by Nora Poggi
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How many of us have fantasized about living in New York or L.A., after watching “Sex and the City”, “The L Word”, or recent fan-favorite “Girls”?

Many young women and men come to San Franciscothough, searching for something more exciting, both professionally and emotionally, yet their lives haven’t been represented onscreen since 1993’s “Tales of the City”.

San Francisco has changed a lot in the last decades, after the tech bubble burst, for better or worse, but remains a very unique place to say the least.

Where else in the world can one, at the same time, go to an S&M Street Fair, walk past naked Santas, while billion dollar companies and innovation (and homelessness) thrive ? A free-spirited atmosphere seems to always prevail. One thing is certain though: fun, ambitious, young San Franciscans are everywhere, except on our screens.

That’s where Ryan Lynch, Story Manager at Pixar, comes in. The Georgia native moved to San Francisco ten years ago, and decided to tell the tales of her generation, in an upcoming webseries called “SanFranLand“. (Check out the video interview below, with Ryan, producer Laura Wainer and actress and co-producer Chrissy Mazzeo.)

“SanFranLand, the title, is about that Disneyland feeling, when you arrive in San Francisco for the first time, and you’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a magical place where anything goes. That’s how I felt when I moved here, and that’s how Bobbi Winter, the main protagonist, feels when she arrives from Georgia, everything is exciting and new.” Besides, “there are so many young single women here, and they have a lot to say,” Ryan adds, “we would have dinners with friends and there would be like eighteen girls there!” she laughs.

The webseries, set for a Spring 2013 release, follows three single women in their mid-thirties, Bobbi, Tara and Coco. “Tara has been around for a while,” Chrissy Mazzeo, actress and co-producer, explains, “she knows all different kinds of people.” Her lifestyle “represents, to me, the duality of people in San Francisco,” Ryan adds, “school teacher by day, DJ by night.”

Coco, the third character, apart from being “a very sexual person”, represents “the entrepreneurial spirit that San Francisco has. She’s the work hard, play harder type,” Ryan tells us. “We definitely want to show the startup life, and show her at work, but we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg in five minutes episodes.”
The producers definitely thought about being picked up by a network if all goes well, and hope to be able to tell these stories on a television screen.

“We partnered with local designers such as Upper Playground and gr.dano, local shops like FUTUREfor the styling, and Monarch (a club in downtown SF) is going to be an important set. We also want to feature local underground artists and musicians such as Ian Ross, so we are encouraging everybody to come up to us and become a part of this!” says producer Laura Wainer. “Making films here helps everyone,” adds Ryan, besides, she doesn’t really want to move to New York or L.A to tell stories.

The first season is meant to be an introduction to the girls, their friendship and their lives. The 12 episodes have almost entirely been shot already, but a Kickstarter campaign to gather the last funds to finance the project, is running until Sunday, February 10th. Bobbi Rubio, a Pixar and Marvel artist, even made some exclusive artwork for their Kickstarter perks.

Let’s hope San Francisco’s single youth will get their time in the spotlight. “People here are living their lives to the fullest extent before settling down at all,” Wainer tells us, “that’s the Peter Pan syndrome of SanFranLand.” And that should make for some great entertainment.

Find out more and support “SanFranLand” at www.sanfranland.net.