Tier 3: What to Do With Video?

The next optional tier for Felicity is video.

There are a lot of reasons why I'd enjoy incorporating a video element into Felicity. For one thing, I write a pretty good script, if I do say so myself. It's also unbelievably gratifying to see a team bring your script to life -- often the actors and crew find nuance and depth that you didn't put in there, at least not on purpose. 

Since I'm more comfortable with writing serial and short-form video, the logical thing would be to create a complementary web series. It's lower-budget than aiming for a feature film, too, and can be monetized with the indie spirit through ads and sponsorships. There are some big questions, though, about what part of the story any video element should include. 

Because this is an optional tier, it might come significantly later than other tiers, and maybe even never. I can't hold the main of the experience hostage on the off chance that I get a production company on board. It couldn't be the same exact story as the text, going along with my guiding philosophy that every piece has to bring something new to the table. But I also shouldn't put all of my cards on the table in telling the text parts of the story, or there wouldn't be a point to adding anything else in later. 

So my proposed video element would have to fit neatly together with the text episodes, each expanding into the territory of the other only to make it more dazzling, the way that a good set of stacking rings does. 

There are two ways I have thought of to do this, and I can't decide which is right. I'd appreciate your input.

Option A

I have a sort of creative obsession with the Rashomon effect, and with unreliable narrators, and I've never had a good opportunity to scratch that itch. So the idea of writing the text from the point of view of one character and filming video from the point of view of another character fills me with delight (and no small amount of fear; I don't think it's an easy magic trick.)

The story is a lot about the relationship between Felicity, who is supernaturally lucky, and her friend Lindsay, who is a very, very unlucky boy indeed. I've gone back and forth in trying to decide whose perspective the text should be written from. Felicity is the star, and a lot of the point of the story is about her emotional journey; but she doesn't start out as being very reflective or self-aware. Lindsay, who has suffered a lot before the story even begins, is by far the more complicated character, and probably the more eloquent and insightful. The text should probably be written by him.

But in a story about Felicity, she should have a voice, too. Cheery, pretty, charming and highly photogenic Felicity could guide the web series, then. I think it would wind up as something akin to The Guild, where her vlogging would be a framing device for other events in the story. Both text and video would address some of the same pieces... but differently, even sometimes in direct conflict, each skewed by the perspective of the medium. Naturally in each medium there would be significant material that wouldn't appear in the other -- especially things they wouldn't be comfortable talking about with one another.

Option B

It's also possible to build out the web series as a part of the world completely independent from Felicity and Lindsay, starring characters who are minor but significant in the text pieces. The Turtles would be a good candidate for this; or I could use this as an opportunity to expand on the point of view of the Bad Guys (who you don't yet know much about). The integration with this option would by necessity be much, much lighter, which is a minus for the audience experience; but it would also be a much simpler execution, which is a plus for the odds of actually pulling it off.

I wonder, I wonder which one is the better approach. What do you think?