#shadazzle

[erikurtz]

Web Series Wednesday: Shadazzle

Shadazzle is one of those shows that wants to be funny but still wants to tell a story that the viewers can take seriously. In that sense it is a classic 'dramedy' with some over the top characters that seem at first to exist only for comic relief but also with some challenging themes going on.

Mixing comedy and drama can be difficult, and I think Shadazzle struggled to find the right balance at some points. Early on I felt like the show was more of a comedy that was trying to poke fun at the thought of being more dramatic. The piano backed intro makes some comedic scenes later on in the story out to be heavy and emotional.

It reminds me of a short film I did in school where I had a scene of the main character just looking at himself in the mirror. The shot wasn't my idea so when editing everything together I decided to back the shot with a sappy piano. I thought the result was hilarious, but I'm not sure if anyone else did.

As the story goes on it becomes more dramatic. This is because the story starts to make a little more sense. The show likes to have a previously-on segment as well as clips from future shows. This makes each episode feel like a small part of the whole - in other words the viewer gets a very large look at the entire story in each episode. At first this is confusing, but as the story goes on the pieces start to make more sense.

Somewhere around episode six I bought into the dramatic portions of the story, and that was because the story became quite human. So many characters were struggling for some sort of survival - struggling to make ends meet, struggling to live without love, struggling to... find directions.

I think it worked because it was subtle - sure the drinking wasn't all that subtle, but it masked the characters underlying struggles and I found that absolutely refreshing.

The show is definitely funny too, in that awkward British style. The jokes almost all have to be experienced first hand to enjoy fully so direct your browser over to http://daffadillies.co.uk/shadazzle and find out for yourself! Season 2 launched today so there are plenty of new shows on the horizon!

[daffadillies]

[daffadillies]

Trevor: You'd think alcohol poisoning would open your eyes.

Robert: It did. And it was horrible. That's why I'm drinking. To forget it.

[daffadillies]

[daffadillies]

Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; one choked his little self and then there were nine.

[fugabutacus]

[staceymackenzie]

Shadazzle

At the beginning of 2009, over two years ago now, me and a fellow nerdy friend (who when together couldn't and still can't seem to go two minutes without planning something to do with the media) conceived an idea for a web series. It was intended to be a parody of soap operas that played on all the well-known clichés, but it quickly grew into melodramedy series with characters that developed into more than we had initially imagined.

Now, after scheduling nightmares, excessive amounts of coffee and an entire rewrite of the show only one year ago, Shadazzle is finally ready to hit the internet with its pilot, "Jemima".

The basic premise of the show, unashamedly stolen from the official website, tells it a lot better than I can.

Florence Smith and Fred Flagglebush are happily engaged. But as the wedding draws ever closer, Florence finds herself buried under more and more stress. With a new maid and a new handyman, money is tighter than ever and Florence has a life-changing decision to make.

Despite having seen the finished episode for myself already (bonus of living with its editor :p), I'm very excited for its internet premiere because I'm eager to see what people outside of the cast think of it. We only have 30 fans on Shadazzle's Facebook page at the moment, but I'm hopeful that will increase eventually, and it's not a bad number considering we've only released promos and trailers so far.

For the past 25 days, we've had a Shadazzle Countdown that has been, in my admittedly biased opinion, better than a chocolate advent calendar (and coming from me, that's saying something). Now it almost feels like Christmas Day, and the best present anyone reading this could give to me would be to go and check it out. I'm cheesy and I don't even care :')

Here it is - Shadazzle.