logo
The Witching Hour: A New Anthology from Alvin Soprano

The Witching Hour: A New Anthology from Alvin Soprano

Time Business News19 hours ago
Machinima filmmaker Alvin Soprano has announced her latest project, The Witching Hour , an ambitious monthly anthology series set to premiere this August. Told through her signature machinima style—cinematic storytelling created entirely within The Sims 4 game engines—the series will release one episode per month, each exploring a different character's final moments before death.
The concept centers on a chilling phenomenon: deaths that occur precisely at 3:33 a.m.—what folklore often calls 'the witching hour.' Each standalone episode will follow a main character facing death, culminating in their encounter with death itself, portrayed as a sentient presence capable of dialogue, reflection, and at times, confrontation.
' It's not about how they die, ' Soprano said in a statement. ' It's about what happens in the moments leading up to it—and what's said when there's nothing left to lose. '
While Alvin Soprano has been known for her stand alone machinima films—such as Fantasmus (2020) and Tales from StrangerVille (2020)— The Witching Hour marks her first foray into episodic storytelling. Each installment will be 10–15 minutes in length and released monthly on her official platforms.
Stylistically, the series blends psychological horror, surrealism, and grounded emotional drama. While each episode stands alone, the series explores common themes: regret, memories, unfinished business, and the universal anxiety around death.
According to Soprano's production notes, the show is not about gore or jump scares. It's about emotional tension and existential weight.
' The horror here isn't the fear of death, ' she explained. ' It's the awareness of time, and how little we really have. '
The Witching Hour originally existed as a standalone machinima film—a 46-minute narrative made in The Sims 4 and released in June 2020. The project was an early exploration of many of the themes she's now expanding into the anthology. Despite its critical praise among fans, the film was later deleted from her YouTube channel in 2021, during what became known among her followers as the 'purge', when Soprano removed nearly all of her online content and disappeared from public view.
But the story never left her.
' The potential kept playing in the back of my head, ' she explained. ' I always knew it had more to say—more lives to follow. It needed more time. '
With this reboot as a serialized anthology, she's revisiting the world of The Witching Hour not as a remake, but as a reimagining, expanding on the original's emotional weight and transforming it into a larger meditation on mortality.
Produced entirely in-game with custom visual design, The Witching Hour also serves as a showcase for what machinima can achieve in 2025. Soprano's commitment to handcrafted direction—writing, editing, voice acting, and production all handled personally with her team of collaborators such as Jakob Chambers and Matthew Gordon, will bring a unique intimacy to each episode. While machinima was once seen as a niche medium, artists like Alvin Soprano are elevating it into a serious, narrative-driven art form.
The anthology format allows her to explore multiple characters, settings, and tones, with each episode built from scratch. Unlike streaming releases that drop full seasons at once, Soprano's monthly rollout is designed to encourage slower, more thoughtful viewing—akin to classic broadcast television or radio plays.
From a business perspective, The Witching Hour reflects a growing trend in serialized, independent content with low production costs and high emotional return. Soprano's audience has grown steadily across platforms despite her minimal presence on social media, driven by organic fan engagement and critical recognition of her creative output.
Her strategic decision to release one episode per month also speaks to a new kind of digital pacing—one that resists binge culture in favor of sustained impact.
In an era of accelerated content cycles, Soprano's approach is intentionally slow, intimate, and emotionally layered.
' It's a conversation with death, ' she says. ' And death doesn't rush. '
The Witching Hour is expected to debut in August 2025, with the first episode available via Alvin Soprano's official YouTube channel: Soprano Productions. Additional details, including cast announcements and episode previews, will be released in the weeks ahead.
TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

How We Chose the 100 Best Podcasts of All Time
How We Chose the 100 Best Podcasts of All Time

