Tag Archives: Queer Web Series

Watch ‘Babes’, A Web Series About a Queer Playboy

AJ is a transitioning nonbinary playboy in this hot new Canadian web series, Babes.

This web series centers on the friendship between Sybil (Emily Reuangrith) and AJ (T. Thomason). Sybil is a dreamy and successful artist who spends her life flitting around the edges of reality. AJ is a nonbinary trans man who takes life as a joke. Both characters feel out of place in their small town of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. They are the perfect pair.

AJ’s transition forms the plot’s centerpiece. They attend support groups, figure out their sexuality and venture forward into making their body more of their own, although it isn’t easy. The character is loosely based on the life of the creator, AJ Ripley, who also hails from New Brunswick.

Ripley wanted to present a unique trans narrative. So often transgender people who are featured on the news say that they were “born in the wrong body,” but that was not quite AJ’s experience. They wanted to show that there’s more than one way to be transgender, and that gender isn’t a binary.

Ripley actually started writing the show several months before they came out as transgender. Their father was rapidly fading from Alzheimer’s, and AJ desperately needed a laugh. As the show progressed – and so did AJ’s transition – Babes took on its own form, and became a hilariously raw portrayal of AJ’s experiences.

Although most LGBTQ shows are set in large cities like London, NYC and Toronto, Ripley purposefully chose this small Canadian town. It not only provides a vastly different narrative, but it also shows that people from small towns aren’t bigoted; they just don’t have the vocabulary and experiences to understand transgender people. For example, an elderly character named Gladys says many inappropriate remarks out of ignorance, not bigotry, and soon learns about the nuances of gender.

AJ is excited about putting more transgender men, nonbinary trans people and people of color up on screen. The show is currently in its second season, and new episodes release on an irregular schedule. Catch the first episodes here.

‘How To Not’ – A New Web Series For Queer Girls

Do you ever feel like everyone has got it all together accept you? Your friends have a life plan that works, a career they love and saving in the bank. You hate your job, have pennies in the bank and still rely on your Mum to do your washing. Sound familiar? If yes, this new web series is just for you.

The main character (who strangely has no name!) is a 20 something girl in a causal relationship with an idiot bloke called Cage, has a boss who is an arsehole, has a best friend (Lila) that has her whole life planned out and feels totally lost and forgotten. In a moment of madness, she changes her dating preferences on Tinder to ‘prefers women’ and quickly meets a cute girl called Jamie.

Jamie is pretty much a lesbian’s dream. She’s creative, plays guitar and sings and has a steady job as a paramedic that she loves. But our main character is not sure what she wants and Jamie is moving too fast for her. Although she is texting Jamie all the time she is still preoccupied with Cage, despite the fact he seems more interested in cocaine and his best friend than he is in her.

She feels even worse when the night of her birthday party Lila announces her engagement to perfect boyfriend and she feels quite jealous that Lila has her life so sorted, even though she knows deep down she should be happy for her friend.  Gia Vangieri created and starred in the programme and she wanted the main character to reflect what many of us feel like during our 20’s. It’s hard to be in your 20s. We’ve all felt that pressure She felt to “get it together” and to be supportive of your best friend who seems to be in a different place than you are.

Plus, dating someone who has it all together, especially dating someone of the same sex for the first time.  Eventually our un-named heroine simply figures out how to enjoy life without putting too much pressure on herself.

How to Not is available on Vimeo On Demand. It’s $4 to rent, but paid content supports queer creators, and it’s worth a watch!

Watch ‘195 Lewis’, A Queer Polyamorous Web Series

If relationships aren’t easy, then open relationships can be disasters. The new web series 195 Lewis explores the complications of a lesbian couple who decides to try an open relationship. Whether you’re considering polyamory or just enjoy character-driven dramas, give it a try.

The series follows Yuri and Camille as they test the boundaries of their open relationship. Yuri’s growing infatuation with a new lover leaves Camille distressed, which is only amplified by the unexpected arrival of Yuri’s old college friend Kris, who shows up with nowhere else to stay.”

One look at the trailer reveals that this is not your typical melodramatic love triangle or handicam web series. The almost dreamlike storyline is saturated in deep royal purples, making the characters seem larger than life even as they make devastating choices.

Filmmaker Chanelle Aponte Pearson heads up the series. In 2015, she won the prestigious Calvin Klein-sponsored “Live the Dream” grant. A clip from 195 Lewis premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam to roaring praise.

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Pearson sat down with Filmmaker Magazine to talk about the creative process. When discussing why the show was set in Brooklyn, she said, “Brooklyn is constantly changing, and it continues to welcome a host of people from all walks of life. With 195 Lewis, I’m more interested in representing a part of Brooklyn that is specifically Bed-Stuy, Black, queer, and saturated with activists, artists, and other cultural producers that make the borough so inviting in the first place.” She aimed to create an immersive world.

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She originally planned 2-5 minute comedic episodes in the same vein as successful series such as The Couple and Awkward Black Girl. However, she focused on the story and the characters; when she was done telling the characters’ stories, she found herself with an eight-part comedy drama longer than a feature film. Although this format is unprecedented for a comedic web series, she believes it will be successful.

She said,

Our core audience (queer women of color) are hungry for a show like 195 Lewis and we’re committed to delivering.”

When not creating web shows, she directs and produces documentaries, manages the Brooklyn-based production company MVMT, and is in post-production on her first feature-length film Elijah.

Trailer link: 195 Lewis – trailer

How to Start Your Own Lesbian Web Series

Why start a series?

The importance: Representation is important, and the best way to get LGBT women on the screen is to put them there ourselves – we are the only ones who can tell our stories.

