Snapchat Scripted Series

On the heels of the presentation on Snapchat that Sarah and I gave to the class recently, I discovered the news that Snapchat is now hosting its first ever scripted series. The series, featuring Emily Goldwyn and Sasha Spielberg, two children of the film industry, has thus far consisted of several four-minute episodes that "air" on Saturdays. 

To further this story’s connection with social media, the New York Times reports that the two actresses were approached by Snapchat to create the series after Snapchat’s director of video content saw videos that Goldwyn and Spielberg had posted to Vine.

Though the episodes of the show, which is called Literally Can't Even, are longer than most Snapchats – and are scripted – they mirror general the Snapchat “technique” learned in class in that they are available for only twenty-four hours after they appear on the app. The series has launched as part of Snapchat's new Discover feature, and there is news that other series are planned to air on Snapchat soon.

(I haven’t yet caught an episode of the show, so I can’t yet answer the question that I am wondering most – whether or not you have to hold your finger on the screen for the duration of the episode, as with other Snapchat content.)

A second scripted show for Snapchat, SnapperHero, has been launched as well.

As Sarah and I demonstrated during our presentation, Snapchat provides ample opportunities for nonprofit organizations to connect with a younger demographic. Thus far, most nonprofits have been limited to using Snapchat in the 10-second video or 10-second photograph format. It is interesting to think about the ways that Snapchat can be used in a more narrative way, like the series mentioned above. Perhaps nonprofit organizations could think about creating their own weekly video series, whether fictional or nonfictional, to better inform their younger followers of their work.