Life From The Inside

Vampire Zombie Werewolf

2010-11-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Hey there, LFTI fans!

I'm taking the time to post a little something on this blog because I just realized that there may be a few of you out there who rely on this RSS feed to get all your KATR Pictures News.

Well, we've got a brand new show!

It's called Vampire Zombie Werewolf, and you can se it here:

vampirezombiewerewolf.com

Have no fear, we haven't forgotten about LFTI. there are some interesting LFTI-related things in the works. But for the time being, we're busy trying to get VZW out there (and it's a full-time job, trust me).

Take a look at the trailer. And check out our new show! We're pretty proud of it :)

For Your Consideration

2010-01-12T12:17:00.001-08:00

Original music from our show Life from the Inside!

Streamy Consideration by robbpadgett

Want to learn more about (most of) this music? Read all the music posts on this blog:

http://blogfromtheinside.blogspot.com/search/label/Music

As always, thanks so much for your support! We really appreciate it.

ROBB

Gag Reel (LFTI Episode 8)

2009-09-16T07:33:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Watch the cast of Life from the Inside bite the big one, like totally to the max.

Episode 9 Update

2009-09-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I'm back with another sneak peak of Episode 9 for you and this one is beautiful!

What the heck is going on here?! And why are the colors so nice?

Well, good thing for you, Episode 9 is being edited as I type this. Oh the wonderful agony of anticipation. How will you ever survive?!

Well, I could give you another sneak peak. Let me see, what's going to really peak your interest...

I know! How can you stand it?!

Sorry, I'm stuck in sarcasm mode today. Just know we are working hard to get this next episode done and out to you wonderful viewers as soon as possible.

Tanya

Episode 9 Sneak Peak

2009-07-31T15:34:00.001-07:00

Get ready, ladies and gentlemen, for a sneak peak at what's coming up in Episode 9 of Life From The Inside...

Oh how exciting! What's going on? Who the heck is in that photo?! Well, I guess you just have to wait and see.

Tanya

We're Stuck in the 80s

2009-07-08T08:12:00.001-07:00

Stuck in the 80s by robbpadgett

You can tell we're stuck in the 80s by that song posted there, just above this sentence. If you haven’t started playing it yet, maybe you should. It’s the perfect accompaniment to this blog post! Isn’t that strangely coincidental?

Wow.

Kismet.

It’s New Music Wednesday!

Okay, so if you’ve been reading this blog regularly (and if you are the person who reads this blog regularly, I just want to say “Hi, mom. Don’t worry, other people will care about this stuff someday. I know… I know, mom! Don’t say that, mom… They can’t possibly all just be jealous… Okay. I love you too.”) you’ll know that I’ve taken “great” pains to come up with original 80s music for our last episode. And some of it has been more successful than others.

This, I think, is one of the more successful attempts.

It’s a tune called “Stuck in the 80s.” It’s funny, when we conceived episode 8, the 80s were but a quaint memory. A novelty. Little did we know that just a few short months later the 80s would come roaring back. Most notably in fashion. In fact, every time I see a skateboarding kid wearing tight, tapered jeans and spiky hair, I just want to grab him and shout, “we tried that! It didn’t work. We’ve lived in regret ever since. Don’t make the same mistakes we did. Oh, and teal is never a good color.” But they wouldn’t listen. They’ll chalk it up to “experimantation.” But we’ll know the truth. It’s misguided rebellion. And it’ll ruin every photo they take for the next year-and-a-half.

…kids…

So, Stuck in the 80s was my attempt to write a song in the style of Oingo Boingo. I never really listened to Oingo Boingo when I was a kid. I wasn’t really into New Wave music. Actually, I wasn’t really into anything contemporary. When other people were listening to Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, I was listening to Glenn Miller and New York Voices (Yes, I was a strange kid, and yes, my jazz tastes have matured since then. I was pretty into Duran, Duran and Hall and Oates if that helps? It doesn’t, does it?). But, I do have a great appreciation for bands like Oingo Boingo. They were just a little too hip for my young ears.

Anyway, I had a good time writing and recording this song. I had a good time writing all of the songs for episode 8. I can’t wait for our next episode. I think I’ll keep this soundtrack thing going. But who knows? Episode 9 is really long. There may not be enough time for a lot of music. Plus, it’s not really a genre piece. Though there might some need for early 2000s music… hmmm… I’ll let you know.

ROBB

By the way, if you’re dying to put this song in context, you can hear it during Episode 8, Part 3! Why not go here and see for yourself! In fact, why not just watch the entire episode over again?!

Why not indeed.

Also, this song has been posted to the Life from the Inside Facebook Page! We would love it if you went there and became a fan. Loooove it. Not on Facebook? Well, why not? It’s fun. It’s free. It’s face-y.

Episode 9 is Alive

2009-06-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

It's funny how life works out sometimes. I like to think that things happen for a reason and the casting of Episode 9 has definitely had several moments that fall into something of that sort.

As of last night, we finally have this episode fully cast.

Not that anything has gone horribly wrong (although I have on a couple of occasions joked about the universe not wanting this script to be produced)it's just the normal pitfalls of producing an online show. Hell, the normal pitfalls of producing in general.

But, in the end, fortune has smiled on us and the fixes have proven to be pretty darn awesome.

I can't wait for our rehearsal next week, to finally get all of these players into the same room and watch them interact.

So now we go into the midst of rehearsing, prop finding, costuming, location scouting and so on.

It's going to be good.

Very, very good.

Tanya

The Slip

2009-06-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Reason has given me the slip. At least it did about a month and a half ago when I wrote the lyrics for the tune that I’m about to share with you.

Tune? Did someone say “tune?!” Yes. I did. Haven’t you been paying attention? No? You’re looking at that graphic there on the right, aren’t you? It is pretty swell. You’ll get to see a lot more of it in the future. But that’s a topic for another post.

Today it’s New Music Wednesday!

The only reason to get out of bed in the middle of the week when you really think about it.

Anyway, today’s offering is in the classic 80s style. In case you don’t remember, in the 80s there was strange fascination with the 50s. I blame the movie Grease. Even though it came out in ’78. That’s close to the 80s. And things took longer to catch on back then. Yeah, sure. Why not.

But some of the most famous 50s/80s musical crossbreeding was accomplished by the new wave band The Cars. They were unmistakably planted firmly in the 80s new wave scene, but there was a lot of 50s throwback in their style. Especially in Ric Okasec’s vocals.

I’ve always liked The Cars. When I think of the 80s, The Cars invariably come to mind. That’s why they were a shoo-in to be emulated on the LFTI Episode 8 soundtrack.

Now, I’m not sure exactly how well I actually emulated them. I wasn’t really going for a sound-alike or anything. I was mainly going for their essence. Plus, they’re very talented musicians and I’m just one dude with half of their talent (on a good day).

The lyrics were something that came as I was composing the song, though they weren’t finished until after the episode aired. This didn’t matter too much since the version in the episode is instrumental. Like 80s musak. In case you’re curious, you can hear it in Part 4 after the “time-elapse” montage (around “Universal Truth #37”).

But now you can hear the lyrics here! They’re fascinating. I had a lyrical theme for all of the music in this episode. Since the episode is about a cult and brainwashing and such, all of the songs have something to do with mind-control or subservience or group think (albeit, sometimes very tenuously).

So, without further ado, I give you The Slip!

The Slip by robbpadgett

Pretty slippery.

You can also hear this song on the LFTI Facebook Page! Why not go there and become a fan if you haven’t already? Sure. It’ll be fun!

LFTI Facebook Page

Now I’m off to get some very important design work done. What am I designing? Well, it’s for LFTI…

And it’s a secret.

Ooooooohhhhhh!

ROBB

Fun Fact: If you listen closely just before the vocals start in The Slip, you can hear my Blackberry go off. It sounds like a baseball hitting a metal fencepost (at least that’s what it sounds like to me since, during my little league days, most of my hits went foul. Straight behind me). Or, if you will, it sounds like a metal chime. A little “dong.” Maybe that’s a poor choice of words. And hurtful to some. I guess the real question is “why the heck didn’t I edit it out?!” The answer: because I didn’t know it was there until after I mastered the tune. And now I kind of like it anyway.

Let’s Get Violent

2009-05-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

And effeminate?

Sure. Why not? When I was younger, I, like most red-blooded American kids of my time, was a fan of the early 80s, folk-punk stylings of the Violent Femmes.

Of course, like most red-blooded American kids of my time, I wasn’t a fan until around 1991 or so…

But the important thing is that some of the Violent Femmes most influential and popular music was created in the early 80s. And even if it didn’t enter the general American zeitgeist until a decade later, it’s a moot point here.

Authenticity is my only concern. And thus it was when I set about creating the soundtrack for LFTI Episode 8.

But, hold on, why am I talking about the soundtrack from LFTI Episode 8? Because it’s…

…say it with me…

New Music Wednesday!

I’ll wait for the applause to die down.

Done? Good. For this soundtrack I was trying to span across a few different early 80s music genres. I never quite got around to full on pop music (though I do have a discarded Huey Lewis-type song. And, no, I can’t post it because I never actually finished it. There’s a distinct possibility that it’ll appear in a more contemporary fashion in LFTI Episode 9. We’ll see.).

And I wanted something that sounded contemporary without destroying the “integrity” of what I was trying to do with the soundtrack. The Violent Femmes fit that bill nicely. I’ve always been impressed with how ahead of their time they were. It’s an obvious solid decade at least. They gained popularity in grunge era even though they created their music in the punk era (yeah, okay, “potato, potato”). When you hear a Violent Femmes song you think of the 90’s (unless you’re an OG). Like how when you look at the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and say, “man, how 70s!” And then the more enlightened people around you point and snicker and belch out, “you mean, how 1910s and 20s, ignoramus! Ha ha ha! What a dolt!”

Assholes.

Anyway, being a Violent Femmes fan and caring more for historical accuracy than verisimilitude, I decided to add a Violent Femmes-y song. Of course, you don’t really hear the song too well in the episode. And that’s just fine. I’ll post it here instead. That way, instead of being heard by thousands, it can be fully enjoyed by tens. That makes you, as a person which I just know is about to listen to the song, super-duper special.

So, this the point of the post where I would direct you to our Facebook page to hear the song. Well, screw that. I’m posting it here today too! How’s that for “added value?!” Of course, I’ll still direct you to the LFTIU Facebook page so that you can become a fan and such.

LFTI Facebook Page

Now, listen to the song! (and marvel at a new music hosting site that I’m trying out. The sound quality is a bit lower, but it’s definitely stylish!)

Mornin' Train by robbpadgett

Oh, yeah. Maybe I should mention the lyrics? It’s about co-opting the whimsy of youth to sell the truly materialistic world of adulthood blah, blah, blah…

I know! I’m no Violent Femmes! I could never write “Body and beats. I stain my sheets. I don’t even know why.”

And here’s the tune from last week. You can read all about it here.

And don’t forget to check back here for the next New Music Wednesday! Of course, it seems like it’s nothing but New Music Wednesday around here. That’s because Tanya and Steve broke all their blogging fingers.

Pray for their speedy recovery.

ROBB

Oh, snap! Yes I just called Steve and Tanya out on this blog.

Whether You Need Rent or a Crack Rock

2009-05-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

Just give Pawn Pete a call!

Why?

Because it’s New Music Wednesday!

Okay, you caught me. Those two things really have nothing to with each other. But I need some kind of introduction, don’t I? And since my brain is fried from working on some writing for LFTI Episode 9, you’ll just have to bear with me.

This week’s musical offering may sound a bit familiar, but I assure you, if you write it off as recycled material based on the first part then you’ll be missing out on something. Namely the rest of the song.

This tune is a continuation of the Pawn Pete Jingle that I posted earlier. Once I wrote the jingle I knew that I wanted to expand it into a full song. Mostly so that I could post it here later as “value added material” but also because it was fun to write and perform.

Moreover, I wanted to say a little something about pawnshops in general with the song. Pawnshops make me sad. Most of the stuff in there was hocked in desperation (not all). But I bought my bass at a pawnshop in Lubbock, TX for a great price (Lubbock has a lot of pawnshops by the way), so pawnshops make me happy too. Did I care that the previous owner probably sold the thing after having the sad realization that they’d never be able to play like Les Claypool from Primus (showing my age here)? No, I did not care. I wanted a bass, they had a bass…

I’m sure that most people probably feel the same way about pawnshops. Hate pawnshops because they prey on people’s desperation and aggression. Love pawnshops because they’re like a savings fiesta!

That’s what I was going for with this tune. The dichotomy of whimsy and reality. Did I get it right? You tell me. You can hear the song this week over at our Facebook page:

The LFTI Facebook Page

The song is called “Pawn Pete” It’s down the page on the left under the “Music Player.” (This gets tedious every week; I wish Facebook would publish the songs as an update too. Sheesh!)

You can hear it next week right here on this blog. Until then why not visit our Facebook page and become a fan? We would appreciate that immensely.

Also in the meantime, why not take a second to listen to the rap song I posted to Facebook last week? It’s here now, on this blog, for your enjoyment.

You can read all about it here.

And stay tuned for next week’s New Music Wednesday where I’ll be posting yet another song from LFTI Episode 8. What?! You haven’t watched LFTI Episode 8 *may be addictive yet?! Well, go here and catch up!

What’s that again?! You say you’re getting tired of me pretending as if we’re having a conversation when in reality I’m simply answering rhetorical questions that were never actually asked?!

…Deal with it.

ROBB

Oh, and the LFTI tune “Brainwashed” has reached 38th in Indy Rock at Ourstage.com! Hooray! (You can hear it on last week’s post) AND “Thanks for Nothing, Mason” has reached 29th in Jazz! Eclectic! (Hear that song here)

Bum Rap

2009-04-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

Sounds like something Sir Mix-a-Lot would do. …Or did…

I’m not here to talk about the Good Knight of Gluteuses. I have my own song to discuss. Why?

Because it’s New Music Wednesday!

Today’s offering is a different kind of fare. Music of the rap variety. Not my milieu. I don’t spend a lot of time listening to the rap music. It was a minor source of stress when I sat down to write it a few months ago. I mean, I hadn’t listened to a substantial amount of rap since about 1984.

What providence! It just so happened that I needed to write a 1984-style rap.

I had to channel my early Beastie. I had to re-run my DMC. I just needed to add and extra “B” to my “Boy” and I’d be set.

And what I came up with was… well, it was something. You can hear it in episode 8 just as the break dancing exhibition is about to begin (haven’t seen the episode yet?! Watch it HERE!). Or you can go to the LFTI Facebook Page and hear it without interruption! (Don’t forget to become a fan!)

Look for it in the “Music Player” down the page on the left.

It’s called “Mighty MC.”

LFTI Facebook Page

I wanted the song to be “sample heavy.” Like the early Beastie Boys stuff. But airy too like Run DMC. So I created a simple drum loop and added some cinematic “samples.” I use the quotation marks because they’re not really samples. I made them. Well they’re technically samples, but they’re apropos of nothing. They don’t come from anything in the form in which you hear them (this is getting technical). Though there are a few Apple Loops thrown in for good measure. (To be honest, I didn’t have a lot of time to write and record these tunes)

The lyrics are more self-aggrandizing than they would have been at that time. 1984 pretty much marks the end of the socially conscious rap artist. Things get a lit more self-serving and cartoonish after that.

I just thought it would be fun to rap about what a good rapper I am.

I’m not.

On another note…

If you didn’t go and listen to the song I posted last week (why didn’t you?), have no fear! It’s here!

Brainwashed (You may feel a slight prick at the base of the skull):

You can learn all about it HERE.

And don’t forget, there will another New Music Wednesday next week! And, for those of you who just refuse to go to the Facebook page, I’ll be posting Mighty MC here also.

So, you’d think I’d need better justification
To tell myself I’m the flyest in the nation
But I think that if you were me
You’d agree you’re a Mighty MC!

…They just don’t write ‘em like that anymore.

Thank god.

ROBB

I Need My Brain Washed

2009-04-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

Because it’s dirty.

And very soon you’ll need your ears washed because it’s New Music Wednesday!

Today’s musical selection takes us on a journey. A journey back in time. All the way back to LFTI Episode 8. Remember that? It seems like it was only a few weeks ago.

It’ll also take us on a journey through the Internet. Because this New Music Wednesday is taking place exclusively on our LFTI Facebook page!

LFTI Facebook Page

Don’t worry; you don’t need to be a “fan” of the show to hear the music. Just scroll down the page and you’ll see the Music Player on the left. The new song is at the bottom of the list (but while you’re there it wouldn’t hurt if you became a “fan.” Just sayin’.)

Maybe I should tell you a little about the tune?

Sure.

It’s called “Brainwashed.” The goal here was to write a “radio” song that would fit in with the theme of Episode 8. One that had some 80s influences, but was a modern song. What came out was an 80s punk/00s pop/alternative fusion thing. A catchy little tune. But not so intrusive that it couldn’t be used as background music. It was always my intention to put it under the scene of Jennifer and Lou racing to rescue Ashleigh. So… I did (you can hear it in LFTI Episode 8 (Part 3 of 4).

It was one of the first songs I wrote for this episode. It was the second song I recorded for it.

And it’ll be the first Episode 8 song posted to the internet! There are 5 more. I went a little crazy with the music for Episode 8. But it was fun. So there.

Head on over to the LFTI Facebook page and give it a listen!

LFTI Facebook Page

And also don’t worry if you don’t want to support Facebook’s attempts to take over the world. The song will be posted here next week! You can give it a listen then!

Don’t forget that another New Music Wednesday will be coming next week (along with this particular song… I hope this doesn’t get confusing)!

Stay bitchin’!

ROBB

ALSO Nice write-ups at The Comics Waiting Room and ShockYa.com. Thanks!

Cult-ish

2009-04-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

It's been an exciting couple of weeks around these parts.

First there was the feature on iTunes.

Then there was the feature on the Zune Marketplace.

And now, we've been culticized! Yes I just made that word up.

I just wanted to give a big thanks to Nicole Martinelli of Cult of Mac who wrote about LFTI and our lampooning of Mac enthusiasts in our newest episode "May Be Addictive".

We are so excited about the attention we are receiving. Thanks again for watching Cult of Mac!

Tanya

Our Apple Episode has been Zuned!

2009-04-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

We are still being featured on iTunes, which is incredibly exciting. Our feature moved from the first thing you see to being the second or third in the feature image cycle, so our iTunes viewings have gone down a bit this week. However, our numbers at blip.tv, which supplies our feeds, have been holding steady, with a mysterious "other" the source of our feed views.

