Stars Taryn O'Neill, Janna Bossier, and Craig Frank at a New Media Vault Event.

Inspired by Mathieas’ Tubefilter piece on building buzz, and a  shout out to Dialogik Digital and the immense help they did in our pre-launch, I figured I’d blog about Promoting a Web Series. Please note, I am not claiming that the promoting of our show was a complete success, nor am I claiming it to be the right way to promote a show, it’s just the way we chose to do it.

When you’re doing an independent series for the web, one of the big daunting tasks is in the promoting of your web series.  Most people who create shows aren’t promoters, advertisers, or public relations gurus, they are filmmakers and storytellers.

Personally I’m glad to see that the “if you build it, they will come” watch mantra is dying fast. Why? Well the internet is a HUGE place. There are a lot of eyes out there, and you’re never reach them all. That is why you need to guide your target viewers to your show, and you need to find your audience.

I’m going to re-point to Pam Kulik’s, Dialogik Digital post on this because she really has it fleshed out better than I do so take a look. She really covers our Launch Strategy,  Promoting, and Audience Building, so I encourage you to learn from it, I know I did. I remember being on a conference call with them and Dailymotion before our launch and the two P.R. reps just chatted away about all this promotional/press jargon that I had no clue about. -

If you’re a web series creator, if you get anything out of this post, I’d say look into finding/hiring some P.R. representation, it’ll shoot your promotions forward 10 fold.

Anyway, PR rep or not, you’ll always have to do at least a good deal of hustling yourself. Heck even the creators behind shows like The Bannen Way and The Guild have to hustle to get that extra promotional push. So no matter who you got helping you,  I’d like to highlight four things about web series promoting that I feel are vital.

1. TAKE YOUR TIME! – I write this with an exclamation point because I really, really mean it. This also goes for pre-production, production, post-production, as well as crafting your promoting strategies.

Everyone remember the rule of Cheap/Fast/Good, you can only have 2? Well most web series I know don’t have a ton of money so by default you’re gonna be Cheap. So by that rule you’re gonna be either Fast or you’re gonna be Good. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be Good than Fast.

and seriously ask your self “what’s the hurry?” -

As we were dead set on releasing Compulsions in the 2009 calendar year, our original target release date was mid October but we fell behind in post. Then we were ready to go in Mid November, but our team agreed that pushing back and releasing in early December would be the right way to go.  We ended up with more time to finish the show, we had more time to craft our promotion strategy, and we had a nice little window between two major holidays to launch.

2. Promoting to people who watch Web Series. Relative to everything else this is easy (mainly because pretty much everyone in the web series world is so friendly and supportive). This process is pitching/promoting your site on all the forums and websites that cover web series, Tubefilter, Newteevee, Indie Intertube, WebSeriesToday, Slebisodes, SciFinal, 93Studios, The Web Files, and more..

All of these sites (and more), have sections (if not the entire site) dedicated to promoting web series. So yes they will at the very least watch your show at some point. Also please remember that most/if not all these sites have very limited resources dedicated to covering your show so please be patient with them. Many of them are covering web shows solely because they love doing it so lets cut them some slack if they fall behind. – A good set of rules to follow is Liz Shannon Miller’s “How to Pitch Me Your Web Series”. READ IT.

Going for other web series creators is a great core to start with, it’s a pre-conception that everyone knows everyone, but that’s not true. There are too many web series out there for everyone to know everyone, so go out and meet some of them and hopefully they’ll sample your show.

Please Realize: Not everyone is gonna watch your show. Blasphemy you say? – Well let me ask you this? Have you watched everyone else’s show? I know, I haven’t. I have good friends in the community who I know have not watched all of Compulsions, and our entire season runs less than 40 minutes. – So the best you can do is to  tell people about your show. Maybe they’ll watch it, maybe they wont, but hey you got out there.

There are some out there that think promoting within the “community” is a waste, but I find that false. I think it’s important to do so, but it’s not an all in. I just feel it’s a strong core to grow from. As we’ve discussed internally, this is where you’ll get your first 1,000 views, then if the show resonates your audience will grow naturally.

