Bottom Line: Delayed Teen Angst is one of those shows you will need to watch a few episodes of to get the rhythm. It’s different and until you see what they are trying to do the dialogue and pacing might throw you off. If you can get past that, Delayed Teen Angst is a unique retelling of the classic summer love story.

DELAYED TEEN ANGST (DTA) is the tale of noble Lionel (Tristan Scott); his no-nonsense sister, Evie (Amy Vorpahl); and his lovelorn friend, Damian (Fernando Noor), as they straddle adulthood during summer vacation. When Evie entertains the affections of Damian, Lionel struggles with the fact that his partner in chromosomes may be violated by his long-time friend.

From screenwriter Claire L. Wasmund and director Karen Bullis comes this breakout series that takes a comic look at a summer romance that goes seriously wrong.

Details

Cast: Tristan Scott, Amy Vorpahl, Fernando Noor
Website: Delayed Teen Angst

YouTube: Watch Them On YouTube
Twitter: Follow Them On Twitter
Facebook: Join Them On Facebook
Vote For It: Delayed Teen Angst

Ratings

Style 3

Pacing 4

This is definitely a weird one. Go into it knowing that and you will enjoy the story, if you are looking for a “normal” webseries you might be disappointed. (Storytelling 3.5)

Polish 3.5

I’ll admit, after the first episode I really couldn’t figure this one out. The characters are painted with broad flourishes and the dialogue borders on the purple. It took a few episodes to realize that the entire thing was deliberate but once I did I learned to appreciate the unique artistic style. (Watchability 2.5)

Novelty 3

Overall Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: In the wide world of religious satire Mr. Deity stands a cut above the rest. It manages to raise some really interesting questions about the way the we look at the world beyond without devolving into a heavy-handed mess.

Mr. Deity is a webshow/podcast that looks at the every-day life of the creator and everything he must endure as he attempts to manage his creation.

Details

Cast: Brian Keith Dalton, Jimbo Marshall, Sean Douglas, Amy Rohren
Website: Mr Deity
YouTube: Watch Them On YouTube
Facebook: Join Them On Facebook
Vote For It: Mr. Deity

Ratings

Style 4

Pacing 4

For a show that could have become nothing but a series of sketches, they do a fantastic job of tying episodes together, rewarding those who have been keeping up from the beginning. That being said, the show is still enjoyable even if you only have a few episodes under your belt. (Storytelling 4.5)

Polish 3.5

This show is downright addicting. The episodes only get better once they introduce Jessie and Lucy to the cast in the middle of the first season. As always with a show that touches so prominently on religion, this it’s not for everyone, but I think they keep it light-hearted enough to keep most people coming back for more. (Watchability 5)

Novelty 4

Overall Rating: 4.16 out of 5 stars

A man finds himself alone on his birthday, until a mysterious stranger gives him a call and changes his fate forever.

OK, I am being a little melodramatic. This is a much more light-hearted than all of that. The Objective is a story of Evan Hume who is having trouble adjusting to a new town and the adventure he goes on that leads him to find the answer to his problem.

Considering the fact that it is 100% improvised, this is a really fun film to watch. It’s straightforward, well acted and manages to throw you a curve ball or two. For a zero budget experiment, it delivers a significant amount of entertainment.

Creator’s Description

On his 25th birthday, lonely Evan Hume is summoned from his couch by an anonymous benefactor to complete a series of challenges in order to regain something lost in his past.

This short film was improvised and shot in three days in the summer of 2007, without a script, as an exercise/experiment in creating a caper film with only one on screen character and zero violence/language.

Details

Cast: Carleton Torpin
Vimeo Channel: The Objective
Website: Carleton Torpin

Ratings

Style 4

Pacing 4

It’s a pretty standard “quest” story told with enough flair to keep you interested. You’re definitely not going to find too many surprises but you really wouldn’t want to. (Storytelling 3.5)

Polish 3

Watchability 4

Novelty 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.66 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Brent’s ability to develop original character sketches is profound, whether you are looking for a laugh or something deeper he has something for you. Also, the profound amount of work he puts into these sketches should be an inspiration to independent filmmakers everywhere.

Put simply, this is the concept: create fifty unique characters in fifty weeks. Each week, I upload a video of said character. That’s pretty much it. It is intentionally being left extremely open-ended, so there are very few rules (I’m not a big fan of rules). That’s half of the project. The other half is I’ll be blogging about my process (how I create each character, how I’m managing with this project, etc), to shed some light into an actor’s process (which most people don’t know a whole lot about, I think). A video may consist of a monologue, an improv, a scene with one or more people (written or improvised), an interview, a music video, whatever. In the creation of characters, again, I’m leaving it wide open (I may even try an impression or two). There are only three major rules:

1. I am never allowed to half-ass it.
2. I have to fully commit to my choices.
3. I have to do it every week.

Details

Cast: Brent Rose
YouTube Channel: 50 in 50
Website: 50in50
Support the Show: Donate To The Show On Kickstarters

