Directing 'Kelsey' - Episodes 9 & 10

Christina here, back with the final post for my 'Directing Kelsey' blog series. Sorry this is a week late, I was super busy last week preparing for our IndieWorks: Best of Fest. But without further ado, here I go...

Episode 9 (Drive Through) is another one of my favorite episodes. Since episode 8 officially established them as a group, we were allowed to have a lot of subtext-heavy fun with their dynamics together; and we got to throw Joanne into the mix to make it more interesting. 

One thing that makes this episode stand out is that they're not at any of their usual hangouts. They're also not drinking, which allowed for a change of pace in terms of our usual comedic go-to's. A lot of the comedy in this episode comes from tension between characters. 

This episode is also special because it's our first/only completely linear episode. It's all one timeline with no flashbacks. It's meant to allude to what Kelsey Rauber & I planned for the next season, with Kelsey not living in the past quite as much. (Similarly, episode 10 only flashes back to the post-sex OMG's, the rest is linear). Additionally it , again, played into our plans to take the series in a more ensemble direction with Kelsey still as the central character but maybe not such an overt focal point. 

Also the only episode where we have a true establishing shot. Something that never had a place in other episodes with the narrative always jumping around. Felt necessary in this case though.

Something else interesting about this episode is how we pulled it off. As you can imagine, we did not have permission from Dunkin Donuts to shoot there. So, like episode 4, we guerilla-styled it. When getting the Wide shot of them actually going through the drive-thru, Peter & I were in the car in front of them, and actually ordered drinks from the drive-thru so as to not draw too much attention to ourselves.

Alternatively, when we got the interiors of them deciding what to order & Tyrone speaking into the microphone, since we needed the car to be moving and had to shoot that scene on each character at least once, we drove in circles next to the drive-thru lane, not actually in it; and the 85mm lens worked in our favor by condensing the space between Daniel & the actual drive-thru menu. 

As far as the look of the episode, we were on an 85mm lens almost the entire time, with occasional 50mm usage. Since we had already established the intimacy of the group with the shots in episode 8, we had less pressure to have dirty shots and chose to concentrate more on tight singles, at least at first, and the various ways we could play with them in angles. 

However, as the interactions between the characters became more tension-fueled, we brought in Overs.

Working with the confines of the car, we were able to emphasize the close quarters when we did use Overs, which visually represented that they were all maybe a little too close for comfort in this episode.

We were also able to have fun with more stylistic shots like the mirror angles (also tension-fueled).

One of my favorite aspects of the episode, and I'd say Kelsey Rauber's writing in general, are the reveals and how they're established. It's never overtly stated that they initially thought they were going somewhere nice to celebrate Tyrone's new car when instead he takes them to a Dunkin Donuts drive-thru; it's merely alluded to, which left a lot of room for more directing choices. For instance, this is emphasized when Sam gets out of the car in her outfit.
 

A bigger reveal is that the Dunkin Donuts is just around the corner from Kelsey & Sam's apartment; again not something stated overtly, which made for fun when planning shots. This shot actually continues with them walking all the way to the door, but it didn't work for pacing. I think it still translates though, especially when we later imply Tyrone goes into their apartment to use the bathroom. 

Fun Fact, Kelsey Rauber really did live on that block right around the corner from that Dunkin Donuts. I can tell you this because she recently moved. Sorry stalkers. 

To wrap this up, I think it's a really fun & punchy episode that was easy in some ways but hard in a lot of other ways to pull off; and I'm really proud of my production team for making it work. Peter did a great job with limited angle options, as did Jordan (editor) with putting it all together & hitting the beats. 

If I'm going to mention one thing that didn't work quite as well as the episode as whole, it's the scene building up to the kiss between Kelsey & Joanne. We never quite got a perfect take. I really wanted the entire interaction between the two to happen in a continuous intimate two-shot, no cuts. But it started to rain before we could get one take that didn't have any line blunders. So we had to cut from one sort of two-shot to the main two-shot, which was a little jarring and detracted a bit from the natural chemistry and flow of the scene. However, I still think it works despite the rocky beginning. 

Something similarly unexpected that happened in post is that the scene between Sam & Rowan stayed as one continuous two-shot when I had originally planned to cut to Singles between them. Originally, the two-shot was just for coverage while the whole scene was meant to contrast the two-shot of Kelsey & Joanne by playing out with isolated Singles, implying their sexual relationship was ending while Kelsey & Joanne's was just beginning. However, Jordan brought it to my attention that it just didn't flow as well when he cut it with Singles. The scene worked so well as one shot because they played off each other incredibly well and had such great chemistry when they'd do full run-throughs, particularly in this take. I agreed with Jordan and we chose to leave it as one shot. I think the contrast still works because their two-shot is clearly less intimate & they’re at unequal planes. 

Lastly, again alluding to the ensemble progression, like episode 8, this episode doesn't quite end on Kelsey, but on one last punchline for Tyrone. 

As discussed in my first post, Episode 10 (Making Things Work) is pretty much the culmination of what the entire season had been building up to, not just narratively but aesthetically as well.  

The opening mirrors the opening of the pilot but on the much more flattering 85mm lens, which we were on for the majority of the episode, with, again, only occasional changes to the 50 for wider, establishing shots. 

Since we were now at the point where we weren't focused on and restricted to following patterns that were meant to develop over the season, we could simply get the coverage we wanted. So we had very tight frames within the group, establishing the tight-knit feel the audience would now have with them.

This being the season finale, we had to wrap up storylines but introduce new ones as well, like the introduction of Kate.

I have to give Peter lots of props here because at this point in production, we had no gaffer (Sayo got a paying gig on a feature film and we happily excused her from her commitment to the show) and Peter was doing lighting all on his own. He managed to compliment everyone’s diverse skin tones with the lighting in one 5-person shot while still maintaining the intimate, lower key feel, and all with very limited lighting equipment. Not an easy feat, as any Director of Photography, I'm sure, knows. 

The bedroom scenes with Kelsey & Joanne, I wanted to feel unlike any other times we had seen Kelsey in her bedroom.

Like their scenes in episode 7, we have very dirty, intimately framed Overs. I loved Peter's soft lighting, which was a big difference compared to the colder feel to her room in previous scenes (episode 1 & 6).

Kelsey’s happy. She's comfortable and confident in a way she hasn’t been in a long time, and the framing and lighting were mean to reflect & compliment that.

Initially, I felt like there was no point in hiding that it's Shane at the door. We're not very ambiguous about it, so were going to get a shot of her at the door. However, we couldn’t get Charlotte on the day we were shooting that scene, so I opted to just put her voice in, in Post.

