Bottom Line: With The Angels is a surprisingly touching story of a small town girl trying to make a new life in California. I know it sounds a little hokey, but that’s almost the point. It tells the story of growing up in a simple yet powerful way.

Former Lonelygirl15 writer Mary Feuer tells the fish-out-of-water story of Taffy Simpson, a small-town Arkansas girl swimming in the freak-infested waters of Venice, California.

Details

Creator: Mary Feuer
Website: With The Angels

YouTube: Watch Them On YouTube
Twitter: Follow Them On Twitter
Facebook: Join Their Page
Vote For It: With The Angels

Ratings

Style 3

Pacing 4

With The Angels is shot in a classic webcamumentary style (as classic as a made up word can be) but it avoids the disconnect from setting that usually plagues these sorts of shows. Taffy feels like she is in a living, breathing world and as the story progresses you find yourself rooting for her more and more. (Storytelling 5)

Polish 3.5

I really like this show. Which is saying something considering how many webumentaries I pass on. What surprises me more than anything is how easy it is to keep watching. The writing is good but the real hook is the fantastic acting. It’s worth staying tuned just to see “Taffy’s” mastery of her role. (Watchability 5)

Novelty 3.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: This is probably the most well balanced, story-driven series I’ve had the pleasure to review. Where many web series suffer from uneven presentation, writing or pacing, STBD manages to be consistently good across its entire run.

Something to Be Desired is a web sitcom (or web series, or web video series,webcom, webisodes, or whatever imprecise descriptor you’d choose to explain us to your friends) about life after college. Created and produced in Pittsburgh, PA, we’ve been online since the summer of 2003. In that time, we’ve developed over seven hours of original content, all of which can be seen here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and entirely free.

STBD films with a local cast and crew. We shoot our web series on mini-DV (the Panasonic DVX-100A model, to be exact), edit in Final Cut Pro, and distribute on multiple platforms, including Blip TV and iTunes.

We here at STBD are torn between our hatred of corporate monoliths and our need to feed, clothe and provide shelter for ourselves, so while you may see the occasional ad or bit of merch, we’re doing all we can to avoid plugging into the system. Therefore, if you like what you see, spread the word! (We need all the help we can get…)

Details

Cast: Heather Beschizza, Laura Lee Brautigam, Josh Hansen, Ann Turiano, Shaun Hall, Lacey Fleming, Rick Hertzig, Teresa Trich, Matthew Preston, Will Guffey, Jennifer Koegler, Trent Wolfred, Erik Schark, Shaun Starke, Courtney Jenkins, Ryan Ben
Blip.tv Channel: Something To Be Desired
Website: Something To Be Desired
Support the Show: Visit The STBD Store

Subscribe

Feed: Feed
Twitter Page Something To Be Desired

Ratings

Style 3.5

Pacing 4 (Each episode covers a a lot of ground. They come in at about 10 minutes a piece but none of it is derivative. It’s one of those shows that once you start it you’ll have to see it through to the end. The character development is solid if not a bit uneven, it takes a little while to really get into the supporting cast’s head but once you’re there the series gets even better.)

A compelling, meaty story that takes a while to unravel. This is one of those series that will do you absolutely no good to watch as an one off, if you’re going to start with Something to Be Desired you need to be willing to commit yourself to at least a few episodes to get a feeling for the characters and to understand the arc. (Storytelling 4.5)

Polish 3.5

Rock solid writing, directing and acting make this an easy to enjoy series. The fact that it has been going for as long as it has deserves a nod as well. Web series typically have a short shelf life, either the writers can’t hold the story together or the talent moves on to other projects, but STBD has been on air for six seasons and still seems fresh. (Watchability 4.5)

Novelty 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.91 out of 5 stars

It’s a story about what the world looks like after the Zombie Apocalypse, and it’s a story about a boy named Jimbo.

Really it’s a story about growing up.

