lonelygirl15

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lonelygirl15
Also known as	LG15, Lonely Girl
Genre	Video blog, drama, comedy
Created by	Miles Beckett Mesh Flinders Greg Goodfried Amanda Goodfried
Directed by	Colin Hargraves Glenn Rubenstein Amanda Goodfried Greg Goodfried Jackson Davis Kevin Schlanser Mesh Flinders Miles Beckett Yumiko Aoyagi
Starring	Jessica Lee Rose Yousef Abu-Taleb Jackson Davis Becki Kregoski Alexandra Dreyfus Katherine Pawlak Melanie Merkosky Crystal Young Amanda Goodfried Craig Coyne Alli Danziger
Voices of	Kevin Schlanser
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
Production
Executive producer(s)	Amanda Goodfried Glenn Rubenstein Greg Goodfried Mesh Flinders Miles Beckett Yumiko Aoyagi
Producer(s)	Amanda Goodfried Glenn Rubenstein Mesh Flinders Miles Beckett Yumiko Aoyagi
Associate producer(s)	Ian Schwartz
Story editor(s)	Alli Danziger Amanda Goodfried Dwayne Smith Glenn Rubenstein Greg Goodfried Jake Coburn Jan Libby Mesh Flinders Miles Beckett Ross Berger Vanessa Roveto Yumiko Aoyagi
Editor(s)	Amanda Goodfried Colin Hargraves Glenn Rubenstein Ian Schwartz Kevin Schlanser Miles Beckett
Location(s)	Marin County, California
Camera setup	Amanda Goodfried Colin Hargraves Glenn Rubenstein Kevin Schlanser Mesh Flinders Miles Beckett Yousef Abu-Taleb
Running time	Varies
Broadcast
Original channel	YouTube
Original run	June 16, 2006 – present
Chronology
Followed by	KateModern
Related shows	KateModern
External links
Official website

lonelygirl15 is an interactive web-based video series. At first, it centered on the life of a fictional teenage girl named Bree, whose YouTube username is the eponymous "lonelygirl15". Now it revolves around her friends and family. The series is presented through short, regularly updated videoblogs posted by the fictional characters. Lonelygirl15 came to international attention ostensibly as a real video blogger who achieved massive popularity on YouTube, a popular video sharing website, but was eventually outed by suspicious viewers as a hoax featuring a fictitious character played by American-New Zealand actress Jessica Rose.^[1]

A story in The New York Times entitled "'Lonely Girl' (and Friends) Just Wanted Movie Deal" revealed the series' creators: Ramesh 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.^[2]

The series, which began June 16, 2006, is still running, with new videos appearing regularly on YouTube, and occasionally on MySpace.

A spin-off show, KateModern, premiered in July 2007 with a video featuring Kate's art on Bebo. While a separate series, KateModern and lonelygirl15 live in the same fictional universe. As of September 2007, the LG15 series has more than 70 million combined views.

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.

Contents 1 History 2 After the hoax was discovered 3 Marketing 4 Characters 4.1 Main Characters 4.2 Secondary Characters 4.3 ARG Characters 5 Creators 5.1 Miles Beckett 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

lonelygirl15 debuted on YouTube posing as a real 16-year-old video blogger with the eponymous username. At first, the videos covered normal, everyday subject matter, as the title character dealt with typical teenage angst, but quickly morphed into 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. In lonelygirl15's earliest videos, she posted video replies to, and dropped the names of popular YouTubers, which attracted the attention of their fans. 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. Several fans of lonelygirl15's video posts 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^[3] (similar to the viral marketing used to hype The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield). Others felt that the blog might be part of an alternate reality game.^[4]

In early August 2006, fans began an active discussion on the www.lonelygirl15.com message boards and instigated an all-out investigation into the details behind lonelygirl15, pointing to small inconsistencies within the videos as evidence that the story might not be genuine. 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 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 20-year-old New Zealand actress Jessica Rose.^[5][6]

Because of lonelygirl15's YouTube popularity, media sources seized upon the story, extensively covering both the search process and the eventual "outing" as a fictional series. She had fooled many people into believing that she was a real 16 year-old.

Afterwards, numerous news sources and talk shows featured interviews with the creators and actors of the series itself.^{[7][2][8][9][10][11][12][13]}

New York Times reporter Virginia Heffernan expanded on the series of revelations on September 12 out with 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, Calif., 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. Ms. 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 on set of Ms. Rose as proof.^[2] Also on September 12, the three main creators gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times revealing the third major partner as Greg Goodfried.^[13]

Since the fictitious nature of lonelygirl15 has been revealed, the storyline continued to develop via new videos posted to both YouTube and Revver. However due to the recent partnership with YouTube and Myspace, videos stopped being posted on Lonelygirl15's Revver account, and now are only viewable via Youtube and MyspaceTV.

