Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

SYNOPSIS

THE CAPTIVE is a science fiction/action thriller set in an unspecified future. The series follows an unsuspecting twenty-something who is spirited away to the depths of a secret prison, where he faces a brutal interrogation and attempts to escape with the help of a seductive but enigmatic Trustee. THE CAPTIVE won the 2008 New York Television Festival (NYTF) Award for Best Web Series Pilot.

REVIEW

A well produced and moderately well acted series that borders the avante garde.  The Captive feels like LOST found by a student filmmaker… Masters program film student at least.  It is wonderfully photographed but thesis film lurks underneath its facade.  The series walks a thin line between professional and amateur  - almost prosumer in its aesthetic.

The lead actor is potentially a break through talent, but doesn’t quite hit the ball out of the park in this project.  However, there is some spark there and I expect to see his face again in the future.  The supporting cast performances range from amateur to theatrical at times which cheapens the production value while juxtaposed against the better leads.

The score is reminiscent of the Zombie film 28 Days Later and takes away from its originality, as if the director was a fan of the film and is paying homage to its director Danny Boyle.  The storyline and plot attempts at something wise but never quite delivers its promise.  It simply makes no sense.  It plays like an inside joke that only the director and friends find brilliant.  I was left totally unsatisfied in the end.  However, it ends on a cliff hanger promising to hopefully explain what the heck is going on in a second season!

Ultimately, the Captive is a child playing adult; it aspires to be more than it simply is capable of.

Well at least the webisodes were short and pretty to watch.  An A for effort!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

SYNOPSIS

A surreal interpretation of Pandora’s Box about a scientist whose failed experiment results in the formation of a black hole that alters time and space, creating a chaotic Twilight-Zonesque nightmare.

Brought to you by Lexus, (yes, the automobile) Lstudio @Lstudio.com.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

MTV eyes turning web series Valemont to TV

The show is aired on MTV as two and a half minute interstitials, which are trailing the series being aired on MTV.com and Verizon Wireless’ V Cast Video service.

SYNOPSIS

Valemont is a moody mystery set at a college campus for the young, beautiful and elite. New freshman Sophie (Kristin Hager) is in fact young and beautiful, but she’s not elite — she’s a foster kid using a false identity to try and discover who murdered her brother Eric (Eric Balfour, recognizable from 24 and Six Feet Under).

The show was created by Friedman, who created Afterworld, and is produced by Electric Farm Entertainment, which is part owned by British commercial broadcaster ITV’s production and distribution arm. The series is distributed internationally by Fireworks International.

REVIEW

Valemont has all the makings of your typical generic WB teenage angst filled cliche; beautiful actors, pining stares, jocks, debutantes, nerds, rebels, and off course a love story.   Made for TV lite, Valemont will certainly appeal to the same audience who camped out in front of the movie theater to be the first to see Twilight.  It is literally a network TV series made for the web; production is tops, actors are solid – if not a bit vanilla, and the story is typical.

Ultimately, Valemont is a cream puff of a web series; fluffy and without substance, but it is sweet enough to satisfy your absolute boredom. If you are expecting any real horror, look elsewhere.  Valemont is heavy on the suspense but lite on the scare.  The episodes are bite sized and small enough to watch on a whim.  However, you still may find yourself guiltily coming back for more like a junk food addict on a cloudy day.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

MTV eyes turning web series Valemont to TV

The show is aired on MTV as two and a half minute interstitials, which are trailing the series being aired on MTV.com and Verizon Wireless’ V Cast Video service.

SYNOPSIS

Valemont is a moody mystery set at a college campus for the young, beautiful and elite. New freshman Sophie (Kristin Hager) is in fact young and beautiful, but she’s not elite — she’s a foster kid using a false identity to try and discover who murdered her brother Eric (Eric Balfour, recognizable from 24 and Six Feet Under).

The show was created by Friedman, who created Afterworld, and is produced by Electric Farm Entertainment, which is part owned by British commercial broadcaster ITV’s production and distribution arm. The series is distributed internationally by Fireworks International.

REVIEW

Valemont has all the makings of your typical generic WB teenage angst filled cliche; beautiful actors, pining stares, jocks, debutantes, nerds, rebels, and off course a love story.   Made for TV lite, Valemont will certainly appeal to the same audience who camped out in front of the movie theater to be the first to see Twilight.  It is literally a network TV series made for the web; production is tops, actors are solid – if not a bit vanilla, and the story is typical.

Ultimately, Valemont is a cream puff of a web series; fluffy and without substance, but it is sweet enough to satisfy your absolute boredom. If you are expecting any real horror, look elsewhere.  Valemont is heavy on the suspense but lite on the scare.  The episodes are bite sized and small enough to watch on a whim.  However, you still may find yourself guiltily coming back for more like a junk food addict on a cloudy day.

Synopsis
“On the last weekend before prom, a mismatched group of high school kids head to a remote pond to drink beer and hang out. When the beer runs dry, the conversation turns to daring Patrick, the runt of the group, into knocking on the door of the Hardells – the reclusive family that owns the land the pond is on. Patrick takes up the dare, knocks on the Hardells’ door, and finds himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun. When Patrick’s friends come to his defense, the oldest Hardell is killed in the shuffle. Scared and guilty – the teens flee the crime. When the rest of the Hardell clan find the old man murdered, they seek out vengeance. One-by-one the teens are hunted down by Orry, the sexually oppressed mute; Willard, the long-haired wildman; and Kasper, the cold-blooded family leader.”

Circle of 8 – Episode 01

Circle Of Eight | MySpace Video

Description: Jessica arrives in Los Angeles and moves into a downtown building called, The Dante.  Upon settling into her room, Jessica discovers that something strange is happening at The Dante… something she can’t explain.

Circle of Eight is an interactive web thriller, studio financed with big budgets and a second life beyond the Internet.

Circle of 8 Trailer HD

Circle Of Eight | MySpace Video

A farm girl Jessica arrives in L.A. at her new home: The Dante—a dank, old apartment building outfitted with a creepy building manager, a bunch of uncomfortably friendly neighbors and, soon, a dead body.  Fueled by curiosity, Jessica begins investigating to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Meanwhile, viewers can investigate via interactive challenges placed in each episode.

Live-action thriller, color, NR (some mature themes), 5-8 min. per episode/Free on www.myspace.com/circleof8

Nytimes.com

Hulu, the joint online venture between NBC, Fox and ABC that mostly offers free TV shows and movies, is about to start singing a different tune: music videos.

On Wednesday the company plans to announce a somewhat limited deal with EMI, the smallest of the four major music labels, to give a “channel” on Hulu to the crooner Norah Jones. All of Ms. Jones’s videos will be posted to the site, as well as footage of four concerts and several interviews. Ms. Jones has a new album, “The Fall,” coming out this week. The plan is to add other EMI artists over time, as well as new Norah Jones material.

People have been wondering all year when Hulu would begin adding music videos. Its much bigger rival, YouTube, has a vast archive of music videos from all of the major labels, and is working on a music video hub, called Vevo, with Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment. MySpace also has a large collection of videos. Hulu’s deal with EMI is more limited, which is probably a sign that Hulu is declining to give the financial terms the labels are looking for.

Andy Forssell, Hulu’s senior vice president for content and distribution, said that Hulu toyed with the idea of putting tens of thousands of music videos on the site. “In the end, we thought the best starting point that fit with our mission, and with what our users expect, is a good mix of content, some music videos, long-form content and interviews, everything we can get for an immersive experience around certain artists,” he said.

Mr. Forssell said talks were continuing with the other labels and that “my sense is that we’ll be in relationships with all of them at some point.”

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This Addictive 10-Episode Series is about the Loves, Laughs and Heartaches of Los Angeles’ Young Black Professional Elite

Set in the glitzy and glamorous world of the Black Hollywood, BUPPIES chronicles the relationship dramas of a group of slightly dysfunctional but inseparable friends as they navigate the tricky terrain of L.A.’s young black power elite. The groundbreaking web series is the first of its kind to feature an African-American principal cast, and stars actress Tatyana Ali as Quinci Allen (”The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Young and the Restless”).

Episode one finds Quinci, the socialite daughter of a Hollywood celebrity, trying to recover from the loss of her father and being dumped by her basketball star fiance. In what ends up as a misguided attempt to cheer her up, Quinci’s friends throw her a big birthday celebration that unfolds into a compelling series of personal dramas and deep secrets that create the heart of this fascinating series.

BUPPIES was created and produced by critically acclaimed filmmakers. Creator, writer and director Julian Breece’s first film was an official selection of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Just this year, he and his producing partner, Aaliyah Williams, were highlighted as part of IndieWire’s “Top 10 New Voices in Black Cinema.” Their production company, Game Theory Films, produced the series along with Tatyana Ali and her sister Anastasia’s production company HazraH Entertainment. Tatyana Ali serves as an Executive Producer of the series along with producers Aaliyah Williams and Anastasia Ali.

Beauty brand CoverGirl has signed on as the inaugural sponsor of BUPPIES.

For more information on BUPPIES, please visit BET.com/shows

MEET THE BUPPIES

Quinci Allen/Tatyana Ali

Tatyana Ali is a Broadway-trained actress, singer, artist and honors graduate of Harvard University. Audiences best recognize the New York native as Ashley, the youngest child in the Banks household on NBC’s hit comedy, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She most recently appeared on Steven Spielberg’s reality show On The Lot and currently can be seen on CBS’s The Young and The Restless.

Priscilla/Robin Thede

Trained at Second City and Improv Olympic Robin Thede has been seen on numerous TV shows, including “Chocolate News” (Comedy Central), “Kath & Kim” (NBC), “Worst Week” (CBS) and “All of Us” (UPN). She is frequently seen on E! News Daily as a freelance reporter and heard on Jamie Foxx’s Foxxhole on Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 106) as a co-host on “The Voice of Reason.”

Shaka/Ernest Waddell

Ernest Waddell is a NYU theater-trained actor whose television credits include Law and Order Special Victims Unit, HBO’s The Wire, and One Tree Hill. He is also an abstract painter and musician.

Eliot/Preston Davis II

Preston Davis has appeared in several television and film roles and currently has a recurring role on HBO’s hit series, “Entourage.” A Los Angeles native and graduate of Louisiana State University, Davis also stars in the upcoming films, “The Brotherhood V: Alumni” and “The Prankster.”

Kourtney/Chante Freirson

Chante Freirson’s acting career straddles television and theater starting with recurring roles on NBC’s hit A Different World and the Broadway production of Rent. She was most recently been seen in the San Diego Musical Theater production of Dreamgirls.

SOURCE BET Networks

]]> http://www.webentguide.com/?feed=rss2&p=274 0 http://www.webentguide.com/?p=134 http://www.webentguide.com/?p=134#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:56:42 +0000 Staff http://www.webentguide.com/?p=134 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

L Studio satisfies us with a tall serving of short films made for the web.