The debate over the future of web entertainment presses on

I was directed to Web Series Dot Com this morning through a post on Twitter by the lovely @tarynsouthern, http://twitter.com/TarynSouthern

"It's unfortunate, but true. Branding is key if you want to make money off your original web series concept... http://webseriesmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/06/original-web-series-is-there-future.html "


WEB SERIES MAGAZINE DOT COM, http://webseriesmagazine.blogspot.com/

Web Series Magazine Dot Com is a blog on Blogspot. Founded by RICH MBARIKET in May 2009, Web Series Magazine provides up-to-date content on Web entertainment. Web Series Magazine's contributing writers are Victoria Drake, Eitan Wynalda and Sam Grover.

The latest post on the site is a Q&A Peter Hyoguchi, Founder of Strike.TV. Peter briefly discusses his background and the origins and future of Strike.TV...

"We would like to be the biggest purveyor of Hollywood content on every device available, every telephone, all over the Internet, on TV and in theaters. Pretty much everywhere. This is the renaissance of cinema and I think this art form is legitimate."


YES... the debate over the future of web entertainment presses on....

The world of web entertainment is the new frontier... it's fertile ground, but nobody seems to know how to capitalize on their crop. When I talk about writing and producing for the web, I always tell people that it's the like "The Wild West out there." That's what makes it exciting.

Every SHMO has a shot.... and that's AWESOME! Every writer, director, producer and actor across the globe has an equal opportunity to find an audience.. a GLOBAL audience... it doesn't matter of you've got thousands (or God forbid MILLIONS... for a web series? c'mon...really?) of dollars, if you build it... they will come. Bring your project to life, post it on the internet and you are making your work instantly available for the world to see... and Harvey Weinstein aint got nuthin on YOU!

Mind you, it's not easy, it takes a lot work to attract a formidable audience. Put aside all the "brilliance" that goes into a script, casting, principal photgraphy, sound design, blah blah blah. Of course you've got a great product... actually.... let's refer to it as a "work-of-art." Masterpiece aside, one has to consider all the elements that would make a Network pilot or an independent film successful and apply those traditional principles to a viral venue. You have to become as internet saavy as you are artistic.

Some of the best and brightest in the business have taken a crack at web entertainment... but even the most beaudacious budget can be a bust... there are no guarantees in any medium... but especially the web world... that gigantic global audience is as fickle and fleeting as it is gluttonous and gregarious...

So basicallly everybody is swinging in the dark. Nobody "Truly" knows what the hell is happening... where it's going... or what it all means.

Stuff will get figured out...theories will be composed... maybe even some money will be made... and then the internet... the humongous THIRTY BILLION HEADED MONSTER that it is... will turn those theories upside down... and we will be back to where we started...

I could go on and on... but I have yet to eat breakfast and I'm starving.... so let me just wrap this up by saying, if you are an independent writer, producer, director or actor... like myself... write it, shoot it, post it, share it... and then do it all over again... focus on the art form... make it about the work... not about the money.... forget about monetizing... capitalizing on your product... making a buck on the internet.... for now... make movies... write new stories... try new things... and forgive me for saying this...but THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX...

I think every acting teacher/coach I've ever worked with has shared this piece of advice with me.... and I think it is egaully applicable here... If you stay true to your vision, trust your instincts and bring your message, your art, your heart, to the world... the money will follow.

"Big shots are nothing more than little shots who kept shooting." I don't know who said that specifically, bit I really like that quote. Do with it what you will.

Michael Jackson, Jambase and lala.com

INDIE CITY ENTERTAINMENT honors the late MICHAEL JACKSON with a great playlist and an introduction to lala, "All the music you could ever want, playable in a web browser."

JamBase Remembers The King of Pop with a FREE Michael Jackson Playlist

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?StoryID=18647

Following the sudden, shocking death of Michael Jackson yesterday (Thursday June 25), JamBase wants you to remember the music. Everyone knows Jackson's later days were mired in all sorts of unscrupulous accusations and activities, and while that's part of his story, it's really about the music. As we started selecting tracks for this FREE playlist we were instantly overwhelmed all over again by the power of these songs. The man may be a mystery (perhaps at best), but the music is undeniable. So fire up this playlist and get on the floor, get off the wall, and don't stop till you get enough!

Michael Jackson - Jambase remembers the music

lala: Where music plays

How Lala Works:

By clicking the "free playlist" button on the Michael Jackson Playlist and signing up for Lala (also free) you get all the songs for free to start your Lala collection. With sign up, you also get 25 songs of your choice for free, Lala has over 7 million tracks to choose from. Signing up for Lala is akin to signing up MySpace or Facebook - it's free and no credit card is required.

Lala enables you to build a web music collection - you can take your music and fuse it with a massive licensed catalog to easily play, buy, and share on the web from any location. You can add all the music you already have (MP3s, ripped albums, tracks bought on iTunes, etc.) to your collection on Lala for free.

If you're at home, work, a friend's house, where ever... your music collection is there too, all easy to access in a browser.

Once you have signed up you can stream any song in the Lala catalog, again a whopping 7 million tracks, one time, including all of the albums and songs that appear in Lala player widgets on JamBase.

You may be wondering after the first full play of a song, what happens then? Lala is a store, they sell MP3 downloads and streams, which they've dubbed "web songs." You can pay $0.10 for the web song and stream it an unlimited number of times from any computer, and an additional $0.79 to buy a downloadable MP3 without DRM protection. MP3s on Lala are typically $0.89 each. Any MP3 you buy on Lala is bundled with the "web song," which is added to your Lala collection for unlimited streaming.

You can add web songs to your Lala collection from JamBase by clicking the "add" button, visible by scrolling over the song in the Lala player. Once you add a song to your collection, you can stream it anytime on Lala or whenever you see it on a Lala player. As noted, to start you out on Lala, the first 25 web songs are free!

Check out the Lala FAQ for details: www.lala.com/#howitworks.

So get started with the FREE Michael Jackson Playlist!

LA WEEKLY: "How The Hangover Got Made"

I saw the movie... LOVED IT.

I think most people are in agreement that the BEST part comes at the very end... maybe a bit beyond the end...

While I was waiting to get a haircut at FLOYDS on Melrose last week, I found a cool little article in LA WEEKLY about how THE HANGOVER got made>>

How The Hangover Got Made

Hollywood's comedy hit has a messy back story

By Nikki Finke

Published on June 10, 2009 at 9:28pm

If you listen to Warner Bros.’ version of the back story behind The Hangover, this weekend’s No. 1 film and the third-highest R-rated comedy opening ever, it sounds so very simple, like a class in Hit Moviemaking 101. And, I’m assured, the total pay of all three lead actors doesn’t even add up to the perk package Will Ferrell had on Land of The Lost. So The Hangover spec script is penned by the screenwriting team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore and gets to director Todd Phillips, who reads the screenplay, loves it and has a deal at the studio. BenderSpink’s Chris Bender then approaches Warner Bros. SVP of production, Greg Silverman, with the script and director already in place. Jeff Robinov, who has been/is a fan of Phillips, makes the deal. “It was one of those things that simply came together — a script, a director, and all the ducks were in a row,” a WB source tells me.

Oh, really? Well....


http://www.laweekly.com/2009-06-11/news/how-the-hangover-got-made/


.... Meanwhile, Warner Bros. studio chairman Alan Horn is still trying to claim to the Los Angeles Times that all the credit for this movie goes to his studio, and to his little-liked No. 2, Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov. “It was Jeff and his troops who got Todd Phillips involved [no, that was CAA], allowed the movie to be R-rated [it was always R-rated], and let Todd make the movie he wanted to make [because Robinov can’t do comedy to save his life, and at best, it was exec Greg Silverman]. He clearly knew what he was doing.” Statements like this prove the old adage: You always know a mogul’s lying because his lips are moving.

