Difference between revisions of "Lonelygirl15"

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lonelygirl15 in one of her video blogs.

lonelygirl15 is a fictional video blog that came to international attention via YouTube. The central character, lonelygirl15, is a YouTube user named Bree who began posting blogs in June, 2006.

Her blogs quickly became very popular, but viewers grew suspicious that lonelygirl15 was not real. The question of whether or not she was real received a great deal of attention in the media, from late August to early September. Fans ultimately exposed lonelygirl15 as a fictitious character played by New Zealand actress Jessica Lee Rose. The creators of the series were identified as Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders and Greg Goodfried.

The series is still running with new videos appearing regularly. Lonelygirl15 won the VH1 "Big in '06" award for Biggest Download, and remains the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, with over 75,000 subscribers as of Jan. 2006.

Theme and plot

For a complete synopsis of the plot, see The Story So Far...

In the beginning, Bree's videos were similar to those of many other popular vloggers on YouTube. She would make brief videos out of her bedroom about her life, her best friend Daniel, and her conflicts with her parents.

Bree was homeschooled and lonely. Her only friend, who introduced her to YouTube and video editing, was Daniel, whom she met during a brief stint in public school two years earlier. Daniel had a crush on Bree, but Bree's parents wouldn't let her out of the house, and these tensions were behind many of the early videos.

Eventually, it was revealed that Bree was a member of a secretive religion, originally believed to be Thelema but later recognized as the fictional Order of Denderah. Bree was selected to participate in a mysterious ceremony for the religion, but eventually ran away from home rather than participate.

Around the time Bree ran away, another character was introduced, an old friend named Gemma. Gemma made video responses to Bree's videos giving her advice, but it was eventually revealed that Gemma was working for The Order, trying to get Bree to participate in the ceremony.

Eventually, a character named Jonas, a rich orphan, offered Bree and Daniel a place to stay. The characters are currently living at Jonas's house while trying to figure out what to do.

The show gradually abandoned its premise of being a highly-realistic story about a young vlogger. Many members of Bree's religion appear to be evil, going so far as to subject Bree to frequent injections of an unknown substance. Recent plot developments have included the murder of Bree's father, and the revelation that Bree was adopted.

For a complete summary of the story, see The Story So Far...

Revelations of fictionality

Initial speculation

Several fans of lonelygirl15’s video posts began to wonder if Bree was, in fact, a real person or if the posts were part of a teaser campaign for a television show or an upcoming movie. Others felt that the blog might be part of an alternate reality game.

Daniel attempting to light a candle underneath a picture of Aleister Crowley.

Fans pointed to small inconsistencies within the videos as evidence that the story might not be genuine.

• The website lonelygirl15.com, supposedly created by a fan, was registered in May 2006, a week or two prior to Bree actually uploading her first video.

• Bree has had several fights with Daniel, the boy in the video that supposedly does the video editing, on webcam. However, he still edits the videos and leaves the fights on video to be posted on YouTube. It should be noted that Bree has claimed to edit those particular videos, but it is still unlikely a girl who just endured real fights with her only friend would upload those fights to YouTube.

• The only mention of specific YouTube users occurred in the first postings. Thereafter, the only responses to user comments were generic and vague, e.g.: "Some of you guys were asking about ..." This theory was shown to be incorrect, or at least incorrect in reference to the episode "Bree the Cookie Monster", which cites certain comments.

• A US federal trademark 78957059, for the term lonelygirl15 was filed on August 22, 2006, stating that it had been used in interstate commerce since May 24 2006.(Trademark Application)

A post made at 1:41 AM on September 12, 2006 on a lonelygirl15 message board eventually broke the story, proclaiming that "Bree" was in fact an actress named Jessica Rose.[1]

Media reports of fictionality

• The Los Angeles Times reported in an article dated September 8, 2006, that three lonelygirl15 fans - Shaina Wedmedyk, Chris Patterson, and an anonymous law student - set up a sting operation using IP address tracking software that showed that e-mails sent from a lonelygirl15 MySpace account were traced to the offices of Creative Artists Agency ("CAA"), a powerful Hollywood talent agency based in Beverly Hills.[2]

• The New York Times, on September 12, 2006, confirmed that the creators of the series are represented by CAA and that CAA was one of several locations used by Flinders and Steinfeld to send emails from lonelygirl15 accounts.

• The Los Angeles Times On September 13th, 2006, featured the first interview with the creators of lonelygirl15, confirming the link between the creators and the CAA. [3]

• The website Top Of The Tube, on September 12, published a video identifying the character Bree as a woman called Jessica Rose, on the basis of photographs found on the photo hosting site Photobucket.[4][5] The website also revealed Jessica Rose as an "aspiring actress" from New Zealand who currently lives in Los Angeles, which explains her occasional accent.

• The Silicon Valley Watcher, also on September 12, published several articles, "The identity of LonelyGirl15 " , "The Hunt for LonelyGirl15: Life in a blogger household...", and "How the secret identity of LonelyGirl15 was found", likewise naming Jessica Rose as the actress portraying Bree, and reporting on the uncovering of the hoax.

