Favourite posts and webseries: Lonelygirl15 - the first social media online drama?

Reposting some of my favourite posts through August -- Here's lonelygirl15.

Trailblazer in the effects a 2-way transaction with your audience can have on your web series narrative...

If you've never seen or heard of this webseries, you might like to skip down to the "ABC Nightline Interview With The Creators" video below...

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(Original post here)



From wikipedia:-

"lonelygirl15 was an interactive web-based video series which began in June 2006, and ended on August 1, 2008.

The show focuses on the life of a fictional teenage girl named Bree, whose YouTube username is the eponymous "lonelygirl15", but the show does not reveal its fictional nature to its audience.

First Blog / Dorkiness Prevails


After the fictional status of the show was revealed in September 2006, the show gradually evolved into a multi-character show including both character videoblogs and action sequences, with a complex story universe involving "trait positive girls" who are sought by an evil organization called "The Order".

Lonelygirl15 first came to international attention ostensibly as a "real" video blogger who achieved massive popularity on YouTube. The show was eventually proved as a hoax by suspicious viewers as featuring a fictitious character played by American-New Zealand actress Jessica Rose.

The three creators of Lonelygirl15, first revealed by the The New York Times, were Ramesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, California, Miles Beckett, a surgical residency dropout turned filmmaker, and Greg Goodfried, a former attorney with Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, LLP.

The series began on June 16, 2006, and was slated to run through August 1, 2008. New videos appeared, at a clip of four to five a week, first on YouTube and lg15.com, also on MySpace. As of July 2008, the series has had more than 110 million combined views."

More here:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonelygirl15

New York Times Article here

LONELYGIRL15 EPISODE ONE DETAILS

LONELYGIRL15 EPISODE 2 - Purple Monkey


LGPEDIA DETAILS


LONELYGIRL15 EPISODE 3 - School Work in Summer... BLECHH!!!


LGPEDIA DETAILS




"LONELYGIRL15" WEB SERIES HOME SITE HERE:
www.lg15.com

"LONELYGIRL15" SHOW FORUM HERE:
www.lg15.com/forum

"LONELYGIRL15" BEHIND THE SCENES BLOG HERE:
http://inside.lg15.com




"LONELYGIRL15" YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/user/lonelygirl15


ABC NIGHTLINE INTERVIEW
with the creators of lonelygirl15 (From November 2006?)




Behind Lonelygirl15 (interview) - From January 2008


Rocketboom field correspondent Chuck Olsen interviews Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, the creators of lonelygirl15.


Lonelygirl15: The Resistance on Tilzy.TV


Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried - creators of Lonelygirl15 and Kate Modern and founders of new media company EQAL - talk with Josh Cohen of Tilzy.TV about LG15: The Resistance, why the series is different, and how the LG15 world comes to life.


'Lonelygirl15' creators Beckett, Goodfried discuss new drama - from Sept 2008


"We call the shows that we produce 'social shows,' and they're very different from a TV show or a film,"

"The way that you actually construct the narrative, the way that the plot points flow over the course of the week, the way the site interplays with the video, the way the community works together and talks to the videos and talks to the characters, is all different,"




LONELYGIRL15 FAN NEWS SITE - LG15 TODAY


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Favourite webseries posts: UK Online Drama Series - KATEMODERN

Re-posting some of my favourite posts through August.

Partly to pick out anything useful, partly because some have gone missing from my blogger search box. This is so Google doesn't forget me.


The reason this is a favourite is because I wrote on Season 2. It's what got me into web series.

The Lonelygirl15 creators gave me a glimpse into a world where you can have a two-way interaction with the audience.

It's nuanaced. Somewhere between a focus group and being heckled on stage.

Everyone who works on the show are fans of the show - alongside the other fans of the series.


The mistake I made, and alot of people in the TV industry still make, is to compare webseries to TV Drama.

