'Kelsey' Blooper Reel - Part 2!

Here's the second and final part of the blooper reel we put together (thanks to our very own Lauren A. Kennedy, or better known to you as Joanne, through L.A. Reels) featuring some fun blunders on set.

By the way, I mentioned in my last Directing Kelsey post that I'd be writing about Episodes 5 & 6 this week and sharing the second blooper reel the following week. But I ended up being busier than expected and didn't have a chance to work on it this week. I'm Upstate near Fort Hood working with I WAS THERE Film Workshops as a Senior Instructor. It's something I've been doing one week out of every month for about a year. I've spoken about this in past blog posts, and you can check out the site if you're interested/curious. Either way, I always overestimate the amount of free time I'll have when doing these workshops. But, no worries, I'll definitely be back next Tuesday with my write-up about the episodes. I hope you got a laugh from the blooper reel; and if you missed the first part, find it here! 

Christina

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

'Kelsey' Blooper Reel!

Part 1 of 2 blooper reels featuring some of the hilarious moments on the set of "Kelsey." The second one is coming in 3 weeks. Be sure to check back next week for Christina's Directing Kelsey post on Episodes 3 & 4. 

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

Directing 'Kelsey'

Hello to all our wonderful "Kelsey" fans,

Christina here. Some of the more cinephile-type fans of the series have asked questions about the look of the show over the past couple months. So I thought it’d be fun to write a blog series about some of the artistic choices behind "Kelsey". This is the first of what will be 5-10 posts discussing each episode; I may combine a couple episodes depending on how much I decide to say. This one will be the longest, though, because I'm setting up the series as a whole before diving into a specific episode. So here it goes, starting with episode 1 (Palette Cleaner).

If you don’t know the story of how “Kelsey” came to be, read it in Kelsey Rauber’s words HERE. It was back in July of 2012 that we had that dinner and the idea to turn her hilariously bizarre but incredibly relatable story into a web series first occurred to me. I told her that what I found so compelling about her story was the way in which she told it to me. Her hindsight commentary was a big part of what made the story so entertaining. When she said that she would start writing immediately, I told her that she should try to retain her comedic storytelling style as a character in the writing of the series itself. So, we initially came up with the idea that Kelsey, the character, could be retelling the story of this event in the form of a video blog and part of it would be portrayed through flashbacks, while the other part her commentary. However, talking to the camera has become such common practice in comedy now that I’m so glad that that idea was eventually nixed. Kelsey wrote her first draft and it was funny but not nearly as funny as it later became when the new non-linear motif was tested in her second draft in February of 2013. Kelsey had come up with the idea that the character of Kelsey would be telling the same story to her friends separately and the audience would be able to follow it partially through flashbacks and partially through the non-linear moments of interaction with her friends throughout the episodes. I thought this was absolutely brilliant and unlike anything currently happening in comedy right now.

So we decided to roll with this structure and, after we brainstormed on where we wanted the series to go as a whole, Kelsey began writing future episodes and I brought on our DP Peter Westervelt; then we began casting. This is where I’m going to stop telling background to how the show came together. I just wanted to set up the narrative structure of the series as a way to get into the aesthetic choices behind it.

The prospect of the series including flashbacks and a general non-linear structure made the series more exciting for me from a directing standpoint and allowed me to have some interesting brainstorming sessions with Peter (as mentioned, the series Cinematographer) on how we could create a visual distinction between past and present. I initially proposed the idea that we commit to shooting the flashbacks on a specific lens, which we would never use in the present, in order to create a subtle but intentionally different look between the two time periods of each episode. This is something I had seen done in Blue Valentine, one of my favorite films. But Peter, rightfully, brought up the fact that that would be very limiting for the visual storytelling, especially with tight locations to contend with. Peter then suggested that we have some sort of camera movement for every time we introduce the past in an episode. I loved this idea, so we decided that the main way we'd differentiate the past from the present would be to slide into the past and cut out to the present. This is a rule, I’m proud to say, we maintained throughout the whole series. This is a part of why I think it’s so necessary to plan and ideally shoot a season of your web series as one whole entity because, even if you are thinking of each episode as standalone, you can make artistic choices that go a long way. (From a producing standpoint, as well, it’s just incredibly naïve not to shoot your whole season together before launching your pilot in regards to time efficiency, cost effectiveness and consistent distribution. But I’m not talking producing here. This is the director side of me writing this post.)

Another motif for the series that I wanted to convey was the idea of building up to close-ups. This is something I generally incorporate into all my work, especially if tension building is a big aspect for the film as a whole, even in comedies ("S.K.A."). It was definitely an integral aspect of the cinematography for my feature film Summit, and I was actually producing "Kelsey" right off the heels of shooting Summit. I suppose I wanted to find a way to use that motif very specifically again because it worked so well in the film. The way I worked it into "Kelsey" was by using wides early on as a way to introduce you to Kelsey’s world in relation to her.

But as the relationships became closer and they became more of a tight-knit group of friends, and as Kelsey became less self-centered, our shots got tighter and dirtier over the season. I’ll elaborate on this further for each episode from a tone/feeling standpoint. But here's an example compared to above: 

I wont touch on lenses and that kind of stuff; it’s Peter’s realm. But for you real tech fans, we generally never went above a 50mm lens for the first 3 episodes, and never went below it for the last 3. 

It was Peter’s idea to open the series coming into focus on Kelsey. I thought that was really cool because I had made it a point with the pilot to just kind of drop you into her life, and the focus shift felt, to me, like it was you coming into Kelsey’s world.

The kitchen was an incredibly tight space to work with. We basically just tried to be as wide as possible while getting as much coverage as possible. Peter was really amazing at utilizing the limited shooting area, and our editor, Jordan Roberts, did an excellent job of taking all the shots and making the scene feel cohesive and smooth. 