A friend of Robb's told him LFTI is now available on the Zune, so we have a Zune podcast page now. Which is cool, and would explain the "other" source. But why were we getting so many views? We had to be featured somewhere...

Just for fun, I went to the Zune site, and lo and behold:

(Click to see it larger.)

We are also featured on the Zune podcast page. Did they decide that, if we are good enough for the iTunes podcast page, we are good enough for the Zune podcast page?

iTunes podcast page:

Zune podcast page:

Well, whatever the reason, we're very glad to be featured. We're whores that way. Of course. What tiny, independent Internet web show isn't, really?

Whatever side of the Apple/Microsoft fence you fall on, click below to subscribe to the show!

iTunes link

Zune link

Dizzy LFTI

2009-04-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

I know, we’re always a little dizzy, but in this case it’s more than the general disorientation that we’re known (some may say “loved"?) for.

I refer, of course, to a particular piece of “music” that I arranged for the latest episode of LFTI (haven’t seen Episode 8 yet?! Watch it! But be warned, it may be addictive).

It’s “New” Music Wednesday! Hooray!

For those of you who love us enough to have watched the episode already (see that? I’ve always found that guilt can be a great marketing tool. After all, it got me to empty a lot of garbage cans in my day, and make a ton of phone calls. I never realized until now that my mom must’ve been working for both the phone company and the sanitation department!), you’ll know that in the episode, Mason becomes enamored of an iPhone and various applications contained thereon.

One of those applications is a game that he plays while having a conversation with Guy. I’m not quite sure I can mention which game that is here. Needless to say the game contains a lot of dizzy bees.

But we couldn’t use the music from the game (there really isn’t any to speak of while playing). That’s a licensing nightmare that is best avoided. So, I figured that the best bet was to create some original “video game” music. And seeing as how the episode dealt with the early 80s, I felt that the video game music should have a retro flavor. But it should also tie into our show in a subtle way.

Well, I ditched the “subtle” part and went straight for this:

Do you recognize the tune? No?! And you call yourself a fan?! …oh… you don’t. Well, fair enough.

Anyway, here is the song in its original form:

The LFTI theme!

Man, this thing has gone through more permutations than Madonna. It’s had more lives than Shirley MacLaine. Can I get my point across with any more hackneyed old jokes?

Nope. I’m even too lazy today to think of bad jokes.

Oh, wait! It’s been rearranged more times than Lindsay Lohan’s sexual orientation.

Oh, snap! I’m cappin’ on the Lohan!

That’s right, the LFTI Theme. And, incidentally, according to IMDb, Shirley Maclaine was known as “the girl with big red curls and weak ankles.” And she loves horses.

Nicknames were more specific back then. I was known as “that fat kid.”

I’m pretty indifferent about horses really.

So, there you have it. A glimpse behind the scenes of LFTI’s music (and Shirley MacLaine’s childhood). Be sure to watch Episode 8! And don’t forget, if you have an iTunes account, we would love it if you went there and rated us and wrote a little review! Also, if you’re on YouTube and haven’t already, why not subscribe to us? That would be fun! Become a fan on Facebook! Really, it would be swell if you did.

PLUS I’m going to release the music exclusively on our Facebook page first! And I like to think that some of this music is pretty cool.

Thanks again to iTunes for featuring us again this week!

ROBB

Tonight We're Gonna Print Signs Like It's 1984

2009-04-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well, episode 8 is going swimmingly, with our iTunes feature and some great feedback from our YouTube fans. Time to talk about some of the work that went into the show. Robb's already been posting some wicked cool music from this episode, so today I am going to show you some classic Neo Amish literature and signage.

First of all, do you remember this?

If you do, you should enjoy today's tale. Print Shop (no one ever called it THE Print Shop) was a revelation in the early age of personal computers, especially for a type-loving kid like me. I could make signs and banners and greeting cards on the Apple IIe! No more messing around with hand-drawn stuff! (That's not really true in my case... I still made hand-drawn posters, but I won't get into all that here.)

Print Shop's output would, today, be laughable,with it's extremely low resolution and reliance on dot matrix printers. But it was a great program at the time. I loved it. So of course, since the Neo Amish could use no technology created after 1984, I wanted to make sure their flyer and bake sale signs looked like they were printed with Print Shop (or something similar) on a dot matrix printer whose ribbon was very well worn.

Creating retro computer printouts is rather hard. First of all, the font could not be all laser-printy smooth, but had to be pixelated. To do that in Photoshop meant creating a bitmap document, 11" x 8.5" at 72dpi. In this mode, it's just like working in an old graphics program. Type would not be re-editable once I'd laid it down. It was draggable once after being created, so I could do some rudimentary layout. Moving it afterward meant cutting out the text using a marquee or lasso tool and dragging it along with its white background. Does this all sound familiar?

Though I did not have the Print Shop font, I chose fonts that looked like they might have come bundled with Print Shop: Times and Galleria. Amelia BT was used in the Neo Amish logo, which Robb designed. (He did not realize he got the N backwards until much later. I hand't brought it because I thought he'd done it on purpose. It was perfect that way!)

After the layout was done, I spent a few hours in the Hall of Trial and Error. Here, I was trying to get a dot matrix look, including some pixels, ink smear, and the stripes where the ribbon was wearing out. I applied three different layers to get something that would hopefully pass muster on screen. Here's an enlarged detail, best showing the smear. Click the image to see it full-size.

Here, then, is the entire Neo Amish flyer, fresh from the Image Writer! Click on the pics to see them full size. (1984's full size is not as terrifyingly huge as today's full size.)

The front:

The back:

I didn't spend as much time writing this flyer as I had the ABSRD flyer for episode 7, but I can assure you that all typos were created on purpose. I was very happy to bring back the original, full term "douche bag," progenitor of today's popular "douche."

The flyers we used in the show had the NA logo taped into place, like it was just easier to paste the logo onto the flyer and Xerox the whole thing. But we did use the pixelated logo for the bake sale signs. Mostly out of laziness.

Ah, yes! The bake sale! Here's where the dot matrix printer ribbon mess could really shine. Most signs had both a Times and a Galleria version. Here's a sample. Again, click them to see them full size.

So there you have it! Can you just feel the authenticity? I'm sure someone from one of those font archaeology sites would have many nits to pick. If so, leave a comment. I love font archeology sites. I'd put a link here so you could visit one, but I seem to have lost them all...

Thanks for reading, and be sure to watch the exciting conclusion to episode 8 next Monday!

Snazzy

2009-04-03T15:49:00.001-07:00

So, if you don't follow us on Twitter, or on Facebook (and why don't you, I ask?) then you may not know the latest news around these parts.

Life From The Inside has been a featured Podcast for the past few days - and we will be featured until Tuesday, April 7th!

So, if you follow this link http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=266697234

and go to our iTunes page, you can download all of you favorite LFTI episodes (I know, it's really hard to pick ONE that's your favorite, you should download them all to be fair) and you can take us with you on your iPhone or iPod. Then you can watch LFTI absolutely whenever you want. I know, it really blows the mind, doesn't it.

Seriously, this is just really awesome for us. We can't thank the Eric at Blip enough. Or Pete and Pat at iTunes. It's a huge honor and we're so excited that it happened.

So, go and rate/review the show! Show LFTI some love, baby!!

And don't forget to check out part 3 of Episode 8 - online Monday, April 6th!

Tanya

Reverse Engineered

2009-03-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on this blog. Let’s just acknowledge it and move on shall we?

Good… wait. Don’t look at me like that. Fine. Whatever. Let’s just pretend that we can be adult about this then. Does that work? Pretending to be an adult is easy. I do it every day.

Yeah, so, this post is going to be a short one. Sorry. I’m still trying to finish up some Episode 8 music believe it or not (those of you in post-production won’t find it hard to believe).

But I wanted to take a break from LFTI music to talk a little about… well… LFTI music.

That’s correct! Gird your loins, it’s another New Music Wednesday!

And this isn’t one of those lame ones where I talk and talk about what “inspired” me to write a certain tune or nonsensical crap like that (forget I said that last sentence the next time I post a New Music Wednesday). No, this one will be “informative” for “real.”

In Episode 8 (watch the episode), Mason (me) complains that his own successful jingle is driving him crazy. Since Kate (Mason’s old agent, wherever she is) has sold his new jingle through Mason’s backward nemesis Dixon it has been reversed and perverted from Mason’s original “progressive” masterpiece. Thus, whenever it plays on TV (which is a lot) Mason is tortured with reminders of his own inadequacies (ooops, sorry, getting nonsensical again).

But the question remains, what did Mason’s original jingle sound like anyway?

As it turns out, if you’ve seen the episode, you’ll already know the answer to that question. Hmmm?! Yup! It’s the first music cue coming out of the opening title. It’s been jazzed up a little bit (or maybe Dixon “jazzed it down?” It’s actually “Latin-y.”), but it’s the Pawn Pete Jingle backwards alright.

And now you can hear it here:

Jazzy!

And, just for comparison, take a listen to the Pawn Pete Jingle:

Pawny!

Alright. So there you have it! Don’t forget to watch Episode 8. Rate, comment, subscribe!

Oh, and if you have an iTunes account, we would really appreciate it if you rate us and write us a little review (or just rate if you’re internet shy).

Don’t make me bribe you!!!

Thanks to Eric and Blip.tv. Thanks to Jessica at Sevenload. Thanks to Alex at Revver. And thanks to all the wonderful YouTube people who have left us such nice comments. We’ve missed you!

ROBB

Happy 8 Day!

2009-03-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

Oh, glorious day! Episode 8 has finally arrived! Part one is up now! I have been waiting to share tidbits and todbots about this episode for months. A lot went into making this episode, and we want to tell you every little detail.

But not today. We're still working on a few issues. For instance, we have finally fixed our iTunes syncing issue, so episode 8 will finally sync to you iPod and iPhone without hassle! We're going back to re-encode all our iTunes files so they will all sync to your iPod, iPhone, iWhatever. This will be a day long remembered.

What's that? You aren't an iTunes subscriber? Then get thee there now! Subscribe! Rate the show! We need you!

After you do that, please go watch the show everywhere. See it on our site. See it a blip.tv. See it at YouTube. Rate it and favorite it. Comment. Roll in it like a dog rolls in—

Sorry, that was about to be very inappropriate.

Five Interesting Things about 8

2009-03-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Happy mid-March, tutti! Yes, 'tis eye, Steve, back again to tell you that episode 8 of our show will begin airing next Monday. That's March 23rd.

To give you something to do until then, here are a few tidbits of information about episode 8. None of them are spoilers, and none of them reveal any important jokes. None of them, therefore, are going to be very nightly news magazine-worthy. But they are loved by their mothers, so I hope you'll stick around and give them a read.

Episode 8 features the most location-rich shooting of all our episodes so far. I'd surmise a full 50% of the show takes place in locations other than Mason's apartment building. Totally rad!

Episode 8 contains 5 songs. Five! No, it's not a musical; it simply required more musical ingenuity than our previous episodes. I'm sure you'll get to hear all those songs in their entirety online soon. Wicked!

Episode 8 has a cast of thousands. Well, okay, not thousands. Just 12. All of whom have at least one line, unlike the baby parade people from episode 7. Righteous!

Episode 8 will be the episode to watch for all Apple, Mac, and iPhone fans. Why? Hey, like I said, no spoilers! Well, no good spoilers, anyway. Bithcin'!

Episode 8 contains some of the most frightening costumes in LFTI history, even if you count Guy's get-up in episode 5. Gnarly!

Is your interest piqued? Is your whistle wet? I sure hope so. Be sure to watch LFTI episode 8, "*may be addictive," next Monday!

Save the Date, Date Saver

2009-03-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

Gentlemen and lady (only one female reads this blog), we have exciting news for all six of you! Episode 8 is nearly done, and the first episode will be released on...

Oh, the tension! Can you believe it? An actual release date? Who would have thought we'd get to this point? Not us, to be sure. Certainly not Robb, who's been working so hard on this episode that he's now literally a part of the computer. (It's kind of gruesome, in fact. During our last meeting on Sunday, he could only stroll within a three-foot radius of the Mac, and his motions were limited by the wires and tubing that had attached themselves to his body, which has itself become rather gray in pallor. On the plus side, he was able to instruct Tanya from afar on the proper way to make home-made biscuits.)

As this episode nears completion, all of us are getting very excited. It's quite a gem, I feel. Robb's music is top-notch, and there's about 40 hours of it, all crammed into 28 minutes or so. Yes, it's that good! There are moments of genuine drama and tension, and moments of newity. Yes, NEWITY! LFTI moments so new, I had to make up a word.

So be at your computer and ready to click Play on March—

AH! I can't stand it! I can't believe it! An actual date! Wow. It's like I can't even bring myself to say it. Or type it. Or say it into the microphone and have the Mac type it for me. I can do none of those things. I also can't say the three bushels of other things about Episode 8 that I want to, like how Mason does that one thing, or how Guy dresses that one way, or how Ashleigh becomes obsessed with that one item, or how Jennifer practically does that one thing with the other, or how Lou transforms herself into that other whatever. So exciting!

But after the release date, all these things will become clear. After March 23rd, the world will be a funner place.

I did it! I said it! March 23rd! March 23rd! March 23rd! (And, as legal is advising me to say, every Monday thereafter until April 20th.)

Ides? What Ides?

2009-03-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

I know. The Ides of March is in the middle of the month, but so what? Considering it's been a month since we last posted, accuracy should be the least of any of our concerns right now. I know my concern is loss of connection, loss of momentum, loss of my car keys (where the hell are they, anyway?). In fact, you might be reading this and not even remembering why you subscribed to this blog in your RSS reader in the first place. A month is a long, long time on the Interwebnets!

In consideration of such, hello. How are you? I'm Steve. I co-produce and act in an online sitcom called Life from the Inside. It's very funny, and the cast and crew are a bunch of cut-ups, which provides this blog with unending source material. Er, or not. Actually, I'm not sure if we've ever written about the cutting-uppiness that goes on on the set. Have we? I doubt it.

Remember the Duke of Doubt? He was the single most annoying character* in the Burger King ads in the early '80s. I hated him, even from an early age, and if you think the word "hate" is too strong a word to use in this case, you'd be dead wrong. I loathed the ads, but I hated the Duke of Doubt. Those stupid ads, coupled with my dislike of Burger King's nasty burgers (shouldn't flame broiling make meat taste more like it's been barbecued and less like it's been passed over lightly with a Zippo scented with yuck?) make me, to this day, a McDonald's man.

"McDonald's?" I hear you ask. "Really? You think Burger King's burgers are nasty, but McDonald's's are okay to you?" I answer you in this way: "Yes. Yes, I do. And here is why..." I then launch into a paragraphs-long dissection of the difference between nasty yucky food and totally wicked delicious yucky food. To spare you that, because I know you are a busy person and can barely read this through the shock of me having posted in the first place, I'll boil it down to some comparisonal foodal examples. Del Taco? Nasty yucky. Taco Bell? Totally wicked delicious yucky. Pizza Hut? Nasty yucky. Papa John's? Totally wicked delicious yucky. Dunkin' Donuts cake donuts? Nasty yucky. King Soopers butter cream-filled, chocolate-covered, raised long john donuts? Totally wicked delicious yucky.

Now you try! _______________: nasty yucky. _______________: totally wicked delicious yucky.

Well done!

All this talk of totally wicked delicious yucky food has me recalling what my friend, Greg, told me on the phone last night. He said his son, Liam, has a book about Yummy and Yucky things. Liam loves the book, but he tends to get the two words mixed up. Which I understand. I do it all the time with alliterative words. So Liam will walk around the house, drinking a yummy drink he loves, and saying "Yucky!" all the while. Très, as the French say, funny.

Which brings me rather tidily back to this blog post. How? Well, obviously, you can now see what happens to us when we take some time off from our official fan communication duties. We become unfocused, a point this whole, useless post proves with aplomb.

To salvage this post from complete uselessness, I shall say two very interesting things to you that have to do with the show, Life from the Inside, for which I'm a producer and actor (see above).

Uno: Big thanks to John for helping us out with publicity. PUBLICITY! I know, right? Get ready to see us on The View!

Divi: Episode 8 will be out in mere weeks. Robb is finishing it up as we speak. Though you and I are not really speaking, are we? I'm more typing, and you're more reading, which isn't really speaking at all. It's more... corresponding, except without the immediacy of paper, stamps, and the U.S. Postal Service. "The what?" Oh, you youngsters!

Thank you very much for reading. See you next month!

* * * * * *

*Sir Shake-a-Lot and The Burger Thing were just as annoying, but the Duke of Doubt wins because someone has to win. Life's all about winning.

References

The Duke of Doubt: YouTube Link

Sir Shake-a-Lot: YouTube Link

Eight Things You Did Not Know About LFTI

2009-02-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Happy Monday. I hope you all enjoyed the Super Bowl. I sure did! I was in a theater watching The Wrestler. Brilliant movie. I had no idea Mickey Rourke looks so much like William Shatner these days. The two could play brothers. Isn't it fun to learn new things?

With that in mind, today I present 8 things you did not know about LFTI. They seem to be fairly Guy-centric, but that's pretty much because I know a lot about the things I did and not as much about what other people did. That's what actors do. They're selfish.

Episode 1: In the original pilot script, the subplot of the microwave did not exist. Watching it now, it seems impossible that the episode could have existed without it.

Episode 2: I bought two giant suckers to use for shooting. There were some questions whether we needed a stunt sucker or not, but the purchase paid off. During shooting in the alleyway, the stick broke, and the sucker shattered all over the pavement. I had to suck a new notch in the stunt sucker to get it ready before we continued shooting. You can tell when I'm using the new sucker because I'm holding it higher up on the stick, so it won't break!

Episode 3: The little paper things in the basket that fly everywhere when Guy's ass is grabbed by Olava are the packaging cups from a tin of Danish butter cookies. Practically, it makes no sense for Mason to have a basket of these in his apartment, but comedy won out over practicality that day.

Episode 4: I was incredibly ill during one day of shooting. Scary ill. But not contagious.

Episode 5: The costume Ashleigh was originally supposed to wear under her robe was a flowery, elegant, Ren Faire affair.

