Raven Kai – Page 12 – ÜberSciFiGeek

Dylan Kussman on His Film Noir Web Series “The Steps”

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of being on set when some friends of mine shot the pilot for an upcoming web series. While there, I met a wonderful group of talented people, several of whom worked on a Chattanooga based web series called The Steps. While I usually watch sci-fi and fantasy shows, I am a huge advocate of indie films and web series in general so I checked it out. While I was at first really just curious to see what kind of production value I could expect from the project we were working on together, what I found was so intriguing and impressive that I was immediately a huge fan. The look, the feel and the sound of the show was beautiful and unique and I was immediately hooked.

The Steps is the story of Charlie Madison, an P.I. from L.A. who is now hiding out in Chattanooga, living under a fake name. He’s trying to flee his troubled past but trouble seems to find him. It’s a gritty, intense, high-quality crime drama with a touch of film noir, dash of mystery and a pinch of thriller.

Tim Cofield, who was director of photography for The Steps, put me in touch with series creator, writer, director and star Dylan Kussman. You might recognize him from his long career in film and television including Dead Poets Society and Leatherheads. He was gracious enough to take some time to answer a few questions for me about the show.

ÜberSciFiGeek (ÜSFG) What were your inspirations while creating the concept and writing The Steps?

Dylan Kussman (DK) I was inspired by two things. One was my own physical move from Los Angeles to Chattanooga in the winter of 2008. My wife and I moved here to be closer to her family, and while I have personally enjoyed the transition, I enjoyed conceiving of a character who wouldn’t. The second source was the story of Anthony Pellicano, the infamous “P.I. to the Stars”, who is in jail for extortion and blackmail. You can read about him in several places online. I liked the idea of someone who worked for him having to flee Los Angeles in order to escape Pellicano’s legal fate, and what that person might have to do in order to hide out for a while in a small town.

(ÜSFG) Did you write the story and then decide to make it for the web or did you decide to make a web series and then write the story?

(DK) The second one.

(ÜSFG) Why did you choose the web?

(DK) The Web just proved to be too tempting to me as a distribution platform. It’s just… there. And I knew I could shoot something and put it up on there and someone on the other side of the planet Earth could watch it. For free. That’s just… nuts. It is a vastly powerful tool that we’re still trying to figure out how to use. It really is, in a sense, the Wild Frontier. How any of us filmmakers are gonna make any money with it I have no idea. But you gotta start somewhere, and for now, it’s allowing a whole new generation of artists to cut their teeth and explore their talents for very little money, and then have their work seen and commented on. That’s amazing to me.

(ÜSFG) The Steps had a really ambitious marketing campaign with Space Truffles Entertainment. What did you do that is different than most web series marketing and how do you think it paid off for you?

(DK) I suppose the most interesting thing we’ve done in terms of marketing is put up a few ads on the back of some Chattanooga city buses, promoting the series and the free wi-fi on all the bus lines. Other than that, we’ve been out in the scrum with everyone else, looking for online reviews, getting active on Facebook and Twitter and Digg and whatnot. I’d say our efforts have paid off with a solid, supportive fan base, one that we’re working every day to expand. It’s a step-by-step, day-at-a-time process, it’s slow, it doesn’t go viral while I’m in bed, and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do. I’m learning a ton.

(ÜSFG) You’ve been acting since the mid 80s, appearing in some very well known films and TV series. When did you start writing? Have you always wanted to write and direct?

(DK) I’ve written all my life. I wrote my first feature in 1990… it’s called Burn, it won a grand jury prize at Slamdance but never found distribution, so you can’t see it, so I can tell you that it was pure, unadulterated genius. I’ve been directing shorts since high school, but this is my most ambitious project to date, no doubt. I’d like to do more. I enjoy it immensely.

(ÜSFG) Who were your influences in filmmaking?

(DK) Wow. There are so many filmmakers whose work I admire. I’ll list a few… Akira Kurosawa, the Coen Brothers, Billy Wilder, the David Simon-Ed Burns writing team (the writers behind the HBO series The Wire) was a huge influence on me as I was writing the show, Robert Rodriguez, Werner Herzog, John Cassavetes. That’s far from a complete list, but it’s enough for now.

(ÜSFG) The Steps received some praise from big names in Hollywood right from the beginning. I imagine that made you feel pretty good. What kind of feedback have you been getting since the launch?

(DK) People have been really positive. I had hoped that we would fill a void in the Web series world by doing a drama, a mystery, a neo-noir with an anti-hero at the center of it, and I think that’s been the case. We’re appealing to an online audience that hasn’t been catered to yet, and it’s been a pleasure to find those people out there who are into what we’re doing.

(ÜSFG) You wear a lot of hats in The Steps. Writer, creator, director and star. How did you juggle everything? Is the end result what you had in mind all along or has it gone through changes as it went into production?

(DK) First of all, I couldn’t have done any of it without my cast and crew. Their dedication and hard work is what made it possible for me to get this thing done, period. For me, it has been an absolute thrill watching my vision get realized. I can’t even tell you how close the end product has come to the one I initially conceived at my writing desk, and that has been such an incredibly powerful and humbling experience. Sometimes I don’t know how we pulled off what we did. I am continually amazed at everyone’s contributions, and I’m so grateful for them.

(ÜSFG) In addition to the episodes, Charlie has a vlog with additional backmatter included. What made you decide to do the vlog in character?

(DK) That idea came from Executive Producer Adam Paul and also Gennefer Snowfield at Space Truffles, and it stemmed from their belief that Web series have got to offer personal, highly immersive subsidiary content in order to engage viewers, who increasingly demand more in-depth, more interactive ways to experience a story online. I did it for them, but I ended up having fun with them. They’re little mini-episodes that I can do by myself late at night when I’m wondering why my episodes don’t have a gazillion hits each yet like The Guild.

(ÜSFG) We’ve learned a bit about Charlie. Will we eventually learn any back-stories of the other characters?

(DK) I hope so. I probably could have done a better job in that area. But the shortness of the format, and my overriding desire to propel Charlie’s story through each of the installments, just kinda shoved the other characters to the periphery, to a certain extent. I think we’re learning something about Doris in these latest episodes, and I’ve enjoyed watching that develop. But as for more… might have to wait until next season.

(ÜSFG) Did you hold auditions or are you working with a group of actors and crew you already have a history with?

(DK) No auditions. I cast local actors I had done theater with in the area, ones that I knew could fill out the roles, take direction, be human beings on camera. In not a single case was I disappointed. The crew formed organically around us through Tim’s and my professional networks here in Chattanooga. We reached out, asked for help, and people climbed onboard. Some were performing their jobs for the first time; but there’s nothing like on-the-job training in the filmmaking world. If you’re smart, and you pay attention and listen, you can grab on for the ride and you come through the other side with a head full of knowledge and experience, maybe even a little confidence. I liked watching some of my actors and crew go through that, it’s one of the joys of the art form.

(ÜSFG) Once you decided to put it together, how long did it take to make it happen?

(DK) Well, we did some initial shooting in the Fall of ’08, and we’re still in post on episode 10, so… a year and three-quarters and counting, I guess?

(ÜSFG) What are your hopes for The Steps, both as a series and as a vehicle to other productions?

(DK) I want to shoot a fully-financed season 2. Barring that, I’d be happy to transform the idea into an hour-long cable television show, I think it could do really well in a format like that. I’m also developing my first feature to direct, which I’m really excited about.

(ÜSFG) Any news on if there will be a season 2 yet?

(DK) I’d love to do a second season, I’ve got a bunch of good ideas for where the story can go, and for how much deeper trouble my old friend Charlie can get into.

Additional The Steps Links:
The Steps Official Website
The Steps on KoldCast
The Steps on Facebook
The Steps on Twitter

Becoming Infamous — a Chat with the Team Behind the Dark and Gritty Web Series

The online network KoldCast.tv hosts a myriad of web series and has an ever-growing sci-fi and fantasy selection. One of those series is Infamous. (I discussed Infamous recently on the KoldCast blog.) For those of you who haven’t seen the show, it’s a morally ambiguous contemporary sci-fi series featuring secret organizations, action, intrigue and mutants. I spoke with the team behind Infamous and asked them a few questions about the inspiration and aspirations for the series. Greg Washington is co-creator, producer and the actor who plays “John”, John Chambers produces and plays “Solomon” and Joey Barto is co-creator and director of the show.

ÜberSciFiGeek (ÜSFG) What were your inspirations while creating and writing Infamous?

Greg Washington (GW) Our inspirations were comic books and movies as well as video games with anti-heroes. We really wanted to create a world where people could easily slip in and out of fantasy and reality; a little something for the cynics and conspiracy theorists as well as the action and thriller junkies. Wolverine was probably the seed that spawned the Infamous web series. The most fun we had creating honestly was Solomon and hopefully it shows through the character that John Chambers has brought to life.

Joey Barto (JB) X-Men had a lot of influence, being one of my favorite comics as a kid. There are so many complex relationships and characters in the series, Wolverine being one of the darkest. The characters, both good and bad, were almost always flawed, and that’s what makes it possible to identify with them.

John Chambers (JC) Solomon is pieces of some of my favorite villains and anti-heroes. Many of his mannerisms have come from the many great Number 2’s in the series The Prisoner. The world they created there is very much like that of Infamous. Those who are fans of the show will know which Number 2 is my favorite (Leo McKern). From the heroes side, I really enjoy some of the flaws presented in the character of Michael Garibaldi from Babylon 5 and that of the Clint Eastwood anti-heroes of the old Westerns.

(ÜSFG) Why did you choose the web?

(GW) We chose the web for a lot of reasons. One specifically being the fact that we could make the show we wanted to make and the fact that it’s where television is headed.

(JB) It is the delivery medium of the future. Its instant accessibility is the main reason. Also it’s great to have such immediate response and gratification to what we’re doing. In any other medium, we’d have to wait weeks or months before airing. Now we see the response to what we’re doing almost immediately.

(JC) I think on all fronts the web offers what is being termed as New Media. It is cost effective, gives a wide range to what we can do independently, opens us up to a larger market, and provides us with something that few series have… the unknown use of the web. When I say unknown, [I mean] there are many out there that are trying to find a place in this New Media for both the productions and the products. There is no set game plan for marketing, it is completely open and with that… and a little desperation to create something… it all leads to inspiration and success.

(ÜSFG) Did you write the story and then decide to make it for the web or did you decide to make a web series and then write the story?

(GW) We decided to make a web series and then wrote the story. We wanted something quick that could get out to people in a hurry. Kind of like the mix-tape in hip hop. We wanted to create something stylized with the tools we had and let word of mouth and that home grown experience build our audience.

(ÜSFG) You’ve got a very interesting cast of characters with very distinctive personalities. How much of that is scripted traits and how much freedom do the actors have to create their characters?

(GW) The script laid down the foundation for the direction the characters would travel but everyone has raised their character by 10 times. I don’t think I ever pictured Solomon being as dark as he is because I have known John for years and have never seen that side of him. He is really creating something special. James Palmer is fascinating to watch because he is a perfectionist, but also loves to laugh and joke so seeing him so frantic and disjointed on camera is great to watch. Liz as Morgan, we really couldn’t have found a better person. She’s athletic and beautiful and she is adding that hint of straight psycho to her character. I could go on and on about our cast, we have a great group of people and an incredible organic atmosphere for everyone to create on both sides of the camera. It’s great on the shoot days of Infamous.

(JB) Greg pretty much summed it up perfectly. We are BEYOND lucky to have such a talented cast. The fact that they are so dedicated to this series, it really blows me away. The characters they’ve created are beyond anything I could have thought up, they really are amazing.

(JC) As an actor on the series, I believe there is a great deal of organic nature to all of the characters. It seems that while the scripts and situations lend themselves to certain choices for the characters, overall, those are many times thrown out and something new is created as Greg and Joey let the actors make real choices. This opens up a wide variety of options for the actors. It is sometimes beautiful… sometimes a bit crazy and we have to be pulled in a bit. Overall, it is one of the more expressive shows I have ever worked on.

(ÜSFG) Will we eventually learn any back-stories of briefly occurring characters (such as the poor woman in the beginning of Genesis, Chapter 2) and how they tie into the big picture?

(GW) Yes. Our structure is built to throw tidbits in whenever we can to give a little closure to things we have already shown. It will all close out very nicely and hopefully it will make audiences go back and watch it all again to get the bigger picture.

(JB) We really want to expand the story into different mediums through both minisode vignettes and ARG interactive elements. I’d really love to creative an immersive world for fans over time, create a far more rich story than can be told merely through episodes.

(ÜSFG) From reading your blog, there’s quite a back-story for your production company. Tell me a little bit about how Infamous came together from a production standpoint?

(GW) Joey and I had been dying to do a project together for a long while now. We did a little short together that was someone else’s baby and really wasn’t something that we both enjoyed. We started meeting early last year after work hours to discuss what we wanted to do. After a couple of scripts were thrown on the table and a few more ideas and treatments, we both agreed that we needed that “mix-tape” feel to our first project. Meaning something raw in form but with a look and feel that would get people hooked, more of a calling card for future projects, but we didn’t want to do just any story. We wanted to do something dark like all of the comic books and films we enjoy. Instead of jumping into our main hero and basing a problem around him, we created Solomon. From Solomon we created Palmer and then the world built around them. From day one, we always wanted John Chambers and James Palmer in those roles and were very happy when they agreed. It was actually John Chambers’ idea to make Morgan a woman after reading the pilot. Picking our amnesiac bad ass was very difficult. We had people in mind that had either moved or we felt couldn’t give that kind of commitment so the character was the last to get cast. Once we were rolling, the choices we made for our cast shined through. Its hysterical watching everyone rush to unload equipment then go through the works: wardrobe, hair and makeup, go through the scene, run to monitors to watch playback. Its a whirlwind and everyone does great at it. This project would not have come together if it wasn’t for my friends, the cast and crew of Infamous, and also Fairfield Studios for donating their equipment and staff, Crain Video for all his wonderful space, and Yoboga to keep my energy level up and making me stay in shape.

(JC) On my end, I have always enjoyed working with Greg on set and in the acting world and with Joey. I have been tied to him and production for some time now. It is exciting to be around people with drive and with original ideas and a great sense of Sci-Fi. Once I was handed a script, I had to be a part of it. Then I became part of production and producing staff. All of it has been a wonderful ride with friends and people who I enjoy creating with.

(ÜSFG) Did you hold auditions or are you working with a group of actors and crew you already have a history with?

(GW) We did not hold auditions! We wrote with the actors we have in mind, not really knowing what they would create but knew it would be on the right track for what we wanted to see.

(ÜSFG) Once you decided to put it together, how long did it take to make it happen?

(GW) I want to say October of last year our first few scripts were locked in, I had just started learning basics for new fighting styles, Liz was working on gymnastics and boxing and by November John and James were on board and we were discussing when to shoot the pilot. We were going to shoot it in December but didn’t anticipate the weather, and forgot about the holidays. As a whole, we started principle photography in January, in 17 degree weather. 🙂

(ÜSFG) What are your hopes for Infamous, both as a series and as a vehicle to other productions?

(GW) I hope Infamous has the audience base to go a few seasons. They are fun characters and would be great to revisit with a few more hands on deck that are as eager and into it as the people we have involved now. Once it’s wrapped for this season I’d like to take two weeks off and start brainstorming for the next project and start prepping one that we have already and didn’t think we could do first thing out of the gate. We are learning so much doing Infamous and I would like to show that.

(JB) I hope the audience enjoys the show, and we can get the support we need to continue making the show and pay the ridiculously talented individuals who make this show what it is.

(JC) They are boundless. I would love to work on this for several seasons, to finish the larger arc of all the characters. Other productions… I think… I KNOW they will come as we have many more stories to tell. In the end it would be a joy to just do this for a living, making great shows, working in Sci-Fi (as a fan myself), and doing the craft that I love. If we could fund this, I would work on it for years.

(ÜSFG) How many episodes are you planning for each season and how often can we look forward to them being released?

(GW) Infamous season one will be 12 episodes with the occasional minisode to give a little extra. They can be seen every Monday on koldcast.tv or infamouswebseries.com.

(ÜSFG) What is the overall feeling you hope viewers come away with after watching Infamous?

(GW) A couple of things. I hope viewers think the show is bad ass and enjoy the world we have tried to create and I hope people realize that you don’t need a studio or that big break to create film and television, you just need great friends and an imagination.

(JC) That it’s a hell of a fun story. What is next?!

You can watch watch Infamous on koldcast.tv or infamouswebseries.com. Check out these other great links to find out more about Infamous:

Infamous Creator’s Blog
Infamous on Facebook
Infamous on Twitter
Infamous Zazzle Shop

Travis Gordon on “Spellfury” — A Comedic Fantasy Adventure

(Teaser Clip of Spellfury, Episode 1)

KoldCast.tv is an online network that offers dozens of original series created exclusively for the web in a multitude of genres. One of those web series is a fantasy comedy called Spellfury. I recently offered up my opinion of the show on KoldCast’s blog (you can read it by clicking here). To sum it up, Spellfury is funny and entertaining, and succeeds where many previous attempts at mixing comedy and fantasy failed.

I recently spoke with creator Travis Gordon about his inspiration as a filmmaker and what influenced his creation of Spellfury.

ÜberSciFiGeek (ÜSFG) Who were your influences in filmmaking?

Travis Gordon (TG) George Lucas. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are my favorite three films.

(ÜSFG) Did you always plan on doing Spellfury as a web series?

(TG) We’d worked for about 6 years on a feature-length film called Mass Stupidity that we’re submitting to festivals now so I had lived with this heavy burden of carrying this huge film from script to post production and I told myself I wouldn’t be doing another film for a long while so I decided I wanted to do something easier. A web series provides more freedom for a writer, a film is very structured, a series can be a little looser, I do have the characters and story arcs worked out for the show for a few seasons but a web series allows the characters to grow and take on a life of their own. I can watch an actor play the character and go, oh, that was interesting, I’d love to see more of that and try and work it into the storyline. There’s a lot more collaboration with the actors, I have more flexibility in the storytelling, I’m enjoying that.

(ÜSFG) You have several other projects that have gotten some acclaim. Tell us a little bit about them.

(TG) We received a Bronze in Dramatic Shorts at The Houston International Worldfest Film Festival in 2008, it was very exciting for all of us, it was the first time we had won an international award for filmmaking. It was for a sci-fi short called Revelation about a woman struggling with her predetermined destiny, it also starred Julie O’Halloran, Robbie Drebitt and Penu Chalykoff from Spellfury and was shot entirely in front of greenscreens.

(ÜSFG) When can we expect more episodes of Spellfury?

(TG) I’m going to wrap up episode 9-12 in the next few months and that will be the end of season one. After that I might take a little break and make a DVD with extras, commentaries and lots of behind the scenes stuff and then start into season 2.

(ÜSFG) What are your hopes for the future of Spellfury?

(TG) My hopes are we can grow our audience and actually make a profit on the show in season 2. My dream is that the show can be sustainable enough that I can actually start to pay the actors and crew for their hard work, they’ve been so supportive of the show from day one! That’s the trouble with making a web series, there isn’t enough money coming in to pay for the episodes. I think things will change soon though. More and more people are watching video online nowadays, the advertising dollars are shifting from television to online.

(ÜSFG) For anyone watching Spellfury, what’s the one thing you most want them to take away from the experience?

(TG) I want them to think “wow, that was fun”.

You can watch Spellfury on the official website and at KoldCast, then check out these other links:

Spellfury Official Website
Spellfury on KoldCast
Spellfury on Facebook
Spellfury on Twitter
Travis Gordon on Twitter
Travis Gordon on Funny or Die

“Tunla” Teaser Trailer

Tunla the Series — Teaser Trailer from Tunla the Series on Vimeo.

Tunla is a new web series currently in production and set to premiere this fall. I had the privilege of being on set for the shoot of the pilot, so keep an eye out for some behind-the-scenes fun with the cast and crew. In the meantime, check out this teaser and get a first glimpse at the town of Tunla.

Happy Easter from ÜberSciFiGeek

The Rovio from WowWee

Ever wanted to be in two places at the same time? Now you can.

WowWee has a long history of creating imaginative, high-tech toys, dating back almost 30 years. Originally developing toys for other companies, their focus shifted to their own branding in the late 80s when they began offering robotic toys and remote-controlled animals. As technology advanced, WowWee has stayed at the front of the game, creating unique robotic offerings that incorporate the highest quality and cutting-edge technology while maintaining a beautiful esthetic design.

