Interview with Whitney Beltrán - Tinker Kickstarter

I interviewed Whitney Beltrán about her upcoming work on Tinker, a steampunk web series production currently Kickstarting with a few days left. 

Tell me a little about Tinker - what's it about? 

Tinker is a steampunk adventure themed web series show. It is about a father-daughter duo, Sho and Kimi Tinker, who are savvy inventors in Victorian era alternate history San Fransico. Sho has built a reputation for himself as an incredibly clever engineer, and Kimi is a sort of genius tomboy. Together, they are swept up into a world of intrigue and turn of the century Machiavellian power struggles as old empire and emergent capitalistic entities fight over resources and technology.   

Their adventures range all over, from their native San Fransico to Hong Kong to the British mainland. There are air ships and giant robot fights and organized brothel gangs, spies, assassination attempts (and successes!), romance, action, and needless to say, a lot of danger. There is never a dull moment in Tinker.

What do you think is the most interesting part of Tinker?

I'm biased. I will always go gaga over the costuming on a project like this. Our costume designer is extremely talented and is currently putting the finishing touches on a hand tooled leather corset that is to die for. I basically want to run away with it. However, in reality, probably one of most interesting things about Tinker is its exploration of morality in the face of Western expansion and globalization. Tinker does not take itself too seriously. It's more of a romp than a thinker, but the undertones are there. 

How did you get involved in Tinker?

Well, I tend to have my fingers in a lot of cookie jars. I was NPCing for a LARP that was going on as part of a fundraiser benefit that an education non-profit, Seekers Unlimited, was putting on in L.A. I made friends with one of the other NPCs, who happened to have a role onTinker. At the time they were looking to fill a number of roles, so she arranged for me to visit the studio. I read some sides for the producer, and I landed the role of Elmira Perkins, who happens to be one of the nefarious spies!  

Do you enjoy working on indie productions? If so, why?

Absolutely. I do a lot of script work and setting development as well as acting, and big Hollywood is awful about crushing creative sovereignty. At the major production houses pretty much everything is decided by a committee of business school graduates. It's very frustrating. Working with smaller studios is more like working with a family, and negotiating with creative ideas becomes a lot more enriching.    

Do you think the diversity of Tinker is important? Do you think it was a conscious choice?

The racial diversity of the cast of Tinker is off the charts. It's one of the things that makes me most proud of being a part of this production. I am of biracial Mexican-American heritage. I often struggle to find roles. It is common that the roles I am suited for call for white women. I constantly have to think to myself, "Am I white enough to get away with this?" Sometimes I am, and sometimes I'm not. Being on the set ofTinker is a breath of fresh air. I don't have to worry about the color of my skin and whether or not I stand out.

It's also really significant to me that the main characters are Asian and not white. It is the norm in Hollywood that racial minorities are relegated to supporting roles. This is especially significant because this is a steampunk production, which necessarily carries strong elements of imperialism and colonialism. It would have been really easy to stick with a homogenous cast. Instead, our executive producer, Micheal Taglianetti, insisted on a racially diverse cast. So yes, it was a conscious choice. 

What are you looking forward to most in the project?

I don't know if I should tell you this! There is going to be an episode that involves live zebras. I am really looking forward to hanging out with zebras. I've never gotten closer than being at the zoo before. I just hope they don't bite. 

Thanks, Whitney, for your interview and time! Go check out Tinker's Kickstarter if you want to learn more!

THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010-2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Systir Productions and 616

Today I have an interview with Systir Productions, a production team based in London. Amy and Victoria Howell are sisters and multi-award winning creators of 'The Syndicate' and '616', the latter of which is currently crowdfunding.


What led you to the film industry?

Vicky has worked in film and theatre for the past 15 years. In fact she trained originally as an actor, then got sidetracked into writing and later to directing, but we've both grown up on films of all types - watching horror from probably a much too early age(!) and had often gone over various ideas for stories, but there was a eureka moment whilst back at our mum's house for xmas 2008 when we just said 'we should do this!' Vicky had the industry knowledge and writing experience, Amy had the business experience and the ideas so it was an obvious next step.


What made you choose to work on a webseries?

