Felicia Day and The Guild were big winners at the IAWTV Awards

Firstly, hearty congratulations to the winners of the IAWTV Awards (the full list is on the IAWTV website). You will forever be the first cohort of IAWTV winners, something to be proud of. Secondly, congratulations to the production team who managed to pull off an impressive evening, no mean feat for a first year. Thirdly, overall I was really pleased with the whole event, thought it was well conceived and executed.

No comparisons
There is little point in trying to compare last night’s awards to past events. This is the first awards the IAWTV have hosted and they should be assessed on that basis. I am a member of the IAWTV and this event was a celebration of a community I hold dear. I can’t pretend to be a dispassionate observer, because I’m not. I was making screengrabs throughout the show so I’m not going to give a blow-by-blow account. I did enjoy the liveblog of the event by Amanda Walgrove in The Faster Times even though I don’t agree with all of her observations. It is likely that the IAWTV Awards will be at CES again next year, so this was a great base to build on and I have no doubt that next year’s will be even better.

You can see the screenshots here:

What was good

• There was a clear plan for the evening, and even when things didn’t go to plan I never felt concerned that the whole event was going wrong.
• There was obviously a big emphasis on timing, and things did move along quickly. That is a huge achievement.
• Tech always goes wrong, but the show carried on, which is exactly what should happen.
• There was an underlying respect for the occasion, the space and the community. Even though there were cracks about web TV I could have done without hearing from some quarters, the ceremony itself was respectful, dignified and fitting.
• Some of the pre-recorded segments were very good indeed.
• There were no streakers.

Jane Espenson and Bernie Su hosting at the IAWTV Awards

What could have been better

• The stress on timing meant that people were literally running on and off stage and sometimes the stage was empty. This wasn’t a major issue in the overall scheme of things but would be an area to look at for next year. I would have preferred the award section hosts to stay on stage at all times and help get people on and off stage and cover for any glitches.
• Sound was an issue all the way through and would be the #1 priority for next time. Levels fluctuated wildly from silence to barely-there to booming and back again. However, anyone who has had to perform in any venue not run by them will tell you that sound is one of the hardest things to get right. Even with well equipped desks and great sound engineers, things can go wrong. Someone should have had a handle on the hot mics, at least, to spare us the unguarded commentary.
• Some of the live segments fell flat, some of the recorded segments were too long, and sometimes meshing the live and recorded together went awry. Again, these are problems all live shows are subject to. Most of the things that could be controlled before the event were, and that’s all you can hope for.
• Using YouTube meant that there was effectively no chat room because it was pretty much spammed all the way through.
• I understood the idea behind using Siri – the Awards were at CES! – but it didn’t quite work and added another layer of complication that didn’t need to be there.

April Grant, Amanda Shockley and Kai Haison hosting at IAWTV Awards

Individual high points

• Grace Helbig – I am not familiar with this young lady or her show ‘Daily Grace‘, but her performance last night was very good so I will investigate further.
• The Indie Intertube ladies – I’ve known Amanda and April for quite a while and actually met them this year (yay!). They were poised and classy hosts and I was so proud to watch them on stage.
• Felicia’s speeches and her stripper heels, Sean Becker’s speech, Kim Evey’s speech (again, not pretending to be unbiased).
• Elisabeth Flack receiving an award for Exceptional Individual Service. Elisabeth worked behind the scenes tirelessly for the IAWTV and she was incredibly helpful and welcoming to me when I was considering joining the IAWTV. You are an inspiration, Elisabeth, and I was thrilled to see you honoured.
• Jane Espenson

Personal low points
If you were in the IAWTV chat room last night you would know what these were for me. Not sure I’ll share them beyond that but there were parts that I thought were ill-conceived, mainly relating to individuals whom I think should know better. Or maybe I just don’t get their humour. Lots of people don’t share my sense of humour, either, so maybe it’s down to a question of taste.

Take-Aways
This was a celebration of web TV, the creators and the community and went off without any major problems. I think the infrastructure is building to take advantage of the opportunities that will open up in the coming months. We want people outside our space to take us seriously as professionals. This was a step towards achieving that, and I thank the Academy and everyone who helped make it a success. Have a day off this weekend for once. You deserve it.

After posting about the IAWTV promotional videos last week we were thrilled when we received videos and pictures from people to include – thank you all! Here’s our video:

And a big THANK YOU to everyone who appears in it (in no particular order):

Chris Feyrer
Josephine Hoy
Megan Lynch
Aaron Trahan
Louis Srygley
Stephanie Thorpe
Paul Best
Laura Olsen
Felicia Day
Sean Becker
Greg Benson
Michael Dougherty
Cricket Lee
Efehan Elbi
Amanda Shockley
April Grant
Kim Evey
Jenni Powell
Taryn O’Neill

Don’t forget to watch the IAWTV Awards on January 12, 2012 LIVE at 9pm ET/6pm PT at http://youtube.com/iawtvorg

Chris Greenaway and Jenni Powell talk to Travis Gordon on This Week in Webseries.

