On his blog, Guild member Piers Beckley notes that "web series Sanctuary, created by Stargate alumnus Damian Kindler, has just been picked up for 13 episodes by SciFi."As Piers says, with Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's Quarterlife also making the journey from web the network TV, this is starting to look like a trend.
Update: American Screenwriter and blogger, John August, also believes the future is online. Although he sees his new show as web-only.
The project is financed outside the studio system, with some of that much-fabled internet money. It has actors you recognize, and it probably could be a TV show — but it won’t. There’s near-consensus that in the next year or two, one of the web shows will really take off and change the game. I can almost guarantee you it won’t be ours. We may never see the light of day. But it’s the right time to be experimenting: with tone, with format, with economic model.
I definitely agree with you it is beginning to look like a bit of a trend. I first heard about Quarterlife but as I have been researching more and more I have now noticed Sanctuary is being picked by network television as well. The Broadband Distributed Content, has of recently made a huge splash, giving networks the ability to follow the online performance and make proper decisions based on a consistent audience for free. As a creator myself of online video content, I am happy to see that these videos are drawing in so much attention. I have been working for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, so I have the inside scoop on The Academy's decision to present a Primetime Emmy to Broadband Distributed Content such as Sanctuary and Quarterlife. This in itself proves that the future is online, you can check out more info at http://www.emmys.com ! I am excited to post my own content online now, I think it would be so awesome to be considered for an Emmy.
ReplyDelete