South of Normal podcast 201

Filmmakers James Huffman and Eric Jones are at it again. Introducing Season 2 of the South of Normal Podcast, a first hand account of the trials and tribulations of two guys trying to make their mark in Hollywood. Season two kicks off with a discussion about their intro, why they podcast, a pledge to improve the podcast, an update on their recent endeavors, and an informal review of TERMINATOR: SALVATION.






This is Indie City Entertainment's South of Normal podcast. James Huffman (writer, producer, director, actor) and Eric Jones (writer/director) discuss the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs, the apples and oranges, the good the bad and the ugly of the life and times of two independent artists and eternal students of the Hollywood game, collectively collaborating, scratching, clawing and cooperating their way to who-knows-where doing who-knows-what.

South of Normal (Redux): Season 1

South of Normal Podcast, episode 101:

July 1, 2008>>> This was more of a test.... Our first attempt at podcasting... we are aiming at producing these bi-weekly... and we will be making adjustments as we go... we would love to get your feedback...

Plans for future podcasts include special guests, intro and outro music by local bands..or not so local bands (cant neglect my NYC people), special "on location" events and an interactive segment where we respond to listener emails... ALL COMING SOON....

(In the meantime...seriously...please check it out... Just click on the "Play" button at the bottom of this entry... then share your thoughts)

(45 minutes)

SCAM ALERT: AB CASTING

Note to a fellow BLOGGER>>>

Yesterday I got a call from AB CASTING. They told me they wanted to meet with me to discuss possible representation... but there were a handful of things this guys said that led me to believe this was some sort of scam...

So this morning I got on my laptop and started googling.

I came across THIS>>>

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/tlg/1201842368.html

And then THIS>>>

http://scamsinla.blogspot.com/2008/07/business-scams-in-la.html

The blogger who created "Scams in LA" listed AB CASTING, among others, as a business to stay away from. While it appears that this blog is just getting started, I thought a blog that offers up to date information on scams in LA is a pretty good idea.... so I posted a comment>>>


HEY... thanks for posting this. I got a call from someone JUST yesterday from AB CASTING. The guy on the phone told me that they had my pic/resume "On file" and wanted to meet with me to talk about being one of their "represented" actors. I said "ok, I'd love to hear more about that." The guy gave me the address and I said "So when should I swing by?" he said "Anytime Mon-Sat 10A-9P" I was like "okay?" These guys want to meet with me but don't want to set an appointment? Then I said "Can you tell me again, the name of your office?" He said "AB CASTING... we are a division of blah blah blah..." So now I'm thinking "A CASTING office wants to meet with me about representation?That doesn't make any sense." So of course I googled them... and came across your post..which I appreciate... you will probably save a few people some time and effort...

I dig the concept of your blog... keep it up... I will definitely check in again.

PRETTY LIGHTS free album downloads

HEY... I don't know if this is your thing or not... but this artist has three full albums available for download online and some of his stuff is really cool... I'm diggin it... thought I would pass it along

http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/

By: B. Getz

Derek Vincent Smith

Derek Vincent Smith has started a fire. As Pretty Lights, the producer-wunderkind has embarked on a mission for world domination. Releasing two full-length albums online, both totally free, like a slow, churning, smoldering blaze, the phenomenon began to spread. By Thanksgiving of 2008, it had built to a five-alarm inferno. Filthy breaks, glitchy broken-beat, crunkadelic juno-bass and ethereal soundscapes wrought with a kaleidoscope palette of emotions had taken the ever growing massive by storm.

The mind of Derek Vincent Smith is a myriad of boom-bap, jazzy daydreams, tech-step nightmares, computer turntablism and manic beat mining. While his choice samples, drum breaks, melodies and composition are really medium fare, it is how he applies these elements that separates Pretty Lights from the proverbial pack.

Beginning with 2006's inviting Taking Up Your Precious Time, which was initially downloaded 5,000 times, the number reached 50,000 on the heels of his ambitious sophomore effort, the album that set off the explosion. A two set, 26-track monster, Filling Up The City Skies triumphantly announced Smith's vision as more than just fun on a Mac or head-nodders for the crew cipher. This indeed was artistic vision, a manifest destiny.

