Los Angeles-based post production company Therapy Studios helps to craft the idiosyncratic brand
of comedy behind The Gorburger
Show on Comedy Central. Previously
produced as a Funny or Die/Warner
Music web series, The Gorburger Show features
a giant blue space monster (voiced by Silicon
Valley’s TJ Miller) who serves as the unlikely host of a Japanese variety show.
All 8 episodes
of Gorburger were produced by Caviar
and directed by its creators, Ryan McNeely and Josh Martin (aka The Director
Brothers). The pair also serves as executive producers, alongside T.J. Miller and Sean Boyle of Funny or Die, and write for the
show with Miller and four others.
Gorburger continues a longstanding partnership
between The Director Brothers and Therapy Studios. McNeely is a partner of
design and vfx company Visual Creatures, which began to operate out of the same
space as Therapy in 2010. The companies frequently tackle projects together,
with Therapy bringing the editorial, audio and VFX muscle while Visual Creatures
focuses on design and animation. Prior collaborations include campaigns for Gamefly,
Cap'n Crunch, KIA, and Red Bull, and the HBO show Sonic Highways, which was produced by Therapy Content.
As McNeely
and Martin’s live action careers began to take off as The Director Brothers,
they continued to foster solid relationships with Therapy's artists, with both companies
growing together in their work over the years. When The Director Brothers created
Gorburger for Funny or Die, editor
Kristin McCasey cut the first episodes, helping to set the tone for the show. Naturally
McCasey was enlisted to cut the TV pilot and by the time Comedy Central picked
up the show, it was evident this creative alliance would continue.
With the
workflow and trust already in place, The Director Brothers gave McCasey and the
other editors a considerable amount of creative freedom at the beginning of the
process, inviting them to help craft the jokes and explore the funniest outcomes.
“We like to
see what they'll come up with that might have been different from what we were
planning or what we initially liked on set,” explains McNeely. “When it
comes to comedy, there are so many different ways to make a scene funny, and we
don't ever want to get boxed into what we wrote or anticipated.”
“On Gorburger, this was multiplied times a
million because we were working with an animatronic monster that we could make
say almost anything through ADR. That means near endless opportunities to
changes jokes and make a scene funnier...which is both a blessing and a curse.”
With creative free
rein, Therapy’s editors could manipulate the order of the shot sequences and
rewrite jokes by putting different captions onscreen as placeholders, making
Gorburger say whatever they wanted.
McNeely says:
“Because of the talk show format of the show, we had a lot of improvisation, so
there were so many directions each scene could go. We relied on our editors at
Therapy to help steer us in the funniest (or sometimes weirdest) direction
possible. After the initial cut, we all worked together to craft the
comedy of each scene.”
Along with Kristin McCasey, editors Jake Shaver, Sean
Ferris, and Luke Lynch each contributed to episodes. Eddie Kim and Brandon Kim manned the audio
with impeccable sound design and mixing, and colorist Omar Inguanzo provided
the vibrant palette for the series. Flame Artist Geoff Stephenson led the
finishing duties with help from Therapy Partner Wren Waters and Rachel Moorer. And the whole circus was wrangled by post
supervisor Margaret Ward. It’s
definitely a combination of talents that worked to bring the bizarre Gorburger universe fully to life.
The Gorburger Show
premiered on Comedy Central on April 9 at midnight. Episodes will feature guests including Zach Woods and Johnny
Pemberton of Silicon Valley, Reggie
Watts, Rob Corddry, Larry King, Tig Notaro, Dr. Drew Pinsky, and more.