“We rented an apartment that was an Airbnb to shoot in and we found a lot of people say no to you filming in an Airbnb because they think it’s porn,” said web series creator Molly Daniels, about creating her series Double Date Night.
It was a night of laughs and great storytelling at last week’s Web Series IRL event. Hosted, as always, by Hayley and Alyce Adams, creators of I Can’t Even, and held at Melbourne’s Loop Bar, the audience were treated to variety of series; Double Date night, created by Molly Daniels; Haunted or Hoax, created by Natalie Forward and The Fix, created by Ramon Watkins and Kate Darrigan (yet to be released).
All three series are very different in genre and style but share one major production element, they are all predominantly set in one location, a house.
“Limitations make you more creative in terms of storytelling, I think,” said The Fix creator, Ramon Watkins.
Treating the IRL audience to an exclusive screening, Ramon and co-creator Kate Darrigan have approached the production of The Fix a little differently to most web series. The pair produced a pilot episode rather than an entire season, which they will use to try and get funding to continue production.
The black comedy centres around the rehabilitation of a woman who has just suffered a huge accident. Set entirely in the woman’s house, the pilot teases her addiction to pain medication. The only obstacle standing in the way of her and her ‘fix’ is a chipper home care nurse.
“Budget was a big thing and always is with web series, so we got the idea of woman who couldn’t leave her house,” said Ramon.
“If you a number of episodes in one location and then leave that location it makes it more special,” he added.
Haunted or Hoax is a perfect example of this, the series follows three girls held up in an old mansion said to be haunted.
Lead character, Casey is determined to find out for herself if the place is really haunted of if it’s all a hoax.
“The predominantly one location approach was not any less expensive but the story just lent itself to one location. It helps a lot for time saving purposes as well,” creator Natalie Forward said.
Although being based in Melbourne, Natalie shot her series in Toronto, Canada for its cold and snowy climate, sometimes filming outside in -13 degrees.
“Everything for this web series fell into place in a weird way. It happens sometimes when filming and that I think is when you know you’re into a good thing,” Natalie said.
Natalie worked with a union to find local actors for her series. While she had a positive experience working with them, she says there is still a lot to be learned.
“It’s confusing for them because they have no idea about digital content and don’t know where to put you,” she said
For creator Molly Daniels, who has a background in improv comedy, her cast was largely made up of improv actors that she had worked with previously.
Double Date Night centres around two best friends and housemates; shy and anxious Riley, and outgoing and confident Vic. Vic vows to help Riley overcome her social anxiety and meet someone, by setting her up on double dates. However, the pair are broke-as-hell and can only afford to host date night at their house.
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Molly was never concerned about filming in the one location; “It was more seeing what you can do with the characters rather than the space.
My thinking was you should be able to write good enough character that they are interesting in the same space,” she said.
When it came to a release strategy, Molly opted for a weekly release.
“I just thought I would exploit everyone in the episode and their friend networks by releasing it week by week. So we had different people giving it different attention everyone week.
One week my phone died when I was on the train and was meant to release it and I cried. No one cared that it was 15 minutes late but I did, and still do,” Molly joked.
Natalie agreed, saying a weekly release is the best way to build a new audience.
“Although by the end we had people notice if were 15 minutes late to post an episode,” Natalie laughed.
“If we do a next season we might consider releasing more at a time because we have an audience waiting,” she added.
Ramon and Kate say they have been back and forth about their release strategy and still haven’t settled on either.
“I keep coming to IRL and hearing mixed responses,” Ramon said.
“I just hope that if I write a story I like, someone like me will find it.”
The next Web Series IRL event will be held on Monday 17 October and will feature animated series.