New Web Series Palmetto Launched
(released
1/11/2008)
By Douglas Lorah
On Tuesday, January 8th, Morgan Films Entertainment launched their web-series Palmetto, a story about high school teens in a fictional town in Florida.
The series is the creation of Chris Morgan. He co-produced with his wife Sarah. They recorded everything locally in Central Florida using local cast and crew. Chris wrote, directed, produced, and is still editing episodes.
Some of the young actors and actresses include Anthony Bowden as moody and fiesty Tyler McKlane, Charlie Forrest as the transfer student from Ft. Lauderdale Garrett Alderson, Kaitlyn Dalton as Mallory Hamlin, Luis Burbano as the party hearty Hunter Frost, and Brandy Mitchell as the manipulative little sister Jess Hamlin. Jay Sands plays Tyler's abusive and alcoholic father and Nancy Krayer plays the mother in Episode One, the pilot. Being introduced in Episode Two will be Rich Dye and Sara Mitchell playing Tyler's uncle and aunt.
In a conversation earlier in the year, Chris mentioned gaining assistance from Karen and Mike Storms and how helpful they were to the production. They helped with casting and also helped tutor the actors on set.
The first webisode is available at no charge so you can see if you like the characters and storyline. You can check it out at www.palmettothetvseries.com. It is an hour long show with episodes premiering on Tuesdays. If you like it and want to see what happens, the next webisode will be available on Tuesday, January 15th. That episode and each episode thereafter will cost 99 cents.
This same payment schedule and idea of webisodes was employed a couple years ago by another filmmaker from Central Florida that many people recognize. Dan Myrick (Blair Witch Project) and his Gearhead Pictures produced The Strand as a web series 2 years ago, but didn't seem to gain any traction. It was screened at last year's Florida Film Festival as a feature, which it was not intended to be.
It's amazing how fast technology changes and in turn changes our perceptions. In the 2 year span from The Strand till now with Palmetto, we have seen iPods and iTunes go from trendy to mainstream. Streaming content is now normal. It appears that Palmetto has a better chance at getting and retaining the attention of viewers through technology alone.
With the writers strike nationwide, set top boxes becoming mandatory next year, and more people going to online content, original programming like Palmetto just may have a chance.
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