Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

     The evolution of the internet has created space for change within the realm of television and its inner workings. Web series are a great example of this. Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is a popular web series that consists of comic cartoon shorts that are quite unrelated to each other. The series is brought together by no one other than the mastermind who created popular television shows such as Family Guy and American Dad. With having an already established fan base the series was almost assured instant success.

     

     Two days after the first episode release the series went viral with over 3 million video views earning it the most watched YouTube channel that week. “Seth Comedy” would be hard to see ever make to a television series for a number of reasons. Not only does family guy fill the acquired slots, but it would lack structure simply because there is no real plot or premise. Take a look.

     Interestingly enough this series gained a lot of financial support due to its early hype. Feel free to look at the statistics. Burger King, Priceline.com, and eventually Nike stepped in and sponsored the series, with videos appearing on their official channel. It seems that content that is already proven and recognized makes it easier for viewers to cross over certain mediums like television to the web. The series went on to become available on DVD and Blu-ray. In addition to the 23 episodes released online, 27 episodes were exclusively included on the DVD and Blu-ray release. The Series released uncensored content, which the first eleven episodes had censored. It is important to not that here digitization did nothing but help the web series achieve its success through copying media and organizing it onto a different platform, the Internet. Perhaps we are making a slight shift away from television and drifting more toward "the comfy bubble" that online web series offer. 

Television off TV: H+

It seems to me that after watching “H+”, web series that are innovative enough are self-confident to substitute traditional TV soon enough. With the quality and creativeness I think "H+" has a lot to say for just being a web series. Traditional web series are still trying to make a name for themselves, from both the business and creative viewpoints.

Some web series are excellent because they are so simple in concept, such as “H+”. Due to being a web series it has to be able to catch the viewers eye quickly. If not the viewer will lose interest and turn it off. "H+" definitely kept me watching. This is a great web series and I feel like I should be watching this on Netflix. Due to the episodes being shorter the story develops much faster. As a viewer, web series differentiate because you quickly get the gist of where the show is going. This is different from a traditional TV series, because you usually have to watch five or ten episodes or even a whole season to know what the show is about and where it’s going.

"H+" could have easily been made into a traditional TV series but after watching it I would not have changed anything about it. There are thirty-six episodes in season one of “H+”, most of them average at about 5-6 minutes. This works well for somebody that has a busy schedule and does not have the time to watch a traditional TV series and still wants to see some TV once in a while. If "H+" would have been made into a traditional TV series it would need more content which mean more money for the episodes to be much longer. It would then reach the mass audience and not a small portion like web series tend to.

In Havens & Lotz they talk about Chris Anderson’s “Free” and how "media industries might reconstruct their economic practices to be more profitable"..."while deriving greater economic value from others” (216). This describes the TV industry in that web series are not as profitable as traditional TV series yet the content is still of great quality. This rapidly growing medium can be referred as its own little "bubble"and maybe in time if web series keep growing they will become more popular than traditional TV.

Bryan Singer discusses his new webseries, H+, and the danger of technology

Television off TV: The Guild

    First off, I watched the first season of The Guild.  About one minute into the first episode, it crossed my mind to shut it off and find a different one.  However, it did seem to get better through each episode.  I'll start off with the first question:  How does this series differ from traditional TV series?  The major difference between this web series and TV shows I have witnessed are the actors.  When watching national television, we are very lucky because we get to see the best of the best when it comes to acting.  However, these extremely low-budget (you can see the costs of some different one's here) "webisodes"can not afford to hire these multi-million dollar supermodels as actors and actresses.  In the particular Web Series "Guild," there are a wide range of demographics and an even wider range of ethnicity types, which you do not see too often in national television shows.  There were six main characters in the first season.  The demographics of the six people consisted of: older male of the group (probably in his mid 40s), two younger females (probably in their mid 20s), a middle-aged female (probably mid 30s and quite possibly Honey Boo Boo's younger sister), a teenage boy, and lastly, a male in his 20s.  The difference that stuck out the most to me were all the different types of races/personalities.  There was an asian lady and an indian guy, but they all had strikingly different personalities.  These are just a few of the things that I found different from modern television series.

 
    In what ways what this "Webisode" similar to traditional television series?  The way in which this was very similar was the camera work.  At not point during any of the videos did I get the feeling that this was "low budget."  The camera work made it seem like I was watching a regular show on television.  I was also very surprised at how well of a job all the actors did.  I could not really tell any difference between the actors in this series and the actors in a series like "The Office."

    Do I think this series could have been made into a traditional series?  No, and the reason I believe that is because I do not think the series is meant to be made into a traditional series.  All of the episodes are about five minutes long, and I thought that was just about the right timing.  I don't think I could have listened to "Zaboo" anymore if it was anything over that amount of time!

    What would have to be different for it to succeed on television?  I believe this series has a good plot as far as all of these very different people meeting on cyberspace, then meeting in real life, but I do not think this type of plot has the ability to come up with enough content to make it into a national television show.  Those are just my thoughts after watching it.

    Do I think digitization allows for positive advancements in media production/distribution/exhibition?  Absolutely.  The ability to produce a low-budget Web Series over the internet like this allows people who do not have much opportunity to try and get their name out.  The production is made easy due to low costs such as not having to hire the most talented actors, and with sites such as Youtube, most people can just do it on their own.  The distribution of these Web Series are easily available because they are all available over the web, and the internet is our most-used item in the world at this point in time.  Exhibition pretty much goes along with distribution in the fact that it is easily available over the internet for any consumer to watch.  There are numerous stories about people who first started posting their videos to Youtube, and now, they are some of the biggest names in the world. One major example of a "webisode" that made it to the big screen is the popular Youtube series "Svengali."

