Thanks to everyone who attended the work-in-progress screening of our YouTube adaptation of Offender David Henry Hwang’s award-winning play Yellow Face last week at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Fest. It was a sold-out screening and we were pleasantly surprised to also learn that we had won the Narrative Audience Award (tied with Ke’o Woolford’s The Haumana) at Thurs’ awards ceremony. Thanks to everyone who supported and voted for the film. You can watch the finished film in two parts on June 8 and 9 on the YOMYOMF Network.
If you want more Yellow Face, we’ll be participating in a FREE panel discussion this Weds., May 15 (6-8PM) at UCLA’s De Neve Auditorium. All the info is on the flyer above, but we’ll be having a lively discussion about Yellow Face and how YouTube is impacting the Asian American community and vice versa. The Tony Award-winning writer of Yellow Face himself, the aforementioned David Henry Hwang, will be flying in from New York to appear and he’ll be joined by YOMYOMF Creative Head Philip W. Chung, YF director Jeff Liu, YOMYOMF Network partner/YouTube star Chester See and Internet Icon season 1/top 2 finalist Lana McKissack. Again, the event is free and open to the public but you need to rsvp here in advance.
Regular readers of this blog know that some of the YOMYOMF Network gang are in New York for Digital Newfronts this week—the annual event where the major players in the online world showcase their wares to advertisers. And tonight was what is arguably the granddaddy of all Newfronts events—YouTube’s Brandcast.
Ryan Higa & D-Trix
As YOMYOMF is a part of YouTube’s Original Channels Program, I can’t claim to be completely objective, but when it comes to online video content, YouTube is king (with over a billion visitors every month watching YouTube for a total of 6 billion hours) and they threw the party of all parties to match their status.
The view from Pier 36 as the event starts.
Brandcast took place at a huge warehouse at New York’s Pier 36, which was followed by dinner on board two huge yachts. Yup, we were on a boat.
I’m in the Big Apple this week with my YOMYOMF Network colleagues Abdul Khan and Chester See for Digital Newfronts. This is the equivalent of the annual TV upfronts for the online world—where big players like YouTube, Yahoo, Hulu, etc… showcase their upcoming content for brand and advertisers. This is only the second year for Newfronts, but if the crazy scene at the Yahoo presentation that I just returned from tonight is any indication, it’s already become a very big deal.
Today may have been the official kickoff for Newfronts, but I’ve been in town since Saturday when the organizers of En Route: the 7th Annual New York Asian American Student Conference invited my fellow Offender David Henry Hwang, YouTube’s Christine Kim and me to speak at New York University about our upcoming YouTube adaptation of David’s award-winning play Yellow Face and what it means to create original content for our YouTube channel (speaking of which, if you want to win free ticks to our L.A. screening of Yellow Face this Sunday, you have until 11:59PM EST on April 30 to enter–all the info is here).
We launched the YOMYOMF Network last year with the YouTube reality show Internet Icon as our tent pole program to huge success (10 million+ views and counting) so it’s a no-brainer that we would bring it back in a bigger and better way to officially launch our second year of programming.
So for all of you who’ve been asking, “When is Internet Icon coming back?” You only need to wait a few short weeks until May 21 when it will premiere as part of YouTube’s Comedy Week celebration. And you’ll be able to watch every Tuesday and Thursdays until the finale which will be livestreamed before a studio audience on July 27 from the new YouTube production facility in Playa Vista, California. And yes, if you want to attend the finale in person, watch the show for details.
So catch up on season 1 here and check out all the info below and we’ll see you on May 21!
We have a date for the premiere of our YouTube adaptation of our fellow Offender and Tony Award-winning writer David Henry Hwang’s play Yellow Face. It will debut in two parts on the YOMYOMF Network: Act One on June 8 and Act Two on June 9.
But if you’re in Los Angeles or New York, you’ll have two chances beforehand to get a sneak peek at Yellow Face—the first-ever play to YouTube adaptation of a major theatrical work. This Saturday, April 27, Hwang, YOMYOMF Network Creative Director Philip W. Chung and YouTube exec Christine H. Kim will speak at En Route: the 7th Annual New York City Asian American Student Conference (NYCAASC). Then, on May 5, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) will host a work-in-progress screening of Yellow Face followed by a Q&A with some of the cast/crew (see below on how you can win ticks to the screening).