But I think this ended up being for the best for that scene because I absolutely love Lauren’s dropped expression and wouldn’t want to cut away from it even if I had the Shane footage as an option. Her subtle transition from post-sex euphoria/ready-for-food excitement to surprise, which quickly becomes annoyance, and then worry for the future of her relationship is all so perfect, both in delivery and timing. I wouldn't want to shift the focus away from her to show Shane, so I'm really happy it worked out how it did in the end.

Lastly, unlike the past 2 episodes, the last shot is of Kelsey because, as the theme song says, it is still all about her; ensemble or no ensemble, she’s who the audience is meant to identify, or at least empathize, with most. We're following her journey.

Similar framing to Joanne's reaction to Shane was very much intentional.

We felt leaving the season with this shot/moment would be a great way to leave the audience feeling satisfied for the season as a whole but definitely wanting to come back for more and know what happens next. Based on the fan reaction, it seems we were right! :)
 

That's it for this 'Directing Kelsey' series! Thanks so much for reading it. I hope it was interesting & enjoyable. And, as always, thank you so much for watching & supporting the series. Fingers crossed we'll be discovered by new audiences and continue reaching people with Kelsey & her friends. Only time will tell, but we'll be sure to keep you updated. Kelsey & I shot a video a few weeks back where we talk about the future of the series & what else we're collaborating on. We'll be releasing it in 3 weeks. Be sure to check back at this blog and on Facebook & Twitter for updates on that as well as Screening/Press news. We can't wait to start telling you about our future plans.

Be sure to stay in touch with me via Twitter. Thanks again for your support,

Christina

P.S. Kelsey & I recently spoke as Panelists at the New Haven International Film Festival, read about it Here. 

Directing 'Kelsey' - Episodes 7 & 8

Episode 7 (Hanging Out Without You) was a lot of fun to shoot. It's interesting how it all came together because the final product features different locations from the original script. When Kelsey Rauber first wrote it, Kelsey & Rowan were shopping for pickles at Brooklyn Brine. Their conversation flowed fairly the same way but more with Rowan insulting the smell of the location rather than the pickles Kelsey was eating. And alternately, Kelsey & Sam were shoe shopping with Sam distractedly trying on shoes and Kelsey interrogating her. In pre-production, we tried to pull off securing both these locations for a while but our lack of budget made it impossible. I then suggested that maybe we attempt to shoot at a farmer's market or street fair, with Kelsey & Rowan still shopping for pickles and Kelsey & Sam looking at jewelry. However, the logistics for pulling this off were way too much for us to handle; plus we already had sound issues at each location, we didn't need to multiply them by a million. So then I said to Kelsey Rauber that we needed to take advantage of the opportunity to use a location we were already planning to use for Kelsey & Sam, and since we hadn't shot the scene from episode 9 in Sam's bedroom yet, that'd be the perfect opportunity to get more done in a shooting day. Kelsey Rauber agreed and we decided to have Sam sorting through her clothes, and Kelsey sitting on her bed playing with a 'hangman' prop. As for Sam & Rowan, I really loved the idea of paying homage to Arrested Development with a Pickle Stand in the park, but we just didn't have the budget to build one; so I advised Kelsey Rauber to revise the script to have them just having a picnic. We ended up shooting at Prospect Park, which was a nice change in scenery. When we first arrived, it wasn't as bright out and we were able to see the buildings in the background, which I loved because it was such a representation of what it's like to be in NYC: even surrounded by greenery, the skyscrapers are still always there in the distance. But as it got brighter out, we lost the view. Peter worked well with the sunny day; we found a good shady spot and it was a fairly easy shoot aside from some sound annoyances. I was hoping that we'd still maybe catch the buildings in the wide shots because the flat, Cinestyle images were promising. But once we pushed all the colors back in, in post-production, the brightness came right out.

Anyway, despite all the location rejections and alterations, I think it all worked out for the best in the end because the more relaxed environments allowed for the performances to really shine and for us to have a little more fun with the atmosphere and pacing.

For instance, it was Nichole & Sharina's idea to have Kels & Sam put on various items of Sam's clothing with each cut back to them. That's a fun, subtle aspect to the episode that I think totally plays into the rewatch value I mentioned I was going for in my first post. 

Episode 7 got us back to the ongoing storylines of the series, after episode 6 acted as a bit of a standalone break. The two biggest arcs were, of course, the 'will they/won't they' of Kelsey & Joanne , or at least will Kelsey realize Joanne's interest in her, and the ambiguity of Sam & Rowan's relationship. The way in which I chose to play with the latter visually in the episode was to have the scenes with Kelsey & Rowan and Kelsey & Sam match each other from scene to scene.

Both start out in a wide two-shot. 

Then a tighter two-shot as Kelsey becomes more inquisitive (compare above two photos to top two), and singles play out between the scenes, often mirroring each other based on where Kelsey is in her accusations to each of them.

This was done obviously because she's having pretty much the exact same conversation with each of them, but also to show that Rowan & Sam are reacting fairly the same way. By the end of episode 8, I wanted it to be clear that they weren't lying about anything actually happening, but there was definitely a connection there that both were denying. 

With the Rowan & Sam scenes mirroring each other, I wanted to make sure that the Joanne scenes stood out, and that they hinted that Kelsey's relationship with her was different from the other two and would be going somewhere special. So I used the contrasting intimacy of Singles versus Overs to bring that out. Joanne's scenes not only have Overs, but have dirty overs that get dirtier and tighter as the tension builds between her and Kelsey. That sentence totally sounds dirty, I know, especially since the scene in context involves a kiss. But if you're unfamiliar, dirtier means more of the other person fills the frame in the foreground, and tighter obviously means the camera gets closer to the subject. I wanted to make the scene feel as intimate and raw as possible, especially by the end. I think it worked really well. 

Also, you'll notice that, as usual, the camera is facing away from the bar for Kelsey & Joanne, but this time we moved them to the corner to create more intimacy & an optimal kiss angle.

Also as usual with them, Kelsey Rauber's real music is playing. She had her doubts that this more gloomy song would pair well with this scene and I was positive that the contrast would work with the pacing and intimate tone. I just heard it in my head when picturing the scene. It ended up being one of my favorite things about the scene because it's rare for me to just know what music or sounds I want in the background of scenes; I'm not musically inclined. So to have this one work as well as I felt it would was a cool feeling for me. 

I just have to say that I was so impressed with Nichole's performance in these scenes. Lauren, of course, impressed me as well. But I suppose I bring up Nichole because I had no qualms about Lauren's ability to pull off these scenes. She has been in a few of my films, most notably my feature film Summit, and she's a phenomenal actress, particularly in drama. I just knew she'd bring depth to Joanne despite her little screentime; and I have to say that the vulnerability she did bring to these scenes was so perfect. There were such subtleties in her body language that made me feel nervous for Joanne; so it suffices to say I had high expectations for her and she met them. But about Nichole, not that I doubted her abilities, I knew she was incredibly talented, she's just more of a comedic actress and I was a little curious how she'd handle the more subtle moments of these scenes. However, I have to say that I was completely blown away. She brought such real rawness to the moments after the lean in and build up to the kiss. I'm absolutely infatuated with the part where she says, "do you want me to kiss you?" and then kind of gulps. I just think the moment where Nichole does that and says the line and then Lauren smiles, looks down, looks back at her and her smile softly fades combined is absolutely breathtaking.

I'm really proud to have directed those scenes. There are some camera moments and tiny mishaps that I wish we had smoother takes of, but Jordan (my editor) and I really made it a point to prioritize performance here, and I think it paid off.

However, and this is a big however for me but hopefully a small one for you, there is one thing that bothers the hell out of me every time I watch these scenes. It's maybe my biggest regret for the series. I say biggest because we always have regrets, things we could have done if we had more time or money or resources; better lighting, better sound, better equipment. The kind of what ifs that you just have to let go of in order to accept that you made the best out of what you had and were capable of. So I only say biggest, rather than my 'only' regret, because, there are tons of things I could say I wish were different if I just had... fill in the blank; but those aren't things that really bother me at the end of the day. I've accepted them. However, this one thing that bothers me is just something I neglected to do, for some bizarre reason, it just didn't occur to me until seeing it all together in post. And that one thing is not pushing in for a tighter two-shot for the kiss. Peter and I were so preoccupied with getting our dirty-Overs tighter as we got closer to the kiss, and making sure we slid (for each cut-back) behind the correct person, and that the dirty overs would cut well together, that we neglected to think too much in depth about the two-shot. We were on a time crunch and I put more effort into making sure we got the Overs, and simply did all three scenes in one two-shot for coverage. I still think prioritizing the Overs was the right decision, and I know that, at the time, I felt the two-shot was intimate compared to past episodes (especially since we were in tighter frames and on tighter lenses by episode 7), as well as compared to the two-shots with Sam & Rowan in the rest of the episode. But I neglected to compare the intimacy level of the earlier two-shots between Kelsey & Joanne in the episode to later as we got closer to the kiss. I knew that I'd use the two-shot for the kiss. I knew the Overs would be too tight to show the kiss and that we'd have to cut out to the two-shot. But for some bizarre reason, I simply didn't think to get a tighter two-shot to pair with the intimacy of the Overs, and contrast the awkwardness of the initial lean in, for the kiss!

I was getting tighter with the frame in the Overs, it's only logical that I'd get tighter with the two-shot as well. It boggles my mind why I didn't see this until post. And, although I think it does work and that Jordan & I found a happy balance for cutting to the two-shot, I still can't quite forgive myself for the oversight. I'm working on letting it go, but it bothers me every time I see it. So are the woes of being a director, I suppose. At least it doesn't make me cringe the way some stuff from my earlier work does. I imagine maybe it will one day. That's the aspiration, right, to improve with each thing you do and look back on your work and overtly see how much you've grown? I hope that's the direction I keep moving in, but also hope I'm never not proud of where I started and what I've accomplished. Anyway, I hope that audiences still enjoy the kiss moment despite my disappointment in the shot I chose, because if I'm not being hard on myself, I do think it works nicely overall. 

Episode 8 (Bluffing) is an important episode because it's maybe the biggest reflection of what Kelsey Rauber and I were building up to as a whole for the season in terms of character dynamics. This is the first time all four main characters are in scenes together interacting as a group. I talk about this in my first post, so wont really get in depth. But the idea was to have the series become more ensemble, and get to the point where we can put them all together and you'd feel like you're part of the group of friends because you've gotten to know them separately and together so well. You'll notice that, even though Kelsey's telling one of her stories as usual, they all have their own storylines going on as well. 

Poker scenes are fun to shoot. This one wasn't about building tension, so Peter and I tried to keep the camera moving (without actual onscreen movement) to keep the pacing light and bouncy. At this point in the series, we were definitely aiming for dirty-Overs with the group of friends to emphasize the intimacy and comfort between them all, while also keeping in wide shots of all 4 to establish them as a group.

I also wanted to get this recurring frame for when they react specifically off of Kelsey, which I think are some of funniest moments of the episode, like "no laughing at my jokes," "well..." 

However, we did also do Singles, partially to keep the momentum high but more so to create a contrast for when two people are having an interaction (Overs) versus more of a group interaction (like each of them reacting to Kelsey's "Shane's"). 

As for the Kelsey & Joanne date, we used dirty-Overs here as well, again for the intimacy.

I talked a lot about the People Lounge in my last post, and this is another People Lounge faux-location. It was the one wall in the place that didn't have that red pattern, and I thought early on that it would be nice for the date in episode 8. So I made sure that we avoided it in all other episodes. We pulled it off well, I believe. But if you look in the background when Joanne walks away, you can catch the bar wallpaper. I figured if anyone were to look back there, they can assume that Kelsey's on a budget and took Joanne to their local bar for dinner. Kelsey does tell Shane that this place was off-limits, and that would work for being the bar as well. But I hope it reads a little more like a restaurant. 

The shot when Joanne gets up and Shane walks over was my brainchild. I was pushing to pull it off. Normally, I try to avoid anything that feels too staged. I don't like drawing your attention to the fact that there are cameras and this is all planned. It pulls you out of the realism. I want you to be able to get invested and lose yourself in it. This is why I’m not so into rack focuses or punching in for inserts, for instance. The shot, though, feels incredibly staged. It's so convenient that Shane walks over perfectly timed with Joanne walking away. This is because it's meant to reflect Shane’s staged encounter. She's not just walking by the table and noticing Kelsey. She went there knowing Kelsey frequents the restaurant, maybe hoping to spot her. She waited for Kelsey's date to walk away and specifically walked over to, for lack of a better term, fuck with her head. I felt like that camera move would help emphasize Shane's manipulativeness. 

The dolly/slide of sorts was Peter's brainchild. I wish we had more lighting equipment to pull it off better. But it was pretty awesome of Peter and our 1st AC Julian to be able to make it work because we didn't actually have a dolly. We just had a DIY slider on sticks that they both lifted and moved forward while sliding the camera on an angle on the slider, and all while pulling focus. Not an easy feat indeed. Worked well for Shane crossing the camera & presumptuously taking Joanne's seat. 

Also, to contrast Kelsey's scenes with Joanne, Kelsey and Shane only have Singles.

Charlotte E Simpson was my Gaffer for Summit, and had not acted much before. She was interested in being on the show and Kelsey Rauber and I felt she'd make a good Shane. I'm not sure if she'll be pursuing acting, but I think she did a great job. She made some nice choices. I particularly liked how she bit her lip after the line about Kelsey saying her name. And I, again, was incredibly impressed with Nichole's more dramatic acting here. Her reaction to Shane saying "Suzie & I broke up" is so natural and real. 

When Joanne comes back, we don't go back to Overs, we stay in Singles to accentuate the tension between them now. I wanted to leave the audience feeling as unsure as Kelsey felt about Joanne's feelings. 

This episode is the first time an episode doesn’t end with Kelsey. Again, hinting at what Kelsey Rauber and I had planned for the more ensemble feel of the show. We had dirty-Overs for Sam & Rowan as well, for obvious reasons.

I think their chemistry read well on camera. We did a lot of callbacks for the actors for chemistry testing to make sure they all felt like real friends on camera, and of course a big part of it was testing Brennan & Sharina's chemistry. I think it definitely reads here but maybe shines most in their scene in episode 9.

Speaking of episode 9, I’ll be back next Tuesday with my final ‘Directing Kelsey’ post on episodes 9 & 10! Hope you’ll be back with me. I’ll try to keep it interesting. Thanks for tuning in & reading my words!

-Christina

Directing 'Kelsey' - Episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5 (A Best Friend's Birthday) is probably my favorite episode of the series. It’s the episode that I think translated to screen most closely to how Kelsey Rauber & I planned/envisioned; and I just find both sides of the story incredibly enjoyable. I think it’s where we were most successful in making something under 10 minutes feel like a complete episode, as if you were tuning in on network TV. 

This episode is the first time we have Kelsey with all her friends in one environment, and, more importantly, the first time we allow the supporting characters to interact without Kelsey at all.

This, being the halfway mark for the season, was where we felt we could make a big shift in terms of the focus of the show and how the audience relates to Kelsey and the people around her. As I said in earlier posts, we where initially introducing you to Kelsey & her world through her experiences and emotions. But the goal was to take the series into a more ensemble direction and have her friends and lovers feel fully fleshed out, not just in relation to her. What would bring this on most, would be Kelsey lightening up on her self-centeredness. This is obviously not the case in this episode, as Kelsey is maybe at her worst on this date; but the shift is coming (which I’ll talk about in episode 6). However, to go along with that coming shift, we used this episode to really signal that coming change toward tighter frames and lenses (as discussed in depth in my first post). You’ll notice that the party scenes are fairly wide.

We did this to establish the space more than had been done in previous episodes, and, of course, to make it feel more like a party. (We were always stretching for extras on our no-budget; so you’ll spot quite a few crew members throughout the scenes.) But as the scenes went on and became more intimate, we definitely got tighter in our framing. 

The date, being the present timeline, is where we were most tight. These scenes were also a lot of fun to play with visually in terms of subtext. When this episode was first scripted, the very first thing I said to Peter was that I wanted Kelsey to be shot in Singles and Amanda to be shot over Kelsey's shoulder with Kelsey kind of stealing her frame. I was open to pretty much anything in terms of framing and shot construction as long as that motif was maintained; it just made so much sense in my head. Kelsey was talking non-stop, in her own world, not really making an effort to get to know Amanda, who was understandably feeling overshadowed and underwhelmed by Kelsey's story. Peter came up with the idea to take it even further and have Kelsey physically inch closer to Amanda with each scene we'd cut back to them. I loved the idea. It's so subtle, I doubt anyone notices. But she is literally invading Amanda's space, stepping on her toes in a way, and consuming her frame.

This idea of Peter's was actually an on the spot innovation. I try to avoid talking too much about the production experience because then these posts would be way too long (which I'm sure they already are), but I like to give credit where credit is due. So just to briefly explain, the date with Amanda was our last scene to shoot of production and we had a skeleton crew (because it was a Monday & we had previously shot only on weekends), literally just me, Peter, Sean Mannion (our sound guy) and Erin Clayton (our AC). Additionally, something you may not have realized, the People Lounge (the wonderful place we host IndieWorks) was turned into 5 separate locations on the series. The downstairs is the local bar, the upstairs is the lesbian bar, and all 3 restaurants are various corners of either floor that I felt we could disguise enough to pass for different spaces. This particular corner was literally a tiny corner that we had not yet seen in the back of the upstairs space; and we had nothing to work with but two benches, a small table and a couple plants. Thankfully, we were in episode 5, so keeping it tight was doable. However, it really just looked like a corner with two benches, a small table and a couple plants. I was running around getting some stuff done and Sean had volunteered to help with set dressing. So I left him with that corner & the idea that it could be like a hole in the wall Japanese restaurant, but gave no practical suggestions on how to execute that. When I came back a few moments later, he had found some Christmas lights, wrapped them around the plants, set the tables and made it all look perfectly believable. I was very impressed & very grateful. So to make a long story short, "too late" (anyone get that reference? Here's a Clue...), since we only had benches to work with, this not only allowed me to retain my Overs versus Singles motif with Kelsey & Amanda, but also caused Peter's inching closer idea to emerge. Additionally, with the Christmas lights, I was suddenly given the option to choose which color would hit each of them. And out of that was born a lighting motif, where the red was hitting Kelsey, signaling heat and attraction, essentially her thinking that the date's going well; and blue was hitting Amanda, signaling cold, reflecting her dwindling interest in Kelsey and the date.

A happy accident that I think made the scenes all the more effective; also, in my opinion, a great representation of team work and how collaborative of an art film truly is. 

Getting back to the party, in terms of the scenes with Kelsey & Joanne: as I discussed in my last post, only Kelsey Rauber's music plays when Kelsey is alone at the bar with Joanne., and the camera is, again, not facing the bar. Lastly, maybe you noticed that Kelsey has Singles with everyone else during the party but has OTS’s (Overs) with Joanne?

This was very much intentional, something we do again in episode 7, and meant to signal that there’s maybe more than friendship brewing there. It's also meant to overtly contrast the shots with Amanda, to signify a mutual attraction between Kelsey & Joanne as opposed to the unbalanced dynamic with Amanda.

I also chose to use Overs with Sam & Rowan at the bar to hint at what's to come. 

The use of Overs versus Singles in these posts are an example of how some motifs are across the whole season and some are isolated to specific episodes. If you've been reading all my posts, hopefully you've been catching the patterns. 

When Tyrone comes over to break up the intimacy, we stay in a medium shot, and Kelsey Rauber’s music is no longer playing.

By the way, the motorboat was improvised by Daniel and Lauren was great at staying in character when that suddenly happened. Just wanted to note that because I was impressed. 

As mentioned earlier, Sam & Rowan interact with each other, for the first time, without Kelsey, as well as without Kelsey as the context of their discussions. In reality, their scenes simply hint at their complicated dynamic (discussed in my second post) and the fact that there is actually a friendship there; and when their defense mechanisms aren’t up, they actually do enjoy each other’s company.

But Kelsey would of course make their scenes all about her and their exclusion of her.

Kelsey Rauber & I thought it’d be fun to have Kelsey come to a false conclusion and have her accusation be almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. So we planted the seed for that storyline with this episode, which is the final beat of the episode.  Jordan, my editor, and I debated the ending shot quite a bit in post. At first, there was no cut to Kelsey for her acknowledgment of Amanda's "Sam & Rowan are totally fucking line." But I felt that was necessary and thought maybe we should have Amanda cross frame and let the camera stay on Kelsey to the end. But it was Jordan's feeling that it worked better staying on Amanda's shot even after she leaves and leaving it on Kelsey out of focus in the foreground, left to stew as she slumps her shoulders. After the discussion, I agreed with him because it worked very well with our intentions with the rest of the season, to push Kelsey into reflecting a little more on her one-sidedness as well as neediness in relationships. So I had Jordan cut to Kelsey for her reaction about Sam & Rowan but not cut back to her for that final moment. I think it works exceptionally well, especially because we got another happy accident with the lighting. Kelsey's in red at first but shifts to blue once Amanda crosses frame, ending there. 

I will try to keep episode 6 (UHaul-er) short. This episode frustrates me a little because I'm not positive it translates quite what I set out to translate. Kelsey Rauber and I wanted this episode to be a big step forward for Kelsey in terms of how she really feels about the breakup and ultimately how she feels about herself. In the end, it felt a little less significant than we both originally expected and planned. I've examined it and have come to my own conclusions that I'll share at the end of this post. But I do think most things translated quite well.  

For one thing, this episode was about conveying Kelsey toned down from how the audience had previously seen her, both in her demeanor as well as neediness. We wanted to show that she's more than just this goofball who always puts her foot in her mouth. We tried to make her three dimensional in a lot of little ways early on, like showing her at work and in occasional contexts not related to her love life. But this episode was a great opportunity to show other, maybe more subtle, sides to Kelsey. 

Also, regarding toning down things, we definitely toned down the drinking compared to previous episodes, which is something Kelsey Rauber and I felt would be a good signifier of Kelsey's emotional state shifting as she gains her confidence and self-worth back. Not that she doesn't still drink by the end of the series, but she's not getting drunk. That's the distinction I thought would be important to make. 

To get to the visuals, the biggest visual motif of episode 6 is the same motif we used during the date in episode 5, but to the opposite effect. Instead of Kelsey stealing her date's frames, Joyce steals hers, as well as everyone else's.

Kelsey and Tyrone have Singles when they're alone (or for the opening before the reveal of Joyce).

But once Joyce is in the picture, they never get their own Singles as long as she's in the room. 

She overshadows Kelsey's presence pretty much throughout the whole episode. Peter and I thought this would be a perfect way to give Kelsey a taste of her own medicine. This episode is a wake up call for her of her own overbearing and somewhat selfish behavior, so the shot construction was used to emphasize the emotional conclusions Kelsey makes after this episode, even if she doesn't verbalize them. 

A behind the scenes fun fact: like the date in episode 5, this was the last day of production (shot in the morning) and we had a skeleton crew.

I had been looking for a restaurant to be our brunch place for a while but it was impossible with our lack of budget. So I decided that if we pulled all the curtains off the windows in the front of the People Lounge and put some tables and chairs up on the stage, the audience wouldn't notice that the area used as the brunch place was the area they had seen in the distance behind Kelsey all season long sitting at the local bar. So we did just that and Sean, again (or rather for the first time), worked his magic with set dressing, and it all worked out!

Another fun fact, the car parked outside the window behind Tyrone is the car he later buys, seen in episode 9. We tried putting a 'For Sale' sign on it but it wasn't readable.

A final fun fact: it's the real Kelsey, series Writer Kelsey Rauber, at the lesbian bar with "Suckface" Jen. When Kelsey wrote the appearance of Jen's latest bruised concubine into the script, I thought it was absolutely hilarious. We kicked around the idea of me playing the part because people had been mentioning how Nichole & I had a somewhat similar look and it could allude to Jen having a type. But I thought it would be a much funnier easter egg to have it be the real Kelsey, especially since she's the one "Suckface" really happened to.

Additionally, Kelsey Rauber did her own lip bruise makeup! 

Another interesting aspect of the episode is Joyce's look. I made it a point to have Kelsey spot her first, even though Joyce is the one who makes the first move.

She shares a stylistic resemblance to Shane, and, although I didn't want to imply that a person's look signifies who you are or how you'll behave, I wanted it to be representative of Kelsey's type, and maybe her attraction to emotionally unavailable or manipulative women. Kelsey eyeing the one woman in there who's similar to Shane is not so much a literal statement about their styles but just a visual way of showing Kelsey's bad habit, and a way to show a sharp contrast to Joanne. If we're talking literally and not symbolically, Joyce is only known to be a bad fit later on because Kelsey barely gets to know her and takes her home with the assumption that everything will be perfect the next day; whereas Joanne starts out as her friend and gets to know her, quirks and all (since Kelsey's not putting on a show for her), and wants to date her because of who she is, not in spite of it. That's the context for why Joanne is better for Kelsey than Joyce (aside from their chemistry and attraction to each other). But I wanted to have a visual connection between Joyce & Shane to allude to Joyce being wrong for her early on. I realize that I'm being kind of rambly about this, but I don't want it to feel like Kelsey Rauber & I were making assumptions about femininity and masculinity or implying that an edgier look automatically means you're the heart breaking "bad girl" type; it was merely a combination of casting, a desire for stylistic diversity within the lesbians portrayed on the series and a need to symbolically show Joyce as a contrast to Joanne as well as a similarity to Shane (who pops up in episode 8).

It also made for visual fun when Joyce swapped out her night-before attire for Kelsey's two favorite shirts previously seen on the series; a very different look for Joyce to accompany her very different behavior in the light of day.

There's not too much else to discuss in episode 6 because, as I said, the main motif was Joyce stealing Kelsey's "spotlight" in framing.

Also, we began the shift to tighter lenses & frames. We weren't quite at 85's yet but we weren't touching anything wider than 50mm for sure. 

This positioning was all Peter. -->

The lighting in the bedroom lowered our quality a little, which wasn't ideal, but we really wanted to use natural light and have it all feel a little drab.

This camera angle is possibly the least romantic angle I could possibly imagine. Peter and I wanted it to feel almost voyeuristic so that it'd be as awkward and uncomfortable as Kelsey felt at this point. It also signals that Joyce is about to be out the door because we were shooting from the stairs out of Kelsey's bedroom.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I don't know if the episode fully translates what I set out to. What I regret about the episode is not having a more transitional ending. Kelsey Rauber is, of course, the writer but she and I collaborated on the storylines and seasonal arc; and this episode in particular, I was pushing for it to have a transitional feel for Kelsey as a character.

Kelsey Rauber ended it on a punchline, which totally works. But I neglected to see at the time that it didn't work quite in the way we wanted in terms of the series as a whole and getting Kelsey from A to Z. That said, it still worked out in the end because this episode feels like a standalone, which is always nice to have (some people have even said it's their favorite because of that). And it does still function in terms of showing development for Kelsey. She actually rejects someone, which is a huge change for her. She realizes that this woman is not right for her and that she doesn't have to settle just because Joyce is there and interested. Also, important, she did it without the aid of any of her friends. This shift, we hoped, would make it clear that Kelsey is ready for Joanne, for a real connection, not just one that comes out of proximity and horniness mixed with loneliness. I think the episode as a whole did work in terms of setting that up in episode 7. I just wish I had carried it through to the end with a little more than just the punchline. Regardless, it did lead in to what is probably my second favorite episode of the series: episode 7.

The view count is now at 153,224! We passed 150,000. I don't know how quickly the numbers will move without some big press or outreach to new fans. But I'm going to cross my fingers that we can hit 200,000 by the time I finish this 'Directing Kelsey' series in 2 weeks. We will see! 

As always, thank you for watching, reading and sharing! I'm so grateful for the support. See you in a week with episodes 7 & 8. 

-Christina

P.S. I spent today replacing all the episodes' video files with slightly higher resolution versions that have the audio cleaned up a bit as well. So if you’re itching for a rewatch, that’s a perfect excuse to spend 72 minutes with Kelsey & her friends.

Directing 'Kelsey' - Episodes 3 & 4

Christina here, continuing my Directing Kelsey series. I took a break last week to share our blooper reel but I'm back to talk about episode 3 (WWWdating?) and episode 4 (Shopping in Groups). I hope you've enjoyed my past 2 posts and getting to know a little about how each episode came to look and feel the way it did. 

Starting with episode 3: This episode was in some ways about making Kelsey seem small in the frame (which wasn't tough considering Nichole's height compared to everyone else on the show) in order to reflect how small she felt finding out about Shane having a new girlfriend and the fact that all her friends have stayed somewhat in touch with her ex. 

However, despite this small motif, for the most part this episode was visually about working towards a sense of normalcy compared to episode 2 because Kelsey was actually in a good mood at the start of the episode and, despite her excessive drinking and hangover, seems to be moving toward a better place by the end of it as she accepts the reality of her situation.

As I discussed in my first post, this episode was still pretty wide in terms of framing and lenses compared to where 'the look' would end up by the end of the series. But we definitely started working our way into over-the-shoulder's and medium shots more, and less use of full or wide shots (compare).

One of the things I'm most proud of in this episode is pulling off the slide behind the computer screen. Peter initially wanted to do reverse shots on them and the screen, since it was scripted that we'd see Shane & her new girlfriend. But I preferred leaving Shane and, especially, her new girlfriend (later learned to be named Suzie) a mystery because I felt like the audience should be isolated to identifying with how Kelsey felt about her and how seeing the new girlfriend made Kelsey feel rather than be able to form their own opinions. Also, it seemed pointless to cast someone we'd never see on the show (Suzie). Additionally, I wanted it to remain ambiguous whether or not Shane would make an appearance on the show. So the less we showed of her, the more it seemed like we just got a model for the Pilot photo and didn't cast an actual actress. And lastly, a more practical reason, I didn't want the hassle of having to create a Facebook profile for Shane nor deal with the potential repercussions of showing Facebook without proper permissions. 

So anyway, Peter was totally on board for keeping the camera on them the whole time, and sliding behind the computer. He felt that it would be a tight squeeze but thankfully found a way to make it work precisely the way I wanted. 

What's wonderful is that a lot of people relate to episode 3. Staying Facebook friends with your exes and/or your friends staying friends with them is such a reality for our generation. Your ex can randomly pop up in your face at any given moment with the refresh of your newsfeed. When this episode was scripted, I felt it was so timely and relevant but also timeless in a way because finding out your recent ex has moved on before you is something anyone, regardless of how they find out, can relate to. I was excited about bringing the whole episode together because it'd be a fun way to explore each of her friends' take on the situation and introduce the next episode's plot of online dating.

However, things didn't quite work out that way when we got down to the last few days of production and had to cut out one production date because Kelsey Rauber and I were about to go over budget & out of money. The exterior day that we planned to shoot episode 4 at Ikea got rained out early on in production, so we lost a date that it took almost all summer to try to coordinate and get back. Because of this, we had to sacrifice an alternate exterior date which was supposed to have scenes between Kelsey & Rowan in episode 3, and Rowan, Sam and Shane in episode 10 (will talk about that later).  So two scenes out of episode 3 had to be cut. Here's a preview of the pages:

I felt that the episode could still work without the scenes, so found a way from a producing & directing standpoint to pull the episode off without making the loss evident to the audience. I ultimately do feel that the loss of the two scenes hurt the episode a little because it did not have as much cutting around as we originally envisioned since the entire episode is the past and only three scenes at the bodega are the present, which gave it less of the punchy feel that we like. However, because we had notice, we were able to make some adjustments to keep the momentum bouncy. We had already shot the office and bodega scene but not the bar scenes by the time we realized a day needed to be sacrificed. So we reworked the tone of those scenes a little to compensate for what was meant to go between them, and managed to bring it all together pretty tightly. Kelsey Rauber and I still feel what's lacking. But it seems that audiences enjoyed it regardless.

As you may have noticed from the preview above though, Joanne was meant to be in the episode. It was just supposed to be that appearance in the background so that we could further establish that she lives in the neighborhood and has met Rowan. Rowan would mention that he was double dating and, because Kelsey would spot her with the woman Rowan was presumably double dating with, this would add to Kelsey’s assumption that Joanne is straight in episode 4. We were, however, able to compensate for this loss in episode 4 because, luckily, we had not shot the Kelsey & Joanne scenes of the episode until after we realized the exterior shooting day would need to be cut. 

Speaking of episode 4: This episode is one of my favorites for multiple reasons. It's where we first get to see Kelsey interact with Joanne, Kelsey is finally at a point where her world doesn't revolve around Shane, we establish Tyrone as more than just Kelsey's co-worker and actually part of the group of friends, and where I think Kelsey Rauber's dialogue writing really stands out. I loved the contrast of the rapid banter of the Ikea scenes versus Kelsey's oblivious rambling to Sam versus the more conversational (but still somewhat oblivious) moments with Joanne. I had a ton of fun taking Kelsey Rauber's excellent script and finding subtle ways to bring it to life and really hit the beats in this episode.

I'm not going to pick the episode apart too much. But I will say that I treated each of the locations' corresponding segments as almost little films of their own, where each had a slightly different look while still working as one cohesive episode. I did this because I felt that, although they each play off each other narratively, the three locations' scenes worked almost as episodes on their own, independent of the context of the story Kelsey was telling.

For the scenes with Sam, I chose to have kelsey sit on the counter, not just because it made framing easier, but also to show that she has gotten some of her confidence back (in spite of her playful self-deprecation throughout the episode and especially these scenes). It was to show a stark contrast to the last episode in terms of her self-esteem level. Also, their bodies get a little closer together in two-shots and the overs are a little tighter, at least in terms of depth between Kelsey & Sam, to create a sense of closeness now that the friendship is more established. 

The scenes at the bar were very important because there was a lot of subtext going on and I wanted to emphasis both the chemistry as well as the tension between Kelsey and Joanne as much possible. 

You probably didn't notice this but there's a very big difference between these scenes with Kelsey and Joanne versus the ones from episodes 1 & 3 with Kelsey & Sam at the bar. I wanted there to be a visual difference for when Kelsey would be at the bar with Joanne compared to her with Sam, in order to allude to there being more than friendship brewing between the former. Peter suggested we shoot Kelsey & Sam facing one way and Kelsey & Joanne the other way, with the bar as the dividing line. I loved this idea and we both agreed that not showing the bar or bartender, and narrowing our Overs so that there wasn't too much depth behind Kelsey & Joanne felt more intimate and, in a sense, romantic compared to facing the bar and seeing more of the space (as is the case with Kelsey & Sam). So this became a pattern we stuck to throughout the series. 

Also, just to refer to what I spoke about in episode 3 regarding the absence of Rowan & Joanne. The bit about Joanne saying she knew Kelsey's name from Rowan, and then the awkwardness of Kelsey assuming Rowan had mentioned her and trying to hide that she was too self-involved to remember, and then Joanne appeasing her by explaining that she only knows him because he went home with her friend Sarah, was meant to compensate for the missed beats in episode 3, as well as set up the ongoing plot of Kelsey being completely oblivious to not only Joanne being a lesbian but also being attracted to Kelsey. It was also a way to quickly establish Rowan is definitely straight because Kelsey Rauber & I had feared the audience would assume he wasn't and be completely thrown by Kelsey's accusations later in the series. Episode 3 was meant to confirm this, so I added the throwaway line about "Sarah" to make up for what we lost. 

Last thing I want to mention about these scenes is the use of music. I know, this isn't referring to the look, but definitely the feel. It's the first time music is heard at the bar. I tried to avoid using a score or any non-diegetic sound for the whole series in order to add to the realism, and highlight the acting & pacing. So anytime music is heard, it's coming from a source within the reality of the show. I made it a point to not have music playing at the bar except for, conveniently, when Kelsey is with Joanne. I felt that it would set the mood a little and allude to their future together. Additionally, I thought it'd be fun to use Kelsey Rauber's own music on the show (she of course was not a huge fan of this decision), so you will also notice that every time Kelsey & Joanne are at the bar alone, the music playing is in fact by the real Kelsey. That's the only time her music is heard on the show. Any other time, for instance in episode 5, it's other tracks by local musicians who were wonderful enough to allow us use of their work.

In terms of the Ikea scenes: When we were shooting, it was an incredibly sunny day out, and Peter did an excellent job bouncing the light and using what shade we could find. But there was too much of a glare on the monitors to tell whether or not we were catching crew member reflections in the actors' sunglasses. Peter assured me that he didn't think we were but once we got into post, we realized we had. I found it very distracting once the cut was put together and really pushed to find a solution. Peter eventually came up with the idea in color grading to lower the saturation and give more of a bleach bypass look, which significantly darkened the reflections in their glasses. It unfortunately led to less of a sun-kissed look for the cast but definitely hid the recognizability of the figures reflected in the lenses.

I opted for the alternate look, despite it not being as flattering, because it didn't immediately pull me out of the scene the way seeing actual faces in their lenses did with the first color pass. Overall, the day just ended up looking a little more cloudy than it actual was, and everyone slightly less tan than they actual were. But I'm happy with it how it turned out in the end. 

In this episode, we tried to be on Kelsey's eye-level at all times to, as stated in episode 3, get to the point of normalcy, allowing her (and in effect the audience) to feel grounded visually because she was finally at a space of feeling ready to move on and more comfortable with the idea of not being part of a couple anymore. 

These scenes are also where I most used my director trademark of sorts, building up to close-ups, something I spoke about in the first post. I chose to start wide but abruptly isolate the three of them in singles, rather than overs, to emphasize them being in conflict rather than actually working together.

And of course the singles get progressively tighter as the tension builds between them. 

Luckily, the bleached look didn't remove some of our planned reflections, like Rowan taking off & putting on his glasses seen in Tyrone's lenses.

As tension subsided and the situation resolved itself, we pulled back out. 

And ended the scene on the skyline shot that Peter & I were very excited about. (See the reverse of it here.) I wanted to show that the series is true indie, on-location production and, although that comes with a million headaches, it has the perks of having the realness you can't get in a studio. 

Also, regarding true indie production, as a fun fact to share, the shots facing the actors and the shots facing Ikea are actually on completely opposite sides of the building. We had to run & gun the shots in the front of Ikea to avoid getting caught, and then we were able to take our time with a little more ease at the back of the parking lot for the majority of the shots, which were facing the characters. Just a little low-budget movie magic. 

That's it for episode 4. Hopefully my ramblings are interesting and give you some useful insight into the episodes upon rewatch. If you ever have questions or want to chat with me about the series, always feel free to tweet at me. And I hope you’ll be back next week for episodes 5 & 6. The view count is now at 144,395. So close to 150,000! Thanks for watching & reading.

-Christina

Directing 'Kelsey' - Episode 2

As I said in my first post, we tried to make the series as a whole feel uniform. We had decided that we would never veer very far from the overall look or feel of the show. However, slightly altering it for each episode to go along with a particular theme or Kelsey’s emotional state at that time was a large aspect of the series as well. Because of this, episode 2 (Don't Hit Send) was meant to feel a little odd and uncomfortable.

I thought that this episode's script was a ton of fun, not just because of the comedic dialogue and Kelsey being at her most extreme awkwardness, but because of how high-strung all the characters seemed to be (in their varying versions of what high-strung would look like for their personality-types, of course). I felt that this would be a little fun to play with visually. I also loved the commentary on modern dating and the reality of what we all have to deal with now: text-etiquette. So, with all of these elements in mind, I came up with the idea to have the camera consistently angled slightly downward toward Kelsey’s phone. She spends the entire episode waiting to hear back from and obsessing over the answers by Jen (Suckface), and I felt like putting the audience in the position of constantly looking down at the phone would be a great way to put viewers in Kelsey's uncomfortable footsteps.

