I’d love to say something snazzy and cool like , “hey…I just flew back from LA”. But actually I didn’t. In fact, I flew back from LA over a week ago. In fact, the LA shoot with Henry Winkler is sort of old news to us because it actually happened 2 weekends ago (7/25). In fact, what’s the point of having a blog if you don’t post news in a timely fashion. 

I know…I suck. What can I tell you.

But here anyway is a wrap up of our shoot with Mr. Winker. How did it go, honestly in a word…spectacular.

First I can’t begin to tell you what an amazingly nice, down to earth, pleasant, funny and genuine guy Henry is. He was great to work with and seemed to go out of his way to make sure we were comfortable around him. After all, this is not some actor from central casting. Hell, it’s “The Fonz”..a certifiable television icon as well as an award winning producer, director, author and a host of other things that I’m sure I’m forgetting and that I’m sure Jody (Hillers Executive producer) will let me know about as soon as he reads this.

The weekend started with an informal rehearsal at Henry’s house. Incidentally, Henry offered use of his house to us for rehearsal – which will give you an even better idea of the guy he is. And no – I’ll get this out of the way – there was no motorcycle in the garage or no leather jacket hanging in the foyer (that’s the last Fonz reference, I swear). Just a very nice house into which we were welcomed. 

Mark Travis (a director and producer who has been involved with Hillers since almost day 1) conducted a improvisational exercise with Henry to help him get to know and flesh out the character. Henry’s character is “Doctor” Sherman Watts – a therapist whose qualifications are almost as sketchy as his past.  It was a truly great experience to sit and watch Henry improvise. Not to mention hilarious. We all discussed the character and the scene a left to get some rest for an early call the next day.

The day of the shoot started at 4:30am with crew call. I”m there at crew call time because I won’t ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do and besides…what the hell else am I going to be doing? The crew was great – special props to the fellas at  All In One Truck for all the lights and stuff. Special thanks to our PAs who (as PAs often do) worked their asses off for nothing and did an amazing job. Also thanks to our camera and audio department who kicked ass in cramped quarters.

Henry arrived and started shooting around 7:30. All I can really say is that he nailed it. Completely and totally nailed the character, the script and the entire gist of the scene. He had great things to say about working with our two stars Joel Bryant and Tessa Munro.

I wish I had a war story here to make this a little more interesting. However, the shoot pretty much went off without a hitch. Oh, except for that “we can’t find the right adapter for this camera” thing that happened 2 days before. But – what can you do shit happens.

I’m going to be hitting the edit hard this comign weekend and hope to have a first cut of the scene by the time I come out Sunday night. Who knows when you guys will see it. But the new trailer with Henry is up at OUR WEBSITE. PLease check it out and pass it on.

And as far as that elephant in the room, like when and where Hillers will premiere. Here’s what I can say right now. When you have a great project – then you add Henry Winkler getting involved  and the involvement of a few others whom I can’t really name right now, you start to get noticed. At the moment, several muckity-mucks want to talk to us about our plans for the project. And talk to them we will.

This is really another post – which will happen soon. Really. And that is a fact.

Thanks as always for all the support.

I can’t even begin to tell you how stoked the entire team is about this.

He’s a world renowned actor, director, producer and the author of 16 children’s novels. He’s a mega-star of stage, screen and a certified television icon. Henry Winkler will be joining the cast of Hillers during season one as a very special guest star.

Henry will be playing Dr. Watts, a mental health “professional” Mitch turns to for help putting his life back together. The scene pops up near the middle of Hillers season one and we will be shooting with Henry in Los Angeles in late July.

We are not only busting with glee but also incredibly honored that Henry has agreed to bring his talent to our project.

Please stay tuned for more special guest star announcements coming in the near future. For best results check this blog often or for daily updates follow Hillers creator Mike Stivala on twitter (@mikestivala).

It’s beginning to look a lot like June- that time of year when a person’s fancy turns to summery things: you know, like keggers in the woods, spotting the first Holland Tunnel “tunnel bunny”, and of course the Hillers premiere.

Big thanks to all of you who have followed me on Twitter (@mikestivala) and have kept up with news and updates. However since the nature of Twitter is sporadic, small updates, I thought it would be a good idea to put all our current news in a quick blog post to bring everyone up to speed and to have all the current news in one place.

Also- it’s early and I’m sitting at
Starbucks with nothing much else to do.

The Premiere

We are still planning and working very hard toward a Hillers premiere this summer. Exactly when and where is still up in the air at the moment. I know, I know… I hate saying that- again but it’s the truth at this point. We have several great companies who want to distribute the show and it’s taking longer than any of us thought to sort out all the offers and their implication on the future of the show. Not to mention that in the last 2 weeks we’ve drawn the interest of another company. At the end of the day we (and I) want to do the right thing for the show. There are too many examples of good projects that crashed or couldn’t continue production because of insufficient planning and the desire to rush the project “out there”. The team is determined to not let that happen to Hillers. To that end, we are carefully reviewing all options and talking to everyone. Which leads nicely to…

New York Onfront

Hillers was just selected to be featured at the first annual Tilzy.tv Onfront in NYC. We’re stoked because Hillers was one of only ten projects selected out of 500 entrants to participate.
Much like a traditional TV “Upfront” the Onfront is a gathering where distributors and advertisers get to see the vanguard of upcoming web content. We’re hoping to make even more connections with potential distributors and are generally honored to be selected. It can mean only good stuff for the show.
You can see more about the event HERE

The Shoot

Yes, there is still shooting to be done for season one. We currently have 7 episodes (1/2 of the first season) completed. We are still planning a major shoot in September or October in Scranton to complete the season and so far things seem to be falling into place. In addition, there will be smaller shoots over the summer in LA to grab small scenes and to accomidate some very, very famous actors who will be getting involved.

Did You Say Famous Actors?

Yes! At this moment we are working out the details with some seriously famous actors who will be getting involved with Hillers. At this moment I am forbidden from saying who. Sorry. But I can tell you these are literally big, household names who will bring big talent to the project. There literally could be an announcement any day. As always those who follow me on Twitter will be the first to know. Please stay tuned. Seriously- this is huge!!

So there, now you’re totally up to date. Thanks so much for your continued support and watch for more announcements!

Mike

WATCH THIS!!!

Deven Green from KoldCast.TV interviewing the Hillers Crew at the recent Tubefilter meetup in mid-April.Thanks Deven, thanks KoldCast.tv, thanks Tubefilter!

I attended the TilzyTV web tv panel discussion last night at NYU. First, it was and excuse to slip out of my day job a little early and second, and slightly more important, it was a chance to meet a few web TV big-wigs and hear about the biz from those knee deep in it.
Lots of talk of branded entertainment, marketing and potential revenue from web content. All very interesting and informative. Because honestly, that’s the $64,000 question that everyone is is trying to figure out; where’s the money? Sure we do this because we have something to say and for artistic expression, blah, blah. But at the end of the day we all have to pay rent and buy fishsticks so somehow a model needs to emerge where creators can produce network quality content for the web AND make a living doing it.

Such a model has evolved for text based content and for audio content. It is just a matter of time before a profitable model evolves for video web content as well.

Naturally I’m biased, but judging from meetings and news we’ve gotten over the last few weeks- I think the Hillers team may have a part in creating this new model.

Thanks again to the gang at TilzyTv for putting on a cool event. We need more of these in NYC!!

A Hillers contingent descended on the Tubefilter Meetup on Friday, April 17. Reports were that a great time was had by all. Many hands were shook. Many connections were made. Many, many cool people were met. One of the evenings hilites- some of the Hillers crew were interviewed by Deven Green from Koldcast.tv!

Thanks a ton to all the folks at Tubefilter for putting on a very cool event. Can’t wait for the next one. Look…pictures!

(L to r) Executive Producer Jody Woytas, actors Michael Greggs and Tessa Munro, Koldcast's Deven Green

Jody Woytas, Tessa Munro, Executive Producer Elyse Katz, Michael Greggs

The Entire Hillers Gang! Michael Greggs, Producer Mark Travis, Jody Woytas, Tessa Munro, Elyse Katz, Producer Laurence Kaldor

Another drink...another interview!

We are currently looking for bands of all genres to fill out the soundtrack of the first season of Hillers. What are we looking for? Basically, all original music that is slightly out of the ordinary, quirky, interesting and a bit different – but still rocks. Sounds like you? Want to be involved with Hillers? Good! Click on the logo below to submit to us! Thanks!

Hillers star and all around stud, Joel Bryant

Hillers star Joel Bryant, who portrays Mitch (the lead character) was recently nominated for a 2009 Streamy award for Best Male Actor in a Dramatic series for his work in the webseries After Judgement.

Congratulations to Joel. We see many more moninations and awards in your future. Oh, I don’t know…perhaps for a certain dark comedy series!