Internet and Serials and Writing - Oh My!

Everyone here knows of my love for serials. I've related my joy over the format on many a blog in the Scribosphere. It's a unique writing challenge to tell a moving picture story in chapters -- short bursts of content that keep the viewer going and asking, "what's going to happen next?"

(Which reminds me to post the next chapter of Radar Men from the Moon)

Much like a novel, the serial has an overall structure and individual chapters which have their own internal structure. It's like television only it's not - it has a definite, particular story to tell. Television has many stories to tell about particular characters.

Well, now the serial format has come to the internet - in a big way. And with all the discussion we've been having lately about In2TV, WB and the BitTorrent, Generate, Itunes and other 4th Generational Media (Hi John!) it seems appropriate that this new serial is debuting on the net and on DVD. That's why I'm discussing it here.

We are in on the ground floor of an opportunity limited only by our creativity and our bandwidth - both of which can be overcome. We are at the dawn of a new age of media that includes traditional scripting for film along with pages and pages of additional content needed to be created for MySpace pages, wikipedia entries, and other types of interactive entertainment and information we haven't realized yet.

All built around around content. All built around branding. All built around entertainment.

Below is an early press release I recieved which got me (re)thinking about all this before I've had my second cup of coffee.

Iron Sink Media Launches Interactive-Webisodic
Romantic Comedy Series: “Soup of The Day”

Unique Hybrid Series/Movie to Debut Simultaneously on Hottest Websites: MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and on iTunes for Podcast

May, 2006 – Los Angeles – New multi-media production company Iron Sink Media is launching a ground-breaking, web-based, hybrid series/movie “Soup of The Day,” it was announced today by Scott Zakarin, one of the co-founding partners of the company.

The interactive-webisodic romantic comedy “Soup of The Day” will launch in May. The show empowers viewers to become involved with the fictional characters, played by actors from improv troupes such as The Groundlings, in three weekly 5-minute episodes over eight weeks. Through the blogs of each of the characters at MySpace.com, viewers will track the round-the-clock comments on their romantic relationships, as well as the on-air stylings of the sexy host of a new Internet video news program now being broadcast at MissileBlast.com.

At the end of its run, “Soup of The Day” will be re-edited with alternate, unrated scenes into a feature length movie to be released on DVD, with hours of additional bonus features.

(Edit: No TV. No theatrical. Profitable)

Online viewer comments will influence the outcome for handsome 28 year-old photographer Brandon Craig, by helping him navigate his way through every man’s fantasy that is also every man’s worst nightmare: simultaneous, heated monogamous relationships with three spectacular young women.

The problem is the certain explosive reaction from the other two girlfriends when he finally chooses one of them.

Will it be his Monday girlfriend Monique, his beautiful but blunt, powerful and demanding boss who will fire him; his Wednesday girlfriend Wendy, a tough and sexy undercover cop who will kick his butt; or his Friday girlfriend Franki, the good-humored host of MissileBlast.com and passionate lover who is so emotionally fragile that a break-up could spark her to severely injure herself. The ending has yet to be written.

Chipping in to offer unsolicited (and often inappropriate) advice to Brandon are his buddies Todd and Rob. At their favorite restaurant/watering hole -- where the favorite soup of the day is so much easier to manage -- Brandon explains to them exactly how he got into this predicament, seen in the “pre-episode” on May 8.

“Soup of The Day” stars Catherine Reitman (Comedy Central’s “David Spade’s Showbiz Report”) as Monique, Patty Wortham (“Closing Escrow”) as Wendy, Tina Molina (“The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story”) as Franki, Jon Crowley (Happy Madison Productions’ “Gay Robot”) as Brandon, Brian Palermo (Bravo’s “Significant Others”) as Todd and Rob Cesternino (“Survivor”).

“Soup of the Day” is served free at SoupMovie.com and the Web’s most popular video destinations, MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and as a free subscription podcast at iTunes.com.

Unfinished pre-episode footage can be viewed online at the following SoupMovie.com.

Produced by Iron Sink Media partners Paul S. Camuso, Rob Cesternino, Scott Hettrick and
Rich Tackenberg, “Soup of The Day” is directed by Zakarin and the show’s “scenarioists” are Zakarin and Cesternino. The executive producers of “Soup of The Day” are Christopher Berube, Paul E. & Marie Camuso, Mark Furia, Christian Gfatter, and Kathy Gfatter.

An online pioneer, Zakarin was the creator of the first episodic Internet serial in 1995, “The Spot,” and a partner with Tackenberg and Brandon Tartikoff in AOL’s original production studio in the late 1990s called Entertainment Asylum.

