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Ask HN: Would you fund this show?
- pclark 18y agoapply for YC!
- jonknee 18y agoWhy would John August need a few grand from pg? That wouldn't fund anything in terms of making a TV program. For hackers it's worth more than a few grand because of connections and advice, but pg is nobody in Hollywood and his name attached would be worthless.
- shaunxcode 18y agoI would watch it that's for sure, I totally want to know what the deal with the grand canyon is.
- speek 18y agoI would fund a show that shows only clips from Japanese game-shows in the US.
- Devilboy 18y agoYea, just add the quirky English translations like in 'Iron Chef' and I'll watch it all day long!
- tlrobinson 18y agoYou've seen MXC, I take it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXC
- speek 18y agoI have, but there could be so much more! I think there are a few subtitled japanese game shows on hulu.com
- jfornear 18y agoI'm not sure if the creators of this show will read any HN comments, but this is HN so constructive criticism is expected... I liked the pilot, I thought the length was perfect for an online show. I think the cast is pretty good too, which shows overall potential. Things I would consider: The show's name (and the title typography) make you expect something like The Sopranos. Perhaps it should be changed to further differentiate itself from that show? Plot-wise, the show should distance itself from LOST by excluding characters like 'them' or 'the others'. I could see how a studio type could dismiss this show as a LOST ripoff which could affect opportunities to raise funding. Either way, I really like the idea of a show based on economic apocalypse (Peter Schiff callers asking about stocking guns and ammo is funny and ignites your imagination). The dialogue about the demand for Wii's was pretty cool to me, though I could see how the use of Wii's and Helvetica t-shirts could attract super trendy tech-types while turning off others. Also, words prone to pronunciation mess ups or confusions like 'edible' or 'eatable' throw the audience off (or maybe just me).
- Zev 18y agoSince when is the wii super techy? And the Helvetica shirt isn't big enough to be noticed by non-techy people imo.
- jmackinn 18y agoJohn August's blog is part of my regular reading. He is a great screen writer. If you are at all interested in screen writing or the business of Hollywood in general then I would highly recommend his blog.
- vaksel 18y agoI think them hosting on Vimeo is the reason why sponsors aren't taking them seriously. I mean what does it tell the sponsors when they can see that only 149 people "liked" the episode. They should reupload to youtube, where they can avoid that "like" metric
- jfornear 18y agoI'm sure they are using Vimeo for quality reasons, but I could be wrong.
- jmackinn 18y agoThis was only uploaded after they had fallen through getting a sponsor for the series. John August decided to show it to people because it was unlikely that it was going to be seen anywhere else.
- avinashv 18y agoThat's probably because they can transmit in proper HD. Also the "liked" metric is just a way of favoriting--I'd assume any sponsor scouring the web for stuff like this would understand that.