CBS is launching a new web series on Monday called Novel Adventures. Kelly Lynne Ashton, alerted me to the series with this note in my Facebook inbox:

Check this out - online web series sponsored by Saturn for CBS. After I joined the fan page 3 of the characters befriended me. The show is actively using FB to extend the experience. Sound familiar?

Familiar? Indeed. (If you don't know the backstory, you can find it and associated links here, here and here.)

What interested me is this: Is Novel Adventures getting a free ride on Face by virtue of the fact that they have CBS and Saturn behind them?

Doesn't seem so. Although KLA was almost immediately friended by the characters after joining the fan page, I haven't been three days later. And this message appears on the wall of the Novel Adventures fan page:

I have to assume that the creators started friending the people who joined their fan page but then started to get warnings from Facebook that their actions were considered spam... as the wall post above suggests. So they stopped doing it.

Among the fans, I found Facebook profiles for four of the series' characters.

Oddly, their privacy settings are high, so you can't actually visit their profiles. You can however look at their friends. I did and in addition to lots of friends from CBS both in New York and Chicago, I found a number of friends from "Digitas", who bill themselves as "the first global interactive agency network" and are presumably the agency behind Novel Adventures.

Novel Adventures is also on Twitter, but not much is happening there as yet and on MySpace.

There's more of this story to come, I'll be watching it unfold.

Last night's NextMedia mixer was… in a word… fabulous.

Great venue -- Bar Italia. A good collection of people. And fantastic content.

If you were at #mdm07 in Toronto, you know the big disappointment (besides the fact there was no heat) was the fact that the ad world was missing. All the talk was about branding, yet virtually no one representing that side of things was there.

Besides drinks and raw veggies, last night's event featured a Q&A with three reps from strategic media agencyPHd. They talked a lot about how they bring brand messages to the digital space and what's important to them.

If you're asking the monetizing questions, this was a great discussion to be part of.

In a nutshell, Caroline Moul and her co-workers are very interested in bringing their clients into the digital space. In fact, if they had their way, it would be part of every campaign. In the current economy, they expect spending to drop off in every other area. But digital? They expect that to grow.

They think it's the best way to reach an 18 to 34 demographic.

They love video, mobile, product integration and leveraging local talent.

They say they're always looking for new ideas and that they'd like to be involved as early as possible.

It was a nuts and bolts discussion and the PHd folk were open, frank and offered incredible insight into how they work and think.

If this is just the tease for NextMedia 08: Monetizing Digital Media, I can't wait for the real meal deal. See you at Circa, November 18-19.

At yesterday's Playback Innovation Forum, Digital Theory's Kate Hanley was probably the best part of the five hour day.

Kate talked about online video syndication in simple easy to understand language. At the same time she provided incredibly valuable high level information. No easy task.

For me, by far the most interesting fact she brought to the session was how Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is being delivered through Google's ad network. Net result: 14 million viewers.

Think about how insanely brilliant this is. Rather than delivering ads, they're using the network to deliver content. Google ads are everywhere. Therefore so's the Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. Those videos can turn up pretty much anywhere in the digital space where you might travel.

And then, like that snake swallowing its tail which seems to be everywhere in my life this week, the content is branded… carrying the advertiser's message and making money for its creators. And plenty of it, thanks to the massive distribution.

Strike.tv is open for business so there are lots of new shows to watch from big name Hollywood writers, like Unknown Sender from Steven E de Souza.

de Souza is a hugely successful screenwriter (Die Hard, 48 Hours, Possessed). So it's great to see him goofing around in the digital space. I can't wait to see how his series develops over the coming episodes

Unknown Sender is an anthology series -- which I think is a brilliant idea. As a viewer you get your much needed drama hit. Each episode is it's own self-contained little story. That means a new viewer (and there are many of those on the net) doesn't have to go back through the episodes to figure out what is going on. (Why is navigation on web series sites always so crappy that finding the first episode and then going through them in order is so tough? Who cares? It's not an issue here.)

What we'll be watching for in coming episodes of Unknown Sender clearly isn't storyline development and character arcs. Instead, we'll be waiting to see how de Souza and his team grow into the medium; how they adapt their storytelling skills to this new space.

Check out the Unknown Sender's YouTube channel. The series description:

You always feared someone might be out there who knew all your tricksand I was, and I am, and I do! So be careful, now, you, choosing things to post and view, or REC; Many are watching but I collect.

What I really love is Unknown Sender's interests and hobbies:

Trolling. Lurking. Spying. Counting your clumsy keystrokes while you surf

I'm not sure if the typos are intentional or inadvertant, but they sure feel in character.

Here's the first episode. Check out Strike.tv for more in the coming weeks.

