Premieres August 2010!

Rule #1 of directing: stand around with a cup of coffee and look like you’re doing nothing important.

… especially when everyone around you is working hard.

Director of Photography Matt Knapp talks lighting with Nate Baker, as Sound Mixer Arthur Delaney checks his headphones.

Nate sets up a soft box.

Stand-ins are encouraged to cuddle.

Melissa Kaiser and Joe Bolenbaugh try out their first wardrobe choices.

… and their final choices.

Preparing for a take.

Production Manager Emily Barrett shields impressionable eyes from bedroom shenanigans.

Nothing spoils intimacy like a film crew.

Emily keeps an eye on that script.

The crew prepares to step outside on another warm, sunny autumn day.

Moments before the “Mary Poppins dance” is cut.

That fall foliage is worth getting a little soggy.

Director of Photography Matt Knapp.

Matt discovers that Production Managers make handy tripods.

Practicing safe sound.

Alicia (Melissa Kaiser) considers her next move.

Shooting Alicia.

Filming at Southpark in downtown Portland.

Cecily Overman reprises her Season 1 role as Julia (”Helmet!!”).

Cecily tries to navigate the chaos at Southpark.

The ridiculously lovable Melissa Kaiser.

Melissa and Cecily.

Melissa and Cecily rehearse with Bolton.

Bolton directs Melissa as Matt Knapp bites his lip.

Shooting Cecily.

Melissa really looks like she’s paying attention.

Emily waits for her cameo.

Look who gets to hold the camera!

Filming outside Southpark.

Leif Norby and Morgan Lee run lines from their iPhones.

Bolton directs Cecily and Melissa.

Sound team extraordinaire: Sound Mixer Arthur Delaney (left) and Boom Op Esteban Ortiz.

Cecily and Melissa rehearse in the cold, damp night air.

Bolton directs Leif and Morgan.

A Zen moment for Bolton, Esteban, and Matt.

Inside the Blue Monk with co-owner Tim Gallineau and new cast member Ben Plont.

Matt gets the lighting just right.

Arthur unspools as Bolton and Matt line up the shot.

Duncan Robertson and Emily Barrett stand in for Ben Plont and Lara Kobrin.

With only a couple of days between being cast and his first day of filming, Ben quickly learns his lines.

Extras being awesome.

Matt prepares for another take.

The Blue Monk’s basement, full of extras!

Arthur unravels, while Bolton sheds light.

The crew prepares for another day. (from left: Bolton, Emily, Cynthia Lopez, Duncan, Arthur)

New cast member Cassie Skauge wonders where her clothes went.

Cassie got to spend the day in bed. On film.

Morgan celebrates every good take by removing his pants. We’re used to it.

New cast member Ritah Parrish in the Rose City Coffeehouse.

The sirens of Rose City. (from left: Ritah Parrish, Lara Kobrin, Melissa Kaiser)

Ritah and Melissa between takes.

Esteban and Arthur between takes.

Don’t ask. It’s weird. (from left: Lara, Ritah, Arthur)

Preparing for the next take.

It’s the little details that make production design so important.

Arthur Delaney’s tantrums are a regular fixture of the shoot, beloved by all.

And that’s a wrap!

Nobody drowned (that we know of) and the production marches onward…

The new logo for the Rose City Coffeehouse.

Writer/director Chris A. Bolton enjoys a nice cup of coffee while Production Manager Emily Barrett does the real work.

New cast member Cassie Skauge poses with Melissa Kaiser (Alicia).

Melissa in the glamorous makeup trailer.

Stacy (Lara Kobrin) contemplates her future.

Lara and Melissa fight over who gets the first close-up.

Faking it for the camera.

The set.

Mitch (Morgan Lee) can’t believe he got talked into another season of this.

Mitch and Stacy bury the hatchet.

Director of Photography Matt Knapp confers with Bolton while Emily does the heavy lifting.

Production Manager Emily Barrett wonders how she got talked into this job. (Alcohol and blackmail may have been involved.)

Boom Op Cynthia Lopez with Morgan Lee.

Setting up the shot. (l to r: Cassie Skauge, Morgan Lee, Chris Bolton, Matt Knapp)

Mitch (Morgan Lee) meets Lily (Cassie Skauge).

Morgan gets into character.

Leif Norby has arrived on-set.

Dirk (Leif Norby) waits to wreak havoc.

Pleased with dailies. (l to r: Emily Barrett, Matt Knapp, Chris Bolton)

Morgan wants to know what these secret meetings are all about…

Bolton contemplates his infamous “lack of directorial style” while DP Matt Knapp thinks of all the better things he could be doing right now.

