Lonelygirl15

lonelygirl15 is a web series launched June 16, 2006, in the early days of YouTube. Initially presented as an authentic video diary "vlog", it gained wide media attention in September 2006 when the show was revealed to be fictional. The plot began with the mundane life of a teenage girl; the narrative became increasingly bizarre, portraying her dealings with secret occult practices within her family, including the mysterious disappearance of her parents, and a "secret" ceremony prescribed by leaders of the cult. The series was created by Mesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, California, Miles Beckett, a surgical residency dropout turned filmmaker, and Greg Goodfried, a former attorney with Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, LLP.
Overview.
Launched just 16 months after the YouTube video platform went online, "lonelygirl15" focuses on the life of a teenage girl named Bree – played by a 19-year-old New Zealand actress Jessica Rose – whose YouTube username is the eponymous "lonelygirl15". After the fictional status of the show was revealed in September 2006, it gradually evolved into a multi-character series including both character videoblogs and action sequences, with a complex story universe involving "trait positive girls" who are sought by an evil organization called "The Order".
The three creators of "lonelygirl15" were Mesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, California, Miles Beckett, a surgical residency dropout turned filmmaker, and Greg Goodfried, a former attorney with Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, LLP.
The series was developed under the working title "The Children of Anchor Cove". New videos appeared, eventually at the rate of four to five clips a week, first on YouTube and lg15.com, and later on MySpace. As of July 2008, the series had more than 110 million combined views. As of March 2021, the series had more than 304 million views.
"lonelygirl15" has generated a number of spin-off shows. Its first, the British-based "KateModern", ran from July 2007 through June 2008 on Bebo, and took place in the same fictional universe.
Along with Amanda Goodfried, an attorney who worked with Creative Arts Agency (CAA), the creators of "lonelygirl15" created LG15 Studios to produce original interactive content online. LG15 Studios became EQAL in April 2008, with receipt of $5 million in venture capital to expand their offerings.
The "lonelygirl15" finale took place on August 1, 2008, and included a teaser for EQAL's next spinoff, "", which ran through December 2008.
Since 2009, EQAL has aired two more spinoff series which are produced by contest winners, including "LG15: The Last", which started airing in January 2009, and "LG15: Outbreak", which began in January 2010.
On June 16, 2016, the tenth anniversary of the first video on the account, a new video on the account with Jessica Lee Rose returning as Bree Avery was uploaded, with a message that the series was restarting. This revival appears to have been aborted, as no further videos (which were posted on Danielbeast's channel) have appeared since late 2016.
History.
Before the vlog was revealed as fake, the title character dealt with mundane teenage problems such as being grounded; "lonelygirl15" posted video replies to, and dropped the names of popular YouTubers. To further the initial illusion that Bree was a real girl, a MySpace page was set up for her and she seemingly began corresponding with many of her fans.
Later the show moved to a bizarre narrative that portrayed her dealings with secret occult practices within her family, and included the mysterious disappearance of her parents after she refused to attend a "secret" ceremony prescribed by the leaders of the family's cult.
Hoax accusations.
At first discussion regarding why they thought "lonelygirl15" might be a fake went on in her video comments. In early August 2006, a fan began a discussion at the previously stagnant www.lonelygirl15.com message boards and raised an investigation into who or what was behind "lonelygirl15". Soon the message board became full of discussion about even the tiniest details in each of her videos, everything from the quality of the lighting to the flora seen in her outdoor videos. Fans used the forum to collect, organize and share their findings, and pointed to small inconsistencies within the videos as evidence that the story might not be genuine, wondering if Bree's posts were part of a teaser campaign for a television show or an upcoming movie (similar to the viral marketing used to promote "The Blair Witch Project"). Others thought that the blog might be part of an alternate reality game.
