Lifespan: 2007 – present | Runtime: 3-8 minutes | Website >>
Starring: Felicia Day, Vincent Caso, Jeff Lewis, Amy Okuda, Sandeep Parikh, Robin Thorsen
Created By: Felicia Day

I prefer to review smaller webseries, but let’s face it, it’s impossible to ignore what a phenomenon The Guild has become. That’s why i decided it was about time I reviewed it.

I watched the first season of the guild on YouTube in 2008. Since then, they’ve produced two more seasons sponsored by Microsoft (as if you couldn’t guess by the irritating fact that all their computers have a Windows sticker over the actual logo. Window’s don’t make hardware, so what the heck’s going on there? Sorry, pet peeve. Back to the review.) which were released on Zune, Xbox and the Guild website.

This is my first criticism about the series. After power-watching through the first season on YouTube, I subscribed to their channel and waited for new episodes to drop into my subscription box. Of course, this never came. Later I learned about the move to Microsoft’s various markets and realized I had to seek out the second season, rather than let it come to me. Maybe that’s the reason I waited about a year before finally watching the second season.

Having to visit the website each week and sit through ads for Sprint, all just to watch just four or five minutes was also a bit of a dampener on my viewing enjoyment, which is why, for the past two seasons, I’ve waited until they’re all online, then watched through them all in one night. Although, on the other hand, that makes for a fun night, so it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And let’s face it, they have to make money somehow.

As for the show itself: it started out with a very amateur-esque charm. It looked like it could have been made by a bunch of friends in their basement. Of course, the opposite was true. The production team was greater than any amateur webseries creator could put together and they certainly aimed high – and it didn’t take them long to go even higher. But what did you expect from Felicia day?

Her writing for the series is hard to fault. It flows well and the characters seem realistic, while also being entertaining. They’re charicatures of real life, something that every nerd out there can relate to. One of my favorite characters in terms of dialogue is Vork, the slow talking, montonous leader of the titular Guild, who’s serious tone makes every joke uttered pure gold.

The second season suddenly entered the realms of HD widescreen and it looked fantastic. The boosted production values brought a lot to the show without taking anything away – the great writing and great acting persisted and the hit become even more popular.

In the third – and most recent – season, Day introduced an interesting new storyline involving a new rival guild. The casting of this guild was as interesting as the storyline itself. We’ve been with our group of mismatched nerds for two years and now we get to see an alternate version of them with a dark twist. It’s just wonderful.

The cinematography seems to have been tweaked a tad in the third season, making it look even more perfect. I think they’re really hitting their stride and hopefully the fourth season will take them to even greater levels.

It has to be said that some of the funniest parts of each episode, and certainly my favorite, are the video blog sections at the beginning of each episode, where lead character Codex vents her feelings about recent events. They always end with a great line that keeps me laughing through the credits.

Which is good, because they have a really annoying opening theme.

Christopher Preksta is the creator of the upcoming webseries The Mercury Men, which is shaping up to be a must-see for any fan of classic sci-fi. The monochrome series sees the return of the classic cliff-hanger serials as Edward Borman fights alien invaders over a mysterious device known as the Gravity Engine. Director and creator Preksta answered some questions for Lumière.

Where did the idea for The Mercury Men come from?
I’ve always been a fan of the old pulp serials and also always wanted to film something with ray guns.  So the entire story came out of just wanting to film something I love.

What kind of budget did you have for the production?
While I can’t reveal specific numbers, I can say the series was self financed.

If you could go back to the start of production and give yourself one tip, what would it be?
Always look for the character moments.  Don’t allow the speed of production to cause you to overlook the great little moments the script may not necessarily point out.

Can you tell us a little about what The Mercury Men is about?
A government office employee is tasked with fending off dangerous invaders from the planet Mercury.  We take a character who’s entire career is based on shirking responsibility and put him in an overwhelming situation in which there is no one to pass it off to.

What are the chances of a second season? Do you already have an idea plotted out?
Absolutely.  Season 3 as well.  We developed so much of the world prior to filming that season 2 was already forming during filming and post-production.  We’ll more than likely begin scripting before the first volume of episodes are even released!

When can we expect the series to begin?
Soon hopefully.  We’re still considering offers for the series.

You can expect a review from Lumière once the first season of The Mercury Men is over, but you can check it out here to form your own opinion. If you like what you see so far, you may also want to check out Preksta’s first series, Captain Blasto.

Lifespan: 2009 – present | Runtime: 5-8 minutes | Website >>
Starring: Rich Ruperto, Humberto Rivera, Julie Robbins, Edwin Rivera
Created by: Corrado Gadaleta

Dead Road is something I’ve wanted to see for a long time: A zombie movie told in an episodic format. The series follows four characters, Rich, Bert, Paige and Chris, as they battle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world riddled with the walking dead.

