Behind The Scenes: Couch Cases

Photos by Alecia Ashby 

Thanks to Bailey Dent and Ashlie Garrett for their heartwarming and hysterical performances!

This was the day we shot a flashback scene of Young Amy and Heather, as they bid farewell to their pet goldfish. 

This week’s shoot days went really well. Working with the kids- Ashlie and Bailey- was a blast, as you can see in the photos below. The college flashback and a scene where Dr. Amy gets her comeuppance also went great.

I’m lucky, I have good actors to play with.  And we do like to play.

I think good acting has a lot to do with that. Play, I mean. It takes a certain unselfconsciousness to pull off a convincing performance, an ability to let go and trust. It’s an admirable thing. As a director, I’m constantly learning and I’m having a lot of fun with this show. And this sense of play is something I’m trying to explore on set. Mostly this consists of me giving permission to play, or helping to point out possibilities and choices. And sometimes it involves me just being quiet.

This sense of play is something I’ve noticed most really great, generous actors have.

I think a good director is well-served by a sense of play, too. 

We went shopping for props last week for the flashback scenes in one of our episodes, and I immediately fell in love with the task at hand. My favorite stop was the fish store, Underwater Depot in Sherman Oaks. We had to get a fish bowl, and I knew exactly what I wanted for the scene… a little bowl with round ends and flat sides, complete with electric blue rocks and a little green plant. I knew it would pop on camera, and let’s face it… everything in the 80s was neon, so the brighter the rocks, the better!

We grew up with a 30 gallon fish tank in our house, so I have a lot of memories of fish watching. I remember my mom taking my brother and sister and me to the fish store when we were young. We would cruise the aisles looking at all the bright colors, and when we found the ones we liked, we’d watch the fish man scoop them up so we could take them home with us. We had black mollies, kissing garamis, tetras, neons, clown fish, and a sucker fish named Vax. You had to let them sit in the water inside the plastic bag for a while to let them get acclimated to the tank and the other fish. When the fishies were ready, Mom would let us untie the bag and pour the fish gently into the tank.

Needless to say, I got a little excited when cruising through the fish store the other day. I felt like a kid again, and I was so excited to re-create some of my childhood memories for a wonderfully heartwarming and funny scene. I am very happy with the results I’ve seen in the production stills and dailies. The fishbowl pops! It’s totally 80s!

Photos by Alecia Ashby 

It’s been a fun and very busy weekend!

We’ll be adding more photos, captions, and links to our photogs’ websites soon. 

Photos by Alecia Ashby 

I’m taking today off to get props with Kathi. So much to do, so little time… but it’s all great fun and the work looks and sounds way better than anything I’ve ever been involved with before. 

This weekend we’re shooting 3 scenes, one of which will be my first ever with kids. We had a lot of fun casting the kids, so it should be a lot of fun on set. I don’t have kids of my own and my family lives far away, so it’s a blast to get to work with little ones. After we shoot the goldfish scene we’re back to my place for two more scenes between Amy and Heather.

Production is going really well, although it is a bit hard schedule-wise. Next weekend we have several scenes to get and only about 6 hours total of daylight to get them in, thanks to the whole “seasons” thing. You know that story in the Bible about the guy who held up his hands and kept the sun from setting? I could use him right about now.

I also have a new lens on order- I love the images I’m getting, but the wide lens I’ve been using isn’t of the same quality as the Nikon and Zeiss lenses. And that bothers me. So I’m getting a really high end Nikon wide angle zoom. It’ll be here in time for next weekend’s big shoot- where Dr. Amy and Nathan start to connect. I know I’ll be using it a lot for that. And of course, it’ll be used with Amy and Heather at the Fortune Teller’s. 

On a technical note, I’ve been playing with images from a Red One lately. This is the camera that’ll probably be used on our next season of episodes, and it’s amazing. After playing with RAW, I can’t imagine using normal video or even film. The keys one can pull are absolutely stunning, and that’ll help me a lot with my dayjob. 

Today we shot the openings and closings for the first two episodes. It was a blast!

Vito nailed our Tony character perfectly, down to his bling and hand gestures. We needed a guy who could play a ‘tough guy’ who also had a surprisingly sensitive streak, and man he got it. Dylan, who played Tony’s Wife rocked too–she came in and shared the bed with Tony’s teddy bear (look for the bear, he’s in almost every episode somewhere!) and made a hilarious scene I can’t talk about right now. If I did, Kathi’d have to kill me.

Cory was up next, what a pro. His reactions to Dr. Amy were awesome, and his character Norman is exactly what we were going for when we wrote the part. I’m feeling pretty excited tonight, and so far I’d happily work with any of these folks again. Kathi and I spent a lot of days in casting, and it’s paying off. 

Photos by Justin Donais

These are raw frame grabs from the camera, with no color correction or enhancement. Normally, people don’t post this stuff–they wait until the final edit and all post work has been done.

However, I’m liking what our little system is recording and I’m not shy. I’m using an HVX200 with a Brevis adapter and Nikon/Zeiss 35mm primes. This system isn’t like 35mm film, it’s more like Super 16. There’s a definite grain to it, but it also gives a very nice and smooth filmic look.

From a DP’s perspective, this is exactly what I’m going for. A lot of my favorite TV shows are shot on Super 16. It definitely elevates our show’s image–makes us classy even. Like in the big leagues.

Enjoy!  

I live in North Hollywood, so shooting at EAT was just a 1 block walk from home. Tony and his wife (I feel bad, I can’t remember her name at the moment) are very cool people, and their restaurant is my favorite local place. Great food, great people. I recommend the Malibu Stacy chicken sandwich, served by Tanya.

Today was the first day I got to work with Simon–he’s our one actor from out of town, and although we’d talked a few times on the phone, this was the first time I got to meet him in person. As I expected, he was a lot of fun on set and an excellent professional.

I remember working on a close-up of Kathi and wondering why she was laughing. Turns out, Simon was holding a steak knife in his teeth like a pirate. I think he makes an excellent addition to the team–we’re all a bit crazy, and I think the ability to have fun is important when you’re doing a comedy.

I did a table read with Sabrina and Kathi a few nights before the shoot, and it ended with them double-teaming me. If you’ve ever had to deal with two goofy and somewhat hyper girls attacking you at once, well, just imagine. I like rehearsals like that, where you get a lot done and have a good time. Well, OK, it was also fun to have two pretty girls teasing me. I admit it. I think I gave as well as I got, too.