By Luke Voogt
Geelong comedy Rostered On will debut its web series early this year following its internationally popular pilot – with a special tribute for a fallen friend.
Rostered On writer-director Ryan Chamley said he would dedicate the series to assistant director and friend of 20 years Daniel Boyles.
‘Dan’ helped build the set and auditioned more than 200 actors. He died in an accident at his property before the last day of filming.
“The whole series wouldn’t have happened without him,” Ryan said.
Ryan described Dan as a genuine, trustworthy and loyal problem solver.
“Every time you needed something done Dan would be the guy who got it done for you.”
Ryan said Dan’s name would appear before credits in the first episode, which he hoped to release next month.
The series follows the hilarious struggles of Shaun (Paul Moore) and fellow retail staff as they endure rude customers and condescending management.
The volunteer cast and crew took nine days to film it, with 6am starts and one 18-hour day of filming ending at midnight.
“There haven’t been any egos or complaining about late nights,” Ryan said.
“They were all in it to create something they could be proud of.”
Ryan and the crew filmed the pilot in one day at an electrical store. But after its head office saw the pilot, he had to find an alternative set.
“They didn’t want us to film it in there again because it was sort taking the piss out of the industry.”
Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre donated a vacant store while OMA Shopfitting provided shelving.
The crew went “far beyond” their job scrounging second hand televisions and old appliances.
“People were walking in asking when we were opening,” Ryan said.
“If we had a licence we could have run a store!”
Ryan promised “higher production values” than the pilot, which has received 185,955 YouTube views so far.
A meme based on pilot footage garnered 9 million views on Facebook and thousands of comments.
“It’s become a real venting process,” Ryan said.
“We put the call out for people to share their horror stories from work and we’ve put some of them in the script.”
