Great Unfound Web Series
Having gone to art school in NYC and currently being an artist there, most of my friends are, well...artists. And as performers, directors, writers, etc... many of them have discovered the wonder of the web series. As has been said, it's an amazing way to get your work out there. Making a webseries is pretty much the #1 way to make your own work and get people to watch it. Unfortunately, many of the people making these web series don't really have the advertising "know how". I mean, yes, they manage to do pretty well fundraising on sites like Kick Starter or Indie-Go-Go, but often their main supporters are friends, family, and people they went to school with. And with IMDB having such stringent rules on how to get a web series on the database, let alone not even having a category for them (The Guild is listed as a TV series), and honestly, not many festivals geared toward the new medium, a lot of really great work goes with under 1000 views.
So, for my first blog entry, I present to you my top 3 favorite web series that have under 1000 views. Here's the thing about these productions. While produced to get oneself "out there", these series are good. Despite the low production value, the writing is strong as well as the performances. So, give 'em a watch!
In No Particular Order:
1) Team Allies! http://www.youtube.com/user/DieHardRedShirts?feature=watch: recommended for the quality of the general production value (especially for it being low budget) and the awesome comedic performances. Also, the off -beat dialogue is fun, and I like how I'm not quite sure where it's going, but trust it will go somewhere.
2)Apartment Comedy http://www.youtube.com/user/ApartmentComedy?feature=watch recommended for the natural flow of the writing, despite the ridiculous things the characters are saying, the weirdest social time to reference The Lion King, and the great comedic performances of the actors.
3) Morning Cup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udHv8JMPCbw: recommended for subtle yet strong characters. Also, just the sheer awkwardness.
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Jamaica
Kuwait
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
Maldives
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Pakistan
Panama
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Republic of Korea
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sudan
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands, U.S.
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Also for video, embeds work much better than links. People often decide what to watch based on icons .....which is a reason why every creator should pay a lot of attention to icons.
ReplyDeleteNice research by the way.
ReplyDeleteProblem is: production values are less and less accessories to determine a web series reputation. There's simply too much stuff out there to say "oh, forgive the bad production, but the rest is great..."
ReplyDeleteAnd I have friends not familiar with web series that reject a suggestion immediately, if the audio is not good or the image looks poor or without any kind of color correction and the camera looks "unprofessional".
"Bad production" is exactly one of the things "normal" people comes up with when thinking about the term "webseries"
When it comes to video, being able to hear the audio is pretty important.
ReplyDeleteBeyond that it would be hard to define anything as "normal". We have escaped the confines of TV so the opportunity to do things different and cater to niche audiences clearly offers a lot of potential.
Web series define them self by how well they resonate with their "audience". Nothing else is really important. The craft in a Web series is to be able to connect to viewers in a highly powerful and organic way. That is hard to quantify, but we know it when we see it.