Will Felicia Day be in your stocking this Christmas?
The answer is - with any luck! The Guild Season 5 DVD is out tomorrow, December 13th 2011, and you can order it from Amazon.com right now* It looks like it won't be available from Amazon.ca until March 13th 2012, so this will be the only way to get the DVD for now.
Try Before You Buy
If you haven't seen Season 5 yet, then why not take a look? Then go and order the DVD and make sure you have a very Guildie Christmas!
*This link takes you to Amazon using a referral code. That means that if you order via this link I get a little something back from Amazon. Thank you!
It's been a while since I posted but I couldn't not talk about the new trailer from 'The Cabin In The Woods'. Actually, I'm not even going to talk about it, because you should just watch it and then start speculating on your own. Because you don't need me to tell you that April 13th next year is going to feature a whole new level of cinematic fervour.
Spoiled for choice?
Titan Books have also announced details of the Visual Guide, which holds the secret to The Cabin...
"The details of the plot are a closely guarded secret, though Joss himself has described it as “a straight-up, balls-out, really terrifying horror movie,” adding,"it is not just a slasher in the woods. It's a little more complicated than that..."
All will be revealed in the Official Visual Companion, featuring in-depth interviews, the full screenplay by Whedon and Goddard, stunning production art, and hundreds of color photos!..."
The book is print on demand with an estimated delivery time of 21 days. That's an interesting way to do it but I'm not sure too many people are going to want the book before they've seen the film. I haven't tried to order it, so I can't be sure if it really is available now - is anyone going to order it so we can find out? And if it is truly out now (or in 21 days), how will we all avoid spoilers between now and then?
A web, taken on my iPhone last week. It's all connected.
It used to be just you and me...
...hanging out over here, me writing something terribly earnest about Joss, or The Guild, or Firefly, or something geeky, and you reading it and moving on. I've been a terrible host recently. I never write. I never call. I never send flowers...
In good company
Louis Gray (I value his opinion on most matters) wrote a post this week about how he hasn't blogged much recently. Louis now works for Google+ and is doing a fantastic job for them. It tweaked my conscience, and then today I had to look up when the IAWTV elections were, so I headed over here and realised how long it's been.
Gone, but not forgotten
Blogging here started me on a path that has taken me to many, many places I never thought I would go. Just over a week ago I sat next JANE ESPENSON on a panel about webseries at Geek Girl Con, after she accepted my invitation to share her experiences on her new series, HUSBANDS. On the panel were amazingly talented and passionate creators. If you had told me that would happen four years ago I would have made you a nice cup of tea to soothe your obviously over-worked imagination. I've written about Jane here because she has had such a huge impact on my life and writing. I didn't get to tell her that at the panel, but one day...
One day...
Dudes, I'm sorry for neglecting you. Seriously. This blog will never go away, even if I have to abandon it from time to time while life gets in the way. Don't forget I am all over the place and I love to hear from people. I usually respond pretty quickly and if I don't, give me a nudge. So come and find me if you ever want a natter:
It's...been a while
Blogging here has not been my priority as family matters overtook everything this summer. Paul's dad became very ill and Paul flew over to England to help care for him. Jim, his dad, died at home and we all flew over for the funeral. It has been a tough summer in many ways.
Reasons to be thankful
Family is important, always, but never as important as during difficulties and heartbreak. We are very blessed with our family. Grief is lessened when shared and interwoven with love, remembered good times and sheer practical help. Our friends, too, have been wonderful and the many messages we received from all over the internet have helped us through. Thank you all very much. I am also very grateful for the support and understanding of my consultancy clients, especially Paul Best from the fantasy webseries, 'Border Guardians of Ackernon'. Check out their website and their Koldcast site - Season 1 is well under way and very exciting.
Getting back to the new normal
Losing someone means that life will never the same. It's a time to reflect and look at priorities and plans. One thing we are both determined to do is to finish 'Mind My Brains, Darling!' Season 1 and so we are now back in production to get the last two episodes out. I have a lot to catch up on. I have not even watched one episode of The Guild Season 5 yet. I'm waiting until I can really sit down and enjoy it.
Upcoming events
We will also be at two Cons in the coming weeks - VCON in Vancouver and Geek Girl Con in Seattle. More about those very soon.
