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.

Sneak Peek from Diamonds, Wow!: Go to Bed Early

An upcoming video from Diamonds, Wow! features some fighter dudes. Cannot wait.

Behind the Scenes: 4/20 from The Brig!

Justin Tyler and Rory Panagotopulos

Sometimes, sketch comedy is dangerous business -- for example, the latest shoot from The Brig. Although most of the pot-themed video was filmed indoors, the sketch, written by Adam Sacks, also required the actors to hit the streets of downtown Brooklyn while engaging in some suspicious behavior. Justin Tyler not only had to don booty shorts and a trench coat, he also had to run out of a store carrying half a dozen candy bars -- while simulating lighting up a pipe. Fortunately/unfortunately, Justin did not end up wearing cigarette glasses with Lady Gaga in jail. "The video's not exactly after-school special material," says director/editor Nate Russell.

On set with The Brig

In spirit of the video, this blog was posted at 4/20 at 4:20am. Check it out:

Sneak Peek from The Brig

If visiting UCBComedy.com isn't part of your morning ritual (like bagels or crying to "Empire State of Mind" on the subway), it's time to start: The Brig's "Overly Ambitious Ensemble Drama" will hit the site in the coming weeks!

Looks fun, right?

Behind the Scenes: The Brig

Adam Sacks of UCB Comedy's The Brig wants to give you some insight into creating one of their videos...

From Adam:

Here's a video I directed and did the effects for recently.

Some people asked me how I created the backgrounds for the video, so I figured I'd go over the basics.

In Photoshop I start with flat colors. I try to go with a middle color for each section, that way I can add shadows and highlights later.

Then I add extra layers on top of darker colors to create shadows. It's pretty common for me to use 3 or 4 layers per section to build up shadows gradually, instead of trying to do it all at once. I use different opacities and blending modes on the layers to get the look I want.

Next I do the same thing, but with highlights.

This still looks very computery, so the next step is to overlay photos of textures to get the types of variation in color and value that make something look real. For the wood I added some wood textures (a no-brainer), and for the glass I added some concrete textures to make it look frosted.

And finally I flattened the glass section and warped it a bit to make it look curved instead of flat. In general, it's much easier to work with rectangular shapes (because it's much easier to make rectangular selections), and then when you're done, warp them into the shape you want.

And just to give you an idea, here's a screen capture of just some of the layering that went into making this background.

Behind the Scenes: The Brig

The Brig has been busy. Here's a look Behind-the-Scenes of three of their upcoming videos.

"Hunky" with Don Fanelli, Matt Fisher (pictured), Rob Lathan, and Tim Martin (pictured).














Autobiographical Movie Reviewer, with Dan Hodapp and Terry Withers (pictured).










Sally D with Christine Walters, Tracey Wigfield (pictured), and Achilles Stamatelaky(pictured).

Behind the Scenes: Diamonds, Wow!: Kevin Smith

Below are some behind the scenes shots from the making of Diamonds, Wow! latest funny video









Left to right. Ed Mundy (director), Brandon Scott Jones (actor), Zach Neumeyer (director) recording voices for Kevin Smith - Too Awful to Fly

Behind the Scenes - FIX Badass

Badass stars and was written by Hal Rudnick and co-stars Justin Donaldson. It's a badass show about badass technology.

DP - Doug Beatty
Director - Matty Smith
Editor/Effects - Jack Allison
Stills by Jack Allison

Behind the Scenes - The Brig's "Bachman Turner Overdrive"

New comedy video coming soon featuring:
Jamison Guest, Amber Petty and John Murray

Diamonds, Wow! - Behind the Scenes of Hard Rock Cafe

Nate Lang as the late Joey Ramone

















Joe Strummer (Ben Rodgers) meets David Bowie (Thomas Middleditch)












Brandon Scott Jones as Johnny Rotten