Riyad Barmania

You can see Riyad’s output on ChannelFlip’s The Multiverse channel where he directs the bumbling Brit Superhero duo Knighthood & Decoy and is the co-writer and director of Ashens and The Quest For The Game Child, starring Stuart Ashen.

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What is your job title at ChannelFlip?

Creative Producer and Co-Head of Multiverse and HuHa. I really wanted UberGod but they wouldn’t go for it.

What do people think you do all day?

Watch cat videos.

What do you really do?

I run around like a lunatic writing scripts, shooting videos, overseeing edits, making budgets, drinking copious amounts of tea all while working with a group of total lunatics.

What your all time favourite video from your YouTube favourites list?

It’s really old school … the Star Wars kid. It almost predates Youtube but when I saw this it inspired me and I was literally on the floor laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.

During any given day how many things are you juggling at once?

My job is pretty varied and I am working on 15 to 20 different projects at the moment. These are made up projects from our channels, The Multiverse & HuHa! and other various bits and bobs.

What have you found so far that’s working well with audience on HuHa?

That’s a difficult one because our audience loves varied content. From the top end animation to more simple animation. They do love songs. Everybody loves songs. And cats. Everybody on the internet loves cats. Singing cats is probably what they love most.

What’s the one part of your job you’d give up tomorrow if you could?

Weekly financial control reports for the channels.

And what part of the job will they have to pry from your cold dead hands?

I love writing and directing content for our channels. It’s what gets me up in the mornings and keeps me awake at night … but all in an amazing way.

Okay and finally, where can folks fine you online?

@riyad_director. It’s where I occasionally send out a tweet or two.

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When Riyad says he’s busy 24/7 he’s not kidding. At a recent ChannelFlip gathering he spent the whole night filming but he did take a moment out for a quick snap.

Me & Riyad

Next week we’ll be featuring an interview with ChannelFlip’s Translation Specialist, Wouter Mayeur.

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Cheers,

Brett Snelgrove

New Eden Co-Creator

First up is ChannelFlip’s content director, Jamie Lennox.

Jamie Lennox

You might know him via his alter-ego Decoy, one half of the not so dynamic duo Knighthood & Decoy.

Decoy

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So Jamie, according to your job description what are you meant to do all day?

I’m responsible for producing all content made in-house at ChannelFlip, which can mean doing anything from commissioning new work like New Eden, creating and overseeing projects, writing, editing, producing and directing stuff myself.

What do you really do?

Watch sh*t on YouTube and drink tea.

From your YouTube favourites list, what video can’t you get enough of?

Biting Elbows video “Insane Office Escape 2” is right up there at the moment. It’s violent, mildly offensive and crazy, but it’s fantastically conceived and executed.

I loved it so much I immediately shot and released a parody using my spoof superhero show KnightHood & Decoy.

So what was your first impression of the New Eden Pilot?

I thought it was awesome – I wanted it for HuHa immediately! Amazing look, funny set up and great writing.

What many people might not realise is that the New Eden Pilot went through a re-editing process before it went live to HuHa. Why was that? 

We felt that the pace of the original pilot could be upped just a notch or two. There were a few pauses that would’ve worked well in a half-hour show or on TV but YouTube is still a “lean forward” viewing experience (as opposed to “lean back” TV), so you have to fight even harder for people’s attention to keep them from clicking away to the twenty other things being offered to them on the sidebar. In my experience, pace is key to maintaining high attention scores online. Between us we found ways to trim something like 45 sec’s out of the running time, without compromising any of the original gags or setups, which I’m really pleased about.

What was key in your mind to making the re-edit work? What were you hoping for? 

We wanted the break-neck pace that the pilot achieved in places, across the board. We knew the world, the style and the humour could go over well on YouTube but we also knew from experience that online audiences are unforgiving if they lose attention. You have to keep the attack up if you want audiences to stay watching. Attention scores so far for the live episodes are looking really good, so hopefully we’ve achieved what we set out for.

So, we send you scripts for “editorial approval”, which is not nearly as scary as it sounds, describe in a bit more detail what that means?

I’ll only ever put my foot down if there’s a potential legal issue, or something I think will genuinely offend and get the video flagged by YouTube. Mainly I’m checking to see that all the gags will land with our audience. It’s also an opportunity for me to stress-test the scripts for you, question gags that could either go further or be dialled down.

Working with you on the scripts has been a great experience for us so far. What would you say is the key to being a good editor/editorial management?

We try hard to preserve the creative integrity of people we work with. It’s really key for us and something that’s much easier to do with an online model – where there are far fewer people involved, so you have a better chance of avoiding the death-by-a-thousand-cuts that can happen when you try to be creative-by-committee.

I’m a working writer too, so I know what it’s like to get notes. What’s been particularly great working with you guys is how receptive you are to constructive criticism, how professional you’ve been (and fast – man, you’re fast!) at turning round creative alternatives to areas or gags we’ve flagged up. You’ve taken any notes in a really positive way, and pushed back when you’ve believed in a gag or a story beat. A lot of the time, that’s all I’m looking for: if you believe you can make it work on screen, I trust you!

Okay and finally, where can folks fine you online?

I have an addictive personality, so I’ve stayed away from Twitter for years but I now run KnightHood & Decoy’s account (@KnighthoodDecoy), and am losing sleep.

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Big thanks to Jamie for getting the ball rolling and no matter what anyone tells you, he’s a super nice guy.

Me and Knighthood & Decoy

Next week we’ll be featuring an interview with Creative Producer, Riyad Barmania.

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Cheers,

Brett Snelgrove

New Eden Co-Creator

You'd Never See This On Star Trek | New Eden Episode One

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You'd Never See This On Star Trek | New Eden Episode One

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Das hat man bei Star Trek nie gesehen! | New Eden Episode Eins

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On n'a jamais vu ça dans l'univers Star Trek ! | New Eden Épisode 1

So this week I’m interviewing the actors involved to get some insight into their process. Let’s kick things off with a roll call:

Jonathan Rhodes … the voice of Hamilton

Kevin Shen … the voice of Murray

Stefan Nitschmann … Hamilton (German)

Marcel Müller … Murray (German)

Jean Jemo … Hamilton & Murray (French)

What was your first reaction to hearing the German and French dubbed versions of the New Eden Pilot?

Jonathan (ENG): Where is my Hamilton?! To be fair – the German version is good fun and I laughed out loud a few times.

Kevin (ENG): For the German one I thought the voices were hilarious, especially Hamilton’s. I love Hamilton in French too.  When he’s puking and complaining, I just think he sounds even more pathetic and sad, which is awesome.

What was your first impression of watching the New Eden pilot?

Stefan (GER): What I really liked were the voices and the story. The voices fit very well to the characters. Hamilton sounds like Squidward from the German version of Spongebob Squarepants. It’s hilarious to me. Also you guys are really good in making backgrounds or effects and the good-looking animation. Also the cinematography is very good. The whole animation looks like it is done in After Effects.

Marcel (GER): I really liked the character style and background art, but the lip animation seemed kinda strange. All in all it’s unique. And I think that’s most important about a show.

Jean (FRE): I thought “well done!” You can tell it’s the product of a team: the story, the animation, the voices, everything blends seamlessly. It also really looks like the beginning of a long story, since those guys just arrived on that weird planet, so it opens up a new land of adventure.

What are the key qualities you strive for in the performance of your character?

Jonathan (ENG): I wanted Hamilton to have a deep frustration, driven by the impossible situation that he finds himself in on the Eden Ark V. He has hit a glass ceiling on the spaceship and had also been overlooked all his life on Earth. This leads to great inner frustration and an explosive temper.  Something that maybe, just maybe, he can be persuaded to tame and harness on this new world …

Kevin (ENG): I think I’m really trying to bring out Murray’s chill laid-back attitude to really contrast with Hamilton’s uptight paranoia.  The seriousness of the situation hasn’t hit Murray since he’s never really been in anything that he can’t get out of.  I think it’s that care-free confidence that really makes the relationship so enjoyable, since it riles Hamilton up so much.

Stefan (GER): To find a voice for Hamilton which matches up with his character and of course the acting between Hamilton and Murray.

Marcel (GER): In this case I tried to do the voice over of Murray based on two characteristics – C’est La Vie and shit happens, so let’s make the best out of it.

Jean (FRE): I was trying to flesh-out the characters in French, getting inspired by the English version and at the same time trying to get comfortable with the characters in my own way, trying to get to know them, if you will, by giving them a voice of their own, and at the same time giving birth to them by giving them my voice(s). I feel it’s a somehow traditional or classical couple of the cartoon world, with their friendship and fights.

What’s your favourite bit of the German dub?

Jonathan (ENG): The German vomiting … Brilliant!

What’s your favourite bit of the French dub?

Kevin (ENG): I think my favourite part of the French version is Hamilton’s re-enactment of the spaceship crash.

How would you characterise dubbing work and what do you enjoy about it?

Marcel (GER): It’s not as easy as it seems! Especially for animation the voice artists need experience to capture the “spirit of the characters”. You’re a part of every character you do the voice work for. Once it’s done your voice is “in the wild” and maybe (at that very moment) people are listening to it. I think that pretty awesome!

What are some of the difficulties you face when dubbing something into another language?  

Stefan (GER): There are often problems when it comes to catch phrases, cultural events  or jokes. Mostly the kind of jokes, which are based on the language itself. Like names or one liners. Also sometimes it is hard to keep up with the original lip sync, without losing the meaning of the original sentences. But there is always a way to do it.

Was there a particular sequence that was difficult to translate?

Jean (FRE): I have been given enough freedom from the creators of the show to add or modify a few words here and there to make the words flow, or synchronize better with the picture. I am always trying to match the lip flaps with the words and it sometimes takes many takes in the recording booth, and sometimes the help of the audio editing software. It can be tricky, like in the fight scene when both characters are speaking at the same time and you still want to be able to hear what they say. You might spend a whole hour working on 3 seconds.  But that’s what it takes to make it good. And if I have the feeling that a given sentence doesn’t work well, the people I work with are always very helpful to find a work-around solution.

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A big thanks again to Jonathan, Kevin, Stefan, Marcel and Jean for doing the interview. Check them out online to find out more about them.

Jonathan Rhodes: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Kevin Shen: Spotlight | Facebook | Twitter

Stefan Nitschmann: YouTube | Facebook | Twitter

Marcel Müller: YouTube | Facebook

Jean Jemo: Website

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Next week I’ll be featuring the first of our series of interviews with the team at ChannelFlip. First up is Content Director Jamie Lennox.

Cheers,

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Brett Snelgrove

New Eden Co-Creator

Firstly, the release of the Hamilton and Murray Distress Calls mark the end of our first batch of episodes for HuHa.

We’re now hard at work on more episodes to release in the second half of the year. But don’t worry, we’ve still got plenty of New Eden goodies to keep you entertained in the meantime.

In a month or two we’ll be releasing a series of How To/Behind The Scenes videos illuminating the various stages of the production process. And starting from next week I’ll be featuring some special interviews with the folks behind the scenes at ChannelFlip here on the blog.

VidfestUK

Both Freek and I are excited to announce that we have been invited to host a panel at VidfestUK (a European event for fans of online video) that is run as part of one of the UK’s biggest pop culture conventions, MCM London Comic Con (24-26 May).

Click for more information

FirstGlance Film Festival

Click for more information

By all accounts FirstGlance is first rate and we’re honoured to be flying the flag for animation and web series at the festival.

