When I say smaller, I don’t (necessarily) mean literally – though that’s almost always the case. Television is a bloated mass of big-budgets, huge crews, layers of management, and complex monetary schemes and plans. There are seasons, renewals, distinct time-slots, and advisory warnings. Web series manage to step over a number of these obstacles (or barrel through them) because, frankly, they’re so much smaller.
Filming for the web can have casts smaller than the crew itself. Pictured is a still from my short, Inception in under 60 Seconds
The biggest challenge of any TV show is the first one – getting produced. It used to be that a pilot was made, and based off of the promise of that – the first-run ratings, the value of the premise, the potential dollars, basically – shows lived or died. These days, a show usually has an entire season green-lit before you see it on TV. The financial investment – and burden – has only grown. The challenges described above have only become more important.
Television is important. Frankly, it’s pretty impressive these days too. However, where TV is a lumbering juggernaut, web series are a sleek little sprite. And it all comes back to the formula and the obstacle of the pilot. All it takes for a web series to get started is a bit of hard work and a few bucks. There are no time-slots, no ratings to bar the way, not even (necessarily) the concern that you have an audience. These are factors to be examined for success, but the minute nature of web series means it’s a lot easier to navigate these hurdles and sometimes ignore them all together. The audience can find you, instead of vice versa.
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