They offer stylized humanoids, cuddly animals and even a realistic chimpanzee, as well as more traditional robots in both humanoid and creature forms. Their most popular and innovative offering has been the series of Robosapiens, first released in 2004, which have sold millions of units in the past 6 years. Newer models offer a range of multimedia functions including speech capability and user customization.

Taking those multimedia developments to another level, WowWee now introduces the Rovio, a Wi-Fi enabled, programmable, wheeled robot that includes a webcam, microphone and speakers. A step up from other mobile robotic toys, the Rovio is not just a glorified RC car but a useful tool. Because of its Wi-Fi capability, not only can it be programmed to patrol your home so you can check on things when you are away, the Rovio can be used to represent you in meetings, gatherings and just about any other scenario you can imagine.

The Rovio comes with an installation disc but it’s recommended that you get the newest software directly from their website. Once installed, you connect the Rovio via a USB cord to your computer to set it up. When I first plugged it in, it wasn’t recognized. After powering it down a few times, it was finally recognized and from there, it was simple. Initial setup was quick and the interface is easy to use. The quality of the sound is clear both in the speaker and the mic. The video size, quality and speed can be adjusted so if you need a clear picture more than speed or vice versa, it’s as simple as a few clicks.

Moving and controlling the Rovio is easy as well. The interface is accessed by typing the address into a browser. I typically use Chrome, but the speaker and mic functions didn’t work. I tried Firefox and Safari with the same results. When I loaded the interface in Internet Explorer, everything functioned correctly, so keep in mind that you currently must have Internet Explorer loaded on whatever computer you are logging into Rovio with. Moving Rovio is as simple as clicking on one of the directional icons or even clicking on the Rovio icon in the center of the directional pad, dragging and dropping it where you want to go.

Rovio Directional Pad

While installation, setup and controlling the Rovio is easy, getting the remote access to work might be a challenge. First off, you have to set your wireless router to allow incoming connections. You also need to know the IP address assigned to your Rovio. Most home networks have dynamic IP addresses (changing each time the device is connected to the network). This can cause a problem for you if there is a power outage, or some other situation arises that resets your IP address for the Rovio. When you are home, it’s not a problem because the software includes a utility called Find Rovio that searches for its current IP address and allows you to connect to it. As for finding it when you are away from home, there are free services that will look for your Rovio’s IP address and connect you to it by simply going to the web address you’ve assigned for it, but it does require the purchase of a domain name with the companies offering the service. The average price is about $40 per year for the domain, so if you don’t have your own website to piggyback it off of, you can always choose one of those services to connect to.

Since it can get complicated getting the remote access to work, WowWee tries to make it easier by offering some comprehensive tutorials on YouTube to talk you through each step. Once you get it set up, the possibilities are endless. You can access your Rovio from any internet connection, including your cell phone, PDA or even game systems.

If I had a wish list of things I’d change about the Rovio, I think the biggest issues would be battery life, browsers supported, and the adjustability of the camera. The battery only lasts about an hour so, if you have a larger house, you might want to invest in a second dock so that it can get to the nearest dock wherever it is when the battery runs low. My Rovio died before making it “home” a few times. As I mentioned before, the Rovio is only fully functional at this point if you use Internet Explorer. When I tried adjusting the video settings in IE, the quality would change but not the image size, so while sound and video worked with IE, the video picture wasn’t as sharp or clear as it was with Chrome. As for the neck, it has only 3 positions (as you can see from the image above). It does not rotate or pivot between the mid and upper setting. Granted, I was just chasing my dogs and family around the house, but the camera angle limitations were a bit frustrating.

All in all, the Rovio is fun to play with, easy to use, and has a lot of potential uses. With the frequent software updates offered by WowWee, I’m sure browser support and camera functionality (if not position) will continue to improve.

Features:

Easily control Rovio remotely 24/7 from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Use any web-enabled device: PC or Mac, cell phone, smartphone, PDA or even your video game console.
Rovio detects your computer settings and guides you through the setup process.
Its head-mounted moveable camera and wide range of vision enable you to see and hear exactly what Rovio sees and hears, on your screen.
Set waypoints so that Rovio can navigate itself around your home, without having to control each step yourself!*
At the click of a button, send Rovio back to the charging dock using its self-docking capabilities — even when you are not at home!*
Guide Rovio through dimly lit locations with the aid of its built-in LED headlight.
Rechargeable NiMH battery included
1 x Charging dock with built-in TrueTrack Beacon
3 x Omni-directional wheels
1 x Head-mounted VGA camera
LED illumination
1 x Speaker and 1 x microphone for 2-way audio
USB connectivity
Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11b and 802.11g)

*Rovio requires additional TrueTrack Room Beacons (each sold separately) to navigate or self-dock across multiple rooms.

The Rovio can be purchased through Amazon, or wherever you find your favorite high-tech toys.

Looney Labs Adds Two New Games to the Fluxx Family

Looney Labs knows how to have serious fun. The rocket scientist duo of Kristin and Andrew Looney (both formerly of NASA) have churned out another two additions to their award-winning Fluxx series of games. For those of you who have never heard of Fluxx (what?!?), it’s a card game where the rules change with every card that is played. Introduced over 20 years ago, Fluxx has won many awards, sold millions of copies, and spawned several spin-off games, including Zombie Fluxx, Martian Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx and various foreign language versions of the game. With the rules changing based on what cards are played, no two games will ever be the same.

The Fluxx games were designed by the Looneys and are, as usual, illustrated by them as well. They are about the size of standard playing cards, but have rounded corners so you won’t get any dog-eared cards standing out from the rest of the deck. Also, with the back of every card being identical, you can mix and match your cards to build your own custom deck, because, with the exception of Martian Fluxx, where you are the Martians, every game has the same basic playing rules and ever-changing goals.

Fluxx is easy to play and starts with one basic gameplay rule: draw one, play one. From there, everything changes, because every card has a different set of instructions on it. Each variation of Fluxx includes the following types of cards: Rules, Goals, Actions and Keepers. Most versions also include Creeper cards, typically a card you don’t want in your hand. When you play a rule card, you change the rules of the game for everyone. For example, you could place the Draw 2 or Hand Limit 1 rules, or perhaps you place the Play All rule where, instead of only playing 1 card per turn, you have to play your entire hand each turn. Play All, by the way, creates some crazy and fun twists in the game because you don’t get to choose what cards you play and, sometimes, playing those cards can make it easier for someone else to win the game, but that’s okay because you’ll laugh while you’re losing. You don’t like a rule? No problem, just replace it with one you like, if you have one in your hand.

The Keeper cards can be people, places or things, depending on which version of Fluxx you are playing. They are collected and held or discarded throughout the game as you try to accomplish the Goal or Goals. When the game begins, there are no goals until you play a Goal card. The Goal card will typically specify two or more conditions that must be met in order to win the game. For example, the first player to have two specific Keeper cards wins the game. If you are playing a version with Creeper cards, some goals may specify that you can’t win the game, even if you have met the goal, if you have a particular Creeper in your hand, or may require you to have a particular Creeper in order to win. The Creeper cards are similar to the Keeper cards in that they are usually people, places or things, but they typically have a negative impact on your hand. Action cards are just that, the action you take on your turn. Actions allow you to change the rules, steal your opponent’s cards, draw extra cards, and a myriad of other things that can turn the game around quickly.

