Transcripts
1. Web Series Creating and Producing intro with website resources: Dump, dump, dump, bump,
bump, bump, bump. C. C. Come true. Come and true. Coming. You are jealous. You always get balloons around
you when you're jealous. I was wondering
about the balloons. They're his security balk. They're not by
security blanking. Oh. A SAT. I haven't done one of
these in like 22 years. So I understand you're having concerns about an
addiction to porn. No, this is a
perfectly common issue many people struggle. Not porn. Corn. Corn. Yes, we are
adults of the corn. Hey, I'm Jordan the
Mila, a writer, producer, and creator of
about a dozen web series. Over the past decade, I've learned a lot from creating and making my own web series. No matter if you have some money or no money for your web series. In this course, I'll show
you all the steps needed. From coming up with
an idea that can go several episodes to sharing your series on the web
and building an audience. Creating a web series
is a ton of fun, and it's easier than
most people think it is, once you have a
plan for success. Guide you to make
sure your production runs smoothly on set. Even if your set is just
your apartment or house. I've done that dozens of times. There's no set length
to a web series, and I've produced web series
that have had episodes less than 1 minute
long and others that have had episodes
longer than 20 minutes. I've learned a lot
along the way, and I've been able to
break down the process, so anyone with a phone
can make a web series. Now, let's start creating
your web series. For free student resources
that correlate to this course. Visit my website at
www Jordan emila.com. There, you can also
find my ebooks, podcasts, script coverage
services, and a whole lot more. My website offers one on one writing sessions and
group courses over Zoom. Can teach you to write
your first movie, TV show or how to write and
produce your series or film. I have clients who work
nine to five jobs, and have had ideas for movies
or TV shows for years, but they just haven't taken the action to put their
ideas into a script. And I can guide you on how to do that and make sure
you finish it. You can find more
information on my website at www Jordan emola.com.
2. Coming Up With Your Idea: Thanks for watching this class. I'm excited to help
you create and produce your own web series. Now, let's dive right in. This first lesson is all
about coming up with your idea and making
sure it will work. Use what you already have. If you want to produce
your content, then, right, with the resources
you already have, Let's say you want to start
on your own web series. Well, you know what, you can do. One of my favorite TV
shows, Broad City, started as a web series because Abby Jacobson
and a lot of Glaser, one on the right and
star in their own show. After 26 episodes of
their web series, Comedy Central made their
web series into a TV show. If you watch those webisodes, they look like the cost,
practically nothing. I've always loved Wrigley gum. I had the idea to give
these gum flavors a personality like
the M&M's characters. And I also love Nickelodeon
sticks directly. So I created a web series
called Wrigley friends. The actors lead their voices
to this project for free. The only thing that's serious
cost me was the price of gum and materials we
used to make many sets. We built these sets inside cardboard boxes and shoe boxes. If you can cook, maybe you want to write your own
comedy cooking show. I had a friend who loved to
cook and also loved for 20. So we combine this two
pyruvate love interests into an online cooking show called freshly baked
with bud leaf. We had a mutual
friend and already had a camera and Mike's. So the only thing
they had to pay for was the cost of food. Again, use what
you already have. Whatever that is. Think about locations you have. Do you have an uncle
with a fancy house? Do you know a park that's
pretty empty most days? Do you work somewhere
with a boss is cool with you filming there. If you don't have a lot of
locations, That's fine. Use the ones you got
right down a list of all the resources you have
at your disposal already. For locations, maybe
just walk around your neighborhood
and take pictures of possible locations
you could film. After you make a list of possible locations and other
resources at your disposal. Let's talk about money
or lack thereof. The approach I will take for
most of this class is you have little or no money
to make your web series. Because I've been there
for most of my web series. But guess what? Having no money is a good thing. It makes your right
with perimeters. And if you do have money
for the web series, you can still use
all this advice to save more money, alright? After thinking about resources and how much money
you want to spend, Let's get creative
with characters. Think about a type of character. You can have a lot
of fun writing. Keep in mind, the smaller
the number of characters, the fewer people you
have scheduled onset. When I was 23, I
had two roommates. We all loved old Charlie Chaplin
and Buster Keaton films. So we created an online series that was an homage
to these films. My roommate Matthew
and I start in it, and our other roommate
produced and directed it. Our series was called
Orville vs. Pedro. The episodes were one-minute long and we edited
them altogether. It cost us practically
nothing but the cost of gas. All the props we used were props we already had
in our apartment. Give your characters flaws. Remember to give your
characters flaws. Nobody likes perfect people. They're boring. So think about how
to give them flaws. And I've attached a
character questionnaire which I use for every project answering these questions and the character questionnaire will really help draw out
your characters. Find your concept. After brainstorming characters, brainstorm what your
idea and concept are. Maybe you already know, but if you don't spend
an hour doing this, if you're the star, think
