Web Series Spotlight: I’ll Bring the Awkward

Stacey Schrom and Caroline Gutierrez are the creative minds behind the new web series I’ll Bring the Awkward, a comedy debuting its first three episodes online tonight, April 21, at 8:30PM PST.

I’ll Bring the Awkward, according to Stacey, is “about two girls and their awkward misadventures… at its core, it’s really about how important it is to have that one person who really gets you and you can truly be yourself with.”

For Caroline the web series is “the equivalent of a “Bromance” but for two girls, (so maybe it’s a) “Girlmance”? You see these two girls who can clearly function without the other, but somehow seem to breathe easier with the other around. When together, they live on the same planet of complete and utter abandonment of ego and pride. It’s a short, silly, but heartfelt show about the importance of finding “your person”.

Here is the rest of our exclusive interview with Stacey and Caroline:

What was the genesis of creating this series?

We wanted to take the drivers’ seats for our careers. Instead of being out of work actors, we decided to create work for ourselves. And the two of us realized we had a knack for saying the same thing at the same time without planning it.

How did you two come to work on this project together?

Stacey: The two of us really just wanted to create a short scene for our individual reels. So we met for coffee and coffee turned into lunch. And by the time the day ended, we realized we had taken what we thought would just be scenes and turned them into episodes.

Caroline: After being in the same acting class for 2 years, we had been casual friends. We thought it would be fun and easy to try and write a quick scene for our reels. Little did we know at the time that we would quickly become more than just casual friends, and that “short scene” would turn into a complete web series ready for the world to see.

What was your process like in writing the scripts and filming the episodes?

Stacey: Our writing meetings always sort of varied based on the day. Some days we’d sit in one location for 8 hours and just pound out material. Other days, we’d be all over the place, skipping from location to location just to get the creative energy going. We shot over the course of 3 weekends, 6 days total with a crew that consisted mostly of us, our director Alex Dean, and my boyfriend, Daniel. Most of the locations were borrowed or our own homes.

Caroline: The writing process was fun and creative. It was also pretty seamless. We mesh well together and can work without butting heads. After the initial meeting, where we wrote the 12 sketches, we had a read-through with a few people to see if we indeed could turn them into a series. We took the notes they had and would meet in the mornings at SteamPunk Coffee Shop, writing, trying to create a show out of silly sketches. We had to develop these characters and an arc for the season, while still keeping the episodes quick and to the point. Basically we drank A LOT of French presses.

When it came to filming, we became neurotic at organizing EVERYTHING. So much so that on our first day of filming, we had nothing to do except wait to film that we became anxious at the fact that we weren’t running around stressing. We had prop boxes separated by days and within that by episodes. We printed all our scripts and grouped them together by scene for the day. We made sure that how we broke down the days of shooting made sense for time and money. We didn’t have much of a budget, other than how much we could afford to fork over, so everything that was being done had to make sense. And thankfully people are amazing and really helped us out more than we could have ever dreamed of.

What sort of difficulties did you encounter during either of these processes?

Caroline: There are TONS of trials and tribulations that come with trying to get something like this off its feet. They range from simple things like, what do you do when you’re slate breaks halfway through the day to what do you do when your make-up artists cancels at 4 AM and you have a 7 AM crew call to film your pilot the next day? You learn to roll with all the punches quickly.

Any funny stories you can share from when you were filming?

Caroline: Episode 8 was actually the first episode we ever shot; and since most of it takes place in a tiny Mini Cooper, it made for some good laughs, shoving two guys in the back. Also any time we had to shove Hunter [he plays Caroline’s boyfriend] back there. He’s over 6 feet tall, and his head pretty much touched the ceiling.

Stacey: Grabbing the footage from the drive-thru probably provided the most amusement, especially for the woman working at Taco Bell. I literally went through that drive-thru like 6 times, ordering nothing, just being like sorry, changed my mind. The last time I think we ordered an iced tea just to not seem so weird.

Can you talk about what drew you to this particular project?

Stacey: Well, I feel like my life is awkward; a lot of things that happen on the show have indeed happened in real life. In fact, the weirder it gets, the more likely it is to have happened. I feel like when things are just that weird – you have to share them with the world.

Tell us a little about yourselves.

Stacey: I like dinosaurs.

Caroline: I am 24, drive a Mini Cooper and am from Miami. I love food, it’s really the only thing I like to talk about. I love dancing. I believe there is always a little mini me dancing in my head (not creepy at all). Creating and filming I’ll Bring the Awkward with Stacey helped me realize two things: 1. I love creating, it’s so freeing, and 2. I love being in control.

The older I get and the more time that passes of my not living in Miami, makes me realize how much I enjoy being Hispanic and how much I love being from Miami. There’s such a special culture that comes from being Hispanic and I truly appreciate that.

One last thing: since the year started I took on this new outlook: you can’t get what you want unless you ask for it. Since doing that, I’ve become a different person. I’m not afraid of who I am, but embrace it. I am who I am, love me or don’t.

Will you be doing more episodes of “I’ll Bring the Awkward” in the future?

We are currently working on the second draft of season 2!

Where and when can people see “I’ll Bring the Awkward”?

As stated above, episodes 1 through 3 will debut online tonight at 8:30 PM PST while episodes 4 through 6 will air on April 28 at 9:30 AM PST. Episodes 7 through 9 are set to air on May 5 at 9:30 AM PST and, lastly, episodes 10 through 12 will air on May 12 at 9:30 AM PST.

You can follow I’ll Bring the Awkward at their official website or on YouTube. Any updates will be available on the website.

Where can the fans follow you both and the show on social media?

You can follow us at Facebook, as well as the following:

Twitter: @bringtheawkward

Instagram: @illbringtheawkward

Caroline: Instagram/ Twitter: @carolinevg11

Stacey: Twitter: @staceys47

What is up next for Stacey and Caroline?

Stacey: We’re working on Season 2 for I’ll Bring the Awkward. We are tentatively going into production this summer. We also have several other scripts we’re working on under our production company banner C&S Brilliant Ideas. We also have another project that is in post-production that we collaborated with another friend on called Pet Therapy. It should be out some time this summer.

Caroline: We have our production company C&S Brilliant Ideas where we hope to be able to not only continue to produce our own content but also outside content as well. We are currently finishing up Season Two of I’ll Bring the Awkward, writing a horror movie, and outlining two other screenplays. Working and staying busy with a purpose is what we like to do, sprinkled in with a little (ok, maybe a lot) of randomness and good times to keep things interesting.

Make sure to check out I’ll Bring the Awkward online tonight.