Being nice isn’t cool, and threads, jobs and where you’re seen are the most defining factors in a person. Welcome to Capital Culture.
The web series is the brainchild of sisters Virginia and Miriam O’Connor and friends Isobelle Walton and Martine Harding. The four also play the main characters in the series.
Willoughby, played by Martine, works in a cafe part-time but is focused on making it in the music scene.
Virginia plays Frankie, a Toi Whakaari drop out working in the film industry with an inflated ego about her work. Virginia has a Frankie line stolen straight from a friend's mouth: “I go to Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, drink sangrias with friends and collaborate.”
Each character has their one interest and strength but then are really spacey about other things. They are all really delusional about their own dreams and how talented they are.
Miriam plays Frankie's older sister, Lennon, a fashion blogger working at a vintage clothing store, calling herself New Zealand’s sartorialist, who says getting a photo taken by her is “an honour”.
And Isobelle plays Imogen, a mixologist who takes her Spanish heritage too far by pretending she knows Spanish but doesn’t. The character is inspired by bartenders in Melbourne Isobelle has worked with.
“Each character has their one interest and strength but then are really spacey about other things. They are all really delusional about their own dreams and how talented they are,” says Virginia.
Miriam is quick to point out they’ve made the characters over the top to grab attention and “we take the piss out of ourselves and other people.”
No one is safe from ridicule, they recently took a status update from a friend’s Facebook and put it directly into the script.
“Everyone needs to be able to laugh at themselves, we are laughing at ourselves” says Martine. Virginia adds “no one thinks they are that sort of person but they know someone like that kind of person.”
The idea has its roots in 2009 when the four were living in Melbourne together and would spy on a group of trendy Melbournites who would take a rabbit out for walks on a leash, have tea parties in the rain and hold massive Saturday night parties in their yard, where everyone would talk only in whispers.
Virginia says the group would spy on these “too cutesy” neighbours, imitate them around the house and write about their over the top ways.
Without any contacts in Melbourne, they sat on the project, then when they all ended up back in Wellington in early 2012, they started making fun of the local brand of hipster culture, deciding it was worth a web series.
The project really got rolling when they listed it on crowd source funding website PledgeMe and within a week they had reached their goal of $2000 from a mix of friends and strangers.
The four are prepared for some backlash, but Miriam says “we fail if we don’t try. We are the only ones who will have this footage and in 30 years’ time we can look back on it and crack up and show the kids we were fun and funny.”
They expect the first episode to be up YouTube early next month, however you can see a teaser here (warning: some of the language may offend):
This content is brought to you with funding assistance from New Zealand On Air.
