Series vs. Mini-Series
// March 9th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Acting, Web Series
I’ve had this conversation with a few people about what the difference between a series and a mini-series is, and how it relates to new media. From what I see and know, there are major differences between a tradition series, and a mini-series.
Tradition series’ episodes are self contained, meaning that you can watch a single episode and see a beginning, middle, and end story arch. Now, of course this does not mean you’re going to get the back story of the characters, their relationship with each other, etc. What it does mean, is that you can watch one episode in one season and watch another episode in another season and still enjoy each episode independently.
With a mini-series, you are looking at a series of connected pieces that are broken up into episodes. Really, if you took all of the episodes from a mini-series and crammed them into a single stream, you would have a really long feature film (speaking of traditional 1 hr. mini-series episodes). Mini-series have the tendency to be on a singular topic, i.e. World War II or John Adams.
Where there is similarity is the long story arch of the characters between episodes. Of course with mini-series, it’s expected that you’re going to see character development happen over the course of the episodes. However, with tradition series, you should also see the characters evolve. Even with a 30-min sitcom you should see character arches through a season.
Take “How I Met Your Mother”, you can watch every episode outside of the season and get an independent arch. But, if you watched the entire show, you would see that (DEEP BREATH) Ted was dating Robin, they broke up, Ted got left at the alter, Robin dated Barney (NPH) who’s a “ladies man”, Lily and Marshall are married, but they’re looking for the perfect married friend couple, and in the end they’re still all friends.
Also, if there is an idea that NEEDS to get passed from one episode to the next it’s normally done through “What you missed” at the beginning of the next episode. There’s also a teaser for the next episode after the episode you just watched.
So, new media; what does new media look like when it comes to episodes, series, seasons, etc.? I believe that a majority of web series are mini-series. You have to watch them from beginning to end to understand what is going on. There is rarely a time that you can watch an independent episode. If there is overlap they don’t provide a “what you missed” prior to the episode to fill in the watcher. They rarely make a second “season”. Now, don’t get me wrong. there is a time and a place for mini-series. And, I know, that most of the comments will be something along the lines of “but, we want to make a 2nd season, we just don’t have the money.” Okay, that’s fine, but do I have to still go back to season 1, episode 1, and watch all of it just to understand what is happening in season 2?
So, if currently new media is a mini-series world there’s a few ways this can go. One, admit we’re in a mini-series world, add “what you missed” to the beginning of each episode, and allow each season to end in such a way that it closes a majority of the story holes. That way, if you get to make a second season you have somewhere to go. Two, admit that new media is trying to take the place of traditional television, and make it so that we’re not isolating people. Allow each episode to be independent of each other (ESPECIALLY if you’re a comedy show). Add “what you missed”, if necessary to the beginning of those episodes that need it (i.e. 3 part episode arch). Or, do both, there IS a time and a place for each, and that’s okay. If a story can only go one season, let it end there. I know that this is probably hard right now, since new media episodes are in the range of 3 – 10 minutes long, but if we as content creators make sure the content is kick ass, we won’t have a problem making the episodes longer.
UPDATE:
So, after watching FlashFoward last night, I realized there was a piece missing from what I stated earlier about showing a “what you missed” section before your episode starts. You should ONLY show the pieces that the audience needs to see that relates to the episode that they’re currently watching. Think of it this way: could you imagine what kind of “previously on” Lost would have?! That would take forever. Pertinent information to the episode at hand helps engage the new audience, refresh the already captured audience, and tries not to alienate people by what they think they missed.
