Lonelygirl15 Forum Index Lonelygirl15
Forum to post messages about Bree and Danielbeast
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

From the Powers That Be
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Lonelygirl15 Forum Index -> Questions and Comments About LG15
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
immortal1
Enthusiastic Fan


Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 456

PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

@JenniPowell I'd like to make a suggestion. In preparation of this post I dug up a chat transcript Miles had with UGC creators where Miles outlined the plan for a MCN long before there ever was such a thing! (Sidenote: the catalyst was the TOS but you also inquired about being an intern LOL) A variation on a MCN might not be a bad idea. My suggestion though is the community is a resource, don't be afraid to use it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
atnegam
Suspiciously Absent


Joined: 06 Mar 2007
Posts: 25

PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am hoping funding comes through. Crowd funding may be an option.The community (including myself) loves LG15.
_________________
Please subscribe!
http://www.YouTube.com/user/zebrahumor
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
JenniPowell
Lonely Fan


Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 225
Location: Hollywood/San Diego, CA

PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

immortal1 wrote:
@JenniPowell I'd like to make a suggestion. In preparation of this post I dug up a chat transcript Miles had with UGC creators where Miles outlined the plan for a MCN long before there ever was such a thing! (Sidenote: the catalyst was the TOS but you also inquired about being an intern LOL) A variation on a MCN might not be a bad idea. My suggestion though is the community is a resource, don't be afraid to use it.


We tried something like this for Geek & Sundry with Geek & Sundry Vlogs and I headed up that initiative. It's REALLY hard to do and honestly, the MCN model has proven not to be super successful in terms of long-term investment. This is why most of the companies that were using the MCN model are now morphing into into Digital Studios (The Collective is the best example. And now WB has bought Machinima and I'm guessing they'll revamp it as well).

But do you have a link to that chat transcript or can you send it to me? Miles and I are open to lots of different ideas.
_________________
Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences. --Sylvia Plath

LonelyJew15: The Original "New Girl"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
JenniPowell
Lonely Fan


Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 225
Location: Hollywood/San Diego, CA

PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

atnegam wrote:
I am hoping funding comes through. Crowd funding may be an option.The community (including myself) loves LG15.


I would consider crowdfunding a last resort. Not because I think the community wouldn't support it but because running a crowdfund would at minimum take us out of commission in terms of creative development 30 - 90 days (running a crowdfund is a 24/7 job).

But thank you for the suggestion, it's on the list of options for sure.
_________________
Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences. --Sylvia Plath

LonelyJew15: The Original "New Girl"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
zakkers
Suspiciously Absent


Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've been a lg15 viewer since BDJ were holed up in Jonas' cabin and was seriously excited when Bree posted a "new vid" earlier this year. Sad to see that things can't continue as we all hoped. Just want to put in my two cents that I'd be more than happy to be a backer in a crowdfunding campaign.

- In case it's worth anything, I think the reason views dipped so massively was that the story was inaccessible to new viewers, and the core lg15 account, which received the vast number of views after the worldwide media coverage on the first video, wasn't used later on. I'm sure there was a reason for it, but maybe a revival would take advantage of that again?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
$wagdaddyLuke
Suspiciously Absent


Joined: 18 Jun 2016
Posts: 15
Location: Atlanta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 9:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cancelled yet again, ugh
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ir3act
Casual Observer


Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have nothing but respect for Jenni Powell and all the people involved in this revival of LG15, but I am truly at a loss as to what the point of this abortive enterprise was. Why was the revival designed in terms of series continuity so obscure and impenetrable that even the majority of diehard fans had given up on understanding or enjoying it long before the series' merciful death at the end of THE RESISTANCE?

Why was this project put forward into filming and production when the funding clearly was not there to complete even a single story-arc? Why not plan the project with entry-level storytelling? With a clear goal? With the knowledge that if this was the only LG15 material you could produce, it would have a beginning, middle and end with some room for further development should that opportunity present itself?

I don't say any of that to be insulting -- I say that to express my complete and total inability to fathom what the objective was and I don't expect Jenni to explain given the hope that some of the plans might see the light of day. But as this has been marked as a current endpoint, I feel it fair to offer a critical appraisal.

