To vote please visit the Public Submissions Page at http://www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people/

Might I suggest a few:

Best Cinematography in a Web Series
Thomas A. Koch

Best Directing in a Comedy Web Series
Sinohui Hinojosa

Best Male Actor in a Comedy in a Web Series
Michael Navarra

Best Male Actor in a Comedy in a Web Series
Steve Budd

Best Male Actor in a Comedy in a Web Series
Matthew Bridges

Best Female Actor in a Comedy in a Web Series
Annamarie MacLeod

Best Female Actor in a Comedy in a Web Series
Giovannie Espiritu

Best Female Actor in a Comedy in a Web Series
Terri J. Freeman

Best Female Actor in a Comedy in a Web Series
Ilea Matthews

Best Original Music in a Web Series
Joel H Hinojosa

Best Editing in a Web Series
Joel H Hinojosa

Best Writing in a Web Series
Sinohui Hinojosa, David Hokenga

Best Guest Star in a Web Series
Derrick O’Connor

Sinohui and I discuss the live episode in episode 15 of the Bay Area Filmmakers Podcast.

The biggest question for this blog is “How did we do it?”

The answer to that is, exactly how I do my day job.  My day job is Technical Directing and Compressing live webcasts for a fortune 500 company.  At the company we use Windows Media as our main live streaming solution, but have been working with Flash and Quicktime for certain events. For “Exit” we knew we wanted to go with Flash to offer the most compatibility.  Flash has a huge installed base and works quite well for streaming.  Bit for Bit, it’s not the best looking codec to use, but it is cross platform and browser compatible.

We set up a computer running an Intel Quad Core processor, a Digital Rapids capture card and Flash Media Live Encoder.  We set up our RMTP stream to a server running Flash Media Server.  We originally tested this on an HP AMD64 machine that was a few years old, but it was choking and only allowed 19 or 20 frames per second, which is why we went to a brand new Quad-core system.

Using Flash CS-4, CSS, and HTML I created a simple front end to run the video in.  I searched the web and found AJAX chat and implemented it.

That was the down and dirty funcionality of the Streaming Part.  We were lucky enough to have my friend Greg set up the encoder and test the stream.

Moving on to the video production side of things, is where we ran into a few problems.  We were working with a number of unknowns prior to the actual event.  We didn’t have the time or budget to have a day of rehearsal on the 24th as we were hoping to do.  So that left us just the 25th to set up test, light, and rehearse. This caused us a lot of pain during the event, which is why we ended up running a bit behind.

I’m used to working with full studio configured cameras, such as the Sony D50 that allows me to control Iris, color balance, and black balance from video village.  In this case however we did not have access to a flypack with our limited budget.  Instead we went with 3 HVX-200 cameras and a Sony EX-1.  The sony was graciously donated to the production from Brett at Prompter People and the additional HVX was from SJSU.

We ran those cameras with S-video cables through monitors, and into a Panasonic MX-70 8 input switcher on the main inputs.  A 5th input came from a Mac Pro through an AJA I/O HD via SDI.  The playback of the Audio and Video Roll-ins was from a Final Cut Pro Timeline.  This is also how we rolled in our countdow.

Audio consisted of a Mackie 16 channel mixer, 8 wireless Sennhieser microphones as well as a few off brand wireless mics.  We have a boom op covering one scene where we didn’t have enough microphones to cover everyone.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon, I set up video village while Chris and crew set up all the lighting and the show.  Video village set up took longer than originally planned, as we were waiting on some equipment to arrive after it was used.  This is also due to the new aspects were were not counting on.  The AJA I/O was freshly opened up and drivers downloaded and installed.  This was it’s maiden voyage if you will.  Set up basically contined all the way up to 6:50 at which point we realized that we needed AT LEAST one rehearsal.  Well we didn’t get it.  We did however get about 4 scenes into the show 10 minutes before we went live.  So, we in all essences didn’t have a single rehearsal for the live show.  The live was our rehearsal.

It was crazy.  No one really knew when things were happening and the script that I had, wasn’t up to date.  Things changed in editing the produced episode to they had to be handled on the fly.  We also had problems with our Clear-com, as the wireless wasn’t working and I had only one way communication with 3 of our 4 cameramen.  The 4th was flying free out there.

So that’s the basic story of how it happened and the gear we used to do it.

See Tubefilter for their writeup!

Below is the official press release:
EXIT Stage Left (www.exitstageleft.tv) tells the story of an off-Broadway theatre troupe and the issues they face while staging a new play. Told in thirteen original episodes, the web series is produced by Emerging Artist Productions and features the talents of seasoned theater professionals. Billed as a Web Series of Theatrical Proportions, EXIT Stage Left will completely embody their motto once the season finale is aired LIVE ON THE WEB, one night only.

Performed as a special event, the season ender will be streamed live on June 25th, 2009. As if that wasn’t enough, the performance venue will include a studio audience, plus an after -show web chat with cast and crew. “I’m pretty certain that this has never been done with a narrative web series before,” says series creator Sinohui Hinojosa, “while there are many live streaming shows on the web, performing a scripted episode of an ongoing series, live in front of a studio audience, is a first for web programming.” The episode will be streamed live at 7pm (pst) and free tickets for the show (which will be held at the main theater stage at San Jose State University in Downtown San Jose, CA.) will be available by sending an email request to tickets@lowrytheatercompany.com (limited to seats available).

“While this is a bit of a logistical nightmare, we plan on shooting the episode with four cameras and our entire cast, in an extended episode which may run up to twenty minutes long,” says series producer and technical director for the finale, Thomas A Koch. He along with producer Bernard Fok are first to admit that this is a bit of a gamble. “This is the closest to live theater you can get, anything could go wrong and we will be working without a net,” says Fok, “but we honestly believe that our actors are up to the challenge and will deliver the same outstanding performances that they have all season.”

