Date: 2006 November 30 23:54
Posted by Jeremy
PvP animated series is in the works for February launch!
Full Story
Fans of the hit webcomic PvP: Player vs Player can rejoice, as the series is headed for animated format! Creator Scott Kurtz has teamed up with animation studio Blind Ferret Entertainment to bring PvP: The Animated Series to the web in a series of 4-6 minute episodes. The series will debut on February 1, 2007, with new episodes available each month. A minute-long preview of the first episode is currently available at the PvP website.
The series won't be available for free, however. Rather, fans can view the episodes via a subscription service, which lasts for one year. The cost for the subscription is $29.95 for the year, but viewers who sign up between now and January 1st can get it for $19.95.
PvP, featuring the misadventures of a video game magazine staff (which includes a cynical coffee-drinking Macintosh user, his hot online game-addicted girlfriend, and a simple-minded troll), has been animated before. Sort of. PvP Blamamations, a series of flash animated shorts Kurtz created with Kris Straub, have been available on the PvP website for some time. However, Kurtz admitted that he wanted to do more animation work, but lacked the resources to do so. And though he'd received various offers and had a total of four different representatives pitching PvP around Hollywood for the last five years, Kurtz has always turned them down, preferring to do things himself.
"I want to retain total ownership, start small and grow big. I want to learn the process. You can't do that in Hollywood. But, I can do that with Blind Ferret. It just took Ryan a couple months to finally convince me of it," Kurtz said on his website.
Ryan Sohmer and Randy Waxman of Blind Ferret had been contacting Kurtz with offers to animate PvP on three separate occasions. Possessing their own animation studio and in-house staff, the two had the resources to launch a web-based animated series. Still, Kurtz said no each time he was offered, his "default answer to anyone inquiring about animating PvP." Kurtz did finally agree, however, and was made a co-producer and co-writer of the series along with his Blamamation running buddy Straub, thus gaining the creative control and learning experience he wanted.
"We write the scripts, determine the direction, look and pace of the show. This is an incredible opportunity to learn the process, get our hands messy, work with animators, direct voice actors, learn script writing, work post-production and sound... all of it," Kurtz stated. "This is a chance to take PvP and make a whole new animal with it, without having to sell it away to a faceless studio who doesn’t really understand it."
Kurtz isn't the only one getting a hands-on learning experience with "PvP the Series". This will be the first project that Blind Ferret Entertainment has done entirely in-house under the creative direction of Ryan Sohmer. Previous Blind Ferret projects have been outsourced to other companies, but with PvP, they’ve hired an entirely in-house animation to work on the new series themselves with Kurtz. And from the look of the preview, the quality is some of the best ever seen.
Kurtz is calling out to fans of PvP to support the new animated series, especially with the subscription service. "Pre-order sales will make or break this project. The reason Blind Ferret is willing to risk the money to hire animators, voice actors and production staff is because they believe in PvP and its fan base. We're confident that once you see our preview (which features the first minute of our first episode), you’ll want to see more. So please sign up now and help spread the word and support the show."
For those who want to know more, Kurtz plans to share everything about the production process, blogging and sharing production art on the PvP website. He and Kris Straub will also be flying to Montreal in December to visit Blind Ferret Animation Studios and will be writing, broadcasting and video blogging from there. Kurtz expects 2007 to be a big year for PvP, and from the sound of it, he hopes his fans will help make it so.