The trailer for Childrens' Hospital, a new web series from WB, narrated by Stephen Colbert:

The first of the web series producer's five tasks is production.

Concept

You start with a concept; a little idea that you think would make a great web series. Like a tv series premise, you're probably looking for something with legs; an idea that can generate enough story to take you through several seasons. In television and film, we often talk about high concepts -- ideas you can pitch in a sentence. Mr Deity - the life of God. Web Therapy: a therapist counsels her clients using video chat. Dr Horrible: a mad scientist plans to take over the world. Not all ideas are high concept, some take a little more time to explain. But as you're developing your premise, you'll be developingg the pitch, writing about the show over and over -- in a single page, three pages, a single sentence -- trying to get a coherent idea that you can present to others.

You'll want to think aobut what genre your series will fall into. Comedy and sci fi are enormously popular on the web. The musical genre is less common but it worked enormously well in Dr Horrible. Lonely Girl 15 was sort of a thriller and Prom Queen a mystery.

Script

When you hit the scripting stage, you will decide how many episodes you plan to start out with, how long they'll be, how many characters and locations you'll use per episode. You'll be developing pacing and tone as well.

Is the series episodic? Like an episode of a sitcom, each episode stands alone, a complete piece of entertainment that doesn't need any of the other episodes in the series to be understood. You can watch pretty much any of Mr Deity and understand it. Is it serialized? Like a soap opera or a series like Lost, you have to watch the episodes in sequence to understand them. LG15 got pretty incomprehensible as it wore on for new viewers but it was fabulous for loyal fans who were inside the story telling. American Bodies is the same. A new viewer has to watch quite a few before figuring out what's going on. Or is it both at the same time? Episodes with a beginning, middle and ends that are a satisfying viewing experience but together build a satisfying longer story. Friends did this well on TV and The Guild did it quite well on the web.

In my opinion the script is the most important of any element at the entire production. Write and rewrite and fine tune some more. Use a professional writer. Build great stories and great characters.

Check out also my four rules for scripted web drama.

Cast

Once you have some scripts, you can start to cast the series. Professional performers bring you the advantage of being quicker and more comfortable on set than amateurs and they know how to use the camera without showing it. But budget and performers union contracts may make a real pro out of your reach.

One of the most essential attributes in any performer for a web series is the ability to speak clearly. Many times, a web series will be seen on a tiny screen. The action may not be clearly visible, so the dialogue and other sound elements may have to carry the story. Make sure your performers enunciate, don't speak too fast or too slow and are easy to understand.

Rewrite

Once you have a cast in place, you can rewrite the script with the performers who are playing each role in mind. Make the characters more like the actors who will play them.

Prep

Prepare to shoot. That means scouting locations and gathering costumes and props. You'll need to plan out each day of shooting: where you'll shoot, which scenes, which characters you need and so on. Most professional screenwriting software will help you break down the script.

As part of prep, you'll crew up. You can shoot a web series on a skeleton crew: director, camera operator, sound operator and a couple of extra hands to help with whatever arises. This is a small enough crew to be economical and big enough to keep you moving fast enough to shoot a reasonable amount in a day. With this size crew, I've shot 9 to 12 finished minutes for the web in an easy day, including a location move.

Shoot

Web series don't have to be shot like television and film. You don't need a master, mediums and close ups. I think a medium and some close ups will get you where you need to be.

What you do need is great sound recording. You'll need a boom and if you're outdoors you might want to use lav microphones as well.

Edit

You can on a computer using Final Cut Pro. You probably want someone who is familiar with the software and the process of editing to do the job. In terms of the production phase, editing is the second most important element (next to the script). Editing can save a dog and make a mediocre piece good. This is a good place to spend a little extra money.

Although consider a separate phase of post production in television and film, for a web series effects, titles and music can all be handled by a competent editor. It is my belief that titles and credits should use as little video as possible. Put them on the web site.

Output

Once the show is cut and you're happy, you'll need to output it and upload it. We'll discuss that when we get to Distribution.

Prom Queen, the land mark web serial, has been released on DVD. Prom Queen is the 80 episode web show created by Big Fantastic and brought to you by Vuguru.

Besides the whole first season, the DVDs got some cool special features! If you're a web series creator or just a fan, this is something you need in your library. And you can win one.

There are two ways to enter:

1. Link me up with a picture of you ready for prom. (Don't take this too literally. It doesn't have to be your actual prom photo.) Put it up on Facebook, Flickr, post it to your blog… whatever you like. Then leave a link in the comment section.

2. Invite me to prom on Utterli. Give me your best line so I know you really really really want me to be your date. Then leave a link in the comments section. Here's my Utterli invitation to you to enter the contest:

Enter by November 2, 2008.

