Ettinger poses for a headshot on SHEAR GENIUS.

Last night, my flight from SFO to LAX was stuck on the runway, and so I was channel-surfing the DirecTV (s dtv) provided by Virgin Airlines. It was an exercise in minimizing boredom, not to mention enjoying a few minutes off the clock — which is why I found it super weird to see Amber Lee Ettinger, better known to the Internet as Obama Girl, getting a haircut on the Bravo (s GE) reality series Shear Genius (it’s like Project Runway, but for hair stylists).

Ettinger was just one of seven aspiring model/actresses getting new looks for headshots, and while the stylist-contestant assigned to her identified her as Obama Girl, otherwise there wasn’t much made of Ettinger’s online fame. The reason for that might have been this: Ettinger wasn’t appearing on Shear Genius to bolster the Obama Girl brand. In fact, her target for one of her new looks was to hopefully get a role as the lead in an action film — according to Shear Genius contestant/stylist Brig, “the role she’s after is ‘strong female lead in an action flick.’”

So Ettinger is pursuing an acting career — does that mean Obama Girl is dead? According to Obama Girl creator and creative director of Next New Networks’ Barely Political channel, Ben Relles, the answer is definitely not. Ettinger still lives in New York, and continues to appear in Barely Political and Barely Digital videos (both in and out of Obama Girl character), most recently in the John Mayer parody John Mayer for Dummies.

How did Ettinger’s new do do on the show? Fine: Without any spoilers, her hair didn’t cause any major drama, and the judges especially liked her action look. No telling if her new headshots will help her future career — but I love abusing the “local girl makes good” headline cliche, so personally, I’ve got my fingers crossed for her teaming up with Jason Statham sometime soon.

Related GigaOM Pro Content (subscription required):

Shattering the Fourth Wall to Find Web Audiences

Next Tuesday, Mar. 16, Genachowski will be answering user-submitted questions to topics like Access and Affordability, Mobile and Wireless and Security and Privacy. So if you’ve always wanted to grill a member of government about why web access isn’t as free and plentiful as it is in other countries, then go to YouTube’s CitizenTube channel and submit your question.

There are four days left to submit, and so far only 15 questions (one of which is this video, embedded above) have been contributed. So your odds of getting Genachowski’s attention? Pretty good. Oh, and while we’re at it: Feel free to link to your question in the comments if you end up participating.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Can Online Video Show Us the Future of Newspapers?

Next Tuesday, Mar. 16, Genachowski will be answering user-submitted questions to topics like Access and Affordability, Mobile and Wireless and Security and Privacy. So if you’ve always wanted to grill a member of government about why web access isn’t as free and plentiful as it is in other countries, then go to YouTube’s CitizenTube channel and submit your question.

There are four days left to submit, and so far only 15 questions (one of which is this video, embedded above) have been contributed. So your odds of getting Genachowski’s attention? Pretty good. Oh, and while we’re at it: Feel free to link to your question in the comments if you end up participating.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Can Online Video Show Us the Future of Newspapers?

This new label, Paracadute Recordings, will take over the distribution and promotion for their newest album Of The Color of Blue Sky, sales for which may be experiencing an uptick following the release of the State Farm-sponsored Rube Goldberg video for This Too Shall Pass, which is currently at 6.8 million views on YouTube (no small thanks to the fact that it’s embeddable).

OK Go’s decision isn’t terribly surprising when you consider their very public stance on big labels — that they function best as an aggregator of risk, giving support to new bands. As lead singer Damien Kulash said in our interview in January:

I’m not, you know, in any way celebrating the f—ing evil sons of b—-es who run things and the awful contracts they gave people. But the truth is that to tour internationally or to afford to work in the kind of studios we want to work in is not even close to within the range of of our own pocketbooks. Basically major labels are and have been, for a long time, essentially big gambling banks.

The move to their own label may mean that fancy recording studios and those international tours are no longer be a reality for them, at least for the time being. (They are kicking off a new tour in April, but will be staying domestic.)

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Fact or Fiction: Where Is Branded Online Video Going?

This new label, Paracadute Recordings, will take over the distribution and promotion for their newest album Of The Color of Blue Sky, sales for which may be experiencing an uptick following the release of the State Farm-sponsored Rube Goldberg video for This Too Shall Pass, which is currently at 6.8 million views on YouTube (no small thanks to the fact that it’s embeddable).

OK Go’s decision isn’t terribly surprising when you consider their very public stance on big labels — that they function best as an aggregator of risk, giving support to new bands. As lead singer Damien Kulash said in our interview in January:

I’m not, you know, in any way celebrating the f—ing evil sons of b—-es who run things and the awful contracts they gave people. But the truth is that to tour internationally or to afford to work in the kind of studios we want to work in is not even close to within the range of of our own pocketbooks. Basically major labels are and have been, for a long time, essentially big gambling banks.

The move to their own label may mean that fancy recording studios and those international tours are no longer be a reality for them, at least for the time being. (They are kicking off a new tour in April, but will be staying domestic.)

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Fact or Fiction: Where Is Branded Online Video Going?

The pair behind Movie Spoilers in One Take, My Profile Story, and the Lost parody series have recently begun not just making content for themselves, but partnering with some of YouTube’s biggest stars to help them create the best possible — and most popular — videos. Not only are Benny and Rafi Fine now officially the chief creative executives and heads of production for the YouTube (s GOOG) star comedy collective The Station, but they’ve been making shorts with individual YouTubers — the most recent example of which being the Shane Dawson-starring Degrassi spoof series.

You might not be familiar with Degrassi: The Next Generation, either because you’re not a Canadian teenager or because you don’t get cable channel The N, which airs episodes in the United States. But fans of the Canadian teen soap will tell you that when it comes to “going there” on controversial or uncomfortable topics, Degrassi does — drugs, abortion, homosexuality, school shootings and date rape are all considered to be acceptable topics for the show to explore, making it one of the more daring shows out there.

It’s that at times over-the-top edginess which Dawson and the Fines parody in both Hot Teens Gone Wild on Degrassi: Part 1, released last November, and sequel Hot Teens Go Wild on Degrassi: Part 2, which debuted on Saturday. At over ten minutes each, each sketch definitely pushes the patience of the typical attention-span-deficient YouTube viewer, but that hasn’t stopped Part 1 and its accompanying trailer and bloopers video from earning over five million views, and Part 2 from being seen by 1.5 million over the last three days and featured on G4′s Attack of the Show.

The secret to getting people to stick around for a longer video, according to Benny Fine, with whom I spoke via chat, comes from building an audience with “topical sketches and viral videos,” he said. “Once we built a bit enough subscriber base, they really are your supporters, they want to like everything you do, so you can toss in something longer every once in a while in between your other content, and they will watch it and support it.”

Dawson, who the Fines have been mentoring since 2008, takes a similar approach, and all three are Degrassi fans, which lead them to create the first parody video together (Dawson stars, while all three of them wrote and directed it together). And when it came out, the cast and crew of Degrassi noticed — and loved it. “We were surprised at how fast so many associated with the show found out about it. We have dealt with other shows that need not be named [Lost] that have not had the same reaction to spoof content from us, so it’s been refreshing. But it also makes sense, as Degrassi is a forward thinking show that has made some of the best ancillary web content ever for a TV show,” Rafi Fine said.

