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Lonelygirl15

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Lonelygirl15
File:Lg15.jpg
lonelygirl15 in one of her video blogs.
Created by Miles Beckett
Mes Flinders
Greg Goodfried
Starring Jessica Rose
Yousef Abu-Taleb Jackie Jandrell
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes69 (As of November 8, 2006)
Production
Running timeVaries
Original release
NetworkYouTube
Revver (September 9, 2006-Present)
ReleaseJune 16, 2006 –
Present

lonelygirl15 is a fictional video blog that came to international attention via YouTube, a popular video sharing website. The central character is a YouTube user of the same name, although she is commonly known as Bree. The character achieved massive popularity with her series of videos, which acquired over 15 million cumulative views. But after viewers grew suspicious (see Initial speculation), lonelygirl15 was exposed as a fictitious character played by New Zealand actress Jessica Rose.[1][2] An interview with The New York Times then revealed the series creators, Ramesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, California, and Miles Beckett, a surgical residency dropout turned filmmaker.[3]

The series, which began June 16, 2006 is still running, with new videos appearing regularly.

Synopsis

Bree is a 16-year-old girl, who feels alienated from her peers as she is homeschooled and her family has moved around several times. She's an only child. Bree's parents are very strict and seldom allow her to go out and mingle with other teens.

Her only friend for the last two years has been Daniel, an 18-year-old senior who's an aspiring film-maker. Daniel gets Bree started on the Internet. He makes her a website, a MySpace account and a YouTube account. Then they start publishing videos online. Bree takes on the username 'lonelygirl15', while Daniel becomes 'Danielbeast'.

Her initial videos are silly and carefree. A budding romance develops between Daniel and Bree. Daniel is clearly smitten by Bree, but she is unsure about her feelings toward him.

Tension arises when Bree and Daniel start to argue over Bree's religion. Those conflicts worsen as Bree is chosen to participate in a mysterious 'coming of age' ceremony. Her preparation for the event demands that Bree follows a strict diet, receive injections and take pills. She also has to learn to read and write Enochian language.

Bree starts sneaking out to see Daniel. Her parents catch her and she is forbidden to see Daniel anymore. She continues to do so, however. She also decides to not let her parents keep her from enjoying the little pleasures that a 'normal' life offers.

Bree reveals that Daniel kissed her which implies that their relationship has changed in nature. But the ceremony preparations force Bree to cancel a date with Daniel, which makes him snap at Bree, severely upsetting her.

This tears the kids apart, as Bree decides to stop seeing Daniel and come clean with her parents about her escapades. She also decides to focus on her studies.

To help her with the process, she is assigned a 'Helper' named Lucy, who guides her through the steps for the ceremony.

Feeling left out, Daniel decides to follow and film Bree and her helper. Bree notices his actions and asks him to stop, but he continues. He even follows Bree to her ceremony in a site in the middle of the woods and manages to videotape a few scenes, but is unable to hear what is being said. Suddenly he realizes he has been discovered and flees the scene.

A few days later Daniel breaks into Lucy's apartment and finds pictures of himself on her computer. Scared about this covert surveillance, he hides out at a friend's house.

Bree reveals that what Daniel thought was the ceremony was actually a stunt designed to draw him out. This begins to make Bree unsure about the proceedings she is undergoing. Despite the fact that Lucy had been working at keeping Daniel and Bree apart, Bree goes to see him. They have a long talk and Bree decides not to do the ceremony. Her parents support her, but when they talk to the Deacons of their religion, they are faced with an inflexible stance: Bree must continue with the preparations.

Bree decides to go see Daniel, and her parents insist she stay with him for a while. But when Bree tries to contact her parents the next day, no one answers the phone.

After spending the night with Daniel, he and Bree return to Bree's house to try and find her parents. When they arrive, however, they see Bree's parents being lead out of the house by Lucy and a mysterious man, whom Bree assumes to be a deacon. They watch as Bree's parents climb into the back of a car and are driven away. Bree and Daniel then enter the house and locate a note (as well as some money) that Bree's parents left for her, inside her favorite stuffed animal. The note dictates that Bree should stay with Daniel, but both she and Daniel decide that it would probably be best if they stay on the road for a little while.

Themes

The central themes of their video blogs are:

  • Unrequited love/romantic confusion - Bree does not know how to react when her friend Daniel confesses that he 'likes her'.
  • Rebellion against parenting - Bree is homeschooled by parents who she implies are also strictly religious.
  • Forbidden experimentation - her parents are apparently unaware of her video blogs.
  • The Occult - Bree has a picture of Aleister Crowley in her bedroom, and she is involved in preparing for a 'ceremony'.

There are also other recurring motifs in the videos. For example, the phrase "Proving Science Wrong" is repeated on many occasions, often in reference to her spirited science experiments with Daniel.

