The Genre Director - Distributing content without the Suits

WEBISODES…the movie maker’s answer to diminished funding and short attention span, coming soon to a wristwatch near you! No, aficionados of quality drama, the sky is not falling. It’s just the delivery system to the customer that is changing. Once again. Silent to Sound. Nickelodeon to Picture Palace. Big Screen to Small Screen to BluRay. Now, as the computer in all its forms takes over your harried life, it provides you with analgesic entertainment. Snacks not banquets, for a world on an accelerating treadmill.

As the business we love recovers from the double whammy of industrial action and fiscal implosion, original production for the web will expand and be the meat and potatoes for regular working actors and technical craftsmen. In the burgeoning digitally democratized world of recorded entertainment, low cost will assist The Creatives in maintaining greater creative control.

A leading writer/producer of the fabulous FARSCAPE series, Richard Manning, has devised a way cool Sci-Fi police procedural entitled FUSION exclusively for the web, and invited me to direct the pilot and as many episodes as I wanted, when the series is funded.

FUSION, shot in two days with a very small crew, premiered at the FARSCAPE convention last Sunday to great response.

FUSION is now on line. The baited hook is out, we‘ll see who bites. Click the eye for the link:

Ricky Manning sees the show as a, well, fusion of science fiction, horror, romance, and suspense, with a sprinkling of mystery and a dash of police
procedural — in short,  a broad-spectrum dose of genre.

Looking ahead through his writer’s bible, there are stunning twists and turns of plot and character to come. Also interesting to me is creating the off kilter, dystopian world in which these characters live; offices, shops, streets, apartments, we know these places, yet there is something strange about them. Genre fans, sipping their java, as they gear up for - or need help coming down from -  the workday,  will get a kick out of this series.

Please let me know your reaction.

The future of genre episodic is in bite sized mouthfuls. As production values increase, more eyeballs will be lured to advertiser sponsored webisode series.

So, in the on-going labor negotiations, it is time, in my humble opinion, for both sides to give a little ground and settle this thing before the end of this year, so this under-employed town can launch into the New Media Era with confidence. Perhaps Nikke Finke, Hollywood’s best source, can enlighten us as to the prospects for settlement.

Tags: Movie Blog, Film Blog, Television, Filmmaker, Hollywood