Media news at Sketchy Details
Haven’t done one of these in a while. My old live blog plugin has not been updated and no longer functions on WordPress. The new one should automatically (ooh, fancy) update with the new news and photos (screengrabs with a cellphone camera) throughout the night. Fingers crossed.
Gail Simone, creator of The Movement, watched and reblogged my Slipstream episode discussing The Movement on her Tumblr. Winning!
This week on Slipstream, we say goodbye to The Movement, one of the best new comics of 2013, and look forward to five great superhero films that could happen. Anything can happen, right? I mean, I know five is unlikely, but never say never.
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Nevermind is described by developer Erin Reynolds as a biofeedback horror adventure game. Meaning, the game is designed to respond to your heartbeat, increasing the difficulty when your stress levels start to rise. To survive, you have to learn to relax, literally.
Erin Reynolds is attempting to crowdfund Nevermind right now. Her team has a long way to go. As of writing, they have a little over $54,000 of a $250,000 development goal. I personally just pledged at the $25 tier, earning me a digital copy of the game and my name in the end credits if the campaign succeeds. Here’s why I supported the project.
Last night, while I was editing the upcoming episode of The Haunting Ground, I received confirmation that I’m a Fullscreen partner now.
What’s Fullscreen? Fullscreen is the largest independent multi-channel YouTube network. They provide support to YouTube content creators like me with tools and resources I’d never be able to negotiate on this scale by myself. They also help connect content creators for collaborative projects and sponsorship that increase visibility and revenue.
In other words, now that I have the support of the Fullscreen network, I’m going to be able to dedicate a little more time to video creation. First, I want to establish the routine of eight videos a month with the existing line-up (Sketchy Details @Home, Slipstream, Play It, and The Haunting Ground). Then, I can start branching out with one-off videos, new series concepts, and collaborations. I’m also going to finally be able to open an official Sketchy Details merchandise store.
So how can you help with this partnership? Subscribe to Sketchy Details @YouTube. Like and share the videos you enjoy. Comment on the videos letting me know what you like or what you want me to do.
Though I was left a little cold by The Purge, I applauded the concept for trying to do something new with the home invasion horror genre. In broad strokes, all laws are suspended for 12 hours every year to better regulate crime in America. The Purge gets out so much aggression with a free pass on murder and mayhem that the rest of the year goes by pretty smooth. The original film focused on one family trying to keep the house barred up against young adults behaving badly.
The Purge: Anarchy, now on its third title after The Sequel to The Purge and The Purge II, seems to be aiming for a more exciting concept. Forget the poor little rich people with the state of the art security systems. What happens to the everyday citizens who don’t get off the streets in time to seek refuge from The Purge?
Studio Ghibli, the anime studio behind such great films as The Secret World of Arrietty, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro, is creating a new anime series for TV. This is wonderful news as Studio Ghibli has never produced a TV series before. They’ve created short films, music videos, commercials, and one-off anime specials, but no episodic TV show.
The project will be adapted from the novel Ronia the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren. In broad strokes, the story is about Ronia, the daughter of a robber, exploring the forest’s many secrets and beginning to question her father’s life choices. Sounds like prime Studio Ghibli material to me.
NBC announced its next live musical production recently. That show is Peter Pan. Though the Disney version is better know, we’re dealing with the 1954 musical written by Moose Charlap, Jule Styne, Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. It really is a crowd-pleasing show. The musical was so popular that NBC already did three live broadcasts of it (two starring Tony-Award winner Mary Martin, one with Mia Farrow in the title role) over 50 years ago. The show has toured all over the world and arrived on Broadway four separate times.
The problem, dear friends, is the role of the native Neverlanders in the musical. The racism is not as pronounced as Walt Disney’s literal redskins in “What Makes the Red Man Red?,” but it is problematic all the same. The big number that introduces Tiger Lily and her tribe is “Ugg-A-Wugg” and it’s a doozy. It’s mock-tribal chants and war whoops set over drums. The characters are typically dressed in stereotypical garb: doeskin leather, body paint, and war bonnets. A peace pipe and teepees are usually involved.
The song is so questionable that the arrangement is constantly revisited to eliminate as many of the lyrics and chanting as possible; the long-running worldwide tour uses it mostly as a dance number now. But those rights aren’t readily available. This is the version that NBC has broadcast before and probably attained the rights to.