PSYCHOSOMATIC is a comedy about Maia, an architecture student who suffers from a strange disorder that makes her thoughts and feelings burst into reality in fantastic ways.
The main message Guido Ferro and Bernardo Schnitzler, the directors and writers of PSYCHOSOMATIC, tried to send to the world, “besides the value of friendship, is the need to follow one’s heart and to fight for the things you want in life.”
What inspired your web series?
The idea first appeared during the shooting of a short film. We were playing with the camera during a break, doing some tests with the stop trick (or Méliès effect as we know it) and we had so much fun that we decided that we had to use this incredibly simple effect to tell a story.
Why did you choose web series as your format?
Back in 2014 we watched many web series from Argentina and around the world. We found this format as a great way to create content that you could easily show to the world without the need of having a huge budget: a sort of democratisation of cinema. When we started writing the script we already had presented the project to UN3TV, so everything conspired so that we could choose the web series format.
What made you make the decision to add animation to your series?
One of the authors and script writers is also an illustrator (Vero Gatti), so from the start we considered the idea of using her work for narrative purposes. Also, when we were developing Maia’s personality we thought it would be a good idea to use illustration to show feelings and situations she couldn’t naturally express.
What are the challenges you came across when making your series and how did you overcome them?
The main challenge was to gather all the locations and things we needed to produce the series. Our family and friends were a big support at the time. Also, figuring out how to make every stop trick was quite a challenge, from the big piñata on the first episode to bunnies, a goldfish and a golden retriever.
How did you fund your series?
The series was co-produced and financed by UN3TV, the channel and online platform of Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, a national and public university from Argentina.
What is your background as a web series creator?
This was our first time creating a web series. We have always produced smaller formats, such as short films and other non-fiction content. We are now eager to go for our second piece of work.
What do you want your audience to take away from this series?
First, to have a good time while watching it, enjoying every single detail we managed to put into it with all our obsessiveness. And second, the main message we tried to send to the world, besides the value of friendship, is the need to follow one’s heart and to fight for the things you want in life.
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