Episode 6: This was our hottest shoot ever, which was unfortunate, since it was shot in HD. Even shrunk down for the Web, the HD footage accentuated our sweatiness something fierce! (Contrast that with Episode 2, which was supposed to be incredibly hot, but turned out to be the coolest shoot we've had. Go figure.)

Episode 7: This script was a merging of two separate ideas from both Steven R. and Robb; Mason's unnamed, reverse-engineering nemesis was combined with Mason's brother, Dixon, who had some kind of claustrophobic issue and thus could not come into the apartment.

Episode 8: The boom box used in the episode is my Casio KX-101, which I've had for over 23 years.

Wait, Episode 8? Was that just a sneak of some kind? It was, dear reader! It was!

I hope you found this informative. If somehow you already knew any of these things you did not know, then I present you with this prize: The end of the post!

Too Dark?

2009-01-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

Hey, as I promised…2 weeks ago, it’s time for another special installment of “Really Old Music Wednesday!”

In this chapter, we look at yet another song that I had written, recorded and subsequently discarded for LFTI Episode 1: The Mason Menace.

I should probably preface this by saying that a lot of factors go into choosing music for our episodes… wait, let me correct that. A lot of factors used to go into choosing music for our episodes. Especially the pilot episode.

One thing we were very conscious of was “tone.” We tried to be careful to set the right feel for LFTI. It was the first episode after all, and if you’re not at least careful on the first episode, well, then why are you doing a show anyway?

Nowadays, the music selection process is a bit different. Back in the Episode 1 days, specialty music was…special. Now I tend to write fun music just for the hell of it. Which makes for a lot more variety and fun (and also a lot more recording). But in the early days I wrote a bunch of “sitcom” music. Stings, intros, outtros, etc… all with a similar melodic and harmonic structure, though differing in styles. The plan was to use this music in every episode. That’s why the first and second episodes (which were released at the same time) have the same music. Needless to say, I got bored with that so we started adding more and more music starting in Episode 3.

Anyway, back to this particular tune. It’s called “In The Dark.” At least that’s what I named the file and since I don’t feel like changing it now, that’s the title (deal with it). Again, this song was recorded before I got the new computer and software, so it had a “rough demo” sound to it. But it’s somehow appropriate. It was also written before we actually shot the show (I think. Before it was edited anyway.). And we discarded it because it just didn’t seem to have the right “tone.” It was a bit too raw sounding. A little dark. Very “indie artsy.” Anyway, that was the feeling at the time. Let me know if you disagree, I’d be interested to know if you felt the music we used was a better choice that either of the alternate tunes that we rejected. The other tune is here.

So, without further ado here’s me doing my best “Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen’s Love Child” impression with “In The Dark.”

Yeah, so… that’s that I guess.

It’s quite the contrast from the tune that I’m working on right now. I’d love to give you a preview, but I’m not going to upload part of an unfinished song. Plus, I’d like it to be a surprise!

But I do want to give you a sneak peek. So, for all you piano players out there…

Have fun!

Episode 8 is coming soon!

ROBB

Old Music Wednesday

2009-01-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

¡Hola!

It’s that time again. It’s time for New Music Wednesday!

One small problem though. I have no “new” music to share with you. I will have new music soon, don’t you worry. After Episode 8 is released, I’ll have lots of it! And it’ll be “cool” new music too. Alas, until then you shall have to resign yourself to some old music.

But I’m even running out of that! I was thinking “hey, I could post Dream Girl! It’s a cute song about a man’s love for a puppet that appears to him in his sleep. The LFTI fans might like that!”

And they might.

But I already posted that song. And, really, no one listened to it. But it’s still a good song (IMHO).

Then I thought, “maybe I should post that tune I wrote for Guy’s Boot Camp in Episode 7?! That’s a fun tune.”

Already did that.

“The piano music from the LFTI short Pairing?”

Done did that too.

“Hmmm… I have to beat Steve's last post though! It was cool and behind-the-scenesy and chock-a-block with factadactadilloes! Perhaps it’s time for me to really dig deep into the LFTI archives?”

And that’s what I did. Today I present the first song ever written specifically for an LFTI episode and actually used in an episode. (I wrote “Fine Print” the LFTI Theme earlier, but that was non-specific.) And here it is, a song I titled “Tongue Tied” mashed together with the jingle for Brenda’s Bridal Boutique:

Why don’t I separate those two songs and let you hear the full version of “Tongue Tied” you ask?

Well, because there is no full version of “Tongue Tied.” That’s all I wrote. I wrote it to sound like a full song that gets interrupted by that stupid jingle, but in reality, it was always meant to be that way. It made it easier to combine the two.

If I had written this recently, I would have written an entire song. In fact, someday I may go back and finish a full version of “Tongue Tied.” But who knows? Who has the time for that stuff? I have new music to write!

Okay, it’s a little known fact that the song you just heard, the song we used in the first episode of LFTI isn’t the original song written for that episode. I wrote another song to be used instead. But, ultimately I think I felt that it was a little too… sappy? I don’t know. It just wasn’t right. It was a full song. And that was probably one of the issues I had with it. I couldn’t combine it as easily with the Bridal jingle.

This original song is more about how Mason feels about Jennifer and I wanted to write something that was more about how Mason feels about not being able to talk to Jennifer, his situation and so on. That’s why I went with the one we went with.

But the original song isn’t bad. So, I thought I’d share it with you here! (It’s actually been on the long-neglected LFTI MySpace page forever, but no one ever goes there… including us.) So, without further ado, the unused LFTI tune “I’d Go”:

These songs do have that certain “demo” feel to them, but that’s because they are so old. I wrote and recorded them before we had even shot an episode (if I remember right). I made them on my old PC. Things have been upgraded substantially here at LFTI HQ since then. I love my Mac. I love Apple Computers. Oh, so much. Some might say too much? Nah.

And that’s it! Another Wednesday, another tune.

But I did promise some more sneak peeks of Episode 8, didn’t I? Okay, you win, here are a few more (I already gave you one without your knowledge, because I’m sneaky like that). You might find these sneak peeks handy.

Ha, ha! Get it?! “Handy?!”

Oh my god, I think I’m funny!

ROBB

Who Wants to Know about the Holiday Video? I Do! I Do!

2009-01-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Well, hello there, stranger! No, you're not the stranger, I am, but still, to me, that makes you the stranger since I haven't seen you in many, many moons. So, I say again, and without hesitation, "Well, hello there, stranger!"

Where have I been? Hmm. Let me answer that as a character on Lost might answer it: "Where do you think I've been?" Good. Now that that's cleared up, I'm here today to get back into the swing of my Monday postings. Not posting makes me feel very guilty, while posting makes me feel creative and useful. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. So here it goes.

Yes, here I go with a post. I will write one now. A post filled with interesting tidbits about our show. Hmm. Yes. Tidbits. Like pineapple tidbits. In their or its own juice, depending on... your... on your grammatical... usage structure.

Okay, so I began this without an idea of what I was going to write. Robb is teasing with teasing teases about our next full episode, so maybe I should talk about our last video. That was our holiday video, though, and who wants to hear about the holidays when they're over? Except Robb?

Well, I shall swallow my post-holiday holiday aversion and tell you some things you may not know about our holiday video. Instead of calling them "factoids" or "factinos," I shall call them "factadactadilloes."

Factadactadillo #1

The holiday video was not originally intended to be sped up as it currently is. No, the reason it's sped up is because we ended up shooting too much footage. In fact, we were worried we would not have enough footage, so during brainstorming, we just kept adding stuff to shoot. We shot 98% of what we set out to shoot, but that left Robb with too much to put in. He left only one thing out, which was something with singing snowmen, and the rest he sped up to fit the song. It was a very, very happy "accident."

Factadactadillo #2

The snowy frame at the opening and closing of the video is cotton batting and paper snowflakes pasted on cardboard (a Mac Pro box, to be exact). We once again wrote ourselves into a conundrum; at the end, we thought it'd be quite funny for Robb to slide the frame back into frame (cinema is so self-referential). The other options were to just cut to a new shot with us all behind the frame, or for the frame to close in on a hinge. But sliding is funnier. So we spent some time constructing an apparatus solely for this purpose. The apparatus consisted of four light stands, three casters, and two closet door sliders, all held together with gaff tape. Getting it to work right was more time-consuming than we expected. No doi!

Factadactadillo #3

There's a blooper built right into the video! When the candy canes on the string of lights fall down, that was entirely unintentional. I think you can tell that by all our "out-of-character" reactions.

Factadactadillo #4

This video was meant to be very quick and simple to shoot. That was our goal. But as you saw in factadactadillo #2, we just luuuu-uuuu-uuuuuv a good challenge. Such good challenging did not stop with the snowy frame. No, we also came up with the little gingerbread Wizard of Oz reference. This meant we needed a spinning house and, if possible, a spinning cow. Cue the lazy susan, the blue screen, and the gingerbread house kit!

As an added bonus, here's a short video of us testing the fully-automated mechanical spin feature.

Corrie did her kung-fu poses in front of that very same blue screen for the attacking cookie shots.

Factadactadillo #5

It's harder than you think to find very tiny, sparkly red shoes. I ended up buying a whole doll just for the shoes, which we then had to hand-paint with sparkly red paint.

Factadactadillo #6

In last year's holiday video, the gingerbread man cookies were cardboard cutouts. This year, to save on time, we used real gingerbread man cookies from a gingerbread man cookie decorating kit. They tasted terrible, but so did the cardboard, so at least we got some realism instead.

Factadactadillo #7

I know a magician never reveals his secrets, but this is movie making, and movie-makers do it all the time on DVD and E!, so I'm going to spoil some magic here for you. The popcorn on a string in the microwave thing was indeed one shot. We put a divider in the bowl so one side could hold the popcorn kernels and spool of thread, and the other could hold the pre-stringed, popped popcorn.

And that, folks, is it! I hope you found that informative and fun. If you didn't, you should have your head examined by a certified clinical holidaycologist. But not a holidayecologist. That's an entirely different branch of the holiday sciences.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a great holiday season and New Year. It’s always hard getting back into the swing of things after the break. Time to take down the holiday decorations and get back to work.

Of course, just like when I was in college and used to leave my Christmas tree up until it started to turn to dust, the LFTI Holiday video will probably stay on the front page until July. You know, because we run a classy establishment here. Plus, one never knows how to get rid of Holiday videos, I mean are you supposed to recycle them? Drag them to the local park to be fed into a wood-chipper? Or can you just leave them on the sidewalk and let the garbage truck deal with it…? It’s a hassle, really. So, the front page it is, I suppose.

No, I’m kidding, that won’t happen. And how do I know? Because LFTI Episode 8 will be up way before then!

That’s right! You heard correctly. LFTI Episode 8 is being edited right now as we speak. And if things go well (cross your fingers) it’ll be online before you know it!

I think the biggest challenge will be the music. I have a few “ambitious” ideas. Nothing overly complicated as far as concept goes, but not the usual LFTI fare. Although, the observant viewer would probably note that LFTI hasn’t really had a “consistent overarching musical identity” lately. Which is fine with me, to tell the truth. It’s more fun this way.

Plus if this show had a more homogenized musical distinctiveness, it would be a different show altogether.

Speaking of… let’s talk about the future. What can you expect to see from LFTI Episode 8?

Would you like a sneak peek?

Hmmm?

I can’t hear you.

…really. Don’t talk to the screen. You look crazy.

Here are a few screen grabs from the scenes I’ve been editing:

That’s right! I’ve given away Ashleigh’s outfit for the episode!! I’m crazy! But what pants is she wearing?! Wait and you'll see. (Note: if you're British and "pants" means something different to you, then I wouldn't get too excited. I didn't mean it that way... Though if it'll get you to watch...)

Mason is holding something, Lou looks ashamed. Hmm… from such things great dramas spring.

What’s this?! Interesting…

But where’s Guy? Why have I not uploaded a picture of Guy?!

Because I hate him. That’s why.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into the future. Check back here often because I will be updating the sneak peeks as I edit! It’ll be fun!

In the meantime, why not go and check out the brad spanking new LFTI Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Life-from-the-Inside/52459049881

Become a fan! It would be rad, sweet, bitchin’ and awesome to the max, like totally!

ROBB

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of the year again. It’s the Holiday Season! Whoop-dee-doop and dickory dock, don’t forget to hang up your sock…

Sorry, I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately so random lyrics will pop into my head at the slightest provocation. And I’m very familiar with Christmas music. Honestly, I can listen to it all year long. Does that make me a freak? Perhaps. But that’s neither here nor there.

The reason we’ve gathered here today is to celebrate the holidays LFTI-style! So let’s get to it.

First, since it’s not on lifefromtheinside.com yet, I thought that I would post the latest LFTI Holiday Video Greeting here in the blog! Pick a present from under the tree, pour a glass of eggnog, shove a candy cane in your mouth, make a snowball, hang some mistletoe (if you can find it, seriously they don’t sell that stuff anywhere this year! Just because it’s poisonous for pets?! So is Drain-O, but I haven’t seen them pull that from the shelves…) light a fire (safely in the fireplace), split a yule log, trim the tree, hang garland, deck halls and get ready to get into the holiday mood with LFTI!

And now that you’re of a generous spirit…BAM! I’m gonna hit you with New Music Wednesday!

And what, you may ask, is the melodious offering this week? Why it’s the soundtrack to the LFTI Holiday video of course!

So, here it is, the less-compressed version of You Could Teach Santa (a thing or two):

UPDATE: The embed doesn't seem to be working. You can hear the song here:

You Could Teach Santa (a thing or two)

As you can see, it has hit about 98 in the Holiday Music category over at OurStage.com. Believe it or not, it has jumped from 170-something overnight. So that’s good. It only has 6 views as of this morning. So, if you want, feel free to play it everyday until Christmas. That might help the standings. Of course, you can also go to OurStage, create a profile and partake in the arduous judging process too, voting for this song all along the way (really, judging over there is no joke. It’s quite the process). But just playing it is fine too.

A little history about this song:

A few years ago, two Christmases in a row in fact, Tanya and I made Christmas albums for our families for presents. For the first album we recorded 10 original songs and for the second album we recorded 11 original songs. It was quite the undertaking (I had a lot more free time back then).

This song was on the first album and was written for my mother who really could teach Santa a thing or two about generosity, love and, as of last night, how to give his oldest son grief about his new Blackberry.

Now, so that you don’t feel cheated about receiving a “recycled” song, I painstakingly re-recorded this tune for the LFTI video. I mean painstakingly. The original was recorded on a smaller scale. In fact, I recorded it on my old computer with sample software (only 4 tracks) and the little plastic computer mic that came with it.

Oh, you know what, here it is, for the first time on the internet, the orginial version of You Could Teach Santa a Thing or Two:

Here is the link (embed not working)

You Could Teach Santa a Thing or Two (Original Version)

Have a Happy Holiday Season!

The New Year will bring all sorts of interesting stuff!

ROBB

Something's Coming!

2008-12-10T18:03:00.001-08:00

Two somethings to be more accurate.

Robb here. I just thought I'd make a quick post to 1) apologize for neglecting the blog a little recently. And 2) explain why this poor blog has been so neglected.

It's because we hate it.

I'm kidding. There have been big doin's here at LFTI Headquarters. BIG doin's! I figured you might like a sneak peek at what's in store in the near future.

If you don't want a sneak peek of what's coming in the near future then look away from your computer monitor now (I'll tell you when it's safe to look again).

Check this out!

What are those?!

I don't know, but we have a LOT of them!

And, I didn't run this by Steve and Tanya (so don't tell them that I showed you this). But I thought you might also like to see something else that you have to look farward to.

This:

I really don't know what the hell THAT is. It looks like a cow examining a gingerbread house to me. But my eyesight is terrible. Seriously. I need to get Lasik. But I saw Tanya get hers done, and I tell you, watching someone peel the skin off another person's eyeball is enough to put you off the process.

Anyway, there's a sneak peek for you. Aren't you excited?!

I'll just assume that you are.

ROBB

Oh, and you can look at your computer monitor again.

Hello?

YOU CAN LOOK AT...

...Oh, forget it.

Gobble x3

2008-11-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

To all our excellent and wonderul and kick-ass fans (and anyone who may have stumbled here by accident who also just happens to be excellent and wonderful and kick-ass), a very very happy Thanksgiving! May you eat your guts out. Oh, and go [NAME OF FOOTBALL TEAM HERE]! I mean, if you're into that sort of thing, which I'm not, but if you are, great.

Triple Threat

2008-11-19T10:55:00.000-08:00

Hugh Jackman is People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive.” What does that have to do with LFTI?

Nothing. It’s just that I don’t have any music or a crazy behind-the-scenes story to post and it’s my day to write on the blog.

Although I suppose it’s further proof that the people at People don’t watch our show. It’s yet another year than neither Steve or myself have even been nominated. (Okay, Steve I can understand but why not me?! Is it because that person on YouTube called me fat?!)

Anyway, there I was, watching the Today Show, minding my own business and wondering if Ann Curry was going to survive her altitude sickness (she’s on Mt. Kilimanjaro you know…it’s this big thing…), when suddenly, from the computorial area (another veiled reference to Episode 8) Tanya let out a brain-melting shriek.

All right, that’s not true. Tanya doesn’t “shriek.” And my brain is made of nearly unmeltable Tungsten. I was just trying to be dramatic. Tanya shows her frustration in a simpler way. It’s more of a steady pecking. Incessant. Constant. Pecking…

But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s move on while I still have a place to live.

The reason that Tanya was annoyed with People Magazine (online edition) is that the story about Hugh Jackman started with this sentence:

“He’s a triple threat: a star who can sing, dance and wield a weapon.”

Obviously, you can see her issue.

If you can’t, then chances are that you’re not a theatre actor (and if you don’t spell “theatre” the way I just did, chances are even greater that you’re not a theatre actor …or British).

Here’s the problem. A “Triple Threat” is an entertainer who can sing, dance and act.

That’s right. “Act.” You see, the term was coined back in the day when “acting” was a “skill” and people were called “actors” because they could “act,” because they “trained” and took their craft “seriously.” They weren’t called “actors” simply because they happen to be standing on a “stage” or in front of a “camera.”

Sorry, I went a little crazy with the quotes there. But that’s how much it annoys me too. My indigence spilled out to “innocent” words.

See, this isn’t just a problem that is confined to People Magazine. Lately it seems everyone is using the term incorrectly. I think it was Access Hollywood that referred to Brandy as a Triple Threat because she can sing, act and design clothes.

What!?

Maybe I shouldn’t be upset. At least they included “acting.” But this term actually has some meaning to those of us who know its true definition. To say that Brandy is a Triple Threat because she can design clothes cheapens us all. Most of all Brandy.

Brandy may well be a true Triple Threat. I don’t know how well she dances (I pay about as much attention to Brandy as she pays to me).

The same goes for Hugh Jackman!

“Wielding weapons” has nothing to do with it! Sure, it’s an impressive skill, but it’s not part of the “big three.” It’s something that an actor puts down in the “Special Skills” section of their resume. Right next to “can drive a stick shift car.”

I mean, if we start using the term Triple Threat all willy-nilly then who’s to say what skills constitute a Triple Threat? What can be included? Playing the saxophone? Cooking eggs? Stealing husbands? Tying cherry stems into a knot with your tongue?

I’m sure some people would love for those to be qualifiers. Angelina Jolie, I’m looking at you.

I would love to be a triple threat. I can cook eggs and play the saxophone (not at the same time…though I’ve never tried…hmmm…). Sadly, I don’t think those qualifications should count. I’ll have to settle for being a “Double Threat.” Although it could be argued that being good at two things isn’t that “threatening.” I think my official status is Actor/Singer who can “move well” (that’s code for “too fat to dance properly”).

And if “Triple Threat” continues to be thrown around without regard to its original definition then why the hell stop at “Triple?” I’m sure that Hugh and Brandy have other talents that they would like to have considered when others generalize their abilities. They’re snappy dressers. Quadruple Threat! They’re rich. Quintuple Threat (as well as a threat to the proletariat)! They seem like they might be tender lovers. Sextuple Threat!

Stupid.

My point is…

What’s my point? Oh yeah. My Point is that it’s Wednesday and I’ve posted.

ROBB (“Milluple Threat.” And, yes, I’m including my ability to create a motion-tracked vignette in Final Cut Studio’s “Color” program. So there.)

Don’t forget to watch LFTI! Where all the actors are at least “Single Threats.”

Steve is good with fonts.

What a Bunch of Turkey!

2008-11-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

I have been waxing long-winded about stuff here lately, so here's a nice fluffy post that will mean nothing to the future of humanity, as did the others.

I got an e-mail from a friend who obviously does not subscribe to our large, easy-to-see iTunes podcast. He was asking me, "Hey, what does Guy's shirt say in the Thanksgiving short?"

On the off chance you have the same question because, like my friend, you obviously do not subscribe to our generously-sized, clear-as-a-crisp-New-England-winter-day iTunes podcast, here it is, in all its easy-to-see glory (click to see it even bigger):

Ah! Turkey! On board! I see! On board! A turkey!

Glad to clear that up.

We have a long and illustrious history of making custom shirts for Guy to wear. "Daddy's Boy" for episode 5. "This is My Best Shirt" for episode 6. See? Long and oh, so illustrious! When it came time to do a Thanksgiving short, we knew Guy had to wear something Thanksgivingy, and the chances of just finding something ready-to-wear were slim. Especially in September, when we actually shot the thing. Not much turkey going on in September.

I came up with two T-shirt phrases, probably just one morning in the shower. Or maybe while making graham crackers and apple butter. Though, come to think of it, I have not made graham crackers and apple butter in a few years, and I have showered recently, so it was probably more likely the former.

Two choices. Yes. The first was what you see above, and the second was "I'm with Turkey," also having the same arrow pointing to the stomachal area. (There's a veiled reference to episode 8 in that last sentence. Bookmark this page and come back in January to see what it is!)

We chose "Turkey On Board" because we had to choose something. We had trouble deciding, really. "Turkey On Board" is silly, ridiculous, and conjures a pretty amusing though unoffensive image. "I'm with Turkey" is a triple-fronted assault, referencing the famous "I'm with Stupid" shirts, pointing at a stomach full of Thanksgiving turkey, and, most disturbingly, suggesting that Guy is pregnant with a turkey baby.

It is perhaps that last item that made us go with the easier-to-digest (ba-dump BUMP!) "Turkey On Board."

Just so we can have some fun, I have re-designed the graphic, and we can now see what it would have actually been like had we chosen the other phrase. Enjoy!

Goin’ Nuts

2008-11-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

Peanuts that is.

It’s time for another “New Music Wednesday!” This week I’ve got something that I’m pretty proud of.

If you’ve watched LFTI you probably already figured out that I (and Tanya and Steve, and Kathy when she was producing) like to create little “homages” to other works and styles (and if you don’t watch LFTI then what are you doing reading this?! Go watch!). Most of the time they’re not very specific, but in last year’s Halloween special and this year’s Thanksgiving special the tributes to Charles Shultz’s Peanuts are pretty obvious.

For “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Mason” I did a little Vince Guaraldi-esque theme and incidental music (and there was a tick-or-treater wearing a Charlie Brown ghost costume). We also created a “wall scene” at the end with cutout images from the short.

This year there were plans for another wall scene. But I wasn’t happy with the quality of the cutouts. They just weren’t right. So I got the idea to Peanuts-ize the cast. I think it was fairly successful. Especially since I was really rushed. In fact, in order for it not to turn out a total shambles, we pushed back the launch of the Thanksgiving short by a day.

The music was again a very important element and one that I looked forward to doing. Of course, once I actually started writing the music I had second thoughts. This kind of thing always seems so breezy, but I have to tell you, it’s incredibly stressful. Anyone who has ever stared at a blank page or lump of clay or white canvas or jeans that don’t fit anymore will know what I’m talking about (that last one may just be me). There’s the excitement of achievement mixed with an almost overwhelming despair that the result won’t meet your own expectations.

Incidentally, I think that initial feeling of despair is the reason that most people don’t do things of an artistic nature. It’s a high hurdle. In fact, in my opinion, it’s the only hurdle. How many times have you heard people say “I can’t draw (or whatever)! Nothing that I do ends up looking (sounding…) like it ‘should’!” What those people don’t realize is that almost everyone has the same thought. Even great artists (I’m not including myself here). The only difference is that they went ahead and did it anyway (and then, in some cases, tortured themselves for not living up to their own impossible standards).

Okay, so the music: Luckily, I was able to get over the early speed bumps and get the music done. It always helps to have a deadline.

This is pretty much the same type of deal as the music for ITGP,M. Only this tune is more upbeat. I once again incorporated a portion of the LFTI theme Fine Print. This time I used the bridge of that tune for the “b” section (or chorus, if you will) of this one. Now I think that I have culled all of Fine Print, so I don’t know what will happen when I write another special! I cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.

I’ll do another side-by-side comparison for you and you can hear for yourself. If you know the LFTI Theme then you may recognize what I mean. It’s the section that goes “They never told you the catch, some restrictions come attached…” You can hear a repeated and transposed cycle of that basic melody in the middle of this song.

So, without further ado, New Music Wednesday, Life from the Inside and I are proud to present the theme song from Thanks for Nothing, Mason, aptly titled…Thanks for Nothing, Mason.

Fine Print:

And also for your listening pleasure, here is the theme from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Mason:

As always, check back here for other exciting blog posts and new music!

Just so you know, I only yesterday received a new recording interface and it pretty much kicks ass. So the music quality will only go up (at least the recording quality, I can’t vouch for the content)! In fact I predict that the music for Episode 8 will rock. Some may even say it’s bodacious, bitchin’ and/or rad.

Stay tuned…

ROBB

Indie = Ingenuity

2008-11-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, we finished shooting episode 8. Thrilled? Oh, good! I was hoping you woudl be.

[An aside: I seem to have a very particularly dyslexic issue when I type. Ninety-five percent of the time, I transpose the "l" and the "d" in the words "should," "could," and "would." I am constantly right-clicking to correct my misspellings of those three words in particular, and it bugs the royally-sanctioned crap out of me. Just for fun, I'm going to not correct those misspellings if they occur in this post, just so you can see how prevalent the problem is. Thank you.]

This weekend saw some firsts for LFTI: first on-location shoot that was not a friend's apartment complex; first speaking extras roles; first car shoot; first blue-screen shot.* Yes, we were really pulling out all the indie stops this weekend. Our location was craftily secured by using a tiny little white lie so that we woudl not have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars in fees. We had to shoot in a car without the proper mounts, which again saved us who knows how much money. And our blue-screen was more like blue-flannel.

I went to film school in Boston. Most of the projects on which I've been involved then and since have been low or no budget, just like LFTI. When you have no money to spend on all the tools and talent and equipment and rights and licenses and fees and protections that come with a huge budget shoot, you have no choice but to get creative. I genuinely mean "creative" here... creativity is not only key to a good script and good acting, but also good shots and lighting and music and editing and so on and so forth et cetera. The creativity that goes into writing and acting and art is a bit different than the creativity that goes into cinematography or editing, say. While technical prowess is usually helpful in any facet of life these days, it definitely helps on a shoot, so you know what equipment you have and how it works. From there, you can use your limited resources in ways for which they may not have originally been designed.

One teasingly fine example is the blue-screen we concocted on Sunday night. Yes, we needed a blue-screen. Why? Never you mind why, just enjoy the tale.

We had two choices for shooting a particular part of our script: Do some guerilla shooting on a real location, or create a cheesy facsimile using a blue- or green-screen. The cheesy facsimile seemed to fit best, so we chose to shoot against a screen. Robb and Tanya ended up having a blue sheet that, while not the exact blue of your finer, more expensive blue-screens, was just perfect for what we needed. We used two light stands to frame the sides of the sheet, then a third light stand taped across the top to finish the frame. Voilà! A simple blue-screen set-up.

Sorry for the blotches in the picture. I must have had something on my lens. Thank goodness you can still see our make-shift blue-screen set-up. (More-hyphens, any-one?)

I mentioned that we shot in a car for the first time over the weekend. I have had to be very creative in cars before, including sitting in an open trunk to shoot a car behind me as we drove through an industrial park. But Sunday was a challenge. We needed to get useful shots of Lou and Jennifer having a conversation in a car, and normally that woudl require using a follow car or a fancy hood mount. We can not afford such things as hood mounts, and we coudl not shoot on some little-used street somewhere with an illegal follow-car arrangement because the story required the car to be driving on a major road. The only way to get decent shots of Jennifer and Lou was to position the camera in front of them, near the dash, as we drove down Culver Boulevard.

We first tried a two-shot, with me holding the camera in the far front corner of the car from the back seat to get Jennifer very close up on the left of the shot and Lou in the distance on the right. That looked too peculiar, so we had to get the camera on the dash more toward the center of the car. This was simple for Lou's shots; I just sat in the passenger seat, leaned far forward, and held the camera by the windshield. When it came time to shoot Jennifer, though, I coudl not sit in the driver's seat and shoot and drive. So we did this:

Robb drove while I crammed into Corrie's footwell. She had to act with her knees almost in her face while I held the camera out on top of the dash, trying not to get my own bushy-ass hair in the frame. Kinda hard, but it was the only way we coudl do it without literally hanging out the window or something worse. I had to duck a few times as cop cars passed us.

Oh, and because there coudl be no one in the back seats, tanya had to sit here during shooting:

I understand it was rather uncomfortable and cold.

LFTI is about as independent as you can get. Often this means "MAJOR SUCK." But not for us. We want to be sure the show is as good as possible. That requires much of the aforementioned creativity, in things like the blue-screen and the car, but also in any number of things like music, credits, editing, graphics, props... I mentioned last time how proud I am of our show for the small details we add, but I am also proud for how hard everyone on the show works to get it just right. I can't wait for everyone to see episode 8. It'll be sometime in January, which is a ways off, but it shoudl be worth the wait!

[Seven. Yes, seven instances of the transposed "l" and "d." That's 100%, not 95% as I'd said. Perhaps I need more fiber in my diet, or a larger nightly dose of radiation.]

____________

*Though some keying was done for the Mizz Chi erotic workout video, I believe this was the first time something other than a white wall was used. Forgive me if I'm wrong on that point. Robb or Tanya can correct me.

Twas the Night Before Filming

2008-11-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

We're gearing up for another weekend of filming around the old LFTI household.

No, we don't actually all live together, weirdo.

What does this mean exactly? It means we've been emailing each other all day, reminders of what we still need to pick up, what we need to bring, etc. I spent my lunch hour on a walk with Robb, going over my lines.

See, the excitement is building because tomorrow we shoot on location. With extras. I KNOW!

This may seem pretty "par for the course", but we've only shot on location once before. And we've never had extras. So tomorrow is going to be very fun for us. And hopefully the extras too.

I'm not sure how much else I can tell you without giving the fun stuff away. Oh, I made a rather large order at Papa Johns today, so I can tell you that we will have lots of pizza on set tomorrow. And lots of neon colors. And pastels. And baked goods. And 1 rather large piece of cardboard. And someone doing an impression of a dead celebrity.

Oh yeah, it's going to be fun! And maybe a bit scary.

Tanya

Thanks for Nothing, Mason

2008-11-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

Now if your name is Mason, that headline could seem like an out-of-the-blue insult. Rest assured, it’s not.

It’s the title of out latest Holiday Special!

That’s right! Last year’s Halloween Special, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Mason, went so well that we decided to do another, similarly themed, short this year.

Personally, I love these little holiday specials. They’re a lot of fun for me. I especially enjoy the music. It’s a good excuse for me to get my “Vince Guaraldi” on. Not that I need a good excuse, it’s more like I need motivation. And there’s nothing like a looming deadline to actually get me to do it.

So, I hope you enjoy our latest video.

And I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Don’t forget to vote today!

ROBB

Answer: This Post

2008-10-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Question: What’s a striptease without the strip, Alex?

You see that? I started this post all Jeopardy-like. I was just feeling a little like game show host Alex Trebek. You know…Canadian. I feel a sudden urge to speak only in answers…and québécois, eh.

Before we begin, let me just take this opportunity to speak out about something that has actually bothered me for quite some time: The “answers” on Jeopardy.

For those who don’t know, Jeopardy gives a series of answers to which the contestants must respond with the correct “question.” Example: Answer: “Americans drink its milk more than any other animal.” Question: “What is a cow?”

Seems pretty straightforward to me. But most of the question/answers aren’t that simple, and for good reason; the show would be incredibly lame. Also the show wouldn’t be a rallying point for the country’s intellectually snobified.

Oh, you think I’m being too hard on Jeopardy-watchers, eh? Well, let’s deconstruct the show a little and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

If I were to ask you, “what is Dublin?” You’d probably answer, “It’s the capital of Ireland.” Then I’d ask, “Why is Ireland the richest country in the world?” You’d look at me expectedly and I’d continue, “Because it’s capital (capitol) is always Dublin!” And we’d laugh! Oh what a time we’d have! Being real.

Now ask a snobby Jeopardy-watcher “what is Dublin?” They’d say something like “in the early 70s, U.S. airplanes were granted landing rights in this city northeast of Shannon.”

And all reasonable people just slowly shake their heads at the pomposity. What kind of answer is that? I didn’t ask about landing rights or geographical proximity to other large population hubs. “What is Dublin?” It’s a simple question.

“What is horseracing?”

“In 1974, of Baseball, Football and Horseracing, it’s the one that drew the largest live attendance in the United States.”

Hmmmm….

Now tell me that Jeopardy-watchers aren’t a bunch of academic show-offs!

Anyway, I can’t sit here indulging my own sense of outrage forever, I have editing to do! Which brings me to the point of this post, to tease the next LFTI video! Yeah!

So here it is:

Teasy!

I finished the music yesterday and I’ve been torturing the cast and crew with it since. You’ll also have the opportunity to be tortured, two weeks from today on New Music Wednesday!

Can’t wait can you?

ROBB

Sweating the Details

2008-10-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

Do you know what I really like about our show? Do you know what makes me very proud to be a part of it? Our attention to detail, and, through that, our nearly masochistic habit of giving ourselves lots of tiny challenges for each episode and short.

In pre-production for episode 8, we have already found many humorous tiny little things to add to the show that are not necessarily called out in the script. Each "tiny" little thing requires some extra work: looking for a weird prop here, constructing something from scratch there, designing a logo yonder... However, I can't really talk about episode 8 yet. I'd hate to ruin any of it for you. So let's consider something from the series of shorts we just finished up that introduce Lou.

We have a nice little back story for Lou, and though she's still quite a mystery even to us, there are some clues to her character sprinkled about. The most enlightening one of these is her briefcase.

Lou met Kate in Tori Spelling's garage. At least that's her story. We decided to assume it's true for the purposes of getting ourselves out of a logic loop. Now, Lou says verbally that she lived in Tori's garage, but what could we do to support that visually? We decided that the briefcase Lou uses should be an old one that Tori's dad, Aaron, used to use. Lou "borrowed" it from Tori, who, for all we know, is living in Aaron's old house, and the briefcase was just there on a shelf in the garage for decades.

Okay, that's a fun, simple idea. Lou has Aaron Spelling's old briefcase. Right. So here's where this one small decision creates a pile of tasks.

First, we had to find a suitable briefcase. It had to look expensive, since Aaron was rich even in the '70s, but it couldn't cost us too much. We are a no-budget show, after all. Tanya and Robb secured a fairly cheap one that looked good enough to pass for pricy. But how were we to pass it off as Aaron Spelling's briefcase? Well, obviously, it needed to be monogrammed. The initials A. S. mean nothing, so Aaron's whole name needed to be on the briefcase. How could we do that without sending the briefcase out to actually be monogrammed? Paint! We had to find just the right size and style of letters we could use to get Aaron's name just so on the case. From among several choices, we decided to use some small Garamond letter stamps from Michael's. We tested the letters with some silver paint, but the paint did not stamp well. It was gloppy and did not look good at all. Luckily, during a late afternoon trip one day to an art store, Robb and I found just what we needed: a silver-inked stamp pad! The silver stamp pad worked perfectly. We positioned the name in a place where it would most likely be seen when the briefcase was on-camera.

Okay, so the briefcase now had Aaron's name on it, but what more could we do to hint at the case's history? The answer for us was to include headshots, publicity stills, and a shooting script for the pilot of The Love Boat. Yes, Aaron was using this case during casting and pre-production of The Love Boat, but had stopped using it soon afterward. It hadn't seen any use until Lou absconded with it, perhaps only hours earlier. Fine. Sounds great. But now there was that much more to work on. I found some great photos online, one of Gavin MacLeod as Captain Stubing, and one of the whole original Love Boat cast. I also happened to have the font used for the Love Boat "title treatment" (an annoying term we use inside the industry), though I had to use an O from another font.

