Elize Morgan - TV, Transmediation and Web Series: February 2011

Friend of blog Peter Rowley interviewed the director, writer and producer of Pretty in Geek last week!

I'd like to thank him for taking the time to chat with us.

You can find Vivian Lin (director extraordinary - no really, I spilled coffee on her on set, and she was cool with it) right over here.

Amazing, you-need-this-woman-on-everything Producer Courtney Wolfson discusses producing two series at once over here. Courtney is also a producer on IPF funded series Tights and Fights.

And my interview on creating Pretty in Geek can be found here.

Thanks to Peter for the great opportunity to discuss the show, our process and everything else!

For those who are interested - we're currently in post on Pretty in Geek and will be live sometime in late Spring! (Remember: roll a natural 20!)

For those who just want to see what geekery and photoshop together make:

Poor, poor Pikachu kitty.

Ever since we've been done shooting, we've been seeing more and more great series come out!

Today we're looking at the brilliant teen series, Throwing Stones. Thanks so much for taking a moment to chat with us about your horror series, guys!

Co-Creators Bart Van Bemmel and Jason Wheeler sat down with their emails and shared some great thoughts with us!

When developing the series what were some of the biggest issues you
faced?

Throwing Stones the teen horror web series is loosely based on a feature script that was
optioned at one point. The Writer’s Strike hit, we fell through the cracks, and it was
welcome to Hollywood. So we decided to take matters into our hands and no money and
turn Stones into a web series. We thought that there hasn’t really been many teen horror
web series out there yet – so why not.

Adapting a feature to a web series format is the tough part – especially if your feature has
a budget that involves special F/X and when your web series doesn’t! Stones the feature
had three versions: a “Smart” version, the “Slasher” version, and the “PG-13” version.
But none of those three versions are really what we see with the web series version per
say. Some of the original characters from the feature script made it into the series. Some
were added for the web series. The way we started the series is not the way it starts in
the feature. And part of the feature the kids are trapped in a bathroom and not a storage
classroom. We could go on and on about the differences from the feature to the web
series from plot points to characters. The concept is there. But we wanted to design a
teen horror web series for a Season 1 and a Season 2 from the get-go.

Season 1 would be all about the characters coming together and overcoming their
differences in order to survive Saturday School – true to Breakfast Club form and lots of
character development. We have so many talented actors on board; we really wanted to
showcase that talent. When you watch episodes from the first season, you can see that
each episode highlights a different actor. There is a new star that comes forward each
week.

Season 2 would be more about the isolation of the characters, who succeeds, and who
fails. Of course the odds are against us to even get a Season 2, but even if we don’t get
one, we’ve learned so much from this process and it has been a fun ride! We also knew
that the horror community can be tough with a web series. Comedy is king in web series
world and there are many genres of horror from Slasher, B-Horror, Campy, Torture
Porn Horror, PG-13 Teen Horror, etc. We wanted to make a teen horror with a message
without pointless killings. We just hope that our message comes across.

What was the process like?

The process is much like putting together a feature length film. We did months of pre-
production after the script was completed. We did audtions, table reads, rehearsals, and
met with key crewmembers to develop a plan for each day of the shoots.

We knew we were going to have our locations for (3) days with two “units” going at the
same time, so we based much of the series on that. We shot our series at two different

schools. So, we focused on what we thought we could accomplish for Season 1 and then
looked back over our feature script versions to see what “concepts” could make it into the
web series.

Post production was much the same. We spent months making sure everything looked
great with the editing, color grading, and sound mixing. We are very grateful having so
many talented people contributing to our series.

How much in advance to shooting was everything written?

Once we fleshed out Season 1 of Stones, we began to audition cast and then within a
month we were shooting the series. Of course with any production, we analyzed what
was working on set and made any changes to the script we felt necessary. It was an on-
going process with web series. You always have to be thinking about your next move.

Was the season arc-ed out before hand, or was it an episode-to-
episode basis?

The entire season was completely mapped out and shot all together. This was based on
when we could get the locations, as well as us wanting to keep the intensity of the series
going with the acting performances.

What were some of the things you’ve learned since the pilot episode?

