Lovebites TV

After six months of preparation and production, you can watch the finished product tonight on TBS!  Two new episodes will air after 11pm ET Monday and Thursday during Sex and the City.  So, grab the popcorn, sit back, relax and enjoy!!

TEN THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT AUDRA BLASER (THE ACTRESS WHO PLAYS CALLIE)

1) She used to work at Taco Bell (and still wears her hat) before working at Victoria’s Secret, where she was a ‘bra specialist’.

2) She named ALL her childhood pets “Andy”, after Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player Andy Van Slyke.

3) Once flipped a car while driving on a 15 mph road (she was totally sober). Somehow, she didn’t have a scratch on her but the car was totaled (her family still makes fun of her for this).

4) Has A BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, School of Drama.

5) If she wasn’t acting, she’d want to be a Psychologist or a Crime scene investigator (as she loves to play the board game ‘Clue’ – but can only if she can play as Miss Scarlett).

6) Favorite foods are “Lucky Charms”, Sushi, and Split Pea Soup (in reverse order).

7) Roller Coaster Enthusiast – she loves ‘The Raptor’ at Cedar Point and ‘The Thunderbolt’ at Kennywood Park.

8 ) Has training in Fencing (with full gear and all!).

9) Is addicted to chewing gum (Ice Breakers – Cinnamon is her favorite).

10 ) She’s single (hint, hint, hint…!).

As is true with all great things, there has to be an end. And tonight (well, actually early Wed. morning) Leslie, our Director, will call “Cut and that’s a wrap” for the very last time. And that will be weird – very weird.

See, the best example I can give to living and working on location of a film/T.V. set is to compare it to Sleep Away camp: You share great times and terrible times, but in the end, it’s something you can’t wait to do again next summer. That is true on a film set. We’ve all had our disagreements, our moments of frustration, our time(s) of selfishness, but we’ve also shared some great times and worked together to make a really fantastic product. So, while the words Leslie screams tonight, “That’s a wrap” will indeed wrap up the “Writing” and “Filming” segment of “lovebites – Season Two”, the third element – Editing – will now come into full swing.

For a writer, I had a very interesting experience yesterday — I was IN the scene (well sort-a).

See, while I was not in hair and make-up nor did I have to memorize any lines (because I was not on camera, instead, just off camera reading lines with the actor who was on camera), I still had to stand under the hot lights and in the eye-line of about twenty people who each have a specific task to accomplish in bringing these words to life. And while I stood there, reading lines from a script that I wrote, I found myself at times forgetting lines and fumbling over words — imagine if people were actually relying on me to act, yikes!

It’s funny how in the writing process, the writer envisions a scene to take place at a very specific location (which, due to locations, is sometimes just not possible), at a very specific time of the day (which, due to production, is sometimes just not possible) and in very specific weather (which, due to Mother Nature, is sometimes just not possible) — so, while in production, sometimes the writer needs to learn to “Roll with the Punches” as the production team brings the writing to the small screen.

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Every episode of “lovebites” this season began from a simple idea one of the writers thought was funny (more often than not, it was an experience in real life that either he/she had lived). From that one idea, came a script. From that one script came other ideas and improvements from other writers. From that revised script came notes from the executive producers/Unilever/JW2/JWT/TBS, etc… And after that, came the finished script. Well, not really. See, after the script was (for lack of a better word) “finalized”, that script was then given to the actors to read and dissect. And then, after we were able to see the actors bring these episode to life and after we made any changes to these so called “finalized” scripts from seeing the actors finally read these scripts, came the finished script. Well, not really.

See. The writing process really does not stop on any one episode until the Director calls “Cut”, for the final time, on that episode. Because, while the script is being filmed, jokes are being added, scripts are being cut (for time) and sometimes even entire sections of a script are being changed while the cameras are running.

So, while many people think that writing is easy, it’s not the writing that is really the difficult part, it’s the rewriting (and the rewriting and the rewriting and the rewriting and the rewriting — I think you get the point) that is really the hard part!

Here are 8 things you did not know about week two of production until now:

1) We filmed in a restaurant that was famous for it’s collection of pool/billiard tables from the 1800’s.

2) We filmed an episode, on a boat, with nothing more then two people making out (and not talking) the entire time!

3) We ate a lot of doughnut holes. So, we got really thirsty…

4) … and then probably drank over 1,000 bottles of water…

5) … and then had to find a bathroom every seventeen minutes or so.

6) We filmed during a rainstorm, in 100 degree (or so it felt) heat and then later, at an Apple store!

7) We had to put up “flags” (which are really just large squares with black felt that block light) at one location to keep a few “select” people (you boys know who you are) from taking pictures (and thus adding flash and disturbing the scene).

Our actors added A LOT of bloopers for our blooper real!

After a very successful first week — where we filmed 15 episodes at Callie’s work place (Elle.com) and Brophy’s bar (her male-best-friend’s bar) — we are now moving on to night club scenes, boutiques, the mall and some out door locations. Today will be the last day of shooting for the character “Brophy” and begin the many-many episodes we have with Callie and her two female-best-friends (“Marisa” and “Tess”). I’ll keep you posted — but one thing’s for sure, after working a week of night shoot’s (6PM to 6AM), a week of morning shoots will feel easy!