Voting opens today on RTÉ's STORYLAND competition.MORE HERE:-
Television is changing and you’re calling the shots ....
Five months ago the call went out for new and established programme makers with exciting ideas to take part in a unique web drama competition.
The talented finalists have produced some brilliant content with buckets of tension, comedy and thrills. However it’s up to you to decide who goes through to the next round.
Watch episode one and vote for the drama you’d most like to see make a second episode. Voting opens 5pm Monday 16th March and closes 5pm Monday 30th March.
www.rte.ie/storyland
Here are the shows alphabetically... Click on them for more details.
CHEZ SPUDS
A surreal comedy set around an Irish kitchen inhabited by Mrs Spuds and her son Shay. In each episode a well known figure will turn up through a strange portal into which step the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Gengis Khan and the 1966 English world cup squad!
HAPPY SLAPPER
‘’Your school years are the best years of your life.’’
Whoever said that must have been hit a few too many times on the head. With a hammer…
Set in a North Dublin secondary school, during a final year that is filled with betrayal, manipulation, desperation & violence, HAPPYSLAPPER is a mystery thriller that centres on the disappearance of popular girl MADDY, and the dark secrets that are revealed when two of her friends start investigating what has happened to her and why... In episode 1 shy outsider Emily has no idea what she's getting herself involved in when she's invited to a 'secret party' held by tough girl Rachel in the school, after dark...
HARDY BUCKS
Hardy Bucks follows the lives of four lazy but likable lads from Castletown, Co Mayo as they try and make enough money to make a fresh start in the 'big shmoke' - Galway.
The bucks try their luck at the Mitzi Turbo Cup - an underground boy-racer event - which has come to Castletown. With the chance of netting €250 "in the claw", the boys may finally have the means of moving to Galway.
JENNY WAS A FRIEND OF MINE
From the moment you go online, they're watching you. Recording your every move, collecting data, building your profile. They know your secrets. They've mapped your very soul. Now, they mean to do you harm. But who are they?
Surely all you have to do to be safe is turn the computer off... right? If you’re no longer online then the danger is no longer real... right? But what is reality, your life online, or your so called life in the physical world? Are you alone?
PSYCH WARD
Danny O'Hagan works as an emergency Psychiatrist on the night shift in a busy city centre hospital. One night Danny is forced to make an impossible decision. The consequences prove worse than he could have imagined. Pressure is building, and Danny soon finds himself in the biggest battle of his life.
PUBWORLD
What is reality? What are its limits, its possibilities, its meaning?
A young man called Darryl has been wrenched, against his will, from our reality and deposited in some other existence – an existence that on the surface appears similar – yet which openly defies the long established norms of physics and logic. He has been deposited in a place called Pub World, and closing time is near…
RENTAL BOYS
‘Rental Boys follows the lives of the staff of two competing DVD rental chain stores in the Dublin suburb of Finglas. Main character Brian, a DIT drop out, is an aspiring sci-fi scriptwriter and the lethargic assistant manager of “Movie-visions”, the rental store that also specialises in most electronics.
His average working days generally include run-ins with; his long-suffering manager Pawel, an array of crazy customers and his arch nemesis, Darren, a struggling actor with a great tan who’s the senior staff member at “Filmbusters” - the store where you can avail of sunbeds and diet pills with every new movie release.
RUNNING LOW
Of course the oil ran out in the end, and civilisation duly crumbled in its absence. But Tom and Bala Weldon, two Tipperary slackers manning the last petrol station in Ireland, have no intention of going anywhere. Their plan, to lay low and sit out mankind’s return to the Dark Ages, is utterly foiled by the very last thing they ever expected to see... a motorist.
THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY
[[that's all there's ever been of the listing for this show, Ed]]
Vote for them on the RTÉ STORYLAND home site
www.rte.ie/storyland
RTE press release on the shortlist
http://www.rte.ie/about/pressreleases/2009/0123/storylandwinners23012009.html
CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR ALL POSTS LABELLED RTÉ STORYLAND
http://storygas.blogspot.com/search/label/RTE%20Storyland
So.. go on... Who you tipping for the win?
See COMMENTS below
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Posts
11 comments:
Storyland RTE: It's not the most user friendly site; would like to watch Rental Boyz but the player brings up Hardy Bucks instead. How am I supposed to vote if I can't see them all?
Ahhh... yeah... That's gotta hurt.
I would link to the correct shows here but they dont have embedding for the episodes... hmmmm... shame...
Everything's fixed now... I'm not sure about the idea of showing how the votes are going. I'm surprised to see Running Low doing so badly, outside of Chez Spud, it's the best thing up there. What the f**k are the Hardy Bucks playing at? did the spend the money on a piss up and then have it filmed by someone who does weddings? dire. They must have a lot of friends voting to keep that piece of crap in second place.
Still, over all quite a good comp. looking forward to seeing more.
just watched happyslapper on youtube, can understand why it hasn't been posted, it's in very bad taste and poorly filmed.
Looks like Hardy bucks have got all their friends and family voting, seems unfair that the really talented shows might be pushed out by those with more IP adresses at their disposal. Not a voting method that is going to deliver us great drama. Chez Spuds, which is one of the most interesting things I've seen in ages is really low down in the ratings. This system is not working.
I agree Chez Spuds is very good indeed, i'm definitely looking forward to the next episode.
I found a Director's Cut of Happyslapper on youtube as I wanted to watch all the episodes before voting. It is dreadful - awful script, amateur acting and poorly filmed. It is also in very bad taste maybe that's why RTE haven't put it up yet!
Now I have voted i can't believe The Hardy Bucks are in the lead as their first episode is dull and unimaginative. Also the sound quality is poor and the camera work sloppy. So vote for Chez Spuds or Running Low so we can get to see some interesting and intelligent drama over the coming months.
Maude, thank God! I was starting to think I was the only one. It's so obvious that the voting system can be/is being exploited and doesn't reflect the actual audience appeal of the shows posted; like you wouldn't just flick past something as poor as Hardy Bucks if it was on TV, please. What did you make of the others?
Jenny was a friend, feels like an out of touch adult writing teens, trying too hard. The Alien thing doesn't work as an Irish drama, can you imagine the Irish Government keeping that a secret? Altough, having said that, some of them look a bit 'other-worldly'. And the Steven Hawkings bit was embarrassing, 'yah know yer man in dah wheel chair, with dah robo'ic voice', Krist! Psych Ward needed more research, the characters feel stereiotypical. Pub world is good, not my cup of tea, but I'd watch the next episode. Rental Boys has a lot of potential too, I'd like to see more. Happyslapper should be dropped, it's crass.
so it's Chez and Running Low all the way, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE.
This whole thing is ridiculous, most of the stuff that got through is so shoddily put together that it's unwatchable. Plus the voting system is screwed and ridiculous. This is just another RTE fail in my books. With the money they divided up between the finalists they could have made something decent. and what did most of the producers do with the small budgets they got? Sod all, some of the most amateur tripe you're going to find this side of Bombay. Especially that Culchie "Hardy Bucks" Rubbish who seemed to have drank the budget and will probably win the lot and piss that away too. Running Low the only one that doesn't seem outmoded and derivative (Rental Boys = Spaced minus the wit and charm). I'm sick of RTE fucking it up for everybody. Public service broadcasting my arse.
hurrah for interactivity!
Given the state of the ad-funded market is drier than the Hardy Bucks drinks cabinet (see bebo story today)...
...maybe storyland could be seen as a valuable way for "beta testing" drama --
Seems a shame it doesn't feel that it can be sold or marketed that way... but maybe in time it will.
I think it's okay for an online project to say - we don't know where we're going with this, we're working it out as we go along with the makers and the audience.
In fact, I think that IS the strength of online content.
The legacy media approach that we're all used to relies on the "it must be perfect at time of release" approach
(print, film, tv, radio...)
That doesn't seem to be how the Net works.
But that isn't yet the message here, I guess.
(I think what I'm trying to say is - it's a shame this discussion isn't taking place as part of the storyland project -- though really glad it's taking place here!)
MORE COMMENTS!!!!
fair point Gas, but I get the feeling RTE where expecting a little more for there coinage than what the Hardies or Happyslapper served up.
By the way, I'm the anonymous that made most of the above comments bar the last; I'm not that pissed off by the competetion, not yet, but I suspect I will soon be if all I get is Hardy Bucks and Happyslapper type stuff.
I shall sign off, Anon One.
great blog by the way, very useful.
I enjoyed them all. They should have made two episodes each. It would have given the viewer a better idea of where the stories are heading. eg: you see the humor of Rental Boys much better on their own web page. www.rental-boys.com
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