For both albums, Smith enlisted a variety of styles and influences while tapping into different genres, although the core Pretty Lights sound has remained throughout. The producer's double-disc Filling Up The City Skies maintains laid-back, introspective vibrations, working well-laced jazzy horns and psychedelic guitars over lush, erotic atmospherics. The songs are often strange amalgamations of styles, where tracks begin and end somewhere near the same point, with a strolling down-tempo drum track, programmed synth/keyboard effects and cloud-formed, slowly unfolding, dub-influenced bass lines.

Part of what makes each song a different experience is the direction of effects in layering the aural emotions. In the age of Ableton, Fruity Loops and the Mac-book selector, a new frontier of turntablism and production has risen. Smith is a beatsmith at the forefront of this movement. Despite his prodigious talents and incredible rise to fame, the Pretty Lights project is of humble bedroom beginnings.

Pretty Lights by Benjamin Maas

Growing up, Smith learned the basics on bass and flute, but as he reached adolescence and beyond, hip-hop became his passion. His Ft. Collins, Colorado high school crew competed amongst themselves to arrange the hottest beats using the constantly evolving computer technologies. Today, his set-up doesn't include any wheels of steel, but instead a laptop and a device that remains the secret to his illness, the Monome 128. Hovering over a grid of countless buttons and knobs used to manipulate and interface with prerecorded tracks, Smith is the master of this domain.

"I really haven't had any musical training at all in the traditional sense. Everything that has to do with music that I know, I taught myself, from the instruments I play to all the recording gear and software I use," says Smith. "I started making hip-hop beats in high school, but my production style really started to develop when I began acting as audio engineer/producer for the bands I played in through the years. Then, eventually I worked at a pro recording studio as a self-taught engineer/producer. Something about making hip-hop beats while also producing records for bands and working with live musicians helped to forge my own style of production."

Too often, sample-based producers are not respected by traditional artists, as they borrow pre-recorded efforts and use those sounds to create a veritable collage of others' work. In its inception, simplistic samples, or 'jacks,' gave the concept/process of sampling a bad name, particularly amongst the generations of musicians that originally recorded much of the music being raided. Nearly a quarter century later, the practice of sampling and hip-hop production, has been revolutionized into an art form. It begins with meditative, focused methods of digging or mining through vinyl in search of inspiration or muse.

Derek Vincent Smith by T. Voggesser

"I've never spun a record onstage in my life," Smith admits. "I've definitely developed a number of methods when it comes to finding the right pieces to make up a good PL track though. For example, when I go digging for vinyl at a record shop or a flee market or even a garage sale, there's usually a massive amount of albums to sift though, so it's all about getting a feeling or a hunch from each record and learning to trust those hunches."

What exactly might pique that curiosity or internal hunch?

"I look for printing style [matte or gloss], visual aesthetic, color palette, musician lists and what instruments they play," says Smith, "and basically, I form a snap judgment about each one as I go. Most get passed up, but the others get a listen on the battery powered turntable."

Smith's passion and process in his production create what are indeed compositions; in the world of digital turntablism anything and everything can be flipped. Chopped samples, programmed drums, and layers of sonic interplay allow producers to play the role of culinary artist, and the distinction that this is indeed original composition is not lost on Smith. His fervent belief in the process is evident. When all is said and done, the completed work is a canvas of masterful efforts, a road trip of feelings and sounds.

That is the beauty and allure of Pretty Lights' music. One moment they are introspective and thought provoking and the next minute may touch your heart. A brief, wicked aural attack of dub-step juno-bass may overwhelm the listener for a moment, only to quickly seduce them with the emotionally drenched "Maybe Tomorrow." Just when the vibes get smooth and controlled, an adrenaline-fueled "More Important than Michael Jordan" provides a spastic sonic orgasm. The feel-good fun of "Hot Like Sauce" gives way to the even spicier "Solamente." The transitions are endless and continue to amaze. For sample-based music, this really seems a new frontier of artistry. This is an original sound and definitive style, as in not borrowed but developed.