I spent my youth reading epic fantasy and sci-fi series and they will always have a special place in my heart. You've probably already heard about the upcoming webseries, Dragon Age: Redemption and Elf Quest. They are due out later in the year and are based on works (a massive role playing game and cult comic book respectively) that already have an established fanbase.
The Dragon Age panel at San Diego Comic Con was packed. Felicia Day and team clearly had a blast creating this new series (video of the panel from BuffyFest here). Similarly, the Elfquest panel united the original creators Wendy and Richard Pini with the webseries' creators Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes (coverage here).
Border Guardians of Ackernon poster from Ackernon.com
Try something new today! Standard Action and Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University are new, independently-produced webseries that explore fantasy worlds. You don't have to wait until Elf Quest or Dragon Age are released to enjoy some quality fantasy story-telling because both of these webseries are currently releasing their Season 1 episodes now!
Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University
I've written about Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University before. We met the creator and director Paul Best at VCON in Vancouver last year. We were hugely impressed with the TV pilot he took to VCON and he was intrigued by Mind My Brains, Darling!, as webseries were a new concept to him. Since then we kept in contact and Paul is now one of my consultancy clients.
This epic story is set in Ackernon, where the ancient wards on the city walls are failing. Galiene and the students from the University must fight to protect Ackernon from their enemy, the Pert - and from other dangers inside the city itself.
The story-telling is paced and exciting, the acting is solid and the production is sumptuous. Paul's years of experience in theatre and film show in every scene. The music and costuming are pitch-perfect and Laura Olsen from Blue Steer Studios has done an amazing job.
Standard Action Joanna Gaskell created and stars in the comedy/fantasy webseries, Standard Action, which is original and fun even if you have never thrown a multi-sided die.
The story follows an unlikely band of travellers as they trek across their magical land in search of lost friends. With plenty of laughs, heroic action and intrigue you'll be glad there are already 11 episodes up to watch. Episode 1 is below and you can view them all on http://www.youtube.com/user/Phasefirefilms.
I met up with Joanna and Vanessa Driveness (Associate Producer, PR Manager) at Can't Stop The Serenity in Vancouver a few weeks ago and we will all be on a panel together at this year's VCON and Geek Girl Con.
Voting for five seats on the IAWTV Board of Directors opens today
When I wrote about the last IAWTV Board Election in January of this year I had no idea that I would be a candidate for the Board myself in this election. It was a huge honour to be nominated, and a big surprise (I still don't know who put my name forward). I accepted the nomination because I want to show that I believe the IAWTV has a great future and that anyone - anyone - that has something to offer can help build the organisation.
Video stars
The Communications Committee has been working hard on new innovations and one of the differences in this election is the new video statements from candidates. When I read the email outlining this I was filled with....well, trepidation. Anyone who has seen my videos knows that I am not afraid to make fun of myself for a cheap laugh, but this was different. Although the temptation was to turn it into an edutainment exercise (with the emphasis on 'tainment'), I quickly realised that that wouldn't do. This election, like the last one, is IMPORTANT. The IAWTV means something to me and I desperately want it to grow and expand.
Seriously serious
The problem is, of course, that being serious to camera - and learning a 90 second script - is so far out of my ken that I cannot even count the number of takes it took to read (and yes, I am reading) my earnest statement in one mostly-flub-free take. This is the result:
Now, the astute of you may conclude that my honour is still intact - I am still not afraid to make myself look foolish in front of the camera. That is true. Even though I might wish to look more polished, professional and actorly, the truth is that those things don't bother me. I simply want people to know that I care about the future of the IAWTV and I want it to be truly International.
Candidate choices
PLEASE read the candidate statements and watch all the submitted videos. They are on the IAWTV YouTube channel on the main channel page and also under the 'Playlists'.* There are some amazing candidates for the Board and it is a testament to the passion people have for the IAWTV that there are so many diverse candidates. However you vote there is already a renewal going on in the organisation. Please remember to vote because, like the last election, it really does matter.
* There were two options for candidates, either send the video to the IAWTV or upload it on your own channel and send a link so it could be on the playlist. I uploaded it to HigletFilms because it seemed more efficient to do that, so you'll find my video on the IAWTV playlist.