We toyed with making the photo of Kelsey & Shane on the fridge more in your face with a very intentional close-up. But I felt that was kind of tacky, and decided to just put it in the foreground a few times and let the audience find it upon rewatch after Samantha references "her stuff" or Kelsey pulls it off at the end of the episode.

I’m generally not a fan of inserts as a way to draw the audience’s attention to something and tell them it’s important. I rather be subtle about it and let the scene play out more realistically, as if you're in that space with them. You’ll probably notice that there are few, if any, inserts during the series.

But for the fans who’d like to see that photo more closely, here's a shot we never used:

You'll notice wider frames and lenses are generally all over the place. It's in both bars (something that was always a bit of a challenge to pull off with our limited budget & lack of extras). The look of the lesbian bar was made different from the local bar mostly through Peter's idea to put colored gels on all the lights. It added to the rainbow theme of the space. 

There’s a lot of fun we had with art direction in Kelsey & Tyrone’s office. We established Tyrone’s infatuation with Ryan Gosling (which would play into episode 2) and Kelsey’s love for Kermit (true story, Kelsey Rauber really does love Kermit).

Okay, I’m not going to pick apart each scene or shot in the episode, don’t worry. I just wanted to touch on a bit of what makes each episode different while also talking about the general look of the whole series. I'll stop doing that now.

Moving on, a stand out aspect of this episode is the use of close-ups on somewhat wide lenses as character's POVs. A choice mostly used to be slightly jarring and add to the comedy, but also to pull you into the story like you're the one being spoken to, like you're one of Kelsey's friends now. 

This is not something we do in any other episode. I normally think it's a bad idea to do something in the first episode of a series because the audience may come to expect it from the whole show. But I also felt that, since it's a pilot, we could get away with it as long as we didn't repeat it at all in episode two, and that, since the pilot is so standalone as is, it'd be an okay choice to make. This is the episode where we flashback more than any other; it's also the most story-oriented, where little happens in the present and the story she's telling dominates the episode. I felt that having character POVs would be a great way to show how intently the other characters were listening to Kelsey but also how they were reacting to her and her story in a different way from how she perceived it (which would go on to be a running theme). Again, like starting the series out mostly wide, it was a way to introduce you to the supporting characters specifically in relation to Kelsey and her world.

Peter was totally on board for this isolated episode motif and pulled it off very well. We made it a point to shoot Kelsey's interactions with each character on the same lens and from the same angle and distance as much as was possible for each part of the story she was in while talking to them. We figured that, not only would it feel more polished to do so, it'd help audiences subconsciously place themselves chronologically in the non-linear story.

It was completely Peter's creative idea to shoot the shot where Kelsey & Jen do all the shots in one take.

I liked it a lot, especially the slight awkwardness of it happening in real time rather than convenient jump cuts. Getting drunk and hooking up with some random at a bar is inherently awkward, and I generally like to make you feel a little awkward visually if the characters feel that way (more on this in episode 2).

I specifically wanted to jump the line for the kiss in order to signify that what was about to happen was what this whole episode had been building up to and that it'd be slightly jarring the way jumping the 180 line is jarring.

The final scene of the episode is one of my favorites of the whole series. First of all, the color tone of the end product is actually quite different from the original. In Post-Production, Peter gave me a choice and I chose the colder look because it was much more in line with the tone of the scene. Just a taste of the beauty of color correction and Peter's overall skill. 

We only had one version of the poster on the wall so Nichole had one take to nail crumbling it up. I was also deadset on it being all in one wide shot, no cuts to close-up. I liked the idea of conveying the intimacy of that scene by not being intimate with the camera, but actually making you, the audience, feel somewhat like a voyeur as you watched her in this incredibly vulnerable moment. So Nichole had quite the challenge on her hands, as did the whole production team because nothing could go wrong in this take.

The part with the pig puppet was not scripted; it was originally scripted that Kelsey takes down Shane-related stuff off her wall and puts it, along with the photo that was on the fridge, in a box and tucks it away under her bed feeling slightly hesitant but ready to move on. I found the pig puppet in Kelsey Rauber's bedroom and thought it was cute so told Nichole to pretend that it was a gift from Shane and that she had to say goodbye to it as she packed it and the rest of Shane's stuff away. I also wanted to take a slightly more somber approach to the ending in conveying that the realization that she was actually ready to move on was maybe the saddest and scariest part for her. Nichole totally rolled with that and didn't want to rehearse what she would say to the pig; she just wanted to let it come naturally. So I was banking on liking whatever she chose to improvise, as well as everything on a technical level going well because, again, we literally had one take to pull this off. Her choice to actually have the puppet speak to her was brilliant, humor in such a sad moment; and the way she kissed it goodbye and put it in the box was heartbreaking. I loved it. She nailed the scene in one take. 

For the final moment, I chose to just let it linger on her, lying in bed after she finally decided to put the box of Shane’s stuff away. I wanted to make it clear that, although the show was a comedy, we’d be touching on some real stuff in it. When Kelsey Rauber saw the footage, she was on the same page. I was proud to have captured what she had emotionally put on paper. 

I think we truly nailed it with those final moments because it's one of the most referenced scenes in interviews, including what led to a discussion, in one of my favorite interviews that Kelsey Rauber & I were invited to do, with Fetch & Femme about Kelsey(the character)'s uncomfortableness with being alone and how the show is really meant to be the journey of Kelsey getting to the point where she's okay with who she is regardless of who she's with. 

That's it for episode one. If you enjoyed reading this, go ahead and rewatch the episode to see what I was talking about. And definitely check back in a week for the exploration of episode 2. I promise it wont be as long as this post. Also, as of right now, the series has a total of 136,667 views! Thanks for watching (and reading)!

 Christina