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.)

Two Episodes Left...

... until our next hiatus. (Time flies when you're creating a weekly web series.)

In the interim between 10-episode arcs, we'll still be posting a new video every Monday. But instead of actual episodes, these will be interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff, and the occasional ultra-brief (one minute or less) "microsodes."

In that spirit: what would YOU like to see during our "break"?

Which cast members would like to see interviewed?

What questions would you like answers to?

Which characters would you like deeper, one-minute glimpses into?

Leave suggestions in the comments or email jkownacki [at] somethingtobedesired [dawt] com.

The Incredible Shrinking / Expanding Cast!

When STBD began, we had 8 cast members.

4 years later, we have over 25.

On one hand, it's incredibly gratifying to know that so many talented actors want to be a part of the STBD experience. On the other, it's daunting to juggle so many cast members (and their schedules), because it makes focusing on a condensed (and achievable) story that much harder.

When we surveyed our fans back in February, we learned what we pretty much expected: Caroline, Dierdre and Leo -- our three longest-running characters -- resonate the most with the audience. Of the newer characters, Rich and Tim seemed to stick in the audience's minds the most. The rest are seen as "supporting characters" -- at least until they have more opportunities to shine.

Off-Season Switcheroo

When we return with new episodes of Season Five in September, several of last season's cast members won't be returning. Most have moved away from Pittsburgh, which is hard to argue against (since we're not paying them). Series-wise, their absence may actually be a blessing in disguise, because it dulls the fight for screen time and allows us to focus on the characters the audience is already responding to.

Meanwhile, we're adding at least one new recurring character and expanding the role of another significantly. Why? Because we appreciate the value of two elements on STBD:

A) The continual need for "fresh blood," and

B) The need to be able to tell certain types of stories.

So we looked around and said, "What character TYPES are we missing?" And then we evaluated the actors we've underused, or those who've been patiently waiting off-camera for a chance to act on the show, to see who might be able to fit our potential needs.

The (Too) Big Picture?

Under these circumstances, it's far too easy to have a cast balloon to unmanageable proportions. It's doubly dangerous because, unpaid, there's no guarantee that actors we've come to rely upon to tell our story will actually be there for the long haul. This makes telling a concise story with a reliable payoff quite dicey.

If you're evaluating potential actors, or merely wondering how many roles you CAN include in your story, stop and ask yourself a more pertinent question: How many roles do you NEED to tell your story?

In web video, as in all things, keeping it simple will save you acres of headaches later.

(And, as in all things, always be open to taking a chance. You never know what casting choice or character invention might pay off in unexpected ways.)

No Sex in the Champagne Room

Brent and Chloe have some 'splaining to do...
Here at STBD, we like to think we make it look easy.

The truth is, creating this series is consistently one of the most UNsexy -- and sometimes unintentionally hysterical -- processes in modern media.

To wit, these recent behind-the-scenes tidbits:

April Showers Bring Sub-Zero Wind Chill

The opening scene in this week's episode, featuring Caroline and Dierdre taking a leisurely walk around the Cathedral of Learning on the Pitt campus? Filmed in 7 extremely speedy takes because it was approximately 30 degrees out. Ann (Caroline) and Lacey (Dierdre) battled runny noses and numb limbs to nail the script before hypothermia set in.

Is That a Lamp Neck in Your Hand, Or... ?

The orgasm Alexxxis enjoys at the end of Episode 23, while Caroline and Dierdre view her webcam? Recorded while Lindsay (Alexxxis) was standing beside the camera, holding a flourescent light for the scene and moaning. (Three takes.)

Dex May Not Be Home, But...

While filming Episode 22's Chloe-Brent pseudo-sex scene at "Dex's place," production had to break for 45 minutes. While director Justin Kownacki was away from the location, the actual owners of the house -- who had no idea we were filming there -- came home. Meanwhile, Clare (Chloe) and Josh (Brent) were lounging upstairs in "wardrobe" (or lack thereof), and had to re-make the bed and bolt from the room while ensuring everything was in its proper place and no condoms were left behind.