about what you're good at, your gifts and talents. If you have a talented friend, think about what
they're good at, thinking about the strengths and resources you already have, or are they already have? Play to those strengths? Also, keep in mind how many characters
will be in an episode. Planning out your first season
and number of episodes. One of the most important things about making a web series is the series part series
implies multiple episodes, and this is something
you should think about as you take this course. Before you start writing, think about how many
episodes we want to do and make it easy on yourself. Plan the season before
you start writing. Get an idea. Now, if you want to
make two episodes or six episodes or even more, if you have a web series that
only has one person in it, only 30 s long per episode. You could probably film five
to ten episodes per day. Generally, the more
people you have onset, the more time it
will take to film. Once you have an idea of how
many episodes you wanna do and how many characters
you'll need for every episode come up with a logline. A logline is a very
short synopsis of the idea that you can easily pitch to your potential
cast and crew. Make this 30 words or less. Your logline might change later. But for today, write
something down. If you want a better
idea and a logline, use IMDB and look at the short synopsis that's written for every film
and TV show there, the logline for my web
series, monster therapy. Is monsters and their spouses work on relationships
and marriage therapy. This is exactly what I said the people as they
pitch it to them. I would then give them examples like how Jason's wife
wants them to get rid of his old ratty hockey mask or how the children of
the Corn grew up, another adult of the corn, and how the wives are sick of living in
the same vegetable. After you know your concept, it's time to write the script. If you're new to screenwriting,
don't be intimidated. It's super easy
nowadays to write a script as long as you have
an internet connection, script software is
super easy to find. There's a ton of free script
writing software out there. My screen reading software
of choice is right or duet. And you can write your
first three projects for free at Ryder, do at.com. Pretty much all script
writing software uses the same keyboard strokes
to move things around. Press the Enter key to change between action,
dialogue and character. If you're new to script writing
software, just dive in. It's not that hard
to figure out. And you can find tutorial
videos on YouTube. Usually, you'll
be able to master the basics after riding
with it for five-minutes. Remember, generally,
the shorter the script, the faster it will
be to produce. In general, the
shorter your content, the faster it'll get done. If you're filming
a web series and the episodes or 3 min or less, this will take a lot
less time than say, two episodes of
ten-minute content. For every web series. I tried to go on
the shorter side, especially when
you're just starting out when we shot
Wrigley friends. Because the episodes
were so short, we were able to film two to
three episodes in a day. Keep writing the script
until you haven't finished. Don't worry about
making a project Perfect, Just get it done. First drafts are just
that. First drafts. The script will
change a lot between now and the finished product. Jot appetite calls his
first drafts vomit passes. Because you're just
vomiting the story out. You can always rewrite
and make it better later. Do you have friends who
aren't writing credit? If you're reading
several episodes of something and you're the
creator and produce rabbit, then feel free to bring
on other staff writers. If your friends want
to act in the series, maybe they want
to write as well. If you get along with them and can brainstorm ideas together, then give them writing credit. If you look at the office, many other writers were
also actors on the show. Mindy colleague
wrote 26 episodes of The Office and played Kelly
Kapoor for the entire series. Bj Novak wrote 15 episodes and played Ryan Howard
for most of the series. Paul Lieber Stein was an
executive producer for the entire series and played the most hated
character on the show. Toby Flanders in
Rob Nicole honey is the creator of it's only
sunny in Philadelphia. But he, Charlie day and Glenn
Horton are all writers, producers, and
actors on the show share their wealth in terms
of credit, don't be stingy. Again, for Wrigley friends, I wrote a few episodes and I know several
talented writers. And I asked them if anyone
wanted to write an episode, they only need it to be
one to three pages long. So I wasn't asking a lot. I asked about 12
funny writers I knew. And six of them said, yes, I gave those six
writers the scripts I already wrote and a
deadline to submit. And not only did
many submit one, some of them submitted
several episodes. I had so many episodes
all of a sudden that I got to pick and choose
what I wanted to produce. Some of the scripts
stayed the way they were. And others I tore apart because of the
creator and head writer. But I still kept
certain jokes or ideas and I gave them
credit for those episodes. This is the same
process for TV sitcoms. As I mentioned, think about how many episodes you want to
make for the first season. After learning all this, you can always start with a
shorter first season as well, and then make a
second longer season once you get the hang of it. For the first season of my web series,
romantically hopeless. We planned for episodes
and it was easy to film inside my apartment building because the building
manager wasn't there. They were out celebrating
Thanksgiving with their family. So we were able to film in the apartment lobby
with no problem. We turned my apartment lobby
into a restaurant scene. Today, brainstorm your
concept for your web series. Think about how many episodes you want for the first season and start to write
your first draft for your first episode. Once you start step one, it's a lot easier to
get the step two.
