It’s called My Roommate The Cylon.

It just launched tonight with Episode 1, entitled “The Test.” Embed, link, follow, and subscribe at: MyRoommateTheCylon.com!

I suspect that this was backed by Sota Toys, who makes the Street Fighter figures… what a great example of a brand/company reaching out to an artist to do something truly unique.

• The Internet’s Cool, But TV Remains Ad King
• The Internet is now the most popular source of news after TV (just passed newspapers)

Now that the internet has surpassed paper for importance, the big bad TV has got to be going down soon… and this year will be an important swing year. More people this year will:

• Cancel their cable/DirecTV
• Watch video content on their phones/PDAs
• Buy a set-top box (or video game system as video player)
• Find a reliable way to move video from their laptop screen to their TV screen (cables, AppleTV, etc.)
• Just watch less mindless TV

All this, and a crazy bad economy to boot! It’s going to be a wild year, so buckle up and try to change the world!!

We went to support Watoto, a non-profit based in Kampala, Uganda that pairs a household of 8 orphans with a mother that cares for them — as family — through University. Some of the children there were literally found in dumpsters and in the street. These same children will be given the resources and challenge to grow to be leaders in their community, country, and continent.

It was a powerful and meaningful time for me and my wife, to see a third-world country. We saw daily reminders for us to appreciate the opportunities and resources we have in America. Things like drinking water (93% of Ugandans have no access to reliable drinking water), electricity (many Ugandans have mobile phones, but have to charge them at charging booths – they don’t have power in their homes), and relative financial security (Uganda has out of control inflation and a 45% jobless rate).

For more personal perspectives, check out my personal blog at AlecandKatie.com, but here are some thoughts on media while I was there:

• I just read that there are 147 million people in America that regularly consume online video, but I’d be surprised if 147 total people watch video online. Most middle-class early-twenties people I talked to had heard of YouTube, but had rarely used it.
• Bandwidth is slow, slow, slow. Our guest house had a 56k modem that only occasionally worked. That, and I only saw old clunker PCs. A Gateway here, an Acer there. As far as the wired internet goes, Uganda is 1994 America.
• The middle-class youth do, however, use Facebook. I’ve already connected with some of them.
• Everyone is connected to a cell phone constantly. As America shifts from landlines to mobiles (no one my age has a home line anymore…), Ugandans never really had a phone system, so their pay-as-you-go model really works. There are billboards advertising 3G phones, but how fast can they be?
• There were ads all over Uganda — many houses and businesses are fully wrapped [painted] in colors and logos. They building owners don’t get paid — the painting is a service that looks nicer than the worn down brick. Therefore, there are Zain/Warid/MTN (mobile carriers) and Juicy Fruit buildings everywhere.
• Coca-Cola has posters, billboards, and ads all over Kampala — and each ad features the exact same photo and tagline: “Deep Down Refreshment.” It’s a lesson in consistent branding.
• There was only one movie poster up around Kampala (the largest city in the country, mind you), for Quantam of Solace, which had opened a month earlier.
• When asked about television, few people watch it regularly (who can afford a TV, much less getting your home custom-wired for electricity?). When pressed to name popular shows, our Ugandan hosts mentioned Lost, Prison Break, and Desperate Housewives.

Living and working in New Media in the USA, you can get the sense that everyone lives and breathes online, but the truth is that millions of people around the world have different experiences, methods of media consumption, and levels of access. It’s important to get out of your world for a few minutes (even if it’s a trip to your parents’ house) to see how your work translates.

Who cares about your gorgeous HD video if they don’t have the mobile bandwidth to view it?

We found three distinct stories from three groups at different places in the entertainment world: the team behind FM78.tv (Justine Bateman, Jill Kushner, Peter Murrieta, and Alan Sereboff), a trio of SNL staffers behind Crackle’s The Line (Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Simon Rich), and the up-and-coming, Teen Wolf-mocking sketch comedy group Summer of Tears (Rob Kerkovich and Todd Waldman).

Big Names Change the Online Game

Celebrities and TV Writers are Raising the Quality of Online Entertainment

By Robert Gustafson and Alec McNayr

In this early era of online entertainment, established talent from traditional media have steered clear of the web. With rare exceptions like Will Ferrell’s The Landlord, celebrity forays into creating online content have been limited by potential union ramifications, a lack of payoff, or perhaps just a lack of time.

