webisodes in sci-fi shows... by wytchcroft

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webisodes in sci-fi shows...

POSTED BY: WYTCHCROFT
UPDATED: Monday, August 11, 2008 06:48
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Monday, August 4, 2008 2:27 AM

webisodes –
(god I hate that word)

Ok, so Joss was asked about webisodes for Dollhouse – and his response was a swift nope. Move along, next question. At first I figured – ah, don’t wanna be seen to copy BSG too much* – and then I thought, hmm maybe there aint the budget. The BSG mini-eps were hand held camera on the pre-existing sets of (the extremely un-fun looking) new Caprica. And for Razor they were just edits from the main footage. I can understand season 1 of dollhouse being too early for that.
But what about firefly/serenity? Episodes the size of Dr Horrible is a big no. but 5 minute episodes? And hell there’ll be all the BSG props to score soon (if not already!), very short episodes would allow actors to film quick between assignments. They could follow the darkhouse comics 3 act structure. How about one story for each player – that’s 27 episodes (HA HA HA – dream big Wytch you monkey you!).
Would Joss see this format as cheapening the product? He doesn’t like to rush – which is commendable. Does any know the BSG web eps budget? And er, did anyone see them?? Were they considered a success? In the UK Dr Who has TARDISODES (yes, a word even more meh than webisodes) which go direct to your phone and are – not bad actually. Up until the last season, Dr Who had a budget of $4.98c per season. (And that went on hiring the world’s worst composer and his happy amateur orchestra.) So if even the beeb will shell out for micro-sodes (another one!) – Maybe FxX or Universal could…
How to make the profit – well, if they’re five minutes long… you stick them on the Dollhouse DVD as a special feature – Browncoats by the thing in droves and F-X gets double the happy! Ta da!

Ok, I’m kidding – River’s ‘The Recordings’ came first, we know it – Joss knows it, Ron kno-I’m not so sure).

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Monday, August 11, 2008 6:26 AM

CYBERSNARK

My main problem with webisodes is that (as with all Exclusive Content) I'm usually among the 90% of the audience that CAN'T SEE THEM ("We're sorry, this video is not available in your area").

If the producers actually make them available outside the contiguous USA, then I'm all for 'em. I love seeing people experiment with new formats (some stories just work better in some formats than others).

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Monday, August 11, 2008 6:48 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

From a boring nuts and bolts perspective I'm not sure what the cast's contracts are (yeah, the boring details). If they do not include webisodes (highly doubtful) then that has to be addressed. It's not something that would stop Joss or the cast, just a hurdle, they would probably do them for free... but enough hurdles and people/studios start thinking of what else is on their plate.
Then there's the production crew. That's a lot of hurdle jumping and logistics even if it's kept as lean as possible and even if everything is available - we got Unions to protect us from making things too easy! The examples you cited were for shows that were up to speed and running, I wish that didn't matter but I think it's pretty huge.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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