The Independent Television Festival is the premier festival in the world for independently produced television pilots and webseries…and Squatters is an Official Selection in this year’s festival!!! If you’re in Hollywood this week, come out and support your favorite bums with a prime time screening:

Monday, August 2nd @ 8:30pm
Laemmle Sunset 5 at 8000 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood CA

.We are hoping to fill the house for this very special screening and snag at least an Audience Award from the Festival! BUY TICKETS ONLINE!

A very special thank you to everyone who came out to support Squatters at the ICONS screening series in San Diego this weekend! Fans and friends were treated to the third episode on the big screen and a panel with Sean Becker of ‘The Guild,’ the writer of ‘Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy’ and our own Brendan Bradley and Cooper Harris!

After a successful screening, The Squat Team attended #CelebrateTheWeb2 to support fellow web creators and enjoyed the Comic Con experience!

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Squatters has officially been out for 1 month! In that time we’ve gained over 100,000 views, a killer red carpet premiere, a Judges Choice award from S3LA, an invitation to Comic Con and the ITVfest 2010! We could not be more grateful and excited. Thank you to all our amazing fans and supporters. As a celebration, we hope you’ll go back and watch the first 5 in a row…and stay tuned for a very special 6th episode this coming Monday!

Last night, we were invited by @MentalEclectic to screen Squatters in the Shorts n Spirits Showcase at Capitol City in Los Angeles! Squatters was seen on the big screen for the second time this month to another fantastic audience. The evening was made even more special by the incredible honor given by the Judges picking Squatters as their favorite of the evening!!!! Now Squatters will “move on” to the next round of S3, rumored to screen next month at COMIC CON!!!! More details to follow!
We are so grateful to Mel Huffman, @MentalEclectic @smbdysbsmnt @WebTVWorkshop @DamianMedia @DiahnnaNicoleBaxter @FilmMethod for this wonderful honor! The web community has totally embraced Squatters since it’s premiere and we are blessed to have such wonderful support and belief in the project! Thank you!

Squatters are taking over the news this week. From Seattle to sunny Florida, Atlanta and even reports coming in from Cape Town and Parliament Square! Not to mention Neil Patrick Harris’ directing the hit musical, RENT, this summer in the Hollywood Bowl!

Seems like people are giving up on rent this week – just in time for Episode 3 airing today on DailyMotion!

The Squatters Red Carpet Launch Party exceeded all expectations! I’ve been finding photos all week in amazing galleries on: Hollywood.com | DailyCeleb | MingeMediaTV | Allison Lewis

And more!!! Not to mention the coverage from LA.com and The Web Files! A buddy of mine took some photographs specifically of the cast and crew! We were honored to have the support and presence of so many celebrities from all parts of the industry, but these are faces that made Squatters happen:

Thanks so much to everyone who watched Squatters on its opening day! 10,000 views in a few short hours! WOW!!! I seriously cannot believe there is a comma in our view count!!! A very special thank you to all the tweets, comments, blogs and the Frosty Heidi & Frank’s radio broadcast that helped spread the word!

Tubefilter News’ early review reports, “There’s a lot of gold to be mined here and a lot of potential for this show to be one of the great new comedies on the web.” Fans of FHF wrote in their support during the on air broadcast this morning! And Sandeep Parikh was celebrated in a fresh new character self proclaimed as “an a-hole d-bag.”

We could not be prouder and more excited about our premiere and hope that everyone will continue to share the show during #webserieswed Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

I have just published the first episode of Squatters on DailyMotion.com! An overwhelming mix of emotions and anxiety as I let go of the last year of sweat, smiles and tears and release it into the world. I am so proud and grateful of everyone’s work, help, patience and support on this show!

This has been the most ambitious and fulfilling creative endeavor of my life and career. Squatters represents honest and humble independent filmmaking – from the guerrilla locations to the declined credit cards. I started this journey with a table read in Cooper’s apartment and have literally not stopped since – even teaching myself Final Cut to get us through Post and trading favors for camera equipment to shoot pickups.

And now it’s time for the poignant reactions of our audience. You are who we made this for. I got my start in theater and while there is no final bow or swell of applause; I am struck by the similarity of peeking from behind a tattered curtain watching the hush fall over the crowd. I look forward to “First!” and being told I’m stupid with five O’s. I’m giddy to earn each viewer one at a time and share a year long odyssey in a few short minutes. I hope everyone can find some joy in the silly little world that I created out of a not so funny real life experience. Thank you for your support and I hope you’ll keep coming back for more!

