Forget The Rules
Encyclopedia
Forget the Rules is an Australian short form episodic comedy drama cited by many as the first scripted drama in the world to simultaneously broadcast over broadband, mobile phones and TV. It is a good example of the push model of Crossmedia
. It was noted as one of the more successful models of an often failed interactive format that included audience input into the script and submitting visual elements as part of a tight weekly production cycle. It was conceived and piloted in Australia during 2004. In Canada, Season 1 has been broadcast on Movieola
.
Season 1 of Forget the Rules ran on Channel V
(Foxtel), Hutchison 3 mobile phones and on the web and consisted of 9 minutes of drama produced every week featuring audience driven story directions. 3-minute episodes were broadcast on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, starting October 10, 2005. Audiences voted on a choice of 3 possible story directions following the Wednesday episode. The 117 minutes of production (39 x 3min episodes) represents the equivalent of 5 x 30min episodes on FTA TV.
Season 2 ran weekdays from November 12, 2007 to December 21, 2007. The series was distributed across Optus Pay TV (Ovation Channel weekdays at noon, The Music Factory weekdays at 9:30pm) and Optus Zoo (mobile), as well as online through www.forgettherules.com, YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace.
* Philippe "Pepe" Fernandez (Steven Cabral)
* Pony (Daniel Kitchener)
* Lisa Jones (Louise Crawford
)
Season 1
* Carmen, Pepe's sister
* Tori, a girlfriend Pepe lent a CD to
* Russ, a Jehovah's Witness who Lisa uses to win a bet
* Rosie, Lisa and Pepe's roommate before Abby
* Andrew, the guy Rosie falls for
* Abby, Lisa and Pepe's roommate before Pony
Season 2
* Alex, Pony's best sex ever
* Merline, Pepe's bunny-and-muffin stalker
* Dr Knight, Lisa's doctor who makes house calls
* Serena, Lisa's ad producer who casts Pepe
* Cherie, an employee Pony meets at a sperm bank
* The Joneses, Lisa's parents
“We didn’t think when we were starting this out that it was going to be the first – we didn’t even think it was going to be on TV, we weren’t even sure about mobile, but that’s the way it’s all come out.” and often talks about the complexity of putting the deals together, attracting investment and coming up with the right business models.
Forget the Rules was created by Jim Shomos and he devised the series format and produced FTR with his partners Paul Baiguerra and Peter Dixon from Catfish.
Crossmedia
Cross Media is a media property, service, story or experience distributed across media platforms using a variety of media forms...
. It was noted as one of the more successful models of an often failed interactive format that included audience input into the script and submitting visual elements as part of a tight weekly production cycle. It was conceived and piloted in Australia during 2004. In Canada, Season 1 has been broadcast on Movieola
Movieola
Movieola is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel owned by Channel Zero Inc....
.
Seasons
- Season 1 - Oct 2005 to Jan 2006 - 39 episodes (3 per week) - 3 minutes each
- Season 2 - Nov 2007 to Dec 2007 - 30 episodes (5 per week) - 3 minutes each
Season 1 of Forget the Rules ran on Channel V
Channel V
Channel [V] is the brand name for multiple international music television networks owned by STAR TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation.-Channel [V] International:...
(Foxtel), Hutchison 3 mobile phones and on the web and consisted of 9 minutes of drama produced every week featuring audience driven story directions. 3-minute episodes were broadcast on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, starting October 10, 2005. Audiences voted on a choice of 3 possible story directions following the Wednesday episode. The 117 minutes of production (39 x 3min episodes) represents the equivalent of 5 x 30min episodes on FTA TV.
Season 2 ran weekdays from November 12, 2007 to December 21, 2007. The series was distributed across Optus Pay TV (Ovation Channel weekdays at noon, The Music Factory weekdays at 9:30pm) and Optus Zoo (mobile), as well as online through www.forgettherules.com, YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace.
Characters
- Main Characters
* Philippe "Pepe" Fernandez (Steven Cabral)
* Pony (Daniel Kitchener)
* Lisa Jones (Louise Crawford
Louise Crawford
Louise Crawford is an Australian television actress who has appeared in several Australian soap opera dramas, her most recent role being as Sgt. Karen Hatzic in primetime drama series City Homicide.-Career:...
)
- Supporting Characters (multiple episodes)
Season 1
* Carmen, Pepe's sister
* Tori, a girlfriend Pepe lent a CD to
* Russ, a Jehovah's Witness who Lisa uses to win a bet
* Rosie, Lisa and Pepe's roommate before Abby
* Andrew, the guy Rosie falls for
* Abby, Lisa and Pepe's roommate before Pony
Season 2
* Alex, Pony's best sex ever
* Merline, Pepe's bunny-and-muffin stalker
* Dr Knight, Lisa's doctor who makes house calls
* Serena, Lisa's ad producer who casts Pepe
* Cherie, an employee Pony meets at a sperm bank
* The Joneses, Lisa's parents
Production
The Season 1 scripts were written on Thursday based on the most popular audience vote. Pre-production and rehearsal on Friday. All Nine minutes of the show was shot on Saturday and was broadcast each Monday-Wednesday throughout the 13-week season. Because of the rapid turnaround stories were highly topical and responsive to genuine audience input and was limited to an M rating. Forget the Rules was designed to appeal to story literate young audiences through interactivity. Jim, the creator and executive producer is cited as saying young audiences need “more story per minute” and emphasised the importance of fast paced stories with rapid developments, particularly for short form content.“We didn’t think when we were starting this out that it was going to be the first – we didn’t even think it was going to be on TV, we weren’t even sure about mobile, but that’s the way it’s all come out.” and often talks about the complexity of putting the deals together, attracting investment and coming up with the right business models.
Forget the Rules was created by Jim Shomos and he devised the series format and produced FTR with his partners Paul Baiguerra and Peter Dixon from Catfish.