Introducing the first NSFW Hunted episode - part 2 of Kendall's SlayerCon episode! (you've been warned): http://ping.fm/grflS

Andrew Helm (Kevin in SlayerCon) is a contributing writer in the new anthology "Hell Comes to Hollywood": http://ping.fm/2FaY3

C'mon guys, Kendall just needs 65 views to release his SlayerCon episode! http://ping.fm/ZjkSX

CombatCon has started a fund raiser to make this year's event happen: http://ping.fm/qa0tY

Looks like Kendall is also holding part 2 of his Vegas episode hostage until he gets at least 200 views! http://ping.fm/PIjQi

Kendall's Vegas episode is now online! Find out what craziness he was up to while we were shooting SlayerCon! http://ping.fm/063l1

More video posted from Combat Con 2011! http://ping.fm/gMNMp

CombatCon 2012 (aka SlayerCon) is on! http://ping.fm/MFn8l

SlayerCon part 2 is unlocked and unleashed!! Be afraid... http://ping.fm/Z7Bzh

Folks realllly want to see part 2 of The Hunted SlayerCon episode, but we're at 395 views and we need 500. Spread the word! http://ping.fm/zm2rZ

Doritos spot by Brian (Bloodsucker Punch) Maris featuring HALO Bob! http://ping.fm/WyWnW

Come one guys, just a couple hundred more hits to release part 2 of SlayerCon! Check it out and spread the word! http://ping.fm/MJ54u

Inflatable dolphins, intoxicated Jedis - for all the dirt behind the making of Slayercon, check out http://ping.fm/yjgRr

OK gang, holding part 2 of SlayerCon hostage until we get at least 500 views! http://ping.fm/mx6pL

Ned Donovan (Hunted: Expulsion) is a semi-finalist on Next Broadway Star and needs your "like" on this page: http://ping.fm/zHs0C

SLAYERCON! Part 1 is now online! Be afraid. http://ping.fm/o4q5l

SLAYERCON! this weekend with all-star cast including Anthony Delongis, Andrew Helm, Kyle Rowling, Kendall Wells and Derek Conley!

Get in the mood for Halloween with the creepiest and/or silliest episode of The Hunted "Ghost Hunted" - http://ping.fm/tGn3b

Hey gang, our writer for the Hunted feature, Tex Wall, needs votes for his short "To Bike or Not to Bike" http://ping.fm/ctqnq

Classic Hunted Halloween episode "Breaking Up" shot at the infamous Santa Monica street festival and "Spooky House": http://ping.fm/9L7tU

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Hunted Backyard BBQ screening! You guys are awesome!

Just bought my first blu-ray burner. I'm gonna make me some movies!

World premiere of SLAYERCON Saturday night! Okay... it's a party at Dave's place, but it's still a world premiere!

So how did "The Hunted: Expulsion" get arrested in Salem and end up in London? Find out at http://ping.fm/a37ZE

Jess Cail featured as bullwhip-wielding "Snakeskin" stunt double on Nickelodeon's "Supah Ninjas" tonight!

Philip Jean-Marie of Bloodsucker Punch is on CSI - Bamm!

Want to get in the mood for Halloween? Watch "Ghost Hunted" - one of the creepiest Hunted episodes ever. http://ping.fm/ps4vZ

So close and yet...

I recently came across this little snippet on Facebook and it speaks volumes. I've been working on the Hunted in one form or another for over ten years now. During that time, it's taken several sidetracks, mostly dealing with having to take a day job just to make a living. And unfortunately, it's that time once again.

When I decided to make the feature late last year, I spent months working crazy hours making as much money as I could to be able to take the summer off and make this happen. Unfortunately, we went through a major reboot on the script (which I still don't regret), we've gone through at least three drafts with three different writers, and the summer is quickly coming to an end with the ball in my court to finish the final draft.

I thought about borrowing from the Kickstarter fund to keep myself going, but that money is slated for the film itself and I'd like to keep it that way. The irony is that there is no production if I'm busy working on another job. But there's no telling how much longer the script will take, and you gotta do what you gotta do.

I'm more than a little bit bummed - especially since I was supposed to be in the process of editing by now. Everything else is set to go. Thanks to you guys and Kickstarter, we've got the money. Thanks to New Deal, we've got the studio. But like I've said before, a solid script is essential. If you don't have that, everything else can be a complete waste.

So how do you know when a script is done? A script can be very subjective, and you can get completely different notes from different readers. But when you get the same notes from different readers, that's when you know the script still needs work. And these aren't just any readers. In the film industry, there are professional readers that give you what is called "coverage", basically telling you what's wrong with your script. These folks have worked on tons of TV shows and feature films, so I trust they know what they're talking about. And I balance that with the knowledge I have from writing several of my own scripts including "Ring of Steel".

I plan to continue working on the script in my spare time. Unfortunately, I've taken a gig working as a visual effects artist, which can sometimes mean 10-12 hour days seven days a week, leaving little time for anything else. On the flip side, at least I'm not working as a waiter or bag boy and I can potentially make enough in the next month to jump back on the film full time. What's more, it's a pretty cool gig at one of my favorite studios, Zoic (which works on shows like Battlestar and True Blood), working on a feature called "The Grey" with Liam Neeson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfb0-U0ydj8

What's more, thanks to our editor extraordinaire, Jon Debiase, we're getting ready to release our latest epic episode of The Hunted, "SlayerCon". This two-part episode was shot this summer in Las Vegas at the first annual "Combat Con" convention and features a multitude of familiar faces including myself, Andrew Helm, Anthony DeLongis, Mary DeLongis, Jessica Cail, Kendall Wells, Derek Conley, and Kyle Rowling. If you haven't already seen it, check out the trailer at: http://youtu.be/xaTDQjpQ9eI

So The Hunted is still going strong and we're still moving forward, even though it feels like we're slowly pushing a big-ass boulder eighteen miles uphill in the snow... both ways! I just wanted to give you guys an update and thank you for your patience, understanding, and support.

Bob

Still looking for just the right music for end credits of our latest hunted episode. Our temp track is "you spin me right round" by flo-rida.

Hey gang, we're in need of some rockin music for our latest Hunted episode "SlayerCon". Any suggestions??

Rough cut of SlayerCon is done - booyah! Thanks to Jon Debiase for an awesome job!!

Help The Hunted become a Youtube partner! If you haven't already, please subscribe to our channel: http://ping.fm/JP3sl

Just finished an article on The Hunted and history of the webisode for Web Series Today: http://ping.fm/unVd1

THE HISTORY OF THE WEBISODE - Lessons of the Past

As told by one rogue web series pioneer and producer of "The Hunted" - one of the longest running series online (www.thehunted.tv).


THE EARLY YEARS

Ah... 56k dialup modems which took almost an hour to download an 8 minute fuzzy postage stamp with the resolution of 160x120.  It was the summer of 2000, and these were the early, brutally slow beginnings of internet episodic entertainment; the days before DSL when everyone was excitedly banging rocks together trying to get aboard this huge band wagon called the internet with no money or technological idea how to deliver content.

I had a BS degree in computer science but I was a latecomer to the internet - seeing all my friends getting time-sucked into this little box.  It just didn't seem healthy.  During the 90's I was interested in the film business.  I had moved to LA, become an actor and stuntman, written and starred in a swordfighting film called "Ring of Steel" and was working as a visual effects artist.

I had seen the blurry trickle of digital entertainment in the form of email attachments such as the first-ever episode of "South Park" in the early 90's - arguably one of the internet's first "viral videos".  In 1998, Ifilm and Atom Films came along with the capability to deliver online content thanks to dedicated servers and gajillions of dollars to keep them running.

