viernes, 28 de junio de 2013

'@SummerBreak' Web Series Fueled by Viewer Feedback

Though only 15 webisodes deep, social media's first reality series is already making some noise on Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Instagram.

@SummerBreak, a daily web series that details the lives of high school seniors as they spend their final summer together before college, has so far amassed more than 115,000 Twitter followers and has bagged roughly 500,000 views on YouTube since its debut almost two weeks ago. This is a pleasant surprise for the show's producer, Billy Parks.

Viewers can currently track the show's nine stars — Nia, Ray, Trevis, Alex, Clara, Zaq, Lena, Kostas and Connor — 20 hours per day via social media mainstays. A crew of approximately 50 monitors the cast's tweets, videos and pictures with HootSuite and Dropbox tools.

Viewer Feedback Is Influencing the Show

Perusing YouTube comments and Twitter replies, you'll see that @SummerBreak has been receiving swaths of requests for longer episodes. The length of episodes so far have been shorter than five minutes each, with some barely longer than a minute. Parks told Mashable his team is taking this into account and will start making longer episodes.

"It's always a challenge when you're doing things in real time without the benefit of three or four months of editing and hindsight of storylines," Parks said. "The challenege is, 'How do we make sure we're telling a story that's going to follow all the way through?' So we have to pick bits and pieces. It's a different experience than what people are used to."

Initially, the production team thought that episodes should be kept short because the audience the show targets is primarily watching on mobile. But Parks has noticed that the completion rates for the YouTube videos have been "very high," so longer episodes are quickly becoming a priority.

@SummerBreak — the Chernin Group's latest foray into digital programming — has partnered with BBDO to track the show's social media metrics: Stats reveal that the show and its cast are retweeted on an average of 1,300-plus times a day, and the engagement rate for promoted tweets is more than twice the average for Twitter's other entertainment clients. The @SummerBreak Tumblr has been viewed more than 6.5 million times.

Viewer engagement is affecting what goes on behind the scenes, influencing which characters and storylines are getting more airtime. It's not 100% "ask and you shall receive," Parks admitted. The team won't force characters or threads if they're out of the blue. The goal is always to balance authenticity with a cohesive narrative, he added.

How Viewers Are Reacting to the Characters

SummerBreak Selfies

@SummerBreak's first episodes have told the story of Zaq and Clara's relationship, Lena's new-found independence and Ray's romantic endeavors, but with storylines just starting to bubble, the nine cast members haven't been featured in equal parts. The ones getting early limelight, such as Ray, have been punching their social media interaction into high gear.

"People who tweet at me, they love it, they tweet positive to me," 17-year-old Ray told Mashable. "I always show love to the people who show me love, or I retweet them. I try to make everybody happy."

Ray noted that he's received the most interaction on Twitter and Instagram, but he said he gets more comments and likes on Instagram, where he has more followers. His Twitter account is "blasting up," too, he said. Most of the cast members are hovering around the 1,000-followers mark, give or take a couple hundred.

The cast members have yet to reach the fame akin to people from such TV series as Real World, Jersey Shore and The Hills. And Ray said he hasn't really received much attention offscreen, aside from relatives and friends cracking good-natured jokes at the posse of cameras on his tail. A female YouTuber said his body looked weird in one of the cast bio clips, Ray recalled: "What the hell? How does my body look weird? It wasn't even really shown." The high schooler said he ignores the haters, but he'll engage with anybody else who tweets at him and has something constructive to add to the conversation.

Camera Life: 'Everybody Is Still Getting Used to It'

SummerBreak Shaka

"Everybody is still getting used to it — all these young folks who are letting their lives be filmed," Parks said. "And now these guys are expected to be personal when they also see themselves which is a very new thing."

Ray conceded that he'd never really thought of being on TV and that it is a little odd watching himself onscreen — sometimes hours after something has just been filmed.

"I'm watching myself, but I don't even feel like it's me sometimes," he quipped.

Ray added he has shown people that he can be funny, he can make people laugh — but he said there's another side of him that isn't always funny. He wants to show people who he really is and what he's really about. He can be serious and emotional, too: "I'm not a jokester all the time."

But Ray's dad, a boxer, told him to always give the fans what they want. It's a mantra that Ray tries to follow, to give fans entertainment, something to enjoy watching — not simply boring YouTube clips. Of course, being on camera, secrets don't really remain secret, as evidenced by hot mics and girls-only chatter (see below).

But cast members talking about cast members is all part of it, Ray said. It's nothing novel — the talk is just amplified. One of the storylines involving Ray features him and a romantic interest, Whitney. The @SummerBreak show has spotlighted a few meet-cutes — but nothing more. So when asked what would happen if Ray made a move, the girls got to talking.

"Everybody talks behind someone's back — I don't think anything's gonna change," Ray said. "I wanted to see what she said. I was curious, 'What would you do?'"

The most recent episode focused on Ray, showcasing his reactions to some of his friends from back home "subtweeting" about him; it has served as a prime example of post-viewing, fan-cast interaction:

Summer is just getting started, though, so there's sure to be more drama, more love, more fun. Looking ahead, Parks said: "The follower and fan base will grow as these guys get more comfortable with the cameras and are able to tell more personal stories."

Images, footage courtesy of YouTube, SummerBreak; Mashable composite

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