Tubefilter: Illeana Douglas Drops Into The Temp Life

EXCERPT: Illeana Douglas may be quite the name in web series circles now, especially after landing six Streamy nominations for her popular comedy Easy to Assemble, which just wrapped its second season earlier this year. It even spawned a spinoff series Sparhüsen, which nabbed its own Streamy nod. But aside from those two, the Emmy-nominated TV and film actress has yet to venture into a web series where she isn’t the one calling the shots. Looks like that’s about to change.

Douglas just wrapped shooting a two-episode guest starring arc on Spherion-sponsored office comedy The Temp Life in New York this week, playing cold hearted CEO Eve Randall. Also shooting a guest spot this week is Taryn Southern who reprises her gumpy midwest IT tech Nancy Roder for a few more episodes.

The connection between Easy to Assemble isn’t hard to piece together. Temp Life creator Wilson Cleveland—who also plays the former temp agency boss Nick ‘Trouble’ Chiapetta—heads up CJP Digital Media the web arm of Manhattan-based marketing firm CJP Communications. Easy to Assemble teamed up with CJP for its latest season with Cleveland’s team helping score a suite of new distribution deals for the show including The Hotel Network and a lucrative one with My Damn Channel.

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8 Streamy Nominations for CJP Web Series!

We were BEYOND thrilled when The Temp Life, Easy to Assemble and Sparhusen received a collective 8 nominations (two for Best Branded Entertainment Web Series) in the second-annual Streamy Awards, often referred to as the Web Television equivalent of the Emmys or Oscars.  Nominees in 15 categories were selected from an initial 190,000 public submissions of over 2,000 shows from 130 countries so...you know, that's pretty awesome. 

Tubefilter: ‘Contiuum’ Next Up For ‘Pink’ Director

By Marc Hustvedt

EXCERPT: Streamy-winning director Blake Calhoun (Pink) has announced his latest web series project today, a sci-fi drama set in space called Continuum. The series will star Harper’s Globe and loneylgirl15 star Melanie Merkosky (left) as Reagen, a young woman who awakes on a space ship without any memory of what she is doing there. Her only companion on board is the ship’s computer, a female spin on 2001’s “Hal,” voiced by Taryn O’Neill (Compulsions, After Judgment). Also announced for the cast is Brad Hawkins (Pink) as Tipton.

Calhoun and co. are calling the project “a futuristic thriller in the noir-ish tradition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.” Loud Pictures, Calhoun’s production company is producing along with Alternative Fuel, a multiplatform company he co-founded with Pink producer Mike Maden. Also producing is CJP Digital Media, with Wilson Cleveland involved on distribution and marketing of the series, as it does for The Fall of Kaden, IKEA-backed Easy to Assemble and Spherion-sponsored The Temp Life.

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CJP Digital Associate Producing New Sci-Fi Web Series 'Continuum'

Original Web Series Created and Produced by 'Pink's' Blake Calhoun and Mike Maden Starts Shooting February 22nd

Director Blake Calhoun and longtime producing partner Mike Maden, the award-winning production team behind some of the Web's most cinematic original series including Pink, 88 Hits and TheWB.com's forthcoming Exposed, today announced principal photography on their next digital project, the sci-fi thriller series Continuum, will begin February 22nd in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles and will release the first ten episodes this summer.

Created by Calhoun and Maden and produced & directed by Calhoun, Continuum is a futuristic thriller in the noir-ish tradition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien starring Melanie Merkosky (CBS/EQAL's Harper's Globe) as Raegen, a woman who mysteriously finds herself aboard a space ship with no memory of how she got there and at the mercy of the ship's computer, voiced by actress/producer Taryn O'Neill, best-known for breakout performances in Compulsions (for which she recently won the inaugural Indie Soap Award for Best Supporting Actress) and the post-apocalyptic After Judgment franchise. Brad Hawkins, veteran TV/film actor and costar of Pink, rounds out Continuum’s minimal cast as Tipton.
    
Continuum is being produced by Calhoun and Maden's Alternative Fuel and Loud Pictures production companies in association with CJP Digital Media, the production/distribution/promotion arm behind successful Web originals including Illeana Douglas's IKEA-branded comedy Easy to Assemble, Spherion-sponsored The Temp Life (which will feature O’Neill in the Feb 8 episode) and dark crime drama The Fall of Kaden. Calhoun and Maden are represented by United Talent Agency and managed by (CJP client) Generate.

‘Blue Movies’ and ‘Fall of Kaden’ Academy Screening

Marc Hustvedt from Tubefilter wrote a great post about this week's Cinespace double-bill screening of Tape 6/CJP Digital's The Fall of Kaden.  Excerpt below, full post here.