Winner will be selected by a team of highly qualified judges, who may or may not have been invited to their own proms. Enter as often as you like.

Dying to hear from you…

Love. Betrayal. Sex. Gossip. Deception...and that's just before third period!

There are no rules. Here are four. Know them, master them, break them.

Length

2 to 6 minutes seems to be about as much time and attention as you can expect from someone sitting at her computer. Pure Pwnage goes way longer and they seem to get an audience. Dr Horrible demanded about 14 minutes at time, but it was only a 3-pack, he's a super-villain and he has Joss behind him. The straight ahead web serials that I like best are all in that 2-6 pocket, not quite a coffee break but a little distraction from the other stuff on your desktop.

The Opening Grab

Yeah, I know. You're only asking for a couple minutes of their time, but still their minds are going to wander and their fingers are going to creep over to that mouse if you don't grab their attention right off the bat. There are a lot of ways to grab an audience: make them laugh, create mystery, blow something up. Grab 'em and do it fast. You have 30 seconds. For f&%* sake, don't waste any of them on an opening title sequence.

Only As Many Characters As You Can Service

The web is no place for a cast of thousands. Two, three… six tops. Five minutes just isn't enough time to get to know many more. A one-hander can work too if done right. Think You Suck at Photoshop.

The Closing Throw

Bring the episode to a conclusion that satisfies your viewers but that also makes them want to come back to watch another. This is a tough one. You have to do both things. The episode has to have that beginning, middle and end shape of a good story. Without an end viewers will be left wondering what the point of it all was. There has to be some pay off for sticking it out and now clicking away at… say, the three minute mark. But your ending can't be so closed that they aren't driven to watch more. You need something akin to a cliffhanger, a little mystery still unsolved, a tease about something great that they must see in the next episode, an event that still lies ahead.

Lisa Kudrow has new web series called Web Therapy over at the L Studio. The site -- still in beta -- is just plain dumb: slow, with silly controls.

The premise of Web Therapy is that Lisa Kudrow does therapy via web video chat in three minute sessions. Oddly, the episode is more than 6 minutes long (plus another 45 seconds of credits). Either the patient is going to get charged double or the episode was more of an improv than a scripted drama.

Boing-Boing raved, but I was lukewarm about the pilot. What do you think?

Ze Frank has turned up in a drama created by man-about-the-scribosphere John August. Here's a preview from The Remnants. John August offers up the full script (!) of the pilot and more info on his blog. This is one that looks like it has some promise.

The Remnants (preview) from John August on Vimeo.

Prom Queen, the landmark web series from Mark Eisner's company Vuguru and the Big Fantastic was recently released on DVD. This is a DVD every aspiring web series creator is going to want in his or her library. And if you're a fan of the web series form, this is a must have for you too. But why buy it, when you can win it right here? Contest deets coming soon.

If you're thinking of producing a web series -- and who isn't these days? -- you've got a lot of work ahead of you.

I find it useful to slot the producer's tasks into five major areas:

1. Production

Everything from pitch to post. Come up with an idea, write it, cast it, shoot it, edit it, add music, titles and effects and output the sucker in a web friendly format. Do it all again for the rest of the episodes in the series. This alone will kill you but it's only one of five. Did I mention make it good?

2. Financing

Oops. You can't actually get through the first task if you haven't figured out where the money is going to come from to pay for it. You'll need a budget that includes the costs associated with production and whatever you're spending on promotion and distribution. Conventional wisdom puts average web series' costs around $10,000 an episode, obviously you can do it for a lot more and probably a lot less -- but that's going to cost you in quality and probably viewership as well. Multiply by the number of episodes you want to do and you're in the ball park for how much you need to raise. There aren't a lot of places to look for the money so you're going to have to be creative.

3. Distribution

You got your money, shot the show, now it's time to get it onto the web. Where are you going to put it? Are you building a site of your own? Making it exclusively available on a single site like Blip for example? Or distributing it far and wide to every video sharing site around? Whatever you choose, you'll need to know how to upload it. Then you'll have to tag it and make sure you are showing the screenshots you want. Oh yeah, you'll need some metrics on who is viewing it -- if you're planning to make it all the way to Task 5 Monetizing.

4. Publicizing

Otherwise known as driving traffic. Go ahead, write that press release and send it out. But you better know who is covering the web series beat and my friend, there aren't too many. Tell your friends, tell your family, email everyone you've ever known. And then get to work. There is a tons of bloggage on stirring up traffic and you better start reading. You're going to have to try all of it and then some.

5. Monetizing

Yay, money. Oh wait, there is no business model for web series yet. So, huh, another tough one. There are a few ways to go: subscription, advertising, product integration, rev-sharing sites like MetaCafe or all of the above.

