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Creating the look of MERRIme:
A Micro-Budget Web Series Shot with a RedOne

by Daron Keet

I recently finished shooting MERRIme, a web series comedy on a $50,000 budget, available at MERRIme.com on a computer near you.

It stars co-writers/creators Kaily Smith and David Weidoff, Tom Arnold (True Lies), Ryan Eggold (90210), and Tia and Tamera Mowry (Sister, Sister).

The show’s plot centers around twenty-something Merri Weisman, whose father threatens to freeze her trust fund if she does not find a real job. In a state of panic, she concludes that a husband, not a job, could save her. She signs up to every dating website in her frantic race for a suitable bachelor, setting into motion a hysterical online fun-and-games rollercoaster ride to the 21st century alter, like the web has never seen.


Red One camera on MERRIme

This was my first collaboration with the project’s talented, up-and-coming director, Sherwin Shilati. When you share common cinematic sensibilities and passion with a director, you try to hang onto those collaborative opportunities for dear life. I am always interested in utilizing every technique possible to visually enhance a story, thus elevating the audience’s emotional response and, as a result, personal connection to the story. As much as I use technique, my work strives to propel the story in an honest manner, without allowing the camera to draw attention away from the story itself.

Filmmaking in essence is the art of storytelling through pictures and sound. Great stories are about “big ideas.” I have extrapolated this “big idea” concept into the personal approach of my cinematography work. On each new job, I throw myself into absorbing the script, storyboards, director’s treatment, and locations in an effort to figure out which “big idea” approach to incorporate in my quest to craft exceptional work.


Kaily Smith play's Merri Weisman in MERRIme.

One of the biggest contributions I am able to offer on each project is ensuring we have the appropriate locations to stage scenes against. If I think a location is inappropriate, it is my responsibility as the cinematographer to let the director and producer know. Once locations are locked in, another huge contribution I can make is picking the best time of day or night to shoot. Often schedules are dictated around actor availability, but in preproduction I am forever suggesting, cajoling, and trying to influence my 1st ADs to work around the sun’s schedule, as nothing can save money, speed up shooting, or enhance aesthetics quite like taking advantage of perfect, God-given light, or the lack of light if required.

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