The two newest Fluxx games live up to the same artful, fun, high-quality standards you’ve come to expect from Looney Labs.

Family Fluxx is fun for the whole family

While all of the Fluxx family of games are fun and easy to play for everyone (most include rules for gameplay for younger players), Family Fluxx was intentionally designed for a family gathering of all ages. From 6 to 96, everyone can play and enjoy this game because there are no rules to learn and every card has instructions on it. Featuring easy to understand Goals, Actions and Keepers, Family Fluxx has no Creepers and all of the Goals are to collect familiar objects you find around your home. Example goals are “Cheesecake: The player with Cheese and Cake on the table wins” or “Mice Love Cheese: The player with the Mouse and Cheese on the table wins.”

Keepers in Family Fluxx include things like colorful toy balls, yummy cake and ice-cream, household pets and pests, rainy weather and even a playground. The Action and New Rule cards are similar to other versions of Fluxx but add a few new, family-friendly rules such as the Child Bonus (if you are 12 years old or younger, you can draw an extra card each turn), the Parent Bonus (if you are a parent, you can draw an extra card each turn), and the Grandparent Bonus (if you are a grandparent, you can ignore hand limit rules).

Alison Looney’s artwork for Family Fluxx is similar to a children’s picture book, and with all the cute little pictures, it should keep the minds of young’uns from wandering too far from the chocolate cake or the kitty cat in their hands.

Looney Labs has a history of being an eco-friendly company, and with EcoFluxx, they continue to follow that tradition while making learning about ecology fun.

My mother is an elementary school teacher whose favorite subject is science. The moment I showed her EcoFluxx, she was thrilled. She oooed and ahhed over the cards as she read them, and pointed out how each one would help with lesson plans. By design, EcoFluxx helps develop and reinforce understanding of the ecology and life sciences, and actually meets the National Life Science Content Standard for grade levels 5-8 and 9-12. The illustrations by Derek Ring are detailed and similar to what you might find in a junior high science book.

EcoFluxx follows the traditional Fluxx gameplay, with wildlife featured on their Keeper cards and environmental hazards on their Creeper cards. The Goals require having 2 Keepers to win a step further by making them Eats cards where a bear might eat a fish, thus teaching kids about the food chain. Rules such as Recycling and Composting further educate about how every event and action in life has an effect on other aspects of nature. My favorite, and perhaps most impactful, Creeper card is Forest Fire. It’s pretty straight-forward in its statement — “Nobody can win while this card is on the table.” Its special rule is that, while it’s on the table, one of your Keepers must be discarded at the start of your turn, thus demonstrating the destruction that fires wreak in nature as you watch it “devour” your bears, frogs and insect life along with the trees.

Another very important card included in the deck, but not used for gameplay, is the EcoFluxx Pledge, a challenge issued from Looney Labs to do your part and make a difference:

We Pledge Allegiance to the Earth

Our planet is finite. Our resources are limited. We as human beings have a conscience and free will. We have choices and are aware of our impact on nature and the world around us. We can choose to be compassionate, and care about other people (both present and future) as well as our environment. Or we can be selfish and greedy, only caring for ourselves. Every single thing we do in our daily life affects the health of the planet and the well-being of other people. When you play EcoFluxx, think about the choices you make and the interconnectedness of all things and share your insights with others. Let’s choose to treat the Earth right! Spread the word! Looney Labs will donate a portion of the proceeds from EcoFluxx to environmental groups. For immediate actions you can take and for a list of recipient organizations, visit: EcoFluxx Foundation

Thanks for helping us make a better world!

Not only does EcoFluxx have a positive impact on players by teaching about ecology and raising environmental awareness, it maintains the ecological standards that Looney Labs has always held for their games. All Looney Labs games and packaging are made from recycled materials, the packages are compact and use minimal resources in their production, the inks are environmentally friendly, and everything is made 100% in the USA. Also, as part of the EcoFluxx Pledge, Looney Labs is donating 5% of all sales of EcoFluxx to environmental groups to help further their protection of our environment.

You can purchase Family Fluxx, EcoFluxx and other Fluxx games directly from Looney Labs, from Amazon, or at your local game shop.

“Dragon Keeper” by Robin Hobb

With over 20 fantasy novels in print, Robin Hobb has firmly established herself in the fantasy community, garnering praise from both her readers and her peers as “one of the most gifted fantasy authors writing today”, and deservedly so. What I discovered as I began to read Dragon Keeper, the first book in her new The Rain Wilds Chronicles series, was an endearing gem that struck a cord with me the way books like Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth, Raymond E. Feist’s The Riftwar Saga and Marcia J. Bennett’s Ni’Lach series did.

From the moment I first laid eyes on Dragon Keeper, I was excited. The cover of the book appears to be 3D animation, with the kind of color and depth you’d find in a scene from an Ubisoft game such as Myst. It features a girl and a dragon standing along the banks of a river at sunset with a tree village sprawling in the background against an overcast sky. The image is so detailed, I feel as if I could step into the scene and wander the grassy banks or walk across the suspended bridges between the tree tops. I am pleased to say that the world painted within the pages is just as vibrant and detailed as that depicted on the cover.

Dragon Keeper is the story of an ill-fated attempt at restoring dragons, a near extinct species, to their former glory. After being rescued by dragon Tintaglia from a savage invasion by the Chalcedeans, the Trader cities strike a bargain with her: she will continue to protect them from their enemies if they assist her in trying to restore her species.

Dragons begin their life as sea serpents and must make a voyage upriver to their former breeding grounds in order to start the transformation process into dragons. Tintaglia disappears soon after only a handful of dragons hatch, and the Traders find themselves stuck with the burden of having to care for them. A plan is made to “help” relocate the dragons to the fabled city of Kelsingra, the ancient homeland that has long ago disappeared into the jungles and into myth. The only clues to the location of Kelsingra lie in the ancestral memories of the dragons and a handful of ancient scrolls that have been translated by Alise, a woman who has dedicated her life to the study of dragons.

Having made her way to the riverbanks of Cassarick to continue her studies, Alise soon finds herself caught up in the expedition to Kelsingra. Chaperoned by her husband’s much-disapproving secretary, she travels up the Rain Wilds River with a motley assortment of misfits and castaways in hopes of discovering the past while helping the dragons find their future.

At risk of sounding like a fangurl, I have to admit how very enamored I am with this book. Not just enamoured, but deeply, madly in love with it. I simply devoured it, reading about 150 to 180 pages a day (it’s 474 pages long), giving it every waking moment I could spare. All of the characters are interesting, even the unlikable ones. In many books with a lot of supporting characters, those characters remain very two-dimensional and you are left with only an impression of who they are as they fulfill whatever their purpose is in moving the story along. The characters in this book, however, truly round out what should be considered an ensemble cast. There is a depth to them, each personality, emotion and motivation ringing true and breathing life into them. Even the relationships and interactions between characters are compelling.

