Tubefilter News

Steampunk Hunt Begins As ‘Riese’ Hits KoldCast

by Stuart Davis on November 3rd, 2009

The Sect has been here for over a month now, creeping its way into our ARG begotten lives, but the first episode of Riese the series premiered late Sunday night on Koldcast TV. That’s right, when the rest of us were busy attending parties dressed as favorite childhood storybook characters turned bloated Hollywood movie franchise and OD-ing on fun size versions of our favorite candy treats, Koldcast’s CEO David Samuels was “[closing] on distribution for RIESE”, according to an email from who was definitely excited for the team-up, closing out the email with a simple yet telling exclamation, “What a series!”

While “the [distribution] deal is non-exclusive” according to series co-creator and executive producer Ryan Copple. He says isn’t ruling out other distribution for his Steampunk opus, “We’re very happy to have teamed up with Koldcast, and hope that it’ll end up being a mutually beneficial joining.”

In the opening episode, Hunt, a wounded Riese (Christine Chatelain) is running for her life from a group of ne’er-do-wells through the forests of the troubled land Eleysia (also known as Vancouver, BC). In between scattered, grainy flashbacks of her past she fights the baddies off with the help of her sole-companion and bodyguard, a wolf named Fenrir.

Riese - Trennan Neither of the creators had worked with animals on any of their prior productions but co-producer Bonnie Judd’s “preparation and work with Tundra made him very easy to shoot with. Plus, despite his size he’s incredibly friendly and sociable,” said Copple.

Shooting for the first chapter of the story was done in Vancouver over a period of eight days utilizing the RED One camera system and was “incredibly easy and delightful. The only problem [with the camera] we ever really suffered was camera over-heating, and the occasional camera reboot. Otherwise, the quality is amazing and the workflow was great.”

Each chapter of the story is broken up into five episodes, with a new episode premiering twice each week every other week. “We’re shooting the next batch of episodes this December. So, there will be a short break in between the two Chapters to allow for post-production.” Hopefully it won’t be too long, if the first episode of the series is anything to go off of, this looks like a story to stick with.

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Comments

Anthony DeLosa - November 3rd, 2009 3:57 pm

Wondering what the business model is as I read there is a sizable production budget to offset. That is if there is one at all, I have a gut feeling maybe the goal with this one is to act as a backdoor pilot for TV.

Pretzel - November 3rd, 2009 4:55 pm

As far as we know, it’s somewhere around the budget that “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” had. They’ve got some private backers, but the producers/ creators of “Riese” are also financing it out-of-pocket.

And just to clear up any confusion, “Riese” actually airs every two weeks- bimonthly, rather than biweekly. Just to let you know. ^^

Stuart Davis - November 3rd, 2009 6:07 pm

Pretzel, thanks for catching that, we’ll fix it.

In response to your question Anthony, I believe I read when I was researching the first article that they’re planning to release additional HD content for a fee, as well as having the show available for free streaming. I’m not sure if that’s still the plan, or whether this will be brand new content or simply better quality video.

Mike Ambs - November 3rd, 2009 6:53 pm

Very interesting series – I hadn’t seen anything about this yet. It’s always exciting to see shows that are really pushing the limits of what people expect to see on TV vs the internet.

Todd - November 4th, 2009 5:02 pm

Okay, how do blades in a fight scene create smoke? I can’t get that question out of my head. Tomb Raider meets Natty Gann. Who would have thunk? Definitely up to par. Good work, Ryan!