Lonelygirl15

[Manias]

Ok, Well I thought I would give my thoughts on this series and the problems that it is having. I have broken it down into sections to make it a little easier to follow. Not being an experienced writer or forum writer, it doesn’t flow as well as I would like it to.

I know that it is kind of long, but hopefully it will be pretty interesting for you guys.

Popularity of Lonelygirl15

From my observations, over the last couple months, the show has suffered a sharp decrease in popularity. Earlier on some of the episodes hit over 1 million views. However, over the past two weeks, Bree has barely broken 300,000, Gemma has barely broken 70,000, Daniel has barely broken 100,000, and Jonas has barely broken 50,000.

Some may say this is because they have been online for a shorter period of time, but that does not really address the issue. This is a series, which means that if it has not decreased in popularity then its numbers should stay the same. People follow series and watch new episodes soon after it is released. Look at the beginning, where each show consistently broke 500,000. What happened to all those people? Wouldn’t they have all watched these episodes over the last two weeks? The fact of the matter is they are gone.

Lets go back a bit look at why this show was popular to begin with. I could go into a lot of detail on this, but I won’t. Simply put, people love Bree. She was the reason why this series was so popular at the beginning, and it is the reason why this show is still at the level it is now. Hence why her videos are being watched 3x as many times. Which brings me to my conclusion on popularity.

I would say that right now, the number of people who are staying with this series numbers less than 100,000. This means watching every episode. However, in terms of Bree, there are at least 150,000 more people who are just watching Bree. You need to give these viewers a reason why they should watch the other characters and not just Bree. As of right now, the new characters babble on about their lives and most of what they say has nothing to do with the main plot. Also, the things they do say about the main plot are generally pretty worthless. People do not care if Gemma thinks that Bree should stay with Daniel. Of all her videos Gemma has only offered a couple pieces of useful information such as the symbol on the guys hand.

Simply put, this series has decreased in popularity by a lot since it started. The problem is that it will be very hard to bring these people back and reach the popularity you once had.

Popularity = Money

Now here is the problem with the way things are going. You have stressed the your biggest obstacle has been money, but the lower the popularity, the lower the income. You are losing viewers all the time and something has to be done, soon. If you do not start increasing your popularity, or at least stop the decrease, you will be in big trouble.

Creators I know that you are working very hard and committing everything you have to this production, but you must at least keep your viewers or you will inevitably be doomed to failure.

No matter how much you talk about money, the way I see it, the main problems with this series can be solved without more money. You need to take steps to solve these problems so that you can maintain your fanbase while you work on the monetary aspect.

Now moving onto specific problems. Some of this is drawing off of what others have said.

Character Development

Much of this has been thoroughly talked about in DreamerM’s thread titled On the Jumping of Sharks--What LG15 is Doing Wrong so I will only briefly touch on the individual characters.

Bree: The center of this series and the reason why it is so popular. Yet she has been a let down because she has lacked development. This has been magnified by the fact that more videos from the other characters=less Bree.
Daniel: Not much here, best developed.
Jonas: Though it has changed a bit since Bree went to his house a more substantial character could have been put in his place.
Gemma: Very shallow character who contributes little to the progression of the plot
Basically, the characters all need much more development, especially Bree.

Now here is where I start putting in my own analysis.

Creators, from my point of view, the lack of character development has been a side effect of this new medium for a couple of reasons.

1. 2 minutes of one or two characters every 2 days when this is taking place in real time means that we see hardly any of their lives.

2. Most of the important events are not caught on camera because that would not be realistic and therefore would not follow this new medium. These events and how the characters react to these events are good ways to show development. Sadly, all we get is Bree talking about these events, which doesn’t give us much development.

3. Stemming off of number 2, character development comes through character interaction. This new style limits this because there is hardly any interaction on camera for us to see. The only on camera interaction is between Daniel and Bree, and there is still not very much of that. We have not seen Jonas or Gemma interact with anyone on camera and this is a prominent reason as to why they have had hardly any development. For example, the party would have given us a lot of insight into Bree through her interactions with the members of the party, but we do not get to see it, we only see her talking about it later.

Basically, we miss so much development off camera because of this new medium. If this was a book we would have been at that party, we would see so much more development. In terms of solutions, I don’t really have any because I have only been in on this series for a few days and have not put much thought into how to make this new medium a success. Somehow, you need to find a way to some more character development out of this new medium.

