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In just 3 months, WIGS finds the ladies online

Liz Shannon Miller — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 07:01:39 +0000

One of web content’s greatest obstacles in the march to legitimacy is the fact that while some genres thrive, others struggle — especially dramas tailored to the over-25 set. But with each year, we see new in-roads, and the success of WIGS this summer is showing that with the right approach and star power, there is an audience for original adult drama online.

Launched last May by noted producer Jon Avnet and writer/director Rodrigo Garcia and produced as part of the YouTube made for web initiative, WIGS features both episodic and stand-alone stories targeted directly at women over 25, each revolving around an eponymous character struggling with everything from a son discovering his mother is a prostitute, to a young woman’s night of speed-dating, to a female soldier investigating another soldier’s claim of rape.

Avnet and Garcia were long-time collaborators prior to the YouTube opportunity (Avnet produced Garcia’s 1999 film Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her), and the pair had been interested in developing serious content for women on the web for a while: “It was clear back then, three or four years ago, that women over 25 was an unserved demographic on the internet,” Garcia said in a joint phone interview with Avnet. “It was a no-brainer.”

Although that audience isn’t as native to web content as, say, a 18-year-old video game fan, WIGS has managed to attract viewers: While it goes up and down on Deadline’s weekly YouTube channel charts, WIGS is consistently present, as it’s quickly found an audience, racking up over 15 million views and over 75,000 subscribers — in just three months.

One reason for that is perhaps the most obvious: The short films and miniseries which make up the WIGS channel have frankly one of the most jaw-dropping talent pools I’ve ever seen working in online video: Jennifer Garner, Julia Stiles, America Ferrera, Stephen Moyer, Dakota Fanning, Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Beals, Maura Tierney, Jason Isaacs, Rosanna Arquette, Allison Janney, Alfred Molina, Jena Malone, Alison Pill, and a whole bunch more. ”We had the value of these actors who have these followings,” Avnet said.

But in addition, there are heavy-hitters behind the camera, with an emphasis on female writers and directors including award-winning Betty Thomas and Lesli Linka Glatter. While in 2011, only five percent of Hollywood films were directed by women, “Half of [WIGS'] directors are women,” Avnet said. “That was very important for us to do.”

“You’re not going to get notes — that’s something we offer our collaborators, and that’s something that’s gotten us the people we’ve worked with. There are limitations, but you will shoot what you pitch us — not the bastardized version,” Garcia said.

When asked what kind of notes they give each other, Avnet laughed. “Why did we decide to do [the equivalent of] six movies in five and a half months? We ask ourselves that all the time.”

The amount of content generated, though, meant that not only did WIGS give established filmmakers and actors a chance to do what they want, but relative unknowns were also given an opportunity to emerge.

“One of the things that we want to do is use this platform to discover new talent, so that we’re not just bringing people to this, but also finding people.” Garcia mentioned as one example the actor Caitlyn Gerard, who played the lead in Jan alongside Stephen Moyer and Virginia Madsen.

Jan, like many other WIGS series, is long enough to be edited together as a feature film, but while Garcia says that while cross-platforms opportunities could definitely rise up in the future, right now the plan is to stick with YouTube. “Could deals be made to play elsewhere? Yes, because so much stuff is moving from platform to platform, but right now we want them to have their life on WIGS.”

The first cycle of YouTube-funded episodes have wrapped production and post-production. But according to Garcia, “it wouldn’t be impossible to start up again soon.”

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Will Asylum Escape the One-Season Trap?

Liz Shannon Miller — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:15 +0000

While it’s too easy to trash Hollywood for stifling artistic voices, if the web series Asylum were put through your stereotypical studio development, it probably would have emerged as a twist-filled thriller, or a gross-out horror film. However, as an independent production, the series avoids being pigeon-holed in this way, and emerges instead as a strong character-focused drama layered with mysteries — mysteries, alas, that may remain unresolved.

Created by Dan Williams and directed by Scott Brown, Asylum tells the tale of a remote mental hospital managed by Dr. Suli Urban (Sophie King), who’s now struggling for control over her patients thanks to the arrival of administrator Patrick Aubert (Dingani Beza). While episodes are ostensibly framed around specific patient cases, the focus is really on the strange doings at the hospital, especially when it comes to a mysterious symbol that’s found everywhere from file catalogs to a mural on a patient’s wall.

Two episodes were released last Friday on Blip.tv, with four more to come over the following weeks, and production values are great. The cast especially holds together well, with nary a weak link, and while some of the patients introduced over the series have their stories resolved in less-than-satisfying ways, the narrative as a whole proves extremely intriguing.

That’s why Asylum makes me nervous, thanks to a trend in the web video world that I’m growing tired of: Never knowing how a story ends.

It seems these days that too many independently produced web series launch with strong first seasons, introducing intriguing worlds and ending on dramatic cliffhangers that remain unresolved — then, due to the economics of independent web video production (which include a limited marketplace for original content and a still-rebounding economy), the producers of these shows are never able to follow-up on those stories, instead, moving on to other projects.

As one example: Last year’s Compulsions was another well-received dark drama launched just a few weeks before the holidays. But while the show was instrumental in launching creator Bernie Su’s writing career, Su says via email that “Compulsions is very much alive, but will not be coming back ‘soon’ in the web/short form medium.”

You can’t resent creators for this trend, especially when you consider what a huge gamble an independent production, even for the web, can be. (Williams put the budget for Asylum in the “tens of thousands.”) But while with Compulsions, that lack of completion wasn’t a huge issue because the show’s plot was purposefully secondary to its exploration of character and tone, Asylum‘s mysteries are so dense and, at the end of episode six, still pretty much unresolved. There’s little sense of conclusion — just more questions.

Both Williams and Brown were optimistic about the prospect of more episodes when I spoke to them after ~~Compulsions~~ Asylum‘s premiere last Thursday. But, having been burned so many times before, I’m going to hold off on my excitement about this show until Season 2 is announced.

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Untitled Fiction Project Ditches the Script for Weekly Series

Liz Shannon Miller — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:30:57 +0000

Relying on improvisation to construct a narrative is a tricky game to play, made even trickier when you’re not planning ahead. That’s the highwire act currently being performed by Untitled Fiction Project, created by filmmaker Alonso Mayo in association with the Gloria Gifford Conservatory for actors.

Each week through December, Mayo and two actors are meeting to improvise a short scene (no longer than 10 minutes), with each new episode building upon “the storyworld” from the previous installment. This means no rewriting of past episodes for the sake of the narrative, no way of changing what’s already happened — only moving forward.

So far, the story is pretty generic, focusing on a man (Jeffrey Casciano) torn between two women: one his wife (Lauren Plaxco) and one his mistress (Jade Warner). However, there’s a style to it that proves compelling, especially given the deficit of pure drama online, and the production values are professional quality. The color palette, full of rich shadows, proved especially compelling, as well as the intimate handheld approach to the cinematography.

Pace-wise, it could use a bit more energy to engage those afflicted by poor attention spans. Also, Casciano, as the main character, doesn’t do much to inspire likability; it doesn’t help that the character he’s playing is fundamentally not a great person, but giving him more dimension could be helpful.

The two episodes so far have performed well for an indie drama on YouTube, the first receiving over 13,000 views since its release on Oct. 8. On a creative level, the show’s success will depend almost entirely on how plotting evolves on a week to week basis. Currently, as a narrative experiment, there’s a lot of promise.

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