However, the WGA writer’s strike changed everything. Not only was the online content at the center of the conflict, but the entire creative workforce took a break from their TV writers’ rooms and movie sets. Many writers, directors, and actors used their free time to create something for the web, even if just concepts, stories, or scripts.

And now, months later, there’s been a tremendous upswing in the number of online shows backed by TV and film talent:

• Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, created by Joss Whedon and starring Neil Patrick Harris, topped the TV download list on iTunes.
• Get Ripped debuted from How I Met Your Mother writer Gloria Calderon Kellett.
• Saturday Night Live alumni Tim Meadows and David Spade appeared in Carpet Bros.
• NBC launched Gemini Division, a sci-fi series starring Rosario Dawson.
• MTV announced a new web series $5 Cover from Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer.

The once-level playing field is slowly being tipped in favor of a more well-known model, where recognizable talent pulls in viewers, and in turn, the attention of would-be sponsors. Should independent producers cry foul? Or should they appreciate the legitimacy these “professionals” bring to the online media world?

We talked to three groups currently shepherding online projects, each with different levels of celebrity, experience, and resources—and each holding a different relationship with the traditional world of entertainment: one is trying to break free of it, one trying to rise up in it, and one trying to break into it.

Creating the Sweetest Entertainment Online

“What type of online show would you do if you couldn’t do a video blog? No backyards, no shaky cameras. Are you going to be okay doing a lesser job just because it’s delivered online?”

Changing the definition of “the best entertainment available online” is at the heart of Justine Bateman’s aspirations. Perhaps best known for her acting work on the 80’s sitcom Family Ties, Bateman has joined forces with a team of experienced industry professionals to form FM78, a production company with online comedy Candy, Inc. as its first project.

Together with Emmy-award winning writer Jill Kushner, Wizards of Waverly Place executive producer Peter Murrieta, and feature writer Alan Sereboff, Bateman is part of a talented team looking to produce their own series. “Instead of taking our scripts to ABC or HBO,” she says, “we’re looking for an advertising sponsor to pay for a regular production budget; we’ll distribute it ourselves, and do a bunch of traditional press.”

FM78.tv’s Peter Murrieta, Justine Bateman, and Jill Kushner.

After meeting Bateman on the picket lines during the WGA writer’s strike, Murrieta is perhaps most excited about FM78’s opportunity to continue the creative process he loves without the burden of corporate politics. “I tell you, even after having sold a show in traditional markets, there’s not as much freedom in this business now,” he says, “but the creative model—how you make television—with a room full of smart people figuring out where to go, still works.”

The group’s first project, Candy, Inc. centers on an unwilling heiress to a fictional candy company, played by Bateman. The series already has commitments from name talent, including actors Jeff Garlin and Judd Nelson and director Steve Pink.

Originally a 22-minute pilot screenplay by Bateman, the FM78 members collaborated on a Candy, Inc. rewrite and have developed it into a three-hour comedy mini-series. “We’ll deliver one episode a week, at about 8-10 minutes each,” says Bateman. At the time of press, the team was working towards signing a show sponsor—a real-life candy company—as an organic fit into the show concept.

“The show’s about someone pursuing an authentic life and the comedy comes form the human element of peoples’ dreams to do things that they’re not good at,” explains Murrieta, “There’s a feeling in America that you can make it if you just dream really hard – but it takes hard work, too.”

And so, Candy, Inc.’s premise seems a good approximation for what FM78 is trying to do: work hard to establish a higher caliber of content. They’re escaping the confines of traditional media by beating them at their own game—by using established actors and working writers—not for their own sake, but to improve the viewing experience for audiences online.

“Overall, the audience hasn’t been getting the best entertainment the last ten years or so,” decries Bateman, “Everyone in this business should be showing audiences the most entertaining, most creative programming out there. It should come out of Hollywood, because that’s what we say we do for a living. It’s a creative Renaissance, and the audience is going to benefit the most, which is what we’re excited about.”

SNLers Find Themselves ‘In Line’

In 1999, Bill Hader was so excited for the premiere of Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace that he got in line early. Really early. Days early.

Now a repertory player on Saturday Night Live, Hader used his experience in sci-fi fandom to inspire the new web series The Line, co-written by SNL writer Simon Rich and directed by SNL head writer Seth Meyers.