Ironically, that scene was originally supposed to be interrupted when Dex returned home, but was changed at the last minute. Sometimes, life imitates art in real time...

Head Games

The entire episode in which Dierdre counsels Tim as he meets his "online penfriend"? Filmed while Lacey (Dierdre) was recovering from a splitting migraine that caused her to skip work. (This likely helped her react properly to most of Tim's dialogue...)

The Man Who Wasn't There

When Caroline is reading Glenn's notebook in Episode 24, only to be interrupted by Leo, she carries a conversation with him from the couch until he sits down. Except, in real life, Will (Leo) overslept and had to rush across town to complete the shoot on Ann (Caroline)'s lunch break... which meant Caroline started her conversation by interacting with no one.

Although, in retrospect, that's not unlike most conversations with Leo...

Cameo City

Natalie Nicolian reprises her role as Alison on this week's STBD.
On this week's episode of STBD, we had cameo appearances by Dean and Alison, neither of whom are regular cast members anymore but each of whom was available to pop in for a quick scene.

That's the beauty of having a cast that's forever growing larger: the world these characters live in keeps getting larger as well. Characters who haven't been part of the story for months or years can still bump up against the current focus of the series and, in some cases, still have an impact on the characters we still follow.

It's kind of like life.

Speaking of which, we have at least one more major cameo appearance on the horizon this season, as well as a whole new breed of cameo: the local Pittsburgh "celebrity" cameo -- or, more accurately, "weblebrity."

Ever since PodCamp Pittsburgh, we've been far more aware of the growing internet culture around here than we had been previously. With this many bloggers, podcasters and artists in town, it's only natural that some of them start making appearances on STBD. That trend kicks off in next Monday's episode, so keep your eyes open...

Oh, and if YOU happen to be a personality (Pittsburgh or otherwise) who'd like to make a cameo appearance on the show, drop us a line and let us know. We're always looking for people who have a sense of humor, especially about themselves...

Digging Deeper

After yesterday's "extended scene" post, in which we see more of Dex's Christmas DVD for Dierdre than I had time to include in the original episode, we got this comment on our MySpace blog:

"Oh my god… I’m beginning to wonder if much of what we’re supposed to know about Dierdre and Dex is lying on the cutting room floor. In this extended cut we get a much more elaborate profile of Dex and what Dierdre apparently doesn’t want to deal with. I understand better now and would not have begrudged the extra minute of content…"

And there's the rub: how much of the story NEEDS to be told in those 10 minutes every week, and how much can be left out without disrupting the flow?

There's a little something left out of almost every episode. Not on purpose; we frequently just shoot more than we end up using, especially when we ad-lib. All of those extra scenes would go a long way toward helping build character, but they rarely do much to advance the actual story.

We have several extra Dean and Caroline scenes, some unused Karl footage, some Tabitha and Liz anecdotes... We even have a scene between Jack and Dierdre from Season One that would have changed the way at least two, if not four, of the lead characters would come to be viewed... All of which has never been aired.

Where will all this footage end up, you ask? If there were a DVD in the works, it might find its way onto there. But we might also find a more immediate use for it as well... stay tuned...

In the meantime: who (or what) would YOU like to see more of?

Personality of a Group

Often, scenes in STBD need to be tinkered with.

Perhaps a location needs to be switched. Perhaps a useful prop changes the opportunities within a scene.

Most often, it's because an actor is added to or subtracted from the scene, changing its entire dynamic.

Coming and Going

Let's say you're out with a friend at a bar, having a conversation. While you're talking, you're greeted by someone else your friend knows very well, but whom you've never met. Suddenly, the entire conversation changes.

- You can no longer talk about anything personal because now you're in the company of a stranger.
- Your friend and the new acquaintance have numerous anecdotes to share, none of which involve you.
- Suddenly, YOU'RE the stranger in the room.

A similar thing happens when characters get added to or subtracted from scenes.

Sometimes a scheduled scene will be knocked off-kilter because one of the actors becomes unavailable. Alternately, an actor may become unexpectedly available and offer to join a scene. This often happens if we're filming back-to-back scenes in a location and an actor who was only needed for the 1st scene decides he or she has time to be involved in the 2nd scene as well -- if it would be useful.

