Storytelling Techniques and Features of Plot Structure in Web Series

Abstract

Web series are a modern and actively developing audiovisual format, which, however, has so far received only limited attention from researchers. The format’s specific nature implies that it must be viewed from three angles at once: as an audiovisual product, in many ways akin to television and cinema formats; as a type of Internet content that exists in tune with the laws of its environment; and, finally, as a series per se, created with the canons and rules of serial narration in mind. Building on these three key aspects, it is possible to identify the specific format features of a web series and to find out how they influence its creation process, for example, in terms of storytelling strategies used in web series scriptwriting.This article examines nine web series of different genres, produced in nine countries around the world. The aim of the study is to discover and trace the relationship between the specific features of web series as a format and the story structure of the selected series. Joseph Campbell’s monomyth scheme serves as a main tool of analysis and allows to present this structure as a series of key stages, making it explicit. As a result, it becomes visible how the hero’s classic journey gets transformed in a web series. This makes it possible to identify the main features of storytelling in this format and the techniques used by screenwriters. These techniques include, in particular, a quick start of the story, a focus on the heroes’ inner journey, complete exclusion of their parents from the plot, and some others. Thus, the study comes to the conclusion that the specificity of web series as a format is not only taken into account by screenwriters, but also forces them to transform the classic plot schemes to a large extent.