Subscribe

RSS Feed: Feed
Facebook Page 50in50

Ratings

Style 3

There is a mixed bag of comic and dramatic characters here. The upside is that you’re never bored, you can tell that Brent has significant range and he wants to show that off to you. The downside is that some of the characters drag a little. When I say things like “drag” I usually mean that they are boring, but in this case I simply mean that if you view 4 or 5 videos in a row each one will be dancing to the beat of its own drum. If you are used to a more consistent pacing, this might throw you off. (Pacing 4)

Storytelling 4

Polish 3.5

Each sketch comes in at under ten minutes and each one moves at a pretty fast clip. If anything, you’ll wish that he had more time to expand on some of the funnier characters but that’s only until you fall in love with the next one. (Watchability 4.5)

50 characters, 50 weeks and all of them incredibly different. This is a ride and hands over fist better than most of the YouTube experiments you’ll see floating around the Intertubes. (Novelty 4.5)

Overall Rating: 3.91 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Beautifully strange is the best way I could describe this one. I hope that as the series progresses we start to see Dan’s character begin to grow and develop, this could be a lot more than a sketch series.

Dan Humford had an accident.

Now he’s in a coma, forever caught in the infinite white canvas of his own mind, where he’s haunted by memories, personal insecurities, and sometimes candy bars, old girlfriends, and a fetus.

Bite-size at 2-4 minutes each, Coma, Period. is a darkly irreverent comedy about our inept hero, Dan, and the ways he torments and rewards himself in the stasis of being in a coma. Starring comedian and web celebrity Rob Delaney, this actively original web series is hilarious, funny, comical, and as many other synonyms as you can find on dictionary.com.

Details

Cast: Rob Delaney
Strike.tv Channel: Coma, Period
Website: Lead Balloon
Support the Show: Make A Donation (Paypal button near the bottom of the page)

Subscribe

RSS Feed: Feed
Facebook Page Coma Period

Ratings

Style 3.5

For such a clever premise, it’s too short. Once you get past the intro and the outro you have maybe 2 minutes of actual show. The sad part is that during those two minutes a lot of really interesting stuff is happening that makes you long for an extra minute or two even more. (Pacing 2.5)

It’s still pretty early in the show but I’d like to see a bit more plot progression. Right now it’s very much sketch-based, with every episode completely disconnected from the last. That being said, this show is wonderfully weird and could be fantastic if the writers give us a little more reason to feel for the main character. (Storytelling 3)

Fantastic use of green screen and a lot of fun effects make this a really well put together series. (Polish 4.5)

Watchability 3.5

Novelty 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.58 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: I hope they make more of these, a lot more. I rarely make it through an entire run of a web series but I found myself watching 664 compulsively. Even the opening theme is catchy. Do yourself a favor and start watching this today.

Tracy and George got married. Awwwww.

Around then, George started making his own short films. Gary and Alex had already been making films. Tony wanted to make films, too. So, they all started making films. Sometimes together, sometimes apart. Awwwww.

A few years later, Arthur started appearing in some of these films. Mostly because he had access to an actual police uniform. Then we said, “He’s very funny. Maybe we should do other, non-police things with him?” We agreed. We started doing non-police things with Arthur. He was very funny. Awwwwww.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Details

Cast: Arthur Laurie, Tracy O’ Connor, Tony DeMauro
YouTube Channel: Neighbor of the Beast
Website: Lazyhorde
Support the Show: Buy The Season One DVD

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RSS Feed: Feed
Contact: Neighbor of the Beast

Ratings

I really dig the costume for “Lou” the Devil. Nothing spectacular but it works in the sense that you could almost imagine him walking around like that in this neighborhood without raising too many eyebrows. (Style 3.5)

Pacing 4.5

What struck me about this show is that by the end of every episode I had at least one line stuck in my head. The writing is strong and the characters are really fun to be around. (Storytelling 4.5)

The background music can get a little grating, especially if you watch multiple episodes in a row. Otherwise it is a well put together low budget series. (Polish 3)

Watchability 5

It’s a show about a couple moving in next door to a rather pleasant Lucifer. Can’t get much more novel. (Novelty 4.5)

Overall Rating: 4.16 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: I have a soft spot in my heart for Zombies and zombie-related series, and this one is hard not to like. The story could move a little faster and there could be a few more Zombies shambling about but overall the series is an entertaining look at life after the Zombie Apocalypse.

Zomblogalypse is a sitcom about a world where Zombies have taken over. Don’t confuse this for a normal apocalyptic Zombie romp, in this series everyone seems strangely OK with the pack of flesh eaters that have invaded their world. Watch what life is like when people stop being friendly, and start eating brains.

Details

Cast: Hannah Bungard, Tony Hipwell, Miles Watts
YouTube Channel: Zomblogalypse
Website: Zomblogalypse
Support the Show: See Other Miles To Go Productions

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RSS Feed: Feed
Facebook Group: Zomblogalypse

Ratings

Style 3

Pacing 4

There is a hole in the Zombie genre for something not quite as campy as Shaun of the Dead and not quite as serious as one of Romero’s films, a series like this fills that hole. The story feels like a realistic look at what the Zombie Apocalypse would be like for a group of normal people. (Storytelling 3.5)

They were going for a documentary style and they hit the nail on the dead. (Polish 4)

If you don’t like Zombies or need your Zombie Apocalypse to be dark and creepy, you probably won’t care for this show. Otherwise, there is a lot to enjoy here. (Watchability 3.5)

Novelty 4

Overall Rating: 3.66 out of 5 stars

Experimental filmmaking always walks the fine line between being interesting and being unwatchable. Muzorama does a good job of skirting that line.

