Finding Independently Produced TV Shows? 151
bornagainpenguin writes "Slashdot recently reported that Stargate Universe was canceled, taking with it yet another of the vanishingly smaller network Sci-Fi shows to watch on TV. In the comments of that story someone mentioned Pioneer One as an alternative to traditional network series. I'm downloading it now and looking forward to seeing it, but I'm wondering what else is available that is independently produced and has a greater emphasis on plot and actually finishing the story? I'm already a fan of efforts like Batman: City of Scars, Starwreck: In the Pirkinning, and Star Trek: Phase II so I know that great things are possible, I just don't know where to find them! Can you help by making some recommendations?"
Working links? (Score:2)
Re:Working links? (Score:5, Informative)
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/12/17/1943224/Stargate-Universe-Cancelled [slashdot.org]
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/06/18/batman-fan-film-city-of-scars/ [comicsalliance.com]
http://www.starwreck.com/ [starwreck.com]
http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/ [startreknewvoyages.com]
http://www.pioneerone.tv/ [pioneerone.tv]
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I do read. Television is something I do with family once or twice a week which can be shared and dissected later in conversation. Books? Not so much... Also so much of what gets published in magazines is hit or miss that I actually prefer to by pass it with original online fiction and fanfics.
Maybe if I could get a good price I might try a magazine or two... Hmmm.. Actually I'll give the magazine idea some more consideration...
SyFy (Score:2)
So is that not Scifi network now just wrestling?
They might as well just go ahead and brand it as a network for overly butch homosexuals.
SyFy just doesn't get it (Score:2)
Don't forget their plethora of B-class [wikipedia.org] horror films. The Sci-Fi Channel wasn't well managed even before it changed its name to look more like an STD [wikipedia.org]. Talk about a network that doesn't "get it."
They need help. Revolutionary vision -grade help. If Comedy Central and Food Network could do it, there's no reason SyFy can't ... but that's not to say it's easy. With this genre, it's damn near impossible. Especially if you have to fight execs that cite profit margins on things like WWE (this is the short te
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brand-delusion
Before somebody "corrects" me, that's an intentional wordplay.
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It's happened to everything. Sci-Fi and TechTV are only but a couple that have succumbed to the lure of being SpikeTV. Really, television isn't even worth watching nowadays. All the channels are pretty much the same.
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What Sci-Fi channel, I believe you mean the Sy-Fy channel and nothing sums up more the 'dumb' of that channel more the the title itself.
Here's the catch science fiction has one of the most expensive production costs, due to special effects and high set design costs. To attract it core fans, the science fiction aficionados, the stories must be rich and complex and hold to premise behind the series as science fiction types have long memories. Problem this is a very limited audience and the drooling wrestli
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Ah yes, animation, probably the best hope real scifi has left. Unlike live action, two aliens talking on a space ship costs the same as two guys talking in a kitchen. A battle using advanced weaponry or psychic powers costs only slightly more than a good fistfight or car chase.
But unlike Japan, the US has an aversion for animation being used for anything other than comedy or kids' shows. Even Stargate Infinity was targeted for young audiences and aired in a kids' block.
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True life animation, nor cartoons, using virtual characters and environments, driven by artificial intelligence and robotics science. So software engineers become animation script engineers.
If you like Star Trek: Phase II... (Score:5, Informative)
You'll like:
Starship Farragut: http://www.starshipfarragut.com/ [starshipfarragut.com]
Starship Farragut Animated: http://www.farragut-animated.com/ [farragut-animated.com]
Star Trek: Intrepid: http://www.starshipintrepid.net/ [starshipintrepid.net]
Frontier Guard: http://www.frontier-guard.com/ [frontier-guard.com]
These will give you a good start...
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You know, I had mod points earlier today. No idea where they went, but I really wish I had them now.
+1 Awesome.
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And best of all, nobody could troll him. When faced with a tough situation, he would look at the camera with an innocent smile, shrug with his palms out, and say his famous catchphrase.
