Sigh, I wish I could draw as well as you can…

Interaction is a good, but maybe not required element, I think. Or maybe an indicator (1 comment = X viewers?). I very rarely make any attempts to communicate with anyone involved in the shows that I like the most. Even my very favorite shows, the ones I feel deeply attached to, exist as a one-way street for me: I watch the show, would buy their product, and check out the products their advertisers are selling, but basically don’t communicate with them.

http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2008/04/18/are-you-addicted-to-big-numbers/

Did a great little study on the value of high numbers vs. qualified numbers, that essentially blows the TV model of more eye-balls = more money right out of the water.

In the case of one of my video PodCasts, the BSGcast, Alienware thought our show was a good match for their product because our qualified numbers are high based on the content of the show and the audience it would attract.
How do you figure out qualified numbers over mild interest/channel surfing? Well, this is a two-way medium, after all. Maybe a better question is: How many of your viewers are engaged enough to leave a comment or drop an e-mail? These people are the true value of a show or personality.

Level of engagement might be the new level to track for an advertiser interested in the high-touch experience.

~Matt

(and for the record, this isn’t sarcasm I’m expressing, it’s deliberate embellished stupidity. Why? I dunno, I’m just feeling silly today.)

It might be times like these when outsourcing some of your more laborious tasks to China become a viable option.

As for HDMI out, it is only to web, true, but I like the option of putting it out on DVD/HD-DVD, and also the higher the quality the video the better for keying, and while I want to get to a point where the majority of the stuff isn’t on bluescreen, there will still be a bunch of stuff where the blue-screen is needed. I’m tired of the haloing around the person that comes from the DV/HDV artifacting.

All I have left to do is build it, film it, edit, and promote it. It’s practically done!

Thanks for the compliment!

Also, Timothy, what’s your e-mail address? I’d like to see some of your work, but the one you provided to the form isn’t valid.

~Simon

Yeah, it’s true that it isn’t a straight IT parody, but I don’t know any shows that are going to stay as a “straight” anything (not that this excuses bad writing, just that as the show develops, so do the characters, and you follow those as well), and to be honest, there’s so much of the IT world that’s tremendously boring. I considered showing people what a real day like that would be, but wanted people to actually watch.

Dialogue-heavy, absolutely, but I don’t really see that as a negative. Now, the staging of those dialogue-heavy moments suffer, as I don’t have the ability to film the workarounds that larger productions can — instead of just having people talk in a single location, the conversation takes place while they’re walking, going from a couch to a desk to another room, to break things up visually — due to the physical limitations of the set. That’s one fo the main things I’m going to try to rectify for season two: it’s my goal to be able to have single-take tracking shots following from one office to the hall to the next office, all without cutting or editing.

It’s a severe limitation of the show that you don’t get a proper sense of the office around them, and better sets will both alleviate that problem and help me circumvent the issues with having a talking-heads show. Also I’m going to try to get a camera operator to help with the filming, so that the shots are dynamic. The camera work being so static has always something that’s bothered me.

Thanks for the info regarding the improv classes, incidentally. A friend of mine runs classes like that, but only every six months or so.

Just letting you know us fellow Kitchener-ites are watching and enjoying these segments.

There are some local improv groups that are not only, I believe, free, but they have a wealth of talent to work off of if you are interested. Theatre on the Edge (TOTE) is the one I’m most familiar with, and I’ve worked with some of the folks there in shows with the Kitchener Waterloo Little Theatre.

I personally thought that using puppets made the most sense from a cost and logistic point of view. Plus, to be honest, the material should rise above the medium anyway. People should forget that they are watching puppets and get drawn into the story.

This may be presumptuous, but I believe I’m close to your target audience (IT with a slightly twisted sense of humour. Yes, you can tell Maddy I said slightly ;)) and I did enjoy a lot of aspects of the show. The sense of humour though, which I’m not saying is a bad thing, does put this show into a category all in itself and not a true “IT Parody”.

I do agree that, perhaps, you can have a dialogue heavy show but still increase the pacing a bit. Shorter scenes perhaps, or tighter transitions during character dialogue.

