I caught the new show from the Neistat Brothers on HBO On Demand the other night and found myself sucked in by the decidedly low-fi, autobiographical chapters. The show is appropriately named The Neistat Brothers, because that's what it's about: them. Them and their creative process, which ascribes to a total NYC/DIY aesthetic. Because of its use of indie music and first-person narrative, but also due to the DIY nature of the production, the show reminds me a lot of the terrific Four Eyed Monsters podcast, which was about the making of the DIY feature Four Eyed Monsters -- the difference is, Neistat Brothers has no associated feature film attached. It's just about the Neistats, who are fellow graduates of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces (class of 2006, in their case). Normally I'd find a show about a show -- which is essentially what it is -- to be solipsistic and navel-gazing, but the brothers work it out.
It's interesting HBO picked up the eight-episode show, which I hope was due to an interest in the rising creative class and DIY movement in this country. It's also interesting that HBO is acquiring web-originated content, because I've been surprised by HBO's lack of a cohesive online strategy. I say this not just as an outsider who's disappointed whenever I visit their website or try to watch their content online -- or as someone who wondered what they were going to do with HBO Lab (answer: nothing) -- but also as someone who's pitched an online project to them twice. Exhibit A is their whack embedded player:
I tried to resize it, but HBO's technology hasn't caught up to 2007. Impressive, guys. Instead, here's the YouTube version:
The Neistat Brothers airs on HBO every Friday at midnight.
Has anyone seen the show? What do you think?