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Your list shows one of the issues with trying to find the independently produced stuff. It's mostly unfunded. A lot of production happens around existing stuff like Star Trek fan works and parodies, Bat Man, Ghost Busters, etc. When you are trying to get volunteers to work on something, the stuff with a recognizable name that people are already fans of is the most likely to actually get made. That means that it's hard to find a lot in the way of original programming in continuous series that is independ
Re:Every frame beautiful (Score:2)
A technically minded ... decides that he can do better, so he creates something where every frame is absolutely beautiful, and the audio is perfectly clear, but you don't care about any of the characters, the writing is awful, and the acting would be improved by overdubbing the dialog with something from espeak.
This seems to be the easy way out the critics took to unite in panning Tron Legacy. Tron 2 was just gutsy by Disney, out of nowhere, and all the critics can do is sandwich it between the slam of Michael Bay's Transformers as "all action and boring" to "all dialogue and boring".
I think instead something happened culturally so that we are no longer satiated by even decent SciFi. Lord of the Rings coupled with Harry Potter is the End of Fantasy.
I think we're on the verge of being culturally exhausted, to the b
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I think we are culturally exhausted on the consumer site, but on the production site there is TONS more waiting in the wings.
The problem we have is that the studios decide what we should see, and that means that they push out mostly same-old crap because that has historically made money.
They are loathe to produce really off the wall stuff because it is not safe.
Taking care of the bottom line is killing creativity universally.
TRON: Steaming Pile of Dog Crap (Score:2)
This seems to be the easy way out the critics took to unite in panning Tron Legacy. Tron 2 was just gutsy by Disney,
I walked out of Tron Legacy last night. About the point where we started to get more exposition instead of show. The 3D was horrible to non-existant. I found myself hoping the kid would get killed. It was friggin painful to watch. I was awed by the original Tron, even when it was light in areas of story. This was a LOST opportunity, much like the sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean and Matrix. Except this one actually induced me to WALK OUT. The last movie I walked out on was Kevin Costners "The War".
Re:TRON: "Lost" Opportunity? (Score:2)
Let me borrow a pun to ask you a question.
What did you think of the show Lost? I'm betting some of the same story problems the show had floated over.
I wish studios would allow fan mashups of movies. Do you think it was okay in the visual department if you could hack out what every one refers to as "20 minutes too long"?
We have an endemic problem with movies with good visuals getting dragged down by broken scripts. Sometimes a nice reviewer will say that an actor did their damndest with what they were handed
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The two episodes of Phase II I saw had such shitty acting that I never felt compelled to watch another. Indeed, the acting was so poor that I don't even remember the plot. I was too busy wondering why they couldn't find better student actors.
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You obviously haven't watched it in a LONG time.
Star Trek: Phase II is a labor of love, and it's insulting to call the performers "shitty". YOU put up hundreds of thousands of dollars to make one of these things. You'll have more of an appreciation of the work that goes into it.
And, they just don't have the money to hire many real actors, because they have to be paid a certain amount of money based on the time they spend working due to SAG rules. Not-for-profit productions just can't afford to use SAG actor
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Note that I didn't call the performers shitty, I called their performances shitty. Perhaps it's a tiny distinction, but it matters to me. I will check some of the newer material out.
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Truthfully I was pointing to the near professional production values and special effects. My point was to underline the fact that amazing things are possible now, even on a budget if the project is a labor of love. And if it is a labor of love it is less likely to be unilaterally "canceled" or have its story lines veer off because someone in management wrote a note.
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Whee, more shows I have to find an alternative source for because they want me to stream but I can only do that at lowest quality with a lot of buffering... at least that last one.
Why do people still not get this whole bittorrent thing?
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Will look into those also Al, thanks for the suggestions.
Look at it from the other side. (Score:4, Insightful)
We're seeing the availability of new Sci-Fi content on TV decline.
But the people who would produce Sci-Fi are letting it decline not because they're mean jocks who hate geeks. They'd love to make money off Sci-Fi fans. But it's clear they're seeing a decline in ROI for it.
Possible metrics that are declining:
Fewer viewers for that kind of show.
Fewer of those viewers being observable by the viewership tracking system on which the ratings, and thereby the revenues, are based.
