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Article by Juliana Weiss-Roessler
Juliana Weiss-Roessler is a writer living in Los Angeles. To read more of her writing, visit WeissRoessler.com. You can also follow her on Twitter: @jul_weiss. 16 Comments
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I completely agree with you, and was just as dismayed when I started hearing rumors of a "big-screen" Dr. Horrible. Whedon has a chance to be a pioneer in the New Media Order. I would hate to think he would use his amazing start just to go back to business as usual…
Well said.
My hope is that, someday soon, the stigma attached to online content will dissolve in the same way that the rift between television and film has been closed over the last couple of decades, and creators will be able to make entertainment for whatever delivery system fits it best. People have ideas of all sizes. They should be able to express those ideas as they are rather than being forced to stretch or pare down in order to fit into one mold or another.
The one thing that I think web producers are doing exceptionally well is short-form serials. It's reminiscent of the old movie and radio serials from the early 20th century. Just as the B-movie system has kind of been transformed into the Syfy Original Movie machine, the Lifetime Movie Channel, and other low-budget cable productions, the old serial format has been revived in things like The Guild, Doctor Horrible, Girl Number Nine, and Riese. Episodes act as chapters that run as long as they need to, and there are as many episodes as needed to convey a full story.
I hope Dorm Life never goes to the big screen. One of their cast members was in Transformers 2 and thats as far as I want to see her. I like it when my fave celebs are locals and not Angelina Jolies.
You can have more fun on the internet. You can be as brash and brasen and cool and awesome as possible without having to 'change your image' after a while because the big wigs want you to now that a couple thousand people love you and they want you to be the bait for the money in the publics pockets.
Internet > movie theaters anyday
I think the fan financed idea is great. I mean how many good shows have been cancelled even though the internet community loved and praised them…. many…. I'm sure it would work just fine. this model is actually already in use in the music industry here in the UK. the page called bandstock.com. fans can buy stocks for certain record projects. it's £10 for each stock. i supported my favourite musicians this why and thus helped him to produce his latest record without a major record lable telling him what to do! anyways, i would love to see more dr. horrible but i agree, it should be internet based!
Cool! I had not heard about BandStock.com or considered this model being used for music. I'll have to check that out.
I'm sorry i misspelled the link. it's bandstocks.com. i think it's UK only.
It's a dramatic prairie dog, not a chipmunk! A prairie dog.
Doh! Just fixed it. Thanks.
Thanks for a clear and well-explained article. I think this is a wonderful idea and I agree that Dr. Horrible would be the perfect vanguard for an Internet-based model because of the wider publicity it has already gotten. My only reservation would be what exactly the fans who are paying would think they're entitled to receive for their dollar-an-ep. I'm a fan of Chuck but I'm dismayed and perturbed that the, in my opinion, misguided and misdirected fan involvement displayed by some fans (it's hard to tell how many but they're loud enough and insistent enough that it seems like a lot more) who feel that the show is not, in fine detail, living up to their very narrow expectations, is going to cause problems for the renewal of the show that these people say they are fans of. So if there's a way to do it with clear enough lines being drawn so that the notes of networks aren't just replaced by the notes of outraged fans who think they know better than the show's creators and writers what should be done, then the model might have a chance of thriving.
I think this is the best idea ever
- pay only $1 per episode to keep seeing new stuff from joss!!! i would happily pay that even if it meant i would pay more as being from NZ no doubt i would have to pay in US$$. I pray that they keep dr horrible online also. as awesome as it was to see serenity many many times on the big screen most of dr horribles allure is that you can watch it online. a new episode out every week. i watch most tv shows online myself as being in NZ as i said before – it takes an insane amount of time for anything to hit our tv screens.
I hadn't even considered the international audience. During Buffy's last season, people were paying $5 or more weekly to get (illegal, pirated) copies of the new episodes sent to them via eBay. That makes the pool for potential "fan financers" even bigger!
I stopped reading after you spelled Neil Patrick Harris's name wrong.
Fixed. Typo was my fault, not Juliana's.
I hope it stays put on the web as well. I would not deny myself the pleasure of seeing it however it is presented. I liked the intimacy of the web episodes even though I had to see it sometime later because I live outside the US. I fear the influence/pressure of big money and those not hopelessly devoted to Jossways.
Juliana,
What you're talking about is crowdsourcing, and it's been going on for years. The most significant one I remember personally was in 2004: Randy Milholland, who created the webcomic "Something Positive," challenged his fans: if their donations matched his yearly salary at his job, he'd quit and only work on the comic for a year full-time. They did it. And then some.
There are a couple resources popping up online for doing this sort of thing. The most significant is http://www.kickstarter.com, where I saw a book project by two women (looking only for $3000) find over 650 backers and $17,000 to make it. Kickstarter.com is great, because it has kind of a PBS like structure: the more you donate, the better your reward from the creators is (for the book, if you donated $15, you got a copy of said book).
I'm excited to see where this idea takes us in the future.
Yeah, and an earlier commenter talked about how bands are using crowdsourcing, too.