[edit] After the hoax was discovered

• Jessica Rose participated in a United Nations campaign in 2006, to fight poverty through an online anti-poverty video.^[14] 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 antipoverty, which breaks from the regular subject matter of the show. The video was posted on an alternate account, separate from the main channel.^[15]

• Jessica Rose had a recurring role in the first episodes of the ABC Family show Greek.

• On November 20, 2006, lonelygirl15.com announced that the spin-off OpAphid was the official Alternate Reality Game of lonelygirl15.^[16] OpAphid began in late September with what many speculated was a well-produced fan effort, and this announcement merges 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 Puppet Master 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 is no longer the official ARG.

• A 2006 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent was "inspired" by the lonelygirl15 phenomenon. The episode "Weeping Willow" 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.

• On November 9, 2006, DEE, a Montreal artist, released a song and a music video entitled lonelygirl.^[17] The lonelygirl music video was shot in an almost exact replica of Bree's bedroom. In February 2007, it was featured by YouTube and got hundreds of thousands of views.

• Wired magazine ran a story on YouTube titled "YouTube Grows Up" in its December 2006 issue, featuring Jessica Lee Rose on the cover.^[18]

• The lonelygirl15 blog won Biggest Web Hit Award on VH1's Big in '06 Awards.^[19]

• Epic Movie released a series of trailers on YouTube in which Carmen Electra spoofed lonelygirl15. Electra portrayed lonelygirl362436. Yousef Abu-Taleb, the Danielbeast actor, even appears in one of them.

• In the "Best Series" category of the inaugural YouTube Video awards in March of 2007, the series "Ask a Ninja", "Ask a Gay Man", and "Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager" finished first, second and third, with the lonelygirl15 series finishing fourth.^[20] The New York Times attributed Lonelygirl's finish to the YouTube community's ill will towards the series.^[21]

• On Friday, 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.

• In the last episode of the Season One finale, Bree's character was killed off by the order during the ceremony in the season finale and her trait positive blood was transfused into one of the order's elders. The reason for her character's death was attributed to Jessica Lee Rose not renewing her contract for Season Two.^{[citation needed]} In a later episode of Ask a Ninja, The Ninja of the title claimed responsibility for Lonely Girl's death, apparently misinterpreting orders simply stating to kill "LG15". It seems he had been ordered to kill Large Gargoyle 15; the 15 signifying the number of the creatures' heads.

[edit] 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.

The newest form of brand integration was for the film Jumper, where several YouTube videos were posted by user watchyourjack. Many main characters watched these videos and visited associated site WhatWeird.com.^[22]

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main Characters

	Name	Portrayed By	Links		Name	Portrayed By	Links
	Bree Lonelygirl15	Jessica Lee Rose (2006 - 2007)	Bree on MySpace Bree on Youtube Bree on LGPedia		Daniel Danielbeast	Yousef Abu-Taleb (2006 - Present)	Daniel on MySpace Daniel on Youtube Daniel on LGPedia
	Jonas Jonastko	Jackson Davis (2006 - Present)	Jonas on MySpace Jonas on Youtube Jonas on LGPedia		Taylor Soccerstar4ever	Becki Kregoski (2007 - Present)	Taylor on MySpace Taylor on Youtube Taylor on LGPedia
	Sarah Skyisempty	Alexandra Dreyfus (2007 - Present)	Sarah on MySpace Sarah on Youtube Sarah on LGPedia		Emma Emma07	Katherine Pawlak (2007 - Present)	Emma on LGPedia
	Jennie Jenniethebear	Melanie Merkosky (2007 - Present)	Jennie on MySpace Jennie on LGPedia		Gina Gina2008	Crystal Young (2007 - 2008)	Gina on LGPedia