Time​ Magazine

timean hour ago

  • Time​ Magazine

How We Chose the 100 Best Podcasts of All Time

You're folding laundry or going for a run or prepping your kids' lunchboxes, and you need something in your earbuds. Maybe you want to catch up on the latest news or hear the hottest take on last night's game. Maybe you're eager to hear a film critic tell you what's worth streaming this weekend or listen to a celebrity interview that'll make you laugh—or inspire a cathartic cry. Maybe you want to play detective in a true-crime mystery. If you've ever stared blankly at Spotify or YouTube wondering what to press play on, there is something for you in this list of the 100 best podcasts ever made. Reviewing the nearly decade's worth of 'best of' lists I've compiled since I started on the podcast beat laid bare just how much the medium has changed. Once upon a time, you didn't have to be an A-lister with a professional studio setup to find overnight fame. The likes of Roman Mars, Mike Duncan, Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes, Hrishikesh Hirway, and Phoebe Judge all became famous names in the podcast space without the boost of a Hollywood career. Between the mid-2000s and the mid-2010s, all you needed was a microphone and a dream of cutting an ad deal with MailChimp. That low barrier to entry eventually led to a podcasting boom in the late 2010s that accelerated when so many of us were stuck at home during COVID-19 lockdowns and desperate to consume as much content as possible to stave off boredom and loneliness. No longer are podcast hosts just disembodied voices in a void. YouTube, the world's largest video platform, now claims it's also the world's largest podcasting platform, with 1 billion monthly viewers of podcasting content worldwide. As Vulture recently noted, publications like the New York Times are pushing their writers and podcasters to put their faces on camera as the way we consume news and other content evolves on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. With the change in medium has come a shift in focus. Major podcast producers have largely abandoned in-depth investigative reporting and quirky comedic voices in favor of buzzy names. This includes former upstarts like Alexandra Cooper (SiriusXM paid $125 million in 2025 for her Unwell podcast network) and Bill Simmons (Spotify acquired The Ringer for a reported $250 million in 2020). But more often, they cut deals with previously established celebrities like the Smartless actors or retired athletes like LeBron James—not to mention former royals and first ladies. But not every famous person is good at podcasting. (There's a reason the late-night gig is so tough.) Much of collating this list, when it came to this particular breed of pod, involved sorting out who can conduct an insightful interview or piece together a compelling monologue from who is just a big name. That said, we talk a lot at TIME about influence—we do publish an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, after all. And that list increasingly includes podcasters. The legacy of shows ranging from Serial to 2 Dope Queens to WTF With Marc Maron that pioneered their respective genres and set the course for what would follow factored heavily in this process. Serial helped spur the true-crime wave—and the many ethical quandaries that came with it. 2 Dope Queens represented an era when relatively unknown comedians could land an HBO special. Remember when Maron got then-president Barack Obama on WTF, and it was a huge deal? Trump doesn't make the rounds of the manosphere and Kamala Harris doesn't appear on Call Her Daddy had Obama not graced Marc Maron's garage. So I included some shows that have ended their runs. I tried to pick podcasts that, if not entirely evergreen, have a hefty archive that can be revisited—series that cracked jokes that haven't gotten old or covered books and movies you can still read and watch before tuning into a specific episode that will help you appreciate them more fully. With this list, I endeavored to find the best of the best, a database you can sort through by genre. Much ink has been spilled over the years about the parasocial relationships we form with podcast hosts, and, yes, while it's wise not to get too attached to a stranger, I certainly think of my favorite hosts as imagined buddies I get to visit with each week. I hope you can find new friends too.

David Letterman weighs in on cancellation of Stephen Colbert's ‘The Late Show': ‘You can't spell CBS without BS'
David Letterman weighs in on cancellation of Stephen Colbert's ‘The Late Show': ‘You can't spell CBS without BS'

New York Post

time2 hours ago

  • New York Post

David Letterman weighs in on cancellation of Stephen Colbert's ‘The Late Show': ‘You can't spell CBS without BS'

David Letterman has subtly weighed in on CBS's decision to cancel his successor Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show.' The veteran comedian, 78, shared a video montage of him roasting the TV network during his decades-long career of hosting 'The Late Show' from 1993 to 2015. 'You can't spell CBS without BS,' Letterman captioned the YouTube clip. 4 David Letterman has subtly weighed in on CBS's decision to cancel his successor Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show.' AP The montage featured snippets from Letterman's episodes in 1994, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The timing of the video, which was shared Monday, has sent the rumor mill into overdrive, as it was shared just four days after CBS announced the cancellation of the series format after 10 years. Colbert addressed the network's decision during last Thursday's taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC. 'Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night: Next year will be our last season,' he told the crowd. 'The network will be ending The Late Show in May.' The news was met with loud boos from the audience. 'Yeah, I share your feelings,' he said. 'It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of The Late Show on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.' 4 Colbert addressed the network's decision during last Thursday's taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC. CBS 4 Letterman shared a video montage of him roasting the TV network during his decades-long career of hosting 'The Late Show' from 1993 to 2015. AP 'We get to do this show for each other, every day, all day, and I've had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we do every day with you in front of this camera for the last 10 years,' he went on. 'And it's a job that I'm looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months. It's going to be fun.' Since his announcement, a slew of comedy's biggest stars — including Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Adam Sandler and more — have spoken out in support of Colbert. The network has publicly cited financial reasons behind the decision to axe the show. 4 Colbert said that the network cited financial reasons behind the decision to axe the show. CBS Notably, the announcement came just days after Colbert had ripped a $16 million settlement that Paramount, the parent company of CBS, had reached with the Trump administration. Colbert, who is one of Trump's most persistent late-night critics, said the technical name in legal circles for the Paramount deal was 'big fat bribe.'

They built their careers in network TV. Then they started a production company for the influencer age
They built their careers in network TV. Then they started a production company for the influencer age

Los Angeles Times

time2 hours ago

  • Los Angeles Times

They built their careers in network TV. Then they started a production company for the influencer age

Jeff Kmiotek, Michael Zinman and Andrew Watnick have been in unscripted TV production for decades. Kmiotek became a producer after working in a variety of unscripted formats including game and cooking shows and garnered an Emmy nomination for his work on 'The Masked Singer.' Zinman has a background in visual design and creative producing and also received an Emmy nomination in 2014. Watnick got his start in casting before moving to development and eventually producing on shows like 'The Masked Singer' and 'The Amazing Race.' But a September 2024 encounter in Las Vegas led the three to take on a different kind of gamble than the city is known for: to break away from their careers in traditional TV and use their cumulative media production knowledge to create their own production company for online content. The three observed a changing tide in unscripted TV production over the last few years. 'Budgets are getting slashed, costs are getting slashed, and schedules are getting slashed,' Kmiotek said. Meanwhile, online platforms like YouTube have experienced an accelerated rise in popularity. 'I'd watch YouTube and there's such amazing content,' Kmiotek added. 'They don't have to go through the process that we had to go through on network TV with all the different cooks in the kitchen and executives and notes.' YouTube is experiencing a massive growth in revenue for creators who post videos on the platform. A recent ad revenue forecast by WPP Media found that online creator-driven revenue is up 20% from 2024 and is expected to double next year, while TV revenue is expected to increase by only 1%. YouTube also reached a 44.8% viewership share in May 2025, according to Nielsen, passing the figures for cable and broadcast TV for the first time. YouTube offers a lucrative benefit not available to those who work in network TV: the ability to own the rights to their own shows and exercise complete creative control. 'Working a hundred hours a week for a television show … you could be up at 3 in the morning and you're doing this for someone else. But when you're doing it for yourself, there's no bitterness,' Kmiotek said. Zinman owned an existing production studio in Downtown L.A., which was designed to do motion capture and virtual production for TV. That established space — dubbed Lulu Studios — became the home of Elixir, the trio's production company. They funded the venture with their own money, and Kmiotek quit his job as a TV producer to run the company full-time. Three weeks after that initial meeting in Vegas, the team was shooting its first shows. Elixir enters a booming space in the YouTube marketplace: online dating shows. Companies like Jubilee, nectar and Cut have built followings in the tens of millions across social media platforms with their unscripted content. Episodes easily reach view counts in the millions, sometimes surpassing the Nielsen ratings for recent seasons of 'The Bachelor.' And in January, the popular YouTube show 'Pop the Balloon' was even parodied on 'Saturday Night Live.' While scripted shows often require large budgets made possible by major entertainment companies, unscripted content can be filmed with pared-down resources and easily posted online. The Elixir team saw a gap in this growing market that their expertise in TV production could fill. 'Most of those shows are [filmed against] white stark backgrounds… But as a way to differentiate we said OK, what if we do those fun simple concepts… But we're giving it a better aesthetic,' Kmiotek said. That aesthetic shift is toward creating eye-catching visuals for their shows, whether that be romantic digital backdrops for their show 'Red Flag, Green Flag' or building a giant table for contestants to stick their heads through for 'Date on a Plate.' The company's goal: leaning into the weird and silly to create attention-grabbing content with a unique visual style to set them apart from competitors. At the heart of Elixir's goal is making shows that have a unique look. Their marquee series is 'Date on a Plate,' an idea that Watnick says comes from his pitch for a TV show that never made it to air. The visual of a dinner cart being wheeled out with three heads under cloches was transformed into an online dating show where contestants can only see each other's heads and compete in challenges. Unlike most YouTube shows, 'Date on a Plate' has embraced traditional media alongside online promotion. The trailer for the show premiered on 'Access Hollywood' and the team went on the show and had host Mario Lopez try out the concept. 'Date on a Plate' — and many of Elixir's shows — are also differentiated from most YouTube offerings by having professional hosts. For 'Date on a Plate' they have Nicky Paris, a longtime stand-up comedian and TV host. 'I prefer produced things,' Paris said. 