Reservoir Frogs

With apologies to Quentin Tarantino

The big event is only moments away. The last obstacle? Roxanne wants to see the report.

Synopsis (Spoiler Alert!)

Today’s the big day. Brooke gets ready. He looks great… except for the stain on the back of his shirt. (See Episode 4) He and Alice head out…

Dressed in identical suits, Alice, Brooke and Reggie bring a whole bunch of wacky props in for the client presentation.

Hidden in a storage closet, Reggie goes through his warm up exercises. This will be the performance of a lifetime and he needs to be ready. But Roxanne stumbles on to him – it seems she’s been using the closet to sneak workplace smokes. And now that she’s seen him… she wants to see the report.

Reggie can’t let that happen.

Instead he launches into on impromptu speech about how presentations have supplanted written reports. The only thing that matters is the presentation itself. He underlines his point with some slight of hand, delighting Roxanne to no end. “Smoke and Mirrors.”

Reggie slips out before Roxanne can collect herself. Alice announces to Roxanne, “They’re here.”

The presentation is about to begin…

We shot Team Leader over two weekends, shooting of a ridiculously rapid pace. We originally shot this scene between Brad and Marisa on the first weekend at the end of a very long day. It was shot in the hallway you can see in Last One Out (Episode 6). During the week, while we rested, we decided that we could do better with this particular scene. Our director, Chris Forrest, decided that it could be done somewhere that had a little bit more visual interest than some plain hallway we have seen before. And so, along with the full shooting schedule we already had, we tacked this scene onto the second weekend. And we’re glad we did. It came out great.

Another detail that was interesting was the addition of Roxanne smoking. This character trait was dropped from her scene with Brooke in It’s Only Cricket in favour of her drinking. (See the Production Notes for Episode 5). It was nice to be able to add it back in here, motivating her coming into the closet.

And then there’s the matter of the stain on Brooke’s shirt. This is essentially a “call back” to something that happened a long time ago, in Episode 3. Many writers would simply assume that audiences wouldn’t be able to track an event that far through the story. However, we’re all fans of series that reward active viewing. Team Leader is not designed to be played in the background while the audience is doing the dishes or homework. We think that people who remember it will love it, and people who don’t will never know what they are missing. Plus, it becomes an important factor far the last episode.

On top of all that, this is the only scene were Alice talks to Roxanne. Make of that what you will.