So it was the summer of 2000, the short film "405" (created by Bruce Banit and Jeremy Hunt) was a huge hit on ifilm, and folks like me were getting fired up seeing the potential of digital entertainment.  At the time, I was thinking of creating a no-budget TV series called "The Hunted" for a local cable access channel.  I was teaching a stage combat class in LA and I thought it might make for an excellent venue for my students to showcase their skills.  But I realized early on that cable access was nothing compared to the internet, which had the potential for a worldwide audience with instant international distribution.  And I knew this was gonna be big.

I had seen the research that people were already spending more time on the internet than they were spending on TV, and it was only a matter of time before ad dollars and DSL came online.  When that happened, advertisers and online channels were going to be looking for all the content they could get, just like the early days of cable TV.


SHOW ME THE MONEY

Unfortunately, I was lacking at least a gajillion dollars to stream video online, and I didn't want to put my episodes on ifilm or any of the other channels since there was some uncertainty whether I would lose rights to the show.  So I decided I was going to do this myself with what little money I didn't have.

Like most everyone else, I had no idea what I was doing.  But unlike the others, I chose not to spend money I didn't have.  I saw web shows trying to copy what they saw on TV, which was ridiculous.  Even with a budget, it's virtually impossible to compete with something like Star Trek that had a million dollar budget per episode with professional writers, actors, directors, and visual effects.  If you fell short in just one aspect, the result was laughable (and it still is).

Note to self, don't take yourself too seriously.

These overly ambitious web shows would produce a handful of episodes, advertise the hell out of them at every comic convention they could find, and would slowly fade out of existence as they ran out of money.  It was buzz without content.  And it wasn't just indie web shows, huge networks like DEN (Digital Entertainment Network) raised millions in the hopes of becoming a major content distributor.  Even Spielberg's own company POP.com didn't get off the ground.  It was the days of the dotcom bust when everyone big and small was suckered into this massive band wagon which turned out to be a sinking ship.  And it's still happening today.

But our little show survived the bloody apocalypse for a few good reasons.  First off, we didn't make any money (even though we tried banner ads), but we didn't spend any either.  I taught myself HTML and created our own website which I hosted alongside my personal website on Mindspring (which had just merged with Earthlink).  The URL "TheHunted.com" was taken (which it still is, curse you!) so I was one of the first to acquire a ".tv" extension (thanks Tuvalu!).  I did some fancy footwork to redirect the URL to my existing website and "TheHunted.tv" was born.


THE LEGWORK

I installed Adobe Premiere on my system (no easy task at the time) and taught myself how to edit.  I had to do some research since there were three media players at the time that all claimed to have the best compression - Quicktime, Windows Media, and Realplayer.  Compression was extremely important since I didn't have a lot of bandwidth on the site and I didn't want viewers to wait forever to download an 8 minute video on dialup.  After some extensive testing, Realplayer was the clear winner and had the advantage of being able to play on Mac, PC, or Unix based systems like the SGI machines I used at work.  Unfortunately, Realplayer eventually became extremely annoying due to their overwhelming advertising and tendency to hijack your computer's registry.  Bad Realplayer.

One of the biggest mistakes I made at the time, however, was that I had chosen to shoot an action webseries - one of the most difficult types of video to compress.  Most early web shows were "talking heads" for a good reason.  Little movement made for easier compression, better image, less bandwidth, smaller file size, and faster downloads.  It was bad enough that I was compressing video down to this fuzzy postage stamp with a resolution of 160x120, but fast action sequences made it almost impossible to follow.  This is also why I had to make huge title cards and fill the frame with the face of anyone who was talking.

But I figured at the time that content was content, and it would only be a matter of time until the rest of the world upgraded to DSL.  At that point I would simply upload the full resolution NTSC episodes.  Little did I know that a video hosting site like Youtube would come along that would not only replace all this media player silliness, but would surpass video resolution with a completely new format, HD.


THE CONCEPT

I believe the main reason we survived the onslaught of the dotbomb years is because we had a concept that worked within the limitations of a non-existent budget.  "The Hunted" was designed as a scripted reality show shot in the style of "Cops" about a modern day group of slayers trying to prove the existence of vampires to the rest of the world.  Vampires were hot thanks to shows like "Buffy", swordplay was big thanks to "Highlander", and reality TV allowed us to justify the fact that we were shooting on crappy hi-8 camcorders with existing light and sound.

So no fancy sets, equipment, locations, props or costumes.  And even though I was a visual effects artist, I knew better than to weigh a show down with time-consuming effects.  Our production value would have to come from the resources we had available to us.  I knew swordplay, so I managed to work that into practically every episode.  I also had a fairly extensive pool of actors, writers and stuntmen in LA who would otherwise be unavailable for a non-paying gig, but these episodes could be shot in a single weekend, and it was a chance to just have fun.

And I mentioned this before, but it's really important in a no-budget web series (and in life) not to take yourself too seriously.  Comedy can save your ass.  There's no way you're going to compete with high drama, big budget TV shows.  But if you can make folks laugh, they tend to forgive and forget the details.

But our resources weren't limited to just actors, writers and stuntmen.  Thanks to the fact that we were shooting on a small videocam with no crew, we had all of Hollywood as our backdrop and managed to shoot all over the city without a permit.  We just made sure we shot the fights somewhere we wouldn't get stopped by police.  So we took every opportunity we could to shoot a Hunted episode - locations and events that we couldn't otherwise afford even if we had a budget.  At one point, we shot a swordfight we were doing at the Hollywood Bowl, but it was so tightly woven into the plot that folks were convinced that we somehow were able to afford the entire LA Philharmonic and 18,0000 extras.


THE PLAN

My original plan for the show was to shoot a few episodes to get our feet wet before we shot the pilot episode - much like most TV shows.  Once the six-part pilot episode was shot and edited, we would spread the word and release an episode a week which would give us a fairly good buffer to continue shooting episodes.  Unfortunately, cool opportunities kept presenting themselves, so we kept shooting episodes.  Sixteen episodes later, I still hadn't shot the pilot.  What's more, I realized that producing a new episode each week is fairly impossible unless you don't have to work, pay bills, or take out the trash.  It all takes time - writing, rehearsing, shooting, editing, website design.  Years passed as I continued to produce the show in my limited spare time.  And even though I had a fanbase with several hundred thousand views, I still hadn't done any advertising or officially released the show.

Youtube came along in 2005 and almost overnight became one of the most watched channels in the world.  It was a great opportunity to be part of a larger community with millions of viewers and finally ditch the media players.  But I was extremely tentative about hosting "The Hunted" with the site since various legal paragraphs suggested that all content would become property of Youtube.  It wasn't until the summer of 2007 when Felicia Day released "The Guild" on Youtube that I finally decided to go for it.

I pulled all of our episodes offline and began releasing an episode a week on Youtube.  I also asked Felicia for her advice on how to best market the show.  She told me it was all about social networking - something I had been avoiding for years.  Overnight I became a social networking whore - Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FunnyOrDie, etc, trying to touch base with every site on the internet.  Unfortunately, it's one more job, and I was already overwhelmed with production.  What's more, web shows were popping up everywhere and it became increasingly more difficult to stand out in the crowd.

In 2008, the writer's strike prompted many professionals to take a stab at the internet.  Among the most successful was Joss Whedon's "Dr Horrible" (also inspired by The Guild) which was an overnight success, literally crashing Hulu's servers in the first day of its release.  Afterwards, the show saw significant revenue hosted on iTunes, quite possibly the first ever for a web-based show.  To me, this marked a turning point for web content.  Professionals are getting involved, you can make money doing this, and Hollywood is finally taking this seriously.  Now it was gonna get crazy.