Its cast and crew are also active Twitter users, who Dawson replied to when they Tweeted out the video — and that’s how, for the sequel video, they were able to get Degrassi star Lauren Collins to make a cameo as herself.

By parodying a relatively unknown Canadian show, the team has seen “thousands of comments” from people who had never heard of Degrassi or had stopped watching it, but were going to go back to the series or potentially buy DVDs. The positive reaction from the Degrassi folk has also got them hoping that they might be able to work with producers on a future parody installment, though no official overtures have yet been made. “We’re trying to figure out the best way to handle that situation,” the Fines said as a pair. “But it’s a good spot to be in, when you actually do love a show so much that you’d love to work with them to help the series.”

With their knack for getting content to go viral and their relatively independent place in the web video economy, the Fines have become increasingly vocal advocates for transparency in reporting view counts, considering them to be the only true barometer for success in the online video world. “The new media community itself is causing everyone not to be forward thinking as much as they should,” Rafi said. “Viewership should be the #1 priority and #1 determining factor of success online, but because so few can get it, the community devalues it or cheats to get it.”

And the key to getting views, according to Benny, is building an audience that’s personally engaged with your content. “Everyone should be on YouTube in some capacity, because that’s the only place a shell of sustained viewership exists,” he said.

“Good content is one side, views is the other. If you don’t have the views, you are not a success no matter how good your show is — unless you are the web for different reasons,” Rafi said.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series

The pair behind Movie Spoilers in One Take, My Profile Story, and the Lost parody series have recently begun not just making content for themselves, but partnering with some of YouTube’s biggest stars to help them create the best possible — and most popular — videos. Not only are Benny and Rafi Fine now officially the chief creative executives and heads of production for the YouTube (s GOOG) star comedy collective The Station, but they’ve been making shorts with individual YouTubers — the most recent example of which being the Shane Dawson-starring Degrassi spoof series.

You might not be familiar with Degrassi: The Next Generation, either because you’re not a Canadian teenager or because you don’t get cable channel The N, which airs episodes in the United States. But fans of the Canadian teen soap will tell you that when it comes to “going there” on controversial or uncomfortable topics, Degrassi does — drugs, abortion, homosexuality, school shootings and date rape are all considered to be acceptable topics for the show to explore, making it one of the more daring shows out there.

It’s that at times over-the-top edginess which Dawson and the Fines parody in both Hot Teens Gone Wild on Degrassi: Part 1, released last November, and sequel Hot Teens Go Wild on Degrassi: Part 2, which debuted on Saturday. At over ten minutes each, each sketch definitely pushes the patience of the typical attention-span-deficient YouTube viewer, but that hasn’t stopped Part 1 and its accompanying trailer and bloopers video from earning over five million views, and Part 2 from being seen by 1.5 million over the last three days and featured on G4′s Attack of the Show.

The secret to getting people to stick around for a longer video, according to Benny Fine, with whom I spoke via chat, comes from building an audience with “topical sketches and viral videos,” he said. “Once we built a bit enough subscriber base, they really are your supporters, they want to like everything you do, so you can toss in something longer every once in a while in between your other content, and they will watch it and support it.”

Dawson, who the Fines have been mentoring since 2008, takes a similar approach, and all three are Degrassi fans, which lead them to create the first parody video together (Dawson stars, while all three of them wrote and directed it together). And when it came out, the cast and crew of Degrassi noticed — and loved it. “We were surprised at how fast so many associated with the show found out about it. We have dealt with other shows that need not be named [Lost] that have not had the same reaction to spoof content from us, so it’s been refreshing. But it also makes sense, as Degrassi is a forward thinking show that has made some of the best ancillary web content ever for a TV show,” Rafi Fine said.

Its cast and crew are also active Twitter users, who Dawson replied to when they Tweeted out the video — and that’s how, for the sequel video, they were able to get Degrassi star Lauren Collins to make a cameo as herself.

By parodying a relatively unknown Canadian show, the team has seen “thousands of comments” from people who had never heard of Degrassi or had stopped watching it, but were going to go back to the series or potentially buy DVDs. The positive reaction from the Degrassi folk has also got them hoping that they might be able to work with producers on a future parody installment, though no official overtures have yet been made. “We’re trying to figure out the best way to handle that situation,” the Fines said as a pair. “But it’s a good spot to be in, when you actually do love a show so much that you’d love to work with them to help the series.”

With their knack for getting content to go viral and their relatively independent place in the web video economy, the Fines have become increasingly vocal advocates for transparency in reporting view counts, considering them to be the only true barometer for success in the online video world. “The new media community itself is causing everyone not to be forward thinking as much as they should,” Rafi said. “Viewership should be the #1 priority and #1 determining factor of success online, but because so few can get it, the community devalues it or cheats to get it.”

And the key to getting views, according to Benny, is building an audience that’s personally engaged with your content. “Everyone should be on YouTube in some capacity, because that’s the only place a shell of sustained viewership exists,” he said.

“Good content is one side, views is the other. If you don’t have the views, you are not a success no matter how good your show is — unless you are the web for different reasons,” Rafi said.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series

Photo by The Bui Bros. (thebuibrothers.com)

Ah, the Sci-Fi Channel original movie. Even the channel’s recent name change to SyFy (s GE) can’t keep Saturday nights from being must-see TV for B-movie fans who like their snakes mega-sized and their spiders on ice.

A pretty wide range of actors have done their time fighting CGI-rendered monsters, and today the Internet’s own Felicia Day joins their ranks, taking the lead role in the Little Red Riding Hood-inspired Red, which is due to premiere in 2011. (She’s a werewolf hunter!)

Being famous on the Internet doesn’t necessarily translate to offline success, but Day is the rare star who might just pull it off — at least, by SyFy’s standards. Why? Let’s look at the numbers.

First, what does SyFy consider to be a success? Well, their last major ratings hit for an original film was the premiere of Megafault in October 2009, which starred the late Brittany Murphy and was watched by 2.6 million people.

2.6 million people is a lot — but right now, Day has nearly 1.75 million Twitter followers, a number that keeps climbing, as seen in this chart from the last three months:

And that audience can be mobilized. According to Microsoft (s MSFT), the first two seasons of The Guild have reached nearly six million downloads, making it one of the most popular shows ever on Xbox LIVE.
In addition, every episode of the show’s first season, as hosted on YouTube (s GOOG), has topped one million views, and her first appearance on Atom.com’s (s VIA.B) Legend of Neil pushed the show to almost 420,000 views (the site in general has less viewership than YouTube, but most other episodes of the series received about half as many views).

And here’s the big one, of course: the Guild Season 3-promoting Do You Wanna Date My Avatar music video, which with 8.5 million views is the most-viewed video on The Guild‘s YouTube channel. If just one third of the people who watched Date My Avatar tune in for the premiere of Red next year, then that would mean 2.8 million views.

There’s no way to be sure how many Twitter followers Day will have in a year’s time, but 1.7 million is nothing to scoff at, and that number is likely to climb. If just half of that number were to tune into SyFy when they normally wouldn’t, that’d still mean an impressive bump in the network’s typical Saturday night viewership.

All of this is conjecture, though, and the challenge is getting people away from their computers and in front of their TVs. Network shows featuring Day as a guest actress haven’t benefited much in the ratings department from her guest spots: Her September 2008 House appearance did 12.3 million, while her December 2009 Lie to Me episode did 6.59 million — both numbers being relatively standard for those shows.

