STBD 5-4: Revealed!

This week's episode of STBD included some brand new locations, a cameo appearance and the return of a missing cast member. (Not bad for 8 and a half minutes!)

The Making of "Creative or Desperate?" involved:

- 2 mostly-scripted scenes

- 1 mostly-improvised scene

- 1.5 hours of raw footage

- 3 shoots in 3 days

- 10+ hours of editing

Fun Facts, Scene by Scene:

* When STBD first began in 2003, Lacey Fleming (aka Dierdre) smoked a lot more than she does now. In fact, she's nearly quit entirely several times, only to complicate things when Dierdre is asked to smoke on-camera...

* Brent's entry-level fraternity task of calling strange women and asking them for naked photos is directly inspired by a similar type of phone call someone in my own family received this summer. (In case you're wondering, that caller struck out too.)

* The 24 Hour Creative Marathon at Creative Treehouse took place overnight on Sept 28-29. We filmed the scene of Pryce and Caroline working through creator's block at 11 PM on Friday night, and then I edited the entire sequence together, minus the music track, by morning.

I had to leave for Connecticut at 12:30 PM on Saturday, so I transferred all assets from the Final Cut Pro project to my laptop (with its broken monitor) and finished the episode at 3 AM Monday morning.

All of that would explain the original typo in the episode's title, "Creative OF Desperate?," which was typed, bleary-eyed, at 4 AM...

STBD 5-2: Revealed!

This week's episode of STBD included some brand new locations, a cameo appearance and the return of a missing cast member. (Not bad for 8 and a half minutes!)

The Making of "Leo's Lucky Day" involved:

- 4 versions of a script

- 1.5 hours of raw footage

- 5 shoots in 4 days

- 18+ hours of editing

Fun Facts, Scene by Scene:

* STBD creator Justin Kownacki and actor Will Guffey (aka Leo Straub) were interviewed by Andy Quayle and Kaylynn for the Techburgh podcast last week. Immediately afterward, they returned the favor by appearing on STBD as Leo's number one fan and uninterested bus stop denizen, respectively.

* The bus stop that opens the episode is in Squirrel Hill, but the stop Leo is waiting at is in Bellevue...

* When Dierdre mentions she's still in school, Caroline's shock and surprise really mirrors that of the entire STBD creative team; we'd completely forgotten Dierdre was still in school all these years, until Lacey Fleming (Dierdre) mentioned it in a story meeting...

* The new Vanity Press meeting room and break room are located inside The Art Institute of Pittsburgh... because the original Vanity Press location has been long gone (to us, anyway).

* Gloria's pills? Actually Vitamin C tablets...

* Rich's admonition for Gloria to "Apologize!" to his manhood? Improvised.

* Todd living homeless behind Affogato? Invented, literally, the day of filming when Matt Pavlosky (Todd) mentioned he was available.