Sanctuary

[Joe Carney]

New web based series available in both SD and HD for download (pay).
Stars Amanda Tapping. Even though it's pay for download, there is no DRM in the video files.

It has heavy use of green screen and a prime example of what cameras like RED combined with great cg can do. It was shot using HD, so I'm thinking...with RED, it would look and key even better.

http://sanctuaryforall.com/

check out the trailer (free). Join the forum if you want to ask questions.

I purchased all 4 HD episodes, even though only 2 are out.
IMHO, the storyline though not entirely original, has great potential.

[Kevin Halverson]

A very interesting concept. I wonder what talent contracts this was shot under? Guild or not?

[Michael Schrengohst]

It is the new reality.

[Robert Sanders]

Part of it seems really cool. And some of it seems really lame. It's very hard to tell by the trailers (which I don't think were very effective). But they've created an amazing website and selling webisodes Online is is a fantastic idea.

I hope their viral marketing is effective.

[Clint Johnson]

Stage Three is using a Panavision HD900F and recording straight to hard drive. The effects are done in XSI and Maya with the compositing done in After Effects. The editing is in Final Cut Pro.

This is a pretty serious attempt at web only distribution and the first 8 webisodes (15 minutes each) cost over $4.5 million to shoot. This means they're working with a budget of around $1.7 million to put together the equivalent of a network one hour drama. Not bad for a little indie tv show.

And at least the first few webisodes are going to be available free on Youtube where Che McNabb (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=chemcnabb) is uploading the low definition versions.

I am going to pay to watch at least the first few in HD just because this whole webisodic delivery is something that I would like to pursue and I am following the experiment closely... and judging from the first one it is an interesting and well done show.

[Kevin Halverson]

Just purchased and watched the first webisode.

I am at least as interested in the marketing and delivery concept as the content of this series. Still curious as to the contract that the guild cast members are working under. I too will be closely following the success of this show as this is certainly a cutting edge approach.

[Clint Johnson]

Seeing as how the budget is in line with regular television productions, I would think that the contract side of things would be business as usual for the production itself.

The key difference will be the residuals for the internet downloads and they probably took advantage of the option to defer payments until 2009. By then they will have either been successful or gone out of business; in either case they would probably be a case study for setting the level of compensation that people can expect from "new media" for the next agreement.

[Chris Kenny]

Internet self-distribution has interesting implications. On the one hand, without a large distributer promoting you, you might be doomed to obscurity. On the other hand, if your content becomes a sort of Internet phenomenon, you could get some pretty serious traffic, and you'll keep a big chunk of every sale, which could be very profitable.

This market probably won't start developing in ernest until there's a standard way of buying content, though. Hopefully Apple will open up iTunes to indies, or to distributors which will distribute indie content no questions asked and pass along most of the money, like CDBaby will for music. And 720p would be nice....

(The most recent post (http://www.indie4k.com/archives/44) on my blog discusses Apple TV's prospects a bit, which seems relevant to this subject.)

[Clint Johnson]

My worry is that Stage Three jumped in a little too early and with a little too much money. Episode 1 has been viewed about 40,000 times now on Youtube and while I can't accurately infer purchases of the HD video from that number it can't be more than a few thousand... and I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't topped 1000 yet.

Part of the problem is the website itself. The layout isn't as clean as it should be, it isn't clear that the first few webisodes are available on YouTube and Veoh, the store is slow and confusing... these all add up to lost sales for them. They need to ditch the Flash for everything but the online player and put a big, shiny, red button on the front page saying "VIEW WEBISODE ONE FOR FREE!".

In the plus column, they can leave them up in their web store as long as they are in business so as people discover them they will start over from episode 1. There isn't the rabid advertising driven pursuit of eyeballs for the first airing and three day viewing on PVRs that the networks have to contend with.

But ballparking the profit at $1 per purchased download means that they need over 0.5 million buyers to break even... I honestly don't think that the Internet is at that point yet. I think that there are enough fans to carry that off for Joss Whedon but Damian Kindler hasn't built the same cult following.

I've looked at the numbers and I'm be leery about going over $50,000 per webisode right today... and it is that high only because it is an idea that would attract a viral following in the space advocate community (National Space Society, Mars Society etc.) and I would expect to get between 50,000 and 100,000 viewers right off that bat.

To go to a higher budget than that I would look into sponsoring from tech companies since it is a contemporary setting with a heavy use of computers and communications. Companies like Dell, HP, Cisco... they have shown themselves to be serious players with product placement so they would be interested in sponsoring a webisodic series if the plan was solid and their products were integrated into the show.

The trick is writing a series to a budget like that and still making it engaging, exciting and worth spending $2 to $3 on it.

My solution for the budget side of this is to set it in a space craft with four sets that are just one redecorated as needed and to have a cast of six with only a few short appearances by others on monitors.

Now all I have to do is make sure that the writing is good enough.

[ericyoung]

Why don't you let them know your thoughts Clint on their site, as well as here. You make good points, and I'm sure they are interested in constructive feedback.

[Andrew M.]

New web based series available in both SD and HD for download (pay).


Do you know what is the resolution of HD and the default bitrate?

[Joe Carney]

1080p, offered in either wmv or mov. I have to agree about the purchase options being a bit confusing, plus that much black (on the web site) is hard on my eyes.

[Clint Johnson]

I've left comments on the website and they are understandably pretty busy so their only response has been "we're looking into it".

The Windows Media Files I've downloaded are 1280x720p encoded at 2500 kbps. Like the website itself, they are a tad dark but that is the world that they are working in so I just make sure the black out shades are drawn and the TV is at least eyeball calibrated.

[Andrew M.]

1080p, offered in either wmv or mov. I have to agree about the purchase options being a bit confusing, plus that much black (on the web site) is hard on my eyes.

Could you be so kind and check for me what is the ecoded bitrate on 1080p.

10 Mbits/sec 1080p would be very nice to watch on even the 40" screens.

Andrew