In case you (like me) missed the livecast from the LA CSTS today with Joss Whedon, Tim Minnear, Felicia Day, Jane Espenson and many more - you can watch it on GeekWeek on Justin.tv:
When I first heard about Geek Girl Con, which is being held in Seattle Oct 8 and 9, I had two thoughts:
What a fantastic idea – OMGWTFBBQ it’s going to ROCK!!
Why has no one thought of it before??
As a sometime born-again geek, brought back into the fold after years of denial (yes, because working in IT is completely not geeky, is it? I was even in denial about that!), the idea of a Con ALL ABOUT ME was fantastic. We really are living in a golden age (/The Master).
After I got over the initial excitement I started to think about what I would love to see there: Geeky women passionate about their geekiness, bringing other people into their sense of wonder.
What is my passion? That would be writing and webseries. I started to hope that there would be programming about webseries, waiting to hear if some of my favourite creators would be there.
And something struck me. If I wanted to meet and share stories, ideas and experience about working on web TV, maybe I should propose a panel. Our latest webseries, ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ premieres next week and we have lots to talk about…
So on May the 4th (an auspicious day, always) I asked people on the weekly Twitter #webserieschat hosted by @slebisodes and @minglemediaTV whether anyone was interested in taking part in a panel. The response was immediate. I quickly had a list of women webseries creators who wanted to be involved. I had ideas about what I wanted to do so I sent out a proposal to those interested and within a couple of days we were set. The enthusiasm was amazing from this list of talented women:
On Monday this week I receieved the email saying our Panel “Women in Webseries: Indie TV and Getting Out There” had been accepted – fantastic news! Except for one thing. The maximum number of people allowed on stage was 9, and we had 10 people who wanted to participate. Everyone wanted to be part of the panel and everyone had unique perspectives and experiences to bring. What could be done?
Now, in traditional TVsoapland this would be the cue for infighting, backstabbing and hair pulling, because isn’t that what women do?
No. They don’t. Passionate and professional women set out the options, discuss them and come to a consensus. Trin Miller very graciously came forward first and said she would sit out in the audience instead. This set the ball rolling and the discussion that followed was illuminating. Josephine Hoy, Susan Bernhardt and Jillian Clare also offered to drop out. The truth is no one wanted to miss being on the panel, but everyone wanted it to be fair.
In the end a compromise was reached. Trin Miller will not be officially on the panel (only because we need to fulfill the GGC requirements) but she would be acknowledged by the panel and will conduct the audience participation parts. Because when you come to our panel, you’re going to have fun. And lots of it. Are you excited yet?
I had confirmation today that our panel will be on SATURDAY OCT 8, and will be a 90 minute panel. Better book your tickets for Geek Girl Con soon because it's going to be legendary!
I'm already counting down the days until I attend the 6th Annual Vancouver Can't Stop The Serenity day at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, on June 25th (11 am until 6 pm). It will my fourth year and I look forward to it for weeks in advance! CSTS is a global sci-fi charity event all about raising money and awareness for Equality Now and other charities.
Last year we had a great time and we made these videos:
We had a wonderful time, met friends old and new, and more importantly the BC Browncoats raised lots of money for Equality Now and the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre Foundation. Because that is what CSTS is all about - communities coming together to raise money causes we believe in - all while enjoying some high class entertainment with friends.
From the CSTS Press Release: "Whedon has been outspoken in his support of the organization and gender equality. In 2006, Whedon was honored with a special recognition award from Equality Now. In his acceptance speech, he told a story of how he’s often questioned as to why he writes strong women characters such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His response:
“Because equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women. And the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is confronted with it.
We need equality. Kinda now.”
A very special announcement for the 2011 season is that Joss Whedon himself will be attending and speaking at one of the events: Can’t Stop The Serenity in Los Angeles on June 25th, hosted by the California Browncoats. Taking the excitement one step further, the event will be broadcast live via the web so people can enjoy the night from around the world. Using multiple cameras, the feed will show the live events from the stage, interviews with attendees and general footage to capture every moment from this unprecedented event.
Now in its 6th year, Can’t Stop the Serenity has become a worldwide benefit movement in the name of Whedon’s beloved works. Browncoats are part of a global family that believes doing the impossible makes one mighty. The fight for basic human decency will continue for as long as there are people in need and those willing to answer that call. In trying to raise awareness for that call, Mr. Universe said it best, ”Can’t stop the signal.”
