Final Reflection

How does an online show differ from a TV one or a theatre one in terms of how people might watch it? (when they watch, where they watch, how they watch- e.g. on a computer or a phone)

Online webisodes differ in the sense that their target audience is usually of the more web savvy demographic, able to easily get to videos via adverts and/or share them about via social networking - i'd say this demographic typically is around the ages of 13-21, fitting into the generation raised with a computer for most of their lives, meaning they'd all have some form of knowledge regarding big-media coverage and culture around the world. This knowledge would allow the demographic to easily identify with issues, parodies and pastiches from around the world making both humour and understanding very very versatile. If a comedy was created with the same calibur of humour as, say, Family guy (not a webisode, i know), where it often takes in stories and issues from around the world and makes fun, but aired in the 1970's, nobody would understand it, as nobody would have access to trivial information like that. So when people watch these typically student-made webisodes, i feel that the humour is far more cliquey, giving the audience a sense of self - as if they are in a club, knowing that the others "know" too, making the issues raised more enthusing and private.

How do you reach that audience through your marketing that is different from other forms? (via links, social network messages etc- but you may have used some conventional strategies e.g. posters)

I reached them mainly through web 2.0. it allowed us to really publicise what is was doing. First I set up a facebook page and then a twitter, gaining as many followers as possible by adding friends. Next I linked twitter and Facebook together allowing whatever I typed on one to also be simultaneously published on the other - this took a lot of time off our hands. Finally I embedded a vimeo player on our blog allowing the audience to see our productions, as well as a twitter widget that showed our live posts on the blog too. This all added up to a very networked, hive of information where one page would be giving live updates, another would be giving good background information and another would be showing product - for users wanting all at once they simply needed to go to our blog and all would appear on one page.
I had no finely picked audience really, as I knew it was just a class project that would'nt generate money or fame. so when I did invite people I just explained and told them to treat it in a jokey, fun way, just to keep them enthusiastic and visiting on our behalf rather than the actual project's.
We didnt advertise with physical objects like posters, instead Matt designed our logo with photoshop and put it on all our sites - spreading it via the linkages I had between them all and through email as a kind of signature.
Our facebook page allowed us to post updates to the viewers which they'd be notified on every time they logged in - I'd often post messages from the fictional characters in detention deficit adding to the humour as it would be completely anonymous as to who posted.

How do they respond? (how quickly did you get feedback- number of views, comments, sense of trend in audience figures after each episode)

I got feedback as soon as we posted our first teaser - friends personally told me they didnt understand or didnt enjoy it but i accepted their criticisms and took them on board so i could make sure our next was better. however the actual comments on both the facebook and vimeo were all very positive which was nice to know - maybe only a few people didnt understand.. in the post before this the audience figures show a mostly male audience around our age but also a lot older, mainly due to the fact that our media teachers probably checked it out too.

How did you respond? (Idea that you can change aspects of the show before the next episode due to feedback- which would not be the case on TV at such a quick pace)

well, as soon as we saw lines' smooth camera work (not so much in editing however) we realised that OUR camerawork was severely lacking in professionalism - that was our first target. our next was to remove all pointless cinematic editing qualities from ours - I found that for the type of film, our pilot was far to cinematic and that it's style should've reflected a far more lo-fi program like peepshow or spaced. finally, after that, was just to shorten it considerably. our pilot was around 6 minutes long which is fine as long as the humour can stand that long, which unfortunately it absolutely didnt (mainly due to the excessive bad language and violence, which we also corrected).