A falling object spreads radiation across America before landing in Canada. The Department of Homeland Security investigate, fearing terrorism. What it appears to be is far different from what they believe.
Pioneer One is a free TV show, and what I mean by free is that you do not have to subscribe to a TV channel to get it. It is actually being distributed via Bit Torrents which are most often used for downloading TV shows such as Lost, Dr Who, Top Gear and any other show you missed the night before. The series, which they are still to film, is being paid for by donations and is being supported by professionals who are giving their services for free. As such, you would expect the show to be questionable in content and talent.
Wrong.
Pioneer One is very reminiscent of a BBC made show. One camera filming, no extravagant sets, this could easily be an X files TV show made by the BBC in the 1970s. While the majority of the first episode is serious stuff, there are some good lines. The plot is very much about setting up the series and as such doesn’t really give away the goods. Yes, you find out what the DHS believe, and yes you find out what the evidence suggests but other than that, you don’t see anything.
Pioneer One has a lot of potential both as a series and as a way for future shows to be distributed. Rather than relying on television companies who pander to various demographics, or who cancel a show because they don’t understand what they have (Hello Fox, Goodbye Firefly), you could have television shows made because the cast and crew believe in the subject. Money is always important, after all the first episode of Pioneer One was made for 6000 dollars, but I am sure placing an advertisement at the start of a show would help pay the bills. After all, if you pay to have a advertisement on a television channel, you only reach those viewers who both subscribe to the channel and live in the country that hosts the channel but if you would to place an advertisement at the front of a show that was distributed via Bit Torrent you would have the potential of viewers in so many other countries.
Imagine a show that is sponsored by a world wide company such as Sony. Not only would you have the opportunity to reach millions of viewers in many countries for probably the price of one advertisement in one country but you could actually create a new style of advert that perhaps doesn’t use a voice over or lots of words simply so that no matter what language the viewer, they could understand what the company was selling.
While Pioneer One is being financed by donations, imagine a show that each episode has a budget of say, 2 million dollars. Now you are talking about some serious power to create what you whatever show you want.
I truly applaud the makers of Pioneer One for not only creating a watchable and enjoyable show but for showing hopefully the world what is possible and being the pioneers (pun intended) in what might become the normal way of creating and distributing shows in the future!
Don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself!
http://vodo.net/pioneerone
Additional
After some more thoughts, think about if Google decided to start sponsoring TV shows. Google is a world wide brand that known for branching off into things other than just its search engine. Hello, anyone from Google, feel free to call me up and thank me for my idea!
What about Coke Cola, one of the most famous names ever, or McDonalds, the advertisement would only have to display the Coke bottle or the golden M for it to be recognizable around the world. All it is going to take is one brave CEO of a multinational company to say OK, and we’ll see the start of a brand new form of media, one that is not dependent on the opinions of suits at a network who are aiming to attract a specific demographic, rather one where the makers of this media will be free to create what they believe in.
Imagine if Josh Whedon had had access to this format when he was looking to produce Firefly. The show would still be going and companies would be fighting to get on board and sponsor it.
I appreciate that Bit Torrents are slightly geeky at the moment but things change. Who would have thought that ten years ago you could watch TV on a cell phone but now you can. Already there are boxes that you can connect to your TV and watch things from the web. It is only a matter of time before someone comes up with an organized way to download Bit Torrents directly for television viewing. This is going to be the future once some brave souls take a chance on it.
Additional Part Two
Think of the challenge of an advertising agency, charged with creating a 30 second global commercial that needs to be understood world wide, pushing an identity rather than the deal of the week in Idaho. While English would probably be understood around most of the world, imagine having to create a advertisement without a voice over track or words on the screen, simply showing either a global product such as Windows or the iPhone or pushing a corporate identity such as McDonalds. Would it mean the end of those annoying ads that feature a pop song that sticks in your head, or would it mean more world music creeping into commercials seen in the western world.
We all love those television shows that feature adverts from around the world. Those crazy Australians, the sexy Swedes, those incomprehensible Russians, well what if adverts became a mix of all of these? What if adverts no longer feel under the broadcasting standards of your country? Would that mean that in America you could see sexy adverts like those shown in France? What about an Israeli commercial that includes swearing? Would there be limits to advertisements that were downloaded via Bit Torrent? Could that be regulated or would it run wild? Obviously the larger corporations would have to show discretion but for a smaller company who wanted to push the envelope such as Go Daddy, imagine the possibilities!
One last thought on the subject. At the moment the movie and music companies are trying to stamp out piracy as well as make as much money as possible (as companies do) so would they try to interfere with a TV show that was produced privately and then made available via Bit Torrent? Would they try to take a slice of the pie as they seem to do with everything else? I fear that like most things where creativity is involved, there would be people and companies who would try to take over, control, limit, and profit from such adventures. While Napster was running in the beginning, the music companies did nothing until someone told them how much money they were losing. I doubt if the movie companies as well as the television channels would sit idly by as a potential new stream of revenue and creativity was born. While more and more mainstream movies are remakes, re-imaginings or plain bad copies, it seems the only place where originality rules is with the independent film makers or with those movie makers who refuse to toe the line.
I feel I have gone off track here but I hope that Pioneer One works out, perhaps gets sponsorship and becomes a truly inspiring work for many film and television show makers to follow!