USER CONTENT

At that point, I began thinking of how to work smarter instead of harder.  My biggest problem was that it took so long to produce new episodes that it was difficult to maintain a regular fanbase.  Early on, I conceived an idea where episodes of the show could be shot by virtually anyone anywhere.  TV shows like "Cops" and "CSI" had affiliates all over the country, why not "The Hunted"?  We already had a few episodes shot outside of LA - one of which from Canada.  If I could get users to create more episodes, I could maintain a steady stream of content.

It was an idea ahead of its time - user generated content (UGC), and it's how Youtube became an overnight success.  Youtube produces nothing and yet it's the most watched channel in the world.  So why not make it work for an internet series?  What's more, it's easier than ever to create content.  Everyone has a camera, and virtually everyone has a computer that can run editing software.  The question is, does everyone have the talent?  I knew there was a huge talent pool of actors out there who were trained in stage combat who would love to be a part of something like this.  And rather than fight against everyone trying to create their own web show, I encouraged them to be part of ours.

To promote the idea, I created a Youtube contest with $1000 cash prize for best Hunted episode.  I know this completely kills the idea of a no-budget show, but the rewards were totally worth it.  I also enlisted professional judges to screen the episodes - directors, writers, producers, stunt coordinators, casting directors, agents, etc.  The winner of our first contest, Kendall Wells, not only landed a role in the TV series "Leverage", he also signed with a top Hollywood agent.  The winning episodes were also screened at various film festivals across the country.  We've had three annual contests which have produced over 60 episodes, and the creators of the best episodes have also been invited to become affiliates - given a custom URL and featured hosting on The Hunted website.

By creating a show that encourages user content, suddenly everything was easier.  Fans contribute not only to content, but to social marketing - telling their friends to come check out their episode along with the rest of the show.  They create Facebook profiles for their characters, interact with each other, etc.  What's more, folks are taking the show in directions I never thought about and are producing episodes way cooler than anything I've ever done.

Some folks think this is giving the audience too much control, and that professionals are professionals for a reason.  I think this is a bit arrogant and there's room for everyone if you structure your show correctly.  The show is based on some very simple rules, and we currently have a multi-tiered structure which features everything from our original episodes to affiliates, contest winners, and fans.

The only downside to hosting the show on Youtube is that our channel doesn't get any credit for views from fan episodes.  I decided early on that fans should keep all rights to their episodes, and it was simply easier for them to upload content to their own Youtube channel which we link to via a "playlist".  This unfortunately keeps us from becoming a Youtube partner with profit sharing potential, even though we have a substantial number of channel views based on associated content.

The challenge now is to find a way around this issue so we can be featured more predominantly on Youtube.  I'd also like to redesign the website or adopt a service like ning.com to allow for all kinds of user content including pictures, blogs, and profiles.  The new design would allow for all content to be searched by name, popularity, date, views etc.


THE FUTURE

The next step in the evolution of most web shows is to find a sponsor or get "picked up" by a cable or TV network.  That has never really been my definition of success for the show.  Regardless of whether or not someone gives us money, we can still produce the show and have fun doing it - although it would be awesome to be able to pay our affiliates to shoot episodes.  If a web show is somehow fortunate enough to become a network show, the next step might be to become a full length feature film.  We're skipping step two.

For any show to inspire fan content, you need something for fans to aspire to.  So why not finally shoot our pilot episode as a feature film?  Pull out all the stops, call in a bunch of favors, and do what you have to do.  I don't know much about sponsors or networks, but I do know about independent feature film production after producing and starring in "Ring of Steel" almost 20 years ago.

With the backing of friends at New Deal Studios in LA, and thanks to our fanbase, social networking, and Kickstarter, we successfully raised financing for The Hunted feature film.  Plans are to start production immediately upon completion of the final draft of the script, which will tie directly into the internet series.  We also plan to feature user content within the film and spinoff characters from the film into their own episodes.

Transmedia is one of the latest buzz words floating around Hollywood and it's all about expanding an idea to all forms of media - from web shows to cable shows, to feature films, to iphone apps, to comic books, to advertising, to user content, to crowdsourcing, to alternate reality gaming (ARGs).  The list goes on and on.  It's clear now that if you want to survive the ever expanding flood of media, you need to keep up.  In addition to user content and the feature film, I'm trying my hand at everything from ARGs to a location-based iphone game app.

At the latest San Diego Comic Con, I heard from some amazing directors including Robert Rodriguez, Guillermo Del Toro, John Favreau, and Kevin Smith.  All of them were talking about social networking and user content in one way or another.  It's fairly obvious to everyone that this is where the industry is headed, but no one quite knows how it's going to work.  The best any of us can do is to hang on for the ride.

Bob Chapin
www.thehunted.tv

Why did I not shoot a Hunted episode at Burning Man? There was a whole freakin vampire camp! Next year.

Thinking of a website redesign for The Hunted to allow for more of a social network. Been checking out "ning". Any other ideas?

Thanks to lifelong comic fan and convention icon Dave Davis for including us in his blog: http://ping.fm/o6R4t

Just activated our bank account for The Hunted. We're officially in business - Booyah!

Yup, it was only a matter of time. Curse you MTV! http://ping.fm/yB8B6

The trailer to SLAYERCON is now online!! http://ping.fm/Nmc9d

Anyone out there with the sills / interest / time to help create a "Zoloft-type" animation for the upcoming Hunted episode?

Polishing final draft of The Hunted feature screenplay - SWEET!

Hey gang, Ned Donovan of The Hunted: Expulsion needs your help on a Broadway gameshow! http://ping.fm/RSO22

Congrats to our resident Hunted science consultant Jess Cail for her latest research on The Dark Knight's "Bain": http://ping.fm/HvI16

Thanks to Scott Walker and the gang at Transmedia LA for a great meetup! http://ping.fm/dSDWM

Thanks to Dr Jessica Cail for our latest addition to The Hunted world: http://ping.fm/dsfr7

Remember the awesome flying sharks at Comic Con - they just went on sale! http://ping.fm/1deMj

Brian Maris' award winning "Bloodsucker Punch" Pepsi short is now online! http://ping.fm/gorip

The Hunted is screening at GEN CON this weekend! http://ping.fm/QoEX2

The Hunted ARG at Comic Con - a Transmedia Experiment and SCVNGR Review

So here's a video recap of our attempt at an ARG called "Slayer in Training" at this year's Comic Con: http://youtu.be/gJD9fBQtqSk

What you won't see in the video is the frustration of trying to base an ARG off SCVNGR and Twitter when 100,000 people at Comic Con are all on their cell phones talking, texting, twittering, uploading photos and videos until 3G is dragged to its knees.  Luckily, I got a tip from a buddy who told me to turn off 3G completely.  For some reason, the phone worked better without it.

What's more, SCVNGR still has a few bugs.  Two weeks prior to the convention, I tried to set up the custom trek in San Deigo, but there's no way to test any of the challenges unless you're physically there, and I was in LA.  The solution is to set up a local business where you can test things, and then switch them over when you get there.

Another thing that didn't seem to work was the media upload, where it would play a video or audio file as part of the challenge.  I had seen the media player work for other challenges, but those were the custom treks that companies had paid big money for.  I suspect that SCVNGR doesn't work quite as hard to maintain support for their free accounts.

I didn't want to spend any more than I was spending on the rest of the ARG (over $500 for t-shirts, swords, buttons, etc), so I opted to use the free SCVNGR account which allows you only 5 active challenges.  The key there was the word "active".  You can create as many challenges as you want.  So I created a "trek" of about 20 challenges which I could switch on and off all weekend, which required users to keep coming back.  Unfortunately, the SCVNGR app doesn't always refresh challenges on the mobile device, so folks thought they had completed the trek when they had only finished a few.

Another thing I hadn't realized, I had created a story that was supposed to unfold in a particular order.  SCVNGR has a check mark for this (linear), but it doesn't seem to work.  It didn't even display challenges in order when I activated them.  Consequently, some of the challenges didn't make sense - like getting bitten by Edward when you already have a sword.  Why not just kill him?  I have a feeling that this feature only works with the text-based game.

In addition to the iphone and Android mobile devices, SCVNGR is also supposed to work as a text-based game.  SCVNGR sends you clues one at a time and is even smart enough to send you to a different challenge if there are too many people doing the same challenge.  The problem is, photo challenges can be a pain.  On an iphone you can just snap a photo, but in the text-based game you have to take the pic, attach it to an email, and include specific text in the subject line for this to work.

The biggest drawback for the text-based game is that players showed up as "anonymous" on the leader board.  From what I could tell, there was no way to track the winners online.  What's worse, even if you play the mobile app version of the game, there's no way to contact the winners!  SCVNGR has a privacy policy and the only way to contact the winner is to contact SCVNGR who will then contact the winner for you.  I suppose you could also make it part of one of the challenges to enter your cell phone number or email address.  I had planned to just get the email of the person who finished the trek.

While I was putting together the trek, SCVNGR tech support was nice and had a 1-2 turnaround for my email questions.  Unfortunately, when I really needed help at Comic Con, they were nowhere to be found and they still haven't emailed me back a week later.

If I thought they cared, I would make a few suggestions to SCVNGR like adding a messaging capability to the app so the organizer can post updates to everyone and vice-versa.  As it was, I told players to just keep checking our main Twitter feed.  And for some reason, the font size and the photos on the challenges were displayed really freakin small - to the point they were almost unintelligible.

Some of the cool functions of the app were also unusable.  There is a map function where you can track the location of other players.  Unfortunately, you'd have to link your accounts individually for this to happen.  It was hard enough getting folks to just download the app and use twitter.  What's more, the doggedly slow 3G network at the convention would've made this feature unusable.

There were also standardized location-based challenges such as "Check-in", "Say Something", "Snap a Picture", or "Bump Someone" where you get additional points for bumping someone else's iphone at the location.  Really cool ideas, and one of the applications of "Bump" is currently being used in a zombie outbreak app where you can infect another iphone by bumping them.  The player can even add their own custom challenges to the location.  Unfortunately, what isn't obvious is that all of these standardized challenges don't count towards points on the actual trek.  The points just go towards some internal user account.

All this being said, SCVNGR was still a pretty cool way to run a scavenger hunt.  Dexter had used SCVNGR at Comic Con the year before with some success and it was definitely worth a try.  It is a very cool app and a great idea.  Being a computer programmer, however, it's doubly frustrating when a feature doesn't work.  I'm just hoping folks can learn from my experience so all of this wasn't in vain!

Video recap of The Hunted "Scavenger in Training" at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con: http://ping.fm/OzUua

Finally! Youtube implements "creative commons" licensing allowing viewers to legally use other videos: http://ping.fm/9fqKS

Announcing the winners of The Hunted 2011 San Diego Comic Con "Slayer in Training" Scavenger Hunt! http://ping.fm/l0h64

Thanks to everyone who participated in the "Slayer in Training" Scavenger Hunt at #SDCC - it was truly an epic event!!

Rockin The Hunted scavenger hunt at San Diego Comic Con!

Brian Maris (Bloodsucker Punch), just won 2nd place in the Mofilm Pepsi challenge with his vamp short! http://ping.fm/Bt7iM

Featured Hunted episodes at Gencon include Don't Try This at Home, Infiltration, Breakthrough, Lighten Up, EDEN, and Bloodsucker!

Just received word that the Hunted will be screening at GenCon on Fri Aug 5th @ 6:00 PM, Capitol I

Anyone else going to Comic Con that might be interested in helping out with the Hunted scavenger hunt?

The Hunted "Slayer in Training" scavenger hunt at Comic Con is on! http://ping.fm/aztdK

Plans are afoot! Prepare yourself for The Hunted First Annual San Diego Comic Con Scavenger Hunt! Otherwise known as THFASDCCSH!

Looking for a booth at Comic Con that would be interested in keeping some Hunted schwag and being a part of a scavenger hunt!

Our editor Jon Debiase got a whole lotta SlayerCon dumped in his lap today. Best o' luck to you Jon!

The Hunted Kickstarter Update! http://ping.fm/gjYFo

Kickstarter Update!

Still can't believe we made it!  And I'm still overwhelmed by the donations from everyone.  It's all I can do to keep from quoting lines of "It's a Wonderful Life".

Our Kickstarter campaign ended just over two weeks ago with a total of $21,060!  We had 5 backers who pledged pledged $1000 or more, 21 pledged $100 or more, and 56 backers total!  We will be sending out a survey soon to get additional info for your rewards.  And like I said, every bit helped.  In addition to funding the feature, you guys also helped to spread the word about the show, which has helped us in all kinds of ways.  Our fanbase has easily doubled overnight and we've got more folks interested in adding content, which will continue to build our fanbase.

And just the fact that we've been essentially greenlit for a feature film is a HUGE deal in LA.  There are literally thousands of web shows in production right now hoping that someday someone will see their show and make it into a movie.  Well, we're not waiting for that to happen, we're making that happen, and I have you guys to thank for helping to make it a reality.

So the update I really would've liked to post today is that we had our first day of production and it was awesome!  I never would've thought that both Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp would be up for playing cameo roles, but they did a great job as spear carriers 1 & 2.  And it was nice of Spielberg to drop by and offer his services, but I told him we had it covered.

Yup, fun to muse about, and while there is plenty of cool news to be had, we're still holding off on production until we have a locked script.  It may sound obvious that you need a solid script before going into production, but you'd be surprised how many major feature films "wing it" with millions of dollars on the line.  Well, we don't have millions of dollars, so we have to make sure to get it right the first time.

The second draft of the script was completed last week and it's looking awesome thanks to Tex Wall and Andrew Helm.  We spent four hours in an IHOP in Burbank last night jumping around annoying the customers while we plotted out the lastest revisions.  I also have the script out to a couple readers and it's getting great reviews.  I'm hoping we'll have the next draft and a locked script before the end of the month so we can start production.  In the meantime, we've already started casting, working with scheduling software, evaluating equipment, scouting locations, etc.

And while all of this is going on, we somehow managed to stage our Third Annual Hunted Youtube Contest and shoot one of our most elaborate intro videos thanks to Charles Currier and the Los Angeles Fight Academy.  We ended up with 17 entries in the contest which were judged by industry professionals from around the world.  And our winning entries are pretty freakin awesome.  To see the intro video and the winning entries, check out http://www.thehunted.tv/frameset_winners

We also somehow managed to shoot one of our most ambitious Hunted episodes to date entitled "SlayerCon".  Written by Andrew Helm, we shot the episode last weekend in Las Vegas during the first ever "Combat Con" convention.  We were originally supposed to be one of the special guests, but the organizers were more than happy to feature a screening of our contest winners and help us out in any way.  Before we knew it, we were shooting an episode which involved Hunted affiliates from all over the country, a cameo by Anthony DeLongis and Kyle Rowling (Star Wars), a cast of 18 with costumes, props, extras, 200 custom printed "Slayerade" bottles hats and t-shirts, and a whole online transmedia campaign for Slayerade.com and SlayerCon.com with custom websites.  For a complete breakdown of the crazy weekend, check out http://thehuntedtv.blogspot.com/2011/06/combat-con-recap.html

The footage we got from the episode looks great, I'm really happy we did it, and it ties in great with the feature film.  But as much as I'd like to cut the 20 minute 2-part episode myself, the feature is still priority and we have an awesome editor stepping in by the name of John Bebiase who has volunteered to cut the episode for us.  Thanks John!

