My Weakness

Posted on by
Reply

This is going to be a major post. Not in terms of lenght,  but because of its importance in the whole Wakefield universe. I’m revealing one of the major sources of inspiration here, and the title is not only a reference to my Songs in the key of Wakefield series, it does define an undeniable truth. My Weakness, from 1999 album Play by Moby, was the first “external” song included in the soundtrack of The X-Files (the episode was 7×11 “Closure”) and my devotion to that show is the weakness meant in the subtext.

Not that The Wakefield Variation is going to dig into paranormal anytime soon, but the atmosphere, the mistery, the unresolved tension between the main characters is something I’ve always been looking at when developing our project. The X-Files sits among the best television series ever, and has been the first popular culture phenomenon to spread across the internet back in the 90s. These two things alone should be enough make it a model to us. But that grim chorus repeating itself, mixing so perfectly with Mark Snow‘s music (who praised the choice instead of complaining), kind of made me preview the expression of Wakefield, then greatly portrayed by Michael Brian.

That episode, and that music, marked one the darkest revelations of the show, that is Mulder finding out his sister (whom he spent looking for over two decades of personal and professional life) was dead. Seeing the closure of that obsession – or it becoming immortal – made me think it was the same Wakefield needed to feel towards his relationship with Eleanor… that it was all his experiment was about, overcoming his obsession and being at peace with the world.

If you’re eager to know whether Wakefield is going to succed or not, well we’re even more!

Songs in the key of Wakefield

Posted on by
Reply

Great news: I’m getting back at writing in first person – for a few posts, at least. And I don’t want to give up on making this place a real diary about everything that happens about this project. I just got back from Rome where I had two things scheduled: attending a screening of the pilot to a small but selected audience at Caffè Letterario, and a business meeting with some important (yet undisclosed) person who might mean a lot to the continuation of our series.

Shortly after I got home, I received an e-mail from Michael Brian, our lead actor, that is Wakefield himself! He was asking news about the project, as it looked stuck from “outside”… and I must say he’s right. There haven’t been any major updates lately, and that is because dealing with development, distribution, funding, etc is time consuming, and being our production company still made of just two people, there is no much time left for promotion, updating, advertising.

And this is bad. It really is. A project like this is kept alive by audience, readers, bloggers, casual surfers too: being born from the internet, for the internet, it needs to be appealing to the people of the internet. I tried to figure out something to change things… and I thought about going back a little bit.. back to the origin of this project, of its story, its atmosphere, its inspiration.
I couldn’t help thinking about music, and I mean way before Michele Bettali, Stefano Carrara and Fabrizio Castanìa delivered their great score. Some specific music was in my head while developing the concept behind The Wakefield Variation, and it provided a lot of inspiration for what I thought this series needed.

So I thought it could be a nice move to share with you the beginning of the creative process through the music. I’d like to start with a song that has long been in may favourite playlist, and has kept me thinking about the lyrics since the first time I listened to it. It’s Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce. In those words lies a lot of Wakefield’s “experiment”…

Wakefield on NutralTV

Posted on by
Reply

While The Wakefield Variation is undergoing an intense development stage to actually beocome a series (you didn’t the project was dead after the pilot, did you?!) here is some interesting news: The web promoting platform Nutral TV is launching this week, and our beloved pilot is going to be featured in the very first episode! Be sure to check out their website on Wednesday, April 17th at 12 Eeastern Time (5pm in the UK, 18:00 italian time)!

Nutral TV

Blip.tv (and more)

Posted on by
Reply

The pilot episode has been out for almost a month by now, and as we’re working every day to raise awareness about our upcoming series, here are the first two official distribution partnerships: please take a look A) at the italian digtal TV StreamIT – Twww and check their webseries channel and B) at the international platform BLIP.tv: here is the page dedicated to The Wakefield Variation!

***

Lìepisodio pilota è uscito da quasi un mese ormai, e mentre stiamo lavorando ogni giorno per promuovere la nostra serie, ecco i primi due accordi di distribuzione: prego date un’occhiata A) alla TV digitale StreamIT – Twww e al loro  canale webseries e B) alla piattaforma internazionale BLIP.tv: ecco la pagina dedicata a The Wakefield Variation!

Wakefield unleashed (the pilot is out!)

Posted on by
Reply

We’re sure you don’t need words, but we can’t help spending a few: after all, it’s been over one year of struggling pre-production, 3 days of shooting in worst-possible wheather, and a month of post-production. All of that to deliver the following, and hopefully many more. If your internet connections allows it, we suggest you to watch it in HD, as we worked so hard to make it look as nice as possible ;-) Just click the gear button and select an HD resolution from the menu. Oh, comments deeply appreciated!

***

ecco i sottotitoli

ecco i sottotitoli

Siamo sicuri che non avete bisogno di parole, ma non possiamo fare a meno di spenderne qualcuna: dopo tutto è stato un anno di faticosissima pre-produzione, 3 giorni di riprese col meteo peggiore possibile, e un mese di post. Tutto ciò per realizzare quello che segue, sperando di poter passare presto agli episodi successivi. Se la vostra connessione lo permette vi consigliamo di guardarlo in HD, avendo lavorato così duro per fargli avere l’aspetto migliore possibile ;-) Basta cliccare sulla rotellina e selezionare una risoluzione HD dal menu. Oh, e i commenti sono molto apprezzati! Per i sottotitoli in italiano cliccate sull’icona col relativo simbolo e scegliete italiano dal menù a tendina.

One look behind

Posted on by
Reply

Frist things first: the pilot episode of The Wakefield Variation is coming, it only needs a few finishing touches and then we’ll have our premiere :-)
Meanwhile, what do you think of the graphic novel cover? We had mentioned it before, in press kits and maybe some old post… now it’s here: The Wakefield Variation – One Look Behind will tell a brief story from the past of our beloved title character, marking our debut in the transmedia universe. The comic book will be a 20 pages paper limited edition for Italy only, plus an international english version, digitally published. Artwork by Electric Sheep Comics. More details soon!

The Wakefield Variation - One Look Behind

Prima di tutto: l’episodio pilota di The Wakefield Variation sta arrivando, ha bisogno solo di qualche ultimo ritocco e poi avremo la nostra “prima” :-)
Nel frattempo, cosa ne pensate della copertina del graphic novel? Ne abbiamo parlato in passato, nelle cartelle stampa e in qualche post… ma ora è qui: The Wakefield Variation – One Look Behind racconterà una breve storia dal passato del nostro amato protagonista, sengnando il nostro debutto nell’universo transmediale. Il fumetto sarà un’edizione limitata cartacea di 20 pagine, solo per l’Italia, ed avrà anche una versione internazionale, in inglese, pubblicata digitalmente. Disegni a cura di Electric Sheep Comics. Presto ulteriori dettagli!

and THE teaser trailer shows up

Posted on by
Reply

We know what you’re thinking: here we are again, with the same old dull teaser-trailer-then-renamed-episode-alpha-then-renamed-a-taste-of-what-is-going-to-happen posted once again just to give the feel of the work in progress while the work is actually not progressing at all.
You might be right, since it took us a lot of time to move to production stage, and that video was the only thing we could show you…until now! The Wakefield Variation (that is, the pilot episode) is almost ready to meet the internet audience, and as our team is polishing the details about music and sound design, we’re happy to show you a new teaser trailer! The first one worth to be called like this, being made from real pilot footage.
It may look like it doesn’t reveal much, but if you pay attention you’ll find a lot of things never seen – or heard – before :-)
Enjoy the watch, and tell us what you think: we might still be on time to make changes to the pilot, which is due… in a week ;-)

Sappiamo cosa state pensando: eccoci ancora una volta col solito trailer sfigato che ha cambiato nome 10 volte, per dare l’idea che lavori sono in corso quando invece non lo sono affatto.
Potreste avere ragione, dato che ci abbiamo messo così tanto per arrivare alla fase di produzione, e quel video era l’unica cosa che avevamo da mostrarvi…. fino ad ora! The Wakefield Variation (cioè, l’episodio pilota) e quasi pronto per il pubblico di internet, e mentre la nostra squadra sta definendo gli ultimi dettagli relativi a musica e sound design, siamo felici di mostrarvi un nuovo teaser trailer! Diciamo il primo meritevole di essere chiamato tale, dato che è stato prodotto dal girato originale.
Potrà sembrare che non riveli molto, ma se prestate attenzione vi accorgerete di diverse cosa mai viste – o sentite – prima :-)

Quindi buona visione, e fateci sapere le vostre opinioni: potremmo essere ancora in tempo per modificare l’episodio pilota, che dovrebbe arrivare… tra una settimana ;-)

It’s a wrap!

Posted on by
Reply

I won’t lie, I dreamed of shouting the above countless times :-) Now that I actually did it, it looks like we’re coming back to reality, as if the shooting of The Wakefield Variation was some sort of dream… It must say that it looked like it was turning into a nightmare at some point, but with the help of an amazing cast and crew we woke up safe and sound in our beds. In the last week we tasted filmmaking… (I mean, the real thing) and it was a great professional and formative experience, the kind that made us a slightly better producer and director. I suggest you to follow us on facebook and twitter as well to know about all the problems we had to face and get a glimpse of what was going on, while we enter the post-production stage. Oh, and… people who helped us getting to this point: thank you so much!

Brifing with some tea and coffee

Gianluca Olmastroni (series creator/director, on the right) discusses minor script changes with actors Michael Brian (left) and Kelsey Gillis (center). Photo by Lisa Carpitelli (associate producer/script supervisor)

Sarò onesto, ho sognato di urlarlo (it’s a wrap!) innumerevoli volte :-) Ora che l’ho fatto, sembra di tornare alla realtà, come se le riprese di The Wakefield Variation fossero state una specie di sogno… Devo dire che in certi momenti sembrava che stesse diventando un incubo, ma con l’aiuto di una fantastica squadra di attori e tecnici ci siamo risvegliati sani e salvi nei nostri letti. Nell’ultima settimana abbiamo assaggiato il fare cinema (intendo, “quello vero”) ed è stata una bellissima esperienza professionale e formativa, del tipo che ci ha reso un produttore e un regista leggermente migliori. Vi consiglio di seguirci anche su facebook e twitter per conoscere i problemi che abbiamo dovuto affrontare e per avere un’idea di tutto quello che è successo, mentre noi ci immergiamo nella post-produzione. Oh, e un grazie infinito a tutte le persone che ci hanno aiutato ad arrivare a questo punto!

The Wakefield Week

Posted on by
Reply

Here we are, this week will finally mark the shooting of the first episode of The Wakefield Variation! While we are trying to make every piece to fit in its place (and it’s not an easy task, considering how much every piece is going to cost) we can’t help thinking about how everything begun… and how much things changed in a year. We talked briefly about this in the previous post, but we keep thinking that if someone told us – one year ago – that it would took us a year to start shooting the series pilot… I don’t know, maybe we might have given up. It started as a small project, mainly for showcasing purpose… and as soon as we discovered crowdfunding (ages later than the rest of the world I guess) we decided to give it a try. The rest is history – which is all written down right here on this blog, by the way – but I think that all those expensive and time-consuming issues we’ve been through, they were worth it. Building a cast and a crew for a web-series with a cinematic approach, as opposed to just start and shoot… it truly was an experience, and some… very educating journey. Anyway, we’re eagerly waiting for the next one… which is not the flight Michael Brian (Wakefield) is going to catch in a day or so. Keep reading us :-)

***

Ed eccoci alla settimana che segna le riprese del primo episodio di The Wakefield Variation! Mentre proviamo a far incastrare ogni pezzo al suo posto (e non è facile, anche considerando il costo di ogni singolo pezzo) non possiamo fare a meno di pensare a come tutto è cominciato… e quanto le cose sono cambiate in un anno. Ne abbiamo parlato brevemente nel precedente post (english only, sorry!) ma continuiamo a pensare che se qualcuno ci avesse detto – un anno fa – che ci sarebbe voluto un anno per iniziare a girare l’episodio pilota della serie… non lo so, forse avremmo lasciato perdere. È partito come un piccolo progetto, principalmente a scopo dimostrativo… e appena abbiamo scoperto il crowdfunding (una vita dopo il resto del mondo, immagino) abbiamo deciso di fare un tentativo. Il resto è storia – che è scritta tutta proprio qui su questo blog, a proposito – ma credo che tutti i complessi e costosi problemi che ci siamo trovati davanti, siano valsi la pena. Costruire cast e troupe per una web-serie con un approccio cinematografico, al posto di iniziare a girare così dal niente… è stata un’esperienza e un viaggio che definirei… educativo. In ogni caso, aspettiamo impazienti il prossimo… che non è il volo per l’Italia che Michael Brian (Wakefield) prenderà tra circa un giorno. Continuate a leggere :-)

Happy New Year (again) and Why (part II)

Posted on by
Reply

This blog was started the first day of this very year, which is about to end (UTC+1 time zone!) and the second post was titled “Why” and dealt about the reasons of making a short film. There was also a “part one” in brackets, and one year later I feel the urge to drop a few lines about why this project has become a webseries, why it’s worth making it and why there’s nothing to watch yet.

A series is the only thing in independent film/video production that can have a market in these days, period. We can’t think of a feature, or a single short: being a company, investing a lot of what is still our own money, we have to think this way. I want to make clear that this is not something we regret or we’re ashamed of; considering how much television influenced the popular culture with great shows (even really bad ones, but that’s not what we’re talking about now) we’d be glad to be part of that arena.

Obviously, we must be aware of competing in a different league, but the web and all of its distribution opportunities are making possible something which was pure fantasy only a few years back. With the pilot episode of The Wakefield Variation we want to show the internet audience our take on independent webseries: an international blend of creative talent and professionals putting efforts into a small but ambitious project.
If you think it sounds like a lot of hard work you already know why it takes time :-) Happy New Year everyone!