These 2 stories pasted below, an older one, and one from yesterday's Herald, are very important documents, fully deserving of archiving for media studies purposes. Not least of the interest, and perhaps the reflexivity of the program, stems from its canny anticipation of the "end times" for the "appointment" type of audience, given the multiple formats in which the program can be watched and at a time of the audience's choosing. I see this post as therefore complementary to the earlier ruminations regarding the end of the traditional so-called traditional "audience" heralded in part by blogging.
I also wonder though if the reflexivity of the format extends to the chosen content as well- is it too heralding an "end times" given an increasing individualisation of consumption patterns that might lead to the death of social capital, and indeed, the apocalypse itself (i.e. according to the ideologies of technological determinism and neoliberalism). Do the masses disappear from cultural representation once marketeers and media scholars agree to stop speaking about forms of "mass communication" constituting a ritual, shared at least in the sense that it takes place in the same temporal universe (on the same channel)? Is the central protagonist, Russell Shoemaker, according to this logic, doomed to forever wander alone among the ruins, looking for some chance of redemption? Once I next get access to broadband I might be able to make some determination along these lines, but it is the implicit convergence of medium and content that is fascinating. If only it could be revealed how this watershed moment came about, as it may even be more fascinating than any of the plot twists and turns the scriptwriters could come up with. Is this where a de-regulated media culture is leading us, literally and figuratively, or is it simply, and more likely, what its ideologists are trying to convince us is a certain inevitability?
Afterworld gives a taste of things to come
Asher Moses
February 19, 2007 - 12:20PM
The next generation of TV dramas will let viewers break free from the shackles of the couch and restrictive broadcaster schedules, says Sony Pictures Television.
In a first for the studio, it has acquired all international television, digital sell-through, gaming and mobile rights to a futuristic animated show called Afterworld.
Produced by Emmy Award nominee Stan Rogow (known for his work on Lizzie McGuire and All I Want for Christmas) and written by Brent Friedman (Mortal Kombat 2), Afterworld will be distributed across all platforms including TV, the web and mobile phones.
Accompanying this will be original web-only content to draw viewers even further into the plot.
SPT's description of the show says: "Afterworld is about life on earth after an inexplicable global event renders technology useless and 99 per cent of the population missing."
It follows New Yorker Russell Shoemaker as he unravels the mystery of the event and searches for his family.
The announcement of the deal was made by SPT's international arm, but the Australian division's managing director, Jack Ford, said he expected the show to launch locally within the next three or four months.
"It's a visionary program in my view - I don't think anything like it has ever been attempted before," he said.
Ford said he was in talks with local broadcasters to determine which would acquire the rights to distribute the show locally.
Episodes of Afterworld will be consumed as 130 two-minute episodes or, in the case of TV, 13 half-hour episodes.
Supplementing these will be the website, www.Afterworld.tv, which SPT said would offer "archived back episodes, daily journal entries, community blogs, interactive content applications and online games".
The result, SPT hopes, will be a far more immersive, flexible experience for today's "digital consumer".
In a statement, Friedman said: "As much as I've enjoyed working in all the conventional mediums, I believe we have created something that represents a new form of content - the online convergence of television and video games."
Australian broadcasters are already heading in this direction. Network Ten has just launched its revamped website, which offers sub-sites for individual shows that the network says will include downloadable content and community features.
"For some programs there will be the availability of full episodes, for others it will be highlights and short clips, for other programs it will be additional web-only content," Ten's general manager of digital media, Damian Smith, said when announcing the site revamp late last year.
Two-minute warning
September 10, 2007Icon
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A web and mobile sci-fi series is heralding the multi-platform era, reports Peter Vincent.
The hype surrounding Afterworld, an animated sci-fi series produced specifically for mobiles and the internet, is that it is another signpost to the death of "appointment" TV viewing.
Afterworld tells the story of Russell Shoemaker, a thirtysomething adman who wakes up in a New York hotel to find that 99 per cent of the population has vanished. The show follows him dealing with loneliness, trying to find out what happened to his family and struggling to survive. But what's really different about it is that each episode is between two and three minutes long - primarily because that's all you can easily download to a mobile (and presumably because that's about all you can handle watching on a handset).