Travis Gordon talks to Chris Greenaway and guest Jenni Powell about the upcoming IAWTV Awards, the state of the webseries community and what the future holds. There’s lot of information about the partnership with YouTube, where the IAWTV Awards might be held in the future and Jenni answers questions from Chris about the nomination process, how ‘International’ the IAWTV is, geoblocking and other important topics. Definitely worth watching if you are interested in the background to the IAWTV, the Awards and the future of web TV/webseries.

And, we’d like to thank Chris for a his shout out to us and ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ (21:30 on the video). Chris has been working as a creator for years and his ‘Venus Spa’ channel on YouTube has nearly 1.75 million views, so when he says that he thinks our show is truly original, it really means something.

Yesterday the nominees for the first IAWTV Awards were announced live on What’s Trending. After a few technical hiccups the show powered through the nominees and withinin 15 minutes Shira Laza and Ethan Newberry had announced five nominees for each of the 32 categories.

The full list of nominees is on the IAWTV Awards website. After the nominations were announced there was a bonus extra video mashup of the nominees:

It was good to see that there was quite a wide range of shows and individuals nominated, and we were really excited to see that Amanda and April from Indie Intertube received TWO nominations. We have huge respect for them both and one of the highlights of our Fall Escapades was appearing live on their show and then being on the ‘Women in Webseries’ panel with them at Geek Girl Con. The IAWTV Awards are being held in Las Vegas in January during CES, and during the Indie Intertube show last night April announced that they will be moderating a panel and also presenting one of the Awards.

Congratulations to ALL the nominees. Being nominated in the first IAWTV Awards is a huge achievement, and honour. This is the first of what will hopefully be a long history of IAWTV Awards shows, and you will always be part of the very first show. There are many shows and people I recognise and some I don’t, and I look forward to watching all of the nominees when we vote on the next round.

And I would also like to congratulate all those who submitted their shows to the awards. The odds of being nominated were quite small in some cases, and not getting a nomination shouldn’t be seen as a failure. I know for a fact some fantastic shows were not nominated, so you are in very good company (and I’m not just talking about ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!‘). I think Kim Evey put it best (and let’s face it, Kim knows what she is talking about!):

We thought about it for a long time before submitting, but ultimately I’m glad we did. The voting procedure meant that every single submission (and there were hundreds) had the possibility to be nominated. In the first round every submission in every category was assessed by IAWTV members as to whether it was eligible for an award. In some categories there were 150+ submissions to go through. We watched so many new shows and found so many great shows we had never even heard of before. But we didn’t vote on every one because we simply didn’t have the time. That’s ok, though, because the system was set up so that every submission had the opportunity to be voted on as many times as everything else.

We didn’t notice much of an increase in views during the nomination process, but we were competing in some of the biggest categories. Next time, we’ll be submitting a drama, and hopefully that will remain a slightly smaller category!

And a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to say they were disappointed we didn’t get a nomination. You all rock our world in many, many ways

There will be a list of all the webseries that submitted to the IAWTV Awards out soon, and we will link to it when it’s out. There are some hugely talented creators out there producing amazing work, and they deserve a wider audience.

Tomorrow, live on What’s Trending, the Nominations for the Inaugural IAWTV Awards will be announced. The show will be hosted by Shira Lazar and Ethan Newberry and we will finally find out which webseries have made it through to the final round of voting.

Join In – Twitter with #IAWTVAwards!
Anyone who has any interest in webseries should be tuning in for the announcement tomorrow if they possibly can. The announcements start at 10:00 AM PST on Wednesday December 15th and will be streamed live on What’s Trending. If you don’t want to log in there to chat (you have to use Facebook to do so) then why not follow and live tweet the action on Twitter? Susyn Duris suggested we use the #tag #IAWTVAwards and see if we can get it trending during the announcement.

You can also watch it here (it will be live tomorrow at 10:00 AM PST):

Obviously we would love it if our show, ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ was nominated in one of the five categories we entered, but these Awards are about much more than individual shows. It’s about celebrating the huge amount of talent and work that abounds in webseries and bringing that message to a wider audience. I’ve seen some amazing new shows during the voting rounds so far, and I hope that once the nominations are out everyone will find some new favourites.

Good luck to everyone who entered and I can’t wait to see the result tomorrow! And I’ll be tuning in to the Indie Intertube show at 4:00 PM PST to listen to Amanda and Shad talk about the reaction to all the nominations. Should be another great show!

