blog posts in events
06/18/2009 • comments ()
EPIC FU LIVINGROOM SERIES: Jarrod Gorbel
Posted by Zadi Diaz


Mark your calendars! This Sunday, June 21st at 7pm PST, EPIC FU is kicking off its Live Livingroom Series event with Jarrod Gorbel of The Honorary Title. Jarrod will be giving us a sneak-peak of his highly anticipated upcoming album (still being produced as we speak!). We'll also have a Q&A session and autographed giveaways too! Definitely a must-see for fans old and new.

RSVP on Facebook

Jarrod has appeared on Carson Daly, Steven's Untitled Rock Show, One Tree Hill, MTV Subterranean. His songs have been featured in Greek, Real World, Good Luck Chuck, and The Haunting of Molly Hartley. And he's been written up by Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, and others. We're really happy to have Jarrod play the inaugural event since he was the very first musician to appear on EPIC FU (back then called JETSET) - seems fitting.

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04/20/2009 • comments ()
we're nominated for two 2009 webby awards!
Posted by Steve Woolf

Re-blogged from the Smashface blog

Someone up there is smiling on us, because last Tuesday we woke up to discover that we were nominated for the Webby Awards on Online Film/Video for the third year in a row for EPIC FU. Not only that, we received two nominations, one for Best Reality/Variety Host, and one for Best Variety series.

In case you're not familiar with the Webby Awards, this is the 13th year of the event. The gala will be hosted by Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live for the second straight year. Here's a snippet from their website:

Hailed as the "Internet's highest honor" by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 13th Annual Webby Awards received over 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

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04/01/2009 • comments ()
crazy, fun, surreal epic fu streamy win!
Posted by Zadi Diaz

Re-blogged from the Zadi Diaz blog

I had a crazy, fun, surreal time at the Streamys last Saturday night. Old friends and new came out to celebrate and support the shows that people have been working on for the past year. Here's a behind-the-scenes interview that iJustine had with us:


Here's a 12 Second reaction video where I can't stop nodding my head in disbelief. We had some great competition:


And here's a after-party video montage from Mary Rambin of NonSociety:


All in all, it was a great gathering of people with whom I'm looking forward to having future conversations and collaborations. Congrats to Drew Baldwin, Brady Brim-DeForest, Joshua Cohen, Marc Hustvedt, and Jamison Tilsner for a great kick-off.

04/01/2009 • comments ()
streamy award for best hosted series goes to epic fu!
Posted by Steve Woolf

Re-blogged from the Smashface blog

On March 28, 2009 at the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles, new media changed. At the first annual Streamy Awards, over 1300 people came out looking their best and took part in an event that moved online video -- or at least a part of it -- into the realm of Hollywood-style entertainment.

There was a red carpet, lots of press coverage, and a ceremony that looked very much like something you might see for the Emmy Awards. There were celebrities, new content creators, and familiar faces from our travels that looked energized, surprised, and in some cases, not entirely sure what to make of the whole thing. In fact, it's taken me a couple of days just to process everything and get a perspective on the evening.

Somewhere in the course of the evening, EPIC FU won one of the awards for which we were nominated, Best Hosted Series. I can sincerely say that we did not expect to win, given the quality and popularity of the shows nominated in our category (all of them friends). I can remember the moment when the presenters of our category, Jace Hall and Bob Kushell, announced EPIC FU as the winner. Zadi and I just looked at each other and said, "Holy shit!" Then we took a breath and realized we needed to get up and get on stage.

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03/23/2009 • comments ()
sxsw was a great success with pbs!
Posted by Steve Woolf

embed

Re-blogged from the Smashface blog.

We came, we interviewed, we edited! During the three days of PBS's SXSW online video studio, we shot 31 interviews, featuring an all-star assortment of filmmakers, online video creators, and social media visionaries. They're all handily embedded above in the YouTube playlist player (click the control button to the right of the "play" button to bring up a menu). Our interview with Felicia Day has nearly 70,000 views alone!

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03/12/2009 • comments ()
epic fu + pbs + sxsw = good times
Posted by Steve Woolf

embed

We're getting ready to leave for Austin, Texas, the site of the biggest party of the year, also known as the South by Southwest (SxSW) conference! It's a convergence of film, interactive, and music panels, discussions, and parties that always has amazing people attending and interesting new things to find out.

