TORONTO 鈥� Representation was top of mind for Natasha Negovanlis and Annie Briggs as they created the new Canadian web series CLAIREvoyant, about best friends who pose as online psychics.
After all, the other digital show they鈥檙e known for, the wildly popular Carmilla, has been heralded by fans and critics for its queer and female representation. Negovanlis plays a lesbian vampire alongside Elise Bauman as her dorm roommate in the series that鈥檚 won them both audience/ Cfans鈥� choice trophies at the Canadian Screen Awards.
And CLAIREvoyant, which debuted this week on the YouTube channel KindaTV, was partially funded by fans through an Indiegogo campaign.
鈥淪o when we were writing we definitely had our fans in mind in the sense of wanting to create realistic women onscreen, wanting to create positive role models, wanting to continue to show positive queer representation onscreen,鈥� Negovanlis, who was born in Toronto, said in a recent interview.
鈥淲ith that being said, we also created the type of show that we would want to watch and our friends would want to watch. We鈥檙e in our later 20s, early 30s, and so is the cast.
鈥淪o we wanted to create something that was almost, in a way, a Canadian Broad City but with a supernatural twist 鈥� an absurdist comedy that still had heart.鈥�
Negovanlis and Briggs play roommates who pretend to be online psychics to make rent money. Their plan takes an unexpected turn when Claire, played by Negovanlis, turns out to have real clairvoyant abilities.
The stars say Claire is openly queer and there is a queer love story in the series, which has 14 episodes, ranging from five to seven minutes in length. The episodes will be released on KindaTV in blocks of three.
鈥淚鈥檓 really interested as an artist right now in seeing a greater form of representation on camera 鈥� whether it be racially, different body types, different looking people, telling stories of people from different backgrounds, sexuality, how they identify, you name it,鈥� said Briggs, who hails from Halifax.
鈥淲e鈥檙e coming out of a phase of entertainment being pretty streamlined into focusing on just a particular group of people and I think audiences are bored.
鈥淭he great thing about working in the digital world is that there鈥檚 a more immediate feedback loop in terms of the audiences. In relation to Carmilla, they鈥檝e made it pretty clear in terms of what they鈥檙e interested in and what resonates with them. So we鈥檙e just trying to speak to that.鈥�
The cast also includes Jsin Sasha as the francophone boyfriend of Ruby (Briggs), Sabryn Rock as 鈥淐laire鈥檚 dream girl,鈥� and Theresa Tova as a famous online fortune teller.
The seed for CLAIREvoyant was planted when Negovanlis went to a tarot card reader and saw the same woman months later getting a manicure in a nail salon.
鈥淚 thought, 鈥楾his is so interesting. Like, what do psychics do in their spare time? Do they have other jobs?鈥� 鈥� she said.
鈥淏ecause I have a background in comedy, there was a stock character, a call-in psychic, that I created for myself years ago. So we started spitballing and sharing ideas one night while hanging out and it just grew from there.鈥�
Shaftesbury, which produced Carmilla and is now developing it into a prime-time series, is also behind CLAIREvoyant.
Shaftesbury also allowed them to use its Frankie Drake Mysteries Toronto set to shoot with two cameras, adding a high production value.
Negovanlis and Briggs said they鈥檙e both fascinated with psychics, fortune tellers and the occult, and know how to read tarot cards.
They based the show off that as well as their friendships and experience of 鈥渂eing starving artists.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 very much inspired by Annie鈥檚 time living in New York and my time living in Montreal when we were students and doing theatre,鈥� Negovanlis said.
鈥淭hey say write what you know, and in many ways we did that 鈥� but we put it in an absurdist universe.鈥�
