This week’s web series is Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, and like my review from last week, it is a www.machinima.com release. Reportedly with a 10 million dollar budget, this series is a very expensive promotion for an upcoming game. The director, Steward Hendler is well known in the web series universe for directing the well-received series H+: The Digital Series, which you might see in a future review.
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, web series
Before I dive into this review I need to preface it with the fact that I hate promotional series. I find them often soul less, and not created for the right reasons. Hendler seems to know how to spend a lot of money while working for big companies, but unlike H+, this Halo series is receiving a ton of views. The first episode has reached over 7 million views in under a month. When looking at quality the story and visuals are well done and supported by good acting.
The 1st episode premiered on October 5, 2012
If this wasn’t just a big ad for the Halo series, I would say this is one of the best series I have seen. Unfortunately the fact that it is so expensive, and that it is just an advertisement for a more expensive product, leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. As soon as I acknowledge it as a commercial, it hurts the overall product and its story’s value.
The web series was given a $10 million budget
Had this series came out six months from now, after Halo 4 was released, as a standalone series, I think I would have appreciated it more. Since it wasn’t created for the love of the story I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone other than diehard Halo fans. Watch out if you do view, because it will leave you feeling like you just watched a 20 min ad with a Super Bowl commercial budget.
THIS WEEK AT DIP:
www.dip-tv.com
Deadlines suck, especially when you are dealing with tech problems that you didn’t expect. The last two weeks we have been having problems the night of our export. For MegaBitch EP2 we had problems exporting, and only just yesterday got out the final version, with a previous version being posted to the web last Tuesday. Then for MB EP3 we were struggling to move between premiere on a Mac and on a PC all week, and as I write this we are just getting to the export step, and it is 2:13 am here.
On the top of Andrew's Burn in Hell List
You might find out by following this blog that I hate Mac products, and tonight is another perfect example of them failing. Why macs have their own format for external drives I will never understand, and more than that, they often don’t work with NTFS drives that SHOULD work on both pc and macs.
I wanted to apologize to anyone that was looking for it last night, or the Tuesday before. Please bear with us, and believe me when I say we try to release every Tuesday night. By the time you see this, it should be up.
Don’t foget to check out our links. On the social networking side, our DIP-tv YouTube channel has a bunch of videos on it.
MegaBitch, web series episode 3 "Digging for Gold"
My name is Andrew Finch, and I am starting my new blog Web Series Wednesdays. Just a brief overview, each week I will be talking about a current web series that has been released, the business of web Tv, and how my company, DIP-tv, is progressing. I am a co-founder of the startup web series production company DIP-tv, and I’m hoping this blog can get some more people to our website (www.dip-tv.com).
REVIEW:
RCVR the web series
This week’s web series is RCVR, released on www.machinima.com, a website focused on video game players. This was their first stint into major web series production outside of the realm of video games. It has been a major success receiving about 1 million viewers per episode. As a member of DIP-tv, series like this are a major inspiration. This series was shot with high production value, and reached a wide audience.
The show is not without its weaknesses however. The story is cryptic, and the characters hard to connect with. The place it seems to be lacking in, is explaining the character thought process and back story. In any of the web series that I have really enjoyed the main character sets the stage for the series by introducing themselves, and the world around them. If you stay updated on my blog you will discover that I love The Guild.
The cast of the web series, The Guild, starring Felicia Day
The series starts off with Felicia Day basically explaining her character and the situation she is in. RCVR is lacking this, and I didn’t really get what was going on until the last episode of series 1. In the short form that web series is, it is difficult to jump into the character in just 60 min that most seasons are limited too. Many TV shows, with 20 min run times, do the same thing, and their total season run is 12 or more episodes. If you look back to X-files, a major inspiration for RCVR, the first episode set the stage for the whole series.
As the series progresses you see hints of a B plot, but the show leaves it hanging, and without set up or conclusion. An older agent kills his young partner, and it is not explained how or why the character comes back to life. The main plot has a romance interwoven, and while it does progress, it isn’t explained, and leaves me largely uncaring toward the couple. It seems like a ploy to bring in female viewers, by creating the Mulder/Scully dynamic.
