Also see the press release and list of alumni.

I’m not sure when I started reading Filmmaker; in high school I subscribed to the similarly-themed The Independent, but at some point made the switch to Filmmaker. By the time I was out of college, I was eyeing the annual New Faces filmmakers with a touch of envy, wondering how I could transition from North Carolina-based corporate videography to New York-based narrative filmmaking.

The answer, I’m sure, is somewhere in here.

Thanks to Scott Macaulay for selecting us (and for writing a very complimentary profile) and to Richard Koek for taking a photo befitting of an Urban Western.

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This Thursday, June 5th, at the IFC Center here in New York, Zack and I will be on a panel fittingly titled “Where Internet and Film Collide.” As part of the night’s screenings, we will be premiering Episode Four. Here’s your chance (and, indeed, ours) to see The West Side on the big screen!

If you’re in New York City, come on down. Official details here, and note the start time is 8:30, not 8. The meat-and-potatoes:

Filmmaker Magazine, the IFC Center and IndieGoGo present “Where Internet and Film Collide,” a night of screenings and conversation centered around the convergence of filmmaking and web video, Thursday, June 5 at 8:30pm.

Held as part of Internet Week New York and hosted by the IFP, the night will consist of a number of exciting short form works that could only have been created for the web and then discussions with their makers about their creative and production processes.

Here, the nitty-gritty from our press release:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 6, 2008 – The 12th Annual Webby Awards today named The West Side as Best Drama Series of 2008. The show is self-produced by co-creators Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zachary Lieberman.

Described as an “Urban Western,” The West Side transforms contemporary New York City into a unique, alternate universe by melding together elements from two disparate film genres: the grit of an urban setting with the tradition of the American Western. Presented in episodic form on the Internet at http://thewestside.tv, the show is written, directed, produced, shot, edited, and designed by Bilsborrow-Koo and Lieberman.

“This award is a perfect example of the opportunity the Internet represents for truly independent filmmakers to showcase their abilities,” said Bilsborrow-Koo. Added Lieberman, “for the judges to recognize the quality and ambition of our show is a great honor.”

Bilsborrow-Koo and Lieberman will be honored at the star-studded Webby Film & Video Awards in New York City on June 9th.

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More here.

The West Side has been nominated for Best Drama Series at the 2008 Webby Awards, which are the “Oscars of the Internet” according to the New York Times. With only two episodes up (as we just posted the third this week), we somehow bested 80 episodes of the Michael Eisner-backed Prom Queen—along with some other undoubtedly better-funded shows—for a nomination.

While it’s up to the judges to determine who wins amongst the five nominees, there’s also a People’s Voice award determined by… well, people. If you consider yourself a person, please head on over to the voting site, complete their quick registration, and cast us a vote!

And no, there would be no way to gerrymander the internet without some sort of convoluted system of awarding delegates per district instead of the overall popular vote, but I just wanted to use one of my favorite words. Unlike certain other ongoing elections, at least you know if you cast your ballot for us in the Webbys that your vote has no chance of being discarded by a superdelegate.

The same goes for Episode Three as did Two, so I’ll just change some numbers and quote what I said about the last one:

Episode Three of The West Side is finally live, a long four months after we posted the last; blame Murphy’s Law. Be sure to start with Episode One if you haven’t seen it. If you have an iPod or iPhone (or you use iTunes), subscribe to our podcast in iTunes and get new episodes automatically. Episode Four should be up in much shorter order.

Except Episode Four won’t be up in much shorter order, as we don’t already have any scenes in the can for this one (as we did with Three). As detailed on The West Side blog, this is both a blessing and a curse; so it goes. At least I already have a post title ready for the next time: Cuatro Bien.

So, without further ado, please go and watch The West Side. Zack and I have been working on the show for a full year, during which time we triumphed over approximately one billion setbacks. It’s a great feeling to finally have the idea we talked about a year ago–an urban Western–fully realized and up and out there for the world to see. We’ll see what happens as a result.