The January Web Series IRL meet up screened the local series’ Insert Coin, We the End and Feedback.
Hosted by Hayley and Alyce Adams, creators of i can’t even, the evenings discussion was varied as usual.
The idea for Insert Coin, created by The Axis of Awesome’s Jordan Raskopoulos and Lee Naimo, came from a web address.
“Jordan had the domain insert-coins for years because she thought it would be a good name for something. So we took that idea and looked at what we could come up with, it was really born out of a good URL,” Lee says.
Insert Coin is a sketch comedy series for gamers; it’s even a good resource for game companies. “We did an episode on Sims and they approached us to use the clip when they were promoting one of their expansion packs,” says Lee.
Lee says they were very specific when marketing the series; “it’s all about tapping into gamers, how do you find them and how do you market to them.”
The Feedback creators approached it a little differently; “my least favourite question is who are you marketing your series towards,” writer and co-creator Dylan Murphy jokes.
“Our target audience are people like us (20-somethings from Melbourne) so we were kind of counting on word of mouth from our friends,” actor and co-creator Tom Jones says.
Feedback, created by Dylan Murphy and Tom Jones, follows two flatmates trying to make it big in the real world. Boozed up muzo, Levi shreds the guitar day and night, but somehow can’t seem to catch a break. Edmund, his misanthropic and curmudgeonly writer of a roommate, hasn’t written anything in months, and is slowly going insane inside their magical second storey flat.
“Last year I approached Tom and we were going to do 10 minute episodes but ended up writing 25 pages instead. We decided to put out a 25 minute pilot and then do crowdfunding to finish it off,” says Dylan.
“Quite selfishly, I think we wanted to make something that long and see how it went,” Tom laughs.
Similarly, We the End turned out to be out a longer form drama series also. “It started as a short skit then the characters and plot line expanded in to a longer format. We thought lets go big or go home.
We just tried for something different because you don’t see many drama web series,” says Luke Rowlatt writer and director of the series.
Created by a group of year 12 students from Bendigo, We the End is set in a post-apocalyptic world. Five young adults must band together to survive, however tensions rise and relationships break as danger is imminent.
They have just released the pilot episode with more to come; “We released the first episode more out of necessity. A lot of people are moving away to study and going into work so we are trying to see the best way to keep making episodes.” Luke says.
The group really lent on the local community for sponsorship and awareness and they say it had its perks.
“We used being from Bendigo to our advantage because everyone knows each other so people were really interested.
We launched the first episode at an event and we got 130 people. We didn’t expect it, we didn’t even have enough chairs,” We the End marketing coordinator Jorja Watts says.
The January instalment of Web Series IRL proves once again, there are many different ways to produce a web series.
Details of the February Web Series IRL coming soon, be sure to follow their page for updates.