Clocked Out Web Series

Abstract

At the time of this writing, I had recently been laid off from an employer with whom I worked for since 2006. The company consisted of the husband and wife owners and eight to ten full-time employees, depending on the sales numbers. In such a small business environment there were only two social classes: the owners (them), and the rest of us.

After a few years with the company, friendships grew and a bunch of us started going out every once in a while for happy hour. These happy hours were always highly entertaining. Most conversation revolved around our workdays and many of the stories told centered on the owners.

One night, after one of these enjoyable outings, I had an idea to write the pilot for a sitcom that would be loosely based on the company and its employees’ stories. I struggled to get the idea off the ground, asking friends to help concept and write the script. After a few years and several failed attempts by myself, I gave up on it. That is, until I started looking into graduate school.

I found that the University of Baltimore’s MFA in Integrated Design program would allow me to gain knowledge in both video and screenwriting. My sitcom idea began to stir again. In Spring 2015, after an independent study in screenwriting with Peter Toran, my project came to life not in the form of a sitcom pilot, but in the form of a six-episode web series called Clocked Out.