Kicking off the evening, Kaden creators Matt Doubler and Adam Leiphart matched up with Blue Movies creator Scott Brown to show a surprise “For Your Consideration” video (above), poking fun at the precarious business of web series. They tapped the omnipresent Shira Lazar to ‘host’ the video which stars a smattering of each series’ lead actors. The screening theater was packed, with scant standing room space in the back.

Art and Applebees from Tape 6 on Vimeo.

New Temp Life Has 'Guild' Actor and Hilarity

From Temp Life writer (and guest temp) Yuri Baranovsky's Wild Musings of a Web Celebrity blog:

Excerpt: The Temp Life (add them on Facebook too!) has released a new episode and it’s easily my favorite. If you don’t know, the Temp Life was one of the first sponsored shows on the web, started a little after Break a Leg by Wilson Cleveland — a man who just about everyone knows and has been rufied by in the “web series business.”

Mr. Cleveland hired me to write the current season (which was really just an arc of short episodes) and apparently liked me enough to hire me for the next batch as well (Felicia Day was busy). Wilson, by the way, pays a writer better than just about anyone else — plus, he bought me lunch when I was in NY, which pretty much means I owe him my first born (who will sadly be named Wilson).

Sandeep Parikh of The Guild and The Legend of Neil guest stars in this batch (and I’ll make an appearance too — you just wait and see!) and he’s funny as per usual.

This season is being shot by Andrew Park and Jato Smith and their company, Tailslating — they created the web series, the Hayley Project, which you should also check out because you love web shows. And by you I mean the royal you. All of you. And the King (“royal you” is a bizarre turn of phrase, isn’t it?).



A Recipe for Successful Branded Web Entertainment

Susan Martin, editor of IKEAfans.com was generous enough to include a blurb about about The Temp Life in her post about IKEA/Illeana Douglas' Web comedy Easy to Assemble (FD: CJP both produces Temp Life and handles marketing/distribution for Easy to Assemble).

Excerpt: In addition to improved production factors, IKEA’s distribution model has been wildly successful, in large part due to the marketing efforts of Wilson Cleveland, founder of CJP Digital and the force behind getting “Easy To Assemble” propelled to the top position in terms of exposure for web series.

Interestingly, Cleveland may actually have single-handedly launched the category of branded entertainment web series when he created The Temp Life for Spherion Staffing Services in 2006. In its fourth year, The Temp Life is the longest running branded web series on which Cleveland writes, markets and stars as ‘Nick (Trouble) Chiapetta’.

In 2009, while working with Tubefilter on securing sponsors, speakers and studios for OnFronts, Cleveland developed a professional relationship with Douglas in hashing out the details of her presentation at the event. Says Cleveland,

I believe so strongly in what smart, creative, media-savvy producers like Illeana, Rob Barnett, Jordan Levin and Felicia Day are doing in the Web TV medium.

It seems Douglas believed in him too, because IKEA hired CJP Digital to run marketing and distribution based on Douglas’ and Executive Producer Dominik Rausch’s recommendation. Read Full Post at IKEAfans.

PR Week: How Can Companies Create Online Video to Both Engage and Inspire Consumers?

MASTER CLASS: DECEMBER, 2009 ISSUE

Full version (Subscription Required)

Wilson Cleveland, SVP and director of digital media, CJP

Corporate marketers should use online video to punctuate or extend core messages beyond what traditional media relations can.

Don't just repurpose existing press materials in your videos; if your story isn't resonating, the delivery mechanism likely isn't the problem. Web-savvy consumers tend to gravitate toward video that is entertaining, utilitarian, or both, and devoid of intrusive PR messaging. Their opinion of your brand and acceptance of your messages will be made or broken by the degree to which you've either made their lives easier or entertained them. So before development or production, be clear on what you want to accomplish with the video. 

Companies can provide a utility to key audiences by producing videos specifically focused on demonstrating or explaining their products and services, or regularly sharing advice and information that will somehow improve the viewer's professional or personal life. The edict of the modern consumer is "prove it." Utilitarian videos will allow them to see what makes you the leader in your field. 

Some corporate communicators may be hard-pressed to glean the entertainment value their employer could provide the public and eschew alternatives like branded digital entertainment for exactly that reason. But if your current storytelling efforts are missing the mark, it may be time to tell it a different way. CJP develops and produces original online entertainment properties as communications vehicles for its clients across industries like recruiting, finance, publishing, and consumer products. Company messages go down a lot smoother with fickle audiences when they are strewn subtly throughout what amounts to be a short-form TV show on the Web. 

Examine your methods. Always assume some elements of your storyline are not be-ing properly communicated either by the press or your own materials. Provide alternative methods to reach the "message averse."  Boilerplates are the enemy of nuance. Online video is ideal because it fills the deeper gaps and brings your company story to life.

