I have been sitting on this truly excellent interview with Polly Frost and Ray Sawhill for an inexplicably long time. They are funny, innovative and very very smart. I apologize for not publishing this sooner... to Polly, to Roy and to you. Here's part 1. Part 2 is here.
QUESTION: You guys are playing around in a lot of media. Recently you created The Fold which is a webseries, and Sex Scenes which is an audio entertainment. What’s the matter with you people? Can’t you color inside the lines and do things the normal way? Why the innovative approach to creating and distributing work?
Polly: Where creativity goes, why not be promiscuous?
Ray: The new digital tools and distribution channels open up all kinds of new possibilities for creative people. It’d be a shame not to take advantage of them.
Polly: It’s an interesting comparison to the old-media world.
Ray: In the old media world, the challenge was battering down doors and forcing things through. In the new media world, the challenge is keeping your equilibrium.
Polly: So much is possible now that it can be dizzying. How to keep your head? How to make sure you actually pull your plans together? But I also like going back and forth between new-media and old-media forms too.
Ray: We both have a lot of experience in the old media, and it’s fun being able to put that to use no matter what the venue is. But it’s also fun learning about and adjusting to new-media realities and possibilities. Keeps the brain fresh and enthusiastic.
Polly: I have a lot of friends in the old media world who are downright hostile to the electronically networked universe. I can understand why. They feel like buggywhip manufacturers watching cars drive by. What I think they don’t understand is that the new media universe offers them a lot of opportunities too.
QUESTION: Marriage. Are you not getting togetherness living together? Do you have to spend your working hours together too? What’s with that?
Ray: Great and funny question!
Polly: We have a terrific rapport on many levels.
Ray: Even before we started deliberately collaborating we were always being big helps to each other with our individual projects.
Polly: Our strengths and weaknesses mesh in very handy ways. I’m great at hooks, and at getting characters up on their feet. And at first drafts, which a lot of people hate writing. Ray’s a structural wizard. He loves nothing better than inventing and arranging a project’s plumbing, concrete, and electricity. So we can have the fun of not stressing about our weaknesses and just having a blast with what we’re best at.
Ray: Plus both of us love collaborating with other people too. Matt Lambert, who cowrote “The Fold” with us and directed it, is a super talent. It’s great opening up to that. Working with Matt was a big adventure that we’re still digesting, in a good way. And it’s a chemistry thing too. Good collaborations bring out sides of yourself that you’d never think to bring out on your own.
Polly: One of the reasons we did “Sex Scenes” as an audio rather than as a novel was because after a couple of years of putting the stories on in front of live audiences, we realized that the performances had become an essential part of the experience. We wanted the audience for the final product to be able to enjoy that dimension. And, once we actually got into the sound studio, working with Dan Cioffi and Casey Zanowic, our sound engineers, became a big part of the pleasure of creating the audio.
Ray: There’s a picture that a lot of people cling to of works of art being crafted in noble solitude by high-minded individuals. Neither of us buy that. I mean, it’s fine, nothing wrong with it. But there are loads of ways to go about creating art and entertainment. Why not explore a few of them?
Polly: As amazingly sexy and attractive as we both are -- small joke! -- a big part of our attraction to each other right from the outset was that our brains and imaginations fired off each other in ways that made both of us feel very fizzy and happy. When we work together, it’s a chance to put that chemistry to use and share some of the fizz.
QUESTION: The audience. We always talk about how the web brings us closer to the audience and gives us the opportunity to interact with them. Does your work bring out any creepy pervs?
Polly: Mostly it’s brought out sweethearts. Even when I get emails from guys who say they’d like to spank me or pay me to dominate them, they’re really very sweet. And when I answer them by saying that I’m a writer who’s tired at the end of the day and besides I’m happily monogamous, they’ve always been very nice about taking it.
Ray: These days, with so much available, I don’t know how an artist and/or entertainer can be anything other than grateful when people pay a little attention to their work.
QUESTION: Going into this, were you concerned with who your sexual content would bring out? What is the response like? In what ways are you interacting with the audience and building community?
Polly: I love our audiences. I took “Sex Scenes” on tour around the country and met a lot of different audiences. I loved them for showing up, being interested, and wanting a good time. I also learned a lot about how freewheeling and adventurous some people in this country can be where their tastes in entertainment go!
Ray: There are some writers who prefer to keep a big distance between themselves and their audiences. We aren’t like that. The web seems to foster not just a kind of openness and informality but a general do-it-yourself ethos. We think that’s great. Let’s all pitch in, have fun, and be creative. Emailing, commenting on blogs, putting photos or videos online -- it’s all good. Some efforts will be a little more elaborate than others, some will catch on in unexpected ways. That’s how a culture-scene ought to work, IMHO.
QUESTION: Is this paying off for you? In creative satisfaction? In money? Are people asking you to consult, speak, do work for hire?
Ray: Creatively we’re the happiest we’ve ever been.
Polly: Yeah, the tools, the contact, the audiences ... It’s been great. Plus I really love the creative community we’ve come into contact with in the new media world.
Ray: Eric Mortensen and Blip.TV are a real hub for anyone with an interest in webvideo, as is Tilzy.tv.
Polly: Adam Pollock is making cool webshows. Paul Busetti and Geno McGahee are guys who say, Hey, I have 800 bucks, let’s go make a movie! That’s all very inspirational.
Ray: Old media parties can be gloomy and high-minded things. The new media gatherings we go to in New York are full of optimism and crazy ideas. It’s never “Here’s what I’m trying to persuade the bastards to let me do,” it’s always “Here’s what I’m doing.”
Polly: Even if no one can really figure out how to make money.
Ray: Right. That bewilderment about how to make money at this is actually part of what bonds new media people together.
Polly: It’s a fun and fab new world. But how practical is it going to prove for anyone?
QUESTION: Do you plan to continue working outside mainstream distribution channels?
Polly: You bet! But old media or new media shouldn’t be an either/or question. I just had a humor piece called Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way published in The Atlantic, and I had a story collection called Deep Inside published by Tor. And I was thrilled by those experiences. But I’m just not going to wait around any more. The main thing for me is to do my work and get it out there.
Ray: It used to be that acceptance by the old-media authorities conferred some kind of validation. Creative people could feel good about themselves, civilians could feel impressed, like a given piece had gotten a Good Housekeeping seal of approval. I guess that’s still true for some people. But it seems less and less so the case. In fact, more and more it seems to be the case that old-media people are chasing after what’s going on in the new-media world. Bloggers come up with ideas or observations, and then later the New York Times publishes an article about it. But what it really comes down to is what Polly says, why not enjoy both worlds?
Read Part 2 of the interview here.