3. Pre-Production and Production: After you have first
drafts of scripts for the season, then
start pre-production. Choose your best scripts. The great thing about a
web series is you'll have multiple scripts and you want your pilot
episode to be strong. This will be an introduction to your audiences and a way to
start finding an audience. Make sure the first episode is a good representation of your
series and sets the tone. It's good to have
too many scripts. With web series that
are 3 min or shorter. You can have several episodes written and you may
not film them all. But it's good to have choices. I always have a
tendency to write more episodes that
we plan to film. Because the more you write, the more things you'll discover
about your characters, and the more the series
will unfold itself. For Wrigley friends, we had
about 11 episodes written, but we only chose the best six. And I took some
of the best jokes that were in the five
episodes we didn't film. And I added them to the
episodes that we did film for my web series,
romantically hopeless. I wrote six episodes
for the first season, but I knew we only
had time to film for. So I took the other two episodes
and waited until we did the second season because those other two episodes required more
people to be onset. And they were a tad more
complicated to film. After reading a
draft of the script or scripts that you feel
comfortable sharing, it's time to do a table read. A table read is when
you get a group of actors or friends together and assign character
roles to all of them and have them act out
the entire script. You can do this in your
living room or do it on Zoom if it's more
convenient for everyone. The good thing about having
a table read in real life, you'll be able to feel
the flow and feel what scenes are too short and
what scenes are too long. You'll feel the rhythm
of the whole script. If you're directing it yourself. Take notes at each table rate, especially once
the actors leave. You might not remember
certain things a week later, but notes, never lie. If you're bringing in a
Director for the series, make sure they are at all. The table reads as well, and you can discuss what
certain actors brought to the characters after the actors leave, kill your darlings. After each table read, it's time to cut anything
that doesn't work. For writers, we call this kill your darlings or
kill your babies. There may be a line of dialogue or wholesale and that just doesn't work and you need to cut it to make the
script better. You might rewrite something or just cut an idea altogether. Often, the more simple
something is, the better it is. So any scenes that
may be confusing or complicated,
make them simple. Try out different actors. After you do your
first table, read, rewrite the script
and make it better, and then do another table read. It may be beneficial
to you to have a whole new group of friends or actors the second time around, or at least switch the rows up. You never know what
different actors will bring to your characters. Sometimes actors even
mess up their dialogue. But the way they
say it or the sound they make is so unique and funny that I will change the
script to what they did. Listen to all the notes. But follow your heart
when applying them. After every read. Ask for notes from your friends. Ask questions, but
more importantly, watch the actors and your
friends as they read it. Don't be part of the table. Read, just take it in, see if the jokes work
and if the pace works. And asked for notes
from everyone there, sometimes people are
shy with giving notes. But once they start
with OneNote, then OneNote leads to
another and another. When you get notes,
trust your instincts. You're going to get a lot of
notes from a lot of people. Some of those ideas,
maybe you're really good and you may
want to apply them. But some nodes might
just be terrible. You can get a good note and a terrible note from
the same person. I wrote down all my notes
from different people. But I usually only apply about 20% to 40% of
the notes I get. How to find actors. After you do your table
reads, think about casting. Maybe someone during your table reads was perfect for that role. Or like Broad City. You want to act in it yourself. But if not, then you
can find more actors. A good place to check out for
actors is a local theater. Maybe make some flyers with a
logline of your content and a short synopsis of
the role than leave your phone number or
email on the flyer. You could also just watch
a show with the theater. And think about your characters. As you watch the show, are the characters on