Always!
BB

Marc Hustvedt took a break from his hefe and bratwurst to announce the Squatters premiere on DailyMotion tomorrow! (Read here)

We are especially grateful for the support of Tubefilter!!! Back in October Jenni Powell broke the story with a featured interview including an exclusive sneak peak of the show on Tubefilter. Our sizzle reel enjoyed over 3,000 collective hits that day and we were contacted by DailyMotion about distribution. Thanks to the dedicated staff at Tubefilter we are the comedy follow up to “Compulsions” getting a full, featured release on the site for the entire summer!

None of this would have been possible without Tubefilter’s support and we are honored to know they are covering the show…and joining us for the premiere party Friday! Thanks Marc, Jenni, Logan, Drew & Brady for putting us on the map!

A lot has been said about the 2010 Streamy Awards. Honestly, there was a lot to say. A quick google search can give you a much more credible and articulate analysis than I can blog here, but suffice to say there are theories that the event may damage the reputation of web tv.

We were supposed to launch our show this week, but our distributor delayed to let the temperature cool off a little. We’re disappointed, but I’m not discouraged. Web Creators have experienced an uphill battle from the beginning. It’s hard work and there is still limited support from the entertainment and advertising community. But just look at what this generation of artists have created in a few short years!!!

No guts, no glory! In life and in art success is about overcoming the odds. Having independently developed and produced Squatters I can tell you that most days borderline on #EpicFail. But tonight we push through and celebrate the strength and persistence of our community.

Jenni Powell and Kim Evey have organized an evening hosted by Sandeep Parikh to respectfully and humbly celebrate the accomplishments of the 2010 Streamy Nominees and Winners. These are our friends, our colleagues, our heroes – and they deserve a night NOT about the red carpet; NOT about tuxedos and gowns; NOT about easy jokes and spectacle; But a sincere thank you for the contributions they’ve made in pioneering this odd, new medium and inspiring people like me to find their own way and tell their story.

I hope you will watch with me tonight at: http://www.acmecomedy.com/livebroadcast.shtml

The Squat Team is excited to honor The Bannen Boys, Mark & Jesse, two of the most humble and charismatic artists I’ve had the privilege to know. The brilliant Bernie Su whose darkness on the page is only bested by his perpetual smile and warmth. The beloved Felicia Day who has given chic to geek and brought instant legitimacy to our industry. Sean Becker who has fearlessly directed a cult/indie favorite into a franchise. And many more innovators and brave visionaries whose work and acceptance speeches radiate polish, class and humility.

I am proud to support this community and hopefully join them when we do release soon. We will not be discouraged by the past. The best part of the internet is that it’s all about the here and now. And right now, the web is ready to shine. #celebratetheweb

Ironically in the film world, the most revered and respected source for information and legitimacy is essentially a user-submitted database…the almighty IMDb. The industry has adopted this site as it’s number one resource for identifying and tracking creative talent and success. However, with great power…wait for it…comes great exclusivity. An article today describes the site as “skirting the issue” of regularly including Webseries in the database. However, can you blame them?

Wikipedia is a great tool, but it’s open platform makes us second guess and fact check constantly. Originally facebook was a place to share debaucherous photos – now people get fired from work and even my Mom has an account! Imagine if every hampster video on YouTube felt entitled to be included in the entertainment industry’s most respected database…

We have been submitting Squatters to the site for over six months. To date, we have been rejected just over a dozen times. But instead of being discouraged, we have used it as an opportunity to analyze what makes our show different from regular network shows and either embrace those differences or make changes. We have invested our energy not shaking our fists at the IMDb gods; but instead patiently resubmitting and we are now thrilled to announce: We have officially been added to the Internet Movie Database!

The best part of this victory is that our cast and crew who worked so hard can now enjoy the credit they deserve. Especially in this medium, you can never pay people what they are worth. But you can feel inspired to make a show that they will feel proud to include on their resume. Check it out! You can see the amazing wealth of talent that has made Squatters possible! And hopefully you’ll understand not only why I’m so excited and proud…but also that sometimes exclusivity serves a purpose.

Looking over our list, I’m humbled by the opportunity to bring all these exceptional, accomplished people together in one room and let them play. For those of you creating your own work, keep doing it! The naysayers will eventually say yes! I think that’s worth more than a hampster video – hopefully you will agree.

We were psyched to see the announcements today included some folks very near and dear to our hearts!

Our own Sandeep Parikh was nominated as an Actor for his work on The Guild AND his Directing and Writing for The Legend of Neil!

Circle of 8 which stars Austin Highsmith was nominated for Best Interactive Series!

