Ask Slashdot: Is Crowd Funding the Future of Sci-Fi? 116
First time accepted submitter TBNZee writes "Mainstream TV has has for a long time under-served the sci-fi loving viewers, but with declining production costs there seem to be two potential sources of alternative production/distribution: digital content (e.g. Netflix, Hulu) and crowd funded projects. There's still not a lot of sci-fi shows that are being produced by the major streaming services, but we'll probably see more with the success of Hulu's exclusive U.S. distribution of Misfits or Netflix's success with Buffy and Doctor Who. On the other hand, you have many enthusiastic upstarts on Kickstarter that look novel and engaging, while having a surprisingly professional look to them. Which do you think will ultimately be more successful? Will either be able to replace network content?"
Sci-Fi? (Score:3, Insightful)
Neither Buffy nor Misfits is Sci-Fi. ...
No idea about Dr. Who, never saw it.
I mean: come on, get at least a single simple thing right in the article
Whatever happened to... (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever happened to JMS ? Babylon 5 was the best SF on TV IMHO
And also what happened to the creators of the Stargate series's . I admit SGU wasn't as good as SG1 or SGA, so I wasn't that surprised to see it cancelled, but it would be nice to see some more of Stargate.
I don't watch anything on the PsyPhy (or whatever they are calling it these days) channel. The only channel with SF on is the Beeb (BBC America), they even have ST:TNG although what that has got to do with the BBC I am not sure.
Maybe the best thing will be if some of the Amazon produced stuff gets popular. (I subscribe to Prime)
Re:Producing good TV is Expensive... (Score:4, Insightful)
OK Mr. Do-it-yourself. Grab a copy of Blender and see how far you get attempting to create a broadcast quality 30 second CGI clip. By yourself. All of those 'Producers' and 'Assistants' don't make all that much money. The screen credits are to pad your resume and stroke your ego.
Sure, you can save money and there are a couple of low budget / high quality movies out there (Monsters [wikipedia.org]), but it's much more expensive than you think to create a 30 minute show with a dozen or so people in it.