4 Important Things You Must Know About Before Shooting a Web Series

This article was published by Jeremy Campbell who's Founder and President of the video production collaboration and freelancing site Spidvid.

Shooting a web series is a lot like playing a carnival game. It seems easy enough on it’s face, but once you actually try it you realize there is way more going on behind the scenes than you first realized.

Awhile ago I spoke to a web series creator (Richard Boehmcke of Twentease), and learned a few things I want to share here, coming from his perspective in his words.

There are four things you must know about before writing a script for, or shooting a web series:

1. Write to Shoot - I wrote and shot my first episode within a short time span, but then I had many months to write the next 7 episodes before we shot any of them. While this was great for saving time, it also allowed my imagination to run wild. I was focused more on the story and the arc of the characters, than the actual implementation of the project. I wrote scenes that took place in a museum, on a bus, in a nightclub, and in a taxi without ever considering how hard they might be to shoot. In the end we had to rewrite most of the scenes because it just wasn't practical to shoot in a dozen different locations. Make sure the scene in the script is a place you can shoot in with minimal effort.

2. If You Have No Sound You Have No Web Series - The first episode we shot we paid very little attention to the microphone. Now, it’s one of the most important elements of our setup. People will forgive low film quality before they will forgive poor sound. We are used to watching things that are moderately entertaining in low resolution. However if you can't understand what the actors are saying, nobody is going to pretend they are watching a silent film. Make sure you get your sound right the first time. Double-check the sound IMMEDIATELY after you shoot the scene. Finding out you didn't get it right while still on set is way better than figuring that out during the editing process.

3. Trying To Do It All Is Suicide - I love being a writer/director, but it's dangerous. Even if you are the best writer/director/producer/actor/whatever, it is impossible to be the best at all of them at the same time. Doing two (or three or four) things at once means that something has to suffer. Often, you don't realize what has suffered until it's time to edit. And then you see you missed correcting an actor's mistake because you were too busy trying to get the perfect lighting for the shot. Find talented people to fill the other roles. It will allow you to make a much better product.

4. 720 is Better Than 1080 - The reason? Time. When it comes down to it, yes 1080 is a better quality than 720, but the amount of extra time it takes to move the files, render them during editing, and export a final product are often more trouble than it is worth. Plus most people don't have the patience or the bandwidth to wait for something to load up in 1080. If you are doing a scripted web series, it's OK to have it exist in 720. Nobody is expecting products done on a shoestring budget to look like cinematic masterpieces. It just needs to look good enough to get you to the next step.

It's easy to think that we are capable of anything, and that we want to make the biggest, best, most HD web series ever. But that is often impractical. It is far more beneficial is to break it down into smaller chunks. First, evaluate your end goal. Next, take a look at your resources. Then, figure out how your resources can help you reach that end goal. Finally, go make something incredibly awesome and impossible to ignore.

Do you have another tip that you would like to share? If so, feel free to below with a comment!