My opinion is that LG15: ANCHOR COVE was a loving, earnest attempt to pick up the pieces after THE RESISTANCE, but it is trapped by continuity. ANCHOR COVE seems to stagger and stumble in the wake of THE RESISTANCE. Rather than cast off the past and move on, ANCHOR COVE set up yet another round of unresolved mysteries and clues. Instead of focusing on how these characters represent every 21st century youth trying to figure out their place in a confusing world and in relation to each other, ANCHOR COVE was about puzzles and MacGuffins that, as they always have in LG15, added up to pretty much nothing (for now).

ANCHOR COVE was a massive improvement on THE RESISTANCE in that there was some genuinely skillful scripting and truly engaged acting in its production. The Daniel/Emma relationship was portrayed in a sweet, earnest and heartfelt manner that made ANCHOR COVE transcend many of its continuity conundrums. Daniel's grief and sadness over Jonas gave voice to my own regrets over how THE RESISTANCE had turned out.

But ultimately, the focus was on the deepest nails in LG15's coffin -- the Order, an absurd and bloated supervillain that lost any menace a long time ago, incomprehensible myth-arc meandering with the Order's perpetually aimless and directionless breeder program, the miserable and downbeat claim that Jonas and Maggie have been forced to reproduce in captivity for years with an ineffectual Daniel and Emma incapable of achieving a thing.

The strength of LG15 that its later-era writers forgot was its optimism; the sense that our demons and failures and tragedies will not overcome us; that we will surpass and transcend our hardships through friendship, trust, ingenuity and occasionally poisoning our own blood.

If I had LG15, Jessica, Yousef, Katherine and the ability to make a few vlog in bedroom videos, I would not have done ANCHOR COVE. I would have had Bree vlogging in her bedroom, starting anew, LG15 in her 30s, adjusting to life in Melbourne, starting up on YouTube again. Oh, all that stuff about her being on the run from a death cult and dying? Um. Well, she doesn't like to talk about that, she wants to focus on TODAY! And her old friends, Daniel and Jonas, are vlogging too after a long hiatus and all three are determinedly not interested in discussing the past. But as Bree, Jonas and Daniel talk about finding jobs, dating, learning new skills, exploring new passions and living life in Melbourne and LA, they realize the past isn't so easily left behind.

I would have presented the LG15 at the height of its popularity: relatable, entry-level, accessible, and with its vast mythos hiding in the shadows, held at bay through defiance and positivity but never truly vanquished. I don't give a $#!t about the Order or the Trait Positive or OPAPHID or Tachyon or Carruthers or the Ascension. I just wanted my friends back. I just wanted my friends back.

...

Jenni Powell, thank you for everything you did and do. I don't know what you meant to achieve or what you will try to in the future, so please take no judgement or anger or acidity or grief from this -- just a full-throated scream of frustration and uninformed confusion. I miss your work already. I wish you the very best. I will support everything you do wholeheartedly and fully.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JenniPowell
Lonely Fan


Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 225
Location: Hollywood/San Diego, CA

PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you so much for the kind words and very valid thoughts and feelings ir3act, always appreciated.

But I feel I need to clear up that the content being discussed here I have always been referring to as the "10 Year Anniversary content". I don't refer to it as Anchor Cove because it is not. Anchor Cove is a larger project in development set in the lg15 universe. Halting the 10 Year Anniversary Content is what is giving us the time and energy to further push forward Anchor Cove.
_________________
Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences. --Sylvia Plath

LonelyJew15: The Original "New Girl"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
ir3act
Casual Observer


Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the clarification, Jenni. And since I have your attention for a moment, I would like to express my hopes for the eventual ANCHOR COVE project. These are not commands or instructions; LG15 is yours now, and these are simply my humble requests to the incumbent steward of the franchise. We're fellow soldiers in a sense; we both set out to restore LG15, me in 2008 in a fan capacity and you in an official one today, so here's what I learned from writing LONELYJOURNAL15 and what I hope ANCHOR COVE's creators will consider doing.

I imagine you already know all this anyway, but still. Smile

Embrace the Small and Intimate: In the chat room, someone told me that doing LG15 without the Order would be like doing STAR WARS without the Empire; who wants to see Han, Luke and Leia househunting? And who wants to see Bree, Daniel and Jonas playing Scrabble and battling for who gets the last egg roll? But to me, the appeal of the LG15 format was precisely in its low-key, grounded stories.

The fact that Bree was semi-believed to be a real teenaged girl was a tribute to Mesh Flinders' brilliant screenwriting. He created a sincere intimacy between the characters and audience via the vlog-confessional format. Web serieses, given their budgets and the format of a window on YouTube, are at their best when they exist through such low-key, character-oriented storytelling about normal people doing everyday things. This is your show.

