Laura and Danielle Kosann are the two sisters behind the new satire “mockumentary” The Social Ones. The film follows five social media celebrities preparing for a photo covershoot for the 5th anniversary of a magazine dedicated so social media “influencers.” The Social Ones is directed and written by Lauren Kossan. Lauren and Danielle both acted in and helped produce the film together. The sisters spent some time answering our questions on social media and working together on the film:
FangirlNation: What are your personal definitions of a social media influencer?
Laura & Danielle Kossan: When we started our site The New Potato, we had a lot of experience covering social media influencers and were finding that stories on a 19 year old doing crazy things on Snapchat, or a vlogger doing makeup tutorials on Youtube were getting more engagement than our interview with Robert De Niro.
Most of all though, social media and influencers in general are so much about the culture of a person being a brand. And to us – and especially to Laura when she first had the idea for the script – that was what was so fascinating about the space. We’re in this brand of me world, this selfie stick era, and for better or for worse social media influencers are very representative of that.
FangirlNation: As siblings, is it difficult to have one direct the other?
Danielle: Not at all. Honestly, I am absolutely not a film director and Laura and I have always championed and supported each other’s strengths. She is an incredibly talented director and such a natural on set. It was actually a real gift to have the person whose taste and instincts I trust most directing me, because I never really questioned anything she wanted me to do, and there was a real freedom to knowing that she would get the best performance out of me I could possibly give.
FangirlNation: What is it like working to produce a film together?
Laura: We love producing together because it really represents how we work together in general. In terms of taste and visual we have the same taste, and Danielle has a way of knowing exactly what the inside of my brain looks like. As a director I really play out movies and worlds in my head constantly and am a perfectionist about them, and Danielle is the one person who can translate that when it comes to overseeing production design, makeup, hair and wardrobe. We are always aligned in what we want the big picture to look like. In that sense I can really focus and dive into the directing and writing aspect of things while knowing I have a creative producing partner that – for example – when I say “I want the meme god to have a wall that is right out of A Beautiful Mind” will go and build the perfect one with the production designer.
FangirlNation: When screenwriting, who are your biggest influences?
Laura: It’s a big question because there is truly so much that I draw from! One thing that does influence me is reading a script in front of me as I simultaneously watch the movie or television show that the script is of. There is something about seeing how a writer/director translates the words and directions on the page to the screen that I just think is such an inspiring exercise. And in terms of specific influences it’s a lot of different things: Alan Ball’s Six Feet Under was basically a show I grew up watching on repeat. Every episode is like a play and the humor is so dark and dry which is my favorite. The writing and comedy on The Sopranos was huge for me, and then everything by Christopher Guest (which was such an inspiration for The Social Ones) anything by Nora Ephron, Paddy Chayefsky, people like Aaron Sorkin and Amy Sherman-Paladino who I really feel nail dialogue (I love dialogue). Phoebe Waller Bridge just astounds me as does Greta Gerwig. I could go on for awhile…
FangirlNation: Social Media is a double-edged sword when it comes to creative endeavors. What has been your best experience with social media? Your worst?
Danielle and Laura: Our worst experience was probably what made Laura write this script. It was that we felt like we had to be posting meaningless content 20 times a day just to keep up with the social media machine that The New Potato had become. It was quantity over quality and we were unhappy with it!
Our best experience with social media is how it allows you to stay connected with and to support the people that you’ve collaborated with artistically in the past, or maybe who you want to collaborate with in the future. Social media is such a great vehicle for that, especially Instagram, it absolutely creates a kind of supportive artistic community with people you otherwise might lose touch with or would have never been in touch with.
FangirlNation: Where can we follow your future work?
Danielle and Laura: We have a couple really exciting entertainment projects in the works in both film and tv, follow @thenewpotato and we will surely be keeping our audience apprised of all updates!
