DCTV Interview: Bandwagon’s Emma Caulfield, Camilla Rantsen & Karri Bowman

Perseverance and reinvention are some of the traits required for a successful career in the film industry. And while that is also true of web series, a web series creator also has to have some serious brains. Hence, why some of the smartest shows on any media are being created online. The writing, producing, acting trio of Emma Caulfield, Camilla Rantsen, and Karri Bowman may be blonde but they are wickedly clever, as evidenced by their satirical comedy, Bandwagon, which follows Emma (playing a satirical version of herself — you surely know her from Buffy, Beverly Hills, 90210 and a zillion other TV/film roles) as she helps launch an “Urban Glee” with Cold Case’s Tracie Thoms. Digital Chick TV Creative Director Daryn Strauss grabbed the gals for their opinions on being a smart actress, the art in improv, working with women, crowdsource funding, and building a digital empire.

Emma Caulfield

DARYN: So, one of my favorite things about Bandwagon is that the actress characters are not portrayed as being dim and desperate. They have issues, but they are generally the smartest and most successful characters on the show, which I dig. Was that intentional, or did it just come out of the improvs?

CAMILLA: We always wanted to stay close to who people really are, otherwise it’s simply not funny. I think we have all always been very committed to humanizing extreme behavior. I think that there is something in all of the “actresses” that we can all relate to. Wanting our situation to change, desperate for something new and when a short cut presents itself we take it and for us, that’s where the comedy is. That we have actresses and actors who are willing to go out on a limb, is a huge gift. There are times that Karri and I will come up with something and then we have to check with an actor to see if that is close enough. We will take a certain part of personality and just turn the volume up full throttle.

KARRI: As the director, it’s important to me to keep the tone of the piece clever, witty and satirical. Making the actresses dim-witted is not funny. It’s boring and obvious. We all have a similar sense of humor so it’s very easy to keep everyone on the same track in regards to the humor of the piece. We like to keep things multi-dimensional and feel more real, which is why people enjoy the “awkwardness” of Bandwagon. It’s awkward because it COULD be true. Even truly dumb actresses aren’t as obviously dumb as they are played on television and in films. It takes a minute to figure out how dumb they really are.

EMMA: I think it would have been too obvious a choice to play Emma as dumb, though trust me, I could’ve pulled from many real life examples. Having said that, Emma thinks she’s smarter and more aware than she actually is. If Karri or Camilla had come to me and said, look dude, we see Emma as a full blown moron I would’ve said, it ain’t going to happen. But that conversation would never take place because we all share a similar vision of the show and for who Emma really is.

Emma Caulfield & Tracie Thoms

DARYN: On Bandwagon, there is a mix of totally fictional characters and actresses playing fictionalized versions of themselves. Is the writing and acting approach different when the character is “real” as opposed to a fictional character?

KARRI: The actors playing fictional characters have a little more room to be as ridiculous as they like in their “reality” – which they invent themselves. People playing themselves have to stay within the “reality” of their real lives and what people already know about them. So there are a little more boundaries they have to play within.

EMMA: For me there is no difference in terms of how I approach fulfilling my agenda for the scene. But if I have more history with an actor real or not, the scene will have more magic in it… You know which buttons to push, you know what I mean?

CAMILLA: I think that the fictionalized characters become both catalysts and consequences to the “real” characters.

DARYN: Urban Glee… how was this little piece of genius born? And have any of the Glee fans discovered your show yet?

EMMA: I think we all take credit of this one. Like so many gems on the show, hilarity comes from bouncing ideas off of each other. We needed Tracie and Emma to have a cause and this is what we got. And I believe Amber Riley is a fan. “The one black girl” as Jim Cashman says. How brilliantly meta is that?!

KARRI: Well, Tracie [Thoms] was actually really talking about putting together some kind of Urban Glee for real. She was in talks with a couple of people about it actually. So we kind of took it and ran with it. Amber Riley and Kristin Chenoweth are fans of Bandwagon.

CAMILLA: Tracie wanted to do something similar to that and when we were beginning to re-think the film as a web series, we immediately started to think of another season and it was simply a natural evolution.

DARYN: Will you be releasing behind-the-scenes footage online?

KARRI: Probably. We’re still trying to get this season completely shot!

EMMA: I have no idea… Probably. We should.

CAMILLA: We should… Epic.

Karri Bowman and Camilla Rantsen

DARYN: Let’s talk about this digital empire you’re building! I believe you have three projects in the works at this point, right? Some multi-platform. What led you to work in digital media?

KARRI: Emma and Camilla are all about the digital media world. I am working on a couple of scripts that I’m hoping to get funded and shot. Of course, we want to keep the next season of Bandwagon on the web.