We started with the intention of making films, to be honest, and the first project we wrote together was actually a feature version of the '616' concept. However, during the course of that script's development we became sidetracked into the story behind what became our first webseries, 'The Syndicate', which again we initially developed as a feature idea. When we wrote 'The Syndicate' back in 2009, there were very few webseries about, especially in the UK, but we did stumble across one which was made by the production team behind 'Torchwood' called 'Girl Number Nine' and this is what introduced us to the concept of webseries. The aspect that appealed to us initially was the ease of distribution and this is what gave us the idea of turning 'The Syndicate' into a webseries. Rather than being at the mercy of a distribution company to get your work seen, you just post it online and control the distribution yourself. And we're really glad we did that, as, if we had tried to release 'The Syndicate' as a traditional feature film we could still be sitting around now waiting for a distributor, while, by releasing as a webseries, it has now been seen by almost a million people, travelled to festivals around the world, won awards and put us in touch with Frostbite Pictures who we are now working with on producing '616'. So webseries have definitely been lucky for us!


What would you say is your favorite project you worked on, and why?

Your first baby is always special, so 'The Syndicate' does hold a unique place in our hearts. It has also brought us a lot of opportunities so we're also really grateful to it and to everyone who worked on it. We learnt a lot through making 'The Syndicate' as well - a baptism of fire in a lot of ways! - and '616' is definitely benefitting from that.


What is '616' about? What makes it worth backing?

'616' is a character driven, fantasy/horror webseries in the tradition of Buffy/Angel/Supernatural etc, albeit less glossy as we're British...! Although it follows in some very established traditions, with ancient evils, magic and end of the world stakes, the concept behind the story, the way this evil manifests, is, so far as we can tell, entirely unique. We've watched many a horror film in our time and we've certainly never come across it before, so that alone makes it worth backing! Like all the best ideas it's incredibly simple and you'll kick yourself when you find out what it is...!


How has your experience been as women in the industry? Do you find any impact on your success?

So far, we've been very lucky and haven't really experienced any overt prejudice or discrimination as a result of being female filmmakers beyond the odd "boys' club" mentality of the occasional crew member. For the most part our gender has been completely irrelevant and that's as it should be! We have been known to surprise festival programmers though as, with the nature of our writing, they assume we're male...


What do you think is the biggest contributor to your success?

We don't give in. Making low and no budget projects can be like fighting bears uphill through treacle - it's hard work, it can be slow and frustrating and there is always something trying to stop you, from the weather to needing to pay the rent, but the trick is to just put your head down and keep going.



Thank you so much to Amy and Victoria! Good luck to them on the crowdfunding for '616'!



About Systir Productions

Systir Productions is an award winning production team, based in London, and consisting of sisters Amy and Victoria Howell. Amy is a writer/producer with a ten year background in project management and Victoria is a writer/director of over fifteen years experience. They began Systir in 2008 and their first project was a multi-award winning webseries, 'The Syndicate', which, due to interest from producers they have now developed into a feature script. The script placed in the finals of the Cascade Pictures Writers' Couch Initiative in December 2012; semi-finals of the Bluecat Screenplay Competition 2013 and was a finalist for the Bluecat Cordelia Prize for best British script. Systir have also produced three short films, two of which, '616' and 'Drawn Together' are live action/animation mix and still in post production - these are due to be finished by early 2014 to be submitted to festivals. The third, '6 Shooter', was made as a competition entry for the Frightfest/Shortcuts to Hell competition 2013.

As a result of taking 'The Syndicate' to webseries festivals in 2012, Amy and Vicky met up with Canadian webseries creator Ivan Hayden, who, with co-creators Jason Fischer and Kirk Jacques, was aiming to establish a webseries studio, Frostbite Pictures, to produce high end webseries content. Systir agreed to become the UK arm of Frostbite and are now working on their second webseries, '616', developed from their feature concept/short film of the same name. However, where the original concept was a B movie, effects laden gorefest, the webseries has been developed as a more mainstream, character driven fantasy/horror series in the tradition of Buffy/Supernatural/Grimm etc. '616' is a completely original horror concept, which has never been done - so far as we can tell! - and Systir are very excited to bring the concept to the webseries world. They are shooting just the first three episodes at present as pilot episodes with which they hope to generate production funding for a full series.

As well as writing, directing and producing their own original content, Systir also collaborate with other webseries creators and filmmakers. Most recently, they directed and helped production manage short film 'Leads and Follows', a love story set in the world of swing dancing, and award winning comedy horror webseries 'The Bloody Mary Show', as well as assistant producing short horror film 'Anna'.

Systir are currently crowdfunding for '616' and would love it if you could help them out! There are some great perks to be had, so please do follow the link and check it out.

For more information on Systir and their past projects please see their website where you can also watch their first webseries, 'The Syndicate'. You can also check out the trailers for their short films on the website or on their YouTube channel. If you're into social media - and who isn't these days! - follow them on Twitter -systiria and 616series - or Facebook - SystirProductions, TheSyndicateWebseries and 616series, or link up with them on LinkedIn.



THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.