November 18, 2019 • 42 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Side Hustlers podcast. I'm your host from
my heart Radio Carla Marie. You may know me from
Instagram at the Carla Marie. You may listen to my
morning show, The Carla Maurie and Anthony Show on one
or six point one. Kim in Seattle you may know
me from Elvis Duran in the morning show. I don't
really know if there's anywhere else you could possibly know
me from, but Hi, thank you for being here. However
(00:21):
you got here, I appreciate it very much. Oh you
could have heard an add on another podcast. I appreciate
you no matter how you got here. So thank you
for checking out Side Hustlers. This is a passion project
for me because I found out that there's a whole
world of people who are following a passion outside of
their day job. These are people who are working extra
hours just for something that they love. And I've been
(00:43):
doing this podcast for almost two years now, and every
single person I've talked to has such determination and drive.
It's kind of addicting and inspiring. So if this is
your first episode, go back and listen to them. You
can listen out of order. There's no threat that you
need to follow but these people are super inspirational and
(01:04):
these two guests this week are no different. I've got
Page Henderson and Nicole Murray on the podcast. They are
the creators the stars of Dead Friends. It's a web series,
but it is a full blown show and I am
obsessed with it. And to see what I'm talking about,
you can go to Dead Friends web series dot com
or just search Dead Friends Web Series on YouTube subscribe
(01:26):
to their channel. That's how you could watch everything. There
are two badass women in their twenties following their passion
with day jobs. So let's learn about their side hustle
for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait?
Do you know what you want to do? And this
is something you want to do? Do it. I'm a
hustle side side hustle do it. I'm a hustle hut
(01:48):
do it. I'm a hustle hustlove. Come on ask about
me you don't. It's the Side Hustless podcast we call
the Roof. Joining me from l a our Page Henderson
and Nicole Murray. Hi guys, Hi, So I'm having a
mini fan girl moment because I've watched your entire web
(02:10):
series Dead Friends, and I was like, oh my god,
I can't wait to talk to them. But I had
never seen either of you in real life or on
video other men as actors in the series, and now
I'm looking at you on FaceTime and I'm like, oh
my god, it's them. Yeah, you're real, exactly like our characters.
So well, and I noticed that you are in the room.
(02:33):
I'm thinking that is Mel's room page. That's who you play.
So I feel like I'm a part of the series
right now. It is fashbacks, and I know I really am.
So let's talk about Dead Friends, and I mean web series, Yes,
that is what it is. But it's a show, you know.
I don't want people to be like, what is a
(02:53):
web series? Because that's a word that's thrown around. You.
Guys had a show, you filmed, you were in a show,
you edit, you did all that. We're going to get
to it, but explain what Dead Friends is because I'm
gonna trust you guys to explain it better than I will. Sure. Yeah,
Dead Friends is, yeah, a web series, a new media
show if you will, that Nicole and I both created.
(03:15):
And it's about a girl named Mel who I play,
who moves in with her new roommate Keely who Nicole plays,
and Keely is obsessed with this guy she knows that died.
She's Bence set there and love and dating even though
he's dead. Mel is like I moved into the wrong house.
Until the dead guy appears to Mel and it's like, yo, dude,
(03:36):
you gotta help me. That girl's obsession with me is
stabbing my soul from moving on in the afterlife, which
is such a cool concept. Where the hell would you
guys come up with this idea from our weird mind? Yeah,
we kind of when we lived in our last place together,
(03:56):
we kind of joked we had a ghost. Um, little
things would happen, like a towel would fall off the
rack and page is always good. Should always be like
thank you. I think I figured you should make friends
with ghosts. If you do have a ghost hunting your apartment.
I would always be like, oh, thank you so much.
I needed to dry my hands. Yeah, exactly, just trying
to help out. They just want some homies ex actually,
(04:19):
so we're kind of spit firing about that about like
the interactions between humans and spirits, and this idea came
to mind of like there's some people hanging out their
house chilling and like maybe they see a little flicker
of a light or something, and then you flash to
this like spirit world view of the spirit like screaming,
trying to get as much attention as they can help me.
(04:41):
They're banging on stuff, throwing stuff around, and then you
transfer back to the human world where the person like
maybe notices a slight breeze and it's like, huh, it's
just that how you guys thought about all of this.
It's just so wild to me. And the fact that
you guys just sat there and just took something a
little as a towel will fall off over and you
(05:01):
made an entire web series out of it. It's crazy
to me. How would you describe? Would it be a comedy, drama?
Is it a dramay? What is the genre that it
would fall into. It's kind of a dramedy. It's like
a buddy comedy. We can't say it's like New Girl
meets The Good Place meets Sabrina the Teenage, which a
(05:23):
little bit because we definitely touched on a lot of
heavier ideas, the idea of death and everything and moving on,
and there's a lot of self acceptance and friendship and
what that means. But it's definitely also kind of a
quirky buddy that focuses on this group. No, but you guys, yeah,
you do hit on real things in the series. And
(05:43):
by the way, if anyone wants to go watch it,
which I highly recommend, you can actually find it at
dead Friends web series dot com. But you two obviously
are on this podcast because your side hustling. So let's
talk a little bit about your day jobs, and then
I want to get into how the hell you find
time to write an act in a show, so page
you can go up first. What is your day job?
(06:05):
I work for an advertising agency. I'm a media coordinator,
so I basically deal with traffic, a lot of the
admin stuff, send just a you know, a lot of emails.
Do you work from home? I do? Yeah, I work remotely,
which is amazing as an actor living in l A
that flexibility, although sometimes my work creeps up on me
(06:27):
and I'll be up till four in the morning. Thing like,
sometimes I wish I had that nine to five where
I had to get and Nicole, what is it your
day job? So I work a nine to five out
of renewable fuels facility. It's just that's so different than acting.
That's why it's like my bodling to me. Well, it's
nice because I came from a science background. When I
(06:47):
was at U dub I was a biology major and
I worked in allowed there for a while, and so
this is kind of a cool combination for me of
seeing science being done and then also kind of being
in this corporate setting where you're also seeing where the
science goes and the sustainability aspects. I love it. So
then Nicole, you went to you dubed for biology? Is
that what you like always wanted to do? Or where
(07:10):
did acting come from in this whole thing? So I
was always interested in acting, doing plays and stuff all
throughout school, but science was definitely my like tunnel vision
passion for the longest time, and still love it so much.
I graduated with a biology degree and was working in
the laboratory and again loved it. But there was a
part of me that I was like, I just I
(07:31):
just know I have to do some acting. So I
started going out for auditions in Seattle, and when I
was doing that, um and I got a couple. I
just felt so complete and so whole. Thanks and kind
of just got this notion that if I'm going to
do acting, I should do it now full force. Let's
move to l A. We're good. What did your family
(07:52):
think when you were like, I'm going to l A
to do acting and they're like, you just did a
whole biometer why. I know. The funny part is they
actually weren't that surprised because they could see in me
all along that I always loved it, and they were like,
and I mean, you're like decent at it. I don't know,
let's see what you do. Let's see what happens. You're
(08:13):
not the worst, I mean, all right, So the two
of you went to University of Washington here in Seattle.
I'm assuming that's where you guys met. No, actually, okay,
tell me how you guys met then. Yeah, So we
actually we graduated the same year from you dub and everything,
but we actually separately had decided to move to l A.
(08:34):
And we both were doing one last short film before
we moved down here, and so we met on a
short film set up in Seattle a month before we
both had already planned to move down and it was
kind of like, oh, yeah, I'm moving to l A
in a month. I'm moving to l A in a month.
That's the roommates because we don't know anyone. So you
were both planning on moving to l A within a
month and having your living plans. Yeah, this is great. Yeah,
(08:58):
I mean it worked out. Yeah. We met up like
one time for a happy hour in Seattle and just
be like I was as soon as she said that
she was moving now and I was like, cool, were roommates.
It's done. That was like, I gotta play a chill,
gotta pretend like I don't, which is a little opposite
of your character in Friends. It's actually more of Nicole's
character in Dead Friends. We're in Washington? Are you both
(09:21):
actually from Washington? Yeah? Where I'm from Port Orchard, South
sound sweet and I'm from Maple Valley. Awesome. So if
you guys are ever back up here, we gotta hang out.
We gotta do something. How did you guys find time
with your day jobs too? I guess first, how did
you find time to write this whole series? Something that
(09:41):
really worked well for us was like we both had
this common goal of that we wanted to create our
own content. But then we're both like, okay, we are
going to sit down make meetings of us having these
writing sessions. We're gonna go somewhere else and we're gonna
treat it like it's a meeting with someone in the
and not we have to hold each other accountable and
(10:03):
not just um let it slide because we were hungover
one day. Yeah, I don't know if we I don't
know if we ever canceled the writing session, because as
soon as we canceled one just because I don't feel
like it, it was kind of going to just go
downhill from there. No. I have related that so much. So.
I have a morning show in Seattle, but it started
(10:23):
with a podcast originally, and my co host for the
podcast is now my co host for the morning show.
But are same exact thing when we started six years ago.