3. Promoting to your Niche/Audience – This is absolutely vital, and this comes from knowing your audience, and promoting to it.

Now with Compulsions, it’s kind of a hard show to niche. It’s more a thriller than a horror, but even with that classification it gave us a direction to go towards. Though hard to classify, it was easy to know what audience we’re not. Put it this way, my own Mother has yet to watch even an episode of my show. Why? Because it’s too violent, she doesn’t deal with violence, but violence is a niche audience and that’s what we started with.

In thinking violence and horror, we reached out to many online publications that cover horror/thriller type content. You have to be crafty with your pitch. Did every horror blog cover us? no, but some did and that helped us reach a strong audience of thriller fans that we wouldn’t have reached otherwise.

Another niche audience that began to arise that we never saw coming was the Soap audience. In making the show, we never thought to be classified as a ‘soap’, but after thinking about it, the core of a soap opera is (usually heavy) “character drama”. Well looking at the core of our show, I’d say we have a lot of heavy character drama so we went with it.  That devoted and supportive audience found us and in turn we began to promote towards it.

Speaking of character drama/soaps, if you want to see a well watched show that knows its audience, check out the Streamy and Indie Soap Award winning Anyone But Me. Whether or not the show is for you is up to you. But really look at what the show is about, and all the great core niche audiences you can promote towards.

4. Make the Best Show You Can - This is related to number 1, but really just go out and make the best show you can.

They say that ‘Word of Mouth’ is the most powerful form of marketing. Well Word of Mouth only happens when the show you make resonates with your audience and they pass it around to their peers, this gives your show its longevity.

In my opinion, most of our press coverage and our long period of  ”buzz” wasn’t because of how well we marketed the show, it was because of how well the show resonated amongst the audience and the press. All of our main stream press coverage didn’t come because we were a thriller. It came because the person writing the coverage really liked our show.

As Peter Drucker once said

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Thanks for reading.

Script Magazine interviewed Streamy Award winning writer Bernie Su.

Bernie talks about writing dark, foot trucks, and writing for online media.

Walking on Stage at the Streamys - photo by J.Regan Huston

It’s been a memorable week to say the least.  As much as I can say that I am thrilled for our Streamy Win I am not going to ignore the Streamys Ceremony debacle. My family was there, and it was good that I won, because I felt that really glossed over all the bad that was the ceremony itself for them. It left a bitter taste in my mouth after celebrating my finest moment as a writer (to date). I won an award where I was nominated against writers of several TV shows I deeply admire and my predecessors in my category are Jane Espenson and Ronald D Moore, two writers I hold as icons in my craft.  I remind myself that it wasn’t the Streamys or Tubefilter proper giving me the honor, it was from the voting body of the IAWTV who didn’t produce the Streamys, but instead determined the winners.

Despite the content of Compulsions and most of my stories, I generally like to remember the good things rather than the bad. So I will do my best to focus on that for this post. The Streamys, Web TV Week, and everything we as creators of online content do should be recognized, honored, celebrated, and for most of the week it really was.

Rewind –  7 days ago WebTV week began. Tuesday started with Digital LA, where I got to hang with a bunch of my pals that transcend both web video and web tech. I got to meet Andy Dugan, an Emmy/Webby winner who seems to be one of the Streamys biggest critics, and though I am a Streamy supporter and somewhat a Webby critic, I very much respect his opinions and where he’s coming from. In all though, it wasn’t a huge attendance of WebTV people, but it was great start to what would be a long week.

Wednesday came the Streamy Craft Awards. –  Going into an awards show, I understand splitting the awards up into two ceremonies. The Oscars do it, the Emmys do it, and when you’re trying to be all encompassing like the Streamys, I get it, there are a lot of awards to hand out. Compulsions had no nominations in the Craft awards but my team and I came in full support of the space, our friends, and for the shows we admire. I was sitting three seats away from Jeremy Redleaf of Odd Jobs and right next to Christian Taylor, Nina Bargiel and the Valemont team,  so being with them as they won was an absolute thrill.