If you're disparaging about this show - the writing, the acting, the quality of production... then surely the traffic and number of video and profile views it gained in one year is all the more disproportionate and remarkable.


I think it, and Lonelygirl 15 shows the way for having good interactive storytelling technique. The production values are intentionally low - it was meant to look as if the characters were uploading themselves - but that aside, I think these shows are landmarks in showing how a community can be built around a show, rather than a one-time-viewing audience figure.

This whole blog is about finding examples of that kind of transaction with the audience.


If you'd like me to send these links for webseries creators to you directly, why not sign up here so I can send them via email?!

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(Original 2008 Kate Modern post here)



From wikipedia:-

KateModern is the sister series of lonelygirl15. The series, which was announced on April 16, 2007, began filming on July 9 and the first video, Fight and Flight, was released on July 16. The show is produced by LG15 in partnership with Bebo. It ended on June 28, 2008, slightly less than a year following its original release.

KateModern is set in East London, England, and bears many similarities to its parent series. Both Kate and Bree are avid video bloggers and carry a dark secret. There is an alternate reality game component of the series as well.

KATEMODERN HOME SITE:
You could either watch the show here, on the KateModern bebo site

"KateModern ran from 16th July 2007 to 28th June 2008 and was produced by the creators of lonelygirl15 - EQAL. During it's highly successful year long run it was nominated for two TV Craft BAFTA awards, a Webby Award and won the Broadcast Press Guild Award for Innovation 2008."

www.bebo.com/katemodern

Or here on the lonelygirl15 katemodern show site:
www.lg15.com/katemodern

KATEMODERN WIKI, on the LGpedia:
http://www.lg15.com/lgpedia/index.php?title=Image:KM_Portal_Season_2.jpg

And the Production Team even have their own bebo profile:
http://www.bebo.com/KateModernProduction



KateModern Forums are here:
http://www.lg15.com/katemodern/forum/

GMTV Behind the Scenes item on KateModern here:






Here are some press articles on the show...

Kate Modern herself was killed off at the start of the second series; a bit of a bold move you might think, but the format of the show means it is constantly breaking new ground.“You can interact with the story, talk to the characters, comment on the plot – we get feedback all the time,” explains Rushton.

“What I find so interesting is the fact that people are coming together and discussing the show, but they’re also coming together to discuss things that lie outside of the show that affect them. People actually come to you on Bebo and share their experiences and they feel like they’ve got a place to do that. It’s the way that communication is going.”

The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/music-film/modern-miss-817538.html

We told you last month about the planned wrap-up of KateModern, the very successful Internet television show exclusive to the AOL-owned Bebo social network.

Well, today’s the day that all is put to pasture. KateModern is having its finale, and it’s going out with 12 episodes in 12 hours. The countdown to the series close began earlier this morning and will stretch to 7PM EST, with hourly videos releases complemented by live chats with and among the fanbase.

In fact, due to its viral achievements EQAL was able to secure both a $5 million Series A funding round and CBS partnership in the space of a single month.

Mashable.com
http://mashable.com/2008/06/28/katemodern-2

BEBO's Kate Modern has become an internet sensation since being launched a year ago.
More than 66 million people have logged on to view the interactive online drama's 'webisodes' since July 2007.

TV Biz has an exclusive preview of this week's season 2 finale for your pleasure. It features Ralf Little and man-of-the-moment Noel Clarke - who wrote, directed and starred in the Kidulthood and Adulthood films.

The Sun
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article1345446.ece

Who killed KateModern? It's the question that has been occupying several million minds since the beginning of the year, when the heroine of the eponymously named online drama met her end. Kate, for those who have been living in a bunker since July 2007, is, or rather, was, a troubled teenage university art student living in London. She had a dark past that she was unable to remember and was somehow connected to a secret organisation called The Order.

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/03/digitalmedia.web20

Social networking site Bebo is to shock fans of hit online drama Kate Modern by killing off its eponymous star in the first episode of its new series.

