The first part of launching a web series is easy. All you have to do is get a concept, finance it, write, cast, shoot and edit it, add some music and then output it into a decent looking, yet still uploadable format for the web. After that all you have to do is build a home website plus distribute to your favouite video sharing sites where you’ve already created and branded your series channels. Don’t forget to visit the video in all those spaces to make sure it’s correctly tagged and has a reasonable poster frame. Nothing to it, really.

The next part is what’s really hard: building an audience. Where do you find viewers and how do you get them to look at what you’ve created?

That’s the stage we’re at with Hailey Hacks which has the added difficulty of being for a specialized audience: kids.

There are some first steps to take when you're building an audience:

1. Write a press release. Naked PR has several terrific articles to help you with this: The Secret Formula for Perfect Press Releases, Effective Free Press Release Distribution in 5 Easy Steps and Big List of Free Press Release Distribution Sites. Don’t forget to post a copy of the press release on your own site.
2. Tell everyone you know that you’re launching a series. Email everyone in your email address book, put the link on your Facebook page, announce it on your Facebook status and tweet it. If you’ve been working your social networks, some of the people you reach will join you in spreading the word.

3. Contact bloggers who might be interested. Send a personal email. Again, you have to work these connections – usually in advance. If you’re a regular contributor to their community in the sense that you comment often and follow them in a variety of social media, a blogger is more likely to report on what you’re doing. Just because you’ve got what you consider a great news worthy project, doesn’t mean they will. So a lot of advance legwork can be necessary. Blogs are especially good places to get mentioned because the more links there are around the web to your URL, the better Google will like it. The better Google likes your URL, the higher up it will appear in a search. Working the bloggers is a worthwhile endeavour. Even if you can’t anyone to blog about your project, be sure to comment everywhere you can, leaving your website URL. Then if anyone clicks on your name as it appears with the comment, they’ll be taken right to your site.
4. Join and participate in communities that your audience may hang out in. Register on the sites, read the forums and participate. Don’t just promote your series, join the conversation. The web is all about give and take, starting with the give. Contribute something of value before expecting something (say traffic) in return. Your contribution need only be thoughtful comment or links to articles and posts of interest.
5. The web is full of posts on how to drive traffic – like Seth Godin’s How to get traffic for your blog and doshdosh’s How to Get Traffic and Links from Popular Blogs: Networking and Email Pitching . Check them out for ideas.
6. Link to other people. When you post a link to a site, the site owner is notified and a lot of times, they’ll reciprocate with a link to yours.
7. Use digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and the like creatively. Absolutely submit your own site and absolutely ask your friends to do the same. But also, submit the sites of other people – say the bloggers you hope will write about your project and link to it. Everyone checks their stats to see where their traffic originated and if you’ve launched a social bookmarking campaign that’s driven some traffic to them, they’ll know, appreciate and likely reciprocate.
8. Buy some advertising. Facebook, Google and others have programs that will allow you to experiment with targeted advertising at very low costs.
9. Get your project active on the social media. Make sure you have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel and more. And then start building community in these spaces by commenting, rating and making friends. Be careful to be a pull, not push marketer though.
10. And most importantly, don’t forget to check out Hailey Hacks and to send the link to all your friends. Or to put it another way, promote your series every change you get.

NEW WEB SERIES TEACHES KIDS COMPUTER SAVVY THEY DON’T LEARN IN SCHOOL

Thirteen-year-old web wizard, Hailey, makes technology cool

TORONTO, March 27, 2009 — Story2.OH and giraffesoft introduce Hailey Hacks, a series of web videos starring Toronto grade 6 student, Marlee Maslove. Hailey (Maslove) is the Hermione Grainger of web wizardry showing 8-13 year olds all kinds of cool things they can do with their computers.

“Kids have these very powerful machines at their fingertips,” says series creator Jill Golick, “but no one’s teaching them the incredible scope of what they can do with them.” The mandate of the series is to broaden tweens’ use of the computer beyond games, Google and YouTube to include the wider world of blogs, widgets, RSS feeds, social bookmarks and the amazing tools that exist on the web for creating, collaborating and communicating.

