How the Mobi-Series Creators Bypassed TV Gatekeepers

If the primary demographic of heavy Internet users remains young men, what could be a better fit for online viewing than a sexy detective show? Producer/editor Brent Roske just happened to be married to a sexy-detective type – actress Kate Clarke, who has body-doubled for Angelina Jolie. She inspired Sophie Chase, a Web-based episodic (www.sophiechase.com) about a woman investigating her husband's murder that just won a spot in the first-ever slate of Emmy nominations honoring shows created for non-traditional viewing platforms. We rang up Roske and director Chuck Bowman to ask about the peculiarities of making a show for the very, very small screen.
View Sophie Chase online via the Emmy Web site.

PRODUCER/EDITOR BRENT ROSKE

Film & Video: How did you get involved in creating this kind of content, for this kind of distribution channel?
Brent Roske: We decided to go exclusively Webcast because it didn’t have any of the barriers that everyone in this town is so used to. I’ve been working at NBC for five years as a creative director doing TV specials and that sort of thing, and I’ve been in so many pitch meetings, and there are so many hurdles you have to cross. Chuck and I were chatting about doing an online series, and through my relationship with Kate I said, well, heck, let’s just do it. It went from idea to product in about two weeks. And it was sent to the Emmy folks very shortly thereafter.
F&V: Knowing this is small-screen viewing, what goes through your head planning the shoot?
BR: I directed the first-ever Olympics series for the Internet, called Athens On Location, and it was the same thing. I’m always thinking a minute, two minutes, tops. All the shots are going to be just-below-the-shoulders framing. Every once in a while I’ll pull out to a wide, but you’ve just got to stay in there, and the cutting has to be even more frenetic than it does for broadcast TV. Internet viewing is pretty much just candy. And that’s fine. I enjoy doing it. You’re not going to remake a Henry Miller novel for broadcasting on the ‘net ‘ although that would be interesting. There’s nothing worse in the world than watching a short film that feels like it’s too long.
F&V: What did you shoot with?
BR: A [Panasonic] AG-DVX100 and a [Sony] HDW-F900.
F&V: It’s kind of a paradox to shoot in high-definition for an image that’s going to be really small.
BR: And the shots done on the high-def camera go by so quick! Most of it is the DVX100. When we went down to the shooting range, for example, we just brought the smaller camera with us. I effected that footage in post and tried to make it a little edgy.
F&V: Just the footage from the DVX100?
BR: I tweaked everything a little bit, but I tried to use a lot of the tinting like they used in Domino, and a lot of flash cuts and stuff to keep it as interesting as possible. Over at NBC I’ve produced, directed and edited over 400 commercials now, so you get really used to keeping it moving. That probably helped in the cutting of this.
F&V: What do you edit and color-correct on?
BR: Final Cut HD.
F&V It’s interesting that you mentioned Domino, because that’s an example of a high-end, glossy Hollywood DI done in a state-of-the-art facility — but a lot of the people who are getting inspired by that are working, as you are, in Final Cut and using those tools to get to the same sort of creative point.
BR: When you shoot something that originates on tape, it’s really hard to get the sort of profundity that you would get if you shot on film, or well-shot HD. I was inspired by Domino or even Requiem for a Dream. A perfect example is The Limey by Steven Soderbergh. Movies that have a little bit of artistic editing, or a touch of existentialism or stylistic lighting — those are the same tricks you can bring to the video world to bump up the look and the feel.
F&V: Do you think the viewing experience is pretty good for people watching online?
BR: I think it is what it is. This is entertainment for people who have desk jobs, and students daydreaming. Online content is dialed in to this subculture zeitgeist. Because we watch it by ourselves, sitting at a computer, it feels like a more personal experience. It always amazes me when I’ll get a viral video sent to me, and maybe I’ve seen it two weeks ago — but the person sending it to me feels like it didn’t exist before they watched it. As far as the actual act of watching on a small screen, it’s a diversion, a time-filler. But it’s exciting as hell to be able to do it. At NBC in our conference room we’ve got a widescreen plasma hooked up to cable and broadband, and we’ll watch clips right there. So it’s starting to cross over.
F&V: Would you be averse to turning Sophie Chase into a regular TV show?
BR: Not at all. It’s a great way to get some feedback and get a show made. The heads of NBC Universal have seen it now. You never know, and broadband technology has made it possible. It’s a whole different world from when you had to send out VHS tapes. So we’ll see what happens.

DIRECTOR CHUCK BOWMAN

Film & Video: When people are watching on a very small screen, how do you adjust your visual strategy?
Chuck Bowman: First of all, the pacing is totally different. In order to hold somebody on that tiny screen there’s gotta be something happening on it. It’s always an issue of developing tension, action and a look. For something like this, kind of a film noir, even in a color video we try to keep light low and interesting. Also, the majority of people who are using this are not of my generation. They’re a younger generation, and they need things going on that are interesting to look at, something that’s on the move. If you stop, you need a damned good reason to stop, and then you move on with your story and your protagonist.
F&V: How do you approach storytelling in less than two minutes?
Chuck Bowman: That’s a real challenge. It goes back to your three-act structure, even though you’ve squeezed it into that small package. You start somewhere — and typically, in these kinds of films or videos, you start in the middle. It’s not unlike something that [Crash writer/director] Paul Haggis said: Crash is really a story that is a second act. There’s no first act and there’s no third act. You have to start with something in motion and attack these characters, already established.
F&V: Do you think more about the edit?
Chuck Bowman: Absolutely. That’s a vital part of it. The story, even in that short time frame, has to drive itself. It’s what I tell students — if nothing else, you must be interesting. If you drop the ball and everything else isn’t up to par, you still have to be interesting. You have to have something that keeps the eyes and ears and emotions of the viewer.
F&V: How much time did you spend shooting?
Chuck Bowman: We’ve gotten bits and pieces in several days of shooting, none of them all-day shoots. We bounce it all over the place in the Los Angeles area. Some of it was shot on Hollywood Boulevard at night, some in Santa Monica, some here and there in Pasadena and downtown L.A.
F&V: What’s your feeling about the viability of this in the long term — entertainment specifically for computer screens and mobile devices?
Chuck Bowman: I think it’s wide open. It’s something for younger people who do a lot of multitasking and are on and off their PCs and cell phones. It will evolve and bridge a broader audience. The stories that we can tell will evolve into something bigger. As broadband expands and we can get downloads faster, god only knows where this might go. I see no reason why we can’t be doing full-length features that will be developed just for the Web. And I can’t imagine someone watching a feature-length film on a cell phone — but I’m also not sure what the cell phone will evolve into in the coming decades.