Questionnaire Interview Q&A with Maggie Carey -Filmmaker

ON THE RECORD

Given Name:
Maggie Carey

Alias:
Former Division I Athlete

Occupation/Title:
Filmmaker

Website(s):
JeannieTate.com
HeadintheOven.net

Top 3 Biggest Creative Influences:
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre - NYC
Sundance
Montana

Top 5 Favorite/Most Visited Websites:
YouTube.com
TheHumanGiant.com
UCBComedy.com
Wikipedia.org (I’m a little embarrassed to admit this)
MTA.info (subway info)
Gawker.com
TheApiary.org

6 Most Recent Creative Accomplishments:
The Jeannie Tate Show
Bastian (My long-form improv team at the UCB Theatre in New York.)
My Marriage (We are very creative.)
Sketch Comedy

2 Most Recent Non-Creative Accomplishments:
I read Suze Orman’s “Women and Money.” Now I feel justified in giving my friends financial
advice. I think I’m getting creepy.

I scored a goal last Monday at my co-ed soccer game (We are crazy for playing outdoors in
January.)

1 Big Creative Endeavor you’re working on for the future:
We’re shooting the next episode of THE JEANNIE TATE SHOW in Italy. And Jeannie Tate
doesn’t speak Italian.

1 Famous Person who would play you in the movie about you (but don't say why):
Brian Williams


OFF THE CUFF

HAASTYLE: How about a quick run-down of your project The Jeannie Tate Show for those
who haven’t seen it?

Maggie Carrey: The Jeannie Tate Show is a web series which follows a soccer mom
who does a talk show from her minivan. We’re parodying the late night talk show format.
It would be like if you took Conan or Leno and put them in a minivan and had them running errands all day.

HS Note: View episodes of The Jeannie Tate Show here.

HS: The Jeannie Tate episodes on YouTube have over half a million views and
JeannieTate.com averages over 50 visitors per day. To what do you attribute Jeannie Tate’s
popularity? Why do people like this character so much?

MC: I think people respond for a couple different reasons. Sometimes we’ll get hits because
they are a fan of the guest star that she’ll have. They’ll be a Rob Riggle fan or a Bill Hader
fan and they’ll want to check it out. I think people return to the show because, rather than
make fun of the suburbs, our show really honors the suburbs. There are shows like
Desperate Housewives or even the reality show Housewives of Orange County that aren’t showing what real suburban moms are like. Not that Jeannie is a real character, but I feel
like the events that happen to her are very true to life. People like it because it’s grounded in reality.

I also think people know a Jeannie Tate in their life. She’s that woman who lives down the
street. Or Jeannie reminds them of an aunt or someone they know. I feel like people respond
to that.

Another thing is the idea of your own mother having a talk show. She would probably do it
like Jeannie. Jeannie’s very savvy, but she definitely has a mom’s point of view on everything. She has no problem asking Rob Riggle to pick up groceries for her or having Bill Hader pick
up her dry cleaning. I think that my mom, too, regardless of if it was a Hollywood movie star, would make them take their shoes off before they came into the living room and treat them
the same way.

HS: How did The Jeannie Tate Show get picked up by Warner Bros?

MC: Originally Liz and I shot the first episode and we posted it on the internet. We were
featured on MySpace first and the next week we were featured on YouTube’s homepage
and we got over half a million hits on YouTube. We got a lot of emails and calls with interest.
We knew we wanted to do more webisodes, but we also wanted to develop it into a
television show. And Warner Brothers ended up picking us up.

HS: When might we expect to see Jeannie Tate on network TV?

MC: We turned in our pilot script literally two days before the writer’s strike. Obviously
everything has just been on hold. Hopefully when the strike ends, they’re still excited
about the idea and it will move forward. Once Warner approves the script, the next step
would be to shop it around to different networks.

HS: So Jeannie is taking the show to Italy. Can you drop any hints as to what she might do
there?

MC: Oh, definitely! In the first episode Jeannie caught her husband flirting with another
woman in a parking lot. So Jeannie’s husband has kind of been in the dog house. And in
this episode the trip to Italy is her husband’s apology. Even though he didn’t cheat on
Jeannie, he was definitely being flirtatious, which she clearly did not like. So as an apology
he’s taking Jeannie to Italy for a very romantic Tuscan vacation. Russell [Jeannie
Tate’s husband] is actually the cameraman for this episode because Jeannie couldn’t
bring her crew along.

I feel like U.S. relations are very fragile around the world right now, so maybe Jeannie
can make them better.

