Category Archives: Shorts

DIY: Stay at Home Dan

I returned from Los Angeles late last night where I was shooting a 7-minute version of a sitcom pilot I’ve written with Ben Brooks and Renée Percy. The name of the sitcom is “Stay at Home Dan”; the name of the pilot episode is “Chick Magnet”.

The three of us financed, produced, directed and starred in it ourselves. We had a wicked crew consisting of director of photography John Schmidt, production manager Brandi Wright, sound recordist Sean Oakley, gaffer Carlos Jackson and grip J.R. Latouche. We also had a great supporting cast with Jessica Sattel, Pete Gardner and Jay Malone.

Now begins my favorite step in the process: editing. It’s the part where I finally get to write the story.

Here are some production stills:

Ben Brooks and Renée Percy in Stay at Home Dan

Ben Brooks and Renée Percy in Stay at Home Dan

Simon Fraser in Stay at Home Dan

Simon Fraser in Stay at Home Dan

Jessica Sattel in Stay at Home Dan

Jessica Sattel in Stay at Home Dan

Pete Gardner in Stay at Home Dan

Pete Gardner in Stay at Home Dan

Jay Malone in Stay at Home Dan

Jay Malone in Stay at Home Dan

cast & crew in Topanga State Park

cast & crew in Topanga State Park

Method Story

I think it’s possible to let your problems work for you. They can affect how you tell a story, but any story can be told any way.

The simplest possible method to tell the story is for you yourself to deliver the story directly to camera. And there’s even different ways of doing that – video/film diary, home video/movies, various styles of news report, documentary/mockumentary, etc.

That’s the simplest. Everything else is an expansion of that.