At this point was let's do this for real. Let's
treat our podcast like it's an actual morning show. You know, email, website, meeting,
stuff like that. And it's the exact same thing. Because
if you you dressed for the job you want, really
(10:45):
it's the same idea. And it's smart on you guys
for doing that. But me not being in the world
of writing for a series, what does a writing session
like when the two of you sit down, like what
how do you do? Are you sharing a computer? Is
one person dictating things? Like what does that actually like?
I guess I was gonna say it kind of varies,
but it didn't really vary that much. I guess. We
(11:05):
had a plan for the series. We kind of had
a general outline of what each episode was going to
be in with the arc of the show and the
characters and everything, and that came from like spitballing a lot. Yeah,
we write an episode at a time, and generally I
was the one typing, actually mostly just because I had
used Celtics before and I was like, I just I
just want to be typing. Yeah. I was just like,
(11:27):
it is like a free online I mean it's free
for you like your first three scripts or something, but
online scriptwriting software so that it's in the format of
the script and not you know, word word. Yeah. But
it was cool because we found that we had such
a nice flow together. We'd be kind of you know,
so we had that outline that we were sticking to,
but we kind of start it's almost be rolling plane
(11:50):
a little bit to talk about what the characters were
going through, and we just throw out some dialogue and
we throw out some themes or some or like some
idea that we wanted to mold. And it was really
cool because even when we had times where we didn't
see eyed eye on what it should be, we worked
around it together and actually made a better product together
(12:11):
that was like a mold of what we both had. Yeah,
it real really nicely. It really was like not just
saying this because that's this is the political answer, but
it really was like a fifty fifty writing from from
the ideas to the to the dialogue. And sometimes we'd
say dialogue jokingly'd be like, it'd be funny if you
said this, No, we're not actually gonna put that in.
(12:33):
That's ridiculous, and then we touched it up. Okay, it's funny.
So the both of you play the two main characters
in the series. When you sat down to write, did
you know that was going to happen? Did you write
it almost thinking like this is me or that's her
a little bit? Yeah, Oh you say no, I was
gonna say that's what I mean, That's why we wrote it.
(12:54):
Were just going to my face was like yeah, because
we did write it to create our own content and
be able to act in that, but also I will
The reason it was like a little if you for
me was like we didn't like come in already with
like I want to be this kind of character. We
came in like this is kind of story. Oh, this
(13:17):
is more you, this is more me. Yeah, that's kind
that we did. The original reason we wrote this script
was just, yeah, to create our own content. But originally
we thought it was literally just going to be us
and like a couple of friends, and the world was
never going to see it. And then through writing it,
we just fell in love with the characters in the
world and just had so much fun. We were like,
(13:37):
we want to give this what it deserves and actually
make it a fully fledged, fully produced I mean, and
it is and it's incredible and I love it. But
you do have a full cast and crew. I mean,
how did you get all those people? How does that work?
Did your friends? Do you actually have to do auditions
for something like this? What is that? Like? Oh my gosh.
We felt so lucky because, for one, we have a
lot of really talented friends, and they have a lot
(14:00):
of really talented friends. So a lot of our cast
and crew actually came from friends, friends of friends, and
it was really awesome because we felt lucky in that,
like so many of us meshed so well together and
everyone brought awesome ideas, and we continually talked about how
the production is so much better because everybody brought in
(14:21):
this like new perspective and they weren't afraid to share it. Yeah,
and then and then we did um end up casting
doing auditions for the two male leads, UM for Jacob
Osborne who plays Chris, and she chased Michael Torrence, who
plays Fred. And that was a really amazing experience as well, because,
as noted, Nicole and I originally came from this as actors,
(14:43):
so first off, being on the other side that whole
process was incredible. And then also actually both of them,
the characters we envisioned when we and the people we
envisioned when we wrote them are different than the Chris
that ended up coming out and the friend that ended
up come out actually pretty different. And but just when
(15:03):
Jacob came into the room and when Chase came into
the room, we were like, whoa, that whoa, that's them,
even though that's not what we thought it was. So
it's really cool because they again, like Nicole said, like
brought this whole new life to it we never even expected,
and yeah, it was it was really it was really
cool to see. Yeah, I mean I would obviously have
no idea that that's because it is so when you
(15:24):
guys were shooting, what were those days like or weekends?
Like how did you shoot while having full time jobs?
I'll that check a tiny bit just in the prep
even too, because that happened a lot, Like we would
be working and then we would come home and we
would like be up till late at night prepping, and
then we were like, okay, so then when we're doing
these shooting days, we would like to have as much
(15:45):
time as possible, so we kind of did over a weekend.
That way, we both were able to take us as
little time off work because and then and then because
the first shoot was three days and the last shoot
was eight days, we didn't have to end up taking
a little bit time off. You make it work. We
we shot the first two episodes in October and use
(16:07):
that as proof of concept and then shout the rest
of it the May of this year over like four
days over a weekend and four days over a weekend.
So what is proof of concept? So that's kind of
like a smaller shoot, just getting out the idea of
the world you're trying to um get money to film later.
And so for us, it ended up being the first
(16:28):
two episodes because there's a bit of exposition there. There's
also like a great introduction of all four characters well
and the other characters as well along the way, and
so this proof of concept is kind of like giving
people a taste of what this world and this creation
is going to look like. And then we are able
to use that to get some people to help out,
(16:50):
get some sponsors and artists involved to make the shoot
even bigger and even better and really round out the story. So, Nicole,
you just said that you did the first two episode
to show how or how to get money for dead Friends?
How do you get money for a show when you're
shooting it? Like? Who funded this? I mean a lot
of it's really support from friends and family in order
(17:12):
to get resources. We U We also did end up
doing um a go fund me for the post production.
I guess it was Indie Go. It was Go Go, Yeah,
So that was incredible to see the amount of support
that came out for that. And again having those first
two episodes we actually didn't release wouldn't show the full
first two episodes, but we showed teasers of that to show, hey,
(17:34):
this is look at the quality we can make. And
it's not like you're going to donate and then this
will never see the light of day, Like this is
a thing we're making that And also like we reached
out to a lot of again, local artists, local musicians,
a couple of musicians in Seattle as well. Just having
everybody brings something on board, people who are really excited
to collaborate, and I think that helps a lot, with
(17:56):
people being excited and bringing resources and and us not
having to go out and pay for all these extravagant things.
And it's awesome, And it's awesome that you do have
the support of friends and family. I mean, anyone I've
talked to on this podcast, almost everyone will say they
couldn't have done their side hustle without the support of
friends and family. Or there's that one person in your
life that says, no, it will never happen, You'll never
(18:18):
be able to do that, and you use that as
the drive to get through it. So dead friends, Actually,
you guys want awards and you were accepted to festivals,
So tell me about how that works and what you
want and all of that. Oh my gosh, Yeah, we
feel so lucky about that. It was a really great
experience because we are accepted into six festivals, eight festivals
(18:38):
with the first two episodes, and it was great because
the ones we were able to attend, we saw such
an awesome, like audience reaction, a lot of really great feedback.
But then on top of that too, festivals gave us
best what series. That's incredible. Yeah, and beyond that, just
meeting all the awesome filmmakers that were there and again
(19:00):
hearing their inputs and like how excited they were to
see what we did. It was just all a really
great experience. And that was just what the first two episodes.
I'm sure that was like super inspiring and motivational for
you guys, like, Okay, let's go do the rest of them. Definitely,
and before before we went to our first festival, we
hadn't had anybody besides us really watched the first episodes,
(19:20):
like us and our editor and stuff, which is maybe
not like the best thing. I definitely like screen it
with people who don't, you know, to like work at
the Kinks, but we didn't really have time. We're just
so yeah that that first experience of sitting in a
room being like, oh god, I hope people like this
was and they did. That was one of the on
(19:40):
the festivals won Best Web Series. So you guys obviously
used your where you live to shoot because I recognized
the room. Where else did you guys shoot? Because I
feel like a lot of it was at your apartment
where you are in the series, but I think it
was it was at a bike shop that your character
worked at page Yeah. Yeah, So, like Nicole said about
the co operating UM, we I mean, we love that
(20:02):
aspect of filmmaking um and we wanted to bring that
into not just crew and and cast, but also supporting
local artists and local businesses. Were based in Highland Park
neighborhood in l A. And we love this neighborhood actually
feels like more like Seattle Arrest of All. It's like
a little bit March Show. And you know, we can
do a mountain from our house. Yeah, I mean mountain
(20:26):
all right. Yeah, And so we just actually went door
to door in our neighborhood seeing who we could collaborate with,
like literally door to door to business literally to businesses. Yeah,
seeing how we could collaborate with people and how we
could highlight local businesses or local artists in our web series.
A block is the place that where my character works.
(20:49):
It's a really awesome place. It's a bike cafe actually,
so it's a coffee shop and then bike repair shop
as well, and that's just like three blocks from my house.
That's tell who works there is really awesome and to
work on films himself, and yeah, let us let us
use the space. It was really really awesome. And then yeah,
my favorite taco trap in halland Park, so it was
(21:10):
a very exciting. That's really that you guys were able
to obviously incorporate local businesses, but just work with them
to collaborate on something. It's it's super smart. Did you
guys have a makeup crew? Like, who did the makeup?