Guest Animators

I wanted to give a shout out to our two guest animators Levi George and Lee Daniels who worked on the Hamilton and Murray Distress Calls.

Some of you might know Levi from his work on the the zombie comedy Livin With Steve and Lee thanks to his rogue blue monkey from Jungle Brawl. If you haven’t check out their respective web series yet then do it, do it now!

Livin With Steve – Click to watch

Jungle Brawl – Click to watch

I’d also like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to our superb sound designers Justin and Daniel and our two lead actors Jonathan and Kevin for their stellar work on the Hamilton and Murray Distress Calls as well.

New Characters

This week we had our first voice recording session with Jo Bowis and Scott Christie who are helping to bring to life two new characters, Ivana and Keith. It’s been our plan all along to introduce these characters and you’ll get to see them in the second half of the year when we release our next batch of episodes.

The new material we have planned is more ambitious than anything else we have made so far as the episodes will double in length (going from 1-2 min’s to 3-4 min’s) and we now have four characters to juggle instead of just two. But we hope the wait will be worth it as Ivana and Keith really shake things up between Hamilton and Murray and give us a whole bunch of new scenarios and opportunities to play with. Personally I can’t wait.

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Next week I’ll be back with an interview with the voice actors behind the English plus the German and French versions of the pilot episode. See you then!

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Cheers,

Brett Snelgrove

New Eden Co-Creator

Huge thanks to our family and friends who helped us out with this video as well as some fellow creators from the YouTubes: Gary C, Gerard Groves, The Bloody Mary Show and 3some.

As a thank you, here’s a shout out to our special guests and why you should check out their channels.

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Gary C

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YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

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There are many strings to Gary C’s bow: comedy, music, dance move innovation but who is the real Gary C?

Personally I’m not sure ‘Snake and Scoop’ is going to catch on … have a poke around his channel for more and be sure to check out his throaty tortured original song ‘Mr Same’.

Gerard Groves

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YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

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YouTube funny guy Gerard Groves has a new channel where he gets up to silly antics with his mates, such as this bit of fan fiction featuring Emma Blackery.

It all gets a bit blue when Gerard starts mentioning apples and yoghurt but he does let you know about ASDA’s low low prices, so there’s something for everyone.

Also, kudos to Gerard for doing his bit for Comic Relief recently by baking a Red Nose cake … too bad he sucks at baking.

The Bloody Mary Show

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YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

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Ever wondered what folklore’s Bloody Mary gets up to when she’s off the clock? Heads down the pub with her mates of course. The creator of this British web series, Darren Chadwick-Hussein (who appears in the Vox Pops) calls The Bloody Mary Show “Hollyoaks with ghouls”.

Check out this excited but nervy interview with Darren and his cast before the Indie Soap Awards; not that they had anything to worry about. They walked away with three of the nine awards they were nominated for: Best Comedy Ensemble, Best Comedy Web Series and Best Make-Up.

3some

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YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

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Okay first things first, it’s not what you think. Okay maybe it is, a bit. 3some is a new British web series about engaged couple Paul and Jenny who find their lives twisted into knots when they invite their mate Rob back to there’s for a drinks and some ‘harmless experimentation’.

3some’s life began on stage, where it garnered rave reviews at last year’s Camden Fringe. It’s now back on at the Etcetera Theatre (19 Mar to 7 Apr) to coincide with the release of their series.

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Thanks again to everyone who participated in the Vox Pops, there were a lot of fun to shoot and hopefully equally as fun to watch.

If you haven’t checked out the first two episodes of New Eden, here’s your chance, click away!

Click to watch New Eden Ep 1: Pilot

Click to watch New Eden Ep 2: Mating Call

More New Eden coming next week so …

Cheers!

Brett Snelgrove

New Eden Co-Creator

If these two are humanity’s last hope we’re all in trouble!