In the blog entry "Swimming," Bree refers to an old friend named Cassie. Since a second female character was listed in the project's initial casting call, the character is expected to appear at some point. Some videos from a user named cassieiswatching have appeared on YouTube, but the lonelygirl15 creators claim them to be unconnected to the Bree storyline. [2]

Recently a couple of videos have appeared in YouTube by user named gemmers19, who claimed to be Gemma, an old friend of Bree's from her days in Britain. Although it shared the same editing style as the lonelygirl videos, viewers were unsure if she was part of the LG15 storyline. A recent lonelygirl15 video confirmed her to be part of the so-called 'Breeniverse'. Her videos are now being included in the lonelygirl website.

In one episode, the family's religion is revealed as being related to the Order of Denderah.[3], and "Denderah" is one of the keyword tags on the blog. Bree is learning the secret language for an upcoming ceremony.

How the series was revealed to be fictional

Initial speculation

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[4][5][6] (similar to the viral marketing used to hype The Blair Witch Project). Others felt that the blog might be part of an alternate reality game.[7]

File:Breeshrine.jpg
Daniel attempting to light a candle underneath a picture of Aleister Crowley.

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, was registered in May 2006, a week or two prior to Bree actually uploading her first video.[8]
  • Bree has had several fights with Daniel, the boy in the video that supposedly does the video editing, on webcam. However, he still edits the videos and leaves the fights on video to be posted on YouTube.[8]
  • The only mention of specific YouTube users occurred in the first postings. Thereafter, the only responses to user comments were generic and vague, e.g.: "Some of you guys were asking about ..." This theory was shown to be incorrect, or at least incorrect in reference to the episode "Bree the Cookie Monster", which cites certain comments.[8]
  • A US federal trademark 78957059, for the term lonelygirl15 was filed on August 22, 2006, stating that it had been used in interstate commerce since May 24 2006.[9]
  • A post made at 1:41 AM on September 12, 2006 on a lonelygirl15 message board eventually broke the story, proclaiming that "Bree" was in fact an actress named Jessica Rose.[10]

Media reports

  • The New York Times, on September 12, 2006, confirmed that the creators of the series are represented by CAA and that CAA was one of several locations used by Flinders and Steinfeld to send emails from lonelygirl15 accounts.[3]
  • The Los Angeles Times On September 13th, 2006, featured the first interview with the creators of lonelygirl15, confirming the link between the creators and the CAA. [12]
  • The website Top Of The Tube, on September 12, published a video identifying the character Bree as a woman called Jessica Rose, on the basis of photographs found on the photo hosting site Photobucket.[13][14]. The website also revealed Jessica Rose as an "aspiring actress" from New Zealand who currently lives in Los Angeles.[13], which explains her occasional accent[15][16]
  • The Silicon Valley Watcher, also on September 12, published several articles, "The identity of LonelyGirl15"[17], "The Hunt for LonelyGirl15: Life in a blogger household..."[18], and "How the secret identity of LonelyGirl15 was found"[19], likewise naming Jessica Rose as the actress portraying Bree, and reporting on the uncovering of the hoax.
  • The website Blogger's Blog, on September 12, produced evidence that the actress' name is "Jessica Lee Rose"[20]
  • The 4 Sept 2006 podcast of ABC World News (Enhanced) covers lonelygirl15.

Admissions by creators

New York Times reporter Virginia Heffernan expanded on the series of revelations on September 12th 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. According to Heffernan, speculation that a professional studio was used for the filming is incorrect — Bree's bedroom scenes were in fact filmed in Mr. Flinders’ very own bedroom using nothing more than a Logitech QuickCam, a Web camera that retails for about $150. Software engineer Grant Steinfeld was also involved in this project, as a photographer. Amanda Solomon Goodfried, an assistant at Creative Artists Agency, assisted in their efforts to hide their identities, and a lawyer — Ms. Goodfried's father-in-law, Kenneth Goodfried — handled various legal matters. The personnel involved worked under an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) according to Grant Steinfield. Steinfield has verified most of this information to the Times, and provided photographs he took on set of Ms. Rose as proof.[3]

The three main "creators" gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times, which appeared even later in the day on September 12.[12] Besides Mr. Beckett and Mr. Flinders, already revealed, the third major partner was revealed as Greg Goodfried, who presumably is related to Amanda and Kenneth Goodfried, although he states that the CAA connection came "through a friend who works at the agency."[12] Associated Press published an interview with Jessica Rose on September 14 in which she described how she had become involved in the project and stated that she would continue working on it.[21] In addition to the Associated Press interview, she also appeared on MTV News on September 14th alongside Ramesh Flinders.

