MAN OF LA MANSION | WEBSERIES

logline: When an upper middle class suburban ad exec turns to screenwriting to blunt his rapidly approaching mid-life crisis he discovers that it is considerably more challenging than he anticipated.

runtime: 31 minutes (8 episodes, each 3-5 minutes) | format: still images

trailer: here | script: here. (though not in script format. I just typed into a paragraph but it was just for me anyway)

festivals: Local Sightings, Stareable Fest (Best Editing nominee), NYC Webfest (Winner, Best Original Concept, Winner Best Vocal Performance, Nominee Best Webseries , Nominee Outstanding Achievement in Writing). | Stareable Fest LA, NYC Webfest 2024 (reprise showing for their 10th anniversary)

thoughts: Stuck at home during Covid with no idea how or when to ever return to set to finish Sister/Brother (much less anything else) I began thinking of ways that I could make something with no resources. Eventually, the dollhouse my mom made many years ago in a carpentry class (which she gifted to my kids complete with furniture and plastic malleable figurines) came to mind. I set up the dollhouse and some lights in the garage on our ping-pong table and took around 400 images, moving the figurines around the house randomly. I had no narrative or storyboards or even idea yet what it would be or even if it could be anything. I reviewed the images and as I cut them slowly together, a story formed around the man, who I named Steve and who I assigned the idealism and naiveté of a new screenwriter. Like me, he’s middle-aged, a parent, a white dude, and a little self-consumed. Once I had the storyline down, I wrote and recorded the voice-over, had my kids help with a painting for the title sequence and cut 8 episodes. It was very freeing to make this project - no paperwork, no payroll, no crowdfunding, no grantwriting .

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