The medium of a Web Series

Currently writing a feature version of a short film I did two years ago that an agent in LA found on the net. Nothing will probably come of it, but you never know. They sure won't find it if it's not out there.
 
gonzo_entertainment said:
I can't because I've never had that much money for something this short (12 minutes).

Here's 12 minutes made for $2K, $900 of which was the motel location. I think I could pretty easily sell that I spent $8K to $10K on this. Though it was first DSLR shoot so a few shots we wish we had a do over on.
http://vimeo.com/38129130
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You made a 3k production for 2k - congrats, but ultimately where is the claim of 8k coming from? What is an 8k production? Truth is if you told me you spent 5k i would believe you, hell even if you said i spent 20k i would believe you. That is not the point. Now what would a client think about your claim - would they be really impressed? Well, it just doesn't work that way - a client would come with a budget of 20k and you would have done it, they would come with 5k and you would have done it too. Claims of "I've done it for so little" only matter when something spectacular gets accomplished.
 
Denialorcoped said:
I don't expect someone to give me $5 mil to make a feature; But if the web series gets a fanbase it would definitely help is raising money for a feature. At very least it would make for a much more successful Kickstarter Campaign. Just look at The Angry Video Game Nerd. He raised $200k from fans to make his film.

There's also was a web series called "We Need Girlfriends" that got picked up by CBS. If it gets popular, investors will see a value in it.
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I think a healthier approach would be to be up front about the costs necessary. Can you get 5 mil? Probably not, but do you need that avalanche of money in the first place? If all you need is say $250k then why not simply aim for that amount? After all getting few investors to invest for a total budget of 250k is not impossible that way instead of creating a round around with the web series you clearly define your goals and go for it. After all even if shot with your cellphone and no crew just putting together you web series will require time and effort - the time and effort that you will be taking away from raising money for your film (if that is your main objective)
 
Patryk_Rebisz said:
You made a 3k production for 2k - congrats, but ultimately where is the claim of 8k coming from? What is an 8k production? Truth is if you told me you spent 5k i would believe you, hell even if you said i spent 20k i would believe you. That is not the point. Now what would a client think about your claim - would they be really impressed? Well, it just doesn't work that way - a client would come with a budget of 20k and you would have done it, they would come with 5k and you would have done it too. Claims of "I've done it for so little" only matter when something spectacular gets accomplished.
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I don't know nor care. I don't work for clients.
It's about creating good enough production values on a budget that they don't detract from, and can sometimes even add to, the audiences enjoyment of the film. Making a film that looks that good and has that many locations in two days for $2K is quite an accomplishment in my book. It's all about the process of making progressively better films on a minimal budget. My point was, in 3 days with $3K I can make a 12 minute episode that will look and sound better than 99.95% of the content on the web. In fact rivaling anything produced by someone with 5 or 6 times that budget.
 
It went in a generally unproductive direction.

Bottom line.
It is possible to parlay well made, targeted web content into bigger and better things. It's not likely, but it's possible.
A web series as a pitch for a feature (The OP) is probably no better or worse than making a short as a pitch for a feature. It doesn't work, except when it does.
 
1) write it
2) try to kickstart it
3) shoot it.
4) try to pitch it around
5) try to kickstart it for a feature
6) screen it for audience - maybe festival or two.
7) release as web series.
8) get the hits - repitch or kickstart or get lucky call from existing studio w distro.
9) otherwise - go back to 1.

HooHaa!#@
 
Denialorcoped said:
I made a post a month or so ago about making a web series. I am working on a script but I don't have the budget for a film, so I wanted to make it into an ambitious web series first in hopes to attract investors to eventually make a feature.

The thing is I've been doing research on other web series and the all kinda suck. Most web series that are successful is really stupid humor that people email and post on facebooks for a quick cheap laugh. I fear the internet audience has too short an attention span for the dark comedy I want to make. What do you guys think????
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You're not looking in the right places. There are a few entertaining web series out there... they're definitely buried beneath the muck, as web series is definitely the standby medium for people who don't have the funds for traditional distribution (which is, more often than not, an indication of lack of skill and talent, and general laziness) so most of what's out there is crap... I really disagree with your assertion that the successful ones are "stupid" humor though, I think that web series on a WHOLE are more often stupid humor (again, lack of skill/talent) and that short VIDEOS are more often that not quick punchlines... but successful web series? Usually the ones that are more thought-out which take advantage of the medium instead of using it as a fallback...

and not to judge, but it does sound like you're taking the easy route of a web series rather than putting in the effort to make your project as it SHOULD be made. In other words, work towards your medium. If you're trying to make a feature, make a feature. If you're trying to make a web series, make a web series. If you have a really good script, get it out there and it will get noticed, or bought, or funded. If it's not getting any of those things, it's probably not very good. Or you're just not trying hard enough.

---Really not trying to sound negative, and I definitely don't have all the information to know whether your project is any good or not, but just playing the numbers, most of the bad web series come about the same way you're doing it. I really believe that if you want to make a feature, the money's out there... you just have to put in the leg work to find it. And if your project calls for a feature, I encourage you to make it as a feature and not *compromise*. If you want to make a web series, I suggest you start with an idea tailored to take advantage of that medium.
 
