Ever noticed how few college shows there are? …aside from FELICITY, I can’t think of a successful college show.

Very few Americans actually go to college. 17% graduate, apparently. And who knows how many go to sleepaway colleges — lots of people stay at home and commute to college.

Gotta watch that observer bias… it’s good to run your stories by some non-writer friends. See if your take on the world matches anyone else’s.

I thought Bob’s response was smart, so I thought I’d embarrass him by including it on our blog:

Interesting article. You know, maybe it’s futile to write about my experiences because I’m one of a privileged few and only a small percentage of America (less than 17% apparently) even went through what I went through. Perhaps the shows that are too smart fail because a vast amount of the audience can’t connect with them.

His “high school hierarchy” point reminds me of Frank Oz talking about how his movie Death at a Funeral had to take place in England and, in particular, a high-brow family. With an established hierarchy, the characters had someplace to fall. The same thing is being set up in Glee on FOX right now.

So the question is… how do we overcome those two things with our own “college-themed” show:

1. Make it primal. How I Met Your Mother (where they’re all college graduates) works because its characters and themes are very primal. Love, death, embarrassment, sex, beer. Feels very college-ish, but it’s popular.
2. Create the Hierarchy. In whatever universe we decide to take on, create the hierarchy… Sons of Anarchy (which I just started watching… it’s great, btw) has that.
3. Pitch to Cable. Mad Men gets made and it’s extremely successful, but to a very niche audience. Following Alex’s logic, a college show has a better chance on an a cable net like AMC than a broadcaster like ABC.

Great panel discussion tonight at the Writers Boot Camp in Santa Monica. Bob and I (Alec) were lucky enough to join some great panelists, and drop some knowledge-bombs on the crowd.

Some key takeaways:

• Create content to SERVE your audience. They purpose of the content is not to serve YOU as a creator. Nothing stops viral spread like there being “nothing in it” for the consumer.
• Have an exit strategy. Treat your writing like a business. Decide whether you need to partner up, sell out, or gather an audience to monetize. (At Space Shank, we do both — we create content to sell AND to leverage our position into getting bigger and bigger writing/producing gigs.)
• Be funny and approachable. The two go hand-in-hand, I think. Bob and I made an effort to lighten the business talk with some jokes. Some hit, some missed, but hey, if nothing else, be entertaining!

One last funny experience from tonight’s panel. Now, we knew we were a big deal because we were a part of this prestigious panel discussion. However, about halfway through the event, my wife noticed that our nameplates had a small, itsy-bitsy typo on them. It listed our company as “Spank Shark Media.” Hilarious. Juuuuuuust when we thought we had made it to the big leagues.

It’s cool. Special thanks to the Writers Boot Camp and Script Magazine!

New Media Panel
Monday, September 21, 2009
7:30 PM
Writers Boot Camp in Santa Monica

Hosted by Script Magazine/Final Draft, the panel will also include Donna Michelle Anderson, Aaron Mendelsohn, and blip.tv’s Rafi Mamlian. Details:

The Screenwriter of Tomorrow: What New Media Really Means for Writers
Everyone has heard the term New Media tossed around, but what does it really mean for the screenwriter? Have we learned how to monetize DIY content? Do the writers of today have to pick up a camera to survive? Can being transmedia make the difference in your writing career? Learn from writers working in new media and related media (graphic novels, short film, etc.) how you can expand your career by thinking outside of your writing space.

For more info, or to RSVP, visit ScriptMag.com.

Let us know if you’re coming, and we’ll look for you in the audience!

Overall, we really like their take on writing, and would encourage anyone looking for structured mentoring, training, or guidance to give them a look.

Read our post at ScriptMag.com.

Video Game Writers Sound Off

The billion-dollar industry is providing new opportunities for writers, but don’t expect your traditional writing skills to translate: video gaming is a brand new medium.

By Robert Gustafson and Alec McNayr

As teenagers of the 1980’s, we spent hours every day poised in front of our televisions, but we weren’t watching cartoons or catching the latest after-school special. We were playing Nintendo. Our cultural experience featured Super Mario Bros., Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, and The Legend of Zelda.

Twenty years later, the average age of video game consumers is creeping into the mid-thirties, and the “just for kids” world of video games has matured into a strong entertainment industry segment that, on any given week, can out-gross the movie box office.

With increased technological capacity and more sophisticated tastes, video game consumers are demanding better gameplay experiences, and are committing hundreds of hours to complete an individual game. Game producers are taking notice, and employing better and better resources to keep and maintain the gamers’ engagement: including storytelling.

Today’s pioneering video game writers are navigating a nebulous and ever-changing job market. Unlike traditional media, there are no standard titles or roles for video game writers. A writing credit can represent a spectrum of duties: the writer as the driving story force for the game, brought in at the beginning of a project, or the writer filling a last-minute need for scripting cinematics (film-like scenes that appear in-between levels) or barks (automated in-game dialogue between characters) just before the game goes to press.

The lack of standards caught the attention of the Writer’s Guild Foundation, the non-profit arm of the professional writers union. Though video games are not officially governed by the Writer’s Guild, the WGF provides resources for the emerging game writing community, including an advisory panel, a script library, and networking events. In fact, we met most of the video game writers we interviewed for this article through a one-day seminar last October called “Getting into the Game” at the WGA Library in Los Angeles.

DEFINING THE SCRIPT

One major difference between writing video games and traditional formats is the script itself. Unlike linear stories developed for film or television, video games scripts often contain the over-arching story, descriptions and dialogue for individual game levels, cinematics (also called cut-scenes), in-game dialogue, and even multiple paths for the player to take (called branching). Because of the many facets to a game’s experience, scripts can run a daunting 300-500 pages.

Script format can vary dramatically as well. “There’s no real standards, many developers like the dialogue to be written into Microsoft Excel, but I try to stay within Final Draft,” admits Marianne Krawczyk, writer of the epic video game God of War. Excel is the software of choice because it allows for quick reordering of script elements and sorting based on character name, event triggers, emotional cues, etc. The industry’s use of Excel reveals the importance of logic and structure when creating a non-linear experience.

Anne Toole, writer of games like Wizard 101 and Stargate SG-1, explains her writing process further, “I used to think in terms of act breaks and scenes, but in games, the level structure may not support those things. You may work in quests or missions; it’s not necessary linear.”

But there’s a creativity and craft that writers bring to the structure. Micah Wright, writer of games like Looney Toons: Back in Action, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Destroy All Humans 4, explains, “Games are a series of interesting choices. The job of the game writer is to create a world where a gamer is incentivized to make interesting choices.”

This inherent “player agency” acknowledges that the video game player takes control of the main character, and controls them according to their own set of self-aware characteristics. In a movie, the writer determines the character’s steps, but video games require less subtle orchestration. “The player wants to play; the player wants to tear it up and beat the game, not forward the story,” explains Susan O’Connor, best known for her work on Bioshock and Gears of War, “so it’s a struggle to not be overt about throwing the character into the game, and letting their actions determine what role they are playing.”

MOVING FROM TV TO VG

While video games represent a new medium, a background in writing linear stories for television can help.

Krawczyk began her career writing for the Sweet Valley High television series and developing animation projects. While in between gigs, she heard of an opportunity to write for a game called God of War, an epic already two years into development. Her transition to the game world was a strange one: she had to audition for it. “I actually sat in with other writers and we had to compete against each other for the job,” she said, “We listened to the story pitch from the game director, and I went home and write out my thoughts.”

Her background in animation prepared her well: the director liked her notes on the characters, motivations, and storyline for the game. Even though she got the job, she felt like her work on the story was being bolted on at the end of the process. “Writers are often brought in to either fix the story or write some dialogue,” she explains, “You can’t really start a TV show or a movie without a script, but you can start a video game, and that often happens. But that’s changing.”

Similarly, Wright and writing partner Jay Lender spent years writing for Nickelodeon shows including SpongeBob SquarePants, but were attracted to video games in 2001 by the opportunity of defining new rules for a new medium. Their first project, Shadow Ops: Red Mercury, was a bittersweet experience. They landed the job, wrote the story and script, and after a successful preview at the E3 video game conference, were replaced by “Hollywood writers” with film-writing credits. Wright recalls, “We were gamers trying to write a story without all the played-out conventions. We thought the female Russian scientist should be a brunette with A-cup breasts, but then they put all those tired conventions back in the game. The scientist turned out to be—drum roll—a buxom blonde.”

SHAPING THE STORY

Regardless of where the writer is brought into the game creation process, they play a unique role as a collaborator across development teams. If television is a writer-driven medium, and films are director-driven, video games are equal parts technology development, art direction, and story. Writers must work with executives, digital artists, computer coders, and 3-D modelers to ensure that their story matches the original vision for the game.

Bioshock writer O’Connor has the lucky position of being choosy about her work. After years writing simple stories for children’s video games, she now prefers to take writing gigs where she is a contributor from the ground floor. “The first thing I do is figure out what kind of experience the studio is looking to create,” she explains, “Game developers think in architectural terms, but as a writer, I think in terms of motivation and emotion, and the place to meet in the middle is player experience.”

Anne Toole agrees that collaboration is the key to successful video game writing, “Hollywood writers coming into games are surprised at how it really is a team effort, and of course the down side is that, unlike Hollywood, the corporate office culture is very integrated with the creative side.” O’Connor follows, “TV and film people are comfortable talking about feelings, motivations, and characters, but game development is a programming-heavy industry. It’s just a different language, so the writer needs to be able to translate their work into that.”

While story and dialogue were once secondary to design, the tide is turning. “More and more, I’m seeing story driving the design, instead of the other way around, “ Krawczyk says, “Design alone can make the game fun—and fun trumps any type of storyline—but it has to come from a place of meaning.”

GETTING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

So, the opportunities are great, and the standards are being changed daily. How can an aspiring video game writer break into the industry? The differences between video games and Hollywood end here: it’s all about who you know. Most of the many writers we interviewed knew each other and have long careers based on those relationships.

Writers Guild Foundation Video Games Panel

So aspiring writers should be building their relationships too. Writers should attend conferences and seminars like the annual Austin Game Developers’ Conference or events hosted by the WGF. Industry conferences like Comic-Con and E3 are also great ways to network. They might also look into jobs as game testers, which have proven to be a good way to make inroads into game development studios.

There are, of course, books and learning materials available as well. Consider reading Digital Storytelling by Carolyn Handler Miller or The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design by Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten.

But perhaps nothing is as effective as being familiar with games themselves. “You have to play games. I can’t count how many people want to write for games, but don’t play them,” says Wright, “If I was looking for a plumber, I wouldn’t hire someone who doesn’t like pipes.” Toole follows, “Figure out what is fun about a game. You should pair that information with research about game theory.”

Video games offer players a multi-path, free-form experience, and it seems the gaming industry is offering its writers the same thing. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this exciting new medium.

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/2008/10/01/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?

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/10/01/lonelygirl15-creators-not-so-lonely-anymore/feed/ 0 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/08/07/kenny-stevensons-summer-classic/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/08/07/kenny-stevensons-summer-classic/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:00:27 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=244 While I love touting my own work, I also enjoy checking out shows by friends and former castmates.

I saw Kenny Stevenson’s stage show “Have a Bitchin’ Summer” last week, and it plays a few more times this month at the Groundlings Theater on Melrose Ave. Definitely check it out. All sketches and videos were written by Kenny, and are performed by both himself and a grip of Groundlings Sunday Company actors.

Have a Bitchin’ Summer
Sketches and Videos all written by Kenny Stevenson
August 8 & 15, 2008
Groundlings Theatre (Call 323-934-4747 for tix)

One of my favorite sketches: Some Enchanted Evening

 

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/08/07/kenny-stevensons-summer-classic/feed/ 0 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/08/04/whats-selling-online/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/08/04/whats-selling-online/#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:00:13 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=219 [This article originally appeared in the July/August 2008 issue of Script Magazine.]

What’s Selling Online?

