The Partisan is probably the first web series ever filmed and entirely edited with mobile technologies. It is a mockumentary in 3 chapters of 6 episodes each (5 min/ep) about men, mountains and smartphones.
We love web series. We love mountains. Why not make a web-series in the mountains? It was the first time, but certainly not the last time, that we tested travel vlogging.
And the mountains between Italy and Austria are one of the most fascinating places in the world to use a smartphone camera.
The aim was experimentation, both technical and creative. Above all, the production of a web series with a smartphone is as extreme as the violent beauty of certain mountain landscapes.
These were the first experiments with smartphone video-making.
It was this web series about mountains that gave rise to Smart Videos and mobile video marketing.
Unforgivable. Unforgettable.
To film the six episodes of the first two seasons of the series, we used a Samsung S6 smartphone. For the third season, we used a Samsung S7 and a DJI Mavic Air drone.
For editing all three seasons, we used the premium version of the app Vivavideo, available on both Android and iOs.
We chose Vivavideo to edit the web series because it is the app that comes closest to the desktop work process.
With certain obvious limitations: the audio, the titles. But also unique advantages: the proximity to the subject being filmed, the mobility of the camera.
We are convinced that this is not about reinventing cinema: we are convinced that we are pioneering a completely new art.
Seriality in the age of the internet is certainly what explains the success of the so-called golden age of American TV, from Lost onwards.
But it is also an effective marketing technique to present a brand, a mission, a reason. It’s about being direct and transparent.
And the public will respond in kind.
The secret of a successful web series, however, continues to be storytelling. Ours was an experiment in mockumentary, rather than a series of the kind you find on Netflix (still it featured on Italy’s most important magazine about cinema – Ciak).
But it was still easy to see the narrative potential of such a versatile medium.
No technique grabs people’s attention more than a story. No medium retains people’s attention more than a video.
