Mumma & Storyteller 📚

alright this is always changeable and extra specially not word of god etc - tcw couldn’t agree ten years ago where they all end up so it’s not happening today !! and i know my opinions have changed in some ways and remained steadfast in others

i don’t think any of them are “famous” / visible or we’d see them on our screens too lol

this ended up being more work focused than i thought it would so do want to say at the top that a job is not a life, and you do not need to be "working" to be loved, valued, and important. these are fictional characters, they get to do whatever forever - they're imaginary.

let’s start with thee character who began it all

Beatrice Duke

whatever happens with leo, it seriously impacts her plans for / ideas of herself

she reaffirms her love of bio and changes her study plans to become a medical professional (specialising in cancer research? (i’m not looking up what this entails/proper terminology))

i’m not sure she made it overseas in 2016, maybe it was a severely reduced travel plan bc her 2015 plan also seems to be “everywhere” as though this OE is as much of a “what she’s supposed to do” as ben’s ventures into academia

thought abt this more, think she and ben travel For Her Studies (like maybe there’s a course at oxford or tokyo or in the states and they relocate temporarily and use that as their base to explore more of the world)

once she’s established in her career she’d be ready for kid(s)

her and ben are together long term but don’t marry (aotearoa will protect their rights as a de facto relationship, marriage is not necessary)

Benedick Hobbes

is not a career gal™️, he loves variety and front-facing customer service roles so spends time as a museum host, lush employee, christmas elf, tv extra, bakery frontman, gallery guide etc etc

he probably feels guilty about not being a career gal™️, but eventually comes to term with that not being his path and finds fulfilment in his changeable roles and his regular volunteer mahi on Tiritiri Matangi

through all this he supports bea and her Big Goals, becomes grateful that his work doesn’t mean he and bea have to be apart while she’s studying etc (it’s very easy for him to move on to new roles)

eventually he is a stay at home dad and it’s the best work and delivers the most personal satisfaction for him

the vision of ben in a frontpack and backpack both containing kids has never left (is this actually possible? while in a position to find out, i don’t want to learn that it’s not and lose the cute dad ben picking bea up from work, double baby surprise, image)

Hero Duke

right now i think she is either working in GLAM or literally opens a cakery with ursula (with her parents financial support this would not be an issue lol)

cakery is more fun jump to meg for more

i think she’d like to have kids, but like bea she has zero rush to get there and potentially would do this alone if she didn’t find the right partner

if i’m gonna get real headcanon with these headcanons; i don’t think bea would want to be pregnant (#brrapbrrappewpew) and could see hero carrying beadick’s children for them / potentially an agreement where hero and bea’s respective children are technically siblings and not cousins

Claudio

still so awkward he doesn’t have a last name sorry claudio (we shoulda asked Matthew to name him tbh, this is what we did in later series when we weren’t sure of a name)

within his lifetime he will complete the every claudio in a shakespeare play gambit

P. Donaldson

he married balthazar last year and got ben to vlog their wedding “to compliment the time capsule” (it’s privated but everyone with the old channel password can watch it)

changed his name; took on balth's surname, but as part of the name change process also made sure he and john still share a name even if it's not donaldson #siblings

will tell anyone who comes to him for love advice that they should try “relationship meetings” - a time to come formally to the table in a public setting and talk openly and honestly about any desires or issues or concerns or wishes without the fear of “ruining a moment” or the intensity of immediate emotions. frequently gets told by those who sought his advice that it ended their relationship so what the fuck; he and balthazar commiserate about it; the meeting worked as intended and they hope both parties find what they’re looking for with their next love

ben tells him about his vasectomy and he’s like “oh shit should i get one of those #feminism” before remembering

Balthazar Jones

moved to the uk for a few years but found himself missing summer of all things and returned to aotearoa

has a solid follower base for his music but drifted further into the producing side of things, eventually he and kitso have their own company (Harper Jones)

struggles with saying no to taking on artists (esp women) bc he knows how horrifying so much of the scene is but he is also just one guy and can’t help everyone

