Category: Blog

The Gamers: Hands Of Fate Review

Cry Havoc!!!

Gamers 3 Cast and CrewThis is a complete departure from our usual reviews. It is a totally personal and yet completely impersonal review.

As listeners may remember in November of 2012, through episodes the Forty Seventh and Forty Eighth, Nick went away, to Seattle and I had to find co-hosts.

Nick was away to join the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (ZOE) crew on the set of their new feature film The Gamers: Hands of Fate as one of the Directors of Photography and the Visual Effects Supervisor. And then from May through July he’s been working here at home for hours and hours each day on the post production.

I have stayed completely spoiler free as he worked on this. Which was pretty easy as I had never seen either of the two first films in the series, The Gamers and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, so even on the rare occasion that I saw some of the screencaps of scenes he was working on, they meant completely nothing to me.

So, on Thursday August 15th at 8pm in the Grand Ballroom V of the Westin Hotel at Gen Con Indy, I got to see a completely fresh movie for the first time.

Ruby Skye P.I. heads to CBC

I was trying valiantly to come up with an appropriate and catchy headline like “Ruby in the Skye with Diamonds”, but will have to save that one for another day. Maybe when Madonna guest stars.

Ruby Skye P.I. has secured a deal with CBC for both broadcast and digital distribution on Kids’ CBC. We’ve said it many times before that the show has the production value and style of a show made for broadcast, and now does appear that it’s headed in that direction.

Read the press release from Ruby Skye P.I. below.

AWARD-WINNING DIGITAL SERIES, RUBY SKYE P.I. ENTERS MULTI-PLATFORM DEAL WITH CBC FOR WINTER 2014 BROADCAST AND DIGITAL PREMIERE

Series Eyes U.S. Expansion

June 9, 2013 – (Toronto, ON – New York, NY) Digital media producer Story 2.OH inks an exclusive multi- platform deal with CBC for the broadcast and digital premiere of multi-award-winning teen/tween detective mystery series, RUBY SKYE P.I. for winter 2014. From creator, Jill Golick and her Toronto- based production shingle Story 2.OH the new digital series eyes international expansion into the U.S, led by Seiffert Media Advisors, as the show enters production of its’ third season this fall.

Fast-paced and funny mystery series RUBY SKYE P.I. follows smart, stubborn, and quick-thinking, teenage detective Ruby Skye (Madison Cheeatow), as she finds her way into the middle of the most baffling mysteries. With reluctant help from tech-savvy sister Hailey (Marlee Maslove), Ruby often lands in hot water before finding herself en route to a magnificent solution.

“CBC is quickly emerging as a front-runner in digital innovation,” says Kim Wilson, Creative Head of Children’s and Youth Programming. “We’re proud to be contributing to innovative new multi-platform initiatives with the incorporation of web-based series Ruby Skye P.I.to Kids’ CBC.”

The entire series will premiere online at Kids’ CBC in winter 2014, followed by broadcasts on CBC-TV. Between episodes, the audience can participate online through a host of activities, allowing viewers to solve the mystery along with trusted sleuth Ruby. The CBC multi-platform deal acts as a catalyst for the series overarching strategy to build RUBY SKYE P.I. into a valuable international cross-platform franchise.

“The sky is the limit for Ruby,” says Jill Golick, creator of Ruby Skye P.I. “We are thrilled tobe partnering with CBC, and with a robust audience including over 2.5 million views and thousands of fans, Ruby is ready to go international, across multiple digital platforms.”

“Ruby Skye represents premium video content at its best,” said Alan Seiffert, President of Seiffert Media Advisors. “Teens and parents demand authentic, smart, and fun stories, and they want to access them across all media platforms. Ruby Skye P.I. delivers on all counts, and we are excited about bringing this ground-breaking series to U.S. television and digital screens next year.”

