Create Your Own TV Series for the Internet-2nd edition. Ross Brown
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to ring, hoping some unknown producer or director would deign to offer her a part. So she took matters into her own hands and created a TV series for herself. A longtime video game addict (she’s a level 66 gnome warlock and a level 63 priest in World of Warcraft according to www.geeksaresexy.net), Day decided to write what she knew best and created The Guild, a comedy web series about online gamers and their relationships with each other both on and off line. In the pilot episode, Day’s character, Codex (her online gamer name), is fired by her therapist for refusing to admit she has an addiction to video games. Things get even worse for Codex when fellow gamer Zabu shows up at her apartment, convinced that because Codex “winkied” him online, she’s hot for his bod, and they’re destined to be an item.
What makes this a good web series premise? First and foremost, it appeals to an audience that spends a huge amount of time online, namely online video gamers. Whereas humor about plumbing supplies and toilet parts would be met with blank stares by the cyber-geek crowd, this group totally gets what a “winkie” is. And they totally OMG get how addicted you can get to video games LOL, and how your fellow addicts become your BFFs and perhaps more (#stalkers), whether you like it or not.
Day originally wrote The Guild as a half-hour pilot but was told the subject matter was “too niche” for network or cable TV. Probably true. But it’s perfect for the web series world because that’s where the natural audience for a series about online gamers is.
Day partnered with Kim Evey, who had co-produced the successful web series Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. Day and Evey self-financed the first three episodes of The Guild. The episodes were successful in that they attracted a sizable and loyal audience, but Day and Evey ran out of money to continue the show. Then they got a brilliant idea. Why not see whether the fans of the show would pay for more episodes? They put a PayPal button up on the existing episodes and solicited contributions, and lo and behold the viewers sent in the money. Not get-rich-quick-and-retire-to-Tahiti money, mind you. But enough money to finance production for the rest of Season One.
There can be no better proof that you are doing something right than to have an audience that has been receiving something for free voluntarily send you money so you can keep doing it. And in the end, both the audience and Day were rewarded further. The Guild’s grassroots success became a story covered by the national media, one that caught the attention of Microsoft, who agreed to sponsor the show for Season Two (and later more) and to put it on its newly launched Xbox Independent Video Channel online.
The bottom line is this: Know your potential audience. If your audience is online, then your premise should appeal to some group of people who spend a fair amount of time online. They don’t have to be gamers or Facebook addicts or other online junkies necessarily, but the show you create should appeal in tone, subject matter, style, or some other way to those who spend a significant amount of time online.
The following are a few examples of what I would consider to be appropriate premises for online series.
Script Cops and Gaytown
Script Cops is a stylistically spot-on parody of the TV show Cops where we ride along with the men in blue as they bust lowlifes for bad script writing. Made in 2007, the series has gotten renewed life thanks to a reissue sponsored by the popular screenwriting software Final Draft. Episodes include a virtual SWAT team assault on a group of students for making a film stuffed with clichés. (A serious-as-a-heart-attack cop tells the wanna-be filmmakers, “Do you realize 83% of all student films begin with a shot of an alarm clock?”)
Gaytown is about a closeted heterosexual man in a predominantly gay world trying to do straight guy things without being outed. Our hero yearns to play basketball (with the girls) because all the “normal” boys just do ballet and will beat the living snot out of you with their designer shoes if they find out you’re a hetero “pervert.” In the pilot our straight hero gets busted by undercover gay cops for secretly meeting other heteros in a public toilet to play fantasy football.
The concepts couldn’t be more different. So why have I grouped them together? Because they share one essential quality: You can explain the premise and give people a sense of where the humor will come from in only a few words. Making the premise easy to understand — and easy to explain — is essential for a short-form series. If each episode is to run about 3 minutes, it had better not take 4 minutes just to explain the basic idea. The online entertainment audience has a notoriously short attention span. If you want to grab their attention, you must do it quickly. Even if the execution of your series will have subtleties, complexities, and nuances, make sure the basic concept can be conveyed simply, quickly, and clearly. With Gaytown and Script Cops, the titles themselves come close to explaining each show’s premise.
Some other examples of simple, clear premises follow.
Black Version (from 60frames.com, now on YouTube)
This series consists of parodies of famous movie scenes, such as the “black version” of the fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally, where the woman’s passion talk during her simulated orgasm is so wildly over the top (including cuts where she’s suddenly wearing a blond wig) and yet the black man still believes it was real and walks away even more cocky about his sexual prowess.
The Ed Hardy Boyz (www.funnyordie.com)
This is a basic mystery premise like Andy Hardy, except the “detectives” are two “dese, dem, and dose” Jersey goofballs who wear Ed Hardy clothing and try to solve mysteries while hitting on any available woman with lines like, “Excuse me, do youse two play for an Anaheim baseball team because you’re both angels.”
What the Buck?! (www.youtube.com)
Imagine if Jack from Will & Grace had his own online celebrity dish program. Michael Buckley took $6 worth of fabric for a backdrop, a pair of work lights from Home Depot, a video camera, and his catty approach to celebrity dish and turned it into 2008’s most popular entertainment program on YouTube with more than 100 million views.
Hot for Words (YouTube or www.hotforwords.com)
Okay, here’s the premise: An Eastern European philologist explains the etymology (linguistic history) of words such as scrumtrilescent and pulchritudinous. Sounds like a complete snooze, you say? Perhaps I left out one crucial detail. Here is your Hot for Words host and instructor (facing page).
Has your passion for philology and etymology just taken a gigantic leap? No, it’s not porn, but Marina Orlova, who holds degrees in teaching of Russian language and world literature and teaching of English language specializing in philology, definitely has the kind of classroom presence that holds students’ attention — at least male students who aren’t residents of Gaytown. She launched Hot for Words on YouTube in mid-2007 and within a year racked up more than 150 million views. Her success caught the attention of cable TV news mogul Bill O’Reilly, who booked her for multiple guest appearances and tutorials, and she was voted fifth sexiest woman on the Web by G4 TV (which makes one wonder just who the heck are the top four).
Marina Orlova. Photo by Justin Price.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and when you check out Marina Orlova’s site, you get to learn the thousand words as well. Those of you hoping to learn a new word a day will be thrilled to learn that Marina has a wall calendar.
The point is that Marina Orlova really does have a passion for language and words. But she found a way to package that passion to capture an audience. Her premise is simple to understand, is easy to sell visually (online video is, after all, visual), and has the entire unabridged dictionary as a source for potential future episodes.
And by the way, pulchritudinous, as Orlova explains in coy detail, means beautiful, sexy, hot, gorgeous, alluring — she goes on for