Bailey knows she's going to work out. What she doesn't know is that this time, there's a chair involved.
In this episode of Workout in Progress, Bailey arrives at ChaiseFitness with no advance warning about the workout she's about to attempt.
What follows is exactly what the series was designed to capture: an unfamiliar fitness experience, a host completely outside her comfort zone, and Bailey's unfiltered reaction as she tries to figure out what she's gotten herself into.
By the time we filmed at ChaiseFitness, the basic Workout in Progress formula was established: I would find an unusual workout somewhere in New York City, arrange the shoot, and tell Bailey as little as possible about where we were taking her or what she'd be doing.
The secrecy was important.
Bailey wasn't playing a character, and I didn't want her preparing jokes or reactions ahead of time. The comedy worked because we were documenting her genuine experience of discovering the workout along with the audience.
For each installment, I researched potential workouts, coordinated with the participating fitness business and brought in a small camera crew to follow Bailey through the experience. From there, the job was largely to create the conditions for something funny to happen—and then stay out of the way enough to capture it.
ChaiseFitness demonstrates the repeatability of the concept particularly well. The location and workout could change from episode to episode, but the engine remained the same:
Bailey doesn't know what she's doing. We do. And the cameras are already rolling.