A new billboard has been set up by fans in Italy
ITALY
The Warrior Nun OCS chapter in Italy inspired the fandom with their announcement of a billboard in Milan last week. This one action generated several articles and put us back in the spotlight. It also showed how a group of people in a specific region could get together and make a difference. The OCS Newsletter wanted to bring their story to the fandom and reached out to ask a few questions about their inspiring actions.
OCS: TELL US ABOUT WARRIOR NUN ITALY? HOW MANY MEMBERS
The Warrior Nun Italy page was born from an idea by @zialeti04 with the intention of creating a point of reference for the Italian fandom within the large Warrior Nun family. She contacted several people who were experts in translation, video and photo editing, willing to dedicate time to managing the page, there's 15 of us! We started immediately with the translation of the most relevant articles and interviews with the cast, thinking about the many fans who didn't know English. Ours is a daily team work: there are those who take care of catching up on the news, those who translate, those who create the graphics that are going to be published on the page, those who edit the video interviews by adding subtitles.
A few concrete examples: we translated Simon's speech in the space for the 10 million tweets (https://twitter.com/WarriorNun_IT/status/1629854365602201601), the script (https://twitter.com/WarriorNun_IT/status/1627569250880868359), Stanley's emotional letter to the fans (https://twitter.com/WarriorNun_IT/status/1630489309953286145), several Kty cameos and dedicated an entire week to Sylvia De Fanti (https://twitter.com/WarriorNun_IT/status/1625396098759098369).
We are all busy between work and study, but we dedicate part of our day to saving Warrior Nun with great commitment and passion.
Our Italian spirit emerges with the creation of memes and if you want to have fun then look for our phrases for rest days: GOCCIA DI LIMONE, SIMONE BARRIO ILLUMINACI, REBECCA IN FIESTA.
And the last, decidedly more romantic: AVATRICE IN CAPRI THAT'S AMORE
OCS: WHAT MADE YOUR GROUP DECIDE TO DO A BILLBOARD IN ITALY?
We too wanted in a big Italian city a symbol that said: Warrior Nun is seen and appreciated here too! We are fighting this battle!
OCS: CAN I GET THE TWITTER NAMES/HANDLES OF THE EACH PERSON INVOLVED?
OCS: HOW DID THIS IDEA COME ABOUT?
It was around the end of February, we were watching the UK fans organizing the meet-up under London's billboard and one of us said: "What about setting one up in Italy?", and we just started talking about it. There was an immediate dedication from everyone and we got excited.
OCS: WHAT WERE SOME OF THE LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES?
Initially we thought about setting a physical billboard in Rome, but we couldn’t find a suitable spot. It had to be somewhere people could see it while walking by, but apparently all the best locations were already occupied. We had a dream: there was an advertising space right in front of the Netflix Italia headquarters in Rome, we tried very hard, but we didn't succeed. So, we focused on Milan instead. Here, using the website of the agency that rents these digital billboards, we searched for the best spots in streets we knew the billboard had the highest chances to be seen by people.
OCS: WHY THAT LOCATION, FUNDRAISING FOR THE BILLBOARD DETAILS?
After a thorough research, ultimately we chose Corso Buenos Aires because it’s one of Milan’s busiest streets. There’s ton of stores and people go there to shop, especially during the weekend.
We chose not to do a fundraising campaign for the billboard to avoid competing with the main GoFundMe, and we also didn't want to spoil the surprise! The cost in its entirety was initially covered by one of us, but after everything was set, other members of WN Italy’s staff and also other people from a Telegram group of Italian WN’s fans donated whatever money they could.
OCS: HOW MANY HOURS HAVE BEEN SPENT FOR THE BILLBOARD PROJECT
From the idea to the realization I would say about ten intense days. We had the idea on February 24th, but between weekends and technical times, everything was postponed to March 13th. In the meantime we considered various options, physical or digital, city, place, contacted various companies. We wanted a place that was accessible on foot, central, with shops around, and it wasn't easy with such short notice and also a fairly limited budget. Many agencies didn't rent a single billboard, others didn't rent for less than 6 months, others didn't even bother to answer our emails. As mentioned, our first idea was to place it in Rome, but in the end we are very satisfied with the location in Milan
OCS: WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE APART OF THIS PROJECT?
We wanted to do something tangible, be an active part of the fandom not only with tweets but with something more. And do something together. As Ava says to Bea: they can't beat us, not together.
And thus began our mission to save WN. On January 19, 2023 after 10 pm, WN Italy was officially born with the first tweet dedicated to Ava Silva.
And day after day a bond has been established between us. Like for many other people in the fandom scattered all over the world, WN is uniting us, creating friendships, creating bonds. And this is our strength.
We're Halo Bearers, we're family, and we want to make history by saving Warrior Nun and everything it means to us. They tried to make us invisible by canceling the series, but we said NO. We exist and we will fight. In this life.
OCS: ANY FUTURE PLANS FOR OCS ITALY (MEET-UPS/WATCH PARTIES)?
We are organizing a meet-up on March 18th, in front of the billboard. It will be a great occasion for Italian fans to meet one another and take pics! Anyone who can’t make it, of course can and hopefully will participate in the global rewatch of season 1 that will take place on that same day and the day after.
OCS: FEEL FREE TO ADD ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE
We want to thank Sarah, Kelsey and the designer (@lucydesigns0) for immediately making themselves available and encouraging us as soon as we contacted them. They provided us with information and the graphics of the correct size.
We are very satisfied with the results achieved and will no doubt continue to fight by any means possible. The passion is great and the global support is encouraging. Who knows what else it will lead to! In any case, regardless of the outcome of the campaign, one thing is certain: this movement has brought us together more than we expected. The friendships that have been created along this path, going well beyond geographical borders, are bonds that are destined to remain and there is nothing more exciting than fighting alongside those who share your same goals!
We also believe it is important to have shown Netflix that their actions have consequences and that the public is no longer willing to passively accept their choices regarding cancellations. We think that, regardless of the outcome of the campaign, this protest movement will go down in history, just like the one that arose following Lexa's death.
There are so many creative ideas out there. From murals, sidewalk chalk, cosplay, billboards, in person or online meet-ups. This is a worldwide fandom not run by one group of people but a collaboration of several groups and thousands of people. There are many people wanting to help in this campaign and others willing to offer guidance. What is popular in your region? What would inspire you to keep fighting? Remember, each action no matter the size, gives purpose and meaning to others. Not only does it give more fuel to the fire of our fight to save the show. But it demonstrates to the streaming platforms we are strong, creative, bold and not going anyway till we save Warrior Nun.