Ahead of the inaugural Melbourne Web Series Festival on 20 July, we’re profiling all 30 series that made the Official Selection list. Next up is Chris & Josh, by Matthew Smolen.
Filmed within Melbourne, is the comical series that deals with “girlfriends, new jobs, backpackers, homeless men, public toilets, flirtatiously menopausal mothers and more.”
Chris & Josh is a series about two best friends who share a house and everything else with one another, except for a point of view that is. One being slightly more level headed than the other, the strong bond between the two is the basis for the series as new encounters are dealt with in each episode.
What sets this series apart from others is Smolen’s choice of creating reoccurring characters with standalone episodes. ” We made sure that you could jump into any episode without any prior knowledge and enjoy it.”
If you are in need of a quick fix of humor without the commitment of progressive episodes, then perhaps this series is worth checking out.
What inspired your series?
Chris & Josh was inspired by the opportunity to create a ‘no-risk/high reward’ type scenario. Matt (the creator) really wanted to develop skills in Directing and Editing improve, whilst the actors wanted to have a lot of control in shaping the characters. We really picked topics and stories that appealed to us, played with it until we were happy and released it. It gave us free reign, and the ability to fail – but learn from any failures in a fun and entertaining way. It just happens to be a bonus people like that characters and gags as much as we do!
What do you want people to take away from your series?
A good sense of fun and a few laughs! We’re trying to entertain. We want to be able to make you giggle, chortle, snort, belly laugh or ROFL as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. On top of that, we’d love people to see how much fun we had making it. We think it’s pretty hard to watch and not pick up on the positive vibes from the making of it. It translates through the episodes, and hopefully onto the audience too.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in production?
We initially set ourselves the daunting task of making it a weekly, recurring show, that would have 16 episodes. We started releasing them once we had 4 episodes in the can, and from then on we were constantly trying to keep up with a pretty insane schedule. We all work/study/have other things on in life, so trying to make sure Chris & Josh hit audiences the same time, each and every week was tough. But also so rewarding.
How do you reach your audience?
We’re on youtube – which is where all the content we’ve made lives. Episodes, bloopers and more. We’ve also got a Facebook page that we really try and interact with. It’s great to get feedback and talk to people about what we were doing. We even brought back a cameo character because the response was so positive! Plus we’ve got twitter, email and a website too. And business cards; on nice cardboard.
Why make a web series?
It’s such a great platform for any creative type. You have access to the entire world audience and you’re only limited by what you think is achievable. I think that’s true of webseries too. If you make something you genuinely believe in, and are interested in – it will find a way to reach it’s audience.
Chris and Josh on the web:
www.twitter.com/chrisjoshseries
#ChrisAndJosh
Matt Smolen (Creator twitter) – @mattsmolen
Shane Savage (Actor “Chris”) – @savage_shane
Keep up to date with Melbourne WebFest on Twitter: @MelbWebFest.