Amy's Prank

It's new video time!  We spent around an hour shooting this last weekend, and I put it together this weekend.  It's about Amy, and the tricks she plays on her neighborhood. It so happens that we have all the right props (literally, props) to be entered into the YouTube Project: Direct 2009 contest.  I imagine that for any number of reasons, this isn't quite the kind of video they're looking for, but there's something that seems very silly to me about a direct-to-youtube video with a credited Director of Photography and three Key Grips, so maybe it should be.

If it turns out that it is, then I assure you, you'll hear about it when the voting starts.   (Judges narrow down the contestants who are then voted on by the Internets)  Until then, I recommend you watch it anywhere else.

• Vimeo - For best quality
• Funny or Die - if you like it, you can vote it 'funny' here.
• UCBComedy - Everyone in this has UCB ties!  And sweatshirts! 
• YouTube - Because I thought it'd be fun to enter a contest

It's a little bit heartbreaking to spend time adjusting colors and finessing a video just to have the YouTube automatic video ruining system add its own 'washed out' color settings and a light blur over top of everything.  It's almost enough to understand why 1) most internet videos look terrible 2) people don't bother with white balancing or microphones.  I mean, macroblocking? Really?  Even in 'high-quality' mode?  It's a series of stills, for pete's sake. (EDIT: I'm told that there's a longer wait for the site to process things into high-quality playback mode, and that it ought to look better sooner or later)

Anyway, I hope you like it, and that you get the film nerd joke in the middle.  It was fun to do, and I'd shoot this style again sometime.  Now if you'll excuse me, I actually finished something, and a little bit of sunshine is in order.  (I was going to go for an irony-free closing here, but I stumped the MTV site)

Muppet Roommate!

Muppet Roommate - watch more funny videos

Ooh, look at me, embedding videos all over the internets like [EDIT FROM FUTURE ROB: No, original Rob was right. If I had been hosting this video myself it would still be viewable. Embedding is relying on others to maintain their corner of the internet.]

This is the first video for the internets from the exciting new group Mode7, which is [EDIT FROM FUTURE ROB: No, this Rob was naive. Nobody else was interested in an ongoing partnership. This is the last video from Mode 7.]

"The producers have decided to go in another direction."

That's LA slang for 'you're fired,' and it has a particular feature that means it is used in situations where it also means "we know you've been working for us, and we're going to keep that work, but we'd prefer not to pay for it." In a purely 'fluent English speaker' sense, it can make sense when referring to creative pursuits, like writing, or acting, or mousetrap design.

When it's used to fire someone from a technical job, and the direction the producers are moving away from is an offer for them to pay as much or as little as they choose...I'm not sure WHAT it means.

Words and photos*

First off, I'm writing for Sketch Cram at the UCBTLA on Saturday, Feb 9, 2008.Writers start scribbling in the morning, performers come in and learn the stuff in the evening, and by the time YOU show up at midnight, we've assembled a show you'll love like a precocious niece.

Also, last week, I wandered around LA county looking for billboards and taking photos. See the fruits of this effort on the internets, and go visit Project Nightlight (the organization responsible for said billboards) if you want to.

*Photos, while still valued at 1,000 American words apiece, are now only worth an embarrassing 978 Canadian words.