Bryan
When he got up I asked him how you even begin looking for a bed, and he said, “Oh, well we have this new system over here that helps you through that process.” So I was like, “Okay, cool. Whatever it’ll take.”
So he brought me over to this bed and there was this old school computer hooked up to it. It led me through a series of questions, starting off with like, “How tall are you?” and “How much do you weigh?” And then it said, “Do you have a sleeping partner?”
I thought, “Oh that’s kind of a cool way of phrasing it. Like someone you sleep in the bed with – a sleeping partner.”
Søren
Sure.
Bryan
So I said, “Yes.” And the next question was, “Is your sleeping partner a male or a female.” And I was like, “Wow, that’s kind of progressive…”
Søren
(Laughs.)
Bryan
“…or is it data mining me?” Like for commercial purposes –
Søren
Advertising, yeah.
Bryan
To exploit me later in some way. But I was like, “My sleeping partner is a male” and clicked on that and the response was, “You have a male sleeping partner!” So it also had a voice that went along with the visuals.”
Søren
Geez.
Bryan
Like holy s**t, this is weird. What is going on? And at that point other people came into the store and they were milling around. So there was that extra thing of – I’m not used to having to “out” myself.
Søren
Mhmm.
Bryan
And bed shopping for anybody is a weird thing, because it’s like –
Søren
Private.
Bryan
It’s something personal. So I finished off the process of answering all those questions and I got down on the bed. It said, “Lay on the bed” – it was going to go through some other kind of test or whatever. And then this screen came down into my face and started bombarding me with images and ads and stuff. And I said, “Okay, this is too much. I’ve gotta go.”
So I left, and then when I left I was like, “Dang, I should have stayed just to see where that was gonna go.” Because it seemed pretty funny.”
Søren
Right!
Bryan
At that time, I was doing that screenwriting workshop, and I was like, “Oh, well this is what I want to write my short about.” Because it’s the perfect concept for a short. I mean, it could be a little bit too much in terms of the production [costs] piece of it. But I thought what the heck – just write it!
And so I actually spent three months writing it, and getting feedback, and workshopping it. And it was just a 14 page long script. I did that in the fall and decided I actually wanted to go ahead an shoot it. So I casted it, did all the location scouting, everything like that. We shot it in Northampton and Turner’s Falls [Massachusetts] in January.
Søren
So it’s a lot more personal than I’d –
Bryan
It goes back awhile!
Søren
Yeah! I had no idea it was so grounded in reality. I was watching it thinking it was a conceivable situation, although it does go into the almost sci-fi realm with the computer. But apparently the computer was a real thing, just not quite as advanced as it is in the short?
Bryan
Yeah, the original was just – as I said – an old computer hooked up to the bed. But we decided to imagine an almost futuristic, where it could happen now – the technology is there. So the bed becomes a “smart bed,” basically –
Søren
(Laughs.)
Bryan
(Laughs.) The bed itself is like a giant iPad and interacts with the main character in that way.
Søren
And there’s no reason to assume that won’t be a thing in the near future.
Bryan
Definitely.
Søren
So that leads to a completely different question. Now that you’re turning this short into a series – and the short was very personal based on something that happened to you – is it weird making these other episodes that could have happened to you, but aren’t directly related to your past? Because I know you’ve handed off the reins to other writers, right?