Welcome Newcomers: LG15's back catalog of videos is incomplete and fragmented. Many portions of story are missing, much of it required being aware of in-game interaction in chat rooms and forums. Even fans can't remember all of it and what they do remember was contradictory and confusing to begin with. A new LG15 production should be an accessible, enjoyable product.

A new production of LG15 cannot sustain itself on whatever viewers remain from the glory days, it must be a web series with a meaningful story of its own to tell that can engage both existing fans (who will watch regardless) and people who may not know LG15 intimately but will be compelled by strong and captivating drama in the vlog-confessional format. The LG15 brand should not be the toxically incomprehensible continuity of a convoluted and unfinished web series; the brand should stand for superb storytelling and the limitless possibilities of the LG15 engine.

Continuity is Both Trap and Tool: It can be very easy for enthusiasts of show with a dense mythos to think of new stories entirely in terms of writing sequels to old ones. But stories designed to address contradictions or tie up loose ends lack any reason to exist outside of the parent material. Continuity should be used to add depth to stories, showing that the characters exist in a world larger than themselves and with a history and a mythology. LG15 will thrive if it can tell stories that find ideas and insight in human nature through the online video format, but if it only obsesses over its past, it has no reason to exist now.

The Order is Not Your Series: While this amusingly inconsistent little supercult of incompetents has outlasted every single character on LG15, the Order has ultimately done more harm than good to the franchise. Web series' low budgets make it impossible to present such grandiose concepts in a plausible fashion. The Order has always described as being omnipresent and fearsome; the Order has always been shown onscreen as extras in cheap suits and exposed LG15 as a low budget web series trying to punch well above its visual weight.

Imaginary Friends Are The Show: The appeal of LG15 is not poorly rendered supervillains or constant mysteries that don't add up. The appeal is characters who exist in the medium of social media and online videos; characters who feel as real as any online friend. Your brand is that Bree, Jonas, Daniel, Emma, Sarah, Taylor, Spencer, Gina and Jennie are our friends. We care about them, we stick with them through thick and thin and we want to see them survive anything and everything together.

LG15 defeats itself when it tries to apologize for its vlog-confessional format or when it tries to compete with Michael Bay and James Cameron. LG15's characters are our family. We let their faces into our bedrooms on our laptops and tablets; we open our hearts to them and invite them into our lives. And it's okay for them to have a bad season or a bad spin-off or to go on hiatus for an extended period after a suddenly truncated revival. But if they come back, they should come back in a fashion that emphasizes what makes these characters unique, special, incomparable and immortal.

These are my hopes, but the show is yours now, so all I can really ask is that whatever you decide to do, you do it wisely and well. Good luck. Smile
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
primaryasset
Casual Observer


Joined: 17 Jun 2016
Posts: 41
Location: Canada

PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2016 2:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you, Jenni, and everyone else involved, for all of your hard work and dedication. I recognize that this requires a lot of work, as well as funding, and isn't something you can just snap your fingers and instantly create just because you have the idea and the fans would like to see it.

Honestly, I'm grateful that there was ANY new content this year. For a long time after the end of the Resistance, I hoped there'd be some kind of resolution to that cliffhanger, but the years went by and I found new fandoms to invest my energy in. I kept meaning to sit down and watch every LG15 video in order, because I'd never actually watched all of them the first time around, but it was never a priority until this summer. It was something that distracted me and cheered me up this summer, and I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful that we got ANY hint of what's been going on with these characters these last eight years. I'm grateful to see Bree again, and Daniel and Emma and Spencer, and to know there are answers about Jonas out there, even if we still don't know them yet. And even if there had only been one new video to commemorate the anniversary, that alone would've been seriously cool. To get multiple videos? That was way more than I ever could've imagined.

Of course people are going to be disappointed that we have to wait longer for answers, but these things take time, effort, and money. If this were a TV show, it could just be cancelled and never heard from again. I understand how lucky we are that this isn't that, and that there is still the opportunity for more new content. It excites me beyond measure to know you have so much story planned out, just waiting to be explored.

JenniPowell wrote:
But I feel I need to clear up that the content being discussed here I have always been referring to as the "10 Year Anniversary content". I don't refer to it as Anchor Cove because it is not. Anchor Cove is a larger project in development set in the lg15 universe. Halting the 10 Year Anniversary Content is what is giving us the time and energy to further push forward Anchor Cove.


