The struggle to get web series listed on IMDb is a long and epic one. Although our production company has 2/3 of our major web series titles already listed on the database as TV series (A Comicbook Orange and Galacticast), my own profile is still so barren that it makes me look like a n00b because I haven’t submitted other minor titles like work for hire hosting gigs, the miniseries we made for Next New Networks, guest starring roles I’ve done for other web series and video interviews people have done with me online.

At South by Southwest this past March, IMDb founder Col Needham said that a web series category will be added to the directory in the second or third quarter of this year (ie. anytime between April 1 – September 31). Unfortunately, I realized in early October that they still hadn’t made the change and I contacted Needham for a comment. On October 5, 2009 I wrote:

Hi Col!

Last time we spoke (SXSW last March) you said that labels for web series on IMDb should be pushed out in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. I just wanted to touch base and see if that’s gone through since I haven’t seen any changes to existing listings. Any updates on the subject that you can share?

Best,
Casey

I hadn’t heard back from him for a while and was starting to think the company was avoiding the issue, but on November 27, 2009 he replied as follows:

Hi Casey,

Sorry for the delayed reply … we’ve been finalizing our plans for 2010. Unfortunately circumstances changed following March and we have not yet been able to complete the work required to support web series. Much of the delay is because this area is incredibly complicated and affects a large number of IMDb software systems. We want to do this work properly to ensure that new title types of all kinds can be added more easily in future. The work has been rescheduled for 2010, but learning from past experience, we cannot be more specific on a launch date, sorry. In the meantime web series can continued to be added as if they were TV-series and will be converted over once they are properly supported.

Cheers,
Col

So, for the time being, I encourage all web series creators to go ahead and submit their show as a TV series. Let’s take over the site with our awesomeness… seriously. Here are a few pointers I’ve written down to help you get your show listed:

• Provide detailed credits of all the people who’ve worked on your series
• Include links to all of your show’s online profiles, especially fan pages and Twitter profile if you have a large audience of followers
• Link to all your major video upload sites, making sure to include sites that display high viewcounts
• Be sure to mention any public screenings or film festivals your videos have appeared in
• If you’ve received any mainstream press (newspapers, magazines, TV), provide a link to the article/segment online

No matter what you do, your title will probably not be accepted the first time. When they send you an email explaining why, wrack your brain, add more information and re-submit the title. Once the title has been added (and you may not get an email notification that it’s up), go ahead and add information on specific episodes… I’m planning to do this over the holidays ;)

Hope this helps you. I also hope that IMDb follows through with their plan to add a web series category… this is a popular industry we’re in, and it ain’t “new” media anymore.

One thing I’ve learned in the past week is: It IS a small world after all.

For the past few weeks I’ve been planning an epic A Comicbook Orange intro for the Dr. Horrible one-shot comic that came out today. Inspiration to write the song came easily for me in the shower, and I wrote and composed the song in two days. Then, thanks to all the photos on the interwebs of me and my fellow web series creator Felicia Day (via Bernie Su and Wm. Marc Salsberry), we were able to set up a lovely little scene to show how Dr. Horrible might be longing for Penny now that she’s gone (ahh… lesbian undertones… I hope I made NPH proud). These things all came easily, but one thing remained; Dr. Horrible’s lab.

As usual, we shot the intro on our green screen. My Dr. Horrible costume included: one of my boyfriend Rudy Jahchan’s dress shirts worn backwards, a pair of long pink gloves (that I use to clean the toilet!), goggles borrowed from my good friends Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt, and a Dr. Horrible comic (which was actually a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with a printout of the Dr. Horrible cover on top). I looked on Flickr to try and find a good Creative Commons Attribution licensed photo to use in the background… and I found one similar… but it wasn’t until a chance meeting last Friday that this whole production blew up even further last Friday.

While at the Voice-Over Voice Actor book launch party, I ran into a photographer that I had met months earlier; Jonathan Reilly. It was too loud to really talk when I met him, so we finally chatted there. When I was talking with Tubefilter writer Jacob Nahim about “an epic intro” I was planning for the Dr. Horrible one-shot, Jonathan chimed in to tell us that Dr. Horrible’s lab is actually his living room. The rest is all a blur, as I was extremely excited and screaming with glee on the inside when I found out. Jonathan said he’d take a picture and send it to me to use as the background of MY Dr. Horrible lab!!!

So, I’ve been sitting on this Dr. Horrible thing for a while and it feels GREAT to get it out. It’s currently being featured on YouTube, which is wonderful… especially considering I put a lot of my heart into it. I hope you love it as I do. I also hope you get the song in your head and sing it over and over, as I’ve had it in my head for the past few weeks… it’s only fair, right? ;)