Lower payback to an advertiser for any given viewer.
And why? Probably because Sci-Fi fans are being distracted by all the online stuff that's available, or by their smartphones and gaming systems. I'd mention time-shifting, but most of those boxes report usage, which means the time-shifter demographic are even more deeply tracked than the Neilsen system, which has only one box per N thousand TV sets. But maybe they're time-shifting and sharing. And then there's the fact that in a declining economy there's just less of a profit and Sci-Fi has always been the marginal edge of TV, not its loamy bottomland.
But answer me this question: does Summer Glau count even when she's not doing a geeky show?
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Sci-fi fans are likely to not be counted in the all important C3 rating from Neilsen. I can't imagine sci-fi fans even agreeing to be tracked by Neilsen though. DVR ratings also dont matter as much to networks because they cant use those stats to sell ad time, and online ads bring in significantly less revenue than cable/broadcast. Frankly I'm a bit surprised they are so far behind with regards to accurate rating systems, but it's no surprise as to why we have shows that cater to those whom are technolog
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Fringr, Lost, The Event. These are all huge shows that I'm aware of, and I don'y really watch TV much. There was also that show about the multi-planet mission that got canceled last year.
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I saw your posts in today's net neutrality thread. You must be great fun at parties.
I understand that antipirates can't resist taking any chance they can to bash file sharers, but the parent didn't mention p2p at all. At least try to keep your hate-mongering on topic.
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I did mention p2p.
"But maybe they're time-shifting and sharing."
I'm not sure he needed that to get him started, becuase he spalled off like a pion from a hadron-hadron collision, but he's at least got it as an alibi.
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I use netflix. If I want something not, I watch online legally or I buy the dvd. In the case of net series I donate.
Try again, oh painter with the wide brush.
What you meant is this audience will not tolerate as much commercials and as cheap a program as the average $Nation_Idol, other reality crap and WWE watchers. Thus they chase the biggest profit percentages never realizing that they are many that must share one pie.
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I just said that.
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Some of the best Sci-fi is from the 80s or earlier (though there are plenty of exceptions). If I torrent, say, ST:TNG (a show I saw through reruns and videotaped most of in the 90s), am I hurting current Sci-fi? Hell, I have the whole thing on tape if I want to watch it, so either way they make no money.
Son... (Score:2)
...them there be fightin' words round these parts.
Re:Look at it from the other side. (Score:5, Interesting)
No money, hmmmm.
So please explain:
All of the Batman movies and series.
All of the Spiderman movies and series.
All of the Star Trek movies and series.
All of the Star Wars movies and series.
All of the Stargate movies and series.
Yes some of those are comic superhero series but you're delusional if you think there isn't a majority crossover between the audiences.
Sorry, but reality says that you have it wrong.
There *IS* money to be made with a fanbase of Geeks, you just have to do it RIGHT. You can't throw your typical half assed TV schlock at it and expect it to work.
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And that's exactly the problem. Why bother trying to make quality program for people who can see through shady ad deals (thus limiting the amount of advertisers that would buy ad space, knowing that your audience does not fall for their crap) when you could make $country Idol and "reality" TV shows that cost jack (500 bucks for the family that drops every pretense of shame and privacy and about 2k for crew and post production and you got an hour of program, try to beat that price!) where everyone watching i
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The "suits" who run the studios don't understand or trust any "geeks" who write, produce or consume real SciFi.
They will do whatever it takes to preserve their "know nothing" view of the world!
Re:Look at it from the other side. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hi, I'm executive producer on four TV shows and I've pitched several that didn't get picked up, so I believe I can provide your explanation.
For a start, you've cherry-picked the biggest franchises, and completely ignored the hundreds of failures.
Many of the series you mentioned are cartoons, which are easily sold for morning timeslots or dedicated kids cable channels; consider the Tamagotchi series, and you'll understand how easy it is to sell even the most stupid idea in that market (as long as there's an action figure set to advertise). Sure, there's a crossover between the superhero and sci-fi audience, but that doesn't translate into advertising revenue, it's that base kids market that pays for most cartoons, some extra eyeballs in an adult time slot is just gravy. Hey, I like the wry humour in Batman: The Brave and The Bold, but it is aimed at audiences aged 7 and older, once you go PG you lose your main cartoon audience (what can I say, most people grow out of cartoons, but that's their loss).
There hasn't been a TV series of Star Trek for 9 years, Stargate's last spinoff has just been cancelled (and the first TV series came as a result of the movie anyway, so all the props and sets were already paid for), the last English language live action Spiderman series finished in 1978 and Batman in 1967 (both cancelled after two seasons), and there's never been a Star Wars live action TV series, so all of those examples are exceptionally bad if you're trying to argue that TV sci-fi is commercially viable today.
In the case of the movies, Batman, Spiderman and Star Trek all had long existing fan bases to build from, and unlike the Flash Gordon movie and cartoon from the 80's, were done well enough to stand on their own merits and attract new fans (not counting Batman Forever or Batman & Robin, of course). If you're trying something new you're starting from a fan base of zero, so there's no word-of-mouth promotion, no nostalgia factor, any publicity buzz has to start from scratch and the show has to be good enough to overcome that inertia. Besides, the economics of movies and TV are different: in television there are no ticket sales, the only source of revenue is indirect (until the DVD release, but if you do that before the show airs the networks won't touch it).
You can't throw your typical half assed TV schlock at it and expect it to work
And there's the problem in a nutshell. To make a successful sci-fi series you need a premise that isn't rubbish (which means you're not appealing to the network's imaginary core audience of idiots), intelligent writers, actors who can babble convincingly (it may surprise you to learn that most actors aren't scientists, they really have no idea what they're talking about even when the science is accurate) and a budget for props, sets, makeup and special effects sufficient to create a consistent and believable universe for the characters to inhabit.
That's not impossible on no budget, as Starship Exeter demonstrates, however because everyone involved in that is donating their time the production progresses as fast as their free time allows; in other words, not very fast at all, certainly not fast enough to fit a 13 week season's production schedule into a single year, and TV networks can't operate with shows that turn up occasionally.
I'll close with the piece of advice I give to everyone I meet trying to get into film and television who hit these brick walls in reality: if it was really as easy as you think it is, everyone would be doing it.
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You're not this Tim, are you?
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591101/ [imdb.com]
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Ha! Sadly, no, I can't lay claim to a career that illustrious. I do have an IMDB listing, but I'd rather not link to it because (a) I like to preserve a little anonymity around here, and (b) it's rather embarrassing by comparison ;)
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You obviously have a far more intimate knowledge than I do so I'm not going to argue with you.
I am going to point out though that the poster I was replying to said "There is no money in producing a genre..."
There obviously is money to be made in the SciFi Genre, if there wasn't studios wouldn't keep trying it. :-D
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Let the poster correct your misapprehension, then:
There was money in producing a genre. There may not be any more.
As Mr. Tim pointed out, your examples are the past. TFA, and my post, were about how things are getting hard out there for a space-pimp.
There's no need to go all otaku over something as poorly made as the original Star Trek was, now that you can join www.startrekonline.com and be both bathed and involved in your obsession.
Even something as lovingly crafted, badass, brilliant, and gorgeous as F
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You're technically correct, the best kind of correct.
A sci-fi show that achieves cult status can indeed be hugely profitable, and that alone makes it worth trying occasionally. But Catch 22 usually rears it's head: supposedly sci-fi isn't profitable, so they don't invest enough to make it good, which means nobody watches, so it isn't profitable, so we get the homoerotic melodrama
of wrestling instead (seriously, sweaty, oiled up men in tight pants grabbing each other while reading a bad script? Sorry, but wi
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You're quite right, the startup costs are the biggest barrier to sci-fi (I think "speculative fiction" is a tautology since all fiction is speculative by nature, and if "sci-fi" was good enough for Asimov it's good enough for me, but it's really not important...a rose by any other name would still be a hydrocarbon emitting reproductive organ of the Rosa genus). The two genres you've chosen are a good comparison, since they both usually involve high tech gizmos, interweaving story lines and special effects.
