Tuesday, June 21, 2005

GF Update #1

All right, here's how the next two weeks proceeds, folks. Phone calls have been made, and we're setting meetings. However, because Hollywood essentially takes off two weeks around any vaguely sizable holiday (they're like, spin-negative Amish), things'll be quiet until after the Fourth, when meetings can finally be had. I myself am returning to my adopted homeland for a few days this weekend.

In the meantime, spread the word (but not the file. Bad TV audience. Baaaaaad), organize yourselves, maybe check in here on the Fridays to say hi to each other.

In two weeks, we will know exactly where the rights are, what the plan is, and who you can bombard with email and cards (and vent unto). Check in here and over at Frequencysite.com whenever you have the chance. I hope not just the genre fans will join in here, but also all those who are visiting from Boing Boing who are interested in alternative distribution and media evolution.

This site will now return to its usual programming of cultural snark and political rants, until the next GF update.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck John (and you too Warren), this kind of work deserves to be rewarded.

I have all of Whedon's work in boxsets and am waiting for 5 more boxsets of GF.

Anonymous said...

I think it's really great how you're keeping your reading audience in the loop. It would be wonderful for viewers to be able to have more influence and insight into the television process!

Benari said...

Excellent news! Maybe there is something to this "alternative distribution" and "media evolution" thing. Imagine what this could mean for file-sharing if a pirated boot-leg led to the launch of a network tv show.

But even if this is as far as it goes, this is a pretty awesome first step.

GM Doug said...

Hang on John (we at that first name stage yet?) as the resident stand up aren't you supposed to go with the "Hey there, how you doing, where you from?" So we all get to talk to each other? :)

Anyway in another strange Dougality (TM) (I wish) moment Global Frequency has led me to cross paths with an old friend who I feel out of touch with. We are both trying to get the word out about the show - and then on another forum (Gallifrey One) we crossed posted :)

Now if nothing else I can thank GF for putting someone else back on my personal frequency.

Oh and the score card in Edinburgh now is 5 for 5 of people I've introduced the show's concept to. Everyone has loved the idea - and are desperate to see the file now.

Anonymous said...

as much as I hate to get all "firefly" on this, I saw this this weekend and Im ready to start picketing in the streets to gett this on the air

Unknown said...

I'll be bluint - a lot will depend on maintaining everyone's attentions -- and even growing it -- during the downtime as the massive cogs turn. We'll see if that's happened when the time comes.

At the least, this'll be a good starting point for other guys who may try this someday.

GM Doug said...

You know that last comment is why this is so important. We aren't doing this just for us - we are trying to change a whole system, so not just the Frequency Fans get what we want but everyone else who stands on our shoulders.

There isn't a single example of a great feat of humankind that wasn't based on the work of someone that came before them.

We might be TV system's atom bomb or we might be the theory of relativity showing a pathway to the bomb. But even if we end up just being the Newtons, Planks, Bohrs and Clark-Maxwells of this world at least we'll have moved everything on a bit and made the world a better place.

Anonymous said...

I am eagerly awaiting the time when I can start campaigning for this show.

I'm even considering making dvds and sending them out to all the reporters in my area, along with the story about this grassroots thing going on here.

Could anyone not recognize this as news? Its been pointed out already how insane it is that this show never got to see the light of day, and the community is getting around it like they are. I can see this story in the next issue of wired... Peer to Peer *IS* revolutionizing the media industry, and this is one of the best examples I've ever seen of it happening!

and if the show gets picked up? Well I'd be one happy guy, and it would also be a milestone for the power of motivated, enabled, distanced people.

Anyone else see the parallels between the premise of GF and what we're about to do here?

I will be watching, and waiting for the time to be right.

rone said...

Rock the hell on.

I think that changing the Russian's power messed things up in my orderly head. But the addition of the last-minute recruit was inspired.

And Michelle and Aimee rule.

Anonymous said...

If/When these meetings take place can the first thing on the table be making this legaly avalible?

