Felicia Day

Are you watching The Guild?

Chances are, the answer is yes. The web series about a ragtag group of gamers grows more popular each season, thanks to grassroots efforts by creator/star Felicia Day, her co-stars and legions of fans (which include more than 1.4 million Twitter followers).

Those who haven’t seen the show can catch up pretty easily, now that the first two seasons are available on DVD. Currently in its third season, new episodes are posted weekly on MSN and Xbox.

Last week I had the pleasure of hanging out with Day while she was visiting New York. We chatted about the show, Joss Whedon, bad ’80s music and the Guild comic book she’s writing for Dark Horse. She’s full of ideas, and they all sound terribly exciting.

Dip into our conversation:

Day: I’m reading the best book.

Me: Ooh, what is it?

It’s called The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It’s a mystery translated from Swedish ... It’s everything you want in a mystery.

What about TV? Are you watching anything?

I saw Community, finally. I saw the Office premiere. I saw Bored to Death. I’ve been really busy — my TiVo list is backed up, especially with all the new shows. I try to watch everything once, just in case I get an audition for it. (I laugh) It’s true! There’s nothing worse than going in and auditioning, and it’s like, "Oh, that guy’s a series regular — he’s not just a guest star." You’ve gotta know.

I’m loving Wil Wheaton on The Guild. Does he appear in most of the episodes?

He’s in many episodes. The presence of the rival guild is throughout the whole thing. They’re a driving force behind what happens.

And are you getting into a routine now making them? What’s the production schedule like?

You know, every season’s been different. The first one we just kind of limped along, because we would get, like, $1 contributions that we’d just add up. For Season 2 we had the money upfront, but we didn’t really have it before we started shooting, so we kind of shot in blocks: We’d shoot two or three episodes, then we’d edit, then we’d shoot two or three episodes, then edit, which was really hard on our director/editor.

This season we decided to block-shoot it, which was its own challenge. It’s a long script, which is totally my fault. Too many locations on our budget — I had to call in so many favors. There were just a lot of challenges, it was just very strenuous. And we had to get ready for Comic-Con, so literally the week after we stopped shooting we were trying to get an episode ready. And in addition, the music video was shot, and I was trying to get that ready for Comic-Con, so that was crazy.

Congrats on the Dr. Horrible Emmy, by the way. I was talking to Nathan Fillion, and he showed me pictures.

Yeah. I mean, after I’ve done that, I feel like I’ve done that. Because award shows aren’t as glamorous as people think. Right? You’ve been to them ... how exciting are they, really?

I’ve done them. Red carpet, press, parties. It was fun to go to some of the parties, but then it ... stopped being so interesting.

The parties afterward would probably be fun. But sitting there for four hours — I was trying not to Twitter because they asked us not to, and then I just started doing it. I was behind Kenneth the Page, I could see his head. (Laughs)

Did you meet anyone?

Well, we didn’t go to the ball afterward. Nathan, Neil (Patrick Harris), me and Joss ... we just went and had sushi.

Felicia Day and I pose in front of a giant forcefield of lettuce. CAPTION Whit’s iPhone Oh, hold on — I have some questions from readers here. A lot of people want to know if there will be another season of The Guild.

We don’t have a pickup or anything. Usually we wait a couple months after the season is over because we’re not like a traditional TV show, and Xbox has to decide if they want to, but I think they’re very happy with our show. I have some stories for Season 4.

What do you like about the arrangement with MSN and Xbox?

It’s like a web series’ dream, I think. I had an Xbox before we did the deal, but I didn’t really treat it like a video player — I just treated it like most people would, for gaming. But since the show is on there, I’ve realized you can download stuff or stream it completely like a TV show. So it’s like we have our own TV show on our own network.

And they’re honestly the most supportive people. I’ve never heard of anyone else being treated better as creators. Not only do we own the show but we have so much creative freedom. They don’t necessarily give us notes or anything. Nobody’s on set telling us where to put stuff. Other than the occasional bleep, the show is exactly what we want to do.

Someone else is telling me to get you to sing Red Red Wine. What does that mean?

