by Dov Kornits
There is a glut of web series, and there are as many reasons for making them in the first place. “We made the web series for a multitude of reasons,” says Dave Hoey, co-director, co-writer, co-producer, cinematographer and editor on Dave & Theo. “The main one being that we wanted to experiment with long form content and find ways to develop characters and expand a plot over the time-span of a feature. It was also to challenge ourselves to make 75 minutes worth of content with only two crew members.”
Starting the process 3 years ago, when Hoey was only 17 years of age, “we wanted to showcase our voice as filmmakers, whilst experimenting with new styles and techniques. It was also us showing our ability handling longer form episodic content in hopes of further work in the industry. Overall, it was an incredible experience and it taught us a lot about the different facets required to tell a well-rounded and meaningful story.”
The other crew member is Nicholas Burton, who also stars in the series as Theo, whilst Laurence Boxhall (Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Ronnie Chieng – International Student) plays the Dave of the title.
Dave & Theo is a 6×12 minute series, which follows the misadventures of a couple of young men, and in a little over a month, the trailer for the series has garnered more than 100,000 views, its Facebook page in excess of 30,000 likes, and it has won numerous awards around the world. Not bad for a project made for a micro budget by a couple of students.
“I am currently studying at AFTRS, in my second year of the BA Screen course. Nicholas is in his final year at NIDA studying the BA of Fine Arts in Acting,” says Hoey.
Inspired by other web series such as Fragments of Friday (“the director/writer of the show, Kacie Anning, was actually the one who told me it was a good idea to make a web series to start exploring longer form content”), High Life (“the creator Luke Eve encouraged Nick to pursue his own web series”) and Bruce (“which we thought was a fantastic example of a piece that dealt with comedy in a darker way”).
“And obviously, overseas the story of Broad City and the way the creators of the show had their careers launched having their online content turned into a full show was inspiring to us, as we are looking to do the same thing with our series in hopes of developing it into a television show.”
Dave & Theo is an entertaining, disruptive ride, narratively, visually, and even thematically, promising lots more to come from its young filmmakers.
“I don’t think we were trying to explore masculinity so much as friendship in the series,” answers Hoey when we ask whether the show contains pointed social commentary in between the wackiness. “There are certainly elements of cowardice, insecurity and temperament that are truthfully representative of masculinity. Also, I wouldn’t say that any of the males in the series are necessarily a spitting image of what one thinks of when they hear the word ‘masculine’.” Well, if you ask us, that’s commentary.
For more on Dave & Theo, head to the Website, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
