Dirty Bomb Diaries: A Template for Conservatives and New Media
by Seth MitchellA few months ago, a friend of mine told me about an online show called “The Dirty Bomb Diaries.” While I was skeptical at first, as I had not watched much online media, I was pleasantly surprised by the 16-episode drama. The show follows the story of an unprepared woman as she deals with the fallout of a dirty bomb attack in her city. From finding food and water, to dealing with possible nuclear poisoning the show was riveting from start to finish. As a result, I got in touch with the creators of DBD to talk with them about what inspired their story.
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Sean Hinchey and Eric Tozzi, the writer and director of DBD respectively, had been friends for years before Hinchey came to Tozzi with the idea of a fictional blog about a unsuspecting individual dealing with the aftermath of a disaster. Hinchey says that he had “always had a strange fascination with real life disasters” as they’ve always contained stories “about humans overcoming incredible odds to save themselves or help others.” The team decided that it would be fascinating to explore the emotional toll that a dirty bomb detonation causes, thus raising the stakes even higher. As Tozzi explained, “a dirty bomb is meant to cause mostly psychological harm on a large population…the initial blast doesn’t cause massive damage, but the spread of radiation…is the real worry.” Couple that pandemonium with limited access to resources like food and water, and suddenly there is widespread panic and fear. Out of this inspiration, The Dirty Bomb Diaries was born.
While the idea of a dirty bomb attack was the motivation for the show, the struggle of a young woman in a world she never dreamed of became the heart of the story. Before writing the script, Hinchey had watched the events of Hurricane Katrina unfold and was taken aback by the numerous failures of the government to come to the aid of the people of New Orleans, making him realized that “you should never, ever expect anyone else to help you out of a tight situation, especially the government.” While the main character is caught unprepared, as Hinchey put it, rather than “wallow in her misery, she [attempts] to get what she needs in order to live.” As Tozzi adds, “whether the local or federal government comes through with help or not, she decide[s] her own fate.”
As a conservative, the emphasis of personal responsibility throughout the show struck a chord with me. The protagonist evolves from a helpless victim of an unexpected terror attack into a fighter who does what is necessary to survive the turmoil and make her way to safety, making life and death decisions at every turn.
As an artist, however, I was even more impressed with the story of how Hinchey and Tozzi took their idea and made it into a success. Frustrated with waiting on Hollywood to finally discover their talents, the duo decided to take their careers into their own hands, and shot the show for a total of $600; literally in their own back yard. With no marketing experience, they then promoted their show through online communities dedicated to similar type shows such as Jericho, slowly building their audience over time. Since posting their show on online video outlets, such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Strike.tv, Veoh and Revver their series has garnered almost 2 million views, and made the team a respected force in the online world.
The success of the first season will allow the pair to take the show to another level in season 2, which the pair plan to shoot in HD. Hinchey and Tozzi will add more complexities to the show, as they introduce their audience to new characters, new plot-lines, and new locations as they examine the attack further.
New media is still the wild west of Hollywood, providing conservatives with an incredible opportunity to take control of our own fate. The Internet, coupled with cheaper technology, gives us a chance to stop relying on the old Hollywood system of distribution and allows us to create our own material and take it directly to our audience without ever stepping foot in a studio office. For instance, it has been asked many times on this site why Hollywood won’t produce content that celebrates the heroics of our men and women in uniform. Perhaps, instead, we should ask ourselves the same question Hinchey and Tozzi asked themselves: why wait on Hollywood?
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Chavez and DNC DUDES, Mr. Pink. Mr. Pink said: Dirty Bomb Diaries: A Template for Conservatives and New Media http://tinyurl.com/yd89388 [...]
Isn't it great that producers can take their product directly to consumers? How wonderful that people who want to bring their stories to life and share them through the internet! No distributors, agents, contracts or guild memberships needed.
All this, brought to you by CAPITALISM.
"Perhaps, instead, we should ask ourselves the same question Hinchey and Tozzi asked themselves: why wait on Hollywood? "
Why wait indeed. I've teamed up with friends to produce our own action adventure comedy series (with subtle conservative hints throughout) and if we stay on schedule we will debut online December 2010.
I am just finishing up my second reading of Lucifer's Hammer (1977) by Niven & Pournelle. Both have math backgrounds, but spent most of their lives writing intelligent science fiction. A comet smashes the earth, destroying civilization. It's a good read, but would make a better movie about what can happens if B. Hussein O. Jr. succeeds in removing the USA as the most important force for good on this planet.
Well said! Now all of those that you mentioned are free to use their talents for more productive enterprises – no easy task, but that is is the essence of the engine of economic free enterprise – continually adapting to an evolving circumstance. That is new "stuff" breads new opportunities for different "stuff." I love stuff.