Because because the for the if you're listening to right
now and you haven't watched Dead Friends, the Dead characters
are basically a blue color. But that's clearly makeup. It's
(21:34):
not post production. So how did that work? Oh my gosh,
we had such an awesome makeup artist. Her name is
Rachel Wagner and she's a friend of ours and she's
very talented. She also did her hair and the girls
make up, the Killeen males makeup in it as well,
and my elf ears in the Halloween episode. She joked
with us because she's she's really talented. She does a
(21:56):
lot of kind of like special effects sort of, so
she actually helped to even established this kind of great
blue that you see. She was the one who helped
us come up with that a reason. We were just like,
I don't know, maybe it's just like a great tiny dustine. Well,
and that's where so in the filmmaking, no budget, that's
where the one sleeve. So all of our spirits, our
(22:17):
ghosts have one sleeve that is cut off, and that's
kind of how you distinguished them. And originally Nicole and
I were writing it, we didn't think we were going
to have any money or anybody interested. So we were like, Okay,
what's a very easy visual way to differentiate spirits and
living people? And we went through a bunch of different iterations,
were like maybe, like and I'll just wear a feather earring.
(22:38):
Be easy, And then we were like, oh, if somebody
has only one sleeve, that's super noticeable. So originally it
was going to be that with no gray, which ended
up working out great because that ended that ends up
becoming a plot point and seeing how like an indication
of transition for the spirits, So it worked out. That's
really like, it's really cool to know that the one
(23:00):
sleep thing was just a thought because you guys needed
to be able to differentiate. I mean, it's so cool,
like learning the Yeah, that's incredible, and it's it's incredible
to see what you guys were able to create with
almost having nothing at first, like before you were funded,
before you knew you were gonna have a makeup artist,
before any of that, before you knew you were gonna
have businesses to work with you. What you made out
(23:21):
of literally it really was nothing in the beginning, and
then you were able to even grow and just work
with your surroundings. It's it's incredible and it's really smart
on the both of your part. So I commend you
guys for that because it's incredible. I said incredible a lot,
but I mean creativity comes out of limitation. So if
you had the world, it's you know, again that one
(23:44):
sleep part, which is genious. Let me tell but that
I mean, if we knew right away when we were
writing it that we'd have, you know, all the money
in the world for special effects, that never would have happened.
This is a personal question I don't really ask anyone,
but how old are you, guys? I'm twenty five and
I'm s so obviously very young. What is the end
(24:07):
goal for this? Are you both like I just want
to make it in Hollywood? I want to create series,
I want to be an actress, or do you want
to have your day job and do this on the side.
It's kind of funny because I think maybe I'm speaking
for us both here, but we we started out as
kind of just singularly singularly actresses, and then this whole
process and especially us like our teamwork, it has really
(24:29):
transformed into this production company that we're building and really
wanting to just continue being able to make films together
and getting these ideas out there. We really feel like
we have a lot to say that we can say
through film, and not only as actresses, but also as
storytellers and as directors and as producers. Specifically also with
(24:53):
dead friends, we're hoping to either get it picked up
into a full full series. You know, a full twenty
four minu episodes or be able to do a season two.
Our inspiration for that in for our production company are
a lot of you know, like broad City Pen fifteen,
I mean, Fleaback, all of those show runners who are
also in the in their shows, and particularly the pair
(25:16):
women women do um in comedy is like really inspirational
tests and so that's probably the ultimate goal. Definitely. I
mean you both did move to l A, so obviously
there is a passion. This is something you want to
focus on. Definitely. Yeah. Also definitely not not hoping not
to be a side hustle forever. Yes, definitely. Yeah, we
(25:39):
start that way and then we build. Yeah, well you
just said, Nicole that you have more ideas and stuff
you want to work on. Are you guys working on
something new already or is it a new season of
Dead Friends? If you can imagine this. We're kind of
multitasking a little bit here because because we have the
season two dead Ends written and we have multiple seasons
(26:02):
actually planned out in advanced but we're also like, okay,
because that's going to be a big undertaking, what can
we do that are some small things in the meantime
that are still like us put it on these productions,
productions testing our creativity acting. So we have a couple
of short films we're thinking of making coming up, in
addition to helping friends out with their films as well.
(26:23):
And then we're both also still actors. And Nicole shooting
a film this weekend, and I'm shooting a film next weekend.
You know me too, just shooting a film like you
guys are literally for the record, no one listening can
see page. But she's just literally flowing her hand around
like I got a film this weekend, okay now? And
(26:44):
yes it sounds so I also like being a transparent.
There was also like a very long time we're like, oh,
nothing going on working on Dead Friends. So it's not good.
October is a good October when you moved to l A.
October's when we shot the first two episodes of Dead Friends.
October's when I nonchalantly talk about shooting film November. Oh gosh,
(27:09):
well when we release Okay, okay, okay, I'm like wait wait,
I literally said to look, I'm like, what is the day?
What is happening? That's hilarious. Sorry listen, If you guys
ever need an extra who doesn't have to speak in anything.
I'll flight l I for ye oh my god. I
am in semester two of improv and that's as far
(27:31):
as I have gotten. Page. You've done improv? Right? Yeah?
Where are you doing improv? Jet City? I did some
classes they're cool. Yeah, when I was at you and yeah,
I do improv down here in l A. So it's
it's such a wild world. And I'm assuming the classes
that you do in improv help you. Does it help
you right? Does it help you act? Does it help
you do both? Yeah? Yeah, everything. As much as sometimes
(27:54):
I'm in my head with improv, it also helps you
get out of your head and realize that nothing you
know when you're writing, or like Nichola said, we spitballed
a lot. I think that came from you know, we
both have improv experience, and you know, just knowing that
nothing is wrong, it's a and just just going with it. Um.
It definitely helps because you didn't always go back and
(28:15):
edit it too. You can't always go back and edit
improv shows. You can't. That's not what improv is. No,
that's not how it works. So you both co founded
Spelt Dog Productions. That is your production company together. So
you've got dead friends under that. What else is everything
else you do going to fall under your own production company?
Because I don't know how this works. Yeah, so anything
(28:37):
that we do together will be like a spelt dog
productions in depor. So. I had a really fat dog
when I was little. Her name was Sally. We called
herself Style the fat Dog. She was half Chihuahua, half
Jack Russell. She was like the fattest thing in the world,
and she had she had a really big body in
a tidy head. So that's, oh my gosh it, that
(28:59):
is an incredible dog. Yeah. Yeah, So I found this picture.
She died when I was like a sophomore in high school,
and I found this picture a few years ago of
her just like at her saddest in her head looking
the smallest. I thought it was so funny. I would
set it as my screen background on my phone and
I'd be at bars like taking the people and I
(29:20):
like taking a guy or whatever. I'd be like, I
want to see a picture of my dog. I was like,
really fat dog, and then be like, oh, this be
like she's dead, really good, really good way to meet people. Yeah,
I'm single, but yeah, and so when we're trying to
come up with a name for our production company, that's
like I think the photo was just around or something
(29:41):
and thought about, you know, I was like, Sally should
be the logo of our production company because it's so
it's like the most ridiculous photo, and thought about fat
Dog productions. But there's actually already fat dog productions out there.
And so Sally sometimes when she was on, you know,
in her more lean days, my dad would call her
Seal sellis Felt Dog instead of Seals of the Fat Dog.
(30:03):
So you've got the production company, and I guess I
have no idea how this world works. So in order
to create what you guys are creating, do you have
to have your own production company? How Like what is
the point of all of that? And no, I mean
you can, you can create whatever you want. I think
it just gives you know, I think it gives like
a sense of direction, a little bit. You can a
(30:24):
sense too, of I mean, like we talked about earlier
with you know, giving ourselves and giving each other the
respect we would give to other people in this industry.
I think it's kind of along those lines. So it's
not we're two friends making a web series. It's okay,
let's make this production company together, and then where can
we go from with that? Yes, so respect to ourselves
(30:46):
enough to give ourselves at time. Yeah, it's like a
consistency thing as well as it's I thought it was
very directional and the fact that it's like we are
making something together and it's not just gonna be this series.
You know, we're gonna we are in this to be
making and creating together and providing ourselves a platform to
be able to also pursue a passion of acting. Yeah.
(31:07):
I think it's so smart on you guys. And it's
just two people who are just meeting you guys, like, oh,
they have their own production company. They're legit. Not that
you're not, but it just it's kind of like, oh, okay,
they're actually invested in this. They're just not doing things
willy nilly. They have a business. So I think it's
it's so smart on your part. Just now, when you
were talking, Nicole, I kind of collect I feel like
(31:27):
your character killy, like you really have to turn that
on a lot, like paid you are very much mel
and that demeanor, but are you am I wrong? And
that like even your voice is different. I feel like Nicole, Yeah,
and you are right about that. Okay, I do a
little bit higher of a voice. It's kind of yeah.
