Educating Youngstars

“Majors & Minors” TV Show

Julie Stevens — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 04:21:54 +0000

Check out this TV show, “Majors & Minors,” that I worked on as a Studio Teacher. The show premieres on the HUB Network on September 23rd.

http://www.etonline.com/music/114357_Majors_and_Minors_Preview/index.html

Unschooling on “Nightline”

Julie Stevens — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 07:48:49 +0000

A story about a radical approach to home-schooling.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/unschooling-homeschooling-books-tests-rules/story?id=10796507

Interview with Fred Savage on being a child actor

Julie Stevens — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:54:04 +0000

Really helpful 3-part interview with former child actor/now director, Fred Savage, (“The Wonder Years”) on the SAG website.

http://www.sag.org/sag-young-performer-interview-fred-savage-part-1

http://www.sag.org/sag-young-performer-interview-fred-savage-part-2

http://www.sag.org/sag-young-performer-interview-fred-savage-part-3

Stagedoor Manor profiled in “Theatre Geek” book

Julie Stevens — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:42:05 +0000

I attended Stagedoor Manor for 3 summers as a teenager and was also recently interviewed for this book. Stagedoor is a magical place that brings together kids who all have the same love of theatre and performing.

http://www.simonandschuster.com/multimedia?video=82703764001

Documentary about actors and auditioning

Julie Stevens — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:09:08 +0000

Check out this documentary being made about actors and auditioning, called “Showing Up.”

http://www.showingupmovie.com/clips/

New safety passport class for Studio Teachers

Julie Stevens — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:20:33 +0000

The Safety Passport Program is offering a new class: Environmental A-2. All IATSE locals (including Studio Teachers) are required to take this class. This course covers updates in safety standards due to changing regulations and addresses important safety topics such as studio lot and location safety, heat illness, severe weather, disaster and emergency response, environmental awareness, transportation of dangerous goods, electrical safety, and workplace cleanliness.

Based on its comprehensive content, the “A2″ – Environmental Safety Course has been added as a required, 3-hour Safety Pass course for all individuals for which CSATTF does Safety Pass training (approximately 43,000 individuals).

If you are interested in completing this course, please visit www.CSATF.org for an April course schedule.

IMDb to add Web Series Category

Julie Stevens — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:48:33 +0000

IMDb to Add Web Series Category, So What’s a Web Series?
by Marc Hustvedt on March 19th, 2009

Amazon-owned IMDb, the mega-database for all things entertainment, has been skirting the issue for a while, but this week let out hints that it will finally be adding a new category for original web series and one-off web videos. Veteran web series creator Casey McKinnon (Galacticast) reports on her blog with news out of Austin’s SXSW Interactive conference that IMDb founder and managing director Col Needham states that the company is in fact preparing to add the separate categories for online content.

McKinnon posed the question to Needham on a panel at the conference, and reports, “the answer is a resounding yes. In the second or third quarter of this year (anytime between April 1st and September 30th), IMDb will roll out the ability to tag a submission as either a web series or an individual (one-off) online video.”

The lack of a separate category has led a number of web series to don the “TV Series” moniker, with some even getting listed as short films. The TV Series makes sense for most episodic web series, allowing separate credits by episode or season. Some creators however, found the only way ‘in’ to the exclusive listings was through presenting their series as a film and referencing obscure film festival appearances.

McKinnon even raised this issue a year and half ago while writing for The Guardian, asking why IMDb didn’t have “more appropriate categories created for submitting a web series.” She went to say that IMDb was essentially asleep at the wheel while Wikipedia was “blasting forward” in terms of becoming the repository of web series listings.

Getting listed in the database, which has become the entertainment industry’s de-facto crediting service, espouses a degree of validity on a project and its creators. The issue has been building up steam in the web television world lately. David Nett, creator of the GOLD, a clever web series about a tabletop RPG gaming team, recently vented his frustrations about the inconsistent listing policy at IMDb. “No listing on IMDb is nearly tantamount to not appearing on Google, he wrote. “It’s not that you don’t exist without it, but without it you exist far less.”

Nett unsuccessfully tried to add his series to the database only to receive a rejection notice citing it did not meet the site’s admission standards. What are these murky standards? “Substantial, verifiable viewership” was on list, which boils down to mean view counts. Not only will IMDb not say what that view count threshold is, but it’s oddly a standard that isn’t held for the million-plus films in the directory.

With the Angels creator Mary Feuer expressed a similar story when trying to get her Strike.TV-released series admitted. What struck her in particular was the lengthy amount of time the company deveotes to rejecting an entry, often sending multiple reasons for rejection. The view count rejection, she notes, only looked at the trailer on YouTube and didn’t consider the handful of other sites—Strike.TV, Joost and KoldCast TV—that the show was on.

Another requirement according to IMDb is coverage by “significant mainstream press,” which according to Nett, “the main sources of editorial for the burgeoning web television movement – Tilzy.TV, NewTeeVee, and Tubefilter – are not yet considered by IMDb to be significant mainstream press, largely because those news outlets are online-only.” Hmm. Did the Seattle Post Intelligencer just lose its ‘mainstream’ status by going online-only?

A third reason often cited is that the series must be “notable enough to have its own Wikipedia page.” This appears to be a passing of the buck to the anonymous admins over at the community knowledge dump.

The challenge still exists of course, as to how to filter content so that the database doesn’t erode into a useless repository of vanity. IMDb needs to completely redesign its vetting system, perhaps bringing in third parties like TubeMogul to verify viewership and distribution or even the editorial coverage of, dare we say, Tubefilter. We like to think we’re pretty good at sorting out what a web series and what’s not.

Noticeably missing from IMDb: Rocketboom, Tiki Bar TV, After Judgment, With the Angels, Something To Be Desired.

Watching your favorite movies and TV shows online

Julie Stevens — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:35:42 +0000

WHERE TO FIND YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES & TV SHOWS ONLINE

ABC.com Video Player
Amazon Video on Demand
Blockbuster Online
Bravo Videos
Cartoon Network Video
CBS Video
Comedy Central Video
Crackle
Criterion Online
The CW Video
Discovery Channel Videos
Disney Video
Epix
EZTakes
Fancast
Film Fresh
Fox on Demand
FX Networks Video
Hulu
iMDb Video
iTunes
Jaman
Jaroo
Joost
MovieFlix
MTV Video
myLifetime Video
NBC Video
Netflix Watch Instantly
Nick.com Videos
PBS Kids Go! Video
PlayStation Store
Road Runner Video Store
Roxio CinemaNow
Showtime Previews
SlashControl
Sling
South Park Episode Player
Superpass
TBS Videos
TheWB
TNT DramaVision
TV.com Video
TVLand Video Player
USA Network Full Episodes
VH1 Full Episodes
WebMovieNow
Xbox Live Marketplace
Zune Video

Making it in Hollywood on “Nightline”

Julie Stevens — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:30:46 +0000

Check out this story featured on “Nightline.”

Important story about ACT ads on the radio

Julie Stevens — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:11:18 +0000

http://www.insideedition.com/news.aspx?storyID=4074