David Catalano’s web series The Smalls Family, features a sit-com-esque suburban clan with one twist: their dialog is a word-for-word transcription of songs by platinum record-selling hip-hop artist, Notorious B.I.G.
“Some people wanna stick me like fly paper, neighbor!” fumes teen Katie Smalls to her parents over a pizza dinner in their upper-middle class home. A jealous friend just texted her at “5:46 in the evening” and now she’s steamin’, “Why they wanna stick me for my cream?” Check out Steph’s full review of The Smalls Family for the L.A. Weekly HERE and continue reading for her full interview with creator David Catalano.
There are countless web series about actors in L.A., but very few in which the actor is a ten-foot tall, alien robot. Enter hot hunk… of metal Jeff, the well-meaning, socially awkward robot hero of Wired and Condé Nast Entertainment’s new mockumentary web series, Jeff 1000. Check out my review of Jeff 1000 for the L.A. Weekly HERE and continue reading for my full interview with creator Michael Karnow and Wired’s Head of Digital Content, Rachel Samuels.
Last year, I shot a pilot episode and trailer for a quirky little travel web series with my fellow comedian and adventurer, Robert Boesel: #LAblocks. We wanted to explore LA like no one else had — BLOCK BY BLOCK. We wanted to pinpoint the most interesting INTERSECTIONS of Los Angeles, in order to help visitors and locals alike get the most bang for their buck and SATISFACTION for their STEP.
How awesome would it be to know EXACTLY where to go to spend a whole afternoon or day in one awesome neighborhood of LA, no driving around necessary? But as LA enthusiasts, even WE were shocked at the incredible amount of art, architecture, events, history, people, stores and stories we discovered at each block.
We shot a trailer and a pilot episode and did our best to find a brand to sponsor our incredibly well shot, reasonably priced show. And… no takers. We tried for almost a year! But we LOVE this show and we care about it SO MUCH that we weren’t gonna see it die.
We decided to RELEASE the Trailer yesterday and ask friends and fans to SPREAD THE WORD and help us build our subscriber base to show the world — and brands with the same adventurous, travel/culture conscious spirit as we have — that the world wants this show!
When we get to 1,000 subscribers, we’ll release our FIRST EPISODE: 5th & Spring. Hopefully, at 1,000 subscribers, brands will already start to take notice. If we can sign on a backer for our first episode, we will! Otherwise, we’ll release it and keep building our audience and investing our OWN money — if this is the show you want to see! Help us with this experiment! Let’s see how many subscribers and views it takes for a like-minded brand to help us make this show a reality.
We’re in a world where the AUDIENCE gets to dictate to the ADVERTISERS what they want. If homegrown, exceptionally executed, funny, truthful, educational, fast and short travel info is what you want, let us know with your click! And help us spread the word.
xoxo
Steph & the LAblocks team.
#LAblocks, a new kind of travel show, exploring LA block by block!
Check out our website too! This is the level of awesome you can expect from us with everything: www.LAblocks.com
Crack Duck has a lot on his plate. As apartment manager of Grungetown Towers, he has to muster the courage to interact socially with his tenants, deal with discord – like when diaper-clad Thievy Tim steals the Sun from Zqiygyxz, the all-knowing dog who has reached nirvana, all while coping with the crippling pain of existence. Crack Duck is the surreal, disturbing and oddly heart-warming brainchild of writer/actor Danny Lacy, who also lends his voice to his woebegone web-footed hero.
Check out Steph’s review of Crack Duck for the L.A. Weekly HERE and check out her full interview with creator Danny Lacy below.
The web series has come a long way in the last few years. Critical acclaim, star power and an increasing number of web-to-TV success stories have raised awareness and respect for the genre.
Of course, this has encouraged thousands of hopeful creators to turn their attentions to the tiny screen. This explosion of content means it’s harder than ever for shows to stand out from the crowd and audiences to find series worth watching.
To help you out, CLICK HERE to see my L.A. Weekly picks for the TOP TEN WEB MUST-SEE WEB SERIES of 2014.
In the age of ‘right swiping’, dick pics, student loan debt and egg freezing, the etiquette of dating has become blurrier than ever. In her thoughtful, beautifully shot and soundscaped web series 52 Ways to Break-Up, actress/writer/producer Megan Rosati explores the many ways a romantic connection might explode or sputter and die in 2014. Check out Steph’s full article on 52 Ways for the LA Weekly HERE and continue reading for her full interview with Rosati about creating the show.
Husband and wife film making team Kerri Fernsworth and Jeff Feazell have had a roller-coaster ride relationship with religion. Jeff grew up in an extremely religious household, Kerri chose to become an evangelical Christian at 13. The two met at Christian college and undertook a huge upheaval of belief and world perspective together. Now they’re looking back at their experiences through a VERY humorous and perceptive lens… their very funny web series, Youth Pastor Kevin!
YPK is directed by Fernsworth and stars Jeff as “hip” and VERY devout YPK. Jeff also runs The Web Show Show – an amazing venue to screen your comedy videos or web series episodes in front of a panel of internet professionals and gain both exposure and advice. Submit your vid HERE!
I got to speak to Kerri and Jeff about how they met and made the show. They also have kick ass T-shirts for sale that are featured in the series that might just make it onto your Christmas list this year. Enjoy!
When did the idea of the character for YPK surface and why did you decide to make it a web series?
Jeff: I went to a bunch of churches in high school, and all the youth leaders were like that. But there was this one guy, the RD in my freshman dorm at Christian college, who was REALLY like that. The lame bro-drawl and all that. I used to imitate him a lot, so one day I was thinking about how funny it was and I just sat down and wrote the script for “White Problems”.
Kerri: Yep, Jeff invented the character. And from that central figure, it was pretty easy to determine the other types of people he needed to interact with and what they should be like–his different youth group kids, his controlling but technically submissive wife, a senior pastor who is way more chill than YPK. We wanted to make a web series because that seemed like something doable to try it out as short character-based sketches of awkward moments we were both familiar with.