I like, I feel like I just jump into this
(31:48):
persona instead of sinking into it. The cool thing about
Kiley is she does have a lot of aspects that
are me. I think a lot of people who yeah,
know me and see her, they're like, Okay, she's got
this like bubbly nature, and she's excited about a lot
of things, and she just loves everybody. But yeah, I like,
turn that full force amos Like she's like a caricature
(32:11):
of you. Yeah, it's like like three no, I just
for that moment, I'm like, it doesn't seem like her.
Why And I was like, oh, because she's not like
any crazy roommate. So I caught my eye for a second. Thanks,
because it's just crazy normally. Yeah, not normally, though people
(32:33):
do often compliment me all my crazy eyes, so you
don't have you beautiful eyes sometimes she does. Okay, good
to know. Good to know. She's really intense and something
we whenever I have people in the podcast, I love
talking about how I got them on this podcast, how
we got connected, because connections as you guys have clearly
(32:54):
learned what you've just did. Making a web series are huge.
You know, you collaborated with so many people, So how
do you connect with people in this world? Well, for us,
Page that was your dad, and you don't know, you
don't know the story of how I met your dad,
and I wanted to tell it to you and how
this all went down. So I work for iHeart Radio
(33:14):
in Seattle, and like I said, I clearly have a podcast,
but I've been on several podcasts. I've had another podcast
for six years. So we were hosting a panel called
I Heeart Podcasts and it was with myself, my co
host from our morning show, Anthony, and two other people
from the company who are really on the world of podcasting,
whether it's building branded podcasts or clients working with clients,
(33:37):
and the audience of this panel, we're all people that
are I Heart Radio Seattle sales team or marketing team
work with one of those Page being your dad with
his company. So he was in the audience and we
opened up at the end for question and answer, and
he raised his hand and asked something about how how
would you go about promoting on a podcast? And I
(33:59):
started explain in and I said something like, well, what
did you want to promote? He's like, it's actually not
for me. It's for my daughter. She has her own
web series. I'm like, what that's me and he's like
and this is in front of the whole place, and
I'm like, well, what's her web series about? Just to
see like where it would like if I can give him,
like all right, that would be great on this kind
of podcast. And he's like he goes, well, it's called
Dead Friends, and I'm like, like that's all that and
(34:23):
I'm like on the battle like, oh I don't. I
was like okay, and he like kind of explained it,
and it was the cutest dad thing ever. Like the
whole moment. I was like, this is the sweetest, Like
this dad is out here in front of an audience
of people, like how do I get my like, how
do I get my daughter on this podcast? But she's incredible.
And then I chatted with him after it, and I
really like he is amazing and obviously that's how we
(34:45):
got connected, but it was just you're probably the first
person that I've met through their parents, So yeah, he's
the best. But he did I said, well, what is
her day job. He's like, well, she's actually working for
me and she's able to work remotely for my company.
And I was like, it's just it's incredible to obviously
(35:07):
have that support and you. I'm sure page know how
proud your dad is of you, but I could see it.
And I literally just met him that day, but I
could see him gloating and glowing and being so happy
for you and really believing in you and Nicole. I
don't know your family, but I'm sure they feel the same.
I think so my dad feels the same about Nicole too,
I'm sure. So there's at least that Tom and I
(35:29):
were buds. Have you ever thought about having your family
in any of your series or any of your shows? Uh?
Have you really have? Our families are all like all
of our siblings. I feel like my parents who are
just so like fun and people. It's kind of interesting,
(35:53):
Ethan like thinking about just building even a character off
of any of them. So even if we don't put
them in the series, maybe they'll be like an inspirt
like that. Yeah, Paide, you traveled the world after graduating college?
I did? Yeah? So I actually so I grew up
doing community theater, and I always loved acting and always
wanted to do it, but you know, never really feels
(36:14):
like something you can actually do. And then I went
to college and I like transferred a couple or just once,
but and I ended up at you Dub and I
ended up actually majoring in comparative literature with the focus
on cinema studies and then minoring international studies. When I
was there, I was like, Oh, maybe I'll be on
the other side of camera because that seems more like
a viable option, which is it's also just as hard,
(36:35):
you know, to make it as filmmaker. So when I graduated,
I was like, well, I don't really know what I
want to do, even though in the back of my
mind I knew exactly what I wanted to do. So
I traveled for a year and a half, which I
also like, that's my other big love in life is traveling.
Do you think that that traveling has helped you with
writing and acting? Oh? Yeah, definitely. I mean traveling helped
(36:56):
me with everything in my life, from practical wise to
you know, being in a country where you can't speak
the language at all and you get dropped off at
a place that you're you didn't expect to be dropped off,
and you're like, all right, I gotta use nobody's gonna
help me right now. I don't have WiFi or anything.
I just got to use all of my skills to
try to figure out, you know. But then also planning,
(37:18):
you know, like researching and planning where you're going and everything.
And then also with acting a percent, because acting is
all about stepping into somebody else's life and imagining yourself
in different circumstances. But the way that you can do
that is by finding your similarities with that character, with
those circumstances. And I mean, when you travel, you realize
how similar everybody. I mean you you love the differences
(37:43):
and celebrate the differences and that's why you travel and stuff,
but also realize how similar and everybody is. And it's
really great. I love traveling. Yeah, when you first told
me that you traveled, you had said and you said,
Nicole started working where Nicole started working. And then you said, yeah,
and I traveled, And then you said, I can you
can tell who they're responsible? One and that purpose shout
(38:04):
at you for being super responsible when you're chatting. Yeah,
there's always one. I'm glad to know I'm the responsible. Yeah,
well that's your title, just in case you didn't know that.
I think the two of your badass. I love that
you're females in an industry doing the work that you're
doing where there aren't a lot of females doing that
(38:27):
or at least getting the recognition for it. So I'm
honored to have you on this podcast. But I want
to give you, guys one last pitch. Why should people
go watch Dead Friends and support you guys? Because first
of all, by the way, it's free, everybody free. Number one,
people should watch Dead Friends. It's a great show. We
(38:47):
had so much fun making it and writing it, and
everybody involved in it their bite sized episodes, so anywhere
from five to twelve minutes, so you can watch the
whole You can binge the whole first season in sixty
seven minutes, which is less than a Game of Thrones episode.
On top of that too, the characters are just so
unique and the world is so unique, and it's a
(39:08):
really cool exploration of what you may think you know about,
you know, spirits in the afterlife and everything. We've kind
of toppled it on its head a little bit, so
I don't know, if you're someone who likes theories, you know,
check ours out. Definitely a good show for fan theories.
And I mean, even though we kind of created this
whole world, we also based it on a lot of
(39:30):
ideas and supernatural stuff. And it's very weird if you
like weird humor or normal humor. And we're also I mean,
for lack of better term, kind of a grassroots web series.
You know, we have we already have a lot of
pretty loyal fans, which is awesome. You know, we're in
new filmmaker, So the way that we've been getting our
word out is from word of mouth and people sharing
(39:52):
our little videos on Facebook or Instagram or sharing the episodes.
You can share the episodes because their YouTube videos. So
if you guys do end it, if anybody does end
up watching it and liking it, that's the biggest thing
that people can do to support us is share and interact.
We have, like we have a poll going right now
on our Instagram of if you'd rather have Keely or
Mel as a roommate. I mean, I'm gonna vote, and
(40:14):
I'm gonna vote Mel right now. Sorry Nicole, but that's
my vote, all right. That is a very very smart
thing to have people share. I mean that word of
mouth is the best kind of advertising, so we're going
to make that happen. I one sitting binged all of it.
(40:35):
I loved it. I'm a huge fan, I really am,
and I'm excited to support you guys, and when you
were these huge filmmakers, you know, having billion dollar box
office agends. Don't forget about the Side Hustlers podcast. Okay,
well this is our first podcast, so I mean, I
guess maybe you've done a podcast. People are, but I
assume that you haven't, you know, my free time. But
(40:56):
just okay, good, definitely not Yeah, No one shout out
to you too. You are awesome of killing it in
the industry as well. And thank you so much because
it's really nice when we all get to support each
other and each give each other a voice. Thank you.
I appreciate that, guy, seriously. Thank you. You always have
the people who listen to this podcast to help support you.
So if there's anything at all that you ever need
(41:17):
me to tell everyone to do, I will and I
will always support you guys. So thank you so much
for being on Side Hustlers. Hey, thanks for having us
so fun seriously, you're awesome. Yeah, thank you for listening
to Side Hustlers. You heard Page, you heard Nicole. Go
share Dead Friends. It's Dead Friends web series on YouTube.
You can search for it. It's on Instagram as Dead
(41:38):
Friends Underscore web series, or you can just go to
Dead Friends web series dot com to check out everything
they've got going on. Go support them, but share what
they've got going on. It helps them grow, It helps
them get better. Also, while you're at it, share those podcast.
Side Hustlers is my side hustle. It's my passion, it's
my baby. So if you share it and other people
(41:58):
find out about it, I appreciate it very much. You
can also rate and review the podcast that helps as well,
so subscribe to it to all the things. Please, thank
you very much. It's all free for you to do.
Thank you for listening to Side Hustlers. I'm Carla Murray.
You can find me on Instagram at the Carla Murray.
