Turns out this was all part of an NBC promo guy's marketing plan. One that he came up with on his own. Check out this interview.
Anyway, great job. We close out the week with an audition video for Zeroes. It's not as funny as the other videos, but it allows you to have gotten the FULL Zeroes experience.
They put together a little trailer for the first four episodes of Zeroes. Some funny stuff still to be mined from this concept. Especially the guy that can do the stomach thing.
I should be sleeping right now. In fact, I was. I got to bed at about 2:30, after finally arriving home after a long long long day marked by TV commercial production, 48 Hour Film preparation, trips to Louisiana and back, and a session with a friend on how to use the Firestore with the HVX 200 (that's 100% video geekspeak...don't attempt to figure out what that means unless you KNOW what it means.) Oh yeah, I even managed to squeeze a funeral in.
But today's going to be a long day, too. So why am I not sleeping???
Because I woke up about thirty minutes ago with something I ate last night not setting well with me. I'm not nauseous. It's more like a stomach cramp. I took some Pepto, and while I wait for it to work its magic, I'm sitting here typing.
This year is shaping up to be both more organized and prepared AND more chaotic. I think we have our best team yet, both in front of and behind the camera. For once, I won't be the only editing option, as we have a skilled, dedicated editor assigned. He should be able to start editing while we are still shooting. That should make Sunday's final edit session a thousand times easier. Plus, there will be at least two others of us (me and Chris) who will be able to either spell him, or work on segments or special effects on separate computers. We also have a dedicated composer for our film's music (but we still have Digital Juice on hand as backup).
The more chaotic part comes in the form that we aren't nearly as set on good locations as we were in previous years. We've got my office secured, a few outdoor areas, and I've got paperwork in for using our office building's interior (which has some cool elevators and a wide open atrium). Also this year, we don't have ONE perfect staging area. We'll be meeting at one location for the giant group gathering, a different location for the script-writing session, and a third location for editing. If not for the fact that my office building turns off the A/C on weekends, we could do everything there. As it is, we can probably meet for SOME of the time on Saturday (especially if we are doing any shooting there). But for Sunday, if we want to use my edit systems, we'll have to suffer through horrible stuffy heat (or else bring a couple of dozen fans. Our other option is to set up the edit system at someone's house. We WERE going to set up at the dedicated editor's house, but within the past week or so, he has moved, so all of his stuff is in boxes. We still haven't got this one figured out yet.
But I'm most excited about our cast. We have a rather large pool of talent this year, just about all of which have prior acting experience (either in REAL films, or else have been on our team in years past). My only concern is our coming up with a concept and a script that manages to give everyone a solid part. Because of the talent level this year, I'm more confident about our writing a looser script and allowing the actors to improvise more. This will make it easier at the script stage, but a bit tougher during the edit. We'll see.
As we do every year, we try to anticipate potential story ideas based on the potential genres we might pull. If our film ends up with a zoo murder in it, or a jury deliberation room, or a kidnapped newscaster, or extensive funny subtitles, then you'll know we managed to use one of those ideas. However, as also happens every year, we will almost certainly come up with something brand new that really integrates the required elements. I'm confident in our ability to come up with something really good, either way.
It's always an incredibly fun weekend, but amazingly exhausting. The last two years, our goal was to WIN this event, which we didn't do (although we did win bunches of individual awards/smiley face stickers). THIS year, our goal isn't to win, but to produce an amazing short film. Winning would be a nice byproduct obviously, but at the end of the day, we're more concerned with ending up with something we're very proud of.
Irony Coast Productions should be up to the task.
It's too bad this one just sort of ends. Except for an audition video (coming Saturday!) it doesn't appear they've produced any more videos in this series, which is a shame. I've laughed out loud consistently at these videos.
Good job!
Coming tomorrow, the Trailer for this show that has some additional Zeroes in it that haven't been featured in the show yet.
The guy with the art powers has become my favorite character. His drawings are brilliant and the way it parodies the real Heroes is fantastic.
I wish I could claim credit for these videos. They're everything a good viral video series should be. Short, concise, witty, and very well-made. I love the small touches.
Wow. If ever there was a game the Penguins didn't deserve to win, that was it. I missed the first two periods (fortunately, there were another four still to come), so I can't vouch for how they played then, but over the third period and almost the entire overtime, they were terrified, tentative, and sloppy. No one seemed to want the puck. Any time the puck was on a Penguins stick, they couldn't wait to get rid of it to let someone else have the dread responsibility of somehow salvaging this game. I lost count of the number of weak passes they made and the number of times they found themselves horribly out of position. It seemed like there were seven Red Wings on the ice at all times.
But... the Hockey gods were with them tonight. They live to fight another day. Perhaps it's their...destiny...to win this thing after all.
