Entries Tagged as 'News'

New Web Serial

It is heartening to know serials are alive and well on the net with brand new ones being created today.  The latest one is The Mercury Men, a retro black and white web serial about an office worker who’s building gets invaded by aliens and he is forced to fight for his life along side a member of the mysterious “League”.  It is schedule to premiere in the fall, but you can catch the awesome trailer on thier web site, www.mercuryseries.com. After seeing the trailer I’m more excited abut seeing this than Star Trek or Transformers 2.

Spawn of Deborah

I see that the Serial Squadron is pushing forward with their production of The Mysteries of Myra, based on the shooting script of the lost serial. Though it is being made as a silent serial, it will be in monochromatic color and have a musical score.  So it won’t be the homage to serials that Cliffhanger Productions’ King of the Park Rangers or Dangers of Deborah were. Still it is good to see new serials being made, and just because it’s a silent movie doesn’t mean that modern audiences won’t enjoy it, Captain Celluloid vs the Film Pirates (1966) is still the best of the independently produced serial homages made. I do have to wonder if the new footage Eric shot to cover the missing footage in The Masked Rider (1919) was a trial run to see if he could actually makke one on his own.  I also wonder if he is having problems getting funds together as from what I can gleam from the Squadron’s message boards, Eric is doing the serial one chapter at a time, instead of fillming the whole thing and then editing it into a completed serial.  Guess we will have to wait and see.

Serials Online

I have just found a really good site to visit for the serial fan, Archive.org.  It is an internet library that gives free access to films and articles on just about any subject you can think of.  If you type in the words serials and movies on the two search bars it will bring up a list of about twenty different serial chapters from different serials that you can watch.  The list of serials includes Dick Tracy, Return of Chandu, The Lost City, The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack, The Great Alaskan Mystery, Undersea Kingdom, Ace Drummond and Radar Men From the Moon (all public domain titles of course).  I have had a lot of fun just bouncing around and playing a chapter here and there.  If you want to watch an entire serial just type in the specific title and the individual chapters will pop up.  It’s always nice to see serials being adapted to current technology.