OK, let me just go on record: Red Red Wine and The Lady in Red are the two songs I hate more than anything. I don’t know why, it’s not like I have a problem with red things. It’s just those two songs. Lady in Red particularly is the song I hate more than anything.

That song was played at every junior high school dance I ever attended.

It’s a slow dance.

Yeah, it was the token slow dance. And I was always in the corner! OK, another one: Joss Whedon said The Guild was a big influence on Dr. Horrible. How were you in turn inspired by Dr. Horrible?

Oh, that’s a good question. I think that when Dr. Horrible came out, the deal got a lot of attention. It definitely gave a huge boost to (my) show outside of the gaming circle. I think some of the things he’s done with the Dr. Horrible DVD, just the way he was able to have fans’ support and get the word out on the iTunes stuff ... And the music video, that was huge for the show. I got so many people on board because of that music video. I know that’s directly inspired by the fact that people want to hear me sing from Dr. Horrible. And then Jed (Whedon) co-wrote it and co-directed it.

Just the fact that (Joss) has taken web video to a whole new level and given it so much more respect allows me to have faith that it’s good to continue this rather than to go pitching pilots or whatever. I’d probably be making a lot more money, but it’s really fun to do things outside the box. And every time I do something that’s kind of breaks the mold, I think I’m a revolutionary. (Laughs) Like, if we get on the top 10 music videos or the most downloaded video on Xbox, those are the things where I’m like, "Yes! We’re breaking new ground." It makes me really proud.

Plus, Joss is such a creative genius. Just being around him, he just has ideas pouring off of him. I’m sure that there are a lot of unpleasant projects he’s done or things he hasn’t been happy with, but he just keeps positive and he keeps going forward and creating. He’s kind of a mentor in that respect for me.

I know how busy you are all the time. How do you prevent exhaustion?

I’m always exhausted. The last month was really hard because I kind of burned out a little bit, to be honest with you. Not only was I in post-production but I’m trying to get the comic written at the same time as the conventions. I love doing them, but it is a lot of energy. You’re meeting so many people, and I feel a personal obligation to really connect with every single person. I know so many people who sign stuff and don’t look up, and I’m not gonna do that. It’s completely grassroots ... it’s such a larger chunk of support than a mainstream TV show. And I love meeting people. So I definitely burned out a lot. And it’s hard creatively not to have the time — plus, I wanna play some video games and watch TV!

So the last several weeks I put up an auto-response on my e-mail and we got a volunteer. Learning to delegate is the hardest thing, because I feel like I have such a firm vision about how I want everything done. But at the end of the day, you’re gonna drive yourself crazy. And I really would like next year to get a couple other web series produced out there, so that if I really want to do that I’ve got to delegate and find people to trust and just be really precious with my time.

Do you have plans for other web series?

I have a couple ideas. I wouldn’t be able to completely write, (but) I could definitely produce other things. I think the next phase would be searching out other good material and other stories that would really touch and motivate people to want to watch. I think the thing about web content is you have to be very careful about who you’re speaking to and what stories you’re telling and where can they get them other places. It has to be really unique. The Guild is very grassroots, but at the same time we’re speaking to people who can’t get something like The Guild on a network.

And what’s the deal with the comic? When will we see it?

The comic is a learning experience for me. I think it will come out in the spring sometime. It takes awhile.

Who’s the artist?

Jim Rugg.

Oh, that’s great!

Yeah! We have a teaser that might be coming out. When I saw that ... I wrote the script, and when I saw it come back with the actual drawings, I was like, "Oh, this is amazing!" It’s such a different form of storytelling, because not only do you have to be very concise with your dialogue, you have to think like a director, a DP and a writer all at the same time. It’s been a process, and it just makes me admire great comic writers even more.

What comics have you been reading?

DMZ is one of my favorites. And I read Fray, and I read Fables ... those are the ones where I was like, "Oh my god, I love this format." I’d read a bunch that were good, but ... I’m used to reading 1,000-page novels. I will read four or five paperbacks in a week. I go through words like this (snaps fingers), that’s how my brain thinks. So when you have to slow down and think about entertainment in a different form, it’s definitely like shifting gears. But it’s cool. The reason I do this is so I learn something different every day.