"Connection Lost" is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season of the American sitcomModern Family, and the series' 136th episode overall. It originally aired on ABC on February 25, 2015. Steven Levitan and Megan Ganz wrote the episode, with the former also directing. In the episode, Claire waits for a flight while trying to contact Haley after a fight. Unable to reach her, she asks her family where she might be. A series revelations lead her to believe that Haley is pregnant with Andy's baby and that the two of them ran away to Las Vegas to get married.
"Connection Lost" presents the entire episode through Claire's laptop screen as she uses several applications, such as FaceTime. Levitan conceived the episode during a FaceTime call with his daughter and took inspiration from the short film Noah (2013). Apple Inc. provided the show with several devices, though the company gave no compensation for use of its products. Filming took place in late 2014. Post-production took significantly longer than usual, requiring the editors and motion graphics producers to recreate a computer's entire interface.
While waiting for her flight at O'Hare Airport, Claire (Julie Bowen) attempts to contact Haley (Sarah Hyland) after a fight the previous night. She FaceTimesPhil (Ty Burrell), who says that Haley slept over at a friend's house. Meanwhile, Alex (Ariel Winter) sends Claire drafts of her college essay, but Claire ignores them. Still concerned, Claire FaceTimes Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to wish him a happy birthday and, knowing Haley was babysitting Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) the night before, asks if he and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) know her whereabouts. They reveal Haley borrowed an old blue suit, and Lily mentions that Dylan (Reid Ewing) was talking with Haley, surprising Claire since she was unaware that the two of them were still in touch.
Claire uses a fake profile to check Haley's Facebook and panics when she sees her relationship status set to "Married". Assuming Haley has married Dylan, she calls him, only to learn her fears are unfounded. Unable to reach Haley, Claire hacks her iCloud account to track her phone, despite Alex's disapproval. When Google Maps shows Haley's phone near a wedding chapel in Las Vegas, Claire further panics, having no idea who Haley could have married.
Claire learns Andy (Adam DeVine) is also in Vegas for a wedding, leading her to conclude Haley has secretly married him. A parcel containing the book What to Expect When You're Expecting arrives for Haley at the Dunphy household, making Claire panic again as she now fears Haley is pregnant with Andy's baby. Overwhelmed, she opens a slideshow of Haley's childhood pictures, making her emotional, and FaceTimes Jay (Ed O'Neill), apologizing for eloping at Haley's age. Jay reassures her, reminding Claire that her decision led to a loving family with a good husband.
Claire finally receives a call from Haley, who has just woken up at the Dunphy household. Haley clarifies that she is neither married nor pregnant, explaining that the suit was for a friend's wedding; she left her phone in Andy's car; her Facebook status was a joke about a "Cronut"; and the pregnancy book was for her boss's new fashion line. When Haley questions how Claire accessed her Facebook and tracked her phone, Claire pretends to lose connection and ends the call before boarding her flight.