The series takes place in front of a movie theatre in New York, as Hader and a line of fans wait for the opening of the fictional sci-fi film Futurespace. Hader and Rich developed the concept and scripts during the WGA writers strike, and because the online series was produced by Broadway Video (which also produces SNL), they were able to use the exhaustive resources of their regular employer’s cast and crew. “We wanted to do more than just a sketch,” said Rich, “we wanted to make it as epic, comically, as the movie the characters were lining up to see.”

Meyers, who made his directorial debut with The Line, was appreciative for the opportunity to work with such high-level talent. “When you work with the SNL costuming department, for example, you get a wealth of experience and fabrics.”

The trio didn’t claim to watch much online content, mostly due to the aggressive work schedules necessary to work on Saturday Night Live. For them, The Line wasn’t a career-changing move towards exclusively producing online content, but rather an opportunity to create something other than their normal television work. “The Internet is a vast wilderness,” mused Meyers, “it can be very beautiful, but there are a lot of pitfalls out there. It’s hard to know what’s worth investing your time in right now.”

The series, distributed by Sony-owned Crackle.com, is a great example of the opportunities working writers and actors have outside their traditional entertainment “day jobs.” Hader, Rich, and Meyers are hard-working, talented creators already intertwined with one of the world’s most recognizable comedy brands. For them, perhaps creating shows for the web should be more of a side project than participating in an industry-wide movement.

Rich summarizes, “At the end of the day, it’s just amazing to see talented people shoot and produce something that you write. It’s a great feeling.”

Laughter through the “Tears”

In some ways, Los Angeles-based comedy troupe Summer of Tears isn’t much different than most comedy troupes these days. The seven-member group originally met in college, perform regularly in small comedy clubs, and have a YouTube account.

But unlike most other groups, they’ve been able to leverage their online presence to boost their standing in the traditional world of entertainment. For them, the web has been a stepping stone to bigger contacts and opportunities.

In 2006, the group took their sketch show (including some of their videos) to the Aspen Comedy Festival and won the award for Best Sketch Show. Now, with their videos online, they can further expand their audience, including agents and development execs. “We’re using online distribution as another way to get out there. You used to have to do a comedy show in Hollywood,” says Rob Kerkovich, one of the group’s writer-performers, “and now you can just e-mail an executive a link.”

Through such connections, Kerkovich and co-writer Todd Waldman recently sold a feature script to Paramount Vantage. It’s the beginning of a dream fulfilled: to write professionally in the world of entertainment, made possible by an enhanced presence online. “In 2005, we were writing a lot of sketches for our live shows, and after seeing the success of [SNL digital short video] Lazy Sunday and the advent of YouTube, we realized we should be shooting more as well.”

Through the years, the group has honed their comedic viewpoints online. “We’re redesigning our site right now using Vimeo, and I’m looking back through our first videos,” says Kerkovich, “they’re funny, but they’re not in the same ballpark of what we’re doing now. Our sound is better, our camerawork is better.”

Even with their slow and steady entry into the entertainment business, the group’s goal is clear. Kerkovich explains, “We’re establishing a ‘Summer of Tears’ brand. If we had our way, we’d be like Monty Python; whether it was TV or a movie, you knew what you were going to get.”

Advice for the Future

“Gone are the days where the studios will be your entertainment mommies and daddies,” says Bateman, “If someone wants to be in the ‘future of entertainment,’ they have to be able to do two or more of the following things: act, direct, write, produce, build a web site, use Final Cut Pro, have contacts with ad agencies, do publicity, or get an online community excited. You have to be an absolute creative multi-tasker.”

No matter your aspirations or current place in the world of entertainment, the web is morphing into a medium that can meet your needs. While the roles of creative responsibilities may be shifting, the role of hard work remains central. Summer of Tears’ Kerkovich expands, “We have a work ethic that we don’t see in many other people. You have to have that. You might be one of those lucky people where something hits the first try, but odds are it won’t happen that way.”

SNL’s Meyers agrees: “Write and write a lot, and get your material on its feet in front of an audience. You’ll see what it actually sounds and looks like. That’s the fastest way to know if it works or not.”