One of the nice little touches that forward the story is the correspondence between towns that begins each new chapter. Carrier pigeons are used to carry scrolls between the towns and, along with those scrolls, two of the pigeon keepers attach personal notes. These notes not only give us some information about their own lives, but add additional tidbits about what’s happening back at home as Alise and the others make their way up the Rain Wilds River.

Dragon Keeper explores the internal workings of each character with both humor and levity. The world is beautiful and wild, the characters are compelling, and the story is so interesting — and so easy to submerse yourself in — that by halfway through the book I was already lamenting the long wait for the next book in the series. Imagine my joy when I noticed this little note at the very end of the liner notes at the back of the book:

Look for the second book in the Rain Wilds Chronicles, Dragon Haven, coming in May 2010 from Eos.

This book didn’t just make my week, it looks like it will be making my summer as well.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Dragon Keeper (Canada)
Dragon Keeper (US)

You can also get your copy of Dragon Keeper in the fantasy section of your local book retailer.

“Black Magic Sanction” by Kim Harrison

Black Magic Sanction

I read a lot of fantasy and urban mythology novels but not a large amount of vampire or supernatural fiction, mainly because most of the ones I’ve started to read turned out to be romance novels, something I’m not a fan of. Yes, I read the Twilight books at the request of my teenagers, and the one-off vampire and other supernatural books I heard good things about here and there, but in general I’m not a supernatural junkie. That being said, I think I’ve finally found a supernatural series that doesn’t fall into the romance or tween categories.

EOS Books (a division of HarperCollins) just released Black Magic Sanction, the newest book in The Hollows series from best-selling author Kim Harrison. The series is kind of a mixed-genre fantasy with a healthy balance of urban mythology (think Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint), supernatural adventure (vampires, witches, demons and a host of otherwordly fairy folk) and revisionist history wrapped up in a classic detective/mystery novel style.

Rachel is a bit of a jack of all trades: a detective, a bounty hunter and a witch (who’s recently discovered some unsettling information about her heritage). Her business is to track down vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons and other supernatural creatures who’ve found themselves on the wrong side of the law. In her world, so very close to our own, these creatures are not only real but are part of mainstream society. During an event called “The Turn”, a virus devastated the human population and the supernaturals (or Inderlanders as they call themselves) decided to reveal themselves because they were no longer outnumbered by the humans. The government system collapsed and was replaced by two organizations: the Inderlander Security service (run by non-humans) and the Federal Inderlander Bureau (run by humans).

Rachel lives in the Hollows (the Inderlander side of Cincinnati) in an old Gothic Church with a living vampire named Ivy (there are two kinds of living vampires: the low blood — humans who’ve been infected by the traditional undead vampires, inheriting some of the qualities of a vampire but not the benefit of immortality at death; and high blood — those who were born infected with the virus and will thus rise again as an undead vampire when their mortal body dies. Ivy is the latter, a high blood vampire and last of her family to still be living) and a pixy named Jenks. They are her associates and surrogate family, assisting her in her cases and sharing her life.

Due to events in a previous book, which aren’t completely explained in Black Magic Sanction, Rachel has now been shunned by the Coven (the governing body of witches) for using black magic (something she detests), and turned from the hunter into the hunted. She finds herself kidnapped and imprisoned, facing a pretty grim fate. Fortunately, her friends are there for her and she escapes, setting off a chain of chaotic events where you can’t help but feel sorry for her as she gets battered and bruised, used and abused, while trying to free herself once and for all from the grip of the Coven and various adversaries from her past. As the story unfolds, you learn more about the history of the Inderlanders and how Rachel has now found herself on the wrong side of their law.

There is a huge cast of characters and creatures in the books, far too many to examine them all, but a few in particular play a large role in Rachel’s life:

Ivy embodies the familiar vampyric struggle between dark desires and trying to live a “normal” life. She has a deep affection and close relationship with Rachel, a tender and sweet friendship that anyone would be lucky to have. There is some reference to Ivy biting Rachel at some point in the past, the end result of which is a supernatural bond, a lasting longing and sensual tension between them that has remained unacted upon. I say sensual not sexual because the relationship is a very close friendship where the love they feel for each other is so strong that it seems the lines sometimes get blurred, rather then the typical overtly sexual flirtation often seen in close same-sex friendships in popular media.

The pixy Jenks is the comic relief of the story. He, his wife and a multitude of their children live beneath a tree stump in the churchyard where Rachel lives. Just reading his dialog makes me think of Darby O’Gill and other “drunken Irishmen” from various books and film. He’s a sly fox, smart-mouthed and spunky. He loves defiling the famous Disney pixie Tinkerbell by using her name as his favorite curse word (he randomly peppers his conversations with exclamations such as “Tink’s Titties” and other filthier variations). He and the other pixies shed multi-colored dust, the color changing along with their mood, and are all feisty creatures breaking away from pixie tradition not only by closely associating with a human but by staying together as a family rather than separating much the same way birds and other creatures do after leaving the nest.

Algaliarept (Al) is kind of the Leo Getz of the Ever-After, the magical plane that exists between and beyond normal existence. Typically, it’s where demons reside (the witches fled to our plane of existence some 5,000 years ago and a war between the demons and elves resulted in the elves being ousted approximately 2,000 years ago) and can only be reached by tapping into lines of energy that are threaded throughout all levels of reality. Al is a wheeler and dealer, taking every opportunity to acquire “familiars” that he quickly sells or trades off in exchange for regaining his status and belongings, both lost when he hides a very important fact about Rachel from the rest of the demon community. Sometimes her enemy, sometimes her mentor, Al and Rachel have a very dangerous and volatile relationship. He’s almost as much her captor as she is his at times.

Gordian Pierce was a ghost for nearly 200 years. He encountered Rachel when she was a teen and became infatuated with her. After years of haunting her and trying to get her attention, by Black Magic Sanction he has gained a body and life again. While he actively pursues a romantic relationship with her, she is highly distrustful of him and his motivations, which she suspects are less than sincere. She’s had a string of bad relationships and has a habit of making bad choices, something she doesn’t intend to do again with Pierce. Having become a virtual slave to Al, Pierce has been placed as a guardian over Rachel to help protect her from the Coven as they seek to capture and neutralize her, one way or the other. He speaks with a dialect of the 1800’s and often says things wrong when trying to use modern vernacular. He feels far too comfortable with casually using black magic when he sees the need, something that disturbs Rachel to no end as she struggles to prove to herself and everyone else that she is NOT a bad witch.

Trenton Kalamack is kind of like the Godfather of Elves. Masquerading as a human, he lives a dual life as a politician on City Council while running illegal operations in the human and Hollows criminal undergrounds. An ongoing protagonist, he’s known Rachel since they were children and they are enemies, due in large part to the fact that while she was trying to expose his crimes and bring him to justice, she managed to lay claim on him as her familiar, though she has not yet enforced that claim.