 

Television Off TV: Chad Vader

Differences and Similarities to Television on TV
    This was a bit hard for me to swallow to be honest. I really liked the first episode and where the show appeared to be heading, but after that I kept watching because I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. In all, I liked it, but I don't think that it is quite up to par with traditional television. Perhaps that's why I'm rather critical of it, because I was comparing it to traditional television. While it wasn't up to par, in my opinion, I do think it was a very well-done amateur series. It felt like I was watching a film student's final project or something, not like I was watching a television series. That's the biggest difference from this show and traditional television, for me at least. And that may be due to what resources were available to the creators, or maybe that's the way they intended for it to be, I don't know. Also, there wasn't really any character depth. Characters were presented as "you should not like this character and you should like this character, but you should like the apparently evil brother of a super villain who is trying run this store and get a girlfriend." In my experience with television, there is more character depth. Now, this season was only eight episodes ranging from six to eight minutes a piece, so there's some leeway there, but in comparison to traditional television, it just doesn't hold up.

Now, there were some similarities to traditional television. The biggest being that it told a story and it was actually entertaining. Additionally, there was a protagonist competing against an antagonist, there was love (sort of), comedy, drama, and action. These components make good television, but like I mentioned earlier, the eight-episode-season made it seem rushed and it was hard to connect.

Success of Chad Vader: Dayshift Manager on TV
     With that being said, I think that this show as it was in season one could not make it as a traditional series on television. Now, I haven't seen the other seasons, so I don't know how it has evolved, but I don't think season one would fare well. I think this because of the reasons I stated for it being different from television, but also because of the limited audience. I didn't even know this show existed before this assignment and I doubt anyone else does unless they are familiar with the creators' other work or they happen to stumble across the series. So, if you want to watch it, you pretty much have to go look for it somewhere. I was surprised to find it on Hulu. Now, if it were on television, perhaps it would have more publicity, but I think it's quality would fail it at that point. The audience for this show is Star Wars fans who want to see the puns and allusions to the film series, but it's kind of hard to watch. I guess there are similarities to the show The Office, which could draw fans of that humor and type of show as well. So, once you weed out the one's who can get passed the quality of the show, I would argue there would be little left that advertisers would be willing to bet on to fund the show.

In order for the show to succeed on television, I would argue that the acting would have to step up. Not that it was horrible and unwatchable, in fact, I really like Chad. However, characters like the crazy janitor were much too corny. The love interest wasn't very believable. And the competition between Chad and Clint seemed to be pressed a little too much. Like I mentioned, there would also have to be more time to develop character depth so the audience can relate. The special effects could be upgraded as well. I've seen better lightsabers in crappy YouTube videos. Little details like these would make the show easier to watch in my opinion. Again, this could be due to the resources available or could even have been the intentions of the creators, but I don't think people are going to stop watching Grey's Anatomy for this.

Digitization of Production, Distribution, and Exhibition
     Havens and Lotz (2012) describe how digitization of audiovisual production has put many opportunities into the amateur's hands. I think that's a true statement. I don't think Chad Vader: Dayshift Manager utilizes what is available. The lightsaber looked okay, and the force powers were pretty believable, but other than that, there wasn't anything overly impressive to me. Perhaps other web-only television series are better about using such resources. Even so, traditional television and film obviously already use these resources and they have dramatically advanced television on TV. Therefore, if these resources are available to the amateur online film or television series creator, then digitization definitely allows for positive advancement in audiovisual production.

As for digitization of distribution, there is definitely potential for positive advancement. Havens and Lotz (2012) point out the success of digitization of music and getting rid of the physical components (for those who so desire). I would argue that this would be very successful for the film/television industry as well because everything is in one place. This is especially true of television series that tend to come in four to six discs and take up a lot of room on the shelf. Access to the material is easier than ever and this is even more true with the outbreak of the "cloud" and other online memory sources. Now, piracy is definitely an issue that is a negative aspect of digitization, but no one will win that war. Havens and Lotz (2012) point out difficulties in making this process happen (coming up with new regulations), but once it's worked out, I think digitization will absolutely allow for positive advancement  in media distribution.

     Finally, I think that digitization also allows for positive advancement in media exhibition. The process of making media available for consumers on the internet is much easier than making it available at other locations (theaters, venues, kiosks, etc.). For instance, getting a film to a movie theater is a stressful process and if something goes wrong, then it could mean that the film isn't shown at it's scheduled time. In contrast, Hulu is capable of putting whole episodes of TV series on its site over night and it is much more convenient for consumers to watch their shows than waiting for the series to come out on DVD or for the rerun later in the week. Also, consumers are able to access the media from anywhere there is an internet connection.

In all, I liked Chad Vader: Dayshift Manager and I might watch the later seasons. When held next to shows that are on TV, it doesn't fare so well, but it has potential. However, it's important to note that without digitization, this show wouldn't be able to exist in the first place, and that is commendable. The creators' ability to utilize digital production tools, being able to put it online for anyone to access for free at any time, and having websites like Hulu and YouTube that will host their show are the result of digitization. It will be interesting to see how the future unfolds for television off TV.