New SciFi Network in the Works

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This should be really cool if it can get going the way it's planned. A new network that after about five years would hopefully be able to make new shows. Here's the info they're putting out. The more clicks they get the better it will look to potential investors in pending meetings:

Syzygy (pron. Si-Zi-Gee)is a new cable television network being created by real fans of SciFi, not corporate suits who cancel many fan favorites prematurely. We know the market because we’re members of it. Each of the six current members of the Network’s executive team is not only an industry professional, but also a real SciFi fan. We’re not taking this company public in order to make sure that our number one priority will always be the SciFi/Fantasy fan. To prove fan interest to potential investors at pending meetings, we're asking you to voice your support. just go to

The Syzygy Network page on Facebook Log In or Sign Up to View

Once you're there, "like" the page. That’s it! feel free to browse around and join in the discussions while you're there. There's a vote on right now about a new logo for the company.

If you’re not a Facebooker you can go to our website at:

www.syzygynetwork.com

Post your support on our community forum.

You can also write to us at:

The Syzygy Network
P.O. Box 504
Green, OH 44232



Right now they're producing a fun SF news show, "InSight,"

http://www.syzygynetwork.com/insight/
 
Have any deals been made yet to broadcast any of the shows?

If I knew the answer to that I don't think I'd be allowed to say. I'm a writer associated with them but I'm not allowed to discuss business details. I'll copy a little bit of the Facebook discussion thread about shows:

Dave Andrews said:
For informed discussions about old shows/new shows/saving shows, etc., it's important to first understand how a cable network works...

...This is why we can't carry new, expensive shows in our first few years. I wish it were different, but the math just isn't there...

...One of our main goals in our early days will be finding obscure shows that you haven't seen in years or maybe haven't even heard of...

...For several years now, this group of SciFi fans has been developing stories that they hope will one day be regular series on our network. We already have contracts with several of them and there are several completed pilot scripts, as well as one very developed first season for one show.

Syzygy fully owns or has production rights to more than a dozen different properties thanks to these great, dedicated fans who have spent thousands of combined hours over the last few years developing these concepts with us.

As funding allows, we will begin bringing these concepts to the network. Stories created entirely by real SciFi fans, rather than Hollywood machines. We think you'll like them, but you'll have to be patient.

The first thing is getting a financially healthy network up and running. Then we can play. I think the SSF [Syzygy Story Factory] has come up with some really great stuff that you're going to love, and we're going to love bringing it to you!

I think maybe what you're wondering is, will this happen fur sure? No one can say yet, but there are some encouraging signs. Potential investors wanted to have proof of fan enthusiasm, hence the Facebook "like" drive. So partly it's up to fans if this happens. Syzygy has a meeting in about a week with potential investors. Some new ones have contacted them since the beginning of the Facebook drive. Someone got them an interview with a big UK Sci Fi magazine, all those sorts of things that are going on will help.

Obviously I'm biased, but I do think fandom would really benefit if this takes off. A stable network has to be in place for about five years before they can introduce their new shows. That will let them avoid being dependent on outside networks which could cancel their shows on a whim even if they still have a dedicated following of a million or so, and tell them to change this or that to reach a wider audience. After about five years of found treasures from past present and future around the world, they can start to produce what they own or have rights to.
 
There's finally some concrete progress to report. Syzygy is doing very well on a fundraising website "kickstarter" to raise funds for a fantasy pilot called "Who Am I." They've had almost half the $25 000 pledged in the first 4 days.

You can check out the info video at

"Who Am I" TV pilot

There's more info on their Facebook page Log In or Sign Up to View

I'll copy a summary of what the show is about from a post there:

The Syzygy Network
Well here's a hint. I guess we can reveal it because it's in the first few minutes of the pilot. There's a spaceship that crashes on earth decades ago, years before Adam was even born. In the ship is a large crystal with some very unique... properties. Adam wears a shard of this crystal around his neck. How'd he get it? Is it giving him the powers? Is it harming him at the same time? Does anyone else know about this unique crystal? All these questions and more will be answered in the first season of Who Am I?

What we know about Adam's reality spans not only a few years after this pilot episode, but tens of thousands of years before it. The secret of Adam's abilities is complex and spans a massive amount of time and space. Probably less than a dozen people worldwide know all of these secrets. Only those who were with us developing this concept back in 2006, long before Syzygy even existed.

It will take us three years, two different TV series (which will merge into one series after Who Am I's 3rd season) and a related but separate graphic novel to reveal all of these secrets to you. We hope you enjoy the ride, but we can't give away too much ahead of time without ruining it for you. Suffice it to say, Adam is just one piece of a much, much larger universe that we'll reveal to you in time...

It was the story of Adam and all that surrounds him that originally gave birth not only to the shows "Who Am I?" and "Kensoi," but to The Syzygy Network itself. His story is what caused all of this to happen. In a very real sense, when you think of Adam you can think "In The Beginning..." so it has always been fitting that Adam's story becomes the first drama to come from Syzygy.

Anyone who's interested can show support by pledging as little as a dollar on the reliable Kickstarter website.

"Who Am I" TV pilot

(goes to Who am I page on that site, like the above link for their info video)
 
For anyone just joining the thread, a start-up network/studio, Syzygy, has a fund-raising drive for what will be their first fictional drama (they have a news show, InSight, in producion). Who Am I" is a science fiction mystery about a teen hockey star with strange abilities who dodges government spies, friends and family, as he embarks on a journey to discover "Who Am I?".

To update, the fund-raising is going quite well so far:

There are 84 backers, with $13,306 pledged of the $25,000 goal. There are 27 days to go of the 45 they started with. It has to reach the goal by then for the funds to be collected, so no one's counting chickens yet. If anyone has five bucks to spare or knows someone who would enjoy this show, any help at all would be great. Just spreading the word a bit is a great big help.

Thanks so much! You can click the banner to see a site with the basic info and a little sneak peek from Syzygy.


If you're wondering how they can make a great pilot with so little money, Dave Andrews explained in the comments section on the Kickstarter site:

$25,000 is a pittance for a TV pilot. These days it's more common for a SciFi pilot to run more in the area of $10 million, and under $2 million is unheard of. The only reason we're able to pull this off is by saving money in a variety of ways:

1) Scott Brody and I wrote this pilot. He was the key concept creator. I'll be producing and the two of us will be co-directing. Those are all things that usually carve deeply into a TV show's budget, but it won't cost us a penny. We'll be using non-union a non-union crew, which will slice our costs dramatically, not only by paying slightly lower wages, but by allowing us to have a much smaller crew that we'd be allowed on a union shoot. We have a great deal with a talented company for the special effects, and a very talented composer who has offered to do the music for free.

We will also be using non-union actors. Although we'd love to work with AFTRA, there's no way at all to shoot a TV pilot for a scripted drama for under $25,000 within the rules of an actor's union. It's just not possible.

Another way we're saving money is by sponsorships. The hockey uniforms and equipment, locations and food are all very expensive, so we're offering sponsorships and product placement to companies in exchange for the things they can offer us for the production.

All of these arrangements must be finalized by February, and we've already finalized some of them even this early. It's a long, difficult process, so there's a lot of legwork being done even now in early pre-production, months before principle photography (production, when the crew and actors are working).

This is a phenomenally complex process, and we're taking care of everything else, but we really do need that $25k that our fans are putting up in order to make this a reality.

We truly thank you deeply for all of your support and for being a part of this historic process!
Dave Andrews, CEO Syzygy
 
I am pretty excited about this network's potential. When it goes live on cable what areas do you think will get this first? I live in Cleveland and saw this network is based around here.
 
I don't know, but I can quote you some info the Syzygy main guys put out as anwers on the Kickstarter fund raising site:

...
Having clarified that, our pilot is in a slightly different situation as for the eventual goal is for the Series to be part of the Syzygy Network which we will run. We will be trying to sell the pilot and series to other countries and if the pilot is liked and picked up for a series it will air on the two small cable networks, one on Direct TV and the other on Dish, so it has the possibility of instantly being available in a possible 55 million homes. Since we, the creators, will be making it for our Network overall, casting decisions and script changes and other things that a third party or network could demand as changes would not happen in that fashion. If any changes are made it will be executive decisions discussed amongst the creators to continue the show and make it as popular as possible for the fans
...

...
in our case this has become possible because of a relationship we have with another production company who has a relationship with two TV networks. The networks basically have agreed to air the pilot as long as it's not felgercarb, which it won't be.

We will, however, be pitching this to other networks both inside the U.S. and in other countries, beginning with MipTV in April, a huge event for the international selling and buying of TV shows.

As Scott mentioned, we would love to have this series be a part of our own cable TV network, but that's years away, so it's far more likely to play elsewhere in the first few seasons.

We may be able to play the pilot on our internet channel (coming early next year) for a day or two in order to allow everyone in every nation to see it, but that's contingent on some deals that are still being made
...
 
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