The ceremony itself I thought was great, ironically it was lean, fast, and smooth. The banter/jokes from Jim Festante were in general pretty good. If a line/quip fell  flat, it was moved on from very quickly. If I were to critique anything from this, I would have liked the ceremony to show some clips. Categories like Cinematography, Art Direction, and Visual Efx just beg to be shown on screen. But either way lean, fast, and smooth. Here are you awards, say your speeches, and let’s get back to mingling.

Thursday came New Media Vault. Another solid event attended by great people. I like going to the Vault events, and this one was fun. Got to touch base more with other Web TV peeps and pals. One great thing to note about the week, there were a lot of people from out of town who I got the absolute pleasure of meeting, and really that’s what this is all about. Meeting people, making new friends and contacts, and celebrating the work we do.

Friday came the premiere of Vamped Out with Kevin Pollak and Babelgum. This was a solidly attended premiere, some traditional media peeps (Topher Grace, Matthew Perry) and of course more web peeps. I think at this event my energy was really starting to wain, but I do remember having a fun time. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting the team from Riese the Series, and praising that I got one of their street team “button pins” during Comic Con 2009.

Saturday was the Blip.tv/Streamy kick off party. This was a great event, Blip.tv always throws great events (I happily told Dina Kaplan this when I saw her). I was really happy to see the YouTube vloggers there in full force, it felt like all of WebVideo was coming together in celebration. This was truly the penultimate event leading up to Sunday.

Sunday – The Streamys – (I could write a huge post just on this, but much of it has been said) – I’m gonna preface this by saying that though we were one of the most nominated shows of the evening. We certainly weren’t treated as royalty (nor did we need/want to be). I had to fight to get our cast and crew members (that weren’t nominees) tickets, I had to fight to get an extra ticket for my own sister but I understood “every show wanted to be there, and they all wanted their entire teams to go”. The Tubefilter guys worked hard and have whole hearted intentions, I give them an ‘A’ for effort (an obviously a much lower grade for execution).

The Red Carpet- I felt this was a VAST improvement over the Red Carpet last year. It was relatively organized, and it moved. Our team was able to go from station to station, reporter to reporter, and yes they fell behind, but really I thought this went well. – If you don’t agree with me, try to remember last year when it was an absolute mess – I have pictures to prove it.  Anyway after our team walked and did our thing. I had a lot of fun just hanging out with different people. Though it was kind of nutty to try to get all our cast together through general admission, it eventually worked out.

The Streamys Awards Ceremony – Dance number – eh (why wasn’t it the LXD?) . Sound issues not a great sign. Long self deprecating humor/vulgar skits… another red flag. But I’ll be honest, I was feeling a lot of nerves, I wasn’t being objective about all the mishaps.

By the time they announced Writing in a Drama, we had already lost two categories (Actor and Director). I believe that our team, our families, and our immense support in the indie community was generally deflated. – Doesn’t matter who you are, you always hope to win. So when they announced that I had won, it was an electric moment. The roars around me were deafening. I hugged my family. I high fived my team,  I gave Craig a big embrace, and he pushed me to go up.

The instant I hit the stage it felt like the audience exploded. I heard a pretty amazing roar from the crowd. That moment was truly the greatest experience of my life thus far, and that is what I want to take from it. The adrenaline, the reponse, it was amazing. Many friends, and fellow indie creators described it as their highlight of the evening, and it was truly an honor for me to be that for so many people.

When I got backstage I was immediately greeted by The Bui Brothers and as many of you know my work as a photog, it was pretty awesome to see them, they both gave me big hugs. As I went through the press area I got to see another photog, Maria from Kodak, who I hadn’t seen since we were shooting last years Streamys. I also got big hugs from Jenni Powell, Pam Kulik, and Stephanie from Mingle Media TV. I took a moment to watch the announcement of Best Female Actor in a Drama and was thrilled to see Rachael win. I stopped my press run to go over to give her a big congrats hug.

When I made it around back to the audience, I walked in to what appeared to be the turning point that spiraled into the “train wreck”, the crashing of  The Fine Bros video. From there we’ve heard about how all the big technical difficulties that came about, no need to address them again. Yes it was vulgar and embarrassing but the main thing is that I sat through the bad to see the good… I saw great online content being honored.

