Trial and Error

For my latest installment of Web show reviews, again, I accepted the first five submissions of Web series sent to me via Twitter. Those shows are “Amtrekker,” “Commercial Dudes,” “Jake and Amir,” “Mr. Deity” and “Out of Darkness.”

“Amtrekker” is a video blog produced by Brett Rounsaville, who left his home and his job to travel the country and complete 100 cool things on a list, such as driving a race car, walking to the top of the Empire State Building or hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. In this video, Mr. Rounsaville makes his way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and chronicles the journey along with the friends who make the trek with him. This feel-good show reminds you how incredibly awesome it would be to ditch work and do all the things you’re going to wish you had done at the end of your life. The videos are a little long, but I’m going to check out more of them from the comfort of my living room using Apple TV.

“Mr. Deity” on Crackle has been one of the best regarded Web series since its launch two years ago. In this episode Mr. Deity—who’s God, but if he were a studio executive—debates the war on terror with President George W. Bush. “The whole world is going to be behind you, so this will be a cakewalk,” Mr. Deity advises. This is not the best episode of the series, but “Mr. Deity” is a strong comedic show.

“Out of Darkness” is produced by Web production shop Prelude 2 Cinema. I enjoyed the look and feel of the titles and credits in this dramatic police/sci-fi series, but the episode was too short to glean any sense of storyline. But I did catch a faint whiff of girl-on-girl undertones if you’re into that.

“Jake and Amir,” created by Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, is a series about two guys who are “BFFs” or not, as the joke goes. The video submitted to me is a short sketch of the title characters talking to each other in adjacent bathroom stalls. I am so not a fan of bathroom humor that it would be unfair for me to review this show based on this one episode. I checked out a few others and concluded that the show is among the Web video series that might appeal to young men.

Bathroom from Amir on Vimeo.

“Commercial Dudes” is a new series from the sketch comedy group Studio 8 about two men who like to watch TV commercials. In the first episode released last month, the characters watch an ad about a butt saying provolone (huh?). I’m not really sure I get this show at all, so tell me what you think!

Thanks for all your submissions for top web video creators. We’ve narrowed down the submissions and are now putting the top 15 out there for a vote. We’ve placed them in two groups. The first group consists of six creators who lean toward Hollywood; the second group includes nine creators who lean toward the indie side. We will profile the top five to ten web video creators in a feature article in the Sept. 15 edition of TVWeek. We are focusing on creators of scripted content, which is why you won’t find excellent shows such as “Epic Fu” and “Alive in Baghdad” on this list. The final creators profiled will be determined both by votes and on input from TVWeek’s editorial staff.

Michelle Obama was the big winner at last week’s Democratic National Convention. At least in the viral video sweepstakes. Online video measurement service Visible Measures said the speech from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s wife generated more views than those from Hillary and Bill Clinton combined. The measurement firm just focused on the supporting cast at the convention last week, not on Mr. Obama or his vice-presidential pick Joe Biden.

As of Aug. 29, Ms. Obama’s speech had been viewed more than 1.2 million times online, Visible Measures said. Hillary Clinton’s speech had been viewed more than 580,000 times and Bill Clinton’s more than 520,000 times as of Aug. 29.

This week Visible Measures will start tracking viral views of clips from the Republican National Convention, which has kicked off. My bet is the buzz surrounding Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin will push her past both Ms. Obama and any speeches by Cindy McCain, the wife of Republican candidate John McCain.

Imagine bankers and consultants talking smack in rap.

Wait, don’t imagine it anymore. Check out this very funny new video. (You went to public school? Egads!)

So now that TheWb.com is officially in its public beta, I popped back over to the site on Wednesday evening to see if the experience was any smoother.

I wanted to test the video search feature because it allows for some interesting granularities that you don’t usually find on other sites.

Because there are only a handful of programs on TheWb.com, you don’t really need to use the search functionality to search for a show, as you do on a Hulu.com.

Where the search capability does come in handy is if you want to search for a specific piece of dialogue from a show.

For example, “monkey” is a popular word that peppered the dialogue of “Friends.” So if you search “Friends” for the word “monkey,” the site returns a list of video snippets containing the actual moments where someone says “monkey” or where the Marcel the Monkey appears on screen. That’s a pretty cool feature because you can then jump to those sections of the show.

The video search on the site is powered by Digitalsmiths.

I’m going to confess something: I’ve never seen the first episode of “Friends.” Or, really, any episodes for that matter. I just never got bitten by the “Friends” bug.

But now I have seen the first five minutes, and I’ve seen it online, because the show is being carried on TheWb.com, which goes live to the public Wednesday morning when Warner Bros. Television Group launches the site.

The site is billed as an ad-supported, interactive, video-on-demand network that includes full episodes of the show that defined the now-defunct WB network, including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Everwood” and “Gilmore Girls,” as well as newly acquired series such as “Babylon 5” and “Firefly.” The site will feature original Web programs, too.

I had the chance to check out a sneak preview of the site for the press. There’s a lot to like about the site, but like most beta projects, it needs some work.

The good news is the videos look sharp and load quickly. Most are relatively easy to find—that’s one of the benefits of offering a selection of shows rather than everything under the sun.

The site lists about 20 shows under the “shows” tab on the home page. When you click on a show, like “Friends” (which also is available on Hulu.com), the site will bring you to a video player and an episode list. The caveat is that TheWb.com, like most video destinations, does not feature all the episodes at once. This is similar to Hulu, and even to video-on-demand from the cable operator, where you’ll find a smattering of episodes at any given time from a particular program.

