The All-for-Nots seem like your middling indie-rock band: They enlistment the East Coast in an old van, equipt with a clueless only optimistic manager, all the while engaging in a slew of conflicts both internally and with each other.
The only catch is that they're not a real band, per se. They're actors who play music.
Would-be indie-rock darlings the All-for-Nots�"fans" refer to them as AFN�are the invention of film producers Kathleen Grace and Thom Woodley, founders of Dinosaur Diorama Productions and co-creators of Web series "The Burg." The band and its music are featured in "The All-for-Nots" online series that chronicles the Brooklyn-based quintet's scripted mishaps on the road, revealing the cast's quirky, ironic and even pretentious tendencies.
Grace and Woodley's concept for "The All-for-Nots" is now backed by former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner, whose production company Vuguru is behind the series. Eisner also brought in major advertisers to sponsor the webisodes chronicling the band's travails. It's no coincidence that the All-for-Nots "tour" in a Chrysler brand vehicle. Every time the band makes travel arrangements, it's completed through Expedia.
"It's a very different experience for us now that we've got product placement and advertising," Grace says.
The series is distributed on the Web through Veoh, YouTube, Bebo and other online channels. Verizon Wireless distributes the show in a mobile capacity on VCast, while Vuguru has partnered with HDNet to bring the series to TV.
Each member of the cast is a triple-threat actor/comedian/musician, though the majority of the music is written by Woodley, who also plays the angst-ridden keyboardist, and other composers. "When we started, we weren't sure we would have a band that couldn't do anything but pretend to play music," Woodley says. "But everyone in the band is very dedicated to making it as real as it can be."
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