Julia was the kindred spirit sitting behind me in Italian class.
We randomly started having lunch dates after class, and while we tried to speak only in Italian throughout our lunch dates, there is no Italian translation for "OMG, you watch Doctor Who?"
Hello, Kindred Spirit! In addition to being delightfully witty, brilliant, and technologically astounding, Julia is a storyteller. She understands what it takes to make a story flow, and is a fantastic editor. Really, her editing is amazing. I have to congratulate Julia on her new job at NBC (yes, NBC). Also, congrats on the new YouTube channel The Couch she has launched with her friend Annie. Go watch that purple link....do it now. The girl is doing BIG THINGS!!!! Read more about them below :)
1. For those who aren't familiar with your field, could you describe what it is you love to do?
I love to tell stories. Which is very basic and general, but that's what I wanted to do in the first place, what I've always wanted to do, and why I decided to go into the film/television field. Specifically, what I want to do is tell stories through pictures with my video camera. I've always read books like I'm playing a mini movie in my head, so the visual component was always very important to me. I love the way that every element in a scene can add up to create a much bigger story than just the dialogue could, and I mean everything; from the colors of the set to the details of the costumes to the position of the subject in the shot. Everything you see on screen can have meaning and add depth to the story and the character. It's the most effective use of the idiom "Show, don't tell," that I can think of.
2. So what did you study in college?
A LOT! HAH! I went to three different colleges with three different majors. The first was a community college that I went to for money reasons mostly, and I finished a generic liberal arts degree. Then I went to CNU where I thought I wanted to be an actress and that turned to be a terrible idea, so I switched to Communication, found out CNU didn't offer a decent film/video program and ended up studying media at GMU. I graduated with a degree in Communication with a Concentration in Media Production and Criticism and a Minor in Theatre which sounds very fancy and professional but was basically a cobbled together film degree. Except when I say it like that, I'm more likely to get a job. In any case, I studied a LOT about the media, what it does, what it CAN do, and how to make it. I think my fav subject though was my kind of independent study on fans! (The group of people, not the thing that blows air!) I LOVE fan communities and I love seeing how the shows, books, movies that they are fans of can inspire them to do and make all sorts of things not to mention the fact that I love doing all that stuff too!
3. What is it about television that inspires you to create? Was there a particular show or movie that sparked this passion for television?
I often say that "I grew up on TV, so I turned out TV," which is probably both a joke and a really sad statement about my life. But for me, it all goes back to story. Originally I thought I wanted to go into movies, but all my favorite movies were trilogies or mini series and one movie didn't seem like enough story for me. I realized that, as a medium, television was actually a better story teller. There's more story, for one thing, but with that you also get more character development and world building and you're really able to create this sort of immersing story experience and build stronger emotional pulls and stronger tension.
4. You and your friend Annie have started your own Youtube show. What kind of show is it, and what are your goals for it?
I love to tell stories. Which is very basic and general, but that's what I wanted to do in the first place, what I've always wanted to do, and why I decided to go into the film/television field. Specifically, what I want to do is tell stories through pictures with my video camera. I've always read books like I'm playing a mini movie in my head, so the visual component was always very important to me. I love the way that every element in a scene can add up to create a much bigger story than just the dialogue could, and I mean everything; from the colors of the set to the details of the costumes to the position of the subject in the shot. Everything you see on screen can have meaning and add depth to the story and the character. It's the most effective use of the idiom "Show, don't tell," that I can think of.
2. So what did you study in college?
A LOT! HAH! I went to three different colleges with three different majors. The first was a community college that I went to for money reasons mostly, and I finished a generic liberal arts degree. Then I went to CNU where I thought I wanted to be an actress and that turned to be a terrible idea, so I switched to Communication, found out CNU didn't offer a decent film/video program and ended up studying media at GMU. I graduated with a degree in Communication with a Concentration in Media Production and Criticism and a Minor in Theatre which sounds very fancy and professional but was basically a cobbled together film degree. Except when I say it like that, I'm more likely to get a job. In any case, I studied a LOT about the media, what it does, what it CAN do, and how to make it. I think my fav subject though was my kind of independent study on fans! (The group of people, not the thing that blows air!) I LOVE fan communities and I love seeing how the shows, books, movies that they are fans of can inspire them to do and make all sorts of things not to mention the fact that I love doing all that stuff too!
