Media-merging show combines live players with computer-generated sets
Marke Andrews
Sun
A lot of entertainment companies talk about convergence. Stage 3 Media Inc., a Gastown firm which began last May, walks the convergence walk.
Stage 3 Media, whose four partners have backgrounds in video games, television writing, information technology and acting, is currently in post-production on Sanctuary, a science fiction series pilot with live actors and computer-generated (CG) sets, which will play over the Internet this spring.
“I was really compelled by convergence, and could see a major shift to television on demand,” says Stage 3 Media CEO Marc Aubanel, who spent 13 years as an executive producer at Electronic Arts Canada, working on such video games as FIFA and Need for Speed Underground.
“I got together with some other people in the industry, talked about it, and we decided to take the plunge ourselves and self-produce our content rather than go through a large company,” says Aubanel, who stresses that in today’s media, “the power is shifting from programmers to the consumer.”
Aubanel’s partners are Damian Kindler, co-executive producer on Stargate Atlantis and a television writer for more than a decade, Martin Palacios, an IT specialist, and Amanda Tapping, star of TV series Stargate SG-1.
Originally, the company founders planned to do their first online series about the Internet, but had such a response from the science fiction community that they chose Sanctuary as their first project.
Sanctuary, which stars Tapping (who is executive producer and an investor in the series), combines live actors and CG sets and backgrounds. Shot with digital cameras over a 20-day period at Bridge Studios, the action was all done in studio using a crew of about 120. The actors worked with a green screen, using only small props such as weapons and doors. Stage 3’s in-house artists and animators (the company has 18 employees) are adding all the sets and backgrounds in post-production.
While the production saved money by avoiding location costs, equipment trucks and remote crews, the series costs are comparable to a cable or network series because of the extensive post-production. Without giving a budget, Aubanel says the cost of making the series is about the same as a video series shot for cable TV.
“We didn’t have to build sets and we didn’t have to go on location, but we had to spend three months building and rendering virtual sets,” says Aubanel.
Unlike so many television series, which are dependent on public funding from Telefilm Canada, Sanctuary is completely financed by private B.C. investors.
With eight 15-minute “webisodes” of Sanctuary in the bag, Stage 3 Media hopes to have enough interest to do 40 episodes a year. The first four episodes will air for free on the show’s website in mid-spring, likely in May. Anyone interested in viewing the next four episodes will pay for them, the viewing fees “competitive” with other television-content websites.
Stage 3 Media will then look for “more traditional” distribution, such as iTunes.
So far, the website (www.sanctuaryforall.com) has had 26,000 viewings of the Sanctuary teaser, and 630,000 hits.
The company will make sure the website has plenty of interactive elements, with video-game characteristics.
“In the long term, we see this as a mishmash of a TV show and a game,” says Aubanel.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007