I haven’t read the other books in the series so wasn’t sure what to expect. I usually find it hard to follow or get emotionally invested in the characters when I start a book in the middle of the series, but was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t the case with Black Magic Sanction. While there are many references to events and characters in the earlier books in the series, with little explanation, I didn’t feel completely lost. Instead of feeling like a confused outsider, I found myself just carried along with Rachel as her life careens out of control. Black Magic Sanction is a fast-paced, action-packed supernatural adventure with unexpected twists and turns. I can usually figure out the general plot of a book and what direction it is going in, but, with this one, I really didn’t have a clue how things were going to turn out.

If you are a fan of supernatural books, you’ll love Black Magic Sanction. The characters are interesting and each has their own quirky characteristics providing some real depth to them, fleshing them out from the stereotyped, two-dimensional cast of characters that overpopulate popular fiction. It’s these characters and well-developed relationships that make me want to track down the rest of the books in this series and start over from the beginning.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Black Magic Sanction (Canada)
Black Magic Sanction (US)

You can also get Black Magic Sanction at your local book store.

Courage: The Series

Courage: Adventures of a Firefly
Dare to go into the black.

There’s more good news on the horizon for Firefly fans. With the upcoming release of the fan-made film Browncoats: Redemption looming closer, another fan-made project has recently been announced. Courage: The Series, from Media Blender Studio, is loosely based on the ever-popular Joss Whedon series Firefly and further expands the lore of the ‘verse with a new crew facing the same problem: The Alliance. The series combines high-definition film with computer animation, and promises “a new tale aimin’ to misbehave”.

James Nicholson finds himself with a wealthy settlement after hearing of his Father’s untimely demise at the hands of the Alliance. Stating in the will that he wanted James to buy a ship and explore the “verse”, James does just that, buying a class three “militia style” transport ship and finding a reliable crew that’s willing to crawl through the darkness of space with him.

The website features teaser trailers, character profiles with pictures, interviews, and some merchandise to help fund the project.

Courage: The Series Blog
Courage: The Series YouTube Channel
Courage: The Series Facebook Profile
Courage: The Series Facebook Page

The Best New Dramatic Web Series of 2009

2009 was a great year for the web series community, not only for the viewers but for the creators. The continued popularity of shows like The Guild, and a growing audience for short features likes those on Atom.com and Crackle.com, has encouraged filmmakers to take the Felicia Day do-it-yourself challenge.

Many of these filmmakers already had great stories, and a great cast and crew, but the video quality prevented these series from becoming mainstream hits. Now, with cinematic tools such as the RED digital camera coming down in cost, the production value of content developed for the web continues to go up, and people are definitely noticing. Web series are finally being taken seriously and, as excitement builds, the improvements are not only getting fans’ attention but potential investors’ attention. We even have an online network now, thanks to the launch of KoldCast, so we no longer have to sort through the hundreds of thousands of stupid human tricks and other low-quality, low-brow postings on sites like YouTube (which is still great for easy sharing and viewing but not easy to find new shows on unless you know what you are looking for).

While there were many great comedic web series released (O-Cast, Absolute Disaster, and Safety Geeks: SVI, for example), the dramatic productions truly made leaps this year. Not since Sanctuary has anyone successfully endeavored to produce such broadcast quality shows. Shows like the urban fantasy Lumina and the steampunk-inspired Riese have such beautiful, high-definition images that they could easily be re-edited to a longer format and broadcast on TV or released as a film, and anyone who didn’t know their web origins would never know the difference. When browsing user comments, over and over again people ask questions along the lines of, “where can I see this movie?” or “what network does this show air on?”

2010 promises to have many more high-quality web series worthy of network or cable TV and, hopefully, we shall see the return of many of our favorites. In anticipation of the great things to come in 2010, let’s take a look at five of the best new dramatic web series 2009 had to offer.

Riese

Riese:

Riese is a sci-fi/fantasy series richly influenced by history, mythology, folklore and steampunk. The series follows a young woman and her companion, a wolf named Fenrir, who travel through a collapsing world trying to piece together the fragmented memories of her past while attempting to evade the dangerous religious cult that hunts her.

Since it premiered in November, Riese has garnered much deserved praise and attention, and over one million views, in a relatively short time. The series is a visual and auditory feast with great attention paid to every detail, from the stitching of the wardrobe to the background noise in the high-definition sound. While some viewers with short attention spans were turned off by the slower pace and no dialog until the end of the first episode (who’s the girl going to talk to, walking through the woods with only her wolf as a companion?), those who stuck around for the action and the dialog were quickly wowed. Familiar faces in the Vancouver sci-fi scene appeared in Chapter 1, which wrapped with Episode 5 a few weeks ago, and Chapter 2, which premieres February 1st, is adding a slew of other familiar faces.

From co-creators Ryan Copple and Kaleena Kiff (who shares directorial credits with Nicholas Humphries), Riese features sci-fi regulars such as Christine Chatelain (Sanctuary,Supernatural, The Collector), Sharon Taylor (Smallville, Stargate Atlantis, Eureka), Patrick Gilmore (Stargate Universe, Battlestar Galactica), Ben Cotton (Harper’s Island, Stargate Atlantis, Taken), Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary, Caprica, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis), Peter Kelamis (Stargate Universe, Dragon Ball Z, The X-Files), Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary, jPod, Battlestar Galactica), Allessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Death Note), Allison Mack (Smallville, Alice & Huck), and Gina Chiarelli (The Dead Zone, Masters of Science Fiction, The Outer Limits).

In my humble opinion, Riese is setting the bar for the new standard in web series production.

Lumina

Lumina:

Lumina is a dark fantasy-thriller that was filmed in high-definition with the RED camera on location in Hong Kong. Up until now, we’ve only seen North American offerings, with most web series coming out of LA or Vancouver. The first offering out of China is a freshman effort to be proud of. Lumina, from storyteller Jen Thym, is what I consider Urban Mythology (modern-day fairy tale), in the vein of that created in novels by Neil Gaiman and Charles De Lint.

Lumina Wong (JuJu Chan) is beautiful and works far too much; although she lives in a city of millions, she still feels lonely and isolated. Late one night, Lumina has a chance encounter with Ryder Lee (Michael Chan), a handsome young man from another world that she can only see in mirrors and darkened window reflections. She revels in the fantasy relationship until mirrorspy Eben Sanchez (Jacob Ziacan) comes into her life, warning her of the treacheries of the people of the Dark Realm. Soon Lumina must choose between the safety of the world she knows and the deadly allure of the unknown.

I’ve watched this series several times now, and every time I watch it I notice something new. Great attention was put into the visuals, making use of reflective surfaces, lighting and contrast. Lumina has been referred to as a “guilty pleasure” by some online magazines, and I have to agree. Most web series, especially with sci-fi or fantasy, don’t focus on romance, but in Lumina, the love story takes center stage.

