Friday, November 02, 2007

Writing while the WGA pickets...

So, I'm contemplating my own future during the strike. Mystery project which had just gotten some MAJOR MOJO is now in limbo as we wait it out. There will be no joy in Mudville, and certainly no selling.

So, off I go to contemplate other projects. There is of course the new spec pilot I'm writing, which I will continue to crank on. Then there's the graphic novel I'm seriously considering. Oh, and I'm thinking of trying out another pilot as a longish narrative story first, just to help figure out the beats. And then there's the web series.

I'm very much looking forward to getting the web series off the ground as I think it's a cool idea and unlike most series which seem to be talking heads, this one might actually be interesting to some people. But here's my question of the day...

...if you were to watch a web series, what is the longest an episode could be before you'd get distracted/bored/stop and need to watch the rest of it later? My thought is 5 minutes is about the most someone will take in a sitting. But maybe it's less, maybe it's more. I know pacing and the goodness of the material accounts for a lot and can help the time fly by. But I'm interested in any other opinions.

4 comments:

BooM said...

Watch Hammer and Coop. They're about 6 mins long, but about 2 mins too long in my opinion. Get a feel for what you think is the right length and go with that.

I think the website is hammerandcoop.com

Anonymous said...

I'd say 5 - 6 minutes is a good length, if I became really interested in the series then I wouldn't mind if the episodes were expanded to maybe 10 - 12 minutes.

Rae said...

I second Matt's opinion. 5 minutes is probably the max I sit through something online before I'm starting to drift. However, once I was drawn into a series, the longer I'll make sure I'm focused on it.

Good luck on all the various projects. A graphic novel sounds fun.

anotherfilmmaker said...

i suspect that the strike may cause more proliferation of webisodes and even indie film... seems like a mixed bag for TV people...