I haven't kept track that closely. Kinda sucks if they didn't considering a few guys from Area 5 are on Rebel FM.
1-UP Show/CO-OP Alumni: Kickstarter: VG Culture Docu Series (210K Goal)
- Thread starter Chairhome
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I haven't kept track that closely. Kinda sucks if they didn't considering a few guys from Area 5 are on Rebel FM.
Kabuki Quantum Lover
Member
http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/16/5316322/gaming-culture-documentary-seeks-kickstarter-funding
After that, it's not Polygon's job to advertise. It's Area 5's.
Oh I searched "Outerlands" and got nothing. I guess Polygon's search just looks at titles.
You've pretty much got it! While we haven't done any weddings, we would have if the price was right and we had the time. Fortunately most of our time was taken up doing work directly for videogame developers and publishers. It's what's kept us afloat and allowed us to purchase the cameras, lenses, and computers that we now have for making Outerlands. So, yeah, no way those two projects by themselves could have kept us in business, but fortunately we've had a lot of repeat clients over the years that have liked our work. I'm not allowed to show you the work or even refer to it directly without their permission, unfortunately. Hope that answers your question!
We've been looking into those "other ways" for years. No one wants to fund it as it's a risk to their bottom line since it doesn't line up cleanly with other content offerings out there. The new attention Outerlands has received may course-correct some of those conversations, but I'm not optimistic about that.
Over 40% of our funding referrals have come from Twitter. If you can get people to talk about it on Twitter, there's practically no better way to help get the project funded!
Big Papa Husker
Member
I just finished up listening to 8-4 Play and made my pledge. (8-4 BUMP!)
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Congratulations to Outerlands, Kickstarter's project of the day!
https://twitter.com/kickstarter/status/433261491496960001
Hopefully this helps provide the bump needed for the final stretch.
https://twitter.com/kickstarter/status/433261491496960001
Hopefully this helps provide the bump needed for the final stretch.
enanogrande
Member
I backed (8-4 Bump and all). I've been a huge fan of Area 5 since the 1UP Show days and just saw Grounded (great doc BTW), so hoping this will get funded!
You are correct that I will not be listening to rebelfm so thank you for the breakdown.
I think what I really want is a videogame equivalent to Half in the Bag. A show I can watch every now and then where people I like talk about stuff I like. Their financial situation seems to be sustainable since they've been doing it for a while now. Living in Milwaukee probably helps keep costs down. I get that movies and games have a much different time commitment, but the area 5 dudes are gamers so they will be playing stuff whether they talk about it on camera or not. I also understand that something exactly like co-op doesn't make sense financially, but there's a lot of ground between tv quality production and no show at all.
Kabuki Quantum Lover
Member
Are you fucking kidding me? After all that jazz about requiring this astronomical budget to produce CO-OP, they're going to produce this documentary series AND CO-OP?
Sorry, now they've lost me.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Outerlands has a significant portion of its budget set aside for travel. It is a documentary. covering gaming topics all over the place, to do it properly.
Co-op, which is a bunch of guys sitting around talking about games, is super cheap to produce, since they have the equipment already. They did it for weeks with no pay at all, and basically just had to stop to devote their time to work that would pay the rent. It was doable, but not for a living.
I see no reason why throwing some more of those in breaks the deal for you. To me it just shows they're willing to work harder to fulfill what people want.
Perhaps I should have raised this issue earlier but the reason why I haven't backed it is because I have no idea what they're creating. Yes, I know it's a documentary about the "culture of video games" but I want an episode by episode breakdown.
This image below doesn't tell me anything. They're just ideas that they may more may not cover in this season.
I would have loved to have seen something along these lines:
If they said episode 1 was about video game magazines and showed that awesome short. But then at the end of the video they explained they were covering PC gaming, European and Japanese magazines with the same depth. That would have been brilliant!
They don't need to flesh out every episode with a short but having an episode by episode synopsis would have been helpful to me as the consumer. What if I wasn't interested in topic X, Y or Z? Right now, this pitch sounds like: "Hey! Give us some money, we'll make stuff about video games and hopefully it will cover topics that you enjoy."
I agree they're talented folks and I wish them all the best but I'm just treating this like any other product that I would buy.
This image below doesn't tell me anything. They're just ideas that they may more may not cover in this season.
I would have loved to have seen something along these lines:
If they said episode 1 was about video game magazines and showed that awesome short. But then at the end of the video they explained they were covering PC gaming, European and Japanese magazines with the same depth. That would have been brilliant!
They don't need to flesh out every episode with a short but having an episode by episode synopsis would have been helpful to me as the consumer. What if I wasn't interested in topic X, Y or Z? Right now, this pitch sounds like: "Hey! Give us some money, we'll make stuff about video games and hopefully it will cover topics that you enjoy."
I agree they're talented folks and I wish them all the best but I'm just treating this like any other product that I would buy.
This is good news! 24 hour livestream, if $10k is raised during that time, we get 6 new episodes of CO-OP online for free!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/area5/outerlands-season-one/posts/744943
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/area5/outerlands-season-one/posts/744943
No. We get an CO-OP episode if they make 10k during the 24 hours stream and we get 6 episodes if the kickstarter reach 210k.
Haha, they can't win.
I guess I will have to back this thing if co-op is involved
Who needs weekends, AMIRITE?! If we can get funded during our livestream Marathon tomorrow we will make a "season" of CO-OP to match a season of Outerlands. Should correct that by that we means 6 episodes, not 7. We came up with this idea after work late one night last week, realizing that if we did some double-up shooting (like shooting some CO-OP stuff at the same locations we were shooting Outerlands stuff) it wouldn't impact our schedules enough to make Outerlands unfeasible--particularly if we weren't tied to an exact weekly release schedule and could make CO-OP episodes happen in our own time.
That astronomical budget is based off producing 50+ weekly episodes a year. We spent upwards of 80 hours a week doing that show and still had to take on outside work to keep the company afloat. It's six episodes of CO-OP, not 50. We figured it would be some nice icing on the cake for people who enjoy our previous work. We're no strangers to all-nighters or weekend work, and over the 18 month production schedule of Outerlands we figure it's feasible to line up guests in the locations we might end up in order to produce said episodes, particularly since we won't be tied to an every-Friday release schedule. In video/film production people always talk about the Quality-Time-Money triangle. Push any one side and you have to push another. By giving ourselves time, we save money and can still keep quality to our standards. CO-OP as a year-round weekly production is and will continue to be prohibitively expensive.
Perhaps I should have raised this issue earlier but the reason why I haven't backed it is because I have no idea what they're creating. Yes, I know it's a documentary about the "culture of video games" but I want an episode by episode breakdown.
This image below doesn't tell me anything. They're just ideas that they may more may not cover in this season.
I would have loved to have seen something along these lines:
If they said episode 1 was about video game magazines and showed that awesome short. But then at the end of the video they explained they were covering PC gaming, European and Japanese magazines with the same depth. That would have been brilliant!
They don't need to flesh out every episode with a short but having an episode by episode synopsis would have been helpful to me as the consumer. What if I wasn't interested in topic X, Y or Z? Right now, this pitch sounds like: "Hey! Give us some money, we'll make stuff about video games and hopefully it will cover topics that you enjoy."
I agree they're talented folks and I wish them all the best but I'm just treating this like any other product that I would buy.
From the outside this kind of request about a show outline seems reasonable. In fact, it's the kind of stuff people ask for when you're pitching shows to them. But, it's not a promise we can deliver on. I could do that outline for you, but what happens when Outerlands is delivered and sticks to only a few of the basic story tenets? Are you going to feel "screwed" because you didn't get what you "paid" for? Frankly, that's not how documentary works. What we're doing is more akin to No Reservations or This American life (God I HOPE we approaching as good as either of those!). We can't know exactly which stories will become the most salient until we're out producing and shooting them. Unfortunately, that's how documentaries function. You can't know if you've got crap until you're actually shooting it, much of the time. I bet if we could get some insight into how many stories This American Life has cancelled or decided not to air, we'd all be shocked. Also, we might get a story that's amazing but doesn't fit in any episode. We ran across this all the time with The 1UP Show, especially. In fact that's the biggest tragedy about The 1UP Show source tapes being nowhere to be found (we actually have master tapes of the full, edited shows, not all the source material) is that there's hundreds of hours of footage, interviews, stories, and so forth that just never fit in an episode. Some of it is probably great, a lot of it is crap. I'd rather have us have the option of throwing the crap out and you never having to deal with it than forcing it into an episode because we committed ourselves to a topic for which every story turned out to be a bust. Incidentally, this is why we're delivering everything all at once instead of as each episode is finished. We want to be able to shoot something for episode 1 if a story pops up while we're finishing the shoot for episode 6. That probably doesn't address all of your concerns, but hopefully it at least shows where our thinking is at and that we haven't made these decisions lightly.
