Well, I’ve been bursting with the news for weeks, but it wasn’t finalized and I couldn’t talk about it, but now I’m unmuffled and shouting to the world: The Guild is sponsored and funded and will be released weekly for Season 2 starting tomorrow the 25th of November! We’re partnered with Xbox and Microsoft and I’m so damned excited about it! Woot!
After living and breathing this show for almost 2 years (if you count the time I thought up the concept and got around to writing it after I actually got myself to stop playing World of Warcraft, haha) we’re finally going to be able to fund the show and have someone help us publicize it and release it. I’m so incredibly excited! I would say I’m lucky, but I don’t think luck has much to do with it: I think it’s more obstinance, more than a bit of blind faith and hippy-dippy “vibe” thing going on. Oh well, whatever! 🙂
As you all know, I’ve been turning down deals for the show for over a year. Many great opportunities have presented themselves, but none of them felt right to me. There were several things I was looking for that weren’t to be found in the deals offered: I wanted to retain ownership and control of the show, I wanted to have a partner that had a wide reach to our existing audience and potential audience who hadn’t seen us, who would get behind us in a big way with outreach, who would translate the videos for international viewers, and most importantly someone who KNEW THE SPACE. A lot of companies want to get into web video, but only people who know the internet well will be able to get people to watch a show on the internet. At least for a while; at least that’s my opinion :).
Anyway, some people called me crazy for asking for these things, and I admit a few times I felt a little unsure, that I was dumb for walking away from working with this person or partnering with that company. I felt bad for asking our actors to defer pay for a year, or for asking people to donate again for another season because we couldn’t release episodes fast enough to keep the story going. But I love my characters and after a long summer-long search I wrote the script and we started filming Season 2 on DVD proceeds and hoped that something would come along early in the shooting or we’d have to go to Paypal again. Kim Evey, my producing partner and I had our fingers crossed. We had amazing people volunteer to come help us make the show, but any time you shoot it costs a lot, and I was just hoping for another washer/dryer commercial to come along, lol.
Well, the great personage at Xbox Live (Scott Nocas, a gem of a man) loves the show, and decided that we could be partners. He came to us with amazing ideas, enthusiasm, and just incredible understanding of the show and the space. You can always tell when someone actually likes the show, or has seen past episode 1 at least, lol. Anyway, it turned out to be exactly what we were looking for in a mutual way, and we’re finally able to say we’re releasing Season 2, and we’re sponsored by Sprint. We have a revamed Guild Site (LINK) with a nice player in the middle (Thank you David from Microsoft and Kirstin and Edgar for making that transition possible). Check out Season 2 teaser and trailer on the site now.
It’s been an INSANE schedule the last two months. Three of my friends have had babies and I haven’t even gotten to visit them. I haven’t called my grandma in over a month. The director of this season, Sean Becker, has lived in my house for 3 days because we have so many episodes due. I will be making another blog entry about this process later, but suffice it to say it’s been 0-90 to release episodes at this rate, but we have unbelievable crew who donated their time and made this season look FANTASTIC. The episodes make me laugh so much and I really really hope you enjoy them. Special thanks to our agent, George Ruiz who didn’t make us take the first deal that came along (or try to) and to my boyfriend who hasn’t seen me for a while because i’ve been buried in work.
To find the new episodes and watch them: They will be downloadable for free on Xbox Live Video Marketplace, streaming on MSN Video (internationally) and downloadable on the Zune Marketplace, all starting today for Season 1, and tomorrow, the 25th for episode 1 of Season 2. I can’t wait for you to see them, and I really hope you enjoy them, and thank you to each and every one of you who support the show. I couldn’t ask for a better audience in the world 🙂