Sign In »
Register Now!
Help
Subscribe to President's Blog
4 Comments
Posted by
Dave 
Well folks, after years of staying out of the mainstream workforce, I have accepted a position at Kent State University training professors in how to create online courses on the Blackboard Vista system. I will be a full-time employee of the university.
What does this mean for Syzygy Productions and The Syzygy Network? Well, I don't know yet. It certainly means my time will become extremely limited; especially since I'll also be pursuing an MBA at the same time, now that my classes will be free.
First, let's tackle Syzygy Productions. We're still working on completing the pilot for Who Am I? and are contracted to hand it over to a company which will convert it into 3D and then market both 2D and 3D versions of the show, attempting to get it picked up by some networks. Ken Kirkpatrick and I are working on finishing up the visual effects, while Scott Brody is getting the credits ready to go. Dr. Robert Brownlow of the University of Akron is working on the score. Since our budget is LONG gone, having gone to paying the cast and crew, locations rental and equipment rental, that means all four of us are working for free. There have been others who graciously donated their time and talents as well. This project must be finished and will be. After that, I don't know. Members of our creative team, Wendy Stevens and Bjorn-Rune Hanssen have both created wonderful stories which I would hate to see die at the idea stage. However, before we can make anything else happen, we would have to get a sale on Who Am I to fund any future efforts.
The Syzygy Network. Let's face it, Siffy just isn't good enough. We, as SciFi and Fantasy fans need more. We demand more. However, creating a new television network costs many tens of millions of dollars. I have been unsuccessful at getting "typical" investors to believe in the concept enough to invest, and I've never found investors with the level of capital required who are also big SciFi/Fantasy fans. We'd hoped to start an online network and go from there. We had a talented team of volunteers create a very nice looking online channel (www.syzygynetwork.com/test) and we have contracts with several small indy producers who want to air their content on our online network. However, we're missing two crucial things. First, even a small video server with low capacity would cost several hundred dollars a month, which we simply don't have. Second, neither Scott nor I have the time nor the skills required to Launch and keep this going. We can't ask anyone else to work on this for free in the hopes it will start making money later. That leaves us in a bad place. Since I failed at raising the money to make the network possible, I'm not sure we have anywhere to go. I would still love to see this happen. I fully believe it's the right thing to do and that there is a major hole that it would fill, but the reality is, it takes more than dreams to make it happen. After having spent four years of my life fervently pursuing these two companies, neither of them has paid me anything and I'm out of cash. Years of pursuing these dreams have broken my family financially, and I can no longer do that. I have daughters who will be going into college in several years, massive debt and no way to begin paying off that debt as I enter the latter years of "mid life." I simply can't continue to go more broke, rather than trying to begin fixing my finances so my wife and I will have a future when we reach retirement age.
I passionately love SciFi and Fantasy. I wanted to make a permanent impact on the genre(s). I wanted to make a lasting contribution to something that has given me SO much in my life. I'm not giving up on that, but I am being very blunt. We have 8,500 fans and we absolutely HATE to disappoint them. Syzygy is not going away just yet, but with my time almost completely disappearing, I don't know what the future holds for Syzygy at this point.
I love and respect the fans, and I hope someday to give all of you what you want, love and deserve. With no one to run and maintain the online network, progress will come to a very slow crawl for a while. I'll keep my ears and eyes open and pursue any opportunities that present themselves, but I'll no longer be able to go out and hunt those opportunities down.
If anything happens to allow us to get moving again, we'll let you know. Until then, I love you all and thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying with us and being so encouraging during our years-long pursuit of creating a real SciFi/Fantasy network. Thank you for spreading the word about us, for writing about us in your magazines, blogs and online articles. Thank you for believing. If we believe enough, and our voices are loud enough, someone, whether it's me or someone else, will eventually make it happen.
Even when things look down, don't ever stop believing.
Thank you,
Dave Andrews
President and CEO
Syzygy Productions and The Syzygy Network
What does this mean for Syzygy Productions and The Syzygy Network? Well, I don't know yet. It certainly means my time will become extremely limited; especially since I'll also be pursuing an MBA at the same time, now that my classes will be free.
First, let's tackle Syzygy Productions. We're still working on completing the pilot for Who Am I? and are contracted to hand it over to a company which will convert it into 3D and then market both 2D and 3D versions of the show, attempting to get it picked up by some networks. Ken Kirkpatrick and I are working on finishing up the visual effects, while Scott Brody is getting the credits ready to go. Dr. Robert Brownlow of the University of Akron is working on the score. Since our budget is LONG gone, having gone to paying the cast and crew, locations rental and equipment rental, that means all four of us are working for free. There have been others who graciously donated their time and talents as well. This project must be finished and will be. After that, I don't know. Members of our creative team, Wendy Stevens and Bjorn-Rune Hanssen have both created wonderful stories which I would hate to see die at the idea stage. However, before we can make anything else happen, we would have to get a sale on Who Am I to fund any future efforts.
The Syzygy Network. Let's face it, Siffy just isn't good enough. We, as SciFi and Fantasy fans need more. We demand more. However, creating a new television network costs many tens of millions of dollars. I have been unsuccessful at getting "typical" investors to believe in the concept enough to invest, and I've never found investors with the level of capital required who are also big SciFi/Fantasy fans. We'd hoped to start an online network and go from there. We had a talented team of volunteers create a very nice looking online channel (www.syzygynetwork.com/test) and we have contracts with several small indy producers who want to air their content on our online network. However, we're missing two crucial things. First, even a small video server with low capacity would cost several hundred dollars a month, which we simply don't have. Second, neither Scott nor I have the time nor the skills required to Launch and keep this going. We can't ask anyone else to work on this for free in the hopes it will start making money later. That leaves us in a bad place. Since I failed at raising the money to make the network possible, I'm not sure we have anywhere to go. I would still love to see this happen. I fully believe it's the right thing to do and that there is a major hole that it would fill, but the reality is, it takes more than dreams to make it happen. After having spent four years of my life fervently pursuing these two companies, neither of them has paid me anything and I'm out of cash. Years of pursuing these dreams have broken my family financially, and I can no longer do that. I have daughters who will be going into college in several years, massive debt and no way to begin paying off that debt as I enter the latter years of "mid life." I simply can't continue to go more broke, rather than trying to begin fixing my finances so my wife and I will have a future when we reach retirement age.
I passionately love SciFi and Fantasy. I wanted to make a permanent impact on the genre(s). I wanted to make a lasting contribution to something that has given me SO much in my life. I'm not giving up on that, but I am being very blunt. We have 8,500 fans and we absolutely HATE to disappoint them. Syzygy is not going away just yet, but with my time almost completely disappearing, I don't know what the future holds for Syzygy at this point.
I love and respect the fans, and I hope someday to give all of you what you want, love and deserve. With no one to run and maintain the online network, progress will come to a very slow crawl for a while. I'll keep my ears and eyes open and pursue any opportunities that present themselves, but I'll no longer be able to go out and hunt those opportunities down.
If anything happens to allow us to get moving again, we'll let you know. Until then, I love you all and thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying with us and being so encouraging during our years-long pursuit of creating a real SciFi/Fantasy network. Thank you for spreading the word about us, for writing about us in your magazines, blogs and online articles. Thank you for believing. If we believe enough, and our voices are loud enough, someone, whether it's me or someone else, will eventually make it happen.
Even when things look down, don't ever stop believing.
Thank you,
Dave Andrews
President and CEO
Syzygy Productions and The Syzygy Network
Categories: Uncategorized
Share This Entry:
4 Comments On This Entry
Page 1 of 1
SantaBJ
16 December 2011 - 09:56 AM
Best of luck in your new job, Dave 
It's a shame, really, that things haven't worked out so far. I say keep the dream alive, but don't make it a nightmare - you are absolutely right to move on the way you're doing now.
Who knows what the future holds? Just so you know, I *will* be moving to the States eventually so you're not getting rid of me this easily
Keep a look out for any teaching or low-level tech jobs in your area, I just might go for one of them
It's a shame, really, that things haven't worked out so far. I say keep the dream alive, but don't make it a nightmare - you are absolutely right to move on the way you're doing now.
Who knows what the future holds? Just so you know, I *will* be moving to the States eventually so you're not getting rid of me this easily
Keep a look out for any teaching or low-level tech jobs in your area, I just might go for one of them
Newstar
16 December 2011 - 05:48 PM
Thanks for the update, Dave.
I can understand the "We can't ask anyone else to work on this for free in the hopes it will start making money later." However, if people who know what they're getting into and want to do it, volunteer it seems reasonable to take them up on it. There are people who have resources (have skills and find time, or a few who even have enough money available) for volunteer projects of passion such as the pro quality Trek fan films...if people want to step up I think we should let them.
Meanwhile, MedSci space drama will come out as a novel and other non film media for starters and we'll see what happens from there.
I can understand the "We can't ask anyone else to work on this for free in the hopes it will start making money later." However, if people who know what they're getting into and want to do it, volunteer it seems reasonable to take them up on it. There are people who have resources (have skills and find time, or a few who even have enough money available) for volunteer projects of passion such as the pro quality Trek fan films...if people want to step up I think we should let them.
Meanwhile, MedSci space drama will come out as a novel and other non film media for starters and we'll see what happens from there.
strawberryfilmmaka
05 February 2012 - 03:45 PM
You can also email TheMaven@cablemaven.com He has a book/business plan for starting a TV Channel. He has something for Internet TV now I believe. Or David Ingram daveingram@intervision-tv.com he has a book called Internet TV Book. I'm in the same boat you're in. I can't remember if it was Larry Brody at TVwriter.com that told me it was like 50mill just to start up a network and around another 50 to get in on a provider. All I can say is wow! I've been looking into internet TV and when I did those price calculators my eyes bugged. LOL I used one that just did bandwith (no price) and let's just say I learned some new bytes such as the Petabyte (I think it was reporter that BBC Player is at 7 Petabytes) , the Exabyte, zettabyte and yottabyte. LOL Anyways good luck with the network.
You know you might be able to do it like Crotchety Old Fan's Science Fiction Channel or even like Project Free TV or something. Another site to check out is Monster Zero Productions or MZP-TV.
Oh I just found out about Veetle. Didn't work with me and many other mac users, but does on PC. Maybe you could start a channel. It's sort of like what Mogulus was before it became livestream. Use that to grow a following etc.
You know you might be able to do it like Crotchety Old Fan's Science Fiction Channel or even like Project Free TV or something. Another site to check out is Monster Zero Productions or MZP-TV.
Oh I just found out about Veetle. Didn't work with me and many other mac users, but does on PC. Maybe you could start a channel. It's sort of like what Mogulus was before it became livestream. Use that to grow a following etc.
Dave
14 February 2012 - 01:31 PM
Actually, I already purchased The Cable Maven's stuff and I think he and I have exchanged a couple of emails back and forth.
For now, we're just going to focus on creating our own product and see where that takes us.
For now, we're just going to focus on creating our own product and see where that takes us.
Page 1 of 1