"Los Angeles Times" reporter Richard Rushfield was the first to provide proof of a hoax, when he wrote of Shaina Wedmedyk, Chris Patterson, and an anonymous blogger law student, who set up a sting on MySpace to reveal that the Creative Artists Agency was behind the videos. Eventually it was revealed that 16-year-old "Bree" was played by 19-year-old actress Jessica Rose. Media sources seized upon the story, covering both the search process and the eventual "outing" as a fictional series.
"New York Times" reporter Virginia Heffernan expanded on the series of revelations on September 12 by publishing an article which confirmed Jessica Rose's identity, and revealed the identities of her "co-conspirators", Ramesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, California, and Miles Beckett, a doctor-turned-filmmaker. Software engineer Grant Steinfeld was also involved in this project, as a photographer. Amanda Solomon Goodfried assisted in their efforts to hide their identities as well as posed as "Bree"'s online alter-ego. Goodfried's father-in-law, Kenneth Goodfried, handled various legal matters. The personnel involved worked under a non-disclosure agreement, according to Grant Steinfeld. Steinfeld has verified most of this information to the "Times", and provided photographs he took of Rose on set as proof. Also on September 12, the three main creators gave an interview to the "Los Angeles Times" revealing the third major partner as Greg Goodfried.
After the fictional nature of "lonelygirl15" was revealed, the storyline continued to develop via new videos posted to both YouTube and Revver. However, after YouTube partnered with MySpace, videos stopped being posted on "lonelygirl15's" Revver account, and only became viewable via YouTube and MySpaceTV.
After the discovery of the hoax.
Jessica Rose participated in a United Nations campaign in 2006, to fight poverty through an online anti-poverty video. Rose portrayed the "lonelygirl15" character as she sat by herself in her bedroom talking to the camera. The subject matter in the video focused on poverty relief, which broke from the regular subject matter of the show. The video was posted on an alternate account, separate from the main channel.
On November 20, 2006, lonelygirl15.com announced that the spin-off OpAphid was the official alternate reality game of "lonelygirl15". OpAphid began in late September with what many speculated was a well-produced fan effort, and this announcement merged its characters OpAphid, Tachyon, and 10033/Brother, into the series storyline and continuity. In early February 2007, it was revealed that Glenn Rubenstein was the original puppetmaster behind the OpAphid alternate reality game and also the creator of its characters, OpAphid, Tachyon, and Brother. Due to internal issues between the Creators and Glenn, OpAphid was no longer the official ARG.
A 2006 episode of "" was based on the "lonelygirl15" phenomenon. The episode "" featured a blogger named weepingwillow17, played by Michelle Trachtenberg. Willow and her boyfriend were kidnapped by Men in Black who demanded her fans donate money to a website to save their lives. The investigators did not know if Willow was real or fake. Various other video bloggers were also seen decrying weepingwillow as a fake, just like many did on YouTube. The site on the episode was named "YouLenz".
Awards and recognition.
The "lonelygirl15" blog won Biggest Web Hit Award on VH1's Big in '06 Awards.
In the "Best Series" category of the inaugural YouTube Video awards in March 2007, the "lonelygirl15" series finished fourth. The New York Times attributed Lonelygirl's finish to the YouTube community's ill will towards the series.
On August 3, 2007, Season One of "lonelygirl15" celebrated its finale with an exclusive on MySpaceTV known as "12 in 12" where 12 videos were uploaded over the course of 12 hours from 8 am PST to 7 pm PST, culminating in the highest one-day viewership ever for the series. A "summary" video from the first season was offered as a part of the event, and it logged in over a million views on its own.
Marketing.
"lonelygirl15" was the first Internet series to introduce product integration when the episode "Truckstop Reunion" featured the characters eating and displaying Hershey's Icebreaker's Sours Gum.
In another example of a product integration first, "lonelygirl15" landed on the front page of "Variety" for the integration of a character from Neutrogena in the storyline over the period of more than two months. Dr. Spencer Gilman became such a popular character that Neutrogena made him "Employee of the Month" and gave him his own e-mail account on the company's corporate website.