"The Guild" Creator and Star, Felicia Day, Talks About What Makes an Online Series Popular. Read the Exclusive Interview Here.

Prior to the smashsuccess of her online Web series The Guild Felicia Day was most noted for her recurring role as Vi on Buffy the Vampire Slayer She also appeared in a number of films including Bring it on Again June and most recently the Emmy awardwinning Warm Springs with Kenneth Branagh The Guild her sitcom about a group of online gamers took home a Greenlight Award at South by Southwest SXSW an annual music and media festival The show also won the Series category for the 2007 YouTube Awards with 399 of the votesDay recently talked with me about her online gaming addiction and what she thinks it takes to make an online series successful An edited transcript of our conversation followsNina Spezzaferro I read somewhere that you were a gamer for 22 years Is that correctFelicia Day Well I still game I literally started gaming when I was 5 or 6 We had these textbased games We had some Tetris games As we got older we had an Amiga which is totally outdated format of computer Weamp8217d play Faery Tale Adventure and Marble Madness and all that stuff My mom didnamp8217t let us have a console so I became more of a PC gamer because for some reason it was more okay to have games on the PCNS What are your current favorite online gaming communitiesFD I played World of Warcraft for two years I still want to play that a lot even though I donamp8217t And I like to play independent casual games because I feel like I have such an obsessive personality that I think the casual sort of games are probably a better way for me to go to not be obsessively playing it 9 hours a day I also play Puzzle Pirates which is a really fun online Java independent game I was addicted for a year and a half and there are a lot of cool people on thereamp160NS You mentioned that Tina Fey is your idol Are there any other actresses that you admire FD I have a great admiration for Lucille Ball because she was a real businesswoman and she really made TV what it is especially the sitcom format And as far as actresses Cate Blanchett of course is my idol but I guess my acting style is a little bit more Lisa Kudrow NS Since you had a handful of TV roles what made you decide to do a Web seriesFD Iamp8217ve always been really tech savvy and more Internetoriented as far as spending my time online I had like three roles in a row for TV series regulars that I was secondchoice for and I got really frustrated I decided I needed to do something where I can be creative and be in control of So I wrote a halfhour pilot script The Guild I showed it around and people were like amp8220Oh thatamp8217s really funny but honestly itamp8217s too much of a niche audience for TVamp8221 I didnamp8217t know what to do with it I was in a womenamp8217s Hollywood networking group with a very good friend of mine Kim Evey whoamp8217s my producer partner and Jane Selle Morgan I showed it to Kim and she had just had a big success with her viral video Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show She and her husband have been making Internet videos forever She suggested doing it as a Web series I decided it was a great idea because obviously the demographic is on the InternetSo we just got together and shot the first two episodes on our own and funded it ourselves Afterwards we couldnamp8217t really afford to do the rest so we put the PayPal button up and just happened to have enough fan support to shoot 8 more episodes NS I was really surprised at the high production value of the series since it was largely funded on donations So how did you get around the funding issuesFD Our look has evolved We learned how to balance the means of an Internet video with looking really good Ever since the third episode we just pay crew and production costs Nobody has made any money The actors havenamp8217t gotten paid We have a very minimal crew itamp8217s just a question of lighting a little bit more carefully and making some production design choices that make the show pop a little more than the normal Internet video And I think thatamp8217s just a testament to the fact that weamp8217re all working professionals in the entertainment industry So if you have people who work on professional sets you kind of know how to do it Itamp8217s just a question of whether or not you have the resources to get the results that you wantNS How did you find the actorsFD Two of the actors I do improv with Jeff Lewis and Sandeep Parikh who play Vork and Zaboo Basically theyamp8217re really hilarious and I said if I ever wrote a part for someone I would write them parts So I deliberately wrote them partsNS You mentioned possibly taking the series to TV but then you said fans of the series are on the internet anyway Was there any fan reaction to thatFD We get tons of comments that say amp8220This should be on TVamp8221 And then we get comments that say amp8220Donamp8217t put it on TV thatamp8217ll just make it badamp8221 Basically we have a tenepisode arc and five episodes would be one episode in a halfhour series Obviously with a budget for TV people would get paid properly You canamp8217t make a living doing Web series at this point because the financial model has not given people incentive to invest heavily in it I think itamp8217s moving toward that but weamp8217re on the early part of that shift to entertainmentondemand We have a lot of people interested in helping us fund the show to make it more financially justifiable The budget on a TV show and the flexibility and the fact that weamp8217d be putting lots and lots of episodes out at the same time could potentially be great for everyone involved but if itamp8217s not going to happen then weamp8217re doing it on the web I think thereamp8217s a lot of potential to grow the show and give the fans a lot more of an experience with the show than they have now NS When will the Season 1 DVD be releasedFD Weamp8217re talking with some people about possibly having a funding partner But I donamp8217t want to wait too long I would like to release it in June or early July because weamp8217d like to go to ComicCon and be able to have people be able to buy the DVD NS What kind of extras will be on the DVDFD Iamp8217ve had a lot of requests for commentary and also subtitling because we have a lot of international fans which is really cool So I would like to put closed captioning and all that stuff on there for people to enjoy who havenamp8217t been able to enjoy it to the fullest And then weamp8217ll have interviews with the actors and behind the scenes video footage and extra gag reels Weamp8217ve only released one gagreel and I wanted to keep the other gagreels for the DVD to give people incentive because if we donamp8217t end up signing with a production partner then our DVD will be our main fundraiser for our next seasonNS What do you think makes an online series popular Is it the content or the promotionFD I think itamp8217s a combination of both You need to have a very specific audience in mind You can make it as edgy as you want but you have to be specific You canamp8217t just say amp8220Oh itamp8217s a bunch of white guys living in a dormamp8221 I mean I just donamp8217t know if thatamp8217s really that interesting anymore because whatamp8217s the incentive for someone to watch that on the internet if they can watch that on TV done glossier and more polished and done better and more regularly Doing a Web series is an opportunity for people who donamp8217t live in LA and donamp8217t have the same background as people who are making television now to really have a unique viewpoint Comedy is about surprise and people just are not surprised about the typical things that people write about on TV now So if you can have a voice and talk about something that is not necessarily part of the mainstream then itamp8217s very easy for you to be specific about how to get that show to the people on the InternetNS Are there any online series that you watch regularlyFD I like Break a Leg I think thatamp8217s a really fun show I donamp8217t watch a lot of series on the Internet per se I try out a lot of them but nothing is like amp8220Iamp8217ve got to see this thing next weekamp8221 But Iamp8217m so busy with my show that I donamp8217t even have time to sit down and watch a regular movieFor more on Felicia Day and The Guild visit WatchTheGuildcom

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"The Guild" Creator and Star, Felicia Day, Talks About What Makes an Online Series Popular. Read the Exclusive Interview Here.

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Nina Spezzaferro

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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"The Guild" Creator and Star, Felicia Day, Talks About What Makes an Online Series Popular. Read the Exclusive Interview Here.

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Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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