the authors (2002)

 

So who are Harmony and Estee?  Well, Harmony is on the right and Estee is on the left. Spatially in the photographs, not politically. Anyway, maybe you have questions…and maybe they have answers.  Maybe this entertains them way more than you, but they’re going to go for it anyway.  We’ll kick it off with some preliminary questions and any other questions you have for them can be sent to Estee and they’ll be promptly answered and posted right here.  Let’s begin, shall we?

 

 

>What’s your basic bio and background?

Estee: I was born in San Francisco, but moved to South Carolina when I was four.  Somehow, I haven’t made it out yet.  In high school, I was in marching band and was the editor for my school newspaper.  Once I left my dork high school days, I moved on to attend USC.  Don’t get too excited, that’s the one in South Carolina.  Go Cocks.  I’m a MATH major, but I think now I get to call it math education (my advisor doesn’t really know what I am either).  I plan to teach high school math in South Carolina.  Oh, and I’m an Aquarius.

Harmony: I was born in South Carolina.  I still live in South Carolina.  I go to the University of South Carolina (the aforementioned USC).  I one day hope to leave South Carolina.  I’m a media arts major who wants to go into casting.  Any casting agents need an intern (paid only)?  I hate public speaking and this comes close so…I’m done.

 

>How old are you?

Estee: Twenty-one.

Harmony: Twenty-two. 

 

>What do you like to do in your spare time?

Estee: In a perfect world, that hot guy in my bio class.  Oh, wait, you said what.  Okay, um…I like to go to the movies ‘cause I, you know, like movies.  Movies are a great escape and they make you think if you let them.  Occasionally I decide to read a book, but it’s usually research (i.e., Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, etc).  Then there are books that are straight out pleasure reading like The Rules of Attraction.  I have a guitar and I know a few chords, but Harmony will be the first to point out that I most certainly cannot “play the guitar.”  I also like to listen to music, preferably of the pop punk variety, but I like a lot of music including rock and country.  Other than that, I work on this little hobby of writing episodes of “Fight Club” and maintaining the site that goes along with them.

Harmony: In a perfect world, that hot guy in Estee’s bio class…and my film class.  Other than that, I enjoy research…of any kind.  I like the game Bricks…it’s like Tetris and it’s one hell of a procrastination tactic.  I also use my spare time to catch up on all the WB shows that I tape throughout the week.  I read books that I find interesting.  I like loud music of any kind.  I’m an avid movie-goer.  And I enjoy photography. 

 

>What is “Fight Club”?

Estee: Well, see, last year when we started working on New Beginnings, my roommate didn’t really know about it.  My suitemate, Anne, was/is a closet X-phile and she understood/understands obsessive tendencies and so I told her about the whole project.  I compared it to Fight Club because, as we all know, “the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.”  Of course, now, it’s kind of like Jake.  Everyone who needs to know does know and everyone else thinks we’re weird.  And, as we try to covertly discuss upcoming plotlines, they start talking about Brad Pitt and Ed Norton.  Silly, clueless people.

Harmony: Fight Club…yeah, what she said. 

 

>What TV shows do you watch?

Estee: Well, this is a complex question.  I’ve gone through many phases of television-watching.  There was my youth when I watched Donna Reed, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore and whatever else Nick-at-Nite had to offer.  It’s why I have such a strong moral compass.  Then there was elementary and middle school when Quantum Leap was the show for me.  Eventually it got cancelled and I moved on to Lois and Clark because I have this whole Superman thing.  But, like all good shows, it got cancelled.  Where to turn next?  Dawson’s Creek naturally.  And it was then that the WB became my main source of television viewing.  Right now I like Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls and Smallville (Superman thing again).  And, I can’t leave out Roswell even though it has switched networks.  And, throughout it all, Friends has been a constant…Matthew Perry is the best.

Harmony: Roswell, Ed and Dawson’s Creek.  Everything else is inconsequential.

 

>Why do you guys do this?

Estee: Um, ‘cause like…Hamilton was hot.  Just kidding.  Actually, I like working on this project for several reasons.  First, it’s something to do instead of homework.  Second, I think the show was a lot of things, but most of all it was filled with potential.  We never got to see how the characters and storylines would be developed and I think it’s neat to play with that and see what happens.  I think what I bring to this is that I have the ability to imitate well so the characters are more or less preserved…I hope anyway.  I also do this because people read it.  I love that.  Mostly because I’m a glory whore (as Harmony points out to me on a regular basis) and it just wouldn’t be the same if people weren’t out there reading and giving us feedback.  And, if the math teacher thing falls through, I’m using this as training to write for Smallville.

Harmony: It’s something interesting to talk about on trips between home and school.  It’s fun and it keeps me awake when I’m driving.  The Jake and Hamilton dynamic is awesome.  I like keeping myself in that happy place which most would refer to as denial.  As long as we work on the episodes, the show will never be gone.  Plus, Estee is a glory whore.

 

READER QUESTIONS:

 

>Have you had training as writers?

Estee: Well, there was second grade cursive training.  Does that count?  Just kidding.  Um, well, I think the answer to that question is “not really.”  I never did too badly in English and I took a bit of journalism in high school.  I’ve always kind of written stories, but I never really finished anything until these little YA episodes.  I think those “stories” were always more like movie ideas and I do think eventually I want to write a screenplay, but not right now.  The format of the episodes is far from formal.  It’s just something we made up so that it would be kind of like a screenplay or play and also so we could add direction and camera stuff since you’ll never actually get to see the episodes.  Also, it’s great to cover up the fact that the main thing I have to offer is…dialogue.

Harmony: I took journalism in high school and actually majored in it for a semester.  I’ve taken a class on scriptwriting and have to take another one before I graduate.  Additionally, I’ve taken lots of English (only because my liberal arts education required me to).  So, in other words, “not really.”

 

>How do you get into our characters' heads so that we never feel they go out of character?

Estee: This goes back to what I said about imitation.  I don’t think the characters were hyper-complex to begin with so we just get to take what we got and expand on that.  It’s not like this conscious effort to get in their heads.  I can’t really explain how we go about trying to keep the characters consistent.  We watch the episodes every once in awhile to refresh our memories of their tones and mannerisms.  I wonder sometimes if it’s less about how well we are able to convey the characters and more about the fact that the readers know the characters well enough to know how they’d say certain lines. 

Harmony: Estee was basically lying about why we watch the show over and over again.  What she meant by “to refresh out memories of their tones and mannerisms” was “we are totally obsessed with the show and sometimes just need to see it.”  Of course, this does help with characterization and getting that perfect “Hamilton feel.”

Estee: Whoa, whoa, whoa.  I would like to point out that I’m not a liar.  Just because Harmony likes to watch, rewind, watch, rewind, watch, rewind the scene where Ham says “Well, I’m…history…” and holds up that history book, doesn’t mean that is why I watch the old tapes.  Then again…

 

>Where do you want to be in Ten years?

Estee: Teaching math to high schoolers.  Of course, I’ll hopefully be working on my big screenplay on the side.  Maybe by then Harmony and I will have taken the Oscar Ben Affleck and Matt Damon style.  Seriously, teaching is my big goal and it’s a profession that everyone should respect and support.  There will be good things going on in education and I want to be a part of that.

Harmony: Not in South Carolina.  I want to be doing something successfully.  I’ll hopefully be working in New York or L.A. doing casting for television and film.