Episode 7 - L.A. Nites

L.A. Nites

The Climax (part 1)

The hardest part of doing any story is having it all build up to something. The second hardest thing is having it then come back from that point to the beginning again. The story device I designed makes it possible to know what's going to happen when you get there and in the case of L.A. Nites it added up to this.

Overlooking the LA

Letting a story take its own direction while still giving enough information to survive on its own can be an incredibly tricky balance. As far as I understand there are two schools of thought which suggest that a writer should either orchestrate everything and the one that suggests that the author should let the characters do whatever they want. In my opinion, the first option can add up to stilted characters and tired situations while the second can lead to completely meaningless stories. My device follows the advice of writer Neil Gaiman which I paraphrase here: make a world for characters to make their own choices in.

Characters can be surprising

So we put Emmett in connection with Aaren, Emmett says he can get Aaren a job working for the same guys that beat up Detective K in episode 4. According to the "math" of the story-telling device the climax means finding a reason to push everyone together and making them deal with each other.

Aaren meets The Manager

Further we had to bring the detective in contact with Leighann. We liked the idea he had been stripped of his badge but he was obsessed with Howie so he couldn't stop. Like any good detective he's in it until the case is solved, as seen in episode 10.

But not giving up

This is the first tattoo we see on L.A. Nites. Fun Fact: The tattoo shot once filmed a week after the previous and following shots. Those of you that know the magic of movies will shrug and those of you that don't will be like, "omg... mind=blown".

Jody Barton and Rozlyn Stanley steal the show

Absolutely fantastic performances from both Jody and Rozlyn. We wrote episode 7 after we filmed episode 6 and so she gracefully combined her performance of what she knew about Leighann on the first day we shot with what we discover at the end of this episode. The reason I so highly applaud both Ms. Stanley and Mr. Barton's work is in the way that they hold onto their previous choices while incorporating the new twists that we built into their evolving characters.

Bad photos of bad guys

This next sequence was fun because it was something that Erik had been excited to incorporate into Aaren's character since the beginning. Cool thing about being a writer for the show that you're also performing in is that you get to see your characters unfold the way you want them to. Both Erik and I had the luxury of doing things that we felt were plausible for Emmett and Aaren while Jody and Roz were more at the whims of what we thought was plausible for their characters.

Tying up loose ends

For the record, Roz was excited when she found out her character has power over the supernatural. This was a bold choice on the part of everyone involved with this decision. The end of this episode is what really defines this show for me. If L.A. Nites continues into season 2 we should continue to explore this angle.

She set him up

We filmed both parts over two days, the most ambitious shoot we had up to this date. Check out the conclusion of this episode in part 2.

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LAWebFest Official Selections - Beverly Pills

Beverly Pills

A Filthy Martini Productions

With the submission deadlines having just past, the team at LAWebFest has made their official selections for 2015. By the high quality of these shows, it's clear to see that the web series is something that is here to stay and possibly the place where we will see the future stars of television and film. Which is also something that could be said about Ginger Parker.

They warned you

This show is LGBT friendly, dealing with gay themes (1.3 Unperscribed Reputations) and calling each other trannies (1.6 Xannies and Trannies) throughout. It wouldn't surprise me is Scarlett is played by a member of the trans community. That being said, this show is about as much a "gay" show as Weeds is a "straight" show and comparatively tamer.

This is as spicy as it gets

Admittedly, this show takes some getting used to. The first four episodes are a little painful to watch. Scarlett is rich and vapid, their lives are meaningless charities, bad jokes and using each other. But don't give up! I'm telling you, it's totally worth getting through the first season because at the end of episode 5 "Charitable Side Effects" Luis Bustamonte introduces characters outside Scarlett - the first of many villains she will have to face in Season 1.

The first villain of season 1

It's from this point forward that the show really picks up steam. Each of the leads finds and settles into their roles. Aaron is your sassy gay best friend, Lauren is Aaron in female form, Daisy is... british, Nadia is..... uh... Rus- no- Ger- a... European foreigner.

"Really, you brought dumb and dumber as your back up?"
"We brought your own stupidity as our back up."

It gets suddenly better at episode 7 "For the Love of Pills" as the two-dimensional characters we've been following get deeper as we come to understand their lives. So while episode 1 "PiLLot" has a very telenovella feeling to it, here we find that Daisy has filed for divorce. They go there and yet still maintain the silly world that they live in.

A world where turning on the oven can burn the shoes.

Overall I was impressed with the first season of this show. They took me from the initial stereotypes they set up to really caring about their characters, a challenge to do with a show that is basically Weeds with trannies in Beverly Hills. I'm still not sure if this is a show I could keep watching. If Luis and Ginger are thinking about a second season, I would encourage them to have more moments like this one:

Turns out this thug is only selling drugs to get through school.

More wholly realized characters like Lester.

He may have the best motivation of any character on the show

Powerful performances like this one:

"Get out of here before my east coast accent becomes permanent."

