One apartment, two friends, and an exponential number of fandoms to argue about.
i can’t even. is a sketch comedy web series about two self-proclaimed pop culture nerds, Em and Lex. With opinions on The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Doctor Who and pretty much everything from Joss Whedon, Em and Lex have it covered.
Created in Melbourne, this webseries began in 2015 inspired by social media pop culture and Tumblr GIFs by twin sisters, Hayley and Alyce Adams.
There are so many cult series and fandoms out there and your episodes really only revolve around one each, how did you choose which fandoms to highlight?
It wasn’t easy narrowing it down to seven. A main factor was the size of the fan base, but at the start, it was really making a giant list of every fandom or cult series that we enjoyed, and then coming up with a good enough idea that uses that fandom. For Harry Potter fans, getting a letter from Hogwarts is a very relatable desire. Everyone has spent at least a few minutes (or years) imagining what they would do if they ever got into Hogwarts. For Star Wars, there’s nothing bigger than the pure hatred of fans for the prequels. It’s all about finding the best way to access the heart or main conflict of the fandoms. For instance, I’ve wanted to do a Walking Dead episode for ages, but I just haven’t thought of anything that works. Yet. Still struggling to find a reason to justify Em or Lex eating brains. I’ll figure out a way though.
What’s it like working with your sister? Has working together affected your relationship in anyway?
Do you mean how often do we fight? We probably argued more during the process of making the series, but the good thing about working with your sister is that when you have an issue with the other person, you can just come out and say it and it gets resolved fairly quickly. We won’t dance around each other’s feelings; we can be very honest with each other without worrying how it will affect our relationship. You can (unfortunately) never stop being sisters. Being twins, we’ve basically been working together since birth, so our process is by now a well-oiled, fine tuned machine.
What (and/or who) inspired your series?
We knew for a while that we wanted to make our own web series, but it wasn’t until we went to the OVAs (Open Channel’s video awards) and saw Chris & Josh, another great Melbourne based web series, that we realised it was something that we could achieve. Their videos were short, normally in one location, and used two actors. Seeing their successful format made us want to try it ourselves.
From there, it was choosing our subject matter, which wasn’t hard. Any excuse to be on Tumblr as a way to ‘research’ the show is a pretty solid subject.
How do you finance your series?
If only our lives were like an 18th century novel and a distant relative could pass away and leave us with their family fortune. Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, our series is self funded by us and many donated free hours from our talented cast and crew.
Please tell us a quirky and/or interesting fact about yourself or team that’s unrelated to your web series?
Once we went on a picnic to an island as a family and ‘accidentally’ left Hayley behind when she was about 5 years old. We didn’t realise until we were on the ferry and then had to convince the Captain to turn it around and go back with all the other passengers and pick her up. She definitely doesn’t have abandonment issues and our parents don’t feel guilty every time we bring up this story.
Is there a magic formula for a successful web series?
Yes. I know it, and I’m willing to tell it to you for a very affordable price.
I think the best chance of creating a successful web series is when the idea is native to the medium, and not necessarily a squashed down version of TV. People are choosing to watch web series over TV for a reason. If they wanted TV styled content, they would just watch it on TV.
What’s special or different about your series?
We guarantee that we have 100% more Edward Cullen cardboard cut out appearances than any other web series at Melb Webfest, and while that may not make it more appealing to potential viewers, it definitely qualifies as special and different.
Is your series an ongoing project? If so can you give us some clues about what comes next?
We do have plans to do more episodes and are currently in the very early stages of pre production for a second season, which is very exciting and not at all daunting. It will be bigger and better, with more jokes, more props, more cast and more locations! I can make all these promises because I am the writer and don’t have to worry about how we’re going to shoot a potential episode in a bar with 20+ extras. Not my problem, that’s the producer’s job!
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