I put these together to create fake publicity shots. Then I created a cover page for the original Love Boat script, complete with coffee stains and such. You don't even get to see the script in the final short, but it's there, it adds heft, and when Lou starts pulling all this crap out of the case, the dimension it adds is tangible

That was all quite a bit of extra work, just for a smidge of detail. And each video we shoot has quite a few of these "little" items. One might think it's sad to put so much work into these details, and then have them never be noticed. What I think all of us agree on is that it is worth the extra work. If someone happens to be on a second or third viewing (which our marketing department assures me is quite common amongst our fan base), they might start to notice these little touches. But even if they never notice them, the atmosphere the details create works subconsciously.

And that, dear reader(s), is why I am proud to work on this show. If you like, go give "*subject to change" another viewing and pay special attention to the briefcase. Or watch any of our shows. You'll see a lot of love and time and care in each one.

Cute Puppies Galore!

2008-10-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

We are hard at work on Episode 8 at the LFTI headquarters. But every once in awhile we need a nice break. Nothing is better than watching puppies on a webcam. Enjoy!

So, when not entertaining myself with random things online, I am busy shopping for props for our next episode. This can be highly entertaining, but I can't divulge what exactly we are shopping for as it will give to much fun stuff away about the next full ep.

I will tell you that rehearsals have been great fun. Some of our characters will be a little different for this episode and it makes rehearsals more fun than usual. Although it does not help with the horrible "giggling when I am uncomfortable" thing I do.

Now I'm off to find more stuff! I'll give you a hint, I may be looking for one of these. Or I could just be spending too much time in YouTube. I guess you'll have to wait and see!

Tanya

New Music Wednesday

2008-10-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

That’s right, you heard the headline correctly. It’s “New Music Wednesday” here at the LFTI blog!

Thank you! You’re too kind. No, please. Take your seat. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, are you done celebrating yet?

No?

…

Now I’m starting to feel as if your overzealous adulation is just patronizing. But if you assure me it’s not…

All right, now lets get to the music! But, if I might, I’d like to elucidate on today’s musical offering in the most pretentious way possible.

Might I?

Yes, I might.

Today’s selection comes from the “hit” LFTI Short “Appreciation.” The official title is “Los Angeles Variations on Appreciation.” The name of which I have just this second christened it as a purely pretentious irony, noting that the musical theme does not actually vary during the piece.

Please take a second to start the playback, and then read the following critical analysis as intellectual accompaniment to this musical experience:

Los Angeles Variations on Appreciation: A Study.

A lone clave marks time, preamble to a subtly nuanced piece that makes use of traditional as well as non-traditional instruments. The formality of the string instruments and heartiness of the brass contradict the ukulele, vocalized “la-las” and whistling, serving as a commentary on the duplicity of Los Angeles itself.

The steady, relentless repetitive rhythm, bass and heavy horns lay a solid foundation for the more whimsical melody, invoking the monotony of LA city life that underscores the dreamlike flights of fancy of its inhabitants. Pizzicato strings rise to great heights only to do so again – with the same ending note – only four beats later, maintaining an almost cruel equilibrium. All of which is played up even more in the return to the “A” section where the plucked strings are counterpointed by falling trumpets repeating the low brass.

This ebb and flow leads to the dreamlike “B” section with virtually no perceptible build whatsoever. The melody of the chorus floats lightly above the already-established underscore before being awaken by the simple piano montuno from the opening and returning to the more familiar theme of the “A” section.

Copious use of glissando harp evokes the mystical namesakes of Los Angeles as the entire piece deconstructs to its inevitable end.

…And you have probably stopped reading this by now, haven’t you?

I don’t blame you. Did you at least listen to the tune? I hope so. I had a lot of fun working on it.

And thus concludes “New Music Wednesday.” Tune in next time when Spiderman says *mwahm*.

ROBB

(I apologize for those of you who are foreign fans and did now watch the Electric Company. That last sentence probably made no sense whatsoever.)

Hell, That's Where!

2008-10-20T10:07:00.001-07:00

The subject of this post assumes you've been asking the following question of me: "Where the hell have you been?" That is the first most commonly-asked question I've received in the last month or so. The second most commonly-asked question is, "And did you bring me back something nice?"

Really, have I been in hell? Well, no. I've been in Australia! And San Francisco! One was not hell, one was a sort of very mild hell. Very very mild hell. Mild like a yellow capsicum.

Australia was a just-over-two-week trip that I had been planning with a friend of mine for over a year. It was a fantastic time, but needless to say, I was not going to be posting LFTI news while I was in the southern hemisphere. My posts would have been all backwards because of that. Despite this fact, Australia was not hell.

As soon as I was back from Australia, I had to leap right into production on a work thing. I produce and run the audio video portions of our major gatherings, see, so I had lots and lots of meetings and plannings and goings on to deal with. Then it was off to San Fran for 9 days to hole up in a ballroom for 18 hours a day and eat room service over and over and over again. Thus was San Francisco a very mild form of a relatively pedestrian, low-rent hell.

Poor poor me!

But now, all that is behind me. My new most important project is LFTI episode 8! Though I missed some rehearsals while I was away, the couple I was at were great fun, and I think this episode is going to be much funnier than I had originally anticipated. Not that I thought it was going to be unfunny, mind you. It's always been funny. But now that we have Laura in full gear and Stephen Simon has joined us, we have a crack team of humorists ready to humorize their humorous guts out. That's something you're going to love to see, trust me!

Since I'm the one who loves to ruin all the surprises around here via lists of wacky-sounding nonsense, I may as well be the one to tell you that episode 8 has nothing to do with kittens, clay poker chips, Slip 'n' Slide, avuncular shenanigans, suspect propane regulators, brie, thumbtacks, Virgin Galactic, ceramic figurines, or capsicums.

I have to warn you, however, that thumbtacks may be involved without our knowledge. And yes, I did learn what a capsicum is while I was in Australia. The only capsicums that could potentially be involved in episode 8 is if for craft services we order pizza with peppers. Those won't end up on-camera, though, so you have nothing to worry about.

Finally, in conclusion, to summarize... No, I'm sorry. I did not bring you back something nice. I could not keep the Mövenpick from melting.

Looping

2008-10-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

It's a special Saturday post. How exciting!

Robb is getting ready for Laura to come over and loop her lines for the next short that will go up on Monday. Let's just say we were filming some place that made recording sound a bit of a problem (and it wasn't just the loud refrigerator in our apartment!).

I believe this is the last thing that needs to be done for the short. The credit sequence is finished and it looks amazing! I can't wait for everyone to see it, Robb really has outdone himself.

I guess that's really all that's going on around here. The new video will be up Monday - start your countdown now!

Tanya

What Wine Goes Best With Piano?

2008-10-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

A better question for this post might be, “what piano goes best with wine?” But I thought that was a confusing headline. That’s why I didn’t use it. In retrospect, it seems that I probably made the wrong decision. But I’m determined to keep looking ahead and leave the past where it belongs. We just can’t keep living in the past.

Speaking of not living in the past, have you seen our last video? It’s called “Pairing.” It went up the Monday before last and, with the economic crises and all, is just as relevant today as it was then.

Exactly the same amount of relevance. Guaranteed!

As you, loyal reader, have already surmised, it’s the Wednesday one week after the Monday on which a video hit the internet (not convoluted, trust me, it just seems like that to you because you don’t really understand my system) and that means the it’s “New Music Wednesday!”

Hey, I like that. “New Music Wednesday.” Makes me feel like a DJ at a fancy FM station! Look for the LFTI wet tee-shirt contest coming soon, and don’t forget that the 13,653rd caller will receive tickets to a private “online only” viewing party of all 7 episodes of LFTI as well as the shorts and specials! It’ll be taking place over at YouTube or Blip.tv or Sevenload.com and will be held at the winner’s discretion, all you need to enter is a computer and about 3.5 hours of free time (note: the cast and crew of LFTI are not obligated to participate)!

Anyway, let’s get to the music.

As you know, I struggled with this one quite a bit. I wanted fancy-schmancy piano music. New York style. Citified. Like all people who drink wine.

One problem: I’m not a fancy-schmancy piano player. Not even close. So what you’re about to hear required a lot of effort and some editorial magic.

So crack open a bottle of your favorite Petit Syrah and enjoy the theme from Pairing (I guess I just answered the question from the headline. Petit Syrah goes with piano. It’s not just for beets anymore!).

I’ve just finished the music for the next video and I have to say that I’m pretty happy with it. Now I just have to do justice to the end credits that I have planned!

Especially since Tanya just tweeted about how great they’re going to be. Thanks, Tanya. No pressure now!

ROBB

Left out of LFTI tweets? Why not follow us? It’s fun and free. And you won’t look like such a jerk.

Oops, I shouldn’t have said that. But it’s done now. Forget the past.

Onward to the FUTURE!

**Oh, one more thing. The Distractionation Bossa has reached #28 on the Latin charts over at OurStage.com! Sweet! It’s an all user vote system, so I have to be happy with that! Sign up and vote if you’d like to help out.

Gettin' A Good Start On 8

2008-10-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

It's Friday and I've actually remembered to post! That must mean the world is going to end or something.

You see, I'm the person who came up with the idea of each Producers posting once a week, that way our blog would get updated at least 3 times weekly. And now I'm the one who forgets the most often to post. Or, I actually remember, but then I'm too busy at my day job on Fridays to get anything done.

But not today! No sir! I'm even starting to write this before noon. Which is another miracle in of itself. I'm telling you people, you may want to go out and buy some bottled water or something, cause this may be a bad sign. Or a good one I guess, depends on if you like my slapped together writing style or not.

So, this week has been pretty exciting. We had our table read for Episode 8 on Wednesday, which was a ton of fun. It's always a good sign when a cast member starts laughing at the lines so hard that we have to stop and wait for her to catch her breathe and try to get through her lines without breaking. Both times we read through the scrip this happened! It was extremely amusing to watch.

So yeah, Episode 8, pretty darn funny, if I do say so myself. And I do.

We are also very excited about our guest star, Stephen Simon. He's part of the comedy team "Ten West" (if you have not seen them perform, you have no idea what you are missing out on. They are brilliant! Hi Jon!)

Mr. Simon was one of those "wouldn't it be great if we could get him" people. Lucky for us we could.

(As a side note, I am now only going to call him Mr. Simon because I have way too many Steve's, Stephen's, Steven's in my life to keep them all straight. And I'm not fond of calling people by their last name only like a football coach, I think it's because I spent a lot of my life having people holler "IHNEN" at me since my whole family was in sports and it was a hard habit for people to break seeing as how I'm the youngest.)

Um, so where was I? Oh yeah, Stephen Simon. He's pretty darn funny. And tall. And we can't wait to get this episode up and running. We haven't even started rehearsals yet!!

I guess that's all for now. I'm going to go and be overly proud of myself for not only posting today, but getting it done before my lunchtime.

Tanya

Holy Crap, It’s Wednesday!

2008-10-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

It’s my day to post here at the venerable LFTI Blog.

Since it’s not the Wednesday one week after the latest video went up, it’s not quite time to post the music from the last “episode” yet. Therefore, I’m at a loss for what to say.

I was just on Facebook replying to a college friend (and former roommate) who commented on the “what are you doing right now” message that I posted there.

Facebook, and other online “social networking” sites are big on that. “What are you doing right now?!” “What?!” “I must know!!” “The WORLD must know!!”

Does anyone really care? And is it really anyone’s business anyway?!

No. They don’t and it’s not.

But it inspired me to go ahead and tell you what I’m doing right now:

I was just on Facebook replying to a college friend (and former roommate) who commented on the “what are you doing right now” message that I posted there.

I replied with this:

;)

A winking smiley face emoticon.

Sometimes I horrify myself. An emoticon?! There was a time that I swore up and down that I would never use an emoticon. I could simply find no reason that I ever would use one. They’re trite and stunted.

I’ve avoided other similar fads. I’ve never once told anyone to talk to my hand – or any other bodily appendage for that matter. Sure, I’ve raised the roof once or twice, but always ironically. I’ve never told a girl to “go.” I’ve never thought anything was da’ bomb or all that – with or without chips. I’ve dabbled in l33t speak, again, as a joke (and it can be kind of fun), but I swear that I was just experimenting.

I’ve never LOLed.

Not ever. (author’s note: this is not a guarantee)

I’ve never ROFLed, LMAOed, or it’s dirtier cousin LMFAO. I’ve never wondered “WTF?” or marveled “FTW?!” I’ve had to BRB a few times, but that’s just because I was being lazy.

I avoid these things like the plague. And that’s not an easy task when you spend as much time communicating online as I do. It’s a requirement of having an online sitcom. But I’ve never bowed to any of those acronyms. I don’t mind that our fans use them. Our fans kick ass and can type any way they want to. Hell, I don’t even care that anyone uses them. But I’m an old man and I refuse to use them.

What other options do I have?

;)

The occasional emoticon. Don’t hate me. Emoticons can be marvelously effective. When nothing really needs to be said and yet you really want to say something, It can seem like the only option. They’re trite and stunted.

I’ve talked in circles. Good. Just another Wednesday.

I’m off to try and figure out what music to put under the next video. I’m listening to the Ventures at the moment, so I’m thinking maybe something like that? Who knows? It’s Ventures Christmas music. Yes, the Ventures put out Christmas music. And yes, I’m listening to Christmas music. Yes, it’s only October 1st. One thing you may or may not know about me is that I’m a freak for Christmas music. I don’t know why, but I am. I’m not ashamed of it.

Well, maybe a little.

I also have to get ready for a table read tonight! We’re having the first table read for out next episode. It’s a full-length episode too! Not another short. LFTI back in full swing! I can’t wait.

You like that? I put the pertinent LFTI info at the end of the post! And, very little of it at that!

You’re welcome.

ROBB

Feelin’ Low Down

2008-09-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Not really.

It’s the Wednesday one week after the latest video went up, and you know what that means?!

What do you mean “no?!” If it’s Wednesday then it means that I’m (Robb) blogging! And if it’s one week after the latest video hit the net then it means that I’ll be posting the music from that video.

That’s what!

Of course, I’m speaking to you specifically.

You know, they say that a good blog should speak in the singular. “You.” “Me.” “Us.” As in, “I’m going to post new music so that you can hear it, and we should give me all your money.”

The reason for the singular personal approach is so that you can make a better connection to the reader. That way a multitude of people can feel as if they’re being addressed specifically. It helps to bond the reader to the author. Especially if that author makes a furtive request for cash.

However, in this case, I’m actually talking to you. The one person still reading this blog.

So, thank you. You’re the reason that I’m avoiding putting the finishing touches on our next video (which will be up Monday! And, yes, I did “finish” the music!).

Okay, so let’s get to the music.

I’ve been causing myself some undue headaches lately. See, I’ve been temping the videos with Apple Loops.

Perhaps I should clarify that last sentence. “Temping” means that I’m using temporary music to help me edit (something that I don’t usually do as I like to cut to the rhythm of the dialogue normally). And Apple Loops are little pieces of music and/or parts of pieces of music that come with Garage Band or Logic or Soundrack that can be mixed together so that anyone can have professional sounding scores on their projects. Apple Loops is not – I repeat – not a cereal.

I’ve been using Apple Loops “jingles.” Small “complete” musical phrases for various purposes. If you’ve ever watched a podcast or an online show you’ve most likely heard some. They’re very popular. And for good reason. They’re good.

And handy.

But I’m a snob. I want our show to have completely original music. So I avoid using the Apple Loops Jingles. I use plenty of Apple Loops, but they’re usually drum parts and fairly well hidden. The last thing I want people to do is recognize any of them.

I used an obvious one to score the “Mizz Chi Workout Video.” But that’s because Mizz Chi would have used it. I also used a bunch for the “JC Joe” video from episode 3. But you never really hear it so… (speaking of JC Joe, I can’t wait to get the LFTI DVD out there! Why did JC Joe remind me of it? Who knows…?! Hmm.).

But for the most part, I avoid any of the Apple Jingles. However, as I said, I’ve been temping the videos with them and they fit so well that I want to emulate them with my own original music. Alas, as I have also said, the Apple Loops Jingles are really good. They’re written, played and recorded by professionals.

So me trying to emulate them is a bit like asking my little nephew to “repaint the Mona Lisa…but as a dude.”

It’s hard, and a bit above my resources. But I’ve been trying. And what you’re about to hear is my first attempt. It’s a bluesy little number. It doesn’t really go anywhere (it’s a blues remember, they never go anywhere), but it fit the video nicely. So, it did its job.

No loops here!

Lou’s Blues:

Thanks for listening. And don’t forget that the next video will be up on Monday!

ROBB

Dropping Balls

2008-09-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

There’s been a lot of ball-dropping going on around here.

I don’t know why that last sentence made me think of Junior High School.

What?!

I don’t know where your mind is, I simply meant that in Jr. High School I played on the school basketball, football and baseball teams. And I was terrible at all of those sports.

Okay, I take it back, I wasn’t on the school basketball team. They actually made cuts. Needless to say I was one of those cuts (but I played pee-wee basketball before that …Okay, that last sentence made me think of college). But I was literally the only extra player on the Junior High baseball team (not counting pitchers). I was the sole substitute, and yet I still managed to be considered “third string.” Seriously. And I was only on the football team after my mom convinced the coach that I just HAD to be a member of the team…halfway through the season! Mortifying.

So, that’s the reason that the “ball-dropping” sentence made me think of Junior High School.

No other reason.

…Oh, and I also went through puberty at that time.

Mostly.

It gets complicated…

I sometimes still think I’m going through puberty. I mean, when will my voice get deeper?! I sound like Carol Channing on helium for god’s sake!

Anyway, as I was saying, we here at Life from the Inside: Blog Edition, have been sorely remiss in our duties as internet “publishers.” And for that we apologize. You see, Steve is in Australia and Tanya is…

So, we’re sorry.

I’m even more sorry since I’m going to leave you with this lame post today. See, I’m having a hell of a time with the music for our next video. I mean a colossally hard time. It’s taken me longer to get this music right than it did to edit, write and shoot the short! I’m not even exaggerating.

And I’m off to work on it some more right now.

Bye!

ROBB

Oh, and I might have been the worst right fielder the city of Spokane has ever seen, but by being on the team I got to wear the cool team windbreaker! Sure, my windbreaker was made in the 70s and everyone else got new ones, but I still got to wear it! And I didn’t even have to do anything!

I was so cool.

New video out on the 29th! (Maybe it'll even have music)

Speaking of G'Day...

2008-09-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

What's my sorry excuse for not posting Monday like I was supposed to?

Vacation!

I wasn't on vacation yet, but still... I'm leaving on a pretty big trip, so I've been distracted all week getting ready. I'm going to Australia. It's going to be marvy fun. Thanks to a plentitude of miles, I get to fly there in this fancy seat:

Er, well, yes, it looks like one of those Japanese capsule hotels, exploded for easy viewing, but this is going to be my seat. Indeed, this First Class Travel Pod will probably afford me more room than a capsule hotel. I think it includes a sound- and fellow-passenger-drunk-on-free-booze-proof forcefield.

So I'm off tonight on this exciting adventure. I'll be gone until September 28th. If I find any time to post about LFTI while I'm away, I shall! But I plan on being off the grid for most— er, I'm sorry, I meant "off the grid." That is a phrase that deserves quotes. I plan on being "off the grid" for most of the trip.

In the meantime, enjoy Monday's new Lou short! It's great. And Robb outdid himself on the credits.

G'day!

Who’s the Bossa?

2008-09-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

or: Blame it on the bossa nova.

Bossa, bossa, bossa.

What’s all this bossa talk about? Well, it’s about bossa. Duh. Do want me to be clearer? Okay. Fine.

It’s about the bossa nova.

More specifically, it’s about “The Distractionation Bossa.” A little tune I wrote for our last video, The Distractionation Index.

Since the theme of the short was somewhat “clinical” I wanted to write background music that had a “Doctor’s Office” feel. You know, Musak. Just a little ditty to invoke feelings of sitting in a waiting room.

Easier said than done.

First of all, say what you want about musak or “elevator music,” the truth is that a vast majority of the music we all try so desperately to tune out is in actuality composed and played by very highly skilled studio musicians. Very highly skilled. In fact, in a lot of cases it’s played by the same people who back up big name artists. Because, let’s face it, a gig is a gig, dad.

Now, at one time, it could have been argued that I was – on my way to becoming – a good instrumentalist. Those days are gone. Now I’m a sometimes saxophone player trying desperately to remember all the correct fingerings. Which is tough enough when I’m paying the saxophone. When I’m trying to play the flute I’m a…well, a saxophone player trying desperately to remember all the correct fingerings.

Lucky for me they’re pretty much the same fingerings. But I still play the flute like a hack saxophone player. Though in my defense, I never really played the flute anyway. Only when the music called for it in jazz band (which was rare).

But my mother bought me a cool vintage 60s flute so I thought I should use it (my aunt gave away my mom’s flute; the one I used in college. But I’m not going to complain about it here in this blog. That would be petty. Even though I used it for 5 years and it had sentimental value. Besides, I’m sure my aunt’s son’s wife’s cousin deserves it more than I do. Awesome.).

The other hurdle I encountered was that I had never written a bossa before.

I listened to a lot of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao and Astrud Gilberto before I started, but that only made things worse since they pretty much invented the genre and no one has done it better since. Big shoes.

By the way, I think the biggest injustice in music is that “Girl from Ipanema” has been dubbed the ultimate elevator tune. My god that song is great! Seriously. I know I’m not helping to sell myself as a “hip and fresh” writer of internet “content” by saying that, but I don’t care. The kids today, with their Jonases and their girl-on-girl kissing, wouldn’t know good music if it were played over the PA system at the local Chico’s!

But I digress. I struggled to write a good bossa. It was tough. However, I persevered. I fought through. I made it out of the dark Brazilian jungle to the shores of Rio. And I did it all for the show!

So, without further ado, I’ll put down my cross and present The Distractionation Bossa:

I’m no studio musician sure, but then again, I don’t have a studio.

So there.

ROBB

Oh! Don’t forget that our latest video is going to be posted on Monday! Hooray!

Holiday Speciality

2008-09-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

We're in the middle of prepping to shoot this weekend. Should be fun and weird - now I understand when actors talk about how odd it is to shoot holiday stuff way before it happens.

See, we're getting ready to shoot a little holiday special - which is going to be very funny, but still, it's like 87 degrees here today and we have to get in the mindset of the holidays. Which I guess shouldn't be too hard since it's always still around 87 degrees here during the actual holidays. Ah Los Angeles, sometime I really hate your lack of "weather".

One of the hardest parts of getting a holiday special ready was trying to find all of the correct food type stuff without getting hosed on the prices. At least all of the stores already have decorations in stock. I know everyone makes jokes about the stores getting holiday stuff in earlier and earlier every year, but Costco has Christmas decorations up already! And while that may make Robb really excited, it just makes me sad. Of course you don't see me complaining when the Halloween candy is in the stores early.

Also, who knew it was so hard to find someone that owned a gravy boat? I mean, I don't own one, but I figured I must know someone who does?! Of course, I only asked 2 people, but still, I thought my odds were pretty good.

I will be able to tell you more about the special after it airs. It's been fun to get ready for this one, we even had a cast bar-b-que on Labor Day to hang out and make some props. Yes, we can multitask with the best of them! Unfortunately Corrie had the stomach flu on Labor Day, so she was sent home from the last rehearsal with supplies and told to make her own prop. I can't wait to see how it turned out!

Tanya

Not Just for Hippies Anymore

2008-09-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Let’s talk about flashbacks. Why not? After all, Steve suggested in his post yesterday that I should mention them (or someone should). Let it never be said that I’m not a puppet.

When we learned that we needed to replace Kate’s character, one of the very first ideas that came up was to bring in another agent for Mason, one to which Mason was “willed” so to speak. Someone to pick up the mantle and carry on for Kate who was off doing…well, whatever it is that Kate’s doing (what is Kate up to anyway?!).

Since we needed the new character to be able to jump into the fray feet first, we worked out the idea to reveal that she’s been there from the beginning, hiding in the shadows, taking notes, biding her time until she was needed.

Yes, she. There was really no question about the fact that the new cast member would be a woman. We liked the dynamic we created, and wanted to keep that. Plus, most sitcoms out there are male-dominated. And the ones that aren’t seem to be very…well…vagina-centric (though, nowadays, most male-dominated sitcoms are penis-centric, so…). We like the idea that our show has more women in it, but isn’t a show focused on gender. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.

Anyway, the idea that we would have to put our new character (Lou) into some of our old scenes was something that appealed to me from the start. I like that kind of thing. I thought it would be fun.

And it was!

THE END.

Why did Steve want me to tell this “story?” there’s really not much to it after all, is there? We restaged some old shots and put Lou into them. Here, end of story.

There were a few stumbling blocks, sure. Tanya and Corrie seemed to have pawned all of their old clothes (probably to pay for drugs). So we had to dress them in “reasonable facsimiles” of their former costumes. However, due to my genius camera work, it went mostly unnoticed.

Sure, you could freeze-frame some of the flashback scenes and see that Ashleigh isn’t wearing the same shirt in the alley scene that she was in Episode 2. That it is instead one of my white dress shirts with the collar tucked under and that her hair is actually tied up in a bun being that it’s about 20 feet longer now than it was then.

You could (if you had the “eaglest” of eyes) also see that Jennifer’s shirt is a different color in the party scene from Episode 1, and that, in actuality, the geography of the scene is all wrong.

You might also see in the fumigation scene from Episode 4 that Guy’s jacket is not the same, and that the “puppet” laying in front of him is really Tanya wearing a red shirt and with very “color-corrected” blond hair (Sam, the Puppet, was off having adventures with Kate and could not participate in the re-shoot).

It’s possible that you’ve already noticed that “Eric” fleeing from Mason’s apartment in the night-vision camera from Episode 5 is not played by Joel Bryant, but is in actuality…me. I say that you may have noticed it because it’s a bravura performance. It really stands out! Even with my face covered by napkins, you can see the talent (and that, Joel, is how it’s done)!

We were able to bring Stephen William Moore back to reprise his role as Sid though! Which is good, because no one poops like Stephen! He’s a natural. Some say he’s been doing it all his life!

And it shows!

There is one thing though that will definitely not stand out. And that is Mason in the laundry room from Episode 3. Yes, I had to recreate the pose and the costume. But, seeing that I don’t need the drugs, I still had my costume. And seeing that I’m a brilliant mimic, especially when it comes to imitating myself, something I do nearly all the time, I was easily capable of recreating the pose.

It doesn’t hurt that I have literally not aged a day since we shot Episode 3.

Not.

A.

Day.

And something else that you can’t tell from the video is the fact that – seriously – the weekend following our shoot in the laundry room, the apartment managers replaced the old laundry room door with a very different, black, hobo-deterring, security gate. And would have replaced it the week before we shot if it weren’t for some kind of worker confusion (the only time worker confusion has ever worked in our favor around here).

So there were cracks in the veneer of our flashback shoot, but like I said, you’ll never see them because only a moron would point them out.

And only a complete moron would tell people to watch the video on iTunes or the “Hi-Resolution” version on our site to see it more clearly.

Thankfully, I’m not a moron.

What I am is a composer. And, while you won’t have to suffer through it now, I’ll be posting the “Distractionation Bossa” from our last video here, in its entirety, next week! Look (listen) for it! I play the flute (thanks for the flute, mom)!

What I also am is an editor. An editor working on our next short. And I’m about to give you a preview!

Here you go:

The short will hit the internet on September 15th! And it’s funny.

ROBB

The Romance of Blind Dogma

2008-09-02T14:19:00.001-07:00

Happy post Labor Day, everyone! And if you live in a country other than the U.S., no, it makes no sense.

I of course was supposed to post yesterday, but as it was a holiday and I spent a good portion of the day hanging out with the LFTI cast making secret props for our next shoot, I ran out of time. So you get me today.

I hope you have all enjoyed the new short that went up yesterday, "The Distractionation Index." This is my first writing and directing gig on LFTI, so this is a good jumping off point to talk about the Lou shorts in more detail.

So you certainly understand by now that the first short, "*subject to change," was meant to be a "fake" episode. When we came up with the idea of Lou and who she was and how she would interact with the characters, we decided that instead of a full-blown episode dealing exclusively with Lou's entrance, it'd be fun to do a series of shorts that set up her relationship to each of the other main characters. To start that off, however, we needed Lou's grand entrance.

We came up with the idea that the first short starts off as the most ridiculous episode of LFTI—or perhaps any sitcom—ever. Each character comes into the apartment and adds to the insanity in more and more eye-rolling ways until it's time for Kate's entrance, and then... uh, that's not Kate. "Who the hell are you?" As you know by now, Lou brings the proceedings to a halt (thankfully), reveals a bit of her background, solves everyone's lunatic problems, and then is off in a flash. Oh, except that she creates difficulties of her own, thus fitting perfectly into Mason's world.

The flashbacks are really the core of "*subject to change," and they were the most fun to create. Except my Arby's hat. Eh, I take it back... the Arby's hat was a pain in the ass to create. That's why I'm going to be damn sure to wear it for all future semi-formal occasions.

As pain-in-the-assish as the Arby's hat was, and as fun as the Lou flashbacks were to shoot, I'll leave those subjects for another time. The flashbacks alone deserve a full post. Who knows? Someone else might write about them sooner than you think. Or not. Really, we don't plan these posts out as good as all that.

So this week is the first of the four follow-up shorts showcasing Lou in her escapades with the rest of the cast. Thanks to Lou's character already being so strongly defined, I got the idea that it would be very funny to see Lou showing flash cards to someone as some kind of useless but very serious but not at all that serious test. The funniest pairing for that was obviously Jennifer or Guy, but Robb already had a hilarious Lou/Guy short, so Jennifer it was. Writing the short was actually very easy, because the main ideas were solid, I guess, and so the absurdity of the situation was all that had to be invented. I can invent absurdity well.

I will probably not be asked this question, so I'll answer it to be sure I never am: Do the flash cards have any deep meaning? No. The only questions I asked when thinking up the flash cards were, "What's amusing to put on a flash card?" and "How can the humor of the cards build?" The cards were not thought about in connection with the actual dialogue. Which leads to an interesting psychological puzzle: The cards appear to be random yet symbolic when paired with the dialogue. Since I claim the cards were dreamed up mostly randomly, does this mean my own subconscious mind was at work inventing the proper flash cards for the proper moments in the script? If so, what does this short say about me and my mind? Discuss. 20 points.

During shooting in the side yard of the apartment, we were assaulted with the usual assortment of environmental sounds, including cars and planes and birds. We even got a sample of someone's personal music playlist. Because of this, Robb thought it'd be fun to use those sounds and even add to them. Thus the surreal and faintly distracting noises you may or may not hear underneath the dialogue of "Distractionation." Robb might have some fun and interesting things to say regarding the sound AND MUSIC *AHEM AHEM* he created here.

Not only was the short my first LFTI directorial effort, but it was my first since film school. I love and respect all the LFTI cast, so it was interesting trying to balance my original concept for the short, the new and fun stuff the actors brought in their acting satchels 'o goodness, and the realities of real-world shooting. I know I could have done some things differently, but I'm very happy with the short. I can't wait to direct some more and learn from my mistakes.

"The Distractionation Index" is probably our most pseudo-experimental LFTI video yet, and I'm glad everyone was so supportive of it. I'm also glad it's getting good feedback so far. A british friend of mine was particularly fond of it, which is the best compliment we can receive.

I think the next Lou short is going to be a big hit as well, and we can't wait for that to go up on September 15th!

Oh, and P.S.: Japanese Noh mask and phrenology chart down, bone with a bow, Red Vines, and romantic mood lighting to go.

Thank You

2008-08-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

We just want to send out a great big THANKS! to everyone who commented on this post over at TV Week.

We're seriously blushing over here, you guys said some really nice things about our show and the flattery is overwhelming!

I can't remember what else I was supposed to write about today. My parents are visiting this weekend and my mind is distracted with thoughts of "how quickly can I clean my apartment?" and "What would be a fun thing to do with my parents tomorrow?"

Oh yeah, our newest video will be online this coming Monday. Make sure you check it out.

And, we're already in rehearsals for our next video. It may have to do with an upcoming holiday - which would explain why we're getting together to make hats this weekend. I can't tell you what kind of hats - that would give it away! You'll just have to wait to be impressed by our awesome hat making.

Tanya

You Can Conte on LFTI

2008-08-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by the title of this post, I’ve either had a stroke or I’m referring to Paolo Conte, incomparable Italian composer, singer and pianist.

The fact that I’ve just made myself giggle as I typed the word “pianist” coupled with the fact that I’m not sure which of those two things is true leads me to favor “stroke.”

Bunny banana hammock bi-quarterly.

Okay. Sorry about that. I just got back from having an MRI. Turns out that I’m fine. No visible signs of stroke. So that’s good. Though I’m uninsured, so once the bill gets here for the MRI, I expect an actual stroke to follow shortly thereafter.

I remain confused about the reasons that I typed “bunny banana hammock bi-quarterly” however. Since it wasn’t stroke-related, it’s possibly a magazine I subscribed to at one time or another.

Probably in college.

All right, having ruled out a stroke, it follows that this post will have something to do with Paolo Conte.

And it does.

When I was writing the music for our first “Lou Short” (more to come!) I decided that what it needed was the exuberant feel, flow and pathos of a Paolo Conte tune. Since I was unable to secure the rights to an actual Paolo Conte tune, I decided that what the short really needed was a cheep knockoff of a Paolo Conte tune. Something that had has the essence of Paolo Conte, without the cost or competence of Paolo Conte.

And here is the end result. Tune that can be heard partially at the end of *subject to change. You can hear it here in its entirety.

Hope you enjoy it:

In Other News:

The embedded played above (the one that you just listened to the “Paolo Conte” tune with…you did listen to it right?) is courtesy of a site called ourstage.com. It’s a site where independent artists, unknowns and amateurs (me!) can upload and distribute our music on the internet.

Well, a couple months ago I posted the LFTI theme song; Fine Print. Ourstage has contests that you can participate in and it’s free to enter (and really easy), so I went ahead and submitted the song. Well, it finished in the middle of the pack during the month I submitted it (no surprise since I didn’t promote it…much like this show!). But, for some strange reason, this month it’s reached #8 in the rock competition.

Maybe we can take it to #5 (I’m a realist)!

But I need your help. Listen to the song. Or go through the process of voting at ourstage .com. But the listening numbers definitely help it. I would love your support. Just click on the hyperlinks in this paragraph. The Quarterfinals end August 29th!

Here’s the embedded player again (to make it easier to listen to).

Thanks!

And Speaking of Support!

TV Week is asking people their opinion for the best online web video creators. And we think that LFTI should be included. Why not go to this page and comment? Tell them about LFTI and why you like it! We’re the only full-length original online sitcom left on the web! It’s time the world (or at least TV Week) took notice!

Represent! We Conte on you!

And thank you for your support!

(I just had a flashback to Bartles and Jaymes)

ROBB

This is Not a Very Good Blog Post

2008-08-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with Earthlink because my DSL is, once again, incredibly slow. Verizon is really screwing me on this DSL service! (Earthlink just resells Verizon, you see. At least to me.) Posting this is a painful experience tonight, let me tell you.

But that's neither there nor here.

Robb suggested I write about how we all took turns running camera for "*subject to change," the first Lou short, released Monday. Did I say "first"? Yes I did! That's right, gents and gams, we're releasing 4 more shorts every other Monday! All of them center around our new and, we think, fantastic character, Lou. The next short is up September 1, so be on the lookout!

Tanya talked about Lou and Laura on Saturday, but I just wanted to re-state that this huge change for the show was a big challenge for us. We have some wonderful fans, people who watch every single episode and short and music video we've put out, and we did not want to let them down in any way. So far, the response has been great! We were so excited once we came up with Lou, and once we got Laura on board, and now, it seems, so are you!

By "you" I mean our fans. Because only fans read our blog. Which makes our blog-reading fans even double extra super special.

Robb has been working hard on the next short, which will be my own first writing and directing credit for LFTI. He's done some great stuff with it, and it's going to, we hope, be as well received as our first Lou video. I can't wait 'til you all see it.

Speaking of "it," did you know the contest winner's name is in the credits of "*subject to change"? A big, marvy congrats to Pie Wrangler Eric, who has no idea how much pie is a part of our lives here at LFTI.

Speaking of "contest," you now must realize which 4 of the 9 "true" contest items have already shown up in this no-longer "episode." "Guv'nuh. Guv'neh?", the forty-three blue-and-white four-color pens, Gavin MacLeod, and the minor e-mail miscommunication are all off the table. That leaves... well, the others, which I'm too lazy to type out again. Two of them show up in the next short. Tension! Drama! Intrigue!

Well, it seems I've gone off on a ramblin' spree and not talked about how we shot "*subject to change." But don't you worry. I can tackle that topic later, when I'm not all ADD on everyone's asses. Sorry, Robb! It's already 15 minutes past my newly-instituted bedtime, my DSL is still sucking, and my neighbors are being loud as usual. Time to log out, wash up, pop in the ol' earplugs, and get some tossin' and turnin' out of the way.

Introducing Laura

2008-08-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

By now I'm sure you've seen our newest video and understand why we kept putting the word episode in quotes every time we described it.

I'm very proud to introduce Laura Neufeld as our newest main cast member - playing the part of Lou, Mason's new agent now that Kate has disappeared/run away to represent Dixon/whatever you may think.

I can't tell you how excited I am to have Laura in the cast. I met her when I auditioned for Culver City Public Theater's 2002 Season. From the first time I was in callbacks with her, I knew she was someone whose acting I would admire. She was so friendly, open, fun to be around and welcoming to new people. Laura is one of those people who makes you feel like a better actor when working with her.

Robb, Steve, Laura and myself were all together for the first time in a production of "Hotel Paradiso" at the Morgan Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica where yet again I had a blast working with her. Lucky for me, we stayed in touch (although somewhat loosely) through the years.

When we decided to do an internet show, we knew we had several friends that we wanted to use in our cast. Laura was one of those people that we kept not using because we knew we wanted the part we gave her to really showcase what a talented actor Laura is. Still, it was something that we talked about quite a bit, the fact that we really wanted to use Laura, but the timing just hadn't worked out right and we were all frustrated by this.

I can't believe how right it ended up working. Replacing Kathy and the character of Kate was no small task. We had several conversations about what we wanted to do with the character of Mason's agent, agreeing right away that we wanted the part to stay female. There was the idea tossed around to make Mason's agent much younger than the rest of us, but that idea was quickly tossed aside when we realized this was the perfect opportunity to finally get to have Laura in our cast, if she would have us!

Okay, I'm overlooking the fact that we actually DID use Laura in Episode 7. If you've watched the "Introducing Lou" short, you'll see that Laura and her wonderful daughter Sophie were in our baby parade, although fate was on our side that Laura wasn't really seen in the episode - but we did get a couple of takes where you could see her - which obviously came in handy for our short!

I can't tell you how much fun it's already been having Laura around. It's no easy feat to join a cast like ours, where everyone's been working together for years now and Laura has managed to do so with great aplomb. Not too mention the fact that we really threw her into the middle of things quickly, we shot quite soon after casting her - several shorts in which she is the driving force. Again, Laura rose to the occasion.

So, we welcome Laura with open arms and look forward to many, many episodes together.

Tanya

Surprise! Not Just Yet!

2008-08-15T14:40:00.001-07:00

We've hinted around a little that there are some new things happening around the set of LFTI.

Would you like another sneak peak?

Would you?

Okay fine, I will take your silence as a yes.

Here's another hint at a big change coming up on LFTI.

I wish I could tell you more!

I'm sure you have so many questions. What is going on in this photo? Does Mason become a lawyer? Is Jennifer carrying her tools around in a briefcase now instead of her toolbelt? Has Ashleigh become a pen salesman? What exactly is in that pile on the table? All questions will be answered soon.

I'm so excited for Monday!

This is bigger than the new couch, the new paintings, even bigger than the "Real Bigfoot" those guys in Georgia claim to have found.

Only 2 more days until the big reveal!!

Tanya

LFTI Contest Scandal Exposed!

2008-08-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, it was announced that Lilyempire12 was the winner of LFTI’s “True or False” contest.

However, there have been “developments.”

Lilyempire’s stunning victory in the final stages of the competition did indeed seem like history in the making. Even Robert & Maria’s spectacular clutch efforts fell short as Lilyempire strode confidently across the fish line.

It seemed too good to be true.

And it was.

In a routine post-competition test, Lilyempire12 tested positive for “contest enhancing substances.” Substances thought to produce truer “trues” and falser “falses.”

Lilyempire12 also tested positive for “being my mom.”

That’s right, Lilyempire12 is my mother.

In fairness to her, there were no written restrictions placed on the competition. Family members were not prohibited from entering. “Officially.”

“Unofficially” however, we were just going to allow our family members to enter unless they won, in which case the winning family member was to stripped of their title and thrown out of the competition via a confusing series of blog posts.

So you see, we’re just following the rules.

So, in accordance with the unwritten guidelines of LFTI’s first contest ever, the producers of Life from the Inside are pleased to announce the real official winner:

Eric!

No longer simply the first runner up, Eric will get his name in the credits of our next “episode!”

There’s already a spot carved out for you, Eric. So stay tuned Monday to see your name in all its glory! Far more fabulous than you could have ever imagined!

Congratulations, Eric! You are truly deserving of this great honor!

(Even though my mom totally kicked your butt! And everyone else’s too! Way to go, Mom!)

And, Eric, be sure to shoot us an email to tell us how you would like to be credited!

Also, I would like to thank the other awesome contestants who took the time to answer 18 random questions to become the very first contestants in our very first contest!

Dave

Joe

Theresa

Mary

Lilyempire12 (mom)

Robert & Maria

You people are the best! Stay tuned for more contests!

New “Episode” on Monday!

ROBB

"Scandal!"

2008-08-12T13:37:00.001-07:00

Behold our attention-grabbing headline! We seem to have a scandal on our hands!

Actually, not really. It's not really a scandal. It's not even a "scandal." Let's just say there are "issues" with the "results" of "our" "contest." Is that enough vaguey-quotes for you?

Robb will be posting more about the contest "thingy" tomorrow, but I just wanted to let you know that we are very excited. Not about the "scandal" "itself," but about having a "contest" in the "first" place. We're also very excited that our upcoming "episode" is almost upon us!

People living under rocks or in caves tend to be very well informed about the goings on here at the LFTI blog, but in case you've been living a full and rich life lately, you may have missed the results of our contest, which ended last night. (The contest ended last night, not the results. Please excuse me if there was any confusion on this point stemming from my lack of grammatical finesse.)

While the contest "results," though "announced," may "be" in "doubt," the revelation as to which listed items will be in our upcoming "episode" is without a doubt. It's doubtless. Undoubtable. And intriguing! Go see the list for yourself if you haven't already. Which of these things will be in our latest "episode"? Let me tell you, here, now, following this colon:

Bone with a bow
Red Vines
Japanese Noh mask
"Guv'nuh. Guv'neh?"
Forty-three blue-and-white four-color pens
Phrenology chart
Romantic mood lighting
Gavin MacLeod
Minor e-mail miscommunication

Could that be more intriguing? No! It couldn't! Well, maybe. But only if it were wearing a trench coat and smoking a filterless cigarette beneath a flickering streetlamp on a rain-slicked street corner at the black-and-white edge of Nowhereville.

The good news—and there is good news, friends!—is that the first part of our new and exciting, non-trench-coat-wearing episode-in-quotes will be live next Monday, August 18th. Can you believe it? We hardly can. It's been a long road, but we believe it's well worth it. We hope you believe it, too.

So starting Monday, and continuing every other Monday following for ten weeks ("Ten?" "Ten!"), you'll see all of the items listed above. Be looking for them! I can reveal that fully four of them will be in Monday's video.

What won't be in the video Monday, but will be in the follow-up parts? Aside from the remaining five items? Excellent question. The below-listed are what you can look forward to in parts two through five. ("Two through five?" "Two through five!")

Contractual amour
A splendid view
Petite Sirah
A dubious psychological examination

Boy, I'll bet you can't wait. Hopefully you can't wait so much that you've forgotten entirely about our little "scandal." If, for some reason, you have not forgotten about our little "scandal," I suggest you tune in tomorrow, when everything will be explained and 100% "transparency" will "blossom" like "mushrooms" in "poop."

"See" "you" "then!"

The Contest is Ending! Get Your Entry In Today!

2008-08-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Just what the headline says. Yes, the last day to enter the contest is Monday! That means on Tuesday, we'll announce the winner and tell you which of the 18 items on the list are coming up in our next vids. And the next vids are coming up much sooner than you could possibly imagine.

Go enter now!

Sneaky Peek!

2008-08-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hey, Insiders (or Lifties or Lefties if you prefer…actually, this parenthetical brings up an interesting question…what do you prefer? Do you have a preference? Does anyone really care? Let us know.)(Sorry, that last parenthetical got the best of me.)(Perhaps I should just start a new paragraph?)(A cleaner paragraph, uncluttered with junk in parentheses?)(Yes, I think I will)(In case you were interested), read the next paragraph!

Hey, Insiders (see above), I’ve been working like crazy to get the next installment of LFTI online. It’s chock full of surprises, interesting twists, daring rescues and a talking wymaraner on horseback!

Okay, only a couple of those things are true. Can you guess which? Maybe we’ll turn it into a contest?! (No, we won’t. We already have a contest like that. You can get your name in the credits! Be sure to enter because it’s going to end very soon)

As a small token of our esteem, and because we’d like to build a little buzz ( a very little buzz), I’m going to give you a small glimpse behind the curtain. A sneak peek at the inner “life” of Life from the Inside. An “Inside” look, if you will (will you?).

You’re about to be treated to LFTI as I (Robb) mostly see it:

As a series of bars and tiny windows.

I’m sorry, did I make that sound like a prison? Oh, yes, I can see how you may have gotten the wrong idea. Hmmm. Purely unintentional, I can assure you.

I was speaking, of course, about Final Cut Pro, whose interface is series of bars and tiny windows. The horizontal bars of its timeline and tiny windows of its display (on my computer anyway) are the sieve through which I most frequently view our show.

Day in and day out. With very little respite. An occasional furlough now and again. Perhaps a stroll through the yard.

Again, in no way am I implying that an editors life is at all comparable to that of a prisoner’s. Most editors sit in tiny cubicles or cramped darkened rooms from which they are isolated from the rest of humanity. Rooms in which no natural light dare enter. Often times wallowing in their own heat, stink and refuse.

And prison cells generally have air conditioning.

Plus, I personally, edit this show at home. So, if anything, I might be compared – if at all – to a “house arrest” prisoner. You know, like Martha Stewart was. Except with about 74 fewer rooms.

See. It’s all fun! And just about the most exciting thing you’ll ever witness! That’s why on all those “behind the scenes” featurettes they have on DVDs, they always show you so much o the editing process.

It’s just so darned compelling!

And I’m going to share some of it with you today. You’re so lucky!

But don’t worry, for fear that it’s just too much excitement for one person to take, I have limited this BTS look to exactly one screen capture (you’re welcome).

And here it is:

Now, I can’t give too much away, but with some detective work, you can glean certain details.

For instance, you’ll note that I’m in it. So you know it’ll be awesome.

You can also see that I’ve labeled the tapes “IL.” That shows that I’m incredibly organized.

You can further see that this sequence is called “Cut 2.” Which intimates that there was at least one cut before it. A testament to my tireless quest for perfection.

You’ll notice that somehow the words “to change” are involved.

And, perhaps most importantly, if you look real hard at the bottom of the screengrab, you’ll spot a sound file marked “Birds.” This is the biggest clue of them all. Is it important? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just homage to the Birdman of Alcatraz? Drawing further attention to the fact that editing all day and prison life are entirely different experiences.

So, be sure to stay tuned for the next installment of LFTI! I just got the call for exercise. The yard’s open. I’m going to trade my neighbor 2 packs of smokes to do my laundry.

What a bargain!

ROBB

Also: The release date for the release date of the next episode will be released soon!

Sorry! No Time!

2008-08-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, I can not post today. Yes, I know, this is horrible news, and puts me in a bad light, but I have some very good reasons. You might think it's because Robb's birthday is today, but that has nothing to do with it.

Not at all.

There are four reasons why I will not be writing a post today.

1) Yesterday, this happened:

followed swiftly by this:

2) Today, for reasons mostly unconnected with the events of yesterday, I am in Cupertino. Obviously, I can not post to the LFTI blog while I'm in northern California. It simply makes no sense to do so.

3) This evening, the following was in evidence:

No one was hurt.

4) 461 people have entered our contest. The overwhelming response has caused mass panic and the illegal hiring of five interns.

So you see, it's not that I don't want to write a post. I really do. I thoroughly enjoy writing for the blog. But what with all these distractions, plus the final shooting day of our new "episode" coming up Saturday, I simply can not find the time to do so. I hope you'll find forgiveness in your heart. If not, then might I suggest a great class at The Learning Annex, "Stress, Environment, and the Modern You: Delegation, Kindness, Forgiveness, Tact: Four Traits for Soul Cleansing: A Post-Holistic Approach." This wonderful 30-minute seminar is taught by the very present Murray Seacruft, late of Pablo Fanques Fair.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have only moments to defuse the following situation:

Represent!

2008-07-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

The Wonderful World of the Wide Web is filled with ceWEBrities (or WEBlebrities, if you prefer). And the World Wide Comic Book-Type People World…or whatever…is filled with COMlebrities (I’m hoping that one starts catching on).

Last weekend a good deal of both were gathered together in one place for the sole purpose of sitting behind rickety folding tables cluttered with kooky crap.

The place? San Diego. “The Big S.D.” The Diego by the San.

The reason? I said it earlier, weren’t you paying attention? The rickety table thing?

…And Comic-Con.

Everyone who is anyone was at ComicCon – or was at the very least represented by an official proxy at Comic-Con.

How do I know?

Because LFTI was at Comiccon.

That’s right! Steve and myself went to Comic Con to represent the show (at least that’s what it’ll say on our taxes). Tanya, refusing to wear the sexy metallic Princess Leia in Jabba’s Palace costume, was forced to stay behind in LA.

This was my first time at the convention and I learned two things at ComicCon this year:

1. There are about 10,000 different, yet apparently acceptable, ways of spelling Comic-Con.

2. There is no stink like the stink of the bathrooms at Comiccon. Evidentally $6 pretzels and waxy pizza, when combined in the stomach of a dude wearing a storm trooper costume, create toxic gasses that could terraform Mars.

Steve and I had a great time, shuffling through crowds, getting free stuff, hobnobbing with contemporaries.

We even stopped by to see the folks from The Guild. No, gentle Guild fan, we did not meet Felicia Day. She wasn’t manning the booth when we strolled by to say “hi.” In fact, she’s become such a huge celebrity now with the release of Dr. Horrible (quite a few Dr. Horrible costumes at Comic-Con by the way), that I’m surprised she had any time to greet her Guild fans (but she did).

But we did get to chat briefly with Vincent Caso, Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis. They were all very nice and promised to watch our show (note to Vincent, Sandeep and Jeff: if your Google Alert goes off and you read this, there’s a link to our show on this page…a few actually. In case you lost the business cards we gave you. And it was nice to meet you! An additional note to Jeff: If I had known that you had written a film that’s about to be released I would have heartily congratulated you. That’s very cool. Congrats!)

They were busy signing autographs and generally being ceWEBrities. Cool, approachable, ceWEBrities. So check out The Guild! You may not have heard of it. Yeah, they’re a pretty obscure organization. Give ‘em a shot. Support those kids.

Steve also took some pictures while at Comic-Con. Very interesting, poignant and personally inspiring pictures to chronicle our time in San Diego.

Here they are:

All 4 of them:

This a picture (above) of Steve pretending to be Iron Man. Personally, I think it’s a pretty poor imitation, but the comic-drunk patrons of Comic-Con (not pictured) seemed to think it was okay. I said “Man of Steel?! More like Man of Teal…blue design aesthetic…‘cause you’re a pansy…!” And I laughed. Until Steve informed me that Superman is the “Man of Steel.” Which makes no sense at all to me since Iron Man is made of…plastic.

I dressed up like Jabba the Hut (above)(Tanya, I could have used you in that Leia costume!). I have gained a bit of weight lately. So I had that working for me. Sure the costume was a bit lazy. But, in my defense, I had very little time to prepare. Hey, at least I made the effort to find a dead alien frog-looking thing to eat! I think it made the costume.

This is a picture (still above) of the MST3K planet that I forced Steve to take because…well because MST3K kicks ass, that’s why. This photo also makes me personally responsible for exactly 25% of the photos taken at Comic-Con. I think that officially makes me a “muse.”

This is Peter Mayhew (don’t keep making me tell you where the photo is). He played Chewbacca (what a Wookie!). He was there to sign autographs and take cash from Star Wars geeks. Did he sign anything for us? Heck no. We don’t have the kind of money he was asking for autographs. Yes, he charged for autographs. Big deal! What do you want?! He freed the galaxy from the Empire’s icy grip! That was free (except for the money he got for rescuing Princess Leia…but he stuck around for free)! Intergalactic warfare: Gratis. Putting up with comic book geeks: $150.

And that was Comic-Con 2008. Hope you enjoyed this personal glimpse into our exciting lives!

We really spread the word around about LFTI! It was a rousing promotional success!

ROBB

No music today. But I’m working on some for the next video that you might like. It’ll be here to torture you soon enough!

For Want of 30, the 24 was Lost

2008-07-28T14:25:00.001-07:00

Things are going full-speed ahead over at the contest. Yes, we have three whole entries! Around here, that's like a stampede. Thanks to eric, Dave, and joe for entering so far. We know there are hundreds more of you who want to enter but are intimidated by your chances of winning. I can not re-iterate enough that the prize is really not worth stressing out about. I mean, as cool and exciting as it is to get your name in the credits for our next video, really, it's not like we'll be curing cancer in your name, or giving you a free trip on Virgin Galactic. So don't let the pressure dissuade you from entering. Go ahead! It's fun! Even if you get them all wrong, you will have gained an important cache of knowledge.

Speaking of prizes, wouldn't it be cool if we could give out a DVD of our first 6 episodes as a contest prize? Why, yes, it certainly would. Well today I will blog the saga of why we so far do not have an LFTI DVD available to buy or win.

The one item holding our DVD back is Episode 6. This is the only episode that was shot with two cameras simultaneously, both of them HDV jobbies. Scott, the director, had fantastic access to these fancy cameras, as well as cameramen and post facilities, so Episode 6 was the only episode that we've shot in high def and on multiple cameras.

Our normal set-up, in case you're wondering, is a single Panasonic AG-DVX100A camera, which we use to shoot at standard-def 24p anamorphic.