On September 13, the site Top of the Tube began circulating the trailer for Jessica Rose's first film Dearly Beloved directed by Leah Salvesen in which she starred as a distressed bride-to-be.[22]

On the evening of Thursday, September 14th, Jessica Rose.[23][24] made a surprise appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. During her brief appearance she stated her name, where she was from, her actual age, and that she was not lonely anymore. Following her last remark, Tucker Carlson came out on stage and music was cued. The two began dancing together until the commercial break. Jessica Rose (referred to as Lonelygirl15) also appeared on the Internet talk-show Tom Green Live on September 29, 2006 in which she danced with Danielbeast and friends while the band Reel Big Fish played live music in host Tom Green's living room studio[25].

The actor behind Danielbeast is named Yousef Abu-Taleb. He was discussed by name by Ramesh Flinders and Jessica Rose during their September 14 MTV News appearance. Photos of Abu-Taleb from outside of the lonelygirl15 project have started to appear, and were compiled on YouTube into a video scrapbook called "Danielbeast Exposed".

Current developments

Since the fictitious nature of lonelygirl15 has been revealed, the storyline continues to develop via new videos posted to both YouTube and the money-making website Revver. The continuation of the series fulfills the promise that the authors made in a New York Times article, stating that they will continue the story of lonelygirl15 and Danielbeast despite the public's awareness that the blog is fictional.[26]

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. When the creators came forward on September 13, 2006, Revver was publicized as the official home of lonelygirl15[citation needed]. Recently, videos have appeared on lonelygirl15.com significantly in advance of appearing on youtube.com.

The online star was recently hired by the United Nations to fight poverty through an online anti-poverty video[27]. Rose will be playing her infamous lonelyGirl15 role as she sits by herself in her bedroom talking to the camera. This time, however, she will be talking about the antipoverty cause rather than her boyfriend troubles.

Unofficial Lonelygirl spin-off series

Other notable YouTube celebrities

Trivia

  • The series was developed under the working title The Children of Anchor Cove [4].
  • 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.

References

  1. ^ Jessica Rose at IMDb - her only professional credits are for make-up but this is the correct Jessica Rose, as confirmed in her Myspace profile
  2. ^ Jessica Rose's acting headshot
  3. ^ a b c Heffernan, Virginia and Zeller, Tom (2006-09-12). [ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/technology/12cnd-lonely.html?hp&ex=1158120000&en=a56f0e777a707f56&ei=5094&partner=homepage "'Lonely Girl' (and Friends) Just Wanted Movie Deal"]. New York Times. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ gohepcat (YouTube user) (2006). Lonelygirl15 a Fake? (YouTube video blog).
  5. ^ Krazymalicous (YouTube user) (2006). LONELYGIRL15 IS A FAKE (YouTube video blog).
  6. ^ Sternbergh, Adam (2006-08-28). "Hey There, Lonelygirl". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Cook, Lee (2006-09-29). "LonelyGirl15". Alternate Reality Gaming Network. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b c Flemming, Brian (2006-08-21). "Lonelygirl15 jumps the shark". Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Trademark Application
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ Rushfield, Richard and Hoffman, Claire (2006-09-08). "Mystery Fuels Huge Popularity of Web's Lonelygirl15". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ a b c Rushfield, Richard and Hoffman, Claire (2006-09-13). "Lonelygirl15 Is Brainchild of 3 Filmmakers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ a b "lonelygirl15 revealed : jessica rose aspiring actress". Top of the Tube. 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ mgpapas (2006-09-12). Lonelygirl15 a.k.a. Bree a.k.a. Jessica Rose Exposed (YouTube video).
  15. ^ Lonelygirl15 (2006-09-08). Should I Or Shouldn't I? (YouTube video blog).
  16. ^ Lonelygirl15 (2006-07-21). School Work in Summer... BLECHH!!! (YouTube video blog).
  17. ^ Foremski, Matt and Foremski, Tom (2006-09-12). "SVW Exclusive: The identity of LonelyGirl15". Silicon Valley Watcher. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Foremski, Tom (2006-09-12). "The Hunt for LonelyGirl15: Life in a blogger household . . ". Silicon Valley Watcher. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Foremski, Tom (2006-09-12). "How the secret identity of LonelyGirl15 was found". Silicon Valley Watcher. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "Jessica-Lee Rose (Lonelygirl15) Appeared in KFC Commercial and Short Film". Blogger's Blog. 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Sudden fame amazes 'Lonelygirl15' star". Associated Press. Retrieved 2006-09-15.
  22. ^ "Exclusive: lonelygirl15 a.k.a. Jessica Rose in Dearly Beloved trailer". Top of the Tube. 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Jessica Rose at IMDb
  24. ^ http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=jessica_rose_actingHS.jpg&sa=N&tab=wi
  25. ^ Video of LonelyGirl15 appearance on Tom Green Live
  26. ^ Heffernan, Virginia (2006-09-12). "Applause for lonelygirl15, and DVD Extras". Screens. New York Times. Retrieved 2006-09-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ SUZANNE VRANICA (2006-10-09). "U.N. Enlists Internet Star for Antipoverty Pitch". charity. Wall Street Journal - online. Retrieved 2006-10-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |title= at position 27 (help)
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