I don't think I actually understood this before, but if that's the case, then I'm comfortable with what we got to experience this year, and with waiting to see more in the future. It was a neat prelude to future content and celebration of the anniversary. Now, future content is something for me to look forward to in the future, and I like having something to look forward to.

Sorry this got a bit wordy. I was really happy to be sucked back into this fictional universe this year, especially shortly after another major fandom of mine had seriously let me down. I think it's so cool that you guys are doing this at all, so thanks again, and good luck with whatever you're working on next!

And if circumstances change and future content becomes impossible to produce, I'll understand that, too, because that's life. I don't see how leaving off here is any worse than where we left off at the end of the Resistance. And even then, I understood that sometimes these things are out of everyone's control. It happens. That's life.

So thanks, Jenni, and I hope you and the rest of the gang are doing well and having a great holiday season!
_________________
pass the salt, pour the wine
'cause I'm alright if you're alright
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
ir3act
Casual Observer


Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2016 4:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jenni Powell wrote on Facebook in 2019:

Quote:
I think people often feel this connection to LG15 where they feel they can speak openly about it to the degree that they don’t realize it’s hurtful to assume we didn’t explore all the possibilities.

YouTube is actually pairing down their scripted content after exploring the possibilities of YouTube Red, which is now turning into a more music-based service.

Believe me, we are aware that YouTube would be the best home for a revival but timing hasn’t been right. They can only do so many funded projects and when it can to reviving a Franchise, they went with Cobra Kai, which did very well for them
.

I was granted the rights for a period of time to look into relaunching something in the franchise and to create a short-run ARG for the fans (which was also giving us a chance to see if people were still interested in new LG15 content).

We took many meetings, created pitch materials, and worked really hard to find the right home and deal to bring it back in the way it deserved. Miles was heavily a part of that process and extremely supportive.

After two years, the rights reverted back to Miles. I now teach and am in production on a feature film full time.


Last edited by ir3act on Fri Mar 25, 2022 8:49 am; edited 5 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ir3act
Casual Observer


Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2022 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In June 2021, Yousef Abu-Taleb did a podcast where he said that the entire 10th ANNIVERSARY / ANCHOR COVE project had been abandoned.

https://anchor.fm/friendstyles/episodes/Episode-13-Washed-Up-Youtube-Star-Featuring-Yousef-Abu-Taleb-of-Lonelygirl15-evv9en

I'm sure it's a difficult and embarrassing situation for everyone and I hope we can find it in ourselves to excuse the (disbanded) team for not making an official statement here.

Abu-Taleb said that while Bree's video showing her alive got a million views, the viewing figures dropped off severely after that. "We abandoned it," he said glumly. "The audience was gone."

Abu-Taleb has also made some other Facebook posts about how due to career and financial concerns, living in Los Angeles was no longer possible for him.

I totally understand why a web series that was past its sell-by date by early 2008 would go to the bottom of his priority list and I'll always care about and be a fan of whatever projects he wants to put forward.

I think "We abandoned it" is kind of loaded and overly self-critical and rather unforgiving. I think fans are totally forgiving and completely understand that Jenni Powell, Yousef Abu-Taleb and Logan Rapp don't run a media empire and don't have limitless resources and have to work on what pays bills.

If LG15 in 2016 wasn't able to find sponsorship and wasn't putting food on the table, then it couldn't move forward and I think fans understand. I think fans care more about Yousef Abu-Taleb's health and well-being than they do about Daniel Barlow.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ir3act
Casual Observer


Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2022 4:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Since Yousef Abu-Taleb has confirmed that the 2016 revival is not moving forward, I've written a new fanfic chapter for LG15.

My 2009 fanfic, LONELYJOURNAL15, offered an ending to the LG15 storylines after the 2008 cliffhanger. I've now added a short 2022 epilogue which incorporates the 2016 videos (and THE LAST and OUTBREAK) into LONELYJOURNAL15's storyline. And here's a summary so you don't have to read the whole novel just for an epilogue (although you don't have to read this at all):

Quote:
In 2022, Gina (revealed alive in the third chapter of LONELYJOURNAL15), wakes up from a nightmare and calls Jonas. She tells him about her nightmare: she dreamed of a stabbing in Australia. The Eiffel Tower in flames. Bree being alive and brainwashed. Jonas forced to do terrible things by the Order. Daniel falling in a pond. In this nightmare, Gina believed she was dead. Then she woke up.

