NewEnglandFilm.com

Most avid TV-watchers are probably able to think of at least one movie or series that is set in Boston (from The Departed to Cheers to Boston Legal) but incidentally of the shows on that list, only The Departed was actually shot in good old Beantown. The others were produced on soundstages in Hollywood. Which is one of the things that makes 617 — The Series so unique — it’s a show about Bostonians, and it’s actually filmed in Boston.

According to Amy De Paola and Katie Shannon, creators of the show, 617 — The Series is “a TV-format web series about six 20-somethings in Boston figuring out what life has to offer. Basically it’s Friends meets Sex and the City meets It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” In a nutshell, the three guys make up the Sunny part, the three girls are the Sex and the Citypart, and their interactions make up the Friends part. Originally the show started out as a bunch of 3-5 minute webisodes, but after De Paola and Shannon met through this very website, www.NewEnglandFilm.com, and shot the pilot episodes in June, they found themselves wanting to see more from the characters. So they fleshed the series out into more full-length episodes. “Through the process of casting, talking with each other and just going through the pre-production process, we found ourselves falling in love with the characters and wanting to see more of them. You know, find out what they’d do, and see where they go.”

Although this is their first foray into comedic writing, neither De Paola nor Shannon is a stranger to the filmmaking scene. Shannon received her Master’s degree from Emerson in Visual Media Arts, paying special attention to full-length dramatic screenplays, and De Paola has worked on many of the major film projects produced recently in New York and Boston. The two met in late 2010 while Shannon was still writing the original scripts, and shortly thereafter decided that new media was the way to go.

De Paola was very candid when talking about why new media matters so much to her: “New media is important because of two things: creative control, and access, especially for independent filmmakers. [When you’re directly responsible for your own distribution] you get to maintain control of the content itself, and your project remains your own. And as far as access, having the series be available on the web means that people all over the world can access it just as readily as people locally. We’ll be able to reach people in Boston, New York and LA as well as people in India, China, Europe, you name it.”

When I asked her what her dream come true scenario would be for the show, she surprised me by saying that her “number one hope is that [the show] stays in Boston, where it’s rooted, with Boston talent and Boston crew… One of the things we are using to attract other people to the project [both as audience and as cast/crew] is the homegrown Boston quality.”

And it’s working. The entire North End community where the show was shot has been very supportive and eager to be involved. “We had people offering us anything and everything we needed, from parking to costumes to locations… Murphy’s Law loves filmmakers, they were great. So was Lit Boutique, Down Ultra Lounge, Beacon Hill Pub, and Savas Studios… really almost everyone we talked to was great!”

The show is scheduled to debut at the beginning of November, and will be available free of charge through the series website, www.617theseries.com, but they say that there’s a lot more to look forward to than just the pilot episodes. “There’s a LOT of material that we’re coming out with, like commentary, bloopers, deleted scenes, plus a podcast every Friday about what’s going on. We want to be really transparent and open about what we’re doing, because that’s what people love to hear — the juicy behind the scenes stuff!”

They have intentions of bringing the series to a new media distributor soon, and are even planning their second season already, so they are excited to hear back from their audience and interested filmmakers. Series like Cheers and Boston Legal made a name for Boston, and now this series is making a home here.