A lot of fans wish the episodes were longer. So do we! A lot of time was spent on the
length of the episodes by studying other successful web series and from advice from
people in the industry. And it also came down to dollars. Hopefully we are leaving you
hooked enough to come back and see another episode.

As much as we would love to make the episodes for Season 2 longer – which we promise
to do if Season 2 happens, we still can’t even get some friends and family to take three
minutes out of their day to watch. We can send out a Facebook invite to each episode
saying you can watch from the comforts of your computer at home or as you watch on
your lunch break, the episode is like three minutes long, and we still get people declining
because they are too busy. We have been one of the most watched series on one of our
networks a few times – so we’re glad someone took that three minutes. Ha ha ha.

We think the web series format is such a new medium, people often think it is similar to
television where there is a set time to watch and if you miss that then you are out of luck.
It just takes some time to educate the audience on how things work. Each day we gain
some fans and hopefully that equates to more viewers that enjoy the series.

What was the production schedule like? What were some of the snags that were found?

We shot Stones over three days in the blistering swelter of 107 degree Texas heat. And
the locations we shot didn’t have A/C. God bless our actors and our crew! The heat did
help intensify the scenes though. As with any production there’s going to be snags. As
producers we tried to keep most of these things between us so the other cast and crew
didn’t know so it wouldn’t put anyone into panic mode. For example – one day we found
out that our library scenes would have to be moved to a different location an hour before
shooting. And the library is crucial to our story – like what happens with the kids in the
Breakfast Club during detention. Changing the location to another setting would have
changed so many things. But at the last minute we solved the problem and got to keep
the location.

An hour before shooting the entire series our original steadicam operator bailed. And our
entire shooting schedule was based on the steadicam shots. Luckily our awesome script
supervisor’s (Susan McGill) husband just so happened to be David McGill from Harold
and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay, The Faculty, and the Spy Kids movies. We
so lucked out! We prepped and prepped for this project, but that can all go to wayside
once you take your first steps onto the set.

How long are your shooting days?

Because there was the two of us co-directing, one of us could be with a unit at one part of
the school, and another be another group over the three days so we could cover the video
yearbooks and the scenes from the web series over (3) 8-10 hour days or so.

What kind of crew do you use for each of your webisodes?

We ran a small crew each day with so many people wearing so many different hats. We
basically had our DP, our production manager who also did some co-mic booming, a
boom operator, our first-assistant director, the art director who became our right hand, a
PA, and us as directors covering everything else and in between. As for post-production,
our main team became a colorist, a sound designer, Jason as the editor, and an assistant
editor.

What’s the best way to kick start a webseries into the vast, vast space of the interwebs?

Not sure if we are the right ones to ask! But, our best advice would be to
study up. Why are some web series more successful than others from time length, to
production values, cast and crew, marketing, content, etc. We started with our marketing
campaign before we even starting filming with Facebook, the horror media, and trying
to build hype. We wanted to try and get a fan base before we launched the first episode
launched. Each character from the series got their own facebook page so the fans could
interact with the actors who play the characters. And the actors would only respond as
their character. They would give scoop, secrets about the series, and talk trash about
the other characters. We also made video yearbook diaries about each character so the
viewers could get to know the characters before the series began. You have very little
time to establish characters, plot, etc. in a web series before you lose your audience. We
thought the video yearbooks could really help with this. Plus, we put clues to the series
in the video yearbooks so we could do future trivia contests with the fans and more.

What has it been like working with Mingle Media on this project?

Mingle Media TV Network has been incredible to work with! Their whole concept
of letting the fans interact with the cast of their favorite web series makes it so much
personable for the viewers with the live web shows. Just being able to interact with your
fans is special. They are ahead of the curve. Also, once we signed on with them – before
we even launched they lined up for amazing sponsors for our series. We really feel the
way mingle Media handles their web series is what the future is like. You don’t just want
to build viewers for your show; you want to create a whole experience for your audience.
It makes everyone feel that they belong to the Throwing Stones family…and we feel they
do.

We know MMTVN has other web series to focus on, but they always make us feel like
we are their only client. We love MMTVN!