Do you remember when being up at the crack of dawn meant you hadn't made it to bed yet or when dinner parties were something only your parents attended? Filmmakers Nathaniel Boggess and Jason Eksuzian can relate. During a trip to a LA hipster store, where you can shop your fill for homemade jewellery, records, prints and other items that really set off a room but have little practical use, the pair were hit by the startling realisation that they were no longer at the vanguard of cool and upon Eksuzian's "I miss drugs" declaration a new web series was conceived and named:
Boggess and Eksuzian put their joint backgrounds in film and television to good use on the nimble Canon 5D production, lighting mainly from ambient sources with a pair china balls and inventive gripping bridging the gaps as needed. A Dana Dolly slider also enabled them to deviate from static frames throughout by adding subtle camera moves as motivated by the story. Jason gave us a quick rundown of how the episodes are put together and the aims of the series:
Our process basically goes like this: Nathaniel writes the narration and then I write the scene action to support it. We shoot 2 episodes at a time and on set I direct and shoot. After the first edit is made, Nathaniel and I come together to sharpen it up and add music. To us, the final card is a very important part of the joke and we put a lot into the song that accompanies it. Hopefully it kind of caps the episode.
Our hope is to create a mood that really embodies what it's like to be happily aging but just close enough to the party days to feel a little lame. Future episodes will continue this feeling but maybe ever so slightly expand our characters. The episodes will remain very short.
Web series are ten a penny nowadays so you have to hit the ground running and try not to stumble when you do. With its under 2 minutes running time, straightly played train of thought delivery and painfully relatable scenarios, I'm looking forward to seeing how I Miss Drugs progresses when episode 4 hits next month.
Have you ever created a web series? It's been a couple years since we looked at tips for building a web series, what do you think are the dos and don'ts that keep an audience coming back for the next episode?
Link: I Miss Drugs
