When Clutch concluded its second season over 7 years ago, it did so as one of the web’s most popular action/adventure series. Yet its creator, Jonathan Robbins, didn’t want his viewers to be left hanging after season 2’s unforgettable conclusion. Unfortunately, efforts to raise funds for a third season of Clutch to audiences failed, and when Robbins’ cast moved on to higher profile (and higher paying) work, the series’ future was as uncertain as that of its characters.
Now with the coronavirus epidemic forcing filmmakers and actors alike to stay physically separated, Robbins and his Clutch collaborators are soon to bring viewers the third season of the award-winning thriller in a way that would otherwise have been considered unusual before COVID-19 made the world’s population shelter in place: through recorded Zoom video conference table reads of season 3’s previously written episodes.
Clutch’s all-Zoom third season will premiere July 26th on its primary YouTube channel (linked to at the end of this article). Inspired to produce Clutch’s new episodes by seeing successful live and Zoom-based performances of new and existing screenplays, Robbins reunited with his cast – now divided between Los Angeles and Canada – to resolve last season’s eventful cliffhanger while continuing to follow Clutch’s characters’ relentless escape from the dangerous underworld of human trafficking.
Despite such hiccups as connection lag, congested video and interrupted dialogues, Robbins smoothed over those trouble spots by meticulously editing his actors’ best takes into each episode. Also during the post-production process, Robbins recreated the ominous mood of Clutch’s previously filmed episodes by mixing tense music with location-appropriate sound effects (as dictated by the scripts). Speaking to Snobby Robot, Robbins previews the suspenseful turns and new players that await audiences during season 3 of Clutch.
Top row, from episode 2 of CLUTCH’s season 3: co-star Lyndie Greenwood. Bottom row, L-R: Jeff Sinasac and Matthew Carvery.
Chris Hadley: Without going into spoilers, briefly recap what happened last season and preview what viewers can expect this season.
Jonathan Robbins (creator/writer/director, Clutch): When we left Clutch, Mike (Jeff Sinasac) and Matt (Matthew Carvery) snuck into the back of a van driven by human traffickers hoping to be led to Kylie (Elitsa Bako).
This brought them to a major player in the trafficking underbelly, Darius (Tom Konkle), but they remained one step behind Kylie’s trail. In their rescue attempt, they met Nicole (Jillian Clare), who helped the three of them escape.
Meanwhile, the group of sex workers sentenced to be sold by Marcel (Peter Hodgins) to traffickers – as Kylie was – ambushed the exchange. Marcel and his right hand man (a.k.a. “Marcel’s #1 Henchman”) escaped, but a vigilante was born in Cyd (Anais Rozencwajg). In the final season, we will go down that path of Cyd’s vengeance and learn its toll, and Mike and Matt, who have not given up on finding Kylie, will get help in unexpected ways.
CH: Talk about the new characters joining Clutch in season 3. Who plays them, what information do you have on those characters, and how do they connect to the existing characters/season 3 story arc in Clutch?
JR: The major addition to season 3 is Taylor, whose sister was a victim of human trafficking. Taylor is played by Lyndie Greenwood (The Expanse, Nikita), and will serve as a catalyst in the quest to find Kylie while fulfilling her own vengeance story. While not entirely new, Nicole and Darius were introduced in the season 2 finale, and they will play a big part in the final season. I don’t want to give much away about Nicole’s arc, but let’s just say that she was forever changed by the kidnapping in episode 2×11 “The Lucky Ones”. Jillian won an Indie Series Award for that role, and we’re thrilled to have her reprise it.
From episode 2, top row L-R: Sinasac, Carvery, Greenwood. Bottom row, center: CLUTCH creator Jonathan Robbins.
CH: Discuss how the COVID-19 lockdown impacted you as a filmmaker, and how that situation (plus the prominence of “table reads” being done on Zoom) ultimately motivated you to pursue producing season 3 of Clutch in that format.
JR: The first part of lockdown was a mental fight. Part of me was itching to do something creative – I had toyed with running an online Comic-Con panel day, until WonderCon announced they were doing just that (and which, of course, has now been quite common). I considered many of the at-home short film festivals, but felt that my home was just not conducive to filming anything I wanted to make.