The rewards are big for those that can follow through online. FM78’s Jill Kushner states, “You don’t have to go through the right people at the right studios to get your work seen anymore. The internet can be your vehicle.” Murrieta follows, “I think you have to be a punk. You do whatever it takes to get it done. Part of being a punk is just doing it because you love it.”

Bateman admits that it’s personal craft and artistry—and not celebrity or riches—that will truly satisfy. “If you’re talented, make something beautiful whether you’re getting 10 dollars or 10 million,” she says, “The question is: what can you do with what you have?”

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/12/01/big-names-change-the-online-game/feed/ 1 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/29/layering-your-art/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/29/layering-your-art/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:51:22 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=274 One kid with a web cam created 64 video tracks where he sings, clicks, percussions, and synthesizes. All those videos come together to recreate Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Check it out at College Humor. (or see below)

Got me thinking: Michael Jackson’s music from the 1980’s is still holds up because it was so fresh and creative across multiple disciplines. First off, the celebrity he brought to the table made his music an option for people to listen to. Then, for Thriller itself, his layering on top of layering of sounds, singing, backup, and even Vincent Price’s narration made it a outstandingly rich sound. Then layer on top of that a boom in music videos, which was a perfect setup for his story-based Thriller video.

Layering on top of layering on top of layering. That’s art.

Reminds me of Tim Street’s current mantra of necessary components to online video success: access two emotions, have spectacle, and have a story.

I’ve been writing a lot recently and have been trying to apply this to my work in creating two TV pilot scripts: dialogue built on top of character motivations on top of clever self-awareness on top of pop culture on top of awareness in my own life and mortality. Maybe the good writers just call that “subtext.”

I see it in the best TV: real emotions stoked and an audience engaged. As I read recently about the Mad Men season 2 finale:

I think the show gets to me so much because it is so gradual and complex, layered with thematically linked plots and flawed, interesting characters. But what really makes it powerful and unique is its RESTRAINT. Less is always more on that show. There are moments you yearn for over the course of a whole season, conversations you wish people would have, confrontations that build and build and build. Tonight we finally got a couple – but instead of the knee-jerk dramatic reactions you might expect, the breakdowns, the slamming of doors, the exposing of feelings, the plans of what to do or predictions of what’s to come, you get one line. Or one look. I’m always in awe of the subtlety and intensity of that show.

But is rare in online video these days to see any layering or subtext. It is just straight in your face. What you see is what you get. Of late, online videos tend to be one of three things: satire, sex, or shock. And only one of them. Either the video gets views because it is a derivative of an existing pop culture reference (video games, movie musicals, etc.), or it’s sexy time (read: boobs), or a bride falling into a pool (hilarious, though, I must admit).

It’s not that online content isn’t original. There’s a lot of originality. It’s the layering. Or lack of it. What does TV do that online video hasn’t caught onto yet? What are the layers that matter?

Thriller: 64-part A Capella:

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/29/layering-your-art/feed/ 2 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/04/back-on-topps-not-quuuuuuiiiiiteeee-there-yet/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/04/back-on-topps-not-quuuuuuiiiiiteeee-there-yet/#comments Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:00:08 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=272 Michael Eisner’s company bought the baseball card company Topps last year, and this year, his new media production company Vuguru is making a mockumentary about it. Back on Topps stars twin comedians The Sklar Brothers, and is actually quite funny.

Unlike many meandering online comedy series, there are actual jokes written into the first episode, and lots of obscure baseball references, sure to please any sports fan (they’re lost on me, but I get the gist). Pre-launch promos for the show include Jordan Farmar of the LA Lakers and Dennis Rodman of the Crazytown Crazies.

In particular, the receptionist at Topps, Bev, plays her role brilliantly in the midst of a male-dominated cast and subject matter, reminiscent of Kaitlin Olson (Sweet Dee on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia).

The show has all kinds of things going right for it — niche subject matter paid off by thoughtful knowledgeable jokes. The editing is a tad slow, but it’s forgiven with the snappy writing. I’m a fan of the video content… but that’s all…

Now, for the marketing, I’ve been woefully disappointed in most of the support given to Vuguru shows, but Back on Topps takes the cake. The BackonTopps.com web site has no further information on any character (not even a mocked-up baseball card? come on!), no clickable links, no information on guest stars, and you can’t embed their video. A few days after Episode 1 appeared, they added some content to the BackonTopps.com site. Better, but not mind-blowingly awesome (which is what I demand!). Lots of “Coming Soon.” Eh. Still Strike 1.

