Hi all I might lack the proper vocabulary to express exactly what I want, but I will try my best with what I know. I am working on an animation series for the web, which might fall under category: drama. It is my own spare-time project but I would like to make a living of it some day. But for now, my main focus is to create a compelling story that works. The whole animation series is supposed to be one big, continuous story. Every episode is a continuation of the previous episode. Every new episode builds upon the same story, character development, etc. In other words, instead of each episode being "reset" (or starting "from scratch") in what is going on with the story, world and characters, it builds upon it. Like a normal, serialized TV show, e.g. LOST, The Wire, The Sopranos. And not episodic ones, like: Simpsons, Friends, Family Guy. You could say, that what I am trying to achieve, is a miniature version of a normal, serialized TV show with a slight taste of a normal, episodic show. I might want to add some "episodic elements" for my target audience to expect certain things, events, etc. from almost each episode - but there will be exception. The main goal is to focus on the growth of the few characters that I want to include. And to create conflicts between the characters. My biggest challenge so far, however, is to squeeze enough content into a 2-4 minute episode for it to tell a gripping story where you get involved and that you want to keep watching. My biggest weakness at the moment, is my lack of understanding on how to structure these episodes. Because, I have to think of the three-act structure of each individual episode, but I also have to think in term of seasons and how they connect. It seems to be much more complex, than I initially anticipated, and that is, what I would love to get some advice with. General tips and tricks are welcome. Any links to some valuable ressources are welcome. Anything is welcome, in fact. I wish to learn and grow. I tried Googling, searching Youtube and I found a few ressources, but nothing that covers exactly what I am looking for: How to structure very short episodes of an episodic series. Maybe I lack the the proper words to search for. Also, I think and work visually most of the time to help me understand the project and its structure better. I use storyboards, visual graphs, mindmaps. If anyone can please guide me in the right direction, I would be most grateful. EDIT: The tags of this topic got screwed up somehow, sorry about that.
The structure is the same. Just like each episode is three acts, so each episode will have underlying journey/premise/theme etc. Watch videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/clickokDOTcoDOTuk/videos It's not unlike individual sequences in longer TV shows/films; with 2-4 mins, consider each episode a sequence. Each episode still has a premise tough.
Siena, thank you. I will check out those videos. Good to hear, that it is actually not as complicated than I thought. "with 2-4 mins, consider each episode a sequence. Each episode still has a premise tough." <-- Can you please elaborate? I understand, that a sequence is a bundle of scenes that create that one episode. But what you mean by a premise, eludes me. Do you mean that each episode has something unique to tell? A unique little story of its own?
