REVIEW: Webisodic The Strand: Venice, CA

Dan Myrick of Blair Witch Project fame is going web ... his newly formed production company, Gearhead Pictures, has produced a web-only series, The Strand: Venice, CA.

While I love the premise - tracking the characters that live, work, and strut on the most unique beach in the Northern Hemishpere - Dan and team forgot a few base things:

No story - while quirky characters can be a hook, they don't retain an audience unless we care about them. Unless we identify what they want, see them go after it, and root them on against obstacles.

TRT. You've written a web-only episodic that's a narrative (ie fiction) but shot in handheld doc style. With a bunch of competent but no name actors. Do you write a 50-minute pilot? No, I wouldn't either. But Dan & team did. Web-only TRT has gotta, just gotta, be shorter ... 10 minutes woulda been plenty.

Even the most dramatic characters and situations have humor. Find some. Please. Woulda made the long show seem like, well, 30 minutes instead of 50.

But don't take my word for it, check out the pilot in Open Media Network in high rez quality on a PC near you.

Kudos to Dan for being on the cutting edge and ahead of the majority of his indie colleagues, but try, try again.

the day entertainment changed

The times, they are a changin' - Television advertising, programming, production, distribution - all the old models will change because of Jobs' new toy combined with the TIVO / DVR craze. Buckle those seat belts, it's gonna be a wild ride.