Sappy enough? Well, in the realm of movies about Zombies this does err on the sentimental side. While it does have the sort of casual violence you expect from the genre, the main plot points revolve around loss, loneliness and how people deal with change.

The production quality is pretty solid, the world looks blasted without being overdone and the violence is pretty darn violent. What I liked most about it though was the subtlety. Without spoiling too much, the final shot of the boy after the climactic event is cinematic gold.

If you like Zombies and having your heart string tugged rather than having your heart strings tugged out by Zombies, this movie is just your speed.

Creator’s Description

A bunch of teenagers in a ghost town, full of death and desolation, where adults have turned into zombies. Among them, stands Jimbo (Brad Ashby), madly in love with Sarah Jane (Mia Wasikowska). This is the second short film (the first being Spider) funded by Qoob. Directed by Spencer Susser, who also co-wrote the script with Australian author/director David Michod, this film has been selected in major festivals across the world (among which Sundance ‘08) and won 4 prizes so far.

Details

Cast: Brad Ashby, Mia Wasikowska
Vimeo Channel: I Love Sarah Jane
Website: QOOB

Ratings

Anytime you blow up a zombie with a flaming arrow you get most of your style points. (Style 5)

Pacing 4

A surprisingly sentimental trip into the Zombieverse, not at all what you might expect out a movie driven by the undead. (Storytelling 4)

Everything from the costumes to the setting is stellar. (Polish 4.5)

Watchability 4

Novelty 4

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

I like this one for what it never says.

If that isn’t too cryptic then I’m glad you joined me for this review. Gone is a story of a woman who discovers that the same friends who came out to mourn her sister’s suicide might, in fact, be responsible for it. It’s a story about a diary that tells her the dark secrets that her sister hid away until it was too much to bare. More generally, it’s a story about pain that never gives a single hint as to its source.

That’s the thing about this film, you know that most of the cast are really bad people but you don’t know why. No one really does anything particularly upsetting either, but the implication is that each of them had a hand in the sister’s suicide. It’s dark, confusing and leaves you with more questions than answers. It manages to do all of this while remaining coherent, who can really ask for more?

Creator’s Description

A woman explores her sister’s suicide through the entries in her diary and discovers that her friends might not be who she thought they were.

Details

Cast: Rachel Button, Yeukayi Ushe, Emma Barnard, Laura Lloyd, Solomon Israel, Ana Valerio, Amy Gallagher, Abena Bentum, Stephen Adeluku, Leylan Saad, Kate Shaw
Vimeo Channel: Gone
Website: Sam Hendi

Ratings

Style 3.5

It’s good but It’s a little uneven, it’s starts out really slowly, ramps up near the middle and then slows right back down again in the third act. (Pacing 3.5)

It leaves unanswered questions without becoming muddled in its own sense of mystery. Overall it’s a well executed drama. (Storytelling 4)

Polish 4

If you really, really need closure this might not be for you, otherwise it is a great watch coming in at just under 10 minutes. (Watchability 4)

Novelty 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

It was hard writing this review because I can’t quite put a finger on why I like this film so much. The animation is stunning and has a kind of visual richness that is missing from many short animations that believe that technical flourishes can make up for good visual storytelling.

The music is also wonderful and it drives the story forward in a way that might have been impossible with dialogue.

While those are reasons for the good review, they aren’t why I like it so much.

When it comes down to it, there is just something sweet about this film. It’s a story of loneliness, friendship and hope told in less than ten minutes and with cartoon sensibilities. It’s like a bedtime story and I love it for the same reasons, it shows how magical and tenuous friendship can be.

It’s a story I wish was told this well more often.

Creator’s Description

Harmony is a young girl living on a cold and desolate Earth, alone and longing for friendship. While trying to tune into a station on her home radio one night, she picks up a melody that leads her to the moon.

Entropy is an emotional and dreamlike short that articulates feelings of loneliness, hope, and love.