EMMA: Camilla and I have Contropussy, Bandwagon and now Ripped. If I could somehow figure out a way to have 10 projects running with her I would. It wasn’t my intention to amass a new media empire but all three projects make sense as digital products and as vessels for our cluttered brains. Building content on the web is the only way I can think of to create an audience while maintaining control over your IP. If a television network wanted any of these projects, they would have to approach the project as pre-existing content. After spending so many years being this industry’s bitch, I relish having my own content and the power that comes with that. I will never give that up.

CAMILLA: Emma and I have a couple of other projects on the web. We will have more. It’s a new world for me, as well. But I love the format. I always love a new challenge. Just as much as I love the “regular” TV pilots that I am working on or features. I think every format presents a new path and new boundaries and any medium is somehow always informed by another. I think digital media was just a natural progression. I care about telling good stories. No matter what media I’m dealing with. My favorite special effect is great characters and kick-ass dialogue. The fact that we get to do this on a multi platform level? Well, it’s almost too exciting for me to even think about.

Tracie Thoms, Camilla Rantsen & Emma Caulfield

DARYN: I always get tons of questions on how to finance digital projects. You have used crowd-source funding to mucho success more than once! In fact, with the new project, Ripped, your Kickstarter goal was $7,000, and you raised over $21,000. How did that happen?! And how has the increased funds changed your production plan?

KARRI: That’s an Emma and Camilla question!

EMMA: I have no idea how it happened. I am quite fortunate to have a loyal fan base and that right there takes us a long way. With Ripped I lived, breathed, and slept Kickstarter… constantly trying to come up with new ways to whore myself out for cash. With each passing monetary goal, I was like, more more more!! How big can we get?? The additional money helped us afford our illustrator Christian Meesey, whom we first collaborated with on Contropussy. His rate had gone way up, a factor we had not planned on when we were asking for the original $7,000. In fact everything was more expensive than we thought so the additional money was a welcome gift. Nothing has changed though with the production plan. It will start online as a graphic novel, there will be a limited run of the online content in book form, and then sell it as a show. Now if we had a million dollars…..

CAMILLA: We are still moving ahead as planned. We are always on a schedule. The three blondes run a tight ship. On ‘Ripped” we are working with people we have worked with before. Christian Meesey illustrated our first venture “Contropussy.” It was really important for us to work with him again. He speaks Emma and Camilla shorthand. Very impressive. Right now we are actively working on getting the right financing model for the next season of “Bandwagon.” We realize that we have something good and we really want to live up to what our fans expect of us. Their excitement for the show has made us even more eager and has pushed us into what I think are really great story lines.

DARYN: Lastly, I don’t know if you gals saw this, but some stats were released about the percentage of women writers and directors working in television, and the numbers are kind of a bummer. What’s it like working with so many women?

KARRI: Women are slowly moving their way up. It’s a tricky world. Men have more power positions and aren’t interested in losing them to women. Just as any social minority moves up in the ranks, it takes a while. We are moving up slowly but surely. The more worldwide successes women have – like BRIDESMAIDS and SEX AND THE CITY – the more doors open…. We just have to keep pushing forward and doing things that are good and on par with anything men are doing. We are funny. We are clever. We don’t always have to write about relationships and babies. Women need to realize they have other things to talk about as well. And talk about them.

EMMA: Don’t get me started on the gross inequality that exists in this industry. There are so many talented female creative minds out there who get ignored in favor of a man who often times has no talent at all. I should secretly film a pitch meeting with me and Camilla. There is this good old boy mentality that shocks me every time i encounter it. I would never suggest that a company hire a woman with an inferior product to just to serve a quota or for the sake of public relations, because the product would suffer and in turn so would the audience. But with all things being equal, more women need and should be hired. As far as working with so many women on this, that fact hasn’t really entered my mind. I didn’t set out to work with women in some attempt to rail against the Hollywood boys club. But it happened and here we are making smart, edgy material that is appealing to both sexes. Yes the principle cast is women but it’s not a “women’s show”. It’s a good show. Period.

CAMILLA: I haven’t seen the stats you’re talking about. Oh, no! I work with some amazing, strong, smart and fearless women in television and in new media. I was hoping there would be lots of lots of them! What’s it like to work with so many women? It’s fun. Plain and simple. Having said that, I’m also working with some pretty kick ass men. I like female driven projects. I will do my part to ensure that there are more of those. But I enjoy both female and male driven. We don’t need to be so divided. So chick flick (or the male equivalent that rhymes — I’m not going to say it) with a good story, good characters and great dialogue — you will always have me at hello.

Latest episode below. A new episode of Bandwagon airs online at www.bandwagontheseries.com next Wednesday.