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THE SCHMOOTZON
VENICE
THE SERIES
S e p t e m b e r 9 , 2 0 0 9
Left to right: Venice producers, Hope Royaltey, Crystal Chappell, and Kim Turrisi
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So I just pitched what I thought Icould bring and she said she’d likeme to talk to her business partner,Kimmy.Kimmy called me within a couple of hours that night and we just gotalong like long lost friends. We werelong lost lovers. We just had aninstant connection. So we justclicked and took it from there.So, it was Gus that brought the teamtogether
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W W W . M I N D S C H M O O T Z . N E T S e p t e m b e r 9 , 2 0 0 9
“It was Gus that brought the team together.”
- Hope
SCHMOOTZ:
We know Kim andCrystal have know each other for awhile, how did you meet these twoand how did you become a member of this motley crew?
HOPE:
I stumbled, like many people,upon Otalia on YouTube. I was nevera soap watcher, so I was verysurprised and said wow, the acting’sgreat and the writing’s fantastic. Butwhat I was really amazed by was thefan base.So back around April (2009), onenight I stayed up really late and justwent to all of the fan boards. I was just blown away. As a writer andproducer, I had never seen the likes of that in my experiences and I havetons of friends that work successfultelevision shows. So I just sort of stored that in my mind and thoughthow cool that all was. Around the same time, I had a friendthat dragged me onto Twitter. I hadheard Crystal was on there andaround that time she had tweetedsomething about wanting to do a webseries. I thought that was an amazingidea.Then in May, I was back in LA and aclose friend of mine told me she hadbeenwork ing on producing someprojects with a guy who was onGuiding Light. It turned out he alsohappenedto be in the Otalia story line(Rick y Paul Goldin - Gus).So Iwas like, I know the woman fromthatstory line wants to do a webseries andI have a great skill set forthatand would love to maybe talk toher about it. So my friend talked toRickyandhe put me in touch withCrystal andwe had a call. As you know, she’s very warm andopen and just so passionate andarticulate.
SCHMOOTZ:
The character of Ginaand the concept of Venice has beenaround for a long time. Was thisbefore Otalia was conceptualized? And if so, was she an out lesbianfrom the genesis of that concept orwas that aspect of the characterfacilitated in reaction to the incredibleresponse to Otalia?
KIM:
The character of Gina hasalways been around in my head andon paper and she was always an outlesbian because I just hadn’t seen iton TV. So it’s always been somethingthat’s been brewing and Crystal knewabout it because we had workedtogether on several other projectsand it seems like whenever we’retogether, even in our drinkingmadness, we’re very creative and wetalk about concepts all the time anddifferent characters and “wouldn’t itbe fun to..” With the outpouring of fan supportfor Otalia, and the fact that GuidingLight was ending, we were like, hey,what about that character Gina? Andthen we literally sat one night andtalked about doing a web seriesbased in a beach town and came upwith Venice because it’s bohemianand hip and one of the mostimportant things to me as a writer isto behonest when it came to thecharacterization of a lesbiancharacter.I don’t think it’s going to bestereotypical because I think everybodyhas a gay person in theirlife whether they know it or theydon’t. Venice is going to be straightpeople, gay people, sexual people,sexypeople but really, real life. Forme, it’s very important for people thataren’ t gayto see gay and straightpeople mixing.
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KIM:
Well also, each webisode willfeature different actors. So you’re goingto get to focus on them. It’s not goingto be the entire cast in a webisode. Itwill be very focused.So I think what it will give everybodywill be a little bit more of a feeling thatthey know the character more. There’s alot you can do in five minutes.
SCHMOOTZ:
It has been mentioned inother interviews that the productionteam is pursuing possible sponsors forthe Venice series. Hypothetically, if NBCwere to sponsor the series, would yoube subject to the same standards andpractices constraints as their otherprograming.
HOPE:
Well, we’re not looking to besponsored by a network at this time forobvious reasons. This was born out of aneed by everyone on the productionteam as well as all the actors involved(all doing this for no pay) to have achance to exercise their creativity in away that they’re not allowed to do for anetwork show or even in general, exceptfor the web. So that’s really precious tous and is the core reason why we’redoing this.
KIM (cont’d):
The truth is Crystaland I have been best friends forover twenty years and we have thesame things going on in our life andthe only difference is who we sleepwith. So I think people need torealize that we’re just likeeverybody else. We have the sameheartache, we share joy together,and there’s really nothing differentand so hopefully that will shinethrough with Venice. People willconnect, like they did with Otalia.They’ll just connect with a lovestory.
SCHMOOTZ:
Many people havesaid that Otalia worked because of the slow-build relationship. How doyou expect the audience to becomeinvested in your characters whenthe webisodes are so short?
HOPE:
In a sense, one can makethe argument that the audience iskind of used to doing five minutes aweek because when you cut downthe Otalia scenes, it’s really not thatlong. And Kimmy’s written a fantasticscript that has a lot of depth withcharacters in really interestingcircumstances, where people areplaying against type and doingthingsthatyou wouldn't get to seein a daytime format.So I think that even if we do five tosix minutesper episode (becausethat’sjustwhat really is reasonableto doon the web right now), I think that the en joyment that theaudience will have in those fiveminutes will hopefully sustain themfor the week.Plus, we’re making this aninteractive experience with thewebsite and other things we’regoing to be offering to keep thefans engaged and have themexcited for next week’s story.
“So I think people need to realize that we’re just like everybody else. We have the same heartache, we share joy together, and there’s really nothingdifferent and so hopefully that will shine through withVenice. People will connect, like they did with Otalia. They’ll just connect with a love story.” - Kim
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So we’re hoping in terms of sponsorships, to be supported byproducts and hopefully by productsthat have a global reach so we caninvolve all the international fans thatwe have. And these products will be very clearon what the content of the show willbe.But product sponsors I believe arereally concerned with numbers and just having eyeballs look at theirproducts and not looking for thekind of creative control thatnetworks are looking for.
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