Perhaps Back on Topps is hoping its Fox Sports/MSN Video home with provide it a super-targeted audience, but the user experience there is fourteen times more difficult to manuever. Strike 2.

Where is the heart of this show’s audience? Just 43 views on “special partner” Veoh for Episode 1. Episode 1 hasn’t fared better on YouTube. It barely has 400 500 750 views. Not the right view counts for such a good show. Strike 3?

You’d think that a niche show like backing from a smart guy like Eisner would have secured bigger distribution (uhhhh, ESPN?) and sports blogger attention ahead of launch. Without it, this show may be destined for the bench (I couldn’t resist).

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/04/back-on-topps-not-quuuuuuiiiiiteeee-there-yet/feed/ 0 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/03/a-sign-of-things-to-come/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/03/a-sign-of-things-to-come/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:00:16 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=270 With every new season premiere of every show on TV, the story seems to be consistent: audiences are not coming back this fall.

Just got an email from THR and all three articles in it were about TV networks hemorrhaging audiences:

• ABC had three season premiere stinkers (all good shows, btw): Pushing Daisies dropped 55% over last year, Private Practice 38%, and Dirty Sexy Money 31%.
• Despite being the first basic cable show to earn a ‘Best Drama’ Emmy, Mad Men lost audience in the week after its big win, from 1.9 million the week before the Emmys to 1.6 the week after.
• And despite Dexter’s big gain in audience (likely due to its temporary move to CBS during the writer’s strike), Californication lost audience as well.

Broadcast networks, cable networks, and premium cable networks all getting the same story. They’re losing audience.

Add on this article from the New York Observer: Only Two-and-a-Half Sitcom Writers Left in Hollywood.

“At one point in the 1990s, NBC had 16 half-hour sitcoms on the air. This fall, it has four. And two of those four—The Office and 30 Rock—though critically beloved (both are up for Best Comedy Emmys on Sunday, Sept. 21), are struggling to be embraced by mainstream audiences.”

Yikes. Makes it a difficult sell to work up the courage, nerve, and gusto necessary to write a TV spec script, doesn’t it? With all the money in the world for advertising, production value, and star power, what the heck is going on?

We’re in the midst of a painful shift of media, and everyone is feeling the pinch. Writers, directors, actors, executives, agents, everyone. Especially up-and-comers that are working dangerously hard to ‘break into’ the business. Will there be any ‘business’ left when they get there?

Well, the only answer is: adapt or die. The only thing failing faster than traditional network’s’ TV shows are traditional networks’ online shows. They’re suffering from the same symptoms. These fledgling show concepts are expected to bolster the weight of a lot of overhead (only with less money). They’re hoping the independent producers will sell out their ideas so that the future revenue will remain in the corporation. You can’t build a lasting model that way, when self-distribution costs are so low. Everyone has to work fast, cheap, and good. The trifecta of creativity.

The audience (their attention to ads being the primary source of revenue these days) is not staying with any studio, network, or medium. They’re fragmenting like crazy, and it’s up to the individual creator to harness, compel, and motivate an audience to stick around.

Adapt or die. It’s no longer good enough to just write. You have to write and edit and web design. Or know about online video distribution, direct, and act. Or all six.

Creativity is the only thing that’s still pure about this business, and a new wave of audience is seeking it out. Online originals, TV-on-the-Web (Hulu, ABC.com, etc.), and Tivo are all killing traditional numbers because they give choice and satisfaction back to the consumer.

What are you doing to increase your skills? Editing better, writing better, marketing better? We’re learning that big, slow overhead won’t get the job done. Nimble, quick responses to audience will build an audience.

Update: Fresh Hell reports on shows that gained audience this fall — most of them on CBS and CW. My rant still applies…

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/03/a-sign-of-things-to-come/feed/ 0 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/02/mad-men-fan-art/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/02/mad-men-fan-art/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:13:49 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=268 Everyone here knows my great love for the Emmy-winning show Mad Men, which results in my following of their marketing-type activities like Mad Men Twitterers and the like.

