'Kelsey' Press & Interview Wrap-Up

Now that "Kelsey" has officially come to a close, we thought we'd wrap up all the awesome interviews & press we got during the show's run. 

In addition to having all our episodes featured on AfterEllen, One More Lesbian, and the PNT TV Network since our premiere, we started getting featured on SheWired about halfway through the season as well, with incredibly positive reviews & comments! We were the number 1 show on PNT TV for every single episode, and we were featured on a couple wonderful lists on AfterEllen with comparisons to SNL and other Primetime shows. 

Our first big buzz was actually on BuzzFeed itself with the 8 Lesbian Web Series you should have on your radar, as mentioned in the pilot episode post. We were also on National Television, though it did not end up being as cool as it originally seemed. That experience can be read about in Christina's words here. 

The biggest news to announce is that the series made the cut for Indiewire's Critic List: 2013's Best Comedy Web Series, and 18 More You Need to Watch Now! We then were featured on Indiewire again with their list 15 Women-Driven Web Series That Could Be the Next 'Broad City' (which was an exciting comparison because Broad City started as a no-budget web series until Amy Poehler took it to Comedy Central).

We got some amazingly positive reviews along the way:

• Eli David of the WebVee Guide reviewed us after binge watching the series.

• New York Cine Radio talked about the first episode in their 89th Podcast episode from 15:00 to 28:30 and gave the series 4.5 out of 5 'Sandwiches.'

And we did some fun interviews:

• Christina & Kelsey answer some questions by Fetch of Fetch & Femme.

• Christina & Kelsey video chat with PNT TV creator Tamara Spicer.

• Kelsey did a Q&A with Kings River Life Magazine.

We only featured the highlights in this post. For a full list of our press, check out the Kelsey Facebook Page. 

Although there will be no additional episodes of the series, we hope that audiences will continue to discover and enjoy the show. If we get any new press for the series, we'll be sure to keep you updated. (We may actually be doing a Panel tour at LGBT Film Festivals later this year to talk about the show & our upcoming work. So, we will definitely have news on that, and look forward to meeting some of our out-of-town fans!)

If you're unaware of the fact that we wont be continuing the series, feel free to read our last post for details; and be sure to check out our Seed&Spark campaign for our 2 new short films launching on June 10th. As said in the post, we'll be giving away our outlines for what would have been Seasons 2 & 3 of 'Kelsey,' including the Series Finale script to all fans who give at least $10!

Thank you again for supporting us and watching the show! 

-Christina, Kelsey & the Team. 

"Kelsey" First Season Screening

Tuesday evening, we screened all 10 episodes of the first season of "Kelsey" back-to-back at the People's Lounge (our IndieWorks space, as well as a prominent shooting location on the web series). The night was hosted by the wonderful Dana Piccoli, writer for AfterEllen.com.

We were worried that no one would show up in the 5 degree chill but there were about 35-40 people, not including cast & crew! It was such a fun night. The audience really responded to the show. Lots of laughs and positive reactions. We know for a fact that there were at least two people there who had never seen the series before and definitely walked away as fans.

Click through the photos of the night:

After the screening, Dana called Christina, Kelsey and Nichole up to the stage to have a little Q&A with her. We unfortunately did not get a chance to record it. But we'll paraphrase what was asked and answered.

Dana first asked Kelsey: "the show is named after you and I’m sure we are all curious….how much of Kelsey is drawn from your own experience?"

Kelsey responded saying that, unfortunately, the first three episodes did happen to her. But after that point, we take creative license. She talked about how telling Christina the "Suckface" story led to the creation of the series. She also spoke a little about wanting to showcase a real person, saying that she's not a stereotype and that, although the series is a comedy, having realism was an important factor for her and pulling from her own experience affected that. 

Dana then asked Christina: "CongestedCat has done mainly short films so far, why go the web series route with Kelsey?"

Christina spoke about how she had been watching web series' for a while and noticed how they were really gaining traction in terms of audiences and attention. She felt like it'd be a great move for the company to gain a following. But more than that, the creative appeal of getting to build characters and revisit them again and again sounded like a lot of fun. She and Kelsey both love TV and the idea that audiences fall in love with characters and want more of them. She wanted to give that to an audience and connect with people that way; and when Kelsey told her the ridiculous but hilarious "Suckface" story, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Dana then turned her attention over to Nichole and said, "Nichole! Welcome to lesbian icon status! How does it feel to be adored by lesbians across the country (and Canada)? What has been the response by fans?"

Nichole said it's been great and such an honor. She told a story about how a woman in Germany tweeted that she could die happy because Nichole had retweeted her tweet about the series.

Dana responded by congratulating her on reaching international lesbian icon status! She then asked, "as a very experienced improver, were you able to put those skills to work in Kelsey?"

Nichole complimented Kelsey's writing and mentioned how much fun her lines were to perform. But also talked about how Christina would sometimes hold cut at the end of the scripted material to let them do a little improv to see what fun came out of it.

The Q&A went on for just a little bit after that. We can actually show it to you because the lovely Elizabeth Effy Yanes, a fan in the audience, decided to record the end of the Q&A and was nice enough to send it to us. Thank you to her!

We just want to thank everyone who braved the cold and came out to support the series. And we really want to thank Dana. She was so much fun and such a great host. We loved what she had to say about the show and truly appreciate her support over on AfterEllen.

Be sure to tune in on blip.tv on Tuesday for the season one finale. And don't worry, we've got more updates and fun stuff, like blooper reels, coming your way after the season ends!

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