Post by milowent on Nov 10, 2006 23:02:45 GMT -5
www.thedailyreel.com/news-opinion/news/lonely-no-more?gnewsid=1162917280.72
LONELY NO MORE
Written by Scott Macaulay
November 08, 2006
The hype may be gone but Lonelygirl15 rolls on with a developing storyline, increased viewership, and out-in-the-open creators.
about three months this summer as both media and fans speculated about the authenticity of the YouTubing home-schooled teenager. And when the videoblogs were revealed as fiction -- the creation of three twentysomething Angelenos -- the series seemed to go out with a big bang. Articles about the creators appeared in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, the team was signed by CAA, and the actress playing Lonelygirl15 herself, Jessica Rose, appeared on The Tonight Show. End of story, right?
Actually, no. Lonelygirl15 started not because three internet pranksters wanted to stage a hoax but because three filmmakers wanted to tell a story. And now that the secret is out, Lonelygirl15 is rolling along, with videos still appearing on YouTube while the content is also being syndicated on Revver.
Lonelygirl15 co-creator and screenwriter Mesh Flinders spoke recently at the Film Independent Filmmaker's Forum in L.A. about the whole saga.
"I was a screenwriter, I had a character that lived in my films, and I was frustrated that I couldn't get one of my films made," he said. "I met my partner Miles Beckett, he had been watching a lot of YouTube, and we went from there."
Flinders said he used his own bedroom as a set and "didn't know if people would think it was a real girl or a fake." But that, he added, was beside the point. "We had a story we wanted to tell and didn't have the means [within the conventional filmmaking world] to do it."
Flinders said the turning point for him was when the mania surrounding Lonelygirl15's identity made it impossible for anyone to focus on the narrative Flinders and company were trying to unfold.
"We were being hounded by these obsessed fans, and it was affecting our lives," he said. "We wanted our fans to be interested in the story, the characters and the clues instead of putting their energies into [learning the group's identity]."
So, the group had a "coming out party" in the The Los Angeles Times, promptly announced their CAA connection (they had signed to the agency in mid-summer), but still continued to release their videos.
"We didn't know how people were going to react," says Flinders. "We prepared for a drop-off, but our viewership has tripled since [the reveal]. Since then, no video has dropped below 100,000 views and some have hit over one million."
LONELY NO MORE
Written by Scott Macaulay
November 08, 2006
The hype may be gone but Lonelygirl15 rolls on with a developing storyline, increased viewership, and out-in-the-open creators.
about three months this summer as both media and fans speculated about the authenticity of the YouTubing home-schooled teenager. And when the videoblogs were revealed as fiction -- the creation of three twentysomething Angelenos -- the series seemed to go out with a big bang. Articles about the creators appeared in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, the team was signed by CAA, and the actress playing Lonelygirl15 herself, Jessica Rose, appeared on The Tonight Show. End of story, right?
Actually, no. Lonelygirl15 started not because three internet pranksters wanted to stage a hoax but because three filmmakers wanted to tell a story. And now that the secret is out, Lonelygirl15 is rolling along, with videos still appearing on YouTube while the content is also being syndicated on Revver.
Lonelygirl15 co-creator and screenwriter Mesh Flinders spoke recently at the Film Independent Filmmaker's Forum in L.A. about the whole saga.
"I was a screenwriter, I had a character that lived in my films, and I was frustrated that I couldn't get one of my films made," he said. "I met my partner Miles Beckett, he had been watching a lot of YouTube, and we went from there."
Flinders said he used his own bedroom as a set and "didn't know if people would think it was a real girl or a fake." But that, he added, was beside the point. "We had a story we wanted to tell and didn't have the means [within the conventional filmmaking world] to do it."
Flinders said the turning point for him was when the mania surrounding Lonelygirl15's identity made it impossible for anyone to focus on the narrative Flinders and company were trying to unfold.
"We were being hounded by these obsessed fans, and it was affecting our lives," he said. "We wanted our fans to be interested in the story, the characters and the clues instead of putting their energies into [learning the group's identity]."
So, the group had a "coming out party" in the The Los Angeles Times, promptly announced their CAA connection (they had signed to the agency in mid-summer), but still continued to release their videos.
"We didn't know how people were going to react," says Flinders. "We prepared for a drop-off, but our viewership has tripled since [the reveal]. Since then, no video has dropped below 100,000 views and some have hit over one million."