This year we're excited to be partnering with PBS! We will be producing a series of interviews with filmmakers, online video people, and social media experts as part of our involvement with PBS Engage. If you're going to be in Austin, come by and say hello at the PBS interactive social media and video studio!

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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.

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12/03/2008 • comments ()
puma turns 60 (whoa)
Posted by Angela Sauceda
puma-60th-anniversary-300x425

This year Puma is turning 60! They're offering 20% off entire purchases at select stores and they are holding FREE concerts around the United States. But you must RSVP in order to attend.

Check out whose performing in your area:

West Hollywood, CA, December 8, 9:00pm
Plain White T's w/ DJ Adam 12

San Francisco, December 9, 9:00pm
Steve Aoki w/ Lady Gaga

Chicago, December 10, 9:00pm
The Bravery

Also check out their new collection, I Am 60, which coincides with the celebration.

filed: events, style
tags: concert, puma
11/28/2008 • comments ()
zadi: on my way to south africa!
Posted by Steve Woolf

Steve's note: this was originally posted on Zadi's blog, but I'm re-posting here since it sounds like this is going to be an awesome trip! So jealous I couldn't go!!!!

Virgin Atlantic Lounge

Right now I’m sitting in the Virgin Atlantic lounge at Heathrow airport - funny that I’ve been to this airport three times but haven’t actually walked the streets of London yet. I have a five hour layover, which on paper seems awful, but this lounge is kick-ass and I think I could live here for a while if prompted. Complimentary drinks, food, wifi, massages, fluffy hairdos and haircuts — can we make it a ten hour layover, please?

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[ Via: Zadi's blog ]

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?

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10/29/2008 • comments ()
video your vote with PBS and YouTube
Posted by Zadi Diaz

YouTube and PBS are partnering together on Video Your Vote, a project aimed at documenting and sharing the experience of voting with the world. On November 4th, you can submit your video to Video Your Vote's YouTube channel and watch all of the other videos being submitted from across the country. It's also a good way to hold polling places accountable for any kind of "procedural abnormalities."

On filming inside your designated polling place, Video Your Vote says:

Most states do allow you to film at your polling place. However, there are some states that expressly prohibit videotaping and others that have strict rules about how close you can tape near a polling place. For the most up-to-date information on your area, visit Documenting Your Vote.

They also mention that video doesn't have to just be of your experience while voting, it can be about your general thoughts on the election process. The most compelling videos will be shown on PBS's election coverage.

tags: election, voting
10/03/2008 • comments ()
show the world what you can do! revision3 casting call!
Posted by Steve Woolf

If you've got talent in front of the camera and you're close to San Francisco, our partners at Rev3 are holding an open casting call!

From the Rev3 blog:

San Francisco based Revision3, the leader in online television, is looking for the next web superstars to host our shows. Talented Bay Area men and women who would appeal to our core 18-35 year old demographic are encouraged to come to an open casting call on Saturday, October 4, from 11am to 1pm, at our state of the art studio in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.

We are looking for a broad range of show hosts for programming focusing on a wide range of topics such as music, technology, sports, news and video games.

Bring headshots (if you have one) and resume to audition. Sides for you to read will be provided that day. Hope to see you here:

Revision3 Studio
2415 3rd Street
Suite 237
San Francisco, CA 94107
10/02/2008 • comments ()
where in the world is that damn zadi?!?
Posted by Steve Woolf

Day One

Zadi is delivering daily videoblog updates from Belfast, Northern Ireland and Dublin, Ireland. She's over there as part of her participation in the Transatlantic Network 2020 program. She's been learning about the conflict between Catholics and Protestants and is working directly with people form the communities there. She posted a ton of photos to her Flickr account, as well.

Two more video updates embedded after the jump!

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09/23/2008 • comments ()
read a banned book week!
Posted by Zadi Diaz


In this week's show we talked about Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read whatever the heck we want. According to the official website, the national event "was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstore and libraries." It's pretty insane to think that literary classics are still challenged til this day.

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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 ()
RNC08 - so many protests
Posted by Steve Woolf

There is an amazing amount of protesting going on at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The folks at The Uptake are right in the middle of things, as usual.

They have tons and tons of videos on their site and on Qik, and they are constantly live-streaming.

