Good Form – Assessment Task 2
The webseries is a product of the modern era, not just because it exists on the internet but because the web has expanded the entertainment industry to new forms that could never exist thirty years ago. Author Dan Williams states that “Websites like YouTube allow users from all over the world to upload and share their own creations” (2012, pg.11) and this has allowed for more creative series to be published online for anyone to see. Studying After Hours has shown me that online content is created for a more active audience, willing to seek out something that interests them. The show has a rather low production value and is based on a simple premise of four people having a conversation. The comedy and enjoyment stems from the engaging conversation and every episode upwards of 800,000 views.
“After 2005 the advent of streaming video spurred a broader swathe of producers to create original programming and networks across genres and forms, opening a space for Internet entrepreneurs to imagine themselves creating a more open, diffuse and niche driven form of television.” (Christian, 2012, pg. 343). Because of a lack of broadcast network restrictions, online content creators have a freedom to make shows that would not usually fit a broadcast schedule. The ongoing webseries After Hours has been produced for the website Cracked since July of 2010 on a semi-regular monthly basis. An episode of the show ranges in length from seven to fifteen minutes which highlights an aspect of the freedom online videos have over traditional television. The episode length is not dependent on a schedule, and so the creators can make it however long they wish.
In an interview with Stated Magazine, the creators, writers and stars of the series stated that “After Hours is our stab at making videos in the same spirit as the [Cracked] articles. We’ve always been known for our articles and that’s how most people discover the site.” Internet users have the ability to curtail their online experience to their personal interests and so they find content that interests them. Unlike broadcast programs, webseries’ have less financial pressure to succeed and so online companies allow for a more diverse range of content to develop over time. Cracked allowed After Hours to be released knowing that users of their website will be interested in the topics covered. The show discusses a diverse range of popular culture artefacts and yet it is successful because its audience discovered it by searching for something that suited their personal entertainment tastes.
The very nature of the ‘world wide web’ allows for communities to form with users from all over the globe, united by common interests. This research will help inform the rest of my semester as I undergo the process of producing a webseries as it highlights that even though the marketplace for online content is so dispersed, the creative freedom the form allows will invite an active audience to discover something that suits their entertainment needs, even with a simple concept and low production value as our webseries, Tits Up. Entertainment in the modern era is more for the individual user than ever before, and the webseries is the solution to creating diverse content in this ever growing platform.
Bibliography
Chappell, Scott (2012) ‘Profile: ‘After Hours’ Works the Late Shift on Cracked.com’ Sated Magazine. Found online at [http://www.statedmag.com/articles/profile-after-hours-works-the-late-shift-on-crackedcom.html]
Christian, Aymar Jean (2012) ‘The Web as Television Reimagined? Online Networks and the Pursuit of Legacy Media, Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 36(4), pp. 340 – 356
Williams, Dan (2012) ‘Utilising the Web’, Web TV Series: How to Make and Market them, pp.11-20