We are talking to the popular website Daily Motion about Squatters and their 2009 Featured Series, Compulsions got a Best Drama nom!

We’re inspired and thrilled to see people we admire get some recognition for their work! We hope to collect a few noms of our own next year after our release!!! Congrats to all the nominees and all our fans be sure to vote for our peeps…the winner is determined by YOU!

Please forgive me for being MIA for the beginning of the year. At the end of last year I was literally hit by a car (me, my person). Needless to say, production was postponed while I dealt with the mess of both my physical recovery and the insurance craziness.

Squatters is still making wonderful progress. We are talking to several fantastic websites and companies about a partnership and launch in the next few months. Everyone is super excited about the show! Because I’m a perfectionist, I’m requesting a few pick ups left to shoot and then we are DONE DONE DONE!

After my accident, I was simply happy to be alive and walking – and a lot of my productivity was restricted to phone calls and email. But I have a detailed strategy for wrapping up production, streamlining through the final stages of post and releasing the show to our already amazingly huge and sexy fan base! Thank you everyone for your support and patience. Trust me, it will be well worth the wait!

Cooper and I are both from Carolina! We still had a bunch of her Julie scenes to shoot that we had been putting off (because they are later in the season and not in an office). So we decided to do it ourselves while home for the holiday. We’ve had experience shooting spec commercials together sans crew so we returned to our roots and despite moving slowly, got off a bunch of the scenes that bring Hank and Julie’s relationship to life.

Luckily, I didn’t even tempt myself with bringing the big harddrive and working on the show for the holiday. I left it all with Tim to spit and polish while we filmed these scenes. Instead, all my focus will be on these quick additions and allow us to start the new year with even less on our plate. It’s been an amazing 7 months – a lot to be excited and thankful for this holiday season. But I’m also soooo ready to just relax, drink and feel like a regular human being instead of a production zombie. Thank you for all your support and patience this year…the real fun will begin in 2010!

After a lot of head scratching and experimentation, it has become clear that the show needs a cold open to set up the whole bet. Originally, we met the boys their first week sleeping on the subway, but everyone we talk to wants to see the decision to “go homeless.” So I wrote a quick cold open that introduces us to the boys and Tim generously provided his apartment door for a location.

Today showed me what it would feel like if we were a real TV show. Friendly crew knows each other and has their rhythm down, fresh script delivered that week to everyone, great communication, brilliant work by all…painless. Today was a lot of pickups that have been bugging me in the editing room. But it helped that I was very specific about what was not working before that I needed in the new takes.

The winter season is inconvenient. I wish a bag of money had dropped out of the sky and let us shoot all this in the fall, but I have to let everyone break for the Holiday and come back in the new year for the remaining shots. WE ARE SO SO SO CLOSE. I know everyone is probably tired of hearing me say that, but seriously…20 scenes until Season 1 is wrapped! I swear if we get a second season, we will block out 2-3 weeks, get all the funding upfront and just shoot it all at once. But you live and learn…and keep in mind that a lot of webseries are only 6 or 7 episodes long…ours is 14! Who had two thumbs and is ridiculously overambitious? This guy!!!

Before everyone runs away for the holidays, Cooper reunited the cast to take press photos. We invited everyone who has been a part of the show to drop by my living room and take a few shots. Major thanks and props to our DP James Rhodimer who patiently took everyone’s photo. These will be invaluable as we start promoting the show online and developing our marketing strategy. What was most exciting was having the cast actually meet each other. Squatters has been filmed in such an unusual way that several cast members have never had the opportunity to meet each other…even those that have shared scenes!!! It was fun to catch up and see everyone jump right back into their characters for a few clicks. Keep an eye on Facebook for the photos!

While everyone is traveling home to see family for our country’s strangest holiday of re-imagined history, I am stuck in Los Angeles for a gig. Jim, Erik and I had a Thanksgiving for “orphan bachelors” at my place [cooked the best damn bird I've eaten in my life using YouTube instructions].

While waiting for everyone to come back into town, I was approached by Cheeky Monkey Productions to direct a pilot presentation entitled Smart People. It was a great team and a fun script…and lord knows I enjoyed only wearing ONE hat…but I missed my “family” so much. You really develop a vocabulary with your cast and crew when you work together for so long. It was a nice refresher in having to really articulate what I specifically wanted instead of relying on people who understood my style and buzz words. Taught me to get more specific when I get back on set for Squatters.