But neither of those shows seriously promoted Day or really capitalized on her online fame — meanwhile, SyFy makes prominent mention of her web series work in the Red press release. Personally, I think that’s a good sign, and who knows? By 2011, TV and web content might be well-integrated enough that we’ll see TV commercials for Red plugging its star as “Dr. Horrible‘s Felicia Day.”

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): New Use For Web Stats: Finding Hot Markets, Offline

Photo by The Bui Bros. (thebuibrothers.com)

Ah, the Sci-Fi Channel original movie. Even the channel’s recent name change to SyFy (s GE) can’t keep Saturday nights from being must-see TV for B-movie fans who like their snakes mega-sized and their spiders on ice.

A pretty wide range of actors have done their time fighting CGI-rendered monsters, and today the Internet’s own Felicia Day joins their ranks, taking the lead role in the Little Red Riding Hood-inspired Red, which is due to premiere in 2011. (She’s a werewolf hunter!)

Being famous on the Internet doesn’t necessarily translate to offline success, but Day is the rare star who might just pull it off — at least, by SyFy’s standards. Why? Let’s look at the numbers.

First, what does SyFy consider to be a success? Well, their last major ratings hit for an original film was the premiere of Megafault in October 2009, which starred the late Brittany Murphy and was watched by 2.6 million people.

2.6 million people is a lot — but right now, Day has nearly 1.75 million Twitter followers, a number that keeps climbing, as seen in this chart from the last three months:

And that audience can be mobilized. According to Microsoft (s MSFT), the first two seasons of The Guild have reached nearly six million downloads, making it one of the most popular shows ever on Xbox LIVE.
In addition, every episode of the show’s first season, as hosted on YouTube (s GOOG), has topped one million views, and her first appearance on Atom.com’s (s VIA.B) Legend of Neil pushed the show to almost 420,000 views (the site in general has less viewership than YouTube, but most other episodes of the series received about half as many views).

And here’s the big one, of course: the Guild Season 3-promoting Do You Wanna Date My Avatar music video, which with 8.5 million views is the most-viewed video on The Guild‘s YouTube channel. If just one third of the people who watched Date My Avatar tune in for the premiere of Red next year, then that would mean 2.8 million views.

There’s no way to be sure how many Twitter followers Day will have in a year’s time, but 1.7 million is nothing to scoff at, and that number is likely to climb. If just half of that number were to tune into SyFy when they normally wouldn’t, that’d still mean an impressive bump in the network’s typical Saturday night viewership.

All of this is conjecture, though, and the challenge is getting people away from their computers and in front of their TVs. Network shows featuring Day as a guest actress haven’t benefited much in the ratings department from her guest spots: Her September 2008 House appearance did 12.3 million, while her December 2009 Lie to Me episode did 6.59 million — both numbers being relatively standard for those shows.

But neither of those shows seriously promoted Day or really capitalized on her online fame — meanwhile, SyFy makes prominent mention of her web series work in the Red press release. Personally, I think that’s a good sign, and who knows? By 2011, TV and web content might be well-integrated enough that we’ll see TV commercials for Red plugging its star as “Dr. Horrible‘s Felicia Day.”

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): New Use For Web Stats: Finding Hot Markets, Offline

Of course, Avatar has some commercial momentum on its side, given the fact that it’s been the most popular movie ever made — at least when it comes to ticket sales. However, there seems to be another option on the table, according to an unlikely panel of experts. BitTorrent-loving film buffs have been voting with their freeloading feet for weeks, and their choices might surprise even Hollywood insiders. The most-downloaded movie isn’t Avatar or The Hurt Locker, but District 9.

Our friends over at Torrentfreak were so kind to share some of their data about the popularity of Academy Awards-nominated movies on various torrent sites with us, and we would be lying if we said that Avatar isn’t popular with downloaders. Torrentfreak’s Ernesto told us that the site has been keeping track of 4280 torrents for Avatar alone, totaling 11,326,000 downloads in various formats across a number of sites and trackers.

That’s pretty impressive, but not as impressive as District 9, which has seen a total of 12,639,000 downloads. Here’s the complete list of all nominees for Best Picture and their popularity on torrent sites:

So what do you think? Are the pirates right? Will District 9 get the Oscar for Best Picture? Or will it be Avatar? Does The Hurt Locker even stand a chance? Give us your prediction by filling out the poll below:

Picture courtesy of The Pirate Bay.

Related content on NewTeeVee: Where to Watch the Oscars Online, On Demand & On Your Phone

Related content on GigaOm Pro: ACTA’s Take on Digital Piracy Is Nothing New (subscription required)

Of course, Avatar has some commercial momentum on its side, given the fact that it’s been the most popular movie ever made — at least when it comes to ticket sales. However, there seems to be another option on the table, according to an unlikely panel of experts. BitTorrent-loving film buffs have been voting with their freeloading feet for weeks, and their choices might surprise even Hollywood insiders. The most-downloaded movie isn’t Avatar or The Hurt Locker, but District 9.

Our friends over at Torrentfreak were so kind to share some of their data about the popularity of Academy Awards-nominated movies on various torrent sites with us, and we would be lying if we said that Avatar isn’t popular with downloaders. Torrentfreak’s Ernesto told us that the site has been keeping track of 4280 torrents for Avatar alone, totaling 11,326,000 downloads in various formats across a number of sites and trackers.

That’s pretty impressive, but not as impressive as District 9, which has seen a total of 12,639,000 downloads. Here’s the complete list of all nominees for Best Picture and their popularity on torrent sites:

So what do you think? Are the pirates right? Will District 9 get the Oscar for Best Picture? Or will it be Avatar? Does The Hurt Locker even stand a chance? Give us your prediction by filling out the poll below:

Picture courtesy of The Pirate Bay.

Related content on NewTeeVee: Where to Watch the Oscars Online, On Demand & On Your Phone

Related content on GigaOm Pro: ACTA’s Take on Digital Piracy Is Nothing New (subscription required)

However, watching the surprisingly short series (four episodes at two minutes each = much more brief than past miniseries) reminded me of the conflicting feelings I have regarding their long-running foray into additional content, preceded by the hilariously fake girl band Sublte Sexuality and a series of adventures featuring the accounting crew.

Reason to Love: Lesser-used players get their moments. Steve Carell is a movie star whose success is well-deserved, Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski are the show’s emotional heart, and Rainn Wilson and Ed Helms are unsung comedic geniuses. All that talent in the room doesn’t leave a lot of space for the supporting cast, who are nonetheless just as talented as their better-known brethren. So, from the very beginning, these webisodes have been a great opportunity for Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, Oscar Nunez, and the rest to show off their stuff, and this time The Mentor pushes that even further by giving the newest cast member, Erin (Ellie Kemper), the spotlight. Already a breath of fresh air on the series, Erin proves to be fun enough in her own right to pull off a starring role.

Reason to Hate: Watching on NBC.com. It’s not a huge deal, I suppose, but NBC’s video site is personally one of my least favorite interfaces, with clunky coding and non-intuitive navigation. And unfortunately, when you go to watch the same content on Hulu, in this case the episodes were dramatically out of order on the front page, meaning that I watched them out of order initially. This sort of thing is sloppy and unfortunate.

Reason to Love: They’re well-made and funny. While not as polished or confidently directed as the broadcast episodes (which, to be fair, are sometimes directed by Oscar winners), the webisodes are consistently breezy fun, and pull out a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments. In this case, Kelly Cantley keeps the characters well-balanced, and the script by Nate Federman and Jonathan Hughes is a nice example of extremely abbreviated storytelling.

Reason to Hate: They don’t matter. To the best of my memory, there’s little-to-no crossover between Office episodes and webisodes, leaving the two entities incredibly standalone. As an example, The Mentor, which launched the same day as the airing of the highly-publicized Office baby episode, has absolutely nothing to do with the birth of Jim and Pam’s baby. Other big storylines, like Erin’s blooming relationship with Andy (Ed Helms) or the company’s recent buyout by a new corporation, are completely ignored — the four parts exist in their own charming but useless bubble.

It’s not terribly surprising that the episodes don’t mention the webisodes — after all, the TV audience for the show is huge in comparison to the web audience. But for the webisodes not to make reference to on-air events minimizes any power they might have had as a larger transmedia experience.

For Office fans, the only real reward is just an additional eight minutes of content, which hardly seems exciting enough to justify the hoopla. But these are just my reasons. What are yours?

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Memo to Cable Cos: Cord Cutters Aren’t The Issue

To start with, the Academy is getting into the live streaming game this year, as reported by Liz over at GigaOM. Oscar.com, which is jointly produced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and ABC, will play host to an “interactive video stream” from 3pm to 5pm PST that will connect with Facebook and allow Oscar viewers to chat with each other and submit questions to their favorite stars as they walk the red carpet.

In addition to its red carpet coverage, Oscar.com will also provide a “behind the scenes” look of the event with an exclusive “Backstage Cam,” as well as a “Thank You Cam” allowing viewers to watch winners give extended thanks. Oscar.com will also have footage from the press room, featuring winners after they’ve left the stage.

Oscar.com won’t be the only place to catch star coverage before the show. The AP will also be hosting a live video stream from the red carpet from 3pm PST to 5pm PST on Sunday. The AP’s coverage will be made available with a new embeddable video widget that features live video feeds, social sharing, on-demand clips, photos and other major entertainment news. The AP Live video will be delivered via Livestream and can be viewed in the embedded player below or at www.livestream.com/theoscars.

AT&T is also offering some interesting coverage, with a new app that is available on iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices, as well as through its U-verse TV offering. The AT&T Film Awards app will let users read nominee bios, view a list of nominees, view movie trailers for nominated films and see results as they are announced. The app is available at the iPhone app store, or on U-verse TV channel 95. AT&T notes that in addition to its app, Vanity Fair Hollywood and The Oscars also have iPhone apps available.

Check back, as we’ll be updating this post as more live video feeds are added before, during, or after the event.

Related NewTeeVee content:

• Pirating the 2010 Oscars: District 9 Beats Avatar
• Weekend Vid Picks: Jon M. Chu’s LXD, at the Oscars and Beyond

Related GigaOM Pro content: Disney Picks a Fight With ‘Alice’

To start with, the Academy is getting into the live streaming game this year, as reported by Liz over at GigaOM. Oscar.com, which is jointly produced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and ABC, will play host to an “interactive video stream” from 3pm to 5pm PST that will connect with Facebook and allow Oscar viewers to chat with each other and submit questions to their favorite stars as they walk the red carpet.

In addition to its red carpet coverage, Oscar.com will also provide a “behind the scenes” look of the event with an exclusive “Backstage Cam,” as well as a “Thank You Cam” allowing viewers to watch winners give extended thanks. Oscar.com will also have footage from the press room, featuring winners after they’ve left the stage.

Oscar.com won’t be the only place to catch star coverage before the show. The AP will also be hosting a live video stream from the red carpet from 3pm PST to 5pm PST on Sunday. The AP’s coverage will be made available with a new embeddable video widget that features live video feeds, social sharing, on-demand clips, photos and other major entertainment news. The AP Live video will be delivered via Livestream and can be viewed in the embedded player below or at www.livestream.com/theoscars.

AT&T is also offering some interesting coverage, with a new app that is available on iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices, as well as through its U-verse TV offering. The AT&T Film Awards app will let users read nominee bios, view a list of nominees, view movie trailers for nominated films and see results as they are announced. The app is available at the iPhone app store, or on U-verse TV channel 95. AT&T notes that in addition to its app, Vanity Fair Hollywood and The Oscars also have iPhone apps available.

Check back, as we’ll be updating this post as more live video feeds are added before, during, or after the event.

Related NewTeeVee content:

• Pirating the 2010 Oscars: District 9 Beats Avatar
• Weekend Vid Picks: Jon M. Chu’s LXD, at the Oscars and Beyond

Related GigaOM Pro content: Disney Picks a Fight With ‘Alice’

Made possible by a grant from Chattanooga, TN-based non-profit arts organization CreateHere, The Steps riffs on details from the recent Anthony Pellicano scandal in Hollywood to create the story of Charlie Madison (Kussman), a private detective who fled Los Angeles after his boss was convicted for illegal wiretapping. Now hiding out in Chattanooga under a fake name, Charlie is broke and just desperate enough to make himself vulnerable to being drawn into another conspiracy.

We get most of this information thanks to narration from Charlie as he strolls around downtown Chattanooga and flashes back to his time in LA. Using voiceover is a tricky thing — just as one example, the original incarnation of Fall of Kaden played it too heavily (though it was later re-edited to cut down on that).

At least initially, though, The Steps employs it to fill in backstory and give the audience a keen insight into the mind of Charlie — it’s also nicely balanced by a strong original score by Joe Kraemer. When the series is watched as a whole, it’s likely that the voiceover could be a little too much. But on an episode-by-episode basis, it does a nice job of re-engaging returning viewers with the storyline.

Kussman has a face like a mean pit bull, and the character he plays in the series is just about as likable on the surface. However, the accompanying vlog entries do a lot to make Charlie seem more sympathetic, such as a heartfelt musing at the end of the first vlog that he really does miss LA — making this an excellent reason to create auxillary content for your web series.

Press for The Steps has made a big deal of the fact that the series was shot on location in Chattanooga (do you have the Cab Calloway tune Chattanooga Choo-Choo stuck in your head yet? Because I sure do), and it’s always nice to see a series with some regional flair — not to mention backdrops we haven’t already seen a hundred times before in TV and film.

With only two full episodes and two vlog entries out so far, it’s hard to have a clear handle on where, exactly, The Steps is going. But a few intriguing twists have been dropped and the production values are definitely strong. I’d say fans of the noir genre wouldn’t be disappointed.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series

Made possible by a grant from Chattanooga, TN-based non-profit arts organization CreateHere, The Steps riffs on details from the recent Anthony Pellicano scandal in Hollywood to create the story of Charlie Madison (Kussman), a private detective who fled Los Angeles after his boss was convicted for illegal wiretapping. Now hiding out in Chattanooga under a fake name, Charlie is broke and just desperate enough to make himself vulnerable to being drawn into another conspiracy.

We get most of this information thanks to narration from Charlie as he strolls around downtown Chattanooga and flashes back to his time in LA. Using voiceover is a tricky thing — just as one example, the original incarnation of Fall of Kaden played it too heavily (though it was later re-edited to cut down on that).

