So, I made A Sitcom With My Trusty HV20

[filmbuff81]

I guess I understand what you're saying. But I truly believe that film has changed and the viewer has changed with it. They're much more savvy and not as easily confused. Millions of MTV videos alone have numbed us to the aesthetics of filmmaking. I know, I know. Videos are a different beast. But my point is, they've influenced the viewer enough to just not give a s&*% about that kind of stuff.

I definitely agree with you about MTV crowd not caring about it much. I personally don't care about it in most respects. I am not easily confused and I realise exactly who and where she is talking. I guess I am making more of a statement on the finicky nature of "old school" thinkers still in the decision making chair. I am sort of hopeful with the advent of so much digital technology and the internet that we'll eventually get a similar period as to the 60s and 70s and even partially the 50s (when Fellini was starting to come about) and we'll get a redux of italian and french new wave. I mean really some of those films (particularly Breathless) would never get made today(Let alone remade) Well they would, but they would be so avant-garde they would not be as widely accepted as they were then and now hold up as classics and as examples as how to break the boundaries of film.

Hopefully Soderbergh continues his indie goal of shooting films on video and releasing them on DVD, Pay Per View, and Theatres all at once and it takes off. If it does take off you'll be able to see a wider range of quality films. It will force studios to make better films again and not simply turn "Transformers" into "Independence Day" except with Robots.

[The Stevesy]

I liked it. My one suggestion when it comes to comedy: less is more.

You have a couple of nice characters, but reel those screwball one's in. Comedy like tree- solid root structure. Make it grounded. An electrical analogy would also work in here.

Also, to reiterate an earlier question, is that wordpress or did you do that site yourself. Very smooth operation. Also, the flash player is a really convenient/nice format.

Keep on rockin.

[c.g._eads]

Well that's one thing we can definitely agree on. No more Transformers!

[filmbuff81]

Yep, I'd pretty much rather chop off both ears and poke my eyes out before watching it again. But my nephew loves it, so unfortunately that is not an option.

Michael Bay is THE

[David Zeno]

pretty good stuff there

I'm a newbie to this stuff, so how you put the voice and different shots together still makes me curious.

- how you have the girl on the couch talking, and then the shot goes to the guy, but she's still talking and there is not cut in the audio, a cut in video ( different camera angle ) but the girl's audio is still going.

that's something that interests me. I just don't know how that is done.

this happens a lot in the first minute of the movie for example.

[brandonesquire]

Hey, I'm sorry I haven't been keeping an eye on this thread. I've been off busy with episode two and another new overly-ambitious project. Thanks all of you for watching my video. I'm still new to this whole "people watching and liking something you make" thing.

pretty good stuff there

I'm a newbie to this stuff, so how you put the voice and different shots together still makes me curious.

- how you have the girl on the couch talking, and then the shot goes to the guy, but she's still talking and there is not cut in the audio, a cut in video ( different camera angle ) but the girl's audio is still going.

that's something that interests me. I just don't know how that is done.

this happens a lot in the first minute of the movie for example.

It's called an L-cut. It's called an L-cut because in your NLE (NLE means Non-Linear Editor, the video editor.) on the editing timeline the cut looks like a sideways uppercase L. In the case you're asking about, the "foot" of the L is the video, and the long "body" of the L is the audio. It stretches out into the footage that it on top of it filling out the gap. I have no Idea if what I just typed makes sense, was rambling, but I hope that helps. If it didn't just say so, and I'll talk about it some more, but articulate myself better.

You are an inspiration for us all, way to set the bar, and set it high!

Jesus, thanks man.

Great job. The only comments I would mention have been already stated: Exposure and you did cross the line several times. Espeically when the room mate says he is 'super busy' his eye line is on the wrong side of the camera. Little things, but worth noting.

Both of these are what everyone is telling me. As such, I will add both "Exposure!" and "180o Rule!" to my index cards that I keep posted in my camera case, and look at while setting up each shot. The other two I have now are "Lighting!" and "Sound A.C.A.P.!" (as close as possible.)

kadzbiz: you're absolutely right about everyone having their own comedic tastes, honestly I didn't think anything in the video was funny, except for two lines, that I thought were hilarious (and perfectly delivered), the first was something to the effect of:

"What are you doing, Place? I don't eat meat."
"It's ok. This animal was a bastard."

And the second line was where the loser roommate said "Mr. Never Loved Anybody But His Lesbian (Probably) Best Friend." I spit my rum and coke on my keyboard. Thanks a pant-load, Brandon. Also, your girlfriend is hot. I don't know which one she was, but they were both hot, so, kudos to you.

