I’m very excited to do Questions & Answers with the lovely Laura from Italy, better known as @Being_Laura on Twitter.  She’s gotten to know me, Will Conlon and Late July through Twitter and other social networking.  We all think she’s awesome.  She’s a great supporter of our show and Anyone But Me, as you can read here in this interview on the Anyone But Me Fans page.  She’s also responsible for translating our show into Italian for subtitles.  She applogizes for English, because it’s not her mother tongue.  But I don’t think anyone will notice!

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| How did you discover Out With Dad?
||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| I discovered Out with Dad thanks to a friend of mine, Chiara, who’s also friend with someone who works in the production of your web series – I guess they’re right when they say the world is not that huge place after all! So being addicted to TV series, I thought about giving a chance to this show too.

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| What kept you coming back for more?
||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| Truth is, you had me at the opening credits of the first episode! I really love how the opening credits are all on the notice board and then it merges into the first scene, it’s kinda perfect, so I just wanted to see more of this show. I remember thinking “This is really well done!” at the end of each episode. Moreover I really love the original outlook; I’m really interested in the development of the father-daughter relationship cause it’s just so genuine and heart-warming.

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| What’s your favourite scene, and why?
||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| This is a cruel question, Jason, you know that? It’s really hard to pick just one, but if I have to choose… Do I really have to choose? Cause I have two (three) scenes in my mind right now.. Okay, you asked for one, so I’d say the forth episode, Party Out. I love that episode cause few words were said and yet everything was said. From a narrative point of view, I loved the idea of “speaking through the song” – that’s when I found out and fell in love with Late July’s music – but I also loved the accurate cinematography of that episode. Forgive me, but I need to mention also episode 6, Tea with dad, because it’s so beautiful and well done (Is Will really that amazing in making tea? I think I should ask him to teach me) Seriously, I’ve loved something of each episode and that’s the reason why it’s so hard to pick up just one.

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| You’re a media arts student in Italy.  What is your focus in university?  What/who are your inspirations?  What are some of your career goals?
||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| At university we get to learn many subjects, from film history to sociology, but also event management and cultural studies. We study a bit of everything in a sense; it’s really interesting and I love it.
My inspirations? Probably my uncle who owns a small radio station; he started it when he was only 17 year old, and now he’s almost 50. I admire him cause he always finds the motivation and energy to keep working to achieve his goals, not matter how hard it is.
My career goals? Wow, that’s the hardest question ever! I usually reply to this question quoting a part of the monologue from the movie “The Big Kahuna”: “The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.” I can quite relate to this quote, you know. By the way, I’d love to work in the film/TV industry; one of my biggest dream is to create my own series or movie… I’ve always been fascinating by that, since I was a child. But I have several interests so, we’ll see what the future brings.

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| Recently you asked people around the world for your help by answering a questionnaire for your university thesis.  It sounds like a fascinating project.  Can you tell us more about it?  How did you came to choose this topic?
||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| When about to graduate, every student must develop a final project – the so called, thesis. Telling you how I came to choose this topic is quite a story, actually; way too long to be told here. So to make a long story short, I finally decided to choose this topic cause I’ve been fascinating by it since my first year at university (it feels like ages ago…). That year I met one of the best teachers ever and when she taught us about surveillance, well I realized that topic was really interesting to me. So four years later, here I am developing my final thesis about surveillance on web 2.0. Moreover, since I focus on the analysis of Facebook, my teacher and I agreed that it could be interesting to see how viewers who watch LGBT web series behave on the Internet.

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| From the sounds of things, you had a successful response to the questionnaire, in part from support from fellow fans and makers of webseries around the world.  What’s that been like?  How does it feel?
||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| You’re right, I’ve had a really successful response to the questionnaire. This is above all thanks to you and the other makers of webseries(Anyone But Me, Seeking Simone, Emma Stahl, Venice) together with Shirin Papillon, the founder of One More Lesbian, because I wouldn’t had this success without your help! I’m still overwhelmed by the help I received from everyone, even from people who don’t personally know me; lots of fans of webseries from around the world (literally around the world: I got replies from 43 countries!) sent me messages to let me know they completed the questionnaire and asked their friends to do it. Some people wrote about my survey even in their blog and Facebook! Even Ruta Gedmintas (Frankie from Lip Service), Ollie Barbieri (JJ from Skins) and AfterEllen retweeted my message asking their fans to help me.. I didn’t expect so much help from everyone; I’m still speechless when I think about it. I really experienced an amazing online community feeling.

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| You’re not just a fan of OWD anymore, now you’re part of our team ever since you’ve been volunteering your time to subtitle in Italian.  Did you find any challenges?  Were there any English/Canadian expressions or cultural differences that were particularly hard to find the right way to say it in Italian?
||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| First of all, I’m really honoured to hear you say I’m part of your team; thank you for giving me this chance. I love English so I just enjoy myself doing translations and then it’s a great way to improve my knowledge. Doing translations include always some sort of challenges cause of slangs or cultural differences, but probably the hardest expression was just “Side Swept”. In fact I asked my dad to help me with that… I know what you’re wondering so… Yes, sometimes my dad watched episodes with me to give me some tips for the subtitles. He’s the best and we enjoy ourselves together: I remember we laughed when we heard of Polka Dot Door cause it reminded us of an Italian long-running children’s TV series produced when I was a child called “L’albero Azzurro”… Canada and Italy might be really far, but we are really alike after all.

||Q:|Heading|font_size=20|| I think that’s great that you and your dad worked together on it.  I was never sure if I’d ever hear someone watched Out With Dad with their dad.  I’m so happy about this!

||A:|Heading|font_size=20|| I try to share everything that I do with my parents so, they also know about the subtitles of Out with Dad of course. I really hope there are more guys out there who get to watch your show with their parents… After all, it’s not just about coming out to your dad, it’s more about the relationship you can have with them, and how important it is to talk; we talk (and listen!).


If you have questions you’d like to ask, please do! Go to About>Questions & Answers for more information.  On that page you’ll find we’ve set up a Formspring account. Or you can just ask in the comments anywhere on the site.