This is the first in a series of mock video blogs I directed with Margene, the youngest wife (of the three) in Big Love (on HBO). Did I just say “mock”? Because that certainly doesn’t seem to be a factor to the people making comments on Margene’s wildly popular blog page. It isn’t clear whether people A) Don’t realize that Margene is a fictional character; B) Don’t care that Margene is a fictional character; or, C) Some hybrid combination of both. “A” is impossible, but “B” is too simplistic. I’d have to go with “C” and suggest that the “role playing” here is unique to the fantasy-imbued reality of today’s internet - a kind of communal “Storyspace”. And I love that, in this space, it doesn’t matter if you are an actress (Ginnifer Goodwin) working with crew of professional image makers and a script (written by Coleman Herbert), or a normal person sitting in a room with a laptop - we can all contribute to the “text” that emerges from the story, scrolling down and twisting around itself like a long strand of DNA.

The trick is that the story itself has to be rich enough to spark this kind of engagement. Big Love is quite vibrant territory, especially this year, and Margene’s character stands out as well. She is a young, hip, funny, ordinary person who is simultaneously both wildly out of place, and also totally believable, in the outrageous polygamous melodrama she inhabits. This “double life” is articulated with pitch-perfect self-awareness in Ginnifer’s performance and translates beautifully to the internet, where we all, in a sense, have double lives: we are both ourselves, sitting at our computers, and the avatars we “live through” in the ether-webs. These vlogs seem to provide a forum in which to celebrate this very contemporary state of being.

On the production tip, it was a challenge to rig a teleprompter and a monitor (so Ginnifer could see herself) around an HD lens and make it feel like a $20 webcam. I forgot to take pictures. Thanks to Louis Tancredi and Eric Butler at NBO-NY, the peeps at HBO Interactive, DP Ron Siegel, and big thanks to everyone at Big Love for their expertise and generosity!

Check back on Margene’s Blog for more video posts and, of course, comments. The story continues to scroll …

PS:
Here is a selection of other episodes from the Vlog:
•I Don’t Even Know Why I’m Here
• Practice Makes Perfect
• My Amazing Penny Analogy
• Remember the Good Times

Jan 14 2010 | Blog | RSS 2.0 | leave a response | trackback