I’m gonna end this by referencing nominee and Super YouTuber Phil DeFranco. A few weeks ago we had chatted about the Streamys and he was  constructively critical of the process, it was a great intelligent discussion, we agreed, we disagreed, but we wanted the same thing. At the end of the day I believe we all want online video content to honored, recognized, and respected. Yes the 2010 Streamy Awards ceremony was disappointing, but the intention to honor, recognize, and decorate the space is a noble and thankless task. Thus I will continue to support Tubefilter, the team behind the Streamys, and any individual or organization that is out to support the online video space.

Thank you for reading, and it is truly an honor.

Me, Nathan Atkinson, and Michael Tohl on the Red Carpet - photo by The Bui Brothers

and root for us.

Our Nominations again are as follows.

Actor in a Drama – Craig Frank

Writer in a Drama – Bernie Su

Director in a Drama – Nathan Atkinson

Drama Web Series

Thank You all for supporting us!

Fellow Streamy Nominee, Kristyn Burtt (The Web Files) and I at The Good Knight's Quest Premiere

First off, I want to congratulate all the Streamy Award Nominees. There were a lot of peers and pals that I deeply respect that scored nominations and that is just awesome. There were several I was so thrilled to see that it felt like I was more excited than the nominees themselves.

Anyway it’s just been a crazy week. So crazy that this blog post is coming 3 days after I originally wanted to write it. The good thing with the extra time for this post is that I can reflect more on what the nominations means to the team, the show, and me. I’ll admit, I was nervous as heck going into Monday morning (when they announced the nominations). I had figured that’d we pull in a few nominations and do well, but you never know until it’s official.

I am truly thrilled with our Streamy nominations. What the Streamy Awards means to everyone else is subjective, but to me it means a ton. Last year when we were finishing Compulsions, I set a hard deadline to my team. “This show is coming out in its entirety this year, distribution deal or not!”, and sure enough with grinding hard work, and the promotional support of Dailymotion, it premiered and has been extremely well received. One note to add, as one fellow deeply respected creator pointed out to me on Monday, the nominations (and any possible wins) will also hopefully give us enough recognition to propel us into a Season 2, which is and should be the goal for any Season 1 series.

As for our nominations themselves, it’s awesome that we’re well represented. We’re nominated in what are traditionally referred to as “big categories” (Acting, Writing, Directing, and Overall Drama). But as this is a blog and I feel obligated to be honest, I’ll admit that there was still this bittersweetness to it. Being part of a team, there’s this  disappointment that comes when members of them don’t receive the recognition that you feel they deserve. I really wanted my craft/technical team to pull out a nomination or two, so yes I was sad that they didn’t receive any. But in reflecting on it, I believe that feeling of let down goes for any webseries out there, nominated or not.

I’ve had private conversations with several nominees from other shows who voiced the exact same disappointment that I had. Their show may be represented (and in some cases well represented) yet they are still saddened by being missed in categories which they believed they were a strong contender for. It may seem “greedy” but I assure you it’s not. It’s a feeling of camaraderie that stems from that “family love” mentality you develop when you’re  working in a collaborative process like producing web video. Every web series creator/director/whatever is going to champion the work of every member of their team, it’s just a part of the journey. Thus I really hope my peers that were nominated are truly grateful for the nominations they received, and not worrying about the nominations that they didn’t.

Finally, for my personal nomination in writing, I am of course ecstatic. It’s an honor to be nominated, and it feels good to be up against heavy hitters.  Amongst my fellow nominees are a slew of TV writing credits (Lost, Doctor Who, Torchwood, The L Word) and two big studios (Sony/Crackle and MTV Networks).  As a growing episodic script-writer evolving into short format, I really challenged myself to prove that an intense/gripping/sophisticated drama could be executed as a high quality/episodic web series, thus it’s rewarding to receive a level of recognition like this. At its very base, it is an encouraging piece of validation that pushes my to advance my craft, so I will continue to press more in my work. – In a phrase  - “I must be doing something right.”