At the same time, I was drained of energy, anxious, and not wanting to do anything when my work day (working from home as a video editor) was done. Then I thought back to what I did two days before the “Safer at Home” orders began in Los Angeles – I went to a live script read of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Tessa Thompson (HBO’s Westworld) and Martin Starr (Freaks And Geeks, Silicon Valley). It occurred to me how much I enjoy watching live script reads, and I mourned for a moment that it would be a while before we could do something like that again.
Then I saw the Orphan Black and Community cast reads over Zoom. So I suppose that was the moment of inspiration to do one of my own. From there, it was only a short leap to land on Clutch, which has always had a missing puzzle piece since we weren’t able to make the third season at the time. Ultimately, this excited me enough to move past the slump and get creating.
CH: What was the casting process like, especially considering that several of the actors you worked with had joined unions since Clutch last aired in 2013?
JR: My first step was to approach the necessary actors and gauge their interest. There were a few that if they said no, we weren’t doing this. Luckily, they said yes. The next question became how to work with cast members in Canada and the USA – (both) union and non-union. It turned out that COVID-19 was a gift in this regard, because normally that would not have been possible without a good sized budget. However, recognizing that live script reads to an audience are not able to happen in-person right now, the unions have cut us some room to make this kind of thing happen.
CH: In your opinion, what advantages does having these episodes presented in Zoom format have (besides allowing viewers to experience the episodes that would have been produced if the Kickstarter campaign was successful)?
JR: What I like most about the format is the immediacy. The camera is right up in the actor’s face the entire time, so it’s like sitting in the front row of a live venue. I think it’s possible to get a more vulnerable performance as well, as the actor is in their own home, and their own clothes. Also, because each audio track is recorded separately, we are able to do a sound mix and add (sound effects) and score, so it ends up being more akin to an audio drama.
CH: If and when it becomes safer to film on location, are there plans to shoot these episodes as they normally would have been produced?
JR: The short answer is no. The long answer is still no, with the explanation that I no longer think they need to be. We’re able to complete the story in this format, and we’re able to give fans the nostalgia of seeing these actors bring these characters back to life. We don’t need more.
From episode 2 of CLUTCH. Top row, L-R: Chris Whitby and Mark Robinson. Middle row: Carvery, Sinasac and Greenwood. Bottom row: Robbins.
CH: In doing the table read on Zoom, were you looking to elicit a specific kind of performance from your actors during the read, and if so, how were you able to accomplish that knowing that you had to do the read virtually? Otherwise, was the read just a way of getting everyone comfortable with the script material?
JR: First off, Clutch is and always has been a collaborative series. We run it like a TV series in that I am the showrunner and we have various directors and writers. For the Zoom reads, the format I set up is that once the episode’s writer/director and I settle on the script, the actors get the material beforehand, having time to review it. The episode directors discuss themes with them, and help them find the right wardrobe from their closets to capture the tone. On the read day, we do a rehearsal where the director can give notes, and then we do it for real, so to speak.
It falls on the actors to lift the performance from the page, but there are certainly techniques we’ve been using to help. For the first episode (directed by Emily Schooley, who also co-stars as Michelle “The Fetish Guide” in Clutch), she had the cast take a moment to have a meditative breath together, spiritually connecting the distance. For my episode, I send everyone a song that captures the tone of the episode and have them listen right before.
CH: What are your hopes for the success of this season, and in how the way you produced it could ultimately benefit future productions?
JR: When I decided I would do a Zoom-recorded script read, I determined that I wanted the format to be explored to its fullest. My ultimate hope for (season 3’s) success is that there are people doing script reads in the future who use ours as a bar for how it is done, which, as it happens, was really the same goal going into the first episode of Clutch – to change the way people viewed web series.
NOTE: Regarding closed-captioning of Clutch‘s upcoming third season, Robbins says: “English subtitles will be immediately available, and we hope to incorporate other languages soon (we had French and Spanish for the first two seasons).”
All episodes of Clutch (including those for season 3) can be seen on the show’s YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/vengeancecinema
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/ClutchtheSeries