Justin Kownacki and Webseries Production
When it comes to the webseries medium, Justin Kownacki is a true pioneer who has accumulated a decade’s worth of knowledge and experience within the industry. In September 2003, the Pittsburgh native launched one of the earliest episodic webseries, Something to Be Desired, at a time when broadband Internet connection was still in its infant stages and before the likes of YouTube and Hulu introduced online video viewing to the world-at-large. Although now a resident of Baltimore, Kownacki created a second Pittsburgh-based webseries, The Baristas, in January 2011. Taking many of the same characters from Something to Be Desired and transplanting them into a local coffee shop, The Baristas in effect became the Internet’s first webseries spin-off.
Having witnessed the birth of the industry, its growth and eventual evolution as a fledging entertainment medium, Justin Kownacki obviously has a wealth of opinions and viewpoints on the webseries. “That we can even use the term ‘webseries industry’ without getting laughed out of the room is pretty impressive all by itself,” he jokingly remarks in regards to the biggest difference between 2003 and 2011, the years he launched his online creations, before turning serious.
“YouTube and MySpace helped legitimize the mainstream creation and consumption of web video in a tremendous way,” Kownacki continues. “It’s now hard to imagine a time when people didn’t watch movies and TV on their iPhones, but in 2003, that wasn’t even possible. Now people expect it—hell, they demand it—and they also expect their UGC (user-generated content) to be indistinguishable from the mainstream content that studios spend millions of dollars on. People aren’t asking specifically for independent content; they just want ‘good’ content, no matter who makes it or how they find it, and, ideally, it finds its way to them.”
Although the number of independent producers jumping into the webseries fray increased drastically once the medium developed into a legitimate narrative outlet, the industry itself still faces an uphill battle in terms of becoming a financially feasible alternative to traditional television.
“The ‘industry’ still lacks capital and mainstream recognition,” Kownacki explains. “Because the production budgets differ exponentially between, say, The Baristas and The Office, most independent shows still have to focus on finding ways to pay their primary production costs, whereas mainstream shows have to worry about attracting enough views across all available channels to justify charging millions of dollars in advertising revenue. Compare that to even a successful web video on YouTube, where millions of views might translate to a few hundred thousand dollars (at most) in ad revenue. And that’s just the top percentage of web content; most of it won’t earn more than a few hundred advertising dollars per video, if that. So it’s currently impossible to consider the webseries industry sustainable without expecting the shows that achieve popularity to immediately seek a larger production or distribution partnerships with a mainstream studio. The ‘self-sustaining’ aspect of the webseries industry is still a long way off, especially with the disparity between traditional ad revenues and digital ad revenues, but it is possible—especially if we start thinking less in terms of mainstream comparisons and chasing ad revenues, and more in terms of long tail sponsorships, merchandising, memberships and direct media sales.”
While Justin Kownacki’s comments address the financial aspects of the webseries industry, there is also the matter of attracting a larger audience and breaking into the mainstream as an authentic viewing option. “To be honest, I’m not sure the average person thinks very much about webseries at all,” Kownacki contends. “Most webseries can’t afford to advertise, so unless the concept or the execution is dynamic and inherently viral, most shows will go unwatched by more than a few hundred or a few thousand people.”
During the later half of 2011, a small controversy developed within the webseries community as many producers began to question whether the word “webseries” contained too many negative connotations for the medium to be taken serious by every day consumers. For Justin Kownacki, however, there is a larger fallacy within the medium that does not merely apply to average viewers.
“The biggest misconception is probably that the medium is untenable—and I say that’s a misconception we creators hold even more than the audiences do,” he explains. “To an audience, a show is a show. If it’s consistently entertaining, they’ll make time for it and even help support and promote it, as long as it’s reliably worth their attention. But as creators, I think we still approach a webseries as the modern equivalent of a ‘calling card’ short film intended to attract the attention of Hollywood or TV executives, rather than as a self-sustaining business all its own. In reality, it shouldn’t be hard to create an affordable, entertaining and sustainable series from scratch. But very few creators build with a business plan and long-term revenue or sponsorship goals in mind; they scramble to pull everything together, then launch and pray. By creating a stable base for growth first, they wouldn’t need external validation to keep their idea sustainable; they’d just need to build in the direction of a small, loyal and supportive audience that could keep their show alive indefinitely. Once more creators start building with self-sustenance in mind, we may actually see the webseries ‘industry’ emerge from the shadow of the ‘calling card’ careerists.”
In terms of newcomers to the medium, Justin Kownacki has the following tips for potential independent producers:
“Devise an idea that would be highly entertaining (and, ideally, addictive) over the course of four-ten short episodes, but which actually has enough potential to realistically fuel one hundred episodes.”
“Comedy travels well online. Drama, suspense, and anything else that requires a serious emotional response from an audience is harder to do well, since the nature of the Web involves partial attention and people are more likely to share something funny, scary, sexy, tragic or mindblowing than they are to share something that requires a long-term emotional or intellectual buy-in and payoff.”
“If you’re trying to show off your own originality, make sure you have an excellent, original script. Conversely, if you’re trying to show off your production skills to the widest possible audience, a parody of something that’s currently (or perennially) popular usually helps with virality, as does including any pop culture or major media reference. The book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies succeeded for a reason.”
“Camera moves and editing trickery don’t make a show viral; a good story, built around characters we care about, does.”
“What about your show will excite a complete stranger enough to share it with all her friends? If your show doesn’t have that hook, don’t make it; there’s already enough web content out there which no one else asked to be created, and which is fighting to justify a reason to get seen. Adding to it will make your job harder, reduce your odds of success, and demoralize your cast and crew as you fail to attract an audience to a show that could be incredible but which can’t motivate its audience to promote it.”
“If your show is serialized, don’t release the first episode until the final episode is completely edited. If your audience expects new episodes on a recurring schedule, you don’t want to make promises to your audience that you can’t keep, because then your initial audience won’t trust you enough to come back or to promote you to anyone else.”
“By having all production on your show completed before you release the first episode, you can focus on aggressively promoting the show once it debuts, rather than hoping it catches on without needing your help because you’re too busy finishing filming and editing future episodes. Every independent show needs all the promotional help it can get. Failing to attract an audience because you planned poorly is a recipe for disappointment.”
“Only produce the four-ten episodes you need to prove your concept. Release those, and promote the hell out of them. If an audience is attracted to the material, you’ll have the justification to keep producing the show. If not, figure out what went wrong and try again. But keep the original four-ten episodes online indefinitely; maybe they’ll accidentally attract their ideal audience over time, while you’re focusing on your next, even better idea.”
Despite the uphill battle that awaits the medium before it can truly evolve into both an equal and rival to traditional television, Justin Kownacki still believes that the future of the webseries is promising. “We’re forever teetering on the brink between ‘breaking out’ and ‘giving up,’” he states. “But even if veteran producers get burned out, there’s always a new aspirant who’ll take their place, and whose approach might be the answer that solves all the questions about success and sustainability that the rest of us haven’t quite been able to figure out yet. So I’d say we’re more likely to see a breakout hit every year, as long as the studios don’t make it legally or financially impossible for independent artists to innovate online.”
Justin Kownacki may indeed be a pioneer in the webseries medium but as he himself suggests, there are still more innovators to follow before the industry finds the inevitable success that lies just beyond the horizon.
Anthony Letizia (January 4, 2012)
Discuss on the alterna-tv.com Forum
