The Castaways Teaser

Stew and I have been working on this for a while, and we're now pitching the show. We'd love comments about this teaser - does it engage? Are you hooked? If you have a pre-teen or teen, please show them ... they are our core demographic!

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REVIEW: Old Media goes Vlog --> onBeing

Every once and a while, we uncover a gem amidst the morass of online video available these days. In this case, our gem wasn't shining from a new broadband service or IPTV channel - instead, it's buried in the online version of the venerable Washington Post.

OnBeing represents the new form of journalism, from some seasoned pros. It's personal, it's thought provoking, it's insightful. From the writer and producer Jennifer Crandall and the onBeing site:

onBeing is a project based on the simple notion that we should get to know one another a little better. What you’ll find here is a series of videos that takes you into the musings, passions, histories and quirks of all sorts of people. The essence of who they are, who we are.

There will be a new video every Wednesday, so check back often. In the meantime, feel free to add your thoughts to the comments section and tell us about someone you’d like to see in onBeing. Over time, we should end up with a pretty cool community.

Here's one our favorites from the series (so far!):
http://specials.washingtonpost.com/onbeing/#010207-4v-GioE.1

REVIEW: branded entertainment goes MINI

How do you follow-up the online branded entertainment hit "The Hire" from BMW Films starring Clive Owen? Create another online episodic of course, this time with actor Bryan Callen (Scary Movie 4 and lots of TV work - 7th Heaven, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Fat Actress) and director Todd Phillips (Old School, Starsky & Hutch) featuring the trendy, souped-up MINI (Mini-USA is owned by BMW).

The Automobile Channel reports that:

The campaign will also have a prominent place in the viral community, leveraging unique partnerships with digital media in addition to print and broadcast. Starting this month, "Hammer & Coop" will have a solid presence on popular online sites Second Life, MySpace and YouTube. The characters will be incorporated into Second Life's "online society" on March 15, the trailer and video components will be available on YouTube after February 20, and a custom profile has been created for "Hammer & Coop" on the popular social networking site MySpace. In addition, advertising content will be available on podcasts and mobile phones (through iPod Infuse and Mobile Video on Demand).

Despite this aggressive online marketing campaign, the Hammer & Coop episodes are not available for embedding in blogs so unfortunately you'll have to leave THR and visit their site. In the spirit of Starsky & Hutch, the episodes are campy, action packed, and fun (though we liked The Hire's suave, Bondlike approach to suspense and action).

REVIEW: Heavy Metal in Baghdad on VBS.tv

The online series 'Heavy Metal in Baghdad' is a breath of fresh air - actually more like a terrified, exhausted gasp. In five short docudrama episodes the series does well to diverge from the ‘embedded journalist in Iraq’ video segments that we’ve become so used to on CNN and Yahoo’s online series Hot Zone. The series follows VBS.tv affiliates Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti on a perilous tour of Baghdad to seek out Iraq's only heavy metal band- Acrassicauda.

Though seeking out a heavy metal band in Iraq seems a unique idea, and warrants the title of the show- the true originality of the series stems from Alvi and Moretti's vantage point ... or lack thereof. They don’t have the clout of a high powered news organization around Baghdad. We begin to see this drawback on their less-than-V.I.P. entrance into the city: routed like stowaways through Erbil, Kurdistan and nearly rejected from a Baghdadi hotel frequented by the mainstream foreign press.

Though the two hipsters are never tossed into a gunfight or thrown to the ground by a roadside bomb, the current chaotic state of Baghdad is ever-present. The violence, tension and fear are all front-and-center of this series, exposed in post-curfew explosions and quick glimpses of AK-47s.

VBS.TV does very well to host this type of short series. Launched by Spike Jonze of Adapatation and Being John Malkovich feature film fame, VBS.tv is a free online broadband network ala MTV's Overdrive and CBS's Innertube (see last year's THR review). In this case, VBS' videos are delivered by content pioneer Brightcove. VBS continues the counter-culture trend of its print magazine parent ‘Vice’ with over a dozen programs like ‘Heavy Metal’ that see the world with fresh, edgy perspective.

Viewing the content is easy and fast, and navigating the site is just as effortless. With expanded programming that touches on unique and interesting topics, VBS TV may just achieve their slogan – ‘Rescuing you from television’s deathlike grip’