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On May 22nd, director Jay Ferguson took the stage at the StoryCode Forum, hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. StoryCode is “a community hub, lab and creative consultancy for emerging and established cross-platform and immersive storytellers”.
In his presentation, Jay spoke about how Guidestones came to be, and why he and the producers decided that the best way to tell their story was as an interactive, transmedia web thriller.
You can watch the full presentation below.
And remember, Guidestones is everywhere:
It has been an exciting week for Guidestones. On Monday, we celebrated the launch of our new website, as well as a linear, ‘on-demand’ version of the series (which is also available through Hulu) so that our fans can watch Guidestones at their own pace, any time they want. Then, on Tuesday, Guidestones was selected as the winner of the Rockie Award for ‘Best Webseries – Fiction’ at the Banff World Media Festival.
We’re very excited about the increased level of exposure that this achievement has brought to Guidestones, as it means more people will have a chance to ‘decode the conspiracy’. So, please, keep spreading the word, have a look at the new on-demand version of the series, and make sure to ask your friends: “Are you watching Guidestones?”
The journey to creating Guidestones goes back 6 years for me.
I was drinking coffee with my friend Patricio Davilla complaining about the difficulties of trying to get any film project distributed in this country (a favourite activity of all independent filmmakers in Canada: caffeine and complaining) and he said to me “Why don’t you produce content for the internet? You can bypass the broadcasters and go directly to your audience”.
Now you need to remember this was six years ago. YouTube was roughly one year old, online video was not particularly sophisticated, and computers were… well, let’s just say they were slow-ish, smartphones were not that smart, and neither was most of the content… football in the groin.
As an independent filmmaker I was much more sophisticated than Dayillia’s suggestion; so naturally I strongly rejected the idea.
A bit of time passed and still nobody was picking up my features, or anything else for that matter, and a thought kept lingering as rejection persisted; the idea of creating content and being my own distributor.
I wanted to take control of my own destiny.
So, without admitting it to anyone, I let the concept occupy a large portion of my brain and thought it over and over… and over… If the content was serialized with cliffhangers, maybe there could be something there.
My father used to tell me about going to the movie theater and watching the old serials; he loved them and he kept coming back. Everybody did.
But seriously, that was all handle bar mustaches and archetypes. Is that really what I wanted to do? Spend my time figuring out unique ways to tie maidens in distress to railway tracks?
This is not what makes an honorable career in the film industry. (Yes I know… oxymoron)
I started to dabble. I wrote a proposal, I raised a little capital, and I tried my hand at a couple of short form content experiments called TRUE FICTION and TEN TO GO. Suddenly three years later, my dabbling had turned into a full-fledged obsession to become an on-line content producer.
Of course I want this job because it pays no money and exacts no respect from anybody…
This is a volunteer proposition that nobody wants or needs, with long hours and a lot of people politely pretending to listen to you, who are impatient to get back to making some real money in the real world.
Well, for some reason I slogged on, going to various interactive conferences across the country, pushing my concept of serialized content, supported by TRUE FICTION and TEN TO GO (both great ideas, and I believe, very well executed and entertaining).
However, in the end these properties were really just short versions of television shows. I tried to raise money to make more… I tried for a couple of years with little success.
By now it’s summer 2008 and two things are happening:
First, people keep asking me what my plan is to monetize the content…to which my answers are; through “sponsorship”, and “t-shirt sales” and the content is going to be “so good people will pay for it!”, yadda yadda yadda.
Second, we are quickly heading into the fall of 2008…when a certain World Economic Collapse occurs… Here I am knocking on doors looking for money for a high risk venture. Well timing is everything, because as I was getting (politely) laughed out of board rooms across the country and then suddenly I happened across a single meeting that would end up changing the course of my career…and I do believe now, my life.
I’ve decided to start a Blog.
I have to be honest. I really can’t imagine that anybody would have any interest in hearing what I have to say. BS. right? False modesty.. Then why put this down on the page?
BECAUSE I AM A GENIUS AND I WANT BOTH OF YOU TO KNOW THAT!
The fact is I am writing this to myself. It’s a kind of journal for four reasons.
So why not keep it private?
BECAUSE I AM AN EGOMANIAC AND I AM IN LOVE WITH THE SOUND OF MY OWN FINGERS TAPPING.
Actually the real reason is that if it’s public my mom can read it and she will think that her son has some sort of legitimate job. It will certainly make up for the lack of salary I’ve been taking home for twenty years.
The reason I want to start a blog particularly about Guidestones, at this particular time, is two fold.
We are in a transitional place with Guidestones. We have just finished production (after 3 years) and are now going into marketing and distribution…which I’m sure will take up another number of years. (Please do not tell this to my wife RE: the aforementioned lack of salary.)
We are calling Guidestones an interactive thriller which I believe is accurate. I do have to say however, that once you get past the easy to read, simplified, tag line, it goes much deeper than that. I can attest to this as it took 50 of us, over a 3-year period to make the thing functional… Guidestones is an online dramatic series that runs 50 episodes over the course of 6 cities, 3 countries, 2 continents, 45 websites, and 120 minutes of supplemental media.
Anybody can sign up for free and experience it by entering their email address on this site (www.Guidestones.org)
Some day my daughter will be able to go on the journey as well and what I am going to attempt to describe to her (in this very public forum) is not only how I did it…but why.
JDF – March 22, 2012
The lead actress of the Guidestones web series, Supinder Wraich, gave an insightful and charming interview to Suhaag. The website for the magazine, which covers South Asian related news and culture, asked some interesting questions and Supinder gave illuminating answers.
Of particular note is the method acting Supinder employs.
“Sandy Rai, is a role that is very close to my heart.” Reason being, Supinder wanted to be an interpreter, “something to fall back upon,” she adds, and took a course in it.
[…]
The Chandigarh born Supinder says she is a method actor. “I lived in a hostel, away from the comforts of my home, in Etobicoke for one and a half months to get into the mind of the character.” Sandy’s character spends time away from her home and Supinder wanted to experience that first hand.
“I wanted to look at Toronto through the eyes of a newcomer.” She tried being a vegetarian too because she imagined Sandy to be one.
Supinder also let’s us in on her dream project:
And what is her dream project? Supinder says, “I love Deepa Mehta and she is top on my priority list of directors I want to work with.” She would also like to work with all the top Canadian directors including Richie Mehta of Amal fame. “And I would like to do an action film.”
You can read the entire interview over at Suhaag.
Check out some more great photos from our wonderful shoot in India. The Guidestones web series takes place across three continents and the portion shot in India has some striking locations and compositions!
There’s a strange conspiracy that starts in Elbert County, Georgia and is signified by the structure known as the Guidestones. But what exactly is the conspiracy? It seems to span the entire globe. Does this granite monument symbolize a new world order, secretly run behind-the-scenes? One world government that is waiting for its moment to arise? Population control? Two students investigate… Sign up to watch the web series this February!
What is the connection between historical conspiracies and the Georgia Guidestones? A new world order, secretly run behind-the-scenes? One world government that is waiting for its moment to arise? Population control? How many events are tied to this and how many do people even suspect in the first place? The cold war… the moon landing… the Beatles? Find out more by signing up for our web series, which launches in February!
Here are some more of the great production photos of our shoot in India for the Guidestones web series. Photos include director Jay Ferguson, as well as lead actors Dan Fox and Supinder Wraich! Our series launches on February 3rd, 2012 – sign up to our e-mail newsletter to be the first to experience it!