At least initially, though, The Steps employs it to fill in backstory and give the audience a keen insight into the mind of Charlie — it’s also nicely balanced by a strong original score by Joe Kraemer. When the series is watched as a whole, it’s likely that the voiceover could be a little too much. But on an episode-by-episode basis, it does a nice job of re-engaging returning viewers with the storyline.

Kussman has a face like a mean pit bull, and the character he plays in the series is just about as likable on the surface. However, the accompanying vlog entries do a lot to make Charlie seem more sympathetic, such as a heartfelt musing at the end of the first vlog that he really does miss LA — making this an excellent reason to create auxillary content for your web series.

Press for The Steps has made a big deal of the fact that the series was shot on location in Chattanooga (do you have the Cab Calloway tune Chattanooga Choo-Choo stuck in your head yet? Because I sure do), and it’s always nice to see a series with some regional flair — not to mention backdrops we haven’t already seen a hundred times before in TV and film.

With only two full episodes and two vlog entries out so far, it’s hard to have a clear handle on where, exactly, The Steps is going. But a few intriguing twists have been dropped and the production values are definitely strong. I’d say fans of the noir genre wouldn’t be disappointed.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series

Several episodes of the series, written and directed by Register and produced by Paula Rhodes and Rick Rey, were shown at a premiere party in Los Angeles this Monday, giving more than a taste of the video game-based comedy series. The premise can best be described as the opposite of Tron: When video game nerd Dorian (Craig Frank) achieves the impossible in a game, he pulls the game’s princess into the real world — and finds himself an unwilling tour guide, the new foe of the game’s villain, and possibly even “The Chosen One.”

It’s not the most original concept, but the production values are relatively strong, the cinematography looks great, and there are plenty of laughs in Register’s script. It might have been nice to hear some more complex sound design and music usage, however. And while there are some standout performances, the cast isn’t strong across the board.

In the episodes previewed, Cathy Baron and Angie Cole, who play the evil henchmen of Galen (Douglas Sarine) are extremely good at posing in skimpy outfits but not as good at coming up with facial expressions beyond “pouting.” Whether that’s because they’re painfully underdirected and underwritten, unable to move in their costumes, or uncomfortable about being used mostly as fan-service, the fact remains that their scenes are the most stiff and awkward of the series.

In all honesty, though, Baron and Cole are only truly disappointing because they’re lifeless in contrast to Paula Rhodes, who plays the princess sucked into the real world. Rhodes brings a delightful spark to the series and her performance is nicely balanced between sincerity and comedy — especially when paired with Gabriel (the also excellent Charlie Bodin), a knight from her world who’s all goody-goody charm. Frank takes a much different approach from his work on Compulsions (straight man as opposed to sociopath), but still gets some good laughs along the way.

Only the first episode is out so far (new installments drop every Friday), but the show looks to be perfectly targeted towards the gamer audience The Escapist already attracts — with a deadpan wit of its own.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Shattering the Fourth Wall To Find Web Audiences

Several episodes of the series, written and directed by Register and produced by Paula Rhodes and Rick Rey, were shown at a premiere party in Los Angeles this Monday, giving more than a taste of the video game-based comedy series. The premise can best be described as the opposite of Tron: When video game nerd Dorian (Craig Frank) achieves the impossible in a game, he pulls the game’s princess into the real world — and finds himself an unwilling tour guide, the new foe of the game’s villain, and possibly even “The Chosen One.”

It’s not the most original concept, but the production values are relatively strong, the cinematography looks great, and there are plenty of laughs in Register’s script. It might have been nice to hear some more complex sound design and music usage, however. And while there are some standout performances, the cast isn’t strong across the board.

In the episodes previewed, Cathy Baron and Angie Cole, who play the evil henchmen of Galen (Douglas Sarine) are extremely good at posing in skimpy outfits but not as good at coming up with facial expressions beyond “pouting.” Whether that’s because they’re painfully underdirected and underwritten, unable to move in their costumes, or uncomfortable about being used mostly as fan-service, the fact remains that their scenes are the most stiff and awkward of the series.

In all honesty, though, Baron and Cole are only truly disappointing because they’re lifeless in contrast to Paula Rhodes, who plays the princess sucked into the real world. Rhodes brings a delightful spark to the series and her performance is nicely balanced between sincerity and comedy — especially when paired with Gabriel (the also excellent Charlie Bodin), a knight from her world who’s all goody-goody charm. Frank takes a much different approach from his work on Compulsions (straight man as opposed to sociopath), but still gets some good laughs along the way.

Only the first episode is out so far (new installments drop every Friday), but the show looks to be perfectly targeted towards the gamer audience The Escapist already attracts — with a deadpan wit of its own.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Shattering the Fourth Wall To Find Web Audiences

The reason is that Adam Sadowsky of Syyn Labs was there to show off the results of several months of building, testing and development: An epic four-minute-long Rube Goldberg machine in action, set to the band’s current single. Nearly four minutes in length, nearly any found object you can imagine gets incorporated into a daisy chain of elegant chaos. So much is happening nearly every moment that it becomes overwhelming at times, but re-watching it proves helpful — which is probably only part of why, after being online for less than a day, the video is closing in on 50,000 views.

However, the mark of a great music video is the synthesis between music and visuals, with maybe even a bit of storytelling while you’re at it. And using that definition, I wouldn’t say This Too Shall Pass is a complete success. There are a few moments that are truly beautiful, such as when all the sound cuts out for the water glass chimes, but it also opens them up to jokes about how easy it is to replicate their percussion sound by just knocking over a bunch of trash cans.

I’m also, frankly, not sure how a Rube Goldberg machine relates to lyrics like “So just how far/Is far enough?/Everybody needs to sleep at night/Everybody needs a crutch./But couldn’t good/Be good enough?/Cause nothin’ doesn’t ever change/But nothing changes much.” (I mean, if I put some serious time and thought into it, I could probably write a very long and introspective musing about how those words relate to a epic string of causality. Check back with me in a week and we’ll see.)

In the meantime, before I get called a hater, though, let me be clear — just because it’s not necessarily a great music video doesn’t mean it’s not an amazing accomplishment and a stunningly executed video. And most importantly for us whiny online video bloggers — it’s embeddable.

Record label EMI’s decision to disable embedding on music videos under its control has been a point of frustration for the band, and lead singer Damian Kulash has been incredibly vocal about the frustrations he as an artist feels about the issue of embedding, both in an interview with us last January and a more recent New York Times editorial. But the way that the band has gotten around the embedding problem in this case may have something to do with the fact that the entire video production was underwritten by State Farm Insurance, which gets some semi-prominent on-screen branding.

The development and production of this video has been documented in a four-part series of videos (the first one can be found here), and it’s inspiring to see a group of people gather together to create something awesome on this scale. My favorite touch is this — the band performs the entire video while wearing paint-splattered jumpsuits, the reason for which is revealed only at the end of the piece. What this indicates is simple: The final product we’re watching was one of multiple takes. The fact they acknowledge this tacitly does more than a hundred making-of videos to indicate the work that went into the piece — and the fun they had in the process.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): New Use For Web Stats: Finding Hot Markets, Offline

The reason is that Adam Sadowsky of Syyn Labs was there to show off the results of several months of building, testing and development: An epic four-minute-long Rube Goldberg machine in action, set to the band’s current single. Nearly four minutes in length, nearly any found object you can imagine gets incorporated into a daisy chain of elegant chaos. So much is happening nearly every moment that it becomes overwhelming at times, but re-watching it proves helpful — which is probably only part of why, after being online for less than a day, the video is closing in on 50,000 views.

However, the mark of a great music video is the synthesis between music and visuals, with maybe even a bit of storytelling while you’re at it. And using that definition, I wouldn’t say This Too Shall Pass is a complete success. There are a few moments that are truly beautiful, such as when all the sound cuts out for the water glass chimes, but it also opens them up to jokes about how easy it is to replicate their percussion sound by just knocking over a bunch of trash cans.

I’m also, frankly, not sure how a Rube Goldberg machine relates to lyrics like “So just how far/Is far enough?/Everybody needs to sleep at night/Everybody needs a crutch./But couldn’t good/Be good enough?/Cause nothin’ doesn’t ever change/But nothing changes much.” (I mean, if I put some serious time and thought into it, I could probably write a very long and introspective musing about how those words relate to a epic string of causality. Check back with me in a week and we’ll see.)

In the meantime, before I get called a hater, though, let me be clear — just because it’s not necessarily a great music video doesn’t mean it’s not an amazing accomplishment and a stunningly executed video. And most importantly for us whiny online video bloggers — it’s embeddable.

Record label EMI’s decision to disable embedding on music videos under its control has been a point of frustration for the band, and lead singer Damian Kulash has been incredibly vocal about the frustrations he as an artist feels about the issue of embedding, both in an interview with us last January and a more recent New York Times editorial. But the way that the band has gotten around the embedding problem in this case may have something to do with the fact that the entire video production was underwritten by State Farm Insurance, which gets some semi-prominent on-screen branding.

The development and production of this video has been documented in a four-part series of videos (the first one can be found here), and it’s inspiring to see a group of people gather together to create something awesome on this scale. My favorite touch is this — the band performs the entire video while wearing paint-splattered jumpsuits, the reason for which is revealed only at the end of the piece. What this indicates is simple: The final product we’re watching was one of multiple takes. The fact they acknowledge this tacitly does more than a hundred making-of videos to indicate the work that went into the piece — and the fun they had in the process.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): New Use For Web Stats: Finding Hot Markets, Offline

Exterior of the house, with product placement by Ford.

Behind a tall, white gate on a quiet Beverly Hills cul-de-sac, a private mansion is about to become anything but. Starting tomorrow, when the live-streaming of 19 Entertainment’s If I Can Dream begins on Hulu, 56 cameras will be broadcasting the adventures of five attractive young people living together and pursuing their dreams of fame and fortune, 24/7.

Not only is the house itself is an interior decorator’s fantasy, it’s a camera-ready one. During today’s press event, I was shown around the house by cast member Giglianne, who’s joining the show to pursue her goal of becoming a high-fashion model. She’s a little shorter than the typical high-fashion model, but her dreams make up for that.

While the cameras are prominent and everywhere, according to Giglianne there are areas of the house that aren’t visible to the public eye. However, they can’t take advantage of those areas unless at least two other cast members are still on camera in the house. This also means that they all can’t leave the house at the same time to attend events or meetings, which might lead to some interesting conflict down the line. In addition, when they leave the house to attend a class or workshop or event, they’ll be accompanied by a camera crew — footage from which may be included in the half-hour weekly episodes (though it will not be live-streamed).

Tour guide/aspiring model Giglianne, along with one of the nicest foosball tables I've ever seen.

The cast will also wear lavalier microphones while inside the house, so as to get the best sound quality possible for the weekly wrap-up series (for the 24-hour video feed, stationary mikes near the cameras will be the source of the audio).

The idea for If I Can Dream, according to producer Michael Herwick, has been floating around in 19 Entertainment founder Simon Fuller’s head since the early 2000s, but the technology only just caught up with it. The idea has gone through two years of development, and 19 Entertainment has been in possession of the house since November 2008.

Of course, it needed that long to get the place ready for the broadcast requirements — 19 Entertainment President of Digital and Business Development David Ellner broke down the tech specs on the house for me.

The 56 H.264 cameras, which are located in plain sight all around the property (including, yes, the bathrooms) are recording at 500 kbps and 1 mbps to allow for differences in user connections. The entire filming process is strictly digital, flowing directly from the cameras to the estimated 13-15 servers in place to store up to 40 terabytes of footage; Ellner anticipates that they’ll record 20 TB of footage every 10 days.

A look at the pool, as well as two of the 56 cameras around the house.

Three CDNs drive data delivery through a 150 MB pipe out of the house, and there’s also a wireless microwave backup system. The data is backed up every day, and in case power is lost, there is a battery-powered backup system that will kick in. “We have redundancies for everything,” Ellner said.

If I Can Dream is also notable for being the first series on Hulu available internationally — in fact prior to their arrival in Los Angeles, the cast was taken on a worldwide press junket to build interest in foreign markets. (When Giglianne showed me the laundry room, she mentioned that she had dibs on using the washer and dryer first tomorrow, as she had a ton of laundry after all that traveling.)

Before I left, I asked Giglianne what she planned to do before the cameras started rolling; her last act of real privacy, so to speak. Her answer: a pedicure. “My feet are a mess,” she said. But mess is what’s going to make this series interesting. Personally, l’m looking forward to checking in on If I Can Dream a few weeks down the line, when the house is a little less tidy.

Related GigaOM Pro content (subscription required):

• Shattering the Fourth Wall To Find Web Audiences
• Report: Delivering Content in the Cloud

Exterior of the house, with product placement by Ford.

Behind a tall, white gate on a quiet Beverly Hills cul-de-sac, a private mansion is about to become anything but. Starting tomorrow, when the live-streaming of 19 Entertainment’s If I Can Dream begins on Hulu, 56 cameras will be broadcasting the adventures of five attractive young people living together and pursuing their dreams of fame and fortune, 24/7.

Not only is the house itself is an interior decorator’s fantasy, it’s a camera-ready one. During today’s press event, I was shown around the house by cast member Giglianne, who’s joining the show to pursue her goal of becoming a high-fashion model. She’s a little shorter than the typical high-fashion model, but her dreams make up for that.

While the cameras are prominent and everywhere, according to Giglianne there are areas of the house that aren’t visible to the public eye. However, they can’t take advantage of those areas unless at least two other cast members are still on camera in the house. This also means that they all can’t leave the house at the same time to attend events or meetings, which might lead to some interesting conflict down the line. In addition, when they leave the house to attend a class or workshop or event, they’ll be accompanied by a camera crew — footage from which may be included in the half-hour weekly episodes (though it will not be live-streamed).

Tour guide/aspiring model Giglianne, along with one of the nicest foosball tables I've ever seen.

The cast will also wear lavalier microphones while inside the house, so as to get the best sound quality possible for the weekly wrap-up series (for the 24-hour video feed, stationary mikes near the cameras will be the source of the audio).

The idea for If I Can Dream, according to producer Michael Herwick, has been floating around in 19 Entertainment founder Simon Fuller’s head since the early 2000s, but the technology only just caught up with it. The idea has gone through two years of development, and 19 Entertainment has been in possession of the house since November 2008.

Of course, it needed that long to get the place ready for the broadcast requirements — 19 Entertainment President of Digital and Business Development David Ellner broke down the tech specs on the house for me.

The 56 H.264 cameras, which are located in plain sight all around the property (including, yes, the bathrooms) are recording at 500 kbps and 1 mbps to allow for differences in user connections. The entire filming process is strictly digital, flowing directly from the cameras to the estimated 13-15 servers in place to store up to 40 terabytes of footage; Ellner anticipates that they’ll record 20 TB of footage every 10 days.

A look at the pool, as well as two of the 56 cameras around the house.

Three CDNs drive data delivery through a 150 MB pipe out of the house, and there’s also a wireless microwave backup system. The data is backed up every day, and in case power is lost, there is a battery-powered backup system that will kick in. “We have redundancies for everything,” Ellner said.

If I Can Dream is also notable for being the first series on Hulu available internationally — in fact prior to their arrival in Los Angeles, the cast was taken on a worldwide press junket to build interest in foreign markets. (When Giglianne showed me the laundry room, she mentioned that she had dibs on using the washer and dryer first tomorrow, as she had a ton of laundry after all that traveling.)

Before I left, I asked Giglianne what she planned to do before the cameras started rolling; her last act of real privacy, so to speak. Her answer: a pedicure. “My feet are a mess,” she said. But mess is what’s going to make this series interesting. Personally, l’m looking forward to checking in on If I Can Dream a few weeks down the line, when the house is a little less tidy.

Related GigaOM Pro content (subscription required):

• Shattering the Fourth Wall To Find Web Audiences
• Report: Delivering Content in the Cloud

But taking a step back, what do we gather from this list — and the Streamys in general? To start this off, let’s have some full disclosure: Not only did I vote for the nominees as a member of the IAWTV, but I participated in a pre-judging screening round, where some IAWTV members were asked to pare down the number of nominees in certain categories, due to the overwhelming number of options submitted. However, while there were a few options that I wish I’d been able to nominate when I went to select my choices, overall I didn’t find it too difficult to make my picks.

And going through today’s nominees, there are several small ones that I’m glad to see. Just some of them: Unauthorized Dr. Horrible prequel Horrible Turn‘s nod for best original music, Young American Bodies‘s Joe Swanberg for best director for a drama, INST MSGS for best experimental series and the gorgeous Hong Kong-set LUMINA for cinematography. In addition, if Valemont‘s game-changing interactivity doesn’t win the big prize in April, I’ll be full of serious woe.

However, the acting categories are a bit disappointing, as that’s where the bias towards the talent established by other mediums can be seen. Looking at the Best Female Actor in a Comedy category, for example, the only person there who would be considered a true veteran of the web series world is Felicia Day — who was already vaguely known prior to The Guild for her work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Male Actor in a Comedy category is somewhat more balanced, with Amir Blumenfeld and Sandeep Parik offsetting Zach Galifianakis and Tony Hale, and Craig Frank for Compulsions and Sophie Tilson for OzGirl are inspiring to see. But there’s a heavy emphasis on Hollywood here that doesn’t necessarily reflect the real talent pool currently acting in web video.

And personally, I’m pretty torn about The Bannen Way, as my opinion of it since my first review hasn’t changed. For me, it’s the Avatar of the Streamys this year — too popular not to nominate, but derivative despite all its polish.

Ultimately, the Streamys will always probably struggle to find the right balance between celebrating homegrown heroes, helping lesser-known talent get new recognition, and honoring the Hollywood influx that has increased the medium’s profile. But that very dilemma is itself a larger metaphor for the current state of this industry.

The intrusion of old media into new media is an issue we all go back and forth on, I think. It’s great to have the potential of web video recognized by “the mainstream,” and the mainstream brings validation and money with it. But everyone likes to root for the underdog and the home team, and independent creators, working without the benefit of old media recognition, represent both — and provide the unique voices which help this medium thrive.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Fact or Fiction: Where Is Branded Online Video Going?

But taking a step back, what do we gather from this list — and the Streamys in general? To start this off, let’s have some full disclosure: Not only did I vote for the nominees as a member of the IAWTV, but I participated in a pre-judging screening round, where some IAWTV members were asked to pare down the number of nominees in certain categories, due to the overwhelming number of options submitted. However, while there were a few options that I wish I’d been able to nominate when I went to select my choices, overall I didn’t find it too difficult to make my picks.

And going through today’s nominees, there are several small ones that I’m glad to see. Just some of them: Unauthorized Dr. Horrible prequel Horrible Turn‘s nod for best original music, Young American Bodies‘s Joe Swanberg for best director for a drama, INST MSGS for best experimental series and the gorgeous Hong Kong-set LUMINA for cinematography. In addition, if Valemont‘s game-changing interactivity doesn’t win the big prize in April, I’ll be full of serious woe.

However, the acting categories are a bit disappointing, as that’s where the bias towards the talent established by other mediums can be seen. Looking at the Best Female Actor in a Comedy category, for example, the only person there who would be considered a true veteran of the web series world is Felicia Day — who was already vaguely known prior to The Guild for her work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Male Actor in a Comedy category is somewhat more balanced, with Amir Blumenfeld and Sandeep Parik offsetting Zach Galifianakis and Tony Hale, and Craig Frank for Compulsions and Sophie Tilson for OzGirl are inspiring to see. But there’s a heavy emphasis on Hollywood here that doesn’t necessarily reflect the real talent pool currently acting in web video.

And personally, I’m pretty torn about The Bannen Way, as my opinion of it since my first review hasn’t changed. For me, it’s the Avatar of the Streamys this year — too popular not to nominate, but derivative despite all its polish.

Ultimately, the Streamys will always probably struggle to find the right balance between celebrating homegrown heroes, helping lesser-known talent get new recognition, and honoring the Hollywood influx that has increased the medium’s profile. But that very dilemma is itself a larger metaphor for the current state of this industry.

The intrusion of old media into new media is an issue we all go back and forth on, I think. It’s great to have the potential of web video recognized by “the mainstream,” and the mainstream brings validation and money with it. But everyone likes to root for the underdog and the home team, and independent creators, working without the benefit of old media recognition, represent both — and provide the unique voices which help this medium thrive.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Fact or Fiction: Where Is Branded Online Video Going?

And the nominees are:

OVERALL SERIES

Best Comedy Web Series
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis
Easy to Assemble
The Guild
The Legend of Neil
Wainy Days

Best Drama Web Series
Angel of Death
Compulsions
OzGirl
The Bannen Way
Valemont

Best Hosted Web Series
A Comicbook Orange
Diggnation
Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show
Know Your Meme
The Totally Rad Show

Best Reality or Documentary Web Series
Interview Project
Mommy XXX
RADAR
Streak to Win
The Secret Life of Scientists

Best News or Politics Web Series
Auto-Tune the News
Rocketboom
The Tommorow Show with Mo Rocca
The Young Turks
VBS News

Best Foreign Web Series
Flying Kebab
Girl Number 9
Noob
OzGirl
Riese

Best New Web Series
$5 Cover: Memphis
Girl Number 9
Odd Jobs
Old Friends
The Bannen Way

Best Companion Web Series
Assassin’s Creed: Lineage
Dexter: Early Cuts
Harper’s Globe
The Office: Subtle Sexuality
Weeds: University of Andy

Best Animated Web Series
Eli’s Dirty Jokes
Happy Tree Friends
Homestar Runner
How It Should Have Ended
Zero Punctuation

Best Branded Entertainment Web Series
Back on Topps (Dick’s Sporting Goods)
Brainstorm (Altoids)
Easy to Assemble (IKEA)
Parts Art (Lexus)
The Temp Life (Spherion)

Best Experimental Web Series
Auto-Tune the News
Green Porno
HBO Cube
INST MSGS
Level 26

DIRECTING

Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series
Blue Movies (Scott Brown)
Dorm Life: Semester 2 (Chris Smith, Mark Stewart Iverson)
James Gunn’s PG Porn (James Gunn)
The Guild (Sean Becker)
The Legend of Neil (Sandeep Parikh)

Best Directing for a Drama Web Series
Anyone But Me (Tina Cesa Ward)
Compulsions (Nathan Atkinson)
Girl Number 9 (James Moran)
The Bannen Way (Jesse Warren, Mark Gantt)
Young American Bodies (Joe Swanberg)

WRITING

Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series
Back on Topps (Jason Sklar, Randy Sklar, Eric Friedman, Matt Price)
Dorm Life (Chris Smith, Jordan Riggs, Jessie Gaskell, Jack De Sena, Jim Brandon, Brian Singleton, Mark Stewart Iverson)
The Legend of Neil (Tony Janning, Sandeep Parikh)
The Guild (Felicia Day)
Wainy Days (David Wain)

Best Writing for a Drama Web Series
Anyone But Me (Susan Miller, Tina Cesa Ward)
Compulsions (Bernie Su)
Girl Number 9 (James Moran, Dan Turner)
The Bannen Way (Jesse Warren, Mark Gantt)
Valemont (Christian Taylor)

ACTING

Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Zach Galifianakis (Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis)
Tony Hale (CTRL)
Amir Blumenfeld (Jake and Amir)
Sandeep Parikh (The Guild)
David Wain (Wainy Days)

Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Illeana Douglas (Easy to Assemble)
Justine Bateman (Easy to Assemble)
Joanna Cassidy (Sex Ed)
Felicia Day (The Guild)
Lisa Kudrow (Web Therapy)

Best Male Actor in a Drama Web Series
Craig Frank (Compulsions)
Robert Englund (Fear Clinic)
Joe Absolom (Girl Number 9)
Mark Gantt (The Bannen Way)
Eric Balfour (Valemont)

Best Female Actor in a Drama Web Series
Zoe Bell (Angel of Death)
Rachael Hip-Flores (Anyone But Me)
Tatyani Ali (Buppies)
Sophie Tilson (OzGirl)
Crystal Chappell (Venice)

Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series
Back on Topps (Randy Sklar, Jason Sklar, Jason Nash, Janet Varney, Stephanie Courtney, Brian Huskey, Phil LaMarr)
Dorm Life (Nora Kirkpatrick, Hannah Pearl Utt, Anne Lane, Jessie Gaskell, Brian Singleton, Jack De Sena, Jim Brandon, Jordan Riggs, Pancho Morris)
Easy to Assemble (Illeana Douglas, Justine Bateman, Eric Lange, Michael Irpino, Cheri Oteri, Daryl Sabara, Michael Panes, Rob Mailhouse, Sean Durrie, Tom Arnold, Ed Begley Jr., Tim Meadows, Ricki Lake, Greg Proops, Kevin Pollak)
GOLD (Robert J. Brewer, James Paul Xavier, Nathan Mobley, Rick Robinson, David Nett, Gary Karp, Shannon Ivey, Alan Loayza, Shannon Nelson, Jeremy Guskin, Angela Schnaible)
The Guild (Vincent Caso, Felicia Day, Jeff Lewis, Amy Okuda, Sandeep Parikh, Robin Thorsen)

Best Guest Star in a Web Series
Chris Hardwick (Back on Topps)
Nathan Fillion (PG Porn)
“Weird Al” Yankovic (Know Your Meme)
Wil Wheaton (The Guild)
Courteney Cox (Web Therapy)

Best Web Series Host
Alex Albrecht (Diggnation)
Zadi Diaz (Epic Fu)
Kevin Pollak (Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show)
Kristyn Burtt (The Web.Files)
Michael Buckley (What The Buck?!)

Best Vlogger
Brigitte Dale (Brigitte Dale)
iJustine (iJustine)
Phillip DeFranco (sxePhil)
Shane Dawson (ShaneDawsonTV)
Shira Lazar (Shira Lazar)

CRAFT AWARDS

Best Editing in a Web Series
$5 Cover: Memphis (Nathan Black, Morgan Jon Fox, Josh Swain)
Brainstorm Angel of Death (Jochen Kunstler, Jacob Vaughan)
Auto-Tune the News (Evan Gregory, Andrew Gregory, Michael Gregory)
I Kissed a Vampire (David Bekoff)
The Bannen Way (Zack Arnold)

Best Cinematography in a Web Series
Angel of Death (Carl Herse)
Circle of Eight (Michael Lohmann)
LUMINA (XiaoSu Han, Andreas Thalhammer)
Mountain Man (Robert Lam)
Riese (Christopher Charles Kempinski)

Best Art Direction in a Web Series
$99 Music Videos (Kit Pennebaker)
Green Porno (Rick Gilbert)
Mountain Man (Matt Enlow)
Riese (Chad Krowchuk)
Tiki Bar TV (Kim Bailey)

Best Sound Design in a Web Series
Fear Clinic (Kunal Rajan)
Mountain Man (Michael Miller)
Riese (Bill Mellow, Kevin Belen)
Rockville, CA (Seth Talley)
The Vetala (Randy Kiss)

Best Visual Effects in a Web Series
Backyard FX (Erik Beck)
Fear Clinic (Jason M Bergman, Nicholas Onstad, Bethany Pederson, David Dang)
Mordy Koots (Reece Sanders, Clayton Jacobson)
Safety Geeks: SVI (Thor Melsted, Mike Smith, Tom Konkle)
The Crew (Jeff Bell, Zack Finfrock, Brett Register)

Best Animation in a Web Series
College Humor: Hardly Working (Dan Meth)
Happy Tree Friends (David Winn, Alan Lau, Jason Sadler, Brad Rau, Roque Bollestros, Paul Allan, Nica Lorber, Michael Lipman)
How It Should Have Ended (Daniel Baxter, Tommy Watson, Tina Alexander)
Inventions (Chris Weller, David Lamps)
theGoob (Magnus Jansson)

Best Original Music in a Web Series
Auto-Tune the News (Evan Gregory, Andrew Gregory, Michael Gregory)
Horrible Turn (Chance McClain, Kevin Ryan, Frank Bullington, Jeremy Botter)
Key of Awesome (Mark Douglas)
Sparhusen (Rob Mailhouse, Todd Spahr, Illeana Douglas)
The Coat (Thierry Chaze)

Best Live Production in a Web Series
Coin-Op TV Live
Fantasy Football Live!
Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show
The RadNerd Show
TWiT.tv

Best Interactive Experience in a Web Series
Circle of Eight
I <3 Vampires
Married on MySpace
Valemont
Wreck and Salvage: Suppendapo

Best Product Integration in a Web Series
Circle of Eight (Mountain Dew)
Easy to Assemble (IKEA)
The Bannen Way (Jaguar)
Valemont (Verizon Wireless)
Woke Up Dead (Kodak)

Best Mobile Experience in a Web Series
AT&T Life Without Mobile
Mr. Wrong
Playboy: Interns
Seth on Survival
Valemont

PLEASE NOTE: There may be errors in terms of crediting. We’ll be correcting this list as best we can, so if you spot a mistake please let us know.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series