2018 Vancouver Web Fest Interview: Katie Micay

BizBooks.net is pleased to showcase a few filmmakers participating in the 2018 Vancouver Web Fest.

In this interview, we talked to Katie Micay about Twentyfiveish.

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Can you start by telling us a little bit about you and Twentyfiveish?

Of course! My name is Katie Micay and I’m a writer/director. I’ve made several short films that have made the rounds on the festival circuit. My last film, The Firefly Girls starring Savannah Paige Rae (Parenthood), went to ten festivals last year and is now on Vimeo and Amazon Prime. Twentyfiveish is a web series and it’s my first push into the growing digital media world.

What should audiences expect from this web series?

Twentyfiveish is a five episode series that explores what it’s like to hit your quarter life crisis. It’s a time when suddenly your decisions hold a lot more weight. You’re expected to have answers, not questions. And your choices open up new paths and close others. But I also think people grow apart sometimes as they grow older and that can really hurt.

Our series is a slice of life dramedy that follows five friends who grew up together but have mostly grown apart, as they reconnect for one weekend and deal with who they have become.

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“I love festivals. I love to show my work and meet people.”

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What are the three most important ingredients for a successful web series?

1) Story. Always.

2) Cast. You’ve spent so much time crafting great characters; you want them to come to life. You want actors who get what you’re trying to say and are excited about the project. When you’re under a lot of stress and working on a tight schedule, you want to find the right actor for each of your characters.

3) Marketing. Online and in person. I love festivals. I love to show my work and meet people, but it’s also important to get my work noticed. Also, social media is such a big component to getting out there at the moment. A lot of my time is spent getting the word out on social media.

What books and authors have been influential in your career so far?

I absolutely love reading and I’m always on the lookout for a new book to get wrapped up in. I just finished Still Me by Jojo Moyes and I’m now onto The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn.

I love different genres. I mainly look for distinct voices. Liane Moriarty, Jojo Moyes, Ruth Ware, Celeste Ng and Kristin Hannah are some of the authors that I love right now.

I’m inspired by good stories and how the author tells them. I learn from each author as I create my voice in my own writing. Above all, I consider myself a storyteller and whenever I’m stressed out that something isn’t working in a script or in a cut, I remind myself that my job is to tell the story. That’s it. It’s pretty fantastic.

On the professional side: On Directing by John Badham, Directing Actors by Judith Weston, and Save the Cat by Blake Snyder are some of my favorite books. My copies are heavily highlighted!

What other projects are you working on right now?

Ultimately I want to write for television, so I have been spending most of my time writing a couple of spec pilot scripts. However, I have been itching to make a new project.

This past week, Kyle Bown (Co-writer, Twentyfiveish and The Firefly Girls) and I started a pitch document for a new web idea that we’re very excited about. I can’t say much about it at the moment though!

Where can we find out more about you?

I have a professional Facebook page that I keep very up to date. All of my previous work (and the Twentyfiveish trailer) is on my Vimeo page.

Facebook: @katiemicayfilms

Vimeo: Vimeo.com/katiemicay

If you’d like to learn more about Twentyfiveish, you have a few options: