Just before the 2010 Streamy Awards, Rocketboom host MemeMolly and producer Leah D’Emilio dropped by my apartment to shoot this interview. Stay tuned to the end for a special surprise guest… ;)

Disclaimer: We highly respect all the Streamy nominees we’re “attacking” in the following videos and mean no disrespect.

Above: Best Hosted Web Series nominee A Comicbook Orange attacks Best Vlogger nominee Brigitte Dale.

Above: Best Hosted Web Series nominee A Comicbook Orange attacks Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series nominee Zoë Bell.

Above: Best Hosted Web Series nominee A Comicbook Orange attacks Streamy nominee Felicia Day.

About these videos: Rudy and I came up with this idea a few weeks ago while talking over Mexican food. Initially, we thought it would be funny to “attack” our actual competition (The Totally Rad Show, Know Your Meme, Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, and Diggnation), but then we realized it would be funnier if we “attacked” people we’re not even up against. We wrote these scripts in an hour, shot it on green screen in another hour and I spent my extra time editing it between episodes of A Comicbook Orange.

Last night I was interviewed live on the season finale of The RadNerd Show. Thanks to everyone who tuned in live! It was lots of fun, as you can see in the video, even when I had no idea what was going on! (Note: I wasn’t sure how the Trivia portion worked because I was filling out a release form while they were explaining it to me! :P)

Be sure to tune in next season for more from these very rad nerds!

We finally launched season 5 of A Comicbook Orange yesterday and it feels great! I’m dancing around my apartment today like a complete idiot. And, to make a day better, I also just got off the phone about something really exciting… so keep your fingers crossed for me ;)

Also out this week is an interview that Rudy and I did with The Web Files. The interview turned out even better than I thought it would because of the awesome editing! Take a look:

And, lastly, thanks to Tubefilter for the blog post yesterday, and thanks to YouTube and Blip.tv for featuring our new episode! 2010 is off to a great start… XOXO

Four years ago today, Rudy and I launched the first episode of Kitkast. Though Rudy had made some web videos (video blogs, vlogs, video podcasts, umm… vodcasts?) before, this was the first time we launched a web series… a serialized show. We’ve devoted countless hours to our passion ever since, and I thank every single person whose clicked play, commented on, and shared our videos with their friends.

So what am I doing today to commemorate the occasion? Acting in another web series, of course! I’m up in Vancouver right now, and I can’t say anything much, but it’s going to be EPIC… and reminiscent of Galacticast in some respect. I’ll give you the details when they’re public.

Year five promises to be even better. More guest spots, collaborations, and new content! Thanks for all your support… you make the late nights worthwhile.

Speaking of late nights… this week’s A Comicbook Orange video gave me a late night a couple of nights ago. Enjoy!

I was interviewed by the lovely Amber Mac on her new show Girls Go Geek. The episode originally aired on XBox 360 in the US and is finally available on the web for all the non XBox users/non-Americans.

It’s a great interview, but I wince every time I hear myself say “Jennie 2.0″ since it’s actually “Jennie 2.5″! Oops…

Music (used with permission): Goodbye Horses (Extended Version) by Q Lazzarus (Download from TrashMenagerie.com).

Watch and share on YouTube, Vimeo, or Flickr.

Links:
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – March 2009
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – February 2009
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – January 2009

Why do we praise the mainstream for adopting new media? Is it the excitement that we feel when our industry is being validated, or is it just our kindhearted nature to pat the mentally challenged on the back when they finally learn to do something right. Unfortunately, I believe it’s a hint of both.

This morning Marc Hustvedt, founder of web television news site Tubefilter twittered the above message announcing:

Marc Hustvedt: Disney becomes equity partner in Hulu, the premium content battle with YouTube heats up. This will be good for content creators.. [Link]

His positive and enthusiastic remark set off a brief, but meaningful discussion on whether the new partner will, in fact, be good for content creators:

Casey McKinnon: @MarcHustvedt The problem is that Hulu is a gatekeeper, not an open platform. Have they spoken about opening themselves up? [Link]

Marc Hustvedt: @caseymckinnon, @ebregman, @nickpepito – indie creators will benefit too, it’s about first creating competition to distribute content [Link]

Nick Pepito: @caseymckinnon, @marchustvedt I think Hulu will move beyond studio content & begin to sign indie, they’ll have to. [Link]

Casey McKinnon: @nickpepito Hulu doesn’t “have to” do anything. It’s a site owned by NBC/FOX/ABC, who have obvious vested interests. [Link]

I’ve been getting more @replies on Twitter about this topic, so allow me to explain further in 140 characters of more…

As I mentioned on Twitter, Hulu is a site owned by three major networks; NBC, FOX, and ABC (Disney). They use the site to distribute their TV shows online in order to garner more views and to prevent the black market propagation of their shows on torrent sites. With the exception of made-for-the-web production Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, Hulu is available exclusively in the United States.

Though Dr. Horrible was an indie production – a very expensive one – creator Joss Whedon has obvious ties with FOX that, no doubt, helped him distribute his content on Hulu. Most other web series listed on Hulu also have mainstream ties, like:

• The show is a web-based series created by a major network (Example: FEARnet)
• The show is created by or stars known celebrities (Example: Pink)
• The show is made by talented indie creators – most probably living in Los Angeles – who have been lucky enough to get a licensing deal (Example: Squeegees)

Sure, there are exceptions to the above ties to the mainstream, like Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thunder Show (aka. Wine Library TV), but with his growing popularity it’s not absurd to assume the other shows have licensing deals or friends in high places.

So what does the ABC Disney partnership mean for us indie creators? Nothing until we see a more open platform on Hulu.

Some have mentioned on Twitter that Hulu needs to shift their entertainment to include more indie web content or their numbers will flatten over time… and I wish that were true, but mainstream TV shows made by already famous people have a built-in audience. Indie web series creators have a much larger ladder to climb to get the same viewership as people like Joss Whedon, and the best thing we can do is to “never give up and never surrender!”

This is why I am unperturbed by the new ABC Disney partnership. In essence, it’s just more of the same… and a very obvious merger. Also, let us not forget that ABC has been distributing their shows online for a long time now… they just had a less than desirable user experience. So, to celebrate their partnership with Hulu in a world where content should be (and already is) cross platform, is rather redundant.

Marc Hustvedt believes that creating competition to distribute content will eventually help indie creators, but since Hulu and YouTube are in a competition over TV shows and movies I feel that indie web productions are being left in the cold. Perhaps someday we’ll be reminiscing on all the crazy videos we used to watch on YouTube… whatever happen to those anyway?

PodSafe music: Roller by MonkeyBacon (Download from GarageBand.com).

Watch and share on YouTube, Vimeo, or Flickr.

Links:
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – February 2009
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – January 2009
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – December 2008

PodSafe music: Vitriol by Bluejuice (Download uncut version here).

Watch and share on YouTube, Vimeo, or Flickr.

Links:
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – December 2008
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – November 2008
Daily Self Portrait Outtakes – October 2008