Length Matters, Part 2

Last month, there was some debate about the length of STBD episodes.

They tend to be 10 minutes long, every week. Our fans tend to ask for LONGER episodes.

I'm wondering if they shouldn't be SHORTER.

We tried 5 minute episodes throughout Season Two and Season Three. It didn't feel long enough to tell a rewarding story then. (That's why a lot of folks are asking us to go even LONGER.)

But if you look around the web, NO POPULAR SERIES is longer than 5 minutes per episode. That's actually the long end of the spectrum; most shows clock in around 3 minutes or so.

Granted, most shows are trying to tell a joke. We're trying to tell an ongoing, evolving story.

But they're getting 100,000 viewers an episode. We're not.

Does STBD need to go SHORTER to increase likelihood of adoption?

Length Matters

Liz and Lloyd know the value of length...
When STBD began, our first "season" consisted of 5 episodes averaging 10 minutes in length, released once per month.

In an effort to get episodes out more often, we switched things up in Season Two: 2 episodes per month, 5 minutes apiece. Then our audience weighed in, letting us know that 5 minutes wasn't enough to make the story feel "full." So we adapted again.

In Season Three, we kept to the 5 minute length, but sped up production again: episodes were released at least weekly. (For a brief stretch, they were even released daily, and then we [meaning I] burned out.) And, still, the frequency of release didn't offset the length issue for our audience -- even with twice as many episodes, 5 minutes just didn't feel like "enough" of an experience.

So, this season, we switched to 10 minute episodes, released weekly -- or 4 x the amount of production we were pumping out in 2003!

And yet, there are STILL fans who suggest we make the episodes EVEN LONGER.

The Problem with Length

Forget for a moment that we're creating 40 minutes of original content on a shoestring budget each month and giving it away for free. Further complicating the issue are the logistics of planning. 12+ hours a week spent editing an episode is nothing compared to conceiving of the scenes, writing the scripts, scheduling the actors and actually shooting the footage.

If we moved to a 22-minute approach, similar to traditional sitcoms, we'd be looking at twice as much work per week. (Plus, traditional sitcoms have the offsetting benefit of those 8 minutes of commercials to pay the bills...)

Add to that the bandwidth issues, the conversion / upload / download time and the doubled stress on data management and storage, and you see a hydra of reasons why we shouldn't EVER go longer than 10 minutes.

And yet...

In Praise of Length

There are times when even 10 minutes doesn't feel like "enough" time to tell a story.

When we pace episodes, or compare our arcs to those of like-minded shows, we're inevitably at a disadvantage. Sex and the City has an extra 10 minutes of context / subtext / tension to build toward a payoff. STBD has to pack as much as possible into only 10 minutes, which means something -- plot, character, nuance, dialogue, action -- will suffer.

That's not to say that length is a cure-all. How many 3 hour films have you sat through, lamenting their decision NOT to edit it down to 90 minutes? (Return of the King, anyone?) But having more space to play would certainly open up our options in terms of storytelling.

The question is -- and again, let's temporarily forget the cost and logistics -- would longer episodes help us to BUILD an audience, or would the additional investment of time drive them away?

What's the perfect length?

Heading Into the Home Stretch

Only 4 more episodes stand between us and the end of Season Four of Something to Be Desired on May 28th.

Originally projected at 40 episodes, we decided to shorten the season to 30 when production threatened to engulf us this past winter. Since taking a hiatus in February, we've received lots of positive buzz from new and old fans alike (which leads us to believe we're doing something right).

These last 4 episodes will tie up many (if not all) of the plotlines and loose ends that have been generated this season...

But what then?

We'll be filming for Season Five all summer, but in theory, those episodes won't start anew until September. In today's snack-based culture, falling off the map for that long is the kiss of death.

We have a few ideas for keeping the STBD flame alive over the summer. They include:

- a daily "minisode," 0:30-1:00 in length -- character-building scenes, stand-alone jokes, etc.

- a weekly "behind the scenes" video -- interviews, story meetings, rehearsals, making-of, etc.

- weekly Ustreamed live chats with the cast / creators

- character videoblogs

- or, quite simply, starting the next 10-episode story arc in July.

We could do one or two of those, but we can't do ALL of those -- we're not made of time.

So: how would YOU like to see STBD spend the summer?