Tangent 21 - Sanctuary

Posted by
Kelspook

Posted on
10:44
May 07 2007

Sanctuary

Sanctuary is the first broadcast calibre sci fi series developed specifically for the internet.

Amanda Tapping stars as 157 year old Dr. Helen Magnus, one of the first female doctors in the Royal College during Victorian England. She was engaged to Jack the Ripper, and also has a daughter from him, Ashley. However, Ashley does not yet know that her father is Jack. Dr. Magnus' father started a sanctuary for supernatural creatures, collected from all over the world. In her work with these creatures, Dr. Magnus has recieved age longevity.

Written by Damien Kindler and Martin Wood, of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, and directed by Martin Wood, the first webisode goes live mid May. There are already teasers and a five minute trailer up on the website. Guest stars from Stargate Atlantis include Paul Mcgillion and David Hewlett, as well as quite a few others.

I've already seen the teaser and five minute sneak peek, and it looks great- go check it out at www.sanctuaryforall.com

As there are no commercials at all the webisodes are going to be $2 each, less if you get a season ticket and as there isn't any digital management on it, you can DL it in HD to watch on your telly or other formats (windows media player, ipod, etc). The first eps are going to be out there free on the likes for Utube and Google video, but to get the good quality you need to pay for it. Each episode is between 15 and 20 minutes long.

The site has a forum, as well as downloads, Damien Kindler's blog, and they're encouraging the fans to get involved, as well as paying attention to what is being said on the forums.

Hope to see some T21ers over there!

8 Replies and 6246 Views in Total.

Kelspook "Maybourne, you are an idiot every day of the week! Why couldn't you have just taken oÂne day off?!"

Although it seems nobody is particularly interested, the first webisode is now live on the site- I'll post more when I've watched it. But by the looks of the trailer, it's kind a cross between Buffy and Men In Black, with normal guns- hope some of you guys check it out!

Posted: 01:10 May 15 2007

Sydney You can lead the whore to culture but you can't make her think!

I might give it a go... I'm a bit dubious about the 'engaged to Jack the Ripper' part tho

Posted: 09:07 May 15 2007

Kelspook "Maybourne, you are an idiot every day of the week! Why couldn't you have just taken oÂne day off?!"

Webisode 2 is now up. It's out there on the likes of Youtube, but looks way better in the proper download.

The creatures look great, and they've managed to inject some humour into it, too.

Posted: 21:22 May 29 2007

Kelspook "Maybourne, you are an idiot every day of the week! Why couldn't you have just taken oÂne day off?!"

The third webisode is now available, and it's excellent.

As I said on my last post, they're up on you tube- this user has thoughtfully grouped them all in one place, so you can watch them one after the other with no searching. As they're lower quality, they're free.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=chemcnabb

So far it seems like a bit of a cross between men in black and buffy- which is why I kind of thought folks here would enjoy it.

Posted: 13:37 Jun 14 2007

Chambler A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.

It's ashame they are so short and only appear every two weeks as there is only 18 or so minutes of story between each two week wait which I personally find very annoying (maybe it has to do with me liking the show and wanting more).

Posted: 14:37 Jun 14 2007

Kelspook "Maybourne, you are an idiot every day of the week! Why couldn't you have just taken oÂne day off?!"

I know I'd like to see more- Some of those issues were broached to Damien Kindler at London Expo. They're getting them out there as fast as they can, and it seems that the episode size was decided as it was sustainable from the company servers point of view, as they were expecting a high volume of downloads.

They are planning to get Sanctuary out on DVD, and they have since been approached by various networks so it'll hopefully appear on TV in the near future. The beauty of doing it this way is that the production team have complete control over the content and story, rather than having to bow to network suits.

Posted: 10:02 Jun 17 2007

Chambler A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.

I've watched my way through the whole first season and I must say they didn't do bad although the format is just so annoying as 20 minutes really is too short to make you feel anything really happened. (not to mention the 2 week break) It does however keep you wanting more and more which I guess is a serious good sign. It did lose some of it's appeal in the last few episodes as they don't feel as good although I can't put my finger on what it was exactly that put me off a little.

Overall pretty good first season for a new type of show and I can't wait to see what the second season will bring although I doubt I'll be getting the DVD.

Posted: 21:02 Sep 17 2007

Callum Bianca loves you

Sounds interesting, hadn't heard of the series before, but will definately take a look.

From the original description it sounds quite like an idea I based some short stories on years ago.

At some point we (as an industry) need to figure out how to do webisode-format productions right, things are getting there slowly (and obviously slowly in this industry is quite different to slowly in some others!), but there are still problems.

I've a nagging feeling that webisodes per se will never truely succeed, instead being overtaken by the interactive, on demand, integrated media that's been just around the corner for the last decade.

Sometimes I hate my industry

Posted: 16:43 Sep 19 2007

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