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Truly Free Film

What is The Future of Web Series?

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.

Web Series are becoming more sophisticated as audiences for this genre continue to grow.
Web Series are becoming more sophisticated as audiences for this genre continue to grow.

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Truly Free Film

‘Personalized TV’: Why I Made a Gay Web Series

by Jon Marcus

I am a single gay man. I date, and I have sex. I’m not bipolar, or a murderer, or a drug addict, and I don’t toss snappy punchlines into every conversation. For all the groundbreaking gains that gay characters have recently made on TV, I don’t see myself anywhere onscreen when I go to the movies or flip through channels. Equality is about a lot of things for me, and in a time when I see proliferating ads for “quirky” or “unconventional” lead characters on TV, I would like to jump past the part where we fight for “gay” to be another quirk, right to the place where it’s so normal that seeing us kiss isn’t still controversial.

I didn’t get beaten up as a kid, and I haven’t faced a lot of overt discrimination in my life, but

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Truly Free Film

‘Left Unsaid’: Genesis of Web Series

Today’s guest post is from Nelson George.  I love hearing how artists who have worked historically in traditional media have made the transition into new forms.  I asked Nelson how his new web series “Left Unsaid” came about.

Last year, after a very sad break up, I moved into a roomy recently renovated apartment very close to Fort Greene Park. I had exposed brick, a downstairs living room, a staircase, a backyard with bamboo trees and lots of storage space. Instead of focusing on decorating, I thought, “I should shoot something in here.” I’d directed an HBO film, Life Support, around Fort Greene/Clinton Hill in 2007 and this new place inspired me to write another script set in my hood. I’ve lived in the area some twentyfive years and knew, as its changed from a area known for Spike Lee movies to one synonymous with white kids in baby carriages, there tons of stories to tell.

With the break up still a fresh psychic wound I decided to write a project that would feature the many gifted but underutilized actresses I knew. I wanted to explore my feelings about women, but didn’t want to impose my male view on the characters. So I recruited an eclectic group of women —