The series' first sponsors - which get to see their products placed within the video - will be Cadbury's Creme Egg and Toyota's youth-targeted car Aygo. Sponsors of the first series included Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Warner Music, Paramount and Orange, which each paid up to £250,000 to appear within the show.

No figures have been revealed about what each company might pay to be involved with the second series.

However, each company stumps up cash based on the amount its brand is integrated into the storyline, which includes monitoring the number of times it appears in the video and is mentioned in the script.

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/16/bebo.television

KateModern, the flagship online drama broadcast by social networking site Bebo, will wrap up for the last time at the end of June, it was announced today.

The last part of series two will air on June 28, with Bebo promising a "high octane" ending with multiple episodes.

Featuring Royle Family star Ralph Little, the interactive drama has run for more than 300 four-minute episodes since it launched in July last year, racking up more than 57 million views.

Bebo wanted the show to "encourage unprecedented interactivity" with its audience and has also tried to distinguish itself from rival social networking sites by building up original content.

Users are given interactive tools to "talk" to KateModern characters and producers from the series, suggest storylines and solve puzzles in the plot.

The Bebo president, Joanna Shields, said KateModern has "created a new genre and demonstrated the power of media on a social network with gripping storylines and peerless production values".

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/12/bebo.web20


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Still think this is my favourite webseries - THE GUILD

Re-posting some of my favourite posts through August.

Partly to pick out useful ones, partly because some have gone missing from my blogger search box. Think Google might have forgotten me.

This is still my favourite web show.

I once read a post where a blogger said that they had seen the creator, Felicia Day, putting up a flyer for her webseries in a coffee shop somewhere in LA, even though it was a couple of years after the launch of The Guild, and well after it had many many followers.
Such is the dedication of a successful web series creator.

-------

(Original post here)

This is The Guild.

The Guild - Episode 1: Wake-Up Call

Cyd Sherman's online gaming addiction brings more than she bargains for...

THE GUILD HOME SITE HERE:-
http://www.watchtheguild.com/.

The Guild is a independent sitcom web series about a group of online gamers. The show started in the late summer of 2007, and for the first season was financed solely by Paypal donations from LOYAL FANS. Since season 2, The Guild has been distributed by Xbox Live and Microsoft and sponsored by Sprint.

Episodes vary from 3-8 minutes in length, and follow the Guild members’ lives online and offline.

Click here for the story behind The Guild.
Seems like a bunch of writers and actors got together... and just made it, and uploaded it themselves...

From wikipedia,

"The guild was inspired and written by Felicia Day, an avid gamer, who until 2006 had been playing World of Warcraft.

After a 2 year gaming addiction Day decided to make something productive from her experiences and wrote the series as a sitcom pilot. Day hoped to show that the stereotype of a man living in his parent's basement is not the only kind of gamer.

Due to concerns that a wider (television) audience would not be receptive to the comparatively niche setting, she decided to follow through with it online with Jane Selle Morgan and Kim Evey. Day already knew Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis from the Empty Stage, a Los Angeles based comedy theatre, and their roles were written for them. The rest of the cast was filled through auditions.

After filming the first 3 episodes in just two and a half days they faced the problem of funding. After putting a donation link to Paypal the 4th and 5th episode were almost solely financed by donations"



"THE GUILD" on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/theguild

"THE GUILD" on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/theguild

"THE GUILD" YOUTUBE CHANNEL
http://www.youtube.com/watchtheguild

"THE GUILD" COMMUNITY AREA and FORUM
http://community.watchtheguild.com


The Guild - Episode 2: Zaboo'd

Cyd Sherman's imaginary world becomes all too real when a gnome warlock shows up on her doorstep.

The Guild - Episode 3: The Macro Problem

Codex's problem with Zaboo gets sidetracked by a crisis in The Guild.

I probably can't recommend more highly following Felicia Day, if you're interested in creating a web series. Try these links below.