I am looking forward to season 2 and see where you take this crazy train

Odd that you agreed with Fran before I’d actually moderated her comment, and approved it. Doubly-odd that you did so only three minutes after her comment. Triply-so that you did so from the same IP address as Fran, and that you’d agree with her so vehemently.

I’m happy to have anyone commenting here, and do welcome all feedback. But you don’t need to invent pseudonyms to create support for your critique.

Despite this seeming like something of a trolling message, I’ll respond to the specific points, because I’m like that.

I’m sorry you don’t like the puppetry, but the quality is varied, and really depends which characters you’re looking at. Also, it’s gotten much better over the course of the season (I’m quite proud of my own progression, for example, and find it genuinely difficult to watch the early stuff now, because of how far I’ve come). A goal is to increase the quality, absolutely, and part of that will come from increased rehearsal time, which I didn’t really get, and structuring it in a way to allow the time to get more takes of a shot, which the first season didn’t really allow for.

I do watch the old Muppet stuff a lot, and obsessively study. And as Maddy will attest, I spend a surprising amount of the day pretending I have a puppet on my hand.

Are you saying that the show it, don’t say it rule is what leads you to wonder why I’m using puppets, rather than live action? I would argue that there is absolutely a reason. One of them is that I wanted to do it this way, and the other is that it allows me to circumvent physical limitations and have a whole bunch of characters, rather than just a few, were I to put the actors themselves in front of the camera. Also, while I know some of the puppeteering is rougher than others, I think it’s generally more than capable. That said, part of the plan for subsequent shows is to get more higher-quality puppeteers (who I already have lined up) and also to help the other puppeteers get better with some workshops.

Way too much talking? I’m not sure why that’s a negative: that’s the kind of show that it is. I’m a talkative person, so my show is going to reflect that.

Part of the practical limitations of a show like this is that I’m building the entirety of the world, and can’t rely on existing structures. As such, yeah, that means that the physical action available to us is less. Also, the puppets are only from the waist up, and don’t have operable hands, which limits the physical actions they can undertake. It’s something I think of as a problem, absolutely, but it’s not stemming from a poor choice in any narrative or directorial sense, but rather from the constraints of the puppets and sets. This is the best that I could’ve done, given the circumstances.

Which episodes did you watch, out of curiosity? I mentioned the length as being something I know turns people off, but as I think I mentioned in the episode, it’s a conscious choice of mine. I’m choosing to make a longer show because that’s what I want to watch. I want the more involved character and story-lines. I want weightier scripts. I would like to think, in my naive way, that if I put out a show that assumes everyone has that attention span, then the people with that attention span will find it.

(That isn’t to impugn those without that span, no matter how sad it makes me; people get used to seeing things in a certain context, and at a certain length, and it becomes less of a consideration to view different types of things)

The second season will have slightly shorter episodes, and my goal is to structure it better. The hops is to be able to find the length that requires the least compromise from me, yet brings in the largest number of viewers.

As for the improv class, it’s something I’ve looked into, and will probably be doing. Why do you suggest a writing class? Not to denigrate any of the people who’ve helped out with the show — and they kick several types of ass — but I happen to think, despite my stated desires to increase the quality of the writing, that the writing was the best part.

I’ve had my eye on the O’Neill Puppetry Conference, as it looks quite cool. Didn’t get the chance to apply last year, but hopefully will do this year.

No worries about sounding harsh; the point of this show is to lay bare the process, and to plainly state the things I need and want to improv. Thanks for the feedback.

After watching some of dotboom, the puppetry and acting is really really rough. Also, the show should really follow the old rule, “show it, don’t say it.” Right now there’s no REAL reason for it to be done with puppets. Direction wise, I like it. Lighting seemed pretty good and the shots were well executed. But the show really suffers in that there’s WAY too much talking. I didn’t actually finish any of the episodes I watched.

I’d suggest taking an improv class if possible, as well as a writing class. The O’Neill Puppetry Conference in Connecticut is a great idea too.

Don’t mean to sound harsh, just being honest. Good luck!

Season 2, when it comes out, should be pretty kickass (as will the show(s) that come out in the mean-time).