I met collaborator Dan Powell in early '03 when he approached me about applying some of my production skills to an improv based sketch show. I was then new to the improv world, but quickly discovered its thrill. There's this incredible tension between the audience and performers: they don't know any more about where it's going than you do. And its collaborative, reactive nature leads to inventive twists and jokes that no one individually would have created. Our ambition was to bottle some of that raw creativity and polish it into something less ephemeral.

Dan is a talented improvisor himself, but for this project he wanted to use the eight members of Possible Side Effects. They've worked together for years and were enthusiastic collaborators. The form beings when an audience member yells out a short suggestion to start the opening monologue. For half and hour, the cast creates a set of characters and story on the fly. Our hope was to shoot this and capture even a sliver of its genius. We'd need a substantial production to pull it off right, but had just a few thousand dollars to work with.

In late September, we overtook Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn to tape our event. The stage was outfitted with a U-shaped greenscreen, completely surrounding the cast and insuring all cameras would have usable shots. My trusty DP Jon Furmanski masterminded the lighting, rigging, and camera placement. We dug up seven DVX100s and enough volunteer operators to run them. Everyone was on headsets and I directed them from a monitor bank. Each performer wore a wireless mic, but there was no directing them. They just did what they do best.

With an audience of about eighty, we ran a total of four public tapings over a weekend. Each show consisting of two half-hour sets, which gave us eight complete sets to choose from.

Two shows were exceptionally strong. After the shoot, Dan and I each took one to cut. We looked for story, cutting out the inevitable digressions and tightening up the comedy. We wanted something that felt almost like it was written.

In November we screened the two rough cuts to a small audience. We chose one of these to move forward into compositing and animation. Alas, this was too ambitious a project to fully animate more than one sketch.

Over the next months, I worked with illustrators Rob Donnelly and Nick Gibbons to create the world of the show. They drew line art that Dan would then scan and color. I animated these pieces along with the live acton footage. Adobe After Effects was, of course, my tool of choice. I went for a simple, gritty look. The low-tech animation compliments the raw footage without ever upstaging the improv.

After much work, here is the result.

I am pleased at how together the piece feels. The story wraps itself beautifully. Amazing testament to the talent of the cast.

Dan and I entered this project not knowing what we'd get. But sometimes the best way to answer a question is to just try it. I don't think this is brilliant, but it taught me much about what pieces you can take from live improv and what you can't. And since I use improv in my scripted work, it was wonderful to explore this approach.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this epic undertaking.