Loose ends

Creators, as you have acknowledged, there are A LOT of loose ends in this series. There are so many aspects of this series that appear to have nothing to do with the plot and there are so many questions that have been left unanswered. This style of telling a story is great in a book, but it is not going well at all with the new medium of this series.

In a book, this is very successful because book have a ton of content, and you experience it all in under a month. Though you have a lot of loose ends, they all get tied together in a short period of time and you do not lose interest.

However, with this new medium there are a couple things that are ruining this:

1. Pace- I have a big point on this so it is kind of a sub section. This series has been going on for 5 months and hardly anything has been tied together. No matter how you look at it, that is an extremely long period of time. To go 5 months and have nothing tied together is ridiculous. I have experienced this entire series in 3 days and it feels too slow for me. I can’t imagine it spread over 5 months.

So basically, if you are going to go 5 months with a 2 minute video every two days, you need ACTION if you want to keep all of your viewers. You need things to happen and you need to resolve things because people are going to lose interest fast. I know there is the whole “real time” argument, but things could be going much faster and still be considered real time. Bree and Daniel have accomplished very little since Bree’s parents disappeared. The order has done nothing except watch and there is no explanation as to why this is the case. Things need to start happening, and that doesn’t require departing the sense of real time.

The reason why people are still with this show and are bearing with the pace is because of the discussion and the interactivity of the forums. In the days between videos people are constantly creating theories and explanations, are filling in the holes themselves, and are giving suggestions to the characters. I think this is great except the majority of the viewers do not participate in this. Most people do not want to fill in every single hole themselves, they want at least some things answered and explained within the show. Also, most people do not spend time to offer input to change the direction of the show because they do not think they will be heard. In a videogame you directly influence what is going on and you get to see the results. With this new idea, chances are if you take the time to try and influence the progression of the plot, your voice won’t really be heard.

The slow pace and the fact that most people do not want to do what I illustrated above has been a key factor in undermining the popularity of the show.

2. Content- when there is a loose end in a book there is a lot of content involving the loose end. You have a lot to think over and look at it and this helps to keep you engrossed. By having so little content for each loose end and so many loose ends, people do not have much to go on and it is becoming a big mess. For example we have all Bree’s things to do in preparation for the ceremony, but all we know is that she took pills and shots.
That is it, for this style to work on this medium there need to be fewer loose ends and more content on those loose ends.

Conclusion

So there are other problems that other people have iterated and I haven’t, but I am tired of typing so this will have to do.

So to summarize what I have said:
1. This show is losing popularity and if you do not act soon it will be too late to bring back the people who have already left or attract new people. You must maintain or increase the number of people following the series and give people a reason to watch more than just Bree.
2. You must maintain your popularity if you are going to make money and this means solving some problems.
3. The way you are using this medium is restricting character development and something needs to be done.
4. All this loose ends combined with the sluggish pace and lack of content is causing people to lose interest fast.

Also, I know that a lot of my criticism seems to be directed at the new medium but don’t get me wrong. I love this new medium and I think that it has a lot of potential and will work very well. I just think that there are problems with the way it is being used now.

I am not a negative person
Though this thread has had a lot of criticism in it, it is meant to be constructive. I understand that you guys have putt a lot of hard work into this series and are in a tough monetary situation. Honestly, despite my criticism, I hold you guys in high esteem for everything you have done for this series and you have my respect. No matter many problems there are, I still love this series and will continue to follow it.

I think that you guys have the ability to turn this around and I believe that you will turn it around. Hopefully it will return to the popularity it once had.

[HyeMew]

I have a couple comments on that (I admit it was way more than was able to read, so only will comment on a few isolated things i noticed.)