That being said, I did sit and watch the full first series in two sittings. The complexity of the story leaves you questioning what will happen next, without raising the suspense levels more than a couple ticks. It is probably why this video has consistent viewers through all 6 episodes.
THIS WEEK AT DIP:
www.dip-tv.com
For this section, this week’s blog is going to be a bit longer than usual due to describing the company its self. DIP-tv is a production company located in Tempe Arizona. Three close friends and myself founded it at the beginning of the year, and have quickly brought some of our other friends from Arizona State on board. After working on State Life, my first web series, last fall I decided that it was what I wanted be doing. Here we are 8 months later in the middle of our first production as a team, looking for money and more importantly, an audience.
So this week at DIP, we have been working on a few things. On the tech end, we are working on getting out video uploader working. Boy let me tell you, this thing has been a bitch. If anyone can comment on a good way to do this, let me know.
We have been in the editing bays for weeks now it seems. MegaBitch 2 came out Tuesday night and I was happy with it. I think that the dance will give people a kick. I have been working mainly on the graphic design stuff for it. Check out my posters. Ill post a few here, but go to the MegaBitch Facebook page to check out the rest.
Our director, Della Anderson, just got back from England for our next series in production, End of Days. So we should start shooting that in the next few weeks.
This Thursday, I’m thinking about what the fuck happened to
Disney. What a tragedy.
I mean, regardless of whether or not Walt Disney was a racist, the
point is that Disney movies changed my childhood. And not in a weird, subliminally
damaging, my-daddy-is-my-only-friend kind of way. In a serious,
my-life-would-not-be-the-same-without-them kind of way.
My favorite classic
Disney movie?
Aladdin.
Second is The Little Mermaid.
Third is Beauty and the
Beast.
You can argue for The Lion King and Mulan all you want, but they just
didn’t cut it for me.
So, the point of all this rambling is that like most of you, I got
to the age where I started hearing all kinds of negative buzz about Disney
movies. You know, that kid in your fifth grade class who was all, hey did you
see those tits in The Rescuers? Or did you see that erect penis on the original
The Little Mermaid VHS box cover? Or did you know that the stars in the sky in
The Lion King spell out SEX?
And let me just say, I found all that shit pretty ridiculous. To
have something I loved tainted so carelessly…I was gonna get to the bottom of
it. So I turned to the Internet, of course.
And what did I learn?
That some people have way too much fucking
time on their hands.
I watched a seven minute slideshow of all the times the word SEX
appears in The Lion King and Pocahontas, and it was just some random idiot
pointing out every time the blades of grass cross in a way that could possibly
be trying to spell the word. Seriously. Get a fucking life.
However, there were a few things that had some truth to them. And
here they are:
In The Little Mermaid, the priest on the boat at the end appears
to have a boner:
Also, check out that castle on the VHS case:
And those tits:
And this is just for fun:
And last, but certainly not least, the controversy on Aladdin.
Apparently he says “Take off your clothes” when he is on the balcony with
Jasmine. Here’s the clip:
I know. What?
Also, in addition to rumors like these, there are all kinds of
myths about Disney movies that probably aren’t true, but are fun to consider
anyway.
Like
for instance, that Aladdin is actually set in the future. How could that be? Well,
there's a scene in the movie where Genie calls Aladdin's clothes "so 3rd
century." However, as we all know, the Genie was locked inside the lamp
for the past 10,000 years, meaning that there is no way he could have known
what the 3rd century was like…UNLESS Aladdin actually takes place in the
FUTURE, in at least 10,300 AD. The movie itself is set in a post-apocalyptic
wasteland, one where only some Arabic culture has survived. The things called
"magic" are actually just some of the technological marvels left
behind by the previous civilization. (Flying carpets, genetically engineered
parrots, etc.). Crazy, right?!
Despite
all the bullshit, though, classic Disney movies are fucking sweet. Always have
been, always will be!
I wonder what kind of subliminal messages Dip-TV will slip into their projects....
Follow us on Facebook and maybe we'll clue you in!