So even though we may not be in production yet, we're still going strong, and you guys can continue to help us out by spreading the word.  And we're not just looking for fans, we're looking for folks who can add content which will continue to expand the show.  So if you know any filmmakers, actors, directors, writers, stage combat folks, etc. who might be interested in shooting a Hunted episode, we need content right now more than ever!  It doesn't matter where they live, just send them to our website at www.thehunted.tv  And note that any new episodes will be eligible for our next Youtube contest.

Thanks again guys, y'all rock!

Bob

Just finished our final pickup scene for The Hunted SlayerCon episode!

SlayerAde is now on Facebook! http://ping.fm/rJ6Ui

Combat Con Recap

Yep, the truck that hit me had a vanity plate.  And the name on that plate was "Combat Con"!  It's Tuesday morning and I feel like I've been backed over repeatedly by a steam roller.  It might be the 1/2 hour sleep we got in the parking lot on our first night after they lost our hotel reservation, or the 2 hour lightsaber class with a couple awesome sword blokes Nick Gillard and Kyle Rowling, or the constant pressure of having to shoot a Hunted episode cumulating in a climactic fight sequence with Anthony DeLongis and Hunted affiliates from all over the country.

But damn, I'm glad we went!

Months ago, I had been contacted by Tim Ruzicki and Jared Kirby about taking part in "Combat Con".  I was more than a bit tentative, since we already had more than enough on our plate with The Hunted feature.  I've also been a bit tentative when it comes to conventions in general, having seen several web shows over the years spending all of their time running around marketing themselves without focusing on the actual show - all buzz and no content.

This would also be the first year for Combat Con, which is a bit difficult for any convention.  And they were planning on pulling out all the stops - risky!  Not only would this be one of the first conventions that combined stage combat and western martial arts, these guys wanted to also incorporate fantasy, sci-fi, fx makeup, stage combat competitions, LARPing, steampunk, and a whole buncha other crazy worlds under one roof.  It was a bizarre mix of fantasy characters and people who could actually kill you.

But somehow it all worked out.  And it worked really well in my opinion!  And no one died (to my knowledge).

My interest, however, was simply to advertise for The Hunted, and the organizers were more than happy to host our show.  What's more, this would give us an opportunity to screen the winning episodes from our latest contest.  And then, once I was convinced we were going, the ideas inevitably began to snowball.

My biggest reservation was that I didn't want Combat Con to interfere with our plans for the feature film.  But there was suddenly all this excitement and energy being focused on the con - affiliates from all over the country were planning on showing up including Derek Conley from Florida, and Kendall Wells who had just moved to LA.  What's more, Anthony DeLongis was also going to be there, which would allow us to put together a Hunted panel which would include myself, Andrew Helm, and Jessica Cail.

In addition, stage combat performers were coming in from all over the country, and my biggest interest right now is finding folks to create new episodes of The Hunted who can also handle the action.  So this just seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up, and rather than waste time trying to fight all this energy, I decided to just go with it.

And then of course, I fell into the trap that has gotten me into all kinds of crazy trouble in the past ten years.  How can we make a Hunted episode out of this?  Using the resources that were already there, I quickly came up with the idea that this convention was actually a front for a gathering of slayers from all over the country called "Slayer Con"!  And into this convention would walk our main baddie vampire with balls o' steel, Vincent Marlowe (Anthony DeLongis), with plans to market a new energy drink called "Slayerade".  Unfortunately, the drink has a few side effects (including spontaneous combustion), and Bob and the rest of the slayers must join forces to defeat him.  Vincent, however, has an ace up his sleeve and breaks a small vial which is the equivalent of a slayer "roofie".  The slayers all wake the next day wondering what the hell happened in a parody of a scene from "The Hangover".

We were excited about the episode because it tied into a lot of the elements for the feature and the web series - the fact that Marlowe is all about making money and wiping out his competition while being involved in the pharmaceutical industry was a big plus.  The episode also tied into the "Breakthrough" episode we shot years ago where Jessica Cail (playing a research scientist) was abducted by Marlowe.  We also tied in a reference to our "Expulsion" affiliate in New York which had a b-plot about vampires creating energy drinks from water found in the Ithaca gorges.  What's more, Kendall Wells had an episode he was writing for "SlayerCon" which would overlap with our episode, introduce our characters to each other, introduce the other affiliates, and go into further backstory of Jess and her involvement with Marlowe.

Andrew Helm took on the task of our writing the script, which allowed Jess and I to focus on organizing the shoot and all the elements including 200 bottles of custom printed "Slayerade" along with t-shirts, hats, and posters.  There was also casting, scheduling (which was no simple task since everyone had their own convention schedule), and ordering a bunch of nurses uniforms.  I also ordered 1000 Hunted buttons and set up a SlayerCon and Slayerade URL and website which would push directly to The Hunted.

I originally thought this would be just another 5-10 minute episode, but I knew we were in trouble when the first draft came in at 28 pages (which makes for a 28 minute script).  Just so you know, most feature films might shoot a couple pages a day.  Shooting all of this in one weekend would mean shooting more than ten pages a day.  But it was a pretty awesome script, so we managed to cut it down to 20 pages, which was potentially do-able and would make for a fun 2-part episode.

And with a car packed with swords, signs, shirts, buttons, scripts, an airzooka and a camera, we set off from LA with myself, Andrew Helm, and Jessica Cail in my comfortably packed Rav 4.

We had one shot we wanted to get before we got to Vegas, which was a nighttime roadside shot of Andrew and I walking down the road after our car had broken down.  It took us until 2 in the morning to find the perfect spot on the east side of town, but it was worth it (I hope).  Afterwards, we dropped off Andrew at his mom's place in Vegas and made it to our hotel around 3am.  And yup, this is the part where they lost our reservation.  What's more, the whole hotel was completely booked thanks to another event going on at the same time, the "Electric Daisy Carnival" which had lil' ravers descending on Vegas from all parts of the world.  I felt bad for Jess, since she really wanted to see this, but she was locked in to being our dedicated cameraman all weekend.

But I felt much worse for the both of us at that moment since we now had no place to sleep, and we were completely exhausted since we only had 3 hours of sleep the previous night.  What's more, our call time the next morning was 7am when we were planning on killing a vampire in front of the "Welcome to Vegas" sign.  Screw it, we'll just sleep in the parking lot.  Unfortunately, after an hour in the parking lot, we were awakened by a knock on the window by the hotel security guard telling us that we could park there, but we couldn't sleep.  I'm glad that I forgot in my exhausted state of rage that I had a whole bag of swords in the back seat.

We gave up and ended up going to IHOP for pancakes until our call time.  We still had no idea if Bret Culpepper (our vampire) was even going to make it, but luckily we hooked up with him and Andrew Helm and got our shot.  Unfortunately, it will have to be dubbed since I had no idea the location was in the middle of a highway right next to an airport.

It would've been nice at that point to find a room and crash, but we couldn't check in until 3pm and the day had just begun.  The next challenge was to shoot a cameo with Jared Kirby, who was busy organizing the entire convention.  What was I thinking?  But we managed to shoot his two scenes and I'm just hoping that this will all cut together somehow.

And then, my second crazy idea of the day, I had scheduled to take part in a 2 hour jedi swordfighting class with Kyle Rowling and Nick Gillard.  It was the one class I planned to take all weekend, the one thing I wanted to do just for me, I was physically and mentally waaaay too tired to take the class, and it was probably stupid of me to waste what little energy I had.  But it was totally worth it!  I had a blast and I'm thankful to Derek Conley for partnering up with me, even though he was just as wasted as I was.

