aeternamente: shipwreckedcomedy: yulinkuang: On the…
On the production of Episode 2 of Kissing in the Rain
Anne of Green Gables was one of the very first books/fictional characters I fell in love with – I read it all in a day and then found the Canadian miniseries at my library and fell even more in love with Prince Edward Island and all of Avonlea. It’s one of those books where rereading it feels like catching up with an old friend – it’s been in my life longer than a lot of people-shaped friends.
I had originally written something very different for episode 2, then during our wardrobe fitting Mary Kate mentioned that she had played Anne in a stage musical a few years ago. A couple days later, my tumblr dash was suddenly overflowing with Anne Shirley appreciation (I think projectaogg had just been announced). Since this series is my way of getting to direct scenes from my dream directing projects, I decided to scrap my originally-planned episode (also set in the 1900s) and rewrite it as an Anne of Green Gables-inspired scene. I texted my idea to MK, she loved it as well, and I suddenly had my dreamcast Anne Shirley on board. Writing for Mary Kate as Anne was probably the easiest writing assignment I’ve ever given myself. Meanwhile, Sean had the unenviable task of bringing to life Gilbert Blythe, probably my longest literary crush since ever. Based on YouTube/Tumblr comments, I’d say he more than pulled it off.
Also can I just point out that this episode has Lily and James playing Anne and Gilbert? It’s like a Russian doll of my favorite literary pairings, I was maybe internally freaking out about it the whole time we were shooting.
Sequentially, this was the third episode we shot with Sean and Mary Kate and the first where we had the time/room in the script for some improv. Since there was some interest in the guided improv process I discussed in last week’s commentary post, I can elaborate here. Some of our projects are more improv-based than others (Sean’s scenes A Tell Tale Vlog and all of A Tell Tale Birthday, for instance), and I pretty much just give the actors a prompt (“it’s like a roommate break up” or “give him a cupcake and then just totally break his heart”) and let them play. After a few takes I give them directions on which parts to focus on, which parts to cut, and we continue. By the last take, we’ve usually figured out the scene beat by beat. I’ve found the vlog-style format lends itself especially well to guided improv, since the jump cuts allow me to pick and choose my favorite sections of each take without too much concern about continuity.
For Kissing in the Rain, we had a more abbreviated version of this guided improv process, since the episodes by necessity are more scripted. I mostly just let the camera roll longer after each scene ended to see where else Sean and Mary Kate would take it. They didn’t disappoint.
Here’s the script post-title smash as I wrote it:
Watch the scene from 1:38 on for script to screen match-up.
I’ve also been getting a lot of questions about the books in this episode – no, they weren’t damaged by the rain. The rain in this episode was more of a faint misting, which I felt was fitting with the magically picturesque Avonlea setting. Anne’s books were actually purchased for our book wall in A Tell Tale Vlog and then I had them in my car to mail to the winners of our original Shipsters FTW contest, and since they were in my car we ended up using them in the scene. (To the two people who are still waiting on these books, I swear I’m going to get to a post office this week and mail them to you!)
That’s it for this week’s directors’ commentary! Let me know if you have any more production questions specific to this episode, my ask box is open and I also answer quick questions on Twitter. As always, thanks for watching and commenting!
Much love,
Check out this director’s commentary post on episode 2 of Kissing in the Rain from Shipwreked director, yulinkuang! Stay tuned for a new episode tomorrow at 10am PT!
HAHA! Once again the detail that the fandom caught on to and ran with was improvved. This amuses me greatly. :)
Also: magical Avonlea rain that leaves books (and actors) un-wet was intentional (or at least rationalized as artistic intention after the fact; either way I like it).
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1gPqUzb.
