Behind the Scenes: The Making of STBD 6.12 "The Going-Away Party"

[stbdpgh]

This episode -- which concludes our 6th season -- is one of the strangest ones we've ever done. Why? Because it took us a year to film it.

Here's a secret: Ryan Ben (Tim) moved to Chicago last August (2008). Before he left Pittsburgh, we filmed everything we knew we'd need from Tim this season -- which means every scene he's in was filmed no less than 10 months ago.

Or, more specifically, Tim's side of it was. In the cases where we've had to re-film some scenes (because our plotline has changed since we first laid it out last July), we didn't have the luxury of re-shooting Tim's angles, so we've had to work around it. Which didn't present much of a problem... until this episode.

When we first filmed Tim's departure 10 months ago, we didn't know his fellow Pitt alum, Josh Hansen (Brent), would also be leaving STBD at the end of the season. (Ironically, we *did* think Lacey Fleming (Dierdre) was, so we filmed THAT instead.) Since Lacey stayed and Josh left, the entire episode had to be re-filmed, and Tim's departure had to be edited into a completely different context -- as a buzzkill during Brent's big day, rather than a moment all its own. (Luckily, we filmed all of Tim's final monologue in a solo shot, so we didn't have to worry about matching his costars' hairstyles and wardrobe 10 months apart.)

The one quirk? Will Guffey (Leo) was unavailable to reshoot this episode, so all of HIS footage is ALSO 10 months old. (That's why you don't see him in the same frame as anyone else in Affogato -- because he wasn't there.)

Tomorrow, we'll tackle the elephant in the room: why this may (but probably won't be) the last episode of STBD... ever.

[Beckie]

Crazy amount of work going into all of this... I appreciate it!