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Hey folks, New Eden co-creator Brett here. So in our second teaser we get a closer look at Hamilton and Murray and thanks to the awesome work by our animator Freek and sound designer/ composer Justin we are treated to a bombastic visual and auditory feast that introduces us to how their ship, the Eden Ark V, crash lands on this strange new world they find themselves on.

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Brett: So Freek, what is your favourite part of this teaser?

Freek: I personally like the shot where we do a massive pullback on Hamilton.

Brett: Oh that’s one of my fave’s as well.

Chaos On The Eden Ark V

Freek: I was bummed out when we had to cut that for the intro but glad it’s here to watch.

Brett: I really dug seeing the poor chick in the foreground clobbered by the falling beams and the crew running about madly. I remember seeing this teaser for the first time and was so jazzed by all the little details. The ‘Eden Ark V’ signage on the side of the starship, the heads up display when Hamilton is playing captain at the helm, the little glimpses of the living quarters and the graffiti on the side of the stall next to Murray as he takes a leak.

Eden Ark V

Hamilton at the helm

Eden Ark V Living Quarters

Murray at the head

Brett: My absolutely favourite moment though is so small but it just really tickles my inner geek.

Freek: What’s that?

Brett: It’s seeing the Eden Ark V breaking through the planet’s atmosphere moments before it crashes. I loved that you put that in.

Eden Ark V Breaking Atmos

Freek: Yeah, I like the cinematic approach to that and the rest. Makes it feel like a big story.

Brett: Totally. Huge.

Freek: So, what’s next week?

Brett: Next week we drop the pilot episode!

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Tune in next week as they say when the New Eden Pilot premieres on HuHa!

Cheers,

Brett & Freek

New Eden Creators

We’re repackaging and re-releasing all our existing content on HuHa and also preparing to deliver a whole bunch of new New Eden ep’s as well. Over the coming year you can expect to see 15-20 videos rolling out on HuHa and HuHa2. Exciting times!

If you want to support New Eden then give the trailer some love on YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+ and Twitter to help spread the word.

And as usual, here are Freek and my thoughts on the HuHa news … enjoy!

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Brett: Seriously Freek, did you think New Eden would be picked up?

Freek: Ummmm … no. Honestly I thought that this was it. Not because our show was bad but just because it’s so difficult to sell something anywhere these days.

Brett: It was tough going for a while there wasn’t it. We had a lot of critical success but we were really struggling to get New Eden out to a wider audience. Hopefully HuHa will help change that.

Freek: I think it’s a great chance. And I think it’s great we can build our New Eden world bigger and introduce more characters.

Brett: And to be fair, this was our plan all along, to secure a series commission before rolling out a series.

Freek: Yeah, I just didn’t expect a YouTube channel to pick it up and that there were YouTube channels to begin with who invest money in shows. It’s something that hasn’t picked up yet here in Holland, so I was like, “okay … lets see what happens.”

Brett: I think the number one thing that helped us get to this point was patience; waiting for the right opportunity.

Freek: Yeah we had several offers. All with good potential. And we contacted a lot of people and companies to invest but the moment we needed money interest faded away I guess. I get it, it’s always a risk, but New Eden is the type of show that can’t be made in the evening hours by two guys. We have a real cast, real audio people. A real team. So we needed at least some money to get things made.

Brett: How would you describe our working relationship with ChannelFlip (the company who runs HuHa)?

Freek: So far they’ve been really cool. They’ve given feedback that shows they really know what they’re talking about. It’s always hard to take criticism but it’s part of the industry. If you can’t take that, it’s not for you. Their advise so far has been sound and helped to get things into better shape.

Brett: Since the start of this year we’ve really hit the ground running haven’t we. I think this is pretty much going to be our life for the next ten months.

Freek: yeah it’s been busy but cool. Before we could do what we wanted and do it in the time we wanted. Now it’s more planning and getting things out on time.

Brett: The great thing is we haven’t had to make any changes. Well no changes that drastically impact the series.

Freek: There’s going to be less big hairy balls on creature.

