Behind the scenes of 88SLIDE: The Daily One Minute Trivia Challenge
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Behind the Scenes: Raw Footage of Kramer & Jerry Insert
Below you'll find raw footage of Baba as Kramer, and my cameo as Jerry.
Baba (angry driver from episode "LA Subway", the Hosni Mubarak answer guy from "Birthday Bash", the voice of the rock in "Guess The Fad", and John Lennon in "John & Yoko's Bed-In") is the de-facto b-roll/extra/insert guy. He's actually behind the camera (with a steady hand nevertheless) as I look for the Porsche.
You'll notice that the "Eee-eee!" auto-alarm sound effect was put in afterwards in the episode...
I think Baba's Kramer is dead on...perfect shirt...
I'm actually holding the wireless mic tranceiver in my hand as I left the cell phone upstairs...
The Right Reverend Chumley of the CULT OF UHF video podcast joins as today's special guest host...
We've been in touch over the past few months about collaborating, and we finally got to it this past week....
Basically, we came up with the question on this end...The Rev shot a few takes and FTP'd it over...Taped Rachel's wrap-around and voila - today's episode.
We have some good stuff from the Rev for this weekend's outtakes & bloopers.
Headed over to Blaine's tonight with my friend Doug, who's an awesome Director of Photography that I worked with in traditional television. We made a few tweaks to the lighting set-up.
I had no idea what I was doing with the lighting there until now. I just hung two Ikea "china-ball" lights and swung Blaine's lamp around...Doug showed me some other options tonight.
The picture on the left below shows Blaine from yesterday's episode, and the shot on the right is today's...
Notice Blaine's skin-tone/color is more realistic now, and how his record collection is showcased a little nicer...you'll also see some more definition between Blaine and his "Wall-O-LP's".
My goal is to semi-permanently hang the light in Blaine's so I don't have to tape it up every night.
Bonnett {that's me} hopes to give advertisers consistent short-form content to sponsor. Bonnett - who shoots the video himself - has already attracted some sponsors. It doesn't surprise me. Advertisers are seeking short-form content that's predictable and reliable.
"88Slide, ein einminütiges tägliches Gewinnspiel, hat mit Dealhack.com einen Sponsor gefunden. Dealhack schätzt an 88Slide, dass sie günstig qualitativ hochwertige Videos produzieren, die virales Potential haben und online vertrieben werden. Dealhack sponsert deshalb die Preise der Show und wird dafür in Form einer Einblendung integriert."
Behind the Scenes: Blaine Practices Catching the Fish
Below you'll find raw footage of Blaine practicing his mackerel catch.
Baba (angry driver from episode "LA Subway", the Hosni Mubarak answer guy from "Birthday Bash", and the voice of the rock in "Guess The Fad") is throwing the fish from the side.
We practiced with the fish in the bag until we were ready. Notice the towel over Blaine's turntable.
I left the lavalier mic at home, so we used the handheld you see in the shot.
The fish is great; the pink latex gloves are killer, dude.
This is what today's episode looks like in Final Cut Pro, which I use to edit everything, except the soundtrack (which I compose/edit in Apple Soundtrack).
Click to enlarge; enjoy.
I even opened up the video scopes on the left, which I don't know how to use, just to make it look like I know what I'm doing.
Today is a big day for us, and I really, really have to thank my buddy Brian Smith for mentioning us a few months back on his blog, ComparisonEngines.com. This is what led to our introduction to Dealhack.com.
Nevertheless, Brian sort of followed this whole process through and did a little case study, and followed up with this post today.
I really like this format. Noah is still figuring things…he gets a good amount of organic traffic to his site (people returning over and over to view the new questions and previous days answers), but episodes distributed through YouTube sometimes clock well over a thousand views…his recent Cinco de Mayo episode is at 100,000 views and counting.
This isn’t a paid advertisement for 88Slide. This is a no-brainer advertising/branding opportunity. Yes, I’m biased b/c I’m Noah’s friend and because I’m a Media 2.0 junkie, but think about the business model and economics of the format for a second.
Just got back from visiting the local Fishmonger at Ralph's (grocery store). I want Blaine to hold a fish head for tomorrow's insert at the Fisherman's Wharf. They JUST threw out the trash. Will keep you posted...
We're getting a lot of traction with our iPod Nano giveaway with Dealhack.com...I'm jazzed.
We got a great mention today from Buzzerblog - The Game Show Blog. Alex, the author, has a wonderful insight into the game show world, and from what I understand, his audience is very loyal.
Welcome all you game show fans via Buzzerblog - we're excited to have you join our growing family. Take a look at our archives to see what we've been up to. We're just like the game shows you know and love, but faster, cooler, and of course - we're one big happy family. Oh yeah, we have Blaine - graphic designer by day, game show announcer by night.
This is what today's episode looks like on Soundtrack, the program I use to score each episode...You can click to see it a little bigger...
