Grand Prize for Ruby Skye P.I.: The Haunted Library

Award-Winning Tween/Teen Web Series Wins Big at LAWebFest

http://rubyskyepi.com

April 4, 2012 [Toronto, ON] -- Ruby Skye P.I., the award-winning web series for tweens and teens, took home a Grand Prize from the LAWebFest this week, along with four Outstanding Achievement Awards. Chosen from more than 400 submissions, the Grand Prize includes an all expenses paid trip to Marseilles, France for the Marseilles WebFest to be held in October 2013.

The Haunted Library – the second season of the Ruby Skye P.I. web series – also won four awards in the Interactive Narrative Drama Category: Outstanding Directing: Kelly Harms; Outstanding Lead Actress: Madison Cheeatow (Ruby Skye); Outstanding Guest Star: Geri Hall (Gifted Sarah) and Outstanding Cinematography: Alex Dacev. Held March 28-31, 2013, the LAWebFest is the world’s oldest and largest festival devoted to web series. The Marseilles WebFest, which will be held October 11-12, 2013, is the only web series festival held in Europe and one of four web series festivals held worldwide. Ruby Skye P.I. is produced by Story 2.OH, was created by interactive storyteller Jill Golick and is directed by Kelly Harms. Harms and Golick executive produced the series along with Steven Golick.

Ruby Skye P.I. is one of many Canadian web series to have fared well at the 2013 edition of the festival. Vancouver’s The Last Fall of Ashes was also a Grand Prize winner. Other Canadian series celebrated at the event were Clutch, Out With Dad, Pete Winning, Bill & Sons Towing, The Verdict, Guidestones, Prison Dancer, Verdict, The Runner, Model Mayhem and The Casting Room.

“With web series from fifteen countries represented at the festival, it so exciting to see Canadians leading this new industry,” says Golick. “The LAWebFest does a tremendous job of bringing recognition to web series creators around the world and we are delighted to be heading to Marseilles this fall!”

Ruby Skye P.I.: The Haunted Library is currently nominated for a WGC Screenwriting Award and for an Alliance for Youth Media Award of Excellence. The series is available on RubySkyePI.com, KoldCast TV, blip, YouTube and DailyMotion. The series has topped over 2 million video views and developed a large and devoted fan base.

Launched in early October 2012, Ruby Skye P.I. The Haunted Library advances the story of intrepid teen detective, Ruby Skye (Madison Cheeatow) and her small, tightly knit group of friends. A natural next step in young adult entertainment, Ruby Skye P.I. takes the girl detective genre into a new realm of problem solving as high-tech tools meet good old-fashioned sleuthing. Along the way, Ruby gets herself into plenty of hot water en route to an action packed resolution.

In addition to the over one hour’s worth of original, narrative video content, Ruby Skye P.I.: The Haunted Library includes 50 behind-the-scenes and “extra features” videos, four web sites, four Tumblr blogs, multiple social media channels, and ten interactive clues. Between episodes, viewers can study and solve the clues which Ruby finds in the story. Mystery-loving tweens and teens can also solve puzzles on the companion website ODearyPuzzles.com or explore the “haunted” O’Deary Library to learn more about the characters, the books mentioned in the mystery and to find – or submit – book reviews, author profiles, interviews with YA authors and book cover art work.

____________________________________________________________________________

How a TV-PG Show Became the Edgiest Series Online: Rube Skye P.I.’s Case of the Missing Rulebook | The Sixth Wall, 11.21.12

____________________________________________________________________________

Ruby Skye P.I.: The Haunted Library stars series regulars Madison Cheeatow (Ruby Skye), Marlee Maslove (Hailey Skye) and Elena Gorgevska (Diana Noughton). Season 2 cast includes Scott Beaudin (My Babysitter is a Vampire), Rosemary Dunsmore (Anne of Green Gables, Murdoch Mysteries), Geri Hall (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Jordan Prentice (Mirror Mirror, In Bruges), Laura de Carteret (My Babysitter’s a Vampire), Samanatha Wan (Leslieville) and Shaun Shetty (Call Me Fitz).