Ginger Parker is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress which she fully deserves. Her attitude sets the tone for the rest of the show - they may be vapid and they may be shallow but they have feelings too. Best of luck to her on her nomination in April.

I can't take my eyes away...

I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of hooked on this show and can't wait to see where they take it in Season 2.

State of Franklin

I hope several of you got to check out the premier episode of my comedy web series State of Franklin the other day. We're four in, actually, but today, I'm posting Episode 2: "Ensconced."

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The Launderette | Episode One | The Interview

The Launderette | Episode One | The Interview

Feedback for this would be greatly appreciated.

The Launderette is a Web Series Sitcom revolves around Alex and Sam. Two twenty something’s who work at a desolate underused Launderette. Alex is the bored and underwhelmed owner who along with his fun-loving assistant Sam must battle the weird and wonderful customers along with dealing with their own surreal lives.

Characters

Alex | Owner

Alex loaves his job, and is only doing it because the Launderette was handed down to him by his Grandfather. He often sarcastically amuses his customers by nodding his head to most of their stories, unbeknownst to them he doesn’t really care. Maybe he just wants to pack it all in and go travelling.

Sam | Assistant

Sam is Alex’s assistant and gets on much better with all the customers and unlike Alex views life with a lot of optimism and wishful thinking. She gets a job at the Launderette as an assistant but does she want more from life too?

Matt | Geography Student

Matt is Student who lives locally and studies Geography. He has an unusual dress sense in that he wears the same outfit everyday and insists on repeatedly washing it at where else but Alex’s Launderette. He is useless with the ladies and even goes as far as to invent relationships.

Helen | Mother

Helen is a ‘Mother’ of one. She is far from unflappable and is often seen in the Launderette with her ‘child’ having had some sort of mishap with her. Alex goes along with everything he says partly to amuse her, after all she’s one of the few customers he has there.

Episode Guide

The Launderette | Episode One

Alex has just been given the responsibility of running the families Launderette. Although not particularly rushed off his feet he would rather hire and assistant to take on all the tasks, whilst getting a chance to meet some of the regulars.

The Launderette | Episode Two

The idea for the second episode will revolve around the idea of Alex having his birthday party. Sam spending the whole day trying to hold celebrations for it, along with Matt and Helen. But as we know it will not all go according to plan.

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The YouTube Interview with President Obama #YouTubeAsksObama

Thank you for having us Mr. President! You guys can check out the interview on YouTube. It's safe to say this is my favorite selfie ever 👌

Une photo publiée par Bethany Noel Mota (@bethanynoelm) le Janv. 22, 2015 at 3:07 PST

YouTube creators Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green interview President Obama about the top issues facing them and their audiences. Live on Thursday, Jan 22, 2015 at 5pm ET.

#YouTubeAsksObama

Step 1: Meet Bo and Sunny Step 2: Meet President Obama #YouTubeAsksObama pic.twitter.com/ArO7Hi2L5p
— YouTube (@YouTube) January 22, 2015

.@BethanyMota’s Obama chat starts in one hour. Wish her luck, #Motavators. http://t.co/VV9evY1bJ7 #YouTubeAsksObama pic.twitter.com/ikWbyqnqwr
— YouTube (@YouTube) January 22, 2015

Some behind-the-scenes shots from #YouTubeAsksObama w/@hankgreen @GloZell @BethanyMota pic.twitter.com/XOTye6MqB3
— Simon Marks (@SimonMarksFSN) January 23, 2015

GloZell's Road to The White House

Cannibal Girl: Episode Two

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Ellie has taken in the mysterious Kristen but how long will the strange girl be able to keep her deadly secret hidden?

Episode 6: L.A. Nites

L.A. Nites

The Dark Horse

Before we even begin, I want to first tell you that what comes next will be completely biased and all statements made here in no way reflect the opinions of anyone but the author. Leighann is the best character in the series. Don't ask me who comes second because ever other actor who played one of the other characters would be pissed. 

Okay, I'll tell you. 2nd place also goes to Leighann

Originally, we were talking about bringing Krysten, who plays Howie, back onto the show as her cousin, Leighann. She thought that this was an odd idea because as we confirmed in episode 3 she's definitely dead. I guess most people would think the same if they haven't seen Twin Peaks. If you haven't noticed there are some unintentional correlations between L.A. Nites and David Lynch's original series.

Actually they're just a co-incidence... 

If you haven't noticed the Twin Peaks correlations, now might be a good time to point some of them out. A dead girl that everyone cries about for the first part of the show, Erik, former slave to a QC department was quick to point out. Howie is our Laura Palmer.

Poor Laura... I mean, Howie....