Did you hear the birds under the Birdman of Alcatraz, and the machine guns under Machine Gun Kelley? The sirens under Blaine?
P.S. The Birdman of Alcatraz never actually had birds at Alcatraz...only when he was in prison in Leavnworth, Kansas...I know, I know - FASCINATING. Did you know the human head weighs 8 pounds?
You'll notice Blaine isn't in front of his record collection today....
He went to see comedian Neil Hamburger last night, so I met him at a friend's house close to 11 pm.
I would have done it over the phone and placed a video, still or graphic on top, but we did that just last Friday - and I really want Blaine in every episode during this special week.
The good thing is, his buddy's place wasn't too far away...just down in SILVERLAKE, DUDE!
I must have parked on one of the steepest/steepiest hills in LA...ANYWHO, quick session there and I'm out the door...I was actually sitting on a stool with the camera on my knee as I left the tripod in the car...you wouldn't know, hopefully.
Do you like how we lump hippies, rockers, punk people and psychadelica all in one sentence in this episode? Way to generalize San Francisco in the 1960's in one breath, huh...
Aight - here's to day two of our sponsored week with Dealhack.com....
Here's yesterday's submission breakdown...nobody guessed "D. Fairview Trailer Park" - there's usually at least ONE person that goes there...
"While I am sure that they're not all that interested in what a corporate type like me thinks of them, marketers should pay close attention to this show. It's how to connect with your audience powerfully and quickly. The production is tight. The talent is great and the theme of the show is compelling."
You might have noticed on Friday that I placed Blaine's (audio) reveal of the winner on top of a few still shots...
...and the reason was becuase of our schedules, Blaine and I weren't able to meet up for the insert, er - video insert...which I have no problem with, seriously - Blaine is such an important part of this whole operation, and if he falls asleep at 8 pm, or we're not able to meet up - it's so fine! Why? Because we're still able to do it via phone, or some other creative approach.
I want to get him a cell phone with video capability so he can LITERALLY do it from wherever he is...I need to figure that out.
ANYWHO - here's the raw audio of the call we did where I have him say the winner over and over and over again. He's such a sport, and sporty - of course, I went with the first one, haha...I took some evergreen still shots of him before, just for this purpose.
Whenever we're out shooting, people always come up to us and ask us what we're doing - SO, we decided to make some simple cards to give away...should be here in a week...
We'll have these in time for Vloggercon in San Francisco, which we'll be attending! See you there?
I love that name - VLOGGERCON - it's actually funny on a few different levels.
Tomorrow we'll be in the Haighty/Ahsbury district district of San Francisco, where everything's groovy - except the parking!
We stopped for a nice Thai lunch, and bought that shirt at a vintage clothing shop. There were tons of characters up and down the street, two of which are going to join us at the end of tomorrow's ep!
This Beetle was parked outside some tobacco shop on Haight.
OK, a little more on Dealhack.com's sponsorship of this week's 88SLIDE...
My goal is to develop alternative methods of including advertisers and sponsors into 88SLIDE. I'm not so much into pre and post roll ads for this property per se, and think that prize sponsorship is a natural fit for a micro-game show like ours.
So, like the golden era of game shows in the 1950's (think Geritol's sponsorship of Twenty One, Sylvania's sponsorship of Beat the Clock) - we teamed up with Dealhack.com to sponsor this week's content. As part of this sponsorship, we'll be giving away an iPod Nano on Thursday. I tried to seamlessly integrate Dealhack.com's brand with a 2 second mention after the prize, as there's a natural (or shall I say "organic" - BUZZ WORD ALERT!) reason for their presence. This is a modern twist to an old broadcasting model.
Another video podcaster emailed me this morning asking how we found a sponsor, and the answer is....when we were starting up, a friend of mine from my previous dot-com days in the late 90's posted something about us on his comparison shopping blog.
The CEO of Dealhack.com contacted me directly that week and asked if we could do something together. We simply went back and forth a few times about the best approach, and here we are today.
I know it's been a while since I contributed to BEHIND THE SLIDE, and I'm starting fresh today with getting back on track.
There is SO much that has happened since my last post, that I'm just gonna start anew and sprinkle in some old stories as we move forward...like when Blaine fell asleep early last week and I woke him up as part of the episode. That wasn't schtick!
I guess first things first - we have a sponsor this week in Dealhack.com - and we'll be giving away an iPod Nano this Thursday....Here's a little promo graphic we've been sending to the iPod blogs and podcast directories...
Of course, we're in San Francisco all this week...
Lot of stories for ya...I haven't ridden a cable car in year, and it was actually a lot of fun! In the back-end of today's episode, Rachel is hanging on to the cable car while I'm sitting, facing out. I was such a nervous nelly that she'd slip as she was wearing gloves. It's in my blood, what can I do?
OK, I'l end this post and come back with some other stuff in a few...
