“Indie TV”: Is the Television Format a Logical Next Step for Web Series Creators?
There are valid arguments that a web series should not be just a short TV show. I personally think it depends on the story you’re telling, but utilizing the web’s inherent interactivity in serialized web video is a proven component of building an engaged audience with online content.
Whether you argue that a web series should or shouldn’t be like TV, I don’t have a single argument why web series creators can’t use their skills to make an actual TV show. As with music videos in the 80’s and 90’s, web series provide an excellent training ground to hone skills used in longer form traditional film and television. With long form content being developed in house by Hulu, Netflix, and others, I felt the timing was right to test those waters. The result is the assemblage of a team of some serious web series heavy hitters to create DRIFTER.
The latest addition to OMFGeek’s content slate, Drifter is a half-hour, television format sci-fi pilot shooting in July.
When I founded OMFGeek in October of 2010, I didn’t intend to be a television production company. Our focus is and has been on web original content. There is, however, a portion of the industry moving towards long form content and when I thought about it, it’s a logical step for the industry.
It’s far too early to say where Drifter will ultimately live. The pilot will make the rounds, and we will pitch it to traditional and broadband networks alike. However, the TV format itself has advantages and I’ve always believed the episode length restrictions on web series were completely arbitrary. Short form is a web tradition mostly because of technological limitations to web video that no longer apply (and haven’t since the mass adoption of streaming video and broadband connections). The second limitation is audience expectation, which have been evolving (no one expects a Simpsons episode to be 2 minutes long just because it’s on Hulu instead of Fox). The third limitation is budgetary, and that’s where I think this project is on the bleeding edge of the curve in the industry financing experimentation Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon (for a start) are developing.
Premium quality, TV format projects are easier to monetize online than their shorter brethren, create a better sense of audience familiarity, and for the creator, having the extra time to let the story develop can be crucial.
Plus, let’s face it: while there are web series with 6 or 7 episode seasons to be proud of, traditional TV can look at those and say “Great! We do your entire season every week, 24 times a year”. The web series is an unformed, variable, and undefined user experience that more often than not leaves our engaged audiences feeling like they had a snack, not a meal.
Not every web series can or should exist in a television format, but that doesn’t mean none of them can, or that it’s not a natural format for web-born creators to work in. We’ve all grown up on 30- and 60-minute programming, and those stories have an ebb and flow and language tied to those run times that feels very natural after years of exposure to them. Whether Drifter ultimately ends up on TV or online, it will become (along with Hayden Black’s Goodnight Burbank and Josh Bernhard and Bracey Smith’s Pioneer One) among the first shows by web creators to consider the standardized TV format and ask, “why not?”
Click here for more information on Drifter and the multi-award winning creative team behind it.
Where Is The Drama?
The web is choc full of comedic web series and shorts. Some are funny, most are not, but as I discussed previously, it is easier to be funny on the web. Creating characters and drama is difficult when you have little time. That said a web series has potential for great characters, yet I have not been able to find many people up to the task. So I’d like to ask you guys, what are you working on? Have you found decent online dramas? Where and what are they?
There are some good dramas on the web, but they’re most definitely both rarer and harder to do. Some of the ones I’ve enjoyed are:
Mark Gardner’s Cell: the Series
Bernie Su’s Compulsions
Tony Valenzuela’s Black Box TV
Tina Ward and Susan Miller’s Anyone But Me
Daryn Strauss’ Downsized
Chris Preksta’s The Mercury Men
Machinima’s RCVR
Christopher Kubasik’s The Booth at the End
also The Confession with Keifer Sutherland and John Hurt, which was on Hulu but has apparently been pulled down in anticipation of its release on Blu-Ray.
That said, dramatic webseries are few and far between and, if well done, offer a great opportunity for filmmakers to distinguish themselves online.
Cord-Cutters know 'shows' not 'networks'
Last week a Credit Suisse analyst reported that paid TV services like Cable and Satellite will lose 200,000 subscribers next year citing that there is a generation of viewers called ‘Cord-Nevers’ that will never subscribe for those services.
In a follow up article titled, “TV’s Scariest Generation: The Cable-Nevers’, Bernard Gershon digs deeper into this new generation:
Cord-nevers - This is the most troubling group for the traditional operators. They are graduating college, leaving the nest and have become comfortable finding their viewing choices online. They don’t recognize networks - they know “shows.”
Before ‘on-demand’ viewing became prominent, the only way to ensure a viewer would have access to their favorite content was to bucket them into networks. This was the great allure of cable. A channel dedicated to music, comedy, sports, cooking, etc. Cable networks found that there was a growing number of viewers interested in niche content and that those viewers would watch their network as long as they knew that they could find content that would appeal to them on that specific channel at any given time. They were the Independents. They were underdogs.
