David Fine (top), Beau Lewis and Peter Furia are producing shows at their Seedwell studio in San Francisco for YouTube’s American Hipster channel.

Seedwell Launches American Hipster Original YouTube Channel

• American Hipster Channel on YouTube
• YouTube’s Announcement
• YouTube’s Original Channels Site
• Press Site (with Images) for American Hipster

SF-based creative studio’s hipster-themed, channel features three weekly shows from documentary to movie reviews to pop culture news.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 26, 2012 – SF-based creative studio, Seedwell, launched its new YouTube channel “American Hipster” today with premiere episodes for three weekly, hipster-themed shows. This is the newest channel to launch as part of YouTube’s original channels offering that was announced last October.

“Many people think the whole hipster thing is over,” said Peter Furia, spokesperson for American Hipster and Head of Strategy at Seedwell. “But the fact that the term is still so contentious makes us think there’s substance to explore. We also suspect there’s new humor to enjoy as hipsterism’s influence expands further into the mainstream and crosses generations.”

Two of American Hipster’s shows offer new and entertaining takes on already popular YouTube formats: “Max Movie Reviews” is a Hollywood movie review show hosted by a witty, talking hipster baby, and “Hipster Grandmas” is a weekly roundup of pop trends and celebrity news by two funny old ladies (played by a young gal and her gay BFF). Both shows make fun of pop culture, celebrities and, of course, old and new hipster stereotypes.

The third show, “American Hipster Presents,” takes a decidedly different route, using documentary to examine some of the less discussed, positive aspects of hipster culture. The flagship show for the channel, “American Hipster Presents” explores the passions of American trendsetters in the worlds of music, art, food, style, and social life.

The diversity of the three shows is no surprise given Seedwell’s production resume. The company is best known not only for its numerous viral video hits that have amassed over 40 million views on YouTube (including “The New Dork,” “Telephone: The Office Version,” (Lady Gaga parody), “BigDog Beta,” “Puke In My Mouth” (SNL parody), and “Tweet It”), but also for its award winning feature length documentary “Salaam Dunk,” which is about an Iraqi women’s basketball team.

Seedwell hopes the American Hipster channel’s blend of both short, comedic content and longer form, documentary-style content will engage young, tech-savvy YouTube viewers in a variety of ways. “People already know that YouTube is the best place to watch and interact with the latest pop culture news and internet memes, and we think Max Movie Reviews and Hipster Grandmas will offer those viewers a unique and comedic hipster-themed lens through which to engage with that news,” said Furia.

“But we’re equally excited to bring new audiences to YouTube with America Hipster Presents,” added Furia. “These are beautifully filmed, longer episodes that profile trendy people who are truly passionate about their respective crafts, and it comes through in their stories. We think viewers will enjoy leaning back and getting immersed in these characters week after week.”

“It’s an exciting time to be a content creator in this space,” said Beau Lewis, Head of Business at Seedwell. “YouTube is bringing people an expanding number of high quality, niche channels that not only speak to them, but that also listen to, and interact with, them. Furthermore, YouTube’s hands-off creative approach allows us to do what we do best – make videos that people love to watch and share. It’s great for viewers, creators and advertisers.”

About Seedwell
Seedwell is a creative studio based in San Francisco that specializes in video production. The company was founded in March 2008 by Peter Furia, Beau Lewis, and David Fine, lifelong friends with backgrounds in film production, music production, social media marketing and online community building. Often working with top agencies and brands, Seedwell makes TV commercials, web shows, viral videos, and films.

Press Images available at http://seedwell.com/americanhipster
Users can subscribe on YouTube at http://subscribe.americanhipster.tv

Relevant Links
http://seedwell.com
http://youtube.com/americanhipster
http://youtube.com/americanhipster2

YouTube Announces New Original Channels Including Seedwell’s “American Hipster”

• American Hipster Channel on YouTube
• YouTube’s Announcement
• YouTube’s Original Channels Site
• Press Site (with Images) for American Hipster

SF-Based creative studio’s comedic, hipster-themed, pop culture channel will feature three weekly shows starting March 26, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., October 28, 2011 – YouTube announced today that, starting next month, new original channels will start to roll out on its platform. YouTube has been working closely with content producers who will be creating new advertising-supported channels in the coming year for verticals including fashion, sports, music, comedy, animation, news and education.

The new channels are backed by some of the biggest producers and celebrities from Hollywood, some of the hottest emerging media companies, and some of the earliest pioneers of web video. YouTube has kick-started the creation of these channels and hopes the initiative will create new opportunities for both viewers and advertisers in their content ecosystem.

One lesser-known emerging media company involved in the channel roll out is San Francisco based creative studio, Seedwell (http://seedwell.com). No stranger to online video advertising, Seedwell has worked with brands like Pepsi, HTC, Blue Nile and Fujitsu and has produced several viral video hits, many of them in the tried-and-true music video parody format, amassing over 33 million views on YouTube. Such hits include “The New Dork”, “Telephone: The Office Version” (Lady Gaga parody), “Tweet It”, “Puke In My Mouth” (SNL parody), and “Big Dog Beta.”

Seedwell’s contribution to the YouTube initiative is a channel called “American Hipster” (http://youtube.com/americanhipster), which will launch in March of 2012 as a comedic channel that explores pop culture through the lens of hipsterism – that ironically popular movement built on not being popular. The American Hipster channel will feature three weekly shows. While two of them fall into popular YouTube formats—”Max Movie Reviews” is a Hollywood movie review show hosted by a funny, talking hipster baby (starring Maximus The Baby) and “Hipster Grandmas” is a weekly roundup of pop trends and celebrity news hosted by two funny old ladies (played by a young gal and her gay BFF)—the third show, titled “American Hipster Presents,” delves into a format new to most YouTube audiences: short documentary. The flagship show for the channel, American Hipster Presents (hosted by Paavo Steinkamp and directed by David Fine) is a traveling documentary-style series that explores contemporary hipster culture first-hand in multiple cities across the country.

Seedwell is also no stranger to documentary. The company’s new award-winning feature length film about an Iraqi Women’s Basketball team entitled “Salaam Dunk” is currently making waves in the international film festival circuit. The film has recently screened to packed audiences at the Los Angeles Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival (where it won The Gold Plaque), and is set to screen in Qatar at the Doha-Tribeca Film Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam later this year.

Seedwell hopes American Hipster’s blend of short and longer form content will engage much of YouTube’s massive youth audience and encourage them to spend more time on the site week after week.

“It’s really exciting to see YouTube work with a variety of content producers including people like us who have been dedicated to the YouTube platform since its inception,” said Peter Furia, Partner and Head of Creative and Marketing at Seedwell. “YouTube has always been the best site for social video and we’re looking forward to being a part of building even larger dedicated audiences around this latest influx of high quality video content. We, of course, encourage people who are interested in American Hipster to subscribe to the channel on YouTube, and follow its shows’ Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.”

“Having YouTube support Seedwell’s production of regular content allows us to focus on what we do best – creating videos that people love to watch and share,” said Beau Lewis, Partner and Head of Business at Seedwell. “This is also a great opportunity for our business; we believe the upside of online video advertising has yet to be fully realized and YouTube will play a key role in its evolution. We’re excited to be a part of it.”

Press Images available at http://seedwell.com/americanhipster

Relevant Links
http://seedwell.com
http://americanhipster.net
http://youtube.com/americanhipster

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