Collider: Jackson Ratbone Interview With HQ Still From "AIM HIGH"

McG is producing the new media series Aim High. Check The Interview HERE
Question: What was the appeal of Aim High for you?
McG: We got excited about it because of the quality. It started there. We responded to the material. We’ve all been big fans of having an active dream life, and dreaming about lives that are bigger than our own, so it was exciting to have a high school kid who is a spy at night. It’s something that we all got excited about and could relate to, and it was very much in keeping with who we are at Wonderland. I thought it was just particularly well-written. And then, when Thor [Freudenthal] came on to be the director, that was exciting. And then, we started to populate the piece with Jackson [Rathbone], Aimee [Teegarden], Clancy [Brown] and Greg [Germann]. All of a sudden, we had a first-rate, quality piece that we were excited about.


* Jackson Rathbone Interview. Read More Here


Question: Jackson, as a producer and actor in this, how did this project come about for you? What made you want to get involved with a web series?
JACKSON RATHBONE: In pre-production, Wonderland brought me in as a producer and actor, and we discussed a lot about what we wanted to do with the show. We didn’t want to just create another web series. We wanted to do something new and innovative, and we talked a lot about the Facebook integration. But, we had to make the show first, and we had to find an amazing leading lady that would get all the boys riled up, so we asked Aimee Teegarden to come in and help us out with that. We were really excited about the process of making the show. We were running and gunning, and shootin’ from the hip. We shot with 7Ds and 5Ds, as the cameras we used, and we did it all in eight days, but it looks aesthetically like any show that would be on a network. Now, with the personalization integration, we have something that no one has ever done before. And, the fact that we’re premiering on Facebook is exciting. It’s an exciting, new time.


Aimee, did you get any input into your character?
AIMEE TEEGARDEN: When I came on, the character was pretty developed, but it was really fun to shoot. We had a couple takes with everything because we were just running and gunning, but we got to play around a bit with the characters. I had such a fun time. The idea of the personalization is really going to change the way that people consume entertainment. I feel like television, as it is now, isn’t going to be the same, in a couple of years.


RATHBONE: No one really has television that much, anymore.
RATHBONE: My buddy has a TV in our house, but I don’t watch TV much. Every once in awhile, it will be on, and I’ll walk by and turn it off, and he’ll be like, “Hey, man, I was watching that,” and I’m like, “Read a book!”


What did doing this as a web series allow for, that you wouldn’t have been able to do on TV?
RATHBONE: It’s interesting, we got out of the constraints of network television. Even if you look at network television, the constraints are getting a little wider. They’re pushing the boundaries, constantly. What we wanted to do was push the boundaries on the internet, a little bit. It’s not that racy. We’re not saying anything that’s highly inappropriate. It’s not a Quentin Tarantino script. But, it’s really fun, it’s edgy and it’s that dark comedy. It rides the line. It toes it and sneers at it.

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