binge: the series

the official page for the indie dark comedy series BINGE... coming soon! • watch here: https://youtu.be/aN9syJfWp8U • donate here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/binge-season-one#/updates/1

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

(Sorry for the delay.. it’s possible that @gulnatron and @yuribaranovsky have been busy writing the season 😬)⁣

⁣-There’s a nice subtext here with Kate and Angela. Despite everything that just happened - Kate needs to know Angela is okay before anything. It’s a nice insight into their relationship — they’re basically sisters.⁣

⁣-Angela goes from bullying Frodo to looking like a little girl at Kate. She’s emotionally de-evolving.⁣

⁣-Shot in Angela’s real car!⁣

⁣-The only time in the episode that Angela throws up without meaning to (a mix of alcohol, pasta and fistfuls of cake might do that).⁣

⁣MORE SOON!

#binge #angelagulner #bulimia #comedy #darkcomedy #sitcom #tvshow #tv #television #dramedy #bts

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-There’s a fun parallel here to Angela having to stop her vomit session when she gets a call from Kate and Frodo having to stop his masturbating session when he gets a call from Angela.⁣

⁣-This scene is really the jumping off point to Angela and Frodo’s future relationship. This inappropriate, Angela-torturing-him while he tries to keep up thing. ⁣

⁣-“I almost for sure got an adult circumcision” is one of Yuri’s favorite lines.⁣

⁣-For the record, Frodo’s ex-wife isn’t dead, it’s just something Angela decided.⁣

⁣-For Angela, this scene is about getting help - she just doesn’t know it yet. She’s at her lowest point and while in her mind she thinks she’ll never go to that clinic, it’s telling that the first call she makes is to Frodo.⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣#binge #angelagulner #hlgstudios #bulimia #anorexia #eatingdisorders #eatingdisorder #tv #eatingdisorderrecovery #tvshow #comedy #funny #darkcomedy

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-All shot on the same day, it was likely around 3 am when we got to shooting this.⁣

⁣-Angela is definitely drunk in this scene - as one gets after drinking multiple mugs of wine.⁣

⁣-Amete says, “oh that’s your mug, I get the joke now” - in other words, since the mug is originally Paul’s, “my other mug is your mom” takes on special meaning to Amete... whose mom is sleeping with Paul.⁣

⁣-Both Angela in this scene and Kate in the previous scene (when talking about how much of a mess up Angela is) are saying very true things. Angela is a total mess - Kate is right. Kate and Amete (whose relationship we’ll see much more of in future) is just as Angela says here: convenient and boring. Unfortunately, since it’s used as ammunition, neither party will ever take either criticism to heart.⁣

⁣-We only had three cake-punching takes as we only had one cake. We just kept pivoting it so the camera caught the un-punched side.⁣

⁣-If you’ve never punched a cake, go make a date of it tonight.⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣#binge #eatingdisorderawareness #eatingdisorderrecovery #angelagulner #trivia #bulimiarecovery #tv #tvshows #tvtrivia #cinematography

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-Ryan Stanger is fully responsible for this scene. On another shoot day before this, Ryan had mentioned that he had done a ton of research on sex addiction (which is what his character is dealing with) and had this idea for a moment where he calls his sponsor. We loved the idea but had no time to write it. Since we had to shoot his conversation with Angela anyway, and knowing he is a high-end improviser, we had him improv several tales. The entirety of this scene is made up on the spot.⁣

⁣-This ended up being one of our favorite scenes and essential to the story, so we’re forever grateful to Ryan for bringing it to life.⁣

⁣

-The photobooth photos are actual photos taken at an actual photobooth at the actual bar where we shot the bar stuff between them.

⁣-Frodo is the only one who gets a scene from his point of view, other than Angela.⁣

⁣-This scene is hugely important in not only fleshing out Frodo but also giving him a bit of a point of view. This character and his actions are fairly problematic, it’s thanks to this scene and Ryan’s performance that Frodo works at all.⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣#binge #angelagulner #ryanstanger #improv #improvisation #behindthescenes #bts #tv #tvshow #tvpilot #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorderawareness #hlgstudios

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE... (PART 3)⁣

⁣-Yuri and Danny - despite knowing each other for a while and working with each other on other productions, had never acted in the same scene together. It might be why half their lines in this scene are improvised (and why there’s probably five more minutes of their improv that we cut).⁣

-Once again, a lot of people really hate Kate in this scene - and it’s true, she’s being a dick. But funny enough, no one mentions Amete’s mom, who is brutal to her. This is a case of a bunch of dysfunctional people with no filters trying to play nice and it, sadly, fails.⁣

