TEXT & PHOTOS BY TOM BENEDEK
As the music business collapsed, musicians learned they had to market themselves independently and digitally. Now filmmakers must move further and further into that same groove. A number of filmmakers who have set out to create specifically for the web have broken through and are now creating commercial programming for that space.
Doug Cheney, Ryan Wise, Chris McCaleb and Chris Hampel, the four writer-directors who are Big Fantastic, did “Prom Queen” and “Robin Cook’s Foreign Body,” a web series prequel to the book of the same name for Michael Eisner’s Vuguru, plus “Sorority Forever” for the WB.
Miles Beckett, Greg and Amanda Goodfried of EQAL, the team behind the blockbuster “Lonelygirl15,” are launching “Harper’s Globe,” a 15-part web series which is a standalone webisode/social network series spun off the new CBS series, “Harper’s Island.” Tony Valenzuela, director of “Harper’s Globe,” created the evocative web series on his home computer.
On the comedy side, Benny and Rafi Fine (The Fine Brothers) are number 50 on the Most Subscribed YouTube Comedy Channel; now they’re working on a web series pilot for Comedy Central to air in early April.
"Change Agents" is a new series about the faces and figures leading Hollywood to a transformed entertainment landscape.