As online entertainment matures into a viable business, is it worthwhile to sell your web series concepts to the new crop of online studios?
By Robert Gustafson and Alec McNayr

For two years, online video entertainment has been an industry on the verge of something big. As a showcase for entrepreneurial talent who haven’t quite arrived, it is an artistic platform akin to independent film festivals: just short of the mainstream. It’s exciting and groundbreaking, but certainly not lucrative.

Innovative filmmakers and writers created “web series” before such a thing existed. In the “wild west” landscape of online video, it took guts, grit, and luck to stand out. But ultimately, standing out online meant being a “big fish in a small pond” when compared to traditional movies and television.

However, the online media industry has just recently moved out of its infancy, signified by “big media” companies arriving on the scene. Their plan is to leverage their access to talent, advertisers, and audiences to successfully compete with small independent creators and user-generated clips. In the past few months:

• New online divisions of television studios have sprung up, like Warner Bros. 2.0, ABC’s Stage 9 Digital, and Sony’s Crackle.
• CBS recently hired the creators of online hits Lonelygirl15 and Kate Modern to create web content for their popular TV shows.
• NBC unveiled an unprecedented three Web series during their Fall 2008 Upfronts.
• The Webby Awards (the “Oscars of the Web”), once awarded to independently-created eclectic fare, are now annually dominated by networks like NBC, HBO, CBS, and MTV.
• And finally, all the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood now all have “online divisions.”

As “big media” descends upon online video, so have the processes normally associated with the entertainment business: pitching and selling. New online studios may offer creators financing, development, and marketing resources much like traditional studios in the past, but they still come at a price: ownership and control.

We asked online experts from both sides of the pitching table to share their thoughts on this new market for online content. We asked them what’s selling, what aspiring creators can do to better their shot, and whether or not selling your ideas is even worth it.

What Are Buyers Looking For?

At the forefront of Web series development is 60 Frames, an online-only studio influenced by the traditional Hollywood business model: Beverly Hills offices, executives from the agency world, and an aggressive plan to launch 50 original series in 2008. Jessica Connell, a 60 Frames development executive, states, “When we are considering a project, we ask ourselves, ‘if we put our financial resources in the hands of these artists, are they going to deliver great work?’” For that reason, some of the studio’s short-form comedies and dramas feature recognizable actors, writers, and producers from network television (some, but not all, mind you).

Connell continues to list her criteria for buying a pitched show concept: “Is it custom-built for the Internet? Does [the show] fit into our budgetary parameters?” Revenue possibilities are also a key decision-making focus. She states, “since internet programming is traditionally advertising-supported, what are the advertising opportunities surrounding and inherent in this pitch? All of these are very important issues.”

Video aggregator blip.tv doesn’t buy creative concepts outright, but co-founder and COO Dina Kaplan has noticed a trend in the video series posted to her site: “Comedy seemed to be huge in 2007, but we are [now] seeing some really creative and interesting dramas, such as Heathens, Drawn By Pain, and Meet Me at the Graveyard.” But whether pitching a comedy or drama, the produce-ability of a script is essential: “Web shows are not earning as much as TV shows right now, so if you can keep the costs of production down, that will be a big benefit to the distributor who [finances] the show. Write for four actors instead of twenty. That’s going to keep your show a lot more manageable.”

JibJab has been featuring video content online since 1999, both producing its own creations and commissioning projects from outside talent. The site’s co-founder and “Head Art Guy” Evan Spiridellis uses one simple measure when considering a pitched concept: “Does it makes us laugh? We never try to pander to our audience by guessing what they might like. The simple truth is that we make stuff that makes us laugh with the hope that if we find it funny, our audience will too.”

Pitching From the Trenches

From her view at 60 Frames, Connell sees a newly forming online hierarchy of talent. “Just like film and TV have their ‘A-list’ writers, a group of writers will naturally emerge [online] and take a leadership position. And as more artists get comfortable with the platform and the economics, the content will naturally get better and better.”

