To slightly skew Marshall MacLuhan’s famous saying “the medium is the message”, I think it’s also fair to say that art should be designed for the medium for which it was intended. For example, a film like Where the Wild Things Are is meant to be seen on a big screen, where it is arguable that a movie such as Love Happens has no real big-screen advantage. I’ve always considered it plus when a story comes to be through whatever medium by utilizing that medium to the story’s advantage. And such a story is Girl Number 9, that latest work by Dan Turner and James Moran (writer of various Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes, as well the brilliant horror-comedy Severance).
According to an interview with Scott Weinberg, Moran and Turner decided on the format first and built the story around it. They built it around the internet, which was a good move considering the viral marketing that can get your work seen by millions in the blink of an eye. Girl Number 9 is told in six episodes coming to a total of a little under thirty minutes. So about the length of a TV show, or a longish short film. Gareth David-Lloyd (who played Ianto Jones on Torchwood) is Detective Matheson; he and the police has finally caught a serial killer they believe is responsible for the horrible deaths of seven girls. Apparently the killer only wants to talk to Matheson, for reasons that turn out to be core-chillingly frightening. I won’t give away any more of the plot, considering the length of the film. The key to writing for the internet seems to be to keep it tight, keep it fresh, keep it to the point and don’t meander, lest you loose the attention of your audience. And keep that attention tightly in your grasp.