“Computers will become increasingly important in every aspect of kids lives – for entertainment, communication, work, everything. Yet there’s virtually no computer instruction in the classroom before grade 9,” Golick adds.

By that time, many girls have already turned off maths and science and as anyone who has ever attended a geek event knows, women in technology are few and far between. Hailey presents an alternate view of technology for young girls, making it relevant, fun and cool.

Recently web series are springing up on an almost daily basis, but very few are aimed at the preteen demographic even though the age group has clearly embraced online video entertainment. Hailey Hacks fill the gap, bringing kids multiplatform entertainment. Not only can they can watch the videos, they read Hailey’s blog, share lolcats with her on Icanhascheezburger, subscribe to her YouTube channel and Twitter feed and exchange twitter-length videos with her on 12seconds. She even has a fan page on Facebook.

The Hailey Hacks videos are available in two length. The shorter versions are available at no cost across the web on YouTube and other popular video sharing sites. The full versions are available for DRM-free download at a cost of $2 per episode at www.haileyhacks.com.

While some adults may have a knee jerk reaction to the word “hack” in the series title, Hailey points out, hacks don’t deserve their bad reputations. A hack isn’t about breaking or wreck ingthings. Rather, hacks are elegant but simple, solutions using technology. (Wikipedia defines a hack as “a clever or quick fix.”)

Outline of scheduled video episodes:

Hailey Hacks April Fools: Hailey demonstrates some favourite low- and hi-tech April Fools tricks, including the famous Desk Top Hack in which the desk top is replaced with a photo. (This drives parents crazy as they try to figure out why nothing works when they click on it.). (available now)

Hailey Hacks lolcats: Hailey helps viewers create and share lolcats. (available now)

Hailey Hacks Wish Lists: Hailey shows you how to create and share wish lists so everyone knows exactly what to buy you for your next birthday. (coming soon)

In future episodes, Hailey shows viewers how to make a wiki, customize Google maps for school projects, use online tools to throw a party, use privacy settings on social networks, share bookmarks, collaborate using Google docs and how to set up your own blog.

About the Story2.OH and giraffesoft:

Story2.OH is a Toronto-based digital drama production company, which specializes in cross-platform innovation and in telling stories through social media. giraffesoft is a boutique web app development shop based in Montreal, Qc.

Hailey Hacks creator, Jill Golick, and star, Marlee Maslove, are available for interviews.

-30-

Contact Information:

Story2.OH

Jill Golick

E-mail: story(two)oh(at)gmail(dot)com

Websites: haileyhacks story2oh giraffesoft Running With My Eyes Closed

Over on Story Gas, Neil Mossey has some excellent advice on how to make a hit internet show:

I have yet to see a true Internet hit which...

• is geo-blocked
• does not provide or allow embedding
• needs special software to be downloaded to see the show.

Tell 'em, Neil. They won't listen to me.

According to Tubefilter, iMDB is going to add a web series category. Actually, two categories; one for web series and one for original on-off web videos.

. Veteran web series creator Casey McKinnon (Galacticast) reports on her blog with news out of Austin’s SXSW Interactive conference that IMDb founder and managing director Col Needham states that the company is in fact preparing to add the separate categories for online content.

McKinnon posed the question to Needham on a panel at the conference, and reports, “the answer is a resounding yes. In the second or third quarter of this year (anytime between April 1st and September 30th), IMDb will roll out the ability to tag a submission as either a web series or an individual (one-off) online video.”

Did you know that iMDB is owned by Amazon?

Christopher Rice has a an interesting article on 4-dimensional character development and cross media screenwriting on the Culture Hacker site:

Pick up any writing book and you’ll read about the importance of 3D characters. A 3D character isn’t merely someone with realistic professional, personal, and private aspects to their life, but someone who reacts to conflict with these aspects of their life in mind. In other words, they jump off the page with realism.