Details

Creator: Dane Jacobs, Jeremy Hay
Youtube Channel: Rhubarb Zoo
Website: Entropy

Ratings

Style 4

Pacing 3.5

Fantastic visual storytelling. (Storytelling 4)

This is an absolutely beautiful film, from the animation to the ending theme. (Polish 5)

Watchability 4

Novelty 4

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is a story about age, family and lose. A son and his father find their roles suddenly reversed. I thoroughly enjoyed this short film written by Nikos and Constantin Pilavios.

It’s a simple story beautifully told and while it is in Greek it’s subtitled for all of us with only one language under our belts.

Creator’s Description

Father and son are sitting on a bench. Suddenly a sparrow lands across them.

Details

Creators: Nikos Pilavios, Constantin Pilavios
Vimeo Channel: What Is That?
Website: Movie Teller

Ratings

Style 4

Pacing 3.5

For a story that comes in at under 6 minutes they manage to make their point brilliantly. (Storytelling 5)

Polish 4

It’s deliberately slow paced and rather sentimental, if you were looking for something more upbeat then you might want to take a pass on this one. (Watchability 4)

Novelty 4

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Short form documentary film making is a hard nut to crack. Either you don’t have enough time to make your point, or you make it too long to be palatable on the web. Donald Kilgore’s “Paper Flowers & A Little Patience” is a powerful example of what you get when you do it right.

It’s the story of a homeless man in Houston who makes paper flowers. It takes him about a day to make each and they are made entirely out of napkins. The entire thing is shot as he sings a song about his life, his experiences and living on the street. For only being 2:20 long, the depth of insight you get is impressive. It’s also unexpectedly and refreshingly upbeat considering the subject matter, showing one man who is taking the cards he has been dealt and using them for something positive.

I only wish that it was longer but as it stands it in an amazing snapshot of what had to be an amazing experience for the filmmakers.

For anyone interested in social change this is a must see video.

Details

Creator: Donald Kilgore
Vimeo Channel: Paper Flowers and a Little Patience
Website: Donald Kilgore

Ratings

Great cuts, great framing, nice use of black and white (Style 3.5)

You are never bored listening to this man tell his story (Pacing 4)

Storytelling 4

Great footage but a little mic noise throws it off (Polish 3)

Watchability 4

This is so much different than other “social change” films, it’s beautiful and refreshing. (Novelty 5)

Overall Rating: 3.91 out of 5 stars

Cart is a Jesse Rosten film which at 10:00 is more or less feature length for the Internet. It tells the story of a shopping cart and it’s journey to return a little boy’s sweater.

This is solid storytelling.

Even without a single word of dialogue, you start to feel for the cart. It reminded me a lot of why I liked Wall-E, every bump and shake as it travels across town makes the cart feel less like steel and plastic and more like a living, breathing creature. In a lot of ways the cart feels more real, more sympathetic than the human characters.

The musical score by Peter Lance is also great, while it doesn’t do anything spectacular, it helps the story keep pace and it adds a much needed sense of drama.

Without spoiling too much, I would say my least favorite part of this film was the ending. It’s exactly because the characterization of the cart is so well done that I think the ending falls flat. You want to see the cart rewarded for its hard work (how often do shopping carts travel across town on cloths retrieval missions?) instead what you get is a rather dark, abrupt climax that leaves a lot of questions that you want answered out in the open.

That small criticism aside, this is an utterly fantastic film that is a must see for anyone who likes children stories or has a soft spot in their heart for shopping carts.

Details

Creator: Jesse Rosten
Vimeo Channel: Cart – The Film
Website: Jesse Rosten

Ratings

The Cart animation is seamless and the visual storytelling is utterly engaging. (Style 4)

It feels much shorter than 10 minutes (Pacing 4)

I have personal issues with the ending, but that doesn’t stop this from being an amazingly well done story. (Storytelling 4.5)

Polish 4

Watchability 4

Really unique protagonist in an otherwise familiar story (Novelty 3.5)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Carnival of Cultures is visually stunning look at the 2009 Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin. The problem I usually have with these types of travelogues is that after about 30 seconds you “get the point” and you spend the rest of the video hoping for a Bayplosion to get things moving again. Matzeb manages to avoid this through the judicious use of cuts and a good eye for choosing the clips that move the story forward.

