Tag Archives: producer

3 Must Important Lessons I Learned from Crowd-funding

Crowd-funding you webseriesLast year I ran a successful IndieGogo campaign which helped me jump start a documentary series that has become one of the most beautiful projects in my life right now, it’s called “The Perfection Of Giving“, a documentary exploration of generosity and how it affects individuals and societies.

The concept of the documentary almost begged for it to be crowd-funded, and after investing some of my money, a few weeks before the trip to Nepal – where most of the first chapter of this documentary was shot -, I set myself up to raise more money to cover the rest of the trip expenses and get me some extra gear I needed for the production.

I raise $3030 in 21 days. It was a little bit like a part time job!

There were three very important things I learned from those 21 days; two that gave the most results and one that I have come to realized its importance with the months passing. I would like to share them with you here. Continue reading →

How To Protect Your Web Series Screenplay and Idea

When writing a web series the screenwriters are usually careful with who they share their script, until they have it protected. But when is it right to protect your idea? How to go about it?

The US Copyright Office only takes finished work, but we usually show our treatment, sinopsis and scripts for our web series way before the there is a final draft! There is a way to protect it.

Continue reading →

Web Series Production Team

Web Series Development Part 2 – Your Team

Web Series Production TeamThe idea, the spark that makes web series, TV and film so magical, usually starts in one single brain… maybe two in some cases. But also truth, film, video, visual storytelling in general, don’t become a reality without a team of people that work hard to make it happen. That is what this post is about. The team that you will need to bring together as soon as you have your web series screenplay ready.

Continue reading →

3 Ideas To Keep Your Web Series Alive

Keep you Web Series AliveVery few web shows get a large substantial following. Some of them get a great substantial following, and then reach a plato and can’t get more followers. One of my pilots (Carlitos is Pisssed) had 1400+ views in the first episode and around 400 in the second and 300 in the third. :( I made a clear mistake there, I launched all three episodes in one day, just a few hours apart.

So here are some ideas for not letting your web shows die to soon, or better yet, die at all.

1. Post new content all the time.

Now, new content is not a new episodes every day, because that might not be story of financially possible. Koldcast.tv shows a new episode everyday. That might keep the first kick going but it dries out the content in a week or two!

Continue reading →

The Uphill Battle of Financing a Web Series

I have raised money for a feature film, for 4 short films, for one web series, for one PSA video, and for charity causes. Every one of them have different challenges, and I have learned a lot from some hits and many misses.

Now, as I get ready to start raising money again for two new projects (I am in the writing process of Scent), I have been forced to do the exercise to realize what has worked and what has not worked. And here are some of the things I have come to realize.

1. You cannot expect to raise all the money in the same way

What does this mean? Well, that some of the money will come from private investors, other will come from a fundraising party, some else will come from crowd-funding initiatives (like IndieGoGo or Kickstarter), and some more will come from you own pocket. So not you, not I, Continue reading →

5 Key Elements to Make a Web Series

The creation of a web series is truly unique, and sometimes as storyteller we are so eager to tell the story that we just go ahead without any direction. But the truth is that if have all the element in line and we have an idea of what we will be doing with the web show, or what are we going to do after we have a few episodes done.

So, before even shooting the first frame of you audition make sure you have this elements ready. Continue reading →

Awkward Embraces – Great web series! Keep an eye on it!

I just finished watching what has come out of the second season of Awkward Embraces, what will become a web series classic! Funny, witty, nerdy, fresh! I love it! I laughed a lot. I am very glad to have ran into then through twitter. I couldn’t trace who twitter the link I clicked on. It’s a shame, I  would have liked to thank him/her for that tweet. The web show is about this group of three geeky girlfriends that have girl-talks in a very geeky manner! XD

In season 2 they are doing something interesting that they didn’t do in season 1: They have added “minisodes”, although not really much shorter, but they are following (in the two that are already online) two new characters that don’t really play a roll (for now!) in the three girls life! I like that. That is the organic growth of a web series, the freedom that web shows give producers, the freedom of form!

I congratulate the people behind the series! Visit their site to learn more about them! Follow them on twitter @AwkwardEmbraces.

I leave you with the teaser for Season 2 of Awkward Embraces! Enjoy!

Planting money

Can a Web Series Make $1MM?

I believe you and anyone making a web series can. I am not sure if it has been done before. It wouldn’t happen just one morning when you woke up, but I do believer that a web series, a web show, even a web movie, can make more than just a 1MM$ if it’s good and builds an audience large enough.

Remember something: web shows are always available online and can live for a very long time (if not for ever) and gain traction even years after their release (although these are rear). It really happens, not only with tons of hard production and promotion work, but also with a good attitude and a little bit of luck.

Control Your Luck!

As a web filmmaker, if you are going to do it right you have to serve many videos (this is a realization I just came at lately and I am just starting to apply! I will be documenting some of my progress and my setbacks in future posts), you have a good chance to make some money. Whether it will be 1MM$ or 100K$ will be directly related with your business model, quality of your product and how you market it.

Now, the truth is that most web series will not make a profit. But that is true with most products and companies too. Actually 75% of new bussines will fail. So what do we do to get into that 25% that makes it? Continue reading →

10 Tips to Make an Award Winning Web Series

This video was put together by the people from http://www.thefinebrothers.com and played life at the first streamys.org awards back in March 28th 2009. I just saw it again and thought it was well worth revisiting two years later. The tips still stand!

Web Show Production: The many hats to wear

When making any kind of web show, whether it is a dramatic series, or casual video blog, the creator will more often than not, wear many hats to make the web show happen. Depending on the complexity of the production you might need to build a production team to share some of this responsibilities. But at the beginning, it will be you doing most of the work! I know I have.

It is critical to understand each job and to be sure to make the right decision depending on the hat you are wearing at the moment. Sounds like a lot of work but, it will give you the control to do make the show you want to make.

These are the hats I usually wear in my productions. They will vary a lot from person to person, depending on the skills and passion. They are not listed in any particular order, and they are all as important to make a good web show happen. Continue reading →