No Crew, No Permits, No Problem: Guerrilla Filmmaking with the DJI Pocket 3

What happens when you mix I Love You Man with Weird Science , shoot it entirely on a pocket-sized gimbal camera, and drop it into the ultra-fast-paced world of short-form vertical video?

You get Friend Material, a brilliant, hyper-relatable new comedy series that challenges the traditional boundaries of episodic storytelling.

And it's made by two guys who were sick and tired of waiting for Hollywood to greenlight their vision, so they did it themselves.

The powerhouse duo behind the scenes is director Michael Doneger (Fate of a Sport , Brampton’s Own) and #1 New York Times bestselling author, comedian, and Black List screenwriter Aaron Karo (Tickle Me Elmo , Man of the Year).

Shot by literally just Doneger and Karo on a DJI Pocket 3, the project blends premium comedic performances from a seasoned cast with lightning-fast stories that still resonate.

We sat down with Doneger and Karo to discuss how they reverse-engineered the pacing of a traditional TV pilot into two-minute episodes, the thrill and anxiety of guerrilla shooting in public Waymos and Burbank streets without a permit, and why the future of Hollywood might just be scrolling right in front of you.

Let's dive in.

   View this post on Instagram            A post shared by Alex Russell (@alexrussell)

1.Friend Material centers on a highly relatable, universal premise. When developing the project, how did you approach the pacing and structure differently than a traditional 22-minute TV pilot or feature? What are the 'must-haves' in the first 60 seconds of a web series episode to lock an audience in?

MD: First of all, we appreciate you giving us an opportunity to talk with you about the series. As for the development of the project, we knew each episode was going to live in the 2-3 minute range, which meant capping our episode scripts at 4 pages. More specifically, we introduce a quick voiceover by Jimmy (played by Alex Russell) explaining where his character is coming from: his girlfriend just cheated on him with his best friend. And this voiceover comes just as we’re revealing Frank (played by Michael Strassner) as the new humanoid best friend that Jimmy built. In a traditional 22-minute TV pilot, we most likely wouldn’t have busted out of the gate with that exposition, and we would’ve shown who Jimmy is and what his current plight is through action and choices he makes as a character. Not a narration. But in a medium where our audience is one thumb swipe away from the next piece of content waiting for them, we didn’t feel we had that luxury.

AK: I’m pretty platform agnostic. So even though these were going to be short, vertical episodes, I approached the writing like I would a traditional half-hour. It needs a beginning, middle, and end, and as many jokes as humanly (pun intended) possible. It really helped knowing that Mike was directing and that I would be on set – since we were a two-man crew! Mike has a really great eye for comedy so I knew that if I could write it, he would execute.

2. How did the visual language of the series evolve to match the tone of the script? Were there specific visual motifs, camera styles, or comedic influences you leaned into during development to ensure the humor translated dynamically on screen?

MD: We set out to make a classic buddy comedy in the vein of a Judd Apatow and John Hughes movie. I Love You Man meets Weird Science is how we describe it. Visually, we had a lot of conversations about whether we’d shoot this vertically (9x16) or horizontally (16x9). I had never shot any scripted project vertically before, and if I’m being honest, I don’t love it! I would’ve preferred shooting on an Alexa 35 with vintage anamorphic lenses, but that wouldn’t have made sense for our intended output. And that’s what I had to ultimately come to accept… the fact that we were aiming to meet the audience where they are (scrolling while sitting on the toilet or in transit or second-screening it on the couch) and not attempting to make every frame a painting like I would aim to do if the goal was for this to be seen on a 65-inch TV. We decided the most important elements were going to be the strength of the scripts, the performances of our actors, the pacing of the editing, and sound design. We referenced the brilliant comedy series English Teacher (which Michael Strassner also guest stars on) quite often in terms of that type of pacing and overlapping dialogue.

AK: I always wanted it to look like a traditional half-hour, because I believe ultimately that is what this project will become. The upside of shooting vertically is that you can’t see that on either side of our actors is a dumpster, a random civilian, or an underpaid security guard shooing us away.

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3. Shooting guerrilla requires a mix of speed and resourcefulness. What was the strategy for choosing and locking down locations without the luxury of a massive crew?

MD: Our goal from the jump was to produce this series for as little money as possible. Practically speaking, that meant keeping our crew size to a minimum. So we mic’d up our actors with lavs, and I operated the camera. We shot a lot outdoors using available light. When we were indoors, we’d use lamps and shoot next to windows. Only in the first scene of the pilot did I rig a proper light, since it takes place in a dark garage. Given our restrictions, we didn’t have the luxury of having a crew. Our footprint was me, Aaron, and our actors. But it was refreshing to just put a project up on its feet with your friends in such a low-key environment. That small footprint also allowed us to be able to film in public. We shot an entire episode in a Waymo. We shot at the Pink Wall on Melrose Ave. In Fryman Canyon. In and outside of bars. We shot a whole dance number in episode 7 on Vineland Avenue in Burbank. There’s no way we would have been able to blend in and film in and around those locations without permits if we had a proper crew, or even just a few more people. But as fun as it was, it was also nerve-racking because we were moving so fast (typically 5-6 pages in a 4-hour window), so it often wouldn’t be until I was editing that I’d come across any lighting or sound mistakes. Luckily, our actors are so talented and such pros that we were able to get enough great takes for me to be able to bandage over most of those inconsistencies. I should also mention that the money we did spend went to post sound mix and color correction.