R
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You're absolutely right: the BBC has six week seasons and a miniseries can be as short as two or three episodes, but they plan it that way (so really I should have said "unpredictably"). I'm not quite sure why they do that, it's hampered sales of BBC programs in other countries for years since 13 week blocs are standard just about everywhere else, but that probably doesn't matter since they're largely funded by the TV license system.
I have to give the Beeb credit though; they (almost) never let a program ge
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Well, I did say "(almost)"; IMO the original run of Dr Who lasted roughly a Sylvester McCoy too long :)
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Nowhere did I say I like the status quo, I was merely explaining how it is and why sci-fi doesn't get made.
So were stuck with A-Team and Daisy Duke remakes?
Yes, they give the best ROI because they benefit from nostalgia and appeal to the lowest common denominator. Sci-fi that goes for the lowest common denominator invariably sucks, and since the people who go to see The A-Team generally aren't sci-fi fans it loses out both ways and reinforces the idea that it's a bad investment. How many variations on this
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Apologies for my imprecision. What I meant was if you can't reliably predict the delivery of programs to the station, they can't devise a program schedule and so can't effectively sell the advertising space. That end of the business is usually worked out months before programs go to air, even if the programs themselves haven't been made yet; the critical thing is that the producers can deliver on time and on budget, and the point I was making was sci-fi is challenging (masterful understatement) on both thos
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It's not so simple.
Movies and TV have a completely different demographic. Sci-Fi movies are generally targeted at the teenage male market, specifically 14 year olds. Whereas if you do that for TV, you will have no audience that pays you, since Networks only pay for the A18-49 viewers. Plus, movies generate revenue for the producers from cinema tickets sales, TV rights,
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Hey
1) I upgraded my cable package so I would have SyFi so I could watch the 2nd season of SGU. I saw the first season on my NetFlix subscription.
2) I watched IRT so advertisers had every opportunity to "impress" me with their commercials.
Not much more I can do. My major problem here is not having Nielson box in my house. I will watch the next 10 episodes, and would probably like a 3rd season. It certainly has been better than the 2nd season of Heroes.
Maybe SyFy will get the picture when I drop back down to
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Wouldn't know since I stopped bothering with that series pretty quickly once it became apparent the writers weren't even trying to plot the series as a whole or make sense of the continuity they'd established, even within itself. Later revelations on just how much of the storyline was more or less made up on the spot without any planning at all more or less confirmed for me the rightness of that decision.
Yeah...about V, It seems to be suffe
Miro (Score:4, Interesting)
Miro [getmiro.com], previously called Democracy Player (as previously [slashdot.org] noted [slashdot.org] on [slashdot.org] slashdot), is an aggregation of independent TV programs. I believe it is exactly what you are looking for.
See also the Wikipedia articles on Web series [wikipedia.org] and the (now defunct) Open Media Network ... and YouTube.
Other recommendations would include Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog [drhorrible.com] and The Guild [watchtheguild.com] as well as others listed on Wikipedia's Internet television series [wikipedia.org].
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You forgot Chad Vader.
http://www.blamesociety.net/chadvader/index.php [blamesociety.net]
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Right, it needs help. I was hoping its mention would bring Miro to the attention of indie producers that were told their programs were listed here (who wouldn't want to learn more about their peers?). In that regard, I suppose this is kind of a meta post, but independent shows can only go so far on word of mouth and forums with questions like this.
The Wikipedia links should be useful too, but again they are limited in ways that I'm hoping IPTV loses soon.
Iron Sky (Score:3, Insightful)
You will have to wait some time, but if you are like me, you'll be first in line for Iron Sky [ironsky.net].
Moon nazis. What's not to like?
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Journey Quest (Score:3)
From the makers of "Dorkness Rising" (Greatest indi movie EVER MADE!) Journey Quest follows a humorous troop of adventures along their quest... err... journey... err... well... you get the picture.
Anyway, great series. I think most of Season 1 is up and their funding for Season 2 is coming along.
http://www.journey-quest.com/ [journey-quest.com]
-Rick
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I would download and seed this if I could find a .torrent on their website, but it looks like the only way to watch it that they offer is embedded YouTube videos. The Pirate Bay doesn't have anything either.
