Broken Saints - Brooke Burgess

Posted by Steve on 25 May 2010 | 0 Comments

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Broken Saints was launched in 2001 as the first 'motion comic epic'. Created over 3 full-time years with a core team of myself (writer/director), Andrew West (artist), and Ian Kirby (technical director/editor/art-support). It tells the story of four strangers from different corners of the globe who receive a series of haunting visions. Somehow, their fate - and the fate of the entire world - is tied to a global satellite network, a top-secret military implant project, and a mysterious orphan in the South Pacific. The original free Flash version was comprised of 24 'chapters' divided into 57 'acts' - nearly 11 HOURS of narrative - and was presented with word balloons, simple animation and effects, layered sound design, and an acclaimed original score by composer Tobias Tinker. The series received many industry awards including Best Cartoon (Flash Forward) and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003.

The Canadian government approached with a grant offer in early 2004, and we spent the next year overhauling the series with new art, noted sci-fi voiceover talent (William B Davis, Michael Dobson, David Kaye, and more), 5.1 surround, and 4 hours of special features. A year after this 4-disc DVD version was released directly to fans, we were picked up by FOX Home Video for a high-profile release internationally in 2006/2007. The series continues to gain fans worldwide, and a live-action re-imagining of the saga is in development.

Where did the idea/concept for your web series come from?

I was inspired by two 'real world' news stories before the turn of the millennium. Firstly, Microsoft had been talking for years about launching a global satellite network that would someday provide free, blazing fast web access from anywhere on Earth. The 'big brother' implications were ominous to me at the time. But there was another tech development with a professor at a Canadian university - he was using low frequency EM fields to stimulate parts of the human brain and trigger a 'God Experience' in countless test subjects...and their religious background (or lack thereof) didn't hamper the results. I began to think - what if these two technologies were somehow COMBINED?

Name some of your sci-fi influences. Any favorite movies, TV shows, novels?

I was a huge fan of Terry Gilliam growing up, especially Brazil - I loved the themes of information technology running amok. I was also partial to the works of Kubrick (2001 and A Clockwork Orange especially), and the haunting nightmares of David Lynch (Twin Peaks). In fact, it was Twin Peaks - and other 'weird' serialized live TV like The Prisoner, X-Files, and some Japanese anime - that made me fall in love with the idea of doing a cliffhanger episodic. Combine that with a deep love for mature graphic novel classics (Watchmen, Sandman, The Invisibles, Dark Knight Returns), and you have the recipe for Broken Saints!

In the series itself, we made quite a few 'nods' to favorite films and TV shows that were clear influences. The animated 'covers' to each chapter often contained direct homages including: Twin Peaks, Prisoner, Brazil, Wizard of Oz, The Matrix, and Donnie Darko...to name a few.

Tell us about the technical production of your show. What camera & equipment did you use? Editing software & hardware? For visual effects, etc?

It was all done in Flash, at least until we expanded onto DVD. Images were created in Painter and Photoshop through a Wacom tablet, and then we manipulated on a Flash timeline to move, morph, and tween. Sound Forge was our original sound editing program. For a few of the later sequences, we used animation programs like ToonBoom for dramatic zooms and 'camera moves', and also embedded short video sequences to trippy effect.

For the DVD version, Ian led an expanded tech team to re-imagine certain sequences in Combustion and After Effects, while the audio team (led by 5.1 guru and composer Adam Fulton) blew the soundscape wide open with ProTools.

Can you tell us any interesting facts or trivia about your show? Any funny stories? 

Well, essentially it was three dudes working in a basement in North Vancouver (Ian's house) for three years non-stop, with an entire community supporting our efforts. When we ran out of money (bandwidth wasn't cheap back then!), we held a series of fundraiser concerts with local bands that raised over $10000. Fans began sending us unsolicited donations (wayyyyy before Paypal was the norm), and we even held a popular contest to include one of our fans in 'comic form' for the series finale. When we launched the first DVD set in 2004, fans even flew to Vancouver from across the Western Hemisphere to celebrate! (http://brokensaints.com/benefitconcert/)

We were blessed over the years to travel to conventions, speak at industry events and college campuses, and to receive support and attention from international media. I could tell countless stories here, but clever googlers or folks who pick up the FOX DVDs can unearth lots of interviews and commentaries that hold nothing back surrounding the saga of the Saints.

Broken Saints can be found online, on Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon.com.

Broken Saints - SciFinal Page

Brooke Burgess giving a lecture about Broken Saints

Broken Saints DVD Box