Ex-lonelygirl15 Jessica Rose back in online show "Blood Cell"

It was Jessica Rose who gave this funny little genre its first hit, way back in 2006. Lonelygirl15, if you'll recall, was the headline-grabbing video diary of a pretty teenager, later exposed by net detectives (led by the Los Angeles Times' Richard Rushfield) as a brilliant, CAA-backed fiction. The lonely girl was by no means alone -- she had a team of writers and producers behind her, and though the case was closed on lonelygirl15, the frontier of "webisodic" video was wide open.

The problem with open frontiers is that the people seeking to colonize them, to borrow a quote from Ms. South Carolina, simply "don't have maps." Which is why, almost two years after lonelygirl15, no Web series has established a viable, let alone profitable, homestead.

But this week, more wagons are arriving. On Monday, Sony Pictures Television launched C-Spot, an online comedy channel featuring six sharply produced programs with enough short episodes to fill a 13-week season.

And today, it's Jessica Rose herself:

Way to start a series with a solid posterior shot, right?

Yes, the almost-21-year-old actress from New Zealand will soon return to the online world as the star of "Blood Cell," a new horror-thriller from Web TV studio 60Frames Entertainment, directed by Eduardo Rodriguez. The show, whose trailer was posted just now at deadcelldeadfriend.com, follows Rose's character, Julia, as she contends with an unseen murderer who will talk to her only via her fancy photo- and video-enabled cellphone. Which hopefully gets good reception because, as the name of the website suggests, if Julia's signal goes dead, a blond somewhere gets it.

60Frames can be seen on Bebo, Blip.tv, iTunes, MySpace and, of course, YouTube. Revenue-sharing deals allow the creators to get a piece of the advertising pie no matter where their shows get watched.  (Sources inside 60Frames said the series was shot for under $5,000 an episode.)

60Frames (and C-Spot) represent the vanguard of Hollywood's efforts to unriddle the Great Question of Web-only TV: In an entertainment landscape dominated by multihour, multinight giants like " American Idol," how do you win repeat viewers in three piddling minutes?

Finding the Answer has become more than just a competition for Hollywood's first generation of pure Web executives. 60Frames CEO Brent Weinstein says shows like "Blood Cell" reflect the "spiritual design" of his company, whose mission was to "expand the notion of what works in the online space."

"It's not just comedy," said Weinstein, who said his company has 32 series in active production or postproduction. "Thrillers can work, dramatic series can work -- this is something that we think really can prove that there's an audience out there."

To read my full treatment of this week's Web TV wave, check out the Wednesday print column here.

Comments

[Jim]

In the Blood Cell trailer, what is Jessica Rose's character listening to when she wakes up?

[Kevin O'Rourke]

This is all very interesting but I have to say that out here in the world of working writer/actor/directors who have been creating on-line video for a while this seems to be a little self-serving to the LA establishment. I founded TESTTUBE.TV two months before YouTube launched and we have high profile writers, actors and directors who are looking to get away from the deal makers and creativity pirates. TESTTUBE.TV produced a web series--with appropriate guild affiliation by the way--before lonelygirl or anybody else. This newfound religion is fine but shouldn't you be looking at the true pioneers that started this movement and bought Brett Weinstein his Mercedes. When publications like the LA Times start looking at the "real" web creators and not the studio exec/talent agents turned "web guys" you'll get a sense of whats really out there.

Kevin O'Rourke

[Glenn Rubenstein]

Having had the pleasure of working with Jessica Rose as both a Lonelygirl15 writer and director, I think that she is a very talented actress. It will be interesting to see her in another online video series that isn't Lonelygirl15, and I look forward to checking out any project she is involved with.