Improv actor Ted Tremper’s improv show “Break-ups: The Series” was awarded best original series at the inaugural Vimeo Festival + Awards, held earlier this month in New York.
“As far as I know, we were the only one of the 45 finalists chosen from Chicago, and definitely the only winner,” says Tremper, who is currently on tour for Second City on the Norweigan Star Cruise Line.
Judges including David Lynch, Ted Hope, Morgan Spurlock, Roman Coppola, M.I.A. and Lucy Walker chose the winners from more than 6,500 entries.
In each four-minute episode of “Break-ups,” two improvisers play out the queasy-funny scene of a couple ending their relationship. “It’s been so amazing to see how much viewers identify with these characters,” Tremper says.
“Every day I get emails saying things like, ?I dated that exact girl!’ or ?these are all so different, but I can see myself in every one of them,’ or ?the heartbreak is so tangible! Please stop!'”
Tremper directs and edits with Mary Cait Walthall, shoots with Bobby Richards and Zeph Michaels on a Canon 5D Mark II, and records sound with Richards.
“Thus far, no episode has taken more than three-hours to shoot, cost more than $16, or had more than three crew members,” Tremper says.
The first six episodes have generated more than 25,000 views to date, with a seventh episode to be released on Nov. 8.
A former associate director of development for 20 West Productions who came to Chicago to study creative writing in the School of the Art Institute’s MFA program. In his three years in the local improv scene, “I’ve wanted to find a way to work with improv and film,” Tremper says. “I felt that if I could find an organizing principle to structure great improvised performances, and make that frame something that everyone watching could identify with, the result would be a series of shorts that would draw in viewers from outside of the improv community.”
Tremper started the series with friends, actor Katy Colloton and cinematographer Bobby Richards, in May, reaching out to others whose work he admired to join additional episodes.
“When I invite an actor to be in an episode I say to them, ?We can do anything you want. Think of something you think is impossible, and we’ll do it.'” Tremper says.