As if 3D isn’t hard enough, the rise of cross-media storytelling has created the opportunity for curious screenwriters to create a fourth dimension … a dimension of sound; a dimension of sight; a dimension of mind. And like the Twilight Zone, you unlock this door with the key of your imagination.

Welcome to the fourth dimension; It’s called time.

Consider the trilogy approach. It’s just an idea, but it’s one that might just work! When creating the story and its characters, consider developing your work not merely on a three-act structural design, but on a nine-act paradigm rather. This might be called 3×3x3 or the trilogy structure, but it’s basically an expansion of what you already know: the three act structure, or beginning, middle, and end if you’d like. It’s been working well with audiences for a bazillion years!

The reason 3×3x3 is necessary when amplifying your character’s dimension is because it not only adds detail to the past and future of the character and world of story, where a traditional backstory might suffice, it also provides a fully developed backstory and future story that will be directly related and linked to the story in focus (the middle of the three acts). By developing a three-act past for your character, including anything from their journey through the space academy, their near-death experience due to an addiction, or what ever might have shaped them into the character we experience in the story in focus, you’ll create an extensive world of story and character dimension your audience will be able to discover when searching for more about the story in focus … the main attraction – assuming you write a compelling story and character your audience is tempted to learn more about.Consider the trilogy approach. It’s just an idea, but it’s one that might just work! When creating the story and its characters, consider developing your work not merely on a three-act structural design, but on a nine-act paradigm rather. This might be called 3×3x3 or the trilogy structure, but it’s basically an expansion of what you already know: the three act structure, or beginning, middle, and end if you’d like. It’s been working well with audiences for a bazillion years!

It’s no longer just about minor details that shape a character; it’s about time. And time can only be revealed through character past and future. Whether you’re writing a screenplay to produce or writing one on spec, it’s important to consider cross-media storytelling when creating your work.

Check out the rest of the piece on Culture Hacker . And while you're there, listen to JT Petty's interview on writing for film and games on Culture Hacker Radio.

Below, you'll find part 2 of an interview with Polly Frost and Ray Sawhill, creators of the web series The Fold. Read Part 1 here.

QUESTION: What’s your next project?

Polly: I’ve got a humor book in the works that’s going to include drawings of mine for the first time. I’m the world’s most primitive visual artist but my drawings seem to make people laugh, so I’m going with it.

Ray: One of our current joint projects is a suspense screenplay. We’re both really interested in suspense and audience identification, and we’re lovin’ working the characters and storytelling out.

Polly: New-media-wise, I studied Flash animation a few years ago with the wonderful cartoonist Tom Hart -- Tom’s also a great teacher. I loved it, and I’m hoping to get back to making some Flash animations soon.

Ray: I’m perpetually studying Final Cut. I’ve got some crazy notion that video ought to be as easy and direct to create and enjoy as writing is. That may be all wet as an idea. But I’m hoping to do a little videoblogging anyway.

QUESTION: What do you watch and read? What kinds of entertainment do you consume on the web?

Polly: We’re in a heavy-on-the-Netflix phase these days.

Ray: We’re pretty inventive and adventurous movie watchers. Japanese “pink” movies, Euro-horror of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Polly: I’ll go for anything that’s directed by Takashi Miike. Thank heavens he seems to have made about a hundred movies, so I have a ways to go yet before I’ve exhausted his oeuvre. Try “Ichii the Killer” and “Dead or Alive” and of course “Audition.” Genius!

Ray: I’m such a heavy blog-reader, podcast-listener, and online-video watcher that it’s really bitten into my traditional-media consumption. I’m so dazzled by the advent of all this stuff that I’m pretty undiscriminating. I listen to low-carb-eating podcasts; I love Lance Weiler’s site (and podcasts) devoted to no-budget moviemaking; I’m a longtime devotee of the Pittsburgh-based webseries Something to be Desired ... Whatever the virtues and deficits of a lot of this stuff, I’m mainly just delighted by the spectacle of people making media because they care about their subject, or they’re thrilled by the adventure of it. It’s a very special energy that makes a lot of traditional popular culture look stale.