In this case, TheWb.com is featuring half a dozen episodes from the iconic sitcom, including the premiere. So I saw the wet bridal dress moment finally (How did I ever live without “Friends”?).

I toggled between full-screen popout player and embedded player options. All worked fine, though I felt as if I missed perhaps a second or two of the action while switching.

I do wish Web video destinations would make it clearer that they don’t feature all the episodes at once. I understand that offering 100 or more episodes from one show is cumbersome, so I think Web sites should simply explain what they offer at any given moment, because viewers often want or expect them all. A simple disclaimer or explanation would help immensely.

The search functionality on the site lets you search by several parameters. If you’re looking for a word or a phrase, you can search according to the show, season, episode and even character.

Who are the top Web video creators? Tell us!

We are working on a feature story for mid-September listing and profiling the top Web video creators. We want to focus on creators, on-air and behind the scenes, for scripted entertainment content. Who is the best? Who should be on this list? Tell us what you think? Write in with a comment.

NOTE: Please submit your comment once only. If they contain URLs, they need to be approved, which may take a little time. But submitting them half a dozen times does not speed up the process.

Everyone wants to know what the secret is to success in Web video. Personally, I think the Internet is just a bunch of dark magic. But I suppose there is something more than that.

The Web video news site TubeFilter.TV offers seven tips for launching a successful Web show. Some of them are things you should know already like “upload to a video hosting site with a premium, embeddable player.” The author, Marc Hustvedt, recommends Blip.tv, Vimeo or Veoh. (I think what’s going unsaid in this tip is don’t use YouTube).

The other tips are build a brand for your show with a Web site, logo and artwork; reach out to bloggers and press early (especially because, as Hustvedt says, reporters like to break stories early. Hint, hint: tell me about your show first!), commit to a regular schedule of release dates, have several episodes in the can before you launch, create an RSS feed for your videos and use social media like Twitter and Facebook to connect with the audience.

The Olympics are winding down, but on Monday there will be a new event to watch online when the Democratic National Convention begins.

NewTeeVee lists all the places to watch the political action online. That includes hi-def streaming of the entire event at Demconvention.com.

Also, uStream will offer “Big Tent” coverage.

C-Span will get into the game, NewTeeVee says, with a video site that will include videos from citizen journalists.

You also can find live coverage online from the Washington Post, Newsweek and ABCNews.com. And let’s not forget that CBS’ Katie Couric will produce Web-only shows from the convention.

Let the games begin!

Last week on Twitter I invited followers to submit one episode of a Web series for me to review in TVWeek. The rules were simple. I’d take the first five submissions. I didn’t specify who could submit shows; just that you needed to be fast. Some were submitted by the show’s star, some by the show’s producer and some simply by fans. I’ll run this contest every week or so on Twitter.

I’m not going to review the Web shows according to my personal taste because taste is completely subjective and what makes me laugh may make you yawn. I’ll instead critique the show’s presentation, explication, and potential market.

"Mahalo Daily": The episode submitted covered BestFest, a student film festival for high school and college students. “Mahalo Daily” has always been a well-produced show and remains so with new host Leah D'Emilio, but the show seems too broad. "Mahalo Daily" bills itself as a pop culture show. That description has become catch-all Internet lingo for “permission to cover whatever you want,” so I’m not entirely sure who the audience is. That said, "Mahalo Daily" continues to pull in sizable numbers.

"Directors Notes": The show is a combination audio podcast and Web video show. The audio podcast is an in-depth interview with an independent film director, while the video portion is a compilation of clips and scenes from those movies. As a result, the show feels like a well-constructed documentary—because it is. The problem is that the point of the show isn’t clear to me at first. This could be solved by a simple explanation at the start of each episode. This combo audio-video show would be most appealing to hard-core independent film fans and filmmakers. I suspect the audience will be most drawn to the audio portion, especially since host MarBelle with his British accent is easy to listen to. (Sorry, you'll have to go to the Web site to sample the video.)

"Scam School": I have to admit, this episode made me smile a lot. Host Brian Brushwood teaches bar tricks for viewers to scam free drinks. But in this edition, he plays puzzle games with a cute woman at the bar. The lower-thirds are like winks to the audience: “Encouragement is key even if the answer is wrong” and “Always appear helpful.” This show is so clearly hitting in the sweet spot for young men in their 20s, it seems like a sin if they don’t watch.

"Web Drifter": Host Martin Sargent travels around the country and visits the people behind some of the most outlandish sites on the Internet, including one run by a man who dresses only in leather, rubber and vinyl and maintains a log of which leather outfits he has worn every single solitary day. OK, this is a little weird. And it’s definitely explicit. But watching this episode is kind of like rubbernecking: You really can’t take your eyes off it. “Web Drifter” is definitely for people who aren’t squeamish, aren’t judgmental and are interested in the underbelly of the Internet and of, well, people.

"Bottles, Blends and Brews": Host and creator Zack Luye provided a sneak preview for TVWeek readers of this new show rolling out this week. The show is a weekly review of teas, sodas and other non-alcoholic beverages. The show is targeted to beverage aficionados. The show has potential but needs to be shortened to about five minutes or less. If we can see more of the cool production moments (like when he fast-forwards the tea being brewed) and shorter reviews, the audience can grow. Luye said future episodes will be five minutes or less.