Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Some Things Old are Cool Again

Tuesday seemed to be a day for old heroes to rise again. In addition to Mr. Maliszewski's promising news about the Barsoom movie, we also get the promise of a new Buck Rogers series.

I find the whole webisodes phenomenon very promising. It's long been my opinion that sci-fi and fantasy fans hungering for visual entertainment wwould be best served by doing it themselves rather than waiting for TV networks and movie studios to "get it". Sure, we're teased with a spot of occasional brilliance, like Babylon 5 or Star Wars, but for the most part, we get painful abortions like the Dresden Files or foot-shooting shenanigans of the sort that surrounded Firefly.

We've always said we could do better. Now we've got some folks actually putting their money where their mouths are. Movies and TV shows are complex productions, but that complexity is not insurmountable. I hope this is only the beginning of a new wave of entertainment, divorced from the restraints of the past.

2 comments:

Jack Badelaire said...

I'll believe it when I see it.

Yeah, I've seen some half-decent fan-created works, but to keep any momentum on a production, or to deal with the actual "Producing" of content - that takes people who know The Business and have the resources and connections necessary to make things happen. Filmmaking isn't just fun and it's not just art - it's a business, and it requires people who possess the right education in how to make that business function in order for things to not fall apart at the 11th hour.

trollsmyth said...

There are folks showing they can do it for short periods of time. The quality is, of course, really spotty, but it is happening. I suspect we'll be seeing more as the tools become cheaper and easier to use.

- Brian