I’m of the generation that remembers when WIRED predicted we’d be ditching our TV sets for shows broadcast on the internet exclusively. It seemed a far-off proposition in those early days of the web when most internet video looked like a slideshow on our meagre dial-up connections and television shows still dominated our daily entertainment.

Here in 2012 we are frequently turning to the web for television content. Major broadcasters make many of their shows available online and more and more people are taking advantage and learning to consume media in different ways. Many shows produced exclusively for the web are being made as well, with the expected mixed bag of results.

Today I’d like to take a look at 2 recent web series I’ve been introduced to and consider worthy of inducting into the New Flesh canon. Not only are these series good shows in their own right, they are both using the web format in interesting ways and pioneering new funding models for getting their visions on your screen.

GUIDESTONES

Canadian-produced web series GUIDESTONES bills itself as “An Interactive Thriller” and it delivers on both fronts. The premise of the show is 2 university students working on a project for class end up getting involved in a murder mystery that leads them on a search for the truth behind a global conspiracy and an impending apocalypse. The characters in the series search for clues to help them unlock the secrets of the conspiracy which are hidden, often in plain sight, all around the globe and the internet and tying in to the very real (and very creepy!) Georgia Guidestones.

The tone of the show is very techno-thriller at times - an interesting blend of the kinetic visual style of the BOURNE films and the puzzle solving clue hunting through history and secret societies reminiscent of THE DA VINCI CODE. It gets delivered via email in these perfect, bite-sized packages of 3 to 5 minute episodes which occur in “real time” from the point you subscribe and can be enjoyed on your PC or on your smartphone if you are on the go.

I personally found the smartphone option coupled with the length of the episodes made for the perfect entertainment for someone on the go. The series is great for the urban commuter in this regard and I think we will see this kind of format repeated in most of the web series which follow GUIDESTONES.

The interactive portion is where the real fun begins for me. Not content to just present a cool X-FILES kind of conspiracy show in an innovative format, writer/director Jay Ferguson has also built an intriguing Alternate Reality Game right into the show for us. For those who aren’t familiar with ARG’s, in GUIDESTONES there will be clues given on the show which viewers can pursue after viewing the show online and get deeper background on the world of GUIDESTONES and in many cases get ahead of the characters on the show to some extent.

To support the ARG element there is a bunch of original content that Ferguson and company have developed as well as factual elements of history surrounding the Georgia Guidestones and many of the conspiracies and secret societies introduced in the series. It’s great watching the fiction and reality blend so smoothly to make this narrative that supplements the show so well. Not that you need to play the game or spend hours hunting down clues to enjoy the show – everything you can find online gets recapped in episodes of the show so you can choose how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go.

The final point I want to make about the show which makes it worthy of attention from indie filmmakers is how GUIDESTONES is pioneering how web series get produced and funded. Previously in Canada it was impossible to secure grants and other funding for an original web series, everything had to be tied to an existing series on traditional television to get any sort of consideration at all. GUIDESTONES is changing all that by being one of the first original web series to qualify for grants, which is opening a really big door for future Canadian web series production and showing the world that the time of the web show is arriving.

When I met Jay Ferguson at Toronto Comicon this month we shared some really interesting discussions about the show and about the overall future of film on the web. In the weeks to come I’ll be posting our talk here on LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH but one thing we both agreed on was that the web series is on the verge of making a major impact on how we watch shows. A category for the web in a major awards show is not far off, so congratulations to Jay and the GUIDESTONES team for delivering a show that is really going to be seen in the DNA of what the web series is going to end up becoming and that’s what is so exciting about this time for the medium – anything can happen and everything is up for grabs. There are no rules to doing it, it’s the wild west right now.

I strongly encourage you to go to the website and sign up for GUIDESTONES. It’s a really well produced series that is fun as hell to follow, especially if you get into the puzzle solving and investigation on your own. My wife and I have been having a great time together watching the show, chasing the clues online and getting into the story. Sign up and join the experience at GUIDESTONES.ORG!

BLOOD AND BONE CHINA

What is going on over in the UK? Top shelf indie horror is rising to the surface in the nation that once ruled the waves and I can’t help but wonder if being the kids of the Thatcher Generation is making them such experts in fear.

The 12 part series BLOOD AND BONE CHINA from award-winning director Chris Stone and co-writer Stephanie Cooper brings the vampire back to Victorian England and thankfully sheds the sparkle so popular with the vampire genre these days in favour of bathtubs of blood. Literally. The show isn’t just slick with freshly drawn human Claret though, its production values and performances are as professional as they come.

BLOOD AND BONE CHINA tells the story of a young veterinarian who has come to the despairing Victorian city of Stoke due to the untimely demise of his brother. It seems in Stoke there are a lot of people who just...disappear. Fearful denizens of the city are jumping at shadows and with good cause: a vampiric menace is preying on the city and underneath the gilded veneer of the polite Victorian gentry there is intrigue, lust and pure evil.

The show looks just fantastic. Doing a period piece is really tough and I expected to see a show dominated by narrow interior shots and bad rental costumes. What a surprise then to see the episodes so full of lovely exterior shots which highlight the historical beauty of Stoke and such detailed costume and art design. Really helps with your immersion into the world they are weaving together. I even liked the modern theme song for the show and how it played against the 19^th century setting, the intro plays like TRUE BLOOD in bodices and top hats.

Much like GUIDESTONES, the funding model for the show is fairly ground breaking as well. The sponsor of the show is the actual city of Stoke-on-Trent (hometown of the director) as part of their Stoke Your Fires tourism campaign and features many local actors and crew talent. It’s a partnership that has produced one of the nicest looking web series I have seen to date with beautiful locations, costumes, camerawork and spot-on editing. It’s really just the fact that I’m watching on my laptop rather than my television and that the show comes in 10 minute episodes that signals to me I’m watching an internet series.

Visit the BLOOD AND BONE CHINA website and view the first episode. Vampire fans in particular should not miss this series and those looking to graduate from Team Edward on to some real bloodsucking action have something they can sink their teeth into.

The web series is here folks and it is only going to get bigger. Long live the new flesh!

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