Ever wanted to find out what it takes to write, cast, shoot, edit, and distribute a web series?
Well so did we, so we've decided to do it. Follow along with us as we create the pilot episode
for Jenn2.0, a show about a young social media consultant attempting to build her brand and
define herself in the ultimate connectivity of the Web 2.0 world.
Networking? Check. Drinking? Check. Hard work? Check. Zealous passion? Check. Trying something new and going against the grain? Check. The Streamys this past weekend symbolized all of this and also mirrored in one night, what Rob & I have been pursuing over the past 9 months or so. Awards? No. But, the execution of a legitimate business plan around the creative platform that is “Jenn2.0″. Read More
As I mentioned in a previous post, here’s the KoldCast.TV interview with Darren & I. We really wanted to get a bunch of the cast and crew on stage, but at the time they we only allowing 2 people on Dave Navarro’s couch. That’s right, we’re on the set of Dave’s show SpreadTV. Let us know what you think and leave a comment on KoldCast.TV.
We know you want to see what we’ve got and we’re working hard on it. It almost seems like now is the toughest part. But, really it’s all fun. Here’s my thoughts…
Recently Jennifer Van Grove and I were approached by Tubefilter News about our new series. As you know by now we are shooting a pilot and have not yet released an episode. But Darren Elwood, writer & co-creator, and I have always felt that we have a great concept and a unique approach. So it’s nice when an established and reputable news source such as Tubefilter.tv considers you news-worthy.
“For those who vlog, blog, tumble, and tweet, Jenn2.0 is the show for you. For those who don’t, this web series might help you get a clue.” - Tubefilter News
Jenn2.0 is a show about how to live with the wonderful and sometimes unpredictably invasive new social technologies being made available. It’s a constant undertone of the show that makes a surprising impact on the plot line. Read the complete Tubefilter interview here at news.tubefilter.tv.
Well I might as well follow up with another post for today’s shoot. We started again at 5:00am (originally scheduled for 9am…) and made our way downtown and for the first few hours followed Alexis around the city. Got some good shots as the sun peaked over the tops of buildings. Our Producer Josh tried being sneaky and taped some homeless people while “reviewing clips.” I think the homeless people caught on.
We continued with our day by shooting one of our most important scenes, the Office Elevator between 9-12. The crazy thing about the elevator is that we couldn’t find one to save our lives when we went location scouting and even teased the notion of making one from scratch. Alas, the downtown SD club/bar Stingaree was gracious enough to let us use their elevator for three hours while they thoroughly cleaned the aftermath of a typical Saturday night. It was a tough morning and only got harder after lunch.
We had the lounge, Minus 1, secured for four hours to shoot some of our “Tweetup” scenes. It took us three just to set up. We needed movement from our Steadicam, action from only a handful of extras, and lighting in a room with low ceilings. It was hectic and we fell behind a bit, but we got the shots we needed the most and are saving the rest for Tuesday. Things got so tight with extras alone that we had to recycle a couple and we have some cameos from our trusty production crew. When the pilot airs, keep a lookout for Darren, our writer, Rob, the Exec. Producer and his wife Stephanie, and the inspiration behind the show, Jennifer Van Grove herself. Our makeup artist Acasia was behind the bar handing out drinks (of the non-alcoholic variety) and I even made my way into a shot.
All in all I’m proud of what we accomplished today, although everybody was expecting more. We got some really good stuff and we’re all excited to take a day off from shooting. Tuesday we’re all coming back together to finish off all of our remaining scenes and then we’re off to the cutting room (by room I mean a computer with editing software.) Stick around for more updates from all of us here working on this project!
We’ve made some good progress towards our shoot in about a week. I am, therefore, only stressed out instead of the previous freaking out. He’s the video update:
Auditions went very well. We had callbacks and really confirmed some of our initial thoughts. It’s always good to hear your words read by others and I was pleasantly surprised by the actors that read. During lunch for the 1st auditions on Oct 4, we had a great, collaborative effort on the script, the characters, etc. Surprisingly, there was a long (really, really long) conversation about the stage of relationship between Ian and Jenn. Are they at 3 months? 6 months? Have they slept together? What does this all mean to the pilot and, thus, the series?
The first video of our casting process is finally up. Note to you videophobes: unfortunately, not being a part of the NAS crew I am more likely to make dumb mistakes. Like posting the interleaved MPEG2 version of this video instead of the progressive version. I’ll do my best to get this swapped out as soon as I can. - Rob
After the initial idea was fleshed out and I had a chance to learn more about the real-life Jenn, Rob and I collaborated on a treatment. Within that, we discussed the main characters and the core of the show, in addition to an outline of the pilot. I wrote the first draft rather quickly and completed it on Sep 2. It came in at 6 pages and served as the basis for our first group meeting on Sep 4 with the NAS team. Ian was in this draft, but Larissa was not. In short time, Josh came back with some comments. For the next draft, some were included, others weren’t, but Rob and I could tell they got it and had a connection to the project (which was also exhibited in our first meeting). The draft that was completed on Sep 20 ran 7.5 pages and served as the 1st audition draft. Larissa was now included. We wanted to introduce that conflict since we had discussed it further and thought it not only had potential for humor as a character who wants the spotlight, but also continuous conflict for Jenn who is trying to build her brand. And, that’s the idea for any pilot: introduce your characters, your conflicts… and get out.
The original concept for Jenn2.0 involves following around Jenn Van Grove, a very talented real life person. We would be capturing both the real situations that she deals with and also the intriguing and edgy community of friends around her. We wrote a treatment and included a sample episode of fictional situations that we thought would be similar to what we might capture. Then came the hard part.
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The original concept for Jenn2.0 involves following around Jenn Van Grove, a very talented real life person. We would be capturing both the real situations that she deals with and also the intriguing and edgy community of friends around her. We wrote a treatment and included a sample episode of fictional situations that we thought would be similar to what we might capture. Then came the hard part.