Doesn’t sound too original, does it? Well the truth is, it isn’t. The zombie story has been used countless times and usually follows this same format. However, each movie has their own take on the classic format and Dead Road’s is definately not one of the bad ones. As the story develops, we meet other characters who may not be what they seem to be and the show certainly keeps you coming back for more of their original twist on a cliché storyline.

One thing Dead Road has that most other webseries don’t is the ability to make me gasp out loud. The story is very engaging, so much so that it’s almost impossible not to click the play button and see what happens in the next episode. Yet through all the horror and drama that the series does so well, they occasionally insert subtle humor that is simply the icing on top.

The series appears to have a relatively small budget (the one thing they do seem to have is a never ending supply of cars) which results in poor sound quality at points, but if you turn your speakers up, the series is thoroughly enjoyable.

There are currently five episodes of Dead Road online, but I hope to see many more in the future.

Lifespan: 2009 – present | Runtime: 4 minutes | Website >>
Starring: Aubrey Mozino, Ashley Hedrick, Rachelle Wintzen, Heather Lawson, Dante Alexander
Created By: Aubrey Mozino, Ashley Hedrick

Live in 5 is a comedy webseries which shows the off-screen lives of the people who produce the local WIPU news program. The series is created by actors Aubrey Mozino and Ashley Hedrick who also star in the show as lead anchor Deena and field reporter Lesley.

Each episode of the show takes place in a corridor-come-breakroom and is seen as one long shot by a camera mounted on the wall, making the show feel slightly voyeuristic, which fits perfectly with the show’s concept – that you’re taking a peek at the off-screen lives of these characters.

Although the stationary camera can at times feel very limiting, it means that each episode plays out like a short play, which is unique and interesting. I feel like there are many opportunities to play and experiment with this setup and I look forward to seeing how the show handles it in the future.

As of yet, there is no apparent storyline to the show, with each installment acting as a standalone piece. Each episode starts out slow as it introduces the latest gossip or dilemma at WIPU and often builds up to an active and surreal ending, such as a dance-off between the characters or field reporter Lesley taped to a chair being force-fed bacon. This type of physical and slightly wacky comedy seems to be what the show’s best at and I hope to see much more coming soon.

The first season appears to end after a mere four episodes, the rest of their video content being filled up by bonus videos which you may or may not class as part of the first season. I wouldn’t, which is a shame because the four audition tapes they’ve released show the characters auditioning for lead anchor and feature some of the funniest moments the show has produced. The final two bonus clips are weak and appear, more than anything, to be filler to keep the audience coming back until the second season.

The performances are not always perfect, but the show definately has a fantastic cast. They make the show believable, even in the most surreal of circumstances, and each castmember seems to fit their character perfectly. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the roles.

One of the most important characters is Pat Dunkle, the producer of WIPU news, who’s job seems to be to keep the cast in order and away from each other’s throats. Despite her significant role, the character of Pat, played by Heather Lawson, seems to be the least developed. I’d like to see Live in 5 expand on her character more in future episodes, of which I’m sure there’ll be plenty.

Overall, Live in 5 seems to be one of the more decent webseries out there. It doesn’t appear to have a very large budget, yet they continue to prove that that isn’t a necessity to make someone laugh.

It’s long been an assumption that episodes of a webseries have to be around three minutes long, and for good reason; viewers online have a shorter attention span than viewers on the small screen. When you’re watching video content online, it’s incredibly easy to navigate away from an uninteresting video, especially when there are dozens of related videos listed to catch your eye.

So it stands to reason that episodes should be short to accomodate the short attention span of the online generation. But no matter how good the reasoning behind this is, I can’t help but feel that it’s holding back the industry.

How can you tell a compelling story in three minutes? How can you tell a story that’s sure to send the viewer right to episode two?

Professionally produced, networked-backed webseries tend to be the biggest culprit here. Each episode tells a minute segment of an overall story arch and you have to watch the entire thing for it to actually tell a story.

This seems to be the preferred way for networks to produce a webseries, but in my eyes it’s flawed. Seriously flawed.

People like the familiar beginning-middle-end that you see in most fiction today and setting up a beginning, developing a middle and bringing a story to a satisfying end is certainly not something that can be done in three minutes.

What’s the alternative? Well, to find that answer you need look no further than the biggest video site in the world.

The time limit on YouTube videos is ten minutes – it’s perfect for webseries. It’s long enough to tell an interesting story but short enough to reside on the web. For me, the standard length for webseries should be ten minutes (or five minutes for series that can pull it off, comedy most likely.)

I know that this completely goes against the viewers-have-a-short-attention-span theory, but that idea has been holding us back for years.

We need to embrace the longer length and create fantastic openers to capture attention early on. At last, freed from the chains of the three-minute episode, we can sit back and experience the freedom that the ten-minute format offers.