The Hunted contest entries are online!

No thanks to the plague of technical problems experienced by our intrepid filmmaking slayers which we choose to blame on the mischievous Krayven, 21 Hunted episodes have been submitted to the Second $1000 Hunted Youtube Contest!

The deadline for entries was April 12th, but the judging isn't until April 17th, so you've got until Saturday to check out the episodes and vote! And yes, episodes will be judged in part by Youtube hits and votes - so get cracking'!

http://www.youtube.com/user/thehuntedtv#grid/user/79E1179259CF2B08

Featured among the entries are a buncha great episodes from our affiliates - 2 episodes from Chris and Derek's show in Tampa, 3 episodes from Ned's "Expulsion" in New York with another episode from their instructor Mark in St Louis, and 4 from "The Chronicles of Kendall" in Oregon (a freakin' slaying machine). Oh yea, and there's that episode from freakin' South Africa!

There's a bunch more great episodes out there and I want to list them all, but I can't play favorites. I'm so glad we've got like eight judges since there are so many good episodes and it would be impossible (and potentially lethal) for one person to pick a winner. The last contest was extremely close and I hope folks realize that even if they don't win, the show is building some great momentum as one of the first Interactive Fiction (IF) web series, and the episodes are getting noticed. And not just by our awesome judges Richard Ryan, Gillian Horvath, Len Wein, Matt Gratzner, David Boushey, Anthony DeLongis, Michelle Braverman and Abbie Bernstein.

I'm happy to announce that after the first contest, Kendall Wells was seen in his episode "Don't Try This at Home" by a script coordinator on the TV show "Leverage". His information was passed onto casting and through a few other contacts (including our own Anthony DeLongis), he now has landed a featured role on the show. I have no idea where he had the time to whip out four new episodes.

So with a little luck and no interference from Krayven, the winners will be announced by the end of the weekend. Congrats again to all the entries, and for anyone who missed the deadline, know that any future episodes will eligible for the next contest.

Interviews!

Two new interviews are now online for The Hunted:

IF Magazine
"Creator Robert Chapin is one of The Hunted"

and SciFinal's
"Creator's Corner"

The Hunted - Update!

The $1000 Youtube contest is heating up and we've got all kinds of awesome news.

First up, our contest deadline has been extended to April 12th. We've had some great response and/or pleas from folks who need just a little more time to make their episodes truly kickass, folks who just found out about the contest, and folks who are still wondering what a codec is. But take note this is our last reprieve since judging will take place on April 17th, and we need at least a week to allow folks to vote on episodes and prep for our screening night.

I've only heard bits and pieces about some of the episodes in the works. From what I understand, we've got episodes shooting in LA, New York, Missouri, Oregon, Tampa, England and Africa. And from what I've seen so far, the episodes are looking awesome!

Here's a few shots from Brian Peters' episode "Bite Club" shot at the amazing City Museum in St Louis: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=161243&id=509551035&ref=mf

Spenser Coates (recently seen in Con Job 2) has put together a trailer for her episode "The Hunted Goes to Book Club" with a few recognizable faces from The Dungeonmaster show in LA: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1272189239515&ref=mf

And thanks to the folks who hustled to the set of Brian Maris' episode last week in LA. For those of you who don't know, Brian has some serious credits working on shows like "Dark Knight".

And if you haven't seen 'em yet, we've got three contest episodes online, so check 'em out and vote! Two episodes are from our affiliate in Oregon that can... not... be... stopped! Kendall Wells, aka "The Chronicles of Kendall", keeps cranking out kickass episodes with "Desert Storm" and "Hunted? Hunted". The third contest entry is from Ned Donovan, a student of Mark Bedell's in Ithaca, NY called "Expulsion" Ned has teamed up with his theater department to come up with an entire season of his series and we're proud to announce them as our third official affiliate "The Hunted - Expulsion"

So what's with this affiliate thing? Affiliates are uber-talented but crazed individuals who have expressed an interest in producing ongoing content for The Hunted. They will be our focus for future sponsorship through programs like Kickstarter and Blip.tv. If you have an interest in becoming an official affiliate, contact us at affiliates@thehunted.tv

You'll also notice that affiliates are now featured in our new episode listing page (http://www.thehunted.tv/youtube_episodes.html) along with fan episodes, contest episodes, and a listing of our top ten Hunted episodes (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92E2C6C8C701A776). If you've got a favorite episode and you'd like to see it in our top ten, check out our new poll at http://poll.fm/1p8dx

In marketing news, The Hunted is now listed with SciFinal.com - a listing of virtually every sci-fi/fantasy internet show out there.

Winners from the first $1000 Youtube contest have been submitted to San Diego's 2010 Comic-Con Film Festival along with the episode "Con Job 2" which was also submitted to Dragon Con in Georgia.

Derek Conley (our Tampa Affiliate) was featured on the talk radio show "Until You Walk the Path, You Don't Know Where it Goes" where he "pimped the hell out of The Hunted" - thanks Derek! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theresachaze/2010/03/07/until-you-walk-the-path-you-dont-know-where-it-goe

And finally, I have been interviewed by "IF Magazine" about the Hunted, it's origins, and all sorts of things I commented on that I'll someday regret. I'll definitely post the article which should be online soon.

Thanks for the support guys - I can't wait to see these contest episodes!

Bob

New Contest Judge - Michelle Braverman!