Lighting genius Gerry Lewis and Boom Op Esteban Ortiz demonstrate the nonstop excitement of filmmaking.

Sound Mixer Arthur Delaney and actress Melissa Kaiser.

Melissa and Cassie ask each other, “Who wrote this shit?!”

Emily, Arthur, and Cynthia chill for a few precious seconds.

Our beloved slate (made from a cheap plastic picture frame) lives on despite the near-fatal damage witnessed in the tragic blooper reel.

Shooting in the rain. (l to r: Sound Mixer Arthur Delaney, DP Matt Knapp, Boom Op Esteban Ortiz)

“That was perfect! Now do it better.” (l to r: Bolton, Melissa Kaiser, Cassie Skauge)

The crew at work. (l to r: Matt Knapp, Arthur Delaney, Esteban Ortiz, Gerry Lewis)

The crew prepares to get drenched for another shot. (l to r: Matt Knapp, Emily Barrett, Arthur Delaney, Esteban Ortiz)

Emily to Bolton: “You said the goat sacrifice would appease the angry gods and stop the rain!”

The scripts are always regarded with the utmost care and respect.

Thanks for stopping by — come again!

We’re joined by a cinematographer, Matt Knapp of Grammar School Pictures, and a production manager, the ridiculously capable Emily Barrett. I feel confident that, with their help, we can iron out some (if not all) of the kinks from Season 1 to get a better-looking second season.

This weekend, my apartment once again becomes the Rose City Coffeehouse, which means almost all my furniture gets crammed into my bedroom. (No worries — it might make the room a bit warmer for the winter.) Lara has some great ideas for sprucing up the production design of the coffee shop, which I’m looking forward to seeing — especially since I’ll be living in it.

Shooting begins the first weekend in November. An amazing group of actors has joined the already insanely talented cast and I’m looking forward to seeing how this shoot develops almost as much as I’m looking forward to showing viewers.

Drama is hard with web series. Drama is really hard, so when someone makes the attempt I have to give them credit, when someone does it well it deserves a mention. Wage Slaves does it well….[T]he overall story arc is catchy and watching the main character develop is strangely compelling.

I wonder if that first sentence was supposed to be “Comedy is hard”; seems weird to repeat the same idea in the next sentence. At any rate, I’m pleased they took the time to watch and review the show.

This continues to be the biggest overall ding against the show:

I am all for low budget productions, and honestly I like this show a lot but you can really, really tell that its being shot out of a kitchen. I wish that somewhere in the pilot they would have explained why that is, or told us it was a quaint bed and breakfast place that sold coffee or something.

Yeah. I took it for granted that, since Portland has several coffee shops located in houses (here’s the one that inspired the Rose City Coffeehouse, and here’s another), other places did, too. I even took it for granted that Portland residents have seen and been to those coffee shop/houses, which has not always been the case.

Seriously, people. They exist. And I like them.

Lara is already hell-bent on making sure this same complaint doesn’t come up during Season 2.

The piece is amazingly long and involved — I swear I don’t know the writer, Andy Asensio, but I am having many amorous feelings for him just now.

Here’s a taste:

Wage Slaves is pretty bleak, a show about a group of coffeehouse employees stuck in a dead-end situation and desperately hoping that their lives will turn around. Bleak, but also terrific — there’s nothing laborious about having to sit through this show. It’s really, really good.

Wage Slaves employs a perfectly executed blend of comedy and drama. You’ll empathize with all of these characters, while also getting to laugh both with and at them….It’s fun because the bleakness of these characters’ situations is coupled with some really strong humor.

How much did I like it? This much: the rare 10 out of 10.

Click here to read the whole thing.

The Web and 1 also mentions the show in a (far less favorable) review of another web-series, calling it “super-low-budget but rather excellent.” I might have that tattooed on my arm.

(P.S. to Lexus: you can give me the budget for Puppy Love, instead.)

Featuring:

• Tavis Sarmento (paranoid customer)
• Chris A. Bolton (jerk in suit)

Click here to watch Episode 2!

Featuring:

• Brennan Edwards (pennies guy)
• Laura Faye Smith (Greenpeace woman)
• Tavis Sarmento (pool player)

Special thanks to Nikki Jones and The Boiler Room

Click here to watch Episode 1!

Featuring:

• Ehren Ebbage (Rob)
• Jessica Zodrow (Debbie)
• Micaela Villasenor (Rob groupie)
• Michael McRae (bartender)
• Tavis Sarmento (Rob fan)
• Scott Hart (story reader)
• Esteban Ortiz (muffin guy)