Kelsey, slowly getting back into the dating game, has to learn how to be smooth via text. She's not extremely good at it and this time even her friends seem to struggle to help her.
www.kelseytheseries.com
Kelsey Ep2. "Don't Hit Send"
Kelsey: The Webseries
Kelsey: Episode 1
Just before 9pm Tuesday night, we premiered the very first episode of our new web series 'Kelsey' titled "Palette Cleanser"!
As I said in my last post, our promo trailer was released on August 20th and got a ton of views from our already existing fans anticipating the show as well as new ones that came from being featured on OneMoreLesbian & AfterEllen. We got over 3,000 full plays and the hits slowed down after the first 2 weeks. But then, on September 7th, we were featured in the BuzzFeed article 8 Lesbian Web Series You Should Have on Your Radar! The article & trailer were exposed to over 60,000 people and in less than a week we got over 5,000 full plays! We've now made it past 9,000! And we're still getting a lot of hits daily! Being on BuzzFeed is not only a huge deal because of the exposure but also because there are at least 5 other lesbian-oriented web series that have been out much longer & have a decent following that could've been on that list, but we made the cut! That's so awesome!
That momentum carried over to our premiere on September 10th and we instantly started getting hits. The amount of positive feedback we got was overwhelming. Comments on facebook, private messages (from some who discovered the series only through BuzzFeed), to even comments on sites that featured the episode, like AfterEllen, the PNT Tv Network & Autostraddle! People have been quoting the episode & reaching out to tell us how much they loved it. The response has been amazing and is only getting better! Kelsey & I, and the rest of our team, are so excited to see the series resonating & connecting with so many different people and it's only been 1 episode! We actually got our first bit of negative feedback on AfterEllen last night, and that's cool too because we know that the show wont be everyone's taste. We also know that the amount of people who like it and get it and want more will outweigh the ones who don't. And, most importantly, we know that a little criticism isn't a bad thing because it gets people talking & debating, which generates more traffic to the page! So if you really wanna help us out in reaching more people, comment! Share what you liked, what you want more of, what surprised you, and maybe even what disappointed you. We wanna hear it all because we're just so excited to be able to share this series with you!
Now the numbers you want to hear & the ones we're REALLY excited about. In the 38 hours that the 1st episode has been live, we've gotten a total of 1,313 full plays!
And the hits keep going up with every hour! Kelsey & I have turned into crazy people who just hit refresh constantly. I kinda feel like I'm back in spring of 2012 when I was running my Kickstarter for 'Summit'. But really, the support is amazing. So thank you to everyone who's watching & sharing the show! To our first fans who were anticipating the show while we were shooting all summer, to the new ones who found out through word of mouth or our recent press coverage, we're so grateful and cannot wait to give you more of Kelsey & her friends!
Episode 2 will air in 2 weeks at 7:30pm on September 24th. We've decided to air the first 5 episodes bi-weekly and then the last 5 (of Season 1) weekly after that, in order to make sure we can have all the episodes as polished as we'd like. It'll always be Tuesday at 7:30pm. We're gonna try to keep the updates & inside info fresh & fun between episodes so that you don't forget how much you definitely want to come back for more! Speaking of which, here's an interview I did with 3 cast members, Daniel, Brennan & Lauren, with the weekly interview-based web series Cinema Couch. It was a kind of spur of the moment thing at an industry party. Also, we plan to go live with KelseyTheSeries.com before the 2nd episode; we'll be posting about that over the coming days on social media. But in the meantime, it will continue to redirect to our blip channel.
So be sure to tune in on the 24th & keep sharing the 1st episode! We've been reaching out to press recently and are crossing our fingers that we'll have more good news to share soon! Just please keep supporting us, the show wouldn't be anything without an audience to share it with!
Thanks again,
Christina
IndieWorks: September Series Recap
If you missed this past Wednesday's IndieWorks, it was a blast! This month we featured six webseries by six local NYC filmmakers and had the largest turnout for IndieWorks thus far, with over 100 guests throughout the night! Thanks to all who joined us for the fun!
The awards go to...
At the end of the evening, we announced our winning filmmakers for both Audience Choice Award & Silver Whiskers Award. The Audience Choice Award is voted upon by all those in attendance, and the Silver Whiskers is judged by the CongestedCat Team based on a system rating 8 categories of Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value. It goes on to screen at our end of the year Best of Fest event.
