The Pitch went all right I feel. I could have been more clear with my idea but that’s the point. I want to mosaic sketches together with one similarity and their weirdness. I want to create a flow between scenes despite their diversity and obscurity. Movement and sound will be very important in linking sketches together. Ive got lots of ideas on how to do this but my main issue is time to film all of these.

I am no longer doing one single sketch but branching out to 3 -5. This means there may be less emphasis on quality than I wanted in the other project. I still want each video to have a cinematic image but because the content doesn’t need that quality, it really doesn’t matter as much. If it were a drama it would be completely different (true to form).

On reflection of the Pitch I should have really prepared more stuff to say. I read off the slides and added more onto them but I’m actually not a great public speaker. I sometimes go around in circles and end up confusing myself and the audience. Next time I have to do a presentation I need to read through it a couple more times because I often stuffer and say words multiple times.

these are a few of the inspiration I had in my powerpoint presentation. THIS IS THE LINK TO THE POWERPOINT

Anyway my aim out of this project is to make something humorous but disturbingly odd.

As the Pitch approached I was having second thoughts on the ‘don’t jump’ project. Firstly getting permission to film in a car park would be very difficult. Getting enough actors, and finding funny/weird looking actors would be even harder. Logistically I don’t feel like I’m equip to handle a big shoot. Id also probably have to pay a few people as well. If I were in a group the level I want to make It would be possible but I feel like I might be over shooting its viability.

Looking back in my trove of collected observations and ideas for sketch’s on my phone, I feel like I want to some how integrate all these little ideas to build a big picture. A notable person who comes to mind with this type of style is obviously David Lynch. Hes a pretty big influence for ‘student’ filmmakers because of his daring subject matter and lack of clarity. Over the years I’ve studied his films and TV shows, and accidently falling in the trap of Lynchien dialogue in my own scripts. This style subtracts any sense of realism as the audience is unable to relate. The effect it causes makes us feel uncomfortable and queasy with the combination of odd visuals and strange sounds. I really enjoy this though. Its very ‘emotive’ filmmaking which exacerbates everything in a good way.

I would love to some how link my multiple ideas into some kind of sequence using sound and vision to cycle or between different sketches. I will no longer be doing one sketch but many, focusing on nothing.

“I reckon I could do that”
A question we thought would never be answered. A friend of mine named Joe thought he could handle 100 oysters in 60minutes after someone proposed the idea. Instantly the idea of a live stream sprung to mind. It was something you wouldn’t even imagining happening on a live stream but because its so unique and weird I just had to record it in a public arena.

I wanted to do this the right way, the proper media student way.

I constructed a fully-fledged broadcasting station in my garden; this was not going to be an iPhone to Facebook live stream. I educated myself through various YouTube tutorials on how to setup a Facebook live stream and make it look like a news broadcast. I used OBS which is a free software that allows basic control over a live stream video.

Random notes on it

• I downloaded GIFs, some relating to Oysters, others to vomiting or just odd.
• Put a countdown timer in the application
• Borrowed a monitor from a friend for the large view screen
• Set up my Canon 6D and streamed it into the software to give the audience another angle
• Downloaded uplifting music for the lull periods of the broadcast (curb your enthusiasm theme)
• Scrolling hotline number with question to the audience

This Video gives a quick insight into the behind the scenes of the shoot

Here’s two videos of the broadcast. I wouldn’t recommend watching them the whole way through at all. Maybe just skip though.

The live stream got a great response despite 2fps at times and the stream being cut into 3 videos because of the Internet dropping out. It got 125likes and 2.04k views.
Where the production went smoothly was in the entertainment section. We used multiple props to enhance and humorise the event. The ‘gimp’ gong was one of these special moments when the ‘gimp’ would waiter at Half point and hand Joe another 10 oysters on a silver platter. I’m going to definitely need to utilize costumes in my film

It was a very rewarding experience. I will definitely do more live streams again in the future. Joe successfully completed the challenge FYI

Until this point I hadn’t really had an idea that I wanted to follow through with.

This story is called ‘don’t jump’. It’s about a middle-aged man who is mistaken for someone trying to commit suicide (yes very funny isn’t it!!). He’s at the top of a car park maybe on lunch break. He wants to take a better photo of the city view so he stands up on the ledge (or a step up higher to the railing) when a bystander from behind asks him how his day has been. The following encounter is ‘The man’ trying to persuade hordes of people that he was not wanting to commit suicide but take a better picture without the railing in the frame.

I wrote through the various sections of society you wouldn’t expect to see at the top of a city carpark e.g. Farmer, Sick children, War veteran etc. there would be maybe 6-9 different ‘categories’ of people there, each trying to get the man to climb off. I hadn’t really thought of an ending. One was that the man jumped off in the end because of the stress of the arguing. But the better one was when he shifts the questions to the bystanders and asks why they were up there. It turns out that they were up there to jump off but because of the audience shift the focus onto ‘the man’ instead.

The scene is meant to build in ridiculousness as it progresses.

This is the start of the script and is very rough. I’ve written it with inspiration from back and fourth dialogue seen in Monty Python sketches. I’ve used the script application Celtx for the formatting.

This is the location I’m considering filming at. Its RMIT’s Carpark so might be easier getting a permit to film here. I’ll need to get onto it ASAP. There’s car park in China town which is perfect for the shoot but I need to go and take some photos to see if its viable.

At this location ill need to film the scene from a low angle to make sure the lower level of the car park cannot be seen.

One thing I’m worried about it whether or not I’ll get bored of the is project. I don’t want to get roped into something I’m not 100% committed to.

My previous ‘epiphany moment’ in which happened the depths of building 9, inspired me to want to experiment with lighting to create a music video. A bunch of different shots weaved into a music sequence.

However after another consult with Paul and thinking about the end result of the idea, I realized that maybe I wanted to do something a bit different to what I know. Something which was scripted with heavy dialogue. In this new epiphany moment I wrote down almost in blog-point-form, a short rant about the current state of internet comedy and what stimulates my dormant funny bone. Its pretty underwhelming the type of stuff people are making ( the videos they make are popular so I guess they are doing something right). There’s just a formula that they apply to all of these ‘sketches’ which im sick of.

As a ‘Filmmaker’ I don’t want to make something that’s the same, I want to challenge things, perhaps prove a point. breaking away from things that are true to form is what makes good comedy. Anticipation in comedy is so important; If you already know what’s around the corner before you see it you’re less likely to get a shock.

A big influence which constantly shocks me into laughter is Adult Swim (which ill go into in another post). The content they produce is weird and imaginative. Its creative and original which is what I want to investigate in my Film.

After talking to Paul again and fleshing out a specific idea I’m going to investigate one ‘sketch’ which is filmed in only one scene. I’m going to unpack ‘ridiculous’ humour in the setting of a car park. I’ve written the start of the script which I will talk about in a later post as well.

I guess by focusing on this one scene It will allow me to devote more time and energy to producing something which is of reasonable quality; possibly add into my show reel (which is non-existent at this stage).