With a host of promising new productions, independent online filmmakers are leaving fan films behind for projects based on original or licensed content. Hoping to duplicate some of the success of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, these new web series will experiment with a variety of business models on a variety of web-based video platforms. 2010 just might turn out to be the year of the independent web series.

Michael Ashe from popular Channel 101 shows like “Cautionary Tales of Swords” had us laughing. An older actor amidst the typical youth of online video productions, fans, friends, and colleagues are reflecting on his legacy after his recent passing.

Credit: Screenshot of Amazon Video On Demand
[REVIEW] — Late last year Adobe released an upgrade to their ubiquitous Flash software that enabled higher quality video. In response, overall video streaming quality on the web has improved as various video services have upgraded their offerings. Amazon is the latest to make the leap, turning [...]

Credit: Hermit of the Mountain, LLC – Venus Rises promotional wallpaper: “Mars Warship Wallpaper“
[REVIEW] [SPOILERS] — A new surge in independently-produced online content is almost upon us even as existing media giants like NBC Universal begin to dabble in higher production value content intended for the web. Venus Rises, created by writer/director and Executive [...]

Image Credit: Star Trek: Odyssey promotional wallpaper, with Bobby Rice as Lt. Commander Ro Nevin and Michelle Laurent as Romulan Sub Commander T’Lorra.
[Commentary] | [Spoilers]
Before there was Star Trek: New Voyages there was Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, an ambitious online fan series that ran from 2000 through a final episode in the summer of 2007. [...]

Image Credit: Promotional poster for Star Trek: New Voyages “World Enough and Time” episode
[Commentary] | [Spoilers]
There is in fact not world enough or time for me to express just how much I love the latest episode of Star Trek: New Voyages, the continuing adventures of the classic USS Enterprise crew in a fan-tastic [...]

When it is a vidcast. The number one and two podcasts listed in Apple iTunes’ “Today’s Top Podcasts” list are vidcasts, with three more in the top 20. There cannot possibly be as many iPods with video purchased yet as there are older video-free iPods; the new iPod came out a few [...]

With video now available for your iPod, your cellphone, your television, your computer, your car, your sunglasses, and your refrigerator, there is only one place left for video to go. Before I tell you where that is (it should be obvious by now,) let me highlight recent announcements about the future of video.

NBC News [...]

Tivo and Bittorrent have allowed viewers to cull through the dreck of mainstream network television and the onslaught of nearly 18 minutes per hour of commercials to create an experience they will not give up easily. With vidcasting, viewing video entertainment has become an absolute joy again. Of special note is Rocketboom, hosted [...]

There are a great many video weblogs and Internet television series available now that are interesting and better than most of the crap on over-the-air, cable, and satellite television. Unfortunately, you have to download episodes of each show manually (a few weblogs can be automatically downloaded through videocasting which is similar to podcasting), find [...]