But the fun didn't stop there, we took advantage of the space and time afterwards to rehearse with Anthony, myself, Kendall, Derek and Kyle for the final fight scene on Sunday.  Thankfully, Jess had checked us into the hotel by that time, and I think I may have crashed out afterwards for an hour but I'm not sure.  The whole weekend was kinda blurry - not just from sleep deprivation, but from lack of food.  I had included lunch as part of the schedule, but somehow I don't remember eating.

Otherwise we managed to stick to the schedule the entire weekend, which I thought was amazing since almost every minute was booked.  Friday was supposed to be our easiest day and we chose to end the day by shooting some of the crazy "Hangover" footage with Andrew's character getting married to a vampire at a small Vegas-type church.  It was at that point we met Britney, who Andrew had previously met online and had agreed to help us out with the episode.  Britney was awesome and a real trooper - even when we got kicked out of one church parking lot when Kendall pulled off his shirt and pretended to pee on their fence.

Our call the next morning was 8am when we planned to shoot the actual hangover scene.  Our nice new hotel room was completely trashed within 20 minutes, and we shot some footage that morning which I'm still not sure is suitable for the internet.  Let's just say that Kendall emerges from the bathroom wearing naught but a crash helmet, a strategically placed sock, and an inflatable dolphin.

The rest of the day was spent trying to shoot scenes and b-roll while taking part in actual panels and screenings.  We also set up the Hunted booth, which was more of a film set as far as I was concerned, so I was surprised when folks started buying headshots and DVD's.  Our actual Hunted panel was later in the day - our first ever!  Like most panels at the con, we had a fairly small, but enthusiastic turnout.  Unfortunately, the few people that were there disappeared when we excused most of our cast to shoot a scene for the episode.  We had one person left for the scene, which I thought was funny since The Hunted has always had a lackluster, but enthusiastic fanbase on the show.

I was still completely exhausted by the time evening rolled around, as was Andrew.  I didn't think we were going to be able to shoot anything else that evening, so I sent him home.  Unfortunately about a half hour later, I really wish I hadn't.  I knew the convention was planning on a costume ball, and I was planning on shooting a few party shots, but I had no idea what a rocking great time it would be!  What's more, it was an excellent opportunity to show all the slayers getting completely wasted.

It was at some point in time this evening that "Squeakers" the inflatable dolphin made its appearance.  This is something I picked up from the 99 cent store years ago, but somehow found its way into the world of The Hunted.  That night, Squeakers was passed around from one slayer to the next who performed unspeakable acts on the poor mammal.  Last I heard, Squeakers the dolphin had been kidnapped by Kyle Rowling and was being held hostage somewhere in Australia.  There is already a facebook campaign to "Save Squeakers".

Sunday had us up again early to shoot all of Anthony's scenes.  Anthony was COMPLETELY booked the entire weekend, and Sunday morning was our best bet.  At the last second, an autographed session was scheduled for Anthony in the middle of Sunday morning, which would've completely hosed us, but Anthony stuck with us and shot all his scenes.

I've worked with Anthony for over 20 years now, but I was never more impressed with him than I was this weekend.  Not only did he take part in yet another Hunted episode in the midst of a crazy schedule-packed weekend, he also managed to perform four fights with lightning speed, back to back with pages of dialogue all in a single take.  Damn.

I'm seriously amazed we were able to pull together all the elements for the scenes with Anthony and that final conflict.  We had extras, fights, dialogue, slayerade bottles, multiple episode with multiple cameras, and a convention going on all around us.  What's more, at the last second I realized that we were sans a cameraman.  Everyone was in the scene, and the folks who weren't were shooting for other episodes.  Fortunately for us, Brian McGee stepped in, a local from Vegas who was shooting another episode with Bret Culpepper, and did an excellent job.  Special thanks also go out that morning to Jason Mcneil, Mary Delongis, and our sexy nurses Britney and Liz McClelland.

The rest of Sunday covered more scenes, more b-roll, and more pickups for Kendall's episode, which he was writing on the fly.  It was truly awesome to work with him and Derek, who were almost instantly on the same page when it came to comedy and timing.  I can't wait to see what happens with his episode.  I'm hoping I don't give too much of his plot away by saying it involves a girl (Mel Turner) who wants to employ Kendall to save her sister (Jess Cail).  I'm fairly certain that comedy ensues.  This will be the first episode to be shot concurrently with another episode, and there were a few moments when we crossed the streams and two cameras were standing right next to each other.  I'm fairly certain if you view these scenes side by side with special glasses, you will be able to see the first Hunted episode in 3D!

On top of everything else on Sunday, I managed to shoot an interview with G4's "Viewer Army", which was one of the most relaxed interviews I've ever had - probably since I was completely exhausted.  I had originally been contacted by G4 to shoot coverage for Combat Con, but I'm glad that didn't happen since I can't imagine doing that on top of everything else.

Sunday evening was The Hunted screening where, by popular demand, we also showed dailies of the day's shoot.  We stopped short of showing any of the hangover footage however, since a few of those images were still burned into our brains and we didn't want to inflict that on anyone else.  In addition to the dailies, we also screened The Hunted episodes "Breakthrough" and "Con Job 2" along with the winners of the Third Annual Hunted Contest "Women of Will", "Pfefferneuse and Mystery", and "Punk in the Trunk".  Once again, it was a small but enthusiastic turnout, and by the end of the showing practically everyone in the room was ready to shoot an episode.

It was damn late and we were damn tired by the time the screening wrapped up, but we were determined to take Derek out to dinner for his birthday.  Derek told me the best birthday present he had was to be able to kickass in his fight scene with Anthony, and he certainly did that!  And he was following a couple pretty tough acts.  Kendall and I have both worked with Anthony for years and we could do those fights in our sleep.  Derek had just met Anthony and only had a matter of hours to put together a fight sequence.  And he certainly stepped up - congrats buddy!

Even though we were exhausted after dinner on Sunday night, we still had some shots we wanted to get on our hangover party stuff, so Kendall, myself, Derek, Andrew and Jess hit the town. It was at that point that Andrew kinda switched off and had to crash before he could no longer walk.  We still made it to Excalibur to shoot some silly footage of us fighting with Nerf axes in front of the gate, and we got kicked out of the men's restroom for filming some other antics.  We probably should've also been kicked out for doing some dirty dancing in front of a poster for "Thunder from Down Under".

My biggest regret from the weekend is that we did not get footage of us riding a zipline down Fremont street (which was in the script).  If you haven't seen this, it's a crazy long zipline where four people can go simultaneously and it would've been awesome to have footage of myself, Andrew, Kendall, and Derek all going at the same time.  I had even brought along my Gopro for the occasion.  Doh.  Next time I guess.  We also never got footage of the city timelapse, which is the other reason I brought the Gopro.  I'm guessing we'll just have to find some stock footage.

The only other scene we didn't have time for involved myself, Jess and Andrew in a parking garage, which I figure we can get in LA.  It was scheduled for Monday morning in Vegas, but we thought it was more important to treat the cast to breakfast, actually hang out together for a bit, and see them off.

But it wasn't over yet.  When we finally left Vegas at 2:30pm on Monday afternoon, we still had nine scenes to shoot in the car with myself and Andrew.  It was hilarious since this was supposed to be the beginning of the script where Andrew was all excited about going to Combat Con, and here we were completely exhausted.  What's worse, we were stuck in traffic with all of the "Electric Daisy" ravers leaving the city, and one of our last scenes involved shooting at a gas station just outside LA before sunset.