My bad, I'm an idiot.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
Kabuki Quantum Lover
Member
Much simplistic interpretation. I'm concerned they're only doing this to score basic funding and will now split resources between two thematically different projects. It's the classic case of promising the world to attain funding (ie. Republique). It's two shakes away from saying they're also reviving the 1Up Show.
WhiskeyKnight
Member
C'mon guys, let's put this over the edge.
I really want to see it happen.
I really want to see it happen.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Okay it's a 24 hour twitch stream. If the raise 10k during the stream it's another episode of Co-Op, if they raise the whole amount it's 6 new episodes.
If you want to tweet, use
#BackOuterlands
@OuterlandsDoc
http://twitch.tv/outerlands
Too bad I can't watch the stream. I have work to do...
If you want to tweet, use
#BackOuterlands
@OuterlandsDoc
http://twitch.tv/outerlands
Too bad I can't watch the stream. I have work to do...
DryEyeRelief
Member
Outerlands 24-Hour Marathon
if the kickstarter is fully-funded in the next 24 hours, theyll make a six-episode season of CO-OP.
http://www.twitch.tv/outerlands
if the kickstarter is fully-funded in the next 24 hours, theyll make a six-episode season of CO-OP.
http://www.twitch.tv/outerlands
There was an amazing long-form special on the evolution of comic book heroes and the transition to mainstream blockbusters on PBS. I forget the name but they nailed it. It had a really great narrative.
I think what's missing to me in this kickstarter is an overall narrative. Every great documentary has some theme/narrative and it doesn't feel that the subject matter they've chosen really plays to that.
Also, to me, it seems likely it gets bogged down with a bunch of footage of videogame culture staples like collectors, old game creators, old game nostalgia and competitive gaming and I can't see anything exciting or new coming out of it.
It's a documentary series. As in more than one, and different.
What else do you see in your crystal ball?
chrominance
Member
I think that already exists, actually: Giant Bomb. Especially when they're doing stuff like Unprofessional Fridays, which is just them fucking around on random games, or Quick Looks (especially longer-form ones like Vinny/Drew's flight club antics). They actually avoid the more elaborate, well-edited production style because they decided it was too expensive and too resource-intensive to put out content on a regular basis that way.
To be honest, this worries me a little bit too. I can only assume that whatever CO-OP they do, it'll be a lot smaller in scope than the original show (or the 1UP Show), which may end up disappointing a lot of people. Otherwise I can't see how they could do Outerlands, CO-OP, AND continue their white label production stuff. Unless they kill themselves with exhaustion or something.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Well they did quote an 18 month production schedule for Outerlands. I think 6 episodes of Co-Op across all or part of that timeframe (filmed in locations along with Outerlands, so probably all) seems workable. Matt said they were sacrificing weekends.
That's the kind of thing you do to make a dream happen, you know?
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Looks like we'll get at least one episode of Co-op if they get funded as I believe they've scored at least $10,000 during the live stream!
Five more Co-op Episodes if they fully fund by 10am!
http://twitch.tv/outerlands
Five more Co-op Episodes if they fully fund by 10am!
http://twitch.tv/outerlands
Same show, smaller in scope in terms of number of episodes. I know it might seem silly to reference the production triangle again, but it's a useful tool to think about. Three sides: time, money, quality. You can have to out of the three. If you want high quality and low time, it's very expensive. If you want high quality and low cost, you need a lot of time. That's the model we're going for. We'll be able to do six episodes of CO-OP in pieces over long periods of time.
Haha, that's so cool, had no idea you posted here!
On the subject of the KS goal - they just got to $200'000, only 10k left on their goal, and a little over 2 hours left on their live stream - if they reach the goal by then, we get a whole 6 episodes of co-op in addition to the documentary. Awesome.
Probably time for another link to their Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/area5/outerlands-season-one
