Friday, December 5, 2008

Sanctuary - Los Angeles Times: Sci Fi charts its course for the future

At the Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA):

(Please follow the link for the complete article.)



TELEVISION

Sci Fi charts its course for the future

'Battlestar Galactica' helped lift the cable channel; 'Sanctuary' reflects its openness to new models.

By Geoff Boucher

December 7, 2008

... "We're at No. 5 for the year," Howe said, "and within spitting distance of A&E at No. 4, which I think has shocked some people who have assumed that we're so niche and narrow that we don't even register on the Richter scale."

The question is how the channel will make the earth move again. Howe pointed to the new series "Sanctuary," which premiered Oct. 3 and saw its pilot finish as the night's No. 1 prime-time cable entertainment program among adults 25 to 54, as part of the answer.

The fantasy show -- about the mysterious 157-year-old researcher Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), who tends to a refuge for magical beasties -- is also a symbol of Sci Fi's eagerness to embrace new models.

"Sanctuary" began as an Internet series of webisodes and is filmed on a "virtual set" of green-screen technology and CGI effects. The show also uses "RED camera," which records straight to a computer hard drive for a nimbler post-production process ...

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