The last time I saw Joss speaking live over the Internet - at the 2009 Streamys
LA is about to be star-struck
Yes, you fall over stars and starlets on every corner in LA, but this year Joss Whedon himself will attend the LA CSTS. This is wonderful news and should mean even more money can be raised. I predict that tickets for the LA CSTS will be selling out right about now....[Edit: they are sold out in LA but check out all the CSTS events on the CSTS website] But that's ok, because we'll all be able to join in, live!
Not quite Joss...
We might not have Joss Whedon, but I know the Gayle and all the team have worked out a magnificent day for us all in Vancouver and will be putting on another brilliant day. We'll be there - and we have a very special announcement to make about what we will be doing there soon. But it might have something to do with our new webseries "Mind My Brains, Darling!"....More soon!
This is huge news and will change the landscape in the webseries world. From the Blip.tv blog:
"This partnership breaks new ground for blip.tv and validates the position we’ve taken for years about the relevance of original web series, and our dedication to the success of their creators. The Collective, like us, takes a long-term view that places the creator and star firmly in control of their own destiny.Our partnership was the result of a ton of exploration about how we can work together to add value to the web series creators who will be a part of it.
Starting today, the creators working with Collective Digital Studio will build upon their amazing success by adding new audiences on the blip.tv destination site and our network of distribution partners. We’ll also work with them to take advantage of opportunities with advertisers so that they can make more and better content for their fans, which will be available on the new blip.tv destination site, on YouTube, and on their own sites."
We choose Blip.tv for our upcoming webseries "Mind My Brains, Darling!" because their distribution and management backend gave us what we needed. When they unveiled their completely revamped site a couple of weeks ago we were thrilled to be part of their new focus on the viewer's experience. Thanks to Jeremy Hodges' help our Blip.tv pages looks amazing:
I'm looking forward to seeing what this new partnership will bring.
More things that make you go "Squee!"
One of my very favourite TV writers - in fact, one of my favourite writers, period - is Jane Espenson. I first encountered her on Buffy and I have tracked her since, enjoying her work whenever and wherever I find it. We won't dwell on the heartbreak that is the cancellation of Caprica, but rather rejoice in the fact that Jane has several projects on the go. There is a wonderful interview with her in the Huffington Post today.
It is full of insights but it is the very last lines that really got me going:
"Is there a story you're dying to tell? If you were given complete freedom, ratings weren't an issue and there were no studio restraints, what story would you write?
I do have such a story -- a comedy idea a friend and I came up with and co-wrote a little script for. It's something that I think would inevitably change with studio input, and I want to keep it clear in my head at least until we've captured our clean vision of it, so I think we will shoot it as a web series. Ask me about it again in about a month or so!"
A new* Jane Espenson webseries?!? This is outstanding news! More details as they are released...
P.S. If you are reading this, Jane, I really do have a set you can use - @worldofhiglet on twitter and I'll hook you up. You like Vancouver, right?
EDIT: During #webserieschat today I realised that some people might not know that Jane is a Streamy Award winning webseries writer! She won in 2009 for the Battlestar Galactica webseries, "Face of the Enemy". I blogged about it here and here - and have some pictures on Flickr. She has also been linked to a new Torchwood webseries!
Sometimes you cling on to things even though you know that there are probably better alternatives. MyBlogLog was one of those things. I have Google Analytics, but the easy summary dashboard view of MyBlogLog gave me a quick overview of how things were going on my various websites at a glance on one page. I never found another site that allowed that and I didn't spend much time looking. It worked and I liked it, so there was no incentive to change.
Yahoo's dead bury the dead?
As from this morning, mybloglog.com defaults to yahoo.com with not even even a transition page in between. MyBlogLog has ceased to be, and although it is still in Yahoo search, the links simply take you back to Yahoo, which isn't very helpful. Then again, what would they do instead? Put up a static page explaining how they didn't know what to do with this nifty platform once they had it, so they just let it atrophy into nothing?
Is there an alternative?
When I blogged about MyBlogLog's impending demise One True Fan stepped in and pointed out in the comments that they would be producing metrics very similar to MyBlogLog. Not a surprise since many of that team helped set up MyBlogLog in the first place. I had already joined One True Fan because of Louis Gray, but I'm still not entirely sure how I switch over. While I don't mind 'checking in' to sites that use it, I don't really want to have One True Fan running on all my browsers and all my websites. I've looked through the info on their site and I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do. So, back to you, One True Fan....