Production
Background and writing
Steven Levitan, the episode's director and co-writer, developed the concept while using various functions on his laptop simultaneously
"Connection Lost" is presented through Claire's laptop screen as she uses FaceTime, iMessage and other social networking services to keep in touch with her family.[1] According to Modern Family co-creator Steven Levitan, for the sixth season, the writers' first priority was to avoid disappointing the audience and to revitalise the series whenever possible; they were not afraid of experimenting with different forms.[2] Levitan described communication via digital devices as common at the time, adding that his own family used such technology frequently.[3] A self-professed technophile,[4] he noted that the show had "always embraced" technology.[3] Levitan developed the concept while simultaneously using his laptop to FaceTime his daughter, browse websites, and check his email. She later sent him the short film Noah (2013),[4][5] which takes place on the computer screen of a teenage boy who experiences a breakup through message apps.[6][7] The film provided him with the "proof of concept" that such an approach could maintain an audience's attention and would permit a complicated narrative.[8]
Levitan co-wrote "Connection Lost" alongside Megan Ganz.[8] The writing team needed a storyline that would involve the main cast and a reason for the episode to be told on a screen.[9] Levitan "half expected it to fail" since they struggled to find a sustainable narrative.[10] The episode was ultimately set with Claire at the airport just before her flight to create a sense of urgency and opportunities for humor.[9] Ganz stated that the new format allowed for different comedy styles.[8] Claire's laptop includes many inside jokes, such as a search that shows a television film named Not Without My Daughter's Daughter.[11] The episode includes several easter eggs, including Croctopus 4, a reference to a fictional film that appears in the season two episode "Our Children, Ourselves".[3][12] To provide an authentic atmosphere, everything, including articles to emails, was created from scratch. For Alex's college essay, Ganz wrote a "satire version" that "tr[ies] to say the least amount of information in the most amount of words".[9] "Connection Lost" took some artistic liberties. Claire calls several people simultaneously on FaceTime and accesses Google Street View using Apple Maps—both of which were not possible at the time.[13] Editor Tony Orcena and motion graphics producer John Brown were involved earlier than usual during pre-production due to the different format. They needed to arrange everything that would happen on the laptop based on the editing that would occur later. Orcena stated: "You're on that desktop for seven straight minutes without a single cut, so a lot of the challenge was to do that without it being jarring, so what you do in the first seconds has to make sense seven minutes later."[14]
Levitan contacted Noah creators Patrick Cederberg and Walter Woodman for assistance, but they were unavailable due to their involvement on another project. The producers decided to use Apple products due to their familiarity and recognizability to audiences.[13] Apple, a company with which Modern Family had maintained a relationship,[4] provided the show with iPhones, iPads, MacBook Pros, and a 12-coreMac Pro after the producers notified the company of their plans.[15] The show's team did not receive payment for their use of the products, with Levitan saying: "There's no product placement or anything. This just came from life, and it made sense."[4] Prior to filming, extensive run-throughs were conducted with crew members to develop a proof of concept. During this period, they would also troubleshoot and eliminate ways of capturing the ceiling or air as "dead time".[16]
Filming and post-production
"Connection Lost" was filmed in late 2014,[1] with Levitan directing; he described it as "easily the most labor-intensive" episode to produce for Modern Family.[4] To allow sufficient time for post-production, Levitan and his crew had to accelerate their filming schedule.[9] The team shot 95 percent of the episode within two days.[4] The producers intended to shoot the episode as a screen recording on the Mac, but the quality was insufficient when it was displayed on a high-definition TV.[13] Instead, it was filmed with iPhone 6s, iPads, and MacBook Pros, because the creators believed it looked more realistic than recording and later modifying higher-quality footage.[4] Although FaceTime calls use the front cameras, producers opted to film with the iPhone's superior back cameras.[13] The episode was shot in the Advanced Video Codingvideo compression standard.[1]
Julie Bowen, who portrays Claire, filmed the episode alone.
