Harper’s Globe

I hung up the phone, feeling like I got punched in the stomach.  The color was draining from my face.  I wasn’t quite sure what to do in that moment...

It had been a long week.  We were in the middle of a very short prep. We had just hired our very small crew.  And we were working tirelessly to finish casting, scripting the story, dressing our sets, and prepping for a shoot that was only a week away. But spirits were up.  The director and I had just done a walk through of all the sound stages where we were going to film Harper’s Globe and we were getting excited about the creative journey we were about to begin.

 

And then...

I got the phone call.  The phone call I had been dreading.  The call that I knew I might be receiving, but kept secret from the rest of the crew.  The phone call that informed me that my director was not going to be able to direct our show.

Yusef Pirhasan had just finished directing LG15: The Resistance and was going to direct Harper’s Globe . He had been working with me for the past few weeks as we started to ramp up pre-production.  Yusef’s a really amazing guy and a definite talent.  I was excited about making Harper’s Globe with him.  But a couple of days ago, I was informed that there may be some issues with his work visa.  Yusef had left his home in London to direct the Resistance out in Los Angeles.  And everyone at EQAL was working hard to extend his visa and keep him in the states... directing “Harper’s Globe.” But then, I got the final word—the big “N-O.  Not going to happen.”

It was 7 or 8pm on a cold October night on the back lot at Calvert Studios.  I was on my cell phone, pacing around, listening to the attorney tell me that there was no way this was going to happen. Yusef would have to return to England within the next week (which really sucked for him—as he had become creatively invested in the project over the last few weeks) and I would have to find a new director (which really was difficult for me—seeing as we were only a week out from shooting).  Yusef and I spoke for a while that night, as frustrated as we both were... we both eventually came to the same conclusion—this was all for a reason.  We didn’t know what it was or why this was happening...  But instinctually we knew good would come out of it.   (As an update—Yusef is doing great.  In fact, he’s getting married this July in Paris.  Congrats to him!)

That night I called Miles and he and I spoke for a while.    “Who’s that guy you just met with?” I asked him.  “The director of the web series you keep talking about?”  Miles had been raving about this new series on YouTube, 2009: A True Story . Miles immediately reached out to Tony Valenzuela, knowing that Tony would be an amazing addition to Harper’s, if we could get him.

I went home and watched Tony’s entire series.  Was very impressed.  The next day Tony came into the production offices.  We met for the first time.  We talked about the series for a few hours and immediately connected creatively.  Within less than an hour, I knew why Miles had been so excited about this director and I wanted him to come aboard and helm the project.  After days of sharing creative ideas and talking in more detail about the project, Tony agreed to join the project.

We pushed production for two weeks and spent every minute of the day, working tirelessly to get everything in order --I’m not sure if Tony knew how much work was going to be on his plate when he agreed to take on the project—but, well, neither did I ;).   The two of us spent our days casting and prepping with the crew and our nights working on the script with Jennifer Yale (our Head Writer) and Miles. Tony put every ounce of himself into project—giving everything he had to help create the show we have today.

It was an amazing experience working with him.  As frustrating and tenuous as it was to find a great director and get him to come aboard on a moment’s notice, I don’t think we could have found a better artist to fill the role.  Tony is an amazing talent, and we were all very lucky to have him on board, helming this ship.

Hello all. This is my first blog regarding the score to Harper's Globe. Matt Seigel, producer/nice guy encouraged me to write one. I don't want to give any clues away or lead people down the incorrect path, so I will stick to a couple facts that you may find interesting at the very least. In any case, I will say that like all elements of Harper’s Globe, the score was very thought out and carefully constructed with inspiration, perspiration, and a hint of decapitation. I hope you enjoy...

History: Kevin Schlanser, the DP of Harper’s Globe, suggested me for the project originally. We had worked together on a previous film and I was brought in for a meeting with Music Supervisor Seth Jacobs, producer Matt Seigel, and, of course, director, Tony Valenzuela. Now, let me stress this was a very unique meeting that involved talking about feel, color, ambience, and tone more than specific music or examples. In fact, to Tony and Seth’s credit, they purposely kept me from hearing anything that might compromise what my original ideas and/or intuition might be. This turned out to be a VERY good thing as the score became an experiment in film composing that would not have worked had they been set on a specific genre.

