Joe Wilson, Vampire Mob Writer/Director Advice – Creating your own web series
The Vampire Mob web series surrounds a vampire mafia hitman (who continues his trade in the other life with his vampire wife and vampire mother-in-law). Vampire Mob stars Emmy-winner Marcia Wallace (The Simpsons), Tony-winner Rae Allen (The Sopranos), Chris Mulkey (Boardwalk Empire), Kirsten Vansgness (Criminal Minds) and Retta (Parks and Recreation). For more on Vampire Mob, check out: https://www.VampireMob.com, https://www.Twitter.com/
Below find Joe’s awesome words of wisdom:Originally Vampire Mob was intended to be a short film, but as I worked on the story, which first started as a short play performed at the Ruskin Group Theatre, I saw the world was much bigger than a short could handle. I’ve worked on web series in the past, including writing for a Mondo Media show in 2000 and directing and producing a couple of series on SuperDeluxe.com (Turner Entertainment) in 2007. Making Vampire Mob into a web series was sort of like making a bunch of related shorts and it also gave me a much larger story palette to play with on a tiny budget.
I owned a couple of old standard definition video cameras that used tape (remember videotape?) and a few lights, which were enough to shoot the first season with and make a decent looking show. We fundraised to make a second season that was shot on Canon 5D’s and 7D’s (thanks to our killer audience) and that not only effected how the show looked but also how I wrote the story.
If you’ve never made a short film, I’d recommend making a few before diving into a web series. I learned a lot working on other people’s projects and on my own shorts and that experience really came in handy. I’d also recommend when you do make a web series, make a story you love to tell as cheaply as you can tell it and one that you will have fun working on. Fun is important. I have fun writing this show, I operate cameras, monitor sound and do all of the post production, and it’s a tremendous amount of fun. I also get to work with very talented actors and everyone has fun working on our sets. We get the work done, make the days, get the coverage needed and have fun doing it. The end product shows that, I think.
One thing to keep in mind, the people who care most about “web series” are people who make web series. Audiences care about stories and characters, real and fictional.
There is a content tsunami washing over the net and the battle for attention takes time. If you think you’re going to make a story, post it and people will flock to it, you’re most likely wrong. Network shows made with millions of dollars worth of marketing muscle behind them get canceled every year because no one (by network standards) is watching. Now, imagine thousands of web series all seeking audiences without that marketing muscle, that’s what’s going on now and there’s more shows every day — a content tsunami.
The one advantage you have as a storyteller is that you are a human being, an individual or a group of individuals telling a story, not a giant media corporation seeking the perfect demographics to appeal to advertisers. Talking to an audience is something a network can’t do well. A company has a hard time being a person and in the current social media wave a lot of them are trying to be more human, or at least appear so. Part of being a storyteller is being available to talk to your audience, that is who you make the story for and it’s part of the job, IMHO.
Focus on the fun, focus on the creative freedom and recognize that this moment we are living in has never happened in the history of storytelling. The ability to make a quality moving image cheaply and distribute it worldwide has been a possibility for years, but the viewing habit of watching videos on phones, tablets and computers grows constantly thanks to Hulu and Netflix and, of course, YouTube.
And have fun!
For Katie’s advice, click to the next page!
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Jul 16, 2012 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
