It all started when we were between jobs, homes, and boyfriends.
We were fresh out of college when we became friends, and even when we knew each other, it took another nine months or so before we became inseparable writing partners. At the time, Jillian was living in a hole in the wall in Santa Monica, and Abbie was living above a garage near Highland Park—only about twenty-one miles away in Los Angeles, but a hundred miles away in traffic.
When we first decided to write something together, the process started slowly. We met once a week at the Panera Bread in Beverly Hills. First we’d talk about everything that had happened that day, then we’d talk about everything that had ever happened to us, and it wasn’t long before we started talking about everything that ever could happen to us. Then we started tossing ideas around—should we write something modern? Something historical?
Perhaps something realistic, since we wanted to film our idea for real. Abbie had come up with a brilliant line, which set our whole project in motion. The line was: “You don’t scare me, ghost girl.”
Thus, A Girl’s Guide to Ghosting was born.
We kept up those meetings in Beverly Hills for close to a year. Still talking about our lives, incorporating the perils of online dating into our scripts, the fear of making something for real shining through as well. Eventually, we got settled in our jobs, and finally rented real apartments not too far from each other. We started writing in the privacy of our own homes.
Once we had scripts that we were happy with, we held a table read and made pancakes. Then we did some more rewriting. Then when we decided that it was time to make this web series, we settled on a date in early 2018, and we got to work setting a cast and crew.
Once we assembled our team and secured a location, we filmed everything. Shooting totalled four days over two consecutive weekends (78 pages in four days? Not possible? Think again), and all the while we had the time of our lives. Issues that could have gone very wrong instead went very right, and our cast and crew worked as one brilliant, never-tiring unit.
Post-production went equally as smoothly, though the process of cutting together 10 episodes while still working other jobs definitely tested our patience and dedication to the process. Luckily, we found talented artists to help us solidify our tone and round out our story – including our composer, title animator, and colourist. Watching our beloved series take shape before our eyes, slowly but surely, was very satisfying.
Jillian and Abbie are proud to present the final version of their first web series together, A Girl’s Guide to Ghosting. We really really hope you like it, because we liked making it. Every jobless, homeless, and single second of the day.
Watch the first episode here!