Freddie Kingston

goes into housing law, not a politician

returns to uni to get additional training in music law so she can support kit and balth if anything comes up

ends on good terms with kit; he wanted kids, she didn’t, c’est la vie <- and that’s Growth (kit’s influence)

surprises herself with how much she enjoys hanging out with beadick’s kids and is often first call for childminding

home owner; her family purchased a house for her to rent-to-own in time

hobbies include looking at what’s going on in her city and going to random events - she loves learning and now she feels so much more comfortable with new situations and uncertainty that spontaneity has kinda swept her off her feet (hobby wise, still many self imposed rules elsewhere); like yes you will catch her at that book launch or poi making or dragon boat tryouts etc

Kitso Maatla Harper

travels to every boyets in the world to train baristas (it’s only every one because he and his boss were like “ohhh there’s like 7 you haven’t visited yet we have to make it happen”)

slowly builds more foundations in his life until he’s at a point where he owns a business and wants children <- and that’s Growth (fred’s influence)

huge focus on getting immigrant musicians in the spotlight

future partners defs intimidated by fred so it’s also a good litmus for who can go the distance

Meg Winter

learns everything she can from vegan fred then puts it into action helping hero and ursula open a cakery

goes to uni part time to formalise her marketing skills with a degree, has a lot of support from vegan fred to do this

Paige Moth

youth advocacy work at irl charity InsideOUT Kōaro

still with chelsey, background lesbians are forever

Rosa Jones

found a winning lotto ticket so, naturally,

travelling

relatively fluent in like 5 languages

made ben cry with her best man speech

Chelsey Long

big participant in community theatre

still watches the vloggers who are still going from the 2010's

Jaquie Manders

producer for reality television

will make her friends watch whatever she wants them to "for research"

Costa McClure

still making Art

might be a deadbeat dad sorry (or he’s incredible like it’s an extreme either way)

John Donaldson

game designer - specialises in writing for ttrpgs

his brother is frequently first game tester

Fred Boyet

fully inherited vegan empire

still helps people directly as much as he can

meg bff wine and weed catch ups going strong (drink wine as they bake, edibles to wind down)

Ursula

opens a cakery with hero (have u seen their collective cake output in the nmtd transmedia lmao)

also pursued journalism but ends up putting those skills more to use as one of the regular servers behind the counter, she may be incredibly shy but she loves talking people and in a situation where it calls for it she’s gonna be the one directing the conversation

still helps out behind the camera if she has the time; usually through previous contacts (eg. her fave is visiting/supporting the messina high media students - Ursula’s evolving “Year 9 and 10s”)

Dogberry & Verges

do not separate etc

it’s really difficult to see them as anything but passionate year 9’s

media studies teachers; love justice and a fun mystery so they get heavily embroiled in fandom eventually and turn that into their job (plus love reminiscing about being silly kids together by teaching other silly kids)

Kelsi Forester

sober for 7 years, and many to come (always room for set backs, but he's got this)

finally went to a doctor about his sleeping issues and mostly sleeps now yay

Cora Petunia Anderson

travelled international, fell in love in london, living there still

when she visits home, she stays with john

Robbie Borachio

folks i know i was all about rehabilitation in my last mention of this guy but idk if he made it...

white cis man privilege takes him a long way, never truly content with his lot; finds it hard to trust others, never quite manages to get to therapy and work through the things haunting him from 2014

Leo Duke

Boyet's Brownies: A Tutorial

blend and scream nodding, taking notes

love the colours in this vid

we filmed Tragicomic in a similar area, and one of the shooting days was the hottest day of the summer, so when we wrapped a bunch of us left the set and walked directly into the ocean. beautiful place to swim

google earth, always taking pics, took a pic one of the days we filmed at Vegan Fred's and for a very long time Harriett's old car (also used to send John home) stood memorial online to filming lolilo

everyone go try whittaker's chocolate nowwww

#Doesn'tSmellLikeBeans

#HowAreThereBeansInThere

#BeansAreAGreatSourceOfProtein

really enjoy how vegan fred is a different kind of awkward in front of the camera in the end with balth; and how balth is in control when he is often projecting an image of himself more similar to what vegan fred is putting out here. okay it's 10pm i hope that made relative sense

friendship is the secret sauce to those brownies and why VF also is like "No, I also have not eaten a brownie this good."

