SXSWORLD

2 6 S X S W O R L D / M A R C H F I L M - I A 2 0 1 4 e are now in an era in which we are as likely to consume a film on a television or tablet screen as we are a drama series or YouTube video, so is it any wonder that the lines separating these types of media continue to blur? Television is evolving beyond its traditional boundaries, looking more cinematic while taking on riskier material, tackling larger themes and showcasing strong creative voices. In the process, it is attracting writers, producers, directors and actors from the fea- ture world who are taking advantage of the creative allowances and expanded storytelling space that high-end TV is allowing. With the inaugural "Episodic" section, SXSW Film Festival is giving ambitious digital and television series their time on the big screen. Among the six shows that will be screening are new offerings from Office Space director Mike Judge; Sin City director and new cable net- work founder Robert Rodriguez; and John Logan, the screenwriter of Hugo and Skyfall. "Episodic" is in many ways a natural next step for the festival, which has been home to world premieres of Girls and Bates Motel in recent years. e "Episodic" programming will include work not only from estab- lished cable and broadcast networks like HBO and Fox, but also from Hulu, one of several new streaming platforms that has been shaking up the original programming game with series comparable in look and quality to those you'd find on air. In addition to the "Episodic" events, Convergence panels (open to Interactive & Film registrants) featuring Mindy Kaling, Adrian Grenier and CNN's Brian Stelter will explore related topics. ere may be no better example of someone embracing converging media than Rodriguez. e Austin-based filmmaker has been working on his first television project, From Dusk Till Dawn: e Series, and also recently launched an entire network, El Rey, an English-language cable channel aimed at Latino audiences. Rodriguez said that while he had always had an interest in TV, he had come from a "very idealized movie world that had a lot more creative freedom." Knowing how disheart- ening the uncertainty of getting a pilot approved over dozens of competi- tors' to be made into a series could be, Rodriguez vowed to do things dif- ferently with El Rey. He gave a 13-episode series commitment to a spy drama from Star Trek writer Roberto Orci based on a phone pitch. "It wasn't a maybe; it was a 'Yes, we're doing it. We believe in it,' " he explains. "It's how I like to roll, and I think a lot of artists like to work that way." He adds that adapting his 1996 cult favorite film From Dusk Till Dawn into El Rey's first original drama without having to deal with interference from network executives has been "a really exciting way to work." For Logan, whose London-set Showtime horror period drama, Penny Dreadful, marks his first foray into television after earning three Oscar nominations for his screen- writing work, "content dictated the form." He had been pondering the idea of a serious, complex treatment of some of the archetypal characters from gothic literature for about 10 years before the project came together. "It seems like the only way to do that would be over time; that's what led to television," says Logan. "When I first started thinking about it, it wasn't in terms of 'Is it a play? Is it a movie? Is it TV?' But it needed the luxury of time." While he wrote the entire eight-episode first season, he described the experience of making the series as being similar to making a play in the sense of its shared authorship and the way it demanded a level of shared craftsmanship and attention to detail. Silicon Valley is not just Mike Judge's first live action series, it is also his first at a premium network after having his popular animated shows Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill on MTV and Fox, respec- tively. Working with a shorter season order and knowing where the story begins and ends is "a little more like making a movie," he notes. Years before, Judge had filmed a live action pilot at one of the bigger networks that so turned him off the experience of dealing with executive interference that he turned down the opportunity to pursue a possible Office Space adaptation. But having the hybrid expe- rience of a season-long arc and the freedoms allowed at HBO has been "one of the best work experiences I've had," he says, and the current tech world has provided him with some ripe material: "ere is something absurd about how much money people come into up there, and I just find it fascinating." As creatively wide-open as the world of televi- sion has become, all of these creators are looking forward to having the rare chance to see their work on a big screen in front of a SXSW audience. "We're making cinematic television," Rodriguez pointed out. "We want it to feel like even though you're at home watching this, it could have easily been in a movie theater." n New Outlets Help Filmmakers Take TV in Bold New Directions by Alison Willmore Silicon Valley I S A B E L L A V O S M I K O VA H B O Penny Dreadful J O N AT H A N H E S S I O N S H O W T I M E W

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