Is scripted content for the internet and other platforms - such as I-pads and cell phones - the next big thing or just the thing that is next?

Last evening, I attended a screening at a private theater in Beverly Hills for a new, scripted video series that launched earlier this week on Hulu.  The new series is called The Booth at the End.  The series is constructed so that it can be viewed at different lengths on different devices.  For instance, a viewer can watch a 30-minute episode, or chapter, on a computer or video tablet.  A viewer will also be able to watch a shorter 5-minute episode on their phone.  Some viewers in Europe may see the series on their television sets.  The series consists of about two hours of scripted content.  Actors play recurring characters.  Storylines are started and resolved.  It’s like a TV series, but the episodes, or chapters, are broken up into different lengths depending on the viewing platform.  It makes more sense to present a short chapter for a cell phone, and a longer chapter for a computer or tablet.

Will this series succeed?  No one knows yet.  This type of content has been tried before without success.  What is different now from, say, five years ago, is the availability of video tablets like the I-pad and the Galaxy, and the ubiquity of 3G and 4G phones, which barely existed in the USA even a few years ago.

One of the companies producing The Booth at the End is Vuguru, an internet content provider, or digital studio, launched a few years ago by Michael Eisner.  Vuguru has production agreements with, and funding from, major media companies such as AOL and Rogers Media in Canada.

A lengthy newspaper article about Vuguru ran in the print and on-line editions of The Los Angeles Times earlier this week.

In January, I sold an idea to Vuguru.  Since then, I’ve been writing a two-hour movie script for them.  I’ll turn in a second draft in a few days.  If my script is shot, it will likely be edited into several different forms.  There may be a two-hour version that could screen on TV or even in movie theaters.  There will also be shorter chapters, similar to chapters of The Booth at the End, which could be uploaded to computers, tablets, and to phones.

I received no special instructions from the executives at Vuguru on how to write my script, other than to keep the budget low.  That part has been easy.  My idea lends itself to a modest budget.  Other than that, the experience has been similar to writing any other screenplay for a studio.  I constructed the story just as I would for any feature-length screenplay.  I was told not to worry about “act breaks” or “cliffhangers” every few minutes.  I was told to structure the story as I would any other movie script.  I wrote several drafts of the story outline and got notes on the drafts from the studio executives.  I wrote a first draft script and got notes on that, too.  I’m just now completing a second draft.  

The fee is much less than one would get for even a TV movie, but new media pays less.  That’s no surprise.

The experience of working with the executives at the studio has been very pleasant.  They are smart people.  They have treated me with respect.  Their notes make sense.  It’s been a lot of fun, and few writers can make that statement when working on a screenplay.  It’s usually hell.  This has been a very positive experience for me.

Back in the middle of the last decade, I spent almost a year and a half developing an internet series.  This series was designed to offer 2 or 3-minute webisodes that could be viewed either on a computer or on a phone.  I wrote about seventeen webisodes for this series.  The series was never produced.  A European telecom company which was supposed to provide the financing for the series developed cold feet.  The project died.  Looking back five or six years, we were out ahead of the curve.

I’ve been skeptical about scripted internet content ever since, and so has almost everyone else.  Nobody has found a way to make money from this form yet.

Sitting in the screening room last night with about fifty other people watching The Booth at the End, I was still a little skeptical, but much less so.  Maybe it’s because I may be attending a screening for my own project in about six or eight months.  I’m rooting more now for this form of entertainment to succeed.  But watching the series last night, it seemed that the time may have come. 

I don’t expect The Booth at the End to sweep the world like American Idol or Twitter.  I expect soft numbers for them.  But the difference between the screening last night and the project I worked on five years ago was hard to ignore.  The technology is here.  I watch TV on my computer all the time now.  I never watched TV on my computer a few years ago.  I-pads and similar devices are inexpensive and easy to use.  Everyone is switching to 3G and 4G phones.

As they used to say in the old days of broadcast TV, stay tuned.  We may be witnessing the next big thing, or maybe just the thing that is next.  It will be interesting to watch and find out.  I’ll keep you posted on what happens with my project.