Developing a series online

It’s been a long time since I started thinking how to improve web series.

Last week I met Toni Sevilla (IE Business School). Toni has worked as Producer in various production companies and now works as Head of Content for Telecinco and Cuatro controlling which series are being broadcasted.

After talking greatly about The Sopranos, he taught me some of the following lessons when producing a series. Maybe I already knew them but is good to refresh them:

1. A series idea is just a starting point. From then on, a veeeeery long journey starts.
2. You have to be very aware of what is the real theme of the series. What is it really about?
3. If you have less money to do it, you will have less time to spend on it.
4. The public is getting more and more demanding and you have to know who your audience is and what they might like.
5. Find other potential spectators.
6. Be careful structuring your budget and be very aware of what you sign.
7. If you are selling your idea (this applies to convincing your colleagues), try to be as simple as possible: What? When? Who? Where? Why? How?
8. Characters are essential. They should be truthful which means they must have soul, brain and heart; but they shall be unpredictable and singular too.
9. Know where to focus and which information we don’t need to tell the audience.
10. As Executive Producer I shall lead and defend the project. We must know how much does it cost and how much time we need to shoot it. Is easy to write and read “Titanic sinks” but HOW are we going to show it!?
11. Go to the streets, meet people, talk with them and check what they are demanding. If you like Yahoo Answers you might also analyse reactions to your questions online, but is cooler to grab a beer in person than online.

At Watergun, we are currently developing a couple of online series and we are in the middle of that loooong journey. The question that people ask me most is: “Lucas, how are we going to pay this?” and supposedly I know the answer. Or even ‘better’, I should be a magician and make every department happy without them knowing how did we manage to get the budget!

Do you think that future online series will be co-financed, multi-financed or even crowdfunded? Would investors be interested in that? I suppose it depends on the project and it’s not always easy to deal with sponsors. I have to admit I miss Tony Soprano in some of our meetings!