cover EastSiders


AND VAN HANSIS THE LONG, WINDING ROAD WITH THOM AND CAL by joel martens


KIT WILLIAMSON The journey of Thom and Cal onEastSiders, is a unique one for episodic television to be sure,


both as a web series and for how it broke ground in that genre. Though the ride may be more common these days, when Kit Williamson created the concept, it was a burgeoning streaming world happening online. To conquer it, he worked to create the kind of show in which the main characters were not only gay, but like their straight counterparts on network television, were as flawed and complex individuals. To do it, back in December of 2012, Williamson wrote, directed and starred in the series, shooting it independently on a tiny budget for YouTube. No one could have known the trajectory it would take and when the series went viral,


Williamson and his team launched a Kickstarter campaign to keep the journey on track and finance the remainder of the first season. Fast-forward the story and you get to the point at which Viacom’s LGBT cable channel, Logo, approached them to premiere the series on their channel. The next stop on the ride was via Wolfe Video’s independent LGBT film distribution organiza- tion who offered the entire series on cable as a TV movie. A Kickstarter campaign would follow and another second season and EastSiders was well on the road to completing the next leg of their tour. A wider story arc, well-known actors and actresses and VOD [Video on Demand] deals for season one and two came on board and then EastSiders went international on the wings of Netflix’s massive streaming service network.


24


RAGE monthly | FEBRUARY 2018


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