I finally got around to watching "Gold," the webseries about gamers.
Season one is about professional gamers working for the gold medal and is fairly entertaining, however some elements felt weak. (I will try to explain below.)
The other "season?" is a sort of six episode mini-series based around a one shot. This one I enjoyed much more and after about a week passed having seen both I think I realized why;
The main season felt forced and didn't feel real. It seemed set in this alternate reality that never totally embraced it's silliness which made things uncomfortable and awkward to watch. Not to say there wasn't elements of drama that I believed, the characters lived in this world and I felt most of their pains. Also, the sound quality really got to me. I understand it's technical and how much of a pain filming independently can be (oh yeah, tangent, did I mention I finally graduated, I have a B.A. in Theatre Arts and have acted for a few student films. I can relate, camera mounted mics can be the devil) but a little touch up, maybe some post recordings might have been nice? Anyway, yeah, the locations were fine, the camera work was fantastic, but something about the character work felt lacking, especially when I saw some of the production was SAG, I guess it raised the bar for me. Also, soundtrack choice was a little off. It felt right a few times but it didn't seem to flow with the ENTIRE season.
Now that I have talked smack about the main shows, lemme tell you how AWESOME Night of The Zombie King was. Watch season one to get yourself oriented and learn the mechanics of the world and then watch NTZK. I watched all six episodes in one sitting because I was so absorbed with it. It follows an old group reuniting after several years to have on last game as their old characters and it all felt so much more honest. Real characters with real lives trying to interact with each other.Several conflicts working in concert to elevate each other. Stakes get raised up in this one, with a great nod to the main series.
I am honestly optimistic to see if the company will continue and will wait patiently to see what new gamer-centric vids they will unveil. I don't know if they are worthy of platinum, but I will say they are as good as gold.
I am honestly optimistic to see if the company will continue and will wait patiently to see what new gamer-centric vids they will unveil. I don't know if they are worthy of platinum, but I will say they are as good as gold.
h4773r -
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the GOLD write-up. This is David, creator of GOLD and NOTZK, and I wanna tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time.
I also wanna say, and you may be surprised here, that I agree with much of what you said about Season1, especially where sound quality is concerned. We learned a great deal about producing indieTV from making Season1, especially when it came to technical aspects and storytelling for film. We, like you, were primarily theater artists - actors & writers dipping our feet into video production for the first time. I'm proud of GOLD and still really love it, but if I could do it over again, using the know-how I now have, I'd do it in a heartbeat ;-)
(I will also say that the sound and color for Season1 have been entirely remastered - we did that so we could produce a DVD. The re-mastered video and sound, while not perfect, are greatly improved. if you buy the DVD, that's what you get, though we have not yet released those remastered episodes on the web. Maybe soon...)
The difference between NOTZK and GOLD Season 1 is primarily that we started NOTZK with a better grasp on what we were doing. We were better storytellers, and just better at making indieTV, from writing to preproduction to production to post - we just were better able to plan and execute. It helps that NOTZK is a much smaller show, too (5 characters and two locations, as opposed to 25 characters and nearly a dozen locations), and that it is a drama, as opposed to a soft, loving satire, but largely the difference is directly track-able to the growth our production and storytelling abilities.
We're currently raising money for GOLD Season 2, and hope to conclude that story, as well as tell many other smaller stories like NOTZK, in coming years. Each time we go to work, we do our best to raise the bar and to make our new project build in quality on the previous. Love of RPGs and filmmaking, and support from fellow RPG enthusiasts like you, is what drives us.
Thanks again for taking the time.
-David