We need a version with the credits attached so that way everyone gets the credit they deserve and we can stop this whole illegal downloading thing in its tracks.

Second thing is lets find a way to get organized. I've got a domain we can use (and hosting space and bandwith to go with it). Use a mailing list to get people together and to push the intrest in the content to them. It'll help keep the intrest up over the coming days/weeks/months/years/eons.

Joe
E-mail Me (joe@getonthefrequency.com)

Anonymous said...

Rogers was SO drunk when he did the last post. God bless you, you drunken fuck, but I have to call it out. What a great show. There's a reason a lot of seeming randos (from Broken Lizard's Super Troopers... randos=random people) are digging the show on an extreme level.

Doctor Memory said...

Rogers -- at the risk of injecting a small note of pedantry into the GF lovefest here, may I point out that glass is not a liquid, damnit and that a character with multiple PhDs in chemistry and physics should probably be expected to know that? :)

Otherwise... fingers crossed that you can pull this off.

Unknown said...

Yes, I know. But it's so much a better line than "Amorphous solid". Let's just say his energy field didn't interact well with certain substances, and Kate decided to "regular-guy" it for Sean.

And yes, that is massively pedantic. But I tend to the didactic, so that's okay. Thanks for the good wisehes.

Anonymous said...

I never comment to blogs.
But the pilot was awesome!
It's the first TV science fiction series I like, alot!
I'll buy DVD's, merchandise, comics, the remains of Warrens cigarettes, anything! Just get it made, please. :)

Anonymous said...

Mark my words,

The sweetness of the sweetness of the brilliance of the creative team who executed such a wonderfully produced piece of television content.

May you merit to be successful in bringing to fruition both the premise and the show itself, as our industrious leader, the keeper of the this blog, already recognizes by mouthing out loud, "This is the fun part. Welcome to the Global Frequency."

Marshall McCluhan must be having a cocktail party upstairs seeing his conceptualizations of media content whose premise is global community produced by corporate interests and abandoned, only to be distributed and reclaimed by the populace-at-large via the only global network in existence that allows any individual to publish to the world in an instant, requesting the further production of said content by said corporate interests.

The layers upon layers of brilliant sparkling metas upon metas leave me only to conclude that:
A. given time, the mass media itself will pick up the story of the hit pilot that never aired and
B. that any multinational media conglomerate worth its balance sheet will pick up a series with so much advance buzz and built-in audience (re-casting and legal ownership issues notwithstanding).

I'd like to furthermore add my own personal thanks and 'job well done' to all those involved in the production of the pilot.

Anonymous said...

you know what, I was horribly dissapointed. They somehow managed to take the super-pace ultra-compression which is the foundation of the global frequency comic and and make it long, stretched out, and boring.

Use the opening act of Armageddon as a reference -- it is, after all, what inspired ellis to create the comic.

Unknown said...

Yes. We should've used Armageddon as the model. That type of sci-fi is EXACTLY the style Warren writes in. I can't wait to get to the chain-gun on the space shuttle and the "space madness."

But, as I said, some people are going to hate the guts out of it. Sorry you were among them.

Anonymous said...

Me thinks it was brilliant. More please.

GM Doug said...

I had an idea....

It's a money idea as well....

We ALL know that GF's key weapon is communication - and that translates into the phone.

So can someone who can do this sort of stuff - create a unique ring tone. One they would release to the show as "THE RING TONE" or perhaps we could get the one used in the pilot is it available/fair use style? John your knowledge of that is vital.

Then we have something to sell. Which really wouldn't be a GF product (And EVERYONE should be going out and buying the Trades to hand over to friends to read- GF TPB make for great brithday and christmas presents folks) - but it could be something we the "GF Foundation" or something could sell or market over the net or something.

Imagine the situation you hear someone in the bar or on your mode of public transport or on the street going for their cellphone. But the tune... it's the GF signature tune. And you know instantly that the person is on the Frequency.

How cool would that be? And you've got the perfect reason to walk up to people and introduce yourselves and thus we make more frequency contacts.

