on “SNL.”

“His job will be to find interesting ways to divvy up the money (HBO has given them) to get the maximum creative bang for it,” McKay said.

From the 2009 Web Series & Short Film Competition, this is a funny and refreshing look at the experience of being a young Islamic fundamentalist living in the West.  I LOVE this one, light as it ultimately is.  Really good performances and a relevance that resonates, for me, more distinctly than many of the more serious explorations of this very serious subject.  Go to livingwiththeinfidels.com to see more episodes.

Initially set on a path to martyrdom, Yorkshire’s jihadi warriors discover the West isn’t as bad as it seems. Tempted by the likes of Man U, cable TV and ample Abi upstairs, what’s a man to do? Will they find Paradise in the arms of seventy-two virgins, or is Shangri-La closer to home, propped up at the bar in The Dog and Duck?

Submit your Web Series, Short Film, Doc, Pilot, Trailer, spec commercial, etc… (ANIMATED OR LIVE ACTION) to the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition.