But what will become of ManWorld, Mr. James Franco?

Ben Karlin, of Onion, Daily Show, and Colbert Report fame, has a new website, with an insane amount of detail going into its fictitious tale of a crappy reality show company that takes itself a little too seriously. Check it out when you have a few hours to spare. Here's an introduction to the imaginary Wonderglen founder Aiden Weinglas by the surprisingly unfictitious James Franco.

Obama's Overly Nuanced Beach Party!

The Big News Show has started putting old episodes online. Here's one I wrote from August. (It's the first sketch performed.) -- Andy

The Saga Continues

Episode 2 of SWIMKATA, our collaboration with Studio Fred, posted today. We've got a love scene, training montage, and cameo appearance by a ninja.

Hamlet is now a fan of daggers

A little something for all Facebook/Hamlet fans, written by Sarah Schmelling. (Click for larger view.)

Meet BURN-E

Okay, I usually don't do much corporate whoring. (I mean, I think Pixar's doing fine without me.) But this short, off the WALL-E DVD, is fricking hilarious. Plus I love stuff that shows us that while we're watching our movie, other characters are having their own lives and adventures just off-screen. (This is perhaps why I am the only fan of BACK TO THE FUTURE, PART II). So while the epic-humanity saving stuff we watched was happening, little BURN-E was just trying to fix his light.

And they even worked in a 2001 homage. I'd hate these PIXAR guys if they weren't so damn funny.

Cool stuff

At root, this sounds not too much different from "The Secret," but it's better because this has scientists, okay?

Sensible Fashion Uber Alles!

Why does my coat not have a second hood for when it is raining hard? I feel so un-sensible!

Balloons!

For all the buzz CGI imagery gets, the one thing few people ever mention is you can totally tell when some object or person has been added in post. Something about the stiff predictability of the movements, or the too smooth surfaces. So, a balloon flitting about the various unseen and unpredictable air currents should be just about impossible.

I don't know how Jerry Rees did it, but this video makes these balloon inserted into various famous movie clips seem real. My favorite is near the end, when a Nicholas brothers routine now looks even more gravity-defying.

The Saddest Political Campaign Poster I Have Ever Seen

Christ! It's like seeing your friend's mom in a Ramones T-shirt and ripped jeans, just screaming "Please think I'm young and hip." Plus, it reminds me of one of the other candidate's posters. Now which one was it?

BABY PALIN (at last!)

Well, the video is finally (FINALLY!) up, after many sleepless hours of HD/Quicktime compression woes. Here it is:

M of H update

Lots of great stuff happening on all fronts.

First, the second episode of SWIMKATA starts filming next week. A lot of night shoots, which I can't go to because of my job, but I'll try to grab some pics.

And our first full Devon/Andy, Masters of Humility solo project in a while, BABY PALIN, finished its first day of shooting. BABY PALIN stars my girl Zoë as an adorable (and staunchly conservative) toddler version of the Republican VP candidate. Here's some on the set pics...


Tomorrow we shoot Gregg Lopez as a folk singing troubadour increasingly troubled by BABY PALIN's actions, and then Thursday the hilarious Hal Rudnick will be hilariously waterboarded. We had wanted to get the vid out for the V.P. debate on Thursday, but no one gets their civil rights violated as humorously as Hal.

Other big news, our first animated short, THE EMO KIDS MYSTERIES, is moving forward with some great concept art by Kat Bakonyi. (Click on a picture for a larger view. It's totally worth it...)

Devon and I spotted Kat's work at last year's UCLA animation prom. Her short had a real flair for character design and she's added a lot of cool ideas for our short, including this, the Emo Kids' vehicle, the Misery Machine. (The chain-smoking ferret in the previous pic, however, is solely due to my skewed imagination.)

More of Kat's work can be seen at: http://denseminds.lupous.net

And we're working on a new improved, less generically iWeb look for the site. So, keep coming back. More interesting stuff soon!

Yeaaaaaah!

Okay, lotsa stuff happening. Big update coming soon.

Until then, there's this little montage of what happens when you use the same tricks over and over.

I actually used to like David Caruso. In early movies like MAD DOG AND GLORY and even in the first few seasons of NYPD Blue, he underplayed scenes nicely, had a good intensity, and especially had this habit of looking down or away from the other character in the scene as a way of playing up the emotion in a scene. Showing, like a lot of guys, he reflex was to withdraw a little when he had to reveal a little honest emotion. It's the kind of thing people do all the time, but actors rarely do, since they're trained to maintain eye contact with their scene partner.

Now, alas, Caruso's neat little technique has become a crutch and a bit of a cliche. Ah well, we'll always have JADE.

It's posted!

Finally, after tons of technical stuff having to due with aspect ratios and HD codecs, MICHAEL PHELPS IN SWIMKATA!

Episode One: ENTER THE SPEEDO!

This is so exciting! (And why I suck at acting)

Any moment now, Studio Fred will upload episode one of our new webseries MICHAEL PHELPS in SWIMKATA! I've seen the footage. It all looks great.

Well, almost all of it looks great. Seriously, 99% of it is awesome, but the best take we had of a mugger stealing the purse has me (playing a swim judge) just kind of staring into space like a dork. It was always a weird mis-en-scene. The mugger has to shove past me to get to the purse, and I do nothing so Phelps can swim in and save the day. But it's one of the those things where if I look surprised, no one's going to notice. (Hell, chances are, no one's going to notice anyway. That's kind of the purpose of an extra.)

See, this is why I suck at acting. Most of acting is not acting, not doing anything except waiting to act. Or, more precisely, being ready to act at any given moment. Well, I suck at purposeful waiting. My mind wanders. I start thinking of the reason why Kyle Rayner was a better Green Lantern than Hal Jordan, how glad I was that one scene in the DVD extras from THE HOST was cut from the film, why my wife's obsessed with our youngest daughter's height... and, well, next thing you know I'm being filmed, frantically asking myself how to act naturally, which is the last thing a person who is really acting naturally does.

Except the one scene in question, I didn't even do that. See, it's worse when it's a scene you've written. I'm so used to watching the scene from the dozens of times I've gone over it in my head that I forget to, you know, be in the scene. Which is what happened in the one take the director used for a purse snatching. Unless the director used another take in the final edit. I think there was this one take where I lift my hands in shock and surprise. Now that's acting, people.

--Andy

On the Set of: Michael Phelps in SWIMKATA!

Oh wait. We don't just embed cool videos on our blog. We make them too. Within 48 hours, the first episode of our latest webseries, MICHAEL PHELPS IN SWIMKATA! will be posted in all its internet-y glory. It's our second collaboration with STUDIO FRED after the success of our WGA Strike Video ATTACK OF THE D-GIRLS.

We filmed the whole thing at a friend's pool in Reseda (and the alley outside) on Monday, and the director Brandon has currently sealed himself inside an editing bay to have the thing ready before Phelps hosts SNL this Saturday. (Thus beating our post-production record by, oh, two and a half months.)

It's always a weird thing watching a script getting filmed. It's never the same as it appeared in your head. Not necessarily better or worse, just... different. Luckily, Brandon had lots of cool ideas for visuals that will make the vid exceed my expectations.

Here's Brandon directing our Phelps (Christopher Biewer) and Jason Bowers as Chinese dude.

Randall and Brandon - Studio Fred in all their glory -make extra sure their new HD camera doesn't fall in the water.

Bennie and Chris become lotion buddies.



















The joys of guerilla filmmaking. (At least we had someone wet down the alley to protect bare feet from getting burned.)

Chris, Whitney and Jason in our green room (i.e. a garage).

Viral Video Night

Antique-O-Rama was screened at Studio Fred's Viral Video at IO West. Always good to see the show in front of an appreciative audience.

This, however, was the winner. (Can't complain, though, it's pretty funny, as well as creepily touching...)



I was also fond of this vid from The Royal We:



And this screened out of competition, given that it was too funny to compete with other videos:

Kitten suck

Because deep in my heart, I've always known kittens are evil.

With Great Power, well...

Hey look, it's Sudoku Guy!

The Periodic Table of Awesoments

From http://www.dapperstache.com/, I give you the The Periodic Table of Awesoments! (Click pic for a larger view.)

It's like THE DAILY SHOW for your car!

People always ask me about my favorite podcast (just go along with here, okay?) as well as asking why everything is at least 45% funnier if it's British (members of the Commonwealth, such as Canada, get a reflected humor boost of 30%). The answer to the later is "I don't know, but thank god it's true" and the former is THE BUGLE. Produced by The Times (of London), THE BUGLE -- "An Audio Newspaper for a Visual World" is the brainchild of The Daily Show's John Oliver and Andy Salzman. In addition to weekly segments such as "Straight Into the Bin" a listing of features too bizarre to make it into the podcast, and "Hotties from History" a contest for the hottest historical figure, The Bugle features the simple pleasure of listening to two very funny people trying to crack each other up.

The podcast can be found with a simple iTunes search, and the website's at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/the_bugle/

Comic-Con Saturday and Sunday (with my Con scoop!)

Give me your unwashed masses, yearning to get autographs.


And the award for the most obscure costume goes to... Aquaman villain Black Manta! (although, to be fair, perhaps he should be a tie with Skrull 70s-era Luke Cage)


Don't know why, but I love the 60s Batman, and these two got the costumes PERFECT.


And now, the rest of the Con.

It was definitely less fun than previous years. Partly the lines, which made attending a panel all but impossible unless you lined up an hour ahead of time or sat through the previous panel just to ensure a seat. (This made for some weird audience vibes from people who did not really give two craps about the panel they were attending.) Partly because the writers strike meant there were no new pilots and very little in the way of new footage to screen.

Still, I learned a bunch of interesting facts. For example, Futurama has 3 ph.D's on staff, and they must be working the Simpson staff pretty hard. Their panel, usually one of the funniest at the event, kind of fizzled.

One of the more interesting events was WRITING PRIME TIME ANIMATION, wherein WGA prez Patric Verrone attempted to take us into the writing room of a fictional animated Sopranos spin-off FAT TONY AND THE GUYS. The one thing these panels never can quite capture is the hours and hours of bantering back and forth trying to come up with the funniest gags possible, but it was a good (if truncated) view of the various stages in the animation writing process.

Saturday night was spent hob-nobbing with writers at the Marriott, first at the Animation Writers Reception, then at the bar. I felt an odd sense of deja vu as I met and chatted with various writers, animators, actors, etc. Then it struck me, this was what Comic-Con used to feel like, before the multitudes of ravenous fans made it necessary to put walls of security up between the creators and the unwashed masses.

Sunday the crowds and the madness diminish and it's possible just to show up at the panel you like and actually, you know, be allowed in. My possible favorite panel was Sunday's IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA with -- hey, how about that? -- an actual episode screening. I'm always amazed at how these guys can organically work obscure taboos (such as cannibalism) into a show with a fairly traditional set-up. Also, Rob and Glenn's new pilot BOLDLY GOING NOWHERE, appears to moving forward, and PHILLY season 4 will have a 1776 flashback.

Then, Hamlet 2, a movie I really want to like, but seems too enamored of going for the easy joke. Still, Elizabeth Shue's got a great supporting role as, well, Elizabeth Shue.

And, as always, my Con ends with the STARSHIP SMACKDOWN. For those who've never been, Smackdown consists of several SciFi luminaries (as well as friends, girlfriends, and guys who worked on the luminary's DVD special features) arguing over which starship would win in a fight. I know it sounds silly -- and it is very, very silly -- but I'm always impressed by the panel's ability to argue an absurd point. (Example: maybe Starship Dave could beat BattlestarGalactica, given BSG's proven susceptibility to machines that look human). Still, I'm always miffed that they don't realize the TARDIS could kick any starship's ass.

And now, MY CON SCOOP. On the train ride home, got to meet Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall. I'm always reluctant to meet my comedy idols. (For example, I've seen Bob Odenkirk several times, but always sense an all-envelopping "don't talk to me" aura.) But Scott turned out to be as nice and as cool as he seems, and he let me know that THE KIDS IN THE HALL are working on a script for a new movie. That's right, a new movie. At least 90 minutes of new KIDS IN THE HALL genius. Lovers of good comedy everywhere may rejoice.

And for those of you worried that the KIDS may have lost their edge, here's a sketch they previewed at a UCLA show I was lucky enough to attend...

Best of the Con Gauntlet

For those wondering about these LONE SAUSAUGE guys I mentioned as the one bright spot in this year's Spike & Mike Gauntlet Show, here's the censored version of one of the videos they screened...



And here's the video that started it all. I remember when this premiered they actually went to the trouble of passing out thousands of 3-D glasses to all the attendees.

While you wait...

Still recovering from Comic-Con, as you wait...

Comic-Con 2008 - Friday report - Adventures in Queueing

Late Friday night and I am exhausted. Comic-Con gets more insanely crowded every year. I didn't get into half the panels I wanted to, but there was still plenty to keep me occupied. Anyway, here's the skinny.

Favorite costumes (above): Not sure why these guys picked the 8th, 6th, 4th and 1st Doctor, tho'.

Most Pointless (if impressive) Costume: A guy done up exactly like Bob's Big Boy, right down to the plate with plastic cheeseburger. Who's really that big a fan of kitchy diner food?

Best Giveaway: an actual flash drive with episode's of Adam de la Pena's new web series ON THE BUBBLE.

