dotBoom Asks The Optimist

Season one of dotBoom may be over (see previous post), but creator Brian Hogg has been branching out. His latest endeavor is an adaption of Ask the Optimist by George Saunders featuring the dotBoom puppets and web superstars like Jonathan Coulton, John Hodgman, Jesse Thorn and Xeni Jardin.

(Sorry for the lack of a graphic, but I'm on a dial-up connection right now and it's very slooow)

15/10/07 Update: Hey, this got picked up by the New York Times' Paper Cuts Blog. Pretty spiffy (via dotBoom Blog).

dotBoom Season Finale

Popular puppet podcast dotBoom has just released it's 28th and final episode.

The 28th and finale episode of dotBoom was released today. In true dotBoom style it's chok-full of guest stars from the web and podcasting world including NPR's Jesse Thorn, Amber MacArthur, Ben Jones (of Jigsaw fame), and the music of Merlin Mann. As usual it's definitely not for kids or safe for viewing at work, but if you're a dotBoom fan you'd probably be disappointed if the finale was any other way.

The show has come a long way over the past year and I think what Brian Hogg has done with dotBoom is really remarkable. He's produced an entire 28 episode season of sitcom with puppets on the web in his basement and he's attracted a unique following of people who probably don't spend a lot of time watching puppet shows. I don't think anyone has ever managed to do something like this online with puppetry before.

Congrats to Brian and the rest of the dotBoom gang. I'm looking forward to season two!

Digging dotBoom

Diggnation co-hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose are puppets in the latest episode of dotBoom.

It seems like dotBoom never stops innovating and trying new things. The latest trick up creator Brian Hogg's sleeve are special "guest appearances" by web personalities in puppet form. The latest episode of dotBoom has just been released and features appearances by Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, and Alex Albrecht. All three gained major Geek fame as former hosts of the popular TechTV' show The Screensavers and are prominent web personalities. Leo owns and operates TWiT.tv, while Kevin is the founder of popular social bookmarking site Digg.com and Kevin and Alex together co-host the popular Digg podcast, Diggnation. Also featured in the episode is returning guest star Merlin Mann although he wasn't available to provide the voice for his puppet this time.

You can watch this latest, special episode of dotBoom here and hey, if you like it wouldn't it be awfully appropriate to digg it?

15/5/07 Update: As expected, this episode is making some noise - both positive and negative - `round the web. dotBoom got noticed on Wired as well as Valleywag (the tech industry's leading online gossip rag), but reaction among Digg users is mixed (scroll down the page to read comments). Also, a minor correction - it's not Merlin Mann's actual voice used in the episode and I've updated the original post to reflect that.

Foam Fight!

Why is that whenever puppeteers get left alone in a room for just a little while this always ends up happening?

Via dotBoom.

Building Papervision

The "Papervision" dotBoom office from its most recent episode under construction.

Brian Hogg has posted a neat Flickr photoset that documents the construction of the mini-sets for dotBoom's "Paperdoll epic". You can check it out here.

Catching up with dotBoom

The latest innovative episode of dotBoom is filmed in "papervision" using cut-out paper puppets.

Brian Hogg is quite possibly a total madman. Fortunately for us, instead of focusing his madness on some kind of diabolical scheme to conquer the world he's quite content instead to make full-length episodes of his online puppet sitcom dotBoom in his basement in Kitchener, Ontario.

I met Brian last summer and when he was talking about his then soon-to-be-unleashed show I kept marveling at how ambitious Brian's plans were relative to his budget (almost zero) and puppetry experience (absolutely zero). I wondered if he knew what he was getting himself in to and I'm not sure that he did, but that may have been a very good thing because otherwise he might not have made dotBoom and the puppet podcasting world would be much poorer for it.

Brian has experimented with all kinds of cool ideas for dotBoom and his latest innovation is what he calls "Papervision" - filming episodes of dotBoom using cut-out paper puppets in a scale model of the dotBoom offices much like toy theatre. dotBoom's seventeenth episode, A Bride Named Clark is part one of his three part "paper doll epic". It's only been out for a day, but it's already getting attention. If you haven't ever checked out an episode of the show before, now is a great time to start watching!

dotBoom is seriously great and a milestone for film and video puppetry on the web. Even if the show isn't your cup of tea, there's no denying that there's no one else is doing anything with puppetry on the web as ambitiously or consistently as Brian right now.

dotBoom in the news

dotBoom got some local press attention in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record over the weekend. You can read the story online here.

Vote dotBoom

Lots of people do their first puppet show in their basement, but I don't know if anyone else has tried something quite like Brian Hogg's dotBoom their first time out. Some of the humour might be a little too "inside", but if you've ever worked in the I.T. industry I dare you not to be able to relate to the situations in every episode.

The show continues to grow on me more and more each week and I think it's a real standout among puppet podcasts because it really tries to take an artistic step beyond just doing clever jokes and parody (not that there's anything wrong with either) and is clearly written from a specific point of view about the creator's personal experiences.

I also really like all innovative stuff Brian's being doing with the show, including audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes videos, stickers and even paper dolls! If nothing else, it's the most extensively documented and promoted puppet web series so far. All in all it's a very positive step forward in the still young history of puppetry and podcasting.

dotBoom is currently up for several Vloggie Awards, including:

• Best Vlog
• Comedy Videoblog
• Entertainment (Fiction) Videoblog
• Editing in a Video
• Vlog Website Design

If you like the show and want to show your support, click here and vote dotBoom!

dotBoom Episode One

The first episode of Brian Hogg's puppet series dotBoom is now available online. Brian's goal with dotBoom is probably insane - he wants to singlehandly produce an entire season's worth of 30 minute episodes of dotBoom - but he's off to a great start. The show is a little rough around the edges at this stage, but conceptually I really, really like it.

Dotboom is shot in HD and looks great. Also, the show has got to have the coolest opening and closing credits of any puppet web series I've ever seen. I think the pacing could be a lot tighter, and the jokes are really, really specific to the web development industry (if you've worked in it you'll appreciate the humour, if you haven't you might be left scratching your head) but no matter. What I love about the show is that watching it I think it's the first time I've ever actually been able to personally relate to a puppet web series - I've sat in on meetings with inept clients and bosses just like the ones Brian depicts in the show.

I like that Brian is doing puppet web series and really has something he wants to say and is writing from a really well thought-out point of view. He's also producing this whole thing more or less by himself in his basement (with the help of puppeteers Kanja Chen, Kim Mahony and Nick Cumming) so he deserves über-props for that as well.

In addition to the first episode, Brian's also recorded an audio commentary track for episode one of dotBoom that you can download and listen to. If you enjoy the episode be sure to Digg It.

dotBoom

Back in May I wrote about dotBoom (see previous post), an ambitious little puppet web series about cubicle life that Brian Hogg is putting together here in Canada. Brian is still pluggin away, hard at work and getting ready to start filming his first episode soon. He's designed a great looking web site for the show and started a dotBoom Blog where you can keep track of his progress on the project. Brian's also put the show's snazzy-looking opening credits online as a sneak preview.

dotBoom

Puppets from the in-the-works web series dotBoom.

dotBoom is a new, in-the-works web series about the dot-com era that Canadian puppeteer Brian Hogg is putting together in Southern Ontario. It's based on his experiences with a company he used to work for, and a gallery of pictures of the puppets and sets is available.

This sounds interesting and might be something to keep an eye on...