There have been many movies and TV shows that have portrayed the glamorous, humorous, and often seedier sides of Hollywood, but the new comedy web series BOOKED IT! portrays a side of the entertainment business rarely covered – the process of casting actors and actresses to appear in the industry’s vast output of movies and TV shows, and, in the case of this series – commercials! The show, directed by Matty Solomon, debuted on March 12 with a three episode first season, with a second season already in the works. It was written and created by its stars: Eileen Fogarty, who plays the role of Dior, head of a Hollywood casting agency specializing in casting for commercials, Kiva Jump as ex-child actor CeCee, and Valentina Garcia as the assistant (and CeCee’s niece). The show also has a crowd-funding campaign called “Our Savings”.
The cast’s real life experiences in the casting industry, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, inspired Fogarty to create BOOKED IT!. “We met through a wonderful casting director, Craig Colvin, owner of Cocolaca Studios. Over time, we all got to know each other and one day, Kiva and Eileen were chatting and Kiva said, ‘We should write together.’ That’s when the ball started rolling. Shortly thereafter, Valentina joined the team and then we started meeting up and thrashed around some ideas. In the end, we went back to the old adage: write what you know. And commercials/casting, we know! So we started writing about our experiences with auditioning for commercials and what we found interesting about the casting world,” she says.
Each actress contributed in their own ways to the production of each episode of the show, from the writing, to the editing of each episode, and even though at times the production was hectic, they learned a lot about what goes into making web series, Fogarty says. “We made the initial mistake of not sitting with the editors as they edited. That slowed down the process and made the editors’ lives difficult–because there was a lot of back and forth. We learned that quickly and realized that it’s just more efficient to sit with the editor and be clear with our communication. The editors were very patient with us. For season 2, we are going to write the episodes first and then shoot them. Hopefully, this will make us even more efficient!”
In addition, the production of BOOKED IT! provided Fogarty and her castmates with freedoms that not many actors enjoy. “We rarely get the opportunity to write, direct or creatively influence the project we are getting paid for. So this inspired us to create our own stuff because well, who else is going to do it for us? We wanted to push ourselves to try something creative in our downtime and write bigger parts for ourselves. Why wait around for a Series Regular role to come to us? Might as well create it for ourselves. So this was it.” Fogarty also hopes also that the show will reach an even broader audience. “We hope to have our own show, on HBO, IFC or Comedy Central. We have a lot more in store, so we can’t wait to get the stories and characters out there, whether on those channels, or on the web!”
Ultimately, Fogarty says, BOOKED IT! is different from many comedies, including those on the web, in that it takes viewers inside the rarely seen behind the scenes world of a part of TV viewing that is sometimes an afterthought, and one that is often annoying, but at times, also memorable: the commercials. “Most people who watch TV (well, besides just PBS, I guess) know what a commercial is. We like the idea that we’re exposing what goes on to get a commercial made from the start. It’s actually a really interesting process and one which most people don’t necessarily know, but only see the end result. Plus, the entertainment world is sometimes ridiculous and almost always hilarious. We try to infuse what we find funny about our business. It’s a glimpse into the commercial casting world.”
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/BookedIt
No Comment