Actually, the only reason the Penguins are playing Wednesday night is because Marc-Andre Fleury played the most amazing game of his career. There was at least a dozen times the series should have been over, but Fleury's heroic goaltending kept the Penguins in the game. 55 saves. And most of them during that stretch when the rest of the Pens weren't providing any help at all.
Game six is Wednesday night, and I'll be plopped in front of the TV for that entire game, adorned with my Penguins jersey. If they can pull THAT off, then I'll have a dilemma. Gave seven will be Saturday evening. This year's 48 Hour Film Project will be in full swing on Saturday and if it's anything like it was the last two years, I'll still be deep in the shooting of it when the game starts... grrr... Now, in addition to all the other required elements of the contest, I have an additional required element of getting done in time to see at least some of the game.
Anyway, thanks Pens, for extending this amazing season at least ONE more game.
Yay! Venture Bros. is/are back! It kind of sneaked up on me. Actually, I knew it was going to be returning near the beginning of June, it's just that the whole month of June kind of sneaked up on me. In any event, its return comes not a moment too soon, what with the season finale of Lost and the series derailment of Battlestar Galactica.
This episode had nary a glimpse of Hank or Dean, and only a couple of moments of Dr. Venture and Brock. But that's okay. The Venture Bros isn't a show about the characters themselves, it's about the whole Venture-Bros-iverse. As long as they bring the funny, and this week, they did.
Basically what we had was a sort of origin story for the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as they apply for membership into the League of Calamitous Intent. Lots of fun moments, too many to recount. Nothing gut-busting, but all of it good. What I'm sure will become a fun quest is figuring out who the shadowy members of the Council of Thirteen are. I haven't done any Googling to see if any of them have been identified, but the only one I think I've figured out is that the main one that was speaking is Wile E. Coyote. (okay... now I'm going to go Googling... nope... so far only Wile E. Coyote).
One of my favorite things about this show is the codifying of Supervillainry that they've done. My favorite of these is the term "arching", which is what you do when you have an arch-enemy (which I have!)
Anyway, Venture Bros. is always more about the sum of the whole, rather than the individual parts. This was another solid episode in what looks to be a great season. Can't wait to see more of Manotaur and his Malevolent Murder Maze. And I want to see more of Truckules.
Because it's going to be such a long long time before anything good returns to the airwaves, it might be a good time to revisit The Venture Bros. from the beginning.
Stumbled upon this a few days ago and was highly impressed. Nice production values, decent acting, funny ideas, all extremely well executed.
I laugh every time the black guy uses his power. Great stuff.
Join me here every day this week for a new episode, and an amusing trailer at the end of the week.
Are you a fan of Heroes (or a former fan, like myself)?
There was a time not that long ago where I had the whole Battlestar Galactica storyline down cold. I could name ships and characters and knew what all the mystical stuff meant.
But not anymore.
BSG has completely lost me. It hit me a couple of episodes ago when in the midst of the shows latest string of visions and prophecies and dreams, I suddenly realized I didn't have a clue what was going on anymore. I had no clue how any of it tied together.
And the worst part? I didn't care anymore.
BSG is at the point where I know enough about the behind-the-scenes development of this show that I know they're really making this all up as they go along. I know that any ideas or plot threads that they might have had in season one or two have been completely rebuilt from the ground up and ret-conned into submission. And for me, that totally ruins the experience. Unlike the Cylons, the creative team does NOT have a plan.
And that in itself is a joke. I defy ANYone to tell me in less than a thousand words what the Cylon's plan is. Better yet, tell me what it was at each stage of this show. Wipe out all the humans? Wipe out all of them except for a few? Find Earth? Not find Earth? Have there been prophecies all along? Where do they get their spiritual info from? Where's the Cylon Bible?
It's all so convoluted and contradictory that I doubt the writing staff of this show could explain it to you.
In spite of the ret-con plot integrity betrayal last season with the reveal of four of the Final Five Cylons, I was giving this season a chance to tie it all together and hit a home run. But that hasn't happened.
"Sine Qua Non" was easily one of the weakest episodes of the entire season. Battlestar Galactica works best when it's just telling its story in a straightforward way. The first few episodes of each season, this one included, usually start out that way. Just the presentation of the events in a serialized, connected way. It's only when the show hits the middle parts of the season when we start to get the stand-alone episodes. These eps usually have some sort of stupid 'theme' or style or homage they are paying. This week on BSG, we had the crazy/damaged consultant that sees dead cats. It was as silly as that sentence made it sound.
Which is sad, because there were several momentous events that took place that were completely diluted by the 'main' story. Adama declares his love for Roslin, Lee becomes President, and Tigh & Six conceive the first Cylon-Cylon baby (inconceivable!). While its true the President Lee Adama storyline was actually the main plot, it felt like a side element to the 'search for the candidate' that dominated much of the episode (and gave us the silly, showy, Romo Lampkin mental breakdown plot. My favorite comment on Romo Lampkin comes from Alan Sepinwall's blog,
"The entire story with Lee and Romo Lampkin was particularly annoying. I think the "Galactica" writers like Romo a lot more than the guy deserves, as he's less a character than a collection of colorful tics."
