BLACK FLAG - FREE LATE-NIGHT TV 24/7

Picture the scene: your tiered, your restless, and you desperately want something to perk you up after a hard days work. So what are you going to do? Slap the salami? Finger the funnel? Or better yet, why don't you watch a bit of late night television? Yes. That sounds about right. Television. This form of entertainment is always something that can satisfy parts that other things can not reach. So come on, check out this interview about a free late-night on-line TV station between yours truly, and my good buddy, SV.


Late Night TV


1) In your own words Sv, how would you describe blackflag.tv?   Black Flag TV is a television station that's unlike any other television station. I'd dare say it's the first of its kind since I have yet to see something that comes close. I'm broadcasting live on the web, continuously, 24 hours a day, a unique programming in independent horror movies and vintage sci-fi and horror classics. It's totally free of charge, without the need for registration, and most importantly the broadcast is viral pattern.

Black Flag TV encourage people to post the stream wherever they want using a simple HTML code available on the web page. Most viewers we have won't even come to the station's website. Using this business pattern the TV station has to travel and spread like a virus to survive. Most web-based live TVs out there are built to attract visitors on their web site. Black Flag TV is built in the way people can watch the station without coming to my site at all.

2) How did this website come in existence? It’s ‘origin’ as it were.   Simply put, the station is the logical continuity to Black Flag Pictures' DVD distribution arm. I started a couple of years ago to manufacture and distribute DVDs, and eventually began considering a video-on-demand business model since, sadly, DVD is a dying breed. But pretty much everyone already offers video-on-demand, and I wanted to have something unique, something different. So this 'old' TV broadcast pattern was quite interesting, it brings back the good ol'days of late night television that I (and many others) grew up with. 

There were a number of technical issues I had to take care of, because broadcasting live, continuously, is not something that comes right out-of-the-box with service providers. Everything had to be build from the ground up and that was part of the challenge. I'm not using any service like Amazon, Akamai, JustinTV or Ustream. Black Flag TV has its own server, its own technology, and the broadcast originates from my own office. I've also set it up so the entire broadcast system can be controlled and managed from my mobile device.

3) What is your present role in this venture Sv? How do you fit into all things ‘flag’.   Honestly, I take care of pretty much everything, though I have a serious hand from a close friend of mine with preparing the programs for the station and doing public appearances. In the beginning, I'm a filmmaker, a storyteller. So I started to make horror films back in the late 90s, then got into editing, programming for the web, doing CGI and compositing for film and video... All these skills came handy when I began working on a TV station project, and I managed to make it come true with my humble knowledge in the matter. And of course a lot of trial-and-error.... So yeah, I do pretty much everything in there. All except being in front of the camera.

4) What piece of music, movie, or object, would you say ‘blackflag’ was like, and why?  Black Flag TV might be seen like the Hellraiser cube. It's mysterious and addictive. It opens door to unknown, brings pleasure and is always full of surprises. Haha!

5) Where did the name ‘Black Flag’ come from?   Black Flag Pictures' the name for my production studio, I added the .TV later when I launched the broadcast channel. When I was considering a name for the corporation, I wanted to have something that was clearly appealing to horror fans, but at the same time a bit corporate and 'mainstream' so to speak. Black Flag Pictures came to mind since it was associated with people who do not walk in beaten paths, bend the rules, or play in the shades. I thought it suits well the studio's way of thinking.

6) Could you name your top ten favourite midnight movies?   Ohh! That's a hard one! I love so many movies... Let's see: (1) The Giant Spider Invasion (2) Shock Waves (3) Damnation Alley (4) I Bury the Living (5) Phantasm (6) The Fog (7) Event Horizon (8) A Bucket of Blood (9) Death Ship (10) Phase IV.

7) If there was a smell you could assign to your site, what would that odour be and why?   Maybe leather. I dunno, it's classy and sexy at the same time, it's strong and smooth. Lots of people love leather, and everyone has its own reason for that. I guess it represents the station very well!

8) If this website was a person, who would that person be, and again, why?   Jack Nicholson, probably. Yeah, Jack Nick. He's portrayed many faces and never was disappointing. Killer, lawyer, businessman, junky, many personalities in many situations, yet always entertaining.

9) Taking in consideration your previous answer, if your website was a ‘singleton’ looking for a ‘date’, who would that date be and why?   It has to be Michelle Pfeiffer. She knows how to handle a beast, as in Wolf; she knows how to crack a whip. And she's gorgeous in leather. Michelle Pfeiffer is a total Black Flag TV babe.

So there you have it folks, www.blackflag.tv in a nutshell. When you have the time, give it a click, plus don't forget to follow them on facebook and twitter for any of their updates. Go ahead. You know that you want to.