Age and Acting

Hans Rosemond (aka Lloyd on STBD) turned 30 this weekend, which -- as is expected around "major birthdays" -- led to a bit of soul-searching on his part. Having recently turned 30 myself, I know the drill:

1) Realize Orson Welles directed Citizen Kane when he was 25.

2) Realize you haven't, and you're 30.

3) Drink a lot.

Old Is the New Young

Traditionally, actors tend to be a few years older than the characters they portray. The conventional wisdom here is, "You have to have lived THROUGH something in order to convince OTHERS that you're 'living through' it." (This would explain the careers of many Hollywood actors, who portray teenagers well through their first real-life divorces and / or plastic surgery mishaps.)

On Something to Be Desired, our cast also plays characters whose age differs from their own -- but not always in reverse. In fact, Ann Turiano (Caroline), Shaun Cameron Hall (Dean) and Will Guffey (Leo), among others, are all a year or two younger than the characters they portray.

However, the ambivalent passage of time on STBD means that the characters' ages are always a bit vague (i.e., Caroline may have graduated college in 2003, but that doesn't mean she's 26 now). Meanwhile, the actors still keeping aging like clockwork. This means that Ann Turiano is now likely older than Caroline, despite having been younger than Caroline when she began playing her.

And you thought The Simpsons had questionable chronology...

Don't Confuse Age With Experience

Just because an actor is a certain age, it doesn't mean he or she is naturally able to inhabit "younger" characters. Likewise, just because an actor is younger than a character on paper, it doesn't mean he / she can't play older.

The dividing line isn't age; it's experience.

On STBD, I was confident that Ann Turiano could play an older role, so Caroline was created with Ann's "mature" side in mind. Meanwhile, Dean and Leo have never been paragons of responsibility and common sense, so casting actors a year or two younger than the characters themselves seemed appropriate.

(Full disclosure: The characters of Dean and Leo were written as being 22-24 years old well before we actually considered casting. When I realized that the actors I could collaborate with were primarily college students, I resisted the idea of "younging up" the characters to match the actors' ages. Instead, I trusted that their skill would carry us through to believability.

I think we've done well thus far.)

And, if you need further proof that age is nothing but a number, think back again to Citizen Kane: Orson Welles may have been only 25 when he directed it, but he portrayed the title character throughout 60 years of the man's life. Now that's convincing acting. (And great makeup.)

Jack Boyd Cameo?

The good news: on my way home from business in Connecticut, I'm staying overnight at the home of Dan Stripp (aka Jack Boyd on early seasons of Something to Be Desired).

The bad news (for STBD fans): There will be no Jack Boyd holiday cameo filmed here. Sorry.

Unless you're REALLY good.

But even then, probably not.

Maybe.

Ken Levine and POV

I stumbled across a blog by Ken Levine, a veteran TV writer (MASH, Cheers, etc.). In his most recent post, he discusses the making of his favorite MASH episode, "POV."

The story was told entirely from the first-person POV of a wounded soldier, who encounters all the show's regulars as they work to heal him. In the preceding post, Levine includes an excerpt from that episode's script, as well as a YouTube clip of the first act of the episode -- in which we see nearly every recurring character on MASH from the wounded soldier's POV.

It's a very interesting narrative device, because it allows us, via the soldier, to view the characters from a detached 3rd person POV until they interact with "us" directly. At that point, the story (and the characters) change from fictional people we're watching from a safe distance to individuals who are talking TO US, directly -- and often in a tone that reveals more about them than we ever see from the traditional, 3rd person POV.

Seeds of videoblogging, anyone?

(FYI, the most interesting tidbit I noticed was that this episode was filmed in three days. Wow. And we think filming a 5 minute episode of STBD is complicated...)

Yahoo Loves STBD!

Erik Schark (aka Rich on STBD) and Rick Hertzig (aka Glenn) each noticed this bit of news today: Something to Be Desired is featured on Yahoo video's homepage, in both the "Channels" AND "Featured Videos" section -- which we think is very cool.

Interestingly, it just so happens that the main video being featured today on Yahoo is iJustine's new "MAC Workout" video. That means STBD and iJustine -- two Pittsburgh productions -- are getting Yahoo's love at the same time.

Who says you need to live on the coasts to be noticed?

STBD 5-10: Revealed!

The "Light-Up Night" episode was a great opportunity for us to showcase Downtown Pittsburgh in all its festive holiday glory... and to wrap up a loose end or two.

The Making of "Light-Up Night" involved:

- 7 scripted pages

- 5 improvised scenes

- 60 minutes of raw footage

- 2 shoots over 24 hours

- 2 voiceovers

- 12+ hours of editing

Fun Facts, Scene by Scene:

* Caroline (aka Ann Turiano) is wearing a pierogi t-shirt, courtesy of a soon-to-be-launched Pittsburgh apparel company who shall remain nameless for the next week or two... (Ask Mike Woycheck for details.)

* All of the dialogue between Tim (Ryan Ben) and Leo (Will Guffey) was improvised from a basic outline, as was the idea for them to play a carnival game. Tim accidentally winning a one-armed bear? That was serendipity; the woman working the carnival booth asked Ryan to choose something from a shady box they kept under the counter, and he accidentally took a damaged prize.

* Improvised as well was the scene between Caroline and Todd (Matt Pavlosky) on Mount Washington. Matt happened to be drinking there with friends and we plucked him from the bar (Redbeard's) for an impromptu scene, hours after Light-Up night had concluded.

* If it looks like Leo is burning his S'mores beyond repair, that's because he was... More surprisingly, Ryan Ben (Tim) had never had a S'mores before, and wasn't sure how to make them. (Hopefully he didn't study Leo too closely...)

* To save on downtown parking hassles, Ryan Ben (Tim), Will Guffey (Leo) and Ann Turiano (Caroline) all carpooled down in director Justin Kownacki's car. While Ann and Rick Hertzig (Rick) were filming the final downtown scene of the night, Will was in charge of getting Justin's car out of the parking garage and navigating the traffic / pedestrian / construction hell of Downtown Pittsburgh during Light-Up Night. (Remarkably, he found streetside parking one block from the "big freaking tree," on 6th and Penn.)

* Although Dierdre's arrival under the "big freaking tree" is the last scene of the episode, it was the first scene we filmed. That's because Lacey Fleming, who plays Dierdre, had to race home to Ohio to prepare for a family wedding the next day. That scene was actually filmed 90 minutes before the Glenn / Caroline scene that immediately precedes it.

* All music included in this episode actually comes from Ed Roberts's incredibly useful Podsafe Christmas podcast, which returns with all new music immediately after this year's Thanksgiving! Thanks for the great finds, Ed!

* Several hours' worth of editing on this episode took place on an Amtrak train between Boston, MA, and Bridgeport, CT. Did you know Amtrak has power outlets for every seat on its trains? The STBD laptop (and its 1 hour battery) thank you, Amtrak...