Above right: Col Needham, IMDb founder and managing director (original photo courtesy of winni3)
Over a year and a half ago I wrote an article for The Guardian entitled “Online-only shows don’t rate at IMDb.” At the time, there were very few web series listed on the site; Ask A Ninja was amongst the few. Today there are dozens of web series listed on IMDb, but they continue to be listed as TV Series. At SXSW this year I asked Col Needham, IMDb founder and managing director, for an update in person on whether they plan to start a category for web series.
The answer is a resounding yes. In the second or third quarter of this year (anytime between April 1st and September 30th), IMDb will roll out the ability to tag a submission as either a web series or an individual (one-off) online video.
Click on the player below for an embarrassingly mediocre audio copy of Needham’s reply.
(N.B. I was asked to speak loud because the microphone wasn’t functioning properly.)
This is big news… much bigger than learning that IMDb will also begin streaming videos (yay?). Of course, the announcement will beg more questions on what credentials are necessary for acceptance to the database under those categories. When I spoke with Needham a year and a half ago, he mentioned the following credentials for submitting a web series:
Tonight I finally got around to watching the pilot of Dollhouse – which I’ve been looking forward to for a long time – and was sadly disappointed. Here’s why Dollhouse wasn’t for the win:
Act 1, Scene 1: The opening scene was weak. Necessary, but weak. It’s important to see some background, but why not start the series with Echo being a doll and getting flashbacks revealing her background? You could then have shown the painful immorality of having to wipe her memories clean in order to make her function adequately. Oh wait, let me guess… saving that for an upcoming episode?
Characters: Pilot episodes should always leave a viewer feeling connected to the protagonist. Do I care about Echo? Not in the least… her memories are not hers, and once her mind is wiped clean, she has no recollection. Inconsequential.
Script: Whedon is usually whip-smart when it comes to dialogue, but since the dolls are mindless drones it makes it difficult to toss in pop culture references at all. I miss the Gilmore Girls-esque witty dialogue that was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer… (Rudy informs me that Firefly had its’ moments as well – I, myself, hated didn’t appreciate the show).
The fluff: Five bucks says that FOX told Whedon to sex it up. And action it up. The second scene in the pilot with the motorcycle race and the techno dance party was obviously just there to draw mindless male drones in to watch the show. Fail.
There is a lesson to be learned here… in all pilots, including web series:
Create engaging characters; characters that viewers can identify with from your first episode.
Write a script focusing on your best talents; in Whedon’s case, it was comedy.
Keep it real; don’t force the sexy or the action if completely unnecessary to the plot.
Leave your audience feeling like they’ve seen a complete story unfold, while teasing them with slices of a larger story arc.
Though I’m disappointed in the pilot, I’ll keep watching and give it a chance. After all, that’s what I did with Enterprise… and it ROCKED by the third season! [Sigh] I just hope I don’t have to wait that long…
And, Joss, if you’re reading this, you’ve written some of my absolute favorite things in the past and I have every confidence you’ll do it again. Go wipe your memory Dollhouse-style, and forget you ever read this silly little blog post ;)
This week in my Guardian column I go directly to the founder of IMDb to ask why there aren’t many web video series listed on the site. Is it because they aren’t accepted or because they aren’t submitted? Find out here.
My first Guardian Unlimited column just went live. It’s called “Give us credit” and it’s about the contracts that we receive from broadcast media to license our content for television. I wrote about this because I haven’t seen anyone writing about it before and because I feel it’s important to anyone publishing their own videos on the internet.
Now that the excitement over reality TV is dying down, a new budget-saving television revolution is upon us: internet video reruns. Later this year, many stations across America will be launching shows featuring some of the most popular web videos you’ve already seen. They’ll also be screwing the producers of those videos – people like me – out of royalties, recognition and more.
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