At the most recent Tubefilter meetup, we utilized a new livestreaming and chat network called Chill. It also has the ability to share YouTube videos to a chatroom of people. I saw this a perfect opportunity to return to my roots but in a slightly modified version.

So starting this Sunday, October 2nd, at 2 PM PST / 5 PM EST I’m going to start a weekly live VJ show where I share some of my favorite YouTube videos new and old. I see it as a way for friends and fans of web video to come together and unwind after the weekend and before the new week begins. I’m going to simply call it “Jenni Likes It!”

I hope you will join me this Sunday! You’ll have to sign up for Chill, but it’s quick and easy. And you get to make an adorable avatar! Once you’re done with that, you just have to click here to get into the Jenni Likes It! Lounge. I hope you’ll love the service as much as I do. And no, they didn’t pay me to say that.

…And it’s the perfect time to let you all know that Team Fortress Cinema, led by the always amazing Joey Harris, once again braved lack of sleep and overcaffination to attempt yet another 48 Hour Film Project. The results were ultimate victory as we took on an even more ambitious script than the amazing Earthbound. The result is a gritty cop drama titled Live With It. That’s not a demand, it’s a title. But you will have to live with it.

I really would be honored if people made it out to see it as we really did work extremely hard on it, some of us braving illness and lugging dead bodies (no, really) to make it happen. I have to give a special shout-out to my wonderful partner-in-crime and boyfriend, Stuart Davis, who not only ADed like a champ but made sure I had encouragement and hugs at all times. He hugged the rest of the crew too, I’m sure.

Here are the details of the screening:

Laemmle’s Town Center 5
17200 Ventura Blvd.
Encino, CA
Thursday, August 18 7:00 PM

You can purchase tickets here, they are only $11 and you get to screen a block of films, not just ours. Be sure to purchase the Thursday, August 18 7:00 PM showing as there are several different screenings.

Last time we had the honor of taking home the Audience Choice Award and we’d love to make a play for a repeat. But mostly, we just want to share our hard work with you all!

The film we created, called Earthbound, and staring the enormous talents of Amy Bloom, Brian Majestic, and Woody Tondorf (with cameos by myself, Stuart Davis, and Andrew Seely). The film screens Thursday, February 24th and it would mean the world to us if you had the time that you could attend.

Here are the details:
Date: Thursday, February 24th
Time: 9:30 PM
Place: Laemmle’s Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd Encino, CA 91316

Be sure that when you buy your tickets you buy them for the 9:30 PM screening group. The other group is screening at 7:00 PM and does not include our film. Unlike last year, there will not be a second “best of” screening, so this will be your only chance to see it in theaters. And more selfishly, we hear that the Audience Choice Award (which is decided by vote at the screening) is one of the things taken into consideration when the judges decide the winner for Los Angeles.

It’s always been really special to me that Kenny chose me to share this show with. Kenny is one of the most caring, unselfish people I’ve ever met and just having him in my life has been a pure joy, but being able to share in his passion for the show with the fans has been undescribably amazing. I credit The Guild and everyone who has ever worked on it for putting my life in a direction I never knew possible and being able to celebrate that every month is a true honor indeed.

Kenny does 90 percent of the work on the show: he created the format, spends hours online interacting with fans, creates detailed outlines for each and every show, makes sure all our equipment is up-to-date and functioning, and does all the edits and uploading. He’s a podcasting mastermachine and makes it so that pretty much all I have to do is show up and try to be funny. Which I am told I am moderately successful at, especially when eating unicorns is involved.

I really believe the podcast is deserving of some recognition for all the hard work that is put into it and the 2010 Podcast Awards are coming up. I’m hoping those of you who aren’t familiar with the podcast and are finding out about it from this blog will take a moment to go check it out. If you like what you hear, it’d mean a great deal to me (and Kenny) if you took a few minutes to vote for us in the Peoples Choice and Entertainment categories.

Cookies and Love!

Due to our extremely busy production schedules (we do after all not only love web content, Kim Evey and I are producers of it!) it became clear that we’d need to bring on some additional partners who were just as passionate (if not moreso) about the web community as we were to continue to take this event in the direction we’d envisioned it and keep the spirit of it fresh and exciting to the community. I had been approached several months ago by the fabulous and talented web community multi-hyphenates Stephanie Thorpe (Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate, After Judgement, GOLD: Night of the Zombie King) and Taryn O’Neill (Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate, After Judgement, Compulsions, Continuum) about helping to produce an event during the weekend of Comic Con in San Diego that would help fill the demand for more of a web series presence during the Con. Over the course of trying to plan both events, it became clear that we all had the same vision: one of giving fans and non-fans alike a chance to be exposed to and to celebrate the awesome web content that is being created by extremely talented individuals.

It became clear that the best way to make a truly unique and quality event would be to merge these two events into one, while keeping the strengths of what worked with Celebrate the Web (a relaxed atmosphere where fans and creators can come together, whether in person or online through livestreaming) while also celebrating the unique energy that exists during Comic Con and making a strong web presence there.

The format of this event will be slightly modified from our first event: instead of individual speakers, we will be hosting a series of two panels that celebrate Genre (scifi/horror/fantasy/gaming) web series at a beautiful offsite (but within very easy walking distance) location from the Con. These panels will be livestreamed for anyone not in San Diego that weekend to enjoy. A mixer will follow where creators and fans can interact with one another.

As well as the panelists that will be featured, we’ll be giving creators who cannot be at the event an opportunity to provide any materials about their shows (flyers, t-shirts, DVDs, whatever swag they wish to provide) to be made available for attendees to enjoy. Any show interested in participating in this should contact me (jenni dot powell at gmail dot com) and I will get them all the information.

The event will take place on Saturday, July 24th so please save the date. We will have more details for you very shortly!

We hope you’re all as excited about this new prospect as we are and as always, we’re doing this for you, the web series community so we are open for all feedback, so please comment on this post. Stephanie, Taryn, Kim, and I are all tremendously excited to have this great opportunity to provide an amazing event to all of you.

The next step was deciding when to do the next installment of the event. We didn’t want to do it too often and have it only become another mixer. Don’t get us wrong, we love a big mixer, but the networking and hanging out was just a small element of what we want this event to be. Celebrations are special occasions, that should be met with a sense of anticipation. At the same time, we also wanted to keep the amazing momentum of camaraderie and inspiration the first event generated. We all wanted to feel that good again!

So Kim and I came up with a compromise: we’d like to do the event quarterly, with our next event coming up on July 15th (more details to come!). Four events a year would allow us to feature even more Streamy Award winners and nominees leading up to next year’s award season. Our second event will feature 2010 Streamy Award nominees.

Like the first Celebrate the Web event, we want to structure it as a way for presenters to speak for a few minutes on an aspect of working on the web. The first installment asked the simple question: why do you like working on the web?

For our July 15th event we want to pass it over to the web community at large: what do YOU what to hear more about for the second Celebrate the Web event? Should the event focus on production? Storytelling? Challenges of working in the space?

Leave us a comment of a one-sentence question you’d like our speakers to answer. We’ll take submissions until Saturday June 12th and then Kim, myself and WorldofHiglet (who has been amazing helping us with organization on our second event) will pick our 10 favorites which we will then let you all vote on, ultimately letting you choose the theme for the event.

We can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

–Jenni, Kim, and WorldofHiglet

And yet, those are not the reasons I’m awake right now. And that is a problem. I am being distracted from what I could be…nay, I SHOULD be doing, what makes me feel alive and as if I could potentially leave my mark on this planet. I am not doing those things because people I care about are angry, confused and hurt.

Today called for Rebuilding. Okay, let’s take a look at that for a second:

Re-build
–verb (used with object)

1. to repair, esp. to dismantle and reassemble with new parts: to rebuild an old car.

2. to replace, restrengthen, or reinforce: to rebuild an army.

3. to revise, reshape, or reorganize: to rebuild a shattered career.

Origin:
1605–15; re- + build

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Three definitions, all for the same word but with vastly different implications. To dismantle and start from scratch would mean to take immediate and definitive action. Tear the weeds out by the roots, refirtilize the soil, replant with tomatoes or cucumbers…something actually sustainable over the long term.

The second is a form of reaction. “I feel weak, in response, I’m going to add more power to my arsenal, add troops to my forces so that I can attack harder next time”. It’s the bully who has gotten the drop on him once, so next time he’s bringing brass knuckles and he’s taking teeth.

The third lies somewhere in the middle: there is still a foundation in place, there are aspects that don’t want to be let go of. Paris Hilton is still a Hilton, no matter how many sex tapes she makes. The question is whether she chooses to do “Two Nights in Paris” or not.

So where does that leave us? The problem is, I think each of us takes a different definition. While others aren’t even contemplating what the word means because they were perfectly happy with the road things were already going down and only see it as adding insult to injury. And while ALL points of view are valid, sadly, the ones that are immediately effected by it are few (5 people, to be exact). And some of us hold those people to the first definition: in order to rebuild, we need to tear the problem out by it’s roots…in this case, the roots affect the livelihoods of individuals. Some of us want to run to their aid, become soldiers in the quest to uphold the values of The Future of the Web.

I think maybe, just maybe, some people are hoping for the “somewhere in the middle”: they don’t want to see anyone dragged through the mud but acknowledge that something doesn’t feel right and needs some adjusting.

Are any of the definitions RIGHT? I can only speak for myself and my instincts always tell me to take an action. And generally, that serves me pretty okay. And in turn, I try to realize that others are working off their instincts as well…they have their own definitions, their own RIGHT. It’s not for me to take that away from them, but to see how and if my views can mold and adapt to theirs. I guess you’d call that compromise.

So I guess that is ultimately what I’m hoping for. How can we take all these various definitions, with their equal merits and worth and bring them to a point where they can coexist? Is it even possible? Definitely not in a day, or even a year, hell, we’ll probably never get it perfect. We may need to draft up a forth definition. But at least we are taking action, which is a huge testament to how much we care about what we are doing. And if we never lose sight of that, I think in the long-run, we will be okay.

But let’s not forget that we are all creative people and as such…we are naturally emotional. Which I take as an advantage, not a disadvantage. Most of us are storytellers…as such, we like to delve inside others experiences to understand them and bring them to life. This puts us in the unique position of seeing the other person’s points of views, to understand what definition they are operating under. We can use that as an opportunity, or we can use it to attack.

I think for starters, I’ll try to get some sleep now.

Me websiteo es tu websiteo…

–Jenni