SHOCKBOX

I haven’t posted here in a while but I’ve been keeping busy! We really had a slow Film Festival Season this year, and that was a disappointment because the short film we released “Mother’s Day” was the best thing IMO I have written. I guess there’s just no place in the circuit nowadays for a sweet 6 minute drama that makes you cry. It’s on Vimeo if you want to see it; the actors did a fantastic job communicating a strong emotional arc in less than 10 minutes and I’m extremely proud of it. Anyway, when things don’t turn out the way you want them to in the entertainment business, you either quit or adapt your strategy to fit the marketplace. Because I am not smart enough to quit 🙂 , in August I started an Internet Content Channel (= website) called SHOCKBOX TV with my partner, Matt Prater. ShockBox TV is all about independent music and the people that make it happen– musicians, bands, recording studios, performance venues and of course, the FANS!

Matt and I have been putting together webshows that feature bands we’ve selected from all over the world and we have like 25 eps over two shows and a bunch of new ones in the works. Instead of making content and hoping to draw an audience , we are focusing on building an audience and providing the content that THEY want to see, which in most cases is themselves! So our shows revolve around the bands and fans bold enough to want to promote themselves and their music to their audience and ours, and are willing to combine them. This audience also knows social media and how to leverage it to communicate to thousands all over the world, so ShockBoxTV also is in step with this vehicle by tweeting and posting regularly on facebook. I also have a blog post I write every day (or at least I try to), so that’s what I’ve been putting my energy into.

ShockBox TV is putting on its first concert on Thursday, December 6th at Busby’s East in Los Angeles. We’ve hand-picked some awesome bands we’ve worked with and the whole reason for being is to raise money to buy Christmas Toys for kids that need them. We’ve giving proceeds from the night to Spark of Love, the org of firefighters who buy the toys and bring ’em to good boys and girls all over Los Angeles. So please come out to Busby’s East on Dec 6 if you can!

Last night ShockBox TV was in the press line for the Hollywood Music & Media Awards, which was cool. Here’s a pic of me, standing with my trusty Canon 60D. Anyway, please come check out www.shockboxtv.com ’cause I’m really excited about it.

James Tuverson at the Hollywood Music & Media Awards, Nov 2012.

Hey Everybody!

The time is NOW to unveil my newest entertainment project, my most ambitious undertaking to date and my biggest call-to-action ever! SHOCKBOX is a new, cutting-edge comedy web series for which I’m the creator, head writer and executive producer. The show is about two guys, ALEX and CHAD, who run an independent music web talk show out of their apartment in Santa Monica, California. Alex is a kind-hearted, sometimes-naïve Southern Boy with dreams of stardom and a taste for good whiskey. Chad is a boisterous, girl-chasing Trust Fund Baby with a soft underbelly and a knack for getting in trouble. Together with their hodge-podge of friends, these two put on ROCK YER FACE, a weekly web talk show that features the latest from independent music/film… but ratings seem to SOAR when CRAZY stuff happens on the air.

The show is when “Wayne’s World” seduces “30 Rock” with a torrid night of Boones Farm Strawberry Wine and old Rod Stewart CDs—and their love child is SHOCKBOX. The show-within-a-show, ROCK YER FACE, will feature parody commercials and real musical guests, as well as a few surprises I can’t talk about yet! Let’s just say we call it SHOCKBOX because the comedy will shock you senseless and will be available on all your entertainment “boxes”, including laptops, smartphones and ipads.

The series will also break new ground as camera, cast and crew all become characters as needed to expose the behind-the-scenes look at the making of a web talk show/real web show and the hi-jinks that ensue both on and off the air. SHOCKBOX is a never-ending party of music, comedy and the mayhem that results when crazy-talented folks get together, no holds barred. Every show will be unpredictable!

I, along with my producing partners award-winning director Matthew Prater, Amelia Yaron and Steve Broxterman, have written 24 x four-minute episodes of SHOCKBOX and are ready to shoot. We’ve launched a campaign on KickStarter to raise $24,000 in order to produce the entire 1^st season of the series. This ambitious-yet-moderate budget is the minimum needed to get SHOCKBOX on the air. Please take a look at the promo video (below) where I and my partners talk about the SHOCKBOX concept and why we are the right team to make this a reality. We’ve put together some awesome rewards and incentives for contributions starting as low as $1 and growing to a role as executive producer on the series. Here’s the thing: unless we raise the WHOLE $24,000 budget, nobody who contributes has to pay a single dime, so it’s critical that we reach our goal.

We’ve also begun a comprehensive outreach to independent bands from all over the country (and the world) to get SHOCKBOX awareness out, start building a fan-base and seek out musical (and otherwise crazy) guests for the show-within-a-show, ROCK YER FACE—just one of the opportunities for bands to get their music heard. Even if you can’t spare a contribution right now, you can still HELP by getting the word out, telling your friends about this crazy new series and linking to our KickStarter site to find out more. Forward the link to any unsigned bands you know, too! Thank you all for the support over the years; I really am excited and happy about working on SHOCKBOX and hope it’s the Next Big Thing.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1507583871/shockbox/widget/video.html