Nightlife The Web Series: A Look into The Lives of Party Promoters

In recent years online web series like Money and Violence, Respect Life, and now Nightlife The Web Series have caught the attention of viewers with their riveting content and unique look they provide inside certain niches of society. While Money and Violence and Respect Life gives viewers a glance into the inner workings of the street, Nightlife shows what the lives of urban party promoters are like before, during, and after the party. The series was created by TadMartin and his twin brother Maine who are real life party promoters (Give & Go Entertainment) in New York City. They sat down with The Source Magazine to talk about their web series, the promotion game, and what their future plans are in both.

Ever since Money and Violence exploded on the scene with its gritty content, it seems like new web series are being created every day. To be fair, it was not the first web series to gain a sizable following online and have a major impact. Issa Rae’s The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl and Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible Sing Along Blog were able to gain a cult following and critical acclaim while they were in production. In the shadow of the #OscarsSoWhite movement and ongoing discussions of increasing diversity in movies and televisions these new urban web series may be an answer to a long standing problem. They feature actors and actresses not casted in traditional entertainment roles and highlight segments of society not covered by Hollywood or network television. Nightlife The Web Series (Nightlife) is an example of one these kinds of series. It is a fictional look into urban nightlife inspired by real events from the lives of New York City party promoters. The series was created by twin brothers TadMartin and Maine. “We watch web series all day long, we don’t really watch television” says Maine. One day we decided to do one, we tested it out and the response was crazy. From there we started writing, bought cameras, etc. Nightlife is owned by their company (Give N Go Films). They are also real life party promoters in New York City through their other company (Give N Go Entertainment). According to the brothers, the official launch of the web series was January 25, 2016. To put together a web series is hard. A new and inexperienced cast, scheduling, shooting on location are just some of the issues these producers have to deal with. So a balance has to be struck around the different issues to make the web series successful. “Casting was easy, everyone on the show is our friend” says Maine. “We also posted a notice for auditions on Instagram and the response to it was positive, people are still looking to be on the show.”

According to Maine, in addition to acting on the show, the cast sometimes have other jobs on the set. “Dolla” shot the first episode and was the original cinematographer of the series” says Maine. Scheduling is arguably the most important task that the producers have to do because of the cast’s full time jobs and shooting has to be done around their schedules. Shooting is done guerilla style and they don’t have permits. “At first it took us hours to shoot a scene and now it only takes us 30 minutes” says Maine. “TadMartin learned the equipment through trial and error, he got better and then he took over for Dolla” To shoot scenes in establishments, TadMartin and Maine rely on relationships built through their years of party promotion throughout the New York City. Producers of web series are able to avoid the red tape that comes with television and cinema. They are able to cast, shoot, edit, and release their shows without much outside interference. Many of these series have majority minority casts which speaks to the issue of diversity. Even though on these web series the casts are not actors in the traditional sense, audiences seem to gravitate and accept the mistakes because the content is so relatable.

Almost every category in the urban world has had a show dedicated to what they do except promoters. Specifically, urban party promoters are a somewhat unknown, but important part of the overall nightlife scene. The term “Janky Promoter” comes to mind when someone mentions promoter, but there are big differences in what being a promoter means. There are concert promoters, record promoters, strip club promoters, event promoters, and party promoters. Nightlife is based on party promoters and puts a spotlight on the lives they lead. “We are party promoters, we put events together and invite people out says TadMartin. “That being said party promoters do a lot of shady things when they don’t have to” says Maine. “They will take money off the top, keep money hidden. It’s a shame because we can all make money, but they see the cash and get greedy. We try to keep it honest all the time and that’s why I felt we were the perfect promoters to tell the story.” According to TadMartin, the reaction from the party promoter community has been good and bad. “People were like you are giving the secrets away, others were like we want people to hear the story” says TadMartin. Party promotions can be a dirty game, but according to the brothers it’s not all bad business. You learn to deal with people in different ways and in the web series they show the good, the bad, and the ugly. “We show the ups and downs because it’s good television” says TadMartin. “Party promoting is a gamble. Some parties can attract seven people and others can attract a line out the door. Even though there are a lot of people in New York, the world of urban nightlife is really small and you will run into the same people. You are fighting for a crowd competing against other parties.”

New episodes of Nightlife are released every Wednesday. According to TadMartin, the future plans for the Give N Go Films include a feature film due that will be released on YouTube possibly in the fall of 2017. It will include some of the actors from NightLife and it will be based on the violence of the summer time. “Our goals are to keep telling the story informing people how urban nightlife is” says TadMartin. “We are hoping a big distributor picks us up, but our main goal when we started this was to tell our story.”