Fast Forward

“Children of Invention,” screening this week in Los Angeles and New York, is a product of a 10-month hustle from first draft to its 2009 première at Sundance.

Writer-director Tze Chun, who did eleven no-budget shorts before having a short at Sundance two years prior, made all the right moves before going into Park City with his feature. He hired Anna Boden (writer/producer/co-director/editor of “Half Nelson”) to edit during their 25-day shoot to make Sundance’s extended deadline as well as bringing on other professionals to rep the film and to handle publicity.

Chun’s team also included a regular collaborator, acting coach and assistant director Sheila Dvorak. Together they’ve worked nearly a dozen times, literally as a two-person crew with her on the boom and Chun on the camera.

But without a solid distribution deal for this acclaimed film, Chun’s team has since been well on the way to recoup the under-$500k budget by self-distributing the film: they’re selling DVDs online via IndieBlitz and at their select screenings across the country.

From the interview with Film Independent:

“They knew that everyone responded well to the kids’ performances and they would become festival discoveries, so they decided to exploit that angle. Tze [Chun] designed a poster with both children on it, and [David] Magdael approved the design and the two young actors were brought to Park City and were in attendance at every screening. … While touring the festival circuit, Mynette [Louie] and Tze decided to sell DVD copies of the film themselves after consulting with Peter Broderick and Ted Hope, and getting encouragement from their investors. They designed and made DVDs (for around $1 each) to sell after festival screenings. Additionally, Mynette designed an online store on the film’s website to help push DVD sales. Ever committed to keeping costs low, their DVD sales efforts remain a two-person operation.”

From Chun’s D.I.Y. manifesto on the official site:

“As filmmakers, we need to be responsible and do everything we can to try to recoup the cost of making our films — we owe that to our investors, cast, and crew. If our little experiment works, great. If not, we’ll have some data that’ll help other indie filmmakers in the future, and hopefully get everyone closer to a distribution model that works. … People want to consume their media the way they want to consume their media, and that’s that. It’s more proof that the traditional release windows are becoming irrelevant.”

“Children of Invention” was also selected as one of the YouTube Rental films, a recent experiment in bringing Sundance films beyond the festival:

“And at 86 minutes long, it’s probably 85 minutes longer than most videos YouTube users log on to watch,” said Chun. “But we’re hoping that the YouTube audience, as well as viewers new to YouTube, will see this as a paradigm shift — we hope that they will come to the site to get immersed in a film for an hour and a half, and have the type of experience that one usually reserves for the theaters.”

From the article “10 reasons why they are glad they distributed DIY,” on Truly Free Film:

“We started selling DVDs at festivals immediately after Sundance. We found that about 10% of audiences will buy the DVD after each screening, and 20% of audiences will buy if it’s an Asian American fest. We’ve made back over 20% of our budget on the festival circuit by selling DVDs and collecting screening fees (another benefit of playing as many festivals as possible).”

For more information on upcoming and recent screenings, visit the official site.

In its run-up to this year’s Oscar for Best Picture, “The Hurt Locker” is getting quite the push-around from both sides. Pundits either applaud its authenticity or frown its fictionalization. The New York Times published an essay, “How Not to Depict a War,” written by the photographer of a video following an explosive ordnance disposal team:

I understand the argument that Ms. Bigelow and her team should be applauded for tackling certain issues and bringing the war home to Americans. Yet with so many scenes and details untrue, the actual war in Iraq becomes merely a dramatic jumping off point for the filmmakers.

…

When a filmmaker gets that many details wrong, it’s hard to believe she got the war right. “The Hurt Locker” is not a drama about a make-believe event. This is a movie about an ongoing war that has affected millions, in which 100,000 Americans are still serving. It deserves a minimal degree of historical accuracy and attention to detail.

But also check out the opinion on the other side from regular columnist Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times:

Hollywood always plays fast and loose with reality. That’s why it usually makes dramas and not documentaries — and, let’s be honest, it’s also why Americans buy its products in such bulk. We’re not looking for facts; we’re looking for entertainment and (even at the movies) some deeper truth that art reveals.

In the end, the controversy over “The Hurt Locker’s” authenticity and its worth as an Oscar contender perhaps speaks less to the relationship between truth and fiction than to the relationship contemporary humans have to some mythical notion of “reality.”