08/28/2008 • comments ()
DNC 08 - the line to see obama's speech is loooong
Posted by Steve Woolf

Looks like Josh is about a mile from Invesco, where Obama will be giving his speech. Dedication. He has it.

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08/28/2008 • comments ()
DNC08 - protesters on the streets
Posted by Annie Tsai

Josh was filming some of the atmosphere outside the convention when he caught a bit of Code Pink, singing for peace. It's about 20 seconds in to this video. After the jump is another video from Josh of what appears to be a yelling, protesting toilet (?!). Interesting...

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08/28/2008 • comments ()
chuck olsen sneaks onstage with michael mcdonald
Posted by Steve Woolf

The illustrious Chuck Olsen from The Uptake got into Invesco Field at the DNC a little early and got some footage of Michael McDonald, also known as Rick Rey's all-time super-fave Yacht Rocker, rehearsing for his gig tonight singing America the Beautiful. In fact, he even got his ass onstage! Behind the scenes ftw!

08/28/2008 • comments ()
DNC08 - taxi back to the hotel last night
Posted by Steve Woolf

Zadi and Josh head back to their hotels after a looooooong day. They shot tons more interviews for us to post, which we'll do as quickly as possible. Sorry about the dark video, such are the perils of live streaming. :)

08/27/2008 • comments ()
DNC08 - interview with the art director of the DNC
Posted by Steve Woolf

Zadi talked to Mai Sakai, the Art Director of the DNC. The look of this year's event has been widely praised, and it has to be an enormous undertaking to design and oversee the creation of the look of such a massive event. Zadi and Josh are getting some great behind-the-scenes viewpoints on the people who make things actually happen.

08/27/2008 • comments ()
DNC08 - time for roll call!
Posted by Steve Woolf

Josh shot a video as the process of roll call started among the delegates from each state. This is where the delegates give their nomination decisions.

UPDATE: Added a second video of the proceedings directly from the event floor! After the jump!

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08/27/2008 • comments ()
DNC08 - interview with the DNC production supervisor!
Posted by Steve Woolf

Zadi and Josh talked to Michelle Robinson, the production supervisor for the DNC. Let's just say that she runs shit.

08/27/2008 • comments ()
DNC08 - a qik view from the event floor
Posted by Steve Woolf

Looks like Zadi and Josh got themselves a nice view of the events!

One more quick (Qik) video after the jump.

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08/22/2008 • comments ()
rambo 3 live! your worst nightmare on twitter
Posted by Rick Rey
Rambo 3 Live! on Twitter
What happens when you cross the absurdity and pure awesomeness of an 80's action movie with the instantaneous, info-overloaded, gimme-more culture of the social web?


It's Rambo 3 Live! A no-holds barred public live commentary of my experience watching Rambo 3 in bite-sized Twitter nuggets. Attending is easy, just watch my Twitter stream during the event. Participation is optional.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 26th @ 9PM PST
WHERE: http://twitter.com/rickrey

From my Facebook Event page:

While watching Rambo 2 (First Blood: Part II) the other night I thought to myself - wow, there is so much great Twitter material here. Unfortunately I was too involved with the gripping plot to turn away and grab my laptop.


So on Tuesday night, August 26th I'm going to live Twitter my experience watching Rambo 3 for what I believe is the first time. This is a landmark Twitter experiment and I may lose many followers - a risk I'm willing to take.

If following the action isn't enough, you can simultaneously Twitter your own Rambo 3 experience at exactly 9:00PM PST. I'm pretty sure it's in stock at every Blockbuster worldwide.

Sign up to "attend" this live Twittervent on Facebook or Upcoming.org. If you want to participate, give me a heads up.

07/24/2008 • comments ()
comic-con: an indie publisher's perspective
Posted by Steve Woolf

Steve's note: what follows is a guest blog post from Adam Wallenta, the owner of American Mule Entertainment, an independent comic book publisher responsible for a number of titles including the official Public Enemy comic book.

By Adam Wallenta

First off let me say that I love going to the San Diego Comic-Con. I have been attending as an independent publisher since 1997 and I have had a lot of success. I have met some of my best friends there. Made invaluable connections and learned a great deal. Most importantly, attending the con, provided a great opportunity to get my work out to the people and I have had the honor and pleasure of meeting some of the greatest fans and supporters a guy can ask for.