What are YOU using as an alternative?
Has anyone else found a MyBlogLog substitute for metrics? If you have, please share!
Galiene in Action in 'Border Guardians of Ackernon'
Border Guardians of Ackernon - live Ustream Q and A today!
This week I announced the launch of a new consultancy that combines writing, video and social media and a new client. I've known Paul Best since we met at VCON last year, and I will be helping him to promote the brilliant new fantasy webseries, 'Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University'. Today there is a live Question and Answer with the cast on the Ackernon Ustream channel which will be lots of fun. Tune in at 2:30 PST and I'll see you in the chat room:
What a packed weekend!
It's hectic central here as we push to finish filming 'Mind My Brains, Darling!'. We had planned this weekend for our final shoots for some time, arranging for our two guest stars, Alan Douglas and Josephine Hoy to come up and making sure all the props were finished. We had a fantastic Saturday, are all set for today's scenes, and we're completely on schedule.
The Guild steals the limelight
On Friday I saw a tweet from Sean Becker to say that they were going to be finishing shooting this weekend, too. It's hard not to interpret this as a direct challenge to see who wraps first and WE ACCEPT THAT CHALLENGE! So, Sean, see you in the bar because we'll be finished first. Felicia Day also released a video of Behind The Scenes footage:
You might wonder why we haven't released any BTS videos fom the 'Mind My Brains, Darling!' set. There's a simple reason.
I know, I know - that headline is horrible!
But I figure that since people already get to this blog using some truly eye-popping searches, this won't make things that much worse. We can hope. Anyway, there is actual footage of Behind The Scenes of The Guild Season 5 that includes Felicia in the bathroom along with Sean Becker and a host of people all working hard. Ms Day has her own YouTube channel and that''s the place to get see these vids (and here, obviously).
Felicia Day Glamour Shots!
I mean - using a bathroom as your control room IS glamorous, you have to admit. This video is pure Hollywood...
Felicia Goes Blonde!
We know that hair colour can be a...sensitive issue. Here Felicia is encouraging more speculation, but of a different kind. Why in the world is she wearing a Katy Perry cast-off wig??
No Words...
I don't know where to even start with this one...
At least we haven't seen this yet:
[redacted picture of Sean Becker]
Sean Becker poised for "Action" on The Guild Season 5 (from @theguild Twitpic)
It's all happening!
After months of speculation and preparation the well-oiled machine that is The Guild is once more swinging into action. And once more we know we will be seeing things we have never seen before. Of course, no one knows any details about the plot for Season 5 outside the inner circle. Felicia Day is so (rightly) paranoid about spoilers getting out that she has mind-wiping ninjas on hand that preemptively strike anyone about to spill the tiniest detail. Apparently they can even work from a distance using a variety of top secret yet deadly methods.
Felicia herself is not above teasing us with tweets like the one above, but only she is allowed that privilege. So I'm not going to tell you that they are on location on Long Beach, or link to this picture taken from behind the scenes. And I'm certainly not going to tell you that...can you smell almonds....?
Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in Dr Who. RIP
Sad news today
Twitter has been buzzing with news that Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in Dr Who, has died today. Nicola Bryant, who was another Who companion, Peri, tweeted this:
Sarah Jane Smith was the first Who Companion I watched as a kid and I loved her fire and 'realness'. Seeing her return to the Whoverse in recent years has been a joy.
Thank you, Ms Sladen, for being a role model. For your compassion and for caring about the way women are portrayed on TV. For the work you have done and the passion you brought.
Rest In Peace.
NOTE: originally I spelled Elisabeth's name with a 'z' - thanks to @slackmistress and @egspoony I realised my mistake and have corrected.
Erstwhile Director Sean Becker - back on form?
Today on Twitter, Sean Becker, sometime director of The Guild and other webseries comedy gold like 'The Jeff Lewis Comedy 5 Minutes Hour of Happy Endings', broke the news we were all waiting for today. THE GUILD SEASON 5 STARTS SHOOTING NEXT WEEK!
However, the happy news was quickly under threat by the very same Mr Becker, who literally threatened Agent Ruiz and The Guild itself something almost-certainly unpleasant:
Season 5 of The Guild...
