By Marc Hustvedt

EXCERPT: Streamy-winning director Blake Calhoun (Pink) has announced his latest web series project today, a sci-fi drama set in space called Continuum. The series will star Harper’s Globe and loneylgirl15 star Melanie Merkosky (left) as Reagen, a young woman who awakes on a space ship without any memory of what she is doing there. Her only companion on board is the ship’s computer, a female spin on 2001’s “Hal,” voiced by Taryn O’Neill (Compulsions, After Judgment). Also announced for the cast is Brad Hawkins (Pink) as Tipton.

Calhoun and co. are calling the project “a futuristic thriller in the noir-ish tradition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.” Loud Pictures, Calhoun’s production company is producing along with Alternative Fuel, a multiplatform company he co-founded with Pink producer Mike Maden. Also producing is CJP Digital Media, with Wilson Cleveland involved on distribution and marketing of the series, as it does for The Fall of Kaden, IKEA-backed Easy to Assemble and Spherion-sponsored The Temp Life.

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Original Web Series Created and Produced by 'Pink's' Blake Calhoun and Mike Maden Starts Shooting February 22nd

Director Blake Calhoun and longtime producing partner Mike Maden, the award-winning production team behind some of the Web's most cinematic original series including Pink, 88 Hits and TheWB.com's forthcoming Exposed, today announced principal photography on their next digital project, the sci-fi thriller series Continuum, will begin February 22nd in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles and will release the first ten episodes this summer.

Created by Calhoun and Maden and produced & directed by Calhoun, Continuum is a futuristic thriller in the noir-ish tradition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien starring Melanie Merkosky (CBS/EQAL's Harper's Globe) as Raegen, a woman who mysteriously finds herself aboard a space ship with no memory of how she got there and at the mercy of the ship's computer, voiced by actress/producer Taryn O'Neill, best-known for breakout performances in Compulsions (for which she recently won the inaugural Indie Soap Award for Best Supporting Actress) and the post-apocalyptic After Judgment franchise. Brad Hawkins, veteran TV/film actor and costar of Pink, rounds out Continuum’s minimal cast as Tipton.
    
Continuum is being produced by Calhoun and Maden's Alternative Fuel and Loud Pictures production companies in association with CJP Digital Media, the production/distribution/promotion arm behind successful Web originals including Illeana Douglas's IKEA-branded comedy Easy to Assemble, Spherion-sponsored The Temp Life (which will feature O’Neill in the Feb 8 episode) and dark crime drama The Fall of Kaden. Calhoun and Maden are represented by United Talent Agency and managed by (CJP client) Generate.

Marc Hustvedt from Tubefilter wrote a great post about this week's Cinespace double-bill screening of Tape 6/CJP Digital's The Fall of Kaden.  Excerpt below, full post here.

Kicking off the evening, Kaden creators Matt Doubler and Adam Leiphart matched up with Blue Movies creator Scott Brown to show a surprise “For Your Consideration” video (above), poking fun at the precarious business of web series. They tapped the omnipresent Shira Lazar to ‘host’ the video which stars a smattering of each series’ lead actors. The screening theater was packed, with scant standing room space in the back.

Art and Applebees from Tape 6 on Vimeo.

Excerpt: The Temp Life (add them on Facebook too!) has released a new episode and it’s easily my favorite. If you don’t know, the Temp Life was one of the first sponsored shows on the web, started a little after Break a Leg by Wilson Cleveland — a man who just about everyone knows and has been rufied by in the “web series business.”

Mr. Cleveland hired me to write the current season (which was really just an arc of short episodes) and apparently liked me enough to hire me for the next batch as well (Felicia Day was busy). Wilson, by the way, pays a writer better than just about anyone else — plus, he bought me lunch when I was in NY, which pretty much means I owe him my first born (who will sadly be named Wilson).

Sandeep Parikh of The Guild and The Legend of Neil guest stars in this batch (and I’ll make an appearance too — you just wait and see!) and he’s funny as per usual.

This season is being shot by Andrew Park and Jato Smith and their company, Tailslating — they created the web series, the Hayley Project, which you should also check out because you love web shows. And by you I mean the royal you. All of you. And the King (“royal you” is a bizarre turn of phrase, isn’t it?).



Excerpt: In addition to improved production factors, IKEA’s distribution model has been wildly successful, in large part due to the marketing efforts of Wilson Cleveland, founder of CJP Digital and the force behind getting “Easy To Assemble” propelled to the top position in terms of exposure for web series.

Interestingly, Cleveland may actually have single-handedly launched the category of branded entertainment web series when he created The Temp Life for Spherion Staffing Services in 2006. In its fourth year, The Temp Life is the longest running branded web series on which Cleveland writes, markets and stars as ‘Nick (Trouble) Chiapetta’.

In 2009, while working with Tubefilter on securing sponsors, speakers and studios for OnFronts, Cleveland developed a professional relationship with Douglas in hashing out the details of her presentation at the event. Says Cleveland,

I believe so strongly in what smart, creative, media-savvy producers like Illeana, Rob Barnett, Jordan Levin and Felicia Day are doing in the Web TV medium.

It seems Douglas believed in him too, because IKEA hired CJP Digital to run marketing and distribution based on Douglas’ and Executive Producer Dominik Rausch’s recommendation. Read Full Post at IKEAfans.

EXCERPT: Illeana Douglas is flying high lately. The comedy web series in which she both created and stars, Easy to Assemble has been picking up steam this winter. It’s become not just a popular success—over 5 million views so far—but also a business one, with Madison Avenue trade Advertising Age calling itthe “most-watched sponsored web show” in a recent in-depth feature in the magazine.

The success hasn’t gone unnoticed by the show’s main sponsor IKEA, which opted to fund an additional four episodes, extending the season beyond its initial ten. The new episodes, which they are calling a miniseries in its own right dubbed “Flying Solo” premieres Jan. 20 on MyDamnChannel.com, and the trailer was just released online (above). In the episodes, viewers will finally find out who won the season’s Co-Worker of the Year contest between Douglas and Justine Bateman.

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Web Series Shows a Bit of Quality Can Help Sell

By Andrew Hampp 

Published: January 11, 2010

EXCERPT: LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- To many brands (not to mention Hollywood actors), the web is still considered a dumping ground for content not considered good enough for traditional TV. And in the early stages of what is now "Easy to Assemble," a web series sponsored by Ikea and created by actress Illeana Douglas, that dictum was true. But after the series became the most-watched sponsored web show in its second season, garnering 5.1 million views and counting, Ms. Douglas and her all-star cast are rewriting the rulebook on how to create quality content for the web with a TV-like viewership.

EXCERPT: Ikea and its social-media agency, CJP Digital Media, promoted the show by doing marketing outreach to key Ikea fan sites and web video blogs, syndicating clips for fans to share with their friends or comment on Ikea message boards. Within two weeks, Ikea fans racked up 500,000 views alone for the show's second season."Easy to Assemble" is being syndicated to more websites and cable platforms to generate more guaranteed impressions for Ikea. This month, the show will be available on Hulu and Roku, as well as Hotel Networks' DoNotDisturb network in more than 2 million hotel rooms. Amazon and iPhone/Boxee applications are also in the works.

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Five Best Branded-Entertainment Deals of 2009

By Andrew Hampp

Excerpt: 

#4 "Easy to Assemble," IKEA

It's been a good year for IKEA in Hollywood. The Swedish furniture chain played host to a key scene in this summer's indie hit "(500) Days of Summer," while its sponsored web series, "Easy to Assemble," became the most-watched branded web show to date. Created by actress Illeana Douglas, "Easy to Assemble" racked up 5 million views (and counting) during its second season, racking up more organic traffic than MSN's "In the Motherhood" through distribution on My Damn Channel and key IKEA fan sites. The show has gained such a big following that IKEA has already ordered three more episodes of the second season (with talks to renew for a third) and sponsored a spinoff, "Sparhusen," about a fictional Swedish pop band co-starring Keanu Reeves. A second spinoff, an IKEA-based talk show called "Forty and Bitter" hosted by Justine Bateman, is also in the works.

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MASTER CLASS: DECEMBER, 2009 ISSUE

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Wilson Cleveland, SVP and director of digital media, CJP

Corporate marketers should use online video to punctuate or extend core messages beyond what traditional media relations can.

Don't just repurpose existing press materials in your videos; if your story isn't resonating, the delivery mechanism likely isn't the problem. Web-savvy consumers tend to gravitate toward video that is entertaining, utilitarian, or both, and devoid of intrusive PR messaging. Their opinion of your brand and acceptance of your messages will be made or broken by the degree to which you've either made their lives easier or entertained them. So before development or production, be clear on what you want to accomplish with the video. 

Companies can provide a utility to key audiences by producing videos specifically focused on demonstrating or explaining their products and services, or regularly sharing advice and information that will somehow improve the viewer's professional or personal life. The edict of the modern consumer is "prove it." Utilitarian videos will allow them to see what makes you the leader in your field. 

Some corporate communicators may be hard-pressed to glean the entertainment value their employer could provide the public and eschew alternatives like branded digital entertainment for exactly that reason. But if your current storytelling efforts are missing the mark, it may be time to tell it a different way. CJP develops and produces original online entertainment properties as communications vehicles for its clients across industries like recruiting, finance, publishing, and consumer products. Company messages go down a lot smoother with fickle audiences when they are strewn subtly throughout what amounts to be a short-form TV show on the Web. 

Examine your methods. Always assume some elements of your storyline are not be-ing properly communicated either by the press or your own materials. Provide alternative methods to reach the "message averse."  Boilerplates are the enemy of nuance. Online video is ideal because it fills the deeper gaps and brings your company story to life.

New Media, Transmedia, Web Video, Web Series, Web Television, whatever you want to call “it,” “it” is the future. Anyone reading Tubefilter, which has a mission “to grow the audience of web television,” knows this. Considering this, the traditional media complex is not going anywhere anytime soon. Too often the traditional media industry belittles internet video, which is why it is refreshing to see a media mainstay, like the Writer’s Guild East pursuing an active role in promoting new media.

The Writer’s Guild 2.0 initiative could very well help close the divide between traditional and new media. This initiative corralled a slew of new media signatories (full list below) and brought them together to form a New Media Caucus within the guild.

• CJP Digital – CJP Digital produces several web series – all live action, including The Temp Life
• Concierge: The Series – Original live action web series.
• Confirmed Bachelors – Original animated web series.
• Dinosaur Diorama TV – Production company – creator of several live action web series, The Burg.

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