Polly: Two sites I’ve been enjoying recently are the webseries Pale and the ongoing cartoon Breakup Girl by Lynn Harris and Chris Kalb.

Ray: With all this new-media stuff to enjoy, we’ve found that we have to make an effort to keep up on our book-reading, so we’ve created a Book Club just for ourselves.

Polly: Once a month we read a book together, then go out, get smashed on martinis, and have a good bull session about it.

Ray: Recently we’ve mainly been alternating between Hard Case Crime reprints, philosophical texts, and short humor novels.

Polly: Some high points, as far as I’ve been concerned: Day Keene’s “Home Is the Sailor,” Patrick Dennis’ “Auntie Mame,” and Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.”

QUESTION: Do you have any prediction for the future of screen based entertainment? How is the web drama series going to change film and TV? Where do you think we’re going to end up?

Ray: It’d be nice to think that we’re going to “end up” somewhere but I’m wondering whether that’ll be the case. Maybe we aren’t in a transition period. Maybe from here on out it’s just all going to be a great big ever-morphing free-for-all.

Polly: I think we’ll see things come out in the web series format that’ll have unusual qualities, that won’t be wannabe-TV shows. And that’ll influence filmmakers, much as music videos influenced filmmakers. No-budget video-makers will develop all kinds of new techniques. Unlike most people I don’t think there’ll be an end to traditional movies or books. I think there’s going to be an exciting mix of forms and means of distribution. Opportunistic creative people will be wanting to work in both.

Ray: If I were a betting man I’d guess that there will evolve a big distinction between feature films and personal videos, comparable to the way that we’ve already grown used to a distinction between formal, professional writing and, say, blogging. Essays and poems and novels are cool -- but so is a blog. They’re just different. Similarly, feature films with actors and stories are great, and will continue to be great, but I think cheaper and easier forms of personal videomaking will begin to fill out the spaces in between the big productions.

Polly: Working in the space in between is part of what we’ve tried to do with “The Fold” and “Sex Scenes.” With “The Fold,” we wanted to take the best of feature filmmaking -- stories, performers, visuals, arcs -- and blend it with the best of what’s emerging in video: the personal touch, quirkiness, personality, speed. A concrete example of that is the way Matt Lambert, Ray and I arc’d our storylines: we worked really hard to create genuine story arcs, but ones that zoomed by in a matter of minutes.

Ray: With “Sex Scenes,” we wanted to merge traditional writing with the energy and inventiveness of performers and the accessibility and fun of new-media. It’s partly a novel, partly a radio series, and partly a podcast. Mostly, we hope, it’s a blast, and a lot of raunchy satirical fun, of course. But we couldn’t have done it the way we did it without having traditional writing chops, a lot of actor friends, and access to computers and techies.

Polly: And let’s not forget the joy of having cute and talented actors read our dirty lines!

I have been sitting on this truly excellent interview with Polly Frost and Ray Sawhill for an inexplicably long time. They are funny, innovative and very very smart. I apologize for not publishing this sooner... to Polly, to Roy and to you. Here's part 1. Part 2 is here.

QUESTION: You guys are playing around in a lot of media. Recently you created The Fold which is a webseries, and Sex Scenes which is an audio entertainment. What’s the matter with you people? Can’t you color inside the lines and do things the normal way? Why the innovative approach to creating and distributing work?

Polly: Where creativity goes, why not be promiscuous?

Ray: The new digital tools and distribution channels open up all kinds of new possibilities for creative people. It’d be a shame not to take advantage of them.

Polly: It’s an interesting comparison to the old-media world.

Ray: In the old media world, the challenge was battering down doors and forcing things through. In the new media world, the challenge is keeping your equilibrium.

Polly: So much is possible now that it can be dizzying. How to keep your head? How to make sure you actually pull your plans together? But I also like going back and forth between new-media and old-media forms too.

Ray: We both have a lot of experience in the old media, and it’s fun being able to put that to use no matter what the venue is. But it’s also fun learning about and adjusting to new-media realities and possibilities. Keeps the brain fresh and enthusiastic.

Polly: I have a lot of friends in the old media world who are downright hostile to the electronically networked universe. I can understand why. They feel like buggywhip manufacturers watching cars drive by. What I think they don’t understand is that the new media universe offers them a lot of opportunities too.

QUESTION: Marriage. Are you not getting togetherness living together? Do you have to spend your working hours together too? What’s with that?

Ray: Great and funny question!

Polly: We have a terrific rapport on many levels.

Ray: Even before we started deliberately collaborating we were always being big helps to each other with our individual projects.

Polly: Our strengths and weaknesses mesh in very handy ways. I’m great at hooks, and at getting characters up on their feet. And at first drafts, which a lot of people hate writing. Ray’s a structural wizard. He loves nothing better than inventing and arranging a project’s plumbing, concrete, and electricity. So we can have the fun of not stressing about our weaknesses and just having a blast with what we’re best at.

Ray: Plus both of us love collaborating with other people too. Matt Lambert, who cowrote “The Fold” with us and directed it, is a super talent. It’s great opening up to that. Working with Matt was a big adventure that we’re still digesting, in a good way. And it’s a chemistry thing too. Good collaborations bring out sides of yourself that you’d never think to bring out on your own.

Polly: One of the reasons we did “Sex Scenes” as an audio rather than as a novel was because after a couple of years of putting the stories on in front of live audiences, we realized that the performances had become an essential part of the experience. We wanted the audience for the final product to be able to enjoy that dimension. And, once we actually got into the sound studio, working with Dan Cioffi and Casey Zanowic, our sound engineers, became a big part of the pleasure of creating the audio.

Ray: There’s a picture that a lot of people cling to of works of art being crafted in noble solitude by high-minded individuals. Neither of us buy that. I mean, it’s fine, nothing wrong with it. But there are loads of ways to go about creating art and entertainment. Why not explore a few of them?

Polly: As amazingly sexy and attractive as we both are -- small joke! -- a big part of our attraction to each other right from the outset was that our brains and imaginations fired off each other in ways that made both of us feel very fizzy and happy. When we work together, it’s a chance to put that chemistry to use and share some of the fizz.

QUESTION: The audience. We always talk about how the web brings us closer to the audience and gives us the opportunity to interact with them. Does your work bring out any creepy pervs?

Polly: Mostly it’s brought out sweethearts. Even when I get emails from guys who say they’d like to spank me or pay me to dominate them, they’re really very sweet. And when I answer them by saying that I’m a writer who’s tired at the end of the day and besides I’m happily monogamous, they’ve always been very nice about taking it.

Ray: These days, with so much available, I don’t know how an artist and/or entertainer can be anything other than grateful when people pay a little attention to their work.

QUESTION: Going into this, were you concerned with who your sexual content would bring out? What is the response like? In what ways are you interacting with the audience and building community?

Polly: I love our audiences. I took “Sex Scenes” on tour around the country and met a lot of different audiences. I loved them for showing up, being interested, and wanting a good time. I also learned a lot about how freewheeling and adventurous some people in this country can be where their tastes in entertainment go!

Ray: There are some writers who prefer to keep a big distance between themselves and their audiences. We aren’t like that. The web seems to foster not just a kind of openness and informality but a general do-it-yourself ethos. We think that’s great. Let’s all pitch in, have fun, and be creative. Emailing, commenting on blogs, putting photos or videos online -- it’s all good. Some efforts will be a little more elaborate than others, some will catch on in unexpected ways. That’s how a culture-scene ought to work, IMHO.

QUESTION: Is this paying off for you? In creative satisfaction? In money? Are people asking you to consult, speak, do work for hire?