Ruby Skye P.I.: The Haunted Library was shot at the Emmanuel College Library (University of Toronto) and at various location in Toronto, Canada.

The series was produced by Story 2.OH with the participation of The Independent Production Fund (IPF) and made possible with the support of The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC). Ruby Skye P.I. Season 1: The Spam Scam has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Parent’s Choice Silver Honor, a Youth Media Alliance Award of Excellence, a 2011 “Rockie”, the New York Television Festival’s Best Family Pilot and eight Outstanding Achievement Awards from the L.A. Web Fest.

Links:

Website -- http://rubyskyepi.com

Facebook -- http://www.facebook.com/RubySkyePI

Twitter -- http://www.twitter.com/rubyskyepi/

Downloads:

Visit http://rubyskyepi.ca/about-the-series/press-room/ to download hi-res images, head shots, logos and other materials

Tags:

#rubyskyepi #webseries #transmedia #story2oh #jillgolick #interactive

About:

Story 2.OH is a Toronto-based production company. Stepping beyond the television model, Story2.OH combines video, photos, graphics, blogs and more to create the next generation of screen-based entertainment.

- END -

Well, that's it. It's been an incredible five months, but my time with Story2.OH comes to an end today. It was a crazy, 20-week balancing act of way too many things (some of which would never wind up getting done), but it was an absolute blast. I wish it didn't have to end so soon, but alas, that's the business.

Over the course of my internship, I've learned a number of things - too many to list here (although, my previous blog entries do cover a lot of it). The broad strokes involve managing two websites (and the content contained therein) and the launching of a web series, as well as all that comes with a release of that scale. Needless to say, this was no small task, especially for an inexperienced person such as myself. But the learning curve wasn't as steep as I expected, and by organizing my time and workflow effectively, it became a completely doable undertaking.

95% of this last week has been comprised of the pre-emptive writing and scheduling of the next month or two's worth of content. I've mentioned it in pretty much every single one of these blog entries (so why not throw it in one last time before we call it a day?), but making sure the gears keep turning is the most important factor in a project like this. So even though I'm not part of it anymore, I have to make sure there's some kind of transitional process between the two periods.

And that's that, really. With content scheduled for the next 6 or so weeks, my job here is just about finished. It's really been a fantastic first step into the industry for me, and I'm extremely grateful for it. I hope that this is just the beginning.

Until next time.

d.a. garabedian

As I enter my final week in this five-month internship, I find that the majority of the work that I'm doing is stuff designated specifically as either from the past or for the future. What I basically mean by this statement is this: present, day-to-day activity is less of a focal point now than it was even a week or two. As I wind down my placement at Story2.OH, I find that the majority of my energy is being focused into ensuring that the work I've done over the last five months is in working order and that there won't be a large hole in the content schedule once I'm gone.

Truthfully, the former part of this dual-pronged approach to cleaning up the site(s) stretches much further back than just the last half a year. Going all the way back to the beginnings of Ruby Skye P.I.'s online presence and making its presentation appropriately fitting and consistent with its current one is a priority, though perhaps one I should have addressed earlier on - there's a lot to do, and not much time left to do it.

Still, cleaning everything up is a worthwhile venture, as it goes back to that open-ended spirit of the transmedia philosophy: that the world is put in place and continuously expanded, and that new users can access from any point and begin digging backwards or forwards as they do wish. Perhaps they started at The Haunted Library and want to go back and experience The Spam Scam after they've finished it. They're welcome to do that, and with that reverse-viewing experience, there's nothing preventing them from enjoying the additional content in their own way and at their own pace. Just as - if a third season of Ruby Skye P.I. is made - users will be able to jump in during the third season and then go back and experience The Haunted Library, clues and all, if and when they choose to do so.

Making sure that the old content is tonally, aesthetically and qualitatively consistent with what the project is currently offering is important. If old articles are still on the site that lack photos, tags and presentation, they'll need to be altered, updated or excised (as a last resort). The ever-expanding nature of a transmedia project means the entire project is what is being offered, not just the latest season, and a reverse-engineered response to that philosophy is keeping everything up to date and presentable.

The latter portion of this winding down is equally important. As I've discussed ad nauseum in this little series of blogs, the most important element of a transmedia project is that the world continues after the episode ends - spiritually, at least. Once my internship ends, there will certainly be (for a short while, at least), a distinct drop in the quantity of content to the sites if we're not careful. This cannot be allowed to happen, as it is counterintuitive to the nature of the project.

It is therefore my responsibility to try and pre-program as much content into the future as possible, all while once again adjusting the speed of the gears. As long as the pistons keep firing in some capacity, the intensity by which they do so is less important. And so I will spend my last week with Story2.OH tinkering with content schedules, spreading out posts and articles to ensure that there is a steady (if lessened) stream of updates to the sites, even after I'm no longer around to manage them.

Only one more week left.

d.a. garabedian

Ruby Skye, P.I. has been nominated for five 2013 Indie Soap Awards! In this recurring feature, we'll take a look at the nominees (including Ruby Skye, P.I.) in each of those five categories.

Best Writing (Comedy)

Husbands

Nominees: Brad Bell & Jane Espenson

Synopsis: Husbands tells the story of two young men, athlete Brady Kelly and tabloid darling Cheeks. Brady and Cheeks sparked a media firestorm when they woke up legally wed after a drunken Vegas weekend. But undoing their “I Dos” with a quickie divorce would only undermine the hard-fought battle for equality, so they decide to give this marriage thing a go. After all, they were doing okay for those six weeks when they were dating...

Website: http://husbandstheseries.com/

Wrecked

Nominees: Liz Ellis & Gabriel A. Carbajal

Synopsis: Wrecked is a raunchy, honest comedy that follows Spencer, a young writer trying to pick up the pieces of her life in the aftermath of the decision that tore it apart. In the first season, she tries to focus her energy on finding a job while her best friend, Thomas, tries to get her to focus on finding a new boyfriend.

Website: http://www.wreckedtheseries.com/about.html

I Hate Being Single

Nominees: Rob Michael Hugel

Synopsis: I Hate Being Single is a comedy web series that follows a freshly dumped 20-something as he struggles to find his place in the confusing world of friends, relationships, parties, and dating in Brooklyn.

Website: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHateBeingSingle

Pretty

Nominees: Steve Silverman

Synopsis: Meet the Champagnes: Michael, the proud pageant dad; Ribina, his proud pageant wife; and Annette, his 5 year old daughter who's recently had a growth spurt. They're getting ready for the Miss Star Eyes Pageant - and they're ready to win.

Website: http://www.prettytheseries.com/

Fumbling Thru the Pieces

Nominees: Julie A. Smith & Donna Hurst

Synopsis: Jesse (Kelsey Robinson) fumbles through her troubled marriage. In picking up the pieces, she leaves her husband and the Buckeye state in her rear-view mirror finding refuge with her sister Ellie (Hillary B. Smith) in Burbank, California. Ellie has had her own share of fumbling. She's left the corporate world in search of her true self. Vince, (Robert Maffia) Ellie's husband is that blue collar guy who helps Ellie put the pieces of her life back together. As much as they are from two different worlds, they have found common ground, even though it's tested from time to time. Vince doesn't realize Jesse is about to be a semi-permanent house guest to his already estrogen drenched version of Ellie's world.

Website: http://www.fumblingthruthepieces.com/

Ruby Skye, P.I.

Nominees: Julie Strassman-Cohn & Jill Golick

Synopsis: In The Haunted Library (Season 2), Ruby and her nerdfighter sister Hailey look for the ghost in the O'Deary Library. Plus, they attempt to find a hidden will.

