Since YouTube exploded in 2005, videos shown on the web have gone from amateur to professional quality, and much has been written about them – especially in the last two years.

The Quebec phenomenon, Têtes à Claques, is a prime example of this type of production’s growing popularity. The TAC craze that took Quebec by storm was both unexpected and instantaneous, and it demonstrated how much power consumers have when it comes to choosing how they watch entertainment content.

TAC is no longer alone in this genre: quality productions, both in French and English, are appearing on major network and Internet provider websites, as well as on different viewing platforms and social networks. Joining TAC are web shows such as Chez Jules, Mère indigne, Sanctuary, Ma blond, RemYx, My Pal Satan, Vuguru’s Prom Queen and Back on Topps, and many others.

Key concept: interacting with the community

Web series – fiction content created specifically for the Internet (or mobile platforms) as opposed to television content that can be downloaded online – are usually started by one or more developers who invest their time and money to wrap up their project quickly. According to Geneviève Lefebvre, Chez Jules designer, writer and director, ‘Web content teams are smaller, and decisions are made faster.’

Lefebvre says one of the main strengths of this type of production is that it allows audience reactions to be factored in once the show has been broadcast. This direct link to the consumer is the Internet’s main advantage. She stresses how valuable feedback is to the creative process. The public’s input can be simple or complex. It can range from sharing videos on social networks to voting on how the next episode should play out, playing series-related games or using social networks to help with the story’s development.

This element is an essential part of the new equation, since tomorrow’s public (and tomorrow is today) has changed. As explained by Michel Dumais in Forbes magazine, tomorrow’s public consists of digital natives, aged 12 to 24, who’ve never been without the Internet. They’re different from their predecessors, who were shaped by television.

In the same article, Dumais quotes Ottawa University sociologist Diane Pacom, who further explains these differences: ‘While their elders thought of time as linear, with a well-defined past, present and future, natives physically live in the present while simultaneously existing on many spatio-temporal planes.’ She goes on to say that ‘time, like space, is transformed, fragmented and accessible to all.’

Key concept: inexpensive tests and pilots

Major networks have learned to look for web-user reactions on platforms like YouTube. In an article published in the Financial Post on Aug. 22, journalist Matt Hartley writes that broadcasters can tap into all sorts of free talent through YouTube. Pilots can also be tested on such platforms. A number of American TV networks have revived some of their old shows and found new life on the web for them.

Quarterlife is a series of 36 eight-minute episodes that tells the story of a young adult female blogger. The series is produced by Edward Zwick (Shakespeare in Love) and sponsored by Toyota. Only about 105,000 saw the show on the web, which isn’t much, but it was enough to keep Toyota interested. A stint on YouTube brought the number of viewers up to 700,000.

Paramount went online with Circle of Eight, a new series that started showing in October on MySpace.com. Three of the 10 episodes in the series are currently ‘on air.’ The show’s developers are using games and social media to help the story take shape. A quality fiction series, Circle of Eight makes Lonelygirl15 look like an outdated amateur product.

It’s interesting to note that the Emmy Awards now include an Interactive Media category and that the International Academy of Web Television, created in 2009, is handing out ‘Streamy Awards.’

Key concept: production and broadcasting models galore

Web content developers are on to a good thing, and now TV producers are getting on the bandwagon, too. SRC’s RemYx is produced by Vivavision, a ‘traditional’ production house which specializes in children’s programs. Toronto-based Shaftesbury Films is currently producing a number of web series for a client broadcaster. Cookie Jar just launched jaroo.com, a game and video portal. The producer will soon offer commissioned and original series created primarily for the Internet.

The production style of web series has generally adapted to fit the developers’ working reality, that of a small multi-tasking team, within which the developer is a jack-of-all-trades: writer, director, producer, makeup artist, costume designer, webmaster, advertising inventory manager, publisher and merchandiser.

Some developers are also broadcasters, as is the case for TAC and Jules. Other series are shown on broadcaster portals (Mère indigne and RemYx on Radio-Canada.ca and Comment survivre aux week-ends on Videotron and Illico) or on Internet provider webpages (Sympatico and Rogers, for example). Some companies, such as 33mag, Bombe.TV and Revision3, position themselves as web broadcasters by offering different kinds of content (magazines, sports, fiction, humor, etc.) in an organized fashion the same way TV broadcasters present their programming.

The different formats used by web series developers not only help keep content fresh and exciting, they also promote the development of original business models.

Dollars and cents

In general, production costs average from $3,000 to $5,000 per minute for an unlimited number of webisodes lasting between 30 seconds and 10 minutes. Seldom do projects cost more. When they do, it’s usually because the web producer pays for broadcasting, distribution, development, promotion and marketing, advertising inventory and merchandise costs. (The budget for Canal Plus’ Kali series is 1 million euros, but no one knows if this includes the cost of the TV version.)

Producers can make their shows with or without adhering to the collective agreements in effect. For example, SRC will demand that a web production be filmed according to collective agreement standards if it is to be broadcast on its portal. Ideas and concepts are often put online in order to see if they generate web surfer interest. If so, a few episodes are produced depending on the funds available. Development and production stages occur simultaneously.

The predetermined production steps we’re familiar with are a thing of the past. A character or single webisode will often appear online without any web promotion. Based on audience feedback, the project will either get the go-ahead, oftentimes backed by the developer’s own money, or it will be canned due to lack of appeal or funding.

But, in today’s Canadian context, there is virtually no funding available for web content. Up until recently, Telefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund accepted web series proposals. Chez Jules and RemYx were lucky enough to get some funding. We’ll have to wait and see if the new Canada Media Fund programs will continue to fund web series.

Some developers invest their own money, like for Chez Jules or Hailey Hacks. Certain broadcasters help fund projects, as SRC did with Mère indigne. And other web content developers benefit from pilot programs like the one set up by the Canadian Film Centre, which helped produce the My Pal Satan and Seth on Survival web series.

But we need to be realistic. Not everything is well in web TVland. In the U.S., the major networks are taking a close look at their positioning. The Viacom portal has reduced the number of web series it produces to focus on strengthening online communities and creating web series featuring popular stars.

Maybe exporting the TV show model (even in a shorter format) to the web is not the way to go. Maybe the appeal of a web series resides in its raw style, small budget and accelerated production cycle.

We hear that television is going through a crisis. In his book published last fall, La télévision à l’ère d’Internet, Jean-Paul Lafrance quotes an excerpt from Jean-Louis Missika’s book, La fin de la télévision: ‘We are entering a world where images are everywhere and the media is nowhere: more images, less television. Television as a technology is not disappearing, but television as a medium is.’ We’ve never looked at so many images, but they no longer come exclusively from television. We’re getting them from a variety of platforms. ‘If television is literally imploding by losing more and more of its audience, it is also exploding by blasting its images throughout our environment. Sadly, this results in its economic downfall.’

Lafrance foresees two consequences: television will give way to a virtual network of images revolving around the individual, and audiovisual will become a global experience.

There is an undeniable need for web content business models to be created. Even though a business model for web series doesn’t exist yet, the one for television needs to be updated – and it should address multiple content (images) shown on all platforms, those available and those yet to be developed.

Fiction attempts to adapt to its new environment by reinventing itself. Web series are a reflection of this. So how do we help them thrive? Much in the same way we supported, and continue to support, the TV and film industries.

Claire Dion is associate director at the Independent Production Fund