Ruby Skye P.I. is produced by Story 2.OH and was created by interactive storyteller, Jill Golick. Janice Dawe, Swing Media, joins the series in Season 3 as an Executive Producer. The series is produced with the participation of The Independent Production Fund (IPF) and made possible with the support of The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC).Ruby Skye P.I. is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Banff “Rockie;” a Parent’s Choice Silver Honour; Youth Media Alliance Award of Excellence; Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award; the New York Television Festival’s Best Family Pilot and the 2013 LAWebFest’s Grand Jury Prize.

A Web Series Mash-Up!

Gotta love people who can get things done! Especially when they seem like the busiest people on the internet. Another new series coming from Jeff Burns, the creator of Super Knocked-Up and the weekly Google Hangout Super Geeked-Up comes Super Mashed-Up.

What a great idea! We definitely love when actors cross-over from show to show… it builds that family feeling that I’m sure the people working in the industry of webseries love as well. So, of course we are going to enjoy it even more when not only the actors are moving from show to show, but their characters are too.

The full news release is below, but in case you don’t want to read it all – Jeff Burns filmed 8 crossover episodes involving 7 different web series just last month when they all came together at the LA WebFest. The first episode was launched today and runs weekly for the next two months. Looking forward to the Clutch crossover episode.

For Immediate Release

Super Mashed Up! Seven Web Series Team Up for Super Crossover Series.
April 16, 2013. Los Angeles, CA – Seven web series. Eight episodes. One crossover
extravaganza.

The creators and stars of web series from around the globe have teamed up for a fun
mash-up of stories and characters from each of the series’ worlds. What would happen if
super-villain Darkstar from Super Knocked Up met geeky cook Alan from Pairings who
just happened to be a huge fan of hers? Or if the dysfunctional contract killers Matt and
Lex from Clutch met Abdabs the Grim Reaper from The Bloody Mary show?

Those are the questions the Super Mashed Up series has a lot of fun answering beginning
Tuesday, April 16. Jeff Burns, creator of action/comedy series Super Knocked Up,
conceived the idea when planning to go to LA Web Fest last month.

“I’m always trying to think of fun ways to not only promote Super Knocked Up but also
all the other amazing web series out there,” says Burns. “LA Web Fest was going to be
one of the few times we were all going to be together in one place, so I thought it was the
perfect time to team up and shoot videos incorporating characters from a bunch of
different series.”

So in the midst of going to screenings, panels, and networking events, the creators and
stars of seven web series ran around LA Web Fest shooting crossover videos.
“It was mad ninja fun!” says Darlene Sellers, co-creator of comedy series Chop Socky
Boom. “And it really made us feel like part of a web series family. Or dojo, as the case
may be.”

Darren Chadwick-Hussein, creator of The Bloody Mary Show pipes in, “The crossovers
were a phenomenal opportunity to unite likeminded people from both coasts, as well as
Canada and the UK. The Americans showed us a great time and we showed them what
universal healthcare looks like.”

Jonathan Robbins, creator of femme fatale action series Clutch, spearheaded the initiative
with Burns. Both creators contacted other web series to see who would be interested in
making crossover videos.

“I was thrilled to see everyone we contacted was totally down with the idea and really
excited about it,” says Burns. “But that doesn’t surprise me since the web series
community is by far the most supportive and collaborative community I’ve seen out of all
the different areas of filmmaking I’ve been a part of.”

Robbins adds, “Putting characters from popular web series together on screen is exactly
the kind of thing that separates what we’re doing on the web from what can be done on
television. It was great to see that web series creators and performers alike were not
afraid to just play.”

And playing is exactly what everyone did. While a couple of the crossover episodes were
scripted or storied out in advance, many were spur of the moment creations with the
creators and stars of the different series taking a few minutes to brainstorm ideas and then
shooting the episode.

As Vanessa Verduga, creator and star of Justice Woman, puts it: “I think it shows the
deep level of respect we have for each other’s creativity and work ethic.”

The seven series taking part in the crossover videos are: Super Knocked Up, Clutch,
Pairings, The Bloody Mary Show, Reality on Demand, Justice Woman, and Chop Socky
Boom.

Jodie Younse, director and producer of Parings, notes how enjoyable the mash-ups were:
“Not only did we enjoy collaborating with other content creators but being able to create
these crossover videos is a perfect example of how these shows are ideal for the web. We
were able to have two worlds intermix in short vignettes that will hopefully inspire fans
of one show to watch the other’s.”

“Fans of our show will find it fun,” adds Marx Hernandez Pyle, creator of Reality On
Demand, “and enjoy being introduced to other series with different genres and tones, but
the same creative heart.”

Burns hopes to “increase the fan base and views for all our series and for web series in
general. That would be awesome because web series rock!”

Verduga totally agrees: “I guess what truly distinguishes them is the camaraderie between
the people making these videos. It’s like working with a friend – there was nothing weird
about it – it just felt comfortable and it was a ton of fun.”

The Super Mashed Up series starts Tuesday, April 16 with new episodes coming every
Tuesday after that.

Episode, the Fifty-Seventh: When It Counts and Ruby Skye PI Season 2 review

Tally-ho!

This episode was actually recorded last week. Our audio engineer (and wizard extraordinaire) and his wife were both expecting a baby at any point, and so we prepared an episode in advance. And good thing! Just this past Wednesday they welcomed little Silvio Victor Soch into the world. Congratulations, you two! Way to spawn!

And now while Soch takes some time with his family, the show here must go on.

Limited Release is on the look-out for guest hosts, so if you’ve got a voice that you want to lend to us, that would be great. While Nick spends his off-time reviewing web series, he spends his on-time working on them. Lately he’s been working on visual effects for Versus ValerieStandard Action and is now lending his editing skills to The Gate. So in order to offer reviews without bias, LR would like to find some folk to take his spot in the recording booth (or you can be lazy and call in). If you’re interested, get in touch with us.

Ruby Skye P.I. Wins Big at LA Webfest

Here’s a little sneak preview of our new episode being released tomorrow… It seems we aren’t the only ones who love Ruby Skye P.I! The second season of Candice’s favourite tween detective show has been awarded top honors from the LA WebFest and been chosen to feature at sister event Marseilles WebFest in France. They’ve won a number of achievement awards as well.

The LA WebFest has always been very friendly to Canadian series, including many of our favourites. See the complete list of winners (warning: this is not the prettiest formatting of a list of award winners)

Read the full press release from Ruby Skye P.I. below.

April 4, 2012 [Toronto, ON] — Ruby Skye P.I., the award-winning web series for tweens and teens, took home a Grand Prize from the LAWebFest this week, along with four Outstanding Achievement Awards.  Chosen from more than 400 submissions, the Grand Prize includes an all expenses paid trip to Marseilles, France for the Marseilles WebFest  to be held in October 2013.

Pilots and Trailers. Oh my!

You can be my co-pilot any day!

Every series starts the same way: with a pilot. Whether it be simply the first test scene you shoot, a trailer to show proof-of-concept, or a full on episode.

We’ve got our eyes on a few web series we’d like to share with you. Watch for them as they develop.

With Pretty In Geek having finished its release of all 8 episodes, show creator Elize Morgan has definitely not slowed down. She keeps her plate full at all times! The pilot episode for a series called The Society first popped up a few years ago and is now resurfacing in the next round of IPF applications. Young adolescents in a world of espionage and mystery.

End of the World, a strange combination of first-person gameplay and zombie horror, just released a trailer showing some behind-the-scenes interviews of the crew explaining their take on the genre. With the trailer release comes promise that more announcements will soon follow. Here’s to interesting web series genre experiments! With Joanna Jang involved (producer/filmmaker extraordinaire, founded Override Productions, director of the award-winning Hostage), you know it’s going to be exciting to watch. If you haven’t heard of Joanna, just look at everything that she’s up to right now.