Website: http://www.rubyskyepi.com

Perhaps the largest element of creating original content for the web these days (and/or doing any kind of transmedia project) is finding your audience. That term doesn't quite mean the same thing as it used to, either; rather, you have to literally find your audience - you have to hunt them down through word of mouth, knowing the right communities to tap into and just generally working within the online, communal sector. Frankly, the same thing now goes for music, as well as most of the other artistic and entertainment-based mediums. With such an impossibly large quantity of content available to just about everybody in the world, it's hard to make your voice heard. Instead, the trick is to find a much louder voice to speak through, and that's where these online communities come in.

Though I've talked about using your audience in the past, this isn't quite the same topic. This is about more than just turning your fanbase into an advertising medium; it's about tapping into hubs of people (whether or not they are as of yet fans) and using them as megaphones for your content. A perfect example of this cropped up earlier this week on one of our peripheral sites.

The universe of Ruby Skye, P.I. has many channels, each an outlet to both provide content and drive traffic back to the main source, which is the show itself. One of these channels is, of course, the O'Deary Library, which I've talked about in length in the past. The main purpose of this site (outside of its obvious context within the second season of the show) is to flesh out the world of Ruby Skye, P.I. by providing additional content. This content comes in the form of original storytelling, outsourced book reviews, interviews with authors and more - a centralized hub based around the concept of a fictional library. Not only is this important as a means to keep the gears of the project in motion, it also expands the world in tangible and tangential ways.

One of the most extensive sections of the O'Deary Library is the video book reviews area, where we scour YouTube searching for our favorite booktubers (as they call themselves) and feeding their reviews into the site. The purpose of this is threefold: it creates more content for the site, it involves the community directly with the project and it exposes the project to newcomers. While we might have created all of these reviews in-house (assuming we had the manpower to do so), that would not have helped us in reaching a wider audience - it only would have made the experience a more robust one. But a robust experience is inconsequential if you don't have the viewers to enjoy it. Outsourcing that content then becomes both a tool of advertising as well as a means to creating content.

This became immediately apparent earlier this week when one of the booktubers whom we had featured on the site returned the favor. The user, who has over 25000 followers and over 1.5 million views, created a video specifically for the recommendation of web series that she was watching, and included our show in it. Now, not only did we manage to pull in outside content to expand the project, we also reached a potential 25000 users who have most likely never heard of our show. And this is just one user; if we can get a few to do the same for us, then this mutually beneficial relationship becomes a huge bonus for us.

Definitely a win / win, with very little required effort.

d.a. garabedian

I've spent a lot of time over the last few months talking specifically about how important it is to craft transmedia projects which continue to grow after a story ends. In spite of The Haunted Library's conclusion now almost two months ago, there is still a constant stream of content flow to its two main, core websites: RubySkyePI.com and ODearyLibrary.com. Though the former of these sites will, I'm sure, continue to be updated for as long as the series exists in some capacity, the latter is a different matter; it was created specifically for use in the second season of the show, and may or may not have any ties to future chapters of the series (I'm not in any position to say either way).

Yet, in spite of the seemingly fleeting capacity under which the O'Deary Library branding was created, it seems to have grown over the past six months. Though it may not have anything to do with Ruby Skye, P.I. going forward (again, I have no idea what the creators have planned for future installments of the series), the O'Deary Library has built a fairly robust amount of content. What, then, do you do with a branch of a transmedia project which has outlived its apparent usefulness? What happens when that arm of the project no longer bears any relevance to the overarching story? Do you abandon it, deeming its services complete, or do you continue it in some other way?

It's an interesting question, and certainly one whose answer is as dependent on resources as it is creative intent. Still, resources aside, the question is worth asking. Are there other projects which might adopt these dropped branches of a transmedia world? Are we talking spinoffs now, or simple brand reassignment? In a medium whose primary purpose (creatively speaking) is to create a multifaceted world through which the audience can explore the project, reconstituting irrelevant branches into new projects seems like an ideal way to build on existing elements and brands.

Think Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU). Though in the case of the Marvel's recent Hollywood exploits the films built up to an ultimate goal (The Avengers), the reverse engineering that we're talking about here is not all that different from the production company's goals in a post-Avengers world: building a universe in tangential directions, all of which will ultimately reconvene at some later point. There's no reason why the opposite approach might not work (as in the case of DC Comics' attempt at their own Justice League universe).

