At this point, The Guild has grown into the most successful web series I'm aware of... and it was an interview with the show's writer, producer, and star, Felicia Day, that got me thinking about how a web series can build an audience for genre content like SkyChasers.
Without a doubt, SkyChasers is the kind of content that supports transmedia. Many of the stories we can tell are short and sweet, like an episode of He-Man or Voltron, and could easily be broken down into episodes to allow for a season of web cartoons for kids.
On the other hand, the world also lends itself to richer, more full-bodied storytelling, like the kind of thing older kids and adults might follow in a web comic. While we'd keep the comics clean (and the cartoons well-written, for that matter) the differences between the media help us reach out to a wider audience.
Then, where a show like The Guild is selling t-shirts and DVD's, we can also be selling trading card games. Eventually, we can be selling toys. All that came out of hearing Felicia Day talk about her work.
After seeing the interview, I sat down and watched The Guild in it's entirety... and it really illuminated the kinds of lessons a character can learn over a season of webisodes. My writing plans for the SkyChasers series are starting to come into focus.
My personal feeling is that anyone who hopes to accomplish anything in film over the next ten years should be watching Felicia Day very closely. If you are, I'd love to know what sorts of things you've learned from her work!
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