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TV Series instead of Films

Discussion concerning the TV, film, and comic adaptations.
Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by Phalanx   » Sat Dec 06, 2014 12:37 am

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If they go the TV Series route, I would suggest the following:

1) NO NETWORK OVERLORDS!
Make it online via Netflix or some kind of digital distribution, as opposed to a Network which will look closely at Nelsen ratings, and that will mess around with broadcast order and timeslot(Firefly was killed both because the series was aired out of order and it eventually found itself up against Star Trek:Voyagerin a timeslot).

2)Characters:The right fit.
This can be originally characters, existing characters, or a mix of both. Star Wars:Rebels is a good example of original characters can offer something to an existing universe while Gotham demonstrates how showing a character at an earlier stage of development can also be a hook(We know where they are going, but they do not.). Make sure original characters fit into the Honorverse.(when Babylon 5 introduced Marcus, he did not feel out of place.)

3)A-listers to a minimum
I said this for a movie, and I will say it for a TV series - cast as few well known celebs as possible. This not only gives a chance to other actors, but can make a production cheaper to make.

4)Canoncity
Establish the story as canon, so that the public is not confused.

5)Live Action Space Opera
The last live action Space Opera on TV was Stargate Universe which was shot too much like Battlestar Galactica, and felt more like a drama set in space than a Space Opera.

What's the difference you ask?

For me the most obvious is that those kinds of dramas look like they are being shot by a documentary film crew. That style is why I lost interest in SGU and never latched on to the new Battlestar Galactica.

An animated show , while not only being more expensive, would also attract a very different audience.
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by fallsfromtrees   » Sat Dec 06, 2014 11:50 pm

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Michael Everett wrote:Why go for miniseries?

A standard English Series would work just as well...

:twisted: TVTropes warning...

The problem with the standard English Series is that the US market is not prepared to deal with them, with the exception of PBS. Now if you could get the BBC or ITV to sign up with Evergreen to go the series first for British television, it might go, and even, dare I say it, become as popular as Dr. Who :o.
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by SharkHunter   » Sat Dec 27, 2014 3:19 pm

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If a blockbuster movie costs $100MM or more to produce, that's a hundred episodes at $1MM, so "TV series" would be my #1 choice (aka 100 hours less ad time, say 75 hours total), movies would be great but I don't see them making enough of them...

However...I have a quasi-heretical thought for this thread. All the Honorverse fans in the world can tune in and we still don't get critical mass for that expensive of a series. So Is there enough different source material for 100 hours of good SciFi TV? Or would it be an exploding ship is an exploding ship is an exploding ship, the repeated holo-tanks remind us of a single shot of the Death star closing on the rebel base, and there's only so many times that Nimitz turns his head or jumps on Honor's shoulder, etc. to go around

I'd say "probably yes" to the hours of content question, if you include the anthologies and Eric Flint's not-small contributions but otherwise, maybe not. Thoughts?
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by Phalanx   » Mon Dec 29, 2014 4:43 am

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SharkHunter wrote:If a blockbuster movie costs $100MM or more to produce, that's a hundred episodes at $1MM, so "TV series" would be my #1 choice (aka 100 hours less ad time, say 75 hours total), movies would be great but I don't see them making enough of them...

However...I have a quasi-heretical thought for this thread. All the Honorverse fans in the world can tune in and we still don't get critical mass for that expensive of a series. So Is there enough different source material for 100 hours of good SciFi TV? Or would it be an exploding ship is an exploding ship is an exploding ship, the repeated holo-tanks remind us of a single shot of the Death star closing on the rebel base, and there's only so many times that Nimitz turns his head or jumps on Honor's shoulder, etc. to go around

I'd say "probably yes" to the hours of content question, if you include the anthologies and Eric Flint's not-small contributions but otherwise, maybe not. Thoughts?


I do not think we have a problem on lack of stories, but in format. A TV Show can best flesh out the various aspects of the Honorverse in a way where nothing important is missed.

The newest series of comics is going to be exploring new stories, so why not do the same here.

You could have the premise of the show be the founding of the Manticoran Alliance and its challenges. Follow one ship and one crew so that cast does not get too crowded, and then do Honor of the Queen as a multi-episode special.

That is why I suggested an online format like netflix where the ratings bar is not so high.
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by Chris33   » Tue Jan 13, 2015 6:38 pm

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Phalanx wrote:
/snip

An animated show , while not only being more expensive, would also attract a very different audience.


When you combine 'animated show' and The Honorvese the show Legend of Galactic Hero's comes to mind (if previously brought up, I apologize).

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_o ... tic_Heroes
http://gineipaedia.com

Both have a 'cast of thousands' both have a healthy amount of politics and intrigue, both sides see the 'woman on the street / soldier' as neither good nor bad, even though examples within their respective governments/military are utter scum; and in some cases grossly incompetent. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it. If anything it proves that a long lasting (110 episodes) space opera is possible, and more over, one that doesn't utterly insult your intelligence.

The best part of an animated movie would be that the designs in such a media could remain those of BuNine. My suggestion if such a option were considered would be to follow in the foot prints of say, Macross Frontier, with Cel effect CG for the mechanics and traditional cel art for the characters. Sadly, unless you are an outfit like Pixar, or have a massive budget, photorealistic CG for characters is either prohibitively expensive (to whit, consider the cost of the intro trailer for the latest World of Warcraft expansion, or the New Dawn trailer for League of Legends) or, (sorry Evergreen) look much like the intro animation shown at Hornor Con, and force one into a wooden trudge thru Uncanny Valley.
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by dreamrider   » Fri Jan 30, 2015 10:57 am

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I hope you know that that intro demo sequence at Honorcon was, according to the speaker, thrown together from largely stock assets in something like ~1 week. I'm not sure there was even any mocap in it.

Evergreen is one of the shops that other production companies in the industry come to in order to make their animation/cgi sequences (admittedly, especially the backgrounds) look right.

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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by Chris33   » Fri Jan 30, 2015 11:30 am

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Ahh, truth be told, no, I wasn't aware of that. Thank you for the clarification on that.
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by Michael Everett   » Fri Jan 30, 2015 6:53 pm

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dreamrider wrote:I hope you know that that intro demo sequence at Honorcon was, according to the speaker, thrown together from largely stock assets in something like ~1 week. I'm not sure there was even any mocap in it.

Evergreen is one of the shops that other production companies in the industry come to in order to make their animation/cgi sequences (admittedly, especially the backgrounds) look right.

dreamrider
Soooo...
The whole thing was basically a moving version of cut-and-paste?
Well, that means that I look forwards to seeing what they can do when they really try!
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by Dca   » Fri Jan 30, 2015 10:53 pm

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So I think there's a consensus that as nice as it was to have the human animations at Honorcon, a real movie would do better with real human ( and I agree, not A listers, just people who can act) actors. But that's our view. I get the distinct impression, from the game and comics, that they already have a game plan worked out. And I have no clue what problems Evergreen might have for real in producing this movie, or even whether they have any. Makes me wonder if Hollywood is one of those environments where admitting challenges is like suicide.

Given that, our role is fan base sounding board for canon ideas. Look at the emphatic response their Nimitz got. I think very little of the response was in a form they could use, other than "He needs to have a cuddly facet too!" (I hope the huge impact of his implacable face didn't get lost in the mix) I'd like a clearer understanding of what they're looking for, but maybe that's getting lost in the mayhem of media announcement and froth. Wish there was a way to structure it more effectively.

I think these guys are out to make a mint for themselves and the DWW. I would be, in their shoes. I don't see how starting off with a TV series is the best way to achieve that.
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Re: TV Series instead of Films
Post by Tail Twitcher   » Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:44 am

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No idea if it's been suggested, but Honour among the Stars seems short enough, yet describes the main character.

I don't invest the time in TV series usually; I don't trust the makers of em to fulfil on implied promises.

A book is produced and ya know there will be the next two books in the series, or however many. Imagine buying a book and finding it actually missing pages so it didn't end, which is even worse than not writing the next books.
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