Over the last few months, a group of friends and I have been moving towards shooting a web series pilot. I’m learning a lot from the process, and I want to explore ideas surrounding the creative strategy of independent web content creation. Most of this is likely applicable to any independent project, but my focus is purely on web.
Project Sustainability
Independently produced web content must be looked at through a project sustainability lens as well as a typical production lens. This means more than shooting “guerilla style,” although guerilla production techniques play a role. This means in your development stage you must create some metrics of success and failure. I define success by two standards:
- Shipping. You finish. You put out a project and you distribute it, OR if you don’t finish, you’ve made the conscious decision to stop (because it’s not worth your time, because you’re not passionate about it, etc.)
- The project is SUSTAINABLE.
Sustainable = value of project > cost of project
As long as the VALUE is greater than COST, the project is sustainable. Simple, right?
Put another way: create VALUE and reduce COST.
What makes up a project’s value? The most obvious (yet smallest component in our example) is revenue generated. Other pieces include: satisfaction in creation, satisfaction in distribution (they are different,) potential revenue, potential exposure, potential leverage to a higher-profile project.
COST is made of two parts:
- Cost of the project = money cost + opportunity cost
- Money cost = how much cash do you front?
Opportunity cost = this is your time cost. What are you giving up to work on this project?
If VALUE > COST, it’s SUSTAINABLE, and you should continue moving forward. With an independent project where most of the value lies in the potential, the entire team must understand how this formula affects them.
Understanding the formula creates several takeaways.
High Project Value: what can you control?
In an independent production, current revenue is almost certainly zero. There are ways to increase current revenue which won’t be discussed here (using your relationships to find advertisers, sponsors, etc.) For now, let’s assume you can’t increase earned revenue. Then, what can you control?
What details can you get proactive about?
- Leverage and exposure –the proactive approach to leverage and exposure is becoming a contributing member of the web series sphere: connecting to content creators and marketers, understanding their projects, helping when you can, and being open about discussing your project. Note: this is in contrast to the passive approach which is posting it on your Facebook page and hoping it goes “viral.”
- Derive satisfaction from the project: be happy you’re working on it and you’re learning from it, without the expectation that fame and fortune will soon follow. It’s unlikely your project (or any project) will put you on the express rail to the top, but it might get you closer. Work with people you enjoy being around, have fun with it, and it won’t feel like work
Reduce Project Costs
If you’re involved in any kind of independent content production, you need to keep costs down. There are all sorts of interesting methods to do this. A discussion of all methods lies outside the scope of this post, but I want to point out one thing: I prefer to focus on one really big win to cut costs than bust my head trying to create a series of small wins.
Small wins are: craft services, extras, wardrobe, set dressing, etc.
In my opinion, the big win, where you’re going to save the most money is in concept. Concept happens in the development stage – YOU CAN MAKE / BREAK YOUR BUDGET BEFORE YOU START THE BUDGET. You’re committing your budget to a certain range at this stage, i.e., a high-tech thriller is more expensive than a slow-burn drama. Not to restrict anyone’s artistic vision, but when you independently finance you must physically create within your boundaries. Accounting for this during development, not after, is critical to ship.
- How cost effective is your web series?
- Does it require high production value to capture the audience’s attention?
- Or does it rely on something else?
That’s how Christopher Kubasic created his webseries, THE BOOTH IN THE BACK. “I was designing it from the outside in. I had certain rules that I wanted to work from. I wanted it to depend on actors rather than cinematic language, so that it would be less expensive than having to move a camera around to different locations or having to set up one shot after another.” (Read Blogcritic for the full article.)
Note that this doesn’t mean you can’t create a high concept web series. High concept is just an elevated way of telling your story or creating your vision, and it’s independent of money. I call this a HiCoLoCo (high concept, low cost) project.
You can spend hours and hours searching for inventive ways to cut on production costs when you’re in pre-production. Save a little here, a little there, skimp on this or that, for the sake of a project that’s intrinsically high concept high cost, i.e., explosions, fires, bullets, aliens, etc.
Or, front-load the process and invest significant time in creating something HiCoLoCo. Focus on the big win.
Reduce Opportunity Cost
Opportunity cost = what else could I be doing with my time?
Total opportunity cost is everyone’s collective time on the project. I think often we overlook opportunity cost completely, so even small steps can create dramatic savings:
- Everyone comes prepared
- Everyone comes on time
- Schedule meetings with clear objectives
- Have start and end times to meetings
The big win to save on opportunity cost, however, is about limiting the number of people you bring into the project. Instead of scaling the project to the maximum number of people, scale the right number of people to the project. In REWORK, Jason Fried notes we should:
“Embrace the idea of having less mass. Right now, you’re the smallest, the leanest, and the fastest you’ll ever be. From here on out, you’ll start accumulating mass. And the more massive an object, the more energy required to change its direction.”
In other words, grow slow. Bring in the right number of people you need, and go from there.
Conclusion
By no means is this an exhaustive discussion on sustainable models for web content creation. They are my thoughts and theories on the matter at this point and time, and as I apply the theory, I will add/edit the post with specific examples and takeaways.
Photo Credit: Mad Pal
