Disabled
The Series
Homepage: http://www.archive.org/details/Disabled-Season01-Episode01thePilot
Feature By: Jonathan Earley
After much delay on the part of yours truly, the ongoing home-made series "Disabled" is finally making a feature appearance on C-buz. Since October, Gary Norton, Kyle Willey have been scripting, shooting, editing, and acting in several documentary-esque, short comedies depicting the lives of a close group of small-town slackers, trying to cheat their way into getting a disability income. The series is available to watch on funnyordie.com
“The show explores what it’s like when a group of selfish people become hopelessly codependent on one another. ”
C-buz: What lead you to do this video project?
Gary Norton: A combination
of a lot of things. I have been making shorts and music videos since I
was very young and Kyle has been filming for several years too. We have
worked together on many projects. The first I think being Fracture. I
had a small part in that film. Kyle also helped behind the scenes of my
short titled Eric. Actually Eric Elliott is my longest collaborator. He
and I have worked together from pretty much day one of my film “career”
if you can call it that. Although I think you have to make money to call
it a career. He is absolutely fantastic to work with. The most real and
amazing person on film. I have joked before that he is my Klaus Kinski
because he can be a handful sometimes. A few years ago I was trying to
film a music video for the Maggot Babies and he slapped the other actor,
threw a knife at me, and stormed off. Later he apologized to both of
us, but that is Eric. He has calmed down a lot. He is my favorite actor
to work with. Kyle and I had also created another show with pretty much
the same cast called Voodoo Night. It was a sketch comedy show, but for
various reasons it fell apart. Although we filmed some really great
stuff it just never all came together like with Disabled. Kyle is an
amazing guy to work with so I’m glad we continued with a new show.
Everyone on the show is just so incredible to work with. Getting to
create with people you love and care about is really wonderful.
http://www.archive.org/details/EricMovingPortraitSeries
CB:
Have you done other video projects before?
GN: Yeah, I have
worked on loads of other projects. I have done music videos for A Baloo
Is A Bear, Conspirators, and Buzzardhawk. If anyone is interested in my
other work I would suggest watching my moving portrait called Eric and
my music video Fried Chicken and Circuit Boards for A Baloo Is A Bear.
Those are my best works to date I think. I have quite a few other
projects in the pipeline as well. I will probably start them when
filming wraps for season one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-bc8N3Owzc
CB:
What are your inspirations in terms of documentaries or other films?
GN:
That is such a hard question to answer. I actually try and avoid that
question because I can never answer it fully or elegantly enough. The
show in particular is inspired by Arrested Development, It’s Always
Sunny in Philadelphia, The Trailer Park Boys, and Peep Show. I know I
have left out so many other things though. As for me personally I won’t
even get into that because I’ll freak out and end up giving you an
absurdly large list.
CB: The intro was really well done. Where did you learn about video production?
Gary Norton: Thanks, well I guess, Kyle put the intro together. We had discussed several different intro ideas, but ultimately we decided the intense, dark, and very misleading intro would be funniest. We like the idea of messing with the viewer’s moods and making them question rather or not things are done on purpose. We really enjoy tone bending. There are a lot of really subtle jokes buried somewhere beneath all of the crass humor. As far as video production goes Kyle handles most of those duties on the show. He edits the episodes down and I come to view them and tell him what I like or don't like and we discuss it over green tea and potpies. However I do edit all of my music videos and shorts on my own, which I have been doing since I was thirteen. I have no formal training. I have basically learned everything through trial and error. Kyle learned the same way I did. It’s really impressive what he can do.
CB: What software / equipment do you use?
GN: As I mentioned before Kyle handles the editing, but I do know that he uses Vegas Video. As far as lighting goes we've found the sun to be pretty effective unless it’s raining, but when that happens you get a completely spontaneous episode like Rainy Day Tag-Team. The cameras we use are not exactly the world’s finest. We have better equipment mind you, but I think using the rinky dink equipment adds to the humor. We use the way the show is shot and edited as a sort of tool. So we use low grade technology and film certain scenes poorly because the show is supposed to be these five friend's home videos and essentially they don't know what they are doing. The camera man is also a character in the show so sometimes you'll catch him filming himself or his hand as he opens a door. A lot of things that would be bad for other shows or come off like mistakes are actually very intentional in Disabled.
CB: Is this real? How much if that is acting vs. real / candid stuff?
GN: I certainly wouldn't say any of the show is "real." What kind of despicable assholes do you think we are? Seriously though I would say it’s about 85% fake and 15% honest to goodness us. The small percentile that is real is extremely exaggerated. I guess a good example of something real is my driving anxiety. I really have problems with that. In fact all the “disabilities” are just exaggerated truths, you could say. Other things like the use of certain disparaging words are not in our normal vocabulary. One character uses the word “faggot” some times and that is not really a word I use in my daily life, but we are telling the story of a group of hicks who are unexposed to the world. Although we use our real names our characters are parodies of a certain type of people you would find in a small town such as Edinburgh.
CB: Is any of it scripted?
GN: Yes, it certainly is. I think most people get the idea that we just go and shoot random stuff and to be fair that is the case sometimes, but very rarely. For instance Kyle and I planned the entire season out before shooting a single scene. We spent a long time crafting the characters and tones, by which I mean deciding how the show would feel and be viewed. We always wanted it to have a sort of greasy, smelly, sweaty, small town vibe.
CB: What is the purpose of this project?
GN: That is a tricky question. What is the purpose of anything? I mean why does anyone make a show or a film or a painting? The best way I can answer that is by saying that I just have this thing inside of me. This kind of itch or some sort of addiction that needs feeding. The only thing I really want to do in life is be with the ones I love and create art in some form or another. Although the show is a comedy and a crude one at that I still think of it as art. Not everything I have worked on has been a comedy and the same goes for Kyle. This is just an avenue we were both interested in exploring. We want people to watch and to thoroughly enjoy themselves, but if they didn’t we’d still make the show and once it runs its course and we both feel like it’s time to move on we’ll do something else. We both have lots of other projects we are working on. Some have been put on the back burner and some we will work on in between seasons. We don’t always work together either.
CB: Why are your characters trying to get on disability?
GN: The characters on the show have got disability as a way of avoiding work. They have a certain slacker lifestyle they would like to retain. These are people who are schemers, crooks, and all around bad human beings. I have always liked it when shows find funny ways for their characters to have money and not work. Something like Arrested Development makes the family wealthy and a show like Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia has a character like Frank to bail the others out, we have the government. I like that our characters are completely worthless jerks. They are the type of people who feel trapped in a small town, but do nothing to escape it.
CB: Would you say this projects is politically driven?
GN: No I don’t think so. I could definitely
see where someone could get that idea. When I think about the series and
what we are doing I think of it more as a type of social commentary I
suppose. We aren’t really taking a stand or trying to put forth any kind
of political ideology. It’s not like we are saying this is bad or this
is good. The show is offering people a view of a small Midwestern town.
Although the characters differ from us vastly people like that really
exist in small towns although the States. I mean I went to school with
people like these characters. I have worked with these types of people.
Obviously we exaggerate some things for comedic affect, but we really
know people like the ones in the show. I have been in Edinburgh my whole
life and Kyle is from Hope so we have a lot of experience with small
town life.
CB: How should the government handle the
disability situation differently?
GN: I really don’t feel like we
should be commenting on something like that. We are creating a show
that uses faking disability as a plot point, but the
show isn't completely focused on it. The show is called Disabled, but
these characters will do anything for a buck. It’s really just a show
about bad people doing bad things. The whole faking disability thing is a
kicking off point the characters do much worse things as the series
progresses.