Web series is no different than any other format (OK, yes it is a fair bit worse) in that the digital/DSLR "revolution" has a huge cost as well as a benefit. The ease with which anybody can create content has meant a flood of content that really really really sucks because the person behind the camera has no f'ing idea what they are doing. The nuggets of goodness are now buried in 100 tons of crap instead of only a few pounds, but you have to believe the cream will rise to the top or you'd just give up.
 
sonofaresiii said:
and not to judge, but it does sound like you're taking the easy route of a web series rather than putting in the effort to make your project as it SHOULD be made. In other words, work towards your medium. If you're trying to make a feature, make a feature. If you're trying to make a web series, make a web series. If you have a really good script, get it out there and it will get noticed, or bought, or funded. If it's not getting any of those things, it's probably not very good. Or you're just not trying hard enough.
I really believe that if you want to make a feature, the money's out there... you just have to put in the leg work to find it. And if your project calls for a feature, I encourage you to make it as a feature and not *compromise*. If you want to make a web series, I suggest you start with an idea tailored to take advantage of that medium.
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The thing is I am a writer/director and I LOVE film making, it's something I feel I need to do in order to be happy. I wanted to do this web series thing cause I know if I went the feature route right away it would be years until production started. I already have most of the resources for a good web series though, I made a short film in the past on the same resources that's been accepted to festivals.

I figure I can make a web series and try to cater to the web audience that would be quite different from what the feature would be, only same characters. Kinda think how Wayne's World started on SNL, and then how the feature film was different.
 
Patryk_Rebisz said:
I'm not sure the reasoning, why would yo think that a web series would attract investors for your feature film???

(totally side note, noone can take $3k and make it look like $20k - 3k is scraped together one day of shooting while $20k is well funded 2 days - though the opposite is possible and done pretty much everyday)
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I'm not sure I understand what you're saying: I can tell you right now that I know several people that make 3K look like 30K easily, and still get two to three days of solid 10-12hrs without effort. Some people can do that, a lot of people cannot; saying noone can do it is strange to me.

You can get funded for a feature off of a web series, for sure. HOW MUCH funding is a different story.
 
I would encourage anyone interested in doing a web series to do it "just because," if that makes any sense. This is so much unknown landscape out there that it is pretty much impossible to provide a potential investor with any kind of ROI prospectus. Even if you have what you think is good information, you absolutely cannot predict.
Case Study:
We wanted to produce a project to experiment with different workflows and to explore different tools and techniques. We were not looking to make a buck or bait a buyer, we just wanted to find an efficient way to work in advance of a future 'real' project. At the same time we didn't want to just waste our efforts, so we asked around for quite a while to find out what audiences wanted in a web series. Their answers were -- a) Not another dumb comedy with a bunch of guys behaving badly. b) Not another cheesy Sci-fi or splatter film. c) Short episodes -- nobody wanted to watch anything over ten minutes -- they had TV for that. d) Something that involved them in a meaningful way. They didn't want to just sit and watch, again they had TV for that.
So we came up with a story that had potential for meaningful controversy, and we designed it so that the audience comments could become the actual dialog that the actors spoke in future (short) episodes. We kept the story a little vague at first, so that the viewers could have a blank slate to work with. We got a huge amount of local publicity, but we did not do any broader marketing because we knew that our production values were not that strong. Our audience numbers were not huge, but they were more than adquate for our purposes. After 14 weekly episodes, we stopped and took everyone's temperature.
As for a) Everyone said they kept waiting for action or jokes or someone to behave badly. b) They were all waiting for someone to come out and be a satanic bad guy and start slashing everybody. c) Nobody wanted to carry the story forward week to week in short episodes -- they would tune in once every four weeks or so and watch the 5-minute episodes on 20-minute chunks. d) Everyone loved the idea of being able to speak for the characters, but none of them could think of anything to say.
In short - even though not one respondent said they wanted 20-minute dumb comedies or action films, in the end that is exactly what they actually wanted. Our admittedly un-scientific market research was absolutely 100% wrong. Our next step will be to release 'season 2' of the same project as a formula piece, and then test to see if our response is any better. In a dark sort of way, I'm kinda hoping it is not. If people actually just (secretly) want the same old thing.....yikes.....
There is a ton to be learned in this brave new world, and it is a very interesting time. Thinking that this new territory is in any way predictable is perhaps a mistake. I'm sure a lot of the 'old rules' still work, but in new ways. Our group is going to continue to produce, but we will not be seeking investors or trying to sell a show...we are nowhere near the point where we can do that with any degree of confidence.
 
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"In short - even though not one respondent said they wanted 20-minute dumb comedies or action films, in the end that is exactly what they actually wanted. "

This does not surprise me one bit.

Edit: Not only do people seem to love it, but that "Always Sunny in Philadelphia' style crap is super cheap to make. As a general rule it's a couple of people sitting in an apartment/bar/workplace jibber jabbering OH SO funny dialogue at each other. About the least expensive kind of content you can make this side of a doc.
 
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Exactly. We knew that cheap was a factor, we wanted to figure out how to produce innovate and challenging content uber-cheap. We discovered that in the end, most audiences just want to be entertained. There's plenty of people doing oh-so funny jibber japper already. We'll take a pass on that one.....
 
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NVentive said:
Exactly. We knew that cheap was a factor, we wanted to figure out how to produce innovate and challenging content uber-cheap. We discovered that in the end, most audiences just want to be entertained. There's plenty of people doing oh-so funny jibber japper already. We'll take a pass on that one.....
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Same here. Not what I write, couldn't write it if i tried, and not that sad about it.
 
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