Withered World is a highly cinematic anthology series with a simple theme: depicting the last day on earth. Each episode is told from a completely different perspective, not just different characters but different filmmakers as well, all bringing their own characters and scenarios to the table. The series is created by Bryce Young, who brought together a group of independent creators from the Kansas City filmmaking community for the purpose of collaboration. The result is a highly diverse take on a dark subject.

After watching the first few episodes I noticed something interesting. The pacing of each episode is so quick, seemingly every moment is filled with the hefty weight of a story’s climatic moments. Since every episode is a standalone short film with a new set of characters, with a beginning, middle and end, the viewer is constantly in the midst of one of the most impactful moments of a story. Each scene is typically setting the story up or showing the audience what happens.

The downside to shorts has always been the inability to do a lot with character. When you have three minutes to tell a story it can be tough to really get inside a characters head or show a character grow and change. ‘Withered World’ had a lot of creative ways of addressing this issue, to the point that it doesn’t appear to have ever been an issue for this group.

Maybe it is too tough to show a character grow and change, in a short, so why not simply focus on presenting an interesting character? That seemed to be the goal of just about every episode I watched.

So how do you get inside of a characters head? The easiest way is narration. Typically narration is derided as sloppy storytelling, but in a super compact format such as this narration is one of the most efficient ways of telling an audience the most important things they need to know about a character. The first episode, ‘The Field’ is simply the reading of a letter, with appropriate visuals placed over. The letter was able to condense of lifetime down into three minutes.

Another, even more effective, method was the use of music and the montage. The dance sequence in ‘Vows’ was one of those perfect moments that lasts like thirty seconds but tells you even more about characters and situations than ten minutes of exposition ever could. We should never forget the power of the right song, played over the right acting performance at the right time. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be on the page, to end up on the stage. ‘The Field’ also was able to tie the power of the situation into some seriously striking moments of excellent musical score.

While we’re at it, let’s not forget the importance of production design and its ability to lift the believability of your film to the next level. The episode ‘The Icarus 1’ is really just a calling card for talented filmmakers. I’m still stuck on the depth that just the first few shots alone could bring to the episode. The combination of sidewalk chalk, advanced mathematics, and decrepit building materials tell you just about all you need to know about the short. The kid we are about to be introduced to is building a spaceship to get off this failing planet while he still can. Trust me when I say you’ll be impressed whenever the kids work is finally revealed. You might also faun over the classic cars that sell that 1950’s/1960’s period look of an earlier episode.

After looking back over the show, and my thoughts on it, I feel like there is a major point to be made here about the storytelling power of incorporating all aspects of traditional filmmaking into a story. A lot of web series and digital storytellers have struggled with telling a story and keeping people’s attention in such a condensed, hyper distracting environment. But maybe the silver bullet isn’t something to be found, but rather something that already exists. Music, editing, lighting, composition, sound design, symbolism, foreshadowing, acting, camerawork, aesthetics – the tools of the trade, they are film’s version of the unspoken words that make up 70% of all communication. I cannot say that ‘Withered World’ hit all of the beats correctly (or maybe I’m just getting tired of sappy piano music), but it reminded me of what happens when someone does.

You can find ‘Withered World’ at their very well designed online home http://witheredworld.tv, where they will be releasing new shorts every Monday through October 14th. There is also a series-within-the-series called ‘If Night Comes.’ I didn’t get the chance to watch it for the purpose of #WebSeriesWednesday, but I’ll definitely be checking it out.