Then, on the fly, we need to decide if there's room in the scene for another voice.

But it's more than just a reallocation of dialogue, or even the invention of new lines; the presence (or absence) of a character in that scene now affects the rhythm of the scene, as well as the actions and intentions of the other characters.

Bite Your Tongue

For example: let's say Caroline and Dierdre are discussing something personal at Affogato. If we decide to add Rich to the scene, that directly affects Caroline (who's forced to become more "professional" and guarded because her boss is there) and Dierdre (who doesn't know Rich personally and therefore would be reluctant to talk openly).

Conversely, if a scene calls for Leo, Dex and Chloe to be locked out of a car in a parking garage, and then we discover Dex can't be part of the scene after all, this changes the scene's dynamic -- and what it's actually about. Instead of three headstrong, impetuous personalities trying to one-up each other, each with their own motivations, we're now left with an awkward moment between Leo and Chloe. In this situation, Leo would almost certainly be trying to impress Chloe in the first place, until he realizes he's locked out, at which point his ability to impress her becomes nil and she visibly gains the upper hand.

Just like that, the comedy of the scene -- and its weight within the script -- changes.

A change like that might not just affect one scene, but its placement within the script -- or its relocation to a completely different episode.

Just like a recipe, the addition and subtraction of ingredients in a story can drastically affect the end result.

Plot vs. Non-Plot

[This blog post turned out to be exceedingly long. Get some coffee.]

Our first season of STBD is a misnomer. It's only five episodes, which amounts to an hour's worth of video.

In actuality, Season One is really one short film script, subdivided into sections by necessity.

Conversely, seasons two, three and four were written on the fly. Real-life variables, including cast availability, forced us to switch things up on the move. This resulted in a fluid yet dramatically awkward approach to storytelling. The actors didn't know how the story was going to end because NONE of us knew if we'd be able to film what we needed to film, or when.

That approach has proven to be unsatisfying all around, so we've tabled it for now, in favor of working within a more tightly-plotted script. We'll still allow for situational improvisation, but we're aiming to tell a more cohesive, coherent story.

In essence, we're returning to the Subdivided Film Script theory.

From One Three Act Structure, Many

Instead of thinking in terms of "seasons," I'm thinking in terms of story arcs. Every character has his or her own trajectory, and some reach new milestones in their personal adventures faster than others. As these stories intertwine, and similarities begin to develop, the bonds of a unified series of plot points eventually coalesces into One Story.

This One Story may take three episodes or ten episodes to tell; it may even take 40. But what it actually IS, when you break it down, is one large script, subdivided by necessity into smaller, bite-sized pieces, which we'll call "episodes."

Sound analytical? It is, in a way, although it's been proven to work for thousands of years. It's the same general three-act structure used since the days of Plato, and which has driven countless works of dramatic and comedic art throughout the centuries.

It also worked pretty well in Season One, so we speak from experience.

In Defense of Plotlessness

Personally, as a writer, I'm perpetually torn between wanting to tell a story that jumps off the page and wanting to tell NO STORY AT ALL, and allowing the minutae of interactions between the characters to draw us incrementally into their world. It's the difference between Casablanca and Seinfeld, although each can incorporate elements of the other.

In a plot, something happens. Characters are affected. A statement is made.

In a non-plot, nothing happens. Characters may or may not be affected. A statement may or may not be made.

Plots are artificial simplifications of life, yet are traditionally emotionally satisfying because they can be processed.

Non-plots are stylized commentaries upon life. They are traditionally unsatisfying emotionally because they are incomplete, yet that is exactly why they hold such appeal to the audiences who appreciate them: they feel more like real life.

The STBD Challenge

Something to Be Desired was always meant to be a commentary upon real life. By that declaration, it's designed to be a non-plot.

And yet, our most successful story arc thus far was our first season, which follows Jack through a series of miniature encounters until he comes to the series' titular conclusion: "Sometimes, real life leaves a little..."