From the very beginning, we agreed on a combination of acoustic instruments, synthesized elements, and a third musical character that would be best classified as “strange, weirdness, that you can’t quite put your finger on, but messes with your brain and makes you think of digital clicks, pops, and malfunctions until you feel rather uneasy and are not sure why.” Fine, all this was good, except many of these elements did not exist. Therefore, I spent about three weeks recording a variety of manipulated sounds ranging from tapping on metal shards to feeding back a guitar amp into another guitar amp. The irony is that all of this work was done to provide a tiny (yet essential) extra element to the score that would create that “off-kilter” feel. And obviously, as you have all seen by now, there are some very surreal, unsettling scenes that needed way more than just a traditional horror sting.

Themes: As for themes, there are several. I have to be a bit careful here not to give away too much, but I will reveal that there is a definite theme for Robin (as well as a Robin Mystery Theme), one for the Cheshire Cat, and of course, who could resist writing a Dangerous Wreck theme. Here are some characteristics to listen for:

Robin’s Theme: Is characterized by a rather melancholy melody in the piano and vibraphone that conveys her frequent loneliness and her curious past. There are dark aspects to it as well, but there is always an air of innocence. But I must say, it is not Forrest Gump innocence, it is more akin to the final stages of innocence before the unfolding events in her life begin to chew away at it. This music comes in frequently during her blogs and especially when she is alone and pensive.

The Cheshire Cat Theme: This is first theme I wrote and it was one of the hardest as it set the basic tone and pallet for the entire score. The most prominent elements are the harp, piano and the background elements which include digital weirdness, tibetan bells, thai gongs, and some very odd percussion. The goal here was to create a sense of mystery, not horror while simultaneously alluding to our ever-evolving digital online world. The piece is in 6/8 time (traditionally a waltz feel) in order to give the subtle allusion of him dancing around and toying with his subjects. Listening to this with headphones is an experience in itself. Sounds pan all over the place creating this strange world he lives in.

Dangerous Wreck Theme: This is definitely one of my favorites...it is just so demented and disturbing. Again, another one to listen to with headphones. There are so many subtle elements in here including: very low harp and whale drum (a metallic percussive instrument that looks like a giant toxic waste tank). I even included the sounds of fire (literally) and the weirdest guitar work I have ever done. The theme, heard in its entirety, is one giant build that climaxes with a wall of percussive hits. I will give nothing away other than I tried to mimic the overall story arc of Harper’s Globe.

Well, I think that is certainly enough to get you started. All of these themes, plus a couple others, will be available shortly on the imeem player (I’ll let you know when it is up). I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing them. I must say, I really lucked out working on this project. I can’t remember another time I have been so encouraged to experiment and push the boundaries on a score by everyone involved. But, there is still more to come... :)

As the head writer of Harper's Globe, I have to say things have really evolved since we first started creating this world in July of 2008.  The newspaper was originally called Harper's Gazette and the story of Robin was much, much smaller.  But when Harper's Island began to grow in plot, we followed suit -- adding twists, turns, and the scary Dangerous Wreck story that should really pay off in the end.

I love horror so it was such a pleasure and privilege for me to be able to work with Junction Entertainment and Jeffrey Bell on Harper's Island as well as write Harper's Globe.  I was actually the only person who was supposed to know the secrets of Harper's Island as we built Harper's Globe from the ground up.  Since I'm not very good at keeping my mouth shut and since Matt, Miles, and Greg are smart about asking the right questions, I occasionally had an "Oh, no.  Don't say anything to anyone" moment.  Maybe a little more than occasionally.  But it was hard to explain motivations to what I was writing without giving away some juicy detail.  Eventually, I came clean to the Executive Producers of HI and was able to disclose more. There are plenty of secrets I have yet to whisper though.  So, when this is all over, I will be a fountain of explanations -- to why someone was named this or why someone had to die a particular way... or who Robin really is...

The one thing I will tell you... The killer in Harper's Globe is the same as the one in Harper's Island.  <Hand over mouth>  But you didn't hear that from me...

Matt poked his head into my office today and asked me to write a blog about how Harper’s Globe came to be.  It’s actually been over a year in the making, so it’s a little hard to recount the whole story in a short blog, but I’ll try!

