Human Telegraphs is a quirky and sweet female-driven series that follows three women as they launch an in-person message delivery business in NYC, and get tangled in the intimate, unexpected, and hilarious lives of strangers. We spoke to writer, producer and actor Rachel Kay Barclay about this fun, voyeuristic view into the personal relationships of a colorful collection of New Yorkers.
Where do you hail from Rachel?
I grew up hopping between a few small towns in Central Illinois, about three hours south of Chicago. It was a rural, rustic kind of environment. The towns in which we lived were surrounded by cornfields and my family even lived out in the country on a farm for a few years. I spent my twenties on the east coast. First in Philadelphia and then in Washington D.C., where I attended graduate school before finally ending up in New York. It was there that I met Kayla Conroy and Fern Lim, my two co-producers, and we created and filmed Human Telegraphs.
And was the pandemic as punishing on you, as an actor, as it was most others in the game?
The pandemic has definitely been tough for everyone working in the theater and film industries. When it hit, we were actually in the middle of post production for Human Telegraphs, which we were able to do 100% remotely thanks to zoom and other film editing platforms, so, from a working point of view, it wasn’t as hard on us as it was for others who were in the middle of production or pre-production.
Are you back at it even more so now?
Right now I am 100% focused on the launch of Human Telegraphs Season 1, which is happening Monday, November 15th on our Youtube channel! We are also starting the film festival circuit. We had our World Premiere with the Big Apple Film Festival last weekend actually, in the heart of Times Square, which felt very special since we did so much pre-production and filming work there. It felt like everything was coming full circle. And we recently won Best Web Series at the New York International Film Awards, which also felt wonderful coming from our hometown. We are also screening at the NYC Web Fest this upcoming weekend, which also feels really rewarding. So yes, we’ve been keeping very busy for sure!
How different is it, with all these covid protocols and changes?
I haven’t worked on set since Covid hit, so I have no firsthand experience with it yet, but it definitely has affected every aspect of the production process for everyone in the industry. It just requires a lot more caution and a portion of the budget to now go towards testing cast and crew regularly and having a Covid consultant on set.
Something like “Human Telegraphs”, I imagine, could’ve been shot during the pandemic easily enough? Did you?
We did not shoot during the pandemic. I don’t think it would have been possible to shoot the show we shot back in 2017 now. We just have so many characters, background actors, and so many different locations in which we shot in the city that it would have been impossible to do that kind of shoot with the current restrictions filmmakers are now facing.
I believe the pilot was shot first, a while back. Can you talk a little about the journey of the series for me?
Yes! We shot the pilot back in 2016 on a $0 budget as a proof of concept that we used to help with our crowdfunding campaign. We wanted to show our supporters the vision we had for the series —the characters and the world—and it worked! We raised around $50,000 total through two different crowdfunding campaigns, one for production costs and one a year later for post-production costs.
We filmed all of Season 1 at the end of 2017, but because we had to do a new crowdfunding campaign afterwards to fund post-production, and also because of the ramifications of the pandemic when it hit, our post-production process took longer than anticipated. But we are very happy with how everything turned out! We’re so excited to share Human Telegraphs’ Season 1 with everyone on Youtube soon!
How much of an inspiration are, say, Sex and the City, Office Space, Lipstick Jungle– did you look at similar films or series?
You know, I didn’t consciously look at other series for inspiration, but I think the series that have inspired my writing in general are shows with larger-than-life characters that drive the narratives; shows like Arrested Development or 30 Rock. Tina Fey’s writing in general feels resonant, because her versions of New York have the same bubbly, cartoonish tone that Human Telegraphs does.
Funnily enough, I think the biggest inspiration for the style of characters and comedy in Human Telegraphs comes from my background in theater and also from all of the Disney movies and old shows, like Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music that I watched as a child. I love writing characters who are a bit over-the-top and theatrical but who still harbor elements of truth around the human experience.
Are any of the characters based on any of you?
Yes! Lily, Trisha, and Margot are all inspired by my, Fern’s, and Kayla’s experiences living in NYC. All three characters are comical, exaggerated versions of our personalities and individual quirks. It was quite fun to have a good laugh at ourselves while portraying these zany characters during filming!
Must be hard wearing so many hats!
It was definitely a challenge, especially during production when things had to move quickly and we were doing so much behind and in front of the camera. But I guess that’s just a reality that comes with producing your own work, which has its own benefits, like complete creative control over what we were making, so it’s really a trade off!
Tell us where we’ll catch the series!
We are launching the series on Monday, November 15th and you can catch it on our Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/humantelegraphs
You can also watch all eight episodes on our website at www.humantelegraphs.com, and you can subscribe to our website for our latest news and updates, especially concerning new festivals and cities in which we will be visiting and in which Human Telegraphs will be screening! And thanks so much for this wonderful interview! It’s been fun!