Episode 4 - L.A. Nites

L.A. Nites

The Twist

As mentioned in the first post Lawrence, Erik and I approached the writing of this series by using a device I created which maintains the overall story structure and form so that the writer or writers only has to worry about creating content. It has proven able to produce a number of different types of work without difficulty so I helped Lawrence apply it to the web series. According to our structure this episode was to be about the drug and a force within the universe known as "K".

Undercover

This, by far, was Lawrence's favorite character. He allowed the other ones to exist in the L.A. Nites universe but the detective was the one that he really cared about crafting and making his own. Lawrence had a very particular way that he wanted this episode to appear which is why it has such a marked difference between it and earlier episodes. Big differences were make-up:

Jody Barton answers the call at Santa Monica pier

Locations:

We were all over the place

Featured extras:

The lovely Sabrina Bruce

It was important for us to kick up our game at this point and try to make L.A. Nites the show that we really wanted it to be. Episode 4 is still our best looking episode to date while also introducing such key players as the Manager and Pete, the pirate.

The Manager and Pete the Pirate take care of bid-ness.

Playing up what Tim had introduced in episode 3 with the monkey mask, we sent Detective K to the costume shop in an effort to draw out the Manager, Garrett Hughes.

He hates to be interrupted.

I need to pause for a moment to really thank both Garrett and Jacob Cormier, who plays Pete the Pirate, for coming along with us on the L.A. Nites adventure. For those of you making web series, you know, often times you're asking your friends to fill the roles for the trade of food because you have no one else and no budget. If you are as fortunate as we were with the casting of this show then you should be happy. The caliber of actors that we got to donate their time is hard to find. Further, they kept coming back to film more as we continued each week. I truly appreciate them and hope they get more work from this series.

Actor Jacob Cormier

All of that is to say nothing of Jody Barton's portrayal of Detective K. This project was evolving and changing each week so we had a vague idea of where we were going but not real concept of where we would end up or what exactly would happen along the way. That is to say that Jody had no idea what we were going to throw at him when he signed on. Watching his performance in episode 7 versus this initial episode or episode 10 (to be released 1.22.15) it's amazing to see how he builds off of what he introduced earlier. He is a phenomenal actor who is also easy to work with and set to break into the mainstream. You read it here first.

Left for dead

While I never suggest that anyone rely on voice over for anything ("show, don't tell," guys) I would gladly have Jody narrate my inner monologues any day of the week. For no other reason than his closing speech from this episode sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it.

"I have a photographic memory."

Because of this early success, we turned with high hopes to the even more ambitious episode 5.