31: The Series Ep.12 “Transmission 12″ | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Horror Web Series

3 Swirlies

“They’ll come anyway.”

Looks like we’re getting somewhere.

The two trapped people finally make some sort of real attempt to get themselves out.

Having good thumbnails for your episodes is very important, and for a show like this that can be a problem. Most of the thumbnails are just largely black screens. It an be tough to construct your video to capture the best possible thumbnails. YouTube picks three at more or less random parts from the beginning, middle and end of your episodes, to avoid people placing a misleading image at the one frame they know YouTube grabs the thumbnail from. But it means that legitimate users have a harder time getting a thumbnail that best promotes their show.

It can be especially tough for a web series like this one, where every episode looks pretty much like the one before. I’m not sure that is in and of itself a bad thing, but it does make it difficult to convince someone who sees your thumbnails in the “related videos” sidebar to click on your video and watch it. Especially if more than one of your video shows up but they all look the same.

This series relied heavily on the audio - there’s almost no visual information. We’re still inside that box.

This isn’t actually a poorly done web series. My biggest complaint is that the format, the 31 second length, seems to be a drag on the story. I mentioned earlier, I feel like the same creative team telling the same story, but in five minute chucks instead of 31 second chunks, more would happen in the same time.

Or maybe it wouldn’t.

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

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31: The Series Ep.11 “Transmission 11″ | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Horror Web Series

2 Swirlies

“Is it gone?”

I’m not entirely sure what is happening in the first half of this episode. But I think that Mr. Voice knows more than he’s letting on.

I’m also a little disappointed that the kidnapper, or whatever “it” was, was only around for two episodes, and now we’re back to just a girl in the box with a voice. After 10 episodes, they could have made more of a meal out of “it’s” appearance. I think this series undercuts itself by deflating the tension when it should be raising it.

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

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31: The Series Ep.10 “Transmission 10″ | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Horror Web Series

2 Swirlies

“They’re coming”

This is the second of three back to back postings of 31: The Series for today.

This is the choppiest of all the episodes s far - it really feels like it cuts out in the middle of a moment at the 31 second mark. Was that intentional on the part of the creators?

We get our first glimpse of the people who are behind the kidnapping (or at least we assume they are behind the kidnapping. And seeing how few surprises this series has had thus far, I’m guessing we’re right).

We are now almost precisely one third into the run of this series. It is interesting how knowing how many episodes are left colours how I feel about what has happened. I wonder if we’re at the end of “Act 1?”

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

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31: The Series Ep.9 “Transmission 9″ | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Horror Web Series

3 Swirlies

“I was going to help you escape, but since you’re a cat person…”

Hi!

On with the review…

This episode I think is meant to be a lighter episode, where the audience is meant to find the characters likable. I don’t think it was necessary. It also didn’t feel like this episode had any narrative arc to it. Yes, they are 31 second snippets of a longer scene, but I feel like the only thing that stuck with me about this episode was the last few seconds.

I know we’re stuck inside a box, but here we are 9 episodes in and we haven’t really seen anything. I’m sure the creators were going for the tension of “you’re in the dark and your life is in danger” but watching a series in which there’s not much visual information… its hard to stay engaged with it. Especially when there’s little happening, story wise.

Don’t get me wrong, I still haven’t given up on this web series. The last line in this episode does make me want to watch the next one. (I watched the first season of 24 only because they hooked me with every cliffhanger.)

There was a question raised the other day in the wake of a web series chat (every Wednesday at 2 PM EST on twitter) which sort of applies to this show - the relative value of a “hook” (or gimmick) to your series, or a cliffhanger to keep people watching the next one. Why there were proposed as somehow mutually exclusive is beyond me, but it did remind me of this series.

On may levels, this series should be a hit. It does everything that an aspiring web series creator is told to do. It has a gimmick. It has a hook. It has consistency of release. They do web, twitter and Facebook, although not as much as some others. (Community engagement really helps!) But they seem to be having a hard time maintaining an audience.

