Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/137897
creating a sitcom Wassup En LA? G By Randi Altman Editor-in-Chief raltman@postmagazine.com The pilot was shot on XDCAM and edited on Sony Vegas. LENDALE, CA — What started as a summer project in 2009 has turned into a four-year labor of love for Carlos de la Vega and Rudolpho Zalez. The two had been working in reality television, and the idea of doing something on the opposite end of that spectrum — a wholesome family sitcom — resonated with them. The result is the self-funded Wassup En LA? (www.wassupenla.com), modeled after traditional sitcoms of the past, like I Love Lucy and The Cosby Show, where the focus is on family. This particular family is made up of three generations of Cuban Americans who move from Miami to Hollywood so the son can pursue his dream of being an actor. "We are trying to bring the family sitcom genre back to TV," explains de la Vega (@wassupenla), who is writer/producer/co-creator/ editor on the show. "Even though they are Latino, it's a Cuban family moving to Los Angeles, where a lot of the population is Mexican, so it's a bit of culture shock for the family." De la Vega and Zalez had pitched the idea to a variety of broadcast and online networks. All seemed interested but they wanted a proof of concept before taking the next step. "They told us to shoot the pilot and bring it back when it's done, so as soon as we finish, we'll start shopping it around again." The 22-minute Wassup En LA? pilot, which stars Oscar Torre (CSI Miami, Hangover 3) as the dad, and comedian Paul Rodriguez as the friendly mailman, was shot on March 23 on a small soundstage, CML Studios, in Glendale. They used three Sony F800s because de la Vega wanted to shoot XDCAM footage and broadcast 4:2:2 quality. They were in production for one week — the sets were built in three days while Zalez held rehearsals with the actors during the week. The shoot took place on a Saturday. De la Vega and Zalez kept costs down by limiting the pilot script to three main sets: a living room area, a kitchen/dining room, and the bedroom of the aspiring actor/son. "Because of our limited budget, we purposely tried to stick with those locations only," 10 Post • June 2013 reports Zalez, director/writer/producer and co-creator on the show. The number of total crew, from makeup to wardrobe to camera to post was 40 people. "The Saturday we shot the pilot, we had three camera ops, a DIT, two camera utilities, the DP, gaffer/grip, two boom operators, sound mixer and assistant." THE POST Wassup En LA? was in post at press time, with de la Vega done with the edit. His tool of choice for the show is Sony Vegas. "It's my favorite software," he says, adding that he's been using it for 10 years on his own and for indie projects. "I wanted to test it with XDCAM footage since I heard that was an easy workflow. To be honest, for me it's the best choice," he says. "It's literally drag and He does acknowledge that Vegas is not your traditional NLE set-up. "It's more closely related to FCP X," he explains. "The FCP X interface and workflow is similar to how Sony Vegas has always been. Most of the work is done in the timeline, rather than looking at your trimmer, selecting your in and out points. With Vegas you throw everything — video, images, audio — on the timeline and work on an open canvas." So what happens if Wassup En LA? gets picked up? Will he stick with Vegas? "If it's picked up by a network or cable station, it will be Avid in order to facilitate the workflow between multiple editors," he says. "The best answer would be, if it's for an online network looking for original shows, we'll consider using Sony Vegas as our preferred choice for editing." Wassup En LA?: (L-R) Josh Dobson, Rudolpho Zalez, Carlos de la Vega and Miles M. Davis. drop native XDCAM footage on the timeline, group together and begin cutting. There was no need for transcoding to another format. I was working in full resolution in realtime. The whole native workflow was easy and fun to work with." De la Vega is a big believer in picking the right tool for the right job. "If you are cutting a show or movie with multiple editors, and they are all sharing the same footage and working on multiple scenes, then Avid is the way to go. But if you are working on something of a smaller scale, with one editor on one project, then Sony Vegas is a good software, and it will deliver for broadcast in pretty much any format." www.postmagazine.com COLOR As of press time, colorist Josh Dobson of Glendale's RedCup Post, with whom de la Vega has worked with in the reality world, was using Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve 8 for color correction and color timing. "I was able to output the files from Vegas using the Cineform codec," he says. "It's almost done, and it looks amazing." With the pilot almost complete, they were just waiting for the sound mix, which is being done by another friend (Miles M. Davis), who is using Avid Pro Tools|HD 10. " To see de la Vega and Zalez talk about the show, visit their wassupenla.com Website or check them on Facebook.com/wassupenla.