Well it looks like I broke the story a day early! The day after my last post about Lonelygirl15 the creators of behind the Internet video mystery teen admit that the video blogs are really an “experiment in storytelling”. The three creators, identified as Miles Beckett, a self-styled Internet geek, Mesh Flinders, a fledgling filmmaker, and Greg Goodfried, a lawyer, saw the rise in podcasting and video blogging, and wanted to be a part of it.
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They developed the character of the doe-eyed teenage girl who was more at home relating to adults than with her peers, then recruited the actors to play Bree and her dorky boyfriend, Daniel.

“We never wanted to lie to people,” Beckett said.

“Our job from the beginning was not to trick people. It was to create a character that was believable,” Flinders said.

The episodes are shot with a $130 Web camera and the lighting is provided by two desk lamps and a window. The sound comes from the Webcam’s internal microphone.

“I’m trying to deal with it right now,” the 19-year-old Maryland actress who plays Bree told The Associated Press in a phone interview yesterday. “I’m not used to this much attention. It’s a little bit crazy for me.”

Just three months ago, she was one of thousands of struggling actors in Los Angeles looking to make it big in the movies or on a TV show. Today, she is the unlikely star of a series of short Internet videos posted on Web sites such as YouTube and MySpace.

Dorky teenage video blogger or carefully orchestrated marketing campaign? The blogosphere is buzzing over the mystery that is Bree, a 16-year-old home-schooled teenager who’s online video diaries are posted on sites like YouTube and MySpace. On YouTube alone, 26,930 people have subscribed to the “Lonelygirl15″ channel, and over 2.3 million people have viewed the videos featuring Bree sitting in her typical-looking teenager’s room talking about her life, her parents, and her friend Daniel.

But perhaps the most intriguing topic is her “religion”, including a mysterious ritual that Bree has been selected for. The ceremony only takes place “once in a really long while” and “my parents won’t even be allowed to come,” says Bree. The ceremony also involves memorization and “special exercises” that Bree’s mother is going to help her with. Plus, she has to go on a diet. “Other than that, it’s basically like preparing for a bar mitzvah or a confirmation,” Bree says matter of factly.

But some Bree-watchers are beginning to speculate that Bree is not a genuine teen blogger at all, but rather an actress playing a part in scripted drama, due to the fact that Bree never reacts on-screen to comments posted about her, even as media attention heats up about her authenticity. Further more, amateur sleuths have uncovered that the name “Lonelygirl15″ was trademarked recently by Encino attorney Kenneth Goodfried, who did not return a call seeking comment. Also web detectives discovered that Bree’s MySpace account was being controlled by someone using a computer at the Hollywood talent firm Creative Artists Agency. The plot thickens…