I am so lucky that I am getting approached to create more and more stories. Squatters is still like an infant that I have trouble leaving unattended, but I’m learning it’s okay to step away and come back. And it helps me grow exponentially as a storyteller to step out of my comfort zone for a few days. I’m earning my stripes as a director and look forward to finishing up my baby!

We were slightly more prepared for the build-as-you-go location dressing. Today was all about the ladies! I’ve been so focused on Alex’s journey that I have put off filming Hank’s Squatting style. Today we were joined by the gorgeous and talented Cooper Harris, Jessica Andres, Austin Highsmith, Kerisse Hutchinson, Steffany Huckaby, Ritu Lal, Jenni Powell, and Tamika Simpkins. In a few short daylight hours, Hank had a loooooot of one night stands! Thank you so much ladies for being so patient, prepared and whatever the best “p” word is for sexy as hell!

Finally, we return from our hiatus with the entire original crew and enough capital to finish the season! Our sixth “official work week” of filming Squatters and we’ve got Jim, Sean, Erik, Cooper and myself all back together for a reunion…well, I did hire all of them for the FHF commercial, so it hasn’t been that long, but you get the point! Squatting returns!

We rented a cheapish sound stage south of LA for the dozens of random locations that I have learned never to write into my script again. I don’t want to “give away” the fun of which locations are real and which ones we created from nothing in a sound stage, but after today, I have amazing respect for what you can get away.

After working around such tight restrictions, time crunches and noise issues at our office location, I was excited to breath a little and get a true “day” of filming. However, poo hit the fan when we got to the sound stage and realized NONE of the sets were free-standing and camera ready. I was so shocked because the last time we were there, everything was perfect! With talent on the way, we frantically dressed over a dozen sets and fought hard to stay on schedule.

Much much thanks to George Kimmel who gave us his day to turn over rooms while we were filming. I’m exhausted, but relieved. We didn’t miss a single set up! We’re back tomorrow for more…man your battle stations!

I was approached by radio sensations Frosty, Heidi and Frank to produce a commercial for their new morning show on KABC. I sat down with Frank Kramer who had a concept he wanted developed and produced. Within one week of our first meeting, the spot was written, shot, edited and aired on KTLA! I’m super excited and proud of the piece, but it did take me completely away from Squatters.

Fortunately, the twisted trio is ecstatic about Squatters and wants to help promote the show when it comes out! I’m so honored to have their support! Frank Kramer has even agreed to give us a recording session to use his voice as our announcer! I’m back into editing and we’ve got a rough cut of everything that was shot this summer! So much work, but a great payoff. Now it’s time to begin pre-production of the rest of the first season while Tim cleans up my rough assemblies and trims away the fat.

Hilarious that I took a week off from my hopeful tv show to produce something that ended up airing on television! I guess I should have specified when I told the universe “I want my work to be seen on television.” Ha ha! Karma sure has a sense of humor!

Jenni Powell of Tubefilter News released a fantastic interview with Brendan about how Squatters got made and the future of the show – including the first ever sneak peek at the comic series featuring Sandeep Parikh, Erik Smith and a snowglobe. (Read full interview)

I had to take a break from editing to create a real website and sizzle reel to promote and pitch the show. We had such an overwhelming response from our NPR interview and people are anxious to see more…it’s become almost a full time job!

Once we have all the PR ducks in a row, I’ll continue editing the first three episodes – mostly color, audio mix and finding a composer – Anyone know how their coming along on that human cloning technology? I could really use a hand. It’s absolutely inspiring how excited people seem about the show, however creating pitch packages for every website and network takes me away from the actual work that needs to be done. I am so thankful we already have so many fans of the show and despite the minor distraction, it’s actually motivated me to save up enough to start filming again soon!

Somehow our tale has attracted the attention of National Public Radio and they want to do an interview with me about Squatters and my experience producing New Media Content! And all this before we’ve aired a single episode!!! Tune in next week . . . [Listen in our Press Section]

I’ve take the entire month of July to comb through all the footage and begin to assemble the first three episodes. Once a week, I have the pleasure of joining forces with Tim Donahue who knows more about Final Cut than I ever will. The show is really coming together. It sounds unbelievable (I refuse to have a web show that sounds like home video) and Jim’s camera work is just so damn sexy. I could not be more thankful for the performances we got and the quality of work that everyone brought to the table.

This is the hard part for me. Going into the process, I honestly admitted I know almost nothing about post and editing is not my skill set. But we are making progress and it’s thrilling to hear the whir of a harddrive with the entire show on it (and yes, we have multiple back ups now).