[edit] Secondary Characters

	Name	Portrayed By	Links		Name	Portrayed By	Links
	Lucy	Amanda Goodfried (2006 - Present)	Lucy on LGPedia		Gemma Gemmers19	Jackie Jandrell (2006)	Gemma on MySpace Gemma on Youtube Gemma on LGPedia
	Nikki B. NikkiBowerReport	Alli Danziger (2006 - Present)	Nikki B. on MySpace Nikki B. on Youtube Nikki B. on LGPedia		Alex TCC	Bitsie Tulloch (2007)	Alex on LGPedia
	Carl Onewithharmony	Craig Coyne (2007 - Present)	Carl on MySpace Carl on Youtube Carl on LGPedia		Sonia	Raegan Payne (2007)	Sonia on LGPedia
	Jules Callmejules24	Shannon Solomon (2007)	Jules on MySpace Jules on Youtube Jules on LGPedia		Spencer LAlabrat	Maxwell Glick (2007)	Spencer on MySpace Spencer on Youtube Spencer on LGPedia
	Claire LaRezisto	Shelby Kocee (2007)	Claire on Youtube Claire on LGPedia		Jonas's parents	Peter James & Tammy Klein (2007)	Jonas's parents on LGPedia
	Mallory	Carly Jones (2007 - 2008)	Mallory on LGPedia		Virgil	Joe Rubin (2007 - 2008)	Virgil on LGPedia
	Dr. Calvin Hart	Sean Vincent Biggins (2007 - 2008)	Dr. Hart on LGPedia		Elizabeth Avery	Melissa Kite (2008)	Elizabeth on LGPedia
	Edward Salinas	Jos Viramontes (2008 - Present)	Edward Salinas on LGPedia

[edit] ARG Characters

lonelygirl15 has incorporated Alternate Reality Games into its storyline on more than one occasion. These characters are ones that are from the ARGs.

	Name	Portrayed By	Links		Name	Portrayed By	Links
	OpAphid	Mari Devincenzi (2006 - 2007)	OpAphid on Youtube OpAphid on LGPedia		Tachyon	UNSEEN (2006 - 2007)	Tachyon on Youtube Tachyon on LGPedia
	Brother 10033	Glenn Rubenstein (2006 - 2007)	Brother on Youtube Brother on LGPedia		Jack Watchyourjack	Eddie Asher (2007 - 2008)	Jack on MySpace Jack on Youtube Jack on LGPedia

[edit] Creators

[edit] Miles Beckett

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Miles Beckett (born Miles Zajaczkowski^[23] on February 15, 1978) is an American medical doctor turned filmmaker who is best known for his role in the creation of the lonelygirl15 video series.

The Los Angeles Times identified Beckett as a "Web-obsessed 28-year-old medical school drop-out^[24]." The New York Times identified Beckett as a doctor turned filmmaker^[25]. Miles graduated from medical school at UC-San Diego and was in a plastic surgery residency when he decided to leave after 1 year^{[citation needed]}.

After considering work as a consultant to transition out of medicine, Beckett instead decided to produce internet videos^{[original research?]}. His first production was the internet mini-series "West Wingers," which spoofed White House press conferences.

The idea of creating the lonelygirl15 saga was Beckett's^{[neutrality disputed][citation needed]}. Beckett spent a lot of time on YouTube and noticed that the most popular original content was videobloggers. Beckett imagined creating a story around a videoblogger, and that people would not know if it was real or fake^{[original research?]}. He met Mesh Flinders at a karaoke-bar birthday party in April 2006. Flinders had been working on a character, a shy but precocious homeschooled teenage girl, who would eventually become Bree. When the two met, they decided to collaborate on the project together. The two then enlisted the help of Greg Goodfried to oversee the business side of things.

Beckett is the editor of the lonelygirl15 videos, sometimes along with Kevin Schlanser. Flinders has credited Miles as the driving force behind the success of lonelygirl15.^{[citation needed]}

Miles is also known for his art nouveau classic^[who?] titled, "The Great Cloister Caper", completed in 2001-2002 while he lived in Bethesda, MD. Some^[who?] cite this work as the inspiration behind his future success with lonelygirl15.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The series was developed under the working title The Children of Anchor Cove.^[26]

• lonelygirl15 has various signature items/props that appear in its episodes. Recurring props include a pink feather boa, a safari hat, her beloved puppet Purple Monkey (a.k.a. "P.Monkey"), her bear Thor, and her green, stuffed animal turtle, Owen.
• Much of the music for lonelygirl15 has come from Magnatune and CC Mixter,^[27] and is under Creative Commons licenses. Initial lonelygirl15 videos featured RIAA-controlled music such as Roy Orbison and Nelly, but the series quickly moved to only using music that could be used legally, largely all Creative Commons licensed.^[28][29] lonelygirl15 has since teamed up with Amie Street to sell^[30] music featured in episodes.^[31][32][33]

[edit] See also

• Jessica Rose
• Alternate reality game
• Mumblecore

[edit] References

• Jigsaw, Media. "Jessica Rose story on YourTubeNEWS", YourTubeNEWS, 2006-10-12. Retrieved on 2006-10-28. 
• Richards, Jonathan. "Worldwide fame for a lonely girl", The Times, 2006-08-19. Retrieved on 2006-09-20. 
• Glaser, Mark (2006-09-12). Matt Foremski's Sleuthing Leads to Jessica Rose. Mediashift. PBS.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• YouTube: Lonelygirl15
• Revver: Lonelygirl15
• MySpace: Lonelygirl15