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In short, they were planning to exploit the anonymity of the Internet to pull off a new kind of storytelling, and they worried they were on shaky legal ground.

Plastic surgery might be an essential part of the entertainment industry, but he wanted more. He wanted to direct.

Now, as a result of Lonelygirl15, he's represented by a top-tier Hollywood talent agency and has been interviewed on MTV, CNN, and NBC Nightly News. He even has business partners: a former doctor named Miles Beckett and husband-and-wife lawyers Greg and Amanda Goodfried. Together, with next to no budget, they have created a show that illuminates the future of television.

So today, two weeks after the revelation that the show is fictional, Flinders is filming the 45th two-minute installment of the series and pushing into new territory. What began as a quirky story about a religious girl fighting with her strict parents and her boyfriend is poised to break out of the bedroom and into a full-blown international thriller.

Last week, he spotted his neighbors – two Playboy playmates – and invited them in. They glanced at his room, got suspicious, and quickly left.

It's all the more engrossing because viewers can correspond with the characters and even affect the plot.

Welcome to the set of Lonelygirl15, the breakout Web hit that, in September, was unmasked by fans as a work of fiction. What nearly a million people thought was the room of a sweet, charismatic teen named Bree is actually the Beverly Hills bedroom of Lonelygirl15's cocreator Mesh Flinders, an unshaven 27-year-old who is fighting the flu and running a fever of 101. He hasn't left this room for more than 24 hours. "I've got no reason to leave," Flinders says, rubbing his bloodshot eyes and then blowing his nose. The room smells like sweat. "I write the scripts here, we shoot them here, and I sleep here. Why leave?"

A Hollywood movie is understood to be fictional. Vlogging on YouTube is not.

But this isn't what it appears to be: Almost everything in the room was bought from Target on the same day, and the price tags are still hanging from some of her stuff. The closet is filled with men's clothing, and in the corner two guys huddle around a laptop and stare at the webcam feed.

When the show started in June with a two-minute YouTube posting by Bree – played by actress Jessica Rose – Flinders would rearrange his room after each shoot.

When the show started in June with a two-minute YouTube posting by Bree – played by actress Jessica Rose – Flinders would rearrange his room after each shoot. >

So today, two weeks after the revelation that the show is fictional, Flinders is filming the 45th two-minute installment of the series and pushing into new territory. What began as a quirky story about a religious girl fighting with her strict parents and her boyfriend is poised to break out of the bedroom and into a full-blown international thriller.

He'd take down the pictures of Rose as a baby, stash the stuffed animals, and swap out the girly bedspread for his more masculine blue-and-white-striped blanket. Now, three months into the project and with hundreds of thousands of regular viewers, he doesn't bother

He wrote short stories about her, and when he tried to make it as a writer in Hollywood, he put her in his screenplays.

As a camp counselor, he told fireside tales about her experiences.

Welcome to the set of Lonelygirl15, the breakout Web hit that, in September, was unmasked by fans as a work of fiction. What nearly a million people thought was the room of a sweet, charismatic teen named Bree is actually the Beverly Hills bedroom of Lonelygirl15's cocreator Mesh Flinders, an unshaven 27-year-old who is fighting the flu and running a fever of 101.

He got picked on for being small, and there was no escape: The children attended classes taught by the adults of the commune, which was isolated in the windswept hills of western Sonoma County. When he turned 14, Flinders was sent to a Catholic high school, where he was regarded as a hippy devil worshipper, beaten up, and thrown into a dumpster.

He thought that a dramatic story from the point of view of a video blogger would be more captivating. Flinders, it turned out, had the perfect character.

Beckett ordered a pitcher of margaritas and explained that they wanted the vloggers of the YouTube community to believe that Bree was real.

commune

Plus, to fully harness the medium, they intended to carry on email correspondences with YouTubers while posing as Bree.

Flinders rationalized the deception, noting that viewers wouldn't expect Mark Hamill to point out at the beginning of Star Wars that he wasn't Luke Skywalker.

Flinders shrugs it off; the room is an upgrade. Six months ago, he was living with his 96-year-old grandmother in rural Central California. Now, as a result of Lonelygirl15, he's represented by a top-tier Hollywood talent agency and has been interviewed on MTV, CNN, and NBC Nightly News. He even has business partners: a former doctor named Miles Beckett and husband-and-wife lawyers Greg and Amanda Goodfried. Together, with next to no budget, they have created a show that illuminates the future of television.

"It's the producers from Law and Order," she says. "Do you want me to answer it?" "Let it ring," Flinders tells her.

Beckett says. After four years of medical school and a year of residency, the 27-year-old dropped out of the

Lonelygirl15 is a mashup of homemade video diary, soap opera, and mysterious, hint-laden narrative like Lost

it's a thrillingly uncharted creative landscape, and he has no interest in abandoning it for the tired conventions of film or television

Flinders himself is startlingly uninterested in traditional TV. He grew up without it and rarely watches it now.

Plus, to fully harness the medium, they intended to carry on email correspondences with YouTubers while posing as Bree. In short, they were planning to exploit the anonymity of the Internet to pull off a new kind of storytelling, and they worried they were on shaky legal ground.

But nobody bought his scripts: Agents and producers didn't think much of the character he had created.

The room behind her could be anywhere in America – there's a pink floral-print bedspread, a half-dozen stuffed animals, and a framed picture of a rose on the wall.

It's too much work, even though it has blown some great opportunities for him.

After working a few years as an assistant to an independent director

After working a few years as an assistant to an independent director

Lots of people can now watch themselves on sort-of TV, which is pretty fun in itself. The bonus is that others want to watch them, too.

NBC used Yahoo to premiere Heroes and AOL to offer sneak previews of its Twenty Good Years and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. And the brand-new CW Network celebrated its debut by posting for free Runaway and Everybody Hates Chris on MSN. Counting cable, dozens of networks are now making programs available online.

He insists he can't quite recall, you know, the $1.65 billion moment.

"#2 Everyone, in the back of his mind, wants to be a star," Hurley asserts for probably the quadrillionth time, "and we provide the audience to make it happen. "

Third-millennium humanity has demonstrated an interest in sifting through millions of pieces of crap produced by total strangers to discover a few gems – some accidentally entertaining ("Boom Goes the Dynamite"), some breakout performances from the previously obscure ("Treadmill Dance"), and some explorations of a new art form crackling with genius (Ze Frank, Ask a Ninja, and the guys behind Loneygirl15.)

And what if, as a bonus, the medium were able not merely to command eyeballs for marketers but to target content especially relevant to what the marketer is selling?

Until now, advertisers have underwritten mass media to reach mass audiences. Indeed, they've paid increasing premiums for the opportunity as audiences have shrunk, because even in a fragmented media world, the largest fragment – network TV – is the most valuable. But now they realize that they are losing not only mass but critical mass.

Altogether, this stuff constitutes a bottomless reservoir of short-form video content for others to siphon off if they choose

"Broadcast Yourself."

. #7 Fragmentation has decimated audiences, viewers who do watch are skipping commercials, advertisers are therefore fleeing, the revenue for underwriting new content is therefore flatlining, program quality is therefore suffering (Dancing With the Stars. QED), which will lead to ever more viewer defection, which will lead to ever more advertiser defection, and so on.

Because, at least until recently, the Internet has lacked both the riveting content and ad space inventory to absorb it.

#4 Lots of people can now watch themselves on sort-of TV, which is pretty fun in itself. The bonus is that others want to watch them, too

The networks say these are measures to promote the broadcast versions of their shows. The overwhelming probability is that the opposite is true, which bodes poorly for those invested in the status quo. One victim is local affiliates, which get a big chunk of their revenue from selling commercial space within network programs. The Internet, needless to say, bypasses them.

a spiraling vortex of ruin.

NBC used Yahoo to premiere > Heroes > and AOL to offer sneak previews of its > Twenty Good Years > and > Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip > . > >

put fall premieres of shows like Smith and The New Adventures of Old Christine on Google Video

#14 Fragmentation has decimated audiences, viewers who do watch are skipping commercials, advertisers are therefore fleeing, the revenue for underwriting new content is therefore flatlining, program quality is therefore suffering

dozens of networks are now making programs available online

advertisers have been broadcasting themselves for decades and would very much prefer the status quo. The good news is that the status quo isn't long for this world.

Everyone, in the back of his mind, wants to be a star," Hurley asserts for probably the quadrillionth time, "and we provide the audience to make it happen. "

He insists he can't quite recall, you know, the $1.65 billion moment.

He's turning right around in a few hours; he's stuck in yet one more conference room, and his eyes

stuck in yet one more conference room, and his eyes have the vacant look of someone whose body ha

he's stuck in yet one more conference room, and his eyes

CHAD HURLEY SAYS HE DOESN'T REMEMBER. It's two weeks before the announcement of the Google acquisition, and he has just flown the red

Everyone, in the back of his mind, wants to be a star," Hurley asserts for probably the quadrillionth time, "and we provide the audience to make it happen. "

But what if there were a means to approximate the reach and mesmerizing power of television online?

Third-millennium humanity has demonstrated an interest in sifting through millions of pieces of crap produced by total strangers to discover a few gems – some accidentally entertaining ("Boom Goes the Dynamite"), some breakout performances from the previously obscure ("Treadmill Dance"), and some explorations of a new art form crackling with genius (Ze Frank, Ask a Ninja, and the guys behind Loneygirl15.)

connection to his nervous system. In a word, the dude is fried. Never mind that he's the cofounder of the Next Big Thing and poised to be a total