Until next week, keep hustling
This is the Side Hustlers podcast. I'm your host from
my heart Radio Carla Marie. You may know me from
Instagram at the Carla Marie. You may listen to my
morning show, The Carla Maurie and Anthony Show on one
or six point one. Kim in Seattle you may know
me from Elvis Duran in the morning show. I don't
really know if there's anywhere else you could possibly know
me from, but Hi, thank you for being here. However
(00:21):
you got here, I appreciate it very much. Oh you
could have heard an add on another podcast. I appreciate
you no matter how you got here. So thank you
for checking out Side Hustlers. This is a passion project
for me because I found out that there's a whole
world of people who are following a passion outside of
their day job. These are people who are working extra
hours just for something that they love. And I've been
(00:43):
doing this podcast for almost two years now, and every
single person I've talked to has such determination and drive.
It's kind of addicting and inspiring. So if this is
your first episode, go back and listen to them. You
can listen out of order. There's no threat that you
need to follow but these people are super inspirational and
(01:04):
these two guests this week are no different. I've got
Page Henderson and Nicole Murray on the podcast. They are
the creators the stars of Dead Friends. It's a web series,
but it is a full blown show and I am
obsessed with it. And to see what I'm talking about,
you can go to Dead Friends web series dot com
or just search Dead Friends Web Series on YouTube subscribe
(01:26):
to their channel. That's how you could watch everything. There
are two badass women in their twenties following their passion
with day jobs. So let's learn about their side hustle
for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait?
Do you know what you want to do? And this
is something you want to do? Do it. I'm a
hustle side side hustle do it. I'm a hustle hut
(01:48):
do it. I'm a hustle hustlove. Come on ask about
me you don't. It's the Side Hustless podcast we call
the Roof. Joining me from l a our Page Henderson
and Nicole Murray. Hi guys, Hi, So I'm having a
mini fan girl moment because I've watched your entire web
(02:10):
series Dead Friends, and I was like, oh my god,
I can't wait to talk to them. But I had
never seen either of you in real life or on
video other men as actors in the series, and now
I'm looking at you on FaceTime and I'm like, oh
my god, it's them. Yeah, you're real, exactly like our characters.
So well, and I noticed that you are in the room.
(02:33):
I'm thinking that is Mel's room page. That's who you play.
So I feel like I'm a part of the series
right now. It is fashbacks, and I know I really am.
So let's talk about Dead Friends, and I mean web series, Yes,
that is what it is. But it's a show, you know.
I don't want people to be like, what is a
(02:53):
web series? Because that's a word that's thrown around. You.
Guys had a show, you filmed, you were in a show,
you edit, you did all that. We're going to get
to it, but explain what Dead Friends is because I'm
gonna trust you guys to explain it better than I will. Sure. Yeah,
Dead Friends is, yeah, a web series, a new media
show if you will, that Nicole and I both created.
(03:15):
And it's about a girl named Mel who I play,
who moves in with her new roommate Keely who Nicole plays,
and Keely is obsessed with this guy she knows that died.
She's Bence set there and love and dating even though
he's dead. Mel is like I moved into the wrong house.
Until the dead guy appears to Mel and it's like, yo, dude,
(03:36):
you gotta help me. That girl's obsession with me is
stabbing my soul from moving on in the afterlife, which
is such a cool concept. Where the hell would you
guys come up with this idea from our weird mind? Yeah,
we kind of when we lived in our last place together,
(03:56):
we kind of joked we had a ghost. Um, little
things would happen, like a towel would fall off the
rack and page is always good. Should always be like
thank you. I think I figured you should make friends
with ghosts. If you do have a ghost hunting your apartment.
I would always be like, oh, thank you so much.
I needed to dry my hands. Yeah, exactly, just trying
to help out. They just want some homies ex actually,
(04:19):
so we're kind of spit firing about that about like
the interactions between humans and spirits, and this idea came
to mind of like there's some people hanging out their
house chilling and like maybe they see a little flicker
of a light or something, and then you flash to
this like spirit world view of the spirit like screaming,
trying to get as much attention as they can help me.
(04:41):
They're banging on stuff, throwing stuff around, and then you
transfer back to the human world where the person like
maybe notices a slight breeze and it's like, huh, it's
just that how you guys thought about all of this.
It's just so wild to me. And the fact that
you guys just sat there and just took something a
little as a towel will fall off over and you
(05:01):
made an entire web series out of it. It's crazy
to me. How would you describe? Would it be a comedy, drama?
Is it a dramay? What is the genre that it
would fall into. It's kind of a dramedy. It's like
a buddy comedy. We can't say it's like New Girl
meets The Good Place meets Sabrina the Teenage, which a
(05:23):
little bit because we definitely touched on a lot of
heavier ideas, the idea of death and everything and moving on,
and there's a lot of self acceptance and friendship and
what that means. But it's definitely also kind of a
quirky buddy that focuses on this group. No, but you guys, yeah,
you do hit on real things in the series. And
(05:43):
by the way, if anyone wants to go watch it,
which I highly recommend, you can actually find it at
dead Friends web series dot com. But you two obviously
are on this podcast because your side hustling. So let's
talk a little bit about your day jobs, and then
I want to get into how the hell you find
time to write an act in a show, so page
you can go up first. What is your day job?
(06:05):
I work for an advertising agency. I'm a media coordinator,
so I basically deal with traffic, a lot of the
admin stuff, send just a you know, a lot of emails.
Do you work from home? I do? Yeah, I work remotely,
which is amazing as an actor living in l A
that flexibility, although sometimes my work creeps up on me
(06:27):
and I'll be up till four in the morning. Thing like,
sometimes I wish I had that nine to five where
I had to get and Nicole, what is it your
day job? So I work a nine to five out
of renewable fuels facility. It's just that's so different than acting.
That's why it's like my bodling to me. Well, it's
nice because I came from a science background. When I
(06:47):
was at U dub I was a biology major and
I worked in allowed there for a while, and so
this is kind of a cool combination for me of
seeing science being done and then also kind of being
in this corporate setting where you're also seeing where the
science goes and the sustainability aspects. I love it. So
then Nicole, you went to you dubed for biology? Is
that what you like always wanted to do? Or where
(07:10):
did acting come from in this whole thing? So I
was always interested in acting, doing plays and stuff all
throughout school, but science was definitely my like tunnel vision
passion for the longest time, and still love it so much.
I graduated with a biology degree and was working in
the laboratory and again loved it. But there was a
part of me that I was like, I just I
(07:31):
just know I have to do some acting. So I
started going out for auditions in Seattle, and when I
was doing that, um and I got a couple. I
just felt so complete and so whole. Thanks and kind
of just got this notion that if I'm going to
do acting, I should do it now full force. Let's
move to l A. We're good. What did your family
(07:52):
think when you were like, I'm going to l A
to do acting and they're like, you just did a
whole biometer why. I know. The funny part is they
actually weren't that surprised because they could see in me
all along that I always loved it, and they were like,
and I mean, you're like decent at it. I don't know,
let's see what you do. Let's see what happens. You're
(08:13):
not the worst, I mean, all right, So the two
of you went to University of Washington here in Seattle.
I'm assuming that's where you guys met. No, actually, okay,
tell me how you guys met then. Yeah, So we
actually we graduated the same year from you dub and everything,
but we actually separately had decided to move to l A.
(08:34):
And we both were doing one last short film before
we moved down here, and so we met on a
short film set up in Seattle a month before we
both had already planned to move down and it was
kind of like, oh, yeah, I'm moving to l A
in a month. I'm moving to l A in a month.
That's the roommates because we don't know anyone. So you
were both planning on moving to l A within a
month and having your living plans. Yeah, this is great. Yeah,
(08:58):
I mean it worked out. Yeah. We met up like
one time for a happy hour in Seattle and just
be like I was as soon as she said that
she was moving now and I was like, cool, were roommates.
It's done. That was like, I gotta play a chill,
gotta pretend like I don't, which is a little opposite
of your character in Friends. It's actually more of Nicole's
character in Dead Friends. We're in Washington? Are you both
(09:21):
actually from Washington? Yeah? Where I'm from Port Orchard, South
sound sweet and I'm from Maple Valley. Awesome. So if
you guys are ever back up here, we gotta hang out.
We gotta do something. How did you guys find time
with your day jobs too? I guess first, how did
you find time to write this whole series? Something that
(09:41):
really worked well for us was like we both had
this common goal of that we wanted to create our
own content. But then we're both like, okay, we are
going to sit down make meetings of us having these
writing sessions. We're gonna go somewhere else and we're gonna
treat it like it's a meeting with someone in the
and not we have to hold each other accountable and
(10:03):
not just um let it slide because we were hungover
one day. Yeah, I don't know if we I don't
know if we ever canceled the writing session, because as
soon as we canceled one just because I don't feel
like it, it was kind of going to just go
downhill from there. No. I have related that so much. So.
I have a morning show in Seattle, but it started
(10:23):
with a podcast originally, and my co host for the
podcast is now my co host for the morning show.
But are same exact thing when we started six years ago.