Another one that people are quick to point out are the use of owls. Which although it wasn't our direct intention is for the same reason that David Lynch, J.K. Rowling and Walt Disney used owls in The Sword in the Stone. I don't want to give any spoilers but check out episode 9 and episode 10 (due out Thursday, 1.22.15) for more about the owls. Actually the first owl appears here on the show:

This is Roz's actual phone case

Before this we only knew that Leighann had a tattoo of an animal but we didn't know what it was or why she had it. Since we were writing it as we were filming it, we were able to incorporate elements like the actresses phone into the storyline. Flexibility like this also allowed us to cast Rozlyn Stanley as Leighann when it turned out that Krysten was not available for filming that week. The opening shots of this episode were shot to make the viewer wonder if Howie was, in fact, still alive.

Who is that?

I am glad that we ultimately went with another actress since it would have been unnecessarily confusing. What we initially wrote as a joke for Justin Phillips, the guy who thinks Leighann is Howie, becomes a much more poignant moment in Rozlyn's hands. I cast Justin Phillip in this scene because I worked with both him and Rozlyn in the previously mentioned dick-joke company. What we did there was cheesy, melodramatic murder mysteries far below the talent of these two actors. I wanted them to do something real to show off just how good they were.  This segment says everything about why they should work together in the future.

Vandiweasel says, "hey."

FYI, yhis episode is intentionally misleading. We wanted to give the impression of Leighann being an innocent, country girl who is unable to protect herself. However, once Rozlyn joined I knew that we could go further with her character. The twists and turns that change everything in episode 7 and onward, I knew could tackle. Leighann's ironic nature of being both good and evil would be a challenge to any actress but Rozlyn pulls it off with the same grace and poise that she does everything.

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Here's Episode 1 of my comedy web series State of Franklin, which is now up to four episodes. Hope you guys will spare 10 minutes to give it a once-over. We're getting great feedback and online reviews.

Series Description: Toby Hamilton's life is falling apart, but an unlikely friendship with a man claiming to be Benjamin Franklin may be his only way of coping with change.

Episode 1: "Days Of Whine And Roses" - Toby tries to woo his estranged wife, Lily, back into a relationship, but her new boyfriend makes Toby's task all the more challenging. Later, Toby encounters a stranger.

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→ Credits ←
Lucy/Judy - Jenna Ortega
Dad - Brandon Barrera
Mom - Ellen Canton
Mr. Binderman - Johnny Kramer
Exec 1 - Michael Osborne
Exec 2 - Mike Danner

Producer/Director - Ethan Cushing
Producer - Christin Mizelle
Writer - Adam Scherer
Cinematographer - Yash Bhatt
Producer Designer - Daniel Lavitt
Hair and Makeup - Robyn Rebbe
Gaffer/Key Grip - Jake Smith
Grip - Tristan Noelle
Sound Mixer/Boom Op - Clayton Root
Editor - Dave Lacey
Visual Effects - Clayton Root

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Homecoming

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Episode 5 - L.A. Nites

L.A. Nites

The Plot Thickens

In storytelling you've got your setup (in our case episodes 1, 2, & 3) followed by your counter action (Detective K's investigation in episode 4) which effects the characters from your setup in the twist.

Elementary, my dear webbie.

We tried to make sure that every choice we made a bigger repercussions in the next episode which is why Emmett is hanging out with the boys from the costume shop. This actually is my girlfriend's apartment for convenience but she also has a nice set up so featured set! w2g!

Mi casa/su casa but don't steal my shit, okay?

It's funny to write, produce and act in something since there are so many hats to wear. I helped write the scenes and dialogue that I was in but I had to also memorize and say the lines that we co-wrote. The same with Erik and I'm sure Lawrence from his aspect on the filming. We all made part of it, none of us made all of it so even though I had help write it and set up the shots and do the costumes, dress the location, etc, I still had to make time to study lines to play this character.

Everyone's process for character creation is a little bit different

It was always Lawrence's idea that Emmett was homeless to some degree. Like maybe he had a home but he didn't want to go to it and was possibly adrift in the streets. Which is why we thought it would be funny to have him welcome everyone into his place only to be kicked out again by the actual occupant.  Enter Jewel.

I thought you lost your key?

As mentioned previously we all met Carolyn Vasko, who plays Jewel when we shot episode 3 at Tim's place. When I met her I knew that we should have her in the series and especially that I wanted to see her freak out. Carolyn is ferocious. Don't let her.... never mind it's pretty clear she's ferocious. It was fantastic working with her and later in episode 9.

Actress Carolyn Vasko

We did get lucky in a number of ways every time we filmed outside. Yeah, it was an open set and yeah, we had to deal with the environment but the backdrop of L.A. is pretty fantastic to work against. A prime example is the following series of shots. Watch the lights flashing across the phone and then the cops roll by. Beautiful. 

In case you forgot that we live in a police state

We got to callback the joke of excessive driving in Los Angeles in the following sequence but, again, the city itself, especially at night is gorgeous. The title, L.A. Nites was chosen by Lawrence for that reason and the story was developed in order to get such shots as these and the opening shot of episode 7:

Picking up trash in the streets

The main purpose of this episode was to make sure that Emmett and Aaren could have an impact on each other while the detective comes after either one or both of them. However, there was one small complication that we introduced in episode 6.