You can now stream all eight episodes of On Call on Prime Video. There were a couple of things that stood out immediately in the show, and we talked with Tim Walsh and Elliot Wolf about them in our exclusive interview.
Caution: There are some spoilers for On Call episode 1 in this post.
On Call quickly put us in the middle of the action. We started off with a death that promised to affect all the characters on the series, even those who didn’t know the character when she was alive. On top of that, we’re thrown straight into the action with 30-minute episodes. There were many creative choices done on purpose to help us as an audience feel the tension.
Tim Walsh and Elliot Wolf discuss the filming decisions
Something that immediately stood out was the way the series was filmed. We saw more through the body cam footage and the use of cell phones, which is something that very few shows opt for. The Rookie is one that stands out, and Missing was a movie that certainly use this view well to tell the story. This was a creative choice.
Walsh shared just how the show was pitched, and then left it to Wolf to explain more.
“The show was sold as found footage.”
Wolf went into explain why the decision was to do this instead of the traditional camera work.
“Definitely a creative choice…I think that from day one, we wanted to create something that was different. There’s no more relatable lens in the world today than the cell phone and body camera, dash camera footage, is online, in the news consistently to the point that when you put in a fictional and a scripted series, you blur the line a little bit. And our hope is that it feels alittle bit more immersive. It put’s the viewer alongside our characters and in the question.”
Walsh also went into more detail about why this filming method was used for the series.
“You were right in it. That’s exactly what we want to do. We want to put the viewer, like, we’ve been in ride-alongs with police officers in the car and it’s intense, and we wanted the audience to feel that.”
The decision to make On Call just 30-minute episodes
In today’s world, we expect a drama to be an hour long and comedies to be 30 minutes. That just seems to be the way that it’s all started to play out, but that wasn’t always the case. On Call has brought us 30-minute episodes, which certainly speeds up the storytelling, but it also brings more intensity with each episode. Walsh and Wolf talked about this decision.
Walsh made it clear that this was about making people want more, but it also helped to connect to people with the way the brains are going. We watch shorter shows now thanks to social media.
“We wanted you to want more; leave you hanging…The 30-minute format: Attention spans are shorter now, it’s very bingeable. There’s a couple of things.”
For Wolf, it was also about being different. Nobody else is doing this 30-minute format for drama. Sure, there are dramedies such as Based on a True Story and Only Murders in the Building, but not when it comes to strict action drama series.
“I don’t think anyone else is doing a half-hour series in the same format. I think one of the things we pride ourselves on is that our format actually doesn’t have any rules, but if you look at the 1950s, 1960s primetime schedule, there were so many half-hour procedural dramas, and there’s none today.”
The decision to kill off a character right at the start in On Call
The series wastes no time in putting us into the drama. The On Call promo made it clear that Monica Raymund would play a role in the show, but she didn’t last very long. Why did Walsh and Wolf opt to bring this death so early on?
“You just want to set the stakes right away. This is the world the audience is entering. It’s a little bit like the Wild West for these real people who have to do this job every day.”
It wasn’t just a decision for the audience. Wolf also went into explaining how this was important for the lead character, Traci Harmon, played by Troian Bellisario.
“It was a great means of getting insight into her and entering her life at a point where she was vulnerable for the audience to get to know her in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise…It call came down to story for us and setting the stage for the characters that ultimately we are going to follow.”
Take a look at the full interview with Tim Walsh and Elliot Wolf about On Call:
On Call is now available to binge-watch on Prime Video.
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