stage sharing some of the same characteristics as
the one in your content. If you live in a small city, the chances of an actor
working for free, or highly likely, a lot of small theaters
and small cities. The actors just asked for free. They have fun doing it. The great thing
about small cities is people just love
helping each other out. Tell the actors it's free
as soon as possible. If you're filming this
whole thing for free, say this right off the bat. In my experience, most
actors will work for free, but just let them know
as soon as possible. So there are no expectations. Making things just for fun
is how most people start. Also, if you live in
New York City or LA, you can use websites like
Actors Access or backstage. Listing on these sites
is usually free. Most of these websites
will ask for sides, and let's talk about
those right now. Sides include a script sample, but it has just the lines
that the actor will go over. Usually cross out
the other parts so the actors know
what to focus on. If you have a small role
or two with a line, or if you just need
people in the background, I'm sure your friends
will do this for free. Let's be honest. Most people want to act
or at least try it out. Maybe offer them pizza and
beer once you wrap the SAT. But people like seeing their
names and their credits of films in series after
pre-production, take the pre OA, because now
it's time for production. Find the schedule that
works best for everyone. The more people you
have for cast and crew, the more you have to
ask about schedules and find a day that
works best for everyone. I've always found
that weekends are easier because most people
are off work on weekends. I love filming on Sundays because people are
usually chill on Sundays and it's easier to film places and most locations
are less hectic. Although if it's
football season, you might want to work
around the football fans. But for the most part, I'd
recommend filming on Sundays. If you think you'll need more money than you have
to make your series, then you can start
an online campaign like a Kickstarter
or a GoFundMe, just make sure you follow through and get
that series done. Because if you're asking
people for money, they're going to want to see results when looking
for people to help out, pitched them the logline, and you want to
work with **** yes, people when looking to build a team of cast
and crew members, only work with people
who say yes or ****, yes right away and are excited
to be part of the project. If you have someone
you want to bring on the project and they're like, I got to check my
schedule or they just seem like a maybe warning, do not work with that person. Because even if you
bring them on board now, you're going to be doing most
of the work, and later on, you'll be trying
to get them to do work unless they checked her schedule that same day
and get back to you that day. Be careful of working
with these people. There's a ton of
wonderful creators and filmmakers who just want
to produce content. There are a lot of great
actors out there as well who just want to act. Even if the work is for free. They are always down
work with these people. They are **** yes, people. If you look at some of my series and movies, you might notice, I worked with a lot
of the same people because they are
**** yes, people. And these people are fun to work with and I know
they are reliable. When I work with healthiest
people who are excited, I don't even have to chase them down because they stick with their deadlines and are excited about the
content we're creating. Cast a wide net when
you're asking for help and you'll discover and
see who those ****, yes, people are these ****, yes, people also may
do more work than they're asked because they
really care about the project. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You'll find a lot
of people who loved the film or would love
the opportunity to act, even if they never acted before. Eventually, you'll
find those ****, yes, people who will be your
friends and teammates, over-communicate with your team. You want to make sure
nothing slips through the cracks so you're not onset waiting for
someone to do their job. You want everyone to get
their job done on time. So the production runs smoothly. Have hard workers onset, pay attention to who you invite. Onset if you have
friends who are talkers and they like to hang out more than
they like to work, then don't invite these
people as they may get in the way and
slow the process down. You don't want people
just hanging out onset. You're there to work.