The friends: Starting a web series requires a lot of collaboration, from writers to editors to actors, so you’ll meet a lot of amazing people. Even if you never achieve fame, you’ll start countless friendships.

The fun: Plus, if you’re an artist, making LGBT art with other people is just plain fun. You’ll get to dream up crazy storylines. You’ll get to map out crazy promotions. You can direct or act in order to create an imaginary world. And your stories may touch people in ways you never anticipated.

What story should you tell?

You have 1,001 stories to choose from. You could tell the story of a lesbian space detective. You could narrate a polyamorous love story. You could design a cartoon about polysexual space aliens. The options are endless.

But what show do you wish you could watch, right now? That’s the show that you need to make. Don’t write what you think will be popular, write what you want to watch, because if you want to watch it, others will too.

How should you tell your story?

Every story needs to be told differently. For example, we all know some books that should not have been turned into movies, and we know some TV shows that fell flat when they became films. (Maybe people should stop turning things into movies…) Grab a piece of paper and brainstorm the best way to tell your story.

Gone are the days when YouTube videos were your only option. Now you can make tiny vines, minute-long Instagram videos, thirty minute Vimeo epics, or avant-garde Snapchat videos. You can shoot on your iPhone or on an expensive professional camera.

Utilize your network. If a friend of a friend is an experienced director, then you have more options. If all of your friends take improv classes, then you’ll be able to tell dynamic stories. Don’t be afraid to tell your story in a creative, unorthodox way.

Who’s your writing team?

Sure, you could write by yourself. But that didn’t work for Season Two of True Detective, and it might not work for you. Besides, a writing partner can challenge you, come at the story from a fresh angle, and spin jokes and subplots.

You may be awake tweaking lines until 3 a.m. the night before a shoot. It will be more fun to have a writing buddy struggling with you.

How will you fund it?

Unless you’re shooting Vines with an iPhone, filming a web series will be expensive, so do whatever it takes to find the funds. Enter contests, start a GoFundMe, max out your credit card, secure a private investor, or get a sugar mama. Just remember that your show probably won’t get picked up by a major network and you almost definitely won’t make your money back. The chances of being Issa Rae (Awkward Black Girl) or Ilana Glazer (Broad City) are slim.

Who’s your crew?

Your crew could be you with a camera on selfie mode, or it could be ten people and craft service. If you want your series to be shot professionally, you’ll need actors, make-up artists, a lighting crew, a sound crew, a camera crew, a director, an editor… Start making phone calls.

Practice makes perfect!

Don’t be discouraged if your series doesn’t turn out the way you want it right away, or if the view count is low. Just keep writing, filming, acting and promoting, and your audience will come! There’s nothing more rewarding than telling your stories to people who need to hear them.

How Tello’s Queer Web Series Can Save You From Boring TV Shows

According to GLAAD’s annual ‘Where We Are On TV’ report for 2014, just 32 out of 813 primetime broadcast scripted series regulars will be LGBT (3.9%). Even if you agree with the low ball statistic that 1 in 10 people are queer, that number doesn’t cut it and most definitely doesn’t reflect the queer faces who are watching these TV shows and trying to relate to the characters’ stories. Over half of these characters on primetime television are also queer men and the few queer women who we get to see are often subject to uncomfortable and familiar tropes such as Pretty Little Liars’ Emily who cheated on her girlfriend and kissed a guy, or the many queer female characters who are killed off.

At times it can be impossible to enjoy television, when you’re well aware that your favourite TV lesbian is playing second fiddle to a mundane heterosexual love triangle and it can leave you with nothing to watch on the telly. But while TV fails, the Internet can help pick up the slack and as one of the most popular portals for queer web series, tellofilms should be your number one destination for fictional queer ladies.

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tellofilms’ co-creator Christin Baker explains:

“I realised that the web was becoming an interesting space for non-traditional entertainment, and wanted to explore it. Our focus has always been to make series distributed over the web, specifically for a lesbian audience.

I did it because it’s stuff that I like to watch. I’ve put my own money into the company – it had to be something I wanted to watch. Because, at the end of the day, if you’re putting your free time, money, blood, sweat and tears into something, you’d better be passionate about it.”

Saying that The Fosters, Orange is the New Black, Orphan Black and new Amazon web series Transparent are “shows that are trying”, Baker also states that “those shows will eventually get canceled like The L Word. On the other hand, [tellofilms has] new content all the time.”

Also: Why Rent Controlled Is The Funniest Web Series You’ll Watch

That list of shows Baker mentions could see them each go on for five seasons or so, proud of the fact that they feature queer female leads but once they end due to the natural closure of the plot or diminished viewership, we’d be lucky to see them replaced with something just as queer friendly. They are the exceptions not the rule. And with tello’s 15 or so web series (a roster constantly being added to) all featuring lesbians both in front of and behind the camera (such as the hilarious #Hashtag and Rent Controlled) viewers will constantly have queer media to enjoy – even when other inclusive shows or cancelled or are on hiatus.

As tellofilms continues to do well and strives to deliver more great content to its 3500~ subscribers, Baker says that “We’re interested in honouring our audience and subscribers outside of just letting them watch content. We’ve started to create this great community and now we’re really excited to figure out what that looks like and what that is.”

One exciting project that subscribers should look forward to later this year is a yet-untitled project about a ballerina who has to “slum it” at a queer, modern dance company after she suffers an injury.

But as for those who aren’t subscribed to tello, as a small business owner Baker offers sage wisdom, “It’s important to support indie artists. If you notice something missing – it’s probably out there, being made by someone in the indie community.”