Upper Playground brought the Weinstein Company together with thirteen artists to interpret their own poster design for “Inglourious Basterds,” which is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Film Editing:

David Choe, Sam Flores, Estevan Oriol, Grotesk, Jeremy Fish, Patrick Martinez, Alex Pardee, Dora Drimalas, Munk One, N8 Van Dyke, Rene Alamanza, Morning Breath and Skinner Davis … create[d] their own poster art based off their interpretation of the film, “Inglourious Basterds” artwork. … Each print will be numbered and signed by Quentin Tarantino. Only six (6) of each amount will be made.

“Avatar” is up for nine Oscars and the James Cameron film is expected to pick up many. Harvard Business Review just published “Firing Is Too Merciful: How James Cameron Leads,” an insightful article by Rebecca Keegan, author of “The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron.” Mantras like “good isn’t enough,” “break new ground,” and “lead from the front” work whether you’re rich and famous or not quite yet:

Cameron is almost comically hands-on. He does things élite directors don’t do — hold the camera, man the editing console, sketch the creatures, apply the makeup. The truth is, he would do nearly every job on a movie himself if he could. But any film, much less one as ambitious as Avatar, relies on collaboration. Forced to lean on others, Cameron sets the pace. Among his 3000-strong stable of artists and engineers, he’s the first to try a new challenge, the last to quit at the end of the day, and the hardest to please.

(Thanks to @GuyKawasaki for the Cameron link.)

Chris Commons, James E. Roberts, Doug Jones, Jaraad Virani, and W. Alex Reeves at PROJECTIONS on February 18, 2010, which FWD:labs co-sponsored.

There’s a school of thought in business called the “Blue Ocean Strategy” which posits the following: instead of struggling to stake your claim in a crowded market space, create an uncontested market and thus render the competition irrelevant. This paradigm-shifting philosophy has succeeded in numerous industries, particularly for Apple with the iPod and Nintendo with the Wii. And while the Blue Ocean strategy has proven its efficacy in the world of commerce, could it also apply to art as well? I am more specifically referring to the exhibition of art, namely short films.

The film festival circuit, once the bastion of the hopes and dreams for burgeoning filmmakers, has quickly become an impregnable fortress of exclusion. Short films in particular have an incredibly challenging landscape to fight, survive, and succeed in as they must now compete with thousands and thousands of aspiring filmmakers and their labors of love, as well as star-studded shorts, big-name directors, and studio-backed features, all vying for the hearts and minds of hollywood players and audience members alike. What was once a daunting but potential-laden path has instead become a bit of a lost cause, with precious few shorts flourishing based solely on merit in an increasingly overcrowded marketplace.

So when I and three other filmmakers decided we were tired of waiting for someone to give us the opportunity to showcase our films, we chose to create such an opportunity for ourselves instead.

Last Thursday night at the Marina del Rey Marriott hotel we hosted “PROJECTIONS: An Evening of Short Films,” MC’d by Doug Jones (of “Hellboy” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” fame). It was a night planned, designed, and executed by filmmakers to showcase our work the way we’d always intended: no bloated playbill or sub-par viewing conditions, just 3 short films projected in high definition with properly EQ’d sound in a beautiful venue. The culmination of our efforts resulted in an unprecedented turnout with guests filling the 400-seat theater to capacity and overflowing into the aisles where over 100 more stood and watched for the entirety of the program. One stunned attendee remarked he had expected “a couple of fold out chairs in a basement,” not the slick red carpet, ample 16 foot by 9 foot HD screen, posh after party, and most incredibly, the over-500-strong crowd.

While I’m not suggesting our inadvertent creation of a “blue ocean” is on par with the examples listed earlier, what does matter is that the evening was a success in the most significant way to us as filmmakers: our films received the treatment and the audience they deserved. And that’s an opportunity that no one else could have or would have given us; we had to create it for ourselves.

Part of their “Original Creativity” campaign, Canal+ has a history of developing original series, doc, and fiction content in-house, including writer Olivier Marchal (“36 Quai des Orfèvres”) and actor Jean-Hugues Anglade (“Léon,” “Nikita”). Here’s to encouraging the rest of us.

Canal+ “Wardrobe (The Closet)“
Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen
Production Company: Soixan7e Quin5e
Director of Photography: Joost van Gelder
Editor: Jono Griffith
Agency: BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, France
Agency Producer: Isabelle Ménard
Creative Director: Stéphane Xiberras
Creative: Eric Astorgue
Art Director: Eric Astorgue
Copywriter: Jean-Christophe Royer
Account Managers: Raphaël de Andréis, Alexandre George, François Brogi
Post Production: Mikros Images
Sound Production: Kouz Production
Advertising Managers: Beatrice Roux, Mathieu Mazuel, Fleur Ajavon
Original Title: “Le Placard”
Date of First Publication: 9/27/2009
Tagline: For you, we create extraordinary stories.

(via filmmaker Greg Auerbach)

I think we’re consistently making content with one goal in mind. Sometimes, after they’re put to bed, there’s a long tail of opportunity to find another audience.

“Parisian Love” clocked a million views last month, so Google CEO Eric Schmidt let it rip on the Super Bowl telecast. “Be sure to watch the ads in the 3^rd quarter (someone said “Hell has indeed frozen over.”),” said the advanced notice. Thousands of blog posts, comments, and tweets later, this video began as just one of a series of Search Stories, yet it resonated well beyond the web thanks to its simple message.

Another recent ad that skips out on talking heads is from Sussex Safer Roads Partnership. Creating a striking PSA is oft an unglamorous challenge, but writer/director Daniel Cox created “Embrace Life” to take on that challenge knowing the diversity of the audience.

According to the press release, he notes, “[o]né key aspect to the storytelling is that we developed Embrace Life to be non-language specific, so that the message wouldn’t become lost when viewed by visitors to, or residents of, the UK where English might not be their first language.” With over 800,000 views online, the result is clearly viral with appeal beyond its original intent.

And then there’s “Nuit Blanche” by Arev Manoukian. Framed upon a simple moment in time, the short film uses slow motion to “explore a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection in a hyper real fantasy.”

In the making-of supplement, you can see how each shot comes together in post, using tools like Maya, Mental Ray, 3ds Max, V-Ray, Blastcode and instanced particles. Grand prize winner of the LG “Life’s Good” Film Festival, the Canadian-made film was completed in August 2009, but just this last week has been seen by over 70,000.

Intelligentsia Series is ‘an ongoing series that documents our search for the ultimate tastemakers.’

After working at Imaginary Forces with Kurt Mattila on Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” Matt Checkowski started his own production/editorial/vfx firm, The Department of the 4^th Dimension. Between pitching against other ad agencies for work — and his own feature film projects, no less — he’s trying out a series of short-form content that feels right at home online. Listening to people who are passionate about what they do is engaging in its own right. Filming it with creative prowess and distinct visual style, now that’s something you’ve got to see, even if you’re not a coffee aficionado.

You came out of the gates from design school. How did that established your approach to filmmaking? Do you feel there’s a different process — say, considering things as form vs. function? With your film/tv partners, is it delivering pre-vis animatics/drawing and, with your brand/campaign clients, is it delivering modular options? Also, does it not matter where you start, but how you make it?

Matt Checkowski First off, thanks for even thinking about me for this chat. We connected through the Espresso short film and it’s amazing to me how the smallest things can open up connections online. It’s exciting.

There are a few things that are always in the front of my mind regardless of whether the project is “design” or “cinema,” and I imagine what’s left over after those similarities is what pushes a particular project into one category or the other.

Screenshots from the work done on ‘Minority Report’

The audience is up there on the list. Where are they sitting or standing? What will they be likely doing before and after they see what we’ve created? How are they going to engage with what we’ve done? In passing? Planted in a dark theater? Sitting at their computer? Why are they going to care? It’s really about contrast — in the service of grabbing attention and recalibrating our audiences point of view. This goes for the first 10 minutes of a film, television network branding, a website or an experience design project. I think a lot about the audience and how to reposition the context.

I read somewhere that someone said “Drama is more interesting than ideas,” and I like that. But I also like the ideas. They both serve different purposes at different moments. I’m stimulated by the concepts and the process and the possibility of ideas, but they’re meaningless to me if I can’t evolve them into something that inspires other people. I think the core motivation — be it an idea or a dramatic situation — is something that I sort out early on and needs to translate for the audience in order for the work to be successful.

I haven’t sorted out my final thesis on the overlap of design and cinema, but I know that my creative process is essentially the same for both. I will say that directing feature films has made me much more aware and appreciative of my audience and how they experience my work.

We pitch the hell out of projects and present as much as we can to sculpt this new world for our client and collaborators. Pre-viz, animatics, reference. Writing, concepts, stories. Each project is a multimedia extravaganza from the get-go.

You were at Imaginary Forces, then co-directed “Lies and Alibis,” and now do campaigns with ESPN Monday Night Football and Rock Band. How is your collaborative process on projects?

MC I collaborate like crazy. It seems that the key inspiration for each project tends to always come from an unexpected category. A branding project is built from a film excerpt. A virtual world starts with a photograph. That’s part of why I like working with really diverse teams at the beginning of projects. It opens the project up to new possibilities.

Sometimes the client doesn’t care about our crazy ideas, but that comes back to transforming those elements into something that is relevant for other people to spend some time with. More often than not, we’re sought out for this multidisciplinary process and thinking. It’s really how I think and thankfully it seems to be the way the world works now.

Where did the idea for the Intelligentsia Coffee short film series come from? Project on-the-side or clever commercial?

MC The short film series — the first three episodes of which are set at and about what they do at Intelligentsia — was just an original idea of mine whose time had come. Short, online episodes about beautifully designed objects or acts. I wanted to find people who were as obsessed about what they do as I am about what I do and hoped that passion would resonate with a broader audience. I’d been trying to get it off the ground for a while through a variety of different scenarios, brand or ad agency partnerships and nothing seemed to help it break through.

So we spoke with Kyle at Intelligentsia and just made it happen. It’s a crystal clear concept that just lets the star of the short do what they do best, without any logos or forced messaging getting between the story and you. We’ve got a ton of ideas for what to do next. I’m excited that people like it and hope that its early success will enable us to grow it wider and wider.

Two cameras, a Kino, color keying in After Effects and viola?

Yep. Super lightweight production process. Two Canon 5DMK2s. Tons of natural light and a small Kino. Then lots of love on the post side of things to really show-off the process and Kyle’s personality. The color treatment was tricky to execute but came from a simple spark: I loved the black and white footage but thought the coffee looked spectacular in color. It made so much sense with the story and I think that graphic treatment actually enhances the personality of our star. It’s the visual embodiment of his obsession.

The series feels right at home online, with viewers discussing it on Vimeo, Twitter, and city blogs like LAist.com. What do you think is going to be the next big step forward in user-centric film?

MC I think so, too. It was a natural fit. I love this series in an online format. I’d love it even more if I could easily blast it onto other kinds of screens in a more effective way. XBox and Playstation downloads. iTunes channels. We’re working on some ideas now that will help us generate revenue to create more episodes in an effort to stay away from heavy-handed brand partnerships. I’m not opposed to branding and frankly think that the idea of “selling out” is long dead, but everyone in our industry knows it’s harder and harder to find people or clients who are willing to financially support content creation. That goes from commercials to shorts to feature films.

I think the biggest challenge is not only finding the great content online, but also developing ways to help the audience enable those content creators to make more great stuff. The success of this series has been super encouraging and I’m grateful to everyone who clicked the link and took the time to watch it. It’s really amazing for a truly viral project that doesn’t have a huge marketing budget secretly blasting links into the ether.

I’m not sure what’s next, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the money trail. Why does an audience have to go buy soap or a new car in order for their money to find its way through to the person who makes the motion picture content that they enjoy? That’s not a new question, but we’re working on some ways to explore our relationship with our audience in the online arena.

Thanks so much for the great questions. I enjoyed thinking and chatting about all this.

#

Episode 1: Espresso

Episode 2: Syphon

Episode 3: Cappuccino is coming soon

After 9 months of very challenging and very rewarding work, my employment on “How To Train Your Dragon” has come to an end. I am officially off the show, and am now gearing up for my next DreamWorks endeavor. The experience has been indescribable, and as recently mentioned here, I’m sure I will attempt to pass along some of the artistic knowledge I have gained through this journey.

This was a privileged opportunity to work with some of the most talented feature animation artists working today in all departments. Personally in my department, I got to work with layout veterans James Ryan Peterson of Kung Fu Panda, JC Alvarez of Shark Tale and Bee Movie among others, and our head of layout, Gil Zimmerman. Learning from these three gents was always a simultaneously humbling and empowering experience, both making me realize my bad habits, and yet showing me how to utilize my strengths. You can find an interview here on the official How To Train Your Dragon blog with Gil, where he briefly answers some questions about himself and the movie. Also, a brief clip in which he discusses the challenges and process that went into Romantic Flight, the first sequence I worked on in this film.

Tomorrow, I get to meet with the director of the next project I am starting on, where we will discuss the set dressing for one of the large landscapes we’ll be using. Always new and challenging work to be done at DreamWorks! More to come!

(Originally published on badgerart.blogspot.com.)

I’m With COCO. Art by Mike Mitchell.

It all began with a late-night tweet — “what do y’all think of this?” — and the “I’m With COCO” movement was born. The tweet’s author and “Coco” artist is Mike Mitchell, a twenty-something Los Angeles resident who recently quit his job to work as a freelance artist.

Mitchell woke up the next morning to find it was literally an overnight internet sensation. “I do a lot of pop-culture based stuff,” he explains, “but nothing has gotten close to this. I got woken up by TMZ this morning,” noted the Village Voice.

In an interview with People, he added, “I finished the design and sent it off on Twitter, and I woke up the next day and it had started. It already had wheels and it just blew up from there.” Mitchell has now thrown himself into “I’m With Coco” full-time, not just to support O’Brien but to support charity. A dollar of every order at the online “I’m With Coco” shop goes toward Planting Peace, which is helping relief efforts in Haiti.

Support on Facebook alone extends between six pages, totaling over 590,000. Each uses Mitchell’s artwork as the icon of support.

Art as a creative force is increasingly common. We’ve seen popular images become a focal point in the media increasingly recently: Barack Obama in 2008 and now this in 2010. (See our guest post on Shepard Faireys’ artwork.)

Is this kind of movement a trend? Or has it always been there?

(Thanks to screenwriter Eric Szyszka for the topic.)

Mapping time travel

Lucas Looks Back On Movie-Making
From a recent interview on NPR’s Fresh Air: “‘We loved movies, we loved making movies, and we cooperated with each other and were helping each other,’ Lucas says. ‘We were like, you know, rebels trying to work our way in somehow.’” Read the transcript, download the MP3, or listen on their site player.

DXG readies first 3D camcorder
“Believe it or not, that $400 isn’t just for the camera. You also get a 7-inch digital video viewer. The 3D in both the camcorder’s 3-inch 3D LCD viewfinder LCD and the frame look almost holographic.” As CES, the company promised an SD version under $200. However, in a comment on CNET.com by a 3D content provider, Simon Sieverts, “all these fixed inter-axial cameras are ultimately going to be a disappointment for their owners because the distance between the lenses should reflect the distance between the camera, the subject and the background.”

Time travel in popular films
Information Is Beautiful hosts a visualization from David McCandless, Dominic Busby, and Alice Cho, which was just published in the book, The Visual Miscellaneum. Also check out the blog post by McCandless about the process.

INST MSGS

One part Craigslist’s “Best Of.” One part quality production. INST MSGS is a new show from photographer Mathieu Young, collaborating with show creator Justin Simien and producer Ann Le.

The series got picked up by Revision3 (“Digg Nation”), made the front page of iTunes, and features an ensemble cast, including Abigail Spencer (“Mad Men”) and Josh Cooke (“Four Kings,” “I Love You Man”) in the 8^th episode, “R U THERE?”, released today.

You can subscribe to INST MSGS on iTunes or watch on Revision3.

What are you bringing to web series? Your latest episode is certainly more “artistic.” Where are you going with INST MSGS for the rest of your 13-episode season?

Justin Simien The internet tends to be pretty funny and so naturally the show sometimes goes for laughs. But with our pilot episode, and particularly our latest “R U There” we wanted to speak to the humanity behind these conversations. Not to get too heavy or anything, but what’s interesting to me about all of this “mass communication” and “social networking” is the vast amount of things you can’t say. There’s a lot to life and inter-human connection that doesn’t translate over AIM or on a Craigslist ad.

As far as where the season is going, there’s going to be less Craigslist, and a few adaptations of source material that we think will surprise you.

Mathieu Young Yes, it is a constant evolution. I have spent the past few years focused on photojournalism, so the shift to video has had a learning curve for me.

How much of the show is based on actual Craigslist personals or instant messages?

JS A lot of the early episodes are Craigslist heavy, simply because that was easier and less expensive to shoot. A series of MOS scenes with narration from a Craigslist ad was just more doable for us in the beginning, because we had to produce a lot of episodes very quickly at first. Now that we’ve kind of hit our stride production wise, we’re able to do the “talkies,” some of the instant message conversations that actually sparked the idea for the show in the first place.

The original short, ‘My Women,’ became the first episode.

I’ve seen the original short. How did you get Revision3 to buy the show?

JS Our producer Ann Le deserves the credit for the Revision 3 deal. My priority was to see if the concept would work and hopefully find a way to make more. Ann had the foresight to enter it into festivals, shop it around and specifically approach Revision 3 who were fortunately looking to get into more narrative shows.

What are the pros and cons of delivering the show via Revision3?

MY Revision3 has been a great partner. We have got over 250K eyeballs on our work through them. The only challenge is matching our show with their format, which is usually more host driven, but figuring out how to work within those parameters is just another challenge.

The show made the front page of iTunes. Did you set out to create a popular show? Or was the initial plan to take a good idea and see where it goes?

JS I wasn’t sure what the reception for the show would be because it so different. There’s no central cast, the genre and tone change each week, and unlike a lot of other web shows we often rely on subtly to get the story across. I knew it was a show I would watch, and I’m just glad to see there are more people out there like me.

MY Our only plan has been to make a good show, put it out there, and see what happens. Good press and getting featured like that has all been gravy.

Abigail Spencer

Josh Cooke

What are you most proud of with INST MSGS? What’s your favorite segment thus far?

MY I’m actually most proud of the visual variety that we’ve had in the season. One of the things that attracted me to the project was the challenge of shooting different styles. It’s been great fun to undertake what seems impossible on paper and to pull it off.

JS I’m proud of everything we’ve been able to accomplish with literally no money and even less time. Secret Tweets, where we used anonymous tweets from SecretTweet.com as the inner dialogue of a series of zoo animals still stands out for me as a favorite.

I’m also really happy with the newer episodes coming out that are actually based on people’s Instant Messages. Our current episode R U There starring Abigail Spencer from “Mad Men” and Josh Cooke from “Four Kings” and “I Love You Man” is one I’m very proud of.

What camera are you shooting on?

MY We are shooting the show on the [Canon] 5DMKII.

Generally speaking, what’s the budget? Since it’s low, how do you keep it bootstrapped?

MY We are also working on a shoestring budget; to put it in real numbers I try to keep the G&E budget to under $50 per episode. The constant challenge is to try to do a lot with a little (and even less time), but the footage that comes out of the camera is such great quality that it makes it achievable.

JS Ha. “Budget.” The budget is virtually non-existent. I owe so much to Ann Le and Mathieu Young who give their time, talents, and money when necessary to get the show made. Ann does keep a running budget going that’s incredibly streamlined, and we do what we can with what we have.

What do you think of the requirements from advertisers, such as shooting the ads with your episode’s cast?

JS It’s a bit of a challenge because our show doesn’t lend itself naturally to product call outs, like a hosted show might. But web shows are the wild wild west, and helping advertisers find a way to monetize it is just part of the work you have to do to be successful in this arena.

How is your collaboration with your team?

JS It’s really the best team I’ve ever worked with. From the beginning Ann Le has been everything I could hope for in a producer / director collaboration. She’s incredibly resourceful, relentless, brings so much creatively to the table, and on top of that she cooks for us at our production meetings. I also got really lucky having Mathieu Young on board. He’s a great director in his own right, a brilliant photographer, and his input has been so crucial to the success of the show. Mathieu and Ann are both great storyteller as well, and I feel really fortunate to have gotten to work with them.

Are there plans for a second season?

JS I love doing this show and I think if we can find a way to make it bigger and better then anything in the first season, we’ll be back for a second. We’re only half way through the first season though, and it all comes down to how well this one does, so keep watching, sharing and nominate us for the Streamys (Best experimental!)