The awesome new web series school Creator Up invited me to participate in their Google Hangout today with talent manager and producer Amit Samuel. During the hour long hang out, Samuel discussed three tips for creating a web series that will get you industry attention. They were pretty smart things to think about before you start out, so I wanted to share them with you.
Until recently, to become a star in Hollywood you either needed to be super hot, super connected, or super super lucky. Talent was in there somewhere, but it was by no means the deciding factor. Now, in the age of YouTube, there’s a new way to go from a nobody to Hollywood’s hottest commodity. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of luck involved and being ridiculously hot or connected is always going to help, but here’s a summary of Amit Samuel three tips:
#1 Make something deeply personal to you. Audiences, producers, directors, and agents aren’t going to seek you out if it’s something anyone could have made. The closer you are to the material, the more specific it will be and therefore the most interesting. Unlike TV, you don’t need to get 40,000,000 viewers. You only need 10,000-15,000 devoted fans who are also obsessed with your subject or relate to you. If you love cheese, make a web series about cheese and it will be infinitely better than if you made it about something you thought was more ‘relatable’.
#2 Tap into the creative zeitgeist. What topics and issues are in the air? Which ones get you fired up or relate to your life? What’s affecting and interesting you will be tied somehow to the greater issues and interests of the day. Find and highlight that connection. You are a person living in the modern day after all, so if something has affected you deeply enough for you to want to tell a story about it, there’s a way to tie that story into the economy, or the election, or the MBA, or globalization, or Halo 4, etc. etc. Don’t tune out what you hear on the radio/TV every day and what your friends are all talking about.
#3 Know your audience and OWN your audience. Are you creating this show for boys 18-25? Don’t try to force it to be for them if they are not inherently interested in your subject. They’re not gonna sit through three minutes of your episode to see if there’s a joke for them. If you have a show that will inherently attract moms 30-50, think about what is going on in their lives and speak to them on every level possible.
In conclusion, start with a story/subject you’re passionate about. Find a way to make it relevant and timely for issues relevant to today, and then commit to the specific audience you want to attract, making the world as rich and specific for them as possible.
Amit Samuel has worked as both a Motion Picture Talent and a Motion Picture Lit assistant at ROAR Talent Management, working with actors like Chris Hemsworth (THOR, STAR TREK) and Clifton Collins, Jr. (CAPOTE, BROTHERS), and writers like Michael C. Martin (BROOKLYN’S FINEST) and Peter Filardi (THE CRAFT). He is currently a talent manager for an independent production company and developing and producing a slate of feature films, TV shows, and web series.