As always be sure to sign up on our EMAIL LIST, fan us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter

Streamy Nominee Craig Frank shows off his pliers - Click to watch the Episodes

We are proud to announce that Compulsions received four Streamy Award Nominations in the 2010 Streamy Awards.

Best Drama Web Series

Best Directing for a Drama Web Series – Nathan Atkinson

Best Writing for a Drama Web Series – Bernie Su

Best Male Actor in a Drama Web Series – Craig Frank

In the Drama Category, Compulsions is going up against Sony/Crackle’s Angel of Death, and The Bannen Way, as well as MTV/Viacom’s Valemont, and the ITVFest winner OzGirl.

A full list of nominations can be found here.

- The Streamy Awards is the first and most prestigious awards ceremony devoted to honoring excellence in original web television programming and those who create it. The annual ceremony, and its live online broadcast, brings together top talent, decision-makers and influencers shaping the online entertainment industry. – from Streamys.org

For Your Consideration: Guest Star - Taryn O'Neill

This Post is in a series of posts that is directed at the members of the IAWTV/Streamy Awards. The content will highlight different members of the Compulsions team. These are meant for both awareness and as a guide to showcase what each individual brought to the project.

Taryn is an experienced Actor and received a Streamy Nomination in 2009 for her work in After Judgment. Last month she won an Indie Soap Award for Best Supporting Actress in her work in Compulsions.

From Director Nathan Atkinson: The single most exposed, and thereby critical role in the series. Why? And, why Taryn? We saw actor after actor for this role – and everyone brought something different, something valuable… but what Taryn was able to capture is what sold me. I’m getting ahead of myself. So, during the casting process, what I was looking for was to find someone who could genuinely come across as someone who was lying to the one they loved the most – out of love. …And then gets caught. The whole concept fascinated me. And, bound to a chair what lengths would she go to, to save the one she loved. It’s complex and twisted, but somehow, out of everyone, Taryn made me believe. She made everyone believe, that’s what really added the depth that the Series needed – adding that credible, fourth perspective on the interconnectedness of everything.

(Watch Taryn in Episode 6 as she goes through the journey as Nathan describes)

From Creator Bernie Su: This is one of those meaty/rich  performances that you just need to watch an appreciate. I remember the day Episode 4 aired and Taryn’s Facebook/Twitter exploded with people in awe of her performance.

One of the base themes of this series is deception. But like all deception there are clues (or bodily “tells”) that a deception is happening, the difference is how big the tell is. In this scene below, Mark(Craig) is interrogating Sara(Taryn), Mark asks “Where is it?”, and Sara gives an answer. It’s specific, it’s detailed, and she does it without breaking eye contact, so then how does Mark know she’s lying?… In the clip below from Episode 4, watch the 2:21 mark (you may need to watch it a couple of times to catch it) but Taryn does a slight subtle flinch (“The Tell”), which follows into the rest of the scene. There is a tell, and Mark catches it and he then punishes her for it.

This role required someone who could big and go dark, and just commit. Taryn committed to it, and what came out was an amazing performance.

So please consider Taryn O’Neill  in Compulsions for Best Guest Star.

For Your Consideration - Editor Michael Darrow

This Post is in a series of posts that is directed at the members of the IAWTV/Streamy Awards. The content will highlight different members of the Compulsions team. These are meant for both awareness and as a guide to showcase what each individual brought to the project.

Michael is an award winning editor and has done six feature films. Last month he won an Indie Soap Award for Best Editing in his work in Compulsions.

From Director Nathan Atkinson: After Principal Photography, I was so frustrated, I couldn’t get past the fact that I didn’t get all the shots I wanted (we shot all of Season One in 5 days) and {our budget} was spoken for, which meant that we weren’t going to have any reshoots – period. No pick-ups, no matter how big or small, nothing. Mike just simply told me, with all the confidence that only comes with experience, “Just come on in and let me show you what I got.” I simply could not have done it without him. Even when it seemed that we may have painted ourselves into a corner, he always found a way out. He simply understands tone, character development, drama, tension… Michael’s not just a gifted Editor – he’s a gifted Storyteller.