The NYCAASC panel will be on 5PM EST on April 27 and will include the first public look at a clip from the film. The event is FREE and you can click here to register and get more info.
The LAAPFF screening will be at 5PM PST on May 5 at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood—for more info and ticks, click here. Tickets are selling fast so purchase yours now before they’re gone. You can also enter for a chance to win a FREE pair of tickets from YOMYOMF by simply sending us a tweet. Here’s what you need to do:
Regular readers of this blog already know that the YOMYOMF Network is producing the first-ever play to YouTube adaptation of a major theatrical work—our fellow Offender David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face.
David is a Tony Award-winning writer (for M. Butterfly) and Yellow Face brought him a prestigious Obie Award and was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play follows an Asian American playwright, conveniently named DHH (Ryun Yu), who casts Marcus (Covert Affairs’ Christopher Gorham), a Caucasian actor, in his new show mistakenly believing that Marcus is part Asian and tries to cover up his mistake once he learns the truth.
Our friends at Visual Communications will be hosting a work-in-progress screening of Yellow Face during this year’s Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on Sunday, May 5 at 5PM. The screening will be introduced by YouTube’s Bing Chen and will be followed by a discussion with YOMYOMF Creative Director Philip W. Chung, director Jeff Liu and cast members Ryun Yu, Linda Park and Sab Shimono. If you want to be the first to get a sneak peek of this unique project before it’s released on YouTube in late May, purchase tickets here before they’re all gone. You can also enter for a chance to win a FREE pair of tickets from YOMYOMF by simply sending us a tweet. Here’s what you need to do:
As of this morning, we are now back at Los Angeles Center Studios to start filming season 2 of our hit YouTube competition series Internet Icon (check out all of last season here). It’s hard to believe how quickly our YOMYOMF Network has grown since our debut last June and Internet Icon quickly became our wildly successful tent pole show so it was a no-brainer to bring it back–in a bigger and better package thanks to the talented folks involved led by our douche-y fearless producer Andy Fickman and the gang at Oops Doughnuts.
Judges Ryan Higa, Christine Lakin and Timothy DeLaGhetto (seated) w/Chester See striking a pose behind them.
This year finds the return of faces new and old including returning judges Ryan Higa, Christine Lakin who are joined this year by new judge/YouTube star Timothy DeLaGhetto. Last year’s winners the Brothers Riedell are also on hand to host and mentor the contestants (and yes, Chester See is no longer host but he’s still around as you can see from the pic above). We’ll also have some of the top YouTubers stopping by to guest judge from season 1 favorites Jenna Marbles and Kassem G to newbie’s the Fine Brothers, Wong Fu, Smosh (currently the #1 YouTubers in the world) plus many others.
And as you can see, we had a hell of a lot of contestants show up bright and early this morning:
The Streamy Awards took place earlier today honoring the best in online video content and the YOMYOMF Network was represented at the ceremony with multiple nominations for our shows Dr0ne, The Book Club and our partners Ryan Higa and Chester See. Of course we’re proud of everyone who was acknowledged, but a special congrats go to Oliver Hotz and Matthew A. Rubin who won Best Visual Effects for their work on Dr0ne. And if you want to see why they won, you can check out the pilot episode below and the entire series by clicking here.
Congrats to all the winners and nominees and thanks again to everyone at the Streamys for their support!
It’s pretty cool to be a part of a franchise like Fast and Furious. I’ve been able to grow in so many ways. As an actor and as a man. It’s funny how a popcorn flick like Fast and Furious has taught me so much and given me life lessons that I have grown from and will use to be better at my craft and as a person until I leave this earth.
If I were to take and bottle one ‘Lesson’ from the Fast and Furious films is to always have ‘Fun’. By “Fun’, I don’t mean party your ass off and lose it anytime you see liquor. I mean, share as many laughs with the folks that you are fortunate to be around. It’s an awesome place to be when your job is to play pretend together. Play, and make believe. I figure we are the kids that back in the day would play cops and robbers together at the play ground until mom called us in to eat dinner. The only difference now is that we have much bigger toys to use as props.