At this point was let's do this for real. Let's
treat our podcast like it's an actual morning show. You know, email, website, meeting,
stuff like that. And it's the exact same thing. Because
if you you dressed for the job you want, really
(10:45):
it's the same idea. And it's smart on you guys
for doing that. But me not being in the world
of writing for a series, what does a writing session
like when the two of you sit down, like what
how do you do? Are you sharing a computer? Is
one person dictating things? Like what does that actually like?
I guess I was gonna say it kind of varies,
but it didn't really vary that much. I guess. We
(11:05):
had a plan for the series. We kind of had
a general outline of what each episode was going to
be in with the arc of the show and the
characters and everything, and that came from like spitballing a lot. Yeah,
we write an episode at a time, and generally I
was the one typing, actually mostly just because I had
used Celtics before and I was like, I just I
just want to be typing. Yeah. I was just like,
(11:27):
it is like a free online I mean it's free
for you like your first three scripts or something, but
online scriptwriting software so that it's in the format of
the script and not you know, word word. Yeah. But
it was cool because we found that we had such
a nice flow together. We'd be kind of you know,
so we had that outline that we were sticking to,
but we kind of start it's almost be rolling plane
(11:50):
a little bit to talk about what the characters were
going through, and we just throw out some dialogue and
we throw out some themes or some or like some
idea that we wanted to mold. And it was really
cool because even when we had times where we didn't
see eyed eye on what it should be, we worked
around it together and actually made a better product together
(12:11):
that was like a mold of what we both had. Yeah,
it real really nicely. It really was like not just
saying this because that's this is the political answer, but
it really was like a fifty fifty writing from from
the ideas to the to the dialogue. And sometimes we'd
say dialogue jokingly'd be like, it'd be funny if you
said this, No, we're not actually gonna put that in.
(12:33):
That's ridiculous, and then we touched it up. Okay, it's funny.
So the both of you play the two main characters
in the series. When you sat down to write, did
you know that was going to happen? Did you write
it almost thinking like this is me or that's her
a little bit? Yeah, Oh you say no, I was
gonna say that's what I mean, That's why we wrote it.
(12:54):
Were just going to my face was like yeah, because
we did write it to create our own content and
be able to act in that, but also I will
The reason it was like a little if you for
me was like we didn't like come in already with
like I want to be this kind of character. We
came in like this is kind of story. Oh, this
(13:17):
is more you, this is more me. Yeah, that's kind
that we did. The original reason we wrote this script
was just, yeah, to create our own content. But originally
we thought it was literally just going to be us
and like a couple of friends, and the world was
never going to see it. And then through writing it,
we just fell in love with the characters in the
world and just had so much fun. We were like,
(13:37):
we want to give this what it deserves and actually
make it a fully fledged, fully produced I mean, and
it is and it's incredible and I love it. But
you do have a full cast and crew. I mean,
how did you get all those people? How does that work?
Did your friends? Do you actually have to do auditions
for something like this? What is that? Like? Oh my gosh.
We felt so lucky because, for one, we have a
lot of really talented friends, and they have a lot
(14:00):
of really talented friends. So a lot of our cast
and crew actually came from friends, friends of friends, and
it was really awesome because we felt lucky in that,
like so many of us meshed so well together and
everyone brought awesome ideas, and we continually talked about how
the production is so much better because everybody brought in
(14:21):
this like new perspective and they weren't afraid to share it. Yeah,
and then and then we did um end up casting
doing auditions for the two male leads, UM for Jacob
Osborne who plays Chris, and she chased Michael Torrence, who
plays Fred. And that was a really amazing experience as well, because,
as noted, Nicole and I originally came from this as actors,
(14:43):
so first off, being on the other side that whole
process was incredible. And then also actually both of them,
the characters we envisioned when we and the people we
envisioned when we wrote them are different than the Chris
that ended up coming out and the friend that ended
up come out actually pretty different. And but just when
(15:03):
Jacob came into the room and when Chase came into
the room, we were like, whoa, that whoa, that's them,
even though that's not what we thought it was. So
it's really cool because they again, like Nicole said, like
brought this whole new life to it we never even expected,
and yeah, it was it was really it was really
cool to see. Yeah, I mean I would obviously have
no idea that that's because it is so when you
(15:24):
guys were shooting, what were those days like or weekends?
Like how did you shoot while having full time jobs?
I'll that check a tiny bit just in the prep
even too, because that happened a lot, Like we would
be working and then we would come home and we
would like be up till late at night prepping, and
then we were like, okay, so then when we're doing
these shooting days, we would like to have as much
(15:45):
time as possible, so we kind of did over a weekend.
That way, we both were able to take us as
little time off work because and then and then because
the first shoot was three days and the last shoot
was eight days, we didn't have to end up taking
a little bit time off. You make it work. We
we shot the first two episodes in October and use
(16:07):
that as proof of concept and then shout the rest
of it the May of this year over like four
days over a weekend and four days over a weekend.
So what is proof of concept? So that's kind of
like a smaller shoot, just getting out the idea of
the world you're trying to um get money to film later.
And so for us, it ended up being the first
(16:28):
two episodes because there's a bit of exposition there. There's
also like a great introduction of all four characters well
and the other characters as well along the way, and
so this proof of concept is kind of like giving
people a taste of what this world and this creation
is going to look like. And then we are able
to use that to get some people to help out,
(16:50):
get some sponsors and artists involved to make the shoot
even bigger and even better and really round out the story. So, Nicole,
you just said that you did the first two episode
to show how or how to get money for dead Friends?
How do you get money for a show when you're
shooting it? Like? Who funded this? I mean a lot
of it's really support from friends and family in order
(17:12):
to get resources. We U We also did end up
doing um a go fund me for the post production.
I guess it was Indie Go. It was Go Go, Yeah,
So that was incredible to see the amount of support
that came out for that. And again having those first
two episodes we actually didn't release wouldn't show the full
first two episodes, but we showed teasers of that to show, hey,
(17:34):
this is look at the quality we can make. And
it's not like you're going to donate and then this
will never see the light of day, Like this is
a thing we're making that And also like we reached
out to a lot of again, local artists, local musicians,
a couple of musicians in Seattle as well. Just having
everybody brings something on board, people who are really excited
to collaborate, and I think that helps a lot, with
(17:56):
people being excited and bringing resources and and us not
having to go out and pay for all these extravagant things.
And it's awesome, And it's awesome that you do have
the support of friends and family. I mean, anyone I've
talked to on this podcast, almost everyone will say they
couldn't have done their side hustle without the support of
friends and family. Or there's that one person in your
life that says, no, it will never happen, You'll never
(18:18):
be able to do that, and you use that as
the drive to get through it. So dead friends, Actually,
you guys want awards and you were accepted to festivals,
So tell me about how that works and what you
want and all of that. Oh my gosh, Yeah, we
feel so lucky about that. It was a really great
experience because we are accepted into six festivals, eight festivals
(18:38):
with the first two episodes, and it was great because
the ones we were able to attend, we saw such
an awesome, like audience reaction, a lot of really great feedback.
But then on top of that too, festivals gave us
best what series. That's incredible. Yeah, and beyond that, just
meeting all the awesome filmmakers that were there and again
(19:00):
hearing their inputs and like how excited they were to
see what we did. It was just all a really
great experience. And that was just what the first two episodes.
I'm sure that was like super inspiring and motivational for
you guys, like, Okay, let's go do the rest of them. Definitely,
and before before we went to our first festival, we
hadn't had anybody besides us really watched the first episodes,
(19:20):
like us and our editor and stuff, which is maybe
not like the best thing. I definitely like screen it
with people who don't, you know, to like work at
the Kinks, but we didn't really have time. We're just
so yeah that that first experience of sitting in a
room being like, oh god, I hope people like this
was and they did. That was one of the on
(19:40):
the festivals won Best Web Series. So you guys obviously
used your where you live to shoot because I recognized
the room. Where else did you guys shoot? Because I
feel like a lot of it was at your apartment
where you are in the series, but I think it
was it was at a bike shop that your character
worked at page Yeah. Yeah, So, like Nicole said about
the co operating UM, we I mean, we love that
(20:02):
aspect of filmmaking um and we wanted to bring that
into not just crew and and cast, but also supporting
local artists and local businesses. Were based in Highland Park
neighborhood in l A. And we love this neighborhood actually
feels like more like Seattle Arrest of All. It's like
a little bit March Show. And you know, we can
do a mountain from our house. Yeah, I mean mountain
(20:26):
all right. Yeah, And so we just actually went door
to door in our neighborhood seeing who we could collaborate with,
like literally door to door to business literally to businesses. Yeah,
seeing how we could collaborate with people and how we
could highlight local businesses or local artists in our web series.
A block is the place that where my character works.
(20:49):
It's a really awesome place. It's a bike cafe actually,
so it's a coffee shop and then bike repair shop
as well, and that's just like three blocks from my house.
That's tell who works there is really awesome and to
work on films himself, and yeah, let us let us
use the space. It was really really awesome. And then yeah,
my favorite taco trap in halland Park, so it was
(21:10):
a very exciting. That's really that you guys were able
to obviously incorporate local businesses, but just work with them
to collaborate on something. It's it's super smart. Did you
guys have a makeup crew? Like, who did the makeup?