And that is, essentially, what a transmedia project is - a universe. The project starts at The Avengers and then moves on tangentially from there. Supporting each of the tangents independently, all the while acknowledging their potential (but not necessary) co-dependence seems to have struck a real chord with audiences. Keeping them involved in an entire universe of tangents - though some viewers may pick and choose which are right for them as they wish - assures continuous exposure to the overall project.

I got a little bit off track there, but the message still remains the same: the potential to expand on a core project's tangents can make them independently viable in their own right. The O'Deary Library is one such tangent: a branch of the overall tree that has enough sustaining power to go out on its own after Ruby Skye, P.I. is done with it.

d.a. garabedian

Here in the new year (not just 2013, but also in the post-release window for the latest season of Ruby Skye, P.I.), things have already begun to take on the fresh air of change. Much of my time over these first few weeks of January at Story2.OH have been devoted to honing in on the new direction of the off-season: re-configuring the workflow, drafting new schedules and dipping toes into fresh waters. Though this week has been little different in that regard, we once again take a wider turn towards the unexplored.

New projects (some of which have nothing to do with Ruby Skye, P.I.; others do) are now at the forefront of my work. Large chunks of time over the last few weeks have been spent pitching, honing and hammering out the kinks in new concepts and stories. I've found this to be an enormously refreshing change of pace, where the mechanism of the workflow is temporarily left behind in favour of simple creative exploration. Creating new characters, building new engines and developing new worlds have taken an increased role in my day-to-day activities, and that's not something that comes along as often as somebody like me would like. It's been fantastic.

Still, in spite of this change, the mechanism must keep working. And while the new workflow schedule is now firmly in place and the gears just beginning to turn on their own, there are still new elements to be added. Much of this is cleanup and summary work: taking a step back from the "finished" product (as finished as a transmedia project can be) and seeing what was overlooked, what needs to be spit-shined and what can be fixed. Was there an original design plan in place that was abandoned early on? Perhaps now is the time to reintegrate it into the machine. Can some of the graphics and layout be cleaned up and improved? With the throttle at half speed, there seems to be more of a chance to reflect on these things.

This time has also given us a chance to take stock of the assets we've produced - both in the last season and since the beginning of the project. In taking a step back and giving our two websites (Ruby Skye, P.I. and The O'Deary Library) a long, hard look, I'm impressed to see just how much content has been created for them - not just since the project's beginnings, but over the last six months. O'Deary, in particular, which did not exist prior to my involvement in the show, has become quite the hub of content (especially considered it's largely run by just me).

But, of course, that doesn't mean that now is the time to stop. If anything, we have to keep evolving and keep transforming into new and different areas. New features and series are already on the horizon for both sites. The gears can never afford to stop turning, because the promise of an open-ended, multi-platform storytelling world is exactly what makes projects like this one so special.

d.a. garabedian

Thumbnails are a huge part of YouTube Marketing

A lot of traffic on YouTube comes from someone clicking on your thumbnail and watching the video. That means your thumbnail has to be hot.

I've been redoing all mine to make them stand out in a crowd.

Here are two of my videos -- an old thumbnail on the left and a new one on the right. (Eventually, I'm going to update that lefthand one and then this comparison will be useless.)

I checked out what a bunch of popular channels are doing with theirs -- Lizzie Bennet Diaries, AwesomenessTV, Geek and Sundry. I notice a lot of them are using text on their images. Especially web series, to indicate the name and also the episode number. I have been emulating them.

I like to use people's faces -- head and shoulders usually -- to fill about half the space.  In a couple of cases, I've used a graphics program to (clumsily) mask out a complicated background so that I can add readable text.

I'm using big fonts -- 45-65.

The YouTube playbook tells us that thumbnails should be 640x360, bright and high contrast and that foreground should stand out from background.  They also remind us that the image should represent the content.

