blog posts in entertainment
06/05/2009 • comments ()
Conan's Mushroom Kingdom Set
Posted by Zadi Diaz

Does Conan's new set look familiar? That's because it's the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Bros. The guys over at Serious Lunch caught the coincidence, and Kotaku got the scoop on the backdrop. When they asked Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, if he would send a cease and desist, Reggie said "No. For Conan, we'll let that one slide."

05/20/2009 • comments ()
metal gods
Posted by Zadi Diaz

embed


Metal Gods
, a new film by Matt Porterfield, follows the lives of two damaged teenagers living in a Baltimore suburb. We follow Sean and Jenny's life routine over the course of a week, revealing who they are as they're thrown together by a sudden act of violence.

Quiet complexity comes to mind when I look at the test footage. It'll be cool to see the finished film, which begins shooting this summer. You can make a donation and contribute to the production of the film.

Check out some of the casting test footage with Sky Ferriera, who plays Jenny in the film.

05/08/2009 • comments ()
daichi is a beatbox legend in the making
Posted by Paul Dateh

embed

The Beatbox Battle World Championship recently held an open-submission contest for the competition's "wildcard" category via YouTube. One of the people that answered the call was 18-year-old Daichi from Japan. With 687,000+ views in less than a month, this guy is sure to build a strong name for himself within the hip hop community. Check the video for proof.

[ Via: @judy12345 ]

04/29/2009 • comments ()
why piracy is winning against the studios
Posted by Steve Woolf

On this week's show we talked at some length about the firestorm of coverage and conjecture surrounding the conviction of the Pirate Bay founders on charges of aiding copyright infringement in a Swedish court. Warners, Fox, Sony, and EMI led the fight and hailed it as a great victory.

They couldn't be more wrong.

» This article continues

04/29/2009 • comments ()
brett gaylor RIPs it up with his remix manifesto
Posted by Zadi Diaz

embed

With all that's happening in online entertainment, it's inspiring to see people take more innovative approaches to making and sharing media. Case in point, Brett Gaylor, creator of Open Source Cinema.

Long-time videoblogger, web activist, and filmmaker, Brett's most recent project is an open source documentary about copyright and remix culture. RiP: A Remix Manifesto, focuses on the state of media in the age of free-flowing information. Featuring Girl Talk, Lawrence Lessig, Gilberto Gil, and Cory Doctorow, all influential media figures, the film is set to really delve into some serious issues.

» This article continues

04/14/2009 • comments ()
will the wolverine file-sharing leak kill ticket sales?
Posted by Steve Woolf

For the past week or so, the web and Hollywood has been buzzing about the leaked workprint of the new Wolverine film, which opens May 1st. If you haven't heard, somehow a DVD-quality copy of the movie, with some incomplete special effects, has been downloaded millions of times through P2P file-sharing networks. Apparently Fox is so freaked out it that they called in the FBI to investigate.

» This article continues

01/28/2009 • comments ()
change is in the air for the movie industry
Posted by Steve Woolf

Still of Freida Pinto as Latika from Slumdog Millionaire

I couldn't help notice the number of relatively small films that were nominated for Oscars this year. In the Best Picture category alone, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire are up against movies with huge budgets like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "Small" is a relative term, since these films all had budgets in the millions. But I'm getting hopeful that we're seeing the start of a new trend in studio filmmaking; one where we have massive $200MM tentpole projects like The Dark Knight and a myriad of small films designed to be profitable by new methods of marketing and distribution online.

» This article continues

11/22/2008 • comments ()
youtube live!
Posted by Zadi Diaz

Web video behemoth, YouTube, had their first online Live event today. Attended by the geekerati, YouTubers (Lisa Nova, Michael Buckley, Tay Zonday), and pop stars (Katy Perry, Will.I.Am) alike, the Live event seemed poised to be an online event to end all online events. So how did it do?