I’ve also been working a job up in Ojai, CA that is helping me slowly build up a second reserve for continued filming. Never underestimate the value of having an investor up front. This whole working “on spec” thing has some less than endearing quirks, but I feel confident we can use the first three episodes to drum up support for the remainder of the season. More soon…back to the assembly line.

Our final day at Blankspaces and our last day of filming before our hiatus. We have shot the first three episodes in their entirety and stolen a few additional scenes while we had the locations. I cannot believe how much we crammed into a few VERY short days!!! Today was like a retrospective with a variety of folks dropping by for pick-ups or re-shoots based on my first pass of assembling the scenes. Erik and I shared some screen time with Marty, Ryan, and Matthew. Everyone was incredible, positive and prepared…could not have run smoother.

I was sad to pack up our little cubicle, but it offered a great sense of completion and closure. Alex’s office location is WRAPPED! Now it’s time to bury myself in Final Cut and hopefully sell the show to someone who will give us enough money to fund the rest of the season…or just count my pennies and save up to finish the remaining scenes. Thank you to all the amazing talent that brought this project to life. We have just under 70% in the can and I can’t wait to sift through it all!

Today shouldn’t even count as a day!!! Cooper found an amazing bookstore for our flashback. Erik and his friend Scotty met us and we took a handful of passes at the one line scene. Erik literally just had to lay down and sleep for fifteen minutes while Scotty woke me up. Great location! Great scene. Easiest day ever! Wish we could have packed more in while we had everyone assembled, but with such a unique location, you gotta take what you can get.

After the New York trip, we took 2 weeks off for people to recover and for me to log and sync all the footage. Everything looks and sounds fantastic. I feel like a tool waxing poetic about my crew all the time…but they’re simply amazing! After sifting through the footage (and making a little money) we are ready to tackle some more unique locations.

Cooper made the find of the century with Silver Dream Factory sound stage. They have a perfect Jail cell for Hank to spend the night in. We spent barely a half day there and easily got everything we needed. Sadly, we lost Sean for the remainder of filming…because Felicia Day stole him, but I guess I will allow it…just this once Felicia! But Justin Blakely turned out to be a great replacement and didn’t skip a beat making sure everyone sounded as good as they looked. Before we left, we poked around some of the other sound stages – I think we’ll be back for more when we complete the season!

This morning was your typical gray New York day…but it wasn’t raining. I called Jim and we met at the Rockefeller Observation Deck. The tickets up to the top are probably one of the best investments I’ve made yet. Anyone living in or visiting New York must see the city from this angle as some point. You can literally see everything and it’s not touristy like the Empire State Building where you’re in line getting pushed and herded around – people linger and sit to take in the view. The footage we grabbed will help save any transitions that we struggle with in post production.

We headed back to the apartment and then the fates decided we needed to repeat our travel experience. Our car service was over an hour late. Normally we would have just found another option, but there was so much equipment, I had arranged a van to drive us. We arrived at the airport too late to check bags. Again, an amazing Virgin America staff member took most of my crew through security and got them on the plane. Sean and I stayed behind with all the luggage…until the next flight the next morning! I tell ya, I’m gonna need a vacation from my vacation!

We wrapped New York finally letting our Co-Producer, Cooper Harris do what she does best…be a leading lady! Cooper portrays Hank’s main love interest and today we are filming most of her footage! We have a spectacular apartment right off Washington Square Park which will act as her character’s apartment. You can tell she’s been waiting in the wings…totally prepared and ready to bring Julie to life.

She had some subway action as well, but her most fun location was outside the Courthouse in downtown Manhattan. It felt more like organizing a heist that a film shoot. Again, we got all our shots and crashed before our trip home tomorrow. I’m sad to leave, but I cannot wait to get back and start assembling all this great footage!

I could sense that people needed a lighter day so we took another day of sightseeing and casual filming. There were a few more B-Roll/Flashback type moments that were low key and easy. I hoped to shoot at the top of the Rockefeller Observation Deck, but it was pouring rain in the afternoon. It’s an incredibly eye opening experience to take a splinter team for off-site filming…I feel like a chaperon on a school trip. I want everyone to have a great time, but we also need to get all our shots. We’re ridiculously on schedule…major kudos to pre-production planning. Tonight we film more on the subway: I get to be arrested by a real cop and pick up ladies on the train. Love this job!

I’m sure the last place my crew wanted to see this morning was a bar. Poor Sean was obviously hurting more than a little and everyone was a tired… jet lag + first night in the city + tequila = no early morning call. It turned out to be a blessing that we were shooting only the bar scene during the morning. We set up our corner of the bar, ordered in and cruised through the scene at our own pace. Our Hell’s Angel turned out to be a no show, so our DP stepped in to play the role. MS Fashions next door provided us with a glorious leather vest for him to wear and Cooper found the perfect headgear…five shots of whiskey later and he looked and sounded the part.

We took a nice break in high spirits. Most folks went back to the apartment to nap and relax before our next couple of scenes…on the subway. We couldn’t stress too much about continuity and sound, we just went for it. Sean fit all of his gear into his bookbag so he could stay close to the scene and in the event camera picked him up, he would just look like a bystander…Knights of the Guild keep your eyes peeled in the subway scenes for a Sean Sighting. The first scene with our homeless guy went fantastic. James David Jackson’s beard did all the work for him…absolutely hysterical!

However, midway through shooting, Erik’s bag went missing. Someone had lifted it while we were shooting the scene. Understandably, he was upset…as were most people…not only because his stuff was gone, but a lot of us put our own belongings in his bag (small things, you know, like the shooting script and the tripod). Erik was a champ and said we should keep filming and went on to knock the opening scene out of the park. We returned to the apartment exhausted, thankfully with all our shots. Erik has a prior commitment and will be leaving us in the morning. I feel awful that he got a bad taste of New York, but if we get a Season 2, I will make it up to him!!!

We awoke to a view from our balcony overlooking the UN Building and the East River. The city was alive, the sun was out and I decided to play tour guide using our shot list. We started in Midtown East and got a few traffic shots, shuttling across to Midtown West and Time Square. Then we walked south on 6th Ave stopping at exteriors along the way for B-Roll. Next stop, the Village – my old stomping grounds.

Taking a break, we patronized Lucky Jacks Bar which we intend to use tomorrow for our Bar on the show. Once it was dark, we went back out on the town for round two: night exteriors. An old friend, Anna Koonin, whose known best for her role on All My Children joined us to make out with me in a cab and take us back to her place. Having successfully gathered all of our B-Roll and a handful of exchanges in our first day, I set the crew loose on the town. Let’s hope they make the call time in the morning!

Now this feels more like independent filmmaking – a manic roller coaster barely clinging to the tracks. We woke up bright and early to cram in one of our “stints” at the office filming all our scenes with Cassandra Smith, a quirky blond who speaks in texting abbreviations. After racing through 6 pages of dialogue, our core cast and crew carpooled to LAX for our flight to New York City!

I have never treated all my friends to a vacation before – ignoring my credit score, I feel like a millionaire fueling up the private jet for a weekend “jaunt.” I’m also excited to introduce my west coast friends to “my city” back east. Neither Jim, Erik nor Sean have been to New York before so it will be a fun trip…despite all the work!

I dropped everyone at the terminal (with all the gear and my credit card) and went to find parking. Of course, I got lost driving in circles as we rapidly approached our boarding time. Somehow everyone managed to get all the luggage checked and on the plane while Cooper and Erik waited at the gate for me. When I got to the check in desk, our plane was literally closing the cabin doors.

I have to give a shout out to “Piper” with Virgin America at LAX. She got us through security in just over a minute and sprinted with us – in high heels – to our gate, allowing the airline to re-open the doors and let us board the plane! If anyone who works with her is reading this…she deserves a raise!

However, upon take off we realized that the hard drive containing all our footage had been left at the check in desk! Melt down does not quite capture my emotions during that cross country flight. I literally prayed while Cooper used Virgin’s wireless to email everyone she could the number for lost and found. We even asked the flight crew what to do and they had the captain radio down to ground control to relay the message to the check in desk. About half way into the flight, a slip of paper was delivered from the captain. “VIRGIN CHECK IN DESK: NOTHING FOUND.”

So we’re on a plane to New York…My life savings is spent…All the footage we have shot the past 8 days and the P2 cards I’ve rented are gone…I’d like to take this moment to compliment Virgin America’s liquor selection. Then, by some stroke of divine intervention, Cooper checked her email and her brother in North Carolina had written: “I found it! I’m on hold with lost and found and they’ve got it. What do I do now?” By yet another stroke of dumb luck, Amy, one of our crew was flying out the next morning to join us. Lost & Found agreed to put her name on the hard drive and hand them over in the morning.

We landed emotionally and physically drained, collected our luggage and took a cab into the city. Knowing we all still had a show, we could get some rest and start fresh in the morning. Regardless of the journey, it was all worth it as we crossed over the Triborough bridge and Sean says, “Brendan, I see why you couldn’t fake New York. It just can’t be captured in LA.” Let’s make a TV show, folks.

This is how filming should be. We had one of our usual 4 hours stints, but only needed to shoot one 3 page scene using the reception desk. This gave us plenty of time for set ups, performance and goofing around – dare I say enjoying our jobs. Robyn Clark joined us today from Chicago’s improv and musical theater scene. She and Erik had fun bantering back and forth…they had actually worked together on a short film earlier this year as two geeks on a blind date, so it was a hilarious reunion.
Don’t get too comfortable…we’re back to insanely ambitious “day” shoots tomorrow!

Today we were joined by Take 180’s Brian Ames for his second and last day of filming. After our crappy (pun intended) bathroom shoot, I was thankful he agreed to come back, but I assured him we were shooting to P2 cards and swore there would be no more technical difficulties…and he got to pound beer in his final scene (and what guy doesn’t want that on his reel?) We also enjoyed the talents of Emma Messenger and Aaron Sherry (from American Jedi)!

Again, we nobly battled the fourth-dimensional elements, cramming as many pages and angles into our 4 hour window. Maybe we’re just used to it by now, but I think we’re on a roll…

Today was a treat for everyone…except maybe our co-workers at the office trying to get work done. Over a Celtics game last week, I got Sandeep Parikh from The Guild to agree to a role on the show. Having worked with Sandeep on his show, The Legend of Neil, I know he has a gift of crass comedy and I wanted to turn him loose as the potty mouthed Supervisor who “takes sexual harassment to the next level.”

Because of his commitment to editing his own show, Legend of Neil, and gearing up for the next season of The Guild, he could only give us 1 day to film ALL his scenes…so today was “Deep Day” (because if we didn’t get all the scenes, we were in deep…anyway). If nothing else in this show is funny, these scenes will still make it one of the best comedies of the year! And good thing, because after today, our location is contemplating kicking us out! Two co-workers left for the day because of profanity and one begged us to take a break while a client came in for a meeting! Sounds like sweet, sweet victory.

Sandeep is a natural class clown. It doesn’t matter if the camera is rolling, you’re never prepared for the vile filth that comes out of his mouth…and for it to be soooo funny. Poor Jim fought so hard to not shake the camera and Erik literally could not get through some lines. The gag reel on this will be a must see!

Wow…just…wow. Back in the office today. We had 3 hours to shoot 5 pages! It doesn’t sound like a lot, but those pages were spread out over a lot of different scenes and set ups! (Thank you Jim!) Tonight was all about Erik and Christiann – chemistry is so indescribable, but when it’s there it literally transforms a scene. Their characters are sickeningly adorable and they were troupers for sprinting through their romance. Their last scene together (my personal favorite) was a page and a half shot in 20 minutes. I am not exaggerating! They were focused, prepared and just went for it. Maybe it’s that we didn’t have time to overthink it or drop the energy, but the scenes really came alive and despite the limitations on time, we amply captured the scenes. I am looking forward to editing this footage. Christiann is wrapped for Season 1…but we’ll definitely be seeing a lot more of her if the show gets a second season!

The lovely folks at Sweet Revenge Entertainment let us use their bathroom…all night. I’m not sure what it says that so many of my scenes take place in the bathroom, but we loaded in and vowed to hold our blatters.

We’ve been having a lot of trouble with the camera…or should I say the hard drive that connects to the camera. A quick google search would suggest that a LOT of people have encountered this problem, but it’s frequency doesn’t make me feel any better. It’s late, folks are exhausted, I don’t know what footage we have or don’t have…and some engineer at Panasonic decided the external hard drive to capture filming should be attached using a flimsy 4 pin firewire.

I learned a lot as a director tonight. At the end of the day, all that matters is what is happening in that little rectangle box. I tried to focus on my actors and just shoot what we could. Christiann, Erik, Anna and Brian really delivered tonight! They patiently went take for take knowing that sometimes the camera wasn’t recording. I love my crew as well. It’s hard to be a filmmaker when the camera doesn’t work, but everyone kept in good spirits under the hot lights – making jokes, brainstorming solutions and taking turns helping each other with equipment. I’ve got an amazing team…and that’s how you succeed…that and not shooting to hard drive using 4 pin firewire.

We desperately searched for a Star Trek snowglobe featuring T’pol, but seeing as it is a creation from the my imagination (and my dreams), alas, we are empty handed. So producer extraordinaire, Cooper Harris researched how to make a homemade snowglobe and is hand building the prop!!!
Gentlemen, behold possibly the most beautiful moment in human history…a hot girl not only knowing Star Trek Next Gen characters, but meticulously recreating one from scratch!!!

