Who is the Puppet Master Eric Doyle?

I was out for drinks with my buddy, radio show host turned actor David H. Lawrence XVII who plays the villain, The Puppet Master Eric Doyle, an Owner of a marionette theater / escaped prisoner from Level 5 on NBC's hit TV show Heroes. Doyle can control people with the snap of his fingers just like a puppeteer. I asked David a few questions about coming to Hollywood and advice for other actors, online video producers and Internet people.

David worked as a radio show host then came to Los Angeles to break into Hollywood as an actor. It looks like all the acting auditions, casting calls, talent searches, self promotion and studying that David did on how to become an actor has finally paid off.

After his creepy role on Heroes I’m expecting David to become a movie star. Maybe we’ll soon be reading celebrity news and Hollywood gossip about him and Hayden Panettiere or he could just wind up as a regular on Heroes, 24 or LOST.

Who knows maybe we will all be walking around snapping our fingers the way Eric Doyle snaps his fingers closed to shut someone's mouth. It will be like Bewitched and the nose twinkle.


Add Heroes to Your iTunes, iPod or iPhone

What Advice Does An Online Video Star Have For Actors?

I ran into actor David Loren star of Big Fantastic's Prom Queen and Sorority Forever at a wrap party in Hollywood and he gave me some words of encouragement for actors wanting to act in online videos and come to Hollywood.

We were standing outside in the parking lot of The Twisted Spade card club in Hollywood - the first of its kind "Entertainment Only" card room. Twisted Spade Card Club is a members only establishment providing its members with a comfortable environment to play, learn, and enjoy the game of poker.

The grand opening day is November 1st by Invitation Only.

Jimmy Hutcheson Ego TV

Jimmy Hutcheson Ego TV from 1timstreet on Vimeo.

From NATPE's LATV Fest in Hollywood, Jimmy Hutcheson of Ego TV talks about the different ways he is making money with online video and celebrities like Tom Arnold.

What the Hell Are the Lonely Girl 15 Guys Doing?

On Thursday, May 08, 2008 www.beet.tv caught up with lonelygirl15 founders Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried who are building digital studio "We're Going to Teach Hollywood How to Do it Right" and to do that they have raised $5 million.

Navigating Episodic Internet Shows

With the exception of Apple's iTunes Podcast subscription I have yet to find an enjoyable way of watching Episodic Shows on the Internet.

When Prom Queen launched earlier this year it was a pain in the ass to watch the shows in order and catch up if you missed one. Eventually team Vuguru created a weekly recap show but it was hard to figure out where I left off and it still required some work. When the Big Fantastic launched their Summer season of Prom Queen called Summer Heat, Vuguru sent out a daily email and this made it much easier to catch up if I missed an episode. I could just go to my Apple mail and sort my messages from Prom and click on the shows in order.

If you go to Youtube or Revver or Veoh or Metacafe or any other video site and search for your favorite Episodic Show you will find it and it's trailers/promos in some crazy order. If you are at work trying to find that episode that you missed before your boss walks by and busts you for goofing off at work you are going to bail and wait till later to find that episode if you ever get around to it.

So far there are no Episodic shows on the front page of Youtube's Most Viewed (All Time) All: page. This says a lot about how we are still in a time of "spectacle" and have not yet moved into "Story" as far as Internet video goes. Even the Internet's biggest "Hit" story Lonely Girl 15's most popular episode only has had 1,708,683 views and if you want to start from never having seen an episode of LG15 and get all caught up, good luck. There are over 21 pages of search results for "Lonely Girl 15" on Revver and I couldn't find Episode number one so I went to LG15.com. There I found a place to start and a recap video of season one that brought me up to speed but that was work.

We need to speak with our contacts at the video sites and ask them what they can do to help. One viral video could bring a ton of viewers to your show but if that viewer can't find the next episode or the previous ones in a nice neat way that is easy to navigate it will take us all a lot longer to build audiences. The big boys in Hollywood already know how to make a programming dial work. It won't be long before they figure this out too and make it even harder for us little guys to break through the clutter.

Sure there are work-arounds but that involves "work".