Computer giant Microsoft’s official YouTube channel appears to have been hacked Sunday morning. All of the official videos, including recent ad campaigns, have been removed from the account. In their place are short clips soliciting advertisers, not surprisingly, as the channel has some 24,000+ subscribers.
As of 1:30 p.m. ET, four videos have been uploaded to the account, all time-stamped within the past two hours. A fifth video, most recently uploaded, seems to have been removed. The video, “Garry’s Mod – Escape the Box,” featured what appeared to be an animated gunman shooting at the inside of a construction box.
The channel’s description reads, “I DID NOTHING WRONG I SIMPLY SIGNED INTO MY ACCOUNT THAT I MADE IN 2006 :/.”
Annoying Orange, the popular YouTube series about just that, is primed to make its way to your TV soon.
Management/production company The Collective has joined forces with Annoying Orange creator Dane Boedigheimer to create six episodes of the show, according to Deadline.
Conrad Vernon (Monsters and Aliens and Shrek 2) will executive produce the show and Tom Sheppard (Pinky and the Brain) will write it. Annoying Orange is following in the footsteps of another popular YouTube show, Fred (another The Collective project), which scored a TV movie on Nickelodeon.
Annoying Orange is already an extremely popular web series (and, now, iPhone app) — it has more than 560 million views, 50 million monthly viewers and is the eighth most subscribed YouTube channel of all time — so we wager that a TV version would be well-received by the pre-existing fan base.
We talked with Boedigheimer about what the show will entail. Check out our Q&A below:
How far along are you in the production process?
I can’t talk about placement and/or networks just yet, but we are in the preproduction stage at this point. Shooting begins very soon. Lots of really talented people are on board and it’s exciting to see all of it coming together.
What will the show look like?
At it’s core it will look a lot like the web series. We will continue to use realistic-looking animation assets, so that the Annoying Orange world resembles our own, but there will also be many kinds of other style of animation/filmmaking incorporated as well. The biggest change will be locations. Whereas the characters mainly live in the kitchen in the web series, now they will live on a fruit cart that can end up in any location at any time…whether it be space, prehistoric times, or Canada.
Will there be new characters/voices?
Yes! Lots of new characters actually. There will still be the core group – Orange, Pear, Passion Fruit, Grandpa Lemon, Grapefruit, Midget Apple, and Marshmallow (all still played by the same people), but now we’ll have other characters that live on the fruit cart with them too. We’ll also have a main human fruit cart vendor that can interact with the fruit.
Why translate a popular web show to TV?
I love challenges. Every time I do a new video online I try to incorporate something new that challenges me and forces me to learn something new. This is kind of an extension of that tactic, on a much bigger scale. Obviously the web show is simplified because you only have a few minutes to work with each episode, but with TV you have the ability to really incorporate a lot of story and open up the world these characters live in. It’s a challenge to make that kind of transition, and one that I’m really excited about. On top of that, Orange has a very respectable following online, and I think being able to create a TV show that works in tandem with the web series would be huge. You could do so many things with cross promotion and driving traffic to each medium. It’s exciting!
What has the reaction been so far?
Overall the reaction has been positive. I’ve seen a few comments here and there where people say, “Orange is getting a TV show? The world is ending! He’s so annoying!!!” And those always give me a good chuckle. You know why? Because you know exactly what the show is about from the title. It’s called the Annoying Orange. Anyone expecting a life-altering experience is barking up the wrong tree. Sometimes people just need a good laugh. Plain and simple. Fans of Annoying Orange are ecstatic to see the transition to television, and honestly, it seems like most people are excited to see what happens even if they aren’t fans, because if Orange can make a successful to jump to TV, that opens the door for many other web entities to do the same thing.
Our weekly YouTube roundup is usually a reprieve from your mentally stimulating (yeah, right) work day. Not today, folks. Today, you must think, as this week’s theme is: TEDTalks.
The 2011 Technology Entertainment Design conference will be kicking off next week in Long Beach, California, bringing the leading minds of many fields together to talk about innovation, change and the future.
What we dig most about the TED conference are the talks that it yields, videos of which are all archived on the organization’s website.
Keep an eye on Mashable in the coming week for our TED coverage, but, in the meantime, get some learnin’ below.
Dan Ariely Asks: Are We in Control of Our Decisions?
Zachary Sniderman: Making absurdity both hilarious and brilliant.
Thomas Thwaites: How I Built a Toaster — From Scratch
Josh Catone: Thomas Thwaites’s attempt to build a toaster from scratch — including collecting and refining all the raw materials — is an interesting commentary on our globalized society.
Brian Cox: What Really Goes on at the Large Hadron Collider
Amy-Mae Elliott: Here Brian Cox explains what happens at the LHC (and more importantly why it’s such a fascinating experiment) in his typically accessible and engaging style.
Madeleine Albright: On Being a Woman and a Diplomat
Stacy Green: Because everything that Madam Secretary says is awesome and hilarious.
Amber Case: We Are All Cyborgs Now
Emily Banks: Amber Case provides a fascinating anthropological perspective on our modern tools and tech.
David Blaine: How I Held My Breath For 17 Minutes
Christina Warren’s pick
Jacek Utko: Can design Save the Newspaper?
Meghan Peters: Can it?
Jake Shimabukuro Plays “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Brenna Ehrlich: I dig the uke.
