Just For Laughs and the IAWTV Present Beyond the Box: Playing It Short
A Pitch Program for Web Series Creators
To be held at the 8th edition of COMEDYPRO from July 22 – 25, 2015
Submission deadline: May 8, 2015 at midnight (PT)
http://comedypro.hahaha.com/pitch-your-project/
Check out my review of Hunter’s web series Adult Wednesday Addams for the LAWeekly HERE and continue reading below to see my full interview with Hunter about creating the two seasons of the series. Hunter is full of great advice on how to launch a successful series.
The Austin Film Festival has always been an incredible place for TV and Screenwriters to attend panels, win competitions and hobnob with the movers and shakers of media. This year, the festival is opening up its competition to DIGITAL CREATORS for the first time.
You can submit a FULLY PRODUCED series OR a SCRIPT for a series. I’m sure AFF will continue its reputation for discovering new gems, rewarding the best in the biz and launching careers. This is a festival I would highly recommend submitting to.
Find out more on the AFF website HERE. If you’re looking for inspiration for a series, check out my picks for BEST web series of 2014 for the LAWeekly HERE.
LIFE COACH episode 1 from Full Belly Films on Vimeo.
Some people have life all figured out, hell some of them are so confident about their fabulous life choices, they charge other people money in exchange for guiding them only the right path.
In truth, we’re all just big bags of bones, flesh, insecurity and insanity. OK maybe that’s too harsh. We’ve all got our own issues and challenges, but maybe each of us has also figured a few things out for ourselves. The new web series LIFE COACH, created by Bayne Gibby (The Comeback, Enlightened) and Kal Bennett (The Mentalist, How to Get Away with Murder) and starring Gibby, Bennett and Emily Bicks (Castle, Step Up) explores how a troubled woman, a life coach and her teenage daughter end up helping each other get through life just a bit better.
Gibby and Bennett took the time to answer a few questions about how they tackled the world of indie filmmaking in order to produce this awkwardly funny, honest and charming series.
A note from the creators regarding their answers to my questions: “Bayne Gibby and Kal Bennett took their rambling answers and compiled them into cohesive paragraphs. But, if you’d like to, please imagine that we talk like this– in unison and never once saying “like” as a useless filler.)
How did you two meet and why do you think you make good creative partners?
The two of us met in Shari Shaw’s acting class about 6 years ago. We cracked each other up. In 2011, we made a very low-key short film together called I’M OPEN, where one friend gives the other relationship advice and it goes horribly awry. We shot it in 3 takes in front of Bayne’s apartment. Bayne’s mailman literally interrupted one take to hand her some mail. (He was a natural, but Bayne panicked and ruined the take. Kal was disappointed in her.) People really responded to the short and we realized the dynamic we had on screen was funny and interesting. We began brainstorming what else we could make together.
After roommates, dating is probably the second most saturated subject matter in digital video, but these two series manage to stand out from the horde. Read my full review of both series for the LA Weekly HERE or in the paper this week.
Click on the PHOTO for my interview with the creators of each featured series. Click the NAME of the series to watch it online.
Love this collaboration between THREE different web series. Joining forces is a great way to promote each other, share your fan bases and resources AND create something totally new. Check out what happens when the worlds of Friends in Therapy, Only In HelLA, and I’m Triggered.
David Catalano’s web series The Smalls Family, features a sit-com-esque suburban clan with one twist: their dialog is a word-for-word transcription of songs by platinum record-selling hip-hop artist, Notorious B.I.G.
“Some people wanna stick me like fly paper, neighbor!” fumes teen Katie Smalls to her parents over a pizza dinner in their upper-middle class home. A jealous friend just texted her at “5:46 in the evening” and now she’s steamin’, “Why they wanna stick me for my cream?” Check out Steph’s full review of The Smalls Family for the L.A. Weekly HERE and continue reading for her full interview with creator David Catalano.