Man,
this Throwback Thursday has gotten me thinking about old times. When shit was
better. When a penis on the cover of a dvd case was a Disney Scandal, not
leaked pictures of Miley Cyrus naked. :(
SO, What’s
your favorite Disney classic?
(Anything made post-millennium doesn’t count,
sorry. Anybody who calls Finding Nemo a classic has a mental illness.)
So like a bazillion other Star Wars t-shirt wearing nerds, I'm
writing a blog about movies (and music). The goal is to talk about new shit,
but let's get real so much new shit is just a sequel of old shit.
Of course, I chose to start this blog at a great time for
theatrical releases. I mean, who doesn't want to see Bradley Cooper with
dreadlocks inHit & Runthis Friday? I know I'm psyched.
With the dreads there is literally no reason for me to want to see him in a
movie.
Overall, Hit & Run should
be riveting stuff, especially considering Dax Shephard and Kristen Bell are also
starring in it. I must give Dax Shephard some credit, as he did writeHit & Run. Although,
I'm sure the screenplay will be in contention for a Razzie, it is a much more impressive
accomplishment than Kristen Bell's seven Teen Choice Awards.
Now, for all you foreign film lovers, French people and wanna be
hipsters, there is something coming out for you this week. It’s actually a two
year-old movie, but it’s being re-released this Friday. Little White Lies
features two Academy Award Winners with Marion Cotillard (Inception, Dark Knight Rises, La Vie En Rose) and Jean Dujardin (The Artist). Trust me, you’ve never
heard of anyone else in this movie or the director. IMDB that shit if you
really care to know.
I’m definitely intrigued by this movie, especially since we can actually hear Jean
Dujardin in it. The bad news, though, is that it’s in French, so
we will still have no fucking clue what he is saying. And of course, Little White Lies is a limited release because
no one outside of New York or LA is generally thought to be smart or cultured enough
for a movie of this type.
If none of the above options appeal to you, then have no fear
Katniss is here. The Hunger Games came
out on DVD and Blu-ray this past Saturday in case you were too drunk to notice,
like I was. Now you can experience the horrible fucking directing job Gary Ross
did all over again. I could quite easily go on a long rant about everything I
didn’t like/thought was wrong with the movie, but I’m getting tired of writing
and you probably don’t give two shits.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, here is the trailer:
Every time I watch anything associated with The Hunger Games, I just can’t help but to think how not hungry and
well-dressed everyone looks, especially Katniss with that sweet leather jacket.
Weird.
[Side note: If you don’t think Jennifer Lawrence is fuckable, you’re
an idiot or gay.]
Alright kids, that’s it for this week. Be sure to check-in every
Monday for more snarky comments and news regarding new movies (and music).
Okay, first of all, I don’t have Instagram, so when
everybody on my facebook feed was suddenly posting “Throwback Thursday”
pictures I had no fucking idea what was going on.
Since then, I have still not
acquired Instagram because –
1) I don’t think sepia tone is that cool, and
2) I
really feel like I should be condensing, rather than expanding, the number of
social networks I’m on.
This is probably a good time to explain to you that
despite the obvious importance of the Internet, I hate it. It’s obnoxious and convoluted
and bursting with idiots.
Offended?
Read on.
Back in the 90’s, before my grandma and my college professor
and my 11-year old cousins were able to access the internet, it was a place for
business. That was it. Businesspeople used the internet, and everybody else in
the world did – gasp – anything else.
One of my favorite pastimes as a child of
the 90’s was dressing up in different costumes with my cousin and performing Spice
Girls concerts for my mom, dancing around on her bed in heels singing along to
my Spice Girls TAPE.
Circa 1999 on that picture. I'm on the left. Notice the boots? We're fucking cool.
Then, the Spice Girls Movie came out. I died. Shit was epic.
My favorite was Geri, obviously, because she was the
loudmouth bitch. Some say it was Mel B., but she was more of a cackler if you
ask me. When they came to Phoenix for their tour in 1998, I was there. Geri was
not. It was literally the first show after she left the group, mid-tour. It was
still good, I guess, but I raged about it for years.