...if you're like me, you can't wait to see it! Pre-production is well under way and the opportunities are coming thick and fast for people wanting to be apart of it - but you have to be quick, and you have to know where to look. Twitter is a great place to start but to get the longer updates you need to be following The Guild on Facebook.
The Guild Facebook page has lots of updates and - details of how YOU can be an extra in Season 5. What are you waiting for? Get over there now!!
This is all about me...
...so apologies about that. If you're looking for a review about the awesome new Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: The Book, then head over to PinkRaygun.com.
Earlier this year I sold a play. And now my name, and words, are in a book. A book all about Dr Horrible. That also has words in it from Joss Whedon, Felicia Day and a whole host of other people, all of whom are way up there in the list of people who have influenced me over the last few years.
If Dr Horrible hadn't happened I wouldn't have been researching the people involved and might not have stumbled across Season 1 of The Guild. Or started stalking following Felicia Day. Or get mixed up in the crazy, heady world of new media/webseries. I probably would have stopped blogging, and I wouldn't have joined sites like Twitter and Friendfeed. I certainly wouldn't have made a webseries in 2008, and all the things that have flowed from that (like the new webseries we have in production now).
I also wouldn't have thought to interview Felicia Day if I hadn't already interviewed award-winning author PJ Haarsma. He created the remote control Dr Horrible uses to steal the Wonderflonium. I knew of PJ because of Kids Need To Read, the charity he set up with Nathan Fillion. He was very generous with his time and his interview ranked in the top 10 posts on Whedonage consistently. That interview caught the eye of Titan books, the publishers of the Dr Horrible book, who then asked if they could republish some of it.
And that's how I came to be in a book with Joss.
Page 23. Tell your friends
P.S. Someone else you will certainly have heard of is also in the book. The One True b!X, photographer, blogger and twitterererer, has photos in the book, too. b!X has lots of Whedon-Geek-Guild-related photos on Flickr. You can also buy some via his website.
Liz Shannon Miller talks to The Guild Creator, Felicia Day talking about The Guild, DragonAge: Redemption, webseries and New Media (Note: there was a 'share' button under the live feed during the session which I hope might turn into a permalink....we'll see! If the video is available after I will embed)
Thirteen Pilots - lucky for some!
After seven days of hard work thirteen teams manage to submit their webseries pilot episodes in time for the Thursday deadline. These pilots are now up on CelebrateTheWeb.com where you can view them all on one page. Voting is also on the same page, which simpifies the process enormously. Congratulations to all the teams who took part - all that hard work has paid off! I was really impressed with the quality and of the submissions. I was also pleasantly surprised with the variety of ideas. Although all the pilots use the three required elements, some teams took them to places I didn't expect.
Vote once per day
Voting is once every 24 hours and ends on March 26th, so make sure you vote for your favourites. Here's the latest twitter buzz for #CTW4:
EDIT: sorry if you missed the picture! It's been removed from Flickr now. I have a copy but since QMX are doing an exclusive interview with Edward James Olmos next week I'm not posting it yet. If you have questions why not send them to QMX via Twitter - your question might be asked!
The amazing Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama from Battlestar Galactica) shared an exciting tidbit on Twitter tonight - QMX are creating an exclusive new model! As Mr Olmos explained:
"Adama Edition Viper Mark II Artisan Replica features an analog gauge flight package and the call sign,“Husker. It has a tiny working Dradis!" (from twitter)
There are going to 1000 made - 500 signed by him and 500 signed by Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck).
Make sure you follow Mr Olmos on twitter and QMX for all the details as they are released!
Stephanie Thorpe, Jenni Powell, Kim Evey and Taryn O'Neill opened the Celebrate The Web 4 Festival with a livecast on Ustream this morning. During the show they discussed the launch of a new challenge to webseries creators - to make a pilot in one week using the themes and elements that were only revealed today at the start of the countdown.
When the challenge was announced there was huge excitement and there are now 54 teams involved, which is an amazing achievement. If we weren't right smack in the middle of production with 'Mind My Brains, Darling!', we would definitely be joining in because this is a fantastic opportunity.
All the details - and more!