Now that viewers can watch pretty much anything they want on demand, the position on the dial is less important. I can’t remember if ‘Mad Men’ is on AMC or Bravo. Or if ‘It’s Always Sunny..’ is on Fox or FX or TBS… no idea.
The new generation of viewers know shows, not networks.
This will continue to be true for network TV programs as well as independently produced web series. It won’t matter if a show was created for FX, TBS, HBO, or if it was distributed online only. Great shows will reach their audience no matter how remote and quirky they are. As long independent web series continue to be creative and unique in their approach to creating content, these cord-nevers will find the content they want.
I agree completely. Unfortunately, we don’t operate in a limited, closed system like cable TV. With web shows, what I’m seeing is a similar pattern but exacerbated by our inefficiency as an industry to brand ourselves outside of networked silos like Blip, YouTube, MyDamnChannel, Koldcast, Revision 3, etc..
By that I mean, audiences identify primarily with shows - I agree. However, video portal discovery is in its infancy and platform cross-promotion is basically non-existent. A viewer may discover a show on a particular network and thus find other shows they like on that network, but cross-site audience sharing by content genre and audience vertical is an uncracked nut. For the most part, this is in the network’s interests (better to keep the viewer on that site watching a “related” show they may or may not like rather than send them somewhere else to watch a highly relevant recommendation on another site). But it has a damaging effect as well:
If a viewer knows about Revision 3, they probably know of most of the shows there but may have never heard of other portals like Blip or The Escapist. Blip’s new layout definitely improves discovery within other Blip shows (as does YouTube’s) but due to the massive scale of those sites I doubt there’s anyone (maybe Eric and Steve, but not on the customer side) who is familiar with ALL the shows, or even all the related ones. If I like You Suck at Photoshop (MyDamnChannel), how do I find other shows like it I would enjoy as well if they’re not on MDC?
If you look at the cross promotion The Guild (MSN/YouTube) did with The Legend of Neil (Atom) you have a rare instance of cross-network familiarity (due to shared cast members), which may have led to Guild/LoN audiences discovering Video Game Reunion (also Atom), but those fans don’t necessarily know about gaming related shows on other networks like Project:LORE (Revision 3), Gold: the Series (Blip), Zero Punctuation (The Escapist), etc. ad infinitum.
So, yes, viewers identify with shows over networks. But the web is a URL destination based delivery system with very few ways to discover content from one site to another (Google is useless for this). Until someone solves that discovery problem, a casual viewer who finds a show they like will have a difficult time finding the best related content in that vertical or genre. Similarly, advertisers cannot currently buy audience at scale based on cross-site aggregation of interest segments (i.e. I want to run McCormick Seasoning ads across all the best cooking and food-related shows on the web).
It’s not up to the distribution networks to solve this problem even if they could: on the viewer side, you need a cross platform curator (Tosh 2.0 or Ain’t It Cool News for web series), a TV Guide (Clicker started this but lost steam), or an industry representative with cross channel interests (the IAWTV, perhaps) to be vested in optimizing audience aggregation around shows on the web. Running cross platform advertising on web shows is a much more technical issue and I’ll leave that opportunity to some other entrepreneur. ;)
No one asks “where can I find the best networks online?”, but they DO ask “where can I find the best shows online?” and, for the moment at least, there is no easy answer: the best we’re offering them is networks, not shows.
What is Transmedia? Ask “Star Wars”
Reposting my answer to a Quora topic here.
What is Transmedia?
“Transmedia” is a new word for an old concept: multi-platform storytelling. A great way to look at transmedia is to look at the greatest transmedia success story of all time: Star Wars.
A 2007 Forbes article(1) pegged the total earnings of the franchise at over $22B. A vast majority of this money comes from ancillary products: games, books, toys, role playing products, etc. Last year alone, toy and merchandise sales brought in $510M(2).“He doesn’t like you. I don’t like you either!”
Ok, so Star Wars is big. We know this. But how is it transmedia? From the very beginning, Lucas’ galaxy far, far away was fleshed out through its complimentary products. Early in the movie, a creature in the bar gets his arm cut off by Ben Kenobi’s lightsaber after he accosts Luke. The creature’s first appearance, though, was in the 1976 Alan Dean Foster novelization that predated the movie by a year, and he was still unnamed. He didn’t get a name until 1978, when he action figure identified him as Walrus Man. He stayed as “Walrus Man” until 1989, when West End Games’ role-playing source book Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope gave his name as Ponda Baba, of the Aqualish species and travelling companion to to disgraced and disfigured surgeon Dr. Evazon(3). Since his first screen appearance in 1977, Ponda Baba has been featured in books, video games, comic books, roleplaying games, card games, and a host of other media that takes a character on screen for about 10 seconds and gives him a name and a history.