⁣That cake was AMAZING. ⁣

⁣-This is a very long scene (likely too long) with a lot of people. Filming went way, way over time, wrapping at around 3-4 am (with lots of loopiness from the cast and crew).⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE... part 2.⁣

⁣-In the original pilot script, this was actually supposed to be Amete and Kate’s wedding. Similarly in that draft, Angela ends up making a scene and Kate breaks up with her. When we realized we’d be shooting this on our own dime, we made the scene much smaller - which, at the end of the day, felt much better... and gave us the wonder that is the Paul-is-dating-Amete’s-mom plotline.⁣

⁣-Amete’s mom compliments Angela’s hair color... and while filming we realized they actually had a very similar color, thus Kate’s added line.⁣

⁣-Angela never eats food in a regular way. She eats frosting from a spatula and pasta with her bare hands. The real Angela often talks about going to treatment and realizing she had no idea how to actually eat.⁣

⁣-Amete is played by Yuri Baranovsky, the director/co-writer of Binge.⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣#binge #binging #angelagulner #eatingdisorderawareness #trivia #bulimiarecovery #yuribaranovsky #hlgstudios #tv #tvshow #tvtrivia

[bingetheseries-blog]

Hey, it’s Valentine’s Day which means... time for your favorite depressing short film about co-dependent relationships and bulimia! Share with your friends! Pass on the love!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PMiXusL1GFw&t=4s

❤️

#valentinesday #happyvalentinesday #valentinesday2019 #valentinesdaygift #angelagulner #eatingdisorderawareness #love #drakebell #drakeandjosh #shortfilm

#shortfilm #shortfilms #shortfilmfestival #shortfilmshoot #shortfilmmaking #shortfilmcorner

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE (PART 1):⁣

⁣-They’re eating pasta with pesto because of course.⁣

⁣-@kimfitzstar who plays Amete’s mom, after in several episodes of ian @hlgstudios series called LEAP YEAR which played on Hulu in 2011-2012 (it’s still on YouTube!)⁣

⁣-This house is where our production manager, @holyjachamoly lives.⁣

⁣-Someone asked if Angela is hitting on Amete’s mom here. Probably not in a real way, but definitely a little bit.⁣

⁣-Ours are split on who the worse person is in this scene: Angela or Kate. For Kate, Angela shows up tipsy, in shorts, and acts totally inappropriate during what’s obviously an important dinner for her. Not to mention, this is likely the 2,000th time Angela has done something like this. For Angela, Kate is being excessively mean to her (and she’s unable to exactly understand why), which drives her deeper into the sadness.⁣

⁣The answer, probably, is that the two best friends are so concerned with their own lives that they barely recognize that the other is struggling. ⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣#bingeeating #binge #bingetheseries #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #tvshow #tv #tvcomedy #tvpilot #eating #angelagulner #danieladiiorio #hlgstudios

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-It’s a very short and simple scene but it’s one of our favorites. In fact, it’s a scene we sometimes look to as an example of a vibe we want to captured The performances are incredibly natural, there is both subtle drama and comedy and the scene moves quickly.⁣

⁣-Angela and Daniela have a natural chemistry that really makes you feel like they’ve been friends for a million years.⁣

⁣-This is the first time we see Angela out of her dress in public.. but her outfit is totally inappropriate for a dinner party. Angela wanted the character to always subtly not quite fit in.⁣

⁣-For a split second, Angela is about to tell Kate something is wrong — she’s just about to finally⁣ open up, unfortunately, Kate’s too worried about her own stuff to notice.⁣

⁣#binge #hlgstudios #eatingdisorderawareness #bulimiarecovery #darkcomedy #bulimia #angelagulner #tvshow #trivia #tvtrivia

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-When @gulnatron and @yuribaranovsky first sat down to write this script, they agreed on one thing: be brutally honest. That means brutally honest in the comedy and brutally honest in the drama - we wanted to show what this was really like, not dance around it. ⁣

⁣This scene does just that — this is the reality of a bulimic, it’s boring, rote, violent, gross and absolutely terrible. And yeah, maybe a tiny bit funny in a fucked up way. ⁣

⁣-This scene was really uncomfortable to film. It was a tiny bathroom, Yuri was directing from the bathtub which he was crammed into with Justin (the DP) and the boom operator, and it was HOT. Angela was chewing up food and spitting it out while making fake throwing up noises, and the combination of all of it was making everyone (aside from Angela) very queasy. It’s still hard for Yuri to watch this scene without getting a touch nauseated.⁣

⁣-The song playing is called Gimme, Gimme by @themotsnouveaux. @emmaleefitz, the lead singer, is a dear friend of Angela and Yuri and you should go listen to, and buy their music immediately!⁣

⁣-We liked the song because of the juxtaposition between the purging and the peppiness. Somehow, it makes it feel commonplace - which, of course, it was for Angela.⁣

⁣-One of the stories Angela told Yuri was that she would often park herself in the bathroom with episodes of Friends and a bunch of snacks and have a binge/purge cycle. While this scene isn’t quite that, we still wanted to capture the idea that Angela has done and continues to do this so much, it’s routine — which is sad and horrible in its own right.⁣

⁣-The phone call that stops her mid-vomit is the funny beat in an otherwise dark scene that’s intended to show the absurdity of the entire thing.⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣#bingetheseries #bulimiarecovery #eatingdisorderawareness #bulimia #darkcomedy #trivia #tv #tvshow #tvtrivia #purging #bingingandpurging #binging #angelagulner #hlgstudios

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE (PART 2)...⁣

⁣-@stonestanger’s performance after the kiss is impeccable. On one hand, as he admits, he wanted to hook up with Angela and getting her to come in was a way to do that. On the other hand, he genuinely thinks she’s sick and badly, badly needs help. ⁣

⁣He ends up playing (quite masterfully) both things after they pull away — this is what he wanted, probably fantasized about, but it’s also ENTIRELY inappropriate and against what he stands for as a professional. It’s really fun to watch Ryan kill it.⁣

⁣-The crying/fuck your mom moment is one of Yuri’s favorites.⁣

⁣-We mentioned how this scene didn’t work at first - it’s when they started doing this kiss that really got us going.⁣

⁣-When Angela tells him how she got the mug, Ryan’s face cycles through like 4 expressions (ranging from confusion to disgust) and it’s the best.⁣

⁣-Angela puts Frodo in a perpetual state of being off-balance, so she doesn’t have to be. When he starts getting really serious, she kisses him. When he gets angry at her for kissing him, she cries. She never, ever lets him be on top because she never, ever wants to be vulnerable. Particularly with this dude.⁣

⁣MORE SOON!⁣

⁣#bingetheseries #bulimia #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorderawareness #angelagulner #hlgstudios #film #tv #tvshow #tvtrivia #trivia #comedy

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE (PART 1)...⁣

⁣-This is a long one:⁣

⁣This scene was one of the more difficult to shoot. We didn’t have much time, the location was tiny and made lighting a nightmare, and for the first while, we couldn’t quite get this moment between these two characters.⁣

⁣What saved us was the wide shot. Wideshots are sometimes a little more freeing for actors because you can talk over each other, surprise one another, etc., and the camera gets all of it. ⁣

⁣When we got to it, we were tired, @gulnatron and @stonestanger started improvising a bit more, and we realized that this scene is essentially about Angela regaining control. If she makes a fool of this doctor dude, she’ll show everyone how stupid this whole thing is and how she obviously doesn’t have an eating disorder, so shut up everyone.⁣

⁣Once we realized that power dynamic, that Angela was going to mess with him the entire time, the scene started clicking and became one of the stronger ones in the pilot. ⁣

⁣-Josh definitely has a bottle of alcohol on his desk.⁣

⁣-His ex-wife is our redhead friend, @mantissa - who is not an actress, but lent us her face.⁣

⁣-Angela’s line, “this isn’t the 90s, nobody has an eating disorder anymore” is the perception we felt we were fighting at the time of writing.⁣

⁣MORE ON THIS SCENE SOON!⁣

⁣#bingetheseries #darkcomedy #trivia #binge #eatingdisorderrecovery #hlgstudios #angelagulner #tv #tvshow #movie #film #comedy #bulimia #bulimiarecovery

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-Faith, who plays Jezka, went to ART with Angela. ART, as Angela specifically called Yuri to explain to him today, is the MFA acting program at Harvard. ⁣

⁣-Angela went to Harvard, if anyone was wondering.⁣

⁣-“I hope you choke on a low-fat dick” is probably the most quoted line in the show.⁣

⁣-The hope for this scene, other than to show the chaos of the clinic (particulary when seen by people not in it) but also to introduce us to both @gabbymaiden and @faithimafidon, who’ll be appearing in future episodes.⁣

⁣-In the original pilot script, this scene was much longer and included a tour, more characters, and an “intake” interview and weighing. It proved too hard to shoot on a limited budget (though may appear later).⁣

⁣-This and the Kate scene where she gets yelled at, are the only two scenes in the Pilot where Angela is rendered speechless - a thing this character will rarely be.

