Lonelygirl15

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lonelygirl15

Bree.jpg
lonelygirl15, AKA Bree, in one of her video blogs.

Created by Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders and Greg Goodfried
Cast
Bree Jessica Lee Rose
Daniel Yousef Abu-Taleb
Jonas Jackson Davis
Alex Bitsie Tulloch


lonelygirl15 is a fictional video blog, that debuted on YouTube, as the username of a "real" 16-year-old video blogger, named Bree. In "lonelygirl15"'s earliest videos, she posted video replies to and name-dropped popular YouTubers, which attracted the attention of their fans. Her video blogs eventually became popular in their own right, and attracted a massive following. To further the initial illusion that Bree was a real girl, a MySpace page was set up for her and she began meaningfully corresponding with many of her fans.

Her blogs quickly became very popular, but viewers grew suspicious that lonelygirl15 was not real. The question of whether or not she was real received a great deal of attention in the media, from late August to early September. Fans ultimately exposed lonelygirl15 as a fictitious character played by New Zealand actress Jessica Lee Rose. The Creators of the series were identified as Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders and Greg Goodfried.

The series is still running with new videos appearing regularly. Lonelygirl15 won the VH1 "Big in '06" award for Biggest Download, and remains the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, with over 91,000 subscribers as of April 2007.

Theme and plot

For a complete synopsis of the plot, see The Story So Far...

***SPOILER WARNINGS FROM HERE ON BELOW***

In the beginning, Bree's videos were similar to those of many other popular vloggers on YouTube. She would make brief videos out of her bedroom about her life, her best friend Daniel, and her conflicts with her parents.

Bree was homeschooled and lonely. Her only friend, who introduced her to YouTube and video editing, was Daniel, whom she met during a brief stint in public school two years earlier. Daniel had a crush on Bree, but Bree's parents wouldn't let her out of the house, and these tensions were behind many of the early videos.

Eventually, it was revealed that Bree was a member of a secretive religion, originally believed to be Thelema but later recognized as the fictional Order of Denderah. Bree was selected to participate in a mysterious ceremony for the religion, but eventually ran away from home rather than participate.

Around the time Bree ran away, another character was introduced, an old friend named Gemma. Gemma made video responses to Bree's videos giving her advice, but it was eventually revealed that Gemma was working for the Order, trying to get Bree to participate in the ceremony.

Eventually, a character named Jonas, a rich orphan, offered Bree and Daniel a place to stay. The characters are currently living at Jonas's house while trying to figure out what to do.

The show gradually abandoned its premise of being a highly-realistic story about a young vlogger. Many members of Bree's religion appear to be evil, going so far as to subject Bree to frequent injections of an unknown substance. Recent plot developments have included the murder of Bree's father, and the revelation that Bree was adopted.

For a complete summary of the story, see The Story So Far...

Revelations of fictionality

Initial speculation

Fans of lonelygirl15’s video posts quickly began to wonder if Bree was, in fact, a real person or if the posts were part of a teaser campaign for a television show or an upcoming movie. Others felt that the blog might be part of an alternate reality game.

Daniel attempting to light a candle underneath a picture of Aleister Crowley. For the full story of how fans unearthed the truth behind lonelygirl15, see The Hunt For Bree.

Fans pointed to small inconsistencies within the videos as evidence that the story might not be genuine.

  • The website lonelygirl15.com, supposedly created by a fan named Bukanator, was registered in May 2006, several weeks prior to Bree actually uploading her first video.
  • Bree had several fights with Daniel on webcam. It seemed unlikely a girl who just endured real fights with her only friend would upload those fights to YouTube.

Media reports of fictionality

  • Richard Rushfield of The Los Angeles Times reported in an article dated September 8, 2006, that three lonelygirl15 fans - Shaina Wedmedyk, Chris Patterson, and an anonymous law student (these three fans are known as the Phorum 3) - set up a sting operation using IP address tracking software that showed that e-mails sent from a lonelygirl15 MySpace account were traced to the offices of Creative Artists Agency, a powerful Hollywood talent agency based in Beverly Hills.[1]
  • Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times, on September 12, confirmed that the Creators of the series are represented by CAA and that CAA was one of several locations used by the Creators of the series to send emails from lonelygirl15 accounts. She identified Miles Beckett and Mesh Flinders as the Creators of the project. One main source for her story was Grant Steinfeld.
  • The Los Angeles Times, on September 13th, featured the first interview with the Creators of lonelygirl15, confirming the link between the Creators and the CAA. This story also identified Greg Goodfried as one of the Creators. [2]
  • On the evening of Sept. 14, Jessica Lee Rose appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, where she announced her name, where she was from, her actual age and that she was not lonely anymore. On Sept. 14 she also appeared in a number of interviews in front of promotional materials for Revver, the site that now hosts the lonelygirl15 videos.

After the Reveal

The media attention on lonelygirl15 only helped the show grow in popularity. Shortly after Sept. 13, lonelygirl15's channel on YouTube surpassed Geriatric1927 to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, a position it has held solidly ever since.

The Creators of the series announced that they would continue producing the series. According to a story in Wired magazine, the Creators talked to television executives, but were unhappy with the meetings, and decided to keep the series on the Internet, with interactivity as a major focus.

From September 9, 2006 onwards, lonelygirl15.com has served the series from Revver, a service that allows video creators to make money from their videos by having ads automatically inserted after their videos. Sometimes videos have appeared on Revver significantly in advance of appearing on YouTube. Upgrades have also been made to the lonelygirl15.com Web site, including the addition of a userplane chat, and later a Flash-based chat that supported video and audio. A wiki, named the LGPedia was added to the site on Sept. 29. A store selling merchandise was also added.

The production has struggled, however, to earn enough money to cover production costs as well as salaries for cast and crew. According to Wired Magazine, the site generates about $10,000 a month in ad revenue. It is unknown how much may have been earned from donations or merchandise sales at the store.

The character Bree has been used in an ad campaign for the United Nations to fight poverty. The video, Stand Up Lonelygirl15 was released as part of a broad campaign on YouTube to spark a buzz online about the United Nation's Millenium Goals.

Production Techniques

Lighting the set.jpg

This picture shows what appears to be Miles Beckett lighting the set with relative simple equipment.

Miles Beckett also appears to participate in the video editing.

The video editing style uses frequent jump cuts.

Cast

Trivia

  • The series was developed under the working title The Children of Anchor Cove [3].
  • lonelygirl15 has various signature items/props that appear in its episodes. Recurring props include a pink feather boa, a safari hat, and her beloved puppet Purple Monkey (a.k.a. "P-Monkey").
  • There are references to the occultic philosophy of Thelema; on the lonelygirl15.com website, the greek letters θέλημα ("Thelema") appear at the bottom of the page, along with three unicursal hexagrams on the header bar, and the phrase "Site design by Darbyite Design" at the bottom.
  • An episode of the television show "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" revolved around a blogger named WeepingWillow17 who was modeled after Bree.

References

Articles