DW,
Enjoy your comments and snarkasm here at BH. I think I would enjoy an action-adventure-comedy that you had a hand in.
Can you give some ideas about the premise? Where will we be able to find it?
Force of good? When was that? Only the example we led with the American Revolution would I cite for that.
Dang you beat me to that line.
Capitalism, free markets, and good old fashioned American can-do attitude.
That's exactly what makes our imperfect nation the best country in history.
I miss Jericho.
I just love it when Americans get fed up with the status quo, and take matters into their own hands.
Who knows, we may be looking at a future EIB type success story here.
That looks like a good online series.
That's what conservatives have to do–guerilla filmmaking where we make our own rules.
Cool beans! Good for them. Take that tinseltown.
Why thank you; indeed I am a born snarkacist.
We're still debating on the title but the basic premise is about a group of nerdy tabletop RPG gamers (indeed I was/am one) that get magically sucked into a real version their gaming world and have to try to find a way back. We've got season one (thirteen 20-minute episodes) mapped out now and will have scripts ready by end of Jan 2010. Will likely be youtubing them unless my partner sets up our own website (she's good at that kind of thing). We'll also compile them on DVD once the series gains a following.
Sweet….
I am so there….
Looks great, makes one think. Are you prepared?
Bookmarked it and look forward to watching all the episodes. Hope they get it on the front page of youtube!
Let me guess, the cleaners ruined your Che t-shirt and you came here to be a complete tool….
if you were up here in Michigan, I would be putting you in it too.
That would be an honor my friend….
your set's catered, right??
Of course! We cant pay the actors (at least not for season one) so we better make sure they are well fed.
Of course! We cant pay the actors (at least not for season one) so we better make sure they are well fed.
LOL, brother, I would buy a plane ticket and a hotel room if you had a part for me…..
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Ask a starved, liberated Jew from a Nazi Death Camp you moron.
Ask them if the U.S. was a force for good. Move from your Mom's basement to Red Venezuela, I'm sure they have a prison cell with a nice "mate" for you.
After successfully concluding the first step of being a complete fool….
Well he's using DHasselhoff as a moniker. I'm guessing holding a conversation with him is much like talking to toilet paper….
I'm guessing he's not from the USA. Probably German if his moniker is any indication, Hasselhoff to Germany is like Jerry Lewis to France….
At any rate, this person is an idiot….
Great to hear more conservatives are doing this. Best of luck and let us know when you start posting your episodes!
I"ll bet there's snow in it.
Sounds a lot like one of the last D&D Halloween game I ran, only in reverse. I'm mostly retired, but Halloween is a great reason to throw a game, which is a great reason to throw a party, and have all the guys come in from out of town.
I sucked the players characters into the modern world and they had to deal with other D&D monsters that had crossed over. The monsters took over a start up hi-tech firm, and were giving out free down loads for iPods, and were planting subliminal messages in the music. The final down load on Halloween that would complete the spell, turn all customers into monsters, and they would conquer the real world.
So the PCs had to deal with this world while taking on the likes of William H. Gates Of Hell III. Louis V. Grazzat (IBM's Louis V. Gerstner, CEO at the time). The help desk was manned by zombies, software was killer worker bees. You get the idea.
The best move of the game, going to the dept. store, buying spell components for holy water, super soakers – the kind with the back packs, clear heavy duty plastic bags, duct tape and dust busters.
When fighting with vampires, squirt them with enough holy water to turn them into vapor, suck them up in the dust busters, dump them in the clear plastic bags, duck tape them up, toss them out into the sunlight.
I may not remember the exact details, a while ago, and lots of scotch that night. All players very well satisfied.
Well done Sean and Eric. And to all who attempt to add their vision to our entertainment choices. There's going to be a mass of new webisodes coming to your computer screen over the next year or two. Some are going to be good and many are going to suck big time. My request is for everyone to try to reach "Hollywood standards" of style and look. It's taken years for us to achieve the rich feel and emotional texture of a "good old-fashioned" Hollywood movie. I expect some to come close online to this quality because there are a lot of talented people out there, but the current on-line viewing setup and the lean forward nature of the computer creates a different environment for dramatic engagement. We will need to educate ourselves and the public for several years to come how best to utilize this technology. And we must be forgiving and patient for a while.
Kudos to Darkwolf for your efforts. I wish the best for you. I'm an ex-Michigander myself. And I always keep hope alive that we can make more creative contributions to society, after subjecting the world to Madonna.
I hate it when I'm not logged in and I don't get to track the replies. Or that you can't go back and fix this problem once you are logged in.
I have not yet seen the series, but I have played it out in my head about a thousand times. One main reason I live in a small, quiet town if Florida is because I spent the longest year of my life working just blocks from Ground Zero. One too many visits from the NYPD because of threats to my office, one too many lunch hours watching Bomb Squad trucks roll by…
Now, aside from being eaten by a gator or gored by a feral hog, I don't have too much to fear.
