The new generation of online drama looks, feels and hopefully behaves like the high-end blockbuster titles studios know and love. And making them happen is not a whole lot different, says showrunner Gardner Stern on the eve of The Art of More’s release.

Online/streaming platforms’ hunt for original content may be driving up production opportunities, but for writers and producers, the goal is the same: compelling stories. If anything, the environment in which the entire series is ordered and made available all at once is even better.

On the eve of the 19 November release of Crackle’s first hour-long original drama, The Art of More, showrunner Gardner Stern (Law & Order, NYPD Blue) says digital has little to do with his commitment to the show.

The Art of More stars Dennis Quaid in a story set in the world of high-class art auction houses. The show is part of Sony Pictures Television’s Mipcom slate for Asia.

“I would definitely do it again,” Stern says of his first foray into production for online release. “But it has less to do with the fact that it’s digital than the series and the subject matter, the cast and crew... that’s what motivates me more than anything else. If another digital project had those [elements], I would really want to do it,” he says.

Stern says there aren’t many differences in producing for digital platforms compared to traditional production.

“As a writer you are really most interested in telling compelling stories and that doesn’t change regardless of the platform... You are trying to tell the best stories you can and to make it something that people will want to watch,” he says.

Other elements of the series were not a whole lot different from traditional high-end drama, including budgets and big name stars. “I wish I could tell you doing a digital show is vastly different, but it really isn’t. It’s about coming up with the best, most entertaining product we can,” he says.

Releasing all the episodes simultaneously doesn’t really make a difference to writers and producers in that “you want to the viewer to have a desire, a hunger, to see the next episode whether in two minutes or two days or two weeks,” he says, pointing to the poster-titles for online production such as House of Cards and Transparent. “Clearly within the industry there is a consensus that these shows are far from being any less compelling” than shows for broadcast networks.

At the same time, he describes the entire-series order as “a very rewarding situation” in which creators can “concentrate on developing a good story arc that can stretch across the entire length of the season. In that sense, releasing everything at once is very gratifying for writers”.

Other than working with this particular cast, Stern says what he liked most about the series was the subject matter. “You learn something while you are being entertained. And that’s what we deliver in this series”.

This article first appeared in ContentAsia Issue 4, 2015, published in September 2015