'Anyone could hold a phone and [film], but in some ways I still enjoy the fantasy of when things are packaged and polished.' Elixir has a core team of roughly six people with additional crew members who come in for shoot days when the team films anywhere from two to seven episodes of a show. The company then slowly releases the episodes it films over the course of several months. 'Everybody wants to pivot to digital, but no one knows how to, and we're in [a] sense learning as well,' Zinman said. So the team is relying on feedback from Gen Z colleagues and learning the nuances of growing an audience on YouTube, like the key to a great video title or thumbnail that can make or break a video's success. 'We're at the mercy of YouTube getting us in the algorithm and you never know what can happen on these sites,' Kmiotek said. 'Our shows are developed in a way they can have life outside of social media platforms.' Another major motivating factor for the creation of Elixir was the current slowdown of film and TV productions in Los Angeles. The topic has been the subject of heavy coverage in the wake of the recent fires that exacerbated the need for the city's production workers to find stable jobs. 'In Los Angeles right now, the past three [or] four years, the landscape has certainly changed in television if you're anybody from a carpenter that's on a stage versus a showrunner. Work is leaving,' Zinman said. A major source of the decline is in unscripted productions, which are moving to other states and countries with more lucrative tax incentives since California's film and TV tax credit does not currently apply to unscripted TV. To help combat the decline, Television City has started an initiative to partner with online content creators to use the city's soundstages, which are currently experiencing record vacancy rates. Elixir is also seeking to put more production personnel to work in Los Angeles. The company's team and studio space can be contracted by other online content creators. 'If someone with a platform or with the following wants to do a show and they don't have a studio, come do it [here,]' Kmiotek said. 'Show up and we'll make your show and then we can work together to get it out there… [I can] make a bespoke show about you that looks really high-end with a professional crew.' The trio's backgrounds in traditional TV production give them a level of legitimacy to start forging relationships with influencers and expanding the company's mission. But they are able to take the lessons forged in network TV and apply it to a more focused group of projects. 'There being a company like Elixir, [creators' ideas] could really become the sole focus and become a priority to get it off the ground at the beginning, which is kind of exciting [to be] building something from the ground up,' Paris said. 'We're not necessarily making YouTube videos, we're making shows for YouTube,' is how Kmiotek described the team's approach to the company. Zinman said that they produce their YouTube videos with the same level of skill and scope that they used to produce network TV. But without network TV production budgets, the team is more resourceful with how they spend their money for the self-funded venture. They're choosing to invest in the physical space, quality props and craftspeople so Elixir's shows have a professional-looking quality. 'Part of our TV background helps because we were able to literally get the prop team from 'The Masked Singer' to build the table [for 'Date on a Plate'] for us,' Kmiotek said. The Elixir team is a part of a major shift in entertainment away from traditional mega corporations and toward a media landscape fueled by individuals and small teams creating their own content. And from conversations with former network TV colleagues, they are not alone in noticing the trends. 'High-ranking executives are calling us to say 'Hey, my contract is up this year, can I come do what you're doing?'' Kmiotek said. 'There were network executives leaving the network eight years ago to go to YouTube and you'd be like 'Huh?' Now you're like, these are the smartest people in the world,' Zinman added. Elixir has the same goal as any successful media company: to be able to innovate. The team is developing a live version of 'Date on a Plate' that they can tour, at a time when tours led by online content creators and podcasters have sold out major performance venues. They also are expanding beyond just dating shows and hope to create more content centered around comedy and game shows. Elixir is entering a market that has already proved its value. The start-up took the temperature of the media landscape and saw that online content creation is where audiences and advertisers are moving toward. The pressure is now on traditional TV and media companies to either adapt or face even sharper revenue and viewership losses. 'There's still a lot of network executives that probably think YouTube's a fad … the numbers are coming out and the data is showing that it's not true, so they're gonna have to catch up,' Kmiotek said. 'It's not going away.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store