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Some Final Thoughts on Tomorrow Awakes

Posted on 03.16.2008 by Darrell

Tomorrow Awakes began as a sort of experiment -- to see how well-versed we were in the technology, to find out how far you can stretch a two man crew and to see how far we could bend the learning curve, while still being true to the narrative.

The first draft of the first episode of Tomorrow Awakes was wildly different. It was some kind of Dark City rip-off where "agents" manipulated peoples dreams so that when they woke up they were different people than the night before -- something like that; I remember there was a lot office cubicles and instant messaging. It was pretty lame, but was written in the spirit of an experiment. I rewrote it, obviously, but the title remained.

We started shooting Tomorrow Awakes in, I guess, September of '07. We shot mostly on weekends because during the week we would be working on pre-production, and occasionally I was still writing episodes.

As we became more comfortable in what we were doing, the idea of it being an experiment began to wain, and we really started to focus in on the production and the story. To put it bluntly, we were much more satisfied with the end-product than we thought we would be.

The first day of shooting, I was of the mind-set that we would have to hire more people, that we just couldn't do all this ourselves. I felt uncomfortable behind the camera, I wanted a D.P., Dustin talked me out of it. Dustin had never worked on After Effects before, now we needed green screen work and lasers and composites and... He picked it up so quick. As our confidence grew so did the production. I still think we could use another person, just to bring us lunch; but to shoot like that you do need some talented and laid-back actors, who are willing to help carry gear on two mile hikes up rocky hillside to a cave that a stubborn director insist we use.

In the end, Tomorrow Awakes was a blast, we enjoyed everyone we worked with. We started out over heads and ended up treaded like enough to tell the story and capture a few quality images along. With new project, we feel certain, sundaynite.tv will get better and better...

Vanity note: Soon, look for the least-requested commentary track ever: The Tomorrow Awakes director/producer commentary -- if only for our own jollies.

New Premiere Date

Posted on 03.10.2008 by Darrell

We have decided to officially postpone the premiere of Charlie Brown + The New Black. We are having more difficulties than we imagined in the transfer over to HD. The series will now premiere Sunday, March 17th at 6pm PST. Thanks for your patience.

On the lates

Posted on 03.09.2008 by Darrell

Still working out the HD. Set backs galore. We'll be posting some Tomorrow Awakes outtakes and some videos Dustin put together showcasing the difference between the raw footage and his effects skills. The first episode of Charlie Brown + The New Black will be posted late tonight, but for your Sundaynite viewing pleasure, enjoy the outtakes.

Trailer for new project

Posted on 03.03.2008 by Dustin

After a near sleepless night tweaking video encoders the trailer for the next project from sundaynite.tv is up.

You can check out the trailer for Charlie Brown + The New Black here.

This project is in HD so you may need to update your Flash Player if you haven't done so in a while, but the huge jump in quality is worth it. If you have any problems just leave a comment to this post and let me know. The first episode will air next Sunday March 9th.
Some outakes from Tomorrow Awakes will also be posted here in the next couple of days.
Enjoy.

Tonight

Posted on 03.02.2008 by Darrell

The trailer and outtakes will be posted tonight, but on the late side. Check back Monday if you're an early-riser, and look for a fresh, newly designed website.

EP VIII

Posted on 02.26.2008 by Darrell

So the finale's posted. It's a wrap. What do you think of the series as a whole? Do you find it resolved?

What to expect next week:

We are in the middle of shooting the next project, and next week you can expect a little teaser for it. Also, seeing that we are not ready to fully let Tomorrow Awakes go (and maybe you aren't either), look for a little outtake reel on Sunday as well.

March 9th, the premiere of the second series from sundaynite.tv.

- Cheers

Ep VII

Posted on 02.18.2008 by Darrell

Ep VII ended up quite different from what was on the page. The episode was only four pages long -- most of it reading something like this: "Matt walks through the desert." As you can see, those four pages ballooned into a fifteen minute episode. You can usually anticipate that each page of script will yield a minute, minute and a half tops, of screen time, but what happened with ep VII, I believe, is that the actors had really come to know their characters, and had gotten more comfortable with the run and gun method in which we shot, and what they were doing was great it was hard to cut away from them. Also, of the few lines that are in the episode, most of them are improved or ad libbed.

So it's all wrapped up next Sunday -- well, we'll see -- it ends anyway.

- Cheers

Ep VI and next pro

Posted on 02.10.2008 by Darrell

Back to the desert.

Two questions for you, based of some of the comments:

1. Who are these 'suits' and who/what do they represent? Best guesses...

2. Is Ren alive?

Also, sundaynite.tv announces, informally, its next project -- Charlie Brown + The New Black -- an L.A. Noir. We are in the pre-production phase now, and are currently casting. If you're in the L.A. area and have some thespian friends, have them send a headshot to contact@sundaynitetv.com. More info to come.

- Cheers

Ep V

Posted on 02.03.2008 by Darrell

Now that we are halfway through, thought it time for a little quick summary.

