I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a couple of the key team members behind the web series Space Janitors. The talented production team has come a long way, and their 1st episode is being released this Friday, February 24th! Read more about their story, and enjoy the interview below!

1. What’s the story behind you and your team wanting to develop your Space Janitors story into a web series?

DAVIN: Because Geoff and I have so much experience making content for web series, that type of distribution is always “on the table” when tossing ideas around. We had some experience producing for television, and that was an amazing experience, but there are instances where producing for the web has a leg up. First, there’s a tremendous amount of freedom. Episodes can be as long as you want. There is no structure to adhere to in terms of length of an episode or commercial breaks. If you think about it, you can probably do it (after a bunch of problem solving and elbow grease). Also, for me, it’s EXTREMELY important to produce for a particular audience. When you’re talking about a Star Wars parody for example, it’s a perfect fit with the gamer/geek community, and they’re online.

GEOFF: As Davin says there is a lot of creative freedom when making a web series when compared to traditional television, which is nice. Distributing on the web is also the best way to instantly reach an international audience and showcase your work.

2. What have been your biggest production challenges and struggles to date? How did you overcome them?

DAVIN: I saw two major obstacles from day one: 1) Money, and 2) special effects. We’re definitely in new territory when it comes to our budget. An indie producer making a video blog on his webcam would look at our budget and wonder how we could spend all that money. A television producer would look at our budget and wonder how the hell we could make anything with so little money. We’re right in the middle of the two extremes – but luckily we come from the indie side, and so we find ways to save a lot of dollars that a larger production wouldn’t think of. We use our own cameras. I made all the props myself, and most of them were made from stuff found on the sidewalk. Geoff is composing the music himself. That’s how we do a big budget show on a tiny budget.

Special effects. There’s a lot of green screen, a lot of holograms, a lot of laser battles. You name it. There were nervous butterflies in my stomach on days when we would show up to film and there was no set at all – just a big green screen, with the camera moving all over the place! This is one of those “do or do not, there is no try” obstacles. We’ve done enough green screen and FX on a small scale on older shows that we were confident we could ramp it up. I’m happy to report that so far so good. We’re learning as we go, but the shots where we are relying on FX are working very well.

GEOFF: The scope of the project is pretty huge for the budget we have to work with. Basically the solution is for a few key team members to wear a lot of hats.

3. Who and how many people are behind the series?

DAVIN: Geoff and I are wearing a lot of hats, but we’ve had some wonderful cast and crew on this project. For a few months before we shot, we had Andy Hull as part of the writing team and Mike Fly as a production supervisor. During the shoot, which lasted two weeks, the crew grows to 30 or so, but then shrinks right back to 3-4 after filming. At the moment, it is Geoff and I doing the editing, FX, sound and trying to promote the show, along with our social media guy Glenn Macaulay. I can honestly say that we tried to recruit the best cast and crew, and it turns out that a lot of those people were friends we had worked with before, so there was a nice family feel to the shoot.

4. Are there future seasons in development?

DAVIN: You bet! But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We have a pile of work (and it’s fun) to make the first season as good as possible for our audience.

GEOFF: The future of the project in a large part depends on the audience. There has to be one for starters, and they have to be active in talking about and promoting the show. Word of mouth is essential in sustaining an online show.

5. Where do you see the web series industry in 5 years from now?

DAVIN: First of all, it’s amazing that we’re even talking about a “web series industry.” It’s startling to think that I have, on my computer at home, the tricks and tools to put together something so incredibly complex as a show like this, and that digital distribution allows us to get it out to the masses without anything on tape! I’m not that old, but still old enough to be somewhat in awe of the industry that we work in.

In the next 5 years, I think we’re going to start to see a number of niches develop in web series. I think that money flowing out of large partners like YouTube and Hulu is going to result in some slick looking productions that attract TV/film stars, writers, producers, etc. It will be fascinating to see whether TV/film sensibilities will survive online beside videos of people wiping out on skateboards. On TV, your competition is the program on another channel. Online, your competition is email Facebook, Netflix, work… just about everything else. You have to put your heart and soul into this stuff. If you don’t – if it’s just a paycheck – that will show through and your audience will walk away.

GEOFF: We’re going to see the art form develop a lot in format with all of the different types of content people are producing. I think we have yet to see the ’sitcom’ of web TV and someone is going to stumble on some hit formula or structure for online story telling. Maybe that will lead to the golden age of web series and advertisers will finally move the bulk of their money online. The medium is young enough that we are in an experimental phase, so enjoy it while it lasts!

