Neues von „The Scene“

05. April 2005

Vor knapp drei Wochen berichtete ich über „The Scene“. Jene Internet-Soap, die sich rund um den illegalen (fiktiven) Filmvertrieb im Internet dreht.

Heute hat sich der Produzent in einer Newsletter-E-Mail an alle Fans mit Wunsch nach mehr Hintergrundwissen gewandt.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the great feedback on episode 6. It was our most popular
episode so far, and we‘re hoping to top it with Episode 7, which will be
released on April 15th.

We received a lot of questions this week about how we create The Scene,
so I thought I‘d take a few minutes to walk you through the process.
Each episode starts with a 10 to 15-page script, which I write over the
course of about a week. The show’s producers have a lot of input and
suggestions, and when we‘re all comfortable with it, we start the ball
rolling on production. (The overall storyline, by the way, is only
blocked out to a certain degree. I have a general idea about where I
want to go with it, but I think it’s much more fun to start each episode
off with a clean slate and see where the characters and the situations
take me).

In any case, while I‘m working on the script, my partner Bruce is
listening to music. He and I have hand-selected all of the artists that
have appeared in the show so far – with the exception of the mysterious
Maylynne (from Episode 1), who is a friend of our producer, Rebecca’s.
We find most of our artists on Download.com, which is a great resource
because it allows you to browse by genre. Lately, however, artists have
been sending us their music, which is how we found „Sunburn“ for Episode 6.

The desktop portion of the show (where the chats, IM’s, etc. take place)
is the first thing we film, and we do it live. Our producer, Corey is
the man behind the mouse, so to speak. He records everything on his
desktop using a software package called Camtasia. Not only does Corey do
all the typing for the main character – he actually has to slow down
from his normal blinding speed because otherwise his keyboard sounds
like a dozen mice scrambling across a rooftop – but he also records the
keyboard noises and keeps track of the script as it goes along. Our
other producers, Rebecca, Jeff, Bruce, and Mitch alternately take turns
„playing“ the various characters in IRC, AIM, etc. Essentially, several
of us sit down in front of our computers, scripts in hand, and play out
the story on Corey’s desktop. I direct the action (with Bruce’s help)
via a conference call, and 15 or 16 painless takes later we‘re finished!
Note: LOTS of people ask us why we don’t have Brian or one of the other
characters using Linux. Answer: because Camtasia only runs on Win!

A few days after the chat is completed, we record the actor. He or she
sits in front of a monitor and watches the chat we‘ve just recorded.

Once the actor has been filmed, our intrepid editor, Devo takes over and
puts the completed episode together. The whole process takes about three
weeks, and we‘re hoping to winnow it down to two weeks over the coming
months.

So, that’s it for now. Episode 7 will give us some more insight into
Teflon’s situation, and we‘ll learn about how the other members of CPX
are going to deal with it. We‘ll also learn some more about the blonde
woman from Episode 4! I‘ll ping you just before launch as usual.

Cheers,

Mitchell