The economic downturn of 2008 caused many millions of Americans to lose not only money, but also their livelihood, resulting in mass layoffs and home foreclosures, forcing people to re-examine their lives, and their careers. One such couple is portrayed in the new comedy web series HOME WORK, available on Youtube and Funny or Die.
The show was created, co-written (with Mike Bednar), and directed by Boris Damast (head of the Venice, California-based production company Mechaniks) and stars Sarah Burkhardt and Drew Bell as Angela and Todd Pfeiffer, a young couple recently laid off from their jobs (he an engineer, she having worked in marketing and advertising). Together they come up with a new way to support themselves: a TV home shopping network, beaming directly from their own home, resulting in the couple not only earning money from their selling of unusual, off-the-wall products, but also having to spend time with each other – all the time. The cast also includes Gil Christner as Vic, who’s responsible for not only finding the offbeat products Angela and Todd sell, but who also serves as their (only) customer service representative, and Helen Wilson as Angela’s mother, Roz, a former model turned psychic, who moves in with the young couple to “help out”.
Both Damast and Bednar are veterans of ad agencies, each having worked as writers and as art directors. They developed the concept for HOME WORK weeks before the series began filming, a show that’s unique in that unlike most episodic content for the web, it was never meant to be a web series. “Our objective really was to use it as a pitch mechanism, to get it picked up, on cable or network. It could be an ongoing series that has all of the makings of one, but our objective, initially, was to put it out there and use it as an appetizer, as a sizzle piece, for some networks that we’re chasing.” To that end, only three nine minute episodes were filmed, with none scheduled in the near future. “Each one is designed to show how the show can roll out. Obviously, the first one looks at what a pilot could look like. We never really looked beyond episode three, and unfortunately we haven’t had much luck getting it picked up.”
The Mechaniks studios also doubled as the setting for the series’ three episodes, where the small space was converted into a loft for filming purposes, a process made easier by the fact that the production company’s offices and studio were all under one roof. “We didn’t have to go out and look for locations, or shoot in somebody’s house, or, the normal kind of thing where you have to move a crew into another facility. We were able to do the three shows, almost 30 minutes of content, in one weekend. I come from a TV episodic background (Damast directed episodes of such shows including 2000’s MANHATTAN, ARIZONA, the 2000-2002 sci-fi/comedy series THE INVISIBLE MAN, and the popular 2001-2002 superhero comedy THE TICK), and to get a half hour show in network time is going to take you five days to shoot (each episode).” The studio, which sometimes serves as production offices, was outfitted with assorted furniture and appliances, giving viewers the appearance of a small, yet cozy loft space for the show’s young couple.
Even though there are no further episodes planned, Damast still marvels at the show’s international fan base, viewers earned as a result of a global Facebook advertising campaign conducted at the show’s launch last year. “We still get fan mail from Argentina, of all places, sometimes from Italy, sometimes from Russia, so really pushed it hard.” Damast feels that HOME WORK tells a story that many can relate to in the unpredictable economy of today’s America, that of the challenge of trying to rebuild and restructure one’s daily life, a story told in a humorous and entertaining way. “You can be a qualified professional one day, and the next you’re not, you’re out looking for a job, and this is what life is like today, in many respects. It’s about a typical couple caught up in today’s economy, finding themselves having to restructure not just their professional lives, i.e. making a living, but also, the fact that now they’re exposed to one another 24/7. You’re living with that person, all day and all night, and you’re working with them constantly, so, it’s a story not just of ‘how do we make money’, but ‘how do we live together’, and both of these pressures come to bear on these two people.”
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Homeworkseries/
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/homeworkseries
FUNNY OR DIE: http://www.funnyordie.com/bdamast
WEB SERIES CHANNEL: http://www.webserieschannel.com/homework/