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dga quarterly 71 vs. having a more forgiving schedule. "No matter how much time you have, it's a struggle to get cast members. If you have longer, you might spend more time think- ing about the script. So you've had months of prep but then a completely new script comes in. That's happened to me, as well." Even before the time crunch of the past pilot season, Fryman had devised a way to streamline sitcom production with a hybrid approach, blending single-camera scenes with multi-camera work in front of a stu- dio audience for How I Met Your Mother. "I started shooting in a hybrid style out of necessity," she recalls. "How I Met Your Mother involved shooting so many scenes in so many locations and was written in a way that just wasn't strictly multi-cam. We didn't have enough relatives to put in the audience and make them stay through a taping until three in the morning," she says with a laugh. Shooting location and backlot scenes in advance and inserting that footage amidst scenes shot before an audience "worked like magic," she says. So well that she used the same approach on the pilot for CBS' Mom and her latest pilot, NBC's People Are Talk- ing, a comedy conjoining romantic relation- ships and race relations. "Hybrid versions have become this playing card to talk creators out of single- camera," she says drolly. "Everyone wants everything single-cam, but that's more ex- pensive." Like Nutter, Fryman finds the casting pro- cess more challenging now because more actors are seeking work on cable series. In fact, casting caused production on People Are Talking to hit a snag when the network rejected an actress late in preproduction. "When we finally got to the table read, we had to make a switch," Fryman says. We continued rehearsing even though we didn't have an actress for the part. We used stand- ins, then the actress came in and it was, like, 'Hurry up. It's not fair to anybody,' but no- body said it was going to be fair." As new screen formats proliferate, outlets increase, and viewers find ever more ways to interact with their favorite programs, the pi- lot process will continue to evolve. And that's a prospect that excites Fleming, whose work has shown up everywhere from the broadcast networks to the Internet. "The fact that there's a spectrum like this is great, actually," he says. "I love doing pilots for the networks, where the schedule is all mapped out down to the minute and locked- down months in advance a little like a horse race. In cable, things happen when they're ready to happen and there are far fewer peo- ple involved, so you get a lot more creative freedom. "There are so many new players [creating content]," he continues. "I've heard from people who have hired me, [admit] 'We're new at this.' They're learning as they go along. The rules are being unwritten." But whatever the method of arriving there, what won't change for directors is the heady rush of creating a new series from whole cloth for audiences to embrace. "I'm in a situation where, every year, I get a chance to do something different," Nutter says. "I get to test my abilities and stretch my knowledge of what I do. I like the excitement of making a pilot, I like that everyone I work with has one goal and has a positive energy. I put my heart into it every time." ®