Pretty Lights by Benjamin Maas

"One thing I've run into a lot is people that immediately judge artists who sample as music thieves without enough of their own creativity to make good music on their own," says Smith. "Now, with some producers, I'd say that might not be far from the truth, but I strive to always use samples in a way that brings new life and feeling to them. For example, my whole sampling style is based on combining several samples from different records, genres and decades, that, when made to work together, can create completely new emotions and styles. For me, taking many different samples that are in different keys and tempos and making them work together beautifully is where the difficulty lies and a huge amount of the potential creativity exists in my production style."

When Smith does play a song from another artist, he doesn't just drop the jam and let it ride, nor does he simply rock a remixed version of the established song. Instead, in the spirit of the great Madlib or dearly departed J Dilla, Smith chops, alters, and completely reworks the song. It is often only somewhat recognizable, a reinterpretation that also harks back to the transitional arrangements jazz musicians would employ when playing established popular music.

Case in point is a Pretty Lights live mainstay "Regulate," the classic G-Funk anthem recorded by Warren G. and Nate Dogg. "I completely remade 'Regulators' with the original vinyl samples, and added a lot of synths and newer production techniques," explains Smith. "That's just fun for me, to find the same records that Warren G used and remake the same beat but in my style."

Continue reading for more on Pretty Lights...

I strive to always use samples in a way that brings new life and feeling to them. For example, my whole sampling style is based on combining several samples from different records, genres and decades, that, when made to work together, can create completely new emotions and styles. For me, taking many different samples that are in different keys and tempos and making them work together beautifully is where the difficulty lies and a huge amount of the potential creativity exists in my production style. -Derek Vincent Smith

Another peculiar choice yet undeniably hot PL live jam is the 1993 hip-hop club banger "Rumpshaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect, with its rugged and rumbling bottom end, repetitive chant and intoxicating sax loop. Again, Mr. Smith comes thru with an inventive and effective interpolation of this textbook panty-dropper. One cannot escape the fact that the architect of this song, Teddy Riley, is a production legend in his own right and acted as Mr. Miyagi to a young Pharrell Williams' Daniel Laruso.

Pretty Lights by Benjamin Maas

But Smith doesn't stop there. Another production peer, Diplo, is responsible for the Grammy winning M.I.A. track "Paper Planes," and like a mad scientist Smith concocted an epic mash-up with the Wreckx-N-Effect cut. "As far as 'Rumpshaker,' I would always get that song and 'Paper Planes' stuck in my head at the same time because of the same lyric ('all I wanna do...') in the choruses, so I absolutely had to hear those cuts mashed up. I might eventually take it a step further and work in Sheryl Crow's 'All I Wanna Do.' I basically love to remix/re-create tracks from my past that I either loved or are reminiscent of some time in my life."

Pretty Lights is Smith's baby, his vision. However, one of the principle reasons the project is exploding with jam-centric types and becoming a sought after quantity on the festival circuit is their live performances. Smith steps his game up, delivering the goods with the assistance of live percussionist Cory Eberhard's relentless, metronomic beats, which provide an organic complement essential in this sub-genre. The pair combines stop-on-a-dime quickness with improvisational elements often lost on electronic artists.

"We've actually developed a system of sign language where I can conduct how it's going to go and still communicate it to [Eberhard]," says Smith. Like James Brown, Smith can motion his hand and the result may be a switch to an off-beat, a skip-the-snares and just play high-hat eight notes thing, which drops into jungle rumble madness or goes into a breakbeat. "We can take the music to places we haven't gone before, but he'll still know where we'll be moving to. It's a method of improvising where we can stay on the same page."

Watching Smith and Eberhard perform is entertaining, too. The drummer is wild with animated motion, flailing limbs and careening banter, while Smith is hulking, meditative, manning the production equipment with a leering intensity, his body swirling in motion with extreme rhythmic velocity, creating maximum torque.

And Smith is keenly aware of his perpetual groove.

