Final Writeup

Using your experiences on this project and relating your own programmes to other webisodes you have researched, discuss how taking account of the online audience affects the process of showing creative work


Online shows can differ from TV shows or theatre by quite a lot. Online shows can be viewed at any time during the day, whether its in the morning or very late at night. TV shows can be viewed when they are first shown and are often repeated later on that day or on a different channel on a separate day. But the development in technology means that the programmes can be watched online at any time of the day.

They can also be watched on iPhones which are the latest model of phones, which can gain access to the internet by using wifi. iPods can often be used to access the internet where online shows and tv shows can be watched. Theatre shows are completely different from that of online tv shows, in that the concept of online shows are very short, usually lasting from just two minutes to ten minutes. The average length of a tv show is 30 minutes to 60 minutes. The length of a play can be from an hour to three hours. The only way a play can be watched is if someone actually pays to see them, whereas online shows and tv shows are free to view.

They all appeal to different age ranges as well. Online shows mostly appeal to teenagers as a vast number of teenagers spend most of their time on the internet. Television shows, such as Skins or The Inbetweeners, are also aimed at teenagers, although shows like Eastenders or Midsumer Murders are aimed at a middle aged audience. The same can be said for that of theatre shows. They are primarily aimed at middle aged people, but you get shows like Grease or Mamma Mia! that also appeal to a younger audience. This shows that they are catering for all age groups.

Social networking seems to be the biggest way to reach teenage audiences. TV shows like Misfits and Skins have all their facebook groups which people can join, and also follows individual characters tweeting on twitter during the airing of each episode. The websites are also interactive and also give audience members the chance to participate in the making of the show by a band sending in tracks from their myspace or getting the chance to cameo in a future episode. This generates a lot of public interest as they like the opportunity to get involved with projects. We decided to make the main page for Lines on facebook because a large number of teenagers spend their spare time on facebook. This would help to maximize publicity for Lines.

Lines has sparked quite a bit of popularity online. The first episode was a massive success with over two hundred views on the second day of its launch. A lot of the youtube comments were very positive and we ended up with over eight hundred views. Some of the major criticisms we received from the first episode was that the acting was poor, the sound levels were different and we needed a variety of shots. We took all this into consideration and in the second episode, we had a varied use of camera shots and also tried to sort out the sound issue.

There was a massive reduction in views for the second episode. We have two hundred views. The third episode also has roughly the same amount of views, so we may have reached our peak early. With the second episode, there were some criticisms that the story didn’t go anywhere, so with the third episode, we tried to make the episode more entertaining. This worked to a certain extent, but we still got criticism for the continuity between episodes two and three.

Having looked at Living With The Infidels, an online series, their series has the episodes uploaded to their website and also on youtube. However, they have been uploaded on two separate occasions, which means when an episode is watched on their main website, the views on youtube remain the same. We tried to avoid this problem with Lines. A large number of our views are from a large number of websites, not just from youtube. This helps us to keep an accurate tally of all the views each episode has.

In conclusion, this has been a good project.