Zacuto Films Wins Emmy for Their Web Series: “The Great Camera Shootout 2010.”
CHICAGO, IL (Nov 16, 2010) — On November 6, 2010, The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awards Zacuto Films, creators of webisodic programming, an Emmy for “The Great Camera Shootout 2010” for Outstanding Achievement in a Program Series. Additionally, FilmFellas Cast 7: “Masters of Non-Fiction,” were among the 7 nominees.

“FilmFellas and The Great Camera Shootout 2010 were the only web shows nominated for Emmys this year, but that glass ceiling has now been broken,” says Web Series Director and Producer Steve Weiss, “Now, anyone in the international indie film movement can enter their work in the Emmy Awards, provided the programming format fits the category and it’s ready to compete with television programming head-on.”

“Our win has signaled a crack in the door that the two worlds are merging,” says Web Series Executive Producer Jens Bogehegn. “Now that web content is eligible to compete for Emmys, it legitimizes the web as a powerful delivery medium.” Zacuto Films funded the 3-part web series themselves and used self-distribution and social media channels to launch the web based show; which has attracted over 2M views. “You don’t need to spend TV type dollars these days to achieve TV quality results,” says Weiss. “Currently, the international indie film movement is creating TV and motion picture quality content every day, but it’s not getting the recognition that it deserves…but the tide is changing.”

As web-centric digital entertainment continues to evolve and Web TV grows its audience with channels such as Hulu, Fancast, BlipTV and Vimeo, webisodic content will continue to increase in production value as well as pure entertainment value. “We’ve all seen remarkable leaps and bounds in the quality of web based content in the past year,” says Web Series Producer Scott Lynch, “and I think that we’re just seeing the beginning of the true democratization of entertainment.”

Web series creators Steve Weiss and Jens Bogehegn produced their first web show, “FilmFellas” in December 2008. Now in its 8th Season, this Emmy Nominated Web Series brings together award winning filmmakers for round table discussions on the indie film industry. Cast members have included: Stephen Goldblatt ASC, BSC; Rodney Charters ASC, CSC; Nancy Schreiber ASC, Trent Opaloch, Ondi Timoner, Joe Swanberg, and David Grubin. In August 2009, their second web series [ critics ], premiered with dueling co-hosts Steve Weiss and DP Philip Bloom and is the first webisodic show to exclusively critique web based video content. Coming soon, “bts: a web series: a documentary about making documentaries.”

About “The Great Camera Shootout 2010”
This documentary style 3-part web series showcases the top performing hybrid DSLR cameras, such as the Canon 5D MKII and compares the image quality of these cameras against the gold standard of 35mm film. Filmed and screened over a 3-month period, Zacuto Films assembled an impressive array of filmmakers and celebrities in the independent film community to take part in the series. Screening locations included: Stag Theater at Skywalker Ranch, LucasFilms Ltd., AFI (American Film Institute) in Hollywood, FilmWorkers Astro Color Timing Theater and The Midwest Independent Film Festival. Special Appearances include : Shane Hurlbut ASC, Stephen Lighthill ASC, Rick McCallum, David Wexler and more.

“The Great Camera Shootout 2010” credits include : Producers: Jens Bogehegn, Steve Weiss and Scott Lynch; Web Series Director: Steve Weiss; Director of Photography: Robert Primes ASC; Editor: Daniel Skubal; DP – Color Profiles: Philip Bloom; Digerati: Gary Adcock; and Colorist: Ryan Emerson. To watch the full line-up of Zacuto Films Webisodic programming, visit http://www.zacuto.com.