"I think TV and traditional forms of entertainment are turning into dinosaurs," says Adam Sigel, a producer and writer on Afterworld.
"People want content when they want it; it's a whole new paradigm. Appointment TV viewing is over.
"Hundreds of thousands of people only use their TVs to watch movies when they want. They live on the internet and they are constantly in transit, so they want content on their mobiles. If Hollywood doesn't start to deliver to their audience in the way they want to access it, they will end up in the same boat as the music industry.
"The technology has been created, people love using it and it's waiting to be filled. A show like Afterworld does not assume the audience is sitting there watching at the same time as everyone else. Whoever fills this technology best will do very very well."
Afterworld is the brainchild of Electric Farm Entertainment's Brent Friedman (a writer on Dark Skies, Mortal Kombat 2) and Emmy-nominated producer Stan Rogow (Lizzie McGuire). The show premiered on YouTube in March and, when it had been watched 500,000 times, Sony Pictures International swooped, snapping up the international television, mobile, internet and gaming rights. It then halted the show's run so it could negotiate dozens of global deals.
Sony relaunched Afterworld last month in several countries and the Australian re-release showed the enormous scope of convergent content. The first of 130 episodes "premiered" on the Sci Fi channel on Foxtel, BigPond TV on Telstra's Next G network and on the internet, at myspace.com/scifitv. A new episode will air nightly at 7.30pm, with a half-hour compilation every second Wednesday. But Afterworld can be watched at any time on mobiles and the internet. Serious sci-fi buffs can check extra content that won't appear anywhere else, such as journal entries, wallpapers and podcasts, from http://www.scifitv.com.au. Sony is also developing a game based on the show, with a release planned for March.
Sony has rolled out similar multi-platform releases in the US and UK and these are pending in Japan, Canada and across Europe and Asia.
Sigel says it is difficult to determine the show's value in sales, as worldwide rights are being negotiated now, but he thinks it could go close to earning $1 million an episode in advertising revenue.
Sigel, who was also a writer on Dark Skies, which screened in 1997 in Australia, says Afterworld was written to attract a broader audience than the usual line-up of young geeks. The simultaneous release on sci-fi TV is aimed at drawing older fans who are more comfortable with television to the new media once they realise the show can be watched on the phones they carry daily.
Afterworld is a new type of writing, inspired by the need to produce coherent, strong, stand-alone episodes that can hook viewers inside three minutes.
"I equate it to writing an hour-long drama in haiku," Sigel says.
Interestingly, the short format works partly because its so addictive - a bit like the "I'll just watch one more clip" mindset that ambushes you when you stumble across Rage and find yourself still watching two hours later.
But given the global reach of convergent content - and its potential dollar value - does it matter that Afterworld is still one for the geeks?
"We are happy with sci-fi fans because they are dedicated audiences," Sigel says. "They keep coming back, although that does have its downsides - because you better deliver or else."
Sony has rolled out similar multi-platform releases in the US and UK and these are pending in Japan, Canada and across Europe and Asia.
Sigel says it is difficult to determine the show's value in sales, as worldwide rights are being negotiated now, but he thinks it could go close to earning $1 million an episode in advertising revenue.
Sigel, who was also a writer on Dark Skies, which screened in 1997 in Australia, says Afterworld was written to attract a broader audience than the usual line-up of young geeks. The simultaneous release on sci-fi TV is aimed at drawing older fans who are more comfortable with television to the new media once they realise the show can be watched on the phones they carry daily.
Afterworld is a new type of writing, inspired by the need to produce coherent, strong, stand-alone episodes that can hook viewers inside three minutes.
"I equate it to writing an hour-long drama in haiku," Sigel says.
Interestingly, the short format works partly because its so addictive - a bit like the "I'll just watch one more clip" mindset that ambushes you when you stumble across Rage and find yourself still watching two hours later.
But given the global reach of convergent content - and its potential dollar value - does it matter that Afterworld is still one for the geeks?
"We are happy with sci-fi fans because they are dedicated audiences," Sigel says. "They keep coming back, although that does have its downsides - because you better deliver or else."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/twominute-warning/2007/09/08/1188783548901.html?page=2
http://www.scifitv.com.au/tvguide/?show=63
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