As audiences flock to digital media, producers of content are exploring multi-platform storytelling techniques to expand the reach of their IPs and fan base. High level interactive engagement through internet media, social media, and video games are high value, high return add-ons for properties when handled well. Transmedia storytelling is big business and has bred a new business model and specialized role in entertainment (in April 2010, the Producer’s Guild of America officially sanctioned and recognized the “Transmedia Producer” credit(4)).
An early leader n this new paradigm is Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment(5), Jeff travels extensively, giving his time and expertise to panels and seminars across the country, and his company has handled the transmedia campaigns for, among other things, James Cameron’s Avatar.
To read Starlight Runner’s take on “What is Transmedia”, go here: http://www.starlightrunner.com/t…
Personally, I work in original online video programming. I’ve seen a significant push even among small independent creators to focus on a multi-platform approach for their stories, revolving around supplementary (and ultimately optional) content orbiting a primary web series release. The range and depth of the supplementary content varies, but even on a small scale it can bring new audience to a project and enhance engagement.
You don’t need to know Ponda Baba’s story - or even his name - to enjoy Star Wars. However, a significant portion of the audience did want to know stuff like that, and have proven it with their wallets, to the tune of over 4x the core six movies’ $4.6B box office take.
1. http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/24…
2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/doro…
3. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/P…
4. http://www.producersguild.org/ne…
5. http://www.starlightrunner.com/
Take a minute to watch this video from Anonymous announcing their plans to take down Facebook on Nov 5th and soliciting recruits.
Now pause and think about what it means to be a citizen of a country or participant in a community. Where do your assets (digital or physical), allegiances and relationships lie?
While riots rage and governments grapple, there are new nation states that have formed online with no borders. Some, like Facebook, have detailed rules and vigilant oversight. Others, like Anonymous, have a more fluid code of ethics and even looser controls over thier communities.
Whether they’re able to take down Facebook on the 5th is not really the point. The real point is that the web and world are mashing up in weird ways that are going to force us to rethink how and where we live- online and off.
This is a great point that, as soon as I hit play on the video, I completely lost in the sad realization that a hacker group has more sophisticated production values than a large portion of the web series out there.
Happy to announce that I have been appointed Chair of the International Academy of Web Television’s Communications Committee, with Slebisodes founder Patrick Bardwell as Vice-Chair.
Very much looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Prelude to the future: Nathan Fillion wants to buy Firefly and make a web series
Some really interesting developments for the web, spawned by a Nathan Fillion interview comment on February 17th about how “If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.”.
The resulting fallout has led to speculation on the economic models of direct to consumer content, utilizing existing fan bases. This, I should disclose, is a topic we’re VERY interested in at OMFGeek.
As Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes’ Elfquest fan trailer has shown, the internet is prime territory for cost effectively bringing fan favorite characters and stories to the web. Much like Farscape and Whedon’s Buffy universe has been cost effectively continued in comic book form, web series are a unique opportunity to bring life to cancelled TV shows, to comic books and novels, cult films, and any other property with enough of a fan base to support an online audience.
Since Fillion’s comment (which he was forced to follow with a Twitter based plea for people to NOT send him money to buy the show), several interesting things have happened.
1) A Facebook page was established that has already crossed 80,000 members, at http://www.facebook.com/HelpNathanBuyFF - while the organizers of that page have set up a web site at http://helpnathanbuyfirefly.com/
In it, they describe their goal to establish a no-cash pledge system (i.e. “I send no money now, but if this happened, I pledge to pay $XXX”) the mission of which is frankly described here:
“Here’s the thing – we expect Nathan was joking. We’re sure interviews will cover that he was.
When we put a dollar value on all your support for the idea, what may have been a joke could take on a more serious tone. Either Joss might be willing to revisit fan-funded projects or we’ll get the attention of a network who is willing to take a serious evaluation of the series.” (Emphasis mine)
2) Genre author Patrick Rothfuss has pledged the earnings from his next book to assist Fillion in the crusade, in An Open Letter to Nathan Fillion: http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-nathan-fillion/
3) More relevantly, USC professor Henry Jenkins takes a closer examination of the economics involved in maintaining a show online, illustrating how a very reasonably sized fan base could pre-buy a season of Firefly for a manageable price - about $40 a person, or less than a DVD box set. That article is here: http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/06/more_on_firefly_and_the_long_t.html
Mind you, despite both Joss and Nathan finding some success on the web with Dr. Horrible’s, the chances of Nathan Fillion buying Firefly from FOX to create new episodes are minuscule. However, this event is an opening salvo in what I suspect will be a redefinition of online content and a re-evaluation of how the internet relates to and reinforces traditional film and television properties. It further points the way for the web to become a home for series based on books and comic books that don’t quite make financial sense as a film, miniseries, or traditional TV series.
