Interview With SINGLE LADIES Co-Director Gemma Hall

Single Ladies focuses on the two hosts of the titular sex-positive radio show, besties Nina (Alexandra Nell) and Catherine (Megan Hollier), who deal out a daily dose of sex ed whilst also divulging in their own late night shenanigans. Their on-air fun is put on pause when their loyal producer Hashim (Jad Abid) reveals that they’ve been cancelled – in the literal sense, not in the “woke Twitter” manner of being invalidated online – as they’re being swiftly replaced by frat-boy buddies Ronnie and Donnie, whose crass sexual politics would date the struggling format of radio back to a pre-World War level of bigotry.

Helmed by a trio of Perth directors – Gemma Hall, Mimi Helm and Jacqueline Pelczar, working off a series of scripts scribed by Aaron Moss, Single Ladies is one of the latest web-series to emerge from Perth, Western Australia that is poised at an international audience, thanks to its relatable tales of modern dating and workplace dramatics. Chronicled across six episodes, which clock in at a bite-sized 8 minutes a piece, the series is sure to support those still grieving over Broad City’s recent completion.

In the lead-up towards its July 22nd launch date, I had the chance to speak with Gemma Hall about directing a third of the series, its real world inspirations, the show’s aesthetic influences and why the web series format was chosen.

Alex Lines for Film Inquiry: How did Single Ladies begin?

Gemma Hall: A long time ago now, it was initially conversations that started between the two lead actors and the writer which kind of evolved a little bit. He went off and did drafts and then we were brought on board as directors and then we collaborated on the draft following that. It was a long process, but it was good.

With having three directors on the series, how did you each go about picking who directed what episode?

Gemma Hall: Oh gosh, basically we picked out favourites and luckily they were all different. We then went for our second choices after that, but we all ended up with pretty much what we wanted, which is nice.

Did you have a particular favourite episode out of the six?

Gemma Hall: Definitely episode four. When I first read the script, it was bonkers and I loved it. Even in its previous form – where there was no bunny cult or anything like that – it was crazy and ridiculous and I just really enjoyed that. So we all got to play with our own little genre stuff, like, Mimi loves horror so she did Episode 3 [which is about a possible ghost encounter]. It was nice to put little bit of a spin on things.

Was there any real life experiences or anecdotes that went into the series?

Gemma Hall: Yup, so the initial drafts were largely based on the Tinder experiences of one of our actors, most of which got stripped out in the wash. The scene involving the Netflix Password was a story of one of our directors which is quite funny, she posted it on our Instagram on the anniversary of the event, which was quite amusing [The scene involves Nina calling an old ex-boyfriend after she’s discovered he’s changed his Netflix password]. There’s little bits of all of us in there, but yeah, that one was definitely a hilarious story that everyone was standing around being I can’t actually believe this, and she was like, no, it actually happened.

How early on was the web series format chosen and was that, what do you think that sort of style of storytelling brings to the series?

Gemma Hall: It was always intended as a web series. I think it’s a really great way to get to the audience that we’re representing, like women or guys as well, that sort of 20s or moreso that 15-35 age range who are consuming the majority of their content online. We’re all so busy, so that short form content seems to be increasingly popular. It was a way to reach the right audience I think, but also just a really great way to deliver very fast paced, crazy content in a very digestible manner.

Can you describe the casting process?

Gemma Hall: Obviously we started with the two girls – they were always at the centre – Then we cast a reasonably wide net for all of the big players, and we auditioned those guys and then did chemistry reads with the girls. There was a few people that we approached directly, like Jad for example (who plays Hashim). He popped into my mind, like I’d done a couple of films with him before and he has such a great way of being on-set, so we knew that we wanted him and did one chemistry read with the girls and they were sold instantly.

In terms of influence, I think many people would point to TV series like Girls, Broad City or even the movie The Breaker Uppers from last year. Would you agree with that and is there others that you’d list as primary influences?

Gemma Hall: I mean it’s definitely there. Look, they’re definitely things that all of us have watched – if I could be as funny as The Breaker Uppers, I would be laughing till I died. We all had individual influences on each of the different episodes, I was watching a lot of Brooklyn Nine Nine, which was really just for their style of shooting things and a way of cutting and editing, keeping that sort of comedic pace.

But yeah, there was so many different things. As I said before, in the horror episode, we got to play a lot on lots of different things that have seen, but nothing central stands out in that all of us were like, yeah, it’s definitely “this”. There was a little bit of Love from Netflix, which is something that we talked about a bit as directors. There’s sort of too many to list in terms of things that we took bits and pieces from and kept in our brains.

For me, when I was watching Single Ladies, it felt like the one of the latest pieces of media that represents a definitive change in how female-led films and television are being made at the moment – where the central narrative thrust/choice isn’t between someone having a job or a relationship, or even who that relationship is with. It’s more so about finding the ability to have and maintain both, another recent example of that being Long Shot, the Seth Rogen film. Was this an important thematic point when making the show?

Gemma Hall: Definitely. I think it was always going to be important to us to represent women as they are, not as they’re perceived and women do have jobs and relationships. I don’t think that women should be afraid to say what they want or afraid to do what they want and it was really important for us to represent those women. The women that we think that we feel we are, but it was also very important to find a way to represent women truthfully, but still be funny – Women are funny – we were very determined to get that point across.

I know the point is made within the show, but was there ever a conscious decision between making the central show a podcast and not a radio show?

Gemma Hall: No, not really. It was more about the fact that with podcasts, you have the autonomy to do what you want. Whereas with radio, you are told to fit within guidelines and that kind of thing. It was more of a plot device than any sort of pivotal thing to us. All of us have listened to a bunch of podcasts in this vein because it gives you a bit of head space of how like women like these ones think and talk and that was really important.

In regards to the characters of Ronnie and Donnie, would you say they owe more to Kyle and Jackie O or Hamish and Andy or was there another sort of a radio duo that they were projections of?

Gemma Hall: There was so many influences that we were talking a lot about when we were casting them. We were really trying to find the perfect two people to counterpoint the two girls. We were lucky to have Declan and Michael audition together, as it was the most magical thing I’ve ever seen – they immediately became people I didn’t like. You can’t deny that Donnie definitely has some Kyle Sandilands vibes, it’s that sort of obnoxiousness about him that we really needed from his character. But yeah, it wasn’t specifically any sort of radio duo, it was an amalgamation of all of them.

Watching all six episodes back-to-back, it definitely felt like a lead-up to a second season. Where does Single Ladies go from here?

Gemma Hall: Ah, look, we would love to do another season – It would be nice to get some sleep first! I mean, we’d definitely love to do another season, as yeah, we’ve got the set up at the end that allows us to go somewhere. It would be great do another web series, to expand it out to a longer format if we chose to. I think it’s sitting in those eight minute brackets is really nice and it gives you lots of like enough time to get everything across but quick enough to digest.

Can you talk about where and when the series is going to be released?

Gemma Hall: Yeah, so we’re doing the festival circuits at the moment which has been really lovely. It’s been received really well and we officially launch on the 22nd of July on a platform called Hyvio, which we’re really excited about. It’s a curated platform with a lot of short form comedy, documentaries, a bit of everything on there.

Film Inquiry thanks Gemma Hall for taking the time to talk with us.

Single Ladies will debut on Hyvio on July 22.