Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Louis C.K.'s new show "Louie"

Louis CK's new special "Hilarious," shot with 6 Reds, will be broadcast on the Epix channel on September 18th, according to this Variety article.

http://aspecialthing.com/forum/f42/louis-cks-hilarious-premiere-epix-september-18th-17586/

From Louis himself:

I shot HILARIOUS less than a year after Chewed Up and wanted to release it right away, my goal always being to tour with a batch of material every year, record it as a special, kill it and start again.

but the airways were glutted with Chewed up and Shameless was still running on Comedy Central and Showtime. No one wanted Hilarious on cable so I had this idea to do it as a feature film and release it theatrically. I shot it on 6 RED cameras with very good lenses and thought very cinematically about it as a concert film rather than just a cable special.
 
:redface:
Paul Koestner said:
Apologies to you, Oliver. Clay has my number. I should've referenced only the scary part of your quote, where you draw artistic inspiration from frequent knife fights. I've been watching too many episodes of "The Wire" recently.
Click to expand...

HaHa. No worries Paul. Funny thing is I was actually drawing on a childhood scuffle on the playground. I remember how it felt when I realized I'd unintentionally cut him by shoving him into a fence. I've not been in a fight since, knife or otherwise.
 
Last edited:
Just watched "Bully" and it was my favorite episode so far. I love that the show isn't always a comedy. A couple questions:

what did you guys do to achieve the flashback look? was that all in post or did you use anything in camera?

Also, the shots on and around the ferry, are all the people around hired extras?

I really liked the stuff outside the familys house with the husband and Louie. I think you can see the boom in the top left corner, but the shot works really well.

very nice work as always.
 
Jason Madeja said:
Just watched "Bully" and it was my favorite episode so far. I love that the show isn't always a comedy. A couple questions:

what did you guys do to achieve the flashback look? was that all in post or did you use anything in camera?

Also, the shots on and around the ferry, are all the people around hired extras?

I really liked the stuff outside the familys house with the husband and Louie. I think you can see the boom in the top left corner, but the shot works really well.

very nice work as always.
Click to expand...

Once again I operate at a disadvantage, not being able to see the show till a week later (I don't get FX). Still, I'll forge on.

I remember when the Bully script got to me. I went, "Holy Cow! Doesn't Louie realize we're making a comedy here?" But then we aren't, are we? We're making a Louie show.

Flashback. Shoot, what scene is that? The only flashback stuff I remember is from an earlier script. Refresh my memory.

While we had permission to shoot on and around the ferry and terminal, those are all normal folks. In a few cases Louie asked people if they'd do something for him, just sit there, or give a look. New Yorkers are canny creatures. They just go about their business for the most part, not caring, or maybe realizing this is the way you actually get your puss on TV: as a volunteer extra. Except for one notable clown looking for his own show on the Staten Island side, as I recall.

I'll keep an eye out for the boom. I've already seen lights, stands, shadows. I hardly care anymore. One of our Red benefits goes like this: we can always squeeze the frame a little in post if we need to lose something. Hell, we can squeeze in from a master and buy ourselves a CU if we want. And as I say far too often on set, it's the psychology of the frame that matters. If folks are looking at the cable in the corner, we're doing something terribly wrong in the center of the frame. Which isn't to say I wouldn't dress a cable if I saw it in frame, understand. It's just solace after the fact.
 
There's the flashback of Little Louie in the kitchen as his dad explains sex to him and then a stinger during the credits where Little Louie meets himself as Adult Louie and gets bummed out by the site of his future. The end flashback seemed to have a different framerate going on or something. nice 70s look.

i buy the show on itunes.
 
Jason Madeja said:
There's the flashback of Little Louie in the kitchen as his dad explains sex to him and then a stinger during the credits where Little Louie meets himself as Adult Louie and gets bummed out by the site of his future. The end flashback seemed to have a different framerate going on or something. nice 70s look.

i buy the show on itunes.
Click to expand...
Holy Cow. Jason, thanks for the tip. You piqued my interest and I went to iTunes. I couldn't for the life of me remember the scenes you were talking about. I figured Louie fired me and brought in a new DP.

Then I remembered some stuff we shot a couple years ago, with Louie's own HVX-200. And that's what you were watching. Those were sketches shot as part of a presentation piece for "another network".

Aside from the fact it was shot with the 200, there still seems to be some processing going on. I see some artifacting that looks like the stuff was reshot off a monitor, but I have no idea. They can do anything in post these days, right?
 
Did you have the MX cameras available on the Dentist/Tarese episode from last night? The night exteriors and the subway shots looked very good.
 
C.H.Haskell said:
Oliver thats Pauls sense of humor...dont take it personal. I believe he was referencing your cutting edge analogy.
Click to expand...

Further to my point: At the end of the title sequence (all episodes), we see a very similarly paced (held beyond what the production crew probably ever intended) & out-of-focus shot (also beyond the 'standard' accepted aesthetic). I think this establishes the use of this kind of exceptional visual language.

n'est-ce pas?
 
Ravi Kiran said:
Did you have the MX cameras available on the Dentist/Tarese episode from last night? The night exteriors and the subway shots looked very good.
Click to expand...

The subway interiors were shot with the standard sensor at the Randall's Island Fire Training Academy. We shot there on at least two, maybe three occasions in a stationary car used for training exercises.

The night exteriors were a mix of the two chips, I think. The stuff in and around the elevated platform was the MX.
 
Oliver Rabinovitch said:
Further to my point: At the end of the title sequence (all episodes), we see a very similarly paced (held beyond what the production crew probably ever intended) & out-of-focus shot (also beyond the 'standard' accepted aesthetic). I think this establishes the use of this kind of exceptional visual language.

n'est-ce pas?
Click to expand...
Good point. I remember thinking the shot was a little ragged, particularly near the end. We were hustling to get in some Steadicam material around the Comedy Cellar before the wrap. No Idea what the footage would be used for. The final frame is a bit skewed, and it looks like Alex felt he'd held focus long enough and threw in a rack for good measure. We do a lot of stuff on the fly, and he has good instincts that way.

So a hurried shot a little rough around the edges ends up getting play every episode in the title credits. That's Louie for you.
 
Tv finally some respectable new shows coming, Louie is one of them. Last episode I got to watch with Louie as a boy dealing with Jesus and the church was pretty heavy, really enjoyed it.
 
Figured it was time for me to join the party. I am the 1st AC on 'Louie' so I guess that makes me a red user. I don't have anything to add, just want to say hello and open myself up to the discussion, needless to say I'm not very good at this stuff.
 
Welcome Alexander!

Must have missed this thread the first time round. Its interesting to read. Like the sound of the crew. Small, tight and down to earth (that's how it appears) no time or room for bullsh*t. My kind of gig. I have seen a little bit of his stand-up, but being from the UK I only know him through the web. I might be wrong but I haven't seen him on UK TV.

Watched clips on Youtube though its looks incredibly funny. What was the reception like with US audiences. Probably do quite well over here mind. We like funny! Especially dry black humour.
 
Hey Paul, Alex...anyone recognize the dude in the background of the "louie" intro sequence when Louis CK is eating pizza? Someone pointed this out to me at a bar last night, cracked me up.
 

Attachments

  • Clay_louie2.jpg
    Clay_louie2.jpg
    86.8 KB · Views: 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top