American Cinematographer — Production Slate — November 2012
Honeymoon Hangover: Husbands

For those of you who haven’t yet seen the heavily lauded comedy web series Husbands, which launched in 2011, and finished up its second season this past September, the series explores the relationship between Brady (Sean Hemeon), a major-league baseball player who has just recently come out of the closet, and celebrity personality Cheeks (Brad Bell) following an impromptu Las Vegas trip to celebrate a federal amendment for marriage equality that ends with the couple drunk-married.

Directed by Executive Producer Jeff Greenstein (Desperate Housewives, Parenthood, Will & Grace) and shot by Cinematographer Benjamin Kantor, Husbands is created by Bell and TV writer Jane Espenson, who has worked on such venerable shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, and Once Upon a Time.

Husbands, which won a Silver Telly People’s Choice Award earlier this year, has the distinction of being both the first online series to be reviewed in The New Yorker and the first online series to be hosted by the Paley Center, where the show’s season two premiere was held in July.

Billed as the world’s first marriage equality comedy, Husbands uses the problems faced by the new couple as comedic fodder. In season one, fearing that a public divorce would be devastating to the cause, the couple decides to remain married. Hijinks ensue with the help of gal pal Haley, played by Caprica‘s Alessandra Torresani, as the pair attempts to navigate the uncertain waters of marriage in the spotlight.

Season two, which begins with the couple on a more solid footing, saw a number of high-profile guest stars including Joss Whedon as Wes, Brady’s agent, along with Two and a Half Men star Jon Cryer, John Hodgman, Tricia Helfer, Mekhi Phifer, Felicia Day, Sasha Roiz and Amber Benson. Torresani returns as the lead couple’s ditzy pal, Haley.

Funded in part by a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, the production increased the budget for season two, which was filmed on location in a three-story Los Angeles home. Upgrades were made to improve the image quality as well, using Steadicam rigs outfitted with RED Scarlet and Epic cameras instead of the hand-held digital Canon EOS Rebel T2i cameras employed for season one. And while episodes for the first season were broken up into eleven brief two-minute segments, the second season comprises three slickly polished eight-minute episodes.

Kantor, a cinematographer living in Los Angeles whose previous film projects include the award-winning Herpes Boy, as well as this year’s Welcome Back Satan, directed by Sara Lohman, and David H. Steinberg’s forthcoming Miss Dial, shot both seasons of the high-concept comedy series. Brought on board by his wife, series Producer Ann Elizabeth Hughes, Kantor found himself trying to emulate the lavishly produced look of sitcoms such as Desperate Housewives within a decidedly indie budget, although he points out that the handheld look of the first season mirrors the instability of the relationship between the two characters, while the Steadicam rigs underscore the domestic stability that is the starting point for season 2. (Read full story…)