Then, in 2008, they did a reunion tour – I flew out to LA
with three friends and danced the night away in the Staples Center looking like
a whore. I’ll never forget it.
Fast-forward to today. Spice Girls? Still surprisingly relevant.
They were at the Closing Ceremonies for the London Olympics, and killed it!
There’s even a Spice Girl’s MUSICAL coming out on the West
End called "Viva Forever"!
It previews Nov. 27 and opens Dec. 11 at
London's Piccadilly Theatre.
Trip to England, anybody?
Let’s see what DIP-TV thinks of a webseries based on my favorite English Idols….. ;)
SO, Throwback Thursday #1 goes to the SPICE GIRLS!
Stay tuned for next week!
Suggestions welcome!
One of my favorite scenes of all time is the ending scene in 'Dumb and Dumber' when Lloyd and Harry turn down the bus full of gorgeous women asking for two oil boys to tour with them. Instead of jumping on board, the two nitwits point the bus towards a town where they guarantee the girls they'll find some guys.
Stupid.
But you know what? Glorious life is even stupider than that and thanks to the magnificent internet I have some of the most outrageous idiots available to me immediately. I hereby showcase these morons for your amusement.
Australia's Mr. NotAHero. This story came out last month about this wannabe superhero/ninja or whomever in Sydney. He dresses like a crazy bandit who wears skates & grabs onto moving cars to get around. Police are actually worried about him because they're afraid he'll get hit by a bus or something. THEN who has to clean up after him? It's not like his sidekick is going to do it. Oh yea, he totally has a sidekick.
This South Carolina guy, Jesse Beam, was arrested last week for attacking a 67 year old woman for calling him "chicken". First off, it was his grandmother. Second, she apparentely was trying to tell him something about a chicken salad and ended up w/ a broken nose.
23 year old Matthew Argintar from NJ decided to shop at Home Depot wearing a mask, a bulletproof vest and carrying handcuffs. Resembling Batman, he scared the hell out of everyone. Maybe someone should've told him to leave the costume in his closet because of, well, you know. That tiny Colorado shooting.
He says it's not his fault. He was trying to restore hope.
...By dressing up like the recent shooter...
27 year old Katrina Jackson just wanted to get wasted & do some coke. What the hell is wrong w/ that? Well. This idiot also decided to jump into a tanning booth & knock out.
No one could get in her room at the salon & the cops had to show up. Loser.
Katrina Jackson from Kentucky
(Aww.. You do look tan, girl!)
57 year old Dave Hendrickson jacked off in an alley & then proceeded to a garage looking for an unlocked car to sleep in. Here's the kicker. While he was jackin' it... People saw him-- he saw them-- and he didn't stop. Ha!! Not once! Who's the idiot here?
THE PEOPLE WALKING INTO THE ALLEY. Duh.
Never interrupt a masturbating alley-man. Never. He'll rape you.
73 year old King Griffin just didn't want ANYONE to touch his damn bag on the train. You can relate. You see those skeptical looking thugs around you... scheming to take you down and rape you. I get it, King Griffin. Rape is my worst fear, too.
Which is why you have to just tell people you're carrying a 10 megaton bomb in your backpack. I mean, I do it all the time. You never know when there's going to be a Dave Hendrickson just waiting to pounce on you. Who cares if you're lying? What's the worst that'll happen? The cops will show up, you'll get arrested, sent to jail--- yea, yea. At least you won't get raped. By the thugs, of course.
....Hmmmmm. I'm going to bed now. I realize I just opened another tab and Googled 'rape stock photo' images. Yes, yes I did.
Anyway. If I had to do write a short on any of the above topics, I think I'd take Mr. Griffin & his fake bomb threat. Nothing like real life idiots for high-quality inspiration.
That's enough. Until next week.
<3 Megan
This is my no-makeup, 'Sexy, At the Zoo, & I Know It' pic.
You know, if I wasn't so hot.. I probably wouldn't be so scared of rape.
Think you got a great story, idiot/moron or something seriously stupid you'd like to share? It's gotta be TRUE! If it is, address it to Megan & send it over to diptvchannel@gmail.com
