In this week’s Webseries Wednesday, we’re traveling to an indeterminate time in a galaxy some distance away to celebrate Space Janitors and chat with the show’s creators!
Space Janitors is a science-fiction comedy series which imagines the lives of low-level men and women who keep the gears of a hilariously familiar ‘Evil Empire’ turning smoothly. (Well, more or less.) The show, which just concluded its second season, was created by Davin Lengyel and Geoff Lapaire and is currently hosted on YouTube by Geek & Sundry.
Set on a militarized space station, Space Janitors focuses on ambitious janitor Darby Richards (Brendan Halloran) and the members of his designated social group. Darby’s circle includes fellow janitor Mike (Pat Thorton), computer psychologist Edith Kingpin (Evany Rosen), beautiful android Elle (Tess Degenstein) and a friendly armored clone named Dennis 4862 (Scott Yamamura.) Each week, the show follows the members of social group 417 as they play musical lightsaber, fall in love with robots, accidentally impersonate Dark Lord, and keep the station floors shining.
Though replete with winking references to Star Wars and other stories of intergalactic adventuring, Space Janitors is also wholly unique. Its largely computer generated sets are impressive, as are the costumes and surreal scenarios, all of which make Space Janitors feel simultaneously fresh and familiar.
But what makes Space Janitors really special is the show’s perfect balance of humor and heart. Not only does Space Janitors make us laugh at its quirky characters, but it also makes us care about them. Darby and his friends are silly but loveable, and they all display hidden depths as the show progresses. Sure, we’re all for a free and democratic galaxy – but if you spend a few minutes alongside Darby, Mike, and the rest, we can guarantee you will never watch Star Wars the same way again.
Interview with ‘Space Janitors’ creators Davin Lengyel and Geoff Lapaire:
Besides a certain film franchise set amongst the stars, what was the inspiration for ‘Space Janitors’?
Davin: I watch movies and shows while I work. In fact, I’m watching The Walking Dead as I type my answer right now! I was working with Geoff on a few ideas while watching Empire [Strikes Back] for about the 500th time. Spoiler alert: Luke gets his hand cut off by Vader towards the end.
When that scene came on, I started daydreaming about what life was like on Cloud City for all the people that aren’t involved in the big space opera. Someone’s job was to clean the dishes after Vader’s surprise reception. Someone has to mop up the bottom of that chasm after nearly getting hit by Luke’s hand. And, BINGO! That was it. A funny scene about two janitors trying to figure out what the heck this light-y saber-y thing is (after all, body parts falling from the gangways above is probably all in a day’s work).
I was going to call the idea Janitors in Space, but when I pitched the idea I called it Space Janitors for short and it stuck. We had a lot of ideas we were developing at the time, but that title and that idea just kept making us laugh. It’s such a rich idea for comedy.
Take us through the process of creating an episode of ‘Space Janitors.’
Geoff: First we sit down and come up with a story, sometimes inspired by our favorite sci-fi, or the stuff we DON’T see in our favorite sci-fi, but we’re sure is going on somewhere in the universe. A few jokes, or a funny scene later, the story starts to come together. You know you’ve got something when the writers room gets excited, then we figure out how to wrap up the story in a nice package that sometimes touches on the season arc. Repeat that process for 8 scripts then we break down the shooting of the entire season into blocks.
We shoot all of the hallway scenes for all 8 episodes at once then we move on to a different set, following the production schedule very closely. Mike and Darby’s quarters is usually shot out in an entire day, for example.
Once shooting is done, the long process of post-production begins, which is Davin coordinating his team of VFX artists, and me working on the editing, sound, and music. We usually deliver a final episode a day before it airs on YouTube.
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