Sci-Fi Drama FREE via Torrent
When I first heard about this, I was fairly skeptical, but the lack of good science fiction on TV lately drew me to this and I’m really glad it did. The pilot episode for Pioneer One is available to anyone and everyone for absolutely free, all via torrent distribution. I just finished watching the pilot and, especially for a $6000 budget, it was impressive.
My mini-review is in the "Read more" section, so click on that to read my initial reaction to episode one!
Pioneer One is the latest project from Josh Bernhard and Bracey Smith
whose previous indie feature The Lionshare, became VODO’s
biggest success to date with over 450,000 downloads since its
release.
The success of the project inspired the writer/director duo to
develop
this quality drama in collaboration with VODO and its distribution
partners. With a successful distribution of the pilot they’re hunting
for the donors and sponsors that will make the continuation of the
show possible.
For those with short attention spans, let me get this out of the way: the story is very compelling and is quite an original idea. I truly hope they get funding for the rest of the season, as I would love to find out where this story goes. It has the potential to hold me longer than LOST did! (Season 2, in case you were wondering.) With that said, the acting is acceptable and I’d even say believable. While it is somewhat obvious that these are not professionals, they did a good enough job to sell the story, which is really their only purpose. The sets are barely acceptable (read: they look dated), but they work. Said differently, given their budget, the sets are fantastic! The camera work definitely needs improving, but it’s nowhere near the nauseating level of Cloverfield!
I have absolutely no desire to give away the plot because they hold onto it very tightly until the end of the episode and it’s worth the wait. If you’re in the mood for something original* and can spare 30 minutes of your precious time, go download the episode and watch it. I’m curious to hear what others think of it. Let’s face it, I liked it enough that I wanted to spread the word and even wrote a mini-review for it. I must have liked it at least a little, right? Did I mention that it’s in HD (720p)?
*I’m sure someone will think of some show, movie, or book which has some sort of similarity to Pioneer One, but I’d prefer to just enjoy this one.