Friendship Is Magic Spin off Fan Series-Think we can pull it off?

Here's the story: Back when I discovered Friendship is Magic back in October, I still hadn't reconciled what being a fan of the series meant for me. I mean, I've been a big fan of plenty of other things, from World of Darkness and Dungeons and Dragons to Kingdom Hearts and Alan Wake-hell, I even had a short story in White Wolf's e-magazine(now defunct) and you can still find six guest articles of mine up on KH Ultimania, with more projects on the side(Namely two short stories and a full novel for White Wolf). But despite stuff like that, I didn't know how I could blend in with the MLP community or what I could contribute to them, given that my talents lead towards fanfiction and I admit to have some attitudes about that which are contradictory.

Well, blending in with the group wasn't that much of an issue, in fact I found out that the fanbase was one of the warmest and inviting of the lot. More surprising for me though was the TALENT of the community. My first real intro to fan works was Miu's rendition of "For the New Lunar Republic"( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTZE2M0XzU8 , in case you've never heard it), which is impressive as all get out. From there I discovered that the musical side of the fandom was great, and THAT progressed to discovering the amazing drawn art talents of the community as well(No offense though, but any fanbase generally gets enough talented drawing artists that this wasn't as big a deal), which lead to discovery of vocal talents( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBjZBEVomW0 BaldDumboRat IS Derpy, you gotta admit), some animation people(You guys know Apple.mov, so I'll skip the link, but I know there are others who do even better jobs, I just gotta find them again) and more. In short, I was blown away.

Then I was cajoled into reading Creeping Darkness, a crossover of MLP: FiM and Alan Wake. Those of you who know the series can probably imagine why this was a source of consternation for me before I read it. If you haven't, go buy the game and play it, I cannot recommend it enough, but also it's worth noting that at first glance the themes, moods, atmosphere's and settings of the two are pretty wide apart. So you can imagine how shocked I was when I discovered that this crossover was pretty damn good, blending the two remarkably well( http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/06/story-creeping-darkness.html , read it, you don't need context). And this was one of Equestria Daily's six star entries on pony fanfictions. I could only imagine what some of the purer pony fics could be like.

In short, I was, and still am, awestrucked by the sheer talent of this group.

And it struck me that it was a shame we couldn't get them all together, because if we could organize everyone and their time and talents together, we could probably create a show on par with the original show that we all fell in love with and were inspired by, and we could probably do something that remained true to the original as well.

After listening to a song in particular(I'll get to that later), I decided that I had to try and do that for the fan community. Which leads me here. Be it we do a radio drama (Like JesuOtaku's radio drama of Fruits basket except with more art to help depict the new scenes, found here: http://furubadrama.weebly.com/ ) or trying to go all the way and create an animated piece of work(Animation is tough business, let me tell you, so this is not as easily viable as you'd think), I had to see if we could at least try for that.

Now, for the moment, here's what I don't want to talk about. I don't want to talk about the actual show itself, what we would do or how would we tackle it. I have my own ideas on all those subjects, but people may not be on board for my idea-it happens. There may be a better idea out there, or a better take on my own thoughts, so for now, I'm putting that asides. For now, it's terms of interest and viability.

I want to see if we could get people with the time, the skills, the equipment, the budget(If needed, it shouldn't be though) to try and make a 26 episode long series, people who are proactive and innovative. I want to see if we could generate enough of a fanbase to motivate and inspire whatever crew we assemble. I want to see just how passionate people can get about this and just how many people will reach that level of passion.

I want to brainstorm of the issues we'd face, the obstacles that we'd need to lay down and adress before preceeding, the foundation we would need to establish and where to go from there. I want to see if this project is even possible on zero budget at best, whatever our possible fanbase throws at us at worst(Note: I really, REALLY, REALLY do not want to have to set up a donation box for this project, I personally woudn't want money involved with this at all, it pollutes the idea) or if the amount of time and energy investedi nto it for a bunch of fans just isn't enough(I don't believe that in the slightest). I want ot see who would make for good writers and directors and producers, even if that means I end up not being involved with it at all.

And on top of that, I want to try and dig from the whole of the fandom. A tough feat, but I figure a good palce to start is some reaction videos to some standard episode uploads(Like posting it as a response to one of Xyro's excellent 1080 uploads) stating the basic idea of a fan series and an invite for people to come and talk about it here or something.

My big problem now is that I have a new computer, and not everything is updated, and I'm not even used to making videos-I'm still developing groundwork skills in other fields. In short, I know I'm not equipped for that sort of thing and I don't know enough YET to do that sort of thing. Besides, baby steps. See if I can get one fan community behind it(And THEN the world).

So, yeah. I guess my question is: Do you think we could actually pull off a serious fan series? That we could and should try to make something that rivals the show we all love? Think about it practically, because I'm sure we'd all love ro see that, but would that love be enoug hto alst or would the issues be a reall problem or not.

Either wya, thanks much for feedback.

 

As a child of the internet, I'm ashamed to say I don't know what tl;dr means. Explain.

The other part is that it doesn't have to be an animated project(Good god, is it a headache and a half. I was impressed as hell when i found out the regular show is done is Flash.). It could be something like a Radio Drama, or slide show sort of deal. THe point is I think we can do something really impressive by getting the talents of varying fields together and doing a collaborative work that is a type of show. It doesn't have to be animation.

 

1)And thus the college essay writing skills I should be using come back to bite me in the ass. Fair point.
2)Although, in my defense, that's not a lot in all honestly.
3)...That's a crappy defense, I guess.

 

Alrighty, list time!

1)Holy ship, you people just EXPLODED out of nowhere. Just sat dead for days and then BAM, posts.
2)Once again, I was never thinking pure animation-I've played with that in a couple of different tools and....It's not fun. I was thinking animated video sequences or radio dramas, since those seem much more feasable. If we got someone who is nuts enough to go for animation on this project, I won't stop them, but I wouldn't mandate it.
(Ghost Point: Here I am, talking like I'd be in charge, when even that's really in the air)
3)THe thing I was thinking of-If I pushed to see this done-was to send out a video explaining the idea and concept alongside an invite to talk about it here to the masses via Episode upload response on places like Youtube and such. I was never thinking I'd aim just at this community,I'd try and rope anyone and everyone, from people I don't know the names of to big names likes Mic the Microphone, BaldDumboRat, etc., etc.
4)Maturity is a unique subject as far as I'd be concerned, how far and away we can go. But one thing that can be done is yes, we can do some of the things that the normal MLP crew just couldn't, even if it's only in terms of little steps.

But the grand point of it all is simply "Is it doable? Is it really doable?".

My Position: I think it is. The fanbase is in a unique position at this point and time, being big enough to develop a strong supportive fanbase to drive but small enough to legitimately go fishing for talent. And no other fanbase has as much talent as MLP fans-this is a belief of mine. Stuff like Fighting Is Magic is strong support for that, alongside some of the other collabs I've seen.

But I am, in some ways, an idealist. Which is why I'm checking with people who may either have their feet on their grounds or their heads in the clouds.

 

More like a slideshow used instead of a full on animated thingy.