» This article continues

11/18/2008 • comments ()
phil collins' in the air tonight on the subway
Posted by Steve Woolf

embed

Apparently I'm super-late to this video, but file it under Incredibly-Awesome or If-It-Doesn't-Make-You-Feel-Good-You-Have-No-Soul, if only for the woman toward the end singing along. Awesome marketing for the group Naturally 7. Bravo, fellas. You make me miss NYC.

[ Via: via: soupsoup ]

11/18/2008 • comments ()
jessica mae stover is using crowd-funding to make her movie
Posted by Steve Woolf

embed

Artemis Eternal is a movie created by filmmaker Jessica Mae Stover that aspires to create a studio-quality short film, but without the studio. She could have gone to wealthy private investors to raise the money, but instead she is using crowd-funding to raise the budget needed to shoot her picture. This is a very new type of model for movies that only the web could have enabled, and with the right energy and approach, it definitely sounds like she is really going to make it happen.

» This article continues

10/08/2008 • comments ()
checking out a new show: "duck 'n cover"
Posted by Steve Woolf

Our friend Brian Lerner co-created and writes a new web series that has been showing some damn funny promos the past few weeks, and today the first episode launched! We always get excited any time people associated with the show do their thing. Let's not forget that Brian was part of the team for the first few months when we rolled out Jet Set Show back in June, 2006, and recently did a correspondent interview with the band Drive A. So we go waaaaay back!

» This article continues

09/26/2008 • comments ()
so excited for history hacker with bre pettis, on TV tonight!
Posted by Steve Woolf

embed

Our amazing friend Bre Pettis has been a staple of innovative online video for years, and has a television pilot on tonight called History Hacker! From Bre's blog:

My TV show pilot called "History Hacker" airs this upcoming Friday at 8PM and Midnight on the History Channel. I'm the host of the show and I check out inventors in history and take a hands-on look at their inventions. I need your help to make the show go from a pilot to a real TV show.

The pilot is all about Nikola Tesla and the war of the currents between Tesla and Edison. In the show I learn how to blow a neon tube, explore wireless electricity and build an AC generator from a bike. I also go to Boston to visit an MIT space lab to see how the principles that Tesla pioneered are being applied to space propulsion.

The look of the show is awesome. The folks at History gave the producer, director, and director of photography permission to take my DIY style of making videos with lots of jump cuts and direct talking to the camera and push it forward into a longer format. It doesn't look like anything else on TV.

It really does look amazing -- just check out the sizzle reel embedded at the top of this post! If anyone should be the mainstream media emissary for DIY video makers, it's Bre Pettis. You rule, Bre!

09/15/2008 • comments ()
"i'm f*cking matt damon" wins emmy
Posted by Zadi Diaz
sarah silverman
photo credit: adriana m. barraza


This past weekend Sarah Silverman accepted two Emmy awards for the internet video sensation, I'm Fucking Matt Damon, which she had made for then boyfriend, talk show host and comedian, Jimmy Kimmel.

The video, which although premiered nationally on Kimmel's late night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," really went crazy when it hit the web -- racking up over four million views on You Tube alone.

The video racked in awards for Best Original Music and Lyrics and for Picture Editing.

» This article continues

09/02/2008 • comments ()
geekgasm: jonathan coulton and felicia day sing still alive
Posted by Steve Woolf

How cool for the people at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) in Seattle this weekend! The awesome Jonathan Coulton and the multi-talented Felicia Day did a duet of "Still Alive" with the crowd. Enjoy!

In case you've forgotten, Jonathan was on our first episode back, and we talked to Felicia Day just before Dr. Horrible came out and she took over the world!

What a special time this is for new media people!

09/02/2008 • comments ()
the king of voiceovers dies
Posted by Zadi Diaz


If you haven't heard yet, Don LaFontaine, otherwise known as the "In a world..." guy passed away yesterday of complications from a collapsed lung. He was 68 years old.

LaFontaine had done over 750,000 television spots and 5,000 movie trailers. Wow.