The revamped Celebrate The Web website has all the information you need about the festival and now comes with added forums. The specific details from the livecast are all there, along with all the information about the prizes, how to contact SAG and anything else you might need.
This is a summary of the elements that each pilot has to have (taken as a screengrab from the livecast):
Good luck to everyone involved and congratulations to the organisers for bringing together such a great event!
Here are a few screengrabs from this morning's livecast:
EDIT: One True Fan to the rescue!
As I wrote earlier, the feature of MyBlogLog that I will miss the most is the metrics, but help is at hand. One True Fan have announced that they will be replicating the classic MyBlogLog metrics and these will be available to MyBlogLog and One True Fan users. This is great news - thanks to the One True Fan team! They will be publishing more information soon.
Yahoo is finally pulling the plug on MyBlogLog
When I first joined, nearly three years ago, I thought MyBlogLog seemed like a great idea. A way to aggregate your online presence, track blog visitor number and create communities. I joined some communities, set up my blogs and waited for the good times to roll.
Promise never quite delivered
The aggregation always worked well, but once I discovered Friendfeed it became unimportant. The community side of MyBlogLog was never engaging enough to keep my attention. I did like the statistics if provided, though, and I will miss that part of MyBlogLog the most.
Delicious next?
News that MyBlogLog was going to be axed was leaked at the same time that Delicious was slated for removal. The massive outcry about Delicious meant some 'clarification' from Yahoo, then stated that they were merely looking for a buyer.
Sad email
MyBlogLog has no such reprieve, though, and I received my email from Yahoo today confirming that the service will close on May 24th:
It was short and to the point. It directed me to visit Yahoo MyBlogLog help pages to find out more. I did and found this:
I guess Yahoo has already disowned it's unloved service.
To celebrate the fact that you can now go into your favourite store and buy The Guild Season 4 DVD, there's a new competition over on WatchTheGuild.com. All you need to enter is a picture of you holding a Season 4 DVD and you could win a picture of the cast signed by creator/star Felicia Day.
Get your pics in quick!
The competition ends at midnight PST, Feb 24th so get snapping!
Your Favourite Extra...?
Which extra on the DVD is your favourite? There are lots to choose from, so which one do you think is the best?
It's Here!
After months of waiting, The Guild Season 4 finally hit YouTube today, so let the commenting, liking and sharing begin! Of course, many people have already watched the whole season on MSN and/or Xbox, but a surprising number of people don't watch there. They are in for a treat....! @theguild report that they will be releasing Season 4 episodes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which means we'll be through the whole season in four weeks. That's great news for fans, but makes me wonder why they have chosen to do this. I'm going to hopefully speculate it's because we'll have something new to see soon enough (like Dragonage: Redemption, for instance?). But that is pure speculation.
Amazon.ca now shipping The Guild S4 DVDs!
And more good news today, in the form of an email from Amazon.ca:
It's been another busy week for webseries creators and followers with many new projects announced, seasons ending and shooting schedules agreed. In between that and getting on with the business of making a living it is easy to let things slip through the gaps.
Members Need to Exercise Their Choice
IAWTV members are revoting this week for in the first round of votes for the Board of Directors. I posted a couple of week ago about how important these elections are. The fact that there has been a revote could be seen as an annoyance but I think it shows that the IAWTV takes the future seriously enough to want get things right from the start. I really hope that my fellow members take the time to re-look at the candidates and register their votes.
Just do it!
I voted this morning and it took about 2 minutes, and that included finding the email in a chaotic mailbox. Voting ends tomorrow, Friday 18th February at 18:00 PST. So just go and vote. Right now*.
*Why are you looking down here? You should be voting!!
Jimmy Fallon has come a long way since Felicia Day tried to help him create a World of Warcraft toon, but he tried to hold his own in gamerspeak with Felicia by talking Legend of Zelda. Clearly Felicia needs to tell him about Legend of Neil - there can only be one Link!
Felicia looking as gorgeous as ever, sporting non-staticy hair and some impressive guns!
At the end of the interview is a breathtaking trailer from the Dragon Age: Redemption. It is so action-packed that screengrabs are nearly impossible, but here's an almost-decent one.
Felicia Day as Tallis in Dragon Age: Redemption, from the trailer aired on the Jimmy Fallon show
The trailer look fabulous and sets the bar really high. I can't wait to see more of Tallis and her daggers!