I stumbled upon an illustrator who shares my passion for the 1960’s advertising drama, and has created a whole slew of retro illustrations from the show’s most memorable moments, including Joan and the Xerox (below), Duck and the Dog, and Betty and the Chair.

All are available for download for desktops or other fine use. You can also buy some of the work at Zazzle (t-shirts, framed prints, etc.).

Link to: NobodysSweetheart.com
Link to: Mad Men Illustrations on Flickr

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/02/mad-men-fan-art/feed/ 0 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/01/lonelygirl15-creators-not-so-lonely-anymore/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/01/lonelygirl15-creators-not-so-lonely-anymore/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:00:53 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=208 We interviewed Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, the creators of Lonelygirl15 and Kate Modern, for the September/October 2008 issue of Script Magazine. Their new media production company EQAL recently landed $5 million in financing and a big contract with CBS.

LonelyGirl15 Creators Not So Lonely Anymore

Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried Have Built Their DIY Web Series into a Million-Dollar Online Production Company
By Robert Gustafson and Alec McNayr

On an otherwise average Tuesday morning in September 2006, Greg Goodfried made an ominous move. An associate lawyer at Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, he walked into his boss’ office and shut the door behind him. He informed his boss that the following day he would be featured in both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times as one of the masterminds behind the popular YouTube video blogger known simply as “LonelyGirl15.” The articles, he explained, would confirm suspicions that the confessional-style videos were actually part of a fictional series created by he and co-creator Miles Beckett.

Lucky for Goodfried, his boss had actually heard of the Internet sensation and offered him a six-month sabbatical to finish the series, after which he could return to the firm. He never went back. Instead, he and Beckett turned their experience creating LonelyGirl15, now viewed over 100 million times, into an online production company called EQAL. In May 2008—just two years after uploading their first video—EQAL announced a $5 million round of venture capital financing.

We sat down with Goodfried and Beckett less than two weeks after moving into EQAL’s new offices in Sherman Oaks, California.

Doing It Themselves

Similar to Goodfried, writer-director Miles Beckett stepped away from a promising career to venture into online entertainment. Through fresh out of medical school, it was Beckett who originally conceived the idea of a girl on YouTube communicating via a video blog.

“He pitched me the idea,” recalls Goodfried about LonelyGirl15, “She would be an active part of the [online] community, and over a few months we’d start trickling in information: that she’s home-schooled, that her parents are in a cult, and that she’s being prepared for a ceremony. Then, after three months, she‘ll run away and you won’t be sure if she made it or not and we’ll be on the covers of magazines. And I was like, ‘that’s the best f-ing idea I’ve ever heard, let’s go do this thing.’”

They didn’t, however, intend the Web series to take center stage. “Originally, LonelyGirl15 was going to be a prequel,” adds Beckett, “We planned to shoot an independent feature film simultaneous to filming the online series and sell it to a DVD distributor or something.”

Unfortunately, they underestimated just how much effort launching LonelyGirl15 would take. “Just producing an online show is the most overwhelming experience anyone could go through,” says Beckett.

The duo spent a month prior to launching the first episode setting up YouTube and MySpace profiles for Bree, the namesake character of LonelyGirl15. In that time, “Bree” established a real relationship with the online community, so when “she” uploaded her first video, it had a built-in audience.

To build the mystique of the show, Beckett and Goodfried also created a fan Web site run by a fictional and nameless “superfan.” The site stirred conversation and offered a look into the mania the duo hoped to incite. “The idea was that a group of [real-life] fans— along with the [fictional] characters—were going to search for the missing girl,” Beckett says.

By the sixth video—just two and a half weeks into their venture—a LonelyGirl15 video received 500,000 views. Goodfried and Beckett decided to give up their feature film ambitions and focus their efforts on the online series.

The Show is Everywhere

EQAL’s tagline is ”The show is everywhere,” which represents Beckett and Goodfried’s view on the difference between online media and television. “It’s about breaking the fourth wall,” says Beckett, “All good writing is suspension of disbelief, and in TV, you suspend it within the walls of that television screen. It doesn’t extend into your living room. For an Internet show, it’s everywhere. The reality extends into your bedroom, into the real world, and onto other Web sites.” Adds Goodfried, “If you want to take Sex and the City and adapt it from a TV show into a movie, you wouldn’t string four episodes together and put it on a big screen: you would write a three-act structure and shoot it differently.”

