By Paula Hoffmann, Director of Development, Vancouver Web Fest
When I first started working with the Vancouver Web Fest, I kept hearing the phrase “web series are the future”, but nobody seemed to know what that actually meant. What does that future look like? Everyone can agree that the entertainment industry is facing tremendous change brought on by technology, but the public’s desire for good stories hasn’t changed. What has changed is the way entertainment is distributed, how it is marketed, and how it is monetized. Once upon a time there were 3 networks, and then came cable and that changed everything. Now we have the internet and everything is changing again. I also keep hearing about the “death of television”, but it’s not dying, it’s evolving.
There is now an entire generation who never knew life before the internet, who have never known privacy, or experienced being “unconnected”. Therefore, they crave that feeling of connectedness from everything, including their entertainment. They want to feel like a part of the story, and they need to be engaged, constantly, because with our crazy access to information at all times, there is always something to take our attention away. Transmedia and web series are growing exponentially and have tremendous potential for establishing brands and building loyal and targeted audiences whose information can be mined and analyzed to incredible advantage.
The networks and big studios know they have to change, and most have started experimenting with online content, even webisodes and companion online series. Online distributors are taking full advantage, building their platforms and curating and creating their own content, but the internet is a big, and still new world with so much potential that it’s going to take some time to figure it out and it’s going to be an ongoing process because it’s always going to be changing, innovating. But while the big guys are all spinning their wheels trying to tweak outdated concepts about content and marketing, and how they can make money in this brave new world, the independent web series creators are out there just doing it. They are creating amazing content, with high production values. They are figuring out their own funding and working with tight budgets. Most importantly, they are getting really good and finding and building their audiences, and the audience for this kind of content is no longer just regional, it’s global.
The web series genre is many things to many people. For independent producers, it is a way to tell stories without the restrictions imposed by a network or advertisers. It’s a way for up and coming storytellers to hone their craft and experiment with new and innovative stories. Actors and directors are able to find opportunities that they would never get under traditional models. For the network shows and franchise films, the web series is a great compliment to their main programming; allowing them to engage and retain their audiences even when they are on hiatus or between films (it’s all about transmedia people!) For those companies that are looking to acquire and develop content, the independent web series and their creators are an amazing resource. The production values and quality of storytelling and acting is better than what is on television now in many cases and they understand audience building and retention and generally have a certain amount of access to that audience. They can be picked up as turnkey shows, licensed and redeveloped with a-list actors, reformatted to accommodate different outlets, the possibilities are endless. For advertisers, some out of the box thinking is probably required here, but the potential to connect with customers online through content is relatively unexplored and the potential tremendous: product placement, series sponsorship even the show itself as advertising.
Web series festivals are also a growing industry. They help promote the shows and foster the sense of community that web series are known for. Web series creators don’t compete with each other for audiences and viewership, they share with each other, promote each other. They exchange ideas, techniques and experiences. Vancouver Web Fest in particular aims to curate the best content on the web, from all over the world and to facilitate conversations between all the parties involved in furthering the evolution of entertainment and making it profitable for everyone. We want to promote the shows, the creators, and the distributors and educate the public about this great new genre that is so flexible and accommodating to our busy modern lives.
Twitter: @VanWebFest
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