Subsequent seasons have failed to generate the same dramatic buzz, with few exceptions: The Dean and Caroline romance (which has a beginning, middle and end), the mystery of the box Dex gives Dierdre for Christmas (which has a beginning, middle and end)...

See the trend? Our audience -- most audiences -- respond most strongly to plot-driven sections of the story because those include events and realizations that people can react to and form opinions about. This is why, unless a story is defiantly anti-plot (think Russian Ark or most Godard films), even the most plotless of ventures still hangs upon a "hook" or "conceit" of some kind. Even Seinfeld: in every episode, some small interconnection of minor observations or actions compounds to create a final realization, either in a character or in the audience.

The Downside of Plot

Interestingly, "plot" can also be seen as the playground of a) a primitive audience, which needs the security of a beginning / middle / end, as the first audiences of stories presumably did, or b) an American audience. Foreign film fans will notice far less adherence to the rigors of plot in some of the most successful non-American films of all time, which begs the question: are American audiences, and therefore American storytellers, primitive in comparison to audiences of the world?

By and large, the public wants a story it can digest, learn from, agree or disagree with, but primarily it wants a story that exists within processable boundaries. It wants a story where SOMETHING HAPPENS.

That doesn't mean STBD can't wander. It doesn't mean we can't go completely off the beaten path, under the brush, across a river and into the abandoned farmhouse of plotlessness from time to time. Look around: ALL SHOWS DO IT. There's not one successful film or TV show that doesn't include the occasional "character moment," or whatever shorthand you prefer for a scene or sequence that has nothing to do with the plot.

Why not?

Because the public ALSO demands that its stories be about something that happens TO CHARACTERS IT CARES ABOUT. And if all the characters in the story are doing is relating plot-driven information and racing from one location to the next, forever subservient to the dramatic demands of the story, they cease to feel like "people" we can empathize with. They lose their free will, their individuality, their ability for us to relate to them.

IF AN AUDIENCE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS, IT WON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM.

(This is the primary flaw you'll hear about Isaac Asimov and other "hard" science fiction writers: they're so wrapped up in WHAT'S HAPPENING, they forget to create characters the audience cares about, hoping instead that their abstract concepts -- "this could happen to mankind" -- will be enough to satisfy the dramatic needs of their stories. For the average audience member, trained to empathize with her heroes, it's not.)

Plot and STBD

So, you may be asking yourself, how does a series that has largely avoided traditional plot-driven stories intend to change its stripes without alienating its audience?

For one thing, we don't believe our audience is anti-plot. If anything, we feel they appreciate stories that result from -- and help define -- the actions of the characters themselves. As much as they may love Dierdre or Caroline or Leo, characterization doesn't happen in a vacuum; it's built by the characters' actions and reactions to one another.

As artists, we also enjoy knowing that audiences are generating opinions and reactions to our work. If we don't provide them with statements and actions to digest, they don't need to develop opinions about them. Feedback is a two-way street, and we can't expect large, vibrant discussions to be generated by plotless stories.

The cool thing, though, is HOW we intend to incorporate character and plot in the upcoming storylines... and what we feel is a pretty innovative way to include the audience in the process as well.

We'll talk more about that as we near our relaunch on March 26. For now, it's back to the plotting board...

Valentine's Thaw

You may not have noticed, but there's a wicked snowstorm eating most of the eastern half of the United States alive these past couple days. It's mostly passed here in Pittsburgh, even though the forecast includes snow every day this week. But the sun's out, which makes it much easier to celebrate Valentine's Day after chipping your car out of ice for over an hour. (Special thanks to our neighbors for getting us out of our predicament this afternoon.)

On a day of love, joy and candy, it's worth mentioning the obvious flaw in this season of STBD: there's very little love, joy or candy. As many folks both within the cast and beyond have mentioned, far too many of the existing characters are filled with sarcasm and sharp edges. Tim stands out primarily because he's the exact opposite -- innocent and supportive, almost to a fault.

So, on this Valentine's Day during our hiatus, we'll be giving special thought to this puzzling predicament: how do we chip away at the ice around the hearts of the STBD characters?