Working Bug’s Annie Lukowski and Leyna Juliet Weber are the creative team behind several web comedies, including the highly successful wedding planning mockumentary Road to the Altar, which also stars Jaleel White (Family Matters). Their trademark smart girl humor is soon to be seen in a new comedic series, A Series of Unfortunate People, which starts airing exclusively on Daily Motion Monday, March 21st, so DCTV Creative Director reached out to Annie and Leyna to chat about the new show, multi-tasking, product placement, and why it’s important to learn how to juggle!
DARYN: First of all, introduce who you are and some of the other hilarious online projects you’ve worked on.
ANNIE AND LEYNA: Hi, we’re Annie Lukowski and Leyna Juliet Weber, the Co-Founders of WorkingBug.com. We began working together on Speeding Ticket and Taboo, which later became the first two installments of our web comedy anthology, RANDOM COMEDIES! We currently have six Random Comedies, and more to come. Our second webseries, Road to the Altar, delved into the hilarity of planning a wedding. We’re now launching A Series of Unfortunate People (aka S.O.U.P), and we can’t wait! We just released our trailer. It’s about those people in your life whom you just f*cking hate. It’s lots of fun.
Leyna Juliet Weber and Annie Lukowski
DARYN: Collectively, you have both worked in television, theater and film. What led you to producing projects for the web?
ANNIE: Leyna was performing at Acme Comedy in LA, and I went to see her perform. I approached Leyna after the show and said, “Hey, let’s shoot those sketches this weekend and put them on the web.” We went for it. I had a cinematographer-friend who was available. I operated the B camera myself, and Leyna’s cousin was the boom op, so our overhead was low. After the success of Speeding Ticket and Taboo both landing on the homepage of FunnyOrDie, we knew there was a heat behind new web entertainment, and a freedom that appealed to us. It became a viable distribution channel to get our shows to the public. That’s when we decided to write Road To The Altar together.
DARYN: Your latest series, A Series of Unfortunate People, will debut on Daily Motion on March 21st. Where did the idea for this show come from?
ANNIE AND LEYNA: Beth Shea, our other writer on S.O.U.P., put a short on FunnyOrDie called, Not in My Family. We thought it was hilarious and tracked her down, and asked her to be in Donation, one of our Random Comedies. We began working with Beth some more, and then she approached us about writing more comedies in the vein of Not in My Family. We decided a series of faux medical ailments (ala ‘Selfish Bastard’ or ‘Passive Aggressive Cleaning Lady’) would be a hoot to string together. And S.O.U.P. was born.
DARYN: What is the premise of the show? Will we see the same characters over the series or is each episode a different comedic vignette?
ANNIE AND LEYNA: A Series of Unfortunate People dramatizes those special folks in our lives that require copious amounts of care and attention. From the ‘Whiny Bitch’ to the ‘Cheap F*cker’ to the ‘Hyperactive Diagnoser’, our new anthology of short comedies embody the tragic personalities of those people we continue to endure, regardless of communal hatred. Each episode exposes a new condition with a different set of characters and circumstances. We recycle actors, so you will see the same faces. Something that we like about Random Comedies and S.O.U.P. is they can be watched out of order, on your own schedule, and it’s a user-friendly form of entertainment for a busy person looking for a four-minute, funny escape.
DARYN: As partners at Working Bug Media, you have done serial comedies like Road to the Altar and anthology comedy series like Random Comedies. So who does what on each show?
LEYNA: Everything is a group effort, and we wear many hats. Often Annie doubles as the I.T. department and I am our sound engineer! All kidding aside, we rely heavily on our creative team. We work with fantastic guest stars, cinematographers, and our glorious editor. It’s truly a family affair. We develop our ideas together and discuss how we’d like to see them executed. We truly do everything as a team, and consider ourselves lucky.
DARYN: I grew up with parents in the wedding industry, and Road to the Altar still remains one of my favorite shows! You recently inked a television distribution deal with that show. How did that come about?
ANNIE AND LEYNA: Thank you so much!! And… hmmm. While we’ve had some interest in moving Road forward, we haven’t yet had anyone throw down the green. We have a treatment for a second season and a feature film, so if you know that person or network, please hook some sisters up.
DARYN: What I love about all of your series is they are very smart. When web television really started to gain momentum in 2009, much of web comedy was dominated by male-centric, often juvenile comedy. Do you feel like that has changed in 2011?
