Episode 1 – The Recruit
Title: The Recruit
Release Date: July 20th, 2009
Running Time: 32 Minutes, 27 Seconds
Synopsis Officer A.J. Jenkins believes he’s getting a promotion from Commissioner Preston Leebo but appears to be gravely mistaken. Introductions are given to Detectives Alex Ramirez and David McAlister.
Starring: Justin Herman, Chester Smith, Scott Lee, Xavier Flores, John Pandolph, Mitchell Ganey, and Matt Cisneros. Featuring: Dustyn Whisenant
Filmed on Mini-DV With Canon Optura Xi Cameras. Audio recorded with Audio-Technica.
Edited With Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and Adobe Premiere Pro 2. Introduction Created With Adobe After Effects 7. Music Created With Propellerhead Reason 4.0. Post Production Audio Work Done With Adobe Audition 3.
Trivia:
The character being chased by AJ Jenkins in the beginning of the episode is Abu Samidi, played by Xavier Flores who appears several shots later as Detective Alex Ramirez. This scene was added in at the last minute, filmed and edited only a day before the episode’s release. Abu Samidi first appeared in the improvisational footage the series became based on. Originally, Abu appears with his Russian friend Ishmael, but Ishmael was not included in this scene.
The introduction sequence showing the Barton Police logo was created over the course of more than two days, an entire day devoted to the visual effects and another day devoted to creating the music, which went through nearly a dozen different revisions.
During a news broadcast shot toward the beginning of episode one, a marquee at the bottom of the screen shows several humorous fake news headlines such as “Chuck Norris May Run for President.” Another news headline mentions “Doomsday 6 Setting a Box Office Record of 158.9M During Midnight Showing” which references a prior movie created by the director of Barton Police, Stephen Wolfe, and was also the first film to introduce the character: AJ Jenkins, who has always been played by Justin Herman.
David McAlister was originally played by David Ochoa (I’m Not Gonna Lie), but David quit about a third of the way through production due to creative differences. John Pandolph came in to replace him and only saw a few of the scenes that David had originally filmed. David McAlister’s accent was originally more Scottish than Irish.
Another character cut from the series was the other office prankster and additional dispatch to Jose D. Garcia, named Jamal Johnson. Jamal was played by Chris McGrew, who quit with David Ochoa.
Charles Green was offered a role as a character he created before leaving Barton Ct. Productions Inc. known as Roy Roberts, but declined.
More than half of the first episode was refilmed and redone, with some shots being redone more than twice. Some shots appearing one right after another were shot an entire year apart. The first couple days of filming were done without a boom mic, using only the camera’s built in audio.
Dustyn Whisenant, who plays the character named Donny Doushenberg and appears toward the end of the episode as the man getting arrested by Officer Bill O’Hara, had his first ever acting experience on screen during that scene.
