Yes, The In-Between is very active this week, but that’s because I want to promote Happiness By: A Series as MUCH as I can!!! I’m very happy and excited to announce that our first episode will be Happiness By: Maggie Cayangyang, premiering on our YouTube channel March 14, 2020. (If you wanna know exactly when it drops, you should probably subscribe, but no pressure). So, big shoutout to my good friend Maggie for being a good sport about this project and supporting me while I was still figuring things out during the interviewing process. She was so wonderful to talk to, and I don’t think I could have had a better first subject. LOTS of love to her!!!
So, what exactly is Happiness By: A Series?
I’ve found that it’s really hard to explain, actually. It’s really weird when you have a vision of something in your head, and then you have to express what it is, and it’s all just word vomit basically. I’ve heard mixed responses to that - either it means you’re a bad artist if you can’t explain your project, or sometimes the art just speaks for itself. I think this video series will speak for itself obviously, because its so ambiguous and can go in so many different ways, but I’ll try to explain it the best I can.
Happiness By: A Series is about the human experience. If you’ve noticed, I’ve been promoting this project on Instagram with the tagline how do you define happiness? which is the first question that’s asked in this series. The idea for this project came to me after A LOT of media consumption, such as John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch (for reference: throughout the comedic sketches done in the special, he interviews the children he’s working with and other guest stars “what is your biggest fear,” to which everyone tells what they are most scared of, and of course it ranges) and Taylor Swift’s documentary titled Miss Americana (for reference: she talks about her own struggles with happiness in the industry, her eating disorder, her coming out into politics, etc), on top of music I’ve listened to and other movies/television series I’ve watched over the past year, like Sex Education, Bojack Horseman, and The Good Place. Media consumption and my own emotions kind of drove me to this idea of what if I interviewed people about what they’re scared of, what makes them happy, about their lives? Sure, watching my favorite shows and listening to bops is always fun and relatable, but what is more relatable than watching people you know in real life publicly talk about their struggles and their happiness?
And that’s what I want people to get from this series. I want them to know they’re not alone in the world, that normal people are going through the most common and uncommon experiences, and you might be too, and that’s okay.
I don’t want to give too much away. Like I said, I think it’s important to watch, and I have trouble explaining the true essence of it.
More generally, Happiness By: A Series is made up of about 15 pre-determined, generic questions I ask, and the interviewee answers. They range on the subject matter of happiness, sadness, anxieties, insecurities, and self-care methods. However, my goal was to make it feel more like a conversation rather than an interview, so other topics may arise specific to what the interviewee answers, which is where the magic of this series really happens.
This trailer is just a glimpse of what’s to come on Friday, but for now, enjoy Maggie being absolutely adorable on camera. (You can follow her Insta-blog, @itsmadebymaggie, here.)
Thank you all for the endless support!