Introducing LG15: The Resistance

Over the last few months we’ve been hard at work putting together the latest installment in the LG15 Universe, LG15: The Resistance. The story has already begun to unfold on LG15.com and around the web. Who or what is the Hymn Of None? Why are they defacing a variety of websites throughout the LG15 Universe? How is this connected to the Crowley Collection? Where does Lifes Blood Labs fit into all this, and are they to be trusted? Why is Sarah so bored? Most importantly, where is Jonas? Will he rejoin the fight? LG15: The Resistance explores the continuing adventure of Jonas and Sarah as they work with an expanded cast of characters to fight the Order and other organizations that may pose an even greater threat…

We’re incredibly excited about the show and we’ve put together an amazing team of people to produce it. The Executive Producer of LG15: The Resistance, Amanda Goodfried, has spent the past year producing lonelygirl15 and brings a wealth of experience and creativity to the project. Head Writer Josh Fialkov is a critically acclaimed and award nominated comic book writer having produced popular titles “Elks Run,” and “Punks.” Joining the team are a handful of writers, editors, directors, and producers some of whom are new and others who have worked with us on previous shows.

We’ve learned a lot from producing lonelygirl15 and KateModern and we’ve tweaked the format slightly to make the show more accessible to a broader audience, and to simultaneously give us the ability to tell a deeper and even more compelling narrative. Based on all of your feedback, we’ve shortened the season to three months (yes, that means questions posed at the start of the season will be answered by the end of the season). Additionally, we’ve added a weekly episode that will be be posted every Saturday and supplement the daily content. The first episode of the show will be posted on September 20th on LG15.com and on branded channels on our partner sites YouTube, MySpaceTV, imeem, Veoh, and Hulu. Finally, thanks to the herculean efforts of our technology team, our incredible new social network platform gives us the ability to feature all sorts of content on the homepage (not just videos). Monday through Friday we will be posting videos, photos, and blog posts from the characters. Just like lonelygirl15 and KateModern, there will be a new piece of content each weekday (usually a video), and if you watch/read/view each piece of content over the course of the week it will feel like watching an episode of TV with a beginning middle and end. This daily content and plot-relevant additional material is edited together by one of the characters into the weekly episode and posted to the website every Saturday. Consequently, for those of you with less time on your hands, all you need to do is watch 12 episodes over the course of 12 weeks to follow the story. Of course, you can always dive into the daily content at any time and comment on videos and interact with the characters and the narrative.

In true LG15 fashion, the show will be highly interactive. In fact, there will be even more interactivity than on either of our previous shows thanks to the enhanced technology on the website. Every piece of content will feature discussion threads, characters and users will have profile pages and will have the ability to upload photos, import YouTube videos, and post blogs. There will be weekly puzzles, chat sessions, and over the course of the season there will be a few spectacular live events. The season will conclude with our signature 12 in 12 finale that will bring together videos, chats, character interaction, and live events. Needless to say, we are very excited.

The new site will be launching into private beta in early September (we’ll send a lucky group of you invites), and the site will go live in mid-September prior to the launch of the show.

WE ARE THE RESISTANCE

WE WILL NOT BE STOPPED

South By Soutwest ‘09

EQAL has submitted two panels for the SXSW Interactive Festival. This year, the community will decide which panels are included in the event. It would mean a lot to us if you voted for our panels!!! Vote for us here and here. Don’t forget to give our panels five stars and leave lots of comments!!!

Thank you!!

We are so overwhelmed by the outpouring of emotion that the community has expressed with the end of lonelygirl15. Since our announcement yesterday, there has been a lot of great discussion about lonelygirl15, the new show, and what this means for the community. I personally wanted to clarify a few possible misconceptions you might have as a result of our post.

First, in our minds LG15 is a Universe taking place around the story of The Order, an evil secret society that has discovered the existence of very rare girls that carry a special blood trait. Blood from these “Trait Positive” girls can extend the life of anyone who can transfuse the blood into his/her body. lonelygirl15 is the first show living within the LG15 Universe and KateModern was the second. We plan on telling MANY more stories within the Universe, including upcoming shows in Europe and the new one in the US.

Second, the new show is not going to be a fusion of lonelygirl15 and KateModern. Instead, it will take “the best things from each show,” meaning that we will apply what we’ve learned from producing them over the past two years – writing, interactivity, 12 in 12’s, etc. There might be some familiar characters in the new show, but we do not intend on combining the two series.

Finally, the heart and soul of the LG15 Universe is www.LG15.com and will remain so with the new website. The LGPedia, forum, Community videos, and InsideLG15 will all continue to be a part of the site.

