I just finished watching the first two episodes of Quarterlife.
There’s an article over at NewTeeVee that examines the shows audience numbers, specifically that the numbers were going down. Andrew Baron commented about it on his blog too. Quarterlife seems to be losing their audience. The question is why.
I had no idea who made this show until the end credits and I nearly fell out of my chair. How could Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick be responsible for a show that I thought was so terrible? I usually like their work!
I’m reminded of a conversation I had a few days ago.We were discussing the difficulty in doing drama in short segments.Comedy and spectacle are easier and more satisfying in short clips but drama takes time to build.I think maybe the 8 minute length is part of the problem.It’s dragging the show down.There’s just not enough time to get into it.
OK maybe that’s part of it but there are other problems too.
So the main character calls her roommate an alcoholic on her blog and then she’s surprised that it becomes a problem? How clueless are these characters? How can I care about someone who basically creates their own problems this way?
Oh, and having TWO product placements in the first 90 seconds was really off putting. Product placement needs to be much more subtle to work. Corporate logos invading the frame constantly hovering in front of and behind the actors just kills the authenticity of the drama. It really pulls you out of the story and makes you think you’re just watching a contrived advertisement. The main character rolling around on her bed with her computer just screams product shot! product shot!
The product placement right up front set a really bad tone right at that critical point where you should be concentrating on winning over the audience. Hmmm… Maybe I was just put off right from the start and didn’t give the show a chance after that…
OK, so I just watched the third episode. I’m trying. Maybe it’s getting better. I’m not sure. I’m thinking that there are too many characters. With so many character arcs to cover in 8 minutes the plot moves forward way too slowly. Maybe this show is over-reaching and would be more successful concentrating only on one character.
And where is the RSS feed? Why isn’t this show on iTunes? I want to subscribe and watch this on AppleTV in my living room. That’s a much better place to watch something like this. Maybe it would help me get into the show more.
I’m going to watch a few more episodes but only because I respect the producers’ past work. I really want to like this show, but it’s hard.
Eric–
Stick with the show! The two “product placements” you mentioned weren’t even product placements. We had no deal with Apple or Toyota when we shot the pilot, and still have no deal with Apple. They just let us use their equipment — and we used non-Apple equipment as well. Sorry that logo is in your face when she rolls around on the bed, but it would have been impossible to avoid except by shooting behind her head! And Toyota had only given us permission to use their cars — that was a real dealership and we had to pay to shoot there just like anybody else.
But your other point is more important. You’re right, it is impossible to do a dramatic show in eight minutes, and we’re not trying to. These episodes aggregate together into one hour stories. You don’t get the full emotional impact until then. We considered all sorts of ways of presenting the show, and are still considering different ways, but this particular way — eight minute episodes twice a week — was decided on by Myspace, and tney’re refusing to let us change it. So for the moment that’s how it has to be, but when our Myspace deal is over we’ll be able to try a better template.
Thanks for giving us a chance.
Marshall
mr. e-sprocket: i read the new tee vee article too. while his stats seem accurate, its not fair to see the audience is disappearing. its way too early to say that.
Marshall,
Thanks for responding. At least there’s someone reading my blog 😉 I’ve since watched all the rest of the episodes now available and I think I’m warming up to the series more. Knowing that the episodes are really supposed to be an hour helps a lot. You should make that clear on the web site.
My response to your response:
Call me crazy but I think that if Apple is giving you free computers in exchange for putting them in your show, that’s a product placement deal. In any case you don’t have to shoot your lead actress from behind to avoid the logo. You could simply give her a computer that doesn’t have an overbearing lit up logo on it in the first place. That way you don’t have the issue at all for the rest of the series. You don’t even have to bother with logo releases. More viewer attention on the drama, less time doing paperwork.
The second “product placement” I was referring to was specifically the Scion logo in the car dealership. (Yea, I know they’re owned by Toyota.) The point is that Scion’s are specifically marketed to young people. In episode one Jed says, “You got all these cars here that people under 30 should be buying,” just as it cuts to a wide shot with a surprisingly readable Scion logo looming over their heads. It almost looks like the logo was added in post. It’s not realistic against the bright windows at all. Anyway, if you didn’t get paid for that then you got ripped off and some guy over on Madison Avenue is really celebrating big time because he just scored a major coup and probably a big promotion.
In any case, enough about the never-ending distraction of product placement.
I think not having an RSS feed and not being in iTunes is the biggest issue I’ve brought up that you need to consider. I’m guessing that the deal with MySpace might be the problem there. If not you should start a feed immediately and allow people to subscribe. It’s the best way to deliver the show. It allows the viewers to decide where and when they watch it. If you always have to go to a particular web page you’ll inevitably loose viewers along the way because they’ll forget or sometimes they won’t feel like watching the show at their computer. Consider: My wife hasn’t seen the show and now she wants to. So what do we do. We can’t download the show to our AppleTV in the living room. Will we sit together in my office and watch it on the computer in a little window? Probably not. Should I just tell her to go watch it by herself at her computer and we’ll talk about it later? That probably won’t happen either and even if she did watch it all, what kind of entertainment is that when we can’t share it together? If you want the big audience, then you need to deliver your content everywhere simultaneously so the audience can have the freedom to enjoy it the way they like.
I think you are in a position to do some really pioneering work with this show and bring quality drama to the new media space. One of the things we’re trying to do with our little knitting show (at http://www.LetsKnit2gether.com) is prove that new media doesn’t have to be crappy looking home video of dogs riding a bicycle. It can stand toe to toe with broadcast television. Hopefully your corporate deals with MySpace and such won’t hamstring your show too much before you can adjust to market forces and make a success of it. Good luck!