Wanted: Thoughts from Indie Web Series Creators

On set for "Townies"I have a few questions for fellow web series creators out there. Here's the set up:

In my experience, the biggest challenge facing a web series creator is the sheer number of roles one has to fill. Over the past year, I've found myself alternately producing, designing and catering when my time would probably be best spent re-writing and working with my actors. The fact is, even though I have an awesome team of designers, crew people, and production support surrounding me, all the little things just wouldn't get done if I didn't step in sometimes and take the reins. It seems to be the nature of the medium: if films get made within a highly-organized, corporate studio hierarchy, it seems that a web series is more akin to a small business, with the series creator playing the frantic entrepreneur. 

I'm curious to know how other web series writers and directors out there deal with the demands of the medium.  Do you get as much time to review dailies as you'd like? Rehearse with your actors? Spend time re-writing? How well do you feel you balance your creative duties with the nuts and bolts of getting your series shot? What techniques have you developed to achieve this balance?

All this being said, I love the challenges of bringing a fictional web series to life. Even in the midst of the most insane moments, I wouldn't have it any other way. So how do you deal with the craziness? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Townies: Crewing Up!

Production will soon be upon us for Townies (formerly known as Cowboy Cookies)--a fictional web series written by yours truly that will be produced in San Luis Obispo, CA, this summer.  To give you the elevator pitch, Townies is the story of a twenty-something shopgirl stuck in her hometown and the townies who battle for her soul as she struggles to make sense of her life.

We are currently crewing up, and are looking to fill the following positions:

Production Designer
Costume Designer
Make-up Artist
Cinematographer
1st Assistant Camera
Key Grip
Production Assistants

If you live in San Luis Obispo and are interested in being part of an exciting, creative, labor of love (read: no pay for now, but lotsa good food and good company), drop me a line.  Basically, if you're a creative person and this project piques your interest, get in touch with me, cuz chances are we have a place for you.

Working Title: "Cowboy Cookies"

I'm proud to (sort of) announce a project that I've been working on for the last several months. I say "sort of" because there's still a lot of work to be done, and not a whole lot to show you yet. But I can give you a little backstory:

Cowboy Cookies (a much better title is coming soon) is a web series that I've been writing and will be co-directing. It's the story of a girl who's sunk quicksand-style into her hometown and the cookie shop that's become her prison. A long-established production company will be making it a reality, and we're already halfway through the casting process.

It's the first web series that I've been involved with, and like everybody in this Twitter-crazy world, I'm anxious to distribute the show on the web. There's this tantalizing possibility in web distribution of breaking down the wall between creator and audience, of actually reaching out directly to the perfect viewership for your content. It's been exciting to watch creators such as Felicia Day (The Guild) and Joss Wheedon (Dr. Horrible) accomplish this with their shows. It's been even more exciting to see a community of web producers take shape around new institutions like the Webbys and Streamys (as though the world needed more award shows.)

We're moving into a world of content-driven, audience-supported distribution--minus the distributor behemoth. We've seen it as the music labels have crumbled; we're seeing it again as newspapers struggle to stay afloat. It would seem that blogs and podcasts and web series are the new model, or more likely, a bridge between the old and the new. The transformation should be quite a spectacle; I'm looking forward to the show.