Distributing content without the Suits
November 17, 2008
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.
Wow! i must say, pretty good. I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi, but i was impressed with it. Entertaining, to say the least.
i don’t know about other people but I do not want to watch TV or movies on my mobile. The screen will always be too small, the sound quality not the best and it isn’t much of an experience. I absolutely love sitting in the nice cinema chairs, popcorn in my lap and a massive cup of Coke in the drink holder (which of course cost $10) and watching movies on the big screen. Nothing can replace that. Well, not until i make that big spec sale and can afford a home cinema.
For the most part, the production value seemed good for a web series, which is great to see.
In terms of the actual content I wasn’t too impressed until about 3/4 of the way in, when it got kinda fun and even had a WTF moment or two. Overall a good beginning, introducing us to the characters and giving us a few crumbs relating to the whole mystery aspect.
Also, loved the doctor/scientist make-up, which didn’t fit in with the rest of the tone of the ep, making it even more appealing.
Brilliant. The crew picture in your ‘morgue’ post a while ago seemed less and less true the further into the pilot I got. All of that shooting in two days is a dangerous proposition but you all pulled it off and it looks great.
If the website really does set up all the extra goodies it is planning on doing I think the series could do very well. People are starting to enjoy all the extra stuffing almost as much as the main product.
I think internet distribution will turn out to be a bigger market than anyone can anticipate at this point. ABC.com is using flash to stream full 1920×1080 video of past episodes and it is beautiful. Hulu.com has cornered the market on day-after/week-after television viewing and is doing a pretty damn good job and streaming feature films as well.
Internet distribution is exciting to me because the system is still so small that creators have more freedom to be involved in production/distribution/marketing (freedom/blood sweat and tears of after hours work). The most exciting part of the pilot for me was watching the credits and the multiple areas of expertise the crew received credit for. You guys really did a fantastic job.
Thanks for sharing.
Great stuff Brian.
Rather than being frightened of the web in terms of its capacity for copyright infringement we should be embracing it as a tool to generate interest in genre films.
My first reaction on watching that instalment was ”Hell, put ithe finished product together as a complete package and I’ll buy the disc.”
By the way, we (along with a few other members of the Digital-Retribution crew) met in Brisbane briefly at BIFF prior to the Not Quite Hollywood screening - from memory Matt floored you by suggesting Leprechun 4 as one of the high points of your directorial CV! Anyway, next time you’re in town I’ll spring for dinner if you have the time.
Keep up the good work.
Paul
Glad you liked it,Paul. Please pass it round. It’s certainly getting some traffic. As far as hi points in the CV are concerned, I am certainly very fond of my LEPRECHAUN pastiches. Straight out of my id, like NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 2. They are perrenial impish oddball pictures. But I feel some of my work in other genres - war, martial arts, black comedy police procedural, political drama, etc - is more substantial. But I am tickled that my LEPs have a following.
I look forward to that dinner.
I eat alot.
[…] is the brain child of FARSCAPE writer/producer Richard Manning. According to Trenchard Smith blog “Ricky Manning sees the show as a, well, fusion of science fiction, horror, romance, and […]