#flat3

FRIDAY NIGHT BITES - Comedy Web Series

Coming 17 Sept to TVNZ OnDemand and 23 Sept on YouTube! 

WATCH MORE CONTENT:

Flat3 Webseries

Friday Night Bites Webseries

ABOUT FLAT3 PRODUCTIONS: 

Get your organic kiwi comedy right here, non-gmo and packed full of pop culture, cussing and awks-as situations. All smothered in a rich New Zealand accent and garnished with a light grating of intersectional f-word. You know you want it.

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Raunchy, Smart, Awkward and Silly, There is So Much More to See on Flat3.

If you are looking for a new webseries, it’s time to follow the adventures of three Kiwi-Asian twenty-something roommates trying to navigate through life in the innovative New Zealand comedy web series, Flat3.

Seeking to diverge from the “audition droughts and painful FOB [Fresh off the Boat] accents”, leading ladies JJ Fong, Ally Xue and Perlina Lau teamed up with director and writer Roseanne Liang of My Wedding and Other Secrets and pulled together $1000 of their own funds to produce the first season of the independent comedy.

 Flat3 is described as “a New Zealand comedy web series” which stars co-creators JJ Fong as Jessica, Perlina Lau as Perlina, and Ally Xue as Lee. Fong, Lau and Xue had each work on various television and theatrical projects before lending their talents to this hilarious web series. Since premièring on YouTube and Vimeo in February 2013, Flat3 has been going strong.

Flat3 is refreshing in its comedic way of investigating stereotypes in gender and race. In its first episode, Lee attends career counselling and expresses her interest in the arts while her counsellor makes the assumption that she’d be good at maths. In Perlina’s first central episode, she goes through a breakup with a boy who started dating her primarily because he deemed her “exotic”. Struggling actress Jessica attends an audition thinking the best way to land a gig is to put on an exaggerated accent - a reality that is now being addressed more frequently in shows such as Aziz Ansari’s Master of None. As young women, they are desperately trying to navigate the halls of romance, careers, individuality and self-confidence with ingenuity and humour. The style of the web series is self-described as "sometimes smart, often silly, a little rude and a lot awkward".

In an interview for the New Zealand Herald, Lau comments on the originality of having female Asians in leading roles: "Three girls, all of us are Asian obviously, and that in itself was enough for us to be able to go, 'Yeah, we don't know anyone else making that'." Most of the content, especially in the first and second season, is taken from the creators’ own experiences, providing insight into female Kiwi culture while remaining engaging to a wide audience.

Flat3 is not only relatable but it brings to light everyday topics and real life situations but from a part of New Zealand culture that we would not normally be accustom to seeing. It highlights the unfortunately familiar racial and gender stereotypes in a refreshingly hilarious way but also helps us to broaden our understanding and stretch our global knowledge and acceptance. It tells the story of the diverse New Zealand landscape that is often ignored or overlooked by mainstream entertainment.

The initial success of the first season garnered a loyal following and through an Indiegogo campaign, they raised more than $5,000 for the following season. The third season received funding from the government agency New Zealand On Air, allowing the show runners more creative expansion in production value and guest appearances.

 On their YouTube channel viewers can currently watch the first three seasons of Flat3 and it looks like Season 4 is on it's way in 2016.

In a February 8th, 2016 blog post, in connection with diversity on screen and the 'race card' Team Flat3 wrote: “It's a big step forward. And we understand that to get to Fresh Prince, there needed to be The Cosby Show, and to get to black people integrated into comedies, there needed to be Fresh Prince.  But why does it take a whole cast of Asians to make an Asian show? What about a majority Asian show? What about a 40% Asian show? Raybon Kan was right in his last opinion piece, if there was a real show about medical services, 50% of the staff would be Asian. If it was a show about science majors at uni, it would be like 70% Asian. Why does it have to be 100% or 1%. And I mean fully integrated, not the roles Lucy Liu had to take in her early career. We're not asking for our day in the sun. Or trying to start a race war. We're just asking for the diversity of our cities to be reflected on TV and film. Like, actually. Please.”  

YouTube has long been a place to show case an array of global talent, share our stories and flex our need for diversity. Flat3 has done a fantastic job by marvellously outlining all three.

If you have not checked out this awesome channel be sure to do it here.

Also subscribe to keep up to date with all that is going on with the cast and creative company. Let us support this amazing New Zealand web series.