During filming, the actors were supposed to hold the recording devices by themselves. However, to avoid recording the ceiling and other surrounding objects, the camera operators held the devices while the actors positioned their hands beside the camera operators', creating the appearance of a selfie.[3] Claire's computer displays three separate calls occasionally; to give the impression that the characters were all communicating on FaceTime, those scenes were filmed all at once, with up to three sets operating simultaneously.[7] Bowen filmed the episode alone in a curtained-off section of the sound stage against a green screen.[1][17] As she could not see the other actors, she used monitors and tape to inform her eye line.[18] An iPhone positioned atop the Mac's camera was used to record shots of Bowen facing the computer. This resulted in more even eye line for Bowen as well as clearer footage.[13] Bowen had to be careful when moving her eyes due to her close proximity to the camera. She used an earpiece to hear the other actors.[17]
The post-production process took four months, quadruple its usual length.[17] The team used the applications Media Composer and Adobe After Effects. The footage was uploaded directly into Media Composer. However, when put into After Effects, the compression worked badly. Thus, the crew decided to use Media Composer to encode the video into the Apple ProRes compression format, which they would then import into After Effects. The standard color grading procedure was eschewed, and only greenscreen shots of Bowen were graded.[1] Initially, Brown combined the footage into a preliminary mock-up of Claire's computer screen, assuming that the episode could then be made using screen capture software. However, the image would become blurry when they focused on specific parts. Consequently, Brown had to reproduce and animate the whole Mac interface at a resolution of up to four times the standard one.[5]
To simulate a computer screen with up to nine open windows, editors and motion graphics producers had to combine the footage with visual effects;[3] they also needed to recreate the interface of the operating system OS X Yosemite.[4] Brown and Orcena knew of the visual techniques required from working on Google campaigns, but employing them in a 22-minute television episode could become "very cumbersome and time-consuming", as well as chaotic.[17] Orcena had to use the Mac Pro to edit as the bins on his Avid computer were so large that they broke the autosave feature.[15] Each act was designed to appear as a single continuous shot with no visible cuts. The team was frequently cutting and editing, but they had to come up with creative methods to hide it. One way they accomplished this was simulating connection issues, which allowed them to switch between takes.[14] Other methods included moving the camera and morphing from one shot into another.[1] To make sure the episode remained up-to-date, the crew had to keep up with modifications to Yosemite, which Brown said was "frustrating".[19]
Reception
Ratings
In the United States, "Connection Lost" aired on February 25, 2015, on ABC.[12] In its original American broadcast, the episode was watched by 9.32 million viewers and received a 3.4 rating among adults aged 18–49. It placed second in its time slot, behind Empire.[20] After factoring in seven-day DVR viewership, the episode gained 5 million viewers and 2.1 rating points, for a total of 14.3 million viewers and a 5.5 rating in the 18–49 demographic.[21]
Reviews
"Connection Lost" received positive reviews from television critics, with many praising the concept, writing, and humor.[5] The Motion Picture Association described it as "one of the most discussed comedy episodes of 2015".[14] Gwen Ihnat of The A.V. Club called it as "one of the most entertaining episodes in recent memory" and gave it a "B" grade. She opined that the episode restored the show's chemistry by bringing all the characters together.[22]Vulture writer Daniel Kurland described it as "without a doubt the most ambitious and stylistic the series has ever gotten".[16]Vox's Brandon Ambrosino and Quartz's Jason Lynch opined that the "Connection Lost" represented the creative risks Modern Family was taking during its sixth season.[6][23]
Reviewers also remarked that the digital medium complemented the narrative and humor. Writing for Slate, Jay Deshpande commended the use of multitasking as a unique narrative device,[24] while Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press said that the episode's storytelling benefited from jokes and plot twists with the digital format, setting it apart from Modern Family's typical mockumentary-style humor.[13] The writing received significant praise, with Ambrosino describing the script as "a knockout" and asserting that it managed to sustain action and maintain audience engagement on a single screen. The same author also praised the attention to character development.[6] Kurland noted that the episode pushed forward key character arcs while offering catharsis for Claire, whose actions were juxtaposed with her rebellious youth.[16]
The integration of Apple products in "Connection Lost" drew mixed opinions. While Ihnat criticized the episode as resembling a "giant infomercial",[22] other critics felt the product placement was well incorporated into the narrative. Lynch described the product integration as "truly organic", saying it contrasted with promotional stunts often seen in television.[23] Kurland commented that the use of technology occasionally felt heavy-handed, such as a scene where Claire nostalgically views baby pictures on iTunes. However, he also argued that the devices served as "astute reflections of the characters", enhancing the authenticity of their interactions.[16] Jesdanun remarked that any initial skepticism about the Apple-centric concept "quickly dissipated" due to the episode's strong execution.[13]
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