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  • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13 2006 6:00 PM

The Lonelygirl15 YouTube Project: Conniving Creators Come Clean

Submitted by Scopitone

Edited by Rahodeb

Tags: youtube, Lonelygirl15, teens, incredible mystery

An internet venture and incredible mystery that went on for months has finally come to an end. Or at least reached a new stage in its development. Three savvy young men from southern California managed to dupe thousands of lonely men around the world with their “Lonelygirl15” YouTube creation.

The creators behind the Internet video mystery teen Lonelygirl15 want their fans to know they are not a front for a big Hollywood studio marketing some upcoming film.
Instead, the three friends began the adventures of the doe-eyed, 16-year-old home-schooled Bree as an experiment in storytelling that they intend to continue on their own Web site that was launched Tuesday.
Bree's inventors went public after fans of the two- to three-minute videos began questioning her existence and expressing disappointment that the seemingly genuine video diaries were a hoax.



The cunning creators identified themselves to The Associated Press as Miles Beckett, 28, of Woodland Hills, Calif.; Mesh Flinders, 26, of Petaluma, Calif., and Greg Goodfried, 27, of Los Angeles. The three figured that they could exploit the publics creepy desires by giving birth to a show that incorporated elements of mega hit “Lost”, voyeurism, Nancy Drew levels of mystery, and the unending desire to watch young women do anything. No matter how mundane. Though, after having watched a couple episodes it seems that many people were thankfully peering into the faux life of this young lady for the sake of entertainment.

"We're fans of this medium," Goodfried said. "It represents a shift from the content being in control of the big corporations to power being in the hands of the little guy who has a Webcam."
"We are the little guys," Beckett said.
The revelation that Bree was fake initially angered fans on YouTube, who suspected Lonelygirl15 was a slick Hollywood attempt to advertise some upcoming movie or TV show.
But since the creators revealed its fictitious nature last week, the number of people subscribing to the Lonelygirl15 channel on YouTube has skyrocketed.



The savvy Sean picked up on this story a while back and I really do wish the creators had pulled off something hilariously shocking before being exposed. They mention that the number of people subscribing to their show has skyrocketed but I really can’t see those numbers sustaining themselves after the newly curious fans have left. Here’s hoping to some explosive cliffhanger ending to this season involving the “Lonelygirl15” and her forbidden love “Danielbeast” rebelling against their overly religious parents…in a hail of gunfire!

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Sacrificial_Lamb

Sacrificial_Lamb

New Zealand
November 2005

SEP 13, 2006 09:45 PM

i love the idea of massively interactive storytelling, but find the vlog/confessional to be an irritating way to present that. but i am interested to see what other people can do to this rather new or at least novil approach to storytelling

jaggy

jaggy

Austin, TX
October 2003

SEP 13, 2006 10:17 PM

oyaji said:
It was hardly an incredible mystery. It was patently obvious that it was fake.


the second i saw it. i was a sucker for about half a second.
thank god for suckers.

Quinne

Quinne

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

SEP 13, 2006 10:32 PM

ive been watching it
mostly hoping the girl would get with the guy... or get naked
either way it entertained me

ASSH0LE

ASSH0LE

Las Vegas, NV
June 2003

SEP 14, 2006 09:38 AM

I heard about it because of the whole Aleister Crowley element. There's a shrinish photo of him on her wall with candles in front of it. In one of the episodes (the one where the guy with the beak talks to the dad) beakboy tries to light one of the candles because "something smells in here" and she starts freaking out about him doing it.

Oddly enough the guy I know who was so intrigued by this thing is a rather conservative Christian.

The religious aspect is to make her seem a bit harder to attain by the big-nosed older geeky guy. He is of course a not-quite attractive nerd as that's a big portion of the target audience. They make him 18 so as to cut a little bit of the creep factor out of it. He's still an older guy with a sixteen year old girl, so it's still got the appeal for that kind of audience.

You'll note that she never references any specifics about her religion. Though what she does mention sounds VERY BIZARRE. Exercises for an unnamed ritual.

Worst-kept secret on the fucking Intarweb: She and her parents are Satanists.

ASSH0LE

ASSH0LE

Las Vegas, NV
June 2003

SEP 14, 2006 09:39 AM

Oopsy.

Heathen_Dave

Heathen_Dave

Birmingham, AL
July 2005

SEP 14, 2006 12:23 PM

Well seeing as that it's fake, anyone else think the girl could get some real work acting?

I mean seriously, she's by far the most convincing part of the whole act. But then again, I don't think it would be terribly hard for a 16 year old girl to play a 16 year old girl.

Whatever, she's pretty good regardless.

Edit: Oh that's why, because she's an actress.
www.tinyurl.com/egygo

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