While you say the view amounts are in trouble, I was just watching episode 2 "Purple Monkey" and it only has 342,578 views after 5 months.
Even crazier, a very important early episode, The Danielbeast, only has 254,733 views!
Now of course compare that to episodes when LG was really taking off (the most extreme time was late August and then the explosion happened when they were outed and got on the news in mid-September), Swimming! just broke 1 million... the landmark my first kiss from just a few days after the reveal has almost 9 million.
But.
Some from around the same exact time have far lower views, for reasons I have yet to figure out. (Are good ones really like Kiss passed around to ones who don't normally watch with such a greater frequency that they get triple the views??)
The very next episode, Learning to Drive, only has 235,000 views. After that, The Equinox comes next with 408,000, but then the NEXT video My Difficult Decision is 735,000. After that is the Lucy introduction episode and is only at 284,453.
A month later, the Gemma introduction episode isn't even to 200,000 while I Lied to Daniel shortly before it is at 350,000.
So while of course some that have had months to gain views and were around during the media boom of mid-September, it's not like every episode was consistently near 1 million. As I have pointed out, many from the same time period, for whatever reason, not have anywhere close to that number of views.
Also, the episode Survival Skills from just 2 weeks ago is at 320,000, which is higher than a lot of episodes at least a month older. The episode Warwalking, the most recent, is problematic with only 73,060 views in close to a week, but the episode Ransacked! before it has 267,867. Then again I recall Ransacked! being the most recent episode for a long time which plays a part in that, but then again there has been no new LG15 account episode uploaded to youtube in almost a week and as I said Warwalking doesn't have that many.

So while the data I have collected is inconsistent at best, it hopeless goes to combat the notion that while a few months ago views were breaking the 1 million mark (or at least close) left and right, now views have severely dropped. I feel views are probably pretty consistent, and we need to factor in the high publicity views from the mid-Sept. and before would get, which of course naturally would subside as the media moved on. So while I don't notice anything to ring alarm bells, it really is hard to say. We know some episodes are capable of getting over 350,000 views in two weeks though, which I think is probably on target with plenty of the successful ones you point to.

That said, I do think the aspects of the characters, stories, and scripts that endeared so many to these videos has been lost in the past couple months, and that it's a completely different series now. I won't be so bold to say if they went back to their original formula views would take off or interest would be regained, but I do think a lot of people moved on because they were drawn to the old format, not this new stuff which many find somewhat ridiculous.
_________________
Check out: Funniest LG15-related episode... ever?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ6kBdNegfs

[Manias]

well personally I think that there was more to its popularity back then before the publicity. All of the publicity came from the popularity and then from the revealing that this popular vlogger was actually a fictional character. By mentioning the 1 million that may have been an ill representation, but even before the publicity there were a good average of about 500,000 people who were watching the episodes. I agree that the changes in the number of views per episode are very strange and I can't really explain them but I was more going for a sort of general average.

I suppose influence that lead me to deciding to write about popularity was the Wired article that first lead me to the series. In there the creators were saying that My parents suck reached 500,000 viewers in 48 hours and I guess that contributed to my looking into this and drawing clonclusions.

Now though, looking at this again. When I look at warwalking and your decision, I'm starting to think that this series has 50,000 or less people who are dedicated to and are really following the series enough to see the video within 48 hours. Comparing that to My Parents Suck or the minimum of 300,000 views of the old episodes really worries me, because I want to see this series continue and grow.

[HyeMew]

True, I forgot about the 500,000 in 2 days of My Parents Suck.

I think the plain and simple to it is- that episode was the height of typical teen drama. For whatever reason, that's what people love to wtach. The problem with the past few months is that it's gone from the realm of something millions were able to relate to directly- probably because they've experienced it themselves at some point if not still, to something unrecognizable. Teenage angst and typical problems everyone feels has morphed into spending a month going from motel room to motel room followed by living in the streets and being stalked by a mysterious Order.

If there's one thing the I think the Creators need to gather from this thread, is that what made LG popular more than anything else has got to be the way the fans could associate with Bree and her problems and really felt a connection. Now that it's all about running from a cult and living on the road it's just completely left all those fans behind wondering 'what happened?'
_________________
Check out: Funniest LG15-related episode... ever?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ6kBdNegfs

[Manias]

To go a bit more into that, it's not just that the height of the show was what people like to watch. It's that people like to watch it and it is perfectly suited for the youtube vblog medium.

The way they are doing the series now is a great story, and it is a style that is very popular, but it is not working.

The problem is that as of right now I do not think that a 2 minute clip for every 2 real time days of the characters' lives is enough to tell the story they are trying to tell for a couple of reasons

As I said before the 2 minutes every 2 days works great for a girl talking about her normal (though not typical) life. However, the story they are now trying to tell is full of loose ends and unanswered questions. The story has a big web that covers a lot of ground, but yet the time restraints mean that there is not much detail. Even though the fans fill in holes on their own, not every fan participates in this and the fans can only fill in so much.

Also, putting Bree in her current situation and still keeping the same time restraints means that there is a lot less time spent on Bree. This combined with the unfamiliarity of her situation has indeed caused the audience who once felt connected to Bree to feel alienated from her.