Quantcast
Channel: DailyDot Entertainment Feed
Viewing all 7080 articles
Browse latest View live

'The Expendables 3' leaks online three weeks before release

0
0

The Expendables 3 isn’t out until August 15, but don’t tell the hundreds of thousands of people who downloaded a leaked copy this week.

The popular action-movie franchise was likely looking at big opening weekend The Expendables 2 grossed more than $300 millionbut the leak has thrown a monkey wrench into the theatrical release. Pirated copies of the movie, likely from a DVD screener copy, appeared on file-sharing sites on Wednesday, and by Thursday night, the leaked rip had been downloaded more than 100,000 times. According to TorrentFreak, at one point, more than 65,000 were involved in downloads on a single torrent.

TorrentFreak also points to a popular entity called Drarbg as the possible source of the leak, which is likely a group of people and not an individual.

Distributor Lionsgate has not offered comment on the leak, but in 2011, Nu Image, the franchise’s production company, sued 23,322 users who downloaded the original Expendables in a similar leak. They eventually dropped the suit, but it will be interesting to see how they approach this leak. Chasing down IP addresses and slapping them with lawsuits isn’t always easy. Perhaps Nu Image can send a few of the Expendables in to wring out some justice/make something explode?

Screengrab via Roadshow Films/YouTube 


The 'Epic Meal Time' team builds an 'Empire' for its cable TV launch

0
0

After a few near-misses to land a network TV partner, Epic Meal Time, the zany brainchild of former Montreal substitute teacher Harley Morenstein, has a new home. FYI, the cable network formerly known as Bio, will host the wildly popular YouTube show in an expanded format with a new name—Epic Meal Empire—and a new cast member, Natalie Forte, from Cooking Channel’s America’s Best Bites, starting tonight at 10pm ET.

EMT, which can be best described as somewhat civilized food fight, may not be the place to go to learn the nuances of creating a soufflé, but if you’re looking to build a lasagna out of cheeseburgers and onion rings, you are on target. Founded in 2010, EMT has 700 million views under its belt and can lay claim to 6.4 million YouTube subscribers who are faithful fans of the weekly series.

In the course of its four-year adventure of gastronomical gluttony, the show has flirted with TV distribution via Revision 3 and G4 and has a deal in the works with a Japanese production company to create a localized version of the show. The FYI deal will allow it to reach the network’s 70 million homes in a format that expands the show from below 10 minutes (for the most part) to an hour. 

The pilot episode focuses on the team’s mission to bring food fun to an elementary school classroom. Needless to say, the resulting food “creation” is received with shrieks of delight from the younguns whose natural reaction to a creature-like foodstuff that includes tater tots and grilled cheese, is joyously captured.

The final days before cable launch are hectic, but EME creator and host Morenstein took the time to answer a few questions for the Daily Dot about their origin story, making the jump to television, and what's coming next.

At what point did you realize you had something special on your hands given the concept started as something serendipitous (eating a burger with Terminator playing in the background)?

It wasn't entirely serendipitous. I had reserved the Epic Meal Time name. After I watched the first episode, I thought it could be something that people could really enjoy.

Who among the cast/creators has food experience as a chef or cook, and does the general lack of professional food experience work in your favor? 

Josh and Ameer are team cuisine. They do a lot of the legwork for us. Say we're making pancake lasagna. They'll make the bacon pancakes and really get things ready. And then we have Dave for pre-production.

Yes, I know you like bacon. What is your least favorite food? 

Olives.

Do you fear you will lose any of your cachet by moving from online to cable television? 

We will not be abandoning online. I've seen people do that, and I won't. A lot of people don't watch TV, and it would be a slight to our fan base to abandon YouTube. Our fan base gave us the opportunity to have a TV show!

Will you ever cook anything healthy?

I don't know, but on Epic Meal Empire, we cooked for a yoga studio and made something vegan. That was quite interesting. 

Have you ever tried having a celebrity chef as a guest? 

Fabio Viviani and I have a throw down on Epic Meal Empire.

Screengrab via Epic Meal Time/YouTube

VidAngel puts media profanity in perspective

0
0

What would it be like to be pelted with as many paintballs as their are swear words in 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street? A new video from content filtration platform VidAngel does just that, documenting a 3,192-paintball attack in an attempt to visualize the effect of those swear words on a family of four. Ouch.

The concept behind VidAngel is simple: Families should have control over the content they watch in their homes. Co-founder Jeffrey Harmon was spending a lot of time watching YouTube videos, and he quickly realized that much of the content was in some way vulgar and perhaps not what he’d want to show children in his family. The idea for a tagging system was born, one that could be crowdsourced and then applied to all the video content on the system through a browser plugin. Unfortunately, YouTube is growing at such a rate that tackling that platform first would be impossible, but the technology can be put to use on more manageable content first: movies.

The service now tags content from films and allows families to set their own preferences for what is or is not filtered out of the content. Harmon stressed that the service is not a moral authority, and that families themselves pick the filters and determine what constitutes a naughty scene or a “bad word” in their house.

“You don’t like the f-word, you turn it off and it’s not there,” he explained, citing that the company had seen a phenomenal response from families and conducted a consumer study that showed 50 percent of parents surveyed were looking for a service like theirs. “It’s not the creator's job to censor, it’s the individual's.”

The company turned to YouTube to promote the service, producing the paintball video and a behind-the-scenes look at how they created the moment. With the release of the promotional video, which racked up 150,000 views in a day and a half, VidAngel has fielded some complaints that they’re pro-censorship, which Harmon disputes.

“You shouldn’t ever censor art,” he told the Daily Dot. “But our view on it is there’s a big difference between government censorship and creator censorship, and individuals choosing what to censor in their own home. We’re for people being able to censor things in their own homes if they want.”