Because because the for the if you're listening to right
now and you haven't watched Dead Friends, the Dead characters
are basically a blue color. But that's clearly makeup. It's
(21:34):
not post production. So how did that work? Oh my gosh,
we had such an awesome makeup artist. Her name is
Rachel Wagner and she's a friend of ours and she's
very talented. She also did her hair and the girls
make up, the Killeen males makeup in it as well,
and my elf ears in the Halloween episode. She joked
with us because she's she's really talented. She does a
(21:56):
lot of kind of like special effects sort of, so
she actually helped to even established this kind of great
blue that you see. She was the one who helped
us come up with that a reason. We were just like,
I don't know, maybe it's just like a great tiny dustine. Well,
and that's where so in the filmmaking, no budget, that's
where the one sleeve. So all of our spirits, our
(22:17):
ghosts have one sleeve that is cut off, and that's
kind of how you distinguished them. And originally Nicole and
I were writing it, we didn't think we were going
to have any money or anybody interested. So we were like, Okay,
what's a very easy visual way to differentiate spirits and
living people? And we went through a bunch of different iterations,
were like maybe, like and I'll just wear a feather earring.
(22:38):
Be easy, And then we were like, oh, if somebody
has only one sleeve, that's super noticeable. So originally it
was going to be that with no gray, which ended
up working out great because that ended that ends up
becoming a plot point and seeing how like an indication
of transition for the spirits, So it worked out. That's
really like, it's really cool to know that the one
(23:00):
sleep thing was just a thought because you guys needed
to be able to differentiate. I mean, it's so cool,
like learning the Yeah, that's incredible, and it's it's incredible
to see what you guys were able to create with
almost having nothing at first, like before you were funded,
before you knew you were gonna have a makeup artist,
before any of that, before you knew you were gonna
have businesses to work with you. What you made out
(23:21):
of literally it really was nothing in the beginning, and
then you were able to even grow and just work
with your surroundings. It's it's incredible and it's really smart
on the both of your part. So I commend you
guys for that because it's incredible. I said incredible a lot,
but I mean creativity comes out of limitation. So if
you had the world, it's you know, again that one
(23:44):
sleep part, which is genious. Let me tell but that
I mean, if we knew right away when we were
writing it that we'd have, you know, all the money
in the world for special effects, that never would have happened.
This is a personal question I don't really ask anyone,
but how old are you, guys? I'm twenty five and
I'm s so obviously very young. What is the end
(24:07):
goal for this? Are you both like I just want
to make it in Hollywood? I want to create series,
I want to be an actress, or do you want
to have your day job and do this on the side.
It's kind of funny because I think maybe I'm speaking
for us both here, but we we started out as
kind of just singularly singularly actresses, and then this whole
process and especially us like our teamwork, it has really
(24:29):
transformed into this production company that we're building and really
wanting to just continue being able to make films together
and getting these ideas out there. We really feel like
we have a lot to say that we can say
through film, and not only as actresses, but also as
storytellers and as directors and as producers. Specifically also with
(24:53):
dead friends, we're hoping to either get it picked up
into a full full series. You know, a full twenty
four minu episodes or be able to do a season two.
Our inspiration for that in for our production company are
a lot of you know, like broad City Pen fifteen,
I mean, Fleaback, all of those show runners who are
also in the in their shows, and particularly the pair
(25:16):
women women do um in comedy is like really inspirational
tests and so that's probably the ultimate goal. Definitely. I
mean you both did move to l A, so obviously
there is a passion. This is something you want to
focus on. Definitely. Yeah. Also definitely not not hoping not
to be a side hustle forever. Yes, definitely. Yeah, we
(25:39):
start that way and then we build. Yeah, well you
just said, Nicole that you have more ideas and stuff
you want to work on. Are you guys working on
something new already or is it a new season of
Dead Friends? If you can imagine this. We're kind of
multitasking a little bit here because because we have the
season two dead Ends written and we have multiple seasons
(26:02):
actually planned out in advanced but we're also like, okay,
because that's going to be a big undertaking, what can
we do that are some small things in the meantime
that are still like us put it on these productions,
productions testing our creativity acting. So we have a couple
of short films we're thinking of making coming up, in
addition to helping friends out with their films as well.
(26:23):
And then we're both also still actors. And Nicole shooting
a film this weekend, and I'm shooting a film next weekend.
You know me too, just shooting a film like you
guys are literally for the record, no one listening can
see page. But she's just literally flowing her hand around
like I got a film this weekend, okay now? And
(26:44):
yes it sounds so I also like being a transparent.
There was also like a very long time we're like, oh,
nothing going on working on Dead Friends. So it's not good.
October is a good October when you moved to l A.
October's when we shot the first two episodes of Dead Friends.
October's when I nonchalantly talk about shooting film November. Oh gosh,
(27:09):
well when we release Okay, okay, okay, I'm like wait wait,
I literally said to look, I'm like, what is the day?
What is happening? That's hilarious. Sorry listen, If you guys
ever need an extra who doesn't have to speak in anything.
I'll flight l I for ye oh my god. I
am in semester two of improv and that's as far
(27:31):
as I have gotten. Page. You've done improv? Right? Yeah?
Where are you doing improv? Jet City? I did some
classes they're cool. Yeah, when I was at you and yeah,
I do improv down here in l A. So it's
it's such a wild world. And I'm assuming the classes
that you do in improv help you. Does it help
you right? Does it help you act? Does it help
you do both? Yeah? Yeah, everything. As much as sometimes
(27:54):
I'm in my head with improv, it also helps you
get out of your head and realize that nothing you
know when you're writing, or like Nichola said, we spitballed
a lot. I think that came from you know, we
both have improv experience, and you know, just knowing that
nothing is wrong, it's a and just just going with it. Um.
It definitely helps because you didn't always go back and
(28:15):
edit it too. You can't always go back and edit
improv shows. You can't. That's not what improv is. No,
that's not how it works. So you both co founded
Spelt Dog Productions. That is your production company together. So
you've got dead friends under that. What else is everything
else you do going to fall under your own production company?
Because I don't know how this works. Yeah, so anything
(28:37):
that we do together will be like a spelt dog
productions in depor. So. I had a really fat dog
when I was little. Her name was Sally. We called
herself Style the fat Dog. She was half Chihuahua, half
Jack Russell. She was like the fattest thing in the world,
and she had she had a really big body in
a tidy head. So that's, oh my gosh it, that
(28:59):
is an incredible dog. Yeah. Yeah, So I found this picture.
She died when I was like a sophomore in high school,
and I found this picture a few years ago of
her just like at her saddest in her head looking
the smallest. I thought it was so funny. I would
set it as my screen background on my phone and
I'd be at bars like taking the people and I
(29:20):
like taking a guy or whatever. I'd be like, I
want to see a picture of my dog. I was like,
really fat dog, and then be like, oh, this be
like she's dead, really good, really good way to meet people. Yeah,
I'm single, but yeah, and so when we're trying to
come up with a name for our production company, that's
like I think the photo was just around or something
(29:41):
and thought about, you know, I was like, Sally should
be the logo of our production company because it's so
it's like the most ridiculous photo, and thought about fat
Dog productions. But there's actually already fat dog productions out there.
And so Sally sometimes when she was on, you know,
in her more lean days, my dad would call her
Seal sellis Felt Dog instead of Seals of the Fat Dog.
(30:03):
So you've got the production company, and I guess I
have no idea how this world works. So in order
to create what you guys are creating, do you have
to have your own production company? How Like what is
the point of all of that? And no, I mean
you can, you can create whatever you want. I think
it just gives you know, I think it gives like
a sense of direction, a little bit. You can a
(30:24):
sense too, of I mean, like we talked about earlier
with you know, giving ourselves and giving each other the
respect we would give to other people in this industry.
I think it's kind of along those lines. So it's
not we're two friends making a web series. It's okay,
let's make this production company together, and then where can
we go from with that? Yes, so respect to ourselves
(30:46):
enough to give ourselves at time. Yeah, it's like a
consistency thing as well as it's I thought it was
very directional and the fact that it's like we are
making something together and it's not just gonna be this series.
You know, we're gonna we are in this to be
making and creating together and providing ourselves a platform to
be able to also pursue a passion of acting. Yeah.
(31:07):
I think it's so smart on you guys. And it's
just two people who are just meeting you guys, like, oh,
they have their own production company. They're legit. Not that
you're not, but it just it's kind of like, oh, okay,
they're actually invested in this. They're just not doing things
willy nilly. They have a business. So I think it's
it's so smart on your part. Just now, when you
were talking, Nicole, I kind of collect I feel like
(31:27):
your character killy, like you really have to turn that
on a lot, like paid you are very much mel
and that demeanor, but are you am I wrong? And
that like even your voice is different. I feel like Nicole, Yeah,
and you are right about that. Okay, I do a
little bit higher of a voice. It's kind of yeah.
