alright mang here it goes. i'm taking notes as i rewatch so it will go in that order.
who reads the disclaimer at the beginning?
That's my mom. She's from Poland. I thought it was funny.
handheld camera is cool but sometimes too shaky-- it pans wildly. more on this later.
Yeah, I noticed that myself. I was trying to give it a natural, very amateurish feel in the beginning, to make it seem more realistic.
the main character i get is this horrible person. ("nobody is laughing")
i like the cut to jesus. [later: i dont know what role religion plays for him]
Correct. The title is an allusion to his offensive stand-up, and the fact that he is inappropriately trying to be funny despite dealing with very serious issues at hand.
It is only hinted at in this episode, but Justin is very interested in organizations (Christianity, Boy Scouts, etc.); I also feel that his Christianity is a good way to even get on the nerves of many too-hip-to-be-offended Atheists.
i don't hear well what they are saying in that room. are you using NR plugins to cut noise after recording? there's also loud hiss. not sure what mic you used but you can get a decent rode short shotgun for cheap ($100-200).
the chick does a good job acting.
his routine: use a de-esser
For this episode, I just used the mic on my camcorder (*booo....hissss* I know, I know) and sent it off to my 'sound designer' to clean up. I believe he used ProTools and some very expensive plug-in.
I plan on having him plug an external mic into my camcorder's mic port (CANON HFM31) and he can work with the sound from the ground up, rather than just fix all my mistakes and weird sound editing decisions that I made in Sony Vegas... for the next episode, that is.
the weird old man, arthur, is totally offensive and hilarious. his is one of my favorite segments.
the canned laughter doesn't work for me most of the time.
i like the music, generally.
Yeah, EVERYONE loves Arthur the most. I plan to actually have him have actual lines with purpose next time around, instead of just babbling curses.
The canned laughter has been added, and removed, and added again so many times. A lot of people think it makes the show more surreal; I just have a love for 90's sitcoms and wanted to bring back the laugh track. Which is something you don't see too often anymore. It might be better to leave it out next time though.
Yeah, most of the music is provided by Anti-Raunchwagon Records, that's my producer, Scott's record label. I picked whatever I felt worked best for what I wanted to achieve.
the thing friend back in the room it's funny too but the recorded laugh doesn't work for me. i won't say that again tho just try watching it without?
are you using lights? there's a lot you could do with some cheap lowells. sitcoms and tv usually use high key light, it's easy to do & people can move around. so something that will boost the light levels should work.
Some scenes are lit, others aren't. I'm still pretty much experimenting with lighting setups. I'm familiar with the 3-pt technique, but I have trouble back-lighting without having the fixture in frame... and I'm too damn broke/unemployed to buy any new equipment.
dr's office or something- handheld is cool but see about stabilizer. like a merlin, or a fig rig or something. you don't need to use a tripod, just have more camera control.
I have my homemade steadi-cam thing my father helped me make. I'm still really bad at using it. Also, that office shot was guerilla filming at its finest.
We had absolutely no permission to be/film there and I guess I was just a bit nervous my scene would be interrupted somehow. I actually went back a few times to pick up a better shot of the receptionist, but received police threats and whatnot... let's just say I'm not going back there anymore. haha
If you really wanna nitpick, I had to flip a few frames to keep the 180 rule constant. Some of thetext reflects that, if you watch closely enough.
2 chicks on the bed w/ lights/effects was cool, is that what they want to do vs. what they are actually doing? regardless of whatever it means the contrast is cool.
k having a hard time understanding the dialogue again. your boom operator needs more practice & some headphones.
mannequin fucking-- bizarre and funny. when the door gets knocked, why the laughter? lisa does look good. oh mang the laughs why. stabilize camera.
yyup. lol
k one thing i realize at this point is the camera angles & shots. there's lots of long and medium shots and few closeups. also the camera angle from above doesn't work for me there. if you could cut and do the 2 shot at eye level it would work better. yeah you need to cut and set up again but it would work better. this reminds me w/ the old man the shots were also from above always. put that knee on the ground and get to eye level more.
Yeah, I was going for more of a pseudo-documentary style with the camera work, like I said. I only used a couple shots on the tripod here and there. More like Curb or The Office... y'know?
the shower part is more bizarre shit that i like with that wolf hat.
oh i get that now that lisa cheated w/ the other girls? i don't get why these 2 like each other.
love is a funny, funny thing my friend.
the next routine i didn't like and i dont know if he's really joking or just playing an ass.
anyway i think you got a good idea there, a character everyone can hate, and bring back that funny old man.
oh don't worry. he has many more lines in the next episode.
for characters everyone can hate, it's not my kind of thing but there's shows like peepshow that are based on that-- ive had arguments w/ people here about it, but regardless, you don't need to have a "likeable" character. i just wanna see or hear more clearly what he's saying so mics is the thing to do. and lights. light that thing.
also this is something completely different but have you watched "workaholics"? this reminds me of that show somehow-- well it's a stretch but it has some common stuff. watch it & see.
gotchya, lights and mics.
never seen workaholics or peep show. i have heard of both though.
anyway so if this justin guy is the main character, who are the others? is he a kind of mr. bean who exists in his own universe? or do the others around him count? i think they could come across more as characters of their own so you have more of an ensemble situation like seinfeld if that's what you like (i saw your post about the 90s), but they need more of a story rather than just be around him i think.
yeah, Justin is the main character. Lisa, Curtis, and Arthur are the other lesser-main characters. they definitely all get more developed in the upcoming episode.
and yeah I think with the first script, I was still starting to figure out who my characters were.... but now that I've literally seen them in action, it should be much easier to write.
Justin - likably unlikable
Lisa - bitch, but not completely so
Arthur - lots of cursing, making weird noises, etc.
Curtis - the polite straight-man
but anyway if you had to prioritize 1 thing and 1 thing only i'd say start with audio! audio is more than 50% of video, doesn't need to be perfect but what they're saying has to be clear, like the old man, and make sure it doesn't clip. try having your dialogue peaks at -12 maybe?
check this out and read up on part 3:
http://www-tc.pbs.org/producing/media/producing/cms_page_media/1/TOS-1-2010%20(Submission%20to%20PBS)%20Revised.pdf
you see their loudness target is -24db. that's PBS which is "quieter" than other TV but it works.
or see this:
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/982763
ok man, i gotta run, i don't know if this was useful to you but i hope it was.
Yeah, my orginal cut, most of the peaks were -12dbs... I did raise the volume a tiny bit by the time the final rendering took place... in hopes of giving the dialogue more clarity.
the audio should be generally improved next time around by the use of an external mic alone.
ps- do you storyboard your shots?
moar bout dat later. k-- be well dude. talk soon.
Usually I do, but I wanted this to be a bit more spontaneous. I find that if I storyboard every shot, I may get more interesting arrangements... but the scenes lack a certain liveliness.
I'm going to try and storyboard episode 2 though.