We think we might be on to something….
September 28, 2007, 6:45 pm
Walking the Pixelated Boards
By Virginia Heffernan
So 7 episodes in—with 3 to go—and the Web series “35,” the first-ever fictional Webcast
to stream LIVE has gained some legitimate momentum with its stagey seriousness and clangy we-made-it-in-our-backyard sound . . .
A bonus: it no longer looks like it’s shot in a coal mine. (That was just the first episode.)
I tuned in for episode 7 last night, and you know what? I officially feel for Sarah, the bipolar recovering-alcoholic mom of the drug girl. She’s all tough, and boundaries, and in ep. 7 she actually kicks to the curb all the ill-gotten makeup and stuff from witchy St. Marks Street that her teenaged daughter acquired through her wicked ways. Then she ditches her daughter’s drugs, and hugs her from behind, promising that they’re all going to make a brand new start of
it.
But it’s not an Oprah-style new start, it’s one of those scary Brand New Starts. Horror-movie style, bluebird-and-sunshine, I’m-fooling-myself style. You know it’s NEVER going to be a new start with these people, is it?
The scene was all overplayed–acting way too big for TV, let alone this business-card-sized screen–and the sound in the bathroom, where the scene took place, echoed amateurishly. But it worked.
The filmmakers, overseen by producers Guiesseppe Jones and Kathryn Jones (the director is Adam Forgash and the writer is Sharr White), have the courage of this series. They’re stage people, and they workshopped and rehearsed their show, like real MFA folk.
It’s clearly the live, streaming part of online video–and not the size of the screen, or the hipness of it, or the opportunities for broadcast–that appeals to them first.
Online video’s not just for admen, guitarists, comics and pornographers. Theater people: we need you!
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