An inspiring DIY TV pilot is disrupting the status quo

$HARE is available to watch now on the Olyn platform.

When Katja Meier, a Swiss writer based in Italy, developed her first TV idea in her late 40s, she quickly found support: She received a substantial grant to write the pilot, got accepted into The Writer’s Lab, a prestigious workshop for women over 40, and met with top European producers. While the script generated interest, there was one catch: Producers mentioned that it would be easier to get financing if the protagonist was 20 years younger.

“The script came out of a program for women over 40, and I’m sitting here being told the only way to get it made is to make my lead woman 35?’” Katja said. “It was literally heartbreaking.”

So instead of changing her vision,

Katja / Zenka Films

put together a crew of hungry filmmakers and actors, found the most cinematic location imaginable — the Swiss Alps — and got to work. She kept her 59-year-old protagonist and developed a film set manifesto to rewrite the rules.

Her pilot, $HARE, is now available to stream on the platform Olyn (more on that below) and it is SO GOOD. It’s already been featured in The Guardian, Forbes, Oldster Magazine, and it’s a true reminder that you can do things your way instead of waiting around for another person’s approval.

Katja’s success is personal to me.

In 2023, Katja used some of her grant money to take a TV writing class that I taught at Script Anatomy. Through that, I advised her on her first draft of $HARE. Later that year, we met in person in Italy, where Katja lives with her family. We had private story consultations between dips in the ocean and glasses of wine, becoming dear friends, getting lots of great work done, and… proving that a healthy work/life balance is possible.

$HARE is streaming on an exciting new platform – OLYN.

$HARE was funded through grants, with local campsites and hotels offering free support. Katja planned to launch a traditional crowdfunding campaign to raise money to fairly compensate her cast and crew, with hopes of selling the pilot to a Swiss network.

Then she found Olyn. Viewers can watch the show for just $8.95 (£7.24), leave feedback, and join her creative community. The incentive for donating isn’t a signed poster or a thank you in the credits — it’s the work itself. If you would donate just $8 to support this filmmaker’s vision, why not buy the pilot and watch it right now?

"I was looking for a platform that’s transparent,” Katja told me. “I want to have access to the data. It puts the power back into your hands.” That data will be key when deciding the next steps — leveraging views to find a buyer or entirely self-producing the rest of the series. It’s not a surprise she’s more interested in the latter.

“I hate gated communities,” said Katja. “They are incredibly boring. And the closer I got to the film world the more it felt like one. The term ‘breaking in’ just says it all. Why should I want to break in? It’s much more interesting out here, in the real world where people can actually talk to each other without having to sign an NDA first.”

Katja was kind enough to answer a few more questions for me. Enjoy the rest of our interview below:

Why did you decide to do the project in this way, especially after you did garner some industry interest with The Writers Lab?

Before The Writers Lab, which was fantastic, I got a grant from another lab, this one in Switzerland. It’s called Migros Story Lab and they do a really cool thing. They fund your idea early on and give you money to think differently. I’ve been on the road less traveled all my life, and that at 50 somebody would suddenly pay me for that – it was incredible.

So from the beginning, I was searching for other ways to get this story out. The film business isn’t the only storytelling industry that knows how to reach an audience. The creator economy proved this very vividly.

The craft I learned from Hollywood - with you in the Script Anatomy classes and later on The Writers Lab - is invaluable. With $HARE we combine the entertainment industry’s storytelling power with the innovation happening in other fields. I’m mostly looking around to figure out how things are done elsewhere. I self-published a memoir about running a refugee home in Tuscany some years ago. So I’m not naive. I know how hard it is to find and reach your audience. However, the self-publishing journey has been an extremely useful one for my film producer role. I know there are other ways out there and – most importantly - they are exciting and open to everyone. Doesn’t mean they are easy, but at least you’re not asked to stand at the gate and jump for joy if somebody opens it for you.

