My Single Married Friend - web series
My Single Married Friend - teaser
Logline: Life can be surprisingly funny.
Length: 7 - 12 min.
Director: Rania Itani
Producer: Estefanía Sierra
Director: Rania graduated in Lebanon. She has worked in the industry as a creative writer & director. She is currently finishing her masters degree in Television and Cinema.
Estefania studied Cinema & Television in several countries. She has produced an award winning short film and participated in international commercials, film & video projects.
Looking for: Producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists and companies interested in product placement
Funders: So far none, we are currently in our crowdfunding phase hoping to raise the funds to finish season 1.
Made: Independently
Release date: Fall 2016
Congratulations! Why did you make a web series called My Single Married Friend?
One day we asked ourselves, why do women have a certain role when they get married or when they are single? Our life in Istanbul made us realized that this question also applies in other countries. There is a certain pressure for women and their role in society.
Feeling the disadvantages of being women in an international environment made us want to talk about these subjects in a positive way. And as foreign women, every day we faced hilarious lost in translation moments that we wanted to share with an audience at an international level because for us it is a way to connect cultures.
We made this series to have fun with the labels of society, and the awkward moments of adult life. Another reason was that we felt the need to create content that represented our points of view as Lebanese and Mexican women. We noticed that in many cases women, Latinos and Arabs are portrayed negatively in the media, so we decided to make a positive image from our point of view.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this web series?
Many series talk about married or single life, it sounds like something already seen, but this Web Series approaches the subject differently. It is set in Istanbul where you have a merger of cultures, religions, and opinions between east and west. We created a bridge between cultures to talk about the labels of society with a twist of comedy when it comes to life’s adaptation. All the main characters find themselves in situations in which they don’t quite fit in. Whether you are a newlywed, or a young entrepreneur, or a foreigner in a new culture, basically when you are 30 something and you are trying to adapt to life’s changes.
You should watch this series because it is a balance of women and men’s roles in society. This will be the first web series comedy made by foreign women in Turkey.
How do personal and universal themes work in your web series?
From our personal experiences we decided to approach two subjects that are global: being single and being married.
The director and me would always question the expectations from society of married and single life. We believe career oriented women and having children is something respectable and shouldn’t be frowned upon by society and it is the same with single women who aren’t married after 30, or the subject of choosing not having children, in all of these situations we favored not to label women nor men.
As well as tolerance and empathy for foreigners, as female expats we wanted to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of living abroad, a global experience.
How have the script and web series evolved over the course of their development and production?
It has evolved with the contributions with the people around us, specially our cast & crew, we are a very international team so we united our ideas on how to make this show better and what would be funnier.
We went through several formats and decided to have the most suitable format for all the information we are providing to the viewer because at one point one might feel like the story sounds too complicated, too mixed, so we tried to simplified it for the audience to make it the best experience.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Great feedback, especially from women expats in Istanbul, a very positive response. Life in Istanbul is very international so intercultural marriages are a common subject, and at the same times there are many students living here so both social circles were interested in the series.
Viewers in Turkey were also attracted to the series because the encounter of Turkish and foreigners have become a part of daily life in Istanbul. You can even see these comedy sketches in Turkish cinema, they constantly do a reference to a tourist in Istanbul to contrast the difference of cultures with a twist of humor, which is exactly what we are trying to do.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
We were surprised to see that Turkish men took great interest in our web series and found very funny the encounter of Turkish and tourists.
A touching surprise was an email from an unmarried girl from Rwanda (as she described herself in her email) that reached us to talk about My Single Married Friend. It is wonderful to make contact with girls around the world who identify with this content.
What are you looking to achieve by having your web series more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We want to reach out to more people, expand our audience. It would be insightful to have opinions from an audience outside of Turkey. We are also in our crowdfunding phase and we are hoping if people really like the project they could help us for season 1, even if it is by sharing our project on social media.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
The project is growing and we would love to meet with producers and buyers, to grow together. If you like our project and can think of any way you can help us produce it, please do not hesitate to contact us.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this web series to have?
My Single Married Friend has a profound social message for all audiences. We hope that people feel identified with our characters and laugh at their mishaps as single/married women in a foreign environment.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this web series?
There are differentiated opinions about marriage, I believe these opinions would trigger the first debate about My Single Married Friend and the role of women in society. Another topic that might cause a spark is the experience of life in Istanbul, the different points of view of a tourist and an expat are quite interesting.
Would you like to add anything else?
We hope we’ve pique the reader’s curiosity and we invite them to check our website and Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MySingleMarriedFriend
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
The final episodes of season 1, which has 13 episodes, and we are sending the pilot episode that we already produced to Web Series festivals around the world.
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If you enjoyed reading about 'My Single Married Friend' please check us out: www.wearemovingstories.com We embrace new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you are a filmmaker - we'd love you to contribute. More info: Carmela (cbaranowska@protonmail.com)