Alexis Ohanian: How To Make a Splash in Social Media
Matt Silverman: Funny + Social + Good Cause + Reddit = YEAH
Stop motion film-making is a labor of love, so consider this collection of 10 amazing mini stop motion movies a love song to the format.
Encompassing music, graffiti, photography, computer gaming and even horror, these YouTube videos show off some inspiring creativity and represent hours and hours of work.
Have a browse through our top picks and then let us know your favorite stop motion movies in the comments below.
1. Stop Motion With Wolf And Pig
This much-emulated video shows just what you can create with a camera, your imagination and a papier-mâché pig.
2. MUTO a Wall-Painted Animation by BLU
Watching this “ambiguous animation painted on public walls,” you soon forget you’re seeing stitched together images of graffiti and lose yourself in the mesmerizing mutations.
3. DEADLINE Post-It Stop Motion
Bang-yao Liu’s final college project takes the Post-It notes that were haunting him over ever-approaching deadlines and makes them the star of the show.
4. T-SHIRT WAR!!
Now with a McDonald’s/Coke ad under their belts (along with, we presume, wads of cash) “internetainers” Rhett and Link live up to their made-up-word job titles with this amusing vid.
5. Punch Drysdale
Featuring another duo, this clip is the intro video for sketch comedy troupe punchDRYSDALE’s comedy videos, but it also works well as a standalone satire of modern life.
6. Monogrenade – Ce Soir
This spell-binding video accompanies Montreal group Monogrenade’s single “Ce Soir” and was created by award-winning cinematographer Christophe Collette entirely in stop motion.
7. Game Over by PES
The stop motion artist known simply as “PES” is a genius in the field with a stack of YouTube hits. This retro game themed video takes everyday objects and recreates classic titles we all know and love.
8. Stop Motion Rubik’s Cube
As the number of videos on the topic will confirm, the humble Rubik’s Cube is ripe for some stop motion action, but none do it better than the creator of this clip with its funky soundtrack and muted colors.
9. Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie
A beautiful video for a beautiful song, this video is comprised of 2,096 still frames.
10. Crooked Rot
From the deliciously dark mind of David Firth (who also gave us the Salad Fingers animated YouTube series) this video illustrates that not all stop motion is, or needs be, sweet and light.
BONUS: Ooh Yeah – Dancing Headphones
Relegated to bonus status here, as it’s not available on YouTube, Beshart’s dancing headphones are like the Jackson Five of the musical headgear world and crank out some great moves, along with a little help from a cardboard Moby.
News anchor fails are always hilarious, because they are a stark contrast to the usual poise you generally see from such professional figures.
Here, we bring you a catalog of spoonerisms, giggling fits and the odd swear thrown in, from a variety of hapless anchors, roving reporters and weatherpeople.
View our top ten news bloopers below and as always, we’d love to hear about your favorite clips in the comments.
1. DID SHE SAY ASS CREAM?!
Yes, she did. And thanks to the wonders of the modern world, she shall henceforth be known as the “ass cream girl.” Only joking, love — at least you’ve got really shiny hair.
2. News Anchor Fail
Yes, the suspect does have very boggly eyes that we haven’t seen the like of since we last watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but you’d think the gravity of the phrases “torso and body parts,” and “mother of two,” might keep Miss Chuckles here in check.
3. Live News Blooper – R Rated!
This delightfully random, and even more delightfully explicit, outburst comes out of nowhere. We love the cheeky chappy grin at the end as Mr. Potty-Mouth casually sticks his hands in his pockets. In his position we’d be placing them on our posterior, to protect from the butt-kicking about to be received.
4. News Blooper “Magniturd”
A 7.2 Magni-turd earthquake is serious stuff indeed, that’s pretty high up on the old Rectum Scale.
5. BBC Newsreader Blooper – FACEPALM
This gets inclusion not because the blooper was so terrible (we mean, who hasn’t confused “pay” for “pee”?) but, as the uploader of this YouTube video points out, it’s a magnificent example of a genuine, honest-to-God, live-on-TV, facepalm.
6. News Blooper – Spanked as a Kid?
“No, I wasn’t spanked as a kid per se, Bob, but I’ve seen plenty of paddle-action in my thirties…”
7. Fox Business Fail
The message here appears to be don’t go to Fox for your breaking financial news, as the team passes the Chrysler story around the studio as if it were a baby with a dirty diaper.
8. News Blooper: News Anchor Gets Lost and Confused
If you tuned in to this broadcast to learn more about Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder then you’d have been happy to see the anchor seems to be willing to give an on-air demonstration. Is this irony? We think it might be. Where’s Alanis Morrisette when you need her?
9. News Blooper “I’ve Got Gas”
We’d imagine there’s a real sense of freedom in looking America in the eye on live TV and announcing you’ve got wind. Then again…
10. Fox News Lady Slip Up
We wouldn’t be surprised if ole Shep had uploaded this clip himself, seeing his reaction to his co-presenter’s “cock”-up and his undoubted certainty that it would make it to YouTube. We’re watching you Shepard Smith…
BONUS: Zombie Kid Likes Turtles
Relegated to bonus status as the news person actually handles this as well as can be expected, this proves the ancient adage of never work with kids — or zombies.
Stop motion film-making is a labor of love, so consider this collection of 10 amazing mini stop motion movies a love song to the format.
News anchor fails are always hilarious, because they are a stark contrast to the usual poise you generally see from such professional figures.
