How many times have you seen a great trailer for an awful movie - or paid full price to see a film when all the best scenes are in the trailer? Beyond the Trailer, which launched earlier this week, goes beyond the fast-cuts and god-like voiceovers to find out what you’re really getting when you buy your movie ticket. Hosted by Grace Randolph, the writer, creator, and host of RevYou and TVrecap, Beyond the Trailer uncovers industry expectations, behind the scenes gossip, and audience reactions.

As the newest addition to the NextNewNetworks family, Beyond the Trailer will be joining BFX and Best Short Film in the World over on IndyMogul, the network dedicated to DIY filmmakers and film lovers. Now, no matter where your film interests lie, Indy Mogul has a show for you. BackyardFX offers how-to’s for DIY filmmaker, Best Short Films in the World lets you know what’s playing on the computer right in front of you, and Beyond The Trailer gives you the inside track on what’s playing at a theater near you.

Last but not least, Beyond the Trailer is the first of many series to be picked up by our super distribution network. What does that mean? Well, here at NNN we only have so many hands and small NY studio to make new programming, so we are starting to integrate independent producers projects into our networks. So stay tuned for more show announcements and information about how you can become involved.

We usually don’t blog our press much here, but everyone at Next New Networks has been working incredibly hard all summer, and two articles posted on NewTeeVee point out a few of the things people here have been putting a lot of time into trying to make happen. So it’s as good a time as any to congratulate our great team and let them know that others are starting to notice.

In Daisy Whitney’s latest column, “When Web Video Beats Old Media at its Own Game,” she points out a longtime obstacle in making VOD work, the lack of dynamic ad insertion capabilities, and highlights the recent things we’ve been doing to enable dynamic sponsor and ad insertion into our catalog of videos, and the campaign we just wrapped up across many of our networks for Universal’s Death Race.

If you tuned into a recent episode of Indy Mogul last week you’d probably have seen host Erik Beck mention the show’s sponsor, Universal Studios’ Death Race. And if you tuned into a 2007 episode of Indy Mogul last week you’d also have seen Beck tout Death Race there too.

That’s because Next New Networks, which produces and distributes the do-it-yourself visual effects show, has implemented technology from both Freewheel and Castfire that lets the web studio insert fresh ads, bumpers and host shout-outs for current ad campaigns into both current and older episodes in the Next New Networks catalog, imitating a longstanding practice in the traditional TV business.

[Full article]

And on Friday, in NewTeeVee Station (their guide to shows worth watching on the web), Jill Weinberger turned in her latest review, “Barely Political: Not Just Obama Girl Anymore.” Jill points out what we’ve been saying all along — that the videos that our brilliant team, including Rusty Ward, Tom Small, Mark Douglas and Mike Stevens, are doing have added a new dimension with “drier, more sophisticated humor — more Daily Show than JibJab.”

From two white guys rapping about buying a battleship just to go fishing in Stimulus Package, to Leah Kauffman’s pleading with Ann Coulter to perfect her, to Hillary angling for Obama’s VP slot with a well-timed Tom and Jerry reference, there’s a little something for everyone. It’s not all jabs at Repubs and Obama-stroking, either; with a tip to McCain’s balls and even some sympathetic Ron Paul coverage, there’s plenty of love to go around.

[Full review]

The review also recognized other great shows like Nite Fite and Zaproot, and spoke of Next New Networks as a “source of original content to be reckoned with.” That’s a great accolade that’s much appreciated — and with the slate of new networks and shows we’ve got on the way this fall and winter, I hope we’ll do even more to live up to it.

Sassy Sonya, aka Toronto-based Sonya Buyting of the very entertaining Sassy Science podcast, stopped by Next New yesterday while on a trip to NYC to talk shop and see what we could do together. Sonya’s absolutely driven to cover science and do it in an entertaining way, and it’s pretty obvious she won’t stop until she’s taken the world by storm.

Check out her podcast, if you haven’t yet — I think there’s a lot we can all learn from her. Starting with: 1. Always have a kick-ass graphic for your iTunes listing.

Recently got back from one of a number of trips to San Francisco as of late; I’ve been there more times in the last six months than in the previous six years combined, and my last company had its second office there. That says a lot about how much is going on in the Bay Area right now, and how important it is for a business like ours to understand it.

I got in on Friday afternoon, and after a nice coffee and talk with Nicholas Quixote, creator of Rabbit Bites and one of my favorite people in videoblogging, headed to a party thrown by Om Malik to celebrate the launch of his company’s new website, FoundRead, a resource and forum for entrepreneurs. Judging from the packed room at the venue, there are a lot of people choosing to found something these days.

(Top, Om Malik; Above, GigaOm’s Liz Gannes, Katie Fehrenbacher and Joey Wan with Kevin Rose. Photos by Thomas Hawk)

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The stunningly talented Jon Kane and Warren Fischer direct films together as bunker (Brooklyn, NY), and DJ together around the world as Fischerspooner DJ. Today they came into our Next New Networks offices to discuss various show ideas they’re developing. Thanks for coming in guys, hope we can work together.