I like, I feel like I just jump into this
(31:48):
persona instead of sinking into it. The cool thing about
Kiley is she does have a lot of aspects that
are me. I think a lot of people who yeah,
know me and see her, they're like, Okay, she's got
this like bubbly nature, and she's excited about a lot
of things, and she just loves everybody. But yeah, I like,
turn that full force amos Like she's like a caricature
(32:11):
of you. Yeah, it's like like three no, I just
for that moment, I'm like, it doesn't seem like her.
Why And I was like, oh, because she's not like
any crazy roommate. So I caught my eye for a second. Thanks,
because it's just crazy normally. Yeah, not normally, though people
(32:33):
do often compliment me all my crazy eyes, so you
don't have you beautiful eyes sometimes she does. Okay, good
to know. Good to know. She's really intense and something
we whenever I have people in the podcast, I love
talking about how I got them on this podcast, how
we got connected, because connections as you guys have clearly
(32:54):
learned what you've just did. Making a web series are huge.
You know, you collaborated with so many people, So how
do you connect with people in this world? Well, for us,
Page that was your dad, and you don't know, you
don't know the story of how I met your dad,
and I wanted to tell it to you and how
this all went down. So I work for iHeart Radio
(33:14):
in Seattle, and like I said, I clearly have a podcast,
but I've been on several podcasts. I've had another podcast
for six years. So we were hosting a panel called
I Heeart Podcasts and it was with myself, my co
host from our morning show, Anthony, and two other people
from the company who are really on the world of podcasting,
whether it's building branded podcasts or clients working with clients,
(33:37):
and the audience of this panel, we're all people that
are I Heart Radio Seattle sales team or marketing team
work with one of those Page being your dad with
his company. So he was in the audience and we
opened up at the end for question and answer, and
he raised his hand and asked something about how how
would you go about promoting on a podcast? And I
(33:59):
started explain in and I said something like, well, what
did you want to promote? He's like, it's actually not
for me. It's for my daughter. She has her own
web series. I'm like, what that's me and he's like
and this is in front of the whole place, and
I'm like, well, what's her web series about? Just to
see like where it would like if I can give him,
like all right, that would be great on this kind
of podcast. And he's like he goes, well, it's called
Dead Friends, and I'm like, like that's all that and
(34:23):
I'm like on the battle like, oh I don't. I
was like okay, and he like kind of explained it,
and it was the cutest dad thing ever. Like the
whole moment. I was like, this is the sweetest, Like
this dad is out here in front of an audience
of people, like how do I get my like, how
do I get my daughter on this podcast? But she's incredible.
And then I chatted with him after it, and I
really like he is amazing and obviously that's how we
(34:45):
got connected, but it was just you're probably the first
person that I've met through their parents, So yeah, he's
the best. But he did I said, well, what is
her day job. He's like, well, she's actually working for
me and she's able to work remotely for my company.
And I was like, it's just it's incredible to obviously
(35:07):
have that support and you. I'm sure page know how
proud your dad is of you, but I could see it.
And I literally just met him that day, but I
could see him gloating and glowing and being so happy
for you and really believing in you and Nicole. I
don't know your family, but I'm sure they feel the same.
I think so my dad feels the same about Nicole too,
I'm sure. So there's at least that Tom and I
(35:29):
were buds. Have you ever thought about having your family
in any of your series or any of your shows? Uh?
Have you really have? Our families are all like all
of our siblings. I feel like my parents who are
just so like fun and people. It's kind of interesting,
(35:53):
Ethan like thinking about just building even a character off
of any of them. So even if we don't put
them in the series, maybe they'll be like an inspirt
like that. Yeah, Paide, you traveled the world after graduating college?
I did? Yeah? So I actually so I grew up
doing community theater, and I always loved acting and always
wanted to do it, but you know, never really feels
(36:14):
like something you can actually do. And then I went
to college and I like transferred a couple or just once,
but and I ended up at you Dub and I
ended up actually majoring in comparative literature with the focus
on cinema studies and then minoring international studies. When I
was there, I was like, Oh, maybe I'll be on
the other side of camera because that seems more like
a viable option, which is it's also just as hard,
(36:35):
you know, to make it as filmmaker. So when I graduated,
I was like, well, I don't really know what I
want to do, even though in the back of my
mind I knew exactly what I wanted to do. So
I traveled for a year and a half, which I
also like, that's my other big love in life is traveling.
Do you think that that traveling has helped you with
writing and acting? Oh? Yeah, definitely. I mean traveling helped
(36:56):
me with everything in my life, from practical wise to
you know, being in a country where you can't speak
the language at all and you get dropped off at
a place that you're you didn't expect to be dropped off,
and you're like, all right, I gotta use nobody's gonna
help me right now. I don't have WiFi or anything.
I just got to use all of my skills to
try to figure out, you know. But then also planning,
(37:18):
you know, like researching and planning where you're going and everything.
And then also with acting a percent, because acting is
all about stepping into somebody else's life and imagining yourself
in different circumstances. But the way that you can do
that is by finding your similarities with that character, with
those circumstances. And I mean, when you travel, you realize
how similar everybody. I mean you you love the differences
(37:43):
and celebrate the differences and that's why you travel and stuff,
but also realize how similar and everybody is. And it's
really great. I love traveling. Yeah, when you first told
me that you traveled, you had said and you said,
Nicole started working where Nicole started working. And then you said, yeah,
and I traveled, And then you said, I can you
can tell who they're responsible? One and that purpose shout
(38:04):
at you for being super responsible when you're chatting. Yeah,
there's always one. I'm glad to know I'm the responsible. Yeah,
well that's your title, just in case you didn't know that.
I think the two of your badass. I love that
you're females in an industry doing the work that you're
doing where there aren't a lot of females doing that
(38:27):
or at least getting the recognition for it. So I'm
honored to have you on this podcast. But I want
to give you, guys one last pitch. Why should people
go watch Dead Friends and support you guys? Because first
of all, by the way, it's free, everybody free. Number one,
people should watch Dead Friends. It's a great show. We
(38:47):
had so much fun making it and writing it, and
everybody involved in it their bite sized episodes, so anywhere
from five to twelve minutes, so you can watch the
whole You can binge the whole first season in sixty
seven minutes, which is less than a Game of Thrones episode.
On top of that too, the characters are just so
unique and the world is so unique, and it's a
(39:08):
really cool exploration of what you may think you know about,
you know, spirits in the afterlife and everything. We've kind
of toppled it on its head a little bit, so
I don't know, if you're someone who likes theories, you know,
check ours out. Definitely a good show for fan theories.
And I mean, even though we kind of created this
whole world, we also based it on a lot of
(39:30):
ideas and supernatural stuff. And it's very weird if you
like weird humor or normal humor. And we're also I mean,
for lack of better term, kind of a grassroots web series.
You know, we have we already have a lot of
pretty loyal fans, which is awesome. You know, we're in
new filmmaker, So the way that we've been getting our
word out is from word of mouth and people sharing
(39:52):
our little videos on Facebook or Instagram or sharing the episodes.
You can share the episodes because their YouTube videos. So
if you guys do end it, if anybody does end
up watching it and liking it, that's the biggest thing
that people can do to support us is share and interact.
We have, like we have a poll going right now
on our Instagram of if you'd rather have Keely or
Mel as a roommate. I mean, I'm gonna vote, and
(40:14):
I'm gonna vote Mel right now. Sorry Nicole, but that's
my vote, all right. That is a very very smart
thing to have people share. I mean that word of
mouth is the best kind of advertising, so we're going
to make that happen. I one sitting binged all of it.
(40:35):
I loved it. I'm a huge fan, I really am,
and I'm excited to support you guys, and when you
were these huge filmmakers, you know, having billion dollar box
office agends. Don't forget about the Side Hustlers podcast. Okay,
well this is our first podcast, so I mean, I
guess maybe you've done a podcast. People are, but I
assume that you haven't, you know, my free time. But
(40:56):
just okay, good, definitely not Yeah, No one shout out
to you too. You are awesome of killing it in
the industry as well. And thank you so much because
it's really nice when we all get to support each
other and each give each other a voice. Thank you.
I appreciate that, guy, seriously. Thank you. You always have
the people who listen to this podcast to help support you.
So if there's anything at all that you ever need
(41:17):
me to tell everyone to do, I will and I
will always support you guys. So thank you so much
for being on Side Hustlers. Hey, thanks for having us
so fun seriously, you're awesome. Yeah, thank you for listening
to Side Hustlers. You heard Page, you heard Nicole. Go
share Dead Friends. It's Dead Friends web series on YouTube.
You can search for it. It's on Instagram as Dead
(41:38):
Friends Underscore web series, or you can just go to
Dead Friends web series dot com to check out everything
they've got going on. Go support them, but share what
they've got going on. It helps them grow, It helps
them get better. Also, while you're at it, share those podcast.
Side Hustlers is my side hustle. It's my passion, it's
my baby. So if you share it and other people
(41:58):
find out about it, I appreciate it very much. You
can also rate and review the podcast that helps as well,
so subscribe to it to all the things. Please, thank
you very much. It's all free for you to do.
Thank you for listening to Side Hustlers. I'm Carla Murray.
You can find me on Instagram at the Carla Murray.
Until next week, keep hustling
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