It’s been quite a journey but we’ve made it: the first season of Pioneer One is complete. Thank you to everyone who donated and supported us along the way. This was all possible because of you! But now, the obvious question:
What’s happening with season 2?
We’re working on securing more substantial funding for the next season so we can continue the show properly.
What was that teaser at the end of episode 6?
We wanted to make a little something to whet the audience’s appetite for more, and to show that we are most definitely going somewhere with this story. But we have not yet begun production on season 2.
What is “Back in the USSR”?
It’s the title of the next installment of the Pioneer One story, whatever form it takes.
Why can’t you just make it the same way you made the first season?
Good question. There are several reasons:
- We were able to do the first six with our resources because people worked for free and we called in all the favors we had. Now that we’ve exhausted all that, our expenses are going to increase exponentially. (People can only give so much before the bills start to pile up.)
- The first season had a scope that was within our means. Here on out, the scale of the show expands with every season and it will cost more to do it properly. We’re scrappy, but we’re not that scrappy.
- We can’t have months in between episodes if we expect to build an audience. Stopping to fund-raise when we run out of money just isn’t going to cut it. If we’re going to do this, we have to know what we’re working with ahead of time and where the money is coming from.
So you’re abandoning the crowd-funded/crowd-distributed model?
Not necessarily. Whatever opportunity presents itself to allow us to continue the show is what we’re going to pursue. If we can build enough momentum with season one finished and released, maybe we’ll be able to scale the number of donors as well.
How can I help?
We have a lot of debt from season one to pay off (not sexy, we know) and the process of pitching ourselves and the show is going to cost money. So donations through VODO are still incredibly helpful. (If you are interested in a more substantial investment, please email us at contact@pioneerone.tv.) As long as we can stay alive, the show has a shot. But the absolute most important thing people can do right now is to
Spread the Word.
Tell people about Pioneer One. Get them to watch it. Write about it on Facebook and Twitter and your blog. Write an article for a website or newspaper or magazine, no matter how small. If you know anybody with connections who might be interested, send them a link.
Target people like @Netflix, @YouTube, @GoogleTV, @Syfy, @AMC_TV, @FXNetworks, @Starz_Channel, or whoever else you can think of. (@Nerdist, @wilw, @kpereira, @Wired, @EW to name a few more.) These people do listen. They pay attention to what people are talking about. Even write an old fashioned letter. (Yes, people still do this. And yes, people do read them.)
We are determined to keep on doing Pioneer One in whatever form it takes because, simply, we care about this story. We’re going to do whatever we can to finish telling it.
How’s that for scrappy?
Pioneer One is amazing. Found episode 3 on Vodo and just had to keep watching. Found out within minutes of watching episode 6 that the episode itself had only been released hours beforehand. Free films have so much potential. This film is already exceeding that potential.
Vincent
Pioneer one has already gained a huge viewerbase, it’s only problem, as you said was the tight budget but you guys gave a new meaning to “make the most of what you have”.
I see you started pursuing ads inside your episodes, I didn’t really skip through it since it’s not loud and annoying like TV ads, and with a few decent sponsors hopefully the series will have a more frequent viewing.
Anyways best of luck with your pitches, I’m sure you will have no trouble finding the sponsors you need, the story is brilliant and if you can do this much on that tight a budget, I’m really interested in seeing where you can expand.
Bayan Rafeh
Good luck with continuing the show. I was proud to financially support the first season and I will be eagerly awaiting more of the story. If you do end up calling on the public for support, I’ll gladly help, and I’m sure many others will as well.
Shannon Larratt
@ Bayan Rafeh:
I know we would be paying a nice sum for just ~4 seconds our website viewing on a background computer, just enough that you can read “Pulsed Media”
But we are a small business, and our marketing budget is tight. Biggest thing we can do is to provide seeds on the BitTorrent swarm, as bandwidth and servers we got plenty.
I’m a bit ashamed tho, i only put season pack on 7 servers, tho last i checked they were doing 50M/s+ upstream. Our tool chain for putting a single torrent on 100s of servers at once and measuring performance from all the 100s on per torrent level is not ready yet
Pulsed Media
I like the fact that you used a practical space
plot mars is within our reach maybe 10-20 years but its not so far fetched them crazy ruskies huh sounds like something they would do !!! just glad you didn’t used space aliens
as the primary survival method of the stranded soviet spacemen then its like oh now humans really are retarded bound to this world and can not get any thing done well any who good job guys keep up the good work
Dustin Cordell
P.S what is base projection cost per episode ?
40-50k to do it right? hmm maybe that’s a low ball number just wanted to have an idea maybe i can do some local event where i live to help
raise funds i know a few people in advertising
i know you don’t want to do an episode by episode thing and maybe a little reluctant
to give a ball park figure as u have not worked out pay for the actors and such
and have not talked to hammer out a deal with them even if you had the funds but it would be nice to know how much you think you would need
Dustin Cordell
I wish you the best of luck!
Tobias Skoglund Simonsen
Just finished watching all 6 episodes, and I thought it was delightful. It’s a show well worth pushing. Hopefully you’ll have a run of several years to go. Best of luck.
Bob Rainwater
Pioneer One has been great. I can’t wait to next season first episode. I discovered episode 6 and went back discovering the season, finding one or another, and then eventually watching all them from beginning to end. Making sense of the puzzle then. Go ahead, and continue. We are waiting for more!!
Juan
Great show. Really need to get some of the big guys involved. Like SyFy. they have turned Sanctuary into a big show and there is no reason that this show could not be one of them. They really need a great show like this to help them out. But i know that getting them to look at you is very hard.
Good Luck.
Gary Goss
Thanks guys!
Yes it’s a bit “scrappy” but I loved the story.
Although I was a bit disappointed when you re-filmed scenes in the first 3 episodes and made them into 2… why did you do that?
I prefer the original 1st episode start where the landing is detected…
snoopy
Season one is testament that “scrappy” doesn’t come into it, if you have a rock solid story and good acting. Particularly Jack Haley did an outstanding job. When possible, I’ll help you get season 2 rolling.
Lars Fischmann
Why would they call season 2 series “back in USSR”
Its now more than 20 years since USSR has collapsed. I hope they knew that))
Greck81uk
In episode 6 the black securuty guy kills both masked men by shooting them in the head, wasting the only real chance of the lead on who was behind the operation.
Greck81uk
Greck81uk wrote:
Indeed, we do know that
It’s also the name of a Beatles song.
Greck81uk wrote:
He only shoots one of them, leaving the first one alive, presumably for later interrogation. He’d already dispatched the first and doesn’t have the time to properly subdue the second one before the rest escape. He says later with Taylor that the bodies were extracted, implying that there were more commandos in the base at that time. Possibly with an alternate escape route. This was elaborated on a little bit in the script but was ultimately cut for clarity’s sake.
Josh
First off- I discovered this show by accident (looking for new Sci-Fi things to watch) and I LOVE it. Plus the whole concept of free TV, and donation per liking- great.
Now 2 things:
- The donation link here is broken (leads to http://www.pioneerone.tv/season2/vodo.net/pioneerone instead of http://vodo.net/pioneerone).
- Coming to donate, I saw “$89,346 out of $100,000″. I was wondering what’s that “donation target” and what does it mean. Will production start when target is reached? Does reaching the target means season 2 will see light for sure? Don’t get me wrong- I still donated the full $25, but maybe being more transparent about it would make more people donate.
Anyway- keep up the great work! Can’t wait for season 2 to start rolling out.
Evyatar