Food intolerant, Kate McCartney and her intolerable smug foodie co-host, Kate McLennan, return with a fresh picked season of their YouTube hit The Katering Show. In this new series, McCartney and McLennan take a Sassy Swipe™ at the over-hyped food trend of Ramen; they take the term “Yummy Mummy” way too literally; they sample a tablet that counteracts lactose intolerance in an episode dubiously, cleverly titled It Gets Feta; they subject themselves and a special guest to the latest weight loss torture regimes of Paleo, Raw Food and The 5:2 Diet; and they dedicate an episode to their culinary hero and spirit bosom, Maggie Beer, where they peddle their own noxious version of verjuice.
And of course, the entire flirty little series is peppered with references to The Kates’ crumbling personal situations; including, but not limited to, McCartney’s rat piss soaked rental property and McLennan’s endless bouts of ‘in-knicker’ infections.
If the first season made you hungry for more, punch open a goon sack with an Allen key, get comfy on the loo, and prepare to gorge on another serving of The Katering Show, which producer Tamasin Simpkin, spoke to Dominique McCusker about.
Was there a dish or cuisine you wanted to try but didn’t end up doing?
It Gets Feta evolved from one of the very first scripts ever written for the series back before we’d made series 1 – and those early drafts included baked camembert, fondue and cheesecake. As an extremely pro cheese person I consider any meals made predominantly of cheese the height of culinary achievement, so they would have been fun. But I also have to say the fact that no real cheese ended up getting used in the meal for that episode worked in our favour as myself and the rest of the crew got to eat the delicious cheese used as set dressing for afternoon tea.
If you could only eat one dish for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Well speaking of cheese, it is my favourite genre of food so I’d probably say a great cheese platter (which isn’t really a dish per se, but I come from the McCartney camp of not cooking so I consider toast a dish).
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome making this series?
One of the biggest challenges, in a positive way as it was also one of the most fulfilling and valuable learning experiences of this series, was working with parenthood as part of the puzzle that is production. Both Kates became mothers last year, and our industry is not one that is traditionally structured in a way that is conducive to a family/ work balance, let alone a baby/work balance, so this project was an amazing opportunity to work together to create an environment which was supportive of the Kates as both key creatives and new parents.
What do you want audiences to take away from your series?
I want them to find it heaps of fun to watch, but also for it to inspire them to poke fun at our often-ridiculous culture around food, health and lifestyle. We are sold a lot of ideas by the media about how to live right, and I love that this show gets to subvert and play with those ideas and encourage our viewers to do the same.
How do you reach your audience?
For this season we launched on ABC’s iview first, then on the US platform Fullscreen, and we will also be releasing on our YouTube channel. Season one was far more straightforward with only a YouTube release, but expanding to other platforms both allowed us to work with a bigger budget (we were able to pay ourselves a wage for this series which was lovely) and to reach new audiences.
How do you finance your series?
This series was commissioned by the ABC as an iview original, we received funding from Film Victoria, and we also again received support from Screen Australia (who back at the start took a chance on us by financing series 1).
In what ways do you utilise social media to further your brand?
We have Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts which allow us to engage directly with our fans, which is the awesome thing about projects that exist online, it really pushes the engagement in those spaces which act as digital extension of the show. Social media is definitely a big part of creating an online series, and it is a big job, so we have Zoe Harrold from Silverlane as our social media manager again for this series, as well as working closely with our distribution platform’s social media teams.
Do you have any tips for creating a successful web series?
I think it’s important to first understand what you want to get out of creating your series e.g is it about getting millions of views, or using it as a proof of concept for a longer form project, or using the medium to develop your skills, or whatever it may be. Not all projects will go ‘viral’, but that isn’t the only indicator of success in this space! And be aware that distribution is a huge part of making an online project, do your research into what platforms are out there, and spend time working out who your audience is and where and how to reach them.
What is your favourite thing about making web series?
The ability to reach a global audience and get feedback directly from fans.
How many people worked on this project?
Around 50 people.
Have you achieved the goals you set for this series?
We broke the record for most plays for an iview original series, so we are very happy with that! And we have gotten so many lovely messages from fans and positive feedback in the press about the show, which is fantastic as being a second series you get nervous you won’t live up to everyone’s expectations.
What’s your background as a content creator? And how did you approach this project differently to previous projects?
I have been working in the film and television industry for around 8 years in a range of departments, and started making web series content around 3 years ago when the Kates and I made the web series version of Bleak. This time around we started the process with a much stronger idea of what the show is, having been through the first series and had the chance to see what did and didn’t work, which was great. And the other big difference this time around was the involvement of the ABC, as previously we had been producing projects independently. Working with a commissioning network was a new experience from which we learnt a lot.
From start to finish, how long did it take to complete this project?
All up we worked on the project across a period of about 10 months from outlines through to release, although with the online presence that exists around the show and the releases across different platforms we continue to work on that side of things even now.
The Katering Show on the web:
Watch The Katering Show
The Katering Show Website
The Katering Show on Facebook
The Katering Show on Twitter
The Katering Show on Instagram