Pretty Lights

"If I could get a taller table it would be a lot less hunch. I love seeing an artist really get into the music they're performing, and really that's all I'm doing. I need to have the stage volume loud as hell to really get into the cuts like I like to, and when the audience responds and feed me more energy, I get that much hype behind my table," says Smith. "When I play a real hype soulful track with a vocal sample that really hits me and means something to me, I can go fucking nuts. I've done it before. That's what it's all about though, feeling the music and letting it channel through you. What my body does is just a by-product of that flow."

The rise has been quick but Smith was ahead of the times even before his first show. He put his debut album online as a free download before Radiohead popularized the idea, and Filling Up the City Skies has already been downloaded nearly 70,000 times in the nine months since its release. On the heels of this frenzied ascension, Smith took the show on the road.

Music Matters' "BALLER'S BALL" last Thanksgiving weekend, in Athens, Georgia was a coming out party of sorts, a bomb whose reverberations torched the Southeast. But, the unassuming Smith knew he had truly arrived the night they dropped a relentless aural assault on the city that never sleeps. Deep in the Bowery, in a historic ballroom where many a prodigal child had plied their trade, Smith and Eberhard firmly and proudly planted the Pretty Lights flag.

"Ah, the Bowery Ballroom. That was a gig I won't ever forget," says Smith. "It's hard to describe the feeling of selling out my first headlining show in the most wicked awesome city on the planet. Something about playing in NYC just feels really special to me, and the venue as well as the energy from the crowd that night was so on point."

Derek Vincent Smith

In an amazing display of shooting stardom, Pretty Lights has gone from a relative unknown to a touring act in constant demand. Their recent itinerary betrays the arc of an artist building a whirlwind buzz throughout this great land. Peep game: Pretty Lights has already played Austin and Dallas, One-Eyed Jacks in New Orleans during Jazz Fest, and staged a veritable homecoming at Ft. Collins' Aggie Theatre with Lyrics Born, all just this past spring. Smith and Eberhard have also gigged in Tallahassee, Florida, Athens and Atlanta, GA, both North and South Carolina and San Francisco. This summer Pretty Lights will run the festival gauntlet, making stops at Bonnaroo, High Sierra, Rothbury, Forecastle and Camp Bisco, among others. "It's completely taken me by surprise," Smith says. "I'm still astonished by it. I'm just really grateful for it."

"Being able to make a living as a musician is what I wanted more than pretty much anything since I bought my first bass guitar in 8th grade. I endured many, many years of financial struggle, living week-to-week, and sometimes even being looked down at as pursuing adolescent and foolish dreams. So, I couldn't be happier that I am finally getting some recognition and am able to live comfortably doing what I love," offers Smith. "It has all happened so fast though, and the biggest way in which that has affected me day-to-day is in the adjustments I'm having to make in the way I write and create new music. Relentless touring can be very exhausting and often leaves very little time to focus on writing new material. It's a delicate balance, and I guess I'm still trying to find an approach that really works for me. The new PL album, which is on the brink of being released, was for the most part created during the limited time between shows, often in airports, airplanes, hotels and greenrooms."

It was the otherworldly "Finally Moving" that first caught the ear of this writer and became his winter season's theme music, and it's safe to say a PL tune is just as comfortable in the bedroom as it is in the club. This erotic, utterly sensual composition is the perfect marriage of down-tempo with smooth, sultry, melodic transitions, tensions and releases. The fact that this is baby making music is "just fine by me," according to a chuckling Smith.

And what about the name Pretty Lights?

"I saw this old poster for a 1966 Pink Floyd New Year's show that advertised the lights, and kind of started using that name before I was even trying to bring a light show," Smith admits. "Now that things are picking up, I definitely want to make it a big multimedia experience."

It's a safe bet that at the pace Pretty Lights are rolling, a big experience is indeed what's in store for them and their rapidly growing following. The PL sonic palette reaches far and wide, and while that kind of thinking can spell identity crisis, there's no mistaking it's Pretty Lights pumping from the speakers. It's always Derek Vincent Smith, and with lights this pretty and the future this bright, he best stay rocking those trademark shades.

PRETTY LIGHTS IN HD

Pretty Lights tour dates available here.