When you mention the word web series to people and they look at you cross-eyed, you might want to ask them where they have been the last 10+ years (at the very least).
Web series, short form content delivered to the viewer via the web (Party Girl Plus One is one of many examples), has been around since 1996 according to my pal Brett Love’s Webisode Clack: Grape Jam and the LA Webfest. In Brett’s article, he states “According to a December ‘96 issue of Websight magazine…the article inside is titled “Honey, what’s on the web tonight?” Reading through it, it’s amazing how familiar it all sounds. It’s talking about the merger of the web and television, and what that means for how we will watch things in the future. Really, if you omit a couple of the obviously dated references (IRC!, Real Audio), much of the article is still very relevant today.”
And to take it one step further, the girl featured in the 1996 article is Brittney Powell, starring in Safety Geeks: SVI, a current web series created by another pal of mine Tom Konkle and his partner David Beeler. Safety Geeks: SVI also received a Visual Effects Nomination at this years Streamy Awards. Congrats Tom and David!
So web series have been around for almost 15 years and they are only growing by the number. Where do we go from here? Word around town is mobile devices. Short form content delivered to your cell phone. Well that’s nothing new, we get the news, movies and TV shows on our cell phones already. I’m talking “Mobi-Sodes”. Short form episodic shows created specifically for the cell phone with soft cell, uh I mean ’sell’, product placement embedded in the content tied to your GPS, so advertisers can target your all mighty dollar at any time.
Pretty cool, pretty creepy, pretty 2010.
To check out Brett’s full article on cliqueclack.com, click here.