Peter suggested we shoot most of the episode super wide to also help emphasis Kelsey’s emotional state, an idea I absolutely loved. Kelsey was in a seriously desperate mode and trying very hard to convince herself that her behavior was acceptable and normal. But looking at the facts here: she met a woman at a bar who kissed her so hard that she bruised her lips (bruises which lasted even days later), then Kelsey, for some bizarre reason, was still interested in this woman and continued to text her, only to get dismissive replies, to which Kelsey took as a sign to continue pursuing her. This is absolutely absurd but so perfectly an example of that place you’re in post-breakup when you just want to turn any new romantic prospect into the relationship you had before. For me, the addition of Peter's uncomfortably close, almost fisheye wide, framing choice totally appealed to me in terms of taking Kelsey's emotional state and making the audience feel it, whether they were conscious of it or not. 

To stray away from the shots here for a moment, I'd just like to talk about one of my favorite aspects of the episode, Kelsey's wardrobe. It was originally scripted that Kelsey wears a Snuggie. While shooting my feature film, Summit, my Gaffer (also the actress who ended up playing Shane), Charlotte Simpson was wearing this orange sleeping bag hoodie thing that we all on set found hilarious. When I was later discussing episode 2 with the Art Director we had at the beginning of production, Kit Sheridan, also Charlotte's roommate, I had mentioned that I wanted Kelsey to look as ridiculous as possible, to be completely consumed by the snuggie or whatever we ended up dressing her in. She suggested Charlotte's "Poler Knapsack," and I immediately loved the idea. It ended up being one of the most commented on aspects of episode 2, and a lot of fans asked where to buy one.

Moving back to the visuals. Compare this image to a wide from my last post (on episode 1).

This high wide not only emphasized what I've already discussed, emotional state & theme of the episode, but also cues you in on what exactly Tyrone’s storyline is referring to in this episode (Ryan Gosling, of course). A big part of my directing of the series is the idea of rewatch value, that you can pick up on new jokes within jokes each time you watch. I hate laugh tracks or the idea that comedy should revolve around moments of pause for the audience to absorb. Both Kelsey Rauber and I like witty, quippy dialogue that you either have to keep up with or watch/listen to again to appreciate the nuances. So, we definitely built the series around that mutual appreciation. That’s why maybe in episode one, you didn’t pickup on until the 3rd viewing that when Kelsey says “She’s Cameron Diaz, I’m an Ogre, and Pixar Movies do come true,” she’s referencing the movie Shrek, which is in fact a Dreamworks film, and she sings the last line in the Disney theme melody. I think that moment is pretty funny even if you don’t completely get the context, but it has another layer of humor when you realize Kelsey’s references are all wrong. Similarly, I think Tyrone’s dialogue and reactions to his server predicament is funny but funnier once you realize all his stress is actually related to a Ryan Gosling Fan Blog.

Again, an example of my attempt at "rewatchability," the scenes with Kelsey & Rowan watching a movie together on the couch is funny because of the dialogue and the wardrobe/art direction, but maybe becomes a tiny bit funnier when you realize they’re watching The Notebook? I don't like to spell those kinds of things out for an audience; I like to let them discover them on their own if they feel invested enough to look out for those little details. 

Of course the 14mm lens (something we only used in episode 2) elongates/widens everything in the foreground, which in this case, I feel, added even more to the comedic contrast of Kelsey & Rowan's height differences, especially because she's scrunched up in a little ball. This was not necessarily something we planned before that day on set. Once we got the positioning and blocking down, it just worked out perfectly. 

This shot took some creative maneuvering to pull off. Both Peter & I are super proud of it, so I'm mentioning it.

Notice the reflection of Kelsey's hands texting in the mirror across from Tyrone? Yeah, I know, pretty damn sexy. 

This episode was also about expanding on the characters a little more beyond just who they are in relation to Kelsey. Kelsey Rauber and I tried to deliver a lot of information in a small amount of time while maintaining our desired feel of merely dropping you into the story as if you're just as involved as the characters.

Tyrone's development was a little bit easier because we still had him isolated at the office with Kelsey. However, the scene between Kelsey, Sam & Rowan was super important because it was the first real introduction to the dynamics between the 3 characters. The first episode hinted at it but was more about getting Kelsey out of the house than seeing them interact in the way they normally would, particularly Sam & Rowan and their animosity toward each other. Kelsey and I didn't want what happens in episode 8 to come completely out of left-field. We wanted to build it into the narrative as much as possible; so this scene was key for introducing the idea that Rowan has maybe always liked Sam but his arrogance is actually hiding some insecurity, particularly around her, and that she hates the fact that she actually does find him attractive because he seems to represent exactly what she detests. So they have this ongoing love to hate each other dynamic (which episode 5 shows is actually kind of a functioning friendship, not just a situation where they tolerate each other with Kelsey as the glue. But I'll get to that later.)

With less than 10 minutes for each episode, it made developing the supporting characters difficult; so we had to be very choosey with what dialogue and interactions we chose to feature in order to make them feel fleshed out & like more goes on for them off-camera and outside of their friendship with Kelsey, while still moving the plot of each episode forward.

I think we accomplished that in this scene; and I think Peter's angles added to the subtext.

This is the scene where I would say the high-wides are at their most jarring. Peter and I kicked around the idea that we could get normal, eye-level Over-the-Shoulder shots for safety. But when shooting what is essentially a feature film in 15 shooting days, a few of which ended up having to be capped at just 6 hours, exploratory coverage just for safety was not really a luxury we had. Intentional choices had to be made a lot of time, with little alternatives available in the cutting room. So, we made the conscious choice to go with the awkward high wides and use them to accentuate the tension between Sam & Rowan, as well. I think it ultimately worked well.

I'm sure some people were put off by it. The almost-fisheye look was quite jarring. We could have made them more flattering for the actors and less uncomfortable for the audience with typical overs, but that would have been boring for me and Peter. And when you're doing a passion project where you're spending more than you'd ever make,  it should definitely be for the art of it as much as possible. I try to illicit an emotional reaction with my art as much as possible, even if it is a simple comedy. If I can honestly say I made you feel something, then I did the job I set out to do. 

This was of course the first appearance of Joanne.

We kept the wide motif but brought the camera down to eye-level to signify that Kelsey has come back down and isn’t obsessing about Jen so much. She’s even open to exploring new prospects. 

That’s all for now. I’ll be back in 2 weeks with the exploration of episodes 3 & 4. Next Tuesday, we’ll be releasing a blooper reel from the show! Be sure to check the blog for that. The view count is now at 139,748. Hopefully we'll hit 150,000 by the time I write my next post. Thanks for reading & watching!

Christina