3. What is it about television that inspires you to create? Was there a particular show or movie that sparked this passion for television?
Going back to the last question, I think, more than any particular show, it was my experiences as a fan, especially with the Harry Potter series, that really inspired me to go into TV. When you're a fan of something, you know, you get invested in the emotional highs and lows, in the characters. You laugh, you cry, you look for others who understand and, especially with the Internet, you start to build these fan communities.
I'll fantasize about the distant, hypothetical future with my sister and talk about how I want people to make fan art & write fan fiction & debate plot & theme and romantic couples on the stories that I tell, and the other day she asked me why I wanted to write/film/etc. Was it just because I wanted to be famous and have all these random strangers know my name, which is a TERRIBLE reason to want to do anything. My sister teaches singing lessons and she often has middle school girls come in to "learn" how to sing because they just want to be popular. Ultimately, they don't learn anything and they don't get better at singing. But for me, it's not about being popular, it's about creating the sorts of fun, inspiring and emotional moments that come from being in a fan community. Pretty much ALL of my best friends were made because we were secretly (& sometimes not so secretly!) fans of Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, or something else über nerdy. I love debating my fandoms & quoting lines to friends; I love looking at and creating art inspired by my favorite characters or settings or stories. Heck, there's a whole social movement that sprung up around Harry Potter called the Harry Potter Alliance that supports and advocates a bunch of social justice causes. The beauty of fan communities is that they are legitimate communities that create and care and grow and I loved being a part of that. I want to tell stories that make people feel the way I felt when I watch LotR, or Doctor Who or read Harry Potter or Jane Eyre. I want to build communities that bring people together and inspire other artists to create themselves. I want to give back to others what I got from all the producers who inspired me. Hopefully this novel of an answer makes sense & came out as profound as it sounded in my head!
4. You and your friend Annie have started your own Youtube show. What kind of show is it, and what are your goals for it?
The funny thing about The COUCH is that my big push for starting it was to get to San Diego Comic Con (SDCC)!
I want to be a producer & I needed something to produce over the summer while I was jobless. I knew it needed to be short and simple & it couldn't require too many people because, quite frankly, I don't have too many friends with the time & energy to make videos on a weekly basis! So I had been toying with the idea of doing a web show about TV because if there is one thing I know how to do, it's get people to watch TV. While I was doing some preliminary research, I started seeing all these posts about the 2012 SDCC and like, dying a little on the inside because I really wanted to go. So I was watching some interviews from the folks at MTVGeek and trying to think of a way to get me and all of my friends to SDCC and I was like, that's a thing I could do. So I'll make this web show, get a million hits, MTVGeek will go, hey we want to pay you to do this/host your videos on our site and then they'll be all, here's two tickets to San Diego, we need you to cover the con, and I'll be like, sure thing also I need 5 more tickets for my entourage please thanks. So basically, the long term goal was to get me to SDCC this July.
Oh! And The COUCH is me and Annie doing what we do best: geeking out about TV/movies/books/etc. It's, uhhhh....it's funny? And informative? I mean, it was important to me that we incorporated a news aspect of the show and some critical analysis as well as staying true to our fangirl selves. So like, we'll talk about an actor being hot, then hit you with a hard look at how, say, the themes of toxic love in a show is skewing real life perceptions of how healthy relationships should work and then top it all off with some insight into how the industry/business side of entertainment works. Hopefully, that's a thing that's actually...happening...
