Back in 2005, Daniel Myrick (co-writer and director of The Blair Witch Project) filmed the lives of the most diverse people in Venice Beach. The result is the soap web series ‘The Strand.’
Since he shot the footage with minimal lighting and in documentary-style, at times it’s almost too easy to forget that it’s all fictional.
The series’ catchphrase “It’s not reality television. It’s just real.” is almost true. It’s no secret that Venice Beach is perhaps the most colorful and crazy city in all of California- the show practically writes itself. ‘The Strand’ documents the fictitious lives of everyone from yuppies, to wannabe actors, cocky agents, bar tenders, and bums.
This diversity, however, also leads to the production’s major flaw- an overwhelming amount of characters. Even though each episode is 15 minutes long, it never seems to be enough to squeeze in all 15+ characters found in the series. Missing a single episode can confuse the casual viewer easily.
‘The Strand’ Trailer
As you can see from the trailer above, the series has obvious parallels to a documentary film. You can catch all 7 webisodes of the show by at the link below.
