Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/74632
LIFE STINKS? — WEBISODES Jason Berger, executive producer/founder of Kids At Play, thrives on a tight schedule, but shooting the Life Stinks? Webisodes were a bit challenging even for him. They shot three episodes a day for three days. Each episode was shot at a different location, so the crew had to set up, shoot, wrap up, move to the next location and go through that process again, for three locations per day. Berger knows that when it comes to producing digital video con- tent, time is always a factor. "Time is everything. A lot of the content we create on Yahoo!, for example, has to be quickly edited and quickly posted or else we're going to lose several hundreds of thou- sands of audience members that would like to view the content because of what it is, because of the information." Life Stinks? is a series of Webisodes that follow actress Rachael Abigail, through her awkward, yet hilarious, Harris's character, moments in life. Life Stinks? was created for www.NoMorePu.com, a site that promotes Tidy Cats cat liter. Amazingly, the Webisodes have nothing to do with cat liter, and don't even mention cats. The concept, according to the Website is, "We've helped with the PU in the liter box, now we're helping with the PU in your life." "The brand really got behind it, and they understood that if they don't throw the brand name all over these things that they'll be able to build some street cred," explains Berger. "In return, consumers will say, 'Hey this is great content,' and they'll ask who's doing it, and then they'll go buy their product. There are a few brands that do that, but it's a long gestation process for them and the agency to get behind something like that. I was really happy with Purina and Avrett Free Ginsberg, the agency, and our production partners, Principato-Young Entertainment, and Electus." Even though digital video online content is nothing new, people are still trying to grasp the bene- fits of it. Berger feels the data that you can obtain from online content is far greater than any kind of data you can get from mainstream media. Also, because you can easily add and remove content online, it allows a com- pany or brand to change direction quickly if something isn't working. "Alex Bloom, the creative director at Avrett Free Ginsberg, did a really good job of helping the client understand how they can use this medium." LA-based Kids at Play (www.kidsatplaymedia.com), has been pro- ducing digital video content for the past six years. Three-quarters of all the content they produce is digital video for online. They create and produce content for sites like Yahoo, My Damn Channel and YouTube. They use a small, highly skilled crew to produce content quickly. "We pride ourselves on being nimble, a speed boat amongst freighters kind of thing," says Berger. When it comes to sound, Kids At Play sound mixer Ben Templin knows that the best — and fastest — post work is achieved by starting with the best sound recordings. "One of the most impor- tant things in a post sound mix is having quality production audio to begin with," he says. When recording on location, Templin used a Sennheiser MKH 416 shotgun mic, and a Sound Devices 302 three-channel mixer paired with a Sound Devices 44T four-channel audio recorder. He relied on the skill of his boom operators, Jordan Hood Taylor and Sabi Tulok, to record dialogue that was heavily improvised at times. Since great audio starts at the microphone, it's important to follow the dialogue. "The boom operator must position the mic just inches out of frame, following the dialogue of multiple subjects in the scene, all the while staying out of the way of multiple lights, any reflections from mirrors or smooth surfaces, and of course without dipping into the frame," says Templin. "This project was particularly difficult because the heavily improvised dialogue meant cueing the mic back and forth at random." On Life Stinks?, frequent location changes posed a challenge, but Berger trusted Templin and his team to make it work. Says Berger, "There's not a whole lot of time to make changes if a location has a lot of traffic noise, let's say. Ben really does work through those issues. By the time we go into post on these things, which is usually the fol- lowing day, the audio is great, to the point where if we did not have the time for Ben to do a sweep of it in post, then we'd be fine." Wardrobe can pose a challenge too. Templin used Sanken COS 11D lav mics, as well as a Countryman B3 or B6, depending on wardrobe. For "The Office" episode, actress Harris wore a huge apple costume. The challenge was to find a good wireless mic loca- tion that would allow the mic to be hidden but also capture clean audio. "Some tricks I use are hiding mics behind buttons in shirts, or in the knot of a tie," Templin explains. "In the scene with the apple costume, it was particularly hard to find a good-sounding lav posi- tion. We used a combination of a lav on the apple, and a lav planted on the side of her computer." Despite an intense schedule, Berger's crew was still able to have a good time. With obstacles on set, in several locations per day, and with a lot of material to cover, they still managed to complete the shoots on time. Berger says, "On these types of shoots, where you're doing so much in so little time, people can get cranky and no one did. It was a lot of hustle, and to see everyone working that hard was fantastic. It turned out great, and once we got into post it was a breeze." To help the audio post process go even more smoothly, Templin recorded room tone at the locations, as well as all the Foley on set and any sound effects they needed. When working on a tight schedule, Templin and his crew take the time to capture clean audio from the beginning so their post time is short. "We love when we have the time to send it back to Ben because in post he can sweeten the sound so much," says Berger. "It really does sound so much better. We want everything that leaves our hands to be the best that it can be." After spending so much time and effort to create high-quality content, Kids At Play spend even more time making sure that quality is not compromised when it comes to compressing the content for streaming and downloading. File size is important. If a file takes too long to load, or if there is a problem with the download process, you will lose your audience. "It's a big deal for us," says Berger. "We work really hard on that content and we want people to be able to enjoy it. We want to make sure that there is no problem when it comes to watching the content." www.postmagazine.com Post • July 2012 37 Ben Templin and Mike Berger (L-R) from Kids At Play on the Life Stinks? set.