Two early entrants into that online talent pool are Kent Nichols, co-creator of Ask A Ninja, and Chris McCaleb from Big Fantastic, the production company behind online series Sam Has 7 Friends, Prom Queen, and (60 Frames-backed) Cockpit. Both are excited about the prospect of a growing online entertainment industry, but have very different views of selling concepts to online development studios.

Nichols, whose independently-produced Ninja series gained a large audience through viral marketing, fears the cost of working with an online studio isn’t worth the fee a creator can expect to receive. “The problem is that all of the online [studios] are trying to buy everything for too little. [The payout] may sound attractive on its face, but is in reality the total production budget, with just a small fraction coming back to you.”

Indeed, producing a series with an online development studio can net the creator a few thousand dollars, but cost a percentage (or all) of their intellectual property ownership. This may mean a loss of participation in future profits, a loss of creative control, or even being prohibited from getting to produce the series itself. For some people, signing away their rights for a small fee may be a good trade-off to get their “foot in the door.”

When Sam Has 7 Friends launched in 2006, McCaleb and his team could have never guessed it would lead to a pitch meeting with Michael Eisner-backed online studio Vuguru. “We [financed the show ourselves] because the Internet provided a direct link to the holy grail of any filmmaker: the audience.” Yet, with limited resources to create another series, his company pitched and sold Prom Queen to Vuguru, which then provided a production budget, a distribution deal with MySpace, and access to advertising that, in the end, made the series profitable.

McCaleb could not comment on his company’s participation in Prom Queen’s profits, but they have benefitted from additional work: the Big Fantastic team recently wrapped shooting another Vuguru-backed web series—this time, on location in India. In addition to focusing on longer-term revenues gained by full ownership (the group does maintain an ongoing stake in their 60 Frames-backed comedy series Cockpit), the promise of continual work seems to fit Big Fantastic’s goals: “While we are very interested in how to monetize Internet entertainment, our primary interest is in pushing the medium to tell new and exciting stories.”

Nichols also seems to have gotten the best of both worlds. Ninja remains a profitable media entity, and he was recently chosen to write and direct his first feature film, a remake of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Even with a foray into traditional entertainment, he remains focused on becoming an “A-list” online creator: “I think more companies will either start paying a lot better to compete for scarce talent, or they will offer limited licensing agreements [that allow the creator to keep more ownership of the content].”

Keep Moving Forward

The Web is growing into its own unique medium, providing storytellers new tools and tactics for creating compelling content, completely separate from television or movies. McCaleb warns, “Don’t break up feature films or busted pilots and dump them on the Internet. Tell an organic story that yearns to be online, that could only exist online. Look for new ways to tell your stories, especially opportunities for your audience to interact.”

Today’s new online studios are banking on finding the new voices and distinctive ideas that will establish new standards of online success. JibJab’s Spiridellis further explains, “A definite set of rules will emerge. It happened with film at the turn of the century, and again with television in the 50’s and 60’s and I have no doubt that it will happen with the Web as well. But the best thing about rules is that they are always there to be broken!”

Even in this undefined era, many of the tenets of traditional entertainment still ring true. 60 Frames’ Connell states, “Even though we are working in 2-5 minute webisodes, it all comes down to the quality of the writing, direction and performances.” It is also still imperative to continue to stand out from the crowd. According to Kaplan, “As we see the networks put more money into Web shows, it will raise the bar higher for independent producers creating online content.” Nichols agrees: “Write to your resources, have a very strong take on whatever your concept, and be different. You have to stand out from a sea of other online folks, as well as shows like 30 Rock and Lost.”

No matter your final destination—to pitch or produce—writing the story is where it begins. McCaleb confirms this: “Whether it’s television, the Internet, or a holographic box implanted in your eyes, everyone’s still looking for a great story.” No gimmick, personal connection, studio backing, or online tool can replace the hard work necessary to writing a great story. Take it from Spiridellis: “Don’t sit around and wait for anybody! If you’re a writer, then write until your knuckles bleed.”

If your stories are good, there’s finally an opportunity to sell your online scripts and buy some gauze for those bloody knuckles.

]]> http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/08/04/whats-selling-online/feed/ 0 http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/05/24/interview-with-quarterlifes-marshall-herskovitz/ http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/2008/05/24/interview-with-quarterlifes-marshall-herskovitz/#comments Sat, 24 May 2008 18:42:24 +0000 Alec McNayr http://www.spaceshank.com/blog/?p=134 We interviewed writer-producer Marshall Herskovitz for the May/June 2008 issue of Script Magazine a few days before his online series quarterlife debuted on NBC.

We all know what happened, but don’t write off our article just yet: quarterlife’s stumble on TV is still an important step for the emerging world of online media…

quarterlife

Creator Marshall Herskovitz illuminates his revolutionary stumble from TV to the Internet and back again.

By Robert Gustafson and Alec McNayr

The revolution was about to begin. Everything was in place. Established writer/producers backed it. Network marketing pushed it. The public relations machine was in full gear. The online community was buzzing. The Writer’s Strike was freshly over, and since so much of the debate centered on online content, the attention of the entire entertainment industry turned to NBC on February 26, 2008.

Write that down. It’s the date everything changed.

Quarterlife premiered as an hour-long television drama—the first directly derived from its online counterpart. Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick—already among the Hollywood elite for their work on television shows like 30something and My So-Called Life and movies like The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond—had created the show expressly for the Internet, but had jumped on the opportunity to move the show to television.

Their decision became the first experiment in discovering how “the future of television” would go. Could the Internet be more than just a farm league for television? Were shows actually portable across platforms? Would broad television exposure significantly expand the audience beyond the MySpace and YouTube users that had already seen the show?

Of course, we know what happened in the days following February 26, 2008. The Nielsen ratings were released, and the premiere Quarterlife episode only netted 3.86 million viewers, a 17-year low for that time slot on NBC. The remaining five hour-long episodes were moved to NBC’s sister cable network Bravo.

Regardless of these results, Quarterlife represents an important marker for an industry in transition. In a speech given at the Harvard Business School just days following the premiere, Herskovitz stated, “When you saw [Quarterlife] on TV, it didn’t look like TV, and when you saw it on the Internet it didn’t look like the Internet.”

Though television and Internet-delivered shows have great disparity between them, they are getting ever closer in both quality and style. And if Quarterlife is the first of its kind, there are great lessons to be learned by screenwriters looking to prepare for the future.

We spoke with Herskovitz himself, just days before Quarterlife’s NBC launch, and he provided thoughtful insights into the origins of the show and where the industry is headed, which, in light of the events of February 26, 2008, become all the more clear.

Piloted Beginnings

Co-creators Herskovitz and Zwick created a pilot called 1/4 Life in 2005, but insist that this iteration of the show has little to do with its predecessor. “People assume that because we did a pilot for ABC, that this is the same project, which I can understand,” said Herskovitz, “but in fact, we threw out that whole story and all the characters and literally started from scratch because we’d felt we had missed.”

They gravitated towards the trend of young people increasingly using the Internet to create and communicate. “Because it was so oriented around the Internet, it just dawned on us that this was the perfect project to make the leap online that we had been talking about.” He expands, “Ed and I had this ongoing joke that two kids out of film school were going to make a $15,000 film, post it on their Web site, make $80 million, and make the studios irrelevant. And we thought, ‘why don’t we be those two kids?’”

Producing for the Web

With no standards or models for success, the two faced many unknowns in deciding how to write and produce this “show concept” for the Web. Yet, unlike most online writer/producers, they had a wealth of experience that helped guide their decisions.

“We decided that we’d write an hour-long show and break it up into six pieces because networks demanded six acts [for commercial breaks], but even that was arbitrary,” he shared, “And even then, when we said that we were going to do eight-minute episodes, people laughed and said that no one watches more than two minutes on the Internet. But I don’t know how to do anything emotional in two minutes; it seemed silly to me. The irony, of course, is that the biggest complaint we get about the online episodes is that they’re too short.”

Herskovitz, however, quickly found that the same experiences that helped him as a television writer hindered him when it came to the Web. “My original thought was that we’d do it for $50,000, own it ourselves, and shoot it as cheaply as possible,” he concedes, “but I realized I couldn’t do what I do for that much. I had been ruined by working in television.”