Last spring, Greg and I were sitting at a diner in LA talking about the state of online content (yes, that’s all we do… really).  We had just raised a round of financing for our social entertainment company, EQAL, and we wanted to do something “big.”  We didn’t know what, just that it had to be something truly special.  We were coming off the success of lonelygirl15 and KateModern, the social shows we produced in the US and the UK, and we realized that the next logical step was TV.  “Let’s produce a show on the internet that’s connected to a TV show,” we said.  Cool idea, but at the time we had no clue how to do it.

Fast forward a few months, and we were in Carnegie Hall at the CBS Upfronts on CBS’s dime (thanks!), listening to Quincy Smith announce a partnership between CBS and EQAL to create brand extensions of their popular TV shows.  It was one of the most surreal moments of my life.  We had managed to work out a deal with CBS, and we spent the next few months meeting a variety of producers working on their TV shows.

Initially we spoke with Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the CSI franchise, about producing an online mystery tied to one of the CSI shows.  Although we didn’t end up producing a social show for CSI, we did become good friends with Anthony and we’re actually working with him on his multiplatform novel, Level 26.  We met with a variety of other producers, but felt an immediate connection with Jon Turteltaub, and his show, Harper’s Island.

We met with Jon and his team, Dan Shotz, Karim Zreik, and Ari Schlossberg, and pitched them the idea of a young college student traveling to the island to create a digital archive and community website for the island newspaper, the Harper’s Globe. They loved the idea and we spent the next few months assembling a team of people to execute on the vision.

We knew that the entire project would fall apart without an incredible Executive Producer to guide it.  Frankly, we lucked out and were able to convince Matt Seigel to leave his career as a feature film producer and head-up the production.  Simply put, Matt kicked ass.  Without his insane hard work, this project would never have become a reality.  Matt, Greg, and I worked together to build the team, but that’s another story…

So last July I was invited by Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, the co-founders of EQAL (the production company behind the show), to produce their new series, Harper’s Globe. I had just come off Executive Producing a movie and was excited to work in a new medium... The first challenge set forth was to find our lead, Robin Matthews.

Miles and Greg told me that they had someone in mind, an actress from their LonelyGirl15 series (which I hadn’t seen all the way through), but the network had suggested they find someone fresh, someone who hadn’t starred in their last series. I agreed with the network that we should start our search by looking for someone new, so I hired a casting director (Arlie Day—who was great) and we brought in a ton of young actresses. After going through all the auditions, there was one actress that stood out above all the rest. It wasn’t even close.

I asked Miles and Greg how they liked to work... do you want to see all the actresses, my top five or the only one I want to hire? They laughed and asked to look at my top choice. I put in the DVD and after a few seconds they paused it and this was our ensuing conversation:

“Is this a joke?”

”Um, no. Trust me she’s really good.”

“No, we know she’s really good. That’s Melanie.”

“Melanie...”

The actress from LonelyGirl15. The girl they wanted from the beginning. (Now, I should probably point out that I never looked at Melanie’s resume. In fact, I usually try to focus solely on the performances in auditions and ignore headshots and resumes if I can... So I really had no idea that “my Melanie” was actually “their Melanie”). To add to the crazy coincidence of casting, Melanie herself didn’t know this was an EQAL production; she had never met me before, and had no idea Miles and Greg were even involved. The whole thing ended up being very synchronistic, with everyone happily on the same page. We sent Melanie’s audition tape to CBS and the Harper’s Island producers and everyone immediately agreed, Melanie Merkosky was meant to play Robin Matthews.

I can’t thank Melanie enough, for her talent, her heart and her spirit. She’s a tremendous talent and we are so lucky to have her on the show.

- Matt

So as you can see, we have created an “Inside” page to HarpersGlobe.com. This section is designed to take you behind the scenes of the Harper’s Universe.  As one of the Executive Producers of Harper’s Globe, I will be your ‘tour guide’ of sorts.  Each week we will be looking to feature blogs, stories, pictures and videos from different members of our cast and crew. We have a very passionate, hard-working, talented crew and I’m excited for you to connect with everyone and follow the journey we took together in creating this project. As well, Dan Shotz, one of the Executive Producers of Harper’s Island, will be on hand to take you behind-the-scenes of Harper’s Island.

It has been a pretty amazing experience putting together the show and this website over the past 9 months. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the response, discussions, and interactivity taking place here. My hat is off to all of you. In just a few weeks time,  your passion, observations, and authentic voices have created a palpable, growing community. You are the heart and soul of this universe.  So thank you all for your time, creativity and participation.

I look forward to sharing the Harper’s journey with all of you.

- Matt