Episode 7.2 - L.A. Nites

L.A. Nites

Wrapping it up

How far can you go into a forest? Halfway, after that you're coming back out. It's my feeling that both stories and projects should be approached with this same mentality. This is why we set everyone on each other's trails for this two-part episode. 

Everyone is looking for someone

For me this episode was all about the gore. Emmett shows up a little bit because what you come to realize, especially as the show nears its conclusion, is that Emmett is a conduit more than he's anything else. He connects everyone to everyone else. So for that reason, I got to show up on screen in order to connect storylines and then splatter blood on Erik Josef Peterson.

ooh... blood

Jody Barton, as always, was fantastic and I'm sure when Krysten saw the "sexy tattoo" scenes she was glad that we cast Rozlyn instead. Probably the story would have gone a different direction with the original casting but since Erik and Roz have worked together on a pretty regular basis. It was, however, the fist time for Lawrence, Sarah, Roz or I to see him naked but was well worth it for the development of Aaren's character.

Give him the ol' drug-him-and-tattoo-him routine

A number of people have asked me what this scene is all about which I accept as an oversight in the writing. Let me be the first to remind the entire community, through example, that just because you, the author know a piece or pieces of information, it doesn't necessarily mean your audience knows that information. I cite another example of a great web series that is suffering from this same plight.

Outside references, like knowledge of occult practices in the case of L.A. Nites, invariably narrows the scope of your audience down to those that understand the reference. There is nothing "wrong" with this but it must be noted before you get upset for people "not getting" your work. Here's the quick and dirty about what happens in episode 7 so if you were left scratching your heads, you can seems smarter than your friends: Emmett gets Aaren working for the manager. Leighann, a witch, has come to Los Angeles to avenge Howie's murder. She learns the identity of the manager from the detective and puts a spell on Aaren, a b&e artist who broke into Howie's apartment to steal the rest of her drugs. He goes to kill the manager and Pete and as his reward Leighann brands him as a member of her coven.

You know, everyday witch stuff.

Turns out that Wiccan practices are less mainstream than we thought. Just throwing it out there, though, at one point we talked about having Leighann & Howie being werewolf cousins instead. We all wanted to do it, too, but were stopped by the practicality of doing the transformations since practical effects, ala American Werewolf in Paris, was outside our budget. Sure there's CG but unless you can get good CG, it's just CG.  

In an alternate reality, this is a shot of Leighann

In a lot of ways we were caught up in the creation of a world that existed outside our own minds. You could say this is Lawrence's show because he was the creator/director but that's not wholly true. Both Erik and I were there for most of the decisions that were made this show so, our own aesthetic opinions helped make L.A. Nites what it is. The same goes for every actor on this project and for every project that was ever made. Once you believe in the reality your team is creating, you get hooked on it. Shout out to my web series creators who know what I'm talking about.

One hit and you're hooked.

We had long discussions about how Aaren should booby-trap the door. We drew diagrams, shopped around the prop shop and ultimately settled on a hand grenade. All of that said, it really doesn't play well in the final cut mainly, I think, because the audience never sees the pin pop out of the hole and because there is no explosion once the manager forces Emmett inside.

Not gonna lie, the end of Episode 7 kinda feels like this.

It doesn't matter though. In the supercut, (due out 2.16) we get the pay off of episode 8, right after meeting Ellen who is, by far, my favorite character. 

Badass Boss