YES THE GULL

okay thank you for your service fredrazar

script sillies... "Meg may challenge Pedro to “save” Balthy."

"Vegan Fred makes the brownies. Beatrice, Meg, Balthazar and Kitso sort of help him but sort of don’t."

oh, i stand corrected, "VEGAN FRED: The secret ingredient is almond milk. And love."

"BALTH: Vegan Fred, is it too forward of me to propose? VEGAN FRED: How about we start with you moving in?"

RUSSIANFUDGE

the title of this one is to encourage bea to watch

it's nice we did manage to have all the flat mates do a challenge, lowkey wish we'd been able to do more

ben playing steven universe the jam song

robbie literally being one of the best comedians in Aotearoa tbh (BUT ABBY HOWELLS IS BETTER GO GO GO TO HER SHOWS AND SE HER ON TASKMASTER NZ OKAY WE LOVE ABBY (who is dating robbie))

ben <333333

gotta go hit up a pick and mix lolly wall again soon

early december in wellington? yeah, all the flatmates are on their way out of seasonal depression

script sillies... "It’s suggested that they will go woo their peeps in Russian accents, then they’re like, nah let’s do it tomorrow."

"This is the last challenge, and they are again opting out of doing teams. This time because Balthazar is not here."

oh, true, no balthazar=no milk... their milk angel...

"JAQUENETTA: No. But. If someone wrote fanfiction about me. I mean. That’d be pretty awesome."

^ jaquie said rpf is okay

"Text Onscreen: FRED -10 control, but gains +50 respect!"

A Sonnet

this vid was originally filmed outside on the "stairs to nowhere", amongst the plants featured in the title drop here. BUT, because it's shakespeare, it was genuinely very hard to get a sincere take. we wanted a take without the wink wink nudge nudge so much we gave it another go during pick ups. and that's why it's in peter's room.

or, turns out, as it says in the script "Peter could be sat on the steps outside the flat, echoing A Merry Note, and also symbolising the fact that Peter is waiting for Balthy to come home.”

so symbolism vs realism FIGHT

Gifts?!

meg should have received a gift !!

fred seeing peter and ben do romantic gestures and going "oh well i don't want kit to feel left out"

when bea is angry she really is unable to #holdspace for anything else

jaques the dog in background for those with eager eyes

no balth for the drama

+confrontation+

i think this was my favourite email preview line, thank you lolilodaily team

originally, we were thinking the video description would be from ben and look something like: “Keeping you updated.” but in editing it made sense for jaquie, who helped with GUNGE, loves the “reality show” of the flat, and created the video would get a real kick outta uploading this one (and also cos ben’s too sad)

this one was a hard film, a hard edit, and a hard in-world justification for release; probably the one i'd most like to film more takes and b-roll for today - i wish it felt more real

yay costa and ben breaking in !!

yay vegan fred offering #violence

evil!balth of the darkest timeline choosing vegan fred and wearing this shirt to all the friend hangs

#9Cocoas

fred smiles and i glow

and they hug bc their relationship is, well, queer is the word i'd use today

pedrazar gets the gorgeous romantic background for their kiss bc this was their rom-com (among other things)

beadick background whited out, future uncertain yay conflict

script sillies... "COSTA: But I must say it’s nice to have more screen time- Jaquie pans away from Costa."

"Everyone is talking all at once. One voice carries over the rabble. VEGAN FRED: If you guys want to take a couple of deep breaths, let everyone have their chance to speak, and I can make cocoas while you sort this out."

"Everyone ignores [Vegan Fred]. Peter steps forward."

"Costa is miming the emotions he’s feeling along with his ‘actor’. Like he is conducting an orchestra with his face. He’s also mouthing things. It is far more complex than the conversation Peter has."

"Kit looks at her expectantly. // Kit goes to speak. // Kit goes to speak. // KIT: Thanks, Fred."

we had scripted versions of fred and kitso with and without using the word "love"

"Note: Which is like our saying “Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” but essentially translates as “Should’ve, should’ve, bicycle-chain”, because it rhymes. Ask Etta for the proper pronunciation."

