By John J. Joex
As I have recently pontificated on in our Cancellation Watch column, Science Fiction and Fantasy television appears to be dying on the broadcast networks and is not necessarily very healthy on the cable channels either with a few exceptions like The Walking Dead and True Blood. So does this mean that episodic sci fi is on the way out even though the genre currently thrives on the big screen (take a look at this upcoming Summer’s slate of films to get just an inkling)? I don’t believe that we have seen the end of Science Fiction and Fantasy television, but as I have said previously, I believe that we are in the midst of a significant shift. The double-naught decade (2000-9) delivered what I refer to as the Second Golden Age of Science Fiction and Fantasy television (the first coming in the 60’s) having delivered such significant genre entries as Farscape (which really started right at the end of the previous decade but aired most of its episodes in the 00’s), Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, the Stargate spin-offs, Heroes (the first season at least), Fringe and several other notable shows that helped push the genre forward and that gave us plenty of viewing choices. But with network broadcast’s flagship genre series (Lost) having wrapped up last season, none have appeared to take up the torch and keep sci fi alive and well on television. Fringe has tried, but just can’t sustain strong viewership. The Walking Dead has breathed some life into the genre (pun unintended but accepted), but appears that it will take sci fi television back off-network like what we saw in the 90’s. So is this the true direction that we will see for the coming decade, or will a different trend emerge.
I mentioned before that I see a strong possibility that the Internet could play a large part in the future of episodic Science Fiction and Fantasy. In the past five years we have seen quite a number of web-based series emerge, both professional and amateur, and several of these have generated some significant buzz including Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, Pioneer One, and Reise: Kingdom Falling. And one web-series has made the successful jump from the Internet to television series (Sanctuary). The Internet allows for greater creative freedom without the interference of network execs and lends itself to a DIY-ethic where pretty much anybody with a camera and a vision can create a web-series (with the final quality of course being a wide variable). Personally, I believe that web-based series have a great deal of potential with several models that could sustain them and keep the format viable. Following are a couple of potential approaches that web-series could follow to recoup their expenses and even turn a profit.
-Make episodes for the series available for free with moderate advertising spots included and with a DVD release planned upon completion of the season.
-Make the first couple of episodes available for free viewing to generate interest then have subsequent episodes available for download at a moderate cost ($1 to $2 per episode assuming at least a half-hour episode) and a potential DVD release to follow as well.
These models would not sustain a series with the budgets that Prime Time shows have (even the off-network entries), but the creators of web-based shows have found many ways to cut corners and produce a much more economical product. In part this is because they are not hampered by network waste, but it’s also because they are not bound by the dictates of the various guilds out there that set minimum salaries for jobs related to producing a television show or a film. Now I don’t know if any of that comes into play once a project heads to DVD and I don’t know if the guilds are actively trying to extend their reach to Internet productions (professional at least), but for now this does not appear to be a hurdle for web-series as far as I am aware (if anybody has more information on this subject, I would love to hear from them).
One other model that has been tested lately is the one where the producers seek donations to fund their production. The web series Pioneer One has followed this model and managed to raise sufficient funds to complete the first season of the series after making the first episode available for free download. Several others have tried this as well, but I question whether relying on the generosity of fans alone would sustain a series over time. Pioneer One has very low production costs (around $6k per episode), but that’s because most people involved are working gratis. How long can you keep actors and a production crew around without paying them? Sure the creative energy can keep a web-series afloat for a while, but ultimately you have to create a model that allows for fair compensation to those involved with the production if you want to keep it running past a handful of episodes. And right now I think that the creative energy is the main driving force on many web series, but I believe that one or more models will emerge in the coming years to financially sustain these shows over the long run.
One other thing that I wondered is why the networks do not use the Internet to test out any or all of the pilots that they commission. Each year, dozens of pilots are filmed for potential television shows, many of which never make it to the air because network execs give them the thumbs down. But the viewers never get a chance to see these or cast their votes (beyond a few focus groups that get exclusive screenings). Why not gear these pilots into web-series format and make them available to the general public who can vote on whether they would like to see them continue into a regular series? This gives the network execs some additional feedback to factor into their decisions when planning the schedules for an upcoming season. And maybe some pilots which do not get the green-light to television series could continue as a web series following one of the formats I mentioned above. The networks sink the money into these pilots anyway, so it would not cost extra to run them on the Internet (they already have the outlets set up for that) and they could even recoup some costs with advertising during the web-casts. Seems like a logical direction and for all I know the networks have already considered this, but then I did mention it would be the logical way to go . . .
No matter which direction it takes, though, the Internet has already established itself as a significant source for episodic Science Fiction and Fantasy and I only see that growing stronger over the coming years. In this new column, we will be passing on information to our readers about the web-series available out there and we will provide you with reviews of the ones we have sampled. So stick around to find out what’s available in genre Internet viewing, and if you have some recommendations for web-productions that we should include, let us know in the comments below or at mail@axiomsedge-scifi.com. And if you have produced a web-series, send us the info and we will give it a look.
See the list of review, interviews, and articles from The Internet Connection at this link