HS: Jeannie Tate, the diplomat!

MC: Yes!

HS: Prior to Jeannie Tate you created Head in the Oven, another comedy series. Could
you tell us about that project and what the future holds for it?

MC: Sure! Head in the Oven is about three women who work nine to five at a suicide hotline.
It’s incredibly dark. They just sit in an office and slack off and they should be taking more
calls from suicidal clients, but they usually just let the phone ring because they care more
about their own lives.

It’s interesting because I actually shot the first three episodes all in the same weekend. I had
just moved to New York and wanted to jump right in and shoot something. I had made some friends at the UCB [Upright Citizens Brigade] Theatre, the two actresses Katie Schorr and
Amelia Zirin- Brown. I pitched them the idea and we wrote it up and shot it. There are two
more episodes of Head in the Oven. Hopefully by the end of February they’ll be done.

HS Note: View the first episode of Head in the Oven here.

Liz [Cackowski, of the Jeannie Tate Show], who had recently left writing for Saturday Night
Live, watched Head in the Oven and asked me if I wanted to do a project with her. Really the
first episode of Head in the Oven started to be a calling card. A lot of people saw it and I
got a lot of other work off of that. That’s really the first year I’ve ever been able to not take
outside editing work. I’ve been able to make a living off of the web shorts, so that’s been
really exciting.

HS: Excluding anything you’ve produced, what’s your favorite web-based comedy series?

MC: I love “Derrick.” They are New York-based guys who I know through UCB.
There’s “You Suck at Photoshop.” The guy is actually teaching you how to do something in Photoshop, but clearly his life is going to shit. It’s really funny. “Wainy Days,” the David Wain series is really great.

HS: How has the web changed filmmaking and how we discover new filmmakers?

MC: When I went to film school the goal was to make a short, get it into Sundance, and then
everything would happen. But I put up Head in the Oven on the internet and it was satisfying
because you could check your hits everyday and you knew that people were watching it.
I was just happy to have a place to put it so it could be seen. And with Jeannie we were
featured on YouTube. Since then we have a lot of subscribers. It’s really cool. You create
this community with these people who like your work and watch your new videos.

I don’t want to say that YouTube is replacing film festivals, but I think it’s a much better venue
for people who make short films, people who are starting out, and especially for people who
want to do comedy. I think it’s an amazing venue where you can actually get people to watch
your work.

HS: How is storytelling and filmmaking for the web different than other media like TV or
feature films?

MC: I think with the internet, what I’ve learned is the attention span of your audience. The
pacing of things on the internet needs to be much faster and the length needs to be much
shorter. From a technical aspect, people are watching it on a tiny screen, so I shoot a lot of
close-ups versus a cinematic wide shot because people won’t be able to see that.
In comedy, so much of the performance is the subtleties of the face that the actor is doing.
So you really need to see that in a close-up.

HS: How do you see the web changing filmmaking over the next few years?

MC: Everyone can access the internet. The beautiful thing about that is you get so many
more unique perspectives. And that you don’t have to stick to the traditional rules of comedy.
You can push boundaries and do things that are a little bit more out there. You can do a lot
more and have a lot more people see your work. An example would be these kids from Oklahoma I met. They make these awesome shorts that are so funny, but so ridiculous.
They get to live in Oklahoma and do that while people in L.A. and New York can see them.
It’s refreshing because the community is much bigger. The down side is that there’s a lot
more crap you have to dig through.

HS: Can you tell us about your experience with the Sundance Institute Filmmaker Lab?

MC: Basically it’s film camp for a month and there’s just something so magic about the spirit
of Sundance. It really is about independent voices being able to make their films.
It’s an inspiring place where you can have one-on-one conversations with people who are already established in the industry. But it’s not like you’re networking, you’re really making friendships with people and working along side them. You’re surrounded by people who
just love film and want to make film. That’s also where Bill [Hader (SNL, Superbad)] proposed
to me. He came and visited and the magic overcame him and he proposed there. And it was great.

HS: Where do you find comedic inspiration?

MC: I find most of my inspiration when I’m not looking for it. New York is awesome because
I love to just sit and listen to other people’s conversations. Nail salons are a great place.
On the subway. Even just walking down the street. You just have so many different kinds of people. And because our apartments are all so small, everyone brings their private life out
onto the sidewalk. Another place I get it is from my family. I don’t like saying this, but
annoyance is a source. If something either annoys you or you just disagree with so strongly,
it’s just easier to try and make fun of it than fight it.

"HS Note: This Off The Cuff interview was conducted live at the Haastyle underground studio."