Click here for Felicia Day's BLOG

FELICIA DAY on twitter


ALL POSTS labelled THE GUILD here:-http://storygas.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Guild


All posts mentioning FELICIA DAY here

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WEBISODE? Is webisode the right term for your webseries episodes? Or does it denigrate your work?

Reposting this because it has disappeared from my search blog box when I had to change my storygas URL...

(Original post HERE)

GREAT discussion on twitter over the term "WEBISODE" found via @richardhartley



From Eric Mortensen
Bio director of content development @ blip.tv. beginner thereminist. cookie thief.

Please stop using the word #webisode. Is that really the message you want to send? Wannabe TV episode? Don't denigrate your work.



Here's Eric Mortensen's side of the conversation... (most recent first)
(Apologies, but you have to read below in two halves, and backwards... How's that for handy. Some really interesting tweets in here though)...


@AnthonyDeLosa Perhaps we'll have this discussion in person someday.

@AnthonyDeLosa So, to bring us back a few steps..does #webisode mean interactive? Does it mean something broader than TV?

@AnthonyDeLosa The web is largely where it's watched for now.Absolutely.But things change fast and thinking only in terms of Web = mistake.

@AnthonyDeLosa There's still a lot of work to do. An INSANE amount of work. But if the next 5 move as quickly as the last 5? BLAMMO!

@AnthonyDeLosa We've been grappling with that for 5 years now. This industry has moved forward at an astonishing rate over that time.

@AnthonyDeLosa We've been delivering web series to Sony TVs for 3 years now. Roku,Tivo,AppleTV, too. Content comes from the web, not to it

@AnthonyDeLosa But "web series" isn't about where it's watched. It's where it comes from. Why would someone make something just for the web?

@AnthonyDeLosa I have issues with "web series" and "indie music", too. But I see the logic there. They serve a purpose for the time being.

@AnthonyDeLosa Web series tells you where content comes from. It's sorta like "indie music". Webisode suggests "not quite a real episode".

@AnthonyDeLosa But who is looking webisodes? Who is looking to be entertained, but *only* by "webisodes"? What viewer even uses that word?

@nicolespag I really don't understand the word's purpose. I wonder who was the first to use it.

Head over to @podictionary for more on the word "episode". http://podictionary.com/?p=170

"Episode" has been used in everything from Greek tragedies to Who Wants To Marry a Millioinaire. It's the right word for your show, too.

###



And on the other side of the chat... @anthonydelosa
Anthony DeLosa
Creator: Neighborhood Watch @TheHollywood Web Series

(most recent comments first)

@ericmortensen Thanks for an interesting discussion. One thing I can absolutely agree on, without a doubt there is a lot of work to do.

@ericmortensen experiences and worlds unique to the web not inferior versions of TV shows. I think there will always be a place for that.

@ericmortensen Whenever I look at web shows I ask "why does this exist on the web and not on TV?" I'm interested in creating interactive

@ericmortensen But does the average person view that way? How long before they do? Have to meet the capability of the average user.

@ericmortensen I think web series is where it's watched. If there is interaction and requires use of the keyboard that's where it needs 2 B

@ericmortensen I feel as an industry "WebTV" fails to let the average person know it exists and where to find it.

@ericmortensen Either you go to the audience or you hope the audience somehow finds you. Not just on the show level but on the ind. level.

@ericmortensen I always go back to hulu. They have the most known IP in the world but took to TV to tell people where to find it online.

@ericmortensen I think there will always be content made just 4 the web. That viewers aren't looking 4 is because they don't know about it.

@ericmortensen I can see where using web series and webisiode would be redundant. Fair enough.

@ericmortensen I have no love for the term but "web series episode"-"webisode", "tomatoe"-"tomatoh" IMO

@ericmortensen You could never just use episode by itself. You'd have to preface it with web series anyway which is the same as webisode.

