The Odd Squad Looking for a Mobile Home

MobilizedTV brings you another story in an occasional series on online content seeking mobile distribution.

The Odd Squad is a comedy series of 3-minute episodes aimed at children and adults. With three episodes in the can, Odd Squad writer/EP MeLisa oddsquad3 Lomelino and co-writer/editor Ryun Hovind are chugging ahead with a planned 12 to 15 episode season. And they’re looking for mobile distribution.

Lomelino, an alum of Improv Olympic West whose background was in sketch comedy (including a web series The LeftOvers), wanted to get into children’s entertainment. “I decided the best way to do it would be to create my own show,” she says. “I researched Nickelodeon, which has been at the forefront of kid sketch comedy, in particular All That, their most recent one, which ran for 10 years.”

She particularly enjoyed comedy shows that didn’t parody pop culture or other icons, recalling You Can’t Do That On Television, a childhood favorite on TV. “It was all issues that had to do with the lives of kids and what affected them and their teachers,” she says. “I realized I wanted to do a show that kids could relate to based on their lives and not on pop culture.”

The cast includes alumni of Improv Olympics West, The Groundlings and the Upright Citizens Brigade. “It’s a scripted show, but some of the characters incorporate improv,” she says. “The kids started having so much fun that we started doing some improv with them.”

Some story ideas are based on their own experiences, some on the experiences of kids they know. “Some I wanted to be a social statement,” says

MeLisa Lomelino

Lomelino. “I have Webcam Dad, who’s a favorite of adults who watch the show. He’s a statement of today’s family with all this technology that gets in the way of being together as a family. In one upcoming episode, there’s a laptop at his place at the table, and everyone talking to him on the laptop as if he’s really there. In another episode, we see a laptop is reading the child a goodnight story. it’s funny but sad at the same time.”

Co-writer/editor Ryun Hovind reports that the decision was made with cinematographer Christopher Rutkowski to shoot with two of Panasonic’s P2 camera. “We wanted HD quality and above and we knew the P2 camera had a quality that would make the show sparkle,” he says. “We wanted neon colors for the show to reflect how kids experience life, in a vibrant way. Everything is hyper real -and the colors suggest that.”

The Odd Squad is self-financed, with many of the crew and cast deferring payment. “It’s a long-term investment for us,” says Hovind, who says he wants to push his career forward as an editor. Hovind also did the show’s animation, using After Effects and Adobe Photoshop.

The episodes were geared as webisodes and mobisodes. “They’re short and often require repeated viewing because they go by so fast,” says Hovind. “It has an A and B sitcom structure. You get to come back to the same plot and see other little snippets you didn’t get the first time around.”

Hovind, who worked in post production at The Post Group and Lightning Media, edited the series in his home studio, using Final Cut Pro and Adobe Creative Suite.

The series is currently being distributed only on The Odd Squad website and is being submitted to film festivals. Lomelino and Hovind are very interested in mobile distribution for the series. He notes that they’ve also shot a lot of extras–audition interviews and making-of footage–which are nice additions for online or mobile distribution.

“We think this would work really well on mobile,” says Hovind. “I don’t see this becoming a 30-minute TV show. This is something that was intended to be a 3-minute thing with a laugh.”

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