This mirrors what $HARE is about. Our protagonist, Lena Corbyn, sets out to transform the commodity trade and mining industry. Lena is coming into her power. Similarly, our production challenges the status quo. So how can we tell a story about a woman fighting the system while working within an industry that heavily resists change and lacks transparency and equality?

With $HARE, our story and production approach influence each other. We're facing the same forces as our protagonist, just in a different industry.

In the U.S., protagonists ages 40+ are a pretty strong market right now. If you look at Apple’s shows, for example, they have 40+ leads (although not always women), and the Golden Globe Best Actress winners were 40+. Do you think the European market is further behind in this regard?

It makes total sense. From the business side, that’s where the money is and the U.S. may be quicker to realize that. However, even when I look at female American actors who are 40+ and 50+, the majority look 10 or 20 years younger. Feedback we get a lot from viewers is that they love that they can recognize themselves in our actors. They are allowed to look their age. It’s great the Golden Globes were all 40+ (hopefully that’s an expression of the industry changing and not just a fluke). Not so great, however, that women have to still look a certain way to be allowed on screen. Which of course is not just a problem of the industry but a reflection of something bigger culturally.

Since we worked on the script together, I know it went through lots of iterations, which is the nature of writing anything. Without traditional support from a studio and Network, how did you decide when to stop revising and start shooting?

That’s the million-dollar question. If only scripts were like babies with a clear 9-month deadline. I think about this a lot. So let’s see whether I can narrow it down. When you get onto a prestigious lab like the Writers Lab, it seems you finally have that deadline. You won the award because you worked hard on your script. Surely, by the end of another intense six-month period, the script will be as good as it gets?

One of the many things I loved about the Writers Lab was that I got to read the scripts of my incredible peers. We were a cohort of 15 female writers 40+. And wow, the level of these scripts! By the end of the lab, I read all the scripts again - and yes, they were even better.

But whatever prestigious lab you were in, usually the industry will push you back into development. We’re teased with this idea of perfection. Just one more round and your script will be faultless. I think especially female writers need to remember that this is a Fata Morgana.

A perfect script – if such a thing even exists – is no guarantee for production. Thousands of them sit locked up in Hollywood drawers.

There is a saying in the startup world: Done is better than perfect. And I think that’s a good one to remember. As a screenwriter, at some point, you need to see your creation on screen. That’s the biggest possible learning experience.

Is $HARE perfect? No. Is it fresh and exciting? HELL, YES!

What do you hope comes from the release on Olyn.com?

Our goal is to reach 500,000 viewers. If they pay $8.95 each to watch our pilot episode ($5 for us after fees and taxes), we can produce the entire season one of $HARE on our own. Finishing our 500k Challenge would mean total independence from studios and streamers.

Crazy? Maybe. Doable? Only time will tell.

But one thing is sure: We raise the stakes while facing obstacles left and right. As a screenwriter, there is one thing I’d hate to do - bore my audience. This is the sort of stuff that usually keeps people glued to their seats during Act Two. ;-)

What’s one thing that inspires you to keep going?

If there is one thing you need to learn working the way we do (low-budget, independent) it is to use challenge as an opportunity. You cannot feel like – oh no, this is so unfair, why did this happen to us?

Okay, we are all humans – so you can give yourself a night or two of crying into your pillow, but then you have to get up and find a way to pivot.

I am always inspired by Michael Caine’s ‘Use the Difficulty’ — I absolutely love that interview with him.

Another of my idols is the French solo sailor Isabelle Autissier who talks about the importance of Plans B, C, and D. You can’t set out to sail around the world on your own and expect that the wind will always be in your favor. It won’t. And that’s where it gets interesting.

I hope you enjoy $HARE! If you watch, please let me know what you think in the comments. If not, I still hope this inspires you to go make something of your own.

Thank you for subscribing to Little Things, a Substack Featured newsletter from Ali Griffin Vingiano, a TV writer, filmmaker, and creator of In Flow Retreat Center. Travel with me on a Writing & Yoga retreat in Costa Rica this May.

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