Seems like everyone is starting get into gift-buying mode so this is a great time to mention some items that might well tickle your fancy. First up is “Songs The Brothers Warner Taught Me“, an album by Megan Lynch.

We loved Megan’s music so much we asked her if we could use it as the sound track to “Mind My Brains, Darling!“, and she graciously agreed. Megan is running a great promo at the moment, so it’s the ideal time to buy! This album is guaranteed to have you tapping your feet and singing along – why not listen, below?

Ackernon – now with added merchant class!

Paul and Laura from The Border Guardians of Ackernon have been working hard on getting the DVD and CD ready for release. In between times they have set up a Zazzle store and created some fab new items for you to buy! With new tee shirt designs and mugs for each main character you will be spoiled for choice so head over to their Zazzle store and you could be waking up to coffee with the lovely Angela Aro as Petrina the Archer….

…or maybe Coleman Escoveda as Marloff the Fixer!

Last week we posted about our decision to submit ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ to the IAWTV Awards. That post generated a lot of discussion both on this blog and way beyond. After deciding to actually go for it, we then had to choose which categories to submit in and which episodes to use. We would have LOVED to include Megan Lynch’s album ‘Songs The Brothers Warner Taught Me‘ in the ‘Best Original Music’ category, but because the album was not written for the show we couldn’t do that.

Here’s what we ended up with:

Best Comedy Series:
Episodic British romantic zombie comedy period piece set in the 1970’s. Filmed in a brand new experimental style called BodyLine where no faces are shown. Funded by crowd sourcing. With it’s own soundtrack. Packed full of nods to geek culture and more.

Best Writing (Comedy): Paul Higgins, Mary Higgins

Ep 2: How’s Your Father. The whole series is a tribute to the heritage and style of traditional British farce. In this episode we have vicars, housewives, retired colonels, tea, cucumber sandwiches and slapstick comedy. All innocently delivered in 6 minutes.

Best Directing (Comedy): Paul Higgins, Mary Higgins

Season finale: Gone With The Wind. The final two thirds of the episode is essentially a silent movie. The action and characters’ interaction takes place with no dialogue at all. Nods to Star Wars, Dr Who, Buffy, Le Petomane.

Best Design (Art Direction/Production): Paul Higgins, Mary Higgins 

Episode 4: Ai! Ai! Ai! Robot! Completely recreates the 1970’s era of British comedy and sci fi. Specially built set mimicking a 1970’s British bedroom, entire living and dining room and police station. Plus – a working robot!

Best Supplemental Content:  http://mindmybrains.com

Accompanying website expands the universe in which ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ is set. Contains biographies of characters plus interviews with cast, crew and creators. Competition winners are actually featured in every episode. Behind the scenes posts about all aspects of production and beyond including the successful fundraising on IndieGoGo for Season 1.

So -what do you think? Did we include your favourite episodes?

Don’t forget the submissions end at 11:59 PST tonight – and good luck to every one who enters!

I’ve been writing about webseries for over three years. Our first webseries aired in August 2008. We’ve been around.

When the IAWTV first launched I was excited about the prospect, not because I particularly wanted to join, but because I could see the need for a unified voice for this growing industry. The first Streamy Awards were stunning on many levels and it felt like webseries were coming into their own as a legitimate, growing force in the world of entertainment.

Still, I didn’t feel like the IAWTV had anything to offer a small, independent creator like me. I was quite happy to carry on supporting the space, blogging about things that interested me and making my videos. When the second Streamy Awards happened I was knocked out of my complacency. I wrote about my reaction to the show and then a list of things I wanted to see from the IAWTV and the Streamy Awards. I reached out to Jenni Powell and Kim Evey and helped with the first Celebrate The Web event.

In January 2011 I joined the IAWTV because I felt progress was being made. Elizabeth Flack in particular was key in answering my questions and I really appreciate the work that she did for the IAWTV. It was an honour to be nominated to stand for the Board of Directors, and through my candidate statement and video I reiterated my desire to see the IAWTV truly international with support and outreach for all creators.

It has taken a tremendous amount of work from people in the IAWTV and beyond to make the first IAWTV Awards a reality. It was a brave decision to hold it at CES and I do understand that bringing it to such a huge international stage should provide a great platform to showcase all that is good and great in our space.

But I must admit, I was a little disappointed when the announcement was made. Again, there seemed to be no place for the small, independent creator – particularly one that is outside the U.S. How did it benefit me and my work, and what were the chances of even getting a nomination when there wasn’t even an award for innovation?

Soul-searching. I’ve been doing it.

Why should I submit ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ to the IAWTV Awards?

The reasons are actually simple:

• ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ is a serious work of art, conceived and executed as an experimental series using a new filming technique called ‘BodyLine’. We developed a whole new way of filming, and that makes me incredibly proud.
• At screenings at CSTS in Vancouver, VCON and Geek Girl Con we heard from people who really enjoyed our show and were intrigued with BodyLine.
• We worked professionally, finished the project and learned many valuable lessons. It was a team effort and the whole team deserves to be recognized for their contributions, as shown on the many posts and discussions we have had about the people who have helped us. Submitting is a way to honour their work.
• As a member of the IAWTV who claims to be active and wants to further the aims of the organization, I feel that NOT submitting my series would be a slight.
• During our recent forays at VCON and Geek Girl Con we have met many creators and fans, and interviewed a great many people for our upcoming documentary about webseries. Many people had never watched a webseries. Many didn’t know what one was. Of the people who did watch them, most found them through friend recommendations. We need to get a wider circle of people involved in webseries, and CES could well be the way to do that.

Do I think we will be nominated?
That is simple: no. I think there is zero chance of that happening, but that should not stop me from entering. On a financial level it is absolutely foolish to enter, but if a guarantee of success was the only reason to do anything we would never have moved to Canada and enjoyed all the wonderful things that have flowed from that.

If you have read this far then I hope you will take the time to do two things:

1. Leave a comment telling me if you agree/disagree/got bored about the whole thing
2. Watch an episode of ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’. To make it simple, here’s one:

Thanks for listening.

As the screening started at the ‘Women in Webseries’ panel. Photo by Em Higgins.

Yesterday in Seattle, the inaugural Geek Girl Con opened for business under the watchful eye of the Space Needle, and a new era in Girl Geekdom dawned.

After VCON last weekend, being on Indie Intertube LIVE in their studio in Victoria on Wednesday, and Geek Girl Con this weekend we have so much to post about, but for now here’s a little taste of the GGC ‘Women in Webseries’ panel.

From left to right the panel was:

Vanessa Driveness: Standard Action

Trin Miller: The Dirty Do-Gooders

Glynis Mitchell: Causality

Mary Higgins: Mind My Brains, Darling! and Border Guardians of Ackernon

Jane Espenson: Husbands

April ‘Destini’ Grant: Indie Intertube

Amanda ‘Shadavar’ Shockley: Indie Intertube

Josephine Hoy: Glitch

Joanna Gaskell: Standard Action

After I introduced the panel we showed promos from each of the shows, and you can see them here:

Paul Best (Director/writer of Border Guardians of Ackernon) filmed the panel for the Webseries Documentary we are making, ably assisted by Paul Higgins as floor manager. Thank you to the technical help from Laura Olsen and the EMP technician (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten). Paul B will be posting the whole panel to the Ackernon YouTube channel once he returns home later this week, and I’ll post more about GGC then.

It was a fantastic experience and a real pleasure to hear such creative women share their passion, humour and advice about working in this exciting new arena. And now I need some sleep…..

Outside the Panel room in the EMP. Picture by Paul Higgins

Behind the Scenes of Mind My Brains, Darling! - Robot Arms lovingly modelled by Josephine Hoy

Thank you for all the RTing, sharing and wonderful comments about Episode 5! It’s great to be back on schedule and it’s nice to know that people are still sticking with us. Apart from the person (who will remain anonymous) who complained on YouTube about seeing Sgt Fido’s head

What is more experimental than BodyLine?
When we first thought about doing a whole series using BodyLine, we were keen to see just how far we could go. No heads? Check!* Characters that say no intelligible words? Double check! Sight gags involving headgear? Check, check, check! But what if we could go further? What if we could do more – or less…?

Episode 6 out next week
We have been saving this one until last because it is, in the words of Dr Feyrer, “…very potent, very experimental, and very dangerous.” And yes, Dr Feyrer makes another guest appearance (more Josephine Hoy – always a good thing!). The original concept was simple, but the execution was not. And while the robot in episode 3 took the longest to make, and the choreography of episode 5 took the most rehearsing and planning, the post-production on ep 6 took probably the longest to do. We think you’ll agree it was worth it.

Hard to wait until next Tuesday?
We are here to help. We’re your friends and have been thinking about how to get you through the next few days and have come up with a foolproof plan. The best way to pass the time is to do the following:

1) Rewatch Season 1 so far on Blip.tv and on then YouTube, leaving comments, likes and favourites for each episode.
2) Send each episode to a different friend, or perhaps multiple friends. They will thank you for it (and so will we!).
3) Tell us which is your favourite episode, and why, on our Facebook page or sent to @HigletFilms on Twitter.
4) Send us your own BodyLined response video – on YouTube or anywhere else – and we’ll share it with everyone.
5) Then sit down and have a nice cup of tea.

Repeat every day and the time will fly by!

* This doesn’t include animals, OBVIOUSLY! In case a certain person is reading. Although we didn’t have any complaints about the gerbil or goldfish, so maybe the person in question has something against dogs…?