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See Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in the trailer for 'Macbeth'

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The Scottish play is just as dark and twisted as we imagined it when brought to the screen.

Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard star in the latest film adaptation of the Shakespeare classic, and there are plots both fair and foul about. With all the deception and betrayal, plotting witches and wives, and even what looks like to be killing for sport front and center, we’re watching the full display of their chaotic and violent lives as the Macbeths descend into madness.

Both of them will have blood on their hands, that’s for sure.

Macbeth comes out in the U.K. Oct. 2.

Screengrab via STUDIOCANAL UK/YouTube


Spotify's most popular genre may surprise you

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Spotify is apparently the true home of heavy metal music. That, at least, is what Spotify believes, as evidenced by the survey the streaming music did to determine which genre of music fan was the most loyal.

On Spotify at least, metal reigns even harder than pop.

Here’s Spotify’s explanation.

“To find out, we first identified the ‘core’ artists that, according to The Echo Nest (a part of Spotify), are most central to each genre, starting with the big ones, on a global level. Then we did  the same thing with local genres in various countries around the world. To create a measure of genre loyalty, we divided the number of streams each core artist had by their number of listeners. All of the charts are normalized against the genre with the loyalist fans. The first thing we noticed: Metal fans are the world’s loyalist listeners.”

To that, we say Hell Yeah (a metal band from Texas). Luckily, Spotify provided viewers with a handy Tool (a metal band featuring a noted wine maker) to see what the site measured in bar graph form.

See that? Metal is more popular on a global level than pop, folk, country, rock, and hip-hop.

“It’s worth remembering our methodology here: We looked for repeated listens to the core artists from each genre—the ones sitting right at the ‘center’ of the genres, as it were,” writes Spotify. “So one could also reasonably conclude that Jazz, EDM, Classical, and Blues listeners play more fringe artists from those genres. This doesn’t necessarily mean Metal is ‘better’ than Jazz (metalheads would disagree), but it does tell us that Metal fans are in fact the most hardcore, according to this new measure of genre loyalty.”

There are actually a ton of country-specific graphics on this page—sadly, we don’t have the stats from Vietnam so we can see just how hard Hanoi Rocks (a metal band from, strangely enough, Finland)—and they show us the popularity of certain types of music in different countries.

In Brazil, for instance, Brazilian punk and rock gaucho beat out metal, but in Australia, metal easily holds off didgeridoo. Interestingly, metal is only the fifth-most popular genre in the U.S. behind regional Mexican, Latin pop, Native American, and emo.

Still, there’s great news here. If you ever thought that loving metal made you part of a tiny Mötley Crüe (a metal band featuring a well-endowed drummer) or that a religious puritan—perhaps a Judas Priest (a metal band that's hell-bent for leather)—would punish your listening tastes by throwing you in an Iron Maiden (a metal band immortalized in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure), you’re in luck.

Spotify allows those of us who love metal to ride that Mastodon (the guy on the right plays bass) into your own special Dream Theater (the guy on the left plays keyboards) world. It’s a world filled with Rainbow (a mid-1970s metal band from the U.K.) and animals with pure pallets (White Lion, Great White, Whitesnake, and Whitewolf), and not a place filled with Suicidal Tendencies (a metal band that just wants a Pepsi) and people forced to live on Skid Row (a metal band that almost certainly remembers you).

In short—and thanks to the good people at Spotify for notifying us—it's a world filled with Triumph (a metal band from Canada).

Photo via adels/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The 'Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!' trailer is here, hell yes

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First we were blessed with Sharknado. Then came Sharknado 2: The Second One. Now this summer, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! is hitting televisions—and we finally have a peek at the whirlwind of carnage and camp.

Syfy dropped a short little teaser of the third installment of the series on Wednesday, and it looks like everything we could’ve dreamed (or had nightmares of). Sharknado survivors Tara Reid and Ian Ziering return, along with new faces like Mark Cuban, who’s playing the president.

Unfortunately, still no sign of Frankie Muniz or Ann Coulter (she’s playing vice president of the United States), who will also be in the movie along with a great slew of other cultural icons. We do get to see NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski, but it looks like he’s pretty much automatic sharkbait. 

