As Hollywood moves to the Web, we're fascinated with the ways that distribution is changing and, in some cases, changing the way films and TV shows are made. Filmmakers who'd have found their careers in the toilet after a straight-to-video release 10 years ago are now bucking the studio system and big budgets to go straight to iTunes along with limited theatrical release. Movies like The Canyons and Margin Call are already proving the model. Then there are the Netflix-produced, straight-to-Netflix shows released all at once (for the bingers among us) like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Then there's the fact that you don't even have to have cable anymore to watch shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men or Louie. They're all available the next night from iTunes for far less than the cost of basic cable and its myriad throwaway channels and commercials.
One format that hasn't yet fully caught on, but will likely explode in the next decade with the ubiquity of smart phones and faster internet speeds, is the web series. With it's 5-10 minute web shows, it's perfect for smoke breaks and cubicle diversions. From comedian Zach Galifianakis' Between Two Ferns to local video producer Zach Wolfson's Beyond the Gallery, the bite-size streaming series is already in search of its auteurs.
Enter Margaret Cho with her parodically racist new web series In Transition about Tawny, Concha and Farhonda (Cho, Selene Luna, Yvette Saunders), three women recently released from prison shaking down Marla (Luenell) a former prison-mate for past-due protection money.
COS native and Palmer High School grad Will Boddington scored a role as the handsome and ditzy secretary to Marla. Congrats to him! We'll hope to follow up with an interview soon.
Read more about the series HERE.
And watch the first episode here:
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