The Third Age : Webseries

One could argue that a webseries is the form that makes best use of the internet: content is the right length for casual viewing, ongoing release dates create the ultimate "slow build" to gain a growing audience, episodes are easily forwarded on to social networks, producer's can test the popularity of their idea small scale before committing to full production, and if it proves successful online, it can be reformated into a DVD or feature length version for a more traditional release.

The Third Age is a webseries that has just wrapped up it's first season (13 episodes) with the second season due out later this year. 

The Third Age blogsite began promoting the series in early 2008, continuing with semi-regular updates throughout the development and production process, uploading a teaser, clips, trailer, behind the scenes material, filmmaker musings, and then the episodes themselves released in November 2009. 

This long lead time wasn't exactly intentional - the filmmakers (including cast and crew) made the series pro-bono around their normal work load, and were shooting episodes out of sequence to maximise productivity, which meant later episodes were completed before the first episode was finished shooting.

They made the classic beginner's mistake of writing scripts without a budget in mind, letting creativity rule, which resulted in many characters, multiple locations, and all the coordination headaches to go with it. Many of the scripts were written out of sequence, and just a week prior to shooting the individual episode.

They also forgot to identify their target audience, monetisation, promotion and distribution strategies until fairly late in the piece. This meant playing catch up.

Before releasing the series they spent some time taking meetings trying to set up a distribution deal with an online network. The more obvious choices, SciFi (now SyFy) and Hulu, both responded that they weren’t programing original content. A couple of other online networks, Crackle and KoldCast, were positive towards the material but didn't think it was the right fit for their audience. So, instead, The Third Age turned to blip.tv, which allowed them to self publish and distribute to other video-on-demand services like Tivo and iTunes, gaining advertising revenue share.

This left the creators with the need to build the audience themselves. 

"Our approach has been two-pronged: Firstly, we wanted to target "influencers" - people in the industry might want to work with us on future projects, as well as reviewers, bloggers, and media folks to help generate interest in the show. I've found that contacting people directly through several means is the most effective. If you just email someone cold, you might not hear back from them. But social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can act as an introduction of sorts. So following someone on Twitter and Facebook and THEN emailing them is much more likely to get a response. 

Secondly, in building our audience, we've tried to reach out to fans of similar shows. On Facebook, we try to find people who are fans of things like sci-fi, comic books, David Lynch and magic. Rather than casting a wide net, we've tried to really concentrate our efforts to attract people who are the most likely to be serious fans of the show. We've also done some outreach through online forums and blogs. It can become tedious, trying to win over your audience one fan at a time, but you never know who is going to become a strong supporter of the show. One strong vocal fan can go a long way in helping the show get seen by others!" Amber Yoder, Producer.

Once the second series is completed, the full 26 episodes will be released as a DVD, and the material possibly re-edited into a feature film adaptation for a festival run.

Ultimately, the main goal of The Third Age has been to tell a story they believe in, and to create a calling card that will hopefully help land a bigger project next. 

Already a few doors have opened, such as being invited to join the Writer's Guild of American East as a New Media signatory, and making contacts at several online networks (even if they declined distributing this particular project). Not to mention their growing online audience who remain connected through Twitter and Facebook, who may become quick convertors to the next project.

What could be improved:
More planning at the very beginning would probably have cut down on the production time. It would also have given the target audience more confidence in the release date (which kept having to be pushed back).

The website could better faciliate social networking and sharing of content, by having share, subscribe, and Twitter/Facebook buttons displayable on every page. Equally, the homepage should at a glance tell a visitor what The Third Age is, but there is no logline, and a site map or listing of blog entries would be really helpful (there is a lot of useful information from the filmmakers in the News blog, but you have to scroll slowly through them all page by page.)

The 'media kit' lacks collatoral, such as a poster, key image, or trailer that can easily be spread on blogs. Their blip.tv channel has three different versions of the trailer, seemingly works in progress, but it's not clear to me which is the official one. It would be great if on the media page there was, if not the collateral itself, then a quicklink guide to the best materials to be used.

I know monetisation is a tricky thing at times, but I'd like to see some more strategies in place for recoupment. As I've mentioned before, this is simply to do with sustainability. Doing something for the love of it is all very well and good, however, love won't pay your bills, while money can pay for that and hopefully also your next project. Some ideas:

a) Merchandising: it can be done for any project. Whether you only offer special 'collectors items' - such as signed copies of the dvd, signed prints from the film, sell/auction off props used on set, develop a comic book adaptation of the story - or you do something more obvious like t-shirts with a key phrase that perhaps only a fan would 'get,' think creative and you can come up with some great stuff that a fan would pay money for, even while you're giving the show itself away for free online. (Check The Cosmonaut for their creative in-theme merchandising).

b) A tipjar of some sort so fans can donate money to show their appreciation. E.g Chipin, Flattr, Kachingle, TipiT, SprinklePenny.

c) "Membership" option that gives a select group extra benefits than the general public (see Red Vs Blue as an example). E.g. access to the episodes a week before anyone else, or extra behind-the-scenes content, or a live intimate q&a with actors and filmmakers. This could be tied in thematically with the story line, so rather than 'members' they are 'disciples' of The Third Age, maybe they receive emails from the characters as if they were part of the story that is unfolding online, give them a richer experience.

It would be interesting to know the benefits of releasing on blip.tv (where you gain a share of advertising revenue) versus releasing on other video sharing sites to reach a larger audience (some of whom will upgrade to purchase). I think I'd be inclined to release on both: have the blip.tv version on the website, but also put the show out elsewhere to maximise number of views.

The bigger the audience, the more bargaining power a producer has if they do want to include product placement in the second series, or get distribution from an online network, or mainstream distribution of the feature version. Plus, more potential dvd and merchandising sales. A few ideas to help grow the audience:

i) Set an official audience goal and ask the fans to help attain it e.g. "we can only afford to make series 2 if we're getting at least X views of our show, so please tell your friends about The Third Age."  Give them a specific call to action, and have a view counter so they can see results.

ii) Get the fans actively involved, so that it's not just a show they watch, it's one they feel they contribute to. Maybe it's a competition, or a vote, or emailed clues that help them work something out in the show - something that prompts an action from them that also gives them something to talk about with friends and other fans. Create dialogue!

iii) After each episode, pose a question related to the content either on your blog or Facebook - try to get a conversation started.