Wow. I thought I'd never see this video again. I remember watching it when I was a wee lad. It was hilarious when I saw it 30-odd years ago, and all these years later, it's still pretty good. It's fun watching old Sesame Street things and seeing the adult touches that Jim Henson and Frank Oz and the rest managed to slip in. Nothing bad, but just stuff that would go over the head of a kid.
What's most interesting is that the majority of this skit isn't at all like I remember. But the ending and final version of the song is almost word for word as it is in my memory. Weird. Anyway, here it is, Kermit the Frog, deconstructing "Yankee Doodle" and helping the songwriter rewrite it to make it make sense.
Any fears I had about The Wire turning into standard TV vanished within an episode or two of Season Three. Having seen Season Four as of this writing (but not Season Five), I think Season Three is the strongest of the series so far.
At risk of spoiling the show for the five to ten people that might ever read this review, I have to share some specific details.
Like previous seasons, The Wire continued the threads of the previous seasons while adding an assortment of new ones. The main plot of S3 is the continuing investigation of the Barksdale drug organization. Despite kingpin Avon Barksdale's incarceration, he still runs the show, with partner Stringer Bell running things on the outside. The beauty of this show, and the epic, tragic scale of this show comes from these two characters interaction and season-long dance.
Avon is an old-school banger, and despite the massive amounts of money their organization has accumulated, he can't move past that thug mentality. Stringer, on the other hand, wants to take that wealth and move into more legitimate business, having taken business courses at college and buying up real estate. Increasingly, he has to do this without Avon's knowledge or approval.
It all is working okay until Avon works a way to get himself out of prison early. He returns to the neighborhood to get everything back in order, and that's when he and Stringer start to butt heads. Compounding everything is Det. Jimmy McNulty's personal investigation into the prison 'suicide' of Avon's nephew (and Season One main character) D'Angelo Barksdale. D'Angelo's death was ordered by Stringer (without Avon's knowledge) because D'Angelo was planning on flipping and turning all of them in.
So the amazingly tense conflict for this season ramps ever higher episode by episode. Our sympathies as the audience shifts from scene to scene, as we admire Stringer for attempting to move out of the drug trade. But we sympathize with Avon because of Stringer's betrayal and ordering the murder of D'Angelo. But we side against Avon because he can't pull himself out of the lowest-common-denominator lifestyle. But we like Stringer because he's the only person on the street with a plan. But we side against him because of how D'Angelo's mother was lied to about his death. But we side against HER because she is the one that convinced D'Angelo not to flip on the organization. And on and on and on.
I marveled constantly at the airtight plotting that allowed these shifts to occur and to be so powerful. And much of the conflict has its roots all the way back in the first episodes of Season One.
For anyone remotely interested in writing TV (or anything for that matter), this show is a masterclass on plotting and dialogue. It doesn't cut corners or go for the easy story at ANY time.
All the while, the good guys' story is compelling as well, but not nearly to the extent of Avon vs Stringer. These two kingpin's ultimate fates is pure Greek tragedy with a healthy dose of Shakespeare. Brilliant.
I could go on for days exalting this show. It just never makes a wrong step.
The ultimate compliment I can pay it is that I have to steal from it now. The Wire has the exact tone I was seeing and hearing and feeling in my head as I worked on "Going Nova". I want that kind of uncompromising honesty in my story, regardless of how unpleasant it might be or how bleak (for some characters) it might prove. Because if nothing else, The Wire has me thinking about drugs, crime, education, politics (and the News industry, I'm sure, after I watch Season Five) in a completely different light.
It's going to be hard watching regular TV ever again after experiencing this show.
Fortunately, someone went and did a compilation of all the great Tate hits.
Enjoy
They were starting to run out of steam a bit with this one, but it still brings the funny.
(warning: Mildly Not Safe For Work)
As always, it's the little details that put these videos over the top for me.
"Like many children, Terry was born."
This has some good moments in it. My favorite is the guy photocopying his butt on the copy machine. He's just enraptured.
The first Terry Tate video was perfect.
"The restroom's a privilege, not a right, PUNK!"
And the re-enactment of the classic NFL "helicopter hit" was a brilliant touch.
Well done, gentlemen....
Ah... Terry Tate... For me, this was the first true "Viral Video", in that it was easy to find, and easy to send to other people. And it was hilarious. And looking back on it now, I can even see some of the tone that would ultimately turn into "The Office" (disclaimer: I'm not sure which one came first).
The number of brilliant touches to this video can't be counted. But "You kill the joe, you make some mo'" became a fun catchphrase for a while.
Enjoy...
(warning: Mildly Not Safe For Work)
