I know a lot of people who have considered writing, acting, and producing their own Web series but few have actually gone through the motions to do so. 
When I ask why, the most common response is something along the lines of “because it’s too risky. Once it’s up, who’s to say anyone will even find it? The Internet is too big.” And they’re right, sort of. The Internet is big. But I refuse to believe it’s too big, because there are a lot of success stories out there that just happen to be flying under the radar.
Last week I had the opportunity to discuss one such success story with Brendan Bradley, the creator, director, and co-star of Squatters, a Web series about two guys who make a bet to see who can last in New York City longest without having to pay rent. He had some interesting things to say about his experience working in Web and if it doesn’t leave you asking yourself, “why haven’t I followed through with my idea, yet?” I’m not sure what will:
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Clicker: So Brendan, now that you’re eight episodes deep, what has been the overall audience reaction to your series?
Brendan Bradley: Wow, well, we’ve been absolutely overwhelmed by the amazing response to the show and we’ve gained a fiercely loyal fan base of over 20,000 without any major PR work or publicity! What’s so great about the Web is the direct interaction we can have with our fans whether on Twitter, Facebook or through the comments. Based on their enthusiasm and feedback, the show’s been able to grow and evolve in a way that would not have been possible with traditional media. I don’t think we fully realized how much people were enjoying the show until our screening at ITVfest last week sold out with a stand-by line wrapped around the theater!
C: What inspired you to start a Web series, in the first place? Have you gotten what you want out of the experience?
BB: I really believe the Web space is the ideal platform for development and experimentation. I have seen so many brilliant artists empower and expand themselves with online content. My fellow producers Frank Kramer, Cooper Harris and myself had already discovered new opportunities and success online – Cooper and I had grown tired of auditioning for spec commercials so we decided to create our own and ultimately sold four campaigns to name brands.
Working with creators like Sandeep Parikh and Felicia Day, I was inspired to take the television pilot collecting dust on my computer and use it to find an audience and showcase myself as an actor and writer. With Squatters, I feel we have completely surpassed our expectations. What started as a fun showcase of our talents has evolved into what feels like a real television show! We have a distributor and fans with huge expectations and enthusiasm – it’s intimidating and inspiring – and I am so humbled by the support we’ve had from the community.
C: What helped you get this off the ground and noticed? Is there anything you did that you wouldn’t do again?
BB: We have learned so much from this entire process! I think our greatest success has been not making excuses for the show. We held ourselves to an incredibly 
high standard and it forced us to make the show we wanted to make instead of hoping we’d get lucky.
The biggest disadvantage Squatters had was the limitations of my credit card. We would shoot as much as I could afford and then I’d save up money to continue filming. This unfortunately stretched the production over a year which is hard on your core team who are already giving so much. Frank Kramer totally saved our ass by coming on board and paying off the deferred salaries of our amazing, patient cast and crew. As we create content in the future, we will secure all the financing upfront and block out a chunk of time to shoot everything. There are so many amazing opportunities to get a modest budget for your project through brands and advertisers or websites like IndieGoGo that let your fans and community help identify funding.
C: So it took you over a year to shoot the first 8 episodes? What was your shooting schedule like, and how many people did you have on your team to make it all happen?
BB: Uh, yeah. (Groan). We would shoot in spurts. I would save up and we’d get, let’s say, the office location. So we’d schedule everything in that space and shoot it out. Then I’d save up some more and get another location and we’d shoot for another block of time. Our schedule was crazy because so many of our locations were borrowed or guerrilla. So instead of the usual 12+ hour day, we’d have like 4 hours at a time to grab everything we could.
We would have failed epically without my extraordinary team to whom I owe all the credit: James Rhodimer was our DP often working with minimal lighting and no space for a tripod. We would discuss a basic choreography and the look I was going for in each scene, but without a monitor I just had to trust him to do what he does best. Sean Oakely recorded most of our sound and it’s a miracle to me that we only had to ADR 6 lines despite subways, traffic, ringing phones, foot traffic and pretty much every sound nightmare you can imagine. Sean even appears in several scenes, putting all his gear in his backpack and comfortably monitoring levels through his headphones. This helped him stay near us without interfering with the handheld style of the show. Jenny Green cost umed everyone and ended up volunteering to help every time another department needed hand. She even designed and created Hank’s hilarious T-shirts. Erik Scott Smith, who plays Alex, went way above and beyond the call of duty helping out behind the scenes when we wasn’t in front of the camera. I am humbled by talent that can bring 100% to a performance and still bring their passion and generosity to all the other elements of the project. Amy Wengreen and George Kimmell were on the front lines helping with equipment and production design. And finally Cooper Harris and I had our hands in literally everything – from administrative paperwork to rentals to scheduling to casting to pre and post production demands – everything. I have gained a new respect for what the word “Producer” means in the Web world. This show was not possible without this extraordinary team of 8. I really lucked out on my first project!
C: You jumped into the Web Series world just as it started to take off – where do you see this industry going in the next five years? Do you see it getting tougher or easier for creators/producers/actors like you?
BB: Well, I’m going to totally cop-out and say it’s going to get tougher and easier. I think there’s no escaping the exciting potential of this i ndustry and technology. 
YouTube launched in 2005 and now it’s a household name- you can even search and stream it through your TV! The internet is an incredibly powerful distribution tool and I think we’re only going to see it become embraced more and more by mainstream audiences and advertisers. However, part of what has been so remarkable and unique about this industry is that it levels the playing field, allowing young independent filmmakers to compete equally with larger production entities like studios and networks. I think the greatest challenge will be maintaining this spirit of independence and celebrating new, developing t alent as the industry expands. Right now there is such a incredibly generous support system among the online creators and I hope real monetization will only help to enrich this community.
C: Speaking of the future, what’s in store for you and the rest of the Squatters crew?
BB: Well, DailyMotion has asked to renew their contract with us for the remaining episodes of Squatters so we’re talking out the details. Hopefully we will be launching the rest of Season 1 this Fall! There are murmurings of a Season 2, but we want to focus on airing the final episodes and finishing strong before we jump back into pre-production.
There have been some wonderful success stories from the Squatters camp, if I can brag really quickly: I was brought on as a staff writer to a new Viacom Web series which goes into production this Fall; Actress/Producer extraordinaire Cooper Harris is attached to bring both of her talents to a new female-centric, sci-fi series; Our adorable cleaning lady, Christiann Castellanos will be joining the cast of 90210 this Fall; Matthew Moy, the dry cleaning delivery boy, became a regular on the final season of Scrubs after shooting with us; Our DP James Rhodimer has been pitching his own original series Apocalyptic Playground; and Producer Frank Kramer can be heard every morning on KABC with the Frosty, Heidi and Frank show and his podcast After Hours on iTunes!
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After talking to Brendan it struck me that although the Web world is still very much a frontier, the old Field of Dreams motto “If you build it, they will come” holds up. When you have the passion, the endurance, and the ability to make it happen, you can rack up as much, if not more, buzz than you ever thought possible. Thank you, Brendan, for taking the time to chat with us and best of luck to you guys for the rest of your season (though it sounds like you won’t be needing much luck!)
Make sure to check out the show, and if you add Squatters to your Clicker playlist we’ll send you an email notification every time a new episode pops up.
