Seeking Simone

Simone's Renée Olbert Nominated for Indie Intertube Awards! Wooo!

As if the Oscars weren't glamour enough this weekend!

We at Team Simone were thrilled when we got the word that Simone herself, the lovely Renée Olbert, was nominated for not one, but TWO Indie Intertube Awards! Wooo! Break out the party hats and also, the vodka!

Renée was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy for Seeking Simone (alongside such other comedic geniuses as - gasp! swoon! - Emma Caulfield from the hilarious Bandwagon).

AND she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for Good People in Love. Kudos, Renée!! Such a talented young lady.

The Indie Intertube Awards nominations are chock full of webseries goodness (including several nods to one of our fellow Canadian LGBT webseries, the awesome Out With Dad) - and there are many amazing shows for you to check out.

To find out more about the awards (live! March 11th), visit the Indie Intertube site. And many thanks for the love, Indie Intertube!! And Simone was worried she'd never find love online...

 

 

Seeking Simone in Curve - Plus, Bonus Ep 2.3 Announcement!

We got a lovely little surprise yesterday when we found this sweet little write-up about Seeking Simone in Curve Magazine online. Always good to have it confirmed that we are not the only lesbonic Buffy nerds out there. Thanks so much to the author, Emelina Minero, for the kind words about the show! We hope to share more Buffy nerdishness with you some day soon.

Hey, speaking of soon, we're FINALLY gearing up to release Episode 2.3: Heat of Fashion! Wooo!

As you can see, the countdown clock has been activated! We will be releasing Ep 2.3 on Thursday, September 8th. Mark your calendars!!

In the meantime, since it has been so long, this is a good opportunity to refresh your Season 2 memories by reliving the glory of Episode 2.1: Free Tibette! and Episode 2.2: Tippi Hedren's Slutty Daughter.

Happy Labour Day Weekend, y'all and we'll see you back on Thursday!

A little Gay Games Gutentag from Renée

We were pretty glued to our computers for the duration of the Gay Games, enjoying After Ellen & OML's livestreaming Gay Games coverage (hosted by the lovely Bridget McManus) and we were super jealous of BJ Fletcher P.I.'s producer Rochelle Dancel, who was actually in Cologne for OML's Theatre Nights. 

We hear that Theatre Nights were a big success - thanks so much to all who came out to watch hot girl-on-girl action on the big, big screen!

Since we couldn't be there in person, we decided to send a short intro instead. Featuring Renée. Speaking German. It's like she's a little more like Liz Lemon every single day.

So here's Renée's little hello to the Theatre Nights audience (click on the triangle at the bottom of the player for English subs!):

Thanks to Sandra Showtime of OML for the text & voice translation - and thanks to our DoP, Danny, and Renée's lovely assistant Lisa, Queen of the Cue Cards - for helping us make that 47 seconds of magic. It takes a village, people.

What do you think, German-speakers? Did Renée pull it off? She's hoping for a guest spot on Emma Stahl...

Simone Welcomes our New Director Extraordinaire - Naomi Jaye!

Lots of excitement over here at Team Simone! 

We have a new director! 

We are officially in pre-production for the rest of Season 1!!! 

We're gonna shoot this thing in late September...of this year!! Burning questions will be answered! Burning feelings will be felt! More lesbosity than anyone can handle!

I know...FINALLY. You've all been very patient and supportive and we love you. More Season 1: Part 2 news to come over the next few weeks but first - more about our awesome director!

We've been pretty fortuitous with our directors so far - for the first five episodes, we had the lovely, talented, hilarious, award-winning filmmaker Lisa Hayes in the director's chair, guiding Simone through her first foray into Toronto's gay dating scene. Hammertoesssssssssssssssss!!

And now, for Episodes 6 - 10 of Season 1, award-winning filmmaker Naomi Jaye has signed on to take Simone through the next phase of her search for lesbian love online! Welcome, Naomi! 

Not only does Naomi write her own funny bios, but she also enjoys tea and, in her mug shot below, looks a little like Felicia Day! So, you know...it's a match made in heaven already. Although I understand that she has NEVER WATCHED BUFFY (*GASP*, clutches pearls and CD of "Once More With Feeling").

We'll...we'll work on that, Naomi. We'll work on that. 

Here's a little more about Naomi - and we look forward to sharing further Simone news as it happens! Woooo! Season 1!!!

Born in a Yurt to an Italian Opera singer and his seamstress wife, Naomi began her artistic career at an early age. Her parents noticed she had a true knack for finger painting and collage and decided to send her off to the colonies where they felt her obvious penchant for the arts would flourish unhindered by their crippling poverty.

Naomi’s new Canadian parents were very supportive, quickly discovering her flair for theatrics, talent for telling stories with no words, and penchant for making elephants out of socks.

Armed with these skills, Naomi has gone on to a career in film as a *director extraordinaire*. She has made a handful of shorts, won some awards and is developing a few feature films. All of her projects, according to her mother, are lovely.

Naomi has the rare ability to find humour and humanity in every story. She also has the rare ability to always be on time, put together great outfits, and truly enjoy a good cup of tea.

It should also be noted that Naomi has a bowling trophy engraved with ‘Best Director’ that sits on her mantle.

Ask Audrey Ep 9 - TWFan52, California

In this episode, Audrey addresses a question that may seem...familiar. To certain lesbians. Who like a certain show. We won't tell you which show, but we WILL say that the show creator's name rhymes with "Boss Bhedon".

Audrey will be back every OTHER Friday to answer your lesbian dating dilemmas. Stay tuned!

