OTTAWA – The significant uptake of digital only platforms has enabled content producers to push the envelope and find new ways to deliver content to audiences. According to a panel at the Canadian Media Producers’ Association’s annual Prime Time event, this has opened the door to shorter forms of programming rather than traditional 22 or 45 minute programs.
Speaking at last week’s event, Kate Harrison, president at Cream Productions noted that virtual reality (VR) content lends itself well to short form programming. She described short form as being anything less than 22 or 45 minutes or what a linear TV producer would buy.
Because experiencing VR for longer than 10 to 12 minutes starts to feel weird, making this type of content ideally suited to the short form.
“It’s given us the ability to bring in a whole new development energy. We can try things that as a TV producer we always talk about ‘wouldn’t it be nice if’, now we can actually do those things. So it’s bringing a lot of creative juice back to our development department,” she explained.
Cream Productions has already cut its teeth on some VR shoulder programming. As part of a long form true crime program, the company created a two minute VR segment of the show’s climax. “You were right in the middle of the gun fight ultimately,” she said.
The results of the company’s efforts are bearing fruit. Cream Productions has now developed three original pilots for Hulu – a horror movie, a CGI type of podcast and a NASCAR program. The latter two are the top VR programs on Hulu.
Perhaps the king of short form content, YouTube’s initial foray into more professionally produced content started with episodes ranging from 11 minutes to 15 minutes. However, since the company is now moving into the traditional TV arena, it has opted to make content that is better suited to the conventional TV environment, i.e. 22 or 44 minutes.
“We try to stay, in our current programming strategy, somewhere within 22 and 44 (minutes), somewhere close to the traditional TV so there is a downstream opportunity and window,” explained Joel Savitt, head of production at YouTube Originals.
When it comes to new forms of content, one needs to look to Norwegian production company NRK which is at the cutting edge of new shorter form content. The company is the producer of SKAM (pronounced scum), a web-drama series targeting 16 year old girls. The online only, real time program is accompanied by shorter videos and text messages on its webpage allowing the viewing audience to directly interact with the show. It was the most watched drama series in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland in 2017.
“If there’s a scene from a party on Friday night then we publish that scene on the Friday night which means the audience can have a fuller sense of being in the narrative with the characters apart from more than traditional drama,” explained Marianne Furevold, executive producer of NRK.
Not only is the show a ratings hit in Scandinavian countries, but it has broad popularity around the world. Furevold noted that this likely comes from the fact that the target audience communicates in the way that characters on the show do
“So I think that was also a reason why it spread in such a huge way,” she said.
Online platforms may not only be ideally suited for shorter forms of content but they are also willing to take on projects conventional platforms won’t.
Cream Productions’ Harrison noted that while the relationships with conventional platforms and the online distributors are generally the same, the streamers have the ability “to take bigger swings” and “bigger risks.”
This is good news for creators looking to develop alternative forms of content.