Goodfried lists interactivity as the most important characteristic of any Web series: “An online show has three core pieces; the top layer is some type of daily or weekly consistent online content. Then there must be a community-based Web site where the hardcore fans can gather [and participate in] chat rooms, forums, and social networking. The third layer is then some sort of interaction between that community and content. It could be as minimal as American Idol fans texting in their votes, or as extreme as LonelyGirl15, where we might give out ‘secret coordinates,’ and, using them, the viewer can actually go to Central Park, dig up a flash drive, make a video of themselves, and upload it. Then the fan is in the storyline itself.”

To leverage Web interactivity into a story-based experience, the team had to think about all levels of online communication. “We think about [MySpace] profile pages, chats, messaging, and live video streaming like a feature film director would think about camera angles and set design,” says Beckett.

The LonelyGirl15 experience extends past the confessional-style episodic videos. “Each character has their own profile page and can submit their own videos,” says Goodfried. “It’s as if these are two [real] kids. This could actually happen,” adds Beckett, “And there were repercussions of each one uploading a video.”

The series, therefore, is subject to the rules inherent in someone broadcasting their life and thoughts online. LonelyGirl15 is, by its nature, interactive in a way that could never be done on TV. Says Beckett, ”The hardest thing is to be able to think in a linear narrative, but then take that linear narrative and explode it outside the walls of everything.”

Restructuring The Definition of a Series

“Since our initial concept was a feature film, it had a three act structure. It was two or three pages with major beats, inciting incidents, and so forth,” says Beckett.

But as LonelyGirl15 became an online-only experience, the team had to rethink their definition of a series. “The pace online is much faster than TV,” says Beckett, “Every week on the show, something dramatic happens, and then the next week again, and then again and again. You literally burn through plot.”

Goodfried continues the questioning of the status quo: “What is ‘an episode?’ Well, we make videos five days a week: on Monday, we introduce the conflict. By the middle of the week there is heightened dramatic tension, and then by Friday, there is resolution and a cliffhanger. So there are beats each week that fans can get excited about and talk about.”

Just because the show is interactive doesn’t mean that there’s no writing involved. “It’s all scripted. One hundred percent,” admits Beckett, ”As we’ve expanded the team to include a director who isn’t writing and an editor who isn’t directing, we’ve found we have to be even tighter on the script.”

The experience of writing LG15 for almost two years sharpened their skills. “I had written a few screenplays for fun, and also wrote a few articles for my college’s humor magazine, but doing an online show where I literally I had to break story every week made me a much better writer. It’s like writing boot camp!” says Beckett with a chuckle.

You Don’t Have To Do It Alone

“Over the past couple of years, there really haven’t been that many shows online that have achieved really, really big viewership. I don’t thinks it’s due to a lack of creativity or talent; I think it’s a lack of a company like ours,” says Beckett.

“Sure, you can do it by yourself,” explains Goodfried, “Put something together, get something out there, and maybe it gets popular, but to make an online show into an actual business where you can quit your day job, you need something else.” Beckett inserts, ”The bottom line is you’re not going to get anywhere unless you collaborate.”

“We wanted to do more interactive shows, and we knew we would need financing, ad sales, legal, accounting, and someone to build our website and run it,” says Beckett, “But there was nobody who could offer that. Some people offered pieces, but nobody offered the whole solution.”

With the formation of EQAL, Beckett and Goodfried now have the resources to build large-scale interactive Web series. They recently signed with CBS to help the network expand the online experience of their flagship TV shows. But as they reflect on starting a simple Web series, they admit that the basics of storytelling are what really matter.

“Honestly, we were lucky that we did [LonelyGirl15] when we did it. We hit at the same time as YouTube, and that’s a hard thing to replicate, but we’re a perfect example of not needing the ‘right’ equipment to do the job. I didn’t have a Mac or Final Draft, because we didn’t have enough money to pay for it,” admits Beckett. “We shot with a Logitech Webcam plugged into a laptop,” follows Goodfried, “We had no lights, just a desk lamp and a window.”

Beckett summarizes, “the truth is you don’t need it. You just need a good story, and in this case, something that will work in the medium.”

If two guys with a Webcam can turn a story into a multi-million dollar, industry-changing production company, what can you do with the tools you have at your disposal?

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