Two former Cowichan Valley actors are taking up the challenge of producing a web series for a project called Storyhive.
Corinna Cornforth and Brianna Wiens are members of teams that have each received a $10,000 grant for a pilot episode.
Cornforth will be an actress in the web series Production, a behind-the-scenes mock-documentary where the actors play filmmakers attempting to make a feature-length horror/martial arts film on a zero budget.
The film will be shot in Nanaimo, with, some scenes maybe filmed in the Cowichan Valley.
Wiens will be one of two actors, writers, and producers of Girls vs The City, a satirical look at the life of two 20-somethings trying to make it in Vancouver.
The $10,000 grants, announced May 4, come from Storyhive, a Telus initiative that ultimately aims to foster the development of content creators in western Canada.
Cornforth is part of a group working with Nanaimo writer Michael Chen.
“I’m an actress playing one of the filmmakers in Production. We’re playing caricatures of ourselves.”
Horror and martial arts movies usually have big budgets for special effects but this group has to do it with zilch in their pockets.
“It’s sure to get pretty silly. Filmmakers on Vancouver Island usually don’t get much funding anyway so we’re kind of used to it,” Cornforth said.
Quite a bit of work has been done even to get this far, but now it’s time to step up and see if they can win the chance to shoot a whole series by presenting a killer pilot.
“We were the only submission out of 102 across B.C. to be chosen from Vancouver Island. It’s kind of a big deal. From the pilots, one will be chosen as winner,” she said.
Wiens is living in Vancouver now and she and her comedy partner, Brynn Peebles, will produce a pilot for Girls vs The City.
“We have had a YouTube channel for a few years now where we do comedy together and we’ve been wanting to move more into a series. The Storyhive came up and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to get some funding,” Wiens said.
“We wanted to focus on everything we find funny around Vancouver; the show is going to be about what we go through day to day. The characters will be exaggerated versions of ourselves.”
Both women said it’s exciting that so many people are making films these days. It’s become easier to start because even phones can make good-quality videos. That availability has stimulated creativity and this is what Storyhive hopes to tap into, they said.
Follow their progress at storyhive.com.