#binge #bingetheseries #angelagulner #tvshow #tvseries #bts #behindthescenes #trivia #trivialove #movietrivia #tvtrivia #hlgstudios

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-The clinic was shot in a fantastic, little theater called the Fish Bowl theater.⁣

⁣-@gabbymaiden was cast in Stranger Things a little bit after this shoot.⁣

⁣-Our Director of Photography, @justin_morrison, shot her audition for that show.⁣

⁣-@gabbymaiden is wearing a blanket for emotional comfort - something that some did in the clinic Angela went to.⁣

⁣-Angela hadn’t seen or read Lord of the Rings and didn’t get the Frodo references.⁣

⁣-Another actress, @linzsnaps, had a small, funny role here - it was shot but unfortunately ended up breaking up the flow of the scene and had to be cut. It was fun though!⁣

⁣-One of the posters in the back reads: “Let today be the day you don’t do anything stupid” over a sunset.⁣

⁣More soon!⁣

⁣#bts #behindthescenes #tvshow #bingeeating #bingeeatingrecovery #binge #bingetheseries #eatingdisorderrecovery #film #tvshow #cinema #strangerthings #strangerthings2

⁣

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS EPISODE...⁣

⁣-While a lot of this story is based on Angela’s personal experience, this particular one, with her therapist essentially tricking her into signing up, is made up. ⁣

⁣-That said, it’s based on the general thrust of Angela’s actual recovery, in which she kept drunk dialing clinics and not remembering that she did that in the morning. She ended up visiting one of these clinics, thinking it was just a therapist she’d called, only to be told that they recommend partial-hospitalization treatment for her very serious disease. ⁣

⁣-It’s hard to tell, but Paul (@dannyajacobs ) has a laptop with him at the bar... mostly because he’s definitely the kind of guy who brings a laptop to the bar.⁣

⁣-“I just threw up in the bathroom, woman tricks!” is one of Angela’s favorite lines.⁣

⁣-One concern in the pilot was the fear that Frodo would come off as a total creep. In many ways, he IS, but it’s thanks to @stonestanger’s honest, guileless and hilarious performance that the character really works (more on this, and Ryan’s contribution to the project in a few scenes!)⁣

⁣-Special thanks to our dearest friends and supporters of the arts, @vanishingangle, who let us shoot in their office and bathroom.⁣

-Our good friend, Andrew Caldwell — a successful, wildly talented actor who has appeared in a multitude of TV shows and films — came by to say hi and ends up being a shoulder of someone behind Angela. It’s a small thing, but it’s that kind of, “whatever you need me to do”-attitude from wildly talented people that allowed us to even make this thing.

More soon!

#bingetheseries #eatingdisorderrecovery #behindthescenes #trivia #tvtrivia #bulimia #darkcomedy ⁣

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-Shot all in one take, the focus is always on the cake (Angela’s always-nemesis: food) with Angela stepping in and out. The only time the focus changes is when Angela steps away and we find her staring at it, scared.⁣

⁣-The song is called Never Met by Faithful Henry (https://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-Lament-Faithful-Henry/dp/B00ABQQLAG) — which is Vlad’s and his wife, Monica’s band. Vlad is Yuri’s brother, the co-creator, co-writer and director of the show. You can find the song on Amazon music.⁣

⁣-This is one of our most popular scenes, and requests for this song pop up at least once or twice per week.⁣

⁣-We needed to show her starting a song on her phone and didn’t know which song we’d use yet so we grabbed a song of dear friend, @emmaleefitz band (@themotsnouveaux — also let us use their music later and are AMAZING). We always meant to reshoot that moment with the actual song name and band but never managed to get around to it. Oops.⁣

⁣-Angela is truly happy and in the zone at the beginning of this scene — maybe the only time in the entire episode. The intention was to show that she really loves her job, she’s an artist and she’s GOOD at this. It’s only when this thing, this unreasonable Dick Angela, who lives in Angela’s head, reminds her of her disorder, that she loses the happiness. ⁣

⁣The happy person she is when she’s making the cake is what she’s capable of being of she can find her way. ⁣

⁣-Oh my God, so much frosting, why?⁣

⁣More soon! ⁣

⁣#⁣bts #bingetheseries #binge #eatingdisorderrecovery #behindthescenes #trivia #angelagulner #bulimia #faithfulhenry #hlgstudios

[bingetheseries-blog]

IN THIS SCENE...⁣

⁣-The pesto/paisto thing is taken directly from the real life Daniela, who plays Kate. She’s Italian and is VERY particular about how people say pesto.⁣

⁣-The vagina touch and Kate’s reaction are improvised.⁣

⁣-The production designer (@holyjachamoly) was not on set that day and for some reason, the cast and crew didn’t think to use fake frosting. Angela spent half the day eating way too much frosting and it was... unpleasant.⁣

⁣Music! Cake making! Single takes! On the next #bingetrivia....!⁣

⁣#behindthescenes #setlife #binge #bingetheseries #tvshow #tvtrivia #film #movie #cake #frosting #comedy #movie