Sean Mannion

Tag: production

  • Maybe Sunshine is Coming

    Maybe Sunshine is a web series I’m producing starring Lisa Hammer and her band Radiana. The show was pitched to me in 2014 as being tonally like Curb Your Enthusiasm. Lisa and her husband, and show co-creator/director, Levi had some ambitious ideas about the project and I was sold on it pretty quickly. Since our initial meeting we’ve worked closely together to make the series happen. Being a low budget project shooting around schedules was necessary and with a large cast including the full band that stretched out production quite a bit. As of my writing this we are nearing the finish line, with our episodes in post-production and only a little more to pick up to finish up the project.

    I connected with Lisa and Levi while I was looking for music for my film Time Signature. I discovered Lisa’s music and the album from her band Radiana, and I knew that’s what I wanted for the film. So, I reached out to them. We didn’t connect right away, but by coincidence Carolyn Maher, my Assistant Director for Time Signature (who then became my Producer for Meme), had an exchange with Levi about the web series he and Lisa wanted to do. Remembering that I had mentioned Lisa’s music and that I had said I reached out to her, Carolyn connected me with Levi. I had brunch with Levi and Lisa and discussed using the Radiana music for Time Signature and they talked to me about Maybe Sunshine and I was immediately interested in getting on board.

    It took us a little bit of time to get off the ground and Carolyn also joined the project as a Producer. There were a few hard deadlines we had for shooting certain episodes based on certain events and availabilities. That really helped us get rolling. I brought in Director of Photography Myles Tyrer-Vassell, who I’d worked with on another web series where I served as Assistant Director. The first episode we shot was number 4. It features a showdown between our band, Radiana, and their rival, Late Cambrian (also a real band, and they’re wonderful and you should check them out). Late Cambrian was due to go on tour for several months and it was decided we wanted to shoot that episode with them before their tour. It was a bit of a crazy shoot running from a late call time to the early hours of the morning with all sorts of little issues and the team finding our pace working together, but it all came together and the results were great. The rough cut of that episode even won the Audience Choice Award at the Indie Works Web Series Month 2015 event. Soon after that we shot our other episode that had a hard deadline: the finale. I won’t get into exactly what the final episode is, but it ends pretty spectacularly. Since those initial shoot days we’ve been picking up the episodes when we can get everyone together and soon we’ll have wrapped the whole first season.

    As of now we have some level of rough cut for almost every episode of our first season. It works! The show is funny. It looks good. It sounds good. It has some meat to it. I’m really looking forward to being able to premiere the show. I’m really looking forward to being able to promote the show too as we’ve got some interesting plans for that. I’m really excited about this project and the potential it has.

    It’s been a fun series to produce and it’s been interesting for me personally to be able to sit back and take on mostly just a producer role. Most of my projects are my projects and that means that all the responsibility falls to me for those. This is a bit different in that my role is to support the vision of the creators Lisa and Levi. My role is to help them make this project what they want it to be. It’s different. It’s fun. I’m looking forward to being able to do it again on more projects.

  • Meme Year-End Update

    Meme Year-End Update

    Meme-Updates

    It has been a bit of journey getting this film to where it is right now. At this point in 2013 I was looking at our unsuccessful Kickstarter for the film and thinking about how or even if we’d be getting the project off the ground. A lot of things changed. I simplified the script. I made some new connections that made shooting possible. With the help of a lot of generous people we shot the film through the end of 2014 and most of 2015. Now, we’re in post-production.

    So far the post-production process has been interesting. I’ve never made anything this long so it’s a bit overwhelming to even look at the film’s timeline. Post started back in December 2014, really. I put together all of the office scenes we shot in November 2014 for a clip to share privately with cast and crew. Then as we progressed I assembled early cuts of scenes. By early August 2015 I had a linear assembly of everything we’d shot up until the final scenes we needed to get. By the end of September I had a slightly refined version of that assembly with still plenty of work to do. It was good to have it then because it wasn’t long before we realized the film needed to be shaken up a little.

    With the amount of time it took to shoot it gave us the opportunity to have a parallel extended time to get a look at the film as a whole. It works. The characters and story progress, but the flow of the edit needed something more. So, because we already were able to look at everything and see how it fit together over time and come out of our final days of shooting with an assembly in just a few weeks, we were able to see that we could make it better by shaking it up a little and taking the form of the film in a slightly different direction. What direction remains to be seen. We’re still working with it, but I’m very happy that we can work with it. I’m also excited at the possibilities.

    While we’re working on all this post-production we’re also heavily involved in building a following for the film. We’ve been active on social media since the first day of shooting and established dedicated accounts for the project across multiple social media services early in 2015. We’re currently building on those services and sharing some fun things. We’ve got big plans for them later in 2016, but before we get there there’s still plenty of fun stuff to share. So, if you use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, please follow us on any or all of those services for regular updates. If you’re not into social media but don’t mind getting an e-mail on a monthly basis, join us on my e-mail newsletter, where I’ll be updating regularly on the progress of Meme.

    In 2016 we’re looking to complete post-production by about mid-year and pursue screenings at festivals. We have a plan set forth for that but as with anything it will evolve as needed because it’s more important that the final product is good and what we want it to be than to meet any particular deadline. As I said we have plans in the works for our social media. Some behind-the-scenes photos and clips to share and some videos like our Wotan beer commercials that we’ll be sharing. Maybe more. You’ll have to keep an eye on us to keep up to date. So, please do keep an eye out by following us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, or signing up for the e-mail newsletter.

  • Meme Update

    Meme Update

    Sarah with the Tape-Small

    Production on Meme has been continuing for the last few months. Our shooting around schedules and working on the film mostly on weekends process has made the production a little extended, but the end of principal photography is in sight. Our most recent shoot days were Memorial Day Weekend in May (or as Producer/AD Carolyn Maher called it “Meme-orial Day Weekend”). Three fun days at some great locations. We returned to People Lounge in Manhattan for some key bar scenes. We shot some beautiful exteriors in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Then, we got some great footage at The Creek and The Cave and some exterior scenes in Queens. At this point, there are only two scenes left to do. They are important scenes, as they are the ones in which Jennifer (Sarah Schoofs) actually meets people from the Meme tape, but other than those two scenes we pretty much have the story. What else is there?

    Well, first of all we’ve got to shoot our films-within-the-film elements. There is additional footage we need to get for the Meme tape and for another video shown in the film. There is also Beneath the Black Moon, a horror film that Jennifer’s boyfriend, Tommy (Shivantha Wijesinha), is looking for in Meme. We will be shooting Beneath the Black Moon the second weekend of July. It promises to be a really fun weekend. We’re planning to shoot a little bit more than what we need for Meme so that Beneath the Black Moon can also be released on its own as a short film. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

    So, Meme is close to wrapping on principal photography and then we have all the fun of post-production to get through. I’m excited to share more of the film as that progresses. Below are some photos from our recent shoot days. I’ll share more about the Beneath the Black Moon shoot once we finish it. Follow Meme on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up. Or subscribe to my newsletter for updates in your email. 

    But first … I’ve got an announcement on July 6th. Come back for that. It’s going to be pretty cool.