Does Quarterlife point to the future of independent episodics?

cinemakinoeye

Well-known member
What do you think is the significance of Quarterlife in terms of the future of "television-style" entertainment on the web?

I've been watching the show and it's an interesting hybrid of traditional film/television production and the lean and mean aesthetics of simplified area lighting and hand-held videography that is so prevalent among indie producitons. And it's being delivered as streaming video on the web. The acting and writing are solid. The topics and issues timely. And building a social network is part of the package. And unlike most television productions today, the producers are maintaining creative and financial control.

Many people are keeping an eye on the show to see what comes of this experiment of taking television series to the web and building a social network. Is this form going to become more prevalent in the future? Will independent production companies take a bite out of the studio and network stranglehold on ad dollars and sponsorship revenue?

As fuel for this discussion, you might be interested in listening to an audio interview I did with Marshall Herskovitz (who created the show with Ed Zwick) in which he talks about the origins of Quarterlife, his thoughts on the writers strike, and the future of scripted entertainment on the web. Also relevant to this topic is "Are the corporate suits ruining TV?" an editorial by Herskovitz that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on November 7, 2007 in which he argues that Network control and media consolidation are wringing the creativity out of entertainment.
 
Thanks for the links. I don't know much about Quarterlife, but I'm very interested to see how it turns out (as I'm sure many people are).


-A
 
The subject matter and the characters it portrays seem to borrow something from everything that's hip right now... the production value is great for webisodic content, and appears to hold a higher level of non-gimmick that other webisodic shows seem to gush.

I like that the producers are seeing past the whole 1:30/2:00 bite-sized timeslot and going for something more long-form. Previous corporate-sponsored webisodic content creators have been too pressured by their old media sponsors to flesh-out a real story. The heightened cut-throat success called for in uncharted waters yields a sugar-coated pill of entertainment that is smooth and easy to swallow. Then the executive producers make sure you never forget exactly who is sponsoring the show by slapping bumper sticker adverts all over the video and website. I'm specifically thinking of PromQueen here.

I'll definately keep this show on my radar and see how well it picks up.
 
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