Showrunning

Today we shot the second webisode—W102—for a series I developed. I'm very happy to say that everything went extremely smoothly. We had a late start from miscellaneous technical issues and had to improvise by striking a few shots from the shot list, but once we rolled camera, the team snapped into one cohesive whole. We got some great shots, and as a bonus, we were all clearly enjoying ourselves. What a great crew!!

For me personally, the shoot was an odd (but pleasant) experience: I wasn't directing this episode, but I ended up doing two jobs at once—showrunner and script supervisor. At first, I thought I'd want to foist all the scripty work onto another capable soul so I could concentrate on my supervising duties as showrunner. (As a creator of a series, it falls on the showrunner to offer creative guidance if an episode falls outside the vision of the series) I had thought taking copious scripty notes would detract from my role as showrunner, but as a scripty—i.e., being at the Director's side to assess each shot for continuity gaffes—gave me the perfect excuse to also offer any showrunner feedback to the director (of which there was almost none, I might add!). Naturally, there were a few times I was taking notes when I'd have preferred just watching the monitor, but overall, it was a very good fit.

Day two for this shoot is coming up fast. Although the pilot I directed two weeks ago was dialog-heavy for exposition, this second webisode is far more intense, and better drama overall. Can't wait to get W103 and W104 in the can, too!