Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Join the Masses!



We've just heard from our buddies at Koldcast television and they've told us that our webseries, In the Can Productions has been getting a lot of viewership as of late. So, we're asking you to join in the fun and check out the show at www.koldcast.tv/index.php/show/in_the_can

Who wouldn't like a show about an inept production company? Not you; so check it out!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Season 2 of In the Can

Last week we held our first read-thru of the next 13 episodes of In the Can. We’re going to be shooting the next batch on the weekend of April 19th and 20th. The cast was hilarious as usual and included: Christopher Borg as Borg – the head of In the Can Productions, Marina Kotovnikov as Phillipa Phillipa – the budding screenwriter who’s screenplay was purchased as In the Can’s first feature, Ellen Reilly as Millie – the tempermental, production designer/performance artist, Julie Tortorici as Bernice – the office manager and wannabe love of Borg, Jessica Arinella as Sally – the director of acquisitions and soon-to-be-discovered actress, Matt Rashid as Jonathon – the star wars obsessed intern who has ties to Steven Speilberg and finally, Desmond Dutcher as DeeDuu – the party planner extraordinaire who was recently brought in to help throw a fundraising bash for the film.
Rounding out the cast are the newcomers to the series: the voice of Mr. A (played by Matt Rashid) and the loan shark, Redman (played by Mark Doherty).
The next 13 episodes of the series will follow the group as they (mostly) try to continue on their path of getting “Love Is A Collard Green” made.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

In the Can - Creating a Character



I don’t remember who came up with the idea, but it was a dream role. Do I speak of Lear? Of Hamlet? A lead in a Martin Scorsese film?No, my friends, I speak of the role of Jonathon – intern at In the Can Productions and the ultimate Star Wars geek.Every now and then, a role comes along which feels less like acting and more like playing. This was one of them.When “In the Can” was first discussed, I thought “this is never going to happen, it’s going to be too much fun.” Well, while time rolled on, Julie and I continued to discuss Jonathon and who he would be. Was he a general all around sci-fi fantasy geek, or did he have specific tastes? Originally, we considered Jonathon to be rabid about not only Star Wars, but Star Trek, The Lord of The Rings, X-Files and all things traditionally “geek” (Being a geek myself, I was a storehouse of knowledge and, yes, props). Eventually, we decided that it would be easier to follow the action if Jonathon was just rabid over one thing and one thing only – Star Wars. It seemed to lend itself to the comedy of “In the Can” as it was developing more than any other theme did. So Star Wars it was.The next question was when, where, and how would he be a Star Wars fan? At first, Jonathon was all over the place. He was pulling Star Wars references and quotes every other line. It became too confusing and gratuitous. We then trimmed him down so that he would be one character during each episode and only refer to Star Wars from the point of view of that character. So if he was a Jedi, he would probably not quote Han or speak like a Wookie. If he was Han, he would not have Jedi zen. Of course, he is an intern at an up and coming Film Company, so he couldn’t only be the character all the time. Even his connection to Spielberg wouldn’t keep him there, so he had to be a real person behind all the costumes. We went for Jonathon as someone with a bit of an arrested development. The only thing certain about Jonathon is that he is special, but in which direction? He could have a single digit IQ or be the world’s hidden genius. We might never know.In any case, to play in costumes that I dreamt of as a child felt more like play than work. I realized that all my childhood heroes from TV and Film were actors who had to commit to roles that probably felt very silly and childish to them. I doubt Harrison Ford thought his costume was cool. He probably thought of himself as a serious actor in a ridiculous outfit – but he committed and made it work. Walking around in his same getup and acting quite foolish pushed me to the same type of commitment.I hope I made it work.

In the Can Productions - the series and how it began

The On the Leesh office was transformed this past weekend to become the offices of In the Can Productions. Production Designer Diana Whitten said that "It practically designed itself because the writing and actors were so strong.


Everything had such a clearly defined motivation, but it was fun to think of extra details. I felt very free to play within the perameters that Julie created. Early on, I decided that the characters would communicate through post-it notes, so the set becomes more cluttered with post-its as the episodes continue. There are a lot of internal jokes that might be hard to catch on the small screen, but every detail has been planned. There is nothing on set that wasn't carefully chosen. Basically I rode the momentum and had a great time playing around with the color, style and details."