Work and Play Production Report

This past weekend, Sunday November 12th to be exact, I once again stepped into the world of live-action filmmaking with the shooting of Work and Play, the first of six episodes of my new sit-com. And it went well, with only one hiccup when someone forgot to turn on the microphone for a couple of shots.

You may remember me mentioning Work and Play previously (like, about a year ago). Back then, I had written a 30-minute pilot. Taking the same characters and setting, I wrote six new 10-minute episodes during these past few months. With Sunday's filming, there's one down; five to go.

Work and Play is set in a video games company. Managing Director Will (Ian Malcolm, Sup Homes?) wants to make Beepford Games the best studio in the world and hopes his employees are up to the task. There's Lead Artist Sanders (Paul Callaghan, Retrenchment Game) and his assistant Dave (Heath Smith), the cube specialist. Programmer and only woman in the company Catherine (Kate Inabinet, Bookstore). The somewhat reliable I.T. guy Michael (Thuyen Nguyen) and the totally unreliable sound guy Travis (Garth Midgley, Retrenchment Game), who also happens to be Will's nephew. With a game to make, a publisher to please, an awkward love triangle and talking plush toys(?!), will Beepford Games be up to the task?

Having already finished a rough cut of the show, I am very excited about it and am further encouraged and anxious to shoot the remaining five episodes of what I like to call Work and Play's "pilot season".