Have a question for Audrey? Leave it in the comments, tweet her at @ask_audrey OR, to keep it private until she blabs it on her vlog, contact her via the contact form. She can't wait to hear from you! Seriously...she CANNOT WAIT.

Polish Subs for Episode 2! And Happy Thanksgiving, Americans!

Alex from Fioletowa Winda is a MACHINE and has already provided us with Polish subtitles for Episode 2! Thanks so much, Alex!!

Thanks to Alex, you can now make your Polish-speaking date swoon with such gems as: "it's incumbent upon me to prove I'm not a freakshow." These are useful phrases, people. TAKE NOTE.

 

Ready for your Seeking Simone Berlitz course? See our last post for handy YouTube caption instructions.

In seasonal news, Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbours to the south and also northwest! We wish you all a lovely "ritual sacrifice - with pie", replete with turkey, tofurkey, turducken or however you get down.

We will be celebrating your holiday by watching Buffy Season 4, Episode 8 - you know, the one where they have Thanksgiving. I can't find a video clip - I know, right? WTF? - but these IMDB quotes from the episode really take a girl back. Good times.

Simone Interviewed by Crazed Buffy Fan on Univers-L

As you may recall, last week French website Univers-L published an interview with Seeking Simone creators Rose and Renée. (scroll down for the English version)

But the gals at Univers-L ALSO had a very special correspondent - BuffyFan3927 - interview Simone herself! What followed...well, you'll have to read the interview in English or in French to find out.

Here's a snippet, to whet your appetite:

Are you aware that a weird photo of you having an eargasm circulating on the web??? It’s a pretty intimate thing, how do you deal with that? (any sex tape available soon? Want to do like the famous other chicks of LA?) (By the way, do you think you could sign me that photo? Just for me!! Pleaaaaaase!!!)

SIMONE :  I actually appreciate the opportunity to talk about that photo…I was young, obviously…well, younger, it was last year…and that photo is just one of many I took for an ad campaign for Q-Tips. Of course, the ads never ran because the photographer did not actually have a contract with Q-Tips – he actually conned several young women into posing with Q-Tips and then sold the photos to a fetish website. I was not paid for that job. I switched agents shortly after that incident – and that’s how I ended up getting on CSIS:ForensicSWAT! So in a way, I have that Q-Tip snapping perv to thank for my big break.

Head over Univers-L to check out the interview in English and in French. And thanks to the hilarious Magali and Gaëlle of Univers-L for hooking Simone up with her biggest fan!! Her biggest, creepiest fan.

Univers-L Interviews Seeking Simone in English et en Français! Plus, New French Subtitles!!

A few weeks ago, we got a very curious note in our contact form. And by "curious", we mean "very disturbing". Upon closer inspection, however, it turned out to be the most hilarious interview request EVER. Here is what it said:

Hi Simone I'm buffyfan3927,

I've seen your profile on the dating online website and I couldn’t believe it when I saw it !!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFG loooooooooool, I thought "WTF, am I dreaming ???". So happy, because I'm a huge fan of your show, I think it's great, really great !!!!! Every week I watch it and I think "OMG, That Woman is my soul mate I need to know her" and there you are !!!. Now a few words about me :  I'm a pretty funny person, I love to read deep books such as Willow & Tara fanfictions, and  I live on a little flat with my lovely cat Buffy, and my birds Willow and Tara.

I would be so happy if you accept a date with me. Will you ?? Say yes ! Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase !! I'm pretty sure we would make a wonderful couple and I've already the names of our four children : Bette, Tina, Jenny and Shane !!

Just before we called the cops, we read the second half of the note, which was from the very funny and fabulous women of French lesbian website Univers-L, requesting an interview for their site. With an intro like that, HOW COULD WE SAY NO?

Magali and Gaëlle sent over the questions and we answered. And then they translated and posted! Check out the Univers-L interview in English and French for a little Seeking Simone history, a little web series philosophy and a lot about why we love Buffy.

But that's not all! The lovely ladies of Univers-L not only translated our interview into French, but they also created French subtitles for the first two episodes of Seeking Simone! For those of you who wanted to know how to shop for organic beets and complain about emotional crabs in French - YOU'RE WELCOME.

Seeking Simone Ep 1.1 in French

Seeking Simone Ep 1.2 in French

Stay tuned - the crazy girls at Univers-L have one more VERY SPECIAL interview to share and we'll post about that next week. VERY SPECIAL.

Merci beaucoup to Magali, Gaëlle, Lindsay and Virginie and all of the Univers-L team for the fantastic interview and the wonderful subtitles!! Vous êtes merveilleux!!!

Confessions of Indie Web Series Creators on Tubefilter

One of our favourite Twitter pals, the lovely Rochelle Dancel is the associate producer of the wicked awesome lesbian web series B.J. Fletcher Private Eye. We were tickled pink that she quoted us in her recent Confessions of Indie Web Series Creators: Things They Wish They Knew article on Tubefilter!

It's a great article full of keen web series tips for all of you creative types out there. Plus, the article introduced us to a few more great web series we'd never seen before. HA ha! SCORE.

Be sure to check out Rochelle's article and all the other cool content over on Tubefilter - and thanks to Rochelle for including Seeking Simone!

And hey! If you don't give a crap about the behind-the-scenes drama of your favourite indie web series, here's some Buffy fun - just for you! That's right! Just for coming by! Yeah! You're welcome.

The Rumours are True: Lesbians Like Buffy

Quite a few people have asked us "Where did you get all the stuff for the Joss Whedon shrine in Episode 1?"

First of all, thank you for using the contact us form! Secondly - uh...we had it all already. Because we are nerds. NERDS, OKAY?? Total effing Whedon-loving nerds.