From Producer Michael Tohl: Aside from his strong sense of story and timing, Michael also had his own “off screen” challenge to deal with. How can an editor edit a digital piece without a computer? Half way through post-production, a water main burst in the wall of his apartment… he saved his computer, but it was packed up in a box while he bounced around living situations in the interim. While his computer was able to be unpacked and set up somewhere, he also had to take on more editing gigs to pay the bills, because let’s face it… we couldn’t pay that much. So how does an editor balance paid gigs with a low paid passion project, without a stable or constant work environment, and get it done by the final deadline? Dedication.

From Creator Bernie Su: I really can’t tell you how much I respect Michael’s sense of story. When you come into a script/story with non-linear timelines like our show, it can be confusing. There’s no right/wrong way to approach editing a story like that. Adding to that was our philosophy of having “perceived violence”. You actually don’t see much if any of the violent moments on screen, it’s all implied, and that in itself is a skill to edit together.

Below are a couple clips for a few episodes to highlight Michael’s editing.

Episode 1: 2:46 – This sequence in episode 1 is a combination of both story and “violence” together. Watch as the scene builds from Mark interrogating Adam, to Mark punishing Adam for his defiance. Note: We never see the hammer connect on anything… it’s all implied.

Episode 2: 0:45 – This is the exact same scene I highlighted for Sound Designer Tom Boykin, but now you can watch it for the precision in the editing this time around. Again you’re looking at rapid cuts back and forth between the office and interrogation scenes. Both scenes are completely opposite as far as moods and tones, and most importantly they both serve each other for character and story.

One final note to say. This series has three leads and each specific episode focuses on one of them, even though the characters intertwine. Michael was able to execute in his craft that the episodes maintain that mantra. You’ll notice it come Episodes 3, 5, 7, and 8 when the Mark character is in each episode but is regulated to secondary status. Always service your leads, and Michael did that in his editing.

For Your Consideration: Cinematographer Jason Raswant

This Post is in a series of posts that is directed at the members of the IAWTV/Streamy Awards. The content will highlight different members of the Compulsions team. These are meant for both awareness and as a guide to showcase what each individual brought to the project.

From Producer Michael Tohl: Jason had limited equipment, limited crew, and tough conditions to work in.  We shot all eight episodes in July, and two of our days were particularly tough on him and his crew… when we shot our warehouse scenes.  Lighting an empty space the size of three football fields with a lighting package smaller than one  typical on a student film is hard enough.  They were using practically every single thing they hand to light each shot one at a time.  Having a “skeleton crew” means less hands on deck to move that heavy equipment around for each shot, and running it around such a large space is tiring.  That makes it hard to keep up with the shooting schedule.  We had a “diffuser” (similar to a fog machine) to create “depth” and “texture” in the background, and that created swamp like humidity.  And to push the crew to the edge, we had to keep the air conditioning off to keep the sound from getting ruined, and from blowing the diffusion around.  The crew was quickly fatigued, and it took all their heart to keep going.  So aside from his creative talents that can be seen on screen, what you didn’t see was how he remained strong (but not mean), calm (but not lazy) and constantly thought on his toes to keep his crew from losing heart.  It takes some serious leadership skills to keep a crew moving on schedule, and doing quality work under such harsh conditions!

Taryn O'Neill looks on to a bleeding Seth Caskey in Episode 6

From Director Nathan Atkinson: Here’s the thing about Jason, I think he was given a budget of something like $600… and then we cut it back. Because he has such a great eye, he was able to take his pocket change budget, call in dozens of one time favors, and make it look like a studio had picked us up and we shot it for seven figures. Simply amazing. The camera we used (Sony EX3) is a camera that many feature films use as “crash cameras” – cameras that are cheap enough to destroy… just as long as you get the shot from them first. But, with Jason, you’d never know it. Again, you can have the flashiest gun in the world – but if you don’t know how to shoot it, you’re just going to hurt yourself. Jason’s skill, his attitude, and his almost magical skill of taking next-to-nothing and making it look like a million bucks, not only makes him the best candidate for this award – it makes me want to work with him again, and often.

