How to convert your feature script into a web series

So maybe you’ve been reading this blog so far, and your really interested in going the web series route. But maybe you already have a feature film script, or worse…maybe you’ve spent money optioning a feature script. Never fear, because in most cases you can convert that feature film script into an entire first season or more for your new web series.

First there are a few things you absolutely have to toss out:

• Any main character dies - While it makes for great feature films, invariably your series will probably just start to catch on two episodes before you show the episode where he or she dies. The truth is, you’ll probably be shooting this series on a shoestring. You’ll have a few dedicated actors that believe in your project. Can you afford to kill off any of their characters? Follow the star trek logic…when the team beams down, the only person who doesn’t come back should be the random red shirt guy.
• Heavy makeup or prosthetic characters - If you do this sort of work, then it means you’ll have to schedule completely around this character. If it takes 3 hours to put the make up on, then that means that entire day has to be dedicated to that character. This can cause some serious scheduling problems. You may feel your script can’t work without breaking this rule…fine…but you’ve been warned

Converting your screen play into a web series
The most important thing to remember when converting your screen play into a series is length. The ideal length for most series is less than five minutes. I’ve seen a few that make the fifteen minute mark, but you’ll have a much harder time finding video hosts that support video files that long. If you stay tuned to this site, you’ll begin to see just why this is so important.

So you are now going from a 90 to 120 page script, to a ton of five page scripts. In order to keep your audience interested, something major has to happen on every fifth page…in other words near the end of every episode. This doesn’t necessarily mean a cliffhanger, but something big has to happen that will keep your audience interested.

Remember that many of your viewers will discover your series after several episodes have already played. Sometimes a person will randomly stumble on episode 3, when episode 6 is online. Having something big happen at the end of each episode will convince them to watch episodes four, five, and six.

It’s also important that you’ve structured your series such that a person could come in at any point during the season and still find it interesting. It needs to be interesting enough for the person to keep watching, but also raise questions in the viewers mind that make them want to go back and watch earlier episodes to better understand the characters.

And above all, expand on your characters more than the plot. People watch series because they have strong feelings about the characters. Just think how soap operas work. They have about a dozen plots they repeat over and over again (i.e. Has amnesia…its his twin…cheated with my sister). But these programs have developed huge fan bases simply because people have a strong emotional reaction to the characters themselves. The same should be true of your series.