Shadow Unit: award-winning sf writers create "fan site for a show that never existed"
Shadow Unit is, more or less, the website for a serial drama in internet form. Or possibly it's a fan site for a TV show that doesn't exist.Link to announcement, Link to Shadow Unit) (Thanks, Bear!)Over the next couple of months, the site will be updated on a weekly or biweekly basis with new information, vignettes, character sketches, character bios, a community message board, and other exciting things.
And starting in mid-February, there will be a series of novellas and novellettes, and one complete novel. Approximately one story every two weeks for sixteen weeks (though we are still tweaking the schedule), comprising the first season (of hopefully many) of a television show that doesn't exist.
Some of the content will be free. Some will be by subscription. (Subscriptions will be extremely reasonable.) There will be DVD extras, deleted scenes, background information, character-based digressions, and I dunno what all else.
The staff writers (as of today) are Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Sarah Monette, and myself. The Brilliant Web Ghoul and Fabulous Artist is Amanda Downum. The Technical Supergeek is Stephen Shipman.
the latest
latest episodes
Does this remind anybody else of Hiatus?
I. Don't. Get. It.
Is this a thought experiment? A site about a show that doesn't exist? I'm probably just being too literal. Isn't that woman busy enough writing like she does? She's such a productive writer!
W H Y
W L D
S B S C R B
T
T L V S N S H W
T H T
D S N ' T
X S T ? ?
Srry, ths cncptl prjct
wll nt gt ny f my mny.
Bt wsh y th bst f lck!
This is like a sci-fi version of the Epic Legends of the Hierarchs project that the Penny Arcade guys did.
Looks like it'll be a fun read, but they're going to have to bring their A game if they want to top the Furnies.
Cory, wow.
I totally did not expect you to splash this. Thank you so much!
To answer the commenters who don't get it, it's serial hyper/metafiction, the equivalent of several novels' worth of content over the course of a "season," with associated multimedia, fora, interactivity, and other fun things. The writers of the project are all experienced science fiction and fantasy authors.
--ebear
Can I put the subscription on my credit card that doesn't exist?
Are the subscription materials going to be released under CC so we can post them on Scribd?
Sometimes the fan sites/discussions/recaps/etc are more interesting than the shows themselves... Season 2 of LOST is a prime example!
Dansinch, perhaps, 'cause we're still trying to decide on a business model, and "imaginary payment" may be an option. The one thing we know now is that lack of money will not prevent anyone from reading the material. The writers need to make a little money to survive, but we love to share.
Nekura20x6, definitely CC. I've thought CC was a good response to our screwed-up copyright laws pretty much since CC launched.
This is cute, but let us not forget that Kresky did it first over 10 years ago! :)
There was another similar project a few years ago, too; a game company published a sci-fi tabletop RPG based on a Blakes-7-like show that never existed. Does anyone remember the name of that?
So...why don't they try to pitch a real show? Experienced sci-fi and fantasy authors do that sometimes. I'm sure everyone involved would feel much more fulfilled. Sometimes these shows EVEN GET POPULAR.
the real question here is:
Are Elizabeth Bear and Emma Bull the same person? And if not, are they OPPOSITE people?
#12: The problem is coming up with a pitch persuasive enough to get a roomful of executives to risk ten million dollars of their money. In order to do that you need to demonstrate why the show will bring in twenty million dollars of revenue.
"Real" TV and movies are not about quality, story, merit or anything whatsoever but money. Money first, last, foremost and always.
"Shadow unit" sounds like the punchline for a dirty joke about ninjas.
Awesome.
not only season 2 LOST, but season 3.5! Jump in if you're missing ARG 2.0 !!!!
Besides, who wants to work for a network when we can work for ourselves?
The AMPTP is right now proving that we're much better bosses.
Hunty--
Emma is generally much more positive than I am. It's true.
;-)
--ebear
"There was another similar project a few years ago, too; a game company published a sci-fi tabletop RPG based on a Blakes-7-like show that never existed. Does anyone remember the name of that?"
I suspect you're thinking of Spaceship Zero, published by Green Ronin, since I had a similar thought. Awesome premise (experimental starship drive reboots the universe, only this time fishmen conquer Earth), awesome widgets (storing people as powder, zap guns, super-intelligent animals, and getting play as a robot), and better yet there was a soundtrack (which completely rocks.)
http://www.spaceshipzero.com
(website for band of soundtrack, two of whom co-created the RPG)
http://www.thickets.net/
Do-It-Yourself-Choose-Your-Own-Adventures for the win!
is it me? or wouldn't this entire idea be better mounted on second life?
Well, that'd ensure it would be a show no one had seen nor ever would...
I think the idea is sound and this would be a good way to farm the concept until a following and backstory was rich enough to potentially pitch. Or perhaps it's best for all concerned if it remains potential. It reminds me of some of the concepts in Polish sci-fi great Stanislaw Lem's A Perfect Vacuum, which is a collection of reviews of books that don't exist and in some cases couldn't possibly.
Nekura20x6, an update: we're definitely going to have a license saying people can have noncommercial fun with Shadow Unit ideas, but it may not be one of the current CC licenses. The Shadow Unit writers are divided on the question of whether we should try to keep the official stories on our site. Now, I'm completely on the CC side, as shown by my own stories on the web, but so long as any of the other writers are uncomfortable with the idea, I'm not going to argue hard with them. The important thing is we all agree that people should be able to play noncommercially with our concepts. Fanfic is the highest form of flattery.
My theory is nearly all professional writers will stop worrying about file sharing in the next few years. But it's hard for people to let go of the 20th century model of copyright, especially when they know that if they don't get paid for their art, they'll have to find other jobs and make less art.
Jeff (3), it makes sense to me. Stories are postscript, not bitmap.
Warren Camishen (4), please don't ever do that again. It's like bringing a microphone and amplifier to a cocktail party.
Charlie Lesoine (12), because that's not what they're doing. This is a different form.
Hunty (13), Miz Bear and Emma Bull are different but not opposite.
JGodsey (21), I doubt it. It'll be a long time before anyone comes up with a virtual reality that's as powerful, flexible, and high-res as language.
License Farm (22): Many writers have played with nonexistent works of fiction: Borges, Nabokov, Lovecraft of course, Flann O'Brien, Robert W. Chambers ... and that's nowhere near a complete list.
Oh, I just realized that I should correct a slight misapprehension. This project is Emma's brainchild, and she's been the primary creative and motivationary force behind it, not me.
I'm just incredibly honored to be included. (And also, having more fun than I can stand.)
--ebear
Well, if Elizabeth bear says she's having fun, it's probably worth exploring. She seems like a fun person. And she sure knows her Lovecraftian lore.
In my opinion, I think this is an awesome idea.
Instead of reading/watching something awesome and fanning over it, we see the fandom first.
The fandom then defines and expresses the original material it's about--the show that doesn't actually exist.
I'm looking forward to this.