What does it take to make a comedy web series? Three cameras, two sisters, one actor/gardener and a cocktail party. At least that is what Brooke and Lynne Adams are hoping. Together, the sisters are delving into the world of short online content with All Downhill From Here, a mockumentary following two sisters and a case of an imagined disease.
Though both women are familiar with acting — Lynne was a daytime television star on The Guiding Light in the late 1960s and Brooke has been a film and television star since the 1970s, including starring in the Terrence Malick film Days of Heaven — they now are tackling another side of the business: production and distribution.
“These days, you have to do your own project,” explained Lynne. “We bought our equipment and Joe is our crew.”
Joe is Joe Farina, who puts new meaning into the phrase Jack of All Trades. He and Lynne met six years ago when he was working as her gardener. Now, on the show, he is credited with 24 roles in the making of the first episode alone, operating as a one man film crew and production team. Mr. Farina also appears in the series as an actor, and Brooke admits he is a fan favorite of the sneak preview audience.
“One of our goals was to do this with nothing, and make that part of the story,” explained Mr. Farina. He said creating content yourself has emerged as an important part of the industry, where sometimes the number of Twitter followers you have matters more than your audition. The comedic mockumentary follows two sisters (played by Brooke and Lynne) of the baby boomer generation living on the Vineyard. One sister thinks she is dying (she is not), so the other sister tries to distract her by documenting her final days. The show is shot on the Vineyard.
“Our thought is we’re going to try to make it a hit on the Vineyard, a local thing,” said Lynne. “We’ll put it on MVTV and well try to get people on the Vineyard to really love it, and then they’ll help us get it out.”
Despite a nonexistent budget, the series does get help from guest appearances from well-known actors including Treat Williams and Griffin Dunne.
Above all, the sisters said, it is about finding their audience.
“Women and older women are a major demographic that they’re finally recognizing,” said Brooke.
The sisters said there are quite a few young people in the show too, and so it has appeal for younger audiences as well.
Brooke described the behind the scenes work on the show as a sort of comedy routine. They write on the fly based on which actors are able to show up, have trouble monitoring the audio during the shoot, and struggle with lighting that refuses to bend to continuity.
In the face of challenges, the sisters can rely on their history as working actors and working together. When they were kids their father produced summer theatre shows and they appeared in many together, including The King and I. They also acted together in the feature film Made-Up in 2002, which Lynne wrote and Brooke’s husband, Tony Shalhoub, directed.
Lynne joked that working with Brooke was the only way she got work anymore.
Currently, the small production team also includes intern Sean Sederholm, who is learning to take over the editing reins, as well as a few other helpers, but the sisters hope to include more Islanders as the series develops.
As for the main challenge of distribution, the sisters are looking to Vimeo, YouTube and Lynne’s upcoming website, Movie Meeting House, to provide the digital platforms for All Downhill From Here.
The team has tentative plans to release the first episodes this fall.
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