So… if you are reading this very special H+ post at or around the very special time when it published (i.e. 6am), I am fast asleep and likely will not be awake for another several hours.
I was told by the good folks are Warner Premiere that by now they will have released info on our series to “The Wires”. I’m still not totally clear on what that means except people in the media are supposed to have access to it. All I can think of is the show “The Wire”, which I haven’t gotten around to watching yet, but I know it’s supposed to be good.
Anyway, bottom line… the info should be out by now. I say “should” because, who knows… maybe it’s not. I can’t be sure, because as I said, I’m sleeping right now. shhhhh.
What I do know is that I was given permission to schedule the following post with all of the same information that will appear in that press release. So at this point, there’s no turning back.
Here we go:
H+ Premiere Date and Series Rollout
We will be premiering H+, a series many of you know has been in my life for six long years, on…
August 8th, 2012
Actually now looking at that date, I’m realizing it’s been a little over six years. Wow.
It will be premiering on a premium YouTube channel designed solely around the series… and its URL will go by the name of: http://youtube.com/HPlusDigitalSeries. At the time I was writing this post, that channel was not yet live… but I was told it would be live when the press release went out. Is it live now? Don’t know. I’m sleeping.
That channel will be releasing episodes of the series every Wednesday. The episodes are short, so we’ll be releasing multiple at a time. We’ll also be filling the channel with lots of other forms of content relevant to the series. That stuff will go live Mondays and Fridays and include things like interviews with cast and creators, behind the scenes, recaps, teasers, clues, breakdowns, and extra story content to enrich the experience and help piece together the series mystery.
In fact, the moment that channel goes live, you could say we are unofficially launched, because over the next month we will be releasing a bunch of exclusive content that’ll get viewers prepped for the story. I’ll have my hand in all of it, so it’ll definitely be a part of the larger mythos. So what are you waiting for?! Subscribe to the channel now!!
… oh, it’s not live yet? Um… okay well, then wait a few more hours… then subscribe!
We’ve got a bunch of incredible talent in the series. Here are some faces you might know well:
David Rogers (Jane by Design)
Alexis Denisof (Buffy, Angel)
Hannah Simone (The New Girl)
Sean Gunn (Gilmore Girls)
Amir Arison (Homeland, American Horror Story)
Samuli Vauramo (Beauty and the Bastard)
Hannah Herzsprung (Vier Minuten, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)
Caitriona Balfe (Super 8)
Lela Loren (Lost)… I don’t think she knows this, but I geeked out pretty hard when we cast her… she played Jacob and Smokey’s biological mom.
And me! You know me, right? John Cabrera (johncabrera.com)
H+ at Comic Con 2012
And we’re gonna be at Comic Con again this year. This time, we’ll be part of a special 3 day Google/YouTube event featuring several (I think it was like 5 or 6) premium YouTube channels in the geeky Sci Fi realm… channels like Machinima, Geek & Sundry, Stan Lee’s World of Heroes… and us! The venue is slightly off site, not far, at 315 7th Avenue, San Diego.
I won’t lie, I’m excited to meet Felicia.
What? I get star struck too.
We’ll have a panel on Friday, July 13th (Yes, I threw July in there for a reason dammit… I’m superstitious as hell!) at 7pm. Our panel will consist of actors David Rogers, Alexis Denisof, Sean Gunn, director Stewart Hendler, producer Jason Taylor and lil’ole me. It’ll be moderated by Matt Atchity, Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes. I know, all dudes. It’s just how it went down PR wise and schedule wise.
The panel will last a little over an hour and since the capacity of the space is small, if you’re at Comic Con this year and want to check it out, you should come early. Our booth should be interesting, so I hope you guys do stop by if you’re there. We’ll be looping some series content on a TV at the booth itself, and during the panel we’ll be showing some of the episodes. We’ll also be giving out some swag. Something very special actually… relevant to the larger story that we recently created especially for Comic Con. Have I piqued your interest? I hope so.
H+ Press and Public Screenings in LA and NY
Last call to get on the list for one of the two exclusive screenings of the series. We have one coming up in LA next Monday, July 9th and a second in New York City on July 16th. They both start at 7pm. People have asked me whether these are fancy events. No they are not. These are screenings, not red carpet premieres. So if you’re interested in getting a sneak peek, email me at john@johncabrera.com. I’m going to be turning in my last RSVP list at noon on Friday, so if you haven’t gotten in by then, you’ll have to wait until August when the series finally premieres online.
And I think that’s it.
If there’s something I didn’t address here, ask me in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook and I’ll answer if I can.
And please please please, click one or more of the links below. Oh go on, click’em all! I know there is absolutely no reason why the Pinterest community would ever be interested in an apocalyptic Sci Fi series, but man, I so look forward to someone finally clicking that particular button. Just so I can say it happened.
July 5, 2012 at 6:19 am
Hey John! I hope you can sleep at all with all these exciting news! I’ve got a question though: will H+ also be available from Germany? I mean, some videos on YouTube are only available in the US, perhaps you noticed during one of your stays in Germany…
I can’t wait to see the show and I hope I don’t have to wait even longer…!
July 5, 2012 at 7:01 am
As a friend AND a fan, I’m so excited for you! At 9:57 a.m. EST, the site is live and I’ve subscribed. Can’t wait for more.
:: high fives ::
July 5, 2012 at 11:08 am
Wow! This is the first thing besides composted hops and harvest ready carrots and potatoes that I’ve been exited about since spring! I can’t wait! Congrats J! It’s all happening! (sorry, I couldn’t resist the Cameron Crowe reference.)
July 5, 2012 at 11:16 pm
unbelievably excited for you, and COMIC CON!!!!! JP, I am going to give you a hug, man. if that’s okay. this isn’t a threat. hahaha xoxoxoxo
July 6, 2012 at 3:31 am
Jules, I would consider it a threat if you weren’t going to give me a hug… Or at least a whole bunch go xoxoxoxoxoxox’s. Looking forward to the IRL.
P, you’d better get your notebook and pen ready. Six years is a lot of years to be filling a a series with mythos.
K8 high fives back!
Catherine, I’m scared of this question, I have to admit, because unlike Lockerz and The Homes, this is an actual Hollywood studio who backed this… and region restriction is a part of their vocabulary and strategy sometimes.
I also don’t really get the kind of inside information about distribution that I get with smaller projects. For example, I found out we were premiering on the 8th only one week ago. Studios are programmed machines. So at this point that’s just a question I don’t have an answer to yet. But I’m as nervous about it as you.
Trust me, I’m dying for you guys overseas to see it just as much as everyone here. As you know I have a very personal relationship to your country. And Cosimo is friggin Italian for crying out loud. And the series takes place in Europe! It would be crazy.
July 6, 2012 at 8:55 am
But half the fun was debating with you, J. But since you wrote it I’ll have to find some other mythos devotees to spin yarns with… hmmmm… where is Sarah hiding?
July 6, 2012 at 2:45 pm
I’m relying on otakus like you and Sarah!
July 6, 2012 at 10:06 pm
As I have not already waited for H+ for six years, it would less terrible for me if I had to wait for another six years until it became available in Germany. Usually, my motto is: if a movie is worth watching, it is worth waiting for (discovering several years of a series within a few weeks has its own perks).
Still, it is one of the ironies of modern media that they WOULD enable instant communcation if it were not for legal, political, financial…..reasons that raise barriers which neutalize the technical progress.
Yet, for once I would love to watch H+ as soon as it becomes available, as this seems to be a forum worth its name, a forum in which real communication takes place, and topics exceed feverish dicussions about who should have shipped/married whom.
So I tried to find a tweet a read a few weeks ago, which contained link to an article about overseas markets becoming more and more inportant, for the purpose of poviding you with ‘ammunition’ for discussion with the WB – but could not find it (Twitter lacks good search machines).
So I googled instead and found this – hope it will be helpful:
(from a CNN business blog about Spiderman – sure, it is about movies, but why should not the same be true for other media projects?)
„According to the Los Angeles Times, the overseas film market has grown dramatically in recent years, with ticket sales jumping up 35% from 2007 to 2011. Compare that with a domestic growth of only 6%.
Movies today are making more money overseas than they do in the states. So far, “The Avengers” has made nearly 60% of its revenue overseas, according to figures from Box Office Mojo. Similarly, “Battleship” made nearly 80% of its money in foreign markets.“
http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/21/u-s-movie-studios-look-abroad-for-big-debut
July 6, 2012 at 10:15 pm
I COULD pretend that I left the typing error in what should have been ‘important’ just in order to make you feel less uneasy about yours – but in fact I only saw it when I read through my post already posted (and no, podcasts would be no alternative for me, even if I had an audience interested in listening, as I mumble in German, and my English pronunciation is worse..so, yes I am delighted that computers have restored the importance of the printed word, and, as my listening is similar, DVD’s with English subtitles are paradise for me – but I guess H+ will not come with subtitles, not even ‘for the hearing impaired, which tend to provide lots of additional information about otherwise indescernible noises…)
July 7, 2012 at 8:06 am
Sorry for this third entry – but I just finally established a Google/YouTube account in order to find out if I could subscribe to the series – and it seems to work.
July 7, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Beate, everything you say here is true. And region restriction is just as annoying for the artists as it is for viewers, believe me. But let me explain the reason behind it, because I don’t think many truly understand why it exists, and for that reason it can feel especially unfair.
Let’s first take big blockbusters as an example. Some of the biggest Hollywood films cost an immense amount of money to make. Far more than the $2 million dollars our project cost… sometimes over 10 times that amount. Believe it or not, studios can’t afford that alone. I think the general public assumes that Studios are massive treasure boxes of money, and it’s true they do have a lot, but films like that would never be made without companies overseas (different companies in a variety of different foreign markets) that also put a giant amount of money into the budget of the film in exchange for the right to control and profit from its distribution in their particular foreign market.
People assume it is just the studio that has put the restriction on the content, but more often it is the foreign financier who has put that restriction on it. Because they don’t want their audience watching it in another market and making money for the companies that control those. The company that owns the German DVD rights to the Avenger certainly doesn’t want you buying DVDs from the US. They won’t make money. And then they’ll go out of business. And then they won’t be there to finance other Hollywood movies. That would suck, because believe it or not… foreign money drives Hollywood. Your 35% jump is the reason for that.
When it comes to TV, the formula is similar but with one key difference, TV shows need to have a place to air… a channel. So studios typically finance most of a TV show and then sell to a foreign network just like they sell to a US network. Sometimes it can take a while to make a distribution deal with an overseas TV network, and sometimes it happens very quickly or around the time that the US network deal happened. But regardless, before that deal is finalized the studio certainly doesn’t want the audiences in that market to have access to the content, because then the foreign network won’t be as interested in buying it. “What? Half of Germany has already seen Revolution at the NBC website?? No one will watch it here… we don’t want that.” And even when Revolution does air in Germany, ProSieben (or Sky or whatever) doesn’t want you watching it at NBC’s website either. They won’t make any money.
Make sense? Until all foreign TV networks are owned by global corporations that also own US networks (that’s a whole different, scarier discussion), this model probably won’t change. The good news is that technology is making it a faster process. For example, I’ve noticed in recent years movies coming out in Germany BEFORE they come out here.
The big question mark is online media. Because the big media networks online (Facebook, Google, AOL) ARE global/multinational. So you would think that a new more global model for online entertainment would emerge. We will see.
July 7, 2012 at 8:13 pm
John, I do understand the problem, I mainly wanted to point out that the possible difficulties with distributing the H+ series seem to be closely related to its topic – will the ‘chips’ implanted in people’s heads will have area codes? Who owns the content that is transmitted? Does intellectual property exist? Does it belong to the person who had an idea, or the group which invested money into making a movie out of it?……How the changes made possible through technology always are interconnected with economic, political, cultural aspects.
Also, it’s quite frustrating if you can only ‘watch’ a public instantenous discussion, but not take part in it, because the item of discussion is not yet available to you. If I only watch a DVD for myself, it does not matter how old the content it. But if the movie means a lot to me, and I find the discussion took place years ago….well, I can only hope it will hang on like Shakespeare’s stuff and someone will open a new forum. (Yesterday I came across an article about how frustrating it is for movie-makers if their products are discussed in detail before there even exists a final cut).
Also, some days ago I came across a company called ‘MUBI’ which tries to solve the problem of internationally distributing movie content over the internet, and they gave a lively descriptions of the problems they face.
(And, ever since I bought a DVD in Hong Kong, I know I can switch the area code in the system of my laptop, but only three times in the lifetime of the laptop.)