I recently saw a video of an interview of Ira Glass, the guy who does This American Life on NPR, where he said:



Honestly that might sound like a very harsh quote. And your first instinct might be to think, "Well, I'd like to see some videos this asshole has done before he criticizes my work." But the reason I post this quote is to say, I see a ton of potential for you to actually produce sitcom television as a real profession, as opposed to the sea of amateurs who say, "Look at my video-film! It is of my cat!" and it's terribly, terribly stupid. While I think your first attempt at making an entire TV show (which is something that normally takes 30-100 people to do well) isn't super great, the fact that I laughed twice I think is a huge indicator that you have budding, true talent. So, I know it sounds like I'm a dick, but, what I'm really saying is well done, keep at it, and I look forward to seeing the 20th episode, and how much your skills as a storyteller will undoubtably improve.

I know exactly what you are talking about. Thanks, and this is absolutely my state of mind. All I want to do is get better. I was explaining this to Betsy, the girl who plays Liz, that I'm not ashamed, in a traditional sense, but something like that. Just after I was done, with what I had learned while I was making this, I wish I could go back in time and make it over. I'm sure I'll be feeling this same way after everything I do for a very long time, if not forever.

Also, I love Ira Glass so very, very much. I have every episode of TAL from 1999 to now.

Brandon, I thought you did a great job of putting that all together. I didn't really laugh, except at the scene of the guy crying in the bath, but then my humour is odd. I'll agree with the "goat" voice & exposure comment, but I didn't have any problem with the 180 rule. Each to his own I say. One thing I did notice though was the voice of Jim seemed a little muffled or something; not as clear, crisp, as the others, so some reason.

I'd also like to know what setting you filmed this in, including the night setting please.

All in all, very inspirational to all us up and coming wannabe producers.

Hey, thanks a lot. Settings wise, the only thing I did settings wise was 24p and the Cinematic setting. I feel ashamed saying it, but that's it. I never changed anything. Well, I filmed 60i in the one show showing Betsy's TV so that it didn't have scan lines, but other then that...

Great Job, very inspirational. Was it filmed in 60i or 24P? My wife liked it too. She thought it was a tiny bit slow in the beginning but then couldn't wait to find out what happens next. I liked the girl with the laptop, Liz I believe is her name.

Good editing & filming.

24p. Thanks a ton, I'm glad both of you liked it.

Very good writing! But yes, you did "cross the line" an awful lot. And your lighting/white balance could have been more consistent.

Bah, I agree 100%.

inspirational... very good job. May i ask what computer set up you are using and how u like it? i'm gunna get a new mac soon(once leopard launches in a few days!) my current comp. cant even handle PLAYBACK of HD video...soo sad.

I just have a 2GHz Macbook with 80 gig hard drive and 2 gigs of ram and a 24'' dell external monitor. I also have 2 500 gig Seagate external hard drives just for editing. I like it, but I know it's not the best. I wanted a laptop, but had a big screen monitor and didn't need the video card so I saved money by not buying a Macbook Pro. I'm saving up to buy an iMac that I'll get after Macworld in January. Thanks for the put-up. It seems so foreign for someone to call something my friends and I made "Inspirational."

Thanks so much all of you. I hope you'll watch the 2nd episode when It's done in February. It's taking so long because Betsy (Liz) is off whoring around Spain until the 24th of this month. I've been working on a very... technical sequence for the episode in the mean time, though, and the extra time will allow us to make at least this part more polished.

Ahhh, thanks again, and I swear, I am taking all of your critiques to heart. Please keep them coming.

[David Zeno]

Hi brandonesquire

Thanks very much for the info on the "L-Cut" I understand it a little bit, and understand what you said, but grasping it totally is another story :-)

I did a Google search for "L-Cut" tutorial, and I can't find anything, which is too bad.

I don't fully understand, how you can do this "L-cut" technique using just a single camera. You go from angle to angle in a scene, and the audio is fluid, eventhough the camera shot changes... even with audio overlap, it must entail exact timing to get it right, ... but perhaps I'm not understanding the technique correctly.

I would bow down and kiss the toes of anyone who would be able to do a very short tutorial on doing an "L-cut" , maybe a short 10 second scene, with this technique being used, and then explain how they did it.

[The Stevesy]

The This American Life series on Showtime is one of the greatest things ever. Dear god.

[Westcroft]

very kevin smithy... I liked the shot of Jim reading the Jay & Bob comic and "Holden"... Also when Holden finished his monologue and sat on the couch he started talking to Jim about how he never loved anyone and his delivery was very Jason Lee.

Also the use of the Soul Asylum song was a nice campy touch.

[maz1989]

the sound quality is amazing, Rode videomic ftw!

[Slate]

so as a newbie who is fearing the whole pulldown removal thing, did you do anything to remove the pulldown in the 24p footage or is everything edited in 60i?