The gas station was kind of a big deal.  It took me almost a week of searching online to find an old gas station in the desert where we come across a vampire attendant (played by Bret Culpepper) who wants to check our "vital fluids".  The place I finally found was this little old country store outside LA, and we only had four hours to get there.  Luckily, the traffic thinned enough for us to make it to the gas station just in time where we met up with Bret who had been waiting there for hours.  At least we didn't have to worry about getting kicked out since they had just closed.

Pulling into LA at 10pm, I was still determined to shoot our final scene, knowing that pickups can sometimes be virtually impossible to shoot.  But I gave up at the last minute, packed it in, crawled into bed, and didn't get up until sometime in the late afternoon.  It's now after 6pm and I haven't bothered to check my email or eat breakfast since I'm sure I wouldn't have time or momentum to write this if I did.

And as exhausted as I am, I'm thrilled we did this.  I don't know how the convention did, but in my opinion it was a huge success!  Not only were we able to shoot a kickass episode involving almost every character and affiliate in The Hunted at an awesome location, but we also got to meet up with a bunch of sword-slingin professionals who are now interested in shooting episodes for the show.

I'd also love to see if we can make "Slayer Con" a real thing at Combat Con, where we could actually get all of our affiliates and fans together for the weekend and host a 48 hour film competition, teach swordplay and film combat classes, run some alternate reality games, etc.  Why not?  We've already got the URL.

For now, I'm just hoping to get the episode online in the next couple months while we're also prepping and shooting the feature.  I've got an editor lined up named John Debiase and we'll probably hook up after we shoot our last scene sometime this week.

First things first, it's 6:45pm and time for breakfast!

Bob

For more photos, check out our online album on Facebook.

Did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me this weekend? All I saw was a vanity plate with the name "COMBAT CON".

The Hunted rocked SlayerCon! Kyle, where's our inflatable dolphin?

Once again, if you're going to SlayerCon and want to be in an awesome Hunted episode, check our FB event: http://ping.fm/CET0F

Screening at SlayerCon will include the winning Hunted episodes "Women of Will", "Pfefferneuse", and "Punk in the Trunk!"

Packin' for Vegas baby! Slayercon, here we come!! http://ping.fm/xOR9s

Brian Maris (Bloodsucker Punch) is looking for vamps for a shoot next Sunday at 6pm in Hollywood: http://ping.fm/ueQz2

The results are in for The Hunted Third Annual $1000 Youtube Contest! http://ping.fm/cwciF

The Hunted Third Annual $1000 Youtube Contest Results!

The results of The Hunted Third Annual $1000 Youtube Contest are in! Damn, we had some awesome entries, and I want to thank everyone for their hard work! You guys are the ones keeping this show going and I'd gladly sponsor all the episodes if we had the budget.

I also want to thank our judges for taking the time out of their busy schedules to watch all the entries (about 3 hours of material). Once again, our judges included: Fight Coordinator Richard Ryan (Dark Knight), Writer & Executive Producer Gillian Horvath (Highlander), KSR Action Aces Agent Michelle Braverman, Swordmaster Anthony DeLongis (Fearless), Writer / Critic Abbie Bernstein, Director Sean Becker (The Guild), and Casting Director Katie Taylor.

Remember that episodes were judged based on ALL criteria including acting, action, story, production value, comedy, and Youtube hits, and while there were episodes that had the best scores in a select category, it was the episodes that averaged best in all categories that made for the best overall Hunted episode!

This year, our affiliates totally kicked ass! Unfortunately, they also wiped out any competition by entering multiple episodes. So in the interest of encouraging new content and not sending the competition running for the hills, our winning affiliates have agreed that contests should allow for multiple entries, but there would be a single winner in each category (first, second and third place). It's like a track and field event where they keep the best score out of three. My plan is to eventually have a sponsor for our affiliates so they don't even have to compete.

So here are the results. Once again, congrats guys!

FIRST PLACE

BLOOD SUCKER PUNCH

"PUNK IN THE TRUNK"

Brian Maris, LA

SECOND PLACE

THE CHRONICLES OF KENDALL

"PFEFFERNEUSE AND MYSTERY"

Kendall Wells, OR

THIRD PLACE

WOMEN OF WILL

Dawn "Sam" Alden, LA, CA

BEST COMEDY

BEST ACTION SEQUENCE

HOTTEST FEMALE VAMPIRE

"PUNK IN THE TRUNK"

Brian Maris, LA

HONORABLE MENTION

ACTING, STORY & PRODUCTION VALUE

AMONG US

Steven Vargas, LA

ACTION

VAMPIRE BITES DREAM

Ned Donovan, NY

COMEDY

VAMPIRIC ORDER

David Vaillancourt, LA

YOUTUBE HITS

TAX TIME

Chris Fields & Anthony Chan, FL

All entries along with the winning episodes can be viewed online at

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A8B5D8476EB7EAC0

JUDGING STATS:
A panel of eight judges rated each episode on acting, action, story, production value and comedy. Judges were instructed on the scale, which ranged from 1 to 10, with “1 being poor, and 10 being awesome”. The scoring sheets from each judge were then tabulated and each episode was given a summary score on each criteria by averaging across all judges, and an overall score, which consisted of a master average across all criteria. Youtube totals were calculated based on total number of views and distributed among a scale of 1-10 based on the top number of hits for an episode.

Results for The Hunted $1000 Youtube contest are still coming in. Hoping to announce the winners later tonight!

The Hunted episodes are in! And they've got the weekend to tally as many hits as they can! http://ping.fm/pkj8W

SLAYERCON BABY!

Yep, the "SlayerCon" episode is coming together extremely fast and it's turning into quite the event!  What was supposed to be our month for prepping The Hunted feature film with a quick pit-stop at a small newbie convention has become an epic episode with talent from around the world descending on a mega-con that will surely dwarf the sleepy little town of Las Vegas.

Thanks to the convention organizers, Tim Ruzicki and Jared Kirby, The Hunted had been given permission to run rampant over Combat Con - shooting at panels, demos, and virtually everywhere within the Nevada state limits.  What's more, we had a buncha eager volunteers and Hunted affiliates from around the country coming to this thing who are willing to do whatever our twisted little minds came up with.

I definitely didn't want this to distract from work on the feature (which has just been successfully funded thanks to Kickstarter).  But then I realized at some point that it was easier to allow all this energy to happen rather than trying to keep it contained.  And it was an opportunity not to be missed

So here we go.  I came up with a basic story premise that Combat Con was a front for a slayer convention which Bob and Kevin (Andrew Helm) were invited.  After driving out through the desert whilst surviving a few adventures along the way, they arrive at SlayerCon only to find out that the convention is being sponsored by head vampire bad guy Vincent Marlowe (Anthony DeLongis) who's marketing something called "SlayerAde".  The drink is supposed to give slayers enhanced strength and speed, but results may vary, and comedy ensues.

So while Tex Wall is cranking out pages of the feature film script, Andrew Helm has taken it upon himself to pen The Hunted episode known as SLAYERCON, which is now a 2 part, 20 minute epic!

In preparation for the episode, we've asked anyone who would like to participate sign into our Facebook Event.  We've also begun toying with some transmedia ideas, creating a site for www.slayercon.com and www.slayerade.com.  And we've gone a bit crazy on the marketing and we've ordered 200 bottles of "Slayerade" and a huge "Slayerade" banner with hats and t-shirts.  Oh, and I just ordered 3 sexy nurse outfits.  And yes, those are also for the episode.

We've also ordered a big Hunted banner and 1000 buttons in preparation for Combat Con and other upcoming conventions such as the San Diego Comic Con in July.  And plans for Comic Con are a whole other story.  We're working on an ARG (alternate reality game) that will have fans track down and slay a vampire at the con for the chance to win a walk-on role in the feature film. 