We are pleased (nay, thrilled) to announce that we have a new judge for our upcoming Second $1000 Hunted Youtube Contest:

Michelle Braverman - Agent / Director of Action Aces KSR (http://www.ksawest.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".

Second $1000 Youtube Contest Judges Announced!

The Hunted is proud to announce our awesome lineup of judges for the Second $1000 Hunted Youtube Contest! Once again, in addition to the cash and prizes, it's a great opportunity for anyone producing an episode to have their work seen by top industry professionals such as...

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.

Matthew Gratzner (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336054/) - Co-owner of New Deal Studios (http://www.newdealstudios.com), producer of award-winning visual effects in films such as "Dark Knight", "Iron Man", "Watchmen", "Spiderman", "X-men", "Riddick", "Pitch Black", "Alien Resurrection", "Resident Evil 3" and "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". Matthew has also recently been signed as the Director for the feature film "UFO".

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

Len Wein (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0918083/) - Comic book legend, writer and editor for Marvel and DC Comics, writer for TV shows such as "Human Target" and "X-Men", and creator of numerous superhero characters including "Wolverine" and "Swamp Thing".

David Boushey (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0100208/) - Stunt Coordinator and Swordmaster who has been in the business for 35 years working on shows such as "Highlander" and "Twin Peaks". Founder of the Society of American Fight Directors and United Stuntman's Association, he currently runs the International Stunt School in Washington (http://www.stuntschool.com/)

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".

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.

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".

Note that our panel may change subject to professional commitments, and if there are any suggestions for additional or future judges (directors, agents, producers, casting directors) let us know!

Once again the episodes will be judged based on an average of votes between all of our judges along with Youtube channel views & ratings. The criteria for judging will include acting, action, storyline, production value & comedy with additional judging for best action sequence, hottest female vamp, best featured fangs and best 30 second Vampfangs commercial (which may or may not be part of an episode).

And once again, that's $2300 in cash and prizes for:
First Place - $1000
Second Place - $500
Third Place - $250
Best Action Sequence - $100
Hottest Female Vampire - $100
Best episode featuring Vampfangs - $100 (online credit)
Best Vampfangs Commercial - $250

Deadline is still April 1st - plenty of time to put an episode together. Two of our winning episodes from the last contest were shot and edited in under two weeks. Here's what they had to say: http://thehuntedtv.blogspot.com/2009/11/winners-of-first-1000-hunted-youtube.html

So good luck guys and happy hunting!

The Hunted Update!

So all kinds of things brewing here at The Hunted...

First off, we have finalized our contest judges for the Second $1000 Youtube Contest which I will be announcing in our next blog entry.

Secondly, The Hunted is now listed at Scifinal.com - "The last stop for independent sci-fi online", and we're in the process of registering with blip.tv which will distribute the show to the rest of the known metaverse and help to monetize the show, which will go back towards shooting more (and better) episodes. Another website we're looking into is Kickstarter, which has developed a sleek business model for microfinancing film projects. Our plan is to allow filmmakers to propose Hunted episodes on our main site which can then be funded by our fans.

But wait, there's still more... my latest interview with Chris Makey and his blog "Guestar" is now online at http://guestar.wordpress.com/ - hopefully I don't sound like too much of an idiot.

As for how our Second $1000 Youtube Contest is going, I'd like to talk about all the cool episodes that are in the works, but nobody tells me anything. It seems everyone wants to keep their episodes secret until the last minute, but I do get an occasional update from time to time:

Our newest affiliate in Tampa (http://www.thehunted.tv/tampa/index.html) and good friends Chris Fields and Derek Conley have recently held auditions for their next several episodes. They've also secured some amazing talent for their soundtrack including the local band "Seven Years Past". Most amusing is that their spinoff character Krayven not only has his own Facebook page, but now has a hilarious Q&A at http://www.formspring.me/godvamp

There are also rumors of followup episodes from our first contest winners Kendall Wells and Jason Wong, Dungeonmaster alum Spenser Coates (from Con Job 2) and what sounds like a kickass episode shot at the awesome City Museum in St Louis by Taurus Stunt Award winner Brian Peters. But I think I'm most excited about the prospect of The Hunted becoming an international series with episodes in the works in the UK, Denmark, and South Africa! Sweet!

New Contest Categories - Update

Awesome news guys, our longtime sponsor Vampfangs (www.vampfangs.com) has agreed to sponsor a couple new contest categories. They are offering $100 online credit for best Hunted episode featuring their custom fangs. If you haven't seen their site, it's worth checking out. They have the best vampire teeth around, but they also feature cool FX contact lenses, makeup, costumes, jewelry, and more.

What's more, Vampfangs is offering an additional $250 in cash for "Best Vampfangs Commercial" which will air on their homepage with credits to the winner. The commercial can be 30-60 seconds and can either be part of a Hunted episode or a separate commercial.

But wait, there's more! The $1000 Hunted Youtube Contest now has two new contest categories - "Best Action Sequence" and "Hottest Female Vampire", both of which are offering an extra $100 cash prize.

So this is how it breaks down:
First Place - $1000
Second Place - $500
Third Place - $250
Best Action Sequence - $100
Hottest Female Vampire - $100
Best episode featuring Vampfangs - $100 (online credit)
Best Vampfangs Commercial - $250

Which means the contest now features $2300 in cash and prizes. Sweet! More than enough for a year's supply of Chalupa Grande meals! But you might want to get busy. Once again, the contest deadline is April 1st!