More and more, I’m starting to realize that while web series need to maintain certain fundamentals of good story telling, what currently passes for the traditional wisdom doesn’t hold true. I don’t think that having a hook or even inherent cliffhangers makes a difference. And I think consistency only counts if you make certain promises (i.e. if you say you’ll put it out every Tuesday, put it out every Tuesday). There is no one thing, or combination of things, that you can rely on to help get your web series seen. Now, doing nothing after putting it up on YouTube is a guarantee that it won’t get seen. But my point is that you can do everything “right” and still not find an audience, and you can do everything “wrong” and get a pile of traffic.

So what’s the secret? The shallow answer would be “make it good and people will like it.” But what does “good” mean? There are plenty of series that I don’t love, but others worship. When it comes to web series, metrics are so easy that we often, I think, get caught up in views. Gotta get views, how do I get more views, where are the views… But I think just about everyone agrees that popularity doesn’t always equal good.

I’ve probably said many times, the most important thing when starting a web series is to be honest about what success means t you. If it is your first web series, it is easy to get caught up in “I’ll work really hard and make it really good and it’ll go viral and I’ll get a million views!” And maybe that dream is important to get someone motivated to work on their first series. But how many views can you honestly expect to get?

I don’t have the answers. But I do have another episode of 31: The Series to look at!

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

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31: The Series Ep.8 “Transmission 8″ | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Horror Web Series

4 Swirlies

“Remember who you are?”

Another much better episode that moves the story along and creates that tension, that fear. Is there a reason why the creators have kept us, literally, in the dark?

From YouTube Description:

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31: The Series Ep.7 “Transmission 7″ | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Horror Web Series

3 Swirlies

“Sharp. Bloody.”

After the strong episode 6, episode 7 of this heavily serialized horror web series coasts along again.

So far we have about three and half minutes of the whole story, and I feel like even if I was watching it unfold as a short film it would feel slow. Most scenes in a good feature don’t last more than 3 minutes. It is something of a rule of thumb.

I’m sure this show has an ending in mind, I just hope that they have a few more twists, turns and yes, stuff happening, before we get there.

In the “be nice” column, the shots of the tools and other torture instruments are very nicely shot. I am beginning to think the best thing about this web series is the cinematography.

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

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31: The Series Ep.6 “Transmission 6″ | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Horror Web Series

4 Swirlies

“We need to get out of here right now.”

So this was a welcome episode. Raising the stakes. Keeping the atmosphere tense. We even got out of that box. I liked it.

And for the first time since episode two, I find myself wondering where they’ll go with this.

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

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31: The Series Ep.5 “Transmission 5″ | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Horror Web Series

3 Swirlies

“What makes you so sure you can trust me?”

Another installment of 31: The Series. Sadly, it is still in a stall as it fails to deliver on the promise of the concept, and instead provides 30 second bursts of a single scene, leading it (in my opinion) to be unsatisfying but yet not shocking or surprising enough to leave me anticipating the next one.

Other elements, including production, are fine. I mean, as much as we can see any of it. I wonder if they simply shot all the episodes as one and then chopped ‘em up? Or did they start and stop with each episode?

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

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31: The Series Ep.4 “Transmission 4″ | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Horror Web Series

3 Swirlies

“How do I know you’re not out there watching me?”

So this one sorta makes rep for the last one. There still isn’t much to it, and I don’t mean because it is 30 seconds long.

The problem with the trapped-inside/buried-alive genre is that the instant the writer and director ease their foot off the panic accelerator, you realize there’s very little for your character to do.

And with only 30 seconds, you have to find some way of keeping the tension up. They deflated their tension last episode. Will they be able to get it back?

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

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31: The Series Ep.3 “Transmission 3″ | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Horror Web Series

3 Swirlies

“I’m trapped, too!”

Yeah, we know.

After the first two strong episodes, this one stalls out.

The first two achieved a mood and gave new information to the audience. This one does neither. This episode feels like 30 seconds of a longer scene, and not a scene onto itself like episodes one and two.

From YouTube Description:

31 the series: 31 episodes. 31 seconds. 31 days. Transmissions begin 3/31 3:31pm ET.
31 web series: 1st daily Internet Horror Serial combining best of film, tv, and the Internet.
Follow at www.twitter.com/31theseries
Subscribe at www.youtube.com/user/31webseries
Like at www.facebook.com/31theseries
www.31theseries.com

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