The One Piece of Merch I Will Have to Buy: This year's Alex Ross shirt is of Obama-as-Clark Kent, opening his shirt to display a red and blue "O" superhero emblem.

Least Interesting Panel Revelations: The cast of the BIG BANG THEORY really get along well.

(Oh, and less uninteresting, Sara Gilbert will come back next season as that nerd who has that loathing-bordering-on-sexual-attraction thing going with Sheldon.) Actually, it was nice to see this show, which started out not sure if its über-nerd characters should be objects of derision or sympathy, to come out firmly on the side of the freaks.

Panel Revelations (interesting) from "Art of Adapting Comics to the Screen"

Zak Penn is writing the AVENGERS movie and trying to make sure the next four movies fit within the continuity set up by IRON MAN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK. I know a lot of people have damned Penn's INCREDIBLE HULK movie with faint praise. I liked it, but got the sense that a lot of the character moments of Bruce (Ed Norton) learning to accept the Hulk as part of who he is instead of fighting against it were cut. The absence of these moments left the film kind of flat, and the ending inexplicable. (He's driven into a Hulk rage by a bout of intense meditation?!) Zak Penn confirmed that's pretty much what happened when the studio edited the film.

EW's Showrunner Panel. Both Josh Schwartz and Bryan Fuller said that due to the long, writers' strike-induced hiatus, their networks are treating the first episodes of season 2 of CHUCK and PUSHING DAISIES as "second pilots" with full promotional pushes, although with DAISIES, I doubt this means Barry Sonnenfeld will be invited back to go massively over-budget, as happened with PUSHING DAISIES first pilot.

Great panel on WRITING GENRE TV. Too bad 90% of the audience was there just to be sure they'd have a seat for a panel on the following panel concerning Online Anime Fans.

In the evening, another great edition of Jerry Beck's WORST CARTOONS EVER, including SUPER PRESIDENT, a superhero who will blow his secret identity if he ever tells anyone his superhero name, and with a sidekick oddly resembling Karl Rove. No good clips on the net, although YouTube has this crappy recording...

Then, Spike and Mike's Animation Festival, which I have to say: What the hell happened? The show has been a high point in Comic-Con's past, but this year was just relentlessly awful. Are they losing good animators who now just post online. Luckily, it was slightly redeemed by ending with a new Dr. Tran video.

What I love about all these videos (made by Lone Sausage) is if you try to explain them to someone, they sound incredibly stupid, but watch them and they're hilarious. The new video had a weird old guy giving Dr. Tran advice on his 100% Ice stand and ended with an ad for a store called TITS.

Okay, that's it for me. Wish me luck for tomorrow.

--Andy

The British Office meets the Justice League of America

This was the winner of a monthly Filmaka.com contest. How it fit in with the theme "Extra-Curricular Activities" I'm not sure. But it is a wonderful example of the deadpan, very dry humor the British seem to excel at lately.

Japanese do Matrix Ping Pong

This clip has been around a while, but it deserves a place here as the first video I'd go out of my way to show to my friends. Plus, it captures the true weirdness of Japanese TV, without the weirdly cheerful cruelty that's in so many of their YouTube clips (see "Human Tetris").

My Chicago Debut, Belated

Ah, after weeks of no sketch activity, either because of other, longer scripts hogging my attention, or fathering, or submitting sketches that weren't all that funny, had the opening bit in last week's BIG NEWS SHOW, "Illinois Obama and the Temple of Appeasement." Although I'm swelled with pride over it, credit must be given to Michael Hughes for a great punch-up, as well as directing it. Oh yeah, there were some actors too.

I also found out today that for the first time in Big News History, the same sketch (mine) opened both the LA and Chicago shows. So, I'm elated at have had my stage debut in Chicago, despite the weirdness of finding out five days after the fact.

Here's a video of the L.A. For those of you short of attention span, it's the first thing performed.

Art's all about what you leave out

I never much cared for Garfield. Most of comics were variations on three punchlines involved either a) Monday, b) lasagna or c) stupid dogs. Who knew the only thing preventing Garfield from inspired brilliance was, well, Garfield.

Garfield Minus Garfield shows versions of the comic strip with Garfield photoshopped out, leaving a darkly comic tale of Jim dealing with his crushing loneliness and possible bipolar disorder.

Oh, and Odie appears to be blessedly absent as well.

More at: http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Welcome

In light of the increasingly volatile oil market, real estate bust, banking crisis, global warming-induced natural disasters, and the under-performance of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, we at the Masters of Humility call an end to all sarcasm and irony, starting now.