A silhouetted Craig Frank in Episode 6

From Creator Bernie Su: From day one Jason was the first pick of both Nathan and Michael for this project and I certainly feel fortunate to work with someone so driven and talented in his craft. I was always impressed from his use of shadows in a scene, below is the first scene from Episode 6, one of our most complex scenes as far as coverage. Take special note of Jason’s incredible use of shadows in contrast with the lighting in each shot. The depth and layers added so much to the “grittiness” that serves the sequence so well, and like Jason stands by, “serves the story.”

Please consider Jason Raswant from Compulsions for Best Cinematography in the 2010 Streamys.

Production Designer Rachel Payne works on set.

This Post is in a series of posts that is directed at the members of the IAWTV/Streamy Awards. The content will highlight different members of the Compulsions team. These are meant for both awareness and as a guide to showcase what each individual brought to the project.

When you approach Rachel and ask what a Production Designer does her response is, “A Production Designer is the person that is in charge of everything in the frame…that doesn’t move…and is usually out of focus”.

From Producer Michael Tohl: Given the gritty tone of our show, it was a natural dilemma… how do we balance our budget while pulling off sets that “sold” on screen? My favorite creative solution to a production design challenge we faced, can be seen in the climax of Episode Eight. At the end of the episode, Justine goes to pick up “the package” in a vacant parking structure. When she goes to the drop off spot (a hole in a pillar behind a parking sign) the package is not there, and all we see is the chunky inside of a concrete pillar. That pillar was a fake pillar, that she handmade hours before we shot that scene! It only cost us a few bucks, and it looks great on screen. That is one example of her excellence, but there is also so much fine detail work that she did, and as long as you don’t notice it… that means she did her job well.

Janna Bossier stands in front of the false pillar in episode 8

From Director Nathan Atkinson: Rachel Payne is my “go-to” Production Designer, period. I’ve done a few projects without her (due to availability) and when others simply couldn’t, I always found myself saying, “Rachel would’ve been able to make it work.” She has simply never failed. No matter how outrageous the request, she always comes up with a (ridiculously practical) solution… even if it’s constructed of nothing but “gaff-tape.” For example, we needed a pillar in a public parking garage with a hole burrowed into it. She made one out of paper mache for next to nothing… and, every time I watch, I truly forget that it’s fake. She’s really that good. Other times it’s a priceless antique. “Rachel, that’s amazing, where in the world did you find that?” Rachel, with her ever-disarmingly thick Alabama accent, “Well, none of the Prop Houses had one, so I said to myself, I’ll just make one … and then I found this at a Thrift Store.” To be perfectly frank, Rachel took our shoe-string budget and made everything you see in front of the camera look just as real as if this were a documentary – or better, in some cases. She’s simply the best.

From Creator Bernie Su: In reality most Art Direction is hard to notice, and in reality most production design you really shouldn’t notice. But in highlighting the skills of Rachel Payne I’m going to point out what’s fake to appreciate what she brought to the table.

Craig Frank stands above his tool bench.

Interrogation Room – This is THE set piece of the series. Here you can see the details of what Rachel brought. Early on Rachel envisioned a bevy of tools to place at Craig Frank’s arsenal, but not only tools. She wanted a bench, an artificial quick to strike table that added to the simplicity and the fear of the scene. Thus Rachel went about constructing this table from scratch. Morning of she yanked out her power tools, goggles and away she went building  her bench.

Annemarie Pazmino in the Cassandra set.

Cassandra’s room -We always envisioned this as the 2nd setpiece of the series. It really is just a room, but we went as big as we could. 4 Monitors, all active with two floating on arms. We got an obsessed voyeur here, so Rachel went all out. A great little detail of this scene is the DVD rack behind her, a mass archive of all the footage the character has acquired from her victims.

One final note on Rachel. The Office set seen throughout the show was originally a completely vacant office. Everything you see from the stationary, the supplies, the white board, to the copier were all artificially brought in by Rachel. There is nothing like walking in on that set you get completely lost in, “Wait, this isn’t a working office?”.

So please consider Rachel Payne from Compulsions for Best Art Direction in the 2010 Streamys.