http://www.forgettherules.com

Tell us a little about you and your background before you got into cross-media writing.

I came into this industry in 1998. As a writer and producer I focused on feature films. I got close with a feature a couple of times but after six years of banging my head against a wall, the only writing credit I had was as a story liner on Neighbours. FTR went from concept to production funding within 12 months! I’m now developing ten projects across film, TV and digital media and working with people like Clayton and Shane Jacobson (creative duo behind feature hit Kenny).

How did you get started working as a writer of cross-media and interactive writing and where did the idea for FTR come from?

The three main characters for FTR (Pony, Lisa and Pepe) are based on crazy friends of mine. I had the idea of writing a TV series based on them and some themes I wanted to cover, floating around in my head for a couple of years. I went to a digital media seminar run by Film Victoria on 1 July 2004. It was during that seminar that I came up with the interactive format that is a feature of FTR1. FTR is a cheeky comedy/drama series clearly targeted at 18–39 year olds, so making it a cross-media series with 3-minute episodes and highly interactive suited this project.

At the same seminar I met Paul Baiguerra who was looking at getting into production of this type of content with his business partner Peter Dixon. By August we agreed on a joint venture to produce FTR. In October we shot a 4-episode pilot, in November we took part in a three-day Xmedia Lab in Melbourne … in December we began pitching. By August 2005 we had financed the first series (FTR1) and our first episode was on-air 10 October 2005. It is the first comedy/drama series in the world to broadcast all episodes on TV, online and mobile and the series ran for 13 weeks (39 x 3-min episodes). FTR2 (30 x 3min episodes) was broadcast Nov/Dec 2007.

FTR was originally distributed across TV, mobile and the web. How did the small portable screen and online delivery influence the writing?

The first major shit from traditional TV or film is the short episode. Three-minute episodes mean you need more story-per-minute. Viewers will accept lower production standards if the story/writing is strong enough. But you have little time to hook them and keep them hooked. You don’t have the luxury of introducing stories and revealing character over 10–13 weeks. When I wrote the pilot – which became the first four episodes – I titled the first episode ‘number 33’. It was a small psychological thing for me to assume the show had been going for a while. If you watch the first episode of FTR1, you’ll still get a good feel for the three main characters.

In FTR1 we had eight storylines over the 13 weeks. Three storylines were for entertainment but the other five had themes relevant to our target market … and not covered originally or truly by heritage TV – if at all. You can’t dilute the writing process or underestimate it ‘just because you’re broadcasting on digital media’. That’s a mistake many make. You still need to do your best possible writing. Not everyone will be able to make 3–5-minute episodes work.

Over the two series we were able to give the characters personal journeys – especially in FTR2. Of all the awards we’ve won, the current nomination from our peers at the Australian Writers Guild for our writing on FTR2 is the one I’m proudest of (AWGIES ceremony 15 August 2008). My co-writer on FTR1 was Terri Psiakis. My co-writers on FTR2 were Tim Ferguson, May Yeung and Leisl Egan. It was May and Leisl’s first credit, so to get a nomination for them is brilliant!

The mobile screen was the lowest common denominator, so production limitations were driven by this: brighter lighting, closer shots, simple editing, minimal special effects. Because FTR was also broadcast on TV we trod a fine line but have had great recognition from the TV industry locally and internationally about our production qualities – our team did a great job.

FTR 2 has branched out to include lots of social media channels and activities. How have you leveraged this approach for both storytelling and promotion?

We used networks like Facebook and MySpace more for promotion and keeping our fans in touch with the series and characters. They are great vehicles for giving fans more information about your characters – invaluable when you’re writing 3-min episodes. We didn’t really use them for storytelling.

They are powerful tools. ‘Lisa’s’ character in FTR is an Ad Agency account manager. One fan wrote to her on Facebook asking for advice on how to breakthrough into the ad industry…

Can you describe the business models that both financed the production of FTR and provided a return to the company for this?

I am proud that both FTR1 and FTR2 were fully-financed productions. We raised over $1.1 million in total for both series and everyone was paid award rates or above. No-one else has come close to financing 69 x 3min episodes in Australia for a cross-media production. That’s the equivalent of 9 x ½ episodes on commercial TV.

FTR1 was fully financed by private investors – they own 49% – so we still retain control. Our distribution partners, Ch V (Foxtel) and 3 Mobiles, didn’t provide a cent but they did provide scope for us to sell sponsorship and advertising. Our planned revenue streams were: share of subscription from 3 Mobile customers, ads and sponsorship, downloads of ‘mobile merchandise’ and international sales.

None of this occurred. We made some revenue from our subscriber share but it was negligible. However, as we (with our investors) own the IP, there is still scope for international sales and potential DVD sales.

FTR2 was financed by Optus TV and Film Victoria. This was a more traditional method of financing. Optus took the pay TV and mobile rights in Australia. We retained all other rights. We also had the right to bring on three other sponsors.

FTR also has the potential for format sales – different language versions being produced in different territories. Was there any consideration as to the most appropriate business model for FTR?

We were so far ahead of the industry with FTR1 that there were no ‘appropriate business models’. Forget the Rules was our title, our creative mantra and our business mantra … and really, it should be an industry mantra. At a seminar just this week, someone suggested that business models in this new space ‘will come and go like waves’. I think this summed it up well. There are new models, revenue and investment options evolving all the time. You just need to be aware of what’s available and what suits your project and your objectives.

The intense focus on ‘business models’ by everyone in this industry is choking it. You can already see the fingerprints on the neck of creativity and opportunity.

With FTR we had total creative control which is so rare for experienced TV practitioners, let alone first timers like us. We all got professionally paid to do something we love. Many got their first credits. For me personally it has provided opportunities and taken me to places I had never been – both physically and creatively. You have to be business savvy – or team up with someone who is – but if we all focused purely on making instant fortunes… we’d be in the wrong business.

If you were to approach doing FTR again, in the current environment, what changes might you implement that would impact on the business models you chose?

I wouldn’t rush the production of the show. Short timing from funding to broadcast eliminates the possibility of securing sponsors and limits your marketing/promotion significantly. I would ensure we had a substantial marketing budget to drive our own promotions and PR – as well as pushing for major marketing support from distribution partners and increasing, not decreasing the interactive elements for our fans/viewers. With FTR2 we didn’t deliver on many of the online and mobile interactive elements we planned. We shot ourselves in the foot with that. One by-product was that our average time-per visit online was 4.5 minutes with FTR2 compared to 19 minutes for FTR1. That’s a huge difference and not a great story for potential sponsors. As part of this, I would bring on an expert (or two) to help us better leverage the social networking sites and opportunities.

FTR has won numerous awards, what impact has that had and how important is it to have recognised awards in this field?

The awards have been invaluable. I was struggling to get FTR2 up in 2006 – even my producing partners had given up on it. Then we got the double nomination in the MIPCOM awards. Of the180 projects considered from 34 different countries that year, we were the only one with the double nomination. The day after we won, I was approached by the head of digital of ITV UK who had heard of FTR through one of the award judges. Within 30 minutes we had worked out a basic deal for their involvement in FTR2. Based on that deal we put together all the other funding (Film Victoria and Optus TV). That MIPCOM award led to exposure and credibility that helped get FTR2 up and introduce me to opportunities. Ironically, ITV pulled out two days after I finalised the other partners … but to their credit, Optus and Film Victoria stuck by us.

The Greg Tepper Award in 2007 from Film Victoria was a joint win with the creative team from Kenny (Clayton and Shane Jacobson). It was a powerful statement by Film Victoria that they regarded success in digital media equally with feature films. A couple of months later Clayton and I started talking about working together and we’re now doing an amazing digital media project, Mordy Koots … plus Clayton is also attached as director on a feature film I’m producing.

You don’t do this for the awards but this industry is so tough it’s really nice to get the recognition and ‘enjoy the roses’ for a second or two. In this industry, there are a series of filters you have to go through before people respect or trust you enough to invest time and money in you. Awards are an important ‘filter’ that differentiate you. It’s up to you however to leverage them … no-one runs to your door with an open chequebook!
 

---