Zakarin says, “Technology allows mass audiences to enjoy a new form of programming in multiple formats. You can become involved with the “Soup of The Day” characters on your computer or iPod now -- influencing their story for the DVD movie version coming this summer.”

Zakarin was one of the producers of the award-winning “Comic Book: The Movie” and he and Cesternino were producers with Tackenberg as executive producer on the reality series “Kill Reality” for E! Entertainment Television, which resulted in the feature-length DVD movie “Scorned,” released to retailers in April by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

(Edit: Note the following mandate for the company)

About Iron Sink Media

Founded in 2006, Los Angeles-based Iron Sink Media produces original programming for multiple formats, and is developing distribution of original and third-party content on the Internet and DVD.

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As stated above, Scott Zakarin is one of the guys behind Comic Book: The Movie, and I had the pleasure of writing their presentation at the 2005 DVD Exclusive Awards Show. Scott Hettrick was the producer of that show and the former Editor-in-Chief of DVD Exclusive and Video Business. I wonder if the origins of this business venture started there?

So if there's something you have percolating in your mind (and on the page) and you aren't quite sure how to realize its potential. Take a minute and rethink it in light of the above - a serial that's later edited as a feature with extras. Also factor in the Myspace pages, maybe comic book webpages and wiki metacontent and you begin to build a universe to call your own.

Hmmm....

Anyway, let the DISContent begin. I look forward to hearing your commentary.

In the Soup

From my friend and former Editor-in-Chief of DVD Exclusive & Video Business:

In case you want to see a different kind of world premiere for the movie "Soup of the Day," on which I was one of the producers last summer when it was an Internet serial with about 9 million views and is now making its debut in stores today as a double-disc unrated director's cut movie on DVD (Tuesday, Feb. 6 - available at Kmart, Netflix, Amazon, Best Buy and all fine retailers), click on the following to see details of the live online interactive event today (Tuesday) at 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. PT (8 p.m. - 11 p.m. ET).

BTW, I have almost nothing to do with this live online premiere but will be in attendance at what promises to be a somewhat raucous event.

http://www.livevideo.com/video/SoupOfTheDay/6737EBB960D64C458558CB087A14E4F0/soup-of-the-day-virtual-premiere-party-february-6th-8pm-est.aspx

or:

http://soupmovie.zabberbox.com/

Scott Hettrick

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These are the kinds of things I have been talking about: making the most of the technology at hand. Let's face facts - none of us here are Spielberg nor can we command his salary and resources. The good news is we don't have to be Spielberg to get something up and in front of some eyeballs who may (or may not) appreciate it. These guys are using computers and cameras to invite you to a party tonight. Who knows? You may be intrigued enough to log on, maybe watch a clip from the serial, maybe even search out and buy the DVD. This is what showmanship is all about.

I'm not a big fan of romantic comedies, but I can see the applications and implications of all of this "off the shelf" technology and in an industry where things are rapidly shifting and downsizing, this is damn good news.

The era of the mini-studio is just over the horizon...

A Big Meal - One Byte at a Time

I decided against the over-linky post I alluded to earlier as it would have been all over the place, confusing and incoherent (more than usual anyway). Besides, I've found the material I deal with in this blog is more effective in bite-sized posts...

or is that Byte-sized posts?

What's interesting to me in this article is the fact that Adams Media research automatically assumed that downloading would take away from DVD sales.

I'm thinking that the opposite will happen. Downloading will spur DVD sales across the board especially if they market it all correctly.

.

• Downloading content is one of the best ways to advertise a dvd "must-have collection". We already look at a theatrical release as the "advertising" for the DVD sales, so it's silly to think that downloading a movie - especially something made for the internet like SOUP OF THE DAY - will have a negative impact and reduce sales.

• Even if there is chartable evidence to sugest otherwise, there are all sorts of ways around it: advertising, product placement, Bump discs, promotions, etc...

• People will want their best downloads on a disc for their collection. They will want DVD "essentials" like commentaries, B-T-S featurettes, photo galleries, etc... in an archival format.

• Does this mean there will still be a Cockbuster store on every block ? No, it means that people will be able to order the DVD collection or purchase it at their favorite retailer like Wal-Mart (which sells 40% of all DVDs sold in the USA). It means you'll be able to go to a kiosk somewhere and get the DVD burned right there for you in five minutes. It means you'll be able to keep the program you downloaded onto your ipod or iphone - but it won't be exactly the same program available on the disc.

The intellectual property is the big meal - the various media will be the different courses of the dinner...and for some time to come there will be a disc in DISContent.