ANNIE AND LEYNA: We are grateful to hear you say this. We agree with what you are saying, and believe there are several factors at play. One thing is the technology. Since DSL and cable modems are slowly reaching bigger markets, the fact remains: it still takes time for a video to buffer. Therefore, 30 seconds of a dog crashing against a wall, vs. a four minute comedy — sometimes Fido wins. It’s true, the male-centric comedies often get the hits, and it can be difficult to compete with tits and a dog riding a skateboard. But thanks to people like you, Daryn, we renew our faith that viewers are looking for a college-educated laugh (with a side of fart-joke).
We’re not sure if it’s changed in 2011, but there’s an interesting movement happening. When you stare at your Tivo and can’t find anything, we hope you turn to the web and find WorkingBug.com. There will always be an audience for the juvenile comedy, but new viewers are discovering our comedy, and we’d love to see that continue.
DARYN: What are you watching online?
ANNIE AND LEYNA: There are a few shows we really love. Goodnight Burbank, Mayne Street on the ESPN Go Network, The AV Club on The Onion, Aziz Ansari’s Human Giant and Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy are all really entertaining. Last year we were nominated for A Producer’s Guild Award for Road to the Altar, and a show in our category was Horrible People. We were honored to be in their company because that show was a riot. Also, we are always finding television we missed online on sites like HULU and Netflix — from Zach Galifianakis’ opening monologue on SNL to a great routine from So You Think You Can Dance.
Annie Lukowski and Leyna Juliet Weber
DARYN: As a female writer/director/producer myself, I still find people are thrown by a woman as a director/producer, especially if you are young. How do you deal with that?
ANNIE AND LEYNA: This is very true. We couldn’t agree with you more. Those are stupid people, and we enjoy slapping our success in their face. Honestly, we just keep on moving forward.
DARYN: You gals have done two things very early on that many other web series creators aspire to do– partner with brands and attach a celebrity. What is your approach? Do you usually write the series first and then make the approach or do you pitch a premise?
ANNIE AND LEYNA: Each project works its own way. Brands organically found their way into Road to the Altar. We were happy to incorporate them, as they came on board once the script was complete. We did rewrites for the brands, but it was a seamless integration.
Regarding working with celebrities, our approach is always different. They are not doing a webseries for the money (usually), so it’s the material that is going to grab them. Also, offering celebs a different type of role than what they usually play has been helpful for us. Darren Sharper of NFL’s New Orleans Saints liked our previous work and wanted to take a risk. So you’ll see him in Punchline, Episode five of S.O.U.P. Jaleel White was looking to do something new and different when he signed on to star in Road to the Altar. Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie (who appears in The Secret and Open House on Random Comedies) was really open to experimenting on the web. Kym Whitley (of Donation, Road to the Altar, and S.O.U.P.) goes where the comedy is, and she knows we run a professional, fun set.
For all the awesome celebrities that have come into the WorkingBug family, we have received many “No’s.” But it only takes one “yes” to cast a role. Once someone works with us, no matter how famous they are, we find they want to come back. That is very important to us.
DARYN: One of the things that I think locks up some creators is that they focus on just one project, and if that project doesn’t get the desired kudos, they lose heart and momentum. You are always juggling many projects. What is your advice for managing multiple projects and still saying sane?!
ANNIE AND LEYNA: Firstly, we’re not sure what might have given the impression that we are sane! We are very much certifiable! Ha! That being said, it helps us to split our time in the writing and development stages by working on more than one project at a time. We call it “throwing lots of spaghetti against the wall.” And sometimes, some of it sticks. When that happens, we move forward on that particular project.
For example, months ago we were developing a show Nurse Dave with comedian David A. Arnold, while we were developing A Series of Unfortunate People (S.O.U.P.) with co-writer, Beth Shea. But when DailyMotion.com jumped on distribution for S.O.U.P., we rolled forward with that. Once S.O.U.P. is in launch-mode, we shall return to Nurse Dave (and probably four other projects). This juggling act keeps things interesting, and options open.
When we’re editing for the web, it’s really painful to lose lines and jokes in the interest of making a five-minute piece. We daintily call it “killing our babies.” Sometimes we have to do that with projects as well, and acknowledge they’re probably just funnier in our living room. We’ve pitched some ideas to our manager that end up in the pile of crumpled papers on the floor. Other times, we begin developing something as a TV show, and then end up turning it into a webseries. Or turning a webseries into a feature film script. Staying flexible like this has helped open new doors instead of shutting down the project completely. And other times, we just slam the door and make it a memory.
A Series of Unfortunate People – Trailer by SeriesOfUnfortunatePeople
A Series Of Unfortunate People – Episode One… by SeriesOfUnfortunatePeople
Wow, Daryn. Thank you for portraying us accurately and being a joy to work with. We really appreciate your enthusiasm for what we do, and we hope to continue to keep you entertained!! Big hugs from the WorkingBug gals!