The Westworld parody video everyone needs to see

What happens when you mix a Taylor Swift song with Westworld? Thanks to Perfectly Serious Productions, we got a fantastic parody video that everyone needs to see!

On April 8th the aptly titled production company, Perfectly Serious Productions, teased us with a taste of their new Westworld parody music video. Then, on April 10^th, they released it for the world to see. Westworld fans couldn’t be happier about this creative tribute to the show we love. Take a look at the video below!

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Exclusive Interview With The Creative Minds Behind Perfectly Serious Productions

Of course, we needed to know more about what went into the making of this video. So, we asked the ladies who run Perfectly Serious Productions, Caitlin Halliburton, Katey Fittingoff, Julia Markas, about how it came to be. Without further ado, let’s jump right into our exclusive interview with the minds behind the hilarious

Westworld

parody video.

BW: There’s got to be a great tale behind how this all started. Tell us about it. 

"“The three of us have made videos together since we were in high school using our parents’ home video cameras. We never really stopped. Each video we’ve made since then has been on a larger scale than the last, with more and more people becoming involved. It’s crazy to see how far we’ve come from where we started. For us it has always been about the love of the fandom and making videos together, which we hope to never lose.”"

BW: In the very beginning of the video we see a tombstone that says, “Here lies Steve Silverstein.”  What’s the story behind that?

"“All our gravestones besides Dolores’ were named after our Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers. We try to include really good rewards for people who donate. We also thought it was a cool little Easter egg and shout out to the people who helped make the project possible. Lauren Sperling, our Art Director, came up with that idea and we loved it, so we went with it!”"

BW: Tell us a little about the actors who play the main roles. Specifically, Who they are and how you cast them?

"“We always try to put at least one of us in all our parodies. This time Caitlin played Dolores and Julia and Katey focused on running things behind the camera. Caitlin directed as well, and it helps to have her play one of the roles, because she knows exactly how she wants the part played. It also helps to have some familiar faces consistent throughout each video we do, and since we tend to cast a lot of different people, that usually falls on one of us.Originally, we put up casting calls, but since each character needed such a specific look, we were unlucky with those sites. However, the sites did help with a large turnout of background actors that you see in all the massacre scenes in the final video. And our choreographer/one of the saloon girl dancers, Abi Oliver, came from one of those casting sites. We were extremely lucky to find her; she was amazing to work with. All the dancers were.We’ve used Bob Telford (Robert Ford) in almost all our parodies and we love his work. So, we knew we wanted to cast him again. We immediately thought of Garrett Schweighauser to play Teddy, since he has the perfect “pretty boy” look and we think he is an amazing actor. We originally found him from a Harry Potter fan film called Severus Snape and the Marauders, that went viral last year, where he played James Potter (Harry’s dad).William Joseph-Hill (Man in Black) was a friend of Bob’s, who was recommended to us because we were having a lot of trouble filling that role. We ended up being really lucky to have him! Sean Muramatsu (Felix) was a last minute find. Our first Felix we cast had to cancel at the last minute and our art director, Lauren, recommended Sean, who ended up being perfect for the part!Maeve was the most difficult. First of all, we hardly got any applicants for her and didn’t already know anyone who matched Thandie Newton’s look. Julia remembered working with Ramona DuBarry (Maeve) briefly on one of Bob’s short films months before, and took a stab in the dark by asking for her contact info and reaching out. We were so excited when she said she would love to be part of the project. She ended up being a triple threat — she was able to sing, dance, and act the part for us and we were just completely blown away. She really saved the project for us. “"

BW: Who wrote the song lyrics?

"“We always make a point to sit down together with the three of us when we have an idea to actually write out the lyrics or script for a parody. Our original idea was to replace the lyrics of the Lady Gaga song ‘Born This Way’ (changing it to ‘Made This Way’ for the hosts), but the night Taylor Swift’s song ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ came out, we immediately agreed that it fit our project theme perfectly. We wanted to emphasize that debate that we all had while watching HBO’s Westworld— Are the hosts acting on free will now? Or were they always programmed to act that way?Our project attempts to show the hosts’ perspective on this as they say back to their creators, ‘Look What You Made Us Do.’ We go through many discussions and debates with each other before finalizing the lyrics on any project to make sure that the message is true to the fandom, and clear to our potential audience.And after hearing the score that our composer, Joshua Hendricks, put together, it was sold for us. He did an amazing job meshing the Westworld theme with Taylor Swift’s style in a way that we didn’t even imagine. Caitlin literally cried when she first heard the score. It was very easy to come up with shots after hearing what the music was going to sound like.”"

BW: The western town you filmed the video in looks mighty familiar. Why is that?

"“You don’t say! Haha, that’s because it’s the same location that HBO’s Westworld films some of their scenes! The western town we filmed at, part of Paramount Ranch, is part of the National Park System within California. Working on securing this location happened months before filming. It was a lot of going back and forth between Julia, our locations producer, and the representatives of Paramount Ranch. Most of what we raised on Kickstarter for this project went toward that one location. We felt that we had no excuse not to shoot at one of the actual locations given that they are right in our background.We live in Los Angeles and decided to do a Westworld Parody. So, [we] felt like we owed it to the project to use one of existing locations in our background. Which included Paramount Ranch, Melody Ranch (where all of Sweetwater is filmed), and Vazquez Rocks among others. After raising the funds, we ended up having to choose between shooting at Paramount and Melody Ranch. We chose Paramount because most of the scenes we wanted to recreate were filmed at Paramount Ranch. This includes the major plot point of the church, the center of the maze.It also allowed us to have more fun with the ‘Wyatt massacre scene’ from the last episode of the show. Which ended up being a major selling point for getting our cast and crew to come out for free. Everyone was so excited to be shooting at the actual location from the show. A lot of us geeked out over that!”"

BW: Guilty pleasure question. Where was Logan?! 

"“We ask ourselves that same question! He’s a great character. His story didn’t quite fit with the story we were trying to tell within this short music video. Since we centered this around the hosts, we didn’t really get a chance to explore his relationship with young William. We like to think that he’s still riding naked on a horse somewhere.”"

BW: What’s the next project you’re working on? Can we expect more parodies from you?

"“You can definitely expect more parodies! One of our Kickstarter rewards was to collaborate on our next parody with us. Since we got a backer for that tiered reward, we are still developing our next one with her. We have a lot more ideas on the back burner. But, a Stranger Things parody is something we have all agreed we want to pursue in the near future”"

Next: Hulu lowers HBO’s subscription rate just in time for Westworld Season 2

As you can see, a lot of love and passion went into this creation. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing what Perfectly Serious Productions will come up with next. We still have a few days until Westworld Season 2 drops. Until then, we will continue to speculate on anything and everything Westworld.

Westworld Season 2 will premiere on HBO Sunday, April 22, 2018 9PM/EST

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