AK: Mike was essentially doing six jobs at once - seven if you count him having to listen to me pitch jokes all day. There was one scene in particular that we shot poolside, when Michael Strassner has just been saved from drowning and is now malfunctioning and speaking in foreign tongues. Mike was operating the camera while I was holding a lav mic above Strassner in one hand and holding his German/Italian/Japanese dialogue in another so he could read it. I studied finance in college, but is that what film school is like??

4. Did you have to rewrite scenes on the fly based on location restrictions?

MD: We actually didn’t have to. I think that’s because whenever we planned to film in a public space, we’d location scout it a couple days before. So for the Waymo episode, Aaron and I tested filming in the Waymo before our shoot day. Same with the Pink Wall and Fryman Canyon and at the bars we were planning to film at. Whether you’re shooting a big budget action adventure film or a low budget project like Friend Material , prep beforehand is everything and saves you time and money on the backend. I shot listed every scene, just as I would for a feature. Even though our budget may not have been “professional” in the traditional sense, we treated the project with as much respect as we would have if it had been financed by a studio.

AK: The most challenging day for me came late in the shoot in a scene where the two creators of the humanoid robot go to mediation to determine who gets custody of him, and I played Ned, the mediator. I’m a stand-up by trade, and I’m much better at improvising than I am hitting lines exactly - but for some reason these lines were just so good. Alex and Strassner and our guest star that episode, Alessandra Torresani, are just such great technical actors, and it was pretty amazing to pitch jokes and riffs and watch them adjust in real-time while I was in the scene with them. It gave me such a great appreciation for our actors. I like to think I held my own, though.

MD: Aaron knows he held his own and even recently mentioned nominating himself for an acting Webby. All kidding aside, even though Aaron’s an incredibly gifted comedy writer, he surprised us all with his guest starring role as Ned the mediator. Would love to see him in front of the camera more often.

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5. How did you balance the need to move fast and remain unnoticed with the creative need to get enough coverage and proper performances?"

MD: The day before each shoot day, we’d hop on a Zoom with the actors and read the next day’s episodes. Just hearing the actors perform it out loud allowed us to fine-tune the pacing and rhythms we were going for. Alex Russell, Michael Strassner, Alessandra Torresani, David Lim, Lyndsy Fonseca… I mean, we were blessed to work with this level of talent. They’re all so accomplished and have been working for a long time. They showed up knowing their lines inside and out, and always made interesting choices. So their talent and preparation allowed us to move fast.

AK: Unnoticed is a great way to describe what we were doing. What I love about shooting on the streets of LA is that civilians are used to seeing it. So people would either steer clear of the camera and very kindly keep their voices down when they passed by, or they would not give a flying f**k and just walk right through the shot without looking up. I appreciated both.

6. To keep your footprint minimal while maintaining a high-production-value look, what camera system and lens package did you choose? How did opting for a highly mobile, compact rig dictate your visual style and your setups on location??

MD: Last Fall I bought the DJI Pocket 3 and was testing it out primarily for recreational shooting. And I was really taken aback by the capabilities of this small camera that can fit in your pocket. 4k image/120 fps. 1 inch sensor so it performed well in low light. 3 axis gimbal. Ability to run sound directly from the DJI wireless mics to the camera. Plus the ability to shoot in log and have more premium optionality when it came to color grading. So once I got a feel for what it could do, I reached out to Aaron and told him that we could make something on a super low budget and not need to hire a crew or department heads. At that point we started building out the idea for the series. So it was actually the features of the camera and the ability to keep a small footprint that jump-started everything. The downside of the Pocket 3 is you’re locked into a 20mm lens. There’s no telephoto option, so we couldn’t get a shallow depth of field for our close-ups. Also, the wide 20mm created a bit of a stretched distortion when we did shoot close-ups. But every camera package has its trade-offs. The DJI Pocket 4 Pro was actually just announced, and that system has a wide and telephoto lens. I’m excited to test that model out.

7. How did the rhythm of the footage change once you got into post-production? Did you find yourselves cutting out exposition or tightening jokes drastically compared to how they were originally written, just to keep the web-native pacing snappy?

MD: Despite having had all the scripts written before filming began, I think we benefited from shooting one day a week. Because everyone was working for free we didn’t want to lock off a week from everyone’s busy schedules to shoot all episodes at once. We would usually shoot one day a week, then take a week or two off until everyone’s schedules aligned to then shoot the next couple episodes in a day, and so on. We shot 6 half days over the course of 2 months. But that time between episodes was really a gift, allowing me time to edit and figure out what the rhythms were and how the episodes were playing out before we shot the next one. We’d send the finished episodes to Alex and Strassner so we could all see and discuss what was working and what we wanted to lean into more. As for the tightening of dialogue and jokes to keep it fast-paced, that’s constantly a work in progress. We’re always looking for dead air to cut. Even though all the episodes are technically picture locked, I find myself going in and tightening where it makes sense before that episode’s release.

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8. What are your plans for the next seasons of this new show?

AK: The next season will hopefully either be sponsored or be on traditional television, so we will have a much bigger budget to work with. We are going to explore our characters’ backstories a lot more, in ways we really didn’t have the real estate to do in the first season. And then of course we end season one on a massive cliffhanger that gets to the greater mythology of the show. So I hope to explore that and do a lot more world-building in season two. I also hope to reprise my role as Ned (no last name).

MD: We’ve only scratched the surface of what the show is and its possibilities. We’d want to continue to raise the stakes of the world while trying to make it as funny and emotional and well-told a story as we can. We’re hoping there’s enough interest in this first season for a traditional buyer or brand partner to see the value in helping us take this show to where we believe it can go.