68 newyork| march2–15, 2020
at snapchat’sNewYorkoffices
thiswinter,membersof thecreative
teambehindthepopularreality se-
riesEndlesswere feelingthelimitationsof
mobilestorytelling.Theepisodethey had
gatheredto editincludeda bigset piece:Star
SummerMcKeenandherfriendJessica
MatiswalkthroughTimesSquarewithout
realizingthat McKeen’sex-boyfriend,Dylan
Jordan, isthere at the sametime. As
McKeendisappearsintothecrowd,there is
aSlidingDoorsmoment;behindher, Jor-
danappearsona billboard-sizescreen,
filmedbya camera that capturesfootage of
tourists.Ona realityshowmadeforTV, this
is whereyouwouldcuttoa wideshot,mea-
suringthedistancebetweenthetwoexes.
Butononemadefora phone-sizescreen,it
didn’t quite...fit.
Theteamknew thisposednarrativeprob-
lems.Howclosewere McKeenandJordan
supposedto be?Hadsheseenhim,orhadn’t
she?“There’snotimeforslowbuildson
mobile,”Snapchat headofcontentSean
Mills,explainedlater.He mimickedpan-
ninga cameraaroundtheroom.“You’lllose
peoplerighthere.” His handsstoppedlong
before thecamera wouldhavecometofocus
onourconversation.
Formonthsnow, a mobile-storytelling
platformcalledQuibihasloomedonthe
contenthorizon,promisingthat,whenits
applaunchesthisspring,it willbea hometo
a hugelibraryofshort-formshowsmade
specificallyforyourphone.ButSnapchat
hasbeenoperatinginthat spaceforyears.
Accordingtoitsnumbers, 218 millionpeo-
pleusetheappdaily.Withover 38 million
viewers,Endless(previouslycalledEndless
Summer), createdbyMichellePeeraliand
AndreaMetz,is themost watchedofthe 95
originalshowsthathaveappearedonthe
platforminthepast few years.It’snowinits
The CULTURE PAGES
third season, and most of its audience is
between 13 and 24 years old (by Snapchat’s
statistics, 90 percent of people in the U.S. in
that age range have the app on their phones).
The company has studied what works on a
phone and what does not, and from those
lessons, it has invented mobile storytelling
as a new art form.
It’s tempting to define Snap Originals by
comparing them with more familiar for-
mats, but they’re not TV and they’re not
movies chopped up into little pieces. They’re
not YouTube videos, either, or half-baked
snippets of other content spliced for Face-
book. None of those mediums or platforms
have radically rethought how mobile stories
could work in the way Snapchat has. You-
Tube videos, for instance, can be of any
length, and they’re made for a standard
horizontalframe;Snapshowsare designed
fora verticalone,andthey play withoutask-
ingviewerstofliptheirphonessideways.
Thismay seemminor, butinpracticeit has
beenanenormousshift,requiringthecom-
pany tocompletelyreconsiderthedirecting
andeditingprocess.Sincefilmwasinvented,
verticalframinghasbeenseenasincongru-
ouswithcinematicstorytelling.ForSnap-
chat, it meansnew camera rigs,scenetransi-
tions,carefullycalibratedblocking,anda
visualaestheticdesignedexpresslytofit its
digitalplatform.It’sa levelofchallenge that
couldmaketheplatform’screativepartners
throwuptheirhandsinfrustration.Butit’s
alsoexactlythetypeofconstraintthat can
leadtoremarkableinnovation.
Itisn’t theonlymajorobstacle,either.
SnapOriginalsmustbehypercondensed,
eachepisodeediteddowntoa fewminutes
ofultraleannarrativemachinery. If a movie
is a mansion,a SnapOriginalis a Pinterest-
worthy tiny house.IfTVisa semi-truck,
capaciousandcapableoftravelinglongdis-tances, a Snap Original is a moped, fun and
fast, carrying little but zipping through traf-
fic. Mills spoke about his mission as if it’s
both world changing and painfully obvious.
Of course, mobile content deserves to be
considered with care and attention. Of
course, something made for a phone should
be designed to play on a phone. “This oppor-
tunity doesn’t come around often for a
medium to tell stories in a new way,” Mills
said. “As much as that stuff can be a conve-
nient talking point, for us, it’s religion.”there are hallmarks to a Snapchat
show. Episodes run five minutes on average
and ideally no longer than eight. While your
typical half-hour sitcom needs to grab a
viewer’s attention in the first three minutes,
on Snapchat, the goal is closer to three sec-
onds. A show might tell a story with several
characters—in the case of Endless, McKeen
and Jordan are joined by a small constella-
tion of friends and love interests—but a
single scene rarely shows more than two or
three. Vertical frames don’t have room for
two faces unless the subjects are sitting un-
naturally close to each other. To get around
this, they rely heavily on split screens.
Shows are structured so that one scene
tumbles into the next without a break, but
they are not defined by speed. Characters
don’t speak unusually fast, and plots don’t
move at a breakneck pace. They are distin-
guished by a feeling of density that has more
to do with what’s missing: Every bit of still-
ness has been excised to optimize how much
gets packed into each episode. In some ways,
this is the same as any TV series or movie—
all storytelling involves cutting out parts that
don’t pull their weight. But in a three-hour
extravaganzaofTheBachelor,ortheC-plot
ofanysitcom,there’sspaceforfillerEndless
couldneverafford.Sillyfaces,talking-head-
styleinterviewsin whichthesubject trailsoff
inthemiddleofanidea—youdon’t realize
howfundamentalthatstuffis totheexperi-
enceof watchingTVuntilit’s suddenlygone.
Thesefeaturesare ineverySnapOriginal
acrossgenres.There’sthezombiedrama
Deadof NightandCoEd,a showabouthigh-
schoolfriendsgoingtodifferentcolleges.
DeadGirlsDetectiveAgencyis a YA adapta-
tionabout,yes,fourdeadgirlswhoteamup
to solvea murder. Alltheseshowsmovewith
thesameheightenedef ficiency.
Operatingcreativelyfroma placeofscar-
city alsodemandsa particularaesthetic.The
“Snapproductis a lotaboutstimulatingthe
visual,”saidJuliePizzi,thepresidentofen-
tertainmentanddevelopmentforBunim/
MurrayProductions,thecompany behind
Endlessandothergenre-definingreality
showslikeKeepingUp WiththeKardashi-
ansandTheRealWorld.Shecomparedit toWhat ComesAfter TV?Snapchat is making hypercondensed
shows specifically to watch on
a smartphone. It’s harder than you’d think.
By Kathryn VanArendonkPHOTOGRAPH BY: JENS KALAENE/PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES (PHONE)Photograph by Cara Robbins