Ahead of Melbourne WebFest 2014 we are profiling all the series in the Official Selection as well as the “Second Look” series. 

Flat3 centres around the daily foibles of 3 Kiwi-Chinese girls flatting together in Auckland. The series follows Lee, Jessica, and Perlina as they try to “figure out who they are, what they’re doing in this life, and whose turn it is to buy toilet paper”. Sometimes smart, often silly, a little rude and a lot awkward, Flat3 is a Kiwi comedy with a unique cultural take.

Created by Roseanne Liang, JJ Fong, Perlina Lau, Ally Xue and Kerry Warkia (Executive Producer) provides a fresh spin on being a 20-something woman in New Zealand.“We were tired of not having any roles available to us except for being the shy one, the prostitute or the dragon. And none of us fit those stereotypes” says Ally Xue.

What inspired your series?

We were inspired by great female-centric programmes like ‘Girls’ and ‘Sex and the City’. As YouTube fiends, we also admired the audience reach of online juggernauts like Awkward Black Girl, and WongFu Productions.

What do you want people to take away from your series?

Flat3 comes from a New Zealand Chinese perspective, and shows three Kiwi girls in relatable-awkward-funny situations. As actors we play Asians largely represented at odds with New Zealand society – prostitutes, Triads, duty-bound innocents and strict parents. When stories are told from the Asian perspective, they often explore myths, historical events or the immigrant experience. With Flat3 we hope to add something new – three Kiwi-Chinese girls trying to make it in love, life and friendship. Flat3 is unique because of its innovation and precedence-setting. We love shows like Go Girls, Sex and the City and HBO’s Girls, but we believe Flat3 is the first cross-cultural example of its kind to be created by Kiwi-Chinese women. Flat3 is also special because of its humour. There is a concern in the local Chinese community that representation of its constituents be sincere and positive, however with Flat3, we can use comedy to gently nudge at contentious issues.

How do you finance your series?

Our first season was entirely self-funded. We raised some extra cash with a crowd funding campaign for our second season. Luckily we received New Zealand on Air funding for our third season currently in production.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in production?

The lack of budget means we couldn’t pay our hard-working actors and crew the rate that they deserve, we are eternally grateful for their support.

How do you reach your audience?

Flat3 is readily available to our audience on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, and the official website.

Is it an ongoing project? If so, can you give us some clues about what comes next?

Season 3 is currently in production, we hope to release it around September/October this year. And of course, we would welcome the opportunity for Flat3 to be picked up for a TV pilot, possibly take the characters overseas to a cosmopolitan city, see how 3 Kiwi girls fare in a really big city.

Flat3 on the web:

Web site: flat3webseries.com/

Facebook: facebook.com/Flat3webseries

Twitter: 

Perlina/Flat3: @perlina_flat3

JJ Fong: @jessica_flat3

Ally Xue: @ally_flat3

Kerry Warkia: @kerrywarkia

Keep up to date with Melbourne Web Fest on twitter: @MelbWebFest

La Trobe University is a festival sponsor of Melbourne WebFest.