Chelsea Peretti Instagram – Director Chelsea Peretti (@chelsanity), #DOP Jonathan Furmanski (@kosherpork), and #Producer Deanna Barillari (@deannabarillari) take us #behindthescenes of #FirstTimeFemaleDirector, now streaming on @therokuchannel: Chelsea: “The film is a handsome, yet unpretentious, documentary-style comedy. I didn’t want it to be overly lit or have bright sitcom colors. In my mind, a volunteer aspiring filmmaker in Glendale shot it for a small fee that could be afforded by a local theater. Still, I wanted to have moments emerge that suddenly would look more self-serious and dramatic a la Birdman. A visual reference I wanted to explore was nature docs, which have heart, but also can make you laugh. The Muppets were also a fun visual reference, which Deanna brought to my attention.” Jonathan: “Chelsea and I wanted the film to feel a bit bigger in its ambition and scope. Many scenes had the entire main cast—nine people or more—and we didn’t want to just shoot singles of everyone, so those inspirations helped everything stay a little looser, a little more whimsical, and gave the cast more room to improvise. We sometimes just looked at a cute picture of meerkats standing around and used that to inspire the staging. I wanted to work with Panavision on this film from the get-go because I knew they’d take very good care of us and their optics are just insanely good with almost limitless options.” Deanna: “What I look for is the same in all areas: grounded artists with a strong work ethic, careful attention to detail and care no matter the budget. I get all of this at Panavision and Light Iron, which makes it easy to return to them time and time again. I laughed every day at this job—big belly laughs. Amy [Poehler] and Chelsea cared so much about the cast and crew and keeping a positive attitude on set. It was a joy.” Chelsea: “I have strong comedy opinions and tastes and have always had particular ideas about how funny performers around me should be used creatively, so there was always an interest in directing. I also found it extremely stimulating to think in such a layered and problem-solving way and learned a lot about how I would approach filmmaking in the future.”