Budget Justified:

The Waste, Fraud, and Abuse of Government Workers

Episode 1: Boss’s Affair

Lisa is an engineering subcontractor working in a federal office. She works toward solving a problem that Congress deems critical. But with management's lack of priorities, can she get buy-in from the rest of the staff to work toward a solution?

EXT. FEDERAL AGENCY HEADQUARTERS

Opening credits for all episodes: Capitol is in the background. Zoom in on a nearby window of a federal building.

Shooting the Scene

This was shot on September 11, 2008. It was a good day to go downtown. The date was coincidental.

I scoped out Pennsylvania Avenue, Maryland Avenue, and the National Mall, all because they had direct views of the Capitol. Since it was a sunny afternoon, I needed to be on the west side of the Capitol so I wouldn’t get a shot of the sun behind silhouettes of buildings. The National Mall didn’t have any office-like buildings, so that was out. The office buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue weren’t as close to the Capitol as the ones on Maryland.

Coincidentally, the office building with the best view of the Capitol in the background was FAA Headquarters. It was shortly after lunch and there were a lot of federal employees milling around as I stood on the sidewalk with my video camera aimed at the FAA building. I was concerned that a security guard might approach me or, much worse, a former coworker would see me and ask what I was doing. But nobody bothered me.

In Real Life

I did not work at headquarters. I worked a few blocks away. I don’t know who works behind the window shown in the opening credits. I don’t know if it’s a conference room, or if it’s a storage room for computers from the 1960’s.

INT. WINDOW

Shot out of window of BARRY and JANE walking toward the building.

LISA (VO)

Glad I brought my camera so I could catch Barry and Jane coming into work together.

Shooting the Scene

This scene was shot while I held the camera and stood outside on a step ladder at the top of a staircase that led to an office building entrance. No window involved. I held my camera as far above my head as I could reach while Anthony, who plays the New Guy, held the ladder steady so I wouldn’t fall. I was wearing a skirt because we had just shot a restroom scene where Cheryl makes a comment about my skirt.

I was not worried that Anthony might look up my skirt as he steadied the step ladder. When Anthony came to audition, I asked if he would be interested in the role of Charlie. He said there was no way he could touch a woman’s rear and be able to finish the scene. He’d clam up from embarrassment. Not that Dave Cooperman pulled it off without some amount of embarrassment.

The original version of this episode did not have the voice-over. I had a few people over for a showing and some critique. My audience mentioned that they didn’t know what was going on at first. They expected to see me in the first shot. After a bit of brainstorming, we determined that a voice-over, saying what Lisa was up to, would be helpful.

In Real Life

As I wrote this, I imagined the parking garage at the federal contractor I worked at for four years, which was out in the suburbs, nowhere near a metro station, so everyone drove to work. Except me and two other people (out of several hundred who worked in that building) who took the bus. I ended up shooting this scene downtown at an office building that didn’t have a parking garage leading to the entrance. And I shot it during the evening rush hour. So the sun isn’t at its morning angle or color, but you can’t really tell that it’s not morning.

My former employer was also a contractor to the federal agency where the sexual harassment happened. But at my former employer, my office was in their building, not the federal agency’s building. It took me a long time to feel like I had ever even left that job. I had been well-integrated into the culture. I had lots of friends. Everyone knew me. I liked to say that I was one of the “popular” people there. Not in the high school sense, but because all the staff wanted me to work on projects with them. They knew I always came through with what I said I’d do. Upper management knew I was brilliant and capable and had faith in me.

That wasn’t the case so much with the lower management there. Because I knew of their foibles and didn’t care much to go along with their tricks. I never confronted them about anything they got away with, but I didn’t pretend to worship the ground they walked on, as some managers expected the staff to do.

The real-life event that inspired this scene was at my former employer. The guy in the office next door to me had seen my boss and a “very close friend” of my boss come into work together one morning. My office neighbor stopped in and said, “I think your boss has a new girlfriend.”

This was a confusing statement to me. First of all, how would my office neighbor have any information about my boss’s love life. But the main reason it was confusing is that my boss was married. He was a quiet, decent man who didn’t go around harassing the women.

But after that strange statement, I noticed that my boss frequently sneaking in and out of conference rooms, his office, and the building with his close female friend. Based on conversations with other employees, their activities seemed to have gone off and on over several years. Sneaking around was on shortly after he’d get a promotion, off after she got hers.

I make light of my former boss’s possible love life here, although I believe the situation was more complex. They really had been good friends for a long time. And I think they knew where they stood with each other. It seemed to be more than a fling, but that it would never become anything permanent. He didn't have any marital discord that anyone knew of.

Yet it wasn’t just one affair going on in that office. Fooling around was part of the office culture. One of my boss’s female managers almost lost a marriage over a fling with one of the clients. One of our company vice presidents had a fling with one of the staff and did lose his marriage over it. Someone got shot in our parking lot for having a fling with somebody’s wife.

Interestingly, my boss was only one of several guys in the office that “Jane” had been seen sneaking off with at various times of day and night. I don’t think he cared. Made it less likely that she'd cause problems with his wife.

INT. HALLWAY

CUT TO CHARLIE, taps the camera.

CHARLIE

Hey Lisa. Whatcha doing with that box?

LISA (OS)

Oh. Hi Charlie. It’s just a software box.

Charlie looks toward the window.

CHARLIE

I think our boss has a new girlfriend.

LISA (OS)

Which boss?

CHARLIE

That one.

Charlie nods toward the window.

Shooting the Scene

Dave Cooperman and I stood in the seventh floor conference room of an office building downtown. The view outside was an alley and a brick wall of the building next door. Not the entrance to a building. If you freeze the frame while the blinds are partly open, you'll be able to see a glimpse of a brick wall.

Dave is totally different off-camera than on. He is much more quiet and shy. We were alone in this conference room while shooting this scene. He didn’t initiate conversation, rather reacted to whatever I had to say. Dave is very pleasant and friendly. A nice young man. With a good attitude.

In Real Life

The original idea with the software box was that the video camera was supposedly hidden inside so that the audience would think that I was taping things going on around the office without the staff knowing it. Well, since nobody's butt covers the camera and we don't get occasional shots of people's ears or elbows, I realized that I wasn't going to fool anyone into thinking that this was candid. But because I started shooting from one angle for each scene, and I had written the script around the idea of a hidden camera, I figured I'd stick with the concept of hidden camera.  

INT. WINDOW

Barry and Jane out the window, he puts his hand on her back as they enter the building.

LISA (OS)

That one’s married.

Shooting the Scene

Dave added his own ad-lib at the end of each take. The first time, he said, “I don’t think he cares.” He was lighthearted and I laughed. The second time he said, “She likes them that way.” I could have left both ad-libs out, but I thought the second one made a statement about Charlie’s character, that he thinks women like fooling around with married men. And that he wanted in on the action.

The scene was shot near K Street, where all the big lobbyists and big corporations have offices. I liked how the busy street in downtown Washington gave the feel of a big city.

In Real Life

Our offices were near the L’Enfant Plaza and Smithsonian metro stations in Washington. It was a neighborhood of federal government buildings near the museums and the National Mall, a long grassy field where people play Frisbee and go jogging.

And the building where I actually worked was in a cul-de-sac near a super-expensive hotel where we didn’t get much traffic. But we did see several limos. A rumor went around that Jennifer Lopez got out of one of them.

INT. OFFICE

Lisa and Charlie enter their office. Charlie puts down his briefcase, Lisa puts the camera “box” on a shelf.

CHARLIE

Why would they come to work together? Barry lives in the Virginia suburbs. Jane lives in Maryland.

LISA

Hm. Barry’s wife is in Texas visiting her mom.

CHARLIE

No wonder Jane got a promotion. Like I said. A new girlfriend.

He slaps Lisa on the butt. Lisa gives the camera a dirty look.

Shooting the Scene

I hope people caught the concept that my character was putting the camera on a bookshelf when this scene started. I do this several times throughout Budget Justified to remind the viewer that this is supposed to be stealth footage of something actually happening in the office.

Dave is very polite in real life. I could tell he wasn’t quite comfortable with all the grabbing he had to do for Budget Justified. He put up with it - he’s the kind of guy who will do what he has to do - but after several takes, his face showed that he felt a little bad about doing it. It probably doesn’t help that instead of an actor, I’m a real person.

My husband, Randy, was the cameraman for this scene. I think Dave felt even more nervous about patting my butt in front of my husband. At first I thought Randy would weird out about some guy patting my butt - especially since I invited Dave to do it - but Randy was cool about the whole thing.

In Real Life

While I never had a hidden video camera in the federal office nor in the contractor's office where I worked, I did start keeping a blog after about a month of inappropriate behavior. Because I knew my reaction to Mr. Friendly’s advances was inconsistent. I hoped that if I could understand and monitor the trend of his behavior versus mine, I’d be able to figure out how to handle him beforehand to prevent myself from becoming fearful of coming to work.

Sometimes I thought Mr. Friendly was funny. He told me a lot of interesting things about what was going on in the office. He was always willing to tell me about office history and office politics. We didn’t have any solid projects to work on, so there was no way to observe office interaction other than going around the office bugging people with chit chat. Occasionally I had some data to look up, or I thought of some office context that I was curious about, so at least sometimes I could come up with an excuse to go around the office with legitimate questions.

But since Mr. Friendly’s cubicle was right next to mine, he was my best source of anecdotal information. Therefore, I didn’t want to totally avoid him. Not only was he my office entertainment, he was one of my very few knowledge sources.