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Talenthouse Filmmaker and Playboy/Bombay Sapphire Finalist Matt Nye continues bringing entertaining stories to screens both big and portable – this time, with a darkly humorous webseries. Matt just completed the first season of the online comedy “Wrapped” as its Editor and Line Producer while also performing as one of the actors (he incarnates the character “Dick”). In stark black and white (with occasional reels in color for comic effect), “Wrapped” chronicles the film industry misadventures of a pack of “the lowest people on the totem pole” – production assistants. The mordant series’ sixth episode is also its scheduled season finale; a good number to leave audiences wanting more.

To give us an insider’s look at the production from various angles and provide some inspiration for fellow filmmakers in the Talenthouse community, Matt put us in touch with the show’s Writer and Director, Mike Dean (who also stars onscreen as “Dean”). Have a look at the series teaser, get behind-the-scenes insights plus a heads-up on especially solid scenes from Mike, then dive into the complete first season of “Wrapped”!

TH: How did “Wrapped” take root?
Mike Dean: Me and Tim Radecki (Co-Writer/Co-Director) worked together on a feature right out of college as production assistants. It was 2-3 months of working with the same people. I first had the idea after that, then the more jobs we worked the more ideas we had for episodes.

TH: Tell us about your multiple roles as cast and crew in this webseries.
Mike: In college, we all got to know each other working on film projects together. Most of the time we would act in them ourselves instead of bother to get the theater majors. Before long, we all knew who was good on screen. Ever since then we’ve all been pretty comfortable working both sides of the lens.

TH: Could you describe an “average day” on set? What’s the studio/editing environment like for a project of this nature?
Mike: Unfortunately we don’t have the chance to meet with our editor in person, so many of our notes are via email and phone. Luckily for us our editor has an excellent work ethic. The on set experience varied. some days we had two units filming simultaneously, Me directing one scene, Tim directing another. Other days, like our pick up shoots would be a skeleton crew.

TH: What are a couple of your favorite “Wrapped” moments, either in the narrative or behind-the-scenes? Feel free to just hint at them, so as to avoid spoilers.
Mike: My favorite behind the scenes moment was when we were filming a scene where the camera reveals a character who’s been masturbating off screen, and on the best take, one of the crew members says, “Nice…” Story wise, everything with the character “Mike” – John Proko brought so much life to that character.

TH: Can viewers look forward to a continuation of this series beyond the season finale? What can they do to help the series move forward?
Mike: We certainly would like to do a second season. We will most likely start a Kickstarter or other fundraising account in the near future. Our goal is to raise a larger budget for the second season so we can pull off some bigger storylines and take better care of our crew. We had many good friends doing us favors and working for free; people who care enough about the series to work 40 hours during the week, then come out and do 16 hour days with us on the weekend.

Thanks for sharing, Matt and Mike! Here’s to a possible Season 2 and future film magic. Viewers can treat themselves to the full selection of “Wrapped” episodes and clips here.