Best Directing (Comedy): Frederick Snyder
Best Male Performance (Comedy): Jonathan Nail
Best Original Music: Rob Gokee
Best Design: Jonathan Nail & Michael Levinson

This is truly an honor. And congratulations to all the IAWTV Award Nominees! Your work inspires me continually.

And now his winning video…

Episode 4 Winner: Matt Wiatt of Florida – “I would learn how to farm hamsters and then open a dairy hamster milk farm when I returned home.”

Episode 5 Winner: Cathy Diaz of California – “Message: ‘Hey, how are you? And, oh, you’re going to die. See ya!’”

Episode 6 Winner: Gary Wischstadt of California – “My Space Ninja’s super power would be the ability to turn a man to putty with just the right look a get him to do whatever she wanted…. a lot like what yours can do I’m sure.”

Episode 7 Winner: Jared Hoy of California – “I’d play raffi’s banana phone over and over on a repeating loop a la Noriega to torture and get my information!”

Episode 8 Winner: Jason Smith of Alabama – “I’m quite fond of poking… death pokes.”

The winners were chosen at random from all valid entries per episode. The 5 winners each received an Apple TV! Congratulations and enjoy! You better be watching SOLO on iTunes with your new Apple TV.

Now to give away an iPad 2 in the Mars Madness “Mars or Bust” Contest!

We are looking for the most awesome, craziest, talented person on the planet! And we want to send you to MARS!

Well, OK, not really. We can’t afford to send you to Mars. But we can choose your video and give you a 32GB iPad 2 as a consolation prize! So, the question is:

Why should we choose you to be the first person to fly to Mars?

It’s the ultimate reality show and the stakes are sky high! Film and edit your “audition video” – make it really good because you are up against some fantastic competition. Why should you be the first person to go to Mars? Why should we pick you? What are your talents? Mad skills?! Keep it clean and mean – no more than 3 minutes in length. Submit your audition video as a “Video Response” in the comment section of Episode 9. All eligible entries will be judged by a select team of judges – so make sure your video looks good!

HOW TO ENTER

1. You must be member of YouTube and SUBSCRIBE to youtube.com/WATCHSOLO

2. Watch Episode 9 on YouTube.com/WATCHSOLO. Contest officially begins May 17, 2011.

3. Create your “Audition Video” and prove why we should pick you to go to Mars! Submit it as a video response in the comments’ section in order to enter the contest. No more than 3 minutes in length, please.

4. Please read and agree to the rules. Official Rules are available by clicking here.

5. You have until 5:00 p.m. PST on June 14, 2011 to enter this contest. One (1) potential winner will be selected to win an iPad 2.

SOLO – Season 1.5 launches April 12th, 2011! This is also the 30th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Program. How’s that for timing?

We will release the first three episodes on YouTube with annotations and updated graphics beginning April 4th. Episode 4 will begin on Tuesday, April 12 and we will release a new episode each week. 6 new episodes are coming your way!

And we couldn’t have accomplished any of this without the help of our SOLONAUTS! Every dollar was put to good use. Thank you for your donations!

Best Set Design

Best Dressed

Editing – Frank Mohler

Best Actor in a Comedy – Jonathan Nail

Audience Choice

This is a wonderful honor. Thank you to Indie Intertube and to our fans for the nominations!  Congratulations to all of the shows who were also nominated.

The award show will be streamed online on January 20, 2011 on Indie Intertube.

Frederick Snyder (Producer/Director: GOLD – Night of the Zombie King) has taken the helm and will be directing the remaining six episodes for season one. I worked with Frederick on NOTZK and he has quickly become an invaluable member of our production team.

Keeping everyone and everything running smoothly is our 1st AD Andrew Seely (A Good Knight’s Quest, The Guild). He is always at the ready, a problem solver, a get-things-done kind of guy and very passionate about film making. So thrilled he joined our team.

Kicking our actor’s butts and taking names is our Martial Arts Fight Choreographer, Alex Huynh (The Last Airbender (stunts), 3x Gold Medalist, Pan American Wushu Games) and our Tactical Weapons Fight Choreographer, Nutopia Kim (Tactical Black). We are truly blessed to be working with these two passionate, talented professionals! Both are adding layers of realism and elements of fantasy to SOLO that just gives me goose pimples. I can’t wait for you to see their work on the screen.

PHAL has some new moves with puppeteer Jillian Jensen! Love having this gal around the set. She keeps us all giggling and finally makes PHAL look good. Making our props and art soar to Uranus and back is the incredibly talented Chris Szadkowski. This electric wizard stepped in at the last minute and is just awesomesauce on an awesome sundae.

I cannot be more thrilled to introduce our newest cast member, Ayumi Iizuka (Hollywoodland, Howie Do It). She is deadly funny and a treat to work with in tight quarters. More about Ayumi and her character to come…

And I finally get the chance to work with the beautiful Brittney Powell (Safety Geeks, SVI, Stacy’s Mom) and the incomparable Tom Konkle (Safety Geeks, SVI, Invention). Both are making a special guest appearance in upcoming episodes.

Welcome to everyone!