Independent Series

     I'm a big fan of the independent film.  But what about independent TV?  We hear a lot about how the digital age has opened up the realm of film making to the masses, but it's done more than that.  It's opened up TV to the masses.  The problem is that the masses don't know it yet.  And those that do know it, aren't very good at it.  That's fine. They aren't required to be good.  Mostly they are producing fan fiction episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation or live action Thunder Cats clips.  They are fun. The acting is pretty bad, the special affects are, well... indescribable. There seems to be some cutting, some pasting and some green screens involved. But that's part of their charm. They are imaginative and funtastic ways for fans to do more than just passively observe their favorite worlds. Those of us without the acting bug can go to conventions and collect kitche, but those of us with a little artistic passion, make movies and "lost episodes", write poems/raps and do hand sketched portraits of our beloved heroes.

     But some people are really doing it right.  The first one that caught my attention was Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  Joss Whedon shot this perfect gem during the writers strike a few years back.  The whole family was obsessed with it.  I'm sure most of you have seen this and fallen in love with it.  I mention it for two reasons.  One, it was awesome and a good example of what I'm talking about.  Two, Felicia Day.  She is smart and beautiful and a complete geek. And she is the one who turned me on to Pioneer One.  Felicia is quite the Tweeter and usually has something interesting to say.  On Thursday she posted this via her twitter:

Watching the Batman Fan Film "City of Scars" http://www.dailymotion.com/video... and the indie made TV series Pioneer 1 today. http://vodo.net/pioneerone

     I spent the morning installing Bit Torrent, downloading Pioneer One and converting it to avi.


Explanation


     I've never used Bit Torrent.  I am familiar with the concept of sharing and downloading bits and piece of files, but never had a "legitimate" reason to have it on my new notebook. When I lived with bakeem, there was no need.  The man is a Bit Torrent fiend. When the time came for my very first torrent, I went to FileHippo, which is one of the best little utility sites in existence, and download a copy of µTorrent. No I would not like to install the Ask.com toolbar for my browser.  No, I do not accept the terms of their license agreement. Yes, I would like to install the actual program.  Done and done.

     Downloading went pretty smooth.  I had this .torrent file on my desktop just waiting for a program I could drop it into.  Woot!

     Watching.  That turned out to be a problem.  VLC Player is a bit of a memory hog for the likes of my little notebook.  It was all jumpy and freezing and impossible to watch.  So I used Pazera Free MOV to AVI Converter to convert the .mkv video into a smaller less intense .avi version that my poor 'puter could handle. It's a 1.2 gig file and the conversion was slow (imagine that word dropped an octave and drawn out like a horror show clown laugh). It took two, count 'em, one, two, episodes of Angel (Season 2, episodes 3 and 4) to convert over the file. I was not upset by the wait. I didn't have the opportunity to watch all of Angel Season 2 when it originally aired and I am very happy to see them available for instant viewing on Netflix.

     So finally the point of all this.  Pioneer One was fabulous.  The acting was great (except for the minor roll of the doctor) the filming was good.  The story was intriguing. Wow!  And they did the whole thing on a budget of roughly $6000.  They've been taking donations to help pay for three new follow up episodes. They have $18,000 of the $20,000 they need.  So it sounds like I can look forward to a few more episodes in the next year.  I hope they are all as wonderful.

     I also watched Batman: City of Scars, which was pretty damn good.  It's not really a series in the sense that we are talking about here, but there are a number of related shorts that have been put out by Bat in The Sun Productions: Batman Legends, Batman: Dark Justice, Patient J and the Joker's Christmas Special.


     It was quite the non productive day.  Spent most of it either watching new things, writing this blog, or trying to find old clips I'd seen years ago.  I hope you liked the Jedi Rap: Special Edition!!!!! It was my pleasure to spend my day watching all of these, good and bad.  I hope they send you on endless twisting paths through the less "produced" areas of the YouTubes.  Please hit me up with some of your favorite fan films.


Also these were awesome too. : )


Awesome Series
Chad Vader (7 seasons!!)

Awesome Fan Trailer
Thundercats Movie trailer

Awesome Short Films
Street Fighter: Legacy - Short Fan Film

Years of Writing for a Private Public

     There is something special that you get when you are writing on-line. Something that you don't get when you are quietly composing your thoughts and words on paper. The open window with it's "Submit" button. The feeling that there is a world out there, ready to receive, digest and ignore everything you are saying. To rail against the machine. To be bold. To be bolstered by your confidants. To speak and regret. To be stubborn and insightful. To be on the fly. To know only that you will write and not what you will write. To assassinate grammar and spelling with cold hard disdain for their functionality. To paganistically worship in moments of rapture, the mundane, the insignificant, the overlooked and the under appreciated.

     I'm here for you. I am live. We are pirate radio gone rabid. So many voices that we become lost. We become factions, we become groups, statistics (lies, damned lies and statistics). So we Pump Up The Volume. It's Christian Slater "Was it bigger than a babies arm?" pretending that he's not in Fountain Hills. We should have said something more. We should have said no. We should have done something other than rant and crack jokes. But this is what we do. I have no problem with that. It is a great thing, this voice, this need. Speak when you can. Pass on what you are in viral combinations. Talk Hard. Rant poetry on street corners if you have to. If you have to. If you have to.

     How I love you. How I wish I were you, were knowing what you've known, were understanding this new thing, this human thing that we all get by virtue of being human. Instantaneous and luminous. Elucidate. Gather in coffee shops and hide behind laptops. Rooms full of people in virtual rooms having virtual conversation virtually all the time. How I love you. I run deliveries all day, longing for this, for home, for moments when I can rightly express myself. There is a wall that comes down, not brick by brick, but atom by atom, dispersing in a white wave of light and energy, and it is fuel for the fire, it is grist in the mill. I am making a fine powder of my beliefs and my desires. And these moments, these fleeting seconds before transmission are the staples that get me by. Potatoes, bread, milk and eggs. Rice and butter. Water. Air.

     I can feel you out there because I am delusional. I imagine that someone reads though I never write. I imagine that someone is made whole or broken, though such a thing is rare. I hope that I am not a fool, but such hopes are lost in wander texts like these. So instead I hope that this feeling will come again, that I will write again, whether I am a fool or not. That in these moments I am close to you, whoever you are, that I am close to God, creating on the fly, that I am more myself. I hope at all, and hope too is a rare thing.