sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Temis the Vorta]

Another terrific actor has been cast in an sf/f pilot! This time Gotham (which I am now starting to like better).

Lennie James has been cast in the ABC drama pilot Gotham. The 20th TV-produced project centers on Detective Annie Travers (Megan Ketch), investigating the “impossible murder” of a nightclub owner who is stunned to learn that New York has a whole secret magical history of which she (and everyone else) was hitherto unaware. James will play Gabriel Riga, the magnetic and wealthy CEO running for Mayor of New York City.

And kudos to them for showing some restraint and not making him Annie's "tough as nails" boss. Casting him as a Bloomberg type is much more clever.

[RJDiogenes]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Well that's the problem, any reasonable looking video of scripted drama is going to cost a fair bit more than the production cost of a musical piece or certainly a book.

A book involves a writer and an editor. Music involves a composer and performers. TV shows involve writers, other writers who essentially serve as editors, music composers and performers, plus a whole lot of other necessary people - actors, costume designers, set designers, SFX people, makeup, hair, lighting, etc.

Just the number of people alone tells you why the costs get driven up. Everyone needs to be paid, and if they're good at their jobs, they need to be paid well. If they're not good at their jobs, why should I bother with their stuff? If one element is not up to par, everything suffers.

Good doesn't mean expensive. There are Broadway shows that cost a fortune and local theater that doesn't-- it doesn't mean local theater isn't worth watching. There are splashy popcorn movies that cost a quarter of a billion dollars to make, and independent movies that are made for less than a tenth of that-- they are often better than big studo productions that are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The world is full of very talented independent creators-- not just writers and musicians, but actors, costumers, makeup artists and so on. You can find them everywhere from your local theater to SF conventions. There's great potential waiting to be tapped.

[Bob The Skutter]

Monsters was made for about quarter of a million and is a good movie with some big effects.

[Temis the Vorta]

Somebody needs to post a link to a sci fi internet series that's worth watching. I've sampled a few and for whatever reason, the part where they fall down is usually the acting. (Is it really that hard to find talented out of work actors willing to do a free or low paid gig?) I've never found one where I wanted to see more than five minutes. Maybe money is not the problem but then what is the problem?

Monsters was made for about quarter of a million and is a good movie with some big effects.

I did a quick check on Netflix, which is giving that one a star rating below my usual tolerance threshold. I've learned the hard way not to ignore those ratings.

[Temis the Vorta]

More casting for Beauty & the Beast (ABC) and Zero Hour.

[xortex]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Somebody needs to post a link to a sci fi internet series that's worth watching. I've sampled a few and for whatever reason, the part where they fall down is usually the acting. (Is it really that hard to find talented out of work actors willing to do a free or low paid gig?) I've never found one where I wanted to see more than five minutes. Maybe money is not the problem but then what is the problem?

I did a quick check on Netflix, which is giving that one a star rating below my usual tolerance threshold. I've learned the hard way not to ignore those ratings.

Does netflix still have an original pilot competition or make sci-fi movies or pilots? Last time I checked the sci-fi winners, nothing intersted me in the slightest.

For a Trek-ish fan film, Starship Potemkin is pretty cool. It's like a 70s movie version of Trek for the BBC or something but the acting is pretty good for a no budget production because they use actors from the local university acting school anf the Captain is a drama teacher himself so there is alot of raw undeveloped talent there as well as experienced actors.

[Temis the Vorta]

Are you sure it was Netflix? I googled "netflix pilot competition" and came up with nothing at least not on the first page. (Congrats, your post was #7, which is a strong indication that I shouldn't bother to search on page two. )

Amazon Studios has something similar, but for movies and not sci fi specific.

[Temis the Vorta]

Vanessa Williams joins 666 Park Avenue as Terry O'Quinn's wife.

They should be a hoot together.

Plus Revolution and Zero Hour casting.

Tim Guinee's name rang a bell...he was in Stargate, playing Adria's husband.

[stj]

Tim Guinee's name sparked a moment's interest in Revolution. He's pretty good. I think he was the lead in a short lived series called something like Strange New World too.

However. Inasmuch as it takes energy to make living things keep on living, as in pumping blood, etc., or simply to light up the landscape, it is hard to see how a black screen (presumably) full of dead people could be an interesting series. Perhaps they meant all forms of manmade energy disappear? Although it is hard to figure how falling water is to know when it's just being pretty scenery and when it's powering a generator.

SF fans are eager to willingly suspend disbelief, but it really isn't too much to expect the writers to help us out a little. There are levels of stupid that just are not acceptable.

[Temis the Vorta]

They just mean all the machines that run on energy have stopped or something like that - somebody keeps perpetuating a very silly logline there.

[RJDiogenes]

Bob the Skutter wrote:

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Monsters was made for about quarter of a million and is a good movie with some big effects.

Exactly. There are a ton of independent and direct-to-DVD films that are made for that or less. Listening to the commentary tracks are great. No expensive catering on these sets. Everybody just brings pot luck.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Somebody needs to post a link to a sci fi internet series that's worth watching. I've sampled a few and for whatever reason, the part where they fall down is usually the acting. (Is it really that hard to find talented out of work actors willing to do a free or low paid gig?) I've never found one where I wanted to see more than five minutes. Maybe money is not the problem but then what is the problem?

I'm not familiar with any Sci Fi Internet series, so I can't say. But I do know that the talent is out there.

[CorporalCaptain]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Somebody needs to post a link to a sci fi internet series that's worth watching. I've sampled a few and for whatever reason, the part where they fall down is usually the acting.

Heh.

I'm not going to say it's worth watching, because I'm not a walking advertisement, but I can say that the most ambitious project I'm aware of is Trenches: http://www.youtube.com/show/trenches...sh_sf_show_1_5. I can say it's at least worth a look as a case study.

[RJDiogenes]

Thanks for the link. It's a pretty tired premise, but it's all in the execution-- I'll take a look.

[Temis the Vorta]

Thanks for the link - that's definitely the best of the sci fi webseries I've seen yet. If that were on SyFy, I'd watch it. It's no worse than that Red Dead Redemption adaptation they did.

Where is it shot anyway? Do you know how it's financed? (Solely off YouTube ads?) What does Sony have to do with it?

[CorporalCaptain]

You're welcome. (Just a sec while I write this date down, Mar. 10, 2012, the day I knew something that Te---.) OK.

I heard about this on a board that has since folded. I don't know much really, except that it was surprisingly cheap.

Here's the official site: http://www.trenchesonline.com/.

Here's the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trenches_(Web_Series), which is minimal but does have links to articles about it. The one at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...ws+%26+Buzz%29 should answer some of your questions. The link http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun...-ct-webvideo15 from that article is also relevant.