5. Do you prefer American television, or the international competition?
This is actually something I used to feel really passionate about but I've kind mellowed recently. I'm really into genre television, and it used to be that American networks might have had the best tech and special effects, but they were seriously lacking in the character & story department. Britain, on the other hand, might have had really CHEESY effects and still hadn't upgraded to widescreen programming (I'm looking at YOU Doctor Who series 1) but their character and plot development was so much richer that I didn't care! American networks have been trying to produce remakes of UK shows and it's a great example of the point I'm trying to make as evidenced by the fact that they just don't work in the US. I'm thinking specifically of MTV's Skins and The Inbetweeners. Now, some might blame the fact that The US has much stricter standards for what is and is not appropriate to air on television, but the beauty of what BBC et. al were able to do is create strangely loveable characters and engaging plots beneath all the adult language and risqué content. For example, the US & UK pilot for Skins were practically carbon copies of each other with VERY minor changes that made a world of difference. There's a character in both that is in love with his best friend's girlfriend, and in both there's a scene where the character is looking at pictures of her on his phone. In both, the pictures appear to have been taken without the girl's notice, but in the UK version, the pictures are simply candid photos of her laughing or talking or doing things, almost artsy. In the US version, it's actually a video of her getting undressed on a beach. One small change and suddenly you've turned the character from a sympathetic, albeit completely pathetic, heart sick kid (UK) into a total perv who appears to only be looking for a piece of a** and is, therefore, completely unlikeable (US). Not to say the UK character's intentions were pure, but it showed that there was something deeper underneath his sort of sad, sleazy exterior.
HOWEVER! In my old age, my tastes are starting to change and I'm watching more and more sitcoms and getting more and more hooked! I've gotten really into Parks & Rec, mostly cuz I LOVE Amy Poehler. I'm also really digging How I Met Your Mother because their ability to create these really intricate cause-and-effect timelines over 7, going on 8 seasons now is REALLY impressive. Additionally, I think US networks have been following what UK networks have been doing and watching how it's being received here in the states and they've been putting more energy into shows that they might not have looked at before. So even though the UK is definitely the winner (Um, hello! Have you SEEN BBC's Sherlock?) the US networks are not as far behind as they once were.
HOWEVER! In my old age, my tastes are starting to change and I'm watching more and more sitcoms and getting more and more hooked! I've gotten really into Parks & Rec, mostly cuz I LOVE Amy Poehler. I'm also really digging How I Met Your Mother because their ability to create these really intricate cause-and-effect timelines over 7, going on 8 seasons now is REALLY impressive. Additionally, I think US networks have been following what UK networks have been doing and watching how it's being received here in the states and they've been putting more energy into shows that they might not have looked at before. So even though the UK is definitely the winner (Um, hello! Have you SEEN BBC's Sherlock?) the US networks are not as far behind as they once were.
6. What has it been like trying to not only pursue your passion and your art while dealing with a declining economy and sour job market?
Looking back over the past year though, I really think I'm lucky. I mean, I was doing whatever I could to get by both financially and emotionally, but a year is kind of the standard for graduates looking for jobs and I've got one before January, so I'm still early! Not only that, but it's a job at a local TV station for a major network, so it's in the field (and company) I want to be in! I'm still a loooong way from where I want to be, but I'm heading in the right direction and almost everyone here started where I am now. It's news, which wasn't what I planned, but a story is a story, whether its fact or fiction, and this might just be where I'm SUPPOSED to be. I really feel like this job was a door God was opening in my life because I applied for it last spring, interviewed for it over the summer and didn't get it until the week before Thanksgiving. It started like, 6 months ago and I didn't get it until NOW? The more I think about it, the more I think there has to be some importance to this timing and I'm excited to see what God has planned for me next!
7. Ok, dream job: GO!
7. Ok, dream job: GO!
Executive Producer/Showrunner for my own company that makes hit TV shows for our own channel on YouTube, Netflix or Hulu. The original content coming out on these sites is EXTREMELY exciting to see, and as much as I'd love to see my stuff on one of the Big Five Networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, &, who knew, The CW), I love seeing the emergence of new media and I'd love to be the forerunner in a new era of story-telling and entertainment. And as far as my show? Definitely something fantasy/sci-fi, but high concept. Think Game of Thrones but with less...HBO.
8. What movies / TV are you excited about this season?
8. What movies / TV are you excited about this season?
I REALLY like Elementary this season, a lot more than I thought I would. I've been catching up on season 2 of Teen Wolf, which I almost didn't watch the first season of & then I ended up shotgunning the whole thing in one sitting! Stiles is the only reason you need to watch that show! Also, SUPER excited to see Wreck-It-Ralph, Rise of the Guardians & The Hobbit, of course!
Thank you, thank you, Julia m'love!! And as always, if you know an artist (or you are an artist) who wants to talk about their art, contact me pronto!
LOVE
Thank you, thank you, Julia m'love!! And as always, if you know an artist (or you are an artist) who wants to talk about their art, contact me pronto!
LOVE
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