Gina tells Jonas she has this terrible paranoia: she thinks that her entire life and the entire LONELYJOURNAL15 conclusion might be some sort of hallucination induced by a gunshot wound to the head putting her into shock and causing brain damage before death.

She says that the world she dreamed of with the Order still dominating everything in secret and Jonas still a prisoner or dead -- that world feels more real to her than the life she knows now where the Order was destroyed in 2009. The world where she died seems more plausible. More sensible.

In contrast, Gina's memories of exposing the Hymn of One and defeating the Order feel like an unreal fantasy.

What if LONELYJOURNAL15 is just a story Gina's made up as her body fails? A scenario where she got to do everything she didn't get to do in life: get to the bottom of her memories. Destroy the Order. Save every trait positive girl on Earth. Find peace. Resolve her trauma. Meet someone special. Fall in love. Settle down.

What if this perfect world of LONELYJOURNAL15 is a lie?

Jonas informs Gina that their world is not perfect. He lost his family fortune in 2009 due to the economic meltdown and is now a working class guy who has to earn a living to support himself and his wife (Taylor). Daniel made a science fiction movie on a $2,000 budget that was a film festival embarrassment and now Daniel and Sarah make ends meet in the business of wedding videography. Emma is bored and hacking out high school science study guides for a living. Jennie is a public policy analyst and Jonas doesn't understand her job but she seems to hate it.

Jonas says that everyone's lives are *okay*. Jonas is a normal guy dealing with normal stuff and sometimes, he's not the greatest husband; Taylor recently had to teach him how to clean a bathtub.

Jonas tells Gina that what she's feeling is survivor's guilt; she survived, but Bree died, and Gina is having a nightmare of a world where it was the other way around. Jonas tells Gina that her dream represents her anxiety the life she's built will be taken away from her on the Order's say-so, a fear that she continues to feel years after the TAAG literally burned the Order to the ground.

Jonas tells Gina that if she's afraid the world isn't real, she has to make it real by making her life matter.

Gina realizes that she needs to do... something that may not be meaningful to those who didn't read LONELYJOURNAL15.

Full story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37670755/chapters/94040431

I hope this is a way for people who enjoyed LONELYJOURNAL15 in 2009 to still appreciate it alongside the 2016 videos.

I am sorry that the 2016 videos didn't work out. No one would choose a fan blog novel conclusion from some nobody over real LG15 stories from Jenni Powell and Logan Rapp.

However, I am not sorry to have been moved to write a new chapter in 2022 for Daniel, Jonas, Taylor, Sarah, Emma, Jennie, Gina and other beloved friends, and those 2016 videos reminded me of how much I adored them all.

Thank you.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
WriterGirl
Lonely Fan


Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 135
Location: Tennessee

PostPosted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ir3act wrote:
In June 2021, Yousef Abu-Taleb did a podcast where he said that the entire 10th ANNIVERSARY / ANCHOR COVE project had been abandoned.

https://anchor.fm/friendstyles/episodes/Episode-13-Washed-Up-Youtube-Star-Featuring-Yousef-Abu-Taleb-of-Lonelygirl15-evv9en

I'm sure it's a difficult and embarrassing situation for everyone and I hope we can find it in ourselves to excuse the (disbanded) team for not making an official statement here.

Abu-Taleb said that while Bree's video showing her alive got a million views, the viewing figures dropped off severely after that. "We abandoned it," he said glumly. "The audience was gone."

Abu-Taleb has also made some other Facebook posts about how due to career and financial concerns, living in Los Angeles was no longer possible for him.

I totally understand why a web series that was past its sell-by date by early 2008 would go to the bottom of his priority list and I'll always care about and be a fan of whatever projects he wants to put forward.

I think "We abandoned it" is kind of loaded and overly self-critical and rather unforgiving. I think fans are totally forgiving and completely understand that Jenni Powell, Yousef Abu-Taleb and Logan Rapp don't run a media empire and don't have limitless resources and have to work on what pays bills.

If LG15 in 2016 wasn't able to find sponsorship and wasn't putting food on the table, then it couldn't move forward and I think fans understand. I think fans care more about Yousef Abu-Taleb's health and well-being than they do about Daniel Barlow.


Thank you for sharing this here. I've been wondering a lot lately if we would ever see a continuation of the series, and I wasn't aware that Yousef had addressed it anywhere.
_________________
~Karen
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Lonelygirl15 Forum Index -> Questions and Comments About LG15 All times are GMT - 6 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4
Page 4 of 4

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
Protected by Anti-Spam ACP