Others have complained that they’re hypocritical for using violence in a video to promote a service that removes violence for families, to which Harmon suggests, “If you have a problem with this, then you really need VidAngel!”

Beyond films, the company’s goal is to make all YouTube content filterable, which Harmon projects is a 2015 endeavor. The service does work on popular viral video content already, but Harmon knows that increasing VidAngel's footprint is important.

“My nephew, who’s 11 years ago, I was over visiting my brother's house and he’s explaining string theory,” said Harmon. “I asked him, ‘Where did you learn this?’ YouTube. YouTube is the learning platform of the 21st century, so we don’t want parents who feel like it has more content than they want to have to worry about that. We don’t want them to say, 'You have to turn [YouTube] off completely.' That’s the vision behind VidAngel. To give parents more control over their own media inside their own home."

Screengrab via VidAngel/YouTube

'Game of Thrones' debuts new cast members at San Diego Comic-Con

0
0

While not much is known about the the upcoming season of Game of Thrones, one thing is certain: HBO’s hit TV series is growing.

At this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, the premium TV network shared a video featuring the newest cast members in the upcoming fifth season, slated for April 2015.

These new additions include:

Keisha Castle-Hughes as warrior Obara Sand

Jonathan Pryce as the mysterious High Sparrow

Alexander Siddig as ruler Doran Martell

Toby Sebastian as Prince Trystane Martell

Nell Tiger Free as Myrcella Baratheon (daughter Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister)

DeObia Oparei as warrior Areo Hotah

Enzo Cilenti as slave trader Yezzan

Jessica Henwick as Nymera (Nym) Sand

Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand

Pryce was the villain in Tomorrow Never Dies and was Governor Weatherby Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean.

HBO also released the following blooper reel at Comic-Con, chock full of funny faces, impromptu dancing, and bursts of laughter.

If all of that wasn’t enough to tide you over until spring 2015, the cast snapped this selfie:

...and we still had room for a few more Game Of Thrones cast members :) #SDCC @etnow #etnow pic.twitter.com/TL9aAXFv7o

— iJustine (@ijustine) July 26, 2014

Photo via ijustine/Twitter

Watch a clip from Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon's very messy '80s show

0
0

Last night on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon and Jon Hamm took turns spitting on each other.

There’s no bad blood between the two, though. Fallon was simply reminiscing about the TV show the two did together, back in the ‘80s, called Palisades Park Pet Patrol. And even though their long-lost buddy comedy ostensibly involved them being employed by animal control, the whole bit revolves around how many spittakes they can do with mouths full of pretzels, pumpkin pie, and alliteration.

Of course there's a second clip. That’s a whole lot of dairy in the face.

H/T Uproxx| Screengrab via the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

First photo of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman revealed at Comic-Con

0
0

Warner Bros. just debuted the first teaser trailer from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, along with the first image of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

Director Zack Snyder greeted a packed hall of Comic-Con attendees, who had been queuing all night for a glimpse of future blockbuster hits such as this.

Batman v Superman was the first heavy-hitter of the day, and the comics fan community is already buzzing over Wonder Woman’s first appearance. Her costume includes a Xena-like metallic bodice and knee-high boots, and what can charitably be described as an extremely short miniskirt. In keeping with Snyder’s gritty reboot of the DC universe, she looks very different from the bright red, blue, and gold of the classic Wonder Woman comics and TV series.

The Batman v Superman teaser was enough to get fans excited, but it's obviously very short and tells us next to nothing about the film’s plot. The clip reportedly showed Batman standing in the rain, wearing a visor. He turns on the Bat-Signal, at which point lightning strikes and Superman appears overhead, his eyes glowing red. So basically what we know now is that Batman and Superman both appear in Batman v Superman, and that weather exists.

Snyder then brought Batman v Superman stars Gadot, Ben Affleck, and Henry Cavill onstage for an extremely brief appearance, before ceding the floor to other Warner Bros. movies.

Since this film doesn’t come out until 2016, DC Entertainment’s biggest Comic-Con event will actually be later on Saturday evening: the premiere of Gotham’s pilot episode, along with a panel between each of DC’s upcoming TV shows.

Photo via Imgur

Skating under 39 SUVs is no problem for this 6-year-old

0
0

An Indian boy may have just landed himself in the Guinness Book of World Records, thanks to his incredible roller skating skills.

In a video produced by Barcroft TV, six-year-old Gagan Satish is seen performing ground-hugging splits while gliding on skates.

“He used to love skating,” Satish’s mother Hema says in the video. “He used to practice for hours. While doing exercises and skating, we could see that his body is very flexible.”

Satish’s training allowed him to drift underneath 39 SUVs (an approximate distance of 230 feet) in less than 30 seconds, the Huffington Post reported. If confirmed by Guinness, Satish’s feat may eclipse Shreeya Rakesh Deshpande, who is the record-holder for Farthest Distance Limbo Skating Under Cars. He set that record in 2012 at at 158 feet.

H/T Huffington Post | Screengrab via YouTube

The 'Frankenstein, M.D.' team on resurrecting a classic

0
0

Can a female Frankenstein captivate young YouTube audiences with a mix of literature and science? That’s the gamble PBS Digital Studios and Pemberley Digital are taking with their new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The team announced the schedule and cast for the new venture, Frankeinstein, M.D., at PBS’s 2014 Television Critics Association presentation on Wednesday, showing a clip of the series that will formally premiere Aug. 19.

“It’s been an amazing experience,” explained Bernie Su, executive producer and writer at Pemberley Digital. “We at Pemberley do a lot of things really well, and there a lot of things we haven’t developed out yet because we’re so new. Having PBS aboard has really given us this great boost.”

One area he pointed out to the Daily Dot as a challenge is the accuracy of the science, something the team hadn’t dealt with before for its adaptations of Jane Austen novels into smash hits like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved. That’s where PBS’s expertise came to the rescue, making sure their science was on-point and in line with the plot. Su says the iconic monster will appear in their run, but decisions around that, including the monster’s gender, have not been locked down.

“We’ll cover elements of what you’d do in modern day to resurrect someone,” said Su, stressing that the science involved will be as accurate as possible. 

Matthew Graham, senior director at PBS Digital Studios told the Daily Dot that after his team's extensive YouTube research for partners that make sense for their channel, a deal with Pemberley was inevitable.

“When we discovered [Pemberley], it was such a no brainer: literary-minded audience, respectful community, very engaged,” he said. “We want to keep doing fresh, exciting shows. We want to keep playing with format and genre, and we love reaching these young audiences. We want to do content with diverse cast and reach diverse audiences—always really high-quality stuff.”

Frankenstein, M.D. marks a few transitions for both PBS Digital Studios and Pemberley Digital. For PBS, it’s the first foray into fictional narrative, after marked success in documentary and educational-style programming that includes Idea Channel and Blank on Blank. For Pemberley, Frankenstein will be its first non-Jane Austen endeavor, and incidentally the first Pemberley project without a marked romantic plotline.

“There will be far less romance than the other two,” joked Su. “It’s been really refreshing. We certainly could have just kept doing Austen novels; we’re pretty good at it. It’s nice to change the game a little bit, showcase that we can do a different genre and take on another author and give it a fresh, exciting spin.”

Thanks to its penchant for Austen, Pemberley Digital is no stranger to female-fronted video projects, but Frankenstein, M.D. is its first venture into gender-bending a title character. Frankenstein’s struggles as a woman in the science space parallels the gender issues many of the platform's young female fans face daily. Pemberley has toyed with the idea of male-fronted series before, but Su says it’s always come down to the question, “is it better as a female lead?” He says the company will probably always have more female leads than male leads, in line with its fanbase. 

"Our company is built on a female audience. A literary, young, vocal female audience. A passionate one," Su explained. "In the back of your head, you always think about going that way. I don't think there's any problem with that. I look at the gender-bending of this and I go, 'If you take PBS out of it, you take Pemberley out of it, the concept of a female Frankenstein is more intriguing than a male one.' It's never been done, as far as we know. It's not just taking away organs; it's completely changing how that person was living and brought up as a woman in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] than a man in STEM in modern day. That's countless layers of the show. It's way more exciting."

Anna Lore, who will play the role of Victoria Frankenstein, says she was a casual Pemberley fan before securing the role, but she has done her research since. After the announcement, Lore found her phone in the green room “blowing up” with tweets and texts. She says she hasn’t spoken to the other Pemberley leads in depth about the life-changing fandom that surrounds their roles.

“When we were actually filming and in the throes of it, I did talk to Jo [Joanna Sotomura who plays Emma on Emma Approved] a little bit,” she said. “I’m just so excited for other people to be excited about this.”

Will Pemberley Digital's massive fanbase make the transition from Austen to Shelley and tune in for a science-heavy series? Su and the folks at PBS think it’s a safe bet, but only time will tell.

“I think the macabre will shock [core fans] in a way, just at the beginning,” said Su. “We’ve only seen positive response to the announcement, but also skeptical—like, I’m gonna wait and see. When we announce a show, the intrigue is universal. It becomes about the execution.”

Frankenstein, M.D. premieres Aug. 19 on PBS Digital Studios, airing twice a week and culminating in a Halloween finale episode.

Photo via PBS PressRoom (CC BY SA 2.0)


Watch a 5-minute clip of the 'Simpsons'-'Family Guy' crossover episode

0
0

Asking someone whether they prefer Family Guy or The Simpsons is a bit like asking if they prefer the Beatles or the Rolling Stones: you can like both, but you must demonstrate a strong allegiance for one over the other, and your choice is nothing less than a prism into how you see yourself and the rest of the world.

But for those of you who do genuinely enjoy both shows, and have always dreamed of watching Bart and Stewie make crank calls to Moe’s together, Fox has a gift for you: a Family Guy-Simpsons crossover episode, in the form of the Sept. 28 season premiere “The Simpsons Guy.” On Saturday, Fox premiered a five-minute teaser of the episode at Comic-Con, which you can watch over at Entertainment Weekly.

But if you’re hungover and don’t have enough energy in your index finger to click on the link, here’s a quick summary: The Griffins end up in Springfield by accident. Peter and Homer immediately bond over a shared love of donuts, until Homer discovers that Peter’s beverage of choice, Pawtucket Patriot Ale, is actually a ripoff of Duff Beer—a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to similar allegations made by Simpsons fans against Family Guy.

The teaser is basically what you’d expect, combining the visual styles and tones of both shows. (There’s also a rape joke barely two minutes into the teaser, which is par for the course for Family Guy). But for those longtime Family Guy and Simpsons devotees, it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun—though I, for one, am more excited about the Bob Belcher cameo than anything else. Bob’s Burgers for the win.

H/T Entertainment Weekly | Screengrab via Entertainment Weekly

Channing Tatum attempts to duet with Biz Markie on 'Just a Friend'

0
0

San Diego Comic-Con is a rarefied realm, a place where Peter Jackson can walk around as an evil jester and Lee Pace and Andy Serkis photobomb sleeping fans. And now, we have Biz Markie dueting with Channing Tatum.

This happened Friday, when Tatum was promoting his upcoming animated film, The Book of Life, which also features Ron Perlman and Christina Applegate. Biz Markie’s classic song, “Just a Friend,” appears in the movie. As the director, Jorge Gutierrez, was explaining the soundtrack, the moderator introduced Biz Markie, who bounded out on stage and immediately launched into the song. When he passed the mic to Tatum on the chorus, the actor flubbed the words a bit, but no one probably noticed. Sadly, we did not get a Ron Perlman freestyle.

The real news we’re waiting for out of Comic-Con: When is the Channing Tatum/Biz Markie buddy cop movie coming out?

H/T Uproxx |Screengrab via 20th Century Fox/YouTube

Here's the latest trailer for 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1'

0
0

In its ongoing mission to be the most miserable teen movie franchise of all time, The Hunger Games has released its first depressing (yet awesome) teaser trailer for Mockingjay Part 1.

Up until now, all we’ve seen are a couple of propaganda videos where a brainwashed Peeta Mellark stands silently by the side of the evil President Snow. This trailer shows the first proper footage from the movie, piling on the fictional misery (Katniss Everdeen’s encroaching PTSD) with the real-world sadness of seeing the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final roles.

The trailer also introduces two important new characters: President Coin, played by Julianne Moore, and Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer as Cressida. 

Mockingjay Part 1 will see Panem descend from civil unrest into outright revolution, with Katniss as the somewhat unwilling figurehead of the rebellion. It picks up directly from where The Hunger Games: Catching Fire left off, so now’s the time to catch up if you haven’t watched the first two movies already.

Screengrab via The Hunger Games/YouTube

The definitive guide to the 'Game of Thrones' cast's movie ventures

0
0

This article contains spoilers for Game of Thrones

The Game of Thrones cast members know how to keep themselves busy when they aren’t filming or promoting the show.

While more than a dozen Game of Thrones cast members have budding music careers along with acting on the show, plenty of the actors take on other projects when the show is on hiatus—or when their characters meet a grisly and inevitable end. Some of the actors, like Sean Bean, already have a long career of acting (or in his case, dying) under his belt, others, like any of the Stark children, are just starting to expand their acting beyond the world of Westeros.

It’s certainly fun to dig into the YouTube digital graveyard of their early work, but it’s just as fun to see what they’ve got coming up next, especially with recent movie trailers featuring both Sophie Turner and Rose Leslie in recent days.

With much of the cast descending onto Comic-Con and season 5 filming under way, there’s plenty for the rest of us not down in San Diego to add to the DVR or start planning to preorder tickets for.

1) Sean Bean

The show’s first star (as well as the first to go) also has the most on his plate. When he’s not speculating about popular theories involving Jon Snow, he’s been promoting his new show, Legends, which is set to premiere Aug. 13 on TNT. Oddly enough, TNT has latched onto the fan-held belief that Bean will die in everything he’s cast in by making a commercial stating that he will live—at least for this season.

Just because he’s going in TV doesn’t mean he’s abandoned movies. He’s set to appear in Jupiter Ascending, which was delayed until 2015 and Caesar—and that Macbeth Kickstarter he’s attached to with Charles Dance (more on him later) got funded back in April.

2) Sophie Turner

Sansa Stark might’ve just officially entered the game, but Turner is already testing the waters of the acting world. She’s starring in Another Me with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Rhys Ifans, and it’s a psychological thriller where she’s haunted by a doppelganger who wants to take over her life.

And now Turner has also joined the likes of many of her costars who’ve also starred in music videos. She’s also front and center in Bastille’s latest music video for “Oblivion,” where she lip-synchs the entire song in the middle of a demolition derby.

3) Maisie Williams

The show’s Arya Stark has been keeping busy when she’s not crossing names off her hit list. Gold hit the Seattle International Film Festival a few months back; the indie Irish comedy portrays a family turned on its head after an estranged father turns back up years after disappearing.

Heatstroke, in which a family trip becomes a nightmare after a father is murdered by arms dealers, looks absolutely terrible, but at least it’s a chance for Williams to test out her American accent.

4) Kit Harington

Pompeii may have been a major flop, but after voicing a character on How to Train Your Dragon 2, Harington is stepping back into film with the fantasy film Seventh Son, which is based on the novel The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney. Jeff Daniels and Ben Barnes take up of most of the trailer, but keep an eye out for Harington in the full cut, set to open next year.

5) Gwendoline Christie

Brienne of Tarth is about to make her mark on science fiction. In April, Lionsgate announced that Christie would be replacing Lily Rabe as Commander Lyme in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, and if she wasn’t already, she became an international name after being cast in Star Wars: Episode VII, bringing some much-needed female presence to the film. Details about the role are scarce, of course, but if leaked rumors are true, fans have plenty to be excited about.

But we don’t need any trailer to see what Christie would look like with a lightsaber. The pristine editors on YouTube already did that for us.

6) Natalie Dormer

Christie isn’t the only one going to Panem. Dormer joined the Mockingjay cast as Cressida, and while very little has gotten out about her character, fans do know one thing: Dormer first debuted her shaved head earlier this year, and she’s been rocking it ever since.

7) Emilia Clarke

The Mother of Dragons is in one of the most anticipated films of 2015 playing an iconic character in science fiction, yet we don’t know that much about it. Hopefully, that may change soon with any possible reveals regarding Terminator: Genesis during the Paramount panel at Comic-Con.

8) Peter Dinklage

Having already wowed audiences in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dinklage will next appear in Pixels with Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad, and True Detective’s Michelle Monaghan. The sci-fi comedy won’t come out until next May, but Entertainment Weekly has the first look at the film.

9) Richard Madden

Soon after Robb Stark met his demise on Game of Thrones, it was announced he would play Prince Charming in a live-action adaptation of Cinderella. There aren’t any glimpses of Madden in action in trailers or posters, but you can watch the slow-motion shot of that famous glass slipper that’s bound to give Cinderella life-long foot problems again.

10) Rose Leslie

Jon Snow knows nothing, but Ygritte knows even less about going to an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere (hint: you don’t). Yet, her character does in Honeymoon, a horror film alongside Penny Dreadful’s Harry Treadaway.

11) Pedro Pascal

Not over Oberyn Martell’s death? Neither are we. Soon after his on-screen demise, Pascal was cast as one of the leads of Narcos, a new Netflix show focusing on Colombian cocaine kingpins Pablo Escobar and Javier Pena. It’s not premiering until 2015, but if past shows are any indication, it’ll be one to watch. Unless it’s one of these shows.

12) Charles Dance

Tywin Lannister died on the privy and went back to World War II. With a trailer just coming out this week, Dance is taking a turn in The Imitation Game, a film based on the life of Alan Turing starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Almost all eyes will certainly be on him, particularly with awards season around the corner, but as Dance proved on Game of Thrones, he can steal any scene he’s in.

13) Michiel Huisman

Huisman already pulled double-duty with Game of Thrones and Orphan Black last season (and looks to be doing the same thing next season), but he’s also starring alongside Reese Witherspoon in Wild later this year.

14) Mark Addy

Addy had a memorable and important role on Game of Thrones, but he lasted only seven episodes (shorter than Bean, even) before dying. But nowadays, he’s occupying the fictional world of Atlantis in the popular BBC show that jumped across the pond and playing Hercules as you’ve never seen him.

Photo via Fresh Movie Trailers/YouTube

'Seinfeld' may soon be headed to Netflix

0
0

BY JOSHUA COHEN

Jerry Seinfeld recently revealed he’s in negotiations with Netflix to bring his eponymous hit television show to the premium online video streaming service. The news came by way of Seinfeld’s Reddit AMA, the “Ask Me Anything” question and answer session that’s quickly becoming a celebrity’s favorite place to reveal his or her otherwise unreported ongoings.

The final episode of Seinfeld aired on NBC way back on May 14, 1998. Since then, 180 episodes of the hit TV series that received well over 30 million viewers per episode in its prime have had a very lucrative and successful run on the US cable television syndication market. The collective nine seasons of Seinfeld have generated a reported $3.1 billion in revenue after the series finale, hence the reason why you can’t yet find episodes for sale or streaming on iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, and/or other online video download and viewing services. The show is still doing very well on television 16 years after it stopped airing new episodes.

Seinfeld connoisseurs and casual viewers can currently consume the program by way of their local TBS television listings or purchasing the complete Seinfeld series DVD set for upwards of $279. That could all change in the near future, however, if Netflix offers Seinfeld, Larry David, Warner Brothers, and other stakeholders in the show an enticing enough offer.

This isn’t the first time Seinfeld has either let loose or hinted at big Seinfeld news on Reddit. In January during another AMA, the comedian teased his Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee Super Bowl spot. All in all and regardless of whether or not Seinfeld the series ends up on Netflix, Seinfeld the man is amassing some serious internet savvy.

Photo by Alan Light/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

John Oliver explains how we learned to stop worrying and forget about the bomb

0
0

Every Sunday on Last Week TonightJohn Oliver sharpens his spear, and he’s proved himself an excellent marksman. He’s taken down Dr. OzFIFA, and America’s prison system. Last night, he dove into the weird, terrifying world of America’s nuclear stockpile.

He explains we, as a country, spend more time worrying about whether we hit "reply all" on an office email than our nuclear weapon situation. And, he posits, maybe we should be a little more concerned about the 4,804 nuclear warheads that currently exist in America.

Just how well are we taking care of those warheads, housed in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota? The answer: Not well at all. At one facility, the machine that would transmit an order from Pres. Barack Obama for launch runs on floppy discs. Another facility earned the equivalent of a “D” in missile launch proficiency. Elsewhere, officers were found sleeping and leaving doors to facilities open.

Even better is Oliver’s explanation of the chain of command that could possibly launch those missiles, including one General who got drunk at a Mexican restaurant in Russia and tried to play guitar with a Beatles cover band. Another has a gambling problem. Ah, Dr. Strangelove never fails to be relevant, does it?

Oliver hinges every segment on giving a passionate monologue that’s double-edged with outrage, and here, he truly illustrates the shrug emoticon that is our nation’s nuclear weapon chain of command. 

Screengrab via Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 

Here's what real teenagers think of Weird Al

0
0

“Who dedicates a whole song to foil?”

“He’s a comedy god.”

“I want to know what he’s thinking when he’s doing these songs.”

Teens—at least a representative sampling of them—do like “Weird Al” Yankovic’s song parodies. But in this short video, the kids are a little confused over 1) who exactly Weird Al is, 2) the revelation that he’s been around since before YouTube, and 3) why parodies are so popular. 

In their new (or newly packaged) “Teens React” channel, ubiquitous YouTube producers the Fine Bros. create a (near) real-time barometer of teenage opinion on topics, trends, and all matters in-between. The series is often more accurate as a pop culture yardstick than any costly Zogby or Gallup opinion poll.

There is a beauty in the simplicity of the Fine Bros.’ approach. A dozen or so teenagers watch Weird Al clips and initially, well, react. There are a few looks of bewilderment. One enthusiastic young fan was introduced to Al Yankovic’s parodies through his older brothers. A pair of young teenagers are definitely not fans, looking puzzled and anxious for the clips to come to an end. Across this cross-section of teen opinion, most recognize Weird Al’s enormous skill—but there’s a mixed reaction to Yankovic’s song choices, and a strong sense of parody burnout. Spoofs of popular songs are a tired category on YouTube.

The ad-hoc teen panel seems split on the fact that Weird Al’s new album, Mandatory Fun, debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. The most honest reaction is from the young woman who said, “It saddens me.” Another teen was more philosophical, commenting, “It makes me wonder if, in a few years, parody acts will become more popular than the originals.”

The Fine Bros., a pair of Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, are true YouTube pioneers (a term not easily bestowed on anyone), having garnered more than 1 billion views since their first video in 2004. “Teens React,” which launched at the end of July, is a dedicated channel that added subscribers at the rate of 500,000 as part of its launch and continues to grow at a rapid pace.  “React” is a theme that cuts across other Fine Bros. channels, including “Kids React” and “Elders React.” The new channel is a mix of existing and original content.

What makes “Teens React” work is its spontaneity. From the earliest TV days when the late Art Linkletter stuck a mike in kids’ faces and asked them questions that elicited “isn’t that cute” responses, the notion of using the precious minds of children to fuel programming has been a staple. The Fine Bros’ work resonates through their ability to be timely and honest and unfiltered.  Case in point: When asked, “Do you know who who Weird Al is?” this memorable response came forth:

“He’s the OG of parody.”

Screengrab via YouTube/Teen React


Netflix continues its push for cause-driven documentaries with 'Virunga'

0
0

Netflix’s success with original series like Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards has subtly changed how we watch TV. Now, the company is attempting to make its original documentaries a destination as well.

Netflix just landed exclusive rights to Virunga, a film about Virunga National Park in the Congo, and the fight to protect its endangered mountain gorillas, and the park itself, from rebels. Netflix also nabbed rights to docs Mission Blue and E-Team.

Earlier this year, Netflix debuted The Square, a documentary about the Tahrir Square uprising, which was nominated for an Oscar. It also released Brave Miss World, the story of Miss World competitor Linor Abargil, who was abducted and raped weeks before the competition; and Mitt, a film about Mitt Romney’s failed presidential run, though that title saw less success. Documentaries like The Act of Killing and 20 Feet From Stardom fared better on Netflix than in theaters, and that second-screen popularity no doubt caused the push for more original titles, as did competition from sites like Amazon and Vimeo.

This cause-driven focus is also tied to Netflix’s international growth. Earlier this month, they put out a call for “taggers” in the U.K. and Ireland, illustrating their steady expansion into global markets. If you have a documentary with a pressing message, what better way to get it to hundreds of millions of subscribers and circumvent the insular festival circuit? Lisa Nishimura, vice president of original documentary and comedy programming at Netflix, told the New York Times they are, “really free from the constraints that other platforms have.”

And the awards nods continue: While Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards picked up Emmy nominations earlier this month, as did The Square and Brave Miss World.

H/T New York Times | Screengrab via Grain Media/Vimeo

Education on YouTube isn't as easy as A, B, C

0
0

Getting into the classroom was only the beginning.

With the YouTubeeducation revolution in full-swing, the learning doesn’t stop for students at the end of a school day when they get out of class. They can head right back to their computers to watch videos, learn new skills and facts, and manage to have fun in the effort.

Traditional education and online videos clashed at first; many schools barred students from going on YouTube, which then caused problems for the teachers who wanted to use the videos to supplement their lesson plans. But now, more schools have opened up to the idea, although some pose the question of whether these online educators are trying to compete with the traditional system.

But just because these two forms of learning each have their own pros and cons doesn’t mean they face different problems: On the whole, they’re both battling some of the same issues.

•••

When more educators started popping up on YouTube, the platform tried to give them one convenient location; it launched YouTube EDU, which grouped many of the education videos together and gave users a centralized destination, free for anyone to learn from and use, where more high-quality videos were uploaded every day.

But now it’s 2014, and not only are people flocking to YouTube, but it’s also becoming an integral part of many classrooms around the world. According to Vidstatsx, the top 12 most subscribed education channels all have over a million subscribers each, and that's not even counting some of the big names like AsapSCIENCE and VSauce.

If you weren’t convinced, just take a look at VidCon. With more than 18,000 people in attendance, the two separate education panels had completely packed houses—and not just by people there just to claim a seat for a later panel. The panelists were treated like rockstars.

The Education + Entertainment panel, which included an all-star list of YouTube educators like John Green, PBS Idea Channel’s Mike Rugnetta, AsapSCIENCE, and The Brain Scoop host Emily Graslie, filled up one of the bigger rooms at the Anaheim Convention Center. Not only were fans of the panelists in attendance, but many members of crowd were also educators themselves—both online and traditional.

Education has quickly become one of the fastest-growing areas of YouTube, with pet videos (the usual suspect when it comes to citing the site’s sillier side) getting just half the views that education videos do.

It’s a statistic that Kevin Allocca, YouTube’s trends manager, told NBC Nightly News last July, and something that PBS Digital Studios Senior Director Matthew Graham reiterated at VidCon last month; the six channels on one panel alone accounted for approximately 500 million combined views.

But it’s not always a cakewalk. They have to come up with engaging topics an audience will want to watch, shoot the videos, edit, post, and promote their content, and for those channels who are able to make a living solely off of their videos, have enough people watch them. Even then, they still may run into problems.

“We’re overwhelmingly and widely accepted, but there are still people who somehow think that we’re in direct competition with traditional educators or teachers or that we’re trying to replace what happens in the classroom, and that’s not at all what we’re trying to do,” Graslie told the Daily Dot.

Graslie, now the Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum in Chicago, got her start in YouTube after she appeared in one of Hank Green’s Vlogbrothers videos and he gave her a channel.

Gregory Brown, a former science teacher and one half of AsapSCIENCE, spoke of a similar struggle. He started the channel with Mitchell Moffit more than two years ago, but recently chose to focus on AsapSCIENCE full-time. Having been on both sides of the fence, he explained at VidCon that the two entities had quite a few similarities.

“I think teachers have a similar struggle in that we both have to teach information that may seem uninteresting and spin it into a compelling narrative,” Brown said.

Both traditional educators and the educators on YouTube want to teach people something new without losing their audience. However, unlike regular schools, there is no final test at the end of the year on YouTube, no curriculum, and no need to think about the Common Core, the rigorous educational standards that give parents like Louis C.K. a headache along with his kids.

Even then, YouTube creators are limited to what they can cover. They can only do so much, while the sheer number of topics they can make videos about is infinite.

Some channels, like Green’s Crash Course, are more curriculum-friendly, as many of the history courses and videos cover topics that’ll likely end up on standardized tests or a final exam, and as he said at VidCon, “Crash Course has definitely made its way into lots of classrooms.”

But by no means are any of the educators trying to replace anything already set in the real world.

“I don’t see Crash Course as any sort of replacement to classroom education or teaching,” Green said. “It’s a way into a topic and an introduction and a little bit of nuance; enough nuance to get excited and hopefully enough to make it interesting. But the real work, in my mind, still has to happen in a classroom.”

And that’s not the only pushback they face.

•••

Sarah Urist Green hosts The Art Assignment, a collaboration with PBS Digital Studios that aims to “de-mystify art for the internet audience,” but before she made her YouTube debut in February, she was a museum curator.

While she, like many of her fellow educators, are able to make the information more accessible, not as many professionals in her area are making videos—or watching them. One of the more recent additions to YouTube's education ranks, she made her channel because while there were plenty of art videos out there online, there was a lack of videos discussing contemporary art.

Her videos may be more open to interpretation than a science video, but she feels just as much pressure to get her facts straight.

“I certainly want my art historian peers to like it, and so I don’t want to get my facts wrong,” she said during the Making People Smarter Through Online Video panel. “But I haven’t been called out on anything yet, so I’m kind of proud of that.”

“I get things wrong constantly,” Rugnetta said in the same panel. “All the time. And I love getting things wrong because when I get things wrong, people who are smarter than me tell me that I got something wrong, and then I learn something.”

Although they aren’t held to educational standards when it comes to accuracy, these educators want to put out the right information to their audience. A painstaking amount of research can go into making any one video, and if you make a mistake, the Internet is sure to let you know. When you’re trying to clear something up like an educational myth, accuracy is especially crucial.

With high-quality information paired with an energetic and enthusiastic host invested in a topic, you can teach just about anything, according to Graslie. 

“Being able to identify with students is probably one of the strongest teaching tools that one can have,” Moffit told me. “Whether that’s on a personal level and getting along with them or whether it’s like, ‘How can I relate to this person? Whether it’s through a video game or a YouTube video, what does this kid experience in their own way, and how can I make it a learning opportunity’?”

•••

Sciences versus the humanities. It’s an educational battle as old as time. Except, when it comes to the many educators on YouTube, it’s really not.

“There is no battle!” Michael Stevens, better known online as VSauce, said at VidCon. “It’s all just one big group hug!”

But for students, it’s the basis of another eternal argument: Which one has the worse workload? And at what point are you no longer expected to know the side that you don’t deal with on a daily basis?

The answer to that isn’t as easy as opening a YouTube video.

“I think that the easy and maybe disappointing answer is that it’s institutional,” Rugnetta noted. “I ended up going to a college where there were no required classes and there were no tests or grades. And that had a big impact on me, being able to see those. But every other college I applied to I was like, ‘I want to study music, and math, and theater.’ And they were like, ‘No, no, you have to pick one.’”

That mentality is slowly breaking down, although it may take many years before that idea expands to academia and your average viewer. Graslie is well-known as a scientist on YouTube, yet she never took college biology. And one of the main missions of AsapSCIENCE is to connect with the people who “doesn’t necessarily think or know they like science.”

“We try to find an angle that’s interesting or relatable that people can try to see in their own lives and then apply to science, even if they weren’t interested in learning science in the first place,” Moffit said.

•••

While the two education panels at VidCon were well-received by those who attended them, there were a few glaring omissions: One of the panels had two women, Sarah Urist Green and ViHart. The other only had Graslie. All of the panelists were white.

And the lack of diversity on the panels was brought front and center by the very people who were on them.

“[Entertainment + Education] is a perfect example of Emily being the only female,” Moffit explained a couple weeks after VidCon. “That panel is a perfect example of there being not really any diversity.”

The struggles of women on YouTube are certainly not new, and it’s a huge problem to this day, even in the realm of education. Graslie, in particular, made a video to show her audience the types of sexist comments she received on her videos from viewers.

It’s something that may prevent women from starting their own channels or may see them giving up more easily, and she stressed at the time that content creators need to take care of fellow content creators.

That mentality is starting to bring a little more diversity to YouTube education—although not as much as they would like.

“I think we have an obligation to develop talent so that in five years this panel is not as white and upper-middle class talent,” John Green said. “I don’t think it will happen by just waiting. I think we have several millennia of history to indicate that it won’t happen just by waiting. We have to find them and we have to help them.”

The push toward a visible platform full of diversity and in YouTube has started, albeit slowly. For example, Henry Reich, the man behind MinutePhysics, recruited Ever Salazar, who lives in in an unstable Venezuela, to make the supplemental show, MinuteEarth. The show is delivered via DropBox, and upon introducing him to the crowd, Salazar received a deafening applause.

It’s a push even the already-established educators need to make. Moffit and Brown have made videos online for two years, and although the two have long been open about their relationship with each other, they recently came out again to their viewers in order to talk about a need for queer role models online. The feedback has been largely positive from viewers.

It hasn’t completely changed the face of YouTube education, but it’s progress. And with more of it being incorporated into the classroom, it may inspire more students to start becoming the teachers.

“The only difference from where we are and you are is that you haven’t done it yet,” Smarter Every Day’s Destin Sandlin said.

Photo via Alan Levine/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed

School of Doodle is every girl's dream high school

0
0

If you could create your ideal high school, what would it look like? If you’d asked me that when I was 15, I would have definitely said Kim Gordon, Yoko Ono, and Courtney Love should be my teachers. And now that dream is real.

Molly Logan and Elise Van Middelem are cofounders of School of Doodle, an online project that's currently being funded via Kickstarter. School of Doodle is a place where young women can interact with each other and learn, but it doesn't follow the traditional school format. Instead, it's described as an "endless obstacle course for the imagination." As an incentive, the project features original “doodles” by Jenny Holzer, Kim Gordon, Courtney Love, Teen Feminist blogger Jules Spector, Pussy Riot, and Sarah Silverman, to name just a few.

While Logan and Van Middelem are joined by an impressive team, they see their roles as being a bit more hands-off. It's about the girls. 

“We look at it more as being chaperones or gardeners,” Logan told the Daily Dot. “Without the amazing talent working on this and the growing Doodle community, we would just have a great idea and a cool logo.”

With the arts being excised from many school curriculums, School of Doodle functions as an alternative—a “peer-to-peer, self-directed learning lab.” The school is “dedicated to activating girls’ imaginations through entertainment, education and community. With its free online curriculum, School of Doodle is a new kind of digital learning experience where artists, creators and students are the teachers and imagination and creativity are the lessons.”

“I deeply believe in the power of imagination to build critical life skills like self-confidence, curiosity, creativity, and self-expression, especially in teen girls,” Logan says. “Why? Because I was one, and through exposure to art, artists, and creative thinking, went from the girl who never spoke up to the one who never shut up. Happily and proudly.  

“Selfishly, I thought, What would my ideal high school look like and how can we build it? And that is School of Doodle. A safe environment where girls have access to some big creative brains, including their peers, and the support to express themselves without expectation or judgment.”

Natasha Lyonne, Susan Orlean, and Cat Power have joined in to help the cause. Teachers include Kim Gordon, Alice Waters, John Baldessari, Marina Abramovic, and JD Samson. There’s no college credit involved, but students will get “Doodle Dollars,” which can go towards field trips or one-on-one sessions with, say, Yoko Ono. Fifteen-year-old me is screaming. 

The project is steadily inching towards its $75,000 goal, and if funded, School of Doodle is set to open later this year. Logan stresses the importance of this project, not only for the present but for the future. 

“The evidence is irrefutable," she says. "The arts has measurable impact on keeping teens in school and building non-cognitive skills which ultimately lead to future success, both personal and professional. That is the polite way of saying that exercising your imagination can quite possibly change your life.”

Screengrab via Kickstarter

Bruce Campbell wants to star in the new 'Evil Dead' TV series

0
0

There were a lot of revelations at last weekend’s Comic-Con, but there’s one that had a lot of fans holding their breath: Is an Evil Dead series really coming to TV?

The Evil Dead, a 1981 horror film directed by Sam Raimi and starring actor Bruce Campbell as the film’s hero, Ash, has become a midnight movie favorite, and has been copied nearly to death by modern filmmakers. Last Friday, during a panel for the film adaptation of video game The Last of Us, Raimi confirmed that he, his brother Ivan, and Campbell are writing an Evil Dead series for TV.

But who would star? On Sunday night, Campbell gave fans even more hopes for the series when he tweeted he wants the job. Campbell briefly appeared in the 2013 Evil Dead remake, which might have signaled his return to a potential Evil Dead II remake. Or a TV series.

The current TV landscape might actually be perfect for this reboot, if the success of The Walking Dead is any indication. There are no details about cast yet, or where the show will end up. Let's cross our chainsaws that it actually makes it. 

Photo via JD Hancock/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

YouTube star stuns his parents by paying off their mortgage

0
0

YouTuber Timothy DeLaGhetto realized a childhood goal by paying off his parents' mortgage with earnings he's made in the last eight years on the platform.

"When I started doing YouTube I was doing it for free, just to get exposure," DeLaGhetto told The Daily Dot. "The fact that I was able to  take something that I was having fun doing and turn it into something I can live off of is kind of crazy to me."

DeLaGhetto creates skits, vlogs and music on his YouTube, earning himself over 2 million subscribers and 700 million views across his channels. As a child, he promised himself he would give back to his parents by succeeding at his dream of being an entertainer. DeLaGhetto's association with and stock in Maker Studios, which sold to Disney for $500 million earlier this year, is part of what he credits with being able to push him over the edge financially and make that promise a reality. In true YouTuber fashion, he turned the moment into a tear-jerking video where he surprises his parents with a check for their mortgage on the porch.

Of course, DeLaGhetto's father's first response after he smiles over the check is the same as every parent everywhere, regardless if your son is a YouTube star or not: "And what about grandchildren?"

"I kind of felt like as soon as I said surprise, that's what they thought I was going to say," DeLaGhetto laughed. "That'll be the next video."

Now that he's paid his parents' mortgage off, DeLaGhetto has many other milestones left on his bucket list. Chief among them, to star in a movie with Will Smith. A lofty goal, but definitely not impossible since he's already made inroads to mainstream media a part of Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out on MTV2. 

DeLaGhetto's parents are both very supportive of his work and watch everything he posts. "My dad watches [my vlog channel] religiously because he's in them, and reads all the comments about himself. They're big supporters, especially since they've seen what it's turned into. They're proud."

His parents own a Thai restaurant, and DeLaGhetto thinks they will actually take it easy like he intended when gifting them the money, although they won't give it up completely.

"They were telling me they might even close the restaurant for an additional day to just chill," he said.

Screengrab via Timothy DeLaGhetto / YouTube

Viewing all 7080 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images