shipwreckedcomedy: Kissing in the Rain is a new series from…
Kissing in the Rain is a new series from shipwreckedcomedy in which two sets of actors keep finding themselves kissing in the rain, all while grappling with their off-camera feelings between takes.
Kissing in the Rain – Ep. 1: Lily & James
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Mary Kate Wiles as Lily
Sean Persaud as JamesCreated by Yulin Kuang
Watch our previous historical comedy series, A Tell Tale Vlog
Disorganized thoughts about episode 1 below the cut.
This may be my new favorite thing in the Yuliniverse of student work/Shipwrecked/IDWT. I know it’s very short, we’re very early on in terms of the outcome of the fancanon experiment and all that, and it’s not a contest. But it’s pretty wonderful all by itself, and I just really really (really) like it.
The rain! Oh my god. That is some badass rain. Given that Yulin said it’s basically $200 of PVC and sprinklers, a huge high-five for everyone connected with making that happen. At a guess, that’s some subset (or superset) of:
- Yulin
- Director of Photography Zack Wallnau
- Production Designer Jennifer Hwang
- Set Costumer Sarah Grace Hart
- Sound Designer Justin Lee Dixon
- some helpful someone in the Garden Dept. at Home Depot
The play within a play. How perfect is the first half of this? Answer: All the perfect. I’m a big fan of romantic comedies with heart-melting climaxes à la Richard Curtis, and this gives me one — in 67 seconds. And not just a parody of one. One that works. I’m right there with the swelling music, the perfect writing and acting, the kiss. Ugh. I have to go watch it again.
The blocking. Heh. Yulin’s drabble had Nancy the casting director mention about how “the director wants to do this weird thing with you two running up some steps or something.” Yeah! That was awesome. Way to make one shot from a single camera look like a million bucks. More weird things from the director, please.
Mary Kate’s “insufferable”. I don’t know anything about acting, other than as a consumer. But as a consumer, I really appreciated how Mary Kate delivered that line. Because to me, even as she was saying it, that felt like a really hard line to pull off. And she totally pulled it off.
Sean’s “I love you, I love you, I love you…” Same thing I just said about Mary Kate. Please tell me the line was intentionally referencing Gene Kelly’s Don Lockwood in Singin’ in the Rain. Again, that’s got to be a really hard line to deliver without making the audience laugh at (not with) you, as Lockwood found out. But Sean made it work.
The kiss. There probably have been more than 100,000 on-screen kisses in the history of motion pictures. I’m sure I’ve seen several thousand of them myself. This was a really good kiss.
“Cut.” Aahhh! So perfect! I’m 67 seconds into the video and completely invested and swooning along with the romance and bam! The first half of the video takes my breath away with how fast it gets up and rolling, and then it slams into a brick wall to launch the comedy of the second half.
The Allen’s hummingbird. It’s just coincidence that one of my favorite birds, one I’ve blogged about more than once recently, is clearly audible right after Lily rejects James’s offer, right? I mean, I know you guys are into fan service, but that has to just be serendipity. I’m curious if it was sound from the location, and there actually are Allen’s hummingbirds patrolling a patch of flowers next to where you filmed that, or if it was something that got added in post-production. I think you can hear red-winged blackbirds singing in there, too, which is certainly possible for a southern California backyard, especially if there’s some fresh water nearby, but that maybe seems a little more like the kind of thing that might have arrived via post-production.
Mary Kate’s mouth pop on “yup”. Makes me laugh every time I watch it. And I’ve watched it a lot.
Sean’s “I hate food”. Perfect line, perfect delivery.
I could go on. But my battery’s almost dead and I forgot to bring a charger to the coffeehouse.
Final thought: “Tumblr’s going to lose their shit” said Yulin. Consider my shit officially lost.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1ibnQlG.
