Kiwi Online Comedy Selected For Los Angeles Web Festival

Kiwi Online Comedy Selected For Los Angeles Web Festival

WELLINGTON, December 26, 2010 - Online comedy series 101 Dates has been selected for the 2011 Los Angeles Web Festival. Created by filmmaker Chaz Harris (The Shoe Box), several episodes of the self-funded series will be screened in front of a live audience over the three day festival to be held 25-27 March 2011.

101 Dates stars award-winning comic Sarah Harpur (NZ Comedy Guild Best Newcomer - 2009), in the lead role of Alice Chapman; a twenty-something woman from Wellington, New Zealand who takes her quest to find “the one” global through online video dating. The series brings to life some disastrous dates and a best friend with an outrageous wardrobe inspired by music artist Lady Gaga.

Writer/director Chaz Harris deliberately tailor-made the project for the web because “the immediacy, energy and reach of the internet and social media gave 101 Dates the potential audience reach that other mediums could not”. The series also stars Emma Olsen as Alice’s fashion fast-forward best friend and Jacob Rosevear as her shy next-door neighbour.

Describing the event, Founder and Executive Director of LAWEBFEST Michael Ajakwe, Jr. says, “The web series is the most exciting form of visual entertainment since television. It is truly a people’s medium and some people are making some really cool shows on the web. LAWEBFEST wants to showcase some of these gems and hear from the resourceful people who are making them”.

101 Dates was supported by a number of New Zealand businesses including coffee chain Mojo, the Quest Atrium apartments and New Zealand’s premier news site Stuff.co.nz. New Zealand rock act Supermodel provided theme music from their debut album due for release in early 2011, produced by Greg Haver (Opshop / Manic Street Preachers).

Episodes of 101 Dates are 5-8 minutes long and can be seen in full on the website: www.101dates.co.nz

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LAWEBFEST 2011

The 2nd Annual Los Angeles Web Series Festival is the first and only open-air web series-only festival in the world. LAWEBFEST, as it’s nicknamed, brings together web series from around the world and shows them before a live audience on the big screen over three-days at the Stage 52 Theater in Los Angeles 25-27 March, 2011.

The inaugural 2010 LAWEBFEST drew 2500 web series fans to Stage 52 over three days as fifty different web series were screened followed by Q & A sessions with each creative team.
A number of web series experts, studio and production company executives, independent producers, actors, and SAG and WGA reps participated in workshops and panel discussions. At the end of the festival, awards were bestowed on 28 shows spanning 22 different categories.

“We don’t care if you’re studio-financed, an industry veteran who’s just experimenting, an independent producer, or a Regular Joe or Josephine who doesn’t work or live in Hollywood but made something you’re proud of” says LAWEBFEST Founder and Executive Director Michael Ajakwe, Jr.

CHAZ HARRIS

Chaz Harris has worked in film since 2000 on the sets of several feature films and subsequently within the development team at Miramax Films in London. After moving to New Zealand and co-founding Seriously Entertainment in 2006, Chaz made a short film inspired by his father’s death called The Shoe Box which launched online at www.theshoebox-movie.com and screened on Rialto channel in 2009. The Shoe Box stars Annie Whittle (The World’s Fastest Indian), Nick Blake (District 9/Black Sheep), Ben Mitchell (Shortland Street) and Dame Kate Harcourt. Chaz has spent the last few years independently developing several feature film and new media projects and also blogs for news website Stuff.co.nz

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