The American version of the acclaimed and innovative Norwegian youth series SKAM, which follows a group of teenagers in their everyday life of school, love and leisure. The show, housed on Facebook Watch, has Instagram accounts for each of its main characters updated during the course of the show for viewers to get a more in-depth look into each character. SKAM Austin's format as a digital television series uses Instagram to add depth to the world and its characters. Not only could you watch the show on Facebook Watch, you could keep up with the characters in real time on Instagram.
As a transmedia assistant, I worked in a small department to develop, create, and release content for the many character Instagram accounts. We even filmed a music video for the in-universe band! Through the accounts we told both a secondary narrative for the characters and also reinforced the main narrative highlighted on the main character's account.
"Involuntary Teenage Rebel" Music Video
In the SKAM Austin universe, three of the main characters have a band called Clout From Grandma's Closet. A number of songs written by the actors were published, and they also let us produce a music video for one of the songs. I had the opportunity to both film and edit the video for their song "Involuntary Teenage Rebel."
"Is a narrative built from Facebook comments, texts, and Instagram Stories the future of TV?"
- The New Yorker
- Teen Vogue
Series Launch Teasers
During filming for Season 1, the director of photography approached me and asked if I would cut teasers that would serve as the launch for the series. These were short videos that were made to seem like regular posts that have abrupt cuts to the SKAM Austin logo.
Character Instagrams
Throughout both seasons of the show, I was on the transmedia team taking pictures and videos for all the character social media accounts. Because we were working directly with Instagram and Facebook, we were able to upload pictures and backlog them to make it seem like the accounts were active for months or even years. We would take pictures of the actors during filming days for continuity of outfits and a lot of the time go on outings with them to capture content that felt authentic to teenagers here in Texas and more specifically Austin.
The transmedia team were essentially operating an entire production unit with scheduling, production, editing videos and pictures, and also scheduling and actually posting them onto all the correct accounts. I had a hand in capturing, editing , and posting every picture, as well as editing every video posted on the character accounts.
Check them out below!