For the September 2013 lineup, our winning filmmakers were:
Audience Choice Award: "Concrete Jungle" Animated/Directed by Steven Cartoccio.
Silver Whiskers Award: "Anthology" Directed by Ashley Denise.
Both filmmakers will be featured in our upcoming "IndieWorks: Insider Series", a video series we are featuring on our blog, in which we get to know each filmmaker and learn about their creative processes, insight on the industry, upcoming projects, and more! It's another way for us to further our commitment to getting local New York City filmmakers connected to their local community.
Next Month - 2 nights of films!
Next month at IndieWorks, we're hosting two nights of short films. The first will be October 2nd for another batch of local shorts, and the second night will be October 30th, specifically featuring films themed for Horror and the like in the spirit of Halloween!
'Kelsey, the webseries' Premiered!
At the end of the event, we premiered our upcoming webseries "Kelsey". It wasn't quite the finished product, since we're polishing the sound mix, but we were really happy to share what we've been working on this Summer with our friends (you all)! You'll notice some cast/crew members in the photos above being very much like their character counter-parts.
For the first episode of that love child of ours premiering online this upcoming week, check out www.kelseytheseries.com on Tuesday to be redirected t the blip channel!
-Chris
Kelsey, the webseries
It's taken a while for us to update about "Kelsey" but I figure today is a good day because we have a lot of exciting news! We wrapped production on the 1st season on July 29th! We shot all 10 episodes in 15 shooting days; the average episode length is 7 minutes. We released our promo trailer for the series 2 weeks ago on our Vimeo channel and it has gotten 2,383 full plays as of this evening!
The trailer has also been uploaded to our Facebook page and has received 51 Likes and who knows how many plays! Our trailer was featured this week on both OneMoreLesbian.com & AfterEllen.com, and got really awesome comments like "Kelsey looks pretty funny and awkward. Right up my alley!" & "I'm game for some Kelsey. Bring it on." Unfortunately, the majority of comments were about how much lead actress Nichole Yannetty looks like Maya Rudolph. But hey, at least they're all engaging with the trailer! I'm sure those kinds of comments will increase as our numbers increase. But hopefully, with each episode, that'll become less of a focal point and the comments will be more about how hilarious and talented Nichole is, and how enjoyable the show is as a whole!
We put the trailer on Youtube yesterday and the numbers & likes are still modest, but sure to rise this week. There are more exciting press features and news to announce this week as well!
We have picture lock on the first 3 episodes & we finally nailed down our theme song. We're sure to make more progress in the next couple weeks and simply cannot wait to premiere the 1st episode on September 10th! So be sure to tune in on KelseyTheSeries.com (site still in construction). And Like the series on Facebook & Follow on Twitter for updates everday on our post-producton progress and inside info when episodes air!
-Christina
IndieWorks: August Series Recap'd!
Even with the rain, we had a great turnout for last week's August IndieWorks series event. We're pleased to have had a great lineup of films, filmmakers, and make new friends from our audience.
The awards go to...
At the end of the evening, we announced our winning filmmakers for both Audience Choice Award & Silver Whiskers Award. The Audience Choice Award is voted upon by all those in attendance, and the Silver Whiskers is judged by the CongestedCat Team based on a system rating 8 categories of Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value. It goes on to screen at our end of the year Best of Fest event.
For the August 2013 lineup, our winning filmmakers were:
Audience Choice Award: "Allo" Directed by Demetrius Wren.
Silver Whiskers Award: "Prom Night" Directed by Celia Rowlson-Hall.
Both filmmakers will be featured in our upcoming "IndieWorks: Insider Series", a video series we are featuring on our blog, in which we get to know each filmmaker and learn about their creative processes, insight on the industry, upcoming projects, and more! It's another way for us to further our commitment to getting local New York City filmmakers connected to their local community. The series will be released bi-monthly, following each IndieWorks screening event, and hosted by Lauren A Kennedy.
Next Month - Webseries!
Next month's IndieWorks event is specifically catered to webseries created by local filmmakers. As part of that theme, we'll be having an advance preview of our own webseries, "Kelsey: The Webseries" for all attending. It's not part of the competition, since that would be biased, y'know. Select members of the cast & crew will at the event to hang out and enjoy the other pilots as well. Definitely going to be a great night to check out IndieWorks.
Thanks to all the filmmakers & film enthusiasts who came to support one another. We look forward to seeing you next month! And, be on the lookout for the next episode of the Insider Series rolling out next week, featuring Felix Thompson, Director of "The Third One This Week".