Lumina is not only putting Asian-Pacific film-makers on the map, but musicians, too. Being a contemporary setting allows the series to draw on some great music from local Hong Kong artists such as Sense of Akasha and Tim Be Told (who has been touring the US this winter). Not only is Lumina a pleasure to watch, it will change the way you look at reflective surfaces everywhere you go.

The Vetala

The Vetala:

A contemporary supernatural thriller, The Vetala is the story of a college reporter who finds herself dead and then inexplicably alive again after being shot while hunting down a lead to expose the local criminal underground. Because the series drags on the mystery for a while, and I want to keep this a spoiler free zone, I won’t go into what a Vetala is, but if you are really curious, just Google it.

The Vetala is another entry from the Vancouver indie film industry and you might recognize a few faces (such as the lead, played by Candace Chase, who also appeared in a web series called The Ennead last summer). While the episodes are very brief (averaging five minutes), they get a lot of storytelling done in the seven episodes that make up Season 1.

With high-quality images and great set locations, The Vetala features a great soundtrack and some pretty fancy special effects and props. A mixture of mystery, cop show and thriller, it’s also kind of dark and creepy at times, and not only because of the supernatural elements.

The Vetala is a unique series and has a lot of room for more storytelling in the future. If you like scary movies (no, I don’t mean slasher films), check out The Vetala.

Compulsions

Compulsions:

Compulsions is a thriller that explores the lives of three seemingly average people who, unlike the rest of us who try to resist our darkest urges, give in to theirs. Mark appears to be a humble office worker, but he indulges his sadistic nature as a torturer and interrogator (for hire, we assume). His partner, Justine, brings him his “work”, and voyeuristic tech support worker Cassandra accidentally peeks into the wrong life at the wrong time.

While Compulsions is not sci-fi, it is a dark fantasy, in the loosest sense of the word. It’s stylish and artsy in a Blue Velvet kind of way, and Craig Frank, who is best known for his comedy sci-fi web series The Crew, shows off just how talented he is with a touch of Denzel class and creep à la Fallen. Compulsions is still making its media rounds and is receiving due praise. Hopefully we will see a Season 2 in 2010, as I am really curious about what Mark was trying to torture out of his victim. There are some graphic scenes in Compulsions, so beware, but if you don’t mind a little bit of blood, Compulsions is a compelling and polished drama well worth the media buzz it’s getting.

The Lake:

The Lake is not exactly the type of show I would have expected myself to watch, let alone enjoy, but TheWB.com surprised me with this teen drama from executive producer and director Jason Priestley of Beverly Hills, 90210 fame.

For young adults, summer is a time of reinvention, romance, rivalries and friendships. Families come to Lake Eleanor to escape their daily lives back home; but will they only find more drama?

So, why did I like this show? It’s well-written (by Meredith Lavendar and Marcie Ulin, who wrote a couple of episodes of Defying Gravity) and well-acted by a very talented group of young people. Some of these teens are better actors than many of their much older peers currently featured in film and on television. I can see them going far. As a matter of fact, no offense to Kristen Stewart, I think the series lead, Heather Ann Davis, would have made a great Bella in the Twilight adaptations. She very believably pulls off vulnerable and traumatized, and aligned more with the image of Bella that I had in my head as I read the books.

The series is well-edited and well-paced, and packs so much story into each episode, without feeling crammed, that by the end of a typical 10-12 minute episode it feels like you’ve watched an hour-long family drama. It’s like all the good parts of shows like 7th Heaven, Party of Five and Gilmore Girls, without all the sappy melodrama and overacting peppered in. I had only planned to watch an episode or two to review, but found myself staying up late to watch the whole season in one sitting.

I haven’t seen anything about a second season yet, but I’m hoping for one. If it doesn’t happen, though, viewers won’t be too disappointed since it wraps up nicely enough that the first season feels almost like an after-school special or Lifetime movie-of-the-week. Again, not sci-fi, or even geeky, unless you count the adorable Drew (played by Devin Crittenden), who embodies the everygeek who longs to be cool enough to be noticed by the new girl in town. If you are ever looking for a feel-good teen romance, check out The Lake.

So there you have it, my five favorite dramatic web series from 2009. There were many other great dramatic web series, including The Ennead, condition: human and After Judgment, but as I began to write about them, as well, I felt more like I was writing an encyclopedia than a review.

I think these five new shows set a new standard in storyline, acting and production quality. The bar has been raised, and I look forward to seeing who can meet or exceed it in 2010.

Gina Chiarelli Joins the Cast of Riese!

Gina Chiarelli

Series co-creator Ryan Copple announced today that Gina Chiarelli has joined the cast of Riese the Series. Copple said, “She’s an amazing actress and actually the acting coach Christine (Chatelain) has used. She’s won and been nominated for a LOT of theatre awards. She plays Cacilia, a High Priestess of the Sect, residing in Asgard.”

While sci-fi fans might recognize her from shows such as The Dead Zone, Masters of Science Fiction, and The Outer Limits, Chiarelli has appeared in dozens of shows on television, film and stage. Most recently she received critical acclaim for the film See Grace Fly, in which she plays a schizophrenic woman whose behavior becomes increasingly erratic after the death of her mother.

She was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Actress, won Best Actress at the Vancouver International Film Festival and a Leo Award for Best Actress for her role as Grace, and has half a dozen other awards for various stage and film projects she’s worked on. In addition to being an award-winning actress, Chiarelli is also a producer and personal acting coach.

Chiarelli’s character, Cacilia, will appear in Chapter 2 of Riese, which begins filming soon in Vancouver and will air through various online outlets beginning in early 2010.

Riese is a sci-fi/fantasy series richly influenced by history, mythology, folklore and steampunk. It follows a young woman and her companion, a wolf named Fenrir, who travel through a collapsing world trying to piece together the fragmented memories of her past while attempting to evade the dangerous religious cult that hunts her. With a high budget compared to other web series, and filmed on the RED camera in high definition, the show is visually beautiful. The wardrobe, music and depth of story all contribute to creating the world of Eleysia.

Riese features sci-fi regulars such as Christine Chatelain (Sanctuary, Supernatural, The Collector), Sharon Taylor (Smallville, Stargate Atlantis, Eureka), Patrick Gilmore (Stargate Universe, Battlestar Galactica), Ben Cotton (Harper’s Island, Stargate Atlantis, Taken), Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary, Caprica, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis), Peter Kelamis (Stargate Universe, Dragon Ball Z, The X-Files), Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary, jPod, Battlestar Galactica), Allessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Death Note), and Allison Mack (Smallville, Alice & Huck).

Find out more about Gina Chiarelli here:

Gina Chiarelli Official Website
Gina Chiarelli on IMDb.com
See Grace Fly

Check out more information about Riese the Series here:

Riese the Series Official Web Page
Riese the Series Store (Buy Merchandise! Fund Chapter 3!)
Riese the Series Channel on YouTube
Riese the Series on KoldCast.TV
Riese the Series Official Forum
Riese the Series on Facebook
Riese the Series on Twitter
Riese the Series Fansite