The web is already becoming loaded with shows. When we did Dirty Bomb Diaries, it was uncharted ground and there was a lot of real-estate to be had. To that end, in having many, many conversations with online studios, some executives, etc….quality is really, really important. Seems like a no-brainer, but I am amazed at how many shows launch without careful scrutiny over simple things like bad cuts, audio problems, writing, performances, etc. No matter what genre you're in, excellence is essential!
Eric T
This web series is just a taste of the inevitable future of Hollywood. The new world of digital distribution has ushered in a whole new way for creative entrepreneurs to take advantage of the forces of free market capitalism. Those establishment figures, (CEO's and board Chairmans etc), that are threatened have only two choices: either embrace the new world by doing the hard work of innovation or take the easy way out by selling your soul to the government.
I for one have been directly involved in shaping the new digital world since 1996 when I built the first online Record Company called ThirdPlanet.tv here i Hollywood and worked with the establishment to make sense of the pier-2-pier networks that have decimated the music industry. PopModal.com is a direct descendent of ThirdPlanet Records and we are building a distribution platform to make it easy for creators to display their wares and consumers to easily find the content they desire.
My passion for music started innocently as a fan in the early sixties and evolved into a passion that I thought could change the world. Well I am still pouring every ounce of my soul into changing the world. My passion is my ideology an I am trying to make up for the damage I caused for being conned by the Left in my youth. PopModal.com understands the synchronisticity needed between politics and pop-culture — just ask Bob Dylan or John Lennon, or Vladimir Lenin.
I love this web series the Dirty Bomb Diaries, it speaks to the essence of what a lot of us are trying to do, which is to wake up America to the dangers of the dark forces of the Left.
It gives me Hope that the Change we are looking for is in the enlightened forces of free market capitalism and how it and only it brings to light the creative efforts of the individual.
Good onya, Darkwolf. Where do I send my headshot and resume?? (I'm kidding!) Much success to you!!
I look forward to checking it out, DW. One of my favorite books from my youth was based on that premise. IMO, Joel Rosenberg's "The Sleeping Dragon" is the best (perhaps the first?) novel that deals with that scenario.
Holy crap that looks good, bravo! Ok now I know what I'm watching tonight. I am really excited about this, this medium, the comments from others, all of it! Scared to death of dirty bombs though especially after CERT training… Makes me really worry about stories of cloud seeding & so on.
[...] Dirty Bomb Diaries, according to this reviewer, isn’t an overtly political show — it’s about a young woman surviving, as the [...]
Interesting little series pretty short and easy to watch.
I have to say though where the heck was this womans dad (LOL) I would have had here out of there in about 1 minute after that happened.
Used or unused?
and limited liberal bias thru adds for msm
*grins* with 13 episodes there will be plenty of parts.
We're scheduled to shoot in June *lol*.
Now that is one game I would have loved to been in on. If you can remember all (or most) of what happened and perhaps update it for current time you should think about writing a screenplay for it. I'd pay to watch that movie.
Hell yeah I remember that series. Read them all right up till he killed off Karl then stopped. One twist for ours is that our characters' conciousness are what get transfered (into their RPG Characters bodies) leaving their real time bodies in a kind of coma stasis; and leaving their DM having to deal with what to do with the bodies and eventual frantic calls form Parents/girlfriends/boyfriends.
Didn't Rosenberg also do the Masada (Jewish Space Mercenaries) series? I remember reading that one years ago as well.
Thanks! will keep all here updated on progress and when it posts.
thanks.. oh and if you can get out to West Michigan during June 2010, you're in.
Like I say, I'll bet there's snow in it.
I happen to like Michigan, with the exception of my Detroit experience.
In June? Well perhaps in the upper penninsula that is true *lol*
Ah yes, Detroit is the city that is sinking this state (it's why I live in West MI) but west and north are quite lovely.
Don't dangle that carrot to an actress seeking work, especially one who's kinda tired of dealing with liberals! I've never been to Michigan and I just might take you up on that!
no simple dangling. We're gonna need alot of roles filled beyond the main characters, though the first season will be unpaid so that might be a deterrent for traveling here.
I'm trying to figure out if there's anyone I know in westerm Michigan who might have an empty couch I could crash on for the duration. Either that or buy an RV between now and then. It's very inticing. I like out of the box projects. Will you be posting info somewhere besides here?
been wanting to get an RV as well.
Other than here, we'll be posting in Craigslist (Look for the grand rapids page in Michigan) as well as on our facebook pages (mine is liked in my intense debate profile)
Okay. I'll check it out and see if I can pull it together. Road Trip!
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