Sharkando 3 will air on Wednesday, July 22. We’ll be getting our chainsaws ready

H/T BroBible | Photo via Syfy/YouTube

Apparently, Snoop Dogg thinks Caitlyn Jenner is a 'science project'

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Snoop Dogg posted a meme dissing Caitlyn Jenner on Instagram Wednesday, and the internet is outraged. The meme refers to Jenner as a "science project" and suggests that the public's attention would be better focused elsewhere—specifically, on rapper Akon's philanthropic efforts in Africa.

The same meme had also been posted by Cleveland Cavaliers guard JR Smith on his "Team Swish" Instagram account, but was removed after intense public and media criticism.

Snoop Dogg and JR Smith were just two of the many people that posted transphobic comments about Jenner in the days following her transition reveal and name change. But many were surprised to hear a hateful remark coming from a weed-smoking, porn-filming, beloved entertainer known in part for his decadently long, manicured fingernails.

On Twitter, the reactions to Snoop Dogg's shocking transphobia were virulent.

As of this afternoon, Snoop had yet to remove the post or address it in a public statement.

Photo Via Jorund Foreland Pederson/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY SA 3.0)

Meet Jon Batiste, Stephen Colbert's new band leader for 'The Late Show'

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Stephen Colbert officially tapped a band leader for his turn at The Late Show. Colbert traveled to New Orleans to introduce the Juilliard-trained Jon Batiste and his band, Stay Human, which includes a tubist, a saxophonist and a percussionist.

Batiste, who succeed Paul Shaffer as Late Night's band leader, appeared on The Colbert Report last summer, performing "Express Yourself" from his album, Social Music.

Social Music is more than just a album title for Batiste; it's also a style of performance. According to his site, he often brings audience members on stage to join him in what he calls "love riots." He's also the artistic director at large of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and has acted in Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer. He also played himself on HBO's Treme.  (His family helped inspire the series.) 

Batiste doesn't have a lot of music on his YouTube channel, but what he does have is impressive, including a live performance on a Utah mountain.

There's also this sterling rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner."


Batiste will make his debut when Colbert's Late Show premieres September 8. 

Screengrab via The Late Show/YouTube

The Canadian teen series 'Degrassi: The Next Generation' is ending this summer

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Classes will end for good this summer at Degrassi Community School. 

After a whopping 14 seasons, Degrassi: The Next Generation is drawing to a close. The show's final 12 episodes will kick off with an hour-long special on TeenNick on Monday, July 20.

Originally launching as Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2001, the series was a sequel for the 1987 long-running teen soapDegrassi High. Recently rebranded as just Degrassi, the show has covered a long list of teen issues and seen countless character turnovers.

Variety reports that Keith Dawkins, SVP and general manager of Nicktoons, TeenNick, and Nick Jr., said: "For an incredible 14 seasons, ‘Degrassi’ has been a groundbreaking show tackling so many important topics that real teens face in their everyday lives...In the final episodes on TeenNick and through the hour-long special and social activations, we hope to say goodbye in a way that is both fitting to the show and ‘Degrassi’s’ passionate fan base.”

And before the finale on July 31, there will be a special entitled  “It Goes There: Degrassi’s Most Talked About Moments" featuring cast members, fans and the show's creators talking about the soap's biggest moments (probably everything from JT's death to Manny's iconic blue thong).

Although many of the show's actors haven't hit it big, there have been a couple of standouts. Nina Dobrev of The Vampire Diaries played a teen mom with the nickname "Mama Mia" for a few seasons on Degrassi. And of course, there's Drake, a.k.a. Aubrey Graham, who played basketball star- turned-wheelchair rapper Jimmy Brooks for eight seasons on Degrassi

H/T Variety, E! | Photo via sweetpotatofication/YouTube

John Hodgman speaks for all of us in his tribute to Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show'

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Jon Stewart hasn’t even left The Daily Show yet, but the tributes are already pouring in from his former correspondents.

John Hodgman showed up on Thursday night's show to give Stewart a retrospective of his hosting duties over the years. After all, we don’t have that much time left with him. We need to remember the good times, and, with Hodgman promising to make this a recurring segment, we’ll have plenty to look back on fondly.

"You always set yourself apart from the other television rabble with your skills as a communicator," he said, "an eloquent orator blessed with the ability to articulate our nation’s frustrations or glee, with a level of insight and passion that would make history’s greatest wordsmiths hang their head in shame."

Stewart really does have a way with words.

Screengrab via The Daily Show

How Joey Graceffa's 'In Real Life' memoir took shape

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The line snaking through almost half of the top floor of the Union Square Barnes and Noble in New York City erupts into high-pitched cheers when Joey Graceffa, a lanky and cheerful 24-year-old YouTube star, finally makes his appearance. Fans have been waiting since 9am for a chance to meet him, snap a picture, and tell him how much he means to them.

“Whenever I’m feeling sad, his smile makes me feel happy,” explained 14-year-old Anthony, who stands excitedly in a clump with four other fans, ages 11 to 19, all of whom he just met today. “Honestly the experience is so perfect, because you get to meet the person you’ve been watching for so long, and you get to make new friends.”

Graceffa is here not as part of an event for YouTube, where he’s made his name with 4.7 million subscribers, but as an author of the recently published memoir In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World, released by Keywords Press, Simon and Schuster’s imprint dedicated to digital stars.

Graceffa joins the long line of YouTubers turned publishing stars, and he was in New York in part to participate in BookExpo America along with other digital stars who stock the shelves alongside traditional young adult writers. Graceffa’s book is a nonfiction tale of his life growing up and the obstacles he faced, from bullying to coming out.

“I came up with the idea when I got kicked off The Amazing Race and was sequestered in Thailand,” Graceffa, who competed on seasons 22 and 24 of the CBS show, told the Daily Dot. “I had a lot of time to myself, and even though I didn’t have a book deal, I started writing and figuring out what I wanted to write about.”

Graceffa had intended the book to be his coming-out story, but just days before release, he posted a music video that featured him kissing a boy, along with a follow-up video confirming his sexual identity. Graceffa says that the book allowed him more space to tell his full story, however.

“I talk about my first dating experiences, my first kiss,” he explained, noting that not everyone in his life knew he was gay until the book’s release. “I wasn’t out to a lot of my family, so they all found out through the book.”

Graceffa will continue on a book tour to meet more of his fans before returning to L.A. to work on his next project, a murder mystery series featuring fellow YouTubers, funded by Google. While there's no follow up book in the works yet, Graceffa said he found writing both "hard and easy."

"It was just looking back at my past," he said. "It wasn’t me coming up with stories, or creating a character, I was looking at my past writing down actual experiences."

Screengrab via JoeyGraceffa/YouTube


Watch a man play the Beatles song ‘Yesterday’ on guitar during brain surgery

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BY KEITH ESTILER

33-year-old Anthony Kulkamp from Brazil recently had an operation to remove a tumor from his brain. Not only did he stay awake during the surgery, but Kulkamp impressively played his favorite Beatles song “Yesterday.”

Kulkamp played guitar for over 20 years. He laid on his hospital bed while balancing the instrument on his stomach—giving his doctors an amazing performance.

He found out about the tumor just 15 days after his son was born. When he started stuttering and couldn’t remember the brand of his car, he went to go get checked at the hospital.

It’s incredible Kulkamp remembered lyrics to the Beatles song and even the right chords to play. What’s even more incredible is  he “played six songs at certain times (during brain surgery),” he told The Telegraph.

“My right hand was a bit weaker because that was the side that they were operating on. So I stopped and rested. I was interspersing songs and talking with them.” Wow.

Keeping a patient conscious during brain surgery is not uncommon. While awake, Neurosurgeons can undergo cerebral monitoring.

Kulkamp’s surgeon, Dr. Jean Abreu Machado expressed: “By keeping the patient awake during surgery, these areas can be monitored in real time. A kind of mapping of important areas can be done. It really is a great challenge for the whole surgery team, including the anaesthetist. At this point, the anaesthetist’s challenge begins: to keep the patient awake and pain-free.”

Photo via Freebird/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Jimmy Kimmel got NBA players to read the awful things you tweet at them

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Just as the NBA Finals are just gearing up, top basketball stars show that they can’t help but read the horrendous things you tweet at them.

With some help from Jimmy Kimmel, they've gathered some of the meanest (albeit still TV-friendly) tweets they could find. Aside from insulting their skills on the court and a couple of announcers’ voices, people really like calling them fat and ugly.

While Andrew Bogut might play along with being called Bigfoot and Jeff Van Gundy might agree he’s a fool, some of the others aren't afraid to lash out. They might have an image to maintain, but that doesn't mean they'll just let a Twitter troll walk all over them.

Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

Todrick Hall drops a Nicki Minaj–Disney mashup medley

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Todrick Hall proves yet again that he is the King of Disney mashups with his new video “Mickey Minaj.”

He re-dubs Nicki Minaj’s biggest hits with lyrics fitting beloved Disney princesses. Hall’s versions of Snow White, Jasmine, Cinderella, and Ariel take on “Starships,” “Fly,” “Anaconda,” “Feeling Myself” and more in the masterful mashup. 

It gets even better when Hall takes on the villains Maleficent, Cruella de Vil, Ursula, and Snow White’s Evil Queen for a Disney-fied verse of “Roman's Revenge” and Minaj’s part in Kanye West’s “Monster.” 

Screengrab via Todrick Hall/YouTube

A high school didn't let its valedictorian read this speech, but Larry Wilmore did

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Larry Wilmore is giving Evan Young the chance to read his valedictorian speech after his high school barred him from doing so.

Administrators refused to let Young read the speech on May 16 after he declined to remove the part where he planned to come out as gay. B.J. Buchmann, the principal at Twin Peaks Charter Academy High School, even outed Young to his parents when informing them of the incident.

The school is now under investigation for its actions, and the district's congressman, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), has accused administrators of discrimination.

Wilmore invited Young onto The Nightly Show for an episode about graduation gaffes so he could finally read his speech. (Young also delivered it at an Out Boulder fundraiser a few weeks after his graduation.)

In refusing to let Young read the speech, school administrators practically guaranteed that far more ears would hear it than if he had just read it at graduation. And although Wilmore gave him a bit of a hard time based on who he quoted, the late-night host mostly gave him the stage.

While the segment was trimmed for TV, it's available in full on the Nightly Show website.

Screengrab via The Nightly Show

These grandparents can't even with Slipknot music videos

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Iowa heavy metal group Slipknot and the over-60 crowd go together like oil and water, as proven by The Fine Bros. latest episode of Elders React.

The YouTubers sat a group of older adults down to watch Slipknot videos, with generally predictable results. They didn't love it. On the negative side, they wondered, “why the masks?” and assumed troubled kids were fans of the band. 

Not all the elders were anti-Slipknot, to be fair. While it was mostly disapproval, Yehuda was really rocking out and wanting more. Spoiler alert: he’s the Fine Bros.’ father, so he might have been a cool dad plant.

Screengrab via TheFineBros/YouTube

'Balls Out' is the intramural football movie you didn't know you needed

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If you love raunchy comedy about very low-stakes sporting events, then Balls Out might be the perfect film for you.

The film, which ran a successful $53,341 Kickstarter campaign under the name Intramural: The Movie, now has a NSFW trailer that shows the ridiculousness of the world of flag football. From face-licking to crotch-exposing to unsafe gunplay, this trailer has it all.

It also features SNL performers Beck Bennett, Kate McKinnon, and Jay Pharoah, and since there hasn't been a SNL-inspired movie since 2010's MacGruber, this is about as close as we'll get to one. Balls Out hits theaters and video on demand June 19. 

Screengrab via Orion Pictures/YouTube

ABC Family's transgender reality show 'Becoming Us' is now available to stream

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ABC Family has historically been at the forefront of showcasing the changing model of family in America. The network’s newest show, Becoming Us, is no different. 

Becoming Us deals with two dating teens who have one very unique thing in common: both have a parent who’s transitioning their gender. The show, shot in a very glossy MTV docu-style, follows the teens at pivotal moments as they deal with high school, relationships, family.

Becoming Us is produced by Ryan Seacrest, the mastermind behind Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Kardashian star Caitlyn Jenner will have her own transition-focused docu-series, I Am Cait, premiering later this summer. With Jenner’s transition making national news and sparking both inspiring support and frustrating realizations, the time is ripe for trans-related reality that paints a real picture of what it’s like to go through such a massive change, for both the person changing, and those around him or her.

Becoming Us is available on iTunes and Hulu, and premieres on ABC Family June 8.

Screengrab via ABC Family/YouTube


San Francisco's inaugural Web festival welcomes Issa Rae, Bernie Su, and other top creators

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San Francisco will celebrate the webseries this weekend with the inaugural SF Web Fest.

“SF Web Fest is a unique festival because our goal is to guide series to the next level,” explained event creator Laura Wainer in a press release. “Participants will learn about the future of on-line video, how to monetize their creative content, be face to face with distribution and acquisition companies and engage with the real movers and shakers in the industry.”

Webseries have evolved over the years from something shot simply on a DIY budget to mega-productions that have spawned mainstream success and deals. The genre stretches from humble beginnings to superstardom, and the SF Web Fest aims to bridge the gap between digital technology and storytelling by hosting a gathering in the heart of Silicon Valley. They aim to achieve this over a mixture of panels and screening presentations of the best and brightest of webseries content.

“Web series are the direct evolution of independent creatives gaining greater access to technology,” said Jordan McArthur, producer and cowriter of the webseries The Digressions. “I can't think of a better city to host a web series festival than the country’s nexus of creative spirit and cutting edge tech.”

Special guests include Issa Rae, creator of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, who is currently developing a show for HBO, as well as Endemol Beyond’s Will Keenan, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries mastermind Bernie Su, and VideoCreators.Tv founder Tim Schmoyer.

SF Web Fest runs June 5-7 at New People Cinema in San Francisco.

Photo via SF Web Fest/Facebook | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III 

Miley Cyrus's audition tape for 'Hannah Montana' is vintage gold

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We really did get the best of both worlds with Miley Cyrus. First, we got the tween sensation Hannah Montana that brought us some addictive bubblegum pop. And now that she's grown up, she's bringing us grown-up bangers and tackling issues that are important to her.

But before all that, Miley was just another hopeful girl at auditions. And her audition tape has recently been dug up and getting quite a bit of attention. Take a look at a 12-year-old Miley nailing the part of Hannah Montana:

In the first part of the video, Cyrus says that she's auditioning for the part of Zoey. Rumors that she also tried out for Zoey 101 (a part that went to Jamie Lynn Spears) could help explain that. 

Her star power has been pretty obvious even since her younger days. And check out that "go to school to gossip" shirt. Love it. 

H/T MTV News | Photo via HannahMontanaFansAustralia.wetapaint.com/YouTube

Stepping up to the mic with YouTube's most eccentric karaoke duo

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After one look at Bev and Bob Holwager’s YouTube karaoke channel, you’ll be hooked. Their takes on popular songs all seem to have traveled from some other dimension and brought back something extra—something special—with them.

From AC/DC and Alice Cooper to Taylor Swift and the Who, they’ve built an impressive archive of their ethereal and quirky karaoke covers, complete with green screen effects and a small cast of guest contributors. Their channel’s 300-plus videos are a staggering testament to time and dedication, and I can’t think of anybody else on the planet who has a hobby that’s even close to that of the Holwagers’. 

Luckily, I was able to contact Bob via Facebook, and we sat down for a lengthy chat about their channel and what the videos mean to them on a personal level. (Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Do you guys run karaoke nights at any locations around New Castle [Indiana]? If not, how do you think you’ve gotten your name out there so much over time? Your view counts are amazing.

We have never even participated in any karaoke nights at all. I think that a lot of our traffic comes from the people that don’t understand just what we are doing. We have been all over Reddit and other similar sites. Although they are posted there to be negative, there are a lot of people that see us and love us. 

After you guys starting the posting the videos for fun, when did it first occur to you that you had a fan base and that they were starting to request stuff from you? Do you remember the first song somebody requested?

When we first started we had a couple of people that were doing the same thing, making green screen karaoke videos. They were very helpful and their opinions mattered a lot because they understood. Just short of a year [into the project], somebody asked us each for a video. Bev did “Bohemian Rhapsody” and I did “Purple Rain.” It has snowballed from there; now over half of the comments we get are requests.

I watched “Purple Rain,” and, oddly enough, I’ve heard that song a thousand times, but there were lyrics that hit me for the first time in that version.

We hear that a lot about the lyrics. It's funny how almost all music these days you can't understand the words and really don't know the song at all. I have been amazed, since I started doing karaoke, that I didn't really know anything about my favorite songs.

Do you ever have problems with having to report comments, or are they just generally really nice by this point? Is there a huge community of people with channels who do these videos and are super supportive of each other?

We get tons of negative comments, most of them about their ears bleeding or giving them cancer, there are lots of foreign comments also but we can't read them.

Community wise, when we started we only found a couple of people doing green screen karaoke videos. There are a lot of people doing covers with the original song playing in the background. We are the only couple that we have found doing this together and that is what I believe is the attraction to our music.

How do you guys feel when you do get those negative comments? You’re pretty clear in your channel description to that you're having fun and don’t care for drama, so do you pretty much just shrug them off?

I see that most all of the negative comments is a reflection of the way YouTube has changed since we started. The positive comes from the people who get the whole point of what we are doing. The negative comes from the people that have no ambition or talent and take it out on everyone else. We used to take them very personal, but if you read through the comments on the most famous music artists, you will find the same hateful comments.

I read that you started making the videos around the time you first met. Do you kind of see the channel as a unique sort of photo album? Is the fact that you’re doing these videos together a huge part of what’s kept them going over the years?

There are very few actual photos of us together, so yes, this is very much our photo album as a couple. The fact that we are still going is that there is always someone new that has never heard of us before, like yourself for instance. By the way, we looked up the article on Gawker that you saw—it has been a major boost over the weekend!

You guys said you don't make money off the videos. Have you considered using the advertising function on YouTube, or do you think that’d hurt the general spirit of the channel?

This has been a hobby that has far exceeded our wildest expectations. I don’t think that advertising would give a proper return, personally. I saw that you shared the new article about the Mad Max movie and the special effects. If you haven’t seen it yet you really need to watch “Blurred Lines”— it has been my biggest project to date. Nothing was together at any time in this video, the room was created from a simple picture.

How many elements did you have to combine to create it? Or how did you digitally build it? Also, how'd you get the dancers involved?

Just room itself was about 20 layers deep, then the final video was another 20. I used a bar stool with a green screen over it. The dancers, that’s a cool story: Bev found the green screen videos on YouTube. I did not plan any fades—that was their video clips.

How much time from start to finish did that one take? I imagine the video rendering time alone must have taken ages.

I use Sony Vegas to do my editing. I spent nearly two weeks on the editing, in between my night job for money. I rendered the raw background then added it into the final video, that helped a lot on the time.  I have been averaging around three to four hours for final rendering. I build my own computers, and the one I was using for editing has been replaced with [something] bigger and better now.

Do you mind if I ask what you and Bev do for work, outside of the videos? And to go along with that: What would you consider to be your dream job?

Bev is a housewife and handles most all of our public relations and social media. I am an industrial maintenance technician in a bakery, maybe not a perfect dream job but it works pretty good for me. I did write a song about my work. I would like to move into more video production—I just don't see myself making the same money.

What songs do you guys have lined up for the future?

In the near future, we are working on some Korn, maybe some Disturbed, and some Gucci Mane. Who knows beyond that. 

Which video do you think represented your marriage the most?

Picking out a favorite is tough, really can’t nail it down—we have done so many. “Silly Love Song” would have to be the one video that sums us up the best.

I also can't, in good conscience, end the interview without making a request: “Do You Realize” by the Flaming Lips?

I'll have to let you know about the request.  We will look into it.

H/T Gawker | Screengrab via HOLWAGERKARAOKE/YouTube

The 7 best big-screen rebirths of classic television—and where to watch them

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There are tons of TV shows that eventually find their way to the big screen, but more often than not, it’s in the form of a reboot or re-imagining—see 21 Jump Street, the excellent Addams Family movies, or the surreal Brady Bunch flicks, to name just a few.

A rarer bird is the cancelled or ended TV show that picks up where it left off, getting a sequel years after the original show left the airwaves. This weekend Entourage joins that club, with a feature film sequel following up on HBO’s bro fantasy that concluded its eight-season run back in 2011. Whether you give a rat’s ass about Vincent Chase and company or not, there are several other noteworthy instances of TV shows continuing as movies, and the release of the Entourage movie is the perfect excuse to revisit them—or check them out for the first time.

For the purposes of this list, we’re specifically focused on cases where a show was over and off the air, then resumed in movie form some years later. So we’re not including examples like The Simpsons Movie or South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, both of which released while the shows were still in full swing.

1) Star Trek (1966) continued as Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

We’re going chronologically, but even if we weren’t, we’d pretty much have to start with Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry’s iconic sci-fi series set the bar for the whole “show returns as movies” thing, spawning a dozen feature films to date (with another due in 2016), not to mention five later TV spin-offs.

The eventual arrival of Star Trek: The Motion Picture a full decade after the cancellation of The Original Series was all the more impressive because there wasn’t much precedent for this sort of thing back then. And while The Motion Picture was derided as a ponderous dud by some critics at the time, it remained the highest-grossing movie of the franchise, adjusted for inflation, for decades. More importantly, it helped revive a cult franchise that would spend the next several decades conquering both the big and small screens.

Where to watch:

Damn near the entire run of Star Trek is currently available on Netflix Instant, including the 1973 animated series, although several of the movies are inexplicably missing. The various TV incarnations are also available on both Hulu and Amazon Prime.

2) Mission: Impossible (1966) continued as Mission: Impossible (1996)

There’s unquestionably a good chunk of the Mission: Impossible movie audience who has no clue that the film franchise traces its roots back to a 1960s TV show… much less one with a cast that included the guy who played Spock.

Like the films that would follow, the original Mission: Impossible followed the exploits of the Impossible Missions Force, a top-secret team of government agents tasked with pulling off… well… impossible missions. The series ran for seven seasons on CBS and has been spoofed, riffed on, and referenced countless times in the decades since. It also returned for a brief TV revival in 1988, with actor Peter Graves reprising his role as legendary IMF agent Jim Phelps. When it came time to resurrect Mission: Impossible on the big screen, Brian De Palma’s feature film included the Phelps character as a tie to the franchise’s roots, with Jon Voight playing the veteran agent. Given that Phelps took a decidedly dark turn in the film, however, that throwback connection ultimately pissed off both the long-time fans and the original show’s surviving cast.

Where to watch:

You can watch the full run of the Mission: Impossible TV series on Netflix Instant, as well as the first twofilms. Probably better just to pretend the second one doesn’t exist, though…

3) Police Squad! (1982) continued as The Naked Gun (1988)

The Naked Gun is another latter-day franchise that was birthed as a show most people have never even heard of. Created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker—the team behind Airplane! and Top Secret!Police Squad was a painfully funny spoof of humorless law enforcement procedurals like Dragnet, and made brilliant use of Leslie Nielsen as an uncrackable straight man (his performance got considerably broader during the films).

Premiering in March 1982 on ABC, Police Squad! lasted only six episodes, during which Nielsen delivered such lines as “We're sorry to bother you at such a time like this. We would have come earlier, but your husband wasn't dead then.” The handy thing about Police Squad! being so obscure is that Abrahams and the Zuckers were able to recycle several of the gags when The Naked Gun films came around.

Where to watch:

All three of the Naked Gun movies are available on Netflix Instant. As for Police Squad!, well, YouTube is your friend…

4) Twin Peaks (1990) continued as Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Mark Frost and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks was ahead of its time in many ways, unfolding the mystery of a single murder over the course of its first season… and then getting even nuttier in its insane second season. While it lost some of its narrative momentum after it revealed Laura Palmer’s killer at the end of season 1, the second season expanded its surreal paranormal mythology in ways that have kept fans guessing, speculating, and scratching their heads for over two decades.

A little over a year after Twin Peaks aired its maddening cliffhanger of a series finale, Lynch threw more fuel onto the fire in the form of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, a bizarre prequel/sequel hybrid film focused on the days leading up to Laura Palmer’s murder, and on the backstory of the terrifying killer and the other inhabitants of the Black Lodge. In typical Twin Peaks fashion, Fire Walk With Me is by turns funny, lurid, frightening, peculiar, fascinating, and confusing—just as it should be.

Where to watch:

Both seasons of Twin Peaks are available on Netflix Instant and Hulu. Fire Walk With Me isn’t on any of the subscription streaming services, but you can purchase or rent it from Amazon or the like. Now’s the perfect time to marathon through the whole Twin Peaks experience to prepare for its impending return on Showtime.

5) The X-Files (1993) continued as The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

Like Lost, Breaking Bad, or Game of Thrones that followed it, The X-Files is one of those rare TV shows that became a pervasive pop-culture phenomenon that everybody was watching and talking about. FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully actually first took to the big screen during the prime of the show’s original run, with the 1998 movie The X-Files: Fight the Future slotting in between the fifth and sixth seasons.

A second movie, 2008’s I Want to Believe, arrived some six years after the show wrapped up its run on Fox. Directed and cowritten by series creator Chris Carter, I Want to Believe picked up with Mulder and Scully retired from the FBI, called back into service for a mystery involving a missing agent and a formerly child-molesting priest who may or may not be having psychic visions sent by God. I Want to Believe left many fans wishing aliens would erase their memories of its existence, so hopefully the upcoming X-Files revival series will prove a better reunion for Mulder and Scully.

Where to watch:

The X-Files’ full series run is available on Netflix Instant, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. If you’re interested in the movies, you’ll have to rent or purchase them, but we recommend just watching Fight the Future and pretending you never even heard about I Want to Believe.

6) Firefly (2002) continued as Serenity (2005)

In The Terminator, Sarah Connor remarks that, although she only had a few hours with Kyle Reese, they “loved a lifetime’s worth” in that time. Although Firefly only lasted a single season on Fox back in the day, the show’s fans have clearly loved it several lifetimes’ worth, ensuring that it’s still an inevitable inclusion on any “shows that need a resurrection/sequel” list worth its salt.

They loved it so much that in 2005, against all odds, their beloved crew of the Serenity returned in a big damn theatrical movie spin-off. For fans of the show, it was a blast, but it works much better when viewed as a concluding chapter of the series than it does as a standalone movie. It’s a bit too “inside baseball” for anyone trying to come into Serenity without having first seen Firefly, full of exposition and trying to conclude multiple storylines that would ideally have played out over many seasons. Still, Serenity did make for a satisfying—if emotionally brutal—wrap-up to one of the greatest science-fiction TV series of all time.

Where to watch:

You can watch Firefly’s one and only season (Editor’s note: [sigh]) on Netflix Instant, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. Serenity is available for rental or purchase from services such as Amazon or Google Play.

7) Veronica Mars (2004) continued as Veronica Mars (2014)

Veronica Mars ran for three brilliant seasons on UPN/The CW, cementing its status as a cult classic thanks to a blend of hard-boiled detective flair and teen angst; a charismatic, complex performance from lead Kristen Bell; and wicked-sharp scripting from creator Rob Thomas and his team of writers. In a perfect world, it would have run for at least five seasons, but it remains a textbook example of how to do serialized storytelling right, especially in its near-perfect second season.

Still, once it was cancelled, it wasn’t the sort of show that seemed likely to stage a resurrection...certainly not a full decade down the line. Then again, few people saw the whole crowdfunding phenomenon coming. Spurred on by enthusiastic fans, the Veronica Mars movie project became a ridiculous success on Kickstarter, raising over $5.7 million from some 90,000 donors. The show proved again and again that you couldn’t keep Veronica Mars down, and the unlikely feature film spin-off just further proved the point, premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2014 and earning largely positive reviews from critics.

Where to watch:

If you’ve never seen Veronica Mars, cancel your plans and go binge all three seasons on Amazon Prime, stat. The movie is available for rental or purchase from Amazon, Google Play, and other digital services.

Screengrab via SPARTEN2/YouTube

Netflix should totally turn this 'Kimmy Schmidt'–'OITNB' mashup into a series

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Netflix is on a roll with its original content. While some binge-watchers might balk at the idea of the company putting ads in front of each episode, no one can deny that shows like Daredevil are just as good as, if not better than, most network TV dramas these days.

Orange Is The New Black is one of Netflix's most popular originals, but newcomer Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is also grabbing attention for its cult themes and its 30 Rock-inspired humor.

Clearly, Netflix has two viral hits right now, each a success in its own right—but what if you mashed up those two fan-favorites into one great trailer for a new television show?

Moviefone decided to do just that. The entertainment site felt that while OITNB was totally great on its own, it needed a little more Titus Andromedon. The hilarious diva and pinot-noir-drinking character who helps Kimmy Schmidt through her time of crisis and transition would definitely add some sparkle and charm to the otherwise-stale beige inside Litchfield Penitentiary.

The mashup is believable, too. It took careful editing and a deep knowledge of the best moments from both TV shows, but Moviefone pulled it off. Andromedon’s viral one-liners add a new kind of drama to the women’s prison.

After watching this mashup, we think it's clear that Andromedon would fit right in.

Screengrab via Moviefone/YouTube

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