BIAB: Beatrice and Ballads

do tcw love a play against or something?

peter/pedro feeling secure in his relationship so comfortably turning his attention to his besties (vs. love gods)

~*~SWORDFIGHT Practice~*~

costa is wrong and that is why he will never have an audience bigger than 5. #freefaustus #theatreforthemasses #thepoweroffilm

to be fair, costa does not care about audience numbers #everyshowmatters

i love how well known Marlowe is in this world #forfaustus

BIAB: Narwhals and Nothing

kazoo is still there, feels right for the last biab

peter making balth a scooby doo sandwich for a date 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

love them hyping ben's cooking here, if only balth had purchased corn chips and salsa with paige

and so they burri-go

okay oh my god i have to go to bed sleep ins don't exist at this stage of parenting but we're sooooo close let's burri-go: see you tomorrow

FEATHERS

aka right now bc you are reading this some unknown amount of time after i wrote ahaha

thanks for sticking with [this show for 10+ years???!!] guys <3

OKAY i've been thinking about this and muppet costume party (i'm not doing everyone, this is just how it came to me, wow creativity) -> Ben - Fozzie Bear -> Bea - Rowlf -> Hero - Kermit -> pedrazar - Gonzo + Camilla (the chicken) (they argued abt if it should be rizzo or camilla)

"skip to the end" spaced reference

i stand with balthazar, he said he was heading off!! in his jacket !!!!

augh it would've been cool if damian haunted this story more

first 6 months balth's unseen crashout my beloved

hand hold number one thing that had to happen in a pedrazar ending

pedrazar symbol should've been the fishing reel gesture from love gods

winter's tale ref

so this was gonna be entirely a food fight but the idea of the amount of food wastage involved (bc we were amateurs) / encouraging that wastage did not sit right with us lol - enter the pillows

that cheek kiss, thanks reuben <3

stop it, hero/pearl looks so gorgeous

this was an "every cast member who is available" shoot, so if they'd been free we would've seen more of the non-speaking in this episode cast

script sillies, not that this first one is very silly... "Ben is sad, but doesn’t show it, which is depressing, because people will be expecting to see him sad, and then he’s not, and it means he’s very good at faking it."

"PETER: ...Just me steadily making myself more and more unhappy, trying to convince myself that you weren’t unhappy."

"Peter and Balth exchange a look of agreement, they’re done."

"BEN: I’ll give you a clue, I’m looking right at it. BALTH (He gets it): Let’s go."

"Fred punches Costa in the arm."

"Rosa and Bea hitting Ben"

"[Bea and Ben] laugh and Bea tackle hugs Ben"

FAREWELL

centering hero in this video really cements this as an nmtd follow up

love harriett here, love how out of it with shock bea is

script sillies... "Ben stands up and holds her."

SO we scripted, but never filmed (it felt too cheesy/unrealistic), an alternative version of the end where all the main couples say goodbye, really tempted to share it but you can just imagine i think - a little parade of farewells ending on...

"PEDRO (CONT’D): You go that way; we’ll go this way."

Break 'Dem Rules

how do you end a play like love's labour's lost? how do you keep a wave upon the shore? 🎶

p. donaldson, we will never know your name

maude knocks it out <33333

i do love these little losers, i think they made it

such a beautiful coastline, what a damn treasure

(((uh oh)))

SO circling back to that one LOOPHOLE bulletpoint; this video was originally going to be filmed on the day of Balth's party, "Ben, Peter, Bea, Fred, John, Rosa, Kit, Paige, Chelsey, Jaquie, and Costa as backup dancers. They clear the living room of stuff, fairy lights are on, couples and friends dance together."

