Knowing that it was shot on the RED One camera, I was very excited to check out Lumina. And DPs XiaoSu Han and Andreas Thalhammer definitely did not disappoint, having done a stunning job of capturing the beauty of Hong Kong, where the series takes place. Unfortunately, the series’ physical beauty masks some deeper issues with the show itself.
The mythology of the series is intriguing and well designed: in classic fairytale style, workaholic Lumina Wong falls for a prince named Ryder Lee. The catch is Ryder is from the Dark Realm and can only see Lumina through reflective surfaces such as mirrors. The series website goes deeper into the mythology, explaining that there are three known Realms: Earth (also known as the Light Realm), Corwaith (the Dark Realm) and the mysterious Bastion (the Realm of Jewels.).
Unfortunately, with three episodes of the show available online and a nine episode arc planned, the show has yet to really showcase that rich mythology. It starts out strong: we are immediately introduced to Ryder and jump right into Lumina and Ryder’s obvious attraction for one another. But then everything seems to slow down to a crawl. By episode 3, we are finally introduced to a potential villain…although his intentions are still murky at best. With the generally short format of web television, slow pacing can be the make or break for a series and I found myself being pulled away from the show several times during my watching.
Whether this was director Jennifer Thym’s intentions or not, it felt as if the series was purposely structuring itself as an extended showcase for the RED One camera and less about the fantastical love story I was hoping it would be.
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Episode 4 is live as well! http://www.koldcast.tv/video/still_of_the_night
KoldCast TV is very excited to have LUMINA in our fall line-up. With its rich cinematography and layered story-telling, it’s a show our industry can point to as a what kind of content and quality we can deliver to audiences worldwide.
Viewers will not be disappointed if they stick with the series.
As with most web series, the mythology and characters have been built to sustain story over several seasons and across several platforms. Watch this dark love story unveil itself as it continues to impress you with its style, cinematography and character complexities.
We’re proud to have this show launch our International channel last week along with award-winning OzGirl and Enda O’Connor’s Bewildering Life.
Oddly, I didn’t feel it started off strong, particularly. There was no effort to set up this connection. It just happened, her first question (of all things) was “are you a ghost?” and no one seems freaked out by it all. No build from “WTF” to “this is nice”, just immediately shes okay with what’s happening as if it happens every day. (Frankly, I actually thought the cold open was a weak introduction of the piece. It should have started with the post-credits office sequence.) All of that made it very difficult for me to connect to anything else that came next.
I’ll still watch, because you never know. But it didn’t grab me from the start like I’d hoped.
Thanks Bix, I can see where you’d be coming from with that. I actually had done a bit of research on the backstory before I began watching and from the description of the universe, it insinuated that contact between different realms was something that happens from time to time. I took that as being why Lumina had such a casual attitude once Ryder told her who he was. But without having visited the main website and read all that info beforehand, a viewer wouldn’t know that.
I actually plan on sticking it out as well…from the footage in the trailer, it seems the action of the story is back end heavy.
We can confirm. The action of the story IS back-end heavy as well as the best cinematography. Stay with it; you will be rewarded.
Lumina is one of those shows that sounds very interesting and looks incredible, but somehow still manages to miss the mark. I’ve been keeping an eye on it for a while hoping the pace would pick up, but it never has.
Important point. This is not an American webseries it is structured in a different not necessarily incorrect way just like a “foreign” film would be. Have we already gotten so set in hold web series should be too? i.e. American tv? Let it develop let’s judge series seasons if it calls for that. Our series isn’t supposed to be like any show on Tv and a tubefilter reviewer scratches his head and writes it off in 4 episodes. Come on if you watched the first 20 minutes of House of Flying Daggers expecting Texas Ranger yeah it wouldn’t grab you right away. You entitled to your opinion perhaps it’s even a professional one but let’s not
have an ADD instant gratification attitude about another cultures storytelling and get up in the middle of the piece and write a review before the end. It makes it so hard to do anything different or out of the box or weird when the supportive branch of web media keeps holding web shows to some pre-ordaned Too early in the game criteria of pacing, structure, physics, or concept. Do we really only want zippy quick linear sitcoms about neurotic people that look very much like Seinfeld or Friends with webcam shots added?
Sorry about the typos. It was written in a furvor on a film set on my iPhone.
Cheers
I admire your passion and it was actually mentioned briefly that I was aware this film was set in Hong Kong. But I felt it was incorrect to review this show purely on the basis of “oh, it’s foreign, so that makes it okay”. These opinions are my own and based on years of working in New Media, I have found that generally speaking, a show that does not grab your attention in the first 1 – 2 episodes will have an extremely difficult time building an audience. This isn’t me calling for a “thinking inside the box” mentality, it’s simply something I have observed and that works for me. If I’m walking away from your series several times in the first 20 minutes (which I would be less likely to do in a movie theater where I have invested money and time into coming out to the theater…as your “House of Flying Daggers analogy brings up), something isn’t quite working.
I’m glad this is stimulating discussion! That is a very good thing!
And I’ve stated I will stick with the series…if it is prudent, I’ll even write a follow-up article.
Fair comment Jenni. It’s nice to have good discussions on these matters. Thanks!
oh and do watch Safety Geeks ep 8 people!
Http://www.daveandtom.com/safetygeeks.HTML
cheers
Pleasantly surprised…
Thought we were gonna another tired comedy about showbiz, but I found this to be pretty entertaining. Good job.
@Brian Westin
There do seem to be alot of those floating around.
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