Tubefilter: WGA Tries to Bridge New Media Divide

New Media, Transmedia, Web Video, Web Series, Web Television, whatever you want to call “it,” “it” is the future. Anyone reading Tubefilter, which has a mission “to grow the audience of web television,” knows this. Considering this, the traditional media complex is not going anywhere anytime soon. Too often the traditional media industry belittles internet video, which is why it is refreshing to see a media mainstay, like the Writer’s Guild East pursuing an active role in promoting new media.

The Writer’s Guild 2.0 initiative could very well help close the divide between traditional and new media. This initiative corralled a slew of new media signatories (full list below) and brought them together to form a New Media Caucus within the guild.

• CJP Digital – CJP Digital produces several web series – all live action, including The Temp Life
• Concierge: The Series – Original live action web series.
• Confirmed Bachelors – Original animated web series.
• Dinosaur Diorama TV – Production company – creator of several live action web series, The Burg.

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New TeeVee: The Web Series Universe Starts Coming Together Thanks to Too-Wacky Temp Life

CJP’s The Temp Life is one of those on-the-nose sponsored series, being as it is a comedy about the abused life of the temporary employee, sponsored by actual staffing company Spherion. But as an early adopter in that world, the series has proven that you don’t need to drop the sponsor into every scene in order to spread the message. And its fourth season, which launched this week, ups the game in terms of guest stars, while also representing a big narrative evolution for the web series world in general. 

Excerpt:

However, that one scene is hardly the sole spot of funny here, as Temp Life found a fresh way to include some web-famous guest stars in this universe. Each set of episodes released on a weekly basis includes a “video resume” from figures like Taryn Southern, Sandeep Parikh, and Gold creator David Nett. Each creator was given free reign to create a character and write/direct his or her individual short, and Southern’s installment, released this week, is just the right mix of bizarre but human — her character, Oklahoman Nancy, is clueless, sweet and eccentric, and the piece is well-paced and edited, with some great bits of well-timed comedy. A brief sample of Parikh’s contribution was made available for review, and while the effort put into the piece isn’t quite on the level of Southern’s, it still showcases his talent for putting a fresh spin on stereotypes — in this case, the USC frat boy.

Despite some missteps, Temp Life still represents a strong combination of elements, and personally I look forward to a Tommy Westphall-esque chart being possible for the web series world. (Step 1: get Southern to reprise Nancy on another series. Step 2: Repeat.)

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Tubefilter: ‘The Temp Life’ Returns, Stocked Up on Web Series Stars

Not since the Streamy Awards have we seen this many web series stars in one place. Ok not really, but with the fourth season of The Temp Life, the Spherion-backed comedy about life inside a dreadful NY temp agency kicking off today, the cast is loaded up with notable web series stars.

The casting moves are signs this four-year old web show is growing up with the medium in which it plays. Call it Web TV’s version of keiretsu. Creator Wilson Cleveland, CJP Communications’ Head of Digital Media, built the show back in 2006 for the firm’s client Spherion. Incidentally, Cleveland also stars in the The Temp Life, as Nick “Trouble” Chiapetta, the once-CEO of Commodity Staffing, the shoddy agency. This new season picks up with some major changes once Chiapetta returns to office after a 33-week AWOL.

Notable guest (web) stars:
Thom Woodley — co-creator and star of All’s Faire, The ‘Burg and Vuguru’s The All-for-Nots.
Taryn Southern — creator/star of Private High Musical, and star of Sorority Forever, Woke Up Dead and the recent Wrong Hole video with DJ Lubel
Chris Murray — co-creator/star of Hedge Fund
Rachel Risen — star of The Hayley Project
David Nett — co-creator/star of GOLD
Sandeep Parikh — star of The Guild, creator of The Legend of Neil
Angela Espinosa — co-creator/star of Groupthink
Wendy Rosoff — co-creator/star of Groupthink

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Pensions & Investments: Lots of Spice, Little Managing

As proof of just how far hedge funds have penetrated into the pop culture psyche, check out the web series “Hedge Fund” at hedgefundproductions.com.

But be sure to put your head phones on first: “Hedge Fund” would definitely receive an R rating for language, thanks to the freewheeling use of profanity by the three main characters, all “executives” of fictional hedge fund manager Claude S. Dutchy LLC. The series has some of the same feel and appeal of movies in the “guy flick” genre such as “Jackass” and “Animal House.”

In the series, fired waiter Claude Thornberry decides to create a fake hedge fund with his roommates, Dutch and Skip. They're much more interested in the mansions, private jets, Lamborghinis and other trappings that come with hedge fund manager superstardom than in actually managing any money.

“When I started writing, I didn't want to know too much about hedge funds,” Chris Murray, the series' writer and director who also portrays Dutch, said in a statement on his website.

“I wanted to take the idea of one, of that now-ubiquitous financial thing, and use the limited and peripheral knowledge I had of one to try and compose a comedy ... parodying the death of the modern-day hedge fund. The idea for the series was conceived two years ago, while the economy was strong and money was flowing. Strangely enough, however, it seems as though we couldn't have had better timing. While the financial markets are deteriorating ... rather than lament our lost 301k's, (sic) we think there is no better time to laugh,” Mr. Murray wrote.

The Wrap: Writer's Guild Signs 11 Digital Media Producers

CJP Digital Media – a leading corporate public relations firm and developer of branded content. Its web series include The Temp Life and The Fall of Kaden (www.cjpdigital.com)

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Easy to Assemble Season 2 Premieres with Sparhusen Rock

Last night’s Los Angeles premiere of Easy to Assemble season 2 was everything you would expect in a sophomore debut—bigger, brasher and beaming. For the gawkers on Hollywood Blvd. peering onto the red carpet outside the Egyptian Theater, most probably thought they were scoping out a movie premiere as stars like Keanu Reeves, Kevin Pollack, Justine Bateman and Harry Shearer casually strolled past the check-in tables with cameras flashing.

The new season of the IKEA backed web series, which kicks off today, is a classic season long face-off. Picking up essentially were things left off last season, Illeana Douglas and Justine Bateman both still work at the Burbank IKEA store, playing themselves “in between acting jobs.” The rivalry of the two celeb employees squares off around the coveted Co-worker of the Year title, the retail equivalent of queen bee. It’s a 40 year-old’s Blair vs. Serena.

For Easy to Assemble, it’s a wide release of the series, led by My Damn Channel who had signed the series for the new season earlier this summer. CJP Digital which is handling sponsor and distribution for the show, also just locked a deal with The Hotel Networks, putting the show as a VOD offering in 1.9 million hotel rooms in the US and Canada starting in January. Other distribution includes Blip.tv, which will have it pushed wide through its pacts with Verizon FiOS and Roku set-top boxes.

New episodes of Easy to Assemble come out every Thursday through December. A special finale episode will be released after viewers vote to determine who will win Co-Worker of the Year between the two ladies.

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How IKEA's Easy to Assemble Broke 1.9M Views (Without Cheating)

After some modest success of the first season, IKEA agreed to sponsor a second season, this time with an increased production budget and the addition of new cast members like Cheri Oteri, Tim Meadows and Ricki Lake. Then came news of a secret spin-off show about a fictional Swedish rock band named Sparhüsen, and the casting of film star Keanu Reeves. For the new season, Douglas teamed up with Wilson Cleveland at CJP Digital to help with marketing and distribution of the shows, whom she had met prepping for the OnFrontsNYC event in June.

Cleveland and the CJP team inked a distribution deal for both shows with online comedy network My Damn Channel, and embarked on an aggressive outreach campaign that would involve tapping into IKEA’s rabid and loyal fan base. Since launching on October 8, 2009, the two series have racked up over 1.9 million views, an impressive start for a scripted web series, with just four episodes of Easy to Assemble and two episodes of Sparhüsen released so far. 

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TV Guide: Web Hot List, Sparhusen

In the grand tradition of Spinal Tap comes the musical mockumentary “Spärhusen,” which follows the un-illustrious career of a faux Swedish ’70s band as they record übercheeky pop tunes with titles like “Apples & Fish.”

“‘Spärhusen’ is really ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ meets Ingmar Bergman,” explains star and cocreator Illeana Douglas. Bonus: The band’s producer, played by Keanu Reeves, adds his own hilarious whale noises to the music, available, along with the series, starting October 8 at mydamnchannel.com. They’re certainly not bigger than Jesus, but bigger than Swedish meatballs? We say ja. 

EW: Illeana Douglas Talks New Web Series: Sparhusen

Illeana Douglas and the Web go together about as well as the Swedish and meatballs. After all, the quirky actress has found a following online with her IKEA-set comedy series, Easy to Assemble, which starts its second season on My Damn Channel today. (Douglas plays a fictional version of herself who, fed up with showbiz, decides to work in an IKEA store.) And that’s not all: The actress is hard at work producing a spin-off Web series, Sparhusen, which follows a Swedish band that plays music for the big box store. Not only have we snagged a sneak peek of the series (premiering Oct. 8 — see exclusive video clip after the jump), but also a few minutes with its creator. Taking a break from her busy schedule, Douglas talks Assemble, her famous co-stars, and, of course, meatballs.

There is something inherently funny about IKEA.

Yeah. It’s such a fish-out-of-water experience. It’s got this Wizard of Oz quality. And then, when I heard IKEA [was interested], I thought, “Okay, now it has to be IKEA.” The ideas started organically pouring out of me. It was a complete experiment last year, and I threw everything into it that I possibly could. I got all my friends help me out and support me. And we did this thing, and it kind of took off, and we got our second season, and now we really feel like we’ve hit our stride this year, with a great story and a storyline.

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