Ray: Creatively we’re the happiest we’ve ever been.

Polly: Yeah, the tools, the contact, the audiences ... It’s been great. Plus I really love the creative community we’ve come into contact with in the new media world.

Ray: Eric Mortensen and Blip.TV are a real hub for anyone with an interest in webvideo, as is Tilzy.tv.

Polly: Adam Pollock is making cool webshows. Paul Busetti and Geno McGahee are guys who say, Hey, I have 800 bucks, let’s go make a movie! That’s all very inspirational.

Ray: Old media parties can be gloomy and high-minded things. The new media gatherings we go to in New York are full of optimism and crazy ideas. It’s never “Here’s what I’m trying to persuade the bastards to let me do,” it’s always “Here’s what I’m doing.”

Polly: Even if no one can really figure out how to make money.

Ray: Right. That bewilderment about how to make money at this is actually part of what bonds new media people together.

Polly: It’s a fun and fab new world. But how practical is it going to prove for anyone?

QUESTION: Do you plan to continue working outside mainstream distribution channels?

Polly: You bet! But old media or new media shouldn’t be an either/or question. I just had a humor piece called Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way published in The Atlantic, and I had a story collection called Deep Inside published by Tor. And I was thrilled by those experiences. But I’m just not going to wait around any more. The main thing for me is to do my work and get it out there.

Ray: It used to be that acceptance by the old-media authorities conferred some kind of validation. Creative people could feel good about themselves, civilians could feel impressed, like a given piece had gotten a Good Housekeeping seal of approval. I guess that’s still true for some people. But it seems less and less so the case. In fact, more and more it seems to be the case that old-media people are chasing after what’s going on in the new-media world. Bloggers come up with ideas or observations, and then later the New York Times publishes an article about it. But what it really comes down to is what Polly says, why not enjoy both worlds?

Tiltzy.tv ran an article last month about the online tween market. It's a very interesting piece which ends as follows:

...so far, only a limited number of new media producers (including the people behind Wubbcast, They Might be Giants, Ghost Town, Fred, and now Raven and the just-launched Daily Motion kids’ portal) have tried to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar tween market.

That means there’s an opportunity for web series producers who either A) like making children-oriented programming, B) like creating content for an under-developed, lucrative marketplace replete with potential advertisers, or C) like doing both.

It takes a lot of time and energy to convince an audience to turn away from their TVs and towards their computers. Why not create programming for a demo that doesn’t notice the difference?

Is that opportunity knocking? I'll go answer the door.

Something To Be Desired bills itself as the web's longest running sit com. With six season's under their belt, who can argue with them? Here's a taste:

This news from Telefilm:

INDUSTRY ADVISORY - Changes to Canada New Media Fund Guidelines for 2009-2010

March 20, 2009 – Telefilm Canada is pleased that the Canada New Media Fund (CNMF) has been renewed for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. As this is a transition year, there are new application deadlines and an early completion date for client projects, events and initiatives in order to close the fund within the fiscal period. To help facilitate CNMF applications, Telefilm has alleviated its documentation requirements as well as the application process.

The deadline for Product Assistance applications for the development, production and marketing of Canadian interactive digital cultural content products intended for the general public is May 4, 2009.

Changes to CNMF Product Assistance Guidelines will include:

* Omission of the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage;

* Reduced documentation requirements for filing a complete application;

* Clear demonstration of a confirmed financial structure; and,

* Project completion by January 29, 2010 (including project delivery and final cost delivery).

The deadline for Sectoral Assistance applications that support industry-led events or initiatives benefiting the industry is June 19, 2009. There will be similar guidelines for Sectoral Assistance applications as in previous years, but with alleviated documentation requirements.

Telefilm recognizes the challenges that these constraints place on our clients and fund guidelines are being adjusted accordingly. Guidelines and application forms will be available by April 15, 2009 here.

Clients are encouraged to consult their regional CNMF contacts prior to submitting applications.

I'm starting to feel excited!