My Idea

As I mentioned in my last blog post, my idea is to do a web series that combines traveling, urban exploring and history. The main topic of the series will be “Lost Places”. In this production, I want to thematize different cities all over the world and show one or two different Lost Places per episode. These should preferably have an interesting story that represents the history of the city they are in. Ideally, the show will not only show these places but explain the viewer its origin, development and potential reuse over time, making the whole cities history interesting to follow.

My Motivation to do this project comes from a personal matter. As a passionate hobby photographer, I enjoy exploring interesting places, that make a good image. With me being not the only one who likes to do this, it became a trend of many photography-enthusiasts. Not always legally, people make their way into abandoned factory buildings, creepy haunted houses or hidden tunnel systems, capturing everything with their cameras. But what really excites me is not only the terrifying look of these locations but what they were built and used for. But finding all out all of the information and backstories does not come without an intense research.

Research

My major questions for starting this research deal with the term Lost Places itself and what the web series is going to look like:

• What are Lost Places/Urban Exploring in general and which ones are interesting and historically valuable enough to be featured in the show?
• What do other web series do to amaze the audience and stand out in the market? And what style and structure should the episodes have to archive this?
• How can I combine city history with the topic of Lost Places?

The problems with answering these questions are mainly the lack of secondary sources. With urban exploring being more of an underground culture, I will have to do a lot of primary research like:

• Look into Lost-Places-Forums on the internet
• Interview photographers, who are experienced with urban exploring and Lost Places
• Interview people, who are familiar with the locations featured in the show
• Look for similarities in popular web series that can be helpful for creating mine
• Make an internet and literature research about cities that could be entertaining in terms of history and variety of Lost Places (secondary)
• Go through books explaining the history of the featured cities (secondary)

Business Context

The platform to deliver my content will definitely be the internet. With all its variety of subcultures and younger audiences, YouTube or Netflix will be the right choice for me to gain maximum attention. Additionally, the series could be promoted via different social media, giving sneak peeks of new episodes or regularly posting travel- and exploration tips.

My target audience will be:

• People interested in culture or traveling/History of different places
• People who like to explore unusual places
• Photographers who are excited about finding new locations
• Due to the internet as broadcasting platform people from younger generations
• Citizens of the featured cities

References for my research

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_exploration
• http://lost-places.com/forum/
• HARRINGTON, R., 2017. Hypersyndication: Maximizing Your Web Video and Podcast Audience. Carpenteria, CA: lynda.com
• BURGESS, J.(.E., 2018. YouTube : online video and participatory culture. Second edition. ed. Cambridge: Polity
• LANCASTER, K., 2013. Video journalism for the web : a practical introduction to documentary storytelling. London: Routledge
• MAIER, R.G., 1994. Location scouting and management handbook : television, film, still photography. Boston, Massachusetts;: Focal Press