• The website Blogger's Blog, on September 12, produced evidence that the actress' name is "Jessica Lee Rose". [6]

Admissions by Creators, and Latest Developments

New York Times reporter Virginia Heffernan expanded on the series of revelations on September 12th out with an article which confirmed Jessica Rose's identity, and revealed the identities of her "co-conspirators", Ramesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, Calif., and Miles Beckett, a doctor-turned-filmmaker. According to Heffernan, speculation that a professional studio was used for the filming is incorrect — Bree's bedroom scenes were in fact filmed in Mr. Flinders’ very own bedroom using nothing more than a Logitech QuickCam, a Web camera that retails for about $150. Software engineer Grant Steinfeld was also involved in this project, as a photographer. Amanda Solomon Goodfried, an assistant at Creative Artists Agency, assisted in their efforts to hide their identities, and a lawyer — Ms. Goodfried's father-in-law, Kenneth Goodfried — handled various legal matters. The personnel involved worked under an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) according to Grant Steinfield. Steinfield has verified most of this information to the Times, and provided photographs he took on set of Ms. Rose as proof.<ref name = NYTimes/>

The three main "creators" gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times, which appeared even later in the day on September 12.<ref name = Brainchild/> Besides Mr. Beckett and Mr. Flinders, already revealed, the third major partner was revealed as Greg Goodfried, who presumably is related to Amanda and Kenneth Goodfried, although he states that the CAA connection came "through a friend who works at the agency."<ref name = Brainchild/> Associated Press published an interview with Jessica Rose on September 14 in which she described how she had become involved in the project and stated that she would continue working on it.<ref name = "JessicaRoseInterview" >Template:Cite web</ref> In addition to the Associated Press interview, she also appeared on MTV News on September 14th alongside Ramesh Flinders.

On September 13, the site Top of the Tube began circulating the trailer for Jessica Rose's first film Dearly Beloved directed by Leah Salvesen in which she starred as a distressed bride-to-be.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On the evening of Thursday, September 14th, Jessica Rose made a surprise appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. During her brief appearance she stated her name, where she was from, her actual age, and that she was not lonely anymore. Following her last remark, Tucker Carlson came out on stage and music was cued. The two began dancing together until the commercial break. Jessica Rose (referred to as Lonelygirl15) also appeared on the Internet talk-show Tom Green Live on September 29, 2006 in which she danced with Danielbeast and friends while the band Reel Big Fish played live music in host Tom Green's living room studio<ref>Video of LonelyGirl15 appearance on Tom Green Live</ref>.

The actor behind Danielbeast is named Yousef Abu-Taleb. He was discussed by name by Ramesh Flinders and Jessica Rose during their September 14 MTV News appearance. Photos of Abu-Taleb from outside of the lonelygirl15 project have started to appear, and were compiled on YouTube into a video scrapbook called "Danielbeast Exposed".

Since the fictitious nature of lonelygirl15 has been revealed, the storyline continues to develop via new videos posted to both YouTube and Revver. The continuation of the series fulfills the promise that the authors made in a New York Times article, stating that they will continue the story of lonelygirl15 and Danielbeast despite the public's awareness that the blog is fictional.<ref name = Applause>Heffernan, Virginia. "Applause for lonelygirl15, and DVD Extras", Screens, New York Times, 2006-09-12. Retrieved on 2006-09-13.</ref>

From September 9, 2006 onwards, lonelygirl15.com has served the series from Revver, a service that allows video creators to make money from their videos by having ads automatically inserted after their videos. When the creators came forward on September 13, 2006, Revver was publicized [2] as the official home of lonelygirl15. Recently, videos have appeared on lonelygirl15.com significantly in advance of appearing on youtube.com. Internet traffic comparisons may bear out that additional traffic is being directed to lonelygirl15.com.

The online star was recently hired by the United Nations to fight poverty through an online anti-poverty video. Rose will be playing her infamous LonelyGirl15 role as she sits by herself in her bedroom talking to the camera. This time, however, she will be talking about the antipoverty cause rather than her boyfriend troubles. The anti-poverty video has been posted on YouTube in the hopes of sparking a buzz online for a call around the world to “stand up against poverty.” The online videos are part of a broader ad campaign designed by WPP Group’s ad agency Y&R. Y&R will be working with the United Nation’s Millennium campaign to front the campaign and is now available for all to see.

Production Techniques

This picture shows what appears to be Miles Beckett lighting the set with relative simple equipment.

Miles Beckett also appears to participate in the video editing.

The video editing style uses frequent jump cuts.

Cast

Trivia

• The series was developed under the working title The Children of Anchor Cove [7].

• lonelygirl15 has various signature items/props that appear in its episodes. Recurring props include a pink feather boa, a safari hat, and her beloved puppet Purple Monkey (a.k.a. "P-Monkey").

• There are references to the occultic philosophy of Thelema; on the lonelygirl15.com website, the greek letters θέλημα ("Thelema") appear at the bottom of the page, along with three unicursal hexagrams on the header bar, and the phrase "Site design by Darbyite Design" at the bottom.

• The total number of views in the lonelygirl15 series is estimated to be about 28,000,000 views.

Chat Room

Fans of the show can now chat about it in the LG15 Chat room.

References

• Richards, Jonathan; "Worldwide fame for a lonely girl", 2006-08-19
• Glaser, Mark; "Matt Foremski’s Sleuthing Leads to Jessica Rose", 2006-09-12

External links

Official sites

• Lonelygirl15.com
• YouTube: Lonelygirl15

Related official sites

• MySpace: Lonelygirl15
• MySpace: Danielbeast

Articles

• "LonelyGirl15 Hired By The United Nations", CaffeineMarketing.com
• "Creators of Lonelygirl15 blogs go public", MSNBC.com
• Lonely Girl 15, real name Jessica Rose, exposed as fake. Published 9/12 4pm GMT
• Jessica Rose Interview (print and video) on MTVJessica Rose on MTV larger interview, also with "DanielBeast" (Video not available to those outside the U.S.)
• "LonelyGirl15 exposes the Net's illogical sense of community", article on the deception of the lonelygirl15 projectwww.eurekastreet.com.au