@ericmortensen Where discovery is enemy#1 webisode is necessary. It makes it clear that it is an episode of something made for the web.

###

I hate the term 'webisode', but not as much as the term Web TV, which really does feel backward looking, and inaccurate (for failing to distinguish TV episodes merely uploaded from interactive storytelling)...

...but only because the word 'webisode' feels ugly and pretentious. But as Anthony says,

Where discovery is enemy#1 webisode is necessary. It makes it clear that it is an episode of something made for the web.

Someone out there must have a better term?
(we don't call TV programmes "films")
(for our friends in the US: we don't call TV programs "movies")

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Lost creator JJ Abrams on How To Write For Mystery Shows - #webseries

Reposting this because it has disappeared from my blog search in my great storygas URL loss of '11

Original post here

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Huge thanks to http://www.twitter.com/toodlepip of Chinwag.com for putting me on to this.

It's been up since January 2008, - but this isn't a news site, just a collection of useful cool stuff for web series writers, producers, and fans.

J.J. Abrams traces his love for the unseen mystery –- a passion that’s evident in his films and TV shows, including Cloverfield, Lost, Alias and the new Star Trek -- back to its magical beginnings.

From TED.com:-

So the amazing thing was, we were able to do this thing. And part of that was the amazing availability of technology, knowing we could do anything. I mean, we could never have done that. We might have been able to write it; we wouldn't have been able to depict it like we did. And so part of the amazing thing for me is in the creative process, technology is, like, mind-blowingly inspiring to me. I realize that that blank page is a magic box. You know? It needs to be filled with something fantastic.

MORE HERE:-
http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html

AUDIO AS MP3 TO DESKTOP:-
http://www.ted.com/talks/download/audio/125/talk/205

HERE'S ONE FINAL INSPIRING EXTRACT:-

The most incredible sort of mystery, I think, is now the question of what comes next. Because it is now democratized. So now, the creation of media is -- it's everywhere. The stuff that I was lucky and begging for to get when I was a kid is now ubiquitous.

And so, there's an amazing sense of opportunity out there. And when I think of the filmmakers who exist out there now who would have been silenced, you know -- who have been silenced in the past -- it's a very exciting thing.

I used to say in classes and, you know, lectures and stuff, that -- to someone who wants to write, "Go! Write! Do your thing." It's free, you know, you don't need permission to go write. But now I can say, "Go make your movie!"

There's nothing stopping you from going out there and getting the technology. You can lease, rent, buy stuff off the shelf that is either as good, or just as good, as the stuff that's being used by the, you know, quote unquote "legit people."

No community is best served when only the elite have control. And I feel like this is an amazing opportunity to see what else is out there.

And here's one of the videos J.J. Abrams plays in his presentation: car chased by a plane on the road.





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Webseries Storytelling - The Ludic Marker (Letting your fans know its a web series?)

Via the awesomeWebSeries Today
Great blog post on this very specific aspect of online storytelling, written by Tom Liljeholm

The uncanny valley of Transmedia Storytelling

The ludic marker was a way to inform participants that they were taking part of something fictional. There were three main ways to create a ludic marker;

•The popup disclaimer, leaving websites themselves intact and ‘unharmed’ by the not-so-seamless conducts.

•The constant marker, putting a symbol, logo or other common denominator on all pages and content, making sure that when participants understood that they were in fact playing a game, they would not have to doubt weather or not new content was a part of the experience or not.

•The spectacular setting, where the story was simply so unbelievable that it had to be obvious that it was not real.

I have seen a growing trend of making transmedia experiences ‘seamless’. A lot of people seem to think that immersion can only be achieved when people actually think that a story is real. I am here to tell you why you are wrong and why that is bad.

MORE HERE:- http://tea4twoentertainment.tumblr.com/post/6520633671/the-uncanny-valley-of-transmedia-storytelling

Tom Liljeholm on TWITTER @tomliljeholm

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