Ménage à Ted

About the making of Ménage à Ted

Ménage à Ted took several years to get off the ground and then was almost grounded days before filming was to begin. I came up with the concept in 2008 or 09 and wrote a first draft of the script. I had specific actors in mind for Ted and Amanda. The first hiccup came when my Ted actor moved to LA and then I met with my Amanda actress and she turned down the role (and then subsequently moved to LA). So I shelved the script until late 2011.

In 2011, I dusted it off and did a significant rewrite. I got rid of one character (there used to be a fourth co-worker named Ludwig), changed around some of the women who were interviewed; ditched a musical number; and changed some of the flow (for instance, the original opening was the football game and it took place in a park). I met with several actors to play Ted, cast a number of actors for all the supporting roles and thought I was ready to roll. Then my Ted backed out. So I met with other actors and offered the role to another one, who said he needed some to think it over and then never responded to further inquiries. But by this time, the other Ted had reconsidered, only to back out a week before shooting was to start. In the meantime, Skinny New Guy actor backed out a week before, as did several of the supporting actors. So with one week to go, I had no lead nor a key supporting role, and then several of the one scene supporting characters also had to be replaced. Summer Hairabedian, who plays the woman who likes candy, suggested I contact Justin Blenkle (and if I recall, Rae Wright who played Carrie, told me he'd be a good choice as well). So I contacted Justin, who told me he was too busy. Back to the drawing board. But when I told Summer, she said she'd talk to him. Lo and behold, Justin and I spoke and I told him about the time commitment and he agreed to do it. I was able to cast Cameron Johnson for Skinny New Guy (I had originally wrote another role for him that didn't end up making it in the script since I needed him for this other role).

Remember I mentioned I wrote a musical number? Well, I originally wrote that for Rae Wright, but ultimately I decided it was too much work to produce and film it, so I ditched it, and the character who sung it. I had not originally considered Rae for the lead, not because she wasn't talented, (she had been a lead in two of my previous shorts), but because it would mark teaming her up with the original Ted for the third time, and I wanted a different dynamic. Now when the Ted actor moved to LA and I cut the singing scene, it left me with two gaps -- who to cast as Carrie and what to do with Rae -- and the questions just answered themselves. Ask Rae to play Carrie. And that's what I did and she accepted. So one lead down and two to go.

Just as Summer ultimately helped me find my Ted, Rae was instrumental in me finding my Amanda. I asked Rae for suggestions. She gave me three names. When I saw the three actresses she suggested, I knew it was going to be Danielle Williams. I had seen her do improv a couple of years before and she had made an impression on me. So she was the only one I contacted. We met over coffee and discussed the role and she ended up accepting it. So I had two of the leads (and I believe at this time I thought I had Ted, but that didn't go as planned).

The first two days of shooting went off fine; those were the scenes taking place at Ted and Carrie's home. The first major day of shooting the office scenes was a complete and utter disaster. You see, we had an attorney kind enough to let us use her office on a Saturday. The only problem is the key we had made didn't work. So I had about 15 actors showing up to an office that I couldn't get into and setup. So we were able to get a new key, but of course that put us behind by a couple of hours. Here's all that went wrong: the key didn't work; one of my crew sat on a glass top desk and broke it; I forgot the booze props (both alcohol and flask); the reception desk was much smaller area than I had remembered from shooting Terror Detectives there so I had to rewrite a scene on the spot to have one less actor in it; I decided in my cameo to adlib a line but like an idiot didn't mic it (had to do ADR later); one of the actresses had another commitment and since we were running so late I had to bump the scenes up; in one of the scenes the auto focus was on on the camera and it came out blurry (that was an editing nightmare); one of the supporting actresses didn't show up (there was supposed to be somebody with a smoking fetish) ... essentially this was the Murphy's Law of filming.

Since we got so behind we had to schedule another day of shooting the following week, in which the biggest disaster to ever happen on one of my films happened. We call it the "Gas Incident" and quite frankly, I'm still not ready to write about it. Oh, and then there was the day shooting with Marilyn Monroach where two things happened -- it started sprinkling and the CHP pulled up and asked what we were doing (I may have lied a bit). With Marilyn sitting on state property (in front of the doorway of California Conservation Corps) and me with the camera and tripod on the sidewalk, the officer told us to be gone when he came back (which was his way of saying: "I'll let you finish but you're not supposed to be here so be quick about it.") Although I was okay, since I was on the sidewalk and wasn't disturbing anyone, Marilyn was sitting in the doorway of a state office, so that was probably the issue. It was a Saturday so that shouldn't really have been a big deal. Oh, and by the way, Marilyn was wonderful and caused me to re-edit how that scene was supposed to flow. Seriously. (that's her holding the guitar at the top of this page).

When I finally wrapped filming, I went to edit to only discover the blurry scene, the me not mic'd scene and the completely not shooting one of Skinny New Guy's key dialogue scenes (he had to come in and record it as a voiceover ... so if you watch the movie and wonder why we are on Charley for such a long shot while Skinny New Guy is talking, that's why ... one of the little secrets of small budget filmmaking). I wanted one more actress for the black and white dissing Ted scene, so a month or two after filming I brought in Brittany Shaw to complete that scene. (matter of fact, I think I had already been accepted to the Sacramento Film & Music Festival when I shot her).

A lot of bad stuff happened. But a lot of good did too. Rae proved again why I can always rely on her to give me great comedic timing. I worked for the first time with a number of actors and even let one adlib her own line (which is usually a no-no on my set unless you clear it with me first). And my trusty supporting characters who I've come to rely on in most of my films, once again proved why I rely on them in most of films. And the movie, in my humble opinion, is very funny.