A 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?