We spoke to Nothing Much To Do creators the Candle Wasters on what fans can expect from their upcoming Shakespearean-inspired web series, Bright Summer Night.

We sat down recently recently with the cast of Lovely Little Losers, a web series inspired by Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. But while that series is still playing out on YouTube, the creative minds behind it are already hard at work on their next endeavour.

The creative team is the Candle Wasters, comprised of Claris Jacobs, Elsie Bollinger, Minnie Grace, and Sally Bollinger. The new show is Bright Summer Night and it is inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The synopsis conjures up the mysterious and mystical feeling of Shakespeare’s comedy, with the Candle Wasters’ trademark twist:

Millennials arrived at the party too late — our world is on the brink of environmental catastrophe, and we continue to deny it. Bright Summer Night brings together a motley group of teenagers at a house party in the bewildering heat of New Zealand summer. Break-ups, new love, drugs, and amateur theatre all make this one chaotic event as the characters attempt to forget their issues, whether personal or global.
 
The storyline is inspired by William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but the modern setting re-contextualises the play’s themes of escapism, environmentalism, sexuality, and consent. Just like the world they live in, we see some of the characters are determined to keep dreaming; putting off tomorrow to indulge in the night.

To fund Bright Summer Night, the Candle Wasters have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise NZD$20,000. The campaign runs until December 19, 2015. You can watch the launch video below, however please note this disclaimer from the Candle Wasters: “The actors used in promotional material may not be the final actors for these roles in Bright Summer Night.”

The sample scene included in the video, which features the characters of Helena and a gender-flipped Demetrius, offers a change from the vlogging format that became standard for most literary inspired web series following the success of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. We asked the team why they decided to change direction for Bright Summer Night. “Vlogging can be a solid framing device, and can really help you tell certain stories well,” they told us, “however, since Lovely Little Losers we’ve got to the point where all we really want to do is cut to a nice close-up.”

The move toward a traditionally filmed series might be a welcome one for fans who have grown used to the vlogging format — and perhaps even a little bored with it.

And the change in filming style isn’t all that is new. The Candle Wasters also confirmed that although the Shakespearean theme continues, there is no plan for Bright Summer Night to take place in the same world as the events of Nothing Much To Do and sequel Lovely Little Losers.

This is bad news for fans who have become attached to these characters, but they aren’t necessarily saying goodbye to the actors themselves. The Candle Wasters are open to working with their former cast members in their new series, saying “It’ll be really neat working with new people, but we’re also looking forward to having actors auditioning that we already know and love.”

You can read our full interview about Bright Summer Night with the Candle Wasters below.

You are describing this series as ‘inspired by’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. ‘Lovely Little Losers’ is also described as ‘inspired by’ while ‘Nothing Much To Do’ is ‘based on.’ Does that mean fans should expect a loose interpretation of the source material in ‘Bright Summer Night’?

We have a solid concept for the show, however we’re yet to start the actual writing process. Changes will naturally be made in modernizing the text and setting it in New Zealand with a young cast. We’re currently removing the fantasy element of the story while still keeping the sense of awe and mystery it inspires, and are toying with the idea of combining a few characters into one. Setting these limitations is exciting, and we’re looking forward to seeing what this does to adapting the story! We are keen to cast more women than are in the original text, and have made our Demetrius female.

Is this series set in the same world as ‘NMTD’ and ‘LLL’? Or, if not, are there any cast members from these series who you are hoping to include in ‘Bright Summer Night’?

Bright Summer Night is not currently set in the same world as NMTD and LLL. If it were, we’d want to be making a vlog series! We’re open casting the series this time round, which is super exciting as we haven’t done that since NMTD (in casting LLL we asked friends to audition for the new roles). It’ll be really neat working with new people, but we’re also looking forward to having actors auditioning that we already know and love. In the end, we are going to cast people who are right for the role.

We’re also hoping to expand the crew, which means a mix of old friends helping out as well as newbies. Bevin Linkhorn is helping produce the series (he’s an incredibly lovely human being) and the brilliant Robbie Nicol (who acted in LLL) is a writer. We expect there’ll be other actors behind the scenes too!

You’re changing your filming style for this project. Can you speak more about the decision behind this, and if ‘Bright Summer Night’ will incorporate any vlogging elements?

We can’t confirm if we’re completely removing the talking-to-camera style of storytelling. However, yes we are moving away from vlogs. We’re doing this because we want to be able to explore a different film-style of storytelling, and for us that means traditional camera angles. This means we can tell a story without having to justify why the camera is involved in-world.

Vlogging can be a solid framing device, and can really help you tell certain stories well. However, since LLL we’ve got to the point where all we really want to do is cut to a nice close-up. And so we are looking forward to seeing what kind of story we tell with a new set of constraints. We’re really hoping to experiment with our film knowledge and create something that’s above the standard of our previous projects.

In addition to the different filming style, what other changes from your previous series can audiences expect in ‘Bright Summer Night’?

A smaller cast, hopefully! Haha! (We got a little carried away in the writing process for NMTD and LLL, and fell in love with the multitude of minor characters). We’re sticking with representing young people onscreen, and many of the themes we’ve touched on before will be expanded in Bright Summer Night. We are also interested in exploring the pressures of environmentalism and the way that it affects our generation. We are going to take advantage of the different filming and our intention is that this series is going to be much more visual than our last two.

You have spoken about ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ inspiring you to create ‘NMTD’. What are some of your influences or inspirations for the direction of your new series?

Fairy tales! The TV show Skins! The films of Hayao Miyazaki! The direction of Edgar Wright! The environment! Steven Universe! The Hour! The high school experience! The film Submarine! And more! All these things have aspects which feel very real and human. They also have fun with what is heightened and magical. This contrast is fascinating to us, and we want to play with it ourselves.

Like Much Ado About Nothing, this is a Shakespeare play we know well, and love. Of the five writers, two of us have played Puck and two of us have been Bottom in high school productions!  Because A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the idea of creating a series about teenagers has been sitting in the back of our minds since high school, in a way everything we’ve lived through, watched, and read will influence the way we interpret the story. It will be really interesting to see how it turns out.