New online drama

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Right now, an ever-­increasing group of people are writing on each other’s walls, posting videos and checking out ­profile pages. Nothing new in that – except most of them don’t even exist.

And you thought your Facebook friends were tenuous. KateModern is a new online supernatural drama that’s airing on social networking site Bebo.

Set in London and boasting a cast which includes The Royle Family’s Ralf Little, it aims to combine the inter­activity of social networking – where fans can do everything from commenting on particular episodes to interacting with characters – with scripted “webisodes”.

It was conceived by Miles Beckett, Greg Goodfried and Mesh Flinders, the team ­behind 2006’s internet ­phenomena Lonelygirl15. That show, also a scripted webisode drama, caused a web-wide hunt for the team ­behind it after hints it was fake.

“It was a War of the Worlds type thing,” explains Beckett of Lonelygirl15. “There’s a blurring of reality, just as radio was new then, internet video is new now. Now, with social networking, we’re taking that a step further.”

At its height, Lonelygirl15 was followed by both The New York Times and LA Times. To date – after a year of webisodes – it boasts an overall audience of 30 million.

It’s an internet success story Beckett aims to replicate with English spin-off KateModern – which is best described as a kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Skins.

“It was a question of how we use the platform,” he says. “We have quizzes on the ­characters, blogs as part of narrative, whiteboard drawings that become important later in the story – everything we do feeds back into the ­narrative. It’s totally inter­active –that’s what people ­expect now.”

The first few webisodes, shot in video diary format, introduce us to Kate and her friends. They mix trivial ­banter with subtle plot points (“Kate got her blood results back today,” says flatmate ­Charlie as she makes sandwiches, “there’s something abnormal”) that moves the narrative on.

Intriguingly for drama, it will be funded almost solely by product placement – ­everything from Microsoft maps to Orange mobile phones will be on display – ­reflecting the more relaxed (for which read: virtually non-existent) regulations of the internet.

“We’ve even got Tampax,” laughs Joanna Shields, international president at Bebo. “Although I don’t know how we’re going to use that one!”

Coming so soon after ­acclaimed documentary-maker Roger Graef started making ITV.com’s first online ­docudrama Web Lives, along with the increasing popularity of web comedy in everything from YouTube to ­Channel101, does this reflect a shift in how we view entertainment?

“Certainly,” says Shields. “The internet is shifting – it’s about much more now. It’s entertainment, it’s lifestyle.”

www.bebo.com/katemodern