It's worth noting where the YouTube overlays are locating and adjusting what you do accordingly.  YouTube places a narrow black overlay at the very top of the image, the red and white "Play" triangle in the middle and in some cases, a small video length box in the right hand corner.

Enable your channel for custom thumbnails:

If your channel is enabled for monetization, you should have the feature that allows you to create a custom thumbnail.  To check, in YouTube, go to settings.

In settings, enable monetization.

It may take a week or two after you enable for monetization before your custom thumbnail feature comes online.

How to upload a custom thumbnail:

In your YouTube, go to Video Manager. Under the video you want to work with, select Edit.

On the right hand side, under the three thumbnails that YouTube automatically generates, there will be a fourth option: custom thumbnail. Click on it and select the thumbnail you want to use.

Input please!

My new thumbnails aren't perfect by any means but getting there... I hope. I would love your thoughts on what works and what doesn't. And on how to improve these.

Facebook Doesn't Play Nice

We did have one little glitch and that's when pulling a video into a Facebook promoted post. When you post a video on your Facebook channel, the thumbnail becomes the image.

But when we tried to promote the story, Facebook "disapproved" it. Facebook advertising guidelines say that not more than 20% of an image can be covered in text.

Photos with too much text can be disruptive in news feed, where people are used to seeing photos of their friends and places in their lives. Use text sparingly to brand your image or add emphasis to what it’s showing.

So to use my YouTube videos in promoted posts now, I will have to find a work-around. If you know of one, let me know.

Now that we're a couple of weeks back into the swing of things after the holidays, the state of my internship in a post-show-release world is starting to take shape a bit more. Though much of my musings over the last few installments have been largely about the anticipation of where my time with Story2.OH is set to go over these last 6 or so weeks, things are much less ambiguous than they were even a week ago. Once again, new projects and assignments are beginning to take shape, and while straggling, holdover assignments from last year are finally being taken care of, new ones are gradually taking their place.

But what I've found most interesting about adjusting to this post-release world is just how the nature of content execution changes alongside the schedule of a transmedia project like this. Having come onto the project mere weeks before the launch of the second season of Ruby Skye, P.I., the entirety of my internship has depended on the execution of the transmedia elements of the season: scheduling and producing content, organizing the workflow of release, figuring out how to draw viewers to the show through our additional content, etc. But now that the peak of release has come and gone, the question of how to handle the decompression of workflow (while still maintaining the philosophy that a transmedia show does not end when the episodes do) has come to the forefront of my work.

For instance: it is not realistic to assume that content and production could go on as usual once the show has ended. Though we do still want content flow to continue in order to keep the world which we've spent so many months creating and establishing alive, we have to be realistic in our expectations. Therefore, the flow of content has to be adjusted. While we cannot afford to simply stagnate the brands and products in the weeks and months following the season's wrap, we also cannot afford to keep things going at the same pace as they have been. In other words, it is the debate of how much to slow down, and in which areas.

Most of these things are already accounted for and have been planned from the start: a set number of weeks' worth of content, carefully scheduled to coincide with the release and eventual tempering off of the project. While these things slowly peter themselves out over the coming weeks, new content must be created, while older, additional content must be adjusted. While some weekly or everyday releases will now be bi-weekly or weekly respectively, others might be removed from the schedule altogether, or replaced with something else entirely. The workflow for the week, which used to consist of maxing out the schedule on a daily basis, now gets trimmed down to the essentials and re-organized. We are, of course, rebuilding the workflow to accommodate the slowing down of the train.

It's an interesting process, and one which will become more interesting in the days to come as we switch from slowing down to switching gears completely. In the "off-season" - which we are now entering - new kinds of content will need to be produced and released in order to accommodate the transformation of the project.

I look forward to seeing the beginnings of the project's new form in my last weeks here at Story2.OH.

d.a. garabedian

Episode 9: Apparently the Heir

Episode 8: The Final Clue

Episode 7: On the Trail of a Thief

Episode 6: A Regular Sherlock Holmes

Episode 5: Edmund

Episode 4: #Creepy