Interactive Web Show Dirty Work Is Engineered for Short Attention Spans | Underwire

By Angela Watercutter May 8, 2012

"The masterminds behind new web comedy Dirty Work know that viewers’ increasingly short attention spans lead them to check their phones, monitor their e-mail and cruise Facebook while watching shows — in fact, they’re counting on it.

“The last few years, whenever we consume any media on our televisions, on our computers, wherever it is, they’re always kind of competing,” Elan Lee, chief creative officer of Fourth Wall Studios, which created Dirty Work, told Wired. “A lot of the concept behind [this] came from the central concept of, ‘Hey, what if we could get all of those devices and all of those platforms to come together to tell one story and cooperate with each other instead of competing for your attention?’”

In some ways, Dirty Work, which quietly premiered online last week and will continue soon with two more episodes, is a lot like many TV shows. It revolves around funny twenty-somethings finding their way in the world, only in this case they clean up bloody crime scenes in the middle of the night.

But it’s not a standard sitcom: Viewers watch Dirty Work on Fourth Wall’s proprietary Rides.tv website and, if they opt in, receive text messages, phone calls, e-mails and additional videos while they’re tuned in. It’s essentially a program trying to find an audience of young people by telling a story about young people using tools they’re already playing with...."

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http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/05/interactive-dirty-work-fourth-wall/