Now I just have to find a source for good inflatable swords...

Headed to CombatCon in Vegas? Want to be in the next Hunted episode? http://ping.fm/H46yU

Told to me by Elan Lee of Fourth Wall Studios: "if you can figure out how to make UGC work, you'd be turning straw into gold!"

New Hunted episodes for the $1000 Youtube Contest are rolling in, and we've got some awesome entries! Check 'em out at http://ping.fm/mCmbY

SWEET! The Hunted just made it's Kickstarter goal of $20K! Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. Now let's make a movie!

7 Days to go and we're only $840 short of our 20,000 goal! Thanks to everyone for helping to spread the word: http://ping.fm/sEiwU

The Hunted is now featured on Shared Story Worlds - thanks Scott! http://ping.fm/CUxRB

"Women of Will" Hunted episode in production! http://ping.fm/Myq4e

Soooo close to our 20k goal for the film! We're now at $17,630 with 14 days left! http://ping.fm/h2Y48

Here's the link to part 2 of Overlords, Inc! http://ping.fm/I93AV

And you gotta love their t-shirts. I want one! http://ping.fm/dVOhi

New all-babe sword-slingin Hunted episode in the works led by Sam Alden! http://ping.fm/02oRJ

The schedule is now online for CombatCon (I mean SlayerCon!) http://ping.fm/iUhvs

We're at $11,000 with only 15 days left to go guys! C'mon and help spread the word! http://ping.fm/KAzEz

BAMM! Brian Maris' latest episode of The Hunted: BLOODSUCKER PUNCH is now online! http://ping.fm/TJ7D3

The latest episode of The Hunted: Expulsion is now online - http://ping.fm/oVs7p

Abbie Bernstein's Hunted episode "Overlords, Inc." is online with special guests from "Chuck" and "Buffy" http://ping.fm/XCyta

The Hunted was just accepted into the GenCon film festival! http://ping.fm/C48Wl

Making plans for CombatCon (uh, I mean SlayerCon) and I want to find out who else is in...

The Hunted $1000 Youtube Contest Update: http://ping.fm/oec7T

The Hunted $1000 Youtube Contest Update!

Still thinkin about shooting a Hunted episode?  Better think fast, contest deadline is just a month away (June 17).  Just remember that it's only 5-10 minutes (which you can totally shoot in a weekend), you've got way more time than some 48-hour film contest, and there's no experience required.  All three of our first year winners had never done anything like this before - http://thehuntedtv.blogspot.com/2009/11/winners-of-first-1000-hunted-youtube.html

And then there's $1000.

But wait, there's still more!  Our sponsors have come forward to sweeten the pot a bit:
1) Vampfangs is now sponsoring the "Hottest Female Vamp" award with $100 cash, and a featured print layout as an official Vampfangs girl on their website at www.vampfangs.com.
2) Combat Con (http://thecombatcon.com/) is now sponsoring the "Best Action" award with $100 cash, 2 tickets to Combat Con in Vegas, a screening of the episode at the event, and a seat at The Hunted panel.

Along with second and third place winnings, that brings our total to an estimated $3000 in cash and prizes!

We've also been invited to a few new film festivals where the winning episodes will be screened.  So in addition to "Action on Film" in LA and "Vampire Film Festival" in New Orleans, we will now be featured at "Combat Con" in Vegas and "Gen Con" in Indianapolis.

Finally, we are pleased and honored to announce our awesome lineup of judges for the Third Annual $1000 Hunted Youtube Contest!  I'd like to thank all of our judges for donating their time to be a part of the show.  I think that aside from the cash and prizes, this is the real opportunity for anyone entering the contest - to be seen by industry professionals.  Thanks to our first contest, Kendall Wells from Oregon not only landed a role in "Leverage", but also signed with a top Hollywood agent. 

And our judges for the Third Annual $1000 Hunted Youtube Contest are...

Richard Ryan (http://www.stagefight.com/) - Fight Coordinator for feature films such as "Sherlock Holmes", "The Dark Knight", "Golden Compass", "Stardust" and "Troy". He is also the only British Fight Master to hold Master status in the Society of American Fight Directors.

Gillian Horvath (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395741/) - Creative Consultant, Producer, and Writer for TV shows such as "Sanctuary", "Highlander", "Xena", "Beastmaster", "Forever Knight", "Painkiller Jane", "Flash Gordon", "Queen of Swords", "Mythquest", and "Andromeda".

Anthony Delongis (http://www.delongis.com/) - SwordMaster, Weapons Expert and Actor credited in films such as "Fearless", "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull", "The Rundown", "Secondhand Lions", "Batman Returns", "Far and Away", "Sword and the Sorcerer", "Masters of the Universe", and on TV in shows such as "Highlander", "Star Trek Voyager", "Babylon 5", "Queen of Swords", "Magnificent Seven", "Sinbad", and "Conan".

Michelle Braverman - Agent / Director of Action Aces KSR (http://ksrtalent.com/), one of the top talent agencies in Hollywood. Michelle's clients have worked in such films as "Pirates of the Carribbean", "Spiderman", "Flags of our Fathers", "3:10 to Yuma", "Panet of the Apes", "Transformers", "Alias", and "Buffy".

Katie Taylor of Taylor Casting - Casting Director for commercials, print, TV, music videos, and film.  Her extensive list of clients and projects include Spike Jones, Zack Snyder, "Where the Wild Things Are", "Litttle Miss Sunshine", Josh Grobin, Santana, Macy Grey, FOX Searchlight, CSI, Super Nanny, AT&T, Gatorade, Coke, Nike, Adidas, Target, VW, Kawasaki, and Sony PS2.

Kerry Glover - Writer, Producer and Script Coordinator for shows such as TV's "Leverage", "Bionic Woman", "Stephen King's Dead Zone", "Stargate:Atlantis", and "Stargate: Infinity".  Kerry is also one of the original writers for "The Hunted", and has played the roles of "Harriet" and "Mikey" on several occassions.  She was also responsible for helping our first contest winner, Kendall Wells, secure a role on "Leverage".

Abbie Bernstein - Film Critic and Writer for Fangoria, Drama-Logue, IF Magazine, Dreamwatch, Drama-logue, and writer for books guides on Firefly, Serenity and Fantastic Four.  Abbie has also produced her own episode of The Hunted entitled "Overlords, Inc." which features myself, Anthony Delongis, Camden Toy (Buffy), Bonnie Fredericy (Chuck), and Steve Tartalia (Buffy).

And last but not least, I just heard that Sean Becker is also on board - the director of "Comedy Gumbo", "The Jeff Lewis 5 Minute Comedy Hour" and the award-winning web series "The Guild" featuring Felicia Day.

I will also be on the judging panel (http://www.robertchapin.com) as Writer / Actor / Series Producer for "The Hunted", Star of "Ring of Steel" and "Dragon Fury", Fight Choreographer, Second Unit Director, and VFX artist on films such as "Shutter Island", "X-Men", "Cloverfield", "Riddick" and "Fantastic Four".

Once again, the episodes will be judged based on an average of votes between all of our judges and Youtube views, so the sooner you enter, the better!  The criteria for judging will also include acting, action, storyline, production value & comedy with additional judging for best action sequence and hottest female vamp.

If you have any questions or need help with storyline, cast, crew, effects or whatever, don't hesitate to check out our community forum at http://www.thehunted.tv/phpbb/index.php or send us an email at contest@thehunted.tv

And if you're still not convinced, check out everything else The Hunted contest has to offer in our Top Ten list - http://www.thehunted.tv/affiliate.htm

Good luck guys and happy hunting!

Bob