As noted in the prvious entry, "The Further Adventures of Cupid and Eros" was nominated for 5 awards (including another nomination for Jo in the "Smexiest Actress" category) which was great in and of itself.  But Jo's win is especially great because Eros, as she exists in C&E, simply would not be if it wasn't for her.

You see, when I initially conceived of the idea of C&E, Eros was male--as the god technically is.  Eros was the Vince Vaughn to Cupid's John Favreau.  That was still the plan when I initially pitched the concept to my producer Andy Wells. 

As detailed in this post on the Cupid and Eros Blog, I'm pretty sure it was Andy who suggested that I re-write the role for Jo (Already one the core Highway 9 collaborators) instead.  And as soon as that seed was planted, Eros became infinitely more interesting to me, as did the show itself.  Eros went from being a supporting player to a full on co-star and the heart of the show became the friendship between her and Cupid instead of simply being about Cupid's love life or lack thereof. The role was written for Jo, and she made it better with every episode.

You can see the full list of nominees here, as well as the complete list of winners here.

I'm honored that "Cupid and Eros" was nominated in five categories.

• Best Actor, Comedy - Josh Heine (Cupid)
• Best Acress, Comedy - Jo Bozarth (Eros)
• Best Additional Content
• Smexiest (Smart +Sexy = Smexy) Actress - Jo Bozarth

And perhaps most exciting of all

• Best Dramedy

The Dramedy category is new this year and I'm thankful for it.  I definately consider C&E a comedy overall, but "comedy" in web series often means much broader humor than the show aims for. 

It's nice that the ladies of Indie Intertube chose to create a category for shows like ours and fellow nominees "Downsized" "Fumbling Through The Pieces" "Vampire Mob" "Leap Year" "Awakward Embraces" and "In The Rough" that straddle that line between humor and drama.

I'm also proud to say that C&E Editor, and my co-creator on "The Silver Lake Badminton and Adventurers Club," Matthew Smith is nominated for "Best Editing" for his work on "The Guild"  And Taryn O'Neill, who appears in episodes 7-9 of C&E, is nominated alongside Jo Bozarth in the "Smexiest Actress" category for her work in "Once Upon".

The awards will be streamed live, Sunday March 11th at 4 PM PST on MingleMediaTV

*An additional bit of fun in all of this is that Indie Intertube asked us to be one of the presenters when nominees were anounced last month.  Cupid and Eros took time from their work schedule to announce the nominees in 7 categories.  You can watch the announcement video (which also features creators from other great Web Series) here.

• "Cupid and Eros" was nominated for "Best Supplemental Content" at the first ever IAWTV Awards.  It was a real honor to be part the Internation Academy of Web Television's inaugral kudos. One of the best parts was that we were nominated alonside our friends from "Vampire Zombie Werewolf", in part on the strength of the episode of "An Evening With Eros" in which their characters Tad and Bunny guest-starred.  It was a great example of the type of cross-promotion that I'm a big proponent of paying off.

• Bradford Anderson was nominated for "Best Guest Appearance in a Comedy" at the 3rd annual Indie Soap Awards for his portrayl of the wounded warrior Achilles in episodes 7-9 of "Cupid and Eros"

• "Cupid and Eros" was picked as one of the best comedic web series of 2011 by web series review show "Those Video Guys"

• "Cupid and Eros" also got some love from several blogs and podcasts including PlaceVine, Slebisodes, The Quarter Bin and FindingCupid.com

• And last but not least, we released THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CUPID AND EROS: THE COMPLETE 1st SEASON DVD.  The season 1 DVD includes all 9 episodes from season 1, plus tons of extra content, including all our IAWTV nominated supplemental content and exclusive commentary tracks.  The DVD, along with other C&E merch, can be purchesed here.

So all in all, not a bad way to end last year and kick off this one.

It was a great experience, and the first fest I'd been a part of since "Ocean City" wrapped it's fest run.  So it's very exciting that I get to do it again this year with the short film version of C&E.

What's even more exciting is that we'll be playing as part of shorts program devoted to VFF Alums, including my dear friend Ashley Cozine.  Ashley, a fellow Tisch Grad is a talented Actress and Producer, and actually had a hand in the formative stages of C&E.  The script for the original short was first read during a writer's group she organized, and later, it was Ashley who tipped me off about the NYU WEB SERIES SHOWCASE.

Ashley will be at the fest with her film "Desert and Suicide", a dark comedy about blind dates.  You can watch the trailer here.

The 2011 VFF will run from 11.11.11 through 11.13.11, with all screenings taking place at the Whitefire Theater in Sherman Oaks, CA.

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CUPID AND EROS will be screening at 7:00 pm on 11.11.11.  Info and tickets here.

(And if you'd like to know a bit more about the Short film version of C&E vs the web series, check out this post from the offical cupidanderos.com blog)

To say that being on the air/intertubes of the BBC was a ridiculous geek thrill for me would be putting it midly.  Jamillah was a fantastic interveiwer and I had a great time chatting with her.  Hopefully listeners found it fun.

One of the coolest things about how this came about is that it was actually a C&E fan named Seth Skaggs, who set the whole thing up.  Seth, who tweets as @armlessphelan, discovered C&E via social media and since then he's been a great supporter of the show, on and offline.  He put us in touch with Jamillah after having had a chat with her over twitter.  Just one example of how truly awesome it is be able to interact so directly with fans.

And as an added bonus, Jamillah let me post some web series picks of my own, so I got to give some shoutouts to shows and creators I dig.  All in all, a pretty great experience.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Josh was cast late in the process of preparing C&E after another actor had to bow out due to an injury.  He came in with less prep time than anyone else, yet immediately stepped up to the plate and did amazing work.  One of the real pleasures of working on the show has been watching him make the role his own, and watching as he and his co-star Jo Bozarth (Eros) devloped an on and off-screen friendship that really is the heart of the series.

I of course think he deserves to win, hands down.  But no matter what happens at the awards gala on August 12th, I'm happy he's getting some recognition for talent.

If you're curious you can see the full list of nomminees here.

It's always exciting to get into a festival, but it's especially gratifying to be in the company of some of my favorite shows and creators.

Working on a web series means your don't often get the chance to watch your show with an audience.  I'm really looking forward to the chance to do that with some of our season 1 episodes at ITVF.

The complete list of selected shows can be found here.  If you're looking for some new shows to check out on the web this list would be a great place to start.  

The fest runs from August 5th-11th here in Los Angeles and as soon we know when C&E is screening we'll be posting that info here and on cupidanderos.com.  For more info on the fest, you can go to ITVFest.org and also check out their Facebook Page.

Now that I've finally gotten the re-design on its way, I hope to start using this particular space for two things:

• To let you know about any and all exciting happenings related to my work, or the work of my collaborators.
• As a place to discuss my thoughts on the work of myself, my friends, and my colleagues and the things I'm continually learning about my craft and my business.

I know that's not the grandest mission statement in the world, but I hope the content here will nonetheless be worth reading.

Until I get the blog roilling, I hope you'll poke around the rest of the site, explore the projects sections, and let me know what you think.

Onward,

avi