Outtakes
Outtakes (2013-15)
Created, written, and directed by: Sylvan Oswald
Outtakes is one of the most experimental, engrossing web series I’ve seen, and it is the rare show written and conceived of by a transmasculine person, Sylvan Oswald. Not only does the cast represent some of the strongest actors working today, but Sylvan also stars in the series and grounds it as an exploration into how we shape our identities in real life and through media.
Season 1 follows creator Sylvan Oswald and actor “Becca” Blackwell as they set out to create a web series about a guy coming out to his partner, played by Zuzanna Szadowski, as trans.
Season 2 starts one year later. Becca, now Beckett, is trying T, Sylvan’s leaving Brooklyn for good and Zuzanna’s trying to sort out the future with both of them.
Sylvan says: “Outtakes came out of a moment of frustration with the American Theater, where I'd come up as a playwright. In 2013 the conversation around trans artists and trans content was even less developed than it is now. I felt like I was having trouble being heard. There was also a moment of idleness - performer Becca Blackwell and I had some time booked to work together, but what I had in mind was feeling kind of dead to me. So we just started messing around and watching videos online. Naturally we landed on YouTube transition videos. Neither of us had ever made one. We were like, let's make one, but what should it be? ‘Should I play you? Should you play me? Should we play ourselves?’ We shot on my 2009 laptop webcam because that's the aesthetic of those transition videos (and because I don't own a camera and had no prior experience making video). I showed the raw footage, which included me directing Becca, to my best friend, filmmaker and editor Maria Cataldo, who later became the co-director, and said, "What do you think we should do? Which approach do you like better?" And she said, ‘No, Sylvan, this is the show.’ That's how we found the style.”
Since the show, Sylvan has remained active in writing for live theater, whereas Becca Blackwell has continued to appear in many prominent films and TV series.