It’s been six months since our last web series update. From that alone, it’s not hard to guess that Persuaded To has been put on the back burner. But we thought we best explain why Persuaded To, which we thought we’d be releasing in January, hasn’t progressed any further.

1. Casting:

   We got in contact with our university’s drama societies and picked the one we thought was best for the job. We exchanged a few emails, and for the most part the society seemed really excited about the project. Then we had a face-to-face meeting and it was obvious their enthusiasm had diminished over the weeks of emailing. They didn’t think many boys would apply, or that auditions would be popular in general. Even though they said they’d gained contact information for people that were interested they never forwarded the details. So, getting help from our university seemed like a dead end. We don’t blame them at all, because they probably knew how much work they would have to do to help us and, as a society, they were trying to gain members rather than pass them on to a couple of amateur script writers.

2. Writing:
   Although we planned the entire web series at the end of the summer, we only had the first fifteen or so episodes scripted – and even then they were only first drafts – and as university work piled up writing episodes became less and less of a priority as casting became less and less of a reality.
3. Anxiety:
   In the first few episodes, I play Anne and Maddie plays May – two big roles. We have no acting experience, and although we had a lot of fun filming the episodes we did, it was just between us and that was comfortable. The idea of bringing in other actors made us panic…A LOT. So, we realised it would be better to re-cast the entire thing, thereby making the episodes we had already filmed redundant if we wanted to progress. (We had plans to release the episodes Maddie and I pre-filmed as a sort of bonus feature when the web series was over, because, despite everything, we’re still really proud of them.)

So those are the three main reasons why we haven’t talked about Persuaded To in quite a while. However, Maddie and I have recently gone over the scripts and are in the process of re-writing. We want Persuaded To to be something really special, and for that we’ll need to make the scripts better. Just know that we haven’t given up. We want to re-film the first episode, even if I have to play Anne, just to present the direction we want Persuaded To to go in. If we have a good initial response to the episode then hopefully, we’ll be able to encourage people to get involved. In the best case scenario, Persuaded To will come back with a vengeance next year, and this time we’ll make sure to update you as often as possible.