This is the latest installment of a production journal written by Butterknife creator Joe Swanberg. See previous installments here and here, and watch the first episode of Butterknife here. This entry is, in part, a response to a comment left on the first episode.

The first episode of Butterknife went online last night, and I’m very happy and excited to have it out in the world now. While Hannah Takes the Stairs was showing at the IFC Center this summer, I was over in Greenpoint, Brooklyn sleeping on Ronnie and Mary’s couch and shooting episodes of this show. I’ve always been more comfortable making work than promoting it, so it was nice to have my head buried in a new project while all the hype swirled around “mumblecore” and a bunch of movies that were months or years old.

I had just gotten married at the end of June, and my wife was back in Chicago teaching high-school by this point. We had a long talk about it, and decided to take a risk and spend some of our wedding money to get the first few episodes of the show completed, hoping I could sell the first season to some website for a little bit of money. Thankfully Spout came on board soon after and lifted that financial burden.

Ronnie and Mary and I wanted to make something fun, a light distraction that people could watch during their lunch break at work. I was working as a crew of one, and we recruited some of our buddies to fill out the rest of the cast. We looked to sitcoms for inspiration much more than detective films. Everything from the music to the formulaic structure of each episode should bring to mind Home Improvement more than The Big Sleep. Short of Ronnie reading through, Private Investigation for Dummies, or some book like that, we didn’t think it was necessary to do much research for a show about a guy who hates his job and loves his wife.

So I hope you like the show, and I hope you’ll continue to return each week for a new episode. It was a pleasure to make.