Ep I: Matt and Hera, once strangers, find each other in the desert after a visit from an angelic being.

Ep II: After waking up together in the desert, Matt and Hera must decide how this might effect their lives.

Ep III: After stalking out their residence, Matt saves Hera and her beau Ren from the "suits".

Ep IV: Hera and Ren have moved in with Matt, who is now being evicted. Hera has a surprise for Matt, which prompts another visit from the angelic being.

Episode V is a little longer than the previous four. But we are proud of it, and think it works at this length. Camilo is so funny up front, and wait 'til you see what Charlotte does with her moment at the end.
Looking back on it, I feel like a kind of patterned developed early on in the series. The pattern: a more visceral,image/action reliant episode followed by a more nuanced, dialogue driven episode. Ep V breaks that pattern, or at least is long enough to contain a combination of the two. I would suggest that the remainder of the episodes more closely resemble five, than the four previous. - Cheers

Ep IV

Posted on 01.29.2008 by Darrell

You can now comment on these eloquently scribed post. Click on the comments link on the bottom right, let me know what else I should be telling you. There is a scene is Episode IV whose context shares more than a passing resemblance to two popular comedies from last year. Withstanding the common plot point, there is at least one other unifying link connecting the three scenes; something, that after having shot Ep IV, cut it and viewed it several times, began to somewhat agitate me. Being that, in all three scenes, in all three filmed entertainments, the big reveal made by the female character - while, assuredly, being of greater significance to her - is played and cut in such a way to give more weight to the mens' response than to her exposition. The greater import of the notice, of the revelation, being in how the male character responds, and not in what the news and subsequent revelation truly meant for the now expectant half of the equation, or even, for the now deeply connected pair. My own excuse: I hope it to be revealed in the episodes to come. If not, maybe I'll revisit this topic when it can, without fear of spoiler, be broached in a more direct manner. Hang on to your shorts sports fans, episode V is a doozy. - Cheers

Ep III

Posted on 01.24.2008 by Darrell

How's it do? Alright, so we, once again, revamped the episode. Episode III had a few audio issues that we received notice about - encoding problems, basically - but it's tweaked and the video's even of a higher res now. Check this link out. . Some of you have already seen this I'm sure, but it got me thinking - maybe we could put up some before and after shots of Tomorrow Awakes. Some of them, like the door opening in Ep III, are a lot odd and little amazing. Let us know if that's something you'd care to see. Thanks for all the positive comments. For those of you that are into it, take a moment and befriend us on myspace or subscribe to us on youtube. So Episode IV on Sunday - big reveal. Things start to become a little clearer. Stay tuned. - Cheers

EP II fixed and new Extras Page

Posted on 01.14.2008 by Dustin

Episode 2 has now been updated with some minor changes and a better quality image. There is also a new Extras page where you can find links to our YouTube, Facebook, and Myspace pages. We will continue to update the page with more stuff including outakes, links to other web-series, high quality stills, and other goodies.

Ep II

Posted on 01.14.2008 by Darrell

Howdy folks. It's Sunday nite and episode two is up. We ran into a few technical snafus so the episode we posted isn't exactly how we want it. We'll have a better version up tomorrow so if you can muster the patience, I'd maybe wait.

The main issue: I don't think we were ever really happy with this episode. We never really got the shots we wanted, and we lost some of the footage. How? Unknown.

But, you know, as part of a whole, it works quite nicely.

That's something we strived for: to have the series work as a single entity. A lot of our favorite shows seem to get lost somewhere along the way, as if they didn't know where they were headed. Anyway, we knew exactly where we were going, so we only occasional got lost.

Oh yea, we've decided to have an official posting time for future episodes. The official posting time: 6pm PST.

See you in week three.

- Cheers

On Tomorrow Awakes and Sunday Nite TV

Posted on 01.06.2008 by Darrell

We wanted to be able to tell the stories we wanted to tell the way we wanted to tell them. We wanted complete independence - financial and creative freedom - without sacrificing production value. That's how we came to doing webseries. Even with a less-than-minuscule budget, we found that we could create images that would not look terribly out of place on IFC. Tomorrow Awakes is the first of many series to come for Sunday Nite TV, and in many ways was a trial by fire, but we are proud of it. Two dudes made a show; here it is. Check back every Sunday for new episodes of Tomorrow Awakes and soon new series. Tomorrow Awakes is just the beginning for Sunday Nite TV, with other projects already in the works, we hope to expand the site into a true destination, a refreshing place to enjoy your sunday evening television.

Oh yea, and leave us a comment; send us a message. We're open to any questions. Want to do this yourself? Want to know how we got this shot, created this effect, found a location, all for near free? Give us a shout, and I'll keeping a blog on the site, with updates about the episodes and future projects.

And special thanks to the actors, who all went above and beyond, not only on camera, but on set as well. They all brought something special to this little project of ours.

Cheers.

- Darrell