More than a decade has passed since web based platforms like Youtube freed multi-media production from the confines of rectangular television screens, providing a new and dynamic environment for creators to showcase their ideas.
Now that environment has spawned concepts that are alien even to Youtube, providing creators with an entirely new set of opportunities and challenges.
How do you tell a story in 15 seconds? What can you actually fit into a portrait sized frame? Can we make people laugh and cry on platforms people associate with selfies and sexting?
These are the questions web series creators on emerging platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are attempting to answer in their own unique ways – the results of which are steadily increasing in popularity.
Just a few years ago Snapchat was known as a discrete photo-sharing service used between friends. More recently the platform has evolved into a massive media-sharing outlet, used widely by big name brands and individual creators alike.
The transformation has been so successful that earlier this year Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel reportedly told investors that the platform had reached 8 billion daily video views.
Creators themselves have also flocked to the app, with Steven Spielberg’s daughter Sasha Spielberg producing a tailored Snapchat web series last year called ‘Literally can’t even’.
Instagram has also emerged at the frontier of web series creativity, drawing many smaller creators to the platform in search of their niche.
Artistically challenged is one such project, developed in 15 second increments for Instagram, the series follows an artist who makes his break by telling a fib that lands him in some hilarious and outrageous situations. The Instagram series was an Official Selection series at Melbourne WebFest 2015.
Speaking about the nature of producing narrative content on Instagram, the writer and director of Artistically Challenged Aleks Arcabasico says that hours of work went into the short episodes.
“You have to rethink the stories you’re trying to tell, and rethink the way you’re telling them.”
“Every step of the way you have to keep the viewer and the platform in mind, and even then when you think you have it nailed down, you’ll discover something new you have to do or something you didn’t know you could do,” he says.
“TV has limitations, cinemas have limitations, Instagram and cell phones just have a few different ones. You just keep shaping it until you’ve made something you like that fits in the box that you have.”
In contrast to longer form platforms like YouTube, Instagram puts pressure on creators to pack a number of narrative elements into an extremely short timeframe, a challenge that’s been embraced by Arcabasico and even big name creators like the late David Bowie.
Last year, prior to his death, Bowie gave the creators of @instaminiseries early access to his album to provide interpretations with “no limits or preconditions.”
The result was a web series called Unbound, which explored images inspired by the mood of Bowie’s music, artwork and lyrics. The series was a success, with the channel now boasting more than 26k followers and releasing a host of other web series on the platform.
The success of Unbound and @instaminiseries is reflected in the increasing popularity of Instagram as a content creation platform.
According to research conducted by digital marketing company Smart Insights, Instagram grew its audience by 47% in 2014 and is now one of the top 5 largest media platforms on the internet.
This, in many ways, reflects the platforms growth as a suitable outlet for marketing video content which creators like Arcabasico are embracing.
“With Instagram you have the trailer, the TV and the chat room all in your pocket.”
“You don’t have to convince people to get out of the house or click through a dozen programs to see your project or to share it and tell you what they think about it, they’re already there,” Arcabasico said.
“Create the show you want and make sure the platform matches the show and the show matches the platform. Don’t do it because you think it’ll be easy, do it because you think it’ll be fun and worthwhile, because nothing is easy,” he added.