Sizing Up The Competition

When we started on Covies we were aiming to be the world's 1st online soap. We know we are Ireland's first online soap - But it's hard to know what's out there in the big wide world. Then this week I've been contacted by US website We Love Soaps Roger Newcomb runs the site and also runs the Indie Soap awards which are being run for the first time this year. We won't qualify for this year as it's only soaps from 2009. Whether we would find ourselves in the happy position of being nominated for 2010 is of course both too early to say and more than a little presumptuous. There is however a great article on the nominees for the indie soap awards here. I've also had a little look myself. There are seven nominees for Best Indie soap and they are:
Anyone But Me
Buppies
Chick
Compulsions
Diary Of a Single Mum
High Rise
Lumina

They are all American - but are they all soaps? Compulsions for example is more of a thriller. [very good I might add and my personal favourite] Buppies or High Rise would seem the most traditional - Though Buppies uses Voice Over which you won't find in traditional soaps. Lumina is more Sci-Fi.

Anyhow... go take a look and by all means compare and contrast to Covies. I doubt any of the productions had a smaller budget than we had. Some clearly had much bigger budgets and proper sponsorship.

The phrase for this week I think is: Imagine what we could do if we had the money.

More Interviews

More interviews are lined up for this week including the Irish Sun and The Soap Show. regardless of what happens next we seem to have broken new ground with our ambition and labours. 9000 views and rising. That's not bad considering we don't have access to the publicity machine that other projects have had. We're also uploading episodes to You Tube as an alternative source. The problem with You Tube is that we have to bisect the episodes in to parts as they do not allow anything over ten minutes long. Vimeo on the other hand do.

I'm unaware of any problems on their servers - but if you have any issues watching episodes [and I know some people have ] then let us know and we'll try and sort the issue out. However most often any issues are local - such as connection, computer, ram etc.

Episode Three debuts tonight [Monday] Viewer discretion is advised as the show contains some swearing and deals with the subject of domestic violence. If you are affected by the subject matter in the episode we recommend you check out www.rcni.ie

A Busy Week

The online launch went very well. We're up to nearly 8000 views which is a steady start and compares very favourably with other internet offerings. However we need to get the word out there and that's what I've mostly been doing this week. Interviews on RTE Radio 1's Arena, The Gerry Ryan Show and Iradio, Interviews with The Mayo News, The Mail On Sunday, The Independent, and a bunch of freelancers with articles ready for various publications from the Farmer's Monthly to PCLive magazine. There's more to do this week with TG4 filming something. Then there are the various sites to keep up with Tweeting, posting on facebook, here, our own site... still editing 6, 7 and 8. It just never stops.

Time To Party

Of course being the idiot that I am I didn't bring a camera to last nights launch party. So you'll have to make do with another still. There are official photos which I will post later [when I can get them]

The night went very well with two hundred brave and hardy souls battling the icy weather to get to us. They came from London, Dublin and Galway. They came from all over Mayo. Then I bored them with a speech - fortunately I kept it short and we watched the first three episodes, and two Nelliesodes.

The reaction was fantastic. There's no doubt that using the words "Internet" before the word "drama" or "Soap" gives the illusion of amateur - because of course so much of the stuff on the internet is amateur - that's its beauty really. So the comment we received most was how professional the whole thing is. Which is great because it is professional... the only thing that makes it amateur is the lack of a wage packet. But who knows what might happen next?

So a reminder that we go live tonight with episode one. Enjoy

Almost Ready To Roll

So much is going on now it's getting hard to think. I've done about three or four Radio interviews now. Plus Press interviews over the phone. I think the interest may well increase next week. On Monday we'll be on the Gerry Ryan Show, and Iradio we'll also feature on Arena.

Unfortunately I've just learned that we'll be squeezed out of Tommy and Hector's show on 2fm. It's their first show and they're inundated with material. Maybe they'll have us on later in the run.

The press have had access to two episodes via the internet for preview purposes and I can say that the reaction so far has been very positive.

I wish that everyone could come to the launch on Sunday but we are limited to numbers on the door. So there's no guarantee of anyone getting in without a silver ticket.

We'll try to accommodate as many people as we can however.

It's almost here

It seems like forever since we finished filming, but it is only three months. We're all exhausted and delighted at the same time, on 11/ 01/ 2010 you can tune in to see the first episode of Ireland's first online soap. In my humble opinion or IMHO as I should write - It is the world's first true online soap. Now it's overto you - the public - to decide if it works or not.

Join us online on Monday 11th January

Join us after the episode on our Facebook page

For discussions and a laugh or two.

Then tune in for the second episode on 14th January...

Enjoy!