#7: cartoons and badges and rough cuts, oh my

a big bumper Murder for Dummies update

Well, hello again.

It’s been a few months since our last update, but oh mama: do we have a lot of exciting behind-the-scenes updates on Murder for Dummies for you*.

Like a hairdresser with blunt scissors, we have rough cuts

That’s right! We have a delectable first edit of the whole damn show. All six episodes are officially watchable instead of readable! And they’re really good! PHEW!

I watched the finale last night for the first time, and even though I had literally written the whole thing, I was on the edge of my seat: partly because it’s genuinely tense and thrilling (THANK GOD) and partly because, like Frankenstein waiting for the smoke to clear before declaring “IT’S ALIVE!”, I didn’t know whether the script I’d written would actually be as satisfying and funny and tense on screen as I’d hoped it would be. All six episodes were just a theory - something that worked on paper - until now. The ending is ambitious, and the shoot was happening on the other side of an entire ocean from where I live, so… I had to wait and see.

To my delight and relief, I needn’t have worried. Our series finale is a climactic and funny and genuinely tense and ludicrously dark. The actors in the final scenes (no spoilers) are doing god-tier work. Comedically, the ending reminds me of the best work Casual Violence did on stage, crossed with the final episode of The Jinx. You’re going to love it.

The temporary production title card we use to keep track of different versions of each episode. Here’s the one for episode six!

A first edit is like a first draft of a script, mind you: there’s a few rounds of notes from myself and the Casual Violence boys to go before all the episodes will be where we want them - and then we have VFX, colour grading, sound mixing, and more to do.

But J.W. Roberts, our director / editor, has done what we in the industry refer to as a “great job” with his first pass on each one, and it’s been a total freaking delight to see the entire show make the leap from script to screen.

There’s a little magic in that transition: a bunch of very talented actors have taken my very stupid scripts seriously, and transformed the characters from words and lines into living people. While I’m not at all surprised that they all elevated the material comedically and emotionally, I did get caught off guard by how much they’re all making me genuinely LOVE their characters - even the characters I thought were total dickheads have got some unexpected moments of warmth and vulnerability.

All the performers we invited to join us are bringing their A-game, but it’s especially gratifying to watch other boys in Casual Violence - Luke, Dave, Greg and Alex - give the funniest and most detailed performances I’ve ever seen from them in fourteen years of making comedy together.

It’s too soon to share clips, but look out for a sneak peek at one of the episodes in a future newsletter.

But we do have some tangible treats to share with you today…

He shoots, he scores (he’s our composer but he’s also a photographer and videographer so it works)

Odinn Orn Hilmarsson holds the dual honours of being the most talented person I know and having the coolest name I’ve ever heard. He’s worked on all kinds of magnificent projects across theatre, podcasts and film, but fans of my past work specifically might know him as the composer of our 2016 podcast sitcom Hector Vs The Future, or Casual Violence’s live musician and composer for 2017’s Soho Theatre Christmas show The Grot In The Grotto.

ANYWAY, we’ve hired Odinn to not only compose the score for Murder for Dummies, but also to compose some original songs we need for the show. We do have a sneak peek at what Odinn’s been working on for us… here’s an early version of the Murder for Dummies Title Theme! Let us know what you think in the comments!

draw me like one of your french ventriloquist dummies

One of the songs we asked Odinn to compose the music for is the theme music for “Fungostein” (as in Frankenstein, not Bernstein) - the smash hit BBC kids show that our murder victim, Keith Flapp, starred in with his dummy Fungo as part of his meteoric rise to fame. We wanted to recreate a 90s-style kids TV intro for Fungostein, so we hired animator Aaron Long (whose directing credits include BoJack Horseman and Tuca and Bertie) to create a whole title sequence for us!

The full animated sequence, complete with Odinn’s “Fungostein” theme song, is almost finished, but it’s not ready to share just yet. But, because we’re little minxes, here’s a teaser clip from Aaron’s rough animatic to whet your appetite**.

badge to the bone (puns are hard and I’m tired, leave me alone)

THEY’RE HERE! Those of you who were smart and beautiful enough to back the show on Kickstarter will be the honoured recipients of these gorgeous Murder for Dummies pin badges. We’re going to hold off on sending them until closer to the show’s release, but LOOK! They’re here and they’re ALSO smart and beautiful, just like you.

the future of the newsletter

I know things have been a little quiet on the newsletter front lately, but regular service is about to resume. Expect new updates here once a month, with more behind the scenes updates as well as posts about the creative process behind writing and producing an independent show.

If there are specific questions anyone has about the making of our show, or writing scripts, or creating your own work in general - leave a comment and I’ll tackle it in a future newsletter.

And finally: if you haven’t subscribed yet - please do! As always, I crave your online validation.

Love and kisses,

James

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*Yes.

** Why don’t we whet things other than appetites these days, that’s what I want to know.