It was put together by Elsa Brehin, Raphaël Calamote, Mauro Carraro, Maxime Cazaux, Emilien Davaux, Laurent Monneron, and Axel Tillement in 3D Studio Max and it was inspired by French illustrator Muzo.

It’s weird, very weird. If you don’t go in expecting that you aren’t going to like it. There are people eating people, scenes cut within other scenes, cut between decapitated winking heads. There are melting faces and clones, giant women and dozens of other rich, creepy images. It’s all very surreal but unlike other animations of its class, it makes a certain amount of sense.

If you can get your head around the films logic it’s worth giving it a look, even if you can’t, at 3:12 it’s worth watching if only to tell all of your friends how strange it is.

Details

Creators: Elsa Brehin, Raphaël Calamote, Mauro Carraro, Maxime Cazaux, Emilien Davaux, Laurent Monneron, and Axel Tillement
Vimeo Channel: Muzorama
Created In: 3D Studio Max

Ratings

This film is stylish to a fault. (Style 4.5)

There is no clear story arc so it’s hard to really plot pacing. (Pacing 2.5)

Storytelling 2.5

For a project put together in 6 weeks it’s amazingly well done (Polish 3)

Watchability 2

It is, by definition, a very “art house” film and it uses many familiar tropes from the genre. (Novelty 3.5)

Overall Rating: 3 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

Heui Won Jeong and Justin Murphy give us an incredibly stylish “eco-animation” in JumpTrumpRumpBump. They combined rich, vibrant illustrations with enough atmosphere to avoid making you feel like you’re sitting through a flipbook.

The story is slow, very slow in fact. If you look at the comments on the Vimeo page you’ll see that this was deliberate but for some people it might be off-putting. The story follows a little girl and her family who are hiding a group of animals who for whatever reason are convicts. I think they might have something against Koala’s playing Jazz. They manage to put the police of the scent using what is possibly the greatest distraction in recent animation history (start the video at 3:15 to see) and eventually the little girl finds herself in the forest laying down some tasty tunes with her woodland friends.

The creators seemed to be trying to draw a parallel between the development of natural habitats and the cultural losses we accept when we do so, however, considering it is almost 8 minutes long (7:54) it is just a little difficult to parse exactly what they were going for.

Overall this is an absolutely gorgeous piece of animation that is fun to watch, even though 8 minutes is an eternity in Internet time you’ll find yourself wishing there were more. While I do wish the story was a little tighter, they manage to get across their basic premise on the importance of conservation.

If you like animals, jazz or animation take some time to look at this.

Details

Creators: Heui Won Jeong, Justin Murphy
Vimeo Channel: JumpTrumpRumpBump
Image Gallery: Flickr

Ratings

Style 4

Pacing 3

You quickly get the message but you do feel like you’re ‘missing something’ (Storytelling 3)

Polish 5

About 50% of you will find it a little too long (Watchability 3.5)

It has a really unique visual style (Novelty 4.5)

Overall Rating: 3.33 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: A lot of great things have been said about the Guild, but so few people point out just how well written it is. The acting is great, the directing and pacing are well thought out but what really shines about this series is one of the mostly tightly written and entertaining scripts in web TV land. In case you need more encouragement, go watch a few episodes now.

The Guild is a independent sitcom web series about a group of online gamers. The show started in the late summer of 2007, and for the first season was financed solely by Paypal donations from LOYAL FANS. Since season 2, The Guild has been distributed by Xbox Live and Microsoft and sponsored by Sprint.

Episodes vary from 3-8 minutes in length, and follow the Guild members’ lives online and offline.

“The Guild” has won numerous awards, including the SXSW, YouTube and Yahoo Web Series Awards in 2008, and 3 Streamy Awards in 2009: Best Comedy Web Series, Best Ensemble, and Best Actress for Felicia Day.

Details

Cast: Felicia Day, Amy Okuda, Jeff Lewis, Robin Thorsen, Sandeep Parikh, Vincent Caso
MSN Channel: The Guild
Website: The Guild
Support the Show: Buy The Season Two DVD

Subscribe

RSS Feed: Feed
Latest Episodes: Watch Season Three

Ratings

It’s a solid, straightforward story without a huge number of distracting bells and whistles. Even so, it takes itself just seriously enough to make it hard not to love. (Style 4)

Pacing 4

The word entertaining doesn’t do this show justice, it’s a pleasure to watch the story unfold. Fantastic writing, great premise, superb execution. (Storytelling 5)

Polish 4.5

Watchability 5

There are a lot of different ways you could have done a show about MMOs, but focusing on the players lives — or lack thereof — put this in a territory all its own. (Novelty 4.5)

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars