If you can't wait for the second season premiere of the FX series, The Strain, to air this summer, then you are in luck. FX, Instructure, and the University of California, Irvine teamed up to create an online course that is available and free to the public. Also in this round-up: a status update on The Walking Dead: Season 3 video game, a trailer from Distiller, and an interview with Ciara Hanna from Pernicious.
Fight or Die: The Science Behind FX's The Strain: Press Release -- "FX, Instructure and the University of California, Irvine today announced the joint production of a massive open online course (MOOC) exploring a broad range of scholarly topics through the lens of the biological parasite and cyber virus themes presented in the FX original series, "The Strain" from Guillermo del Toro and Carlton Cuse. The course will be offered for free leading into this summer's Season 2 premiere of "The Strain.
"Beyond putting a unique twist on the vampire legend, 'The Strain' creates an opportunity for serious academic discussions about some of today's most important public topics," said Kenya Hardaway, vice president of integrated promotions at FX Networks. "As society becomes more globally and technologically interconnected, the impact of biological parasites and computer hacks will only become more pronounced. This course will leverage the popularity of 'The Strain' to help fans and the general public alike better understand these complex issues."
The four-week course, titled "Fight or Die: The Science Behind FX's 'The Strain,'" will be offered on Instructure's MOOC platform, Canvas Network, and will be taught by a multidisciplinary team of UC Irvine faculty: Pavan Kadandale, molecular biology and biochemistry; Hadar Ziv, information and computer science; and Sarah Eichhorn, physical sciences. These faculty will lead course modules designed to provide a practical and theoretical understanding of parasites, cyber attacks and disease dynamics all of which have become mainstream topics due to recent news events ranging from the measles outbreak in Disneyland to large-scale cyber attacks impacting customers of major brands like Sony.
Enrollment in the course is currently available for free to anyone in the world via www.canvas.net/strainmooc. The first course module will begin three weeks before the Season 2 premiere, with subsequent courses opening each Monday for the next four weeks.
We believe MOOCs have the power to help the education industry gain insight into how people learn, said Melissa Loble, vice president of Partners and Programs at Instructure. This course with FX and UC Irvine is exciting as it gives a broad audience, including fans of the series, a great opportunity to engage in the key themes and narratives of the show within an enriching academic setting. Participants will even be asked to develop projects that include the creation of original content, so they can apply the concepts they investigate in the course and share this application socially.
UC Irvine has a history of involvement in enabling open education and developing innovative pedagogy. UCI's OpenCourseWare site (www.ocw.uci.edu) provides free educational content in over 100 subject areas to over 2 million users per year, with over 15 million minutes of classroom lectures viewed on its YouTube channel. This new partnership with FX and Canvas Network follows similar initiatives from UC Irvine and Instructure to expand the MOOC experiment by combining pop culture and serious academic concepts in an effort to increase student engagement.
This course will provide both teachers and students a unique opportunity to examine academic principles in a non-traditional setting, said Eichhorn. It's not every day we get to structure a course against the backdrop of a rapidly spreading disease epidemic and devastating cyber attack. Using clips from The Strain, our course will let students take a closer look at the science behind the popular TV series, all while discussing real-world examples of parasites changing host behavior, hackers taking down communication networks and diseases rampaging through populations."
The course will leverage key themes, anecdotes and multimedia from "The Strain," which ranked as the most-watched new cable drama of 2014.
Since its launch in 2013, Canvas Network has offered more than 400 open, online courses designed and delivered by more than 175 educational institutions and organizations throughout the world. Canvas Network is developed and supported by Instructure, providing a place and platform where teachers, students and institutions worldwide can connect and chart their own course for personal growth, professional development and academic inquiry.
To keep learning and to enroll for free in the course, visit Canvas.net/strainmooc.
About FX:
FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable channel of FX Networks, a business unit of 21ST Century Fox. FX Networks is comprised of FX, FXM and FXX. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in 95 million homes. The diverse schedule features a growing roster of critically-acclaimed and award-winning hit dramas series, including The Americans, Tyrant, The Strain and the upcoming Taboo; the critically-acclaimed miniseries American Horror Story, Fargo and the upcoming miniseries American Crime Story; acclaimed hit comedy series including the award-winning Louie, Archer, Married, The Comedians and the upcoming Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll and Baskets. FX is the former home of the critically-acclaimed and award winning hit drama series The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Damages, Sons of Anarchy and Justified. The network¹s library of acquired box-office hit movies is unmatched by any ad-supported television network. FX¹s roster of acquired hit series includes Two and a Half Men, In Living Color and Mike & Molly.
About Instructure:
Instructure, Inc. is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes smart software that makes people smarter. Its cloud-based Canvas learning management system (LMS) now connects more than 18 million teachers and learners at over 1,200 higher ed and K-12 institutions throughout the world. Because learning doesn¹t end after graduation, Instructure also offers Bridge, the modern learning and engagement platform that enables organizations of every kind to engage with employees by measuring and improving employee sentiment, alignment and knowledge in real time. Learn more about Canvas at www.instructure.com
About the University of California, Irvine:
Located in coastal Orange County, near a thriving employment hub in one of the nation¹s safest cities, UC Irvine was founded in 1965. One of only 62 members of the Association of American Universities, it¹s ranked first among U.S. universities under 50 years old by the London-based Times Higher Education. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UC Irvine has more than 28,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It¹s Orange County¹s second-largest employer, contributing $4.3 billion annually to the local economy."
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The Walking Dead: Season 3: Last July, during a panel for Skybound Entertainment at Comic-Con, Telltale Games President Kevin Bruner announced that The Walking Dead: Season 3 game would be released, but official details were unknown, until now.
Yesterday, Rely on Horror reported that the Director of PR for Telltale Games, Job J. Stauffer, revealed the status of the game via Twitter:
To re-clarify, no, TWD S3 is *not* starting in 2015. But what I am seeing this week will be, and it is insanely cool. Stay close, news soon!
— Job J Stauffer (@jobjstauffer) May 12, 2015
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Distiller: "In the film, a world traveling ghost hunter mysteriously disappears leaving everything to his niece; who accidentally releases a horde of angry spirits, imprisoned in liquor bottles, during her Fourth of July party."
Distiller is currently working to release digital/VOD later this year and is also lining up festival dates.
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Pernicious: "Benetone Films releases Pernicious, the new film from James Cullen Bressack, June 19 in theaters and On Demand.
Pernicious, starring Emmy-nominated Emily O’Brien (Young and the Restless), Ciara Hanna (Power Rangers) and Jackie Moore (100 Ghost Street), is “a carnival for the eyes” (Dread Central) and “sexy, bloody, and heinous” (Horror News). The movie tells of three young girls, holidaying in Thailand, who unleash the spirit of a murdered child with only one thing on her mind - revenge.
Film is written by Bressack and Taryn Hillin.
Producers are Rachvin Narula, Kulthep Narula, and Daemon Hillin, with Rajpal Narula, Deepak Simhal, Ajay Vasu, Farid Khan, and Albert Sandoval as executive producers."
Q&A with Ciara Hanna from Pernicious:
In Pernicious, three young girls get more than they bargained for when they trek to Thailand on what’s supposed to be the time of their lives. Actress Ciara Hanna answers a few questions for us about her role in James Cullen Bressack’s upcoming horror flick.
Congratulations on “Pernicious”. It’s getting a cinema release? That’s almost rare for an indie horror film these days - you must be stoked!?
Ciara: I am so stoked! For the release. Most films don't get that far but that just shows how great this film really is!
How did you get involved in the film?
Ciara: I got involved in the film by being contacted by the director. I read the script and loved it!
Was it shot a while ago?
Ciara: We shot the film about a year and a half ago.
And was Thailand a wonderful experience?
Ciara: Thailand was my first non-English speaking country. So that itself was an experience. There culture is so different than Americas. I wish I had more time to explore and "get to know" Thailand though.
How was it working with director James Cullen Bressack?
Ciara: James is an amazing director. He is "an actors director" . By that I mean he really connects with his actors. Knows how to talk to them and get them in the right mind frame for scenes.
Were you at all uncomfortable or nervous during any part of the filming?
Ciara: The only parts that were "uncomfortable" were probably the torture scenes between us. Having to trust each other with knifes and special effects. It takes trust having a knife against your neck and pulling your tongue out haha.
How did you wind down at the end of the day after playing such a highly-emotional part?
Ciara: Reserving energy is the most important when filming. After a long day a shower and a nice Disney movie in bed to get your mind in a right place is always my way to go. Especially while filming a dark movie like Pernicious.
Did you know your co-stars before the shoot or did that chemistry just come naturally?
Ciara: We pretty much all met in Thailand. Fortunately our chemistry clicked right away. Some casts on movies aren't that lucky, but we had a great time together and knew how to make each other laugh.
Pernicious is out in cinemas and On Demand June 19th.
Tamika hails from North Beach, Maryland, a tiny town inches from the Chesapeake Bay.She knew she wanted to be an actor after reciting a soliloquy by Sojourner Truth in front of her entire fifth grade class. Since then, she's appeared in over 20 film and television projects. In addition to acting, Tamika is the Indie Spotlight manager for Daily Dead, where she brings readers news on independent horror projects every weekend.
The first horror film Tamika watched was Child's Play. Being eight years old at the time, she remembers being so scared when Chucky came to life that she projectile vomited. It's tough for her to choose only one movie as her favorite horror film, so she picked two: Nosferatu and The Stepford Wives (1975).
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