My Opinion/Feeling on S4 Ratings. Will there be S5?

[Skydiver]

I have no issue with realism. IMHO reality is if it was an easy thing to do, they'd have raised the money already. If the investors were able to get a good return they'd be lining up to toss down some dough. But it's obviously a hard sell.

TO ME, Sanctuary is a good show, but it's not a great one. It hasn't been 'great' for a couple of years now. I'ts been a bit too 'by the numbers' 'following skiffy's advice' and has lost some of that magic that made it so.....it in the beginning.

It lost its momentum stretching to 20 episodes and never got it back, not until too late that is. It's too bad that there's not another network out there that could pick it up(I doubt skiffy would let that happen, they tend to be a bit selfish 'if we can't have it we'll make sure no one can have it either).

if it comes back, awesome. If it doesn't...it doesn't. I lost my emotional attachment to it a couple of years and watched it more out of loyalty than that sense of wonder and discovery.

[JanSam]

I have no issue with realism. IMHO reality is if it was an easy thing to do, they'd have raised the money already. If the investors were able to get a good return they'd be lining up to toss down some dough. But it's obviously a hard sell.

TO ME, Sanctuary is a good show, but it's not a great one. It hasn't been 'great' for a couple of years now. I'ts been a bit too 'by the numbers' 'following skiffy's advice' and has lost some of that magic that made it so.....it in the beginning.

It lost its momentum stretching to 20 episodes and never got it back, not until too late that is. It's too bad that there's not another network out there that could pick it up(I doubt skiffy would let that happen, they tend to be a bit selfish 'if we can't have it we'll make sure no one can have it either).

if it comes back, awesome. If it doesn't...it doesn't. I lost my emotional attachment to it a couple of years and watched it more out of loyalty than that sense of wonder and discovery.

I have to agree with Sky. I had hoped the show got back that magic after watching Tempus; but was disappointed and it wasn't until the last episode that I saw a glimpse of what it lost. Can a reboot in Season 5 get it back; maybe but I can understand why any investor would be hesitant.

[Skydiver]

I can only presume that the reason for any hesitation is the lack of return on investment. Spend 10 million, get back 8 gonna rethink (obviously I'm just making the numbers up)

I don't know for sure that there's not a return on investment, but logic tells me that if it was a good return they wouldn't be having issues getting investors.

[Dean Grr]

So the show is NOT dead. It just needs investors.

Wouldn't it be possible to set up a Sanctuary production fund, so that the worldwide audience could "buy"
a token picture or website access, and in exchange the Sanctuary team can produce a few more shows?
However they worked it so it functions legally, would it not be cool to have a SuperPAC (to use the US election)
for Sanctuary?

Unless DVD or Itunes sales are high, a niche or cult tv show won't have the ratings or advertising of a mainstream show. It's too bad Syfy can't run using the HBO or Showtime business models.

Dean

[majorsal]

I have to agree with Sky. I had hoped the show got back that magic after watching Tempus; but was disappointed and it wasn't until the last episode that I saw a glimpse of what it lost. Can a reboot in Season 5 get it back; maybe but I can understand why any investor would be hesitant.

i loved 'tempus'! it was gritty, and focused on, for me, the biggest strength the series had and always has had, AMANDA/HELEN. it was just made of awesome...

[unknown_k]

There are other ways to get money.

I collect old computer video games. A group of people got together to make a sequal to an early 1980's RPG game called Wasteland. Using the kickstarter website (I think they take 5% of the donations) they setup this page:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...and-2?ref=live

You will notice $2M+ was raised (the goal was $900K). A decent chunk of change for a game I bet few here have ever heard about.

Granted I have no clue how much a season of Sanctuary costs and how much of that syfy pays (or overseas channels pay), but it could be possible to do something like this for a short season. Its not realy an investment where money will be made, its mostly to pay the project forward (and in the case of the game you get a finished product sent to you with different persk depending on the amount you sent).

[RealmOfX]

There are other ways to get money.

I collect old computer video games. A group of people got together to make a sequal to an early 1980's RPG game called Wasteland. Using the kickstarter website (I think they take 5% of the donations) they setup this page:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...and-2?ref=live

You will notice $2M+ was raised (the goal was $900K). A decent chunk of change for a game I bet few here have ever heard about.

Granted I have no clue how much a season of Sanctuary costs and how much of that syfy pays (or overseas channels pay), but it could be possible to do something like this for a short season. Its not realy an investment where money will be made, its mostly to pay the project forward (and in the case of the game you get a finished product sent to you with different persk depending on the amount you sent).

2 mil will get you one episode.

[unknown_k]

2 mil will get you one episode.

My point is somebody raised double what was needed for an old game. Would 1 million "fans" give $30 each (on average) to get another somewhat shorter season made (probably less since there should be some money from other networks etc)? What it comes down to is the fans paying for what they want to watch one way or the other.

[Deevil]

Collecting money from fans is a problem. They technically have to be legal investors which require a potential of a recoup.

This is not a web series, a indie movie or such. This is a TV Show...

[RealmOfX]

My point is somebody raised double what was needed for an old game. Would 1 million "fans" give $30 each (on average) to get another somewhat shorter season made (probably less since there should be some money from other networks etc)? What it comes down to is the fans paying for what they want to watch one way or the other.

All I was doing was pointing out how much an episode costs seeing as you said you didn't know.

As for fans chipping in, I honestly don't know if you could get enough fans to do so. May be, may be not. Possibly someone might want to ask Damian or Amanda or Martin if they are interested in crowd sourcing part of their private funding??

[Skydiver]

There are MASSIVE legal issues. Such as if a fan contributes does s/he deserve some fragment of the residuals?? Do they deserve a return on their investment? Do they own a bit of it? Are they entitled to a say? It's a horrible nightmare....and as a mod I'll say that we have a zero tolerance for any 'raise money to save this show....' things, so don't go trying to start anything please.

mod hat off

With a rough budget of 2 million per episode, 13 episodes in a season, that's 26 million, plus I'm sure there needs to be a bit more to cover stuff like office costs, etc. And I'm not sure if the 2 million per episode also covers the salaries of the cast and crew involved.

[Deevil]

Budgets are season long budgets that are just broken down to an episode average. It includes cast and crew costs. The only thing it may not include is the execs.

The idea that fans can sponsor a show is beyond the realm of possibility.

[chrono trigger]

i loved 'tempus'! it was gritty, and focused on, for me, the biggest strength the series had and always has had, AMANDA/HELEN. it was just made of awesome...

I agree she is the best thing about sanctuary by far, i only watch for helen.

[Dean Grr]

we have a zero tolerance for any 'raise money to save this show....' things, so don't go trying to start anything please.

I did not see that one coming, but now I understand you don't want to turn Gateworld into a "Save this show ..." site. However, for an art form that often promotes tolerance and imagination, you'd think there are creative ways to fund a show, that do not involve the studios (looking for ratings) or finding large investors. Companies set up shell companies to defer taxes, so there's probably an oblique way to retain ownership, but accept small contributions (i.e. via selling memberships to a website, purchase of a souvenir): where it's clear the proceeds go to producing a show.

I meant no disrespect with my comments. I just think (in a naive way, perhaps) studios can be more open about their funding options.

Regards,

Dean

[Teal'c_PI]

TO ME, Sanctuary is a good show, but it's not a great one. It hasn't been 'great' for a couple of years now. I'ts been a bit too 'by the numbers' 'following skiffy's advice' and has lost some of that magic that made it so.....it in the beginning.

(....)

if it comes back, awesome. If it doesn't...it doesn't. I lost my emotional attachment to it a couple of years and watched it more out of loyalty than that sense of wonder and discovery.

To be honest, I agree completely. That's one of the reasons that I haven't been by here in a long time now...while I still enjoy Sanctuary to a certain extent, and while I still have a tremendous amount of respect for Damian and the other showrunners, I'm just not as attached to it as I was in the past. The Kali three-parter robbed me of a lot of my affection for the show, for various reasons.

That's not to say that I don't want it to come back, whether it be in the form of a S5, a miniseries or a few movies. At this point, however, I'll be disappointed but not crushed if it ends up disappearing entirely. At least the showrunners have other projects they can move on to, without being left in the cold, so to speak.

I do think that the lack of investors is the main reason for this long delay, though. If Syfy's willing to wait this long without cancelling the show, they clearly have some sort of attachment to it (maybe because it was their most popular scripted hour-long drama at some point?) and aren't willing to cancel it just because of a delay of funding. So I'm assuming that the real problem lies in a lack of investors - Damian and Amanda et al seem to be busy on other projects at the moment from what I can tell, so the problem must be partly out of their hands by now, if that makes sense.