Brett: Haha, yeah there’s that and we’ve pretty much thrown out the series one scripts and started again.

Freek: Yeah that was tricky. Since the ep’s now have to be self-contained, meaning you can watch an episode without knowing what happened before. We kinda had to go back to the beginning and re-think some stuff. Well you did mostly. It was also liberating since we’re thinking less about continuity.

Brett: That said, ChannelFlip did just recently approve a script titled ‘Freeballing’, which I thought for sure was going to be a problem. In the end I think they only had one note for it, which had nothing to do with said freeballing.

Freek: Ah yes … so hairy balls are back in then HAHAHA! They’re going to regret that decision. But seriously yeah, cool that they did that. What will stay the same is the show’s sense of humour and hopefully the fun we’re having.

Brett: It’s great that we’re getting to work with our team who worked with us on the Pilot and the Shorts and that we can also bring some new folks on board as well. I think I’m most looking forward to seeing what new fans think of New Eden. That and what the team comes up with.

Freek: Actually, what I’m looking forward to once all the material is out is what the New Eden landscape will look like then. We’ll have quite some material to show and I hope it will trigger people into wanting to see more. We’re discovering New Eden while we’re making it and each ep is kinda like a hard fact about what the show is about. The more you make the more clear and crystallized it becomes. I think that’s very interesting about making a show like this. And I’m happy with the extra material we can make now.

Cheers,

Brett Snelgrove & Freek van Haagen

New Eden Co-Creators

Think of it as our way of saying thank you to our fantastic cast, crew and fans that have been with us since day dot.

Any web show’s initial audience is always family, friends and supporters. We’re eternally grateful to ours because they saved us from feeling like that tree in the forest that nobody hears.

We later found our core audience on Newgrounds, an awesome community for animators by animators. We got a lotta feedback ranging right across the spectrum from “THIS SUCKS!” to “Best Show Eva!”

Finally we’d like to send a shout out to the web series community, especially here in the UK. Everyone needs peers and it’s been great meeting up with fellow creators online and in person, especially when it was over a beer.

During our initial run we experimented with several different social media sites and communities but in the end we had our best success with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+.

More than anything it was about finding where our audience liked to hang out online and going to them rather than the other way around. There’s nothing worse then trying to set up shop in a community where you blatantly don’t fit in, so we tried to avoid that as much as possible.

Some of the best press we got was from the smaller sites and bloggers. The bigger press outlets were great for getting the word out there but we found the smaller outfits shared our indie grass root spirit and were happy to give us more in-depth coverage and keep New Eden in the forefront of people’s minds.

The other reason we managed to drum up so much press was quite simply because we asked. We made a list of sites and bloggers that were in New Eden’s wheelhouse and reached out to them.

I always made a point of asking first before lobbing a press release into someone inbox and nine times out of ten people where more than happy to run with it. Once we were featured on one or two sites others came calling. A little politeness goes a long way as they say.

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All told, Freek and I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve managed to achieve over the past two to three years because it got us to one place we’ve been aiming for all along – a series commission.

Exciting times ahead!

Cheers,

Brett Snelgrove

New Eden Co-Creator

WooHoo! Yup, you’re read correctly, a New Eden series is dropping in 2013.

Freek and I have been hard at work putting together a deal to bring New Eden to an exciting new UK YouTube channel.

Which one you ask? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see but don’t worry you won’t have to wait long. They’re a great fit for us and we couldn’t be happier to be working with them.

We’re going to be releasing all our existing content with them and also creating some brand spanking new episodes as well. Just think of 2013 as the year of New Eden!

We’ll be taking down our current content from our YouTube channel but don’t worry, we’ll still be using it to collect together playlists of our videos from our new channel partner so you’ll be able find all our videos in one place.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who supported, watched and shared New Eden. It means a lot to us and helped us to get to where we are now.

Cheers,

Brett Snelgrove

New Eden Co-Creator