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In their FAQ they tell you to use a youtube downloader. They even plug one. I think their dvd image is on the normal torrent sites.
It is CC licensed so nothing wrong with downloading it.
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Mod parent up (Score:2)
Give up on US shows - too much studio interference (Score:2)
Japanese animated productions avoided that first by being low budget enough to get under the radar and that established a trend where 99% of productions last an entire season. There is occasional weirdness from fixed budgets running out - for instance the end of N
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The BBC method is probably the best, they make a series on using whatever funds they get and if they get renewed they do it again. So never any random stops.
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The BBC method is probably the best, they make a series on using whatever funds they get and if they get renewed they do it again. So never any random stops.
Of course that's easier when your sets are made from old cardboard boxes and your 'monster' is a guy wrapped in bubble-wrap and sprayed green :).
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Invisible monsters are often good for this.
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Nobody turns off Blakes 7 just because the ship is steered with study lamps and Viller's hi-tech box of tricks is a red esky. Bad plot, dialogue and casting via nepotism are the flaws in a few episodes that will annoy people more.
Metrop
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'The very good model shots of the city of the future are full of biplanes and cars that look like model-T Fords.'
That's not silly, that's just the Gernsback Continuum:
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1988/1/1988_1_34.shtml [americanheritage.com]
There are about 10 good shows out there, and... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm an indie filmmaker myself (used to be a tech nerd a few years ago, but turned into movie magic 3 years ago). I'm constantly trying to find such good shows too, online. And I have quite a list for you. :-)
- Continuum, scifi: http://www.facebook.com/ContinuumTV [facebook.com] (shot with a Canon 7D dSLR)
- Pink http://www.pinktheseries.com/ [pinktheseries.com]
- http://mindseyeseries.com/ [mindseyeseries.com]
- http://www.minglemediatv.com/CursedWebSeries.html [minglemediatv.com]
- http://www.crackle.com/c/Trenches [crackle.com]
- http://www.crackle.com/c/Fear_Clinic [crackle.com]
- http://www.asylumseries.com/ [asylumseries.com] (shot with a RED One)
- http://www.crackle.com/c/The_Bannen_Way [crackle.com]
- http://www.crackle.com/c/Urban_Wolf [crackle.com]
- condition:Human http://vimeo.com/user1160921 [vimeo.com]
- http://compulsions.tv/ [compulsions.tv]
- and of course, the videos in these two Vimeo Channels: http://vimeo.com/channels/hd [vimeo.com] and http://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks [vimeo.com] if you have a Roku, or a GoogleTV you can view most of these shows above via RSS, or via the Vimeo application for these two platforms. The videos in these two Vimeo channels, are really, really good indie work.
There's one more sci-fi web series coming out soon, but I can't remember its name. They use Canon dSLRs to shoot it.
Feel free to email me btw, if you like to discuss any of that, I'm a lot into indie filmmaking: http://eugenia.queru.com/ [queru.com]
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Thanks Eugenia! I'll look into those.
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So, how to watch Pink outside the USA? Anyone knows?
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It's also on Youtube (and on Bittorrent legally free, I believe).
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Yup. I believe they're owned by Sony, which explains their tactics.
Fantastic stuff! Wish i'd dumped cable earlier! (Score:1)
To the no-talent-corporate-ass-clowns reading this, you might want to put this year's cost-cutting bonus in the bank, because I'm pretty sure it'll be your last.
--edfardos
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I personally signed out of Comcast CableTV *exactly* a week ago! Between the web series, Netflix, Vimeo via my Roku box, and Hulu Basic via my laptop's HDMI, I don't need any cable box. I bought an indoors TV antenna too, just in case, but I haven't connected it yet.
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I have to disagree with this assessment. The metrics used by corporations to track a show's viewership are generally based off of the estimations of the Nielsen ratings. Nielsen tracks a very small fraction of people and then multiplies those numbers based off of the population. IMHO, this is inherently flawed. Let's also not forget studios that just don't know how to properly manage and air a good show.