A small, hard to sell (to TV) property like Vertigo’s Preacher has been mired in development hell for years, and yet if 10,000 Preacher fans were motivated to pay $10-$20 to see a Preacher web series made, you’d start to have the budget to pull it off. While an independent show like Venice has just enough attention to barely survive behind a subscriber pay wall, how much more likely would success be if instead the show was an officially licensed, brand new series for, say, Aliens or Highlander?
And if this happens, how does that change audience’s future relationship with the content we make on the web?
(Source: insidetv.ew.com)
Jack Ferry Makes a Case For IAWTV Open Enrollment
Jack Ferry ($99 Music Videos) is a member of the International Academy of Web Television’s Membership Committee and a proponent for open enrollment in the organization - that is to say that anyone who wants to be a member of the IAWTV, can be.
I highly recommend you read, and comment on, his post stating his case.
With the IAWTV in a period of defining itself, your feedback is important to help ensure that the organization makes the best choices on an important decision.
- [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
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Anyone interested in online entertainment or webseries must listen to this ridiculously excellent and important episode of New Mediacracy. Like, right now.
Online Resources for Webseries Beginners
These are starting points; this list is not intended to be all-inclusive. Plus, I’m sure there’s stuff I forgot. Please reblog and add to this list!
Webseries news/reviews blogs:
Tubefilter http://tubefilter.tv
NewTeeVee http://newteevee.com
Web Series Today http://webseriestoday.com
Webseries Theories http://webseriestheories.com/
The Rocket’s Tail http://rocketstail.com/
LG15 Today http://lg15today.blogspot.com/
Web to Watch http://webtowatch.tumblr.com/
Webseries news/reviews shows:
New Mediacracy http://newmediacracy.com (listen to all of them, this is amazing)
Indie Intertube http://indieintertube.tv (audio podcast, also has a message forum)
OK Good Stuff! http://www.maybehip.com/html/okgoodstuff.html
The Web Files http://thewebfiles.blip.tv/
Daisy Whitney’s New Media Minute http://daisywhitney.com/newmediaminute/
Web TV Workshop http://www.webtvworkshop.com/
Slebisodes Web Series Guide http://www.slebisodes.com/
Webseries People to Follow on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Jeff_Koenig/ultimate-web-tv-list
Production resources:
DVX User (filmmaking community) http://dvxuser.com
DVInfo (filmmaking community) http://dvinfo.net
Webseries distribution sites:
sites you can (AND SHOULD) upload to:
YouTube http://youtube.com
Blip TV http://blip.tv
sites that you have to pitch your show and get accepted:
Dailymotion http://dailymotion.com
Crackle http://crackle.com
IFC http://www.ifc.com/web-series/
Babelgum http://babelgum.com
My Damn Channel http://mydamnchannel.com
Koldcast http://koldcast.tv
Revision 3 http://revision3.com
NextNewNetworks http://nextnewnetworks.com
MingleMedia TV http://www.minglemediatv.com/
Hulu http://www.hulu.com/channels/Web/Web-Originals
Live Video Distributors:
The Stream http://thestream.tv
Justin http://justin.tv
UStream http://ustream.com
LiveStream http://livestream.com
Stickam http://stickam.com
This Week In http://thisweekin.com
Series Aggregation Sites:
(These sites are listings of series around a common theme)
SciFinal http://scifinal.com (Sci-Fi shows)
Digital Chick TV http://digitalchicktv.com (women creators)
OMFGeek! http://twitter.com/omfgeek (coming soon. Geek targeted shows)
WebSeries Listings on Video Sites:
(Submit your shows’ RSS feed to be included)
Clicker http://www.clicker.com/web/
-submissions: http://www.clicker.com/about/content_submit.html
VideoSurf http://videosurf.com
-submissions: http://www.videosurf.com/submitsite
Crowdfunding Sites:
Indie GoGo http://indiegogo.com
Kickstarter http://kickstarter.com
Webseries Organizations:
The International Academy of Web Television http://iawtv.org
WGA East New Media http://www.wgaeast.org/index.php?id=63
SAG New Media http://www.sag.org/newmedia
Major Awards:
The Streamys http://streamys.org
The Webbys http://www.webbyawards.com/
Festivals and Conferences:
LATVFest/NAPTE NextTV Competition http://latvfest.net/latvfestival/
ITVFest http://itvfest.org/
NY Television Festival http://www.nytvf.com/
LA WebFest http://www.lawebfest.com/
SXSW Interactive http://sxsw.com/interactive
Internet Week http://www.internetweekny.com/
Miscellaneous Resources:
The WebTV Database http://thewebtvdb.com (coming soon, sign up to beta test)
What is a Webseries? http://facebook.com/whatisawebseries (in development)
Web Series Network http://webseriesnetwork.com (social network)
Selected Articles:
Stuff on the web I thought was important enough to bookmark
http://www.delicious.com/broadcastassassin
