"Worst Webseries Worth Watching"
It won't happen again,
(we're not so sure
it's even happening now)
And we definitely don't have a plan.
Oh yeah, and there are
only twelve models
of the Masked Roger
(but there are four lights!)
|
"Worst Webseries Worth Watching" |
This hasn't happened before, It won't happen again, (we're not so sure it's even happening now) And we definitely don't have a plan. Oh yeah, and there are only twelve models of the Masked Roger (but there are four lights!) |
The Masked Roger is a one-person non-commercial fan-made webseries by Alan Douglas, documenting the amazing adventures of the evil supervillain not known as "Roger". The series is shot on location in beautiful Vancouver, Canada.
The series first took life on October 11, 2008 as one of over 600 video applications to the Evil League of Evil. This was a fan video contest to promote Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, however the Masked Roger believed it to be real, and hired Alan Douglas to produce his application, thinking he would be a shoe-in. He didn't get in. He later discovered that Alan, his idiot videographer, had absolutely no prior experience with filmmaking, video editing, or even photography, and had in fact only purchased his very first camera a week before the submission deadline. This somewhat rough-around-the-edges video was later rebranded Episode #1.
The story might have ended there, however Alan's friends at the BC Browncoats encouraged him to make more videos. He also drew inspiration from the award winning webseries The Guild and its creator Felicia Day who frequently encourages others to make their own web videos. When The Guild put out a call for fan videos for possible inclusion on their Season Two DVD, Alan convinced the Maked Roger to let him try again. The result was the Masked Roger's Guild'd describing how the Masked Roger drew inspiration from The Guild to create his own sinister gang, the Nasty Union of Nastiness. This later became Episode #2. Unfortunately it did not make it onto The Guild Season Two DVD
With continued support and encouragement from the BC Browncoats, a third major installment of the Masked Roger was produced, Time Travel. Though originally conceived as another standalone video, it soon became apparent that the Masked Roger's life was becoming interesting enough to warrant a full webseries. The rest, as they say, is history. Except for the stuff that hasn't happened yet.
Season One of the Masked Roger will span 12 episodes, released as time permits. Plans for a second season are well underway.
It should be noted that the series is produced for information purposes only for the Masked Roger's small cult of followers. We are not interested in bringing it to a larger audience. The Masked Roger wishes to maintain a low profile to aid in his evil-doing, while Alan is happily and gainfully over-employed as-is, and has no desire to break into the entertainment industry, or to deal with the demands of large numbers of fans or haters. The Masked Roger is a fun hobby, and will remain so.
The show is typically filmed with no crew and a cast of one. Some voicework has been contributed by Val, Darren, and Rick, then added in post. On two occasions a helper has been used on set: a passing stranger was kind enough to throw the beachball at the start of Episode #1, and minion Rick helped deploy the net in Episode #5. Otherwise, it is a solo project.
The Masked Roger is produced with a complete lack of anything resembling professional equipment or software. It is filmed using a small Samsung L210 pocket digicam, while audio is recorded on a Sony ICD-UX70 pocket voice recorder. In early episodes you can see the top of the voice recorder sticking out of the Masked Roger's breast pocket, and in the first episode it was briefly mounted on the side of his hat! We now use a small Sony lav microphone under the hat's brim, while all other audio is recorded using a high-fidelity Giant Squid lav microphone.
The episodes are edited using entirely open source software running on Ubuntu Linux. Video editing is done with Kino, with some work also done in the Gimp. Audio is edited in Rezound. The title sequence was made with POVray, and is Alan's first ever video animation.
The music is also "open source", coming from the underground tracking scene of amateur computer-generated mods, found at The Mod Archive. Some tracks are remixed using Soundtracker.