We recently reviewed Out of Time in Episode the Forty-Fourth, and now their Kickstarter campaign appears to be coming to a close (6 days remaining with just over $1,000 of their $40,000 goal raised) so we may not see the series happen anytime soon. But who knows! In the meantime, you can see a 5-minute preview and other glimpses of the show they hope to create on the Out of Time channel. And if you want to show your support for this ballsy, time-travelling series then head over to their Kickstarter channel and look at the perks they’re offering…at least for the next week. Then who knows where it will be.

Finally, one of our favourite and most-talked-about folk on LR has been up to something…something goooood. Robb Padgett (recently scored The Inn, which we also happened to review last episode) is an actor/director/composer/ninja/Jedi Warrior. He does it all. Now he’s directed/written the quirky-looking, rom-com short Forcing Fate. For now you can watch the trailer but if you want to see the film you can attend the First Glance Film Festival ’13 (sounds like a military zone, don’t it?) where it will be premiering.

EDIT: And a last minute entry to this category, some of our Clutch friends have been developing another project in secret. The pilot for Asset has just been released in time for IPF season. Appears to be the story of an unlikely spy recruited by the government to infiltrate the seedy underbelly of international criminal organizations (kind of like the next “XXX 3: This Time With Jack Black”). Matthew Carvery and Jeff Sinasac from Clutch are recognizable. Yet I do have to admit that for those official government boardroom scenes in web series and low-budget films, they do tend to be rife with tired clichéd performances. Kind of like little children putting on their parents clothing and pretending they’re adults. Having said that, this has to be one of the rare times when I actually believed Jeff Sinasac and his co-stars in the boardroom were government officials. You be the judge.

That’s it for now. Check back later and will help you with your web series fix.

Don’t Share This Video – Versus Valerie

Tomorrow is the next stage in a large journey.

 

It was March 2011 and I was at a convention in Toronto pimping the webseries both me and Nick worked on, Mind’s Eye, as well as scoping out the dealer’s room for goodies, and talking about our podcast to whoever wanted to hear about it. It was a memorable weekend for so many reasons, but one was seeing a small camera crew and a reporter working the floor interviewing the stars. By the end of the weekend we had bumped into each other enough times to ask each other what we were all about.

Mike Fly, producer and co-director of the vlog series Sexy Nerd Girl, chatted with me about the concept of creating a first person narrative and transmedia project with the created character of Valerie Lapomme and how they were laying the groundwork of the character so they could create a third person narrative story in the future. It immediately sounded like the best idea ever to me.

Two years and 167 vlogs later we are on the cusp of Versus Valerie! The first episode will be released tomorrow.

A lot of people have gone into the making of Valerie Lapomme, Sexy Nerd Girl and Versus Valerie over the last few years. Including our own co-host extraordinaire, Nick. Which is why I’m going to need a co-host when it comes time to review this one. The line starts right here…

Join us live for our 50th episode

Live On Air

We are going to be live streaming our 50th episode recording tomorrow night at 11PM EST. We are inviting you into our dark and not very well lit recording studio. We might put a few more lights up so you can see us, we’ll see.

But seriously, we will be using Google+ Hangouts to share our special night with you guys. 50 is a big number! We’ve been doing this podcast for two years and think we’d like to let you in behind the curtain.

Last episode we told you all about our dirty little secret, we work on webseries while we are not critiquing others. And this episode we want you to be able to see our studio set up, provided by Soch and Synndicus, and see the funny looks we give each other, along with the dancing which happens every time we hear our theme song. Also, there will be drinking!

So join us, either by adding us to your circles on Google+ where you can watch our episode right in your stream. Or by watching the YouTube channel where it will also be streaming live. And if we get real fancy we can embed the link right here on our website so you can watch us here too (but don’t count on that one).

We want some feedback and news from you guys to share live, so tweet us, comment on our Facebook page, or Google+ page, email us at backtalk@limitedreleasepodcast.ca or comment right here!

See you tomorrow!