Behind the Scenes: Overly Ambitious Ensemble Drama

The Brig's Overly Ambitious Ensemble Drama, written by Zack Phillips and directed by Adam Sacks, lived up to its title: filming took more than 15 hours, with over 35 different shots, 7 different shooting locations and 38 actors, resulting in a 1:34 tour de force.

Check out some of the production spreadsheets that this video required:



"Doing a shoot of that magnitude is kind of like planning a wedding," says Zach. "Tiny problems that normally wouldn’t be a big deal get magnified when you’re dealing with such a large group of people and multiple locations. If one shot takes longer than planned, you’re suddenly behind schedule with 10 or 20 actors."

But thanks to over 20-plus hours of pre-planning, The Brig wrapped early or on-time both days of shooting. Adds Zack, "Adam, the director, did a great job. We also picked locations that were close to each other but had diverse looks to them, so it’d look like we were all over the city. "

And, of course, a smooth shoot was ensured by a cast list that reads like a UCB talent directory. The video features Emily Axford, Keith Bethea, Dave Bluvband, Eddie Brawley, Corey Brown, Alex Charak, Matt Cutler, Shaun Diston, Morgan Evans, Don Fanelli, Kim Ferguson, Matt Fisher, Brandon Gardner, Jason Guerrero, Jon Gutierrez, Amy Heidt, Will Hines, Jordan Hirsch, Amanda Hirsch, Dan Hodapp, Rob Michael Hugel, Dru Johnston, Molly Lloyd, Tim Martin, Matt Mayer, Veronica Osorio, Josh Patten, Amber Petty, Zack Phillips, Ben Ragheb, Ben Rameaka, Adam Sacks, Jason Saenz, Matt Starr, Will Storie, Drew Tarvin, Jeff Wisniewski and Scott Yacyshyn.