The "Self Storage" Pilot!

Above: The 5-minute contest-length version of the"Self Storage" pilot/trailer. There will be an extended cut later, as well as promos featuring gags that didn't fit because of the time limit. (If you want to rate "Self Storage" on You Tube, here is the link).

The Story So Far: I leave the TV at Paper Heroes on FX in the evenings to have "King of the Hill" and "That '70s Show" on for background noise/entertainment, and if you've watched FX for more than 5 minutes in the past 2 weeks, you've noticed (as I did) that they're running a contest to promote the season premiere of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia." (If not, you can check out the commercial here). To enter the contest, you send in a 3-5 minute comedy short presenting the premise for a sitcom, and the winner gets a $50,000 budget to produce an actual pilot.

We at Irony Coast Productions decided that entering the FX Comedy Competition would be a good way to follow up our success with the 48 Hour Film Project 2006. Actually, Victor and I decided that. Everyone else went on vacation (except for Marc -- he stuck with us). So, after recruiting an almost-all-new cast & crew (plus an army of extras, chosen from the ranks of our friends, family, and complete strangers), we were ready to create our first comedy short.

We went through a number of concepts for a weekly sitcom, some of which will be future Irony Coast projects. The one we finally settled on, "Self Storage," was loosely based on a joke I'd made (here and here) about Troy & Jason, a few former Paper Heroes employees who now work at a storage facility.

We shot at that storage facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana for 16 hours on Sunday, June 4. It was the most excruciating fun we'd had in years. Afterwards, we all felt like this:

You can see the rest of the behind-the-scenes production photos on Flickr.

Marc Isaacs, who appeared as Davey Delisio in our Eternal short, returns as Mitch. Co-starring as Mitch's brother Guru is Nate Hall, a welcome addition to the Irony Coast ranks. Cameos include actual storage facility employee Troy Duplantis as Millennium Falcon Guy, Paper Heroes owner Kevin Cinquemano as Lost Guy, and a lot of our kids as juvenile delinquents.

Special thanks to: Jason Hardesty, who shot some of the footage and created the "Self Storage" logo above; Nate's brother Matt Hall, who was a big help behind the scenes and who we look forward to casting in future productions; voice talent Cecelia Ottenweller, who (literally) phoned in her performance as Mitch's mother in his voicemail message; and Victor's brother Sean DiGiovanni, for helping out both in front of and behind the camera, and for supplying half our extras.

That's all the info I've got for now. Check back for updates!