I caught up with director/writer Jesse Warren and co-writer/star Mark Gantt in the edit bay for The Bannen Way only a week before picture lock. The duo has spent two and a half years working on the concept, and the last few weeks living in an edit bay, while they put the finishing touches on the cool, action packed, funny, one of a kind con-man thriller hitting the Crackle audience this coming January. “I would say get ready for a ride,” says Warren, “Be ready for that.”
“We need to start paying rent here,” says director Jesse Warren, “I’ve been working 12, 14 hour days, every day since I’ve been done [shooting]. It’s tough, but it’s fun.”
“We’re definitely getting into the time now where we are cutting things that we love,” says star Mark Gantt, “You know working with these great actors, and how much they just kind of brought their ‘A’ game, it just jumps off the screen… To see it there, everyday to walk in and see it actually come to life was fabulous, you know, fantastic.”
Like any other production, it’s been a matter of getting everything done on time, which is never easy. Every part of the production has been carefully layered and planned into a tight and fast moving process. Warren explains, “[The Editors] were doing a rough assembly while we were still shooting. They’d get the footage like a day or two after… and five days after shooting we had [something to watch].”
Even the music has been in the works since before camera roll. Warren explains that to get a head start, he and the composer went through the entire script and talked about every piece of music they would need. “He created a library of music for us to use as were shooting…” Jesse explains, “There’s a heist that Bannen is doing at the very beginning to establish his character, and we really use the music to emphasize hit points and it almost looks like a music video.”
A tight script made the tight schedule possible. But being in production is about adapting and finding the moments you didn’t expect. “Writing the script is one thing,” says Jesse, “You look at it and you go ‘Perfect, pitch perfect’ and then shooting is a whole other thing. Things I fell in love with on paper didn’t quite fit when we shot them, and so we got rid of them. And other parts I didn’t expect to play so well pop out… It changed in front of our eyes.”
With the show rapidly nearing completion, the excitement both of them share about The Bannen Way is infectious. Says Mark, “I think we’re very happy with what we’ve got… if that doesn’t sound too cocky.”
Coming from the actor who plays slick con-man Neal Bannen… it doesn’t.
Make sure to come back to the blog this Friday, in order to get to know the “real” Bannen. Also, visit the official Bannen Way Facebook page and follow Crackle on Twitter for all updates.
CJ – Crackle Blog Editor
Tags: Jesse Warren, Mark Gantt, the bannen way
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