January 2017: WFMF cast members together at the Grand Finale Screening of Season 1
"We both have our strengths and our weaknesses, and somehow we’ve figured out how to pass the baton to each other without stepping on each other’s toes” -Stefan Liner
ASHEVILLE, NC (PRWEB) April 11, 2017
East Stream Studio (ESS) is pleased to announce the green-light for the second season of its romantic comedy, web-series “When Fact Met Fiction” (WFMF). WFMF is a present-day sitcom, and follows the love interest between a secretly famous romance novelist, Jon Frank, and an up-and-coming technical editor, Olivia Smith. The two end up working together at a lifestyle magazine in the fictional, southern town of Walterville, NC. Part of what makes this show so fun, though, are all the other characters that make up the ensemble cast. Along with romance, the series has a heavy theme of family accented by small town humor.
“Yes, the main storyline follows the romance between Jon and Olivia, but the environment in which this story develops is set in the office of a small, woman-owned business in a rural southern town. Each character has their quirks, but in the end, they’re all there for each other because they see each other as family. It’s a charming, scripted show suitable for all-ages and, at least in the web-series world, somewhat of a rarity,” says Robin Liner.
Just as family is a prevalent theme in WFMF, family is also a prevalent theme among the co-creators of the show. They are the mother-son team Robin Liner and Stefan Liner. Stefan is an indie filmmaker and his mother Robin is a screenplay writer. They officially launched East Stream Studio at the beginning of 2016 with a vision to professionally write and produce films, tv shows and content for the web from Western North Carolina and the Greater Southeast area.
“I’ve grown up here in the mountains of WNC, and I’ve always enjoyed entertaining people - making them laugh if I can. This place, and the people here, are so wonderful. For years, I’ve worked with some of the best storytellers right in “my own backyard.” I want to be a part of giving these amazing people a sandbox to play in...a means to bring their stories to the rest of the world,” says Stefan Liner.
In August 2016, East Stream Studio gave a small cast and crew of 18 people the opportunity to play in that sandbox when they filmed the entire first season of WFMF in just over 54 hours on a boot-strapped budget of $12,000.
“The production of Season 1 was exciting, but definitely came with it’s challenges. Many of the cast and crew had never worked together before. I was blown away at how efficient we were, and at the quality of show that we got considering our time constraints. Truly, an amazing cast and crew,” says Stefan Liner.
Every set and crew has it’s own culture, and although production only lasted for 4 ½ days, it was plenty of time for the cast and crew to experience the tag-team directing approach that Stefan and Robin use when on set.
“Last season, I was the series director, but there were many scenes, especially the more romantic ones that I let Mom direct because she had a better grasp on what needed to happen performance-wise. I tend to be big picture and more comedy oriented. Mom is great at dialogue and romance. We both have our strengths and our weaknesses, and somehow we’ve figured out how to pass the baton to each other without stepping on each other’s toes,” says Stefan Liner
This year, Stefan, Robin and the crew of WFMF have just launched their first crowdfunding campaign to raise $120,000 to produce Season 2.
“People ask me why we’re raising $120,000 for Season 2 when we made Season 1 for $12,000. The main reason is because we want to take the show to the next level production-wise, and to do that we need more time on set and in post-production. More time equals more money. We’re committed to the story, and we’re committed to paying the people that help us tell the story. Everyone that works on our sets gets paid,” says Stefan Liner.
East Stream Studio will be running their Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign until Thursday, May 11th. Currently, they are scheduled to begin production this June, with plans to release new episodes for Season 2 starting this Fall. If you would like to participate in the crowdfunding campaign, watch episodes from Season 1, or just get more information about WFMF, you can visit the show’s official website at http://www.WhenFactMetFiction.com.
If you have any further questions concerning this article please email us at info(at)whenfatmetfiction.com or call (828) 484-7440. The Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign can be found at http://www.IGG.ME/AT/WFMF.