6. Do you have any tips for creating and producing a web series?

GEOFF: My stock answer to this question is: Make something that A) No one has ever seen anything quite like it before. B) Someone is going to see it and want to tell their friends about it.

Also, learn every aspect of production you can, lighting, photography, editing, writing, sound – You’re going to need a broad skill set since you will be doing a lot of this work yourself.

If you want to make a web series, there is nothing holding you back as long as you have a computer and some free time. Grab a camera (or a friends camera) and start shooting!

7. Where can we watch your series?

DAVIN: Starting February 24th, you’ll be able to see the series airing on The Escapist. There will also be a lot of behind the scenes material coming out through YouTube, Facebook, etc., but you can get to all of this material by visiting the homepage at SpaceJanitors.com

Enjoy this insightful interview? Great! Then subscribe to our blog via email as we will be doing more of these fun interviews in the future with other amazingly talented video creators and producers.

And if you are a web series creator or producer and want your story featured here, then reach out to us and lets discuss.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, interview answers, Davin, film shoot, filmmakers, filmmaking, Geoff, insights, new media, Q and A, questions, Space Janitors, television, TV, video creators, video producers, video production, video shoot, web series, web show

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing the team behind the epic tale web series Walking In Circles. The scrappy production team has already released season 1, and season 2 is now actively in development. Enjoy the interview below!

1. What’s the story behind you and your team wanting to develop the Walking In Circles story into a web series?

After spending about a year in Los Angeles with dreams of working in “the industry” and nothing to show for it, we decided that it was time to stop waiting for someone else to give us permission to make something and do it ourselves. Walking In Circles came about after James Rodehaver attended GenCon in Indianapolis. It’s a four day convention for tabletop RPGS like Dungeons and Dragons. While at the convention James started to wonder what adventuring heroes would be like in real life. From that question Krag, Markus, Garand, Angie and Alex were born. Once the scripts were written we started showing them to all our friends and the overwhelming response was, “We need to make this”. So, we emptied our savings accounts, tapped every favor we’d ever earned, and made the first Season of Walking In Circles. We chose the web series format because it’s so accessible. Literally anyone can put a video online. With a feature film you have to worry so much about how you’re going to display your work. You sell DVDs, you find distributors, you do screenings, but your potential audience is always limited unless you have millions of dollars to promote your product. When you put your work online anyone can see it with a simple click. You can tell people on the street about your show and they can pull out their phone and watch it right then. Sure that makes profitability a huge hurdle, but the impetus behind Walking In Circles has always been to tell the story and bring the characters to life.

2. What have been your biggest production challenges and struggles to date? How did you overcome them?

One of our biggest challenges during production was the fact that none of us knew what we were doing. We knew what we wanted to happen, but had to learn how to make it happen on the fly. Luckily, everyone involved was very talented and dedicated to the work so we were able to overcome a lot of our inexperience with sheer determination. It was actually really amazing to watch people learn their craft on a day to day basis. There was such a massive difference just between weeks one and two that we could see and it shows in the actual film how much better we got as time went on. The second biggest challenge has been the fact that there just weren’t enough of us. Aside from cast, our crew consisted of three people to run everything behind the camera. It was ridiculous. That was just willpower seeing us through that. However, as we move on towards Season 2 we are recruiting more and more people who want to be a part of our project and so hopefully that will help us moving forward.

3. Who and how many people are behind the series?

The series was written by James Rodehaver and directed by Adam Rady. They are long time best friends and moved out to LA together after college to try to break into the film industry. Then there’s John Buco, who did props, wardrobe, and camera work. Lemar Harris does our audio. Brianna Keihle is our composer. Richard Van As was responsible for the amazing dragon in episode 11. Eric Radic plays Krag. Adam Rady plays Markus. Katie Wilson plays Angie. Jonah Priour plays Garand. Teresa Decher, Annemarie Pazmino, Kate Cobb and Chloe Slater all play Alex. And, of course, we have a whole slew of guest stars and background actors.

4. There is a season 2 in the works, what are the plans for that project?

Season 2 has been written and we are currently doing an IndieGoGo fundraiser for the project. We have some exciting new changes coming to Season 2 including bringing on a host of new talent! Jared Hoy will be joining our crew as our Director of Photography (The Guild, Legend of Neil) and adding Coutney Merrit (Video Game Reunion) to our already outstanding cast. We’re in talks with Brendan Bradley (Video Game Reunion, Legend of Neil), Jolene Kay (The Dark Horse, Goldilocks), and Nar Williams (Fanboy Funhouse, Next Movie Daily) to fill out the rest of our cast. We have also added TJ Cencula and his professional stunt team to the production! Season 2 will also bring new costumes, better sets, locations, and equipment. All and all it will be an amazing production! We can’t get too in depth about our plans for the show but we can assure you it is going to be awesome.

5. You are raising money for season 2 on IndieGoGo, how will that be invested, and what do people who donate get for their financial contributions?

All the money we raise on Indiegogo is going towards making the show as awesome as possible. One of the major things we want to do is pay our actors and crew. Season 1 was done completely out of pocket which means we couldn’t afford to pay the people for the time and effort they put into it. Regardless of whether we can pay people for their time, we have to feed them, put them up, and pay for their gas mileage. That’s where a majority of our budget is going. Then, of course, there is wardrobe, equipment, special effects, props, sets, locations, etc.

6. Where do you see the web series industry in 5 years from now?

I think the web series industry is awesome because it is an open play ground for creators. I think the web series industry is going to show some amazing growth because creators have the freedom to do whatever they want.

7. Do you have any tips for creating and producing a web series?

The best tip I can give is, if you want to make a web series, do it. There are a million reasons why it’s too hard or too costly or whatever. Do it anyway. If you’re going to tell yourself you can’t do it, then you can never expect anyone else to tell you ‘yes’.

8. Where can we watch your series, and donate to Walking In Circles season 2?

You can watch Walking In Circles at http://blip.tv/walkingincircles or on YouTube. You can also support the project through our IndieGoGo campaign at http://www.indiegogo.com/wic2!

Enjoy this interview? Great! Then subscribe to our blog via email as we will be doing more of these fun interviews in the future with other amazingly talented video creators and producers.

And if you are a web series creator and want your story featured here, then reach out to us and lets discuss.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, interview answers, filmmaking, fundraising, Indie Television, IndieGoGo, new media, Q and A, questions, season 1, season 2, story, video creator, video producer, videomaking, Walking In Circles, web series, web show

I follow the video production and online video news spaces very closely. It’s a personal passion of mine, it directly relates to Spidvid and UnleashVideo, and with the growth we’ve seen over the last few years it’s been extremely interesting to follow! Below are some of my favorite blogs, and podcast shows.

1. IndyMogul – Such an amazing show for filmmakers and video creators, filled full of DIY content, and entertaining too!

2. FilmRiot – see above!

3. Partners Project – Anything that show host Shira does I’m a fan of! In this show she interviews some of YouTube’s top partners to extract their knowledge and tips for video creators.

4. New Mediacracy – This is an audio only podcast where a gang of filmmakers get together, drink, and talk shop. Definately NSFW and informative!

5. NoFilmSchool – A blog about the filmmaking world, very interesting insights and resources shared here.

6. Raindance – This site offers training (I attended a weekend workshop of theirs last year in fact), and also has a very good blog too.

7. ReelSEO – I love this site for news, viral videos, and the weekly video production tips.

8. OnlineVideo.net – a good mix of coverage about online video, and tips for creating videos too.

9. Indie Intertube – The girls that run this site are incredible, and their podcast conversations are fun to listen to as well.

10. web series TODAY – This site features lots of amazing web series content to watch on a daily basis, and web series related news from across the web.

These are just a few of my top favorites, do you have any to add?

Jeremy Campbell Lists, News, Production Tool, resources blogs, Film Riot, film tips, filmmaking, Indie Intertube, Indy Mogul, media sites, new media, New Mediacracy, nofilmschool, online video, OnlineVideo.net, Partners Project, production tips, Raindance, ReelSEO, video production, video tips, web series today, websites

I love reading a book or two per month! This month I’m reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. The book’s core premise is that startups should build a minimal viable product (MVP), release it, get feedback, learn, iterate, and rapidly shape the product towards establishing a solid product-market fit.

How this methodology applies to video project development is that perhaps you shouldn’t create a long-form video, or develop a full web series until you know it will work and get traction. A minimal viable video (MVV) if you will. So maybe instead of writing a script for an 8 episode web series, you should write pilots for 4 potential shows, create those, see which one of them resonates best with viewers, and then develop that particular series fully. Pilots are a good way to learn about how your viewers would like to see the story develop (and if the story is strong enough to move forward in the first place), and which characters are liked and which ones aren’t.

This is something to think about, always try to do extraordinary things but minimize the risks associated with developing original content. Create something fast, release it, learn, and you should have a better idea of what can work longer term.

And of course by all means, if you’re passionate about a story and want to see it all the way through then go for it because nothing feels better than creating something you love. If a topic or subject makes you feel good inside, then go for it no matter what others may say to you.

Always be listening, always be learning, and stay foolish and hungry.

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I recently had the honor of doing an interview with the talented Amanda Walgrove of The Faster Times and The New York Egotist. Amanda had some intriguing questions for me, see what I had to say below.

How would you describe the Spidvid model?

So Spidvid is where the world’s video creators and talent connect, build teams, collaborate and partner up together on projects, and produce video entertainment together. Our slogan is “Make Video Together.” Spidvid’s model empowers open video production on a global level by offering a collaborative set of tools to manage projects from inception right through to distribution.

How did you come up with the idea for Spidvid?

I personally wanted to create my own quality video entertainment but didn’t want to pay costly freelancers and contractors to do so. So I thought creating web based software that enabled me to partner up with the talent I needed on my team made a lot of sense, and doing so in a formal structure outside of the traditional social networks. Additionally I was inspired by Seth Godin as in 2008/2009 he talked a lot (via his blog) about openness, collaboration, new media, and connecting individuals together. I searched for a video collaboration site that leveraged these trending elements and found nothing so that further inspired me to build this product.

What kind of unique possibilities for creative content does Spidvid provide for that we haven’t yet seen from other platforms?

I think it’s all about empowering individuals to be able to create video entertainment that they couldn’t have otherwise. It’s all about centralizing like-minded individuals together in a community where they can openly collaborate together by leveraging each other’s time and talent, and giving them the tools to manage their projects and relationships.

In terms of property rights, why is Spidvid’s revenue distribution model for the filmmakers so important or revolutionary?

Our mission is to enable team members to share content ownership together, the “project pie” as we call it. You see this happen in big Hollywood projects where key actors and team members get project percentages but it hasn’t happened in this relatively young online video space. With more and more video creators collaborating and partnering together, we see a real opportunity to offer a formalized solution to this problem. Verbal agreements have been the norm to date, but this won’t hold up long term as projects get more extensive and abundant, and this space evolves into a real business opportunity.

Will Spidvid prove to be a helpful service for those looking to break into certain facets of filmmaking?

I think it’s a great way to jump into filmmaking. So if you write scripts but need a team to collaborate with to make things happen on screen then Spidvid is a great solution for doing that.

While the Internet provides for a great deal of social interaction, it seems that in terms of content creation — blogs, vlogs, journalism — a lot of it is still being accomplished individually and then released into a community for discussion. Why is it important to stress the collaborative side of creation, not just consumption?

I think that content creation and specifically video is all about collaboration since it takes a few team members with specialized skills to be able to successfully complete projects. I think what we seen early on in online video was creators trying to do everything themselves which produced less than ideal results, but with the ability to bring on team members as partners it allows the creator to start and complete more projects easier, and it gives members a vested interest.

Why do you think studios might be hesitant to transition from traditional media into digital media?

Because they don’t want to disrupt their traditional cash cow. Studios are afraid of change, and wish that things could always stay the same, but unfortunately their production models are under pressure, their audiences are fragmenting, and most importantly their budgets are shrinking thanks to disruption on many levels. We are seeing traditional studios move towards the digital world now as digital pennies are growing to digital dimes and will eventually become digital dollars as the space matures. I believe we are only in the 2nd inning of a 9 inning game.

How do you think new media will transform storytelling?

I think that creators and producers have to listen to their audience within social media circles to see where they should take their stories, and develop their characters. If a high percentage of viewers dislike a character, or are uninterested in a particular story line then the writers and the team needs to take a hard look at the future of their content.

Was Spidvid involved in the IAWTV awards? What do you think of them?

I think that whatever initiatives are done to enhance awareness and growth of our space then it’s great. The IAWTV does a fantastic job of evangelizing online video, and the tight knit community is really growing and learning together which is fantastic to see. We’ve had many IAWTV members on our podcast, and to get their perspectives and hear their stories related to the future of online video is very encouraging and inspiring.

What’s your best advice for anyone looking to get into the startup life?

I would say to just jump in and do it. Get in early, create a crappy product, fail and learn, listen like crazy to your users, and try to find the right product to market fit. And find a solid co-founder or two who can help you in the areas you’re weak in. Take your time building your team because startups are like a marriage in that you need partners you know, like, and trust, and who can be there in the good times and especially the bad times. I would also say to not get too attached to your startup as it will make you emotional and can lead to making bad strategic decisions in every aspect of the company’s lifespan. Oh, and find mentors who keep you optimistic, hungry and foolish, and inspired to change the world.

This interview was originally posted on The Faster Times and The New York Egotist. Thanks to Amanda for this opportunity!

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