So get the work done. If you're waiting forever on one person who's holding
up everyone else, that person may not be the
best person for the job. Stay organized, gets a set early and stay organized
if any problems arise, you want to get
in front of them. Again, the smaller
the cast and crew, the last dress there is, when it's only two people, you can move a lot quicker than if you have
20 people onset. You want to have fun, but also you want to let
people do their jobs. Don't talk too much onset. If you're a producer,
don't be a director. Let the director do their job. And if you are the director that make sure you give directions, have good video and good sound. Your phone might
be good for video, but you may need to invest in a boom mic or clip mikes or
some kind of microphone. Do the research to find out what you need in terms of audio. If you Bye Mike, sign line, make sure you buy them
in time for the shoot. Tinker around with a mic and
camera before you shoot. When you're onset,
you're not wasting time for Wrigley friends. We shot the entire
thing on a phone, but we recorded the audio
first with the actors in an audio booth that one of the actors built
in his apartment. Think about food. If it's long hours. If the set goes on for a
long time, think about food. Depending on how big
your cast and crew is. You may want to think
about catering of some kind, even if it's pizza. But if you're not filming
for more than 5 h, then don't worry
about food too much. If the script is less
than five pages long and doesn't have major stones or
anything that complicated. You can probably
film everything for that script in one
day or one night. If your content as
longer than 5 min, then it may be best
to do five pages in one day and then
the rest of it the day after that and
the day after that, I'd say a good rule
of thumb is try not to fill more than five
pages in one day. It's totally doable,
but you do need to feed the cast and crew if you're scheduled for a long
period of time, and the cost of feeding everyone
onset can be expensive. But actors improv
after the second take. If you have actors who
want to improv some lines, let them play and have fun, but do this after
the second take. So you have the story down. A lot of times,
what they improv, maybe funny, but it
can tend to run long. I have one friend who's
really good at improving, but he makes scenes
three times longer. So I usually try to keep
the best improv lines from him and not entire scenes. Special effects, take time. Think about your time and budget when you do
special effects. Unless you know
someone who's already a pro at CGI and
special effects. These can take a lot of time. I created a web series
once named spy time, and we had fun making it. But it fizzled out because
it took eight months to do two episodes with all
the special effects we had. Whereas with my series
monster therapy, we filmed five
episodes in two days. Only one episode had special
effects added to it. Make-up took a long
time for that, sometimes depending
on the monster. But we still managed
to get everything done in a timely manner. Take pictures of
behind the scenes. Actors and most people
onset love these. And you can use these photos
to promote your content. Production is probably
the most work, but also the most fun. And this is where a lot
of bonding takes place. Relationships are built onset if you're filming
in your apartment. Well, now your
apartment, as I said, feel free to take pictures and
use hashtag setLife today. Make a list of all the **** yes, people who you can depend on. Maybe it's a good friend
or a family member. But think of people who
could help you out on crew.
4. Post Production: After filming your
web series episodes, move on to post-production, set and stick to your deadlines, your content and short, then it should not take forever to edit and get it
out in the world. What drives us to finish things though, is
accountability. Set deadlines and tell
people your release date. Make your deadlines realistic and give yourself a
little wiggle room. If you're doing a web series and think that you can edit the
series in three months, maybe set it for four months. So if something goes wrong or you need to
re-shoot something, you still have time and announced a release
date on social media. Once you do that,
there's no turning back. The more detailed the
release date, the better. If you say I'll have
it done in the fall. Well, that's a big
three-month span. But if you say September 8th, then this will hold you
accountable and kick your butt to get it
done by September 8th. So tell your friends,
cast and crew a premier date and
then get it done. Get a dedicated editor. If you want to learn how to
edit, then edit yourself. But if you're hiring someone or bringing an editor
on the project, I highly suggest paying them
after the work is done, or at least half the money
before and half after. I really advise not to pay them all the money upfront before
the project is finished. I've been burned by this before, and I know several
others have to, because editing is a lot of work and sometimes
they're not ****, yes, people are not completely passionate
about the project. I use Adobe Premier Pro, but this is a monthly service. And if you're just starting out, then you probably don't need
something that's expensive. Editing can be a long process, especially if you have
a lot of footage. In general. If you ever three-minute sketch the nationally take
a few days to edit. But if you have a feature film, then expected to take months. But like writing, editing is best if you do a
little bit every day, even if it's just
for a half an hour, getting a little
bit done every day, can go a long way. Have the director
work with the editor. If you're the director
on the project, it might also help
immensely to be there with the editor and do
editing sessions. Make it at least once a
week on the same day. You always want to make
sure you move the project forward until you have
a finished project. Show it to people
who are not onset. Once you have a cut,
show it to a friend, family member, or neighbor, and watch their reactions. People who worked on set
are already a little biased because they want to keep something that they
were a part of, say an actor had
a long monologue. They may want to keep
that whole thing, but that monologue may not work. It's best to show
it someone who's completely new to the
project and watch them. Are they laughing
at the jokes or are they bored at some
parts and do that with multiple people
after setting deadlines and finishing
post-production, then it's time to share your
web series with the world.
