IML 346 Final Proposal:

John Visclosky
11/14/07
IML 346

IML 346 Final Proposal:
Creative Merger: Viewing Serialized, Web-Based Storylines as an Innovative
Avenue Toward Critical Research

I am exploring web-launched, serialized storylines—otherwise known as webisodes—in order to discover what technical and narrative characteristics they share, so that I can demonstrate the capacity of individuals to use formulaic patterns, manipulations, and conventions to create popular internet-based entertainment.
Through my thesis project, I’m trying to gain an understanding of web-launched, serialized storylines as both a creative art form, and an instructional tool. Mini, serialized webisodes offer all the advantages of a syndicated television show with few of the drawbacks. They are a creative medium through which you can continually examine and reexamine the stories and interactions of a select number of fictional characters. In other words, webisodes surpass films in their capacity for emotional and creative depth simply by offering the possibility to emotionally probe and explore your characters an infinite number of times rather than once for a two-hour span. Unlike a television series however, webisodes are unconstrained by pesky running times (they can be 3-5 minutes rather than 23), and censorship.
Webisodes are also a great medium through which to explore and learn about theories of creative production. Television shows have the benefit of legions of paid employees devoted to promoting their creation and success. With webisodes, you are forced to be your own writer, director, and producer, and to successfully deal with internet-based advertisers should the serial become widely viewed. It is a wonderful discipline because it is a creative venture steeped very deeply in technical principles; you have to be an emotional filmmaker who is also highly technically proficient.
Webisodes are an interesting creature. You have to create characters that are entertaining in only five minutes, yet who will have enough creative life to be sustained over a long overall period of time. They have to leave the viewers wanting more, but never unsatisfied. It is a difficult balance to strike, one which poses significant challenges in writing, editing, and performance. I want to discover firsthand, precisely how an artist might go about creating such characters, and such environments.
In the creation of these webisodes, I want to help my viewers understand how this mode of serialized storytelling is created and popularized. By keeping a firsthand-account-via-blog of the entire creative/fiscal/technical process of creating a webisode series, I will be providing a valuable instruction manual not only for creative artists but for intellectual and technological theorists as well. How are such art forms created? What are their benefits and drawbacks? How are they sustained and popularized? And what does their failure or success mean for the future of film and television as creative/fiscally successful mediums? The webisodes as a whole will comprise a series known as “The Reunion,” and will revolve around the different members of a family who are all meeting for one weekend at an annual family reunion. It will be shot in a faux-documentary style. In other words, the different episodes will be created in such a way that viewers could take them to be an actual record of real people. Each episode will include documentary-style interviews, shaky-hand-held camerawork, and an improvisational script.
All successful webisodes share a few common characteristics. They are mostly all comedic, with a quirky, off-color sense of humor. They have archetypical characters such as the normal guy, the stupid person, the annoying one, and, surprisingly enough, the slutty girl. They are all under five minutes in length, and they are jam-packed with jokes. And they all have a main dramatic thread, one single story arc that drives the entire season. As such, I tried to create a story that would include all these elements while elaborating upon them. The main character in “The Reunion,” is Ben, the normal guy who hates his job because he seems to be the only one who notices how stupid all of his coworkers are. There is lots of rather raunchy, off-color humor, and a stupid character as well as the token annoying guy from work, Dave. The main dramatic thread of the entire series will be Ben’s attempted love affair with a girl named Jen, who he sees for the first time in 10 years at the family reunion. As we watch Ben try to win back the girl of his dreams, we will be entertained by various other family members and their individual story arcs. One cousin will be struggling with how to come out to his family, another will be contemplating marriage to a recent immigrant from Mexico who doesn’t speak English, and yet another will try to reconcile working at a dead-end career merely because it pays well.
The whole point of this project is to synthesize pre-existing characteristics shared by successful webisode series, and combine them to create a popular story. Webisodes are so interesting because, as Wikipedia puts it, they are a “form of new media that characteristically features a dramatic, serial storyline, and where the primary method of viewership is streaming online over the Internet.” Anyone, anywhere, at anytime can watch and get enjoyment from them.
The webisodes will be posted and presented on YouTube, along with deleted scenes and outtakes to accompany each episode. I will also regularly post on a separate blogsite, where I will keep an extensive, weekly updated record of the creative process involved in the creation of “The Reunion.” Viewers will also be able—and indeed, will be encouraged to—comment on the blogsite, to write in their feelings about the show, about all the work that goes into it, and even to make suggestions on the future direction that it might take. If the suggestions are good, then they will be incorporated into the actual series, and in this way, “The Reunion,” will be a constantly evolving, and viewer-responsive form of art, in which those who appreciate it can actually affect it’s future direction.
This project covers the creation of a webisode series from every angle of the filmmaking process, providing an inside view of what it is like to create such content. It must be realized in multimedia simply because of the amount of supplemental material required to augment each episode. There have to be written materials, and photographs, all of which must be incorporated within a blogsite as a way of structuring and delineating them. The viewer should not only be entertained, but also come away with an understanding of the amount and type of work that goes into the creation of such a series. Viewers should further more be able to engage the webisodes creators and each other in thoughtful discussion about the issues raised by “The Reunion.” What makes this project so academically valuable is it’s ability to instruct on not only the creative process, but also the many technical disciplines involved in filmmaking (i.e. cinematography, editing, and musical composition).
By detailing the creation of a webisode series from inception to completion, this project not only creates a forum for future research on the topic, but also promotes discussion concerning the double-edged sword that is the compromise between creativity and feasibility. By examining and appropriating techniques used in successful webisode series, it will additionally help to annotate and criticize pre-existing works of art already circulating on the Internet. Because of its eventual placement on the web, it will be useful in not only teaching students at USC, but interested viewers anywhere around the globe.
The timeline for the completion of this project will most likely oscillate depending on any number of factors, but as it stands now, my webisode series should be completed sometime next fall:

3/1/08 – Have first webisode, “Ben,” edited and ready, including all supplementary materials (original script, director’s commentary, deleted scenes, outtakes, production stills, and making-of video)

3/30/08 – Have web site venue selected and prepared

4/30/08 – Have second webisode created, along with all supplementary materials

5/28/08 – Have third webisode edited, polished, and ready to go, including all supplementary materials

6/1/08 – Post first webisode on YouTube, along with outtakes

6/15/08 – Advertise webisode series through connections on social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace

6/30/08 – Post second webisode on YouTube, including outtakes

7/20/08 – Create fourth webisode

8/30/08 – Launch website with first two videos and all corresponding supplementary materials included

9/15/08 – Have third video and all supplementary materials posted

9/30/08 – Shoot and edit fifth and sixth episodes

10/10/08 – Post fourth segment and all supplementary materials

10/17/08 – Post fifth episode and all supplementary materials

10/30/08 – Shoot seventh episode, and post sixth webisode, along with any supplementary items

11/15/08 – Post seventh episode and supplementary materials

11/30/08 – Shoot and post eighth episode

12/15/08 – Shoot and post ninth episode

12/31/08 – Shoot and post tenth and final(?) episode of the season

The first episode cost roughly $50 dollars to produce, so the total production budget should be somewhere around $500 dollars. Depending on the cost of website production and upkeep, the total budget could oscillate anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000 dollars. Even with grants however, I’m not prepared to pay upwards of $2,000. My faculty advisor (David Maquiling) might also be essential in helping me to craft an appropriate budgetary plan for my thesis project.
As stated, I plan to initially release the series on YouTube while simultaneously promoting it on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. After this, I plan to post the whole series on a personal website along with the material already published on the blogsite. After the conclusion of the first season of “The Reunion,” depending on budget concerns and viewer interest, I will make the entire series available on DVD. I’m also planning to compile the separate episodes into a feature-length film and send that off to different film festivals. I will require website writing software, word programs, Final Cut Pro, a DV camera, DV tapes, actors, producers, cameramen, props, and DVDs in order to complete this very complicated, but still very fun, thesis project.
Although it is a significant undertaking, I am confident in my ability to successfully produce a creatively challenging and entertaining webisode series. I have over 20 short films under my belt, including two that won awards at the Montgomery County Media Festival back in high school. I also have an extensive writing background, having written hundreds of poems, dozens of short stories, 12 screenplays, and one (albeit short) novel. I’m absolutely ready to write, direct, act, learn, and live.

Research Bibliography:
http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8857&reviewer=198
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/red_vs_blue/
http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/home.php
http://www.tvseriesfinale.com/2007/05/campus_ladies_oxygen_sitcom_dropped.php
http://www.machinima.com/film/view&id=275
http://mashable.com/2007/05/14/vmix-ifc/
http://www.vmix.com/ifctv
http://www.tilzy.tv/GettingAwayWithMurder
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=42833
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33337
http://www.oxygen.com/campusladies/
http://www.tv.com/campus-ladies/show/35733/summary.html