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Exclusive Interview With Classic Alice

Christina Vourcos
Oct 30, 2014
3 min read

I’m presenting an exclusive interview with the creator & lead star of Classic Alice today. I’ll be going back to my normal blog posts after this one but there’s a good chance that I might write a review and/or do an interview soon for the book, SILVERN, written by my friend Christina Farley. Just to let you all know.

FYI: NANOWRIMO is coming!

I want to thank Kate Hackett for her response to my interview questions. As you might tell, I tried to lean the questions towards writing for many reasons. I hope you enjoy the interview & check out the web series Classic Alice, if you haven’t already.

1. Where did the idea of this web series come from?

The concept came about because I was asked to do some hosting & I have no real love of hosting. So I asked the people who had approached me if they would mind a scripted narrative told in a format that bridged the gap from hosted YouTube show to programming by doing a narrative vlog.

2. Did the story idea change over time than originally planned?

Absolutely! Originally I wrote a ‘mockumentary’ style thing with loads of camera movements and OUTSIDE-ness. Then I had to scale it back.

4. How do you plan out all the transmedia writing to work with the videos?

Our Comikaze panel actually touches on this, but as a teaser: the bigger items I definitely planned out (the Ocelot Call articles about Keaton/Cara/Andrew, for example) but some of the more timely tweets and what not were done off the cuff. I do a big timeline (color coded!) and make sure that one of the threads is the transmedia element.

We plan a lot of it by sitting down and banging out the tweets/posts/etc. that follows the timeline I created at the very beginning.

5. How much input do the cast, crew, and fans input into the story line?

More now than they did before. Josh (director) helps me out if I get stuck writing, but he’s generally pretty go-with-the-flow about what books we do. Tony and Elise love contributing — because they helped craft these characters. Tony really took charge with the Pens vs Lens podcast, which is awesome and earned him a producer credit for it. They’ll both point out if something seems off or out of character or if it needs more depth. Generally, we try to be a collaborative set!

6. What do you suggest to someone who wants to write web series?

Do it! Do not wait. But also know that if you want to use it as an industry calling card, you HAVE to pay for sets, costumes, sound, lights, etc.

7. How do you choose which classic text to use? How does that factor into the overarching story you’re planning to do?

It’s pretty fluid — I just kind of pick a book that I think might fit and it usually does! Or, if it doesn’t, I go find a different book. Each book does add something to the larger story — Alice’s story.

11. How did the podcast(s) come to creation?

I’ve always wanted to do a Cara-podcast with music, so when Dana (transmedia producer) turned to me and suggested it, I said yes immediately. Then Tony asked if we could do a podcast about books and the movies that are created based on those books and I said “if you plan everything”, so we recorded with no outline and I nearly died because NO OUTLINE.

10. How long is this series planned so far?

We shot 24 episodes + confessionals over six days last July. I’d love to keep going, but that really hinges on a) how popular we are and b) how much money we can raise. We plan to do an indiegogo campaign in Jan./Feb. so keep an eye out for that and know that we are eternally grateful for your support!

12. What do you plan to continue to evolve the relationships as the series continues?