Today was affectionately called “Marty Day.” Marty Lodge, who is ridiculously overqualified to work for me, let us borrow his free time between Oleanna rehearsals with Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles to play Larry Stein, Alex’s head boss. I’ve admired Marty’s work on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Numbers and The Wire for years, yet he somehow managed to pull out a whole new bag of tricks for us. Somewhere between Smithers and Shatner, he created an eccentric, approachable CEO. It has shocked me how many extraordinary performers have read my writing and offered to work for a day around their schedule…I’m honored and cannot wait for you guys to see his performance!

Meanwhile, Erik began uncovering the desperation of Alex’s character. It’s a tough role. You’re a lead so you’ve got to keep it from going too over the top, but it’s also a high energy comedy so you have to keep it turned on. Erik is an incredible “eyes” actor conveying so much with a look…it’s a joy to turn him loose and let him start incorporating the rest of his body in his work. There was a lovely tension in all his scenes with Marty which is perfect for the underlying fear of being caught and fired. Now we can find places in the future to let Alex be more relaxed and confident of his surroundings…this is why I wanted to do episodic work – it’s so character based. We don’t just follow a story. We get to see this character in a dearth of situations and test all his boundaries…all of them!

Something I should note – When I say, “Day 1″ it is mildly misleading. Most productions have 12+ hour days to film, but because of our unique arrangement with our office location (meaning people need to actually get work done and can’t have a film crew around all the time) we will be filming closer to 4 hour stints.  While that keeps the actors and crew happy…producers are in panic mode. Let’s just say, there’ll be a lot more “hurry up” and a lot less “wait” on our set.

Today was everyone’s trial run. Our first day in the location. Erik’s first day as Alex. Our crew’s first chance to work together. Jenny’s first time looking at all the ties Erik and I collectively own. My first time directing behind a camera. It was a fast 4 hours, but we got 90% of our shots. We expected to get off to a slow start so we chose all the little pick ups and moments of Alex working and living around the office for tonight…and I’m glad we did. It was thrilling to realize that it was all actually happening and I was disappointed when our time was up – but a hard out is the best 2nd AD in the world! Everyone has a few days until we film again, so plenty of time to organize and prepare for battle.

Our producer, Cooper Harris, is generously handling casting because, well, it seems she knows everyone in this town. After weeding through hundreds upon hundreds of online submissions from our breakdown (thank you everyone!) we saw 60 fantastic performers for a wealth of roles. Erik Smith joined as our reader given most scenes we are immediately filming are opposite his character. Cooper struck gold with CAZT studios where Conner hooked us up with a room and camera for the day. Because of our backgrounds in acting, Cooper and I love performers and really appreciate the necessary evil of the casting process – so we tried to keep it fun and on time for everyone.

We found some incredible talent for the show. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted and came in for us! We will be holding more casting after we film these first three episodes…stay tuned!

Alex’s bed is possibly the most notable set piece in the series. We’ve all fantasized about sleeping on the job…but how many of us have built an elaborate trundle to slumber in style? Using google sketch up, I outlined a small cot that would fit comfortably under our rented cubicle desk.

To keep things sufficiently complicated, the owner of the office building told me I could not leave the bed underneath the desk during non-shoot days, so the bed needed to collapse!

If anyone out there, like me, sleeps on an air mattress or the floor…behold the sexy alternative:
*Two 2″x6″x10′ boards
*Two 1″x1″x36″ dowels
*Two L-bracket rails or something similar
*Six 1″x2″x8′ furring strips
*Four hinges with removable pin
*One Pack of wood screws
*Foam of your choice. This is where it can get pricey. I brought Erik Smith shopping with me to play Goldilocks at FoamMart.

A little more than $50 and an hour of your time and you can sleep like a Squatter!

We have found an office space! Considering half of our scenes require a corporate location, this is the best possible find. Big thank you and shout out to Jerome @ BLANKSPACES! We will be renting a single cubicle in a real, working office for one month and shooting piecemeal around ringing phones, foot traffic and people with real jobs. Hilarious! I have been finding “stuff” to fill the cubicle to make it look like Alex’s functional office…not to mention measuring the footroom for his future sleeping arrangements (more on that later).

I am trying to ignore how guerilla and bizarre these conditions are going to be…but the way I see it is: free background actors and room tone, right? Ha ha! It’s time like these where I am beyond grateful to have professionals coming to the table. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to reality of independent filmmaking! Role up your sleeves and dive in…I’m secretly loving this!