http://www.cinemaspy.ca/article.php?id=840
(Please follow the link for the complete three-page interview.)
Exclusive Interview: Chronicles of a New Reality
Part Three of our discussion with 'Sanctuary' creator, Damian Kindler
By Michael Simpson
A brief excerpt:
Damian Kindler's company Stage 3 Media (S3M) has come a long way since he formed it in 2006 with Marc Aubanel and Martin Palacios (read Part Two of our interview here). Originally shoehorned into a small building in the Gastown district of Vancouver, the company has moved to bigger premises. Concomitantly, it has seen the expansion of its flagship production Sanctuary from an eight webisode Internet series (the highest budgeted direct-to-Web series ever, according to Guinness World Records) to a 13-episode season for the SCI FI Channel.
S3M grew out of a vision that Kindler had of a world in which the Internet, TV and the DVD market are more integrated. Things haven't gone entirely as hoped, however. The Internet adventures of Dr. Helen Magnus and her fellow monster hunters were short-lived. There were numerous technical challenges S3M had to overcome to get the series online and achieve the integration and interactivity Kindler was aiming for. Ultimately, though, the demon of piracy seems to have done as much as anything to damn S3M's pay-to-download model.
It hasn't quite been back to the drawing board for S3M, but the company appears, temporarily at least, to be focusing on more conventional means of distribution. Sanctuary's move to television is perhaps an indication that there are still some large bumps to get over on the road to full media integration. A revolution is happening, though, and Kindler is positioning S3M to capture a corner of it. According to the company's website, it has already optioned two unnamed projects to be released in 2009 and 2010.
In the final part of our interview with Damian Kindler he talks more about Sanctuary, discusses working with director Martin Wood and reveals some lessons S3M learned while making the Sanctuary's eight webisode pilot. He also challenges the notion that he has a obsession with colons. (The article has a photo gallery at the link above.)
Michael Simpson: What are the elements of Sanctuary that you think make it different and unique?
Damian Kindler: To be honest, I don't think there is anything particularly unique about the show except that it's not paint-by-numbers. It's not, 'OK, get me Tim Daly and a then young good-looking guy. I need someone hot and maybe sassy. And let's do it in a law firm.' It's not paint-by-numbers. It's like, let's get a woman who's got an incredible past and then start to build it from the organic roots of what that story, her story, is. So because it wasn't high-concept, other than monster-of-the-week, I think it has a lot of virtue just in that. It doesn't try to be the hot concept out of the gate. It just tries to be something that stands on its own two feet. As far as what of elements of the show [are unique], I can tell you what I like. I don't know what is unique about it because there have been people hunting monsters before. It's such a blend. It's like someone says, 'Look, there's a really nice blend of wine that's got every kind of grape in it. Just taste it.' I think the most unique thing is that it has a look that's different because we use 3D virtual backgrounds, which is great and allows us to do film work and shots and digital effects that no-one's done before. And I think having a female lead who is believable. She's not a super hot twinkie who we say is a nuclear scientist, where you go, 'Uh oh.' We're adding a level of reality to a fantastical environment where you go, 'How old is this woman, this very beautiful older woman?' If this were CSI they'd start with the grizzled guy who'd seen it all and build a team around him. And I think, unlike some studios, I'm not afraid to start with a woman and not have to give her something to balance out her power. Just let her be the centre of it. I have a lot of faith that people - men and women - will embrace that, and I don't need to hedge my bets creatively by putting elements in that are more for marketing issues than for the organic needs of the show.
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