Go get some rest. You're going to need it because producing a web series is an uphill battle. On the other hand, I have a feeling it is going to be creatively satisfying and maybe, eventually, lucrative. So let's give it a shot. Over the coming months, I'll be blogging about your five tasks in more detail.

There are two pieces worth checking out on the growth of online video viewing to balance out the previous post on how revenues may shrink.

The first is ComScore's press release showing that YouTube drew 5 billion US online views in the month of July 2008, with a total of 11.4 billion views.

The second is a New TeeVee piece on ABI Research showing that 63 percent of U.S. online households watch video in their browsers, up from 32 percent a year ago.

The audience for online entertainment will only continue to grow. But we still need to find a stable financial model.

New TeeVee has a must-read article on the forecast for online video revenues. Yes, ad spend is expected to grow sharply over the next four years, but not as sharply as previously expected:

...while video will probably continue to be a bright spot of growth in a dull economy, that’s mostly because it’s just getting started. The reality is revenues will be close to nothing for a long time, and the growing number of tech entrepreneurs and creative types in the space should probably be worried that industry watchers are now cutting their expectations for growth in online video revenues based on factors other than the shaky U.S. economy.

eMarketer … back in August chopped its estimate for 2008 U.S. video ad revenue by more than half, to $505 million from $1.3 billion. That’s a pretty significant downgrade more than halfway into the year, though eMarketer warned it was “more a change of methodology than of perspective.” But even with the methodology revision, eMarketer is forecasting growth to start declining after 2012.

Tights and Fights

I haven't watched much of this series from Canadians Scott Albert and Christopher Guest but what I've seen cracks me up. The second season trailer is already up and I have barely made a dent in the first season. This is one of the few series I actually want to watch multiple episodes of … instead of feeling obligated to give them a chance by watching more.

Jake and Amir

Created by Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, Jake and Amir this long running web series feels more like sketch than scripted comedy. Either way it is funny. The premise:

Gullies For Life

Jake and Amir are two best friends that work together, live together, and play together. We're not really best friends, so don't type that. Yes we are. No we aren't, and we also don't live together. Whatever. Not whatever. Dinner tonight? Nope.

My teen spies are avid fans.

Church from Amir on Vimeo.

Back on Topps

Back on Topps is a new web series from Executive Producers Jason Sklar and Randy Sklar and brought to you by Skype.

Come on a comedic, behind-the-scenes journey into one of the worlds most recognizable sports companies. When The Topps Company falls into new ownership, sport-loving twin brothers Leyland and Leif Topps face a challenge in their new work environment. These former heirs must prove to their new boss that they are indeed worthy and valuable to the sports and card world, and in doing so they might just land Back on Topps.

The video is housed on the Back on Topps site and not everything on the site works as well as you might hope. Production value on the series is very high but the technicals on the site don't quite match. Not everything works yet. Two episodes are available now. With more coming… soon?

Here's the pilot:

Strive TV

I have to go back to strike.tv and give it another chance. The site is in beta with a ton of videos to watch. Most of them have only put up a single episode so far. A whole lot more series are listed coming soon. So far I haven't seen anything that really interested me. Still, there's a lot there and I must go back and look around some more.

It's called A Car's Life and it's from India's Hexolabs.

Click to save the car.

The Prisoner won the New York Film Festival's 2008 award for best pilot. The 12 part series is also a game with clues and puzzles for viewers to decode. Tubefilter has an interview with creators Stuart Culpepper and Karin Williams.

They shot the entire series in 10 days, with huge crews by web standards...as many as 80 people. Nonetheless, they say their budget was very small.

This is the blurb about the show from College Humour:

The Prisoner follows a young American who is spirited away to the depths of a secret prison, chronicling his struggle to escape with the help of a seductive but enigmatic Trustee. This dramatic microseries -- designed for the web and mobile devices -- explores the limits of personal freedom in the context of a global war on terror. The Prisoner was created for development as a webisode series, long-form television series or feature. In subsequent episodes, our hero joins an underground network of escapees linked by a special RFID implant; are they freedom fighters, or pawns in a vast conspiracy of disinformation?

Culpepper and Williams are a little coy about how to watch the series; they suggest you start atmkzaq.us. Or you might want to start by watching the pilot below. But you'll have to figure out how to find the next episode yourself. (And if you find it, kindly enlighten me.)

TV Week profiled their top ten web creators last month. Their list includes Lonely Girl creators, Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, Brian Dalton of Mr Deity, Dr Horrible's Joss Whedon and Felicia Day, creator of The Guild. The list includes a few shows and creators I'm not familiar with.

There are starting to be a lot of web series out there and even though I'm trying, I'm not even close to finding them all.