There’s been a lot of recent blog posts alluding to the rumor that the web series is dying. Most of the articles are looked at from the business side of it.

I’d like to add my two cents into the discussion as a content creator myself and a “small grasshopper” in regards to putting material online. From my own point of view, as someone who has been in the independent film world for a long time, creating web series is the best single damn thing to ever happen.

Is it a crowded space?

Sure.

Is it hard or near impossible to make a buck or attract advertising or sponsorship?

Of course.

Are the huge view counts attainable on a consistent basis?

No.

Hard? Challenging? Feel like your banging your head against the wall impossible?

Yes!

But this is nothing compared to the indi film world. You’ve got - dried up film financing, artistic compromises made for investors, diva talent, a distribution platform that has dried up, and has been proclaimed dead - an atmosphere of downright swindler ship with most low-budget foreign distribution companies, an over saturation of the marketplace leading films to wither on the vine, all of these are a daily occurrence in the indi film world with far, far more dollars on the line.

Perhaps it’s a result of me still being “buzzed” from being a newcomer in the online video world, but the sense of creative satisfaction I’ve gotten in the past few months has surpassed all my experiences in the indi film arena.  I’m making a show that I like, not what other cooks in the kitchen want to see, I’m making it with friends, shooting it in the style I want to, and above and beyond anything else, enjoying myself. This is not even taking into account the viewer ship we’ve gotten, which, while by web standards is fairly minuscule, is for my own experience in showing films to festival audiences, far and away amazing.

No DVD screeners that fail to work, no dealing with unscrupulous sales agents who won’t return calls, no barrier to pushing your material out to an audience. The ability to be completely and totally in control of your destiny.

Is it still hard to make money online? Do you still need some kind of recognizable talent or element? Is it still a momentously uphill battle? Of course, and those debates and challenges have been written by voices in other far more established blogs. But for web series creators who have been around for a few years, who have become disillusioned that things haven’t changed, don’t forget the tremendous power that doing these shows have given you - and don’t forget what the alternative could be - because doing a web show, with all the inherent challenges in doing so, is far, far more creatively satisfying than any alternative in the independent realm.

And here we are. After more than a year and a half of shooting and editing, we’re launching the show tomorrow.

I’m excited. We’ve got a year of uploading new episodes, and I’m scripting the final conclusion to the show, which I’m super psyched about.

It feels really good to finally be able to launch it.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

Just a quick update on the show. We’ve been focusing on last minute tweaks, and the all important sound work and color correction. It’s amazing what adding some warmth to a shot does, let alone balancing the sound levels. For me, color always seems to be the most neglected step of the process, kind of an after thought. After spending months on story, acting, and putting the jumble of pieces together, it doesn’t seem like it makes a world of difference, in comparison.

However, once it’s in there, it looks like it always belonged. It’s only when you take the color back out do you notice what a change it did to the shot. It’s the difference between night and day. And, for a comedy especially, the warm bright colors help to establish the tone and style.

We’ve also been adding colorful graphics to the show. Which is pretty much leading us to the last step of actually releasing the episodes…

Stay tuned!

I realize that while I’ve been blogging away on other topics, I’ve been neglecting talking about Mayfarers. Part of that is simply because it’s not done yet. But we’re getting close. Really, really close.

In the meantime, please Friend us. Subscribe to us. Link.  The more we have before we launch the better.

I’ll have more launch info soon.

Thanks so much!

Hello everyone. So we’re gearing up to launch “Meet the Mayfarers.” It’s been quite a long process, much more than I expected. Editing episodes with three cameras has been exciting, but the process to set it up was glacial. Having said that - we’re getting close. I have edited around twenty-two episodes thus far, and the rest are going at a speedy pace.

The goal of the show is to upload one episode a week for a year, so I still have some editing to go, but I’m almost at the number I wanted to be at before launching.

Before we launch, I’ll be uploading more trailers, shorts, Behind the Scenes and sketches to introduce you to the world of “Meet the Mayfarers.” I’ll also try to blog on a semi-regular basis about the show, indi movie-making, and some of the other film and new media projects I’m involved with.

So sit back, relax, and subscribe. It will still be a month and a half until we launch, but I’ll be having content up soon.

Thanks for your patience!