5. SkillShare Superpeer Coaching Promo: Hey, if you're interested in one on one coaching sessions, I'd love to help you during your creative process to make sure your project gets finished. You're interested, you
can book a session on SkillShare using their
new Super purer feature. To book a coaching session, just click on my SkillShare
profile and click Book Now. These coaching
sessions can be weekly or bi weekly,
whichever you prefer. I offer coaching sessions on
writing movies, TV shows, web series, producing
your own film or series, and much more. I can coach you once a week or every two weeks to
make sure you stay on track and create the
accountability you need to finish your
story and project. Contact me to book your
first session now. Thank you, and now back to your regularly
scheduled course. H.
6. Share It With the World: Once your web series
is edited and done, then share your series on
the web set a premier. Premiers are always
fun and also build comradery amongst the cast
and crew for future projects. Maybe gather some friends
over to watch it. At the person's house who has the biggest TV and
have a premiere party. If you put it on YouTube. There's a YouTube
premier setting that lets you choose a
time to premiere it. Then at that time, they have a countdown clock
and a chat next to the video. So you can chat with
your friends as you watch together for my sketches, sketches, we have a YouTube
premier for every sketch. And this brings all the writers
and some of the cast too. And we chat in the chat
box as we watch it. Set up a hashtag for my
series monster therapy. We used hashtag monster therapy. So everyone who posted
about it could use this. And it's cool to see what people post on all the
social media outlets. Make sure your hashtag isn't something that's
already commonly used because then it's
going to get lost with other posts about other things. If your title is something
commonly used as a hashtag, then feel free to
add the word series to the end of the hashtag. For a terrible example, say your series is
called coffee and tea. Maybe use the hashtag, coffee and tea series. After you release it, start listing IMDB credits. People love those. Once
it's out into the world, be proud you did it. If you enjoyed this class, please check out my series. You can find most of them
on my YouTube channel, funny buffalo films at www.youtube.com
slash funny Buffalo. I hope all this helped. If you like this course, please check out
my other classes by clicking on my profile. Thank you for
watching this course. When you complete
your web series, please share with me, I
love to check it out. If you like this course, please check out
my other courses. Thanks again and have fun
creating your web series.
7. Thank You + Summer Course Promo: Thank you so much for watching this course. I really
appreciate it. If you're interested in one
on one coaching sessions, I'd love to help you during your creative process to make sure your project gets finished. These sessions are
$45 for 45 minutes. If you're interested,
you can e mail me at Jordan period
emola@gmail.com. These coaching sessions can be weekly or bi weekly,
whichever you prefer. I offer coaching sessions on
writing movies, TV shows, web series, producing
your own film or series, and much more. I can coach you over Zoom once
a week or every two weeks, to make sure you stay
on track and create the accountability you need to finish your
story and project. Contact me to book your
first session now. Also, this summer, I'm hosting a summer screenplay course
where I'll be teaching students how to write
a movie in one season. I've spent many summers over the past 17 years writing
summer screenplays, where I write the
first draft of a movie during the summer season
where I am in America. Starting June 20
to September 19, I'll be teaching and hosting 60 minute teaching sessions with groups of students on Zoom, teaching several students
how to write a screenplay. You'll be responsible for
writing about ten pages a week, and I'll guide you to keep
your story moving forward. This course costs $395. And by September 19, you'll have a finished draft of a feature film screenplay. Once a week we'll meet, and I'll be giving instructions
on story structure. And we'll be
interacting with each other to see where our
stories are going. Talking out your story and
your writing helps immensely. And having a group of writers who are along the journey with you creates amazing
accountability and discipline. Again, you can e mail me at
JORDAN period mla@gmail.com. I'd love to help you write
a screenplay this summer. Also, my website
offers services like script coverage and links to my podcast and other courses. Thank you again and
write on. Okay.
Jordan Imiola, Screenwriter