"Costa is here which means he met the flat before the audience meet him, which is nice. But BEA doesn’t really acknowledge him as she doesn’t recognise him in [+confrontation+]. She forgets him."

so obvi we ran outta time for this and we refocused the idea on the flat itself and got it in pick ups

still cool you don't really know when they filmed it, but like the og plan to end on a throwback/what had already been seen feels very in line with everything else going on in the show (and serves a nice parallel to BIAB)

Credits

Ava, Bug, Gal & Ron, thank YOU so very much for making this happen

Jessi Golding truly the unsung MVP of NMTD, LoLiLo, and BSN

totoro phone case, miss you

shout out the kickstarter backers who are still ~around in the fandom, i see you, thank you

that last photo is still absolute gold

such lovely comments on this video, i am having a cry

btw, amongst many of the friendships forged through these shows (and some before), i will comment on two to end: 1. me n claris live quite literally next door to each other and our tamariki are buddies

GUNGE

do enjoy the black and white crime spots

as they say, no such thing as a thought crime

ben's height advantage getting practically not gunged at all

imagine if a content house did shit like this... actually i don't want to know more about content houses they seem scawy*

unauthorised history of Aotearoa's gunge

script sillies... punishment was going to be buckets of cold water, but calum said he could make gunge so we changed it (my understanding is he knows the legit recipe 👀)

the most difficult thing ended up being costuming, most of the items character’s wear are from the cast and crew’s wardrobes. claris ended up putting folks in the mess-shirts we had, except caleb who decided he wanted to sacrifice a shirt for the bit. this is what years of growing up on What Now does to a kiwi kid.

bath bit was originally scripted for ben's room, but we moved it to the bathtub because of the emotions

"Overly loud, in your face, abrupt cut to PUNISHMENT OPENING SEQUENCE."

"Fred nods unhappily."

"Peter and Fred leave, feeling dead inside. Ben is left with the camera."

irl, of course, we then had so much fun playing with and filming the gunge that we needed a reason in-world for the editing and two-camera set up. thank you, jaquie

~~~***~~~FAUSTUS Rehearsal Three~~~***~~~

you know we really did only have one copy of the Faustus script; the one i got for my own uni studies

funny, there's a bit of script for this one and it's clearly from pre-colleagues-at-navarre-bar decision about their characters

Understand - For Peter

chelsey having so much fun with all the paige music videos

do enjoy thinking about the different friend group dynamics present in their wider circle too, it's very the reality of 2 degrees of separation in Aotearoa

~~~~~~~*******~~~~~~~Faustus REHEARSAL Seven~~~~~~~*******~~~~~~~

okay there's 4 comments on this video, so to answer one of them here: no, that's a cloak from my great-aunt's high school in Ōtepoti. for awhile, jake's family knew me only as "cloak girl" bc i wore it one time to visit

love you paige

five ! way !! kiss !!!!!

asked robbie to improv this ala his audition video

~~~~****~~~~DRESS Rehearsal~~~~****~~~~

paige looks like a pūkeko even tho she's going for pigeon

wonder if robbie can still jump that high... i'll ask next time i see him... if your friend asked you to jump into the air, out of the blue, would you do it... now what if your friend was a toddler...

this video was filmed after ACCOSTED so costuming needed to match it

ACCOSTED

zoos job origin story

this was a really rough shooting day, with so many moving parts, i'm glad the final result is so loved

chekhov's camera on the table behind them hehe

i think freddie is the House of Leaves reader

dog pillow, cast's best friend, my childhood friend, and current companion to my toddler. you have lived many lives and have yet more to see !!

"they look/sound/etc nothing alike" one of our favourite gags, clearly.

really nice of balth to leave the sd card

script sillies...

"Holloway and Nathan teach a theatre paper. Like Theatre through the Ages or something. So they have little units on different time periods. If they are going in time order, then maybe this is a catch up lecture, that Ben and Fred went to. It’s Pedro and Ben’s class, and Fred just tagged along today, as she sometimes does."

"In this moment, he is Shakespeare."

"BALTHAZAR (Genuinely okay): Oh, no, I remember Jaquie."

"FRED: I dub thee, Sir Peter the Committed."

Heaven in Her Lips - For Chelsey

and as we farewell paige; i gotta say how incredible mouce is!! like, oh my gosh, mouce would have killed as freddie too - such a privilege to work with so many amazing actors ;-;

staring at that uno card like paige and chelsey switches canon

paige and chelsey and their troubles external, showing all the other couples how it could be