Oh yeah and this was amazing, done so well, great acting, writing...

"This is good meat.. these animals were bastards!"

[zombiejoel]

Nice use of Showbread

[crobs808]

honestly...yeah, this took a lot of work, and all that, so props to you for working so hard on the technical end, but this isn't funny at all. i cut it off halfway through the closed-door sex scene near the beginning just because its was not only annoying, but played off immoral jokes and teenage humor. sorry not my thing, but hollywood would eat it up.

::: Connor

[Dota]

is the music you used licensed for your use or whatever?

[BobToe]

Hi brandonesquire

Thanks very much for the info on the "L-Cut" I understand it a little bit, and understand what you said, but grasping it totally is another story :-)

I did a Google search for "L-Cut" tutorial, and I can't find anything, which is too bad.

I don't fully understand, how you can do this "L-cut" technique using just a single camera. You go from angle to angle in a scene, and the audio is fluid, eventhough the camera shot changes... even with audio overlap, it must entail exact timing to get it right, ... but perhaps I'm not understanding the technique correctly.

I would bow down and kiss the toes of anyone who would be able to do a very short tutorial on doing an "L-cut" , maybe a short 10 second scene, with this technique being used, and then explain how they did it.

Hey D. Zeno, since it looks like no one has answered your question yet, in case you're still curious, I did a quick screen grab and then added the "L" to give you an idea of how the cut works. Er... that was what you were asking about, right?


Edit: OK, so here's the link to Vimeo, http://vimeo.com/466546 I realized after all was said and done that I could have just done a silent screen grab of the second half of the video, but oh well, it's all under 2 minutes anyway.

[Perry]

david,
you may want to look into some single camera techniques as well before you worry about editting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-camera_setup

[BobToe]

OK, Vimeo video posted, now on to questions and criticisms for brandonesquire.

I really liked the video, I thought it was really creative (especially the loading screens for the "commercial breaks") and found that I was cracking up all alone in my room at several different lines. As an immoral teenager, I found the humor highly relatable. Didn't notice the break in the 180 rule, but I guess it's good to keep an eye out nonetheless, and the lighting was pretty good. The beginning of the episode was a bit slow though, and I agree with M. Davis about improving and potential. I really liked this episode and I'm looking forward to new episodes.

What were the songs you used? I really liked them.

Also, similar to Slate, I'm curious what your workflow. I've been reading through threads on this forum for a while, and while there's always the technical reasons why one thing would be better than another, and why one should do this or that, I'm more of a practice, rather than theory person. And since we're using basically the same computer/processor/RAM/editing setup, I'm curious. What exactly is your process between the filming and uploading portion of the game? Because whatever it is, it seems to work, and that's all I'm really looking for. Also, I guess as part of the question, I didn't notice any special effects if you used them, but on the off chance you did some outside FC6 work, at what point did you introduce those elements? Er... actually I guess that part of the question could apply to color correcting as well?

Edit: I just watched Ryan, The Bitch, Gets What He Gets. Hilarious.

[David Zeno]

Wow, Chris ! - that's EXACTLY what I wanted !

gee, I didn't get any email alert you had posted, so, sorry for the delay in responding.

I just saw the tutorial, and I AM SUPER glad you did that !

That is really a great tutorial, and really shows me how it is done, before this, I had a clue how to do it, but not a really solid " I know how it is done" and with that tutorial, I now see the "light"

gee, I hope they keep that uploaded there for awhile, 'cause I can't save it to my disk for safe keeping.

In any event, I thank you again, and I really appreciate your time and effort in trying to help me !

Dave.

[David Zeno]

Hi Perry,

looking at your link right now, thanks very much for helping out also, I appreciate it.

Dave

david,
you may want to look into some single camera techniques as well before you worry about editting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-camera_setup

[Redsandro]

Nicely done!
Not my humor though.

How did you make that greenscreen? I made a bluescreen with paint on canvas, but apparently I should have made a greenscreen. It looks like you've nested multiple pieces as I can see the seam.

Also, you've edited p footage on an i timeline, right? It shows in the fades. I have the same problem with Avid.

[zombiejoel]

Hey brandonesquire. I was wondering... I watched some of the other shorts you had on your website. What mode did you use for the adventure shorts? Cine-Mode? Or Tv Mode?

[brandonesquire]

[Chicken Warrior]

Just saw this...Not really my kind of humor but still very well done!

Where was it filmed, BTW? Not BC Canada?

[9enisP]

I also just watched "Ryan, The Bitch, Gets What He Gets." Funny stuff. I'd love to see more of that type of humor. Great job on the rest of your videos too.

[Captainobvious]

Brandon,
I thought it was witty, funny, and very well written AND directed. Thats a fine job.
Glad to see you are making another episode. I look forward to seeing it!