That being said, The San Diego Comic-Con has always been the hardest convention to sell books at, even back in my early days. It's a huge show with tons to see, do and spend your money on. Throw in the cost of admission for the attendees, hotel and travel costs and food and there isn't much money left over for fans to go out of their way to try new books. Even with a great product, you have to be an even greater salesman to get the attention of the fans and hope that they haven't spent all of their hard-earned money elsewhere.

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05/06/2008 • comments ()
webjam '08 - internet animation festival!
Posted by Steve Woolf
posterforweb23

Orin and Jerry Zucker, the talented folks behind the Emmy award-winning It's Jerry Time, have organized what is sure to be a very fun online video festival dedicated to animation.

From the website:

WEBJAM '08 is the first film festival dedicated to internet animation. You are invited to join Happy Tree Friends, JibJab, 30 Second Bunny Theater, Odd Todd, Joe Cartoon, Xeth, Low Morale, Its JerryTime! and many more of your favorite animated webtoons, all together on the big screen for the very first time. You can see LOLs, ROFLs, OMGs and even some WTFs. The first show is at the historic Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline MA, Thursday May 22-24.

Join us at this world premiere, star-studded event and see some of the breakout work being created in new media on the big screen. Hosted by Jerry & Orrin Zucker, co-creators of Its Jerrytime!

Check out the WEBJAM site for all the deets.

Just for good measure, check out an episode of It's Jerry Time after the jump!

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[ Via: [via NewTeeVee] ]

filed: events
tags: animation
04/15/2008 • comments ()
meetup in LA with MobLogic + EPIC-FU!
Posted by Steve Woolf

For anyone in the LA area who feels like getting out this Thursday night (4/17), let's hang!

Here's the event on Upcoming.org.

Our friends at MobLogic.tv are in town and we thought it would be fun to get together at the usual videoblogger gathering spot, Canter's Deli on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles.

Moblogic will be doing interviews at the meetup, so if you're around let's make it a date. :)


04/04/2008 • comments ()
40th anniversary of martin luther king, jr's assassination
Posted by Steve Woolf

Our friends at Moblogic did some interesting street interviews in New York to see what people thought of Martin Luther King, Jr's legacy today.

How do you think his legacy is doing today? Seems to me it's a mixed bag. I don't know if it's progress, but economic factors seem to be the most dividing elements of today's world. There's more tolerance on the surface between the races, but if you scrape your fingernail along the surface of America, what you find underneath is pretty ugly.

04/01/2008 • comments ()
EPIC-FU declares april 'international rickrolling month'
Posted by Rick Rey
International Rickrolling Month

The Rickrolling phenomenon has reached epic status on the web, so in response we at EPIC-FU have declared the entire month of April as International Rickrolling Month. There's nothing like the feeling of rickrolling someone for the very first time, and the second, and third, and so on.

Read the official press release and watch Zadi's personal video statement about the announcement.

tags: pranks
03/28/2008 • comments ()
march 29th 8pm: earth hour
Posted by Zadi Diaz


On Saturday March 29th at 8pm over 200 cities around the world will participate in earth hour - a global movement symbolizing the need to take action against global warming. World Wildlife Fund is working with city governments, power companies and large corporations to raise awareness and turn off major landmarks in each of their regions. Last year 2100 corporations and over 2 million people in Sydney, Australia joined the movement resulting in a 10% energy reduction in the city.

Whether or not you believe global warming is man-made, an hour of complete darkness might be really fun. So go ahead and unplug -- take a break. Think about how many fun things you can do in the dark! :)

03/25/2008 • comments ()
quit your day job and vlog -- zadi diaz, lisa nova, bre pettis, lindsay campbell, tim shey
Posted by Steve Woolf

Now that we're back from SXSW and Berlin, it's time to catch up on everything that we've been doing.

Tim Shey of Next New Networks organized a panel at SXSW that was titled, "Quit Your Day Job and Vlog."

The video is the full length of the panel, so it's about an hour. Just fyi. If you're interested in online video and know a bit about the people on the panel (or want to know), this was very interesting. I couldn't help but sit in the audience and be struck by what a special time this is for those of us working in this industry. And how open and giving almost everyone is.

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