Leading the ensemble of eleven actors, Michael Navarra, Steve Budd and Annamarie MacLeod have concluded the shooting of the first 12 episodes, which launched this past Christmas, but are prepared to look to the future and the expectation of season two. “Once we were picked up by KoldCast TV, season two became a part of the deal,” says Hinojosa, “and we expect to expand on the story of the Lowry Theater Company, but right now, all we are thinking about is the season finale and how we are going to make it work. We expect that our audience will appreciate how truly special our live show will be, which should bring us new viewers and additional exposure.”

For details on the show, to watch previous episodes or to order your free tickets, please go to www.exitstageleft.tv or send an email request to:
tickets@lowrytheatercompany.com

About Emerging Artist Productions:

Emerging Artist Productions is a SF Bay area digital production company, specializing in HD productions and open to all facets of collaborative works, from short films, documentaries and corporate spots, to new media and independent feature films.

Contact:

Sinohui Hinojosa, Executive Producer, Series Creator
email: producers@lowrytheatercompany.com office: 408-898-4944 cell: 310-857-8991
Emerging Artist Productions/Lowry Theater Company LLC.

http://www.exitstageleft.tv

The new “Lowry Theater Company” is a massive space. A huge theater, big stage, large prop and wardrobe rooms, and a large black box theater, left us in need of more lights. Luckily Prompter People came through. We were able to use several of their new LED lights, called Flolights. We use three LED 500’s and five LED 1000’s

These lights provide a broad and long throw without the heat. The barn doors allow us to control the spill of the lights as well. The first thing you will notice is that on close ups, we finally have the lights to properly accomplish 3-point lighting. You can see in episode 8 how that tool changes the look of the show. With all of our lights, we now have enough light to accomplish the 3 point lighting for multiple cameras. And we no longer run the risk of throwing the breakers! These lights use considerably less power than equivalent “hot lights.” In fact the lights consumer just one-tenth of the power.

If you notice the credits to Episode 8, you will see that Chris Faulkner is listed as the Director of Photography. Chris has been shooting with us since we moved to the new location and has been handling a lot of the gaffer duties during these shoots. I had a job that required me to travel to Germany for a week, and during that time, EXIT Stage Left had 2 shooting days. Chris took charge of the camera department during that time, and used the new LED lights to great success. Those two shooting days resulted in footage for all of one episode and most of the next one.

I resumed my duties as the Director of Photography a few weeks ago and have been delighted with the LED lights. These lights, when diffused with frost gel provide some extremely smooth and powerful light. The built in dimmers give us the infinite control of the light. The throw from these lights are several times more than fluorescent light fixtures as well, and are an excellent replacement for both Hot Lights and Fluorescent lights. This allows us to move the lights back from the actors and give them more space to move around. This is extremely important when we are doing the improv elements to the show.

I highly recommend you go and say “hello” to Brett from all of us at EXIT Stage Left and Bay Area Filmmakers!

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prModelDetail?storeId=11301&catalogId=13251&itemId=342748&modelNo=Content04162009020504436&surfModel=Content04162009020504436

Maxell has also announced that it will be creating P2 cards. http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20090420/NY0091020042009-1.html

I remember a new NAB’s ago that Hoodman also made such an announcement which never came to fruition.

We use Panasonic HVX-200’s and P2 cards for our web series, EXIT Stage Left

Backstage. What really does that mean? Will we share all of our secrets? Will we offer just a glimpse? Or will it be somewhere in between? I suspect there are certain things that we just cannot tell you about during the run of the show as they might give away secrets that will be revealed. The good news is that I’m more interested in the technical aspects of the production.

There is one important aspect of our production that dictates how we shoot the show. We are shooting this show with all the gear we own. Normally, we would rent whatever we didn’t have but needed such as dollys, flags, lights, etc. Thus, we ran into a very first technical restriction to the show. No one in our group has an array of professional lights. By professional, I’m talking about Mole Richardson and Arri Fresnel lights, or banks of Kino flos. In fact, we only have a single Fresnel light at all. A Lowel 650watt light. What we do have, however is a basic Lowel light kit consisting of two Omni lights and a Tota. When Ted Setla joins our crew or lets us use his kit, we have double the lights.

Our main workhorse lights, are our Lowel Rifa lights. These are ideal lights for the space we are in, and the style of shooting we are doing. The softboxes allow us to cover a large area in soft light, allowing actors to move around the space and stay relatively evenly lit. With the Fresnel and the Omnis, we are able to throw targeted light on the backgrounds.

This is, in fact how we shoot as much of the show as possible. It allows us to set-up quick and gives us a nice look to the series.

I have received a fair number of reviews from colleagues and overwhelmingly they all agreed on one thing: they think the show looks great. With our lighting, we went for the most basic look we could get without looking bad. The lighting though, only highlights the great location that is the Lowry Theater. Take our softbox technique and put it into a white room and you’ll have a completely different result.

I don’t want this to sound like an advertisement for Lowel, but considering their price point and versatility, they are what we are using. I have my eye on some nice Chimera softboxes though.

Thomas A. Koch
Director of Photography
Series Producer
EXIT Stage Left

VOTE FOR HER AT THE GRAMMY SITE!

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Hollywood.com has a write up!

Matthews, Bauman and Wheaton will appear live on CBS News’ THE EARLY SHOW, on Monday, Feb. 9 (7:00-9:00 AM, ET/PT), when Dave Price will reveal the winning video.

Good Luck, Ilea!