McCracken at the LA Web Fest

So I'm at the La Web Fest and although the festival started off a bit disorganised it has turned out to be quite an informative and worthwhile experience. What amazes me are just how many creatives are using this platform to tell their stories and the amount of web series out there. Some good, many bad. I have attended a fantastic workshop tonight which discussed where the medium is headed. I'm glad to hear that web series is a new frontier and being a part of it made me feel good. Hollywood studios are now funding high quality web series content and giants like YouTube are requesting material wanting to change peoples perception of their brand.

Something that was discussed at length was how we go about monetising web series content. It got my brain ticking, especially when one of the panel speakers mentioned creating an mobile app of your production house and anything you produce is available through the app. Pilots, trailers and teasers are released for free on Youtube (or some free platform) and then die-hard fans can watch whole series by purchasing your app. Of course, you have to establish a pretty solid fan base and reputation if this was to work.

In the meantime, something else that was mentioned was a crowd funding system where fans can follow a link at the end of an episode and contribute to the budget for the next episode if they wish to see more made. If you start making crap they will just stop contributing but if they keep liking what you do, you may just be able to have your web series funded. The company that have pioneered this system is Patreon.

Me Fielding Questions on the Q&A After McCracken Screening

I also did my first post screening Q&A panel which I was quite nervous about although once I got up on the panel my fear dissipated and I relaxed into it. One of the questions I asked was what advice I had to aspiring web series makers who had little or no money.

I explained that the one thing that doesn't cost money in filmmaking is the writing of the script, provided you write it yourself. So my advice was to put as much work into the script writing process as possible, because this is the one thing you can control without the need for money. If you you put the work in and end up with a tight script, you will have a solid foundation to do everything else for cheap by simply telling a quality story. No special effects or multiple locations though!

We didn't win any awards although what I really appreciated were people who watched McCracken and then recognised me at the festival as McCracken. They seemed both stoked and amused to meet me. A couple of British dudes would yell out "Oui McCracken!" whenever they spotted me across the hotel foyer. So people obviously like the character and see the potential there.

Watch below the new trailer for McCracken - The TV Pilot. The whole 24 minute pilot was made for two grand. To be discussed further in the next post.