On March 16th, I woke up completely paranoid
that film and TV production was never gonna come back.
And out of that fear and paranoia,
came an idea.
Ready when you are. Ready and…
-Go ahead, Lucia. -Marker.
We’re behind the scenes right now.
This is generally camera department over here.
This is generally props.
Here’s a few extra costume department pieces.
So, Social Distance is an anthology.
We’re telling eight stories
about eight different groups of people.
Families,
spouses,
people who are alone.
It was an idea to shoot a remote production
about social distance during this time,
shot right now, remotely.
So much more effortless, streamlined, fast.
We’re getting full direction from an amazing team.
The show’s point of view
of the internet, of connected things,
be it your phone
or your laptop or your nanny cam.
This is an exciting new way to shoot TV.
But how are we gonna see this?
How are we gonna show this?
How can we motivate the camera
to be here in this moment?
We’re so used to doing things one way
when we make a TV show.
What if we could do it with everyone in isolation?
There was a lot of fear going in,
’cause I had no idea
what I was gonna be up against.
I was excited and exhilarated at first,
and then this huge sound cart arrived at my house,
on the back of a huge truck.
What is this? What… How are we doing this?
I knew I would have to do stuff,
but I wasn’t thinking about it as much as the role.
We did our own stunts.
I don’t wanna compare us to Fast & Furious
or Mission Impossible 3,
but I broke my toe.
It was definitely fine print that I did not read.
I was concerned.
Slate six, take one.
It’s hard, too, as a director,
’cause you have this idea of what you want to shoot.
I had never directed via Zoom before.
I’m sorry, I muted myself. I just gave you a whole note.
So that was a huge learning curve.
We would walk around and they would be like,
"Let me see what it looks like if you put this chair there."
"Move the couch like that and put that lamp up like that."
Yeah, I had to edit how much I asked Mike to do
because he was adjusting the picture,
doing all this set-dressing stuff,
then bringing up the props, then setting the camera,
and then he had to get into character.
When we set up Guillermo’s camera,
it took him eight hours,
and then he had to act.
I was like, "I won’t be able to do this."
You learn a little bit about yourself.
I wanted to learn,
and see how does it work when you do the lighting,
and when you have to set up a room
and do the sound.
Let me get back in position so I can figure this…
out again.
The casting process was different in a lot of ways,
one being
none of these actors auditioned for us.
We would sort of zero in on somebody who was
in the right location, living with the right person.
Because we could only work
with people who were in the same household,
so for Daphne’s character, who is Reina,
in real life we used her husband and her son,
who had never acted before.
When Asante and Ayize stepped forward and said yes,
I was so excited.
This father is not acting 24-7 like Asante is.
We were blown away.
Wait, what?
I had no idea that this is what they were gonna ask of him,
and neither did he but…
we did the best that we can,
and I think that the outcome was pretty good.
I really enjoyed shooting with my mom.
Natural born actrice.
And even when she helps me with my auditions,
I got some callbacks ’cause Mama…
she got some skills!
Peter’s son Leo is four years old,
and to try and direct a four-year-old via Zoom,
it was a real challenge,
and we had to commit to that challenge.
Hello.
Once we started recording,
it became a mechanism
with actors supporting each other,
crew supporting actors,
actors, a lot of the time, supporting crew.
It was a beautiful thing to see this whole thing
through Zoom.
We can create art almost anywhere.
We can still create something wonderful
without having the normal circumstances we work in.
Work will find a way.
People find a way to be creative no matter what.
We really want the show to give people hope,
but it’s also a vehicle
that gives us permission to feel our feelings.
It’s been an intense time for everybody.
Everyone on the planet is going through an intense time.
That’s why we lean on stories.
It truly felt like people really using technology
in ways that are beautiful,
and, you know, make the world a better place.
Signing off.