Advice for a webseries, please

[Thanato]

Hello... Me and a small group of friends are in early preproduction on an, as of yet, untitled webseries. Right now we are aiming to have a 10 episode first season and if it is successful make a second.

Our goal is to start shooting in the summer of next year for a fall/winter run. I'll forgo giving plot details as those are still under development however what I am curious for is how long should each episode be, average time it takes to film that baring any unforeseen incidents... Etc

We are hoping to get the characters and season plot done before the end of October and then get the first five scripts written by the new year...

So if someone could provide this basic insight into this type of production it would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

 

[wheatgrinder]

Successful web series work on building momentum. You should have a new episode every week. Shorter more frequent episodes (if its a narrative story thing) are better then infrequent long episodes.

Complete your first 6 month worth of epidsodes before you release the first one.
Release an episode on the same day\time every week.

If by the time your hit 3 months you should know if your going to have any demand for the next six months. If so, start filming the next round. Lather, rinse, repeat

 

[Thanato]

We are aiming for an average length of episode between 3-10 minutes depending on the story being told in that particulare episode. Probably with an mean number of 5 minutes.

~Thanato

 

[Alcove Audio]

I've worked on web series, and this is my experience from the end of the production/post chain...

Keep them under five minutes, most people won't watch anything longer - yours truly included.

A personal bias, but keep your cinematography geared towards small screens; lots of folks will watch something like that on a laptop, iPhone, etc. Details that are obvious on a large screen disappear on a "small" screen.

It's becoming a cliché from me, but sound is all important. It has to be clean and free of roominess so it can be compressed. In keeping with my small screen scenario you are also using small speakers; the dialog has to jump out and be very easily understood. Your audience will give up on their first viewing if they can't understand the dialog. I do the final mix on cheap computer speakers, not the big expensive ones (but I do all the editing and the premixes/stems on the big boys).

Have your first six in the can before you start to post them on-line. TV is three weeks ahead, but you're working with a micro-budget so more problems will occur that you will not have the money to solve.

Get your cast and crew to interact a lot before you start shooting; you have to have a "family" feeling on a micro-budget project to keep up the positive attitude - and weed out the anal sphincter(s).

 

[Sucramdoow]

Build up a lot of hype surrounding your series beforehand. So I would look into marketing to help you with that aspect.

Make sure each episode drives the plot forward, and at the end of each episode there should be a decent cliffhanger so viewers would come back to catch the next episode.

As others said, produce the episodes waaay in advance of the release. This way you have plenty of time to correct mistakes or go back to re-shoot, and also you can have a bring out the webisodes weekly.

What is your budget? Why are you filming in the summer of next year?

 

[directorik]

Each episode should be five to eight minutes.

Each episode should take you one day to shoot. Maybe two.

You should have five scripts written by the end of October.

Seriously, it should take you and your group of friends one week
to write each episode. That’s if you take one hour out of each day
and write.

What webseries do you watch on a regular basis?

 

[Thanato]

Well the reason's we are taking such a long time to develop this is that as of right now we are in a variety of locations, as for my im heading back to school after a few years in the army so that is why I chose a summer shooting schedule, also considering I'm from Ontario, I don't want to shoot this in the winter (more trouble than it is worth with my limited experience).

So with me going to school at one end of the province, my one friend living in one city, and my other friend going to school in another end of the province we are going to be doing this mostly through skype and/or other video chatting services. Such is life I guess.

I want to have a history for the actors to read about to get a good sense of who their character's are and the situation in which they are put in.

As for web series' I've watched... The Guild, Red Vs Blue, and a few others that escape me right now.

Thanks for the advice. I will be trying to push some things to the left a little bit.

If you want I can keep you posted on here with how the Production Process goes.

Regards,

~Thanato

 

[HedgesPictures]

I was hoping to have some valid points to add to this discussion - but all I can is:
These guys are giving lots of good advice.

FIREFLY knew their heads were on the chopping block, so the had a "go for broke" attitude that carried them forward. I think that's a good frame of mind to be in for a web series.

Remember, one dud episode will cost you half of any momentum you built up. Make each one count.

And yeah, keep them short.

Good luck, and please post a link when you get the show up.

 

[cameronchapman]

I think episode length is becoming more flexible as people get used to watching full TV shows online. I'm working on scripts for a series now, and I'm aiming for episodes in the 10-15 minute range. Dr. Horrible had 20 minute episodes, though that was more like a mini-series. I know that I often get frustrated with shorter episodes on shows like The Guild.

Another thing you might want to consider is using something like Google Docs for writing your scripts so it's easy to collaborate. Or even get a Celtx Studio account so you can all share documents that way. Don't just rely on one person to transcribe whatever you figure out during your video chats.