Take Firefly as an example. Great writing, cast, production, and special effects and is something that ca
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Bar Karma (Score:2)
Is there are hope for comcast to save SGU? (Score:2)
Is there are hope for comcast to save SGU?
or some other network?
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Is there are hope for comcast to save SGU?
Was talking with a friend about this today. We collectively realized that FX, and AMC specifically seem to cancel great series. Started to wonder if they too were owned by the networks. As for Cable Companies, remember that they all have relationships and percentage ownership of joint projects with telcos, movie companies etc...
I wonder if directors, producers, writers and actors will wise up and start to refuse to work for the studios that constantly cancel their series prematurely based on outdated a
Funding is the key (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Stock_Exchange [wikipedia.org] to fund upcoming films.
Then "we" could all help fund sci-fi ideas we liked.
Online TV Shows (Score:1)
http://rantmedia.ca/ranttv/ [rantmedia.ca] - Online streaming
http://rantmedia.ca/sktfmtv/ [rantmedia.ca] - Sean Kennedy The Fucking Man TV
http://rantmedia.ca/patrolling/ [rantmedia.ca] - Patrolling with Sean Kennedy
Anime (Score:2)
Several years ago, I was lamenting the almost complete lack of anything worth watching on television. But since I starting watching anime, I've never really been lacking something new and interesting to try. Since most shows run 12-26 episodes and then stop, you don't get problems with things being cancelled half-way through, and while there's a strong studio system, the studios are small, and make most of their money from fans rather than the general public, (plus sourcing many of their stories from one-ma
Audio dramas (Score:1)
Don't forget that there are some independently produced audio productions that are just as engaging and high quality as your TV shows. Here are some that you may find worthwhile to download:
Wormwood [wormwoodshow.com]
We're Alive [thezombiepodcast.com]
Leviathan Chronicles [leviathanchronicles.com]
Welcome to the World (Score:2)
So much free good stuff (Score:2)
There are an amazingly large number of Star Wars fan films, and you can find them at TheForce.net. There are some really good ones. I recommend Duality and Bounty Trail.
http://www.theforce.net/ [theforce.net]
A few years back I saw a good Spiderman fan film. I Google searched it and stumbled upon a web site devoted to fan films:
http://www.fanfilms.net/index.php [fanfilms.net]
By the way, this was the Spiderman fan film I was looking for: The Green Goblin's Last Stand. "The total production budget was $400, and it shows. However, it a
Indie TV isn't free, that's why you don't see it (Score:2)
I was director of photography for Star Trek Phase 2 for 3 episodes, and worked there on a total of six episodes, mostly in the camera department, but also in visual effects.
I also directed photography on Cawley Entertainments Buck Rogers pilot.
I worked on Starship Farragut, and Starship Polaris, which is an independent indie pilot.
TV requires an immense budget.
Phase 2, and any other show that claims "no budget" is really depending on donations of time, equipment and money from dozens if not hundreds of part
Re: (Score:2)
What you say is of course true, but it doesn't have to be this way. Four months ago, the most expensive Greek TV series ever, The Island, was broadcasted: 150,000 Euros per 50 minute episode (26 episodes were made). What they created for that amount of money, I'm sorry to say, rivals any of the US efforts for Star Trek or Star Wars indie fan films. Greek TV generally sucks, but they got it right on this show. But of course, there are no unions in Greece, and salaries are smaller there. Still, it's something
Re: (Score:1)
I'm not in much of a position to easily donate funds to projects like this, but I can (and do) help out by seeding their episodes. Since the release of the first two episodes I've uploaded about 38 GB total for both episodes combined, and I plan to leave the torrent going for a long time.
I'm happy to help in this small way, and the beauty is that anyone who downloads the eps can do the same thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks! I'm downloading Patient J now and I will be checking out your review site.
Re: (Score:2)
Looks interesting! I've bookmarked the page for further reading. Thanks for posting the link!
Re: (Score:2)
I'm actually a big fan of both Leverage (and The Hustle which I believe is its inspiration). Thanks for mentioning it.