A Web Series for Those of Us Who Work at Home

HOME/OFFICE trailer from Good Worker on Vimeo.

Technology has made it possible for over a million people to become independent workers in the last year alone. Many of you web series creators may be among them! We know you’ve got that entrepreneurial spirit. But too much freedom can sometimes bring it’s own ups and downs. In between bouts of productivity, independent workers and filmmakers James Darling and Josh Shayne decided to make a web series about it: HOME/OFFICE. The first season of the series explores common challenges such as winning a client, avoiding distraction, trying to stay in-shape, dating online, and meeting intense deadlines.

As web series creators, we’re always interested when an indie series finds funding before it launches. Isn’t that the dream? HOME/OFFICE was able to do so, partnering with very specific brands DreamHost and Backblaze. Here’s creator James Darling explaining the smart way they went about funding the series:

“We self-financed these initial 8 episodes and shot them over 7 straight days at Josh’s apartment in Brooklyn. Once the episodes were finished, we reached out to brands that shared our audience–freelancers, designers, and entrepreneurs–and offered them ad spots after each episode and promotion on the show’s website.

Basically we’ve managed to put the show “in the black” before airing a single episode — which, as you know, is quite unusual for an independent web series.  We’re hoping to replicate and expand upon this model with our 2nd season and future shows–ideally lining up the budget with brand partners/sponsors BEFORE production.”

Good Worker co-founders Darling and Shayne are both graduates from NYU’s acclaimed Tisch School of the Arts film program. They are already accomplished filmmakers and screenwriters in the traditional sense: Darling’s screenplay In Motion won an Alfred P. Sloan Prize in 2005 and his feature film project The Pilot was awarded the Richard Vague Production Grant from the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television in 2015. Shayne’s 2013 screenplay You’re the Ones was a semi-finalist in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and his short film Le Voyeur aired on IFC in 2007. In 2009, they were hired by Stetson Hats to travel cross-country and film their quest to deliver an inaugural hat to the President.

Learn more about Good Worker and watch the full series Home/Office at Home/Office.tv

Award Winning Web Series Creator Found the Brooklyn Web Fest

Kit Williamson, writer, director and star of the award winning web series Eastsiders, distributed by LogoTV has always been an advocate of collaboration and championing fellow artists’ work. After recently becoming bicoastal, he decided it was time to found a web series festival in Brooklyn that is both a showcase for exciting new digital series and a networking opportunity for filmmakers to exchange ideas.

“I think what sets us apart is that we are approaching the web fest concept from a content creators perspective,” Williamson explained in an interview. “I want to provide the kind of experience that I would hope to receive, and to get industry eyes on their work.”

Kit Williamson

How to Write a Web Series (or anything!) For YOU to Star In

Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, creators and stars of web series turned TV show: Broad City

So you’re an actor. And everyone’s telling you to ‘make your own work’. “Make a web series,” they say. “Be like those Broad City chicks. Be like that Awkward Black Girl. Be like those Workaholic guys. You know what you should do? You should be like that Lena Dunham girl and write your own Hollywood Ticket.”

Rio International Web Fest Accepting Submissions

For more information, visit their website: https://filmfreeway.com/festival/RioWebFest

For additional web series competitions and festivals around the world check out our list HERE.

Screen Your Web Series at the Famous Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal

Just For Laughs and the IAWTV Present Beyond the Box: Playing It Short
A Pitch Program for Web Series Creators

To be held at the 8th edition of COMEDYPRO from July 22 – 25, 2015
Submission deadline: May 8, 2015 at midnight (PT)
http://comedypro.hahaha.com/pitch-your-project/

Steph’s FINAL LAWeekly Web Series Pick of the Week: Adult Wednesday Addams, Season 2 – Full Interview with Creator/Star – Melissa Hunter

Melissa Hunter spent her youth being told she was a ringer for Christina Ricci. Middle school bullies mocked her with the moniker, “Wednesday.” So a couple years ago, the ebony haired, doe-eyed Hunter decided to reclaim the epithet and go as the acrimonious adolescent for Halloween.The reaction from friends and strangers was so enthusiastic that the writer/actress decided to rewatch the Addams Family films and reclaim the character who haunted her childhood as a creative ally.

Check out my review of Hunter’s web series Adult Wednesday Addams for the LAWeekly HERE and continue reading below to see my full interview with Hunter about creating the two seasons of the series. Hunter is full of great advice on how to launch a successful series.

Austin Film Festival Announces New Digital Series Competition

AFF ANNOUNCES NEW SCRIPTED DIGITAL SERIES COMPETITION FOR 2015 FESTIVAL, OCT. 29-NOV. 5, 2015

The Austin Film Festival has always been an incredible place for TV and Screenwriters to attend panels, win competitions and hobnob with the movers and shakers of media. This year, the festival is opening up its competition to DIGITAL CREATORS for the first time.

You can submit a FULLY PRODUCED series OR a SCRIPT for a series. I’m sure AFF will continue its reputation for discovering new gems, rewarding the best in the biz and launching careers. This is a festival I would highly recommend submitting to.

Find out more on the AFF website HERE. If you’re looking for inspiration for a series, check out my picks for BEST web series of 2014 for the LAWeekly HERE.

No One Really Has It Together. Interview with LIFE COACH series creators Bayne Gibby & Kal Bennett

LIFE COACH episode 1 from Full Belly Films on Vimeo.

Some people have life all figured out, hell some of them are so confident about their fabulous life choices, they charge other people money in exchange for guiding them only the right path.

In truth, we’re all just big bags of bones, flesh, insecurity and insanity. OK maybe that’s too harsh. We’ve all got our own issues and challenges, but maybe each of us has also figured a few things out for ourselves. The new web series LIFE COACH, created by Bayne Gibby (The Comeback, Enlightened) and Kal Bennett (The Mentalist, How to Get Away with Murder) and starring Gibby, Bennett and Emily Bicks (Castle, Step Up) explores how a troubled woman, a life coach and her teenage daughter end up helping each other get through life just a bit better.

Gibby and Bennett took the time to answer a few questions about how they tackled the world of indie filmmaking in order to produce this awkwardly funny, honest and charming series.

A note from the creators regarding their answers to my questions: “Bayne Gibby and Kal Bennett took their rambling answers and compiled them into cohesive paragraphs. But, if you’d like to, please imagine that we talk like this– in unison and never once saying “like” as a useless filler.)

How did you two meet and why do you think you make good creative partners?

The two of us met in Shari Shaw’s acting class about 6 years ago. We cracked each other up. In 2011, we made a very low-key short film together called I’M OPEN, where one friend gives the other relationship advice and it goes horribly awry. We shot it in 3 takes in front of Bayne’s apartment. Bayne’s mailman literally interrupted one take to hand her some mail. (He was a natural, but Bayne panicked and ruined the take. Kal was disappointed in her.) People really responded to the short and we realized the dynamic we had on screen was funny and interesting. We began brainstorming what else we could make together.

Steph’s L.A. Weekly Valentines Day Series of the Week: Online Daters & Swipe Click Bang

After roommates, dating is probably the second most saturated subject matter in digital video, but these two series manage to stand out from the horde. Read my full review of both series for the LA Weekly HERE or in the paper this week.

Click on the PHOTO for my interview with the creators of each featured series. Click the NAME of the series to watch it online.

Online Daters

Swipe, Click Bang

Three Web Series Collaborated to make a Crossover Episode

Love this collaboration between THREE different web series. Joining forces is a great way to promote each other, share your fan bases and resources AND create something totally new. Check out what happens when the worlds of Friends in Therapy, Only In HelLA, and I’m Triggered.