Jane Espenson (Firely, Buffy, all around awesome) co-created the show with a great team - including lead Brad Bell (Cheeks) and director Jeff Greenstein - and they shot it all in one big batch.
Thanks so much for taking the time to discuss Husbands with me. It's a fun show, and it's always fantastic to see other series coming out in the web world. It's been fantastic to watch so far!
JE: Thank you! I'm glad you're liking it. I'm really proud of how it came out. Jeff Greenstein directed it, and we had an amazing crew, and it really came out looking great. Our cast: Cheeks, Sean Hemeon and Alessandra Torresani blew me away with their performances. And I love the amount of comedy we were able to get into these little bite-sized episodes.
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In creating Husbands what was the original inspiration?
JE: This grew out of an idea that Cheeks (writer Brad Bell) had about two LA-based characters to be played by himself and Alessandra Torresani, trying to outgrow their own boozy Hollywood fun. When we started talking about the concept together, we realized that there would be more to say if we built the show around a young gay married couple. Alessandra remained as Haley the best friend, but the character of Brady (played by Sean Hemeon) was added.
What issues have you faced in getting the show out to an audience - with both Jane Espenson and Cheeks having established fan bases already, has it been difficult in any ways to access media sources?
JE: We've had some really high-level exposure, but I think that web series are still seen as a sort of second-tier of entertainment, which is a shame. I don't care about the media exposure as an end in itself, but I hope that everyone who would love this series gets to hear about it. We're getting lots of views, but of course we always want more. I'd love to be able to get the kinds of numbers that make it really clear to the powers that be that there is an audience eager for this content.
What's been the best part of the process for you and your team?
JE: I loved writing the scripts with Cheeks, and shooting was cool. Jeff Greenstein is a great director – calm and hilarious at the same time. I loved how open and creative the shoot was. And now watching the reaction is so gratifying. I think the only hard part of the process was the week before we put the first episode up on line. We were all overworked and worried and stressed.
Conversely, what was the most difficult part of working on a web series as opposed to working in TV?
JE: On TV, there is (metaphorical) moving machinery that pulls each episode along; each stage of the process triggers the next stage. Our amazing line producer M. Elizabeth Hughes kept things moving, but even on a blissfully smooth web series process, there just isn't that big machine, and each step takes a little more thought and initiative.
Having talent who work traditionally in TV and film is obviously a great way to establish and move forward - have you had any resistance in working in digital series from those quarters?
JE: Not at all. We got Nathan Fillion for a cameo appearance and he was delighted to be involved. And Jeff and I both come from very traditional TV backgrounds. I think everyone who came from TV to this web project really enjoyed the speed and maneuverability of the smaller scale project. That sense that we could be purely creative without having to second guess people above us – that was great.
In developing the season arc, what was the best part of the process?
JE: It's really more of a pilot than a season. The eleven two-minute "episodes" go together to tell one pilot story, but with developments that hint at the sort of stories we would tell in a longer season. The best part of developing the arc was discovering the richness and variety of the stories we could tell with these characters in this situation. Almost anything the actors talked about between shooting would spur discussions about how this could become an episode.
The show itself has a really unique structure - in that they are such short pieces and they all lead, in some ways, to great outs. Was it written in an episodic format or more, say, like a film?
JE: It was a combination. They were written (at least in the early drafts) mostly in sequence, with attention to how the story lay out overall, but they were also written with that purposeful episode break every two pages.
What's been the best way to move through the process with all the episodes?
JE: We'll let you know when we find the "best way" – we've sort of been blundering through a way that works for us. With the three of us all sharing executive producer credit, we find ourselves having to reach a consensus that doesn't always come easily. But so far there haven't been any stand offs.
Was the release schedule - every Tuesday and Thursday - decided in advance? Has it been difficult to keep up with?
JE: We did set that in advance, and we haven't had trouble making those dates. Again, I'll credit the crew including our director of photography Ben Kantor and editor Nate Atcheson with keeping us on time.
You've been lucky to have your entire cast, and writer and director directly engaged on twitter - and all talking about the show - how has this shaped your experience?
JE: Well, that's been a great help with PR, of course – we're all working hard to make sure people are aware of the show and that they know to go to http://husbandstheseries.com to see the episodes. But Twitter has also been great for keeping us all looped in with each other – we know when the others are busy or distracted or excited about the next step in the process.
Husbands seems, in some ways, a launching point for the WeYuMe site - has that given you any opportunity to build bridges across both fan bases?
Cheeks: Husbands is somewhat of a flagship presentation from my site, WeYuMe, which is an online entertainment portal. I'm in the process of building and branding it as an independent source for original web content that is both forward thinking and lifestyle focused.
The blog that has been the primary feature of the beta version caters to creatives, geeks, fashionista, foodies, and entertainment lovers. In that sense, I think it does capture a demographic wide enough to build bridges while maintaining a unique flavor of specificity
Using Cheeks as a base for the character is not only fantastic to watch - how much of that related to him and how much really pushed out beyond that?
Cheeks: I think outlining the distinctions would take the fun out of it. If I were being like, all ferrealzies, I'd say to attempt explanation would limit the freedom from judgement that exists in all of my art. Guess you'll just have to watch and see for yourself or whatevs.
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This will be part of an ebook being released in 2012 on making web series and working in transmedia spaces.
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