In the end, the Quarterlife team expanded the budget to $300,000—a figure higher than any other Web show, but far lower than even one episode of a television show. The challenge, then, was to create a show with high production values on a limited budget. “We found that we didn’t need a lot of things, like a costuming designer; the actors brought their own clothes.” He adds, “We confined the shoot to just a few locations with limited lighting setups. When we shot in a car, I was the one holding the camera.”

Though limited by his own budget, Herskovitz relied on the instincts he had spent his whole career honing: “It was a series of hundreds of decisions that sat between ‘what are our resources’ and ‘what do we need to make a show that we can be proud of’ and essentially trying to balance the two.”

Freeing the Script

Herskovitz and his team may have been limited by budget, but after years of writing for television, writing for his own, fully-owned Web series was a refreshing change. “Other than restricting situations, we wrote it just like we would write a movie or TV show, but I was able to shed some of the inhibitions that I had internalized while doing television for twenty years. Inevitably, when you do television, you begin to internalize those voices of doubt.”

The change allowed him to write dialog in a new way, allowing for more natural patterns, over-talking, and age-specific terminology that seemed relevant for the subject matter, but may not have been accepted on television. “There is a strange homogenization that takes place [on TV], whether you like it or not,” he said, “It’s very presentational and, over time, it demands that of you as a writer.”

The style continued through production: “Even as we started shooting, I felt this energy coming off these people—this feeling of reality—it was very exciting.”

The Old Guard Becomes New

After a disappointing one-episode run on NBC, it seemed as though the general television audience was not ready for the style of Quarterlife. But even days before its TV debut, Herskovitz questioned whether or not viewers would connect with the show’s unique voice.

“People could say ‘wow, that’s different’ and be interested in it, or they could just change the channel,” Herskovitz admitted, “but even if our show were to tank on NBC, I’ll be proud that we made the point that creative control and ownership should live with the creators.”

Herskovitz explained that the real breakthrough of Quarterlife was not simply the move from the Internet to TV, but the revolutionary change it signals in the entertainment industry. “From day one, there were two unbreakable conditions: first, we had to own it 100%, and second, we had to have complete creative control. As far as I know, that has never happened in the history of television. [Creative control] is being lost right now, because television is owned by six companies. They own these properties and now exert a level of control they never did before.”

But things are changing, thanks to the power of the Internet. “If you look at what’s happening right now, you’re seeing the dissolution of a whole set of rules for creating entertainment, and we don’t know what will take its place.”

Advice for the Future

Quarterlife itself may not have been a colossal success on NBC, but it does establish a new model for show creation. As studios and networks dump traditional pilot seasons and upfronts in favor of mining for and licensing content, Quarterlife may just be the new standard for serial entertainment.

That said, is a television writing job still the “big prize” for an aspiring writer? Herskovitz answers, “Yes, but [that aspiring writer] would be responding to how it was five and ten years ago. In television, everything you create is owned by somebody else. It is controlled aesthetically by someone else, whereas if you create on the Internet, you have the possibility of having it for yourself—of owning it yourself—and being the creative force behind it.”

Herskovitz acknowledged that creating something like Quarterlife isn’t necessarily a path available for all writers, especially those new to the business, but he affirms that writing, no matter the medium, is one of the best ways to break in.

“There are no undiscovered great writers. There is such a hunger for great writing, and there are so few good writers out there. I actually have a Darwinian view of writing.” He continues with some direct advice: “Write three scripts on spec, and if by the end of that third one, you haven’t felt that energy coming toward you—that excitement, that enthusiasm about finding a new voice—you should find something else to do, because you should feel that. The good writers do. It’s harsh, but it’s just true. You can get somebody to read your work. So, just try it. Just write and see who gets excited about it.”

We may not see another Quarterlife-like show make the jump directly to network television anytime soon, but Herskovitz and Zwick have put yet another chink in the armor of traditional media. The emerging world of online entertainment is still looking for a pathway to legitimacy and Quarterlife will certainly go down as one of many revolutionary battles fought between the ways of the old and new.

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