He also keeps it at a reasonable length, I’m sure he had hours of footage to choose from but instead of giving us 20 minutes of the same basic concepts rehashed he makes the hard choices and leaves us with 3:20 of gold.

I also loved the music that he choose, French artist Camille’s “Ta Douleur.” It works better here in this clip than it does in Camille’s actual music video. Don’t believe me?

in every shoot, Matzeb spends almost a minute absolutely fascinated with juggling. I’ll admit it was really interesting to watch the street performer but it felt like there was not enough there to warrant taking up such a large percentage of the film.

Like any video that amounts to shot after shot of people dancing around enjoying themselves you need to be in a certain kind of mood to really appreciate this. If you are fascinated by travel or you were considering taking in the Karneval der Kulturen this is the video to see.

Details

Creator: Matzeb
Vimeo Channel: Carnival of Culture
Shot Using: Lumix GH1

Ratings

Style 3

Pacing 4

You get a sense for it visually but there is a certain lack of context (Storytelling 2)

It’s absolutely brilliantly shot, edited and put together (Polish 5)

Fantastic for a travelogue (Watchability 4)

There is only so much you can do with this sort of footage (Novelty 3)

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Although I would have loved if the film makers had spent more time with each of the people highlighted in these videos, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a clever, fun and strangely sentimental web project. I only wish others would take time to understand culture in such a creative way.

GOLD is a comedy series about Professional Role Playing Gamers, written and produced for the web.

The World Goblins & Gold Role Playing Game Championship is only a few short weeks away. The perennial second-place American team has undergone an upheaval: their longtime team leader, Jonathan Drake, has suffered a tragic gaming-related accident. Maverick player and loose cannon Richard Wright takes the reigns and tries to wrestle his new team into shape before the competition, while despondent Jonathan battles his personal demons. Meanwhile, the World Champion British team, led by the crafty Oliver Crane and sultry Martha Thistlethwait, prepare for the Championship by enlisting a gaming legend as their new coach.

As the two factions battle internal and external strife, another threat rears its head: despite a fervent European following, in the U.S., Goblins & Gold is on the decline. Fewer and fewer players are picking up the dice in pursuit of this proud but aging sport, opting instead for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and the seductive simplicity of console gaming.

Can Richard whip his new team into shape in time for the championships? Will Crane’s Britons continue to dominate? And, if G&G loses its audience, will it all even matter in the end?

Join us for the web series that dares to ask the question, “Can you take the hits?”

Details

Cast: Rick Robinson,David Nett,Nathan Mobley,James Paul,Xavier,Gary Karp,Robert Brewer,Alan Loayza,Shannon Nelson,Jeremy Guskin,Shannon Ivey,Angela Schnaible,Chuck Raucci,Frederick Snyder,Jessica Pennington,Justin Waggle,Sasha Harris,James Ellis Lane,Brett Nichols,Jeanette Scherrer,Andrew R. Deutsch,JoAnna Senatore,Michael Miranda,Torrance Jordan
Blip.tv Channel: GOLD: The Series
Website: GOLD: The Series
Support the Show: Make A Donation

Subscribe

RSS Feed: Feed
iTunes Feed: GOLD: The Series

Ratings

It feels like a television sitcom without too many stylistic flourishes thrown in to distract from the overall story (Style 2.5)

Pacing 4

Good characterization, solid directing and a storyline that takes you along for a ride. Of course there are a few bits of overacting in there but not enough to detract from a stellar overall performance. (Storytelling 4.5)

Polish 4.5

At about ten minutes per episode it’s long enough to introduce a story arc without being so long that you have a hard time getting through it. (Watchability 4)

It’s a story about a group of table top RPG players that actually tugs at your heart strings. I don’t know how they did it, but I am happy that they did. (Novelty 4.5)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars