Digital Revolution: Kinda Awesome
Trevor K. McNeil
Going Digital
Everything is going online, the so-called “Digital Revolution” generally considered to be as significant as the Industrial Revolution. For good or ill, more things are moving online from correspondence to media. The terms “old media” and “new media” going from cultural terms to more significant distinctions.
On the Bright Side
One of the positive impacts of the shift to New Media, and the general reduction in production costs, is the opening up of popular media to traditionally marginalized groups. People are more able to make their own media, free of the censorship, stigma and traditionalist bullshit still rife in the studio system. The sort of attitudes that would have female nominees banned from the red carpet for not wearing high heels.
Sisters Doing It For Themselves
It is little surprise then, that women, particularly queer women, are at the forefront of the new media revolution. Telling their own stories their own way, often with great results. One of the leaders of this Women’s Renaissance in New Media is the Toronto-based production company Kinda TV. With a name that itself is a self-aware joke about the non-traditional format of their shows, only being kind of like TV, the little studio that could has made some incredible contributions to digital culture.
The Freshman & The Vampire
The studios first major success was with Carmilla. A small, non-union web-series, adapting the 19th century novella of the same name, into a modern, Lovecraftian horror, set in a college campus. Shot on digital with a fixed camera mimicking a web-cam, the producers take what could have been a limitation and made it a major factor in the show’s approach. The stories and shooting designed to account for it so the excellent writing and solid performances could speak for themselves.
Everyone Welcome
Far from a “lesbian enclave” that might be feared from a show made by queer women, aimed at queer women (Kotex is the show’s sponsor), Carmilla is truly inclusive. Nearly every sexuality is represented, in a way that endeavors not to be reductive to anyone, one of the show’s greatest strengths being its complexity. Far from a clear fight between good and evil, the good screw up, the villains can be reasonable if not even sympathetic, and the morally ambiguous can find the light. Just like real life.
A Question of Genres
Another major advantage is the approach to the story itself. Creating what is basically a Romantic Comedy Horror, focused on relationships in a horror setting, elevated by some genuinely funny humor and pop. Cultural references. The latter of which range from the obvious: “There is no way in Hell or Hogwarts” and “oh, thank Dumbledore!” **to the esoteric: “the Cenobites want their playhouse back!” and “space whale?” (10 points if you get that last one).
Curve Ball
On the more realistic end is Slo Pitch. A mockumentary style show in the tradition of The Office (the original British series, not the American knock-off), again using limited budget to greatest advantage. Set among a women’s beer-league slo-pitch baseball team, the name of the game, aside from the obvious, is empathy. The characters, even the distasteful ones, feel like real people you could actually know. Facing life as best they can.
Created Reality
As with Carmilla the shows greatest strengths are the writing and performances, the scripts using more of the British style of humor. The main difference between British and American humor being that in American humor, the protagonists are always cool and untouchable, protected by layers of plot armor. Even if they lose, they are never portrayed as losers. British humor takes a different tack, the human frailty of the protagonists brought to the fore, the trope of the “lovable loser” applying in most cases. A spirit reflected in Slo Pitch’s tagline: Clear eyes, full hearts, we’ll lose, probably.
