Hacker Cinema
The Guild
2007 · TV series · 7 min episodes · 6 seasons
Created by Felicia Day
Fantasy and reality collide when a surprisingly diverse group of online video-game addicts struggle to balance the game with personal relationships.
4 positive3 neutralfrom 7 commenters
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7 comments on Hacker News
Have you watched The Guild? Some of the best content I have seen in a long time. I think this is just getting started.
This reminds me of how people used to criticize digital cameras when they first came out. A decade later and film cameras are dead.
I'm just going to bookmark this comment, and someday I'll come back to it and have a chuckle about how short-sighted it is.
A good music recording studio costs more than many movie sets...and yet, people manage to make records that sell hundreds of thousands of copies with a few thousand bucks worth of gear. I've worked on records and movies and in television. I have complete confidence that great films and great television shows will be made by independent artists in the coming years.
Some early proof:
http://www.watchtheguild.com - Shot with Canon DSLR cameras, mostly in bedrooms.
http://www.drhorrible.com - Cost $200k to make, and included seriously high end talent, like NPH and Captain Mal. Netflix and Hulu could easily fund shows like this. Or, an independent production company could start turning out series along these lines. It takes far fewer viewers to pay back $200k than it takes to pay back a million an episode...and every eyeball that is watching Dr. Horrible is not watching Weeds or whatever content Starz has exclusive rights to.
Or, just browse WikiPedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Web_television_series
A huge amount of money is not required to make something fun to watch, and the number of people who realize it will only increase with time.
I'm surprised someone on HN could be so short-sighted as to think that just because the old way of doing things can never be replicated on a tiny budget, it doesn't mean entertainment will not be produced in new ways on much smaller budgets. Doesn't matter how it's produced, or if it is up to the standards of high end movies. All that matters is that some people (even small numbers for any given film) tune into the new media rather than the old, and I'm certain some people will. I don't know anyone under the age of 30 that hasn't watched both the Guild and Dr. Horrible. That's what the future looks like, at least one aspect of it.
i'd point out that he mentions two examples, the average the guild episode clocking in at 10 minutes, the average never not funny episode clocking in at 1h 30m.
I do hope this kind of thing doesn't become the new standard. Episodes of "The Guild" and most other online series clock in at 10 minutes and under. At that length, it seems (from present examples) like the stories pretty much have to be fluff.
Your understanding is correct: it was the success of The Guild and the timing of the writer's strike that inspired Joss to make his own thing.
By the way, if anyone here has managed to not watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, I can't recommend it enough. I also recommend The Guild, though if you only have time to watch one web series than the three ~15 minute episodes of Dr. Horrible are where you need to start.
most of the tv work she DOES do seems to be driven by people who like her work on the Guild and so they reach out to her
Or else they know she has a huge online following, and throwing her into a few episodes will give 'em an extra half a million viewers from the "lonely geek" demographic?
Already happening. The Guild[1] (a sitcom about the screwed up real lives of a MMORPG fantasy guild) is the most successful example that I'm aware of --- four seasons to date --- but there are others that may be worth following. (Pioneer One[2], about government agents investigating the weird, is just getting started, but looks good so far.)
It helps to have talent with pro chops, of course; The Guild was created by Felicia Day, who's also one of the acting leads; Wil Wheaton is a repeating guest star.
[1] http://www.watchtheguild.com/
[2] http://www.pioneerone.tv/