New York Magazine article that talks about a new revolution in TV... discusses the posibility of resurrecting Firefly
POSTED BY: onetransmission
UPDATED: Monday, November 21, 2005 20:05
VIEWED: 27514
PAGE 1 of 8
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/tv/15038/index.html
an excerpt from page 3:
"All of which leads to an enticing possibility: Let’s say that Joss Whedon, creator of Firefly, wanted to bring the series back to air. (Though “back to air” is a TV phrase now as anachronistically quaint as “switching the dial.”) Let’s say he found a million Firefly fans online—and, trust me, they’re not hiding—who were willing to pay, say, $39.99 each for a sixteen-episode season of Firefly. (Not an unreasonable price, given how many people pay about that amount for full seasons on DVD.) Suddenly, Joss Whedon’s got roughly $40 million to play with—and he doesn’t need a network. Or a time slot. Or advertisers. He can beam the damn shows right to your computer if he wants to. There’s even a mini-precedent for this: The online phenomenon of “ransom games,” in which a board-game developer sets a price (usually something minuscule, like $1,000), then, once he’s received that amount in pledges from strangers, creates the game and releases it for free.
But the idea of TV funded by the audience conjures another, less sunny scenario. After all, there’s already an entertainment-delivery system that funds itself through mini-contributions from millions of viewers: It’s called the movies, which aren’t exactly undergoing an artistic golden age. Furthermore, wherever democracy blooms, mob violence is only one step behind: How happy will Joss Whedon be when the $39.99-paying legions, assembled at wesavedfirefly.com, demand that a killed character be resurrected or that an irritating plotline be written out of the show?
Either way, TV’s days as a benign dictatorship—a little bread, a lot of circuses—are over, and the revolution is nigh. TV studios may still milk the old sources of revenue, but the fundamental economic law has been abolished—TV is selling shows to viewers—which, in TV terms, is like saying that the law of gravity is null and void. Everything’s up in the air. Including you, O Viewer, finally freed from your easy chair, ready to march into the streets and maybe—just maybe—drag your TV along with you."
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Has Joss read this? He needs to.
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I'll pay 40 bucks in half a second. Shoot, I'll pay a hundred for another set of Firefly DVDs. How many browncoats wouldn't? If this is a sincere possibility then why hasn't Haken started a "pledge" page.
-e
"Storms getting worse."
"We'll pass through it soon enough."
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I'd be willing to pledge at least $100. Probably even more if I knew that it would definitely bring the show back. I'm sure there are at least a million other browncoats world-wide that would put down anywhere from $40-$100 or more for another season!
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Quote: "How happy will Joss Whedon be when the $39.99-paying legions, assembled at wesavedfirefly.com, demand that a killed character be resurrected or that an irritating plotline be written out of the show?"
Joss, Joss, we would never do that. Okay, a bunch of people would inevitably do that, but overall we trust you to make your own decisions. You are the creator of this story and this world; if it was even remotely gratifying for us to write Firefly instead of you, we'd all be writing our own little stories and have done with it, instead of bleating on and on for YEARS about how badly we want you back.
The writer of this article has underestimated how much we (all humans, I believe) want a story that we DON'T know the end to, that we DON'T control. We want to be drawn in to someone else's imagination, and thus it has always been, in every culture, in every society, from the dawn of time. Or the writer underestimates how quickly we would learn that this is what we wanted, if some misguided individuals believed they had better ideas. Even an ostensibly "better idea" coming from a reader/viewer is a billion times more terrible than a lousy one coming from the creator of the story. If this thirst for other people's creation weren't so, writers would outnumber readers--and you notice they don't.
On the other hand, $40 million would make...4 episodes? Five?
On the third hand, there're a hell of a lot more than a million Firefly fans out there. Four million were watching it when it was originally on, and that number must have at least doubled or tripled since the issue of the DVD set.
Anyway: cool idea. Nice that all of New York--or that part that reads NY Mag--is seeing Firefly used as the example.
Vancouver
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Nice catch on the NY article. Good food for thought.
I'll bet a $39.99 subscription Joss and his people have been playing around with this kind of idea. When you have the talent to be able to write your own ticket, and talented people all around you, how much more fun would it be to use a whole new ticket-printer!
It's always my favorite thing when brave people are at the crux of a brave new moment.
*waves Joss banner*
Ohhh this is an exciting idea!
Thanks to viral marketing...SERENITY: reopening soon in a theater near you.
Shiny Trees! Yavanna made Shiny Trees!
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Quote:
Originally posted by derangedmilk:
I'll pay 40 bucks in half a second. Shoot, I'll pay a hundred for another set of Firefly DVDs. How many browncoats wouldn't? If this is a sincere possibility then why hasn't Haken started a "pledge" page.
It seems like for this idea to go forward for Firefly, you need someone at the top to grab onto it and run.
Someone would need to get with Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon and figure out what the deal is with the broadcast rights. Fox still owns the rights to the TV series, but does that apply to this new "Straight to DVD/iTunes" model?
Lets assume Fox's rights to Firefly don't cover this new "Striaght to DVD/iTunes" model.
So, set up a webpage saying that a new season is on the way, assuming there are enough people willing to pre-pay $40 for a season on DVD. People can pay online via credit card/ Pay Pal, whatever. What happens if the bottom falls out, and not enough people pledge money to get the thing going? How do you refund everyone’s money?
Say a lot of people start pledging money. At what threshold do you start production? Do you wait until you get 5 million bucks until you start making episodes? 10 million? The full 40 million for the season?
Personally, I think that it would work. I think there are enough devoted fans out there. As that article said, "Shows like 24 and Firefly sell a lot of DVDs. Shows like Yes, Dear and Two and Half Men do not."
However, this would need to be led from the top. This would have to have the backing and support of Joss Whedon and compnay. Someone would need to drive it from the top.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Vancouver:
On the other hand, $40 million would make...4 episodes? Five?
What's the real answer to that? I'm in on the whole buying more DVDs thing, as that's how I experienced Firefly to begin with, but 4-5 episodes would just be a tease. Like watching the first half of the BDM.
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I think $40m should comfortably get us another 13 episodes.
And would I pay? Ya-huh!
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Not a new idea, but good to see it getting some print-play. I would think anyone with a creative mind would have a contract with the subscribers acknowledging that though they are funding the program, they have no say in the final product...other than, of course, cancelling the subscription.
Definitely a worthy consideration, but it's going to take a lot of humpas for a major talent to take the risk associated with such a venture.
"Art is Ego..."—Greg Dulli
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