Tymen said...

Why not just have Michelle Forbes as Miranda Zero saying "You are on the Global Frequency" for The Ring Tone. That would be an attention getter.

Anonymous said...

Money money

The show didn't get picked up, which means that someone didn't think it was going to make money. If we want to get this show on the air, we need to explain the avenues for revenue that are available- and with a layman's glance at the show, I can see marketting opportunities up the wazoo.

First off, I think I'd redesign the phones a bit- make them less clunky, something more that an average person would want- hook up with Cingular/Samsung whatever, and *bam* promo for the show and money making idea.

Contests- could you imagine taking Coke's Cell-in-a-can promo and tying it in with GF? You suddenly get a call, telling you you're "On the Global Frequency", and must get to some location and accomplish some task, and you get a new car or whatever?

As for advertising, we're hitting a solid 18-40 demographic, specifically a technology literate one- which means computer and cellphone companies would be falling all over themselves to buy time for this show. And the idea is viral- the GF trademarks could be licensed out to some cell company for their ads.

Tie this all together with a website, very futury, matrixy even. Have a GF web game, it doesn't have to be high tech or anything- something like the old and ill fated Majestic game would be enough to really get people hooked. People could discover the show through the game, and the site could be tastefully littered with advertising.

Those are some random, off the top-of-my-head ideas from a programmer, with no marketting experience. I submit them as open suggestions, run with, and do with what you will.

Here's my thing. When a show gets cancelled, or not picked up, even when it's a show I like, I am often very understanding. It wasn't going to be profitable enough. It's all about the money, and I understand that. But this time, there's no logic to it- because GF is a marketting goldmine.

This is two-five-five-one, signing off the global frequency.

Anonymous said...

Global Frequency adhesive logos.
Global Frquency t-shirts.
Hell, Global Frequency graffiti. Let the people know it's out there.

Anonymous said...

Hey, true true. Little black-on-clear plastic decals would sell pretty well, if you target them like the Decepticon/Autobot logos. Young, hip, trendy. No real money in them, but it drums up interest. Same for tshirts.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting pilot. Not 100% to my tastes, but I'd certainly want to stick with it for a few more episodes to see if it grew on me.

Whatever people's views on the rights and wrongs of P2P, it's nice to see that someone from within television is starting to see the positive grooviness of P2P. I'd love nothing more than Global Frequency succeeding, and a portion of that success being attributable to P2P.

I have no idea how contracts for pilots work, but I wonder whether the makers would consider negotiating in future for the right to release their pilots whether or not they're picked up on?

Good luck with whatever pans out with Global Frequency.

Jill Draper said...

I've fallen in love with the idea that the status quo can be vanquished by passion. The whole top-down marketing idea that has dictated our every last little thing for fifty years is in unique danger of being made obsolete by, get this, people talking to one another over the ether.

Throughout your writing, it has been utterly lovely to encounter righteousness that's not self-righteous, goodness that's 100 percent natural, and a brilliant mind that's had me amen-ing like I'm wearing a hat on Sunday.

My heart has broken along with yours, and I hope with you shoulder to shoulder. Pouring soul into something is full of unintended consequences. I'll watch this space closely for developments and prepare to be touched, yet unsurprised by whatever happens.

Polter-Cow said...

Very. Damn. Cool.

See, I already watch too many shows, and I don't have room for a new one, but I will make room for this if it can get on the air.

Fight the power! Or some such slogan.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm a really big fan of Warren Ellis "The Authority".
I hope WB will learn how good the P2P can be (I can dream) and I hope the TV serie "Global Frequency" will be diffused on TV (and in France, please).
Keep it up and good luck.

Anonymous said...

couldn't we just sell the phones?

the phones are sweet

Anonymous said...

I think they're a little clunky and ugly myself. Of course, I'm a little whore who wants a RAZR, so maybe I shouldn't be one to judge.

Anonymous said...

wow,excellent tv show,i was shocked to find out it was turned down...good luck and I hope to see it on tv soon!

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