Let's catch up, won't we?

After a slow start to the year in which I was ready to start making rent as a professional gambler, I landed some jobs doing video editing instead. Most of the prominent and interesting stuff is UCB-centric, including demo reels for turning live shows you can see at the UCBTLA into TV shows, including things called "Back Talk" and "Live Green or Die." I think those were in June, as was the start of an hour-long special for Comedy Central called "This Show Will Get You High," which bled over into July and was followed up by some work on a feature film adaptation of a UCB stage musical, Freak Dance.  I saw / taped the stage version at least half a dozen times and I'm jazzed to be part of the movie version.  That's going on now and probably will for a little while.  I'll also be shooting a pilot for a web series sometime next month.

New episodes of Better Radio are written and await recording.  We've got some great guest actors, well, not booked, but in vague agreement to do the show.

Some other stuff's getting written, just to keep me busy.

As always, other projects are brewing and broiling.  Shot a new short a couple weeks ago.  Contributing somewhat to Better With Thriller, had a question read out on Answer Me This that got Olly in trouble with his mum, folded a million t-shirts for Maximum Fun, trying to rev up something new which is the #1 reason you haven't seen 2-line reviews of the last 60 movies I've seen (I reckon we're up to at least #1681: Daybreakers), although I've written a couple longer essays about some movies that will go here or there, if there becomes a place, and I'm still doing some standup, although not with the frequency and drive that someone who's going to get anywhere doing standup ought to be getting up.  It's good fun though.

What else, what else?

If you're here in LA this weekend, I have honestly zero idea of what you'll get, but SOMETHING I've written will be read out at a place called Wordlab, this Sunday, Aug 1.  It's found at 3191 Casitas Ave, #156, Los Angeles, CA 90026 (EDIT: NO. NO IT WILL NOT.  THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.  DON'T GO TO IT.  IT'S NOT GOING TO BE THERE.  YOU'LL THINK YOU TRAVELLED THROUGH TIME AND THEN GET CONFUSED AND THEN QUIT YOUR JOB AND THEN SELL YOUR CAR AND THEN YOU'LL TURN TO THE STREETS AND NEXT THING YOU KNOW YOU'LL BE SELLING IMPORTANT SECRETS TO THE RUSSIANS.  DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN.)

I don't think I know anyone in Chicago, except maybe a couple actors from Carpet Kingdom, and I don't think they check the site too often, but if they did, they could go see Matt Walsh and say hello in a week or two:

$100 discount

I found a want ad for an illustrator file of the hollywood sign. Requirements included a sample, turnaround time, and price (specified per project, not per hour).

So, 1) 

2) 5 minutes

3) $100, or free to you.

They, ah, did not take me up on the offer, no.  Maybe they'll find this post instead.

In which this page's subtitle is made reality, in the third person.

Current Rob (Producing) is working on the SpikeTV show, has a feature coming up in June that could maybe shoot RED, and is making daily visible progress on the new radio show.  It's visible because there's a google doc spreadsheet with delightful color coding to keep track.  It's like this right now:

Current Rob (Consuming) is up to movie #1,452, and the recent lot is made up of some poor documentaries, a bunch of shorts of varying quality (including one he worked on in early 2006, which recently won a prize), and a couple of others.  Role Models, for instance, was much more David Wain-like than reviews may have led one to believe, and whilst editing a UCB video starring an actor with a supporting role in the film, Rob's worlds collided just a little bit.

Hanging around the LA comedy thing has begun the odd but not unpleasant phenomenon of Rob seeing folks he knows in a lot of movies and tv and things lately.  Not to mention in some old conan bits that high school Rob sure enjoyed.

Speaking of, High school Rob is attending the St. Rita's Youth Group Retreat Retreat, which is a planning session for the big 90-kid event weekend to be thrown at the end of the school year.  On Saturday evening, Catholic mass is said.  At the end of the first of two halves that make up the ceremony, the Liturgy of the Word, is the General Intercessions - a series of foci for which the congregation may direct their prayers - common subjects include world leaders, that their decisions may bring peace and harmony to the world; this retreat team, that they might receive guidance to achieve their task; St. Rita, St. Mark, and all the saints; ailing and recently departed relatives or members of the community, that they may be healed or find eternal peace (respectively); and in as small a service as the one being held, individual people or causes on the minds of the group.  High school Rob contributes "stuntmen, daredevils, and people attempting to break or lay claim to especially dangerous world records who jeopardize their lives on a regular basis."  The priest struggles not to giggle and apologizes later in the evening, just in case Rob was serious and maybe knew such a person.  He did not, but played the whole thing very straight, as one must.

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.]