We look forward to the LG15 Universe and it’s mythology living on for years to come with new characters and storylines. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments below.

- Amanda

We have some exciting news to announce! Over the last several months, we have been working to rebuild the LG15 website. Our programmers and designers have been working tirelessly to code and design a new social network platform. In August, we will relaunch LG15.com as a full-functioning social network with profile pages, chat, forums, comment boards, blogs, groups, and other tools. In the future, we will be integrating third party sites such as YouTube and Twitter into the platform so that you can manage your accounts from LG15.com as well as import your videos, photos, and messaging into your profile pages. We are very excited and eager to show you what we have built. During the month of August we ask you to beta test the site, send us your feedback, and invite friends to join the new and improved LG15 community.

We will also be premiering a new LG15 Universe show based in the US. It will bring together the best parts of lonelygirl15 and KateModern, including some of your favorite characters. To make room for the new storyline and characters, we’ve decided to bring the lonelygirl15 storyline to an end. We are working with amazing writers and actors and are very excited about the new show. To this community, it will feel less like a new show and more like another chapter in the LG15 storyline that picks up where lonelygirl15 and KateModern left off. To new members of the community, it will be a new story that they can get into from the start so they can experience the show without the need to watch over 500 videos. Get ready for an exciting lonelygirl15 finale on August 1!

This is very exciting for all of us and we are so happy to share it with you. It has been a long road and many of you have been there with us from the beginning. We are excited to have you continue with us on this journey. Remember, we are counting on you to test the site during August and September and report your feedback so we can fix all the bugs before the new show launches.

- The LG15 Team

A ranking of the top 50 innovators leading Hollywood’s march online (Hollywood Reporter)

“37. Miles Beckett
CEO, EQAL
It’s tough enough to succeed once in online video, but Beckett has steered his production company to the impossible: two Internet megahits. The seminal “Lonelygirl15″ started it all, but then EQAL followed with “KateModern.” Now Beckett is taking his company to the next level, thanks to $5 million in funding from investors, including Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, and a first-look nonexclusive deal with CBS that will see EQAL collaborate with the network on digital extensions for existing series and maybe even some new projects. If Beckett & Co. can’t show an old dog new tricks, who can?”

Visit the EQAL press blog for more information about what we’re doing.

Miles and Greg have posted an update regarding KateModern, CBS, and LG15 on their EQAL blog.

“[W]e are working on something very exciting within the LG15 Universe. A new website. A new show. Your favorite characters and an exciting journey to uncover a secret that could bring down the Order once and for all… stay tuned.”

As some of you may already know, today we officially launched our social entertainment company, EQAL. Thank you all so much for your continued support for our shows and this community. Check out the new website www.EQAL.com, the EQAL blog, and the first articles breaking the story.

lonelygirl15 and KateModern Creators Form EQAL (Techcrunch)

‘lonelygirl’ Gets Popular With Investors (Wall Street Journal)

“THE best social networking site is not Facebook or MySpace but chat-friendly Bebo, according to a major report.”

“The biggest thing I see is more money in [online] production and a lot more interactivity,” says Miles Beckett, one of the creators of “Lonelygirl15″ and “KateModern,” two online serials. “Film and TV are moving online. Rather than user-generated content being separate from the professional world, it will be about the merging of the two worlds.”
Adweek

Web 2.0 can be a treasure trove and a minefield.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1228/p09s02-coop.html

Hey guys,

I just set up a sweet player for lonelygirl15 using the YouTube “Custom Video Player” tool. Just copy and paste the code below into your MySpace page and voila! Now the whole series is embedded right there!

You can really help us promote the show and gain new viewership this way. You can use this embed code anywhere too, on your blog, website, etc. Not sure what took us so long to do this one, busy busy I guess If you have other creative usage for the player, post a comment!

–Casey

Great news,

Jon, Casey, and Broken Kid have been hard at work building, testing, and debugging some sweet enhancements to the user profiles on our site. Now you’ll be able to import your videos from YouTube, and select which ones will display on your profile. Additionally, you can link to related profiles on our site, and to a discussion in the forum. These new features are a step towards our ultimate goal, which is to provide a way for fans to create and promote their own shows on our website.

Here’s a step-by-step how-to:

A. Edit your profile and add your YouTube account name

B. On your public profile page, click Edit Videos.

Then select the videos for display on your profile (do this each time you have a new video you want on your profile)

C. Edit your profile and add related lonelygirl15.com user names (comma-separated)

D. Edit your profile and add the lonelygirl15.com forum ID you wish to link to (see example)

We have more plans brewing and we realise these tools are just a start. There are lots of features we have down on paper that will take us some time to make a reality, so please bear with us! We have a lot more in store…

-Miles