Unfortunately, for reasons pretty much unknown, one of the HDV cameras shooting Episode 6 was set to 30fps, not 24fps. That made half of the footage used in the episode look like it came from some terrible soap opera. Online, you really can't see the difference unless you have very sharp eyes, like the eyes not of a potato. However, as soon as Episode 6 is seen on a TV, it looks horrifying.

Robb started the DVD production process, but I took it over in an effort to spare him the extra work. That made me the one in charge of finding out how to turn Episode 6's 30fps shots back into 24fps. Of course, even though we shoot at 24, the video is really actually 30. The camera does some processing to get the 24 to fit onto 30, giving it that "film look." So really what I had to do was find something that would take our 30 footage, toss out some frames, then double up on other frames so it looked like the footage had been faux-24-ed in-camera.

Got it? I'd go into more detail, but you really don't want me to do that, do you?

Okay, so I needed a plug-in to Final Cut Pro that would do something like I described above. After some asking around on Apple's forums, I got the recommendation to use a Nattress plug-in, Film Effects. There were a zillion settings for the Film Effects G Film filter, so I had to test a bunch of them out to see what would give us the best 30-to-24 conversion. For each round of tests, the samples had to be output to DVD, because you can really only see the results for realsies on a bona-fide TV.

The process of testing the plug-in settings did not go uninterrupted. We shot an episode somewhere in there, and lost a cast member, and had to re-jigger the show, so work on this Episode 6 conversion had to wait.

However, I have since nailed down the best setting to use, and now all I have left to do is... take the entire episode, go through it shot-by-shot, isolate all the 30fps footage, then apply the G Film filter and render the whole thing. This is what I need to do, and though I have a good fourth of the episode separated, it will take some time to do the rest.

That, in a clam shell, is why we do not have a DVD of Life from the Inside Episodes 1–6. It's coming, but it's not here yet.

It has been incredibly frustrating, this 24/30fps thing. Why one camera was shooting one way and another was shooting the other—across multiple shoot days—is beyond me. It is all water under the Nattress, however, and with just a bit more work, our first DVD will be ready for your viewing pleasure.

Until then, how about getting your name in the credits? Sounds pretty dang swell, huh? Almost as good as curing cancer or flying in space? Then high-tail it on over and enter our contest! Fame awaits!

Our First Contest!

2008-07-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

NOTE: The contest is now over, but go visit the contest post to see the answers and find out who is the big, big, big, big winner!

* * * * *

Yes, my last post has officially turned into a contest! Isn't that exciting? Okay, so it's a pretty simple contest, but Jessica Simpson is simple, and look how much people love her?

So how do you participate in this contest? Easy!

Go visit the original post here.
Read it.
Contemplate the list therein.
Choose which of the 18 items you feel will be in our upcoming "episode," and which will not.
Write a comment on that original post (not this one!), putting the number of the item, and then TRUE or T for the items you think will be in the "episode" or FALSE or F for those you think won't be. (Click here to get to the comments.)
Wait for glory and fame to come your way!

Okay, so how are we going to dole out glory and fame, considering we have none ourselves? Easy! The winner's name will be put in the credits of our very next video (which, incidentally, is our next "episode"). You can't beat that with a wet stick! Imagine how much cooler that prize is than 52 boxes of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat!

Ah, you've caught the flaw in my logic. We have no glory, nor any fame, so how will attaching your name to the show get you both of those things? Er... well... uh...

Look! A condor!

Here are a few notes about the contest.

In order to post your prize-winning comment, you have to have a Google ID (Google, Gmail, Blogger, etc.) or an OpenID (see here... you may already have one). Spammers have forced us to require this. Take it up with them.

The contest will remain open approximately 2 weeks. We will close it in enough time to get the winner's name in the credits.

Please only enter once. I mean, really, are glory and fame worth cheating for? History demonstrates, quite obviously, that they ain't.

Entries become the property of Hank Yokel, who will use them in his country store to attract new business and up-sell customers on feed and livery.

Have fun! Good luck! Godspeed!

Gonna’ Live in the Sea, Girl

2008-07-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all you cats and kittens, grab your socks and get ready to rock ‘cause LFTI’s got stacks and stacks of the best on wax! So, put your ear to the speaker hole and prepare yourself for some rock and roll!

Awooooo!

Why, why, why am I talking like a circa 1950s radio DJ? Two reasons:

1) It’s incredibly fun and you should try it sometime.

2) I’ve got some music for you today!

Oh, stop it. Quit your complaining! You’ll like this one. It’s a 50s style doo-wop love song…about a puppet.

I know, I know, you’re saying to yourself “Jeez, Daddy-O, if I have to hear one more 50s style doo-wop love song about a puppet I’m going to de-bobby my socks and un-poodle my skirt – but for good!”

But this one is different, I swear! It’s unlike any other 50s style doo-wop love song about a puppet that you’ve ever heard! Or your money back!

It’s from Episode 4! Way, way back. It’s in the oldies style and now it’s an actual oldie! But you didn’t hear the whole song in episode 4, far from it. You only heard a very small part of it (the beginning part to be exact). It’s a tune called “Dream Girl.”

Need to be reminded? Here (at about 1:58):

(Also, if you happen to watch the whole thing, you’ll hear the new “LFTI Theme Song” played in it as underscore music. It was “Mason’s Theme” from this episode.)

Anyway…

Grab your chick, hit the bricks and get ready to be sick! (This patter isn’t as easy as it seems.)

“Dream Girl” is hitting the airwaves!

ALSO: It’s official. Steve’s previous post is actually becoming a contest! Stay tuned for details. As well as a cool banner link to the contest to make it look…well…cooler.

ROBB

True or False? Only Time Will Tell

2008-07-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

NEW NOTE: The contest is now over. See the comments for the answers and to find out who won.

* * * * *

NOTE: If you came here from the contest banner or another link, you may first want to read about how this post is now a contest. Wild, eh?

* * * * *

Today saw the release of our first LFTI Extras video. (It's also on YouTube and iTunes.) I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it. Yes, we made it. We shot the material surrounding the extras, to give them a vehicle in which to shine. Like pineapple tidbits in aspic.

Oh, but do not you fret, you fretless wonder, you! We are well on the way to fresh, new content! Fun and exciting content! Content that we can't wait to show you! In fact, we spent 25 hours this weekend shooting the next exciting installment of LFTI. With the set reaching 1,091°, it was an often grueling shoot. But everyone persevered, and we have some unique and funny stuff. At least we think we do. I suppose you'll all be the judge of that.

In keeping with our recent infuriatingly frustrating penchant for secrecy, I will talk no more of what we shot this weekend except to give you the following phrases. Some of these are somehow connected to our upcoming "episode," and some of them are not. Can you guess which is which?

1. Bone with a bow.

2. Red vines.

3. Chicken wattle.

4. Japanese Noh mask.

5. Cup of hot ketchup.

6. Thigh-high chukka boots.

7. "Guv'nuh. Guv'neh?"

8. Dick Cavett.

9. The Wizards of Waverly Cracker.

10. Forty-three blue-and-white four-color pens.

11. Phrenology chart.

12. Skee-Ball Certificate of Achievement.

13. Romantic mood lighting.

14. Gavin MacLeod.

15. Minor e-mail miscommunication.

16. "Two two two mints in one!"

17. Missing unicycle license.

18. Maury Povich.

There. Now, if we've done our job thus far with LFTI, you won't be able to tell which of these are in the upcoming "episode" and which are not. Feel free to post your guesses in the comments. Whoever gets the most answers correct before the next videos air will win a special prize! We have no idea what that special prize might be, so I won't tell you what it is. Isn't that infuriatingly frustrating?

Go! Guess! Then enjoy those pins and needles you'll be sitting on for the next few weeks.

UPDATE: Yes, friends, we've decided to make this a real contest. The prize? Getting your name in the credits of our upcoming "episode"! Really, in the scheme of things, it would be impossible for this to be any cooler... if you take cash, trips, cars, jewelry, or any other material good off the table.

So I've added numbers to each of the above items in the list. All you have to do is post a comment below and give us the number and if it's TRUE (it's in the upcoming "episode") or FALSE (it's nowhere to be found in the upcoming "episode.")

Good luck!

It's Friday Already?

2008-07-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

I completely had myself convinced today that I didn't need to blog because it was only Thursday.

Which is really sad when you think about how much I've longed for it to be Friday all week. Add to that the fact that I was informed I could leave work an hour early today as a treat "just because it's Friday" and you have complete proof that I've lost my mind.

Why so scatter-brained you ask? Some would say it's a constant state of being for me. But I hate those people, so let's not give them any more thought.

It's actually because I'm always in a constant state of mental confusion when we are in production. This is what happens when you produce and star in your own projects, you completely lose your mind trying to figure out all of the details, on top of memorizing lines and worrying about your own performance. I've had several people stop me this week and ask if I'm okay as I seem to be in another world. How do I explain the thoughts that are swirling through my head? How do I explain just how many different things I'm thinking about/going over/obsessing about?

But, this weekend isn't the only filming we've been doing lately. Here's a sneak peak at something that's going to be online REAL SOON.

That photo looks so staged and yet, it was very real. That was something we filmed a couple of weekends ago and I'm very proud to say that I ran the camera for it. It was definitely a trial by fire as I've never ran the camera for anything yet - oh I've held it a time or two - even looked over other DP's shoulders to get an idea of how they framed the shot, but never actually ran the camera. So, it was definitely a trial by fire for me and I had a lot of fun doing it. But, I have A LOT to learn, so I'm really looking forward to my next experience.

Which (lucky for me) will be this weekend!

Tanya

Red Hot Blip on Blip Action!

2008-07-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what the hot shows on Blip.tv are? Well look no further than Blip on Blip (*w00t*), hosted by the inimitable Eric Mortensen to find out.

If you do look no further than Blip on Blip (*w00t*), and more specifically, if you look no further than the latest episode of Blip on Blip (*w00t*), you’ll discover that one of the hottest shows on Blip.tv is…

Life from the Inside!

Us! This show! …The show on which whose blog you’re reading. What do you mean you’ve “never heard of it?!” You’re reading the…! Okay, Funnyperson, why not watch Eric’s show and learn more about our show.

Sheesh.

Let me tell you, it was a nice surprise to find out about this yesterday (in tweet form thanks to Twitter. Follow us on Twitter! F-o-l-l-o-w u-s….). Usually we know ahead of time when something like this is going to hit the Nets (I’m including write-ups in that last sentence because…well…because I have to. Otherwise the “Usually” would equal “1”). So to see that Eric put this all together without our input was very cool (Of course, he and cameraman/editor Bill Cammack did have access to all of our episode files afterall. In high quality even! In fact, you can watch all our “high resolution” episodes at lifefromtheinside.blip.tv).

It’s especially cool to feel that Eric digs the show. He is the Director of Content Development which means the he has probably directed some developing content from time to time, so he’s not a total n00b.

Yes, okay, he did bust our oysters a little about not letting him (and Blip.tv) know about the show, but in our defense, it was a careful strategy:

Sure, any old hack can put a show online with tons of fanfare, generating so many hits that it crashes the show’s website (drhorrible.com). But that’s Old Internet Hollywood, baby. We felt that the best way to grow our audience would be very slowly. Like painfully slow. Creep up on the Internet and take it from behind (not that way, gutterbrain)! A sneak attack!

And our plan would’ve worked too, if it weren’t for Eric Mortensen and his meddling Blip on Blip (*w00t*)!

Sure, we finally broke down and told Eric about our show, but that’s only because he said to in another installment of Blip on Blip (*w00t*). And we always treat every episode of Blip on Blip (*w00t*) as if it’s directed especially to us. It’s more fun that way. And way creepier.

But speaking of Blip on Blip (*w00t*); Wasn’t that just the best episode of Blip on Blip (*w00t*) that you’ve ever seen? Have you even heard of a better episode of Blip on Blip (*w00t*)? Do you think I’m using the word “Blip” too much?

I am.

Why? Well because I watched the video in the post under the post about us on Blip’s blog. You see, the Blip team searches the Web for references to Blip (egotists). I just wanted to make sure that Blip didn’t miss this post.

…About Blip.

Blip!

And thanks, Eric (you too, Bill)!

ROBB

Boom! There It Is

2008-07-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things about doing a show with no budget is finding crew. I don't mean people to row our sculls... that's a whole other issue. No, I mean people to do the unglamorous but wholly important behind-the-camera work. Even the more glamorous jobs, such as cinematographer, are often difficult to fill.

What's the worst of all the jobs on set? No, not driver. We're too small to have drivers. And not animal waste wrangler. So far, we've avoided needing to have someone around for that. And certainly not Lindsay Lohan's on-set detox technician. Lindsay turned us down for episode 6, after all. No, the worst job on our set is boom operator.

You might be sitting there saying to yourself, "Wow, boom operator! That sounds fun! Loud! Pyrotechnic! I'd love to operate some boom!" Well, it's my sad duty to tell you that that's not exactly what the boom operator does. No, the boom operator holds the boom pole which supports the microphone that captures the auditory brilliance of the show.

Does that still not sound so bad to you? Well, let me describe the job in more detail. We're about to have a fire drill, so you'll have to forgive me if I have to interrupt myself in the middle.

So imagine a scene, any scene, from just about any movie or TV show you've ever enjoyed or not enjoyed or even loathed. Okay, fine, I'll pick one for you. Say there's a scene between four people in a warehouse, and the shot is wide, where you can see the whole group and their feet and heads and probably some crates or shipping containers inside which are black 16GB iPhone 3Gs. (Very rare as of this writing.) So you're seeing this scene, and you can hear all the people in it perfectly. Now, assuming their dialogue was not looped (re-recorded later in a studio), their chatter had to be captured somehow on the set. Most likely, it was captured by a boom operator.

In the example above, the boom operator would have to hold a very long pole with the shotgun mic at the end of it, making sure it's high enough to be out of frame, yet close enough to capture the dialogue. Often, the boom has to be held aloft, over the operator's head. He or she has to do this over and over and over, for every take of every shot. Since they have to pay attention to the scene, too, they can not relax while the boom is up there. It's tiring and demanding. It's work.

The fire drill happened right in the middle of that last paragraph and you probably didn't even notice, huh? Great! That's means you're engrossed.

So, you can see why it's very hard for us to find people who want to hold a pole over their head all day for no pay. It is with all this in mind that I would like to give a special thanks to everyone who has been boom operator for LFTI. Without them, we'd have a silent sitcom, which, if you've never seen one, is something to avoid at all costs. Please visit the credit page of each episode or our pages at IMDb to pay homage. If you don't have time to do that, please take a moment out of your day today to give silent praise for those who sacrifice their arms in the name of the sitcom.

Mean Street

2008-07-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

I’m using the term “mean” here in the mathematical sense, in that the street is not “malicious” but rather “average.” Why? Because the street in question is the one I live on. It’s pretty average. Other than the fact that there seems to be garbage pickup around the clock, every day of the week, it’s fairly commonplace.

In fact, if there’s only one thing extraordinary about the street; it was made famous in the hit Internet sitcom “Life from the Inside.” It was especially on display in episode 7 *do not duplicate.

Which is ironic when you think about the fact that I have duplicated it. The street that is. In painting form.

That’s right, there’s new artwork on the set of LFTI. We needed to it supplement some other changes that have happened to the set (which I won’t reveal here). Needless to say, the idea for me to paint another painting was born out of necessity and not, unfortunately, out of artistic desire.

This is always difficult. We need a painting, but I don’t want to just paint any old crap. So I’m forced to be artistic on the spot. Sometimes this can turn out really well; sometimes it can be a disaster.

I’m pretty sure it’s the reason that so many people in the 70s decorated with driftwood:

“We need something to go over the fireplace!! What will we do?!”

“I don’t know! It’s the 70s and my brain is still reeling from Watergate…and all the hash I just smoked!!”

“Well think of something! Company will be here any minute and you can’t have a key party with bare walls!”

“Umm…I found this old piece of wood the other day…?”

“Perfect!! Throw it on the mantle!”

“Ahhh…that is perfect! And I especially like the way it’s waving to me!”

“Maybe you should lay off the hash?”

“No way! It’s the 70s! Disco’s coming and I’ll need it!”

Like I said, “art” for purely decorative reasons isn’t always the best. But seeing as how I don’t smoke hash, hopefully my efforts are more successful than Mr. And Mrs. 70s there.

But maybe you should tell me? Here’s the painting (It’s not the best picture of the painting, bear with me, I did my best):

*** There SHOULD be a picture here. However, Blogger is a piece of crap. Don't worry, it'll be here shortly! Rassafrakkin' blogger! I have EDITING to do! I don't have time to mess with Blogger!!! ***

*** Update!! the photo is there now...duh.***

It’s a triptych and it’s bigger than it looks here (since there’s no context). The actual size is about 1.5 feet tall by a little over 6 feet long.

Soon you’ll be able to see the whole, new and improved, set. Then you can make your final judgments.

…always judging, you are.

ALSO

I would like to properly thank Yuri and Vlad over at Break a Leg for featuring us on the front page of Blip during their stint as guest Curators!

Thanks guys!

And if you haven’t seen their show, I strongly suggest that you watch it. They’ve just started their season finale and it’s epic. So go there and give them some love!

breakaleg.tv

ROBB

(Oh my god! You got away from this post without having to listen to music from the show! I can’t believe it! But just wait, there will be more music later, and you will be strongly asked to listen to it!)

Unscripted

2008-07-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

LFTI is a very carefully scripted show. Each episode is refined and honed a great deal before it's ready to shoot. With this in mind, it might be important to note that we did a little something... extra this weekend. We shot an improvised scene.

I won't give away too much about why we shot an improvised scene. In fact, I just deleted two paragraphs about it! Now isn't that mysterious! There's been so much mystery here lately that we could batter it, deep-fry it, and sell it to you on a stick. (For a very reasonable price, of course.)

I myself was not too sure how it would work, this idea we were shooting. It seemed like a stretch to get our characters to introduce what they were introducing without actually introducing it, as an introducer might introduce things requiring introduction. I am pleased to say that I am now very excited to see the final results! Aren't you?

Robb came up with a framework to riff off of, and we went from there, making it up as we went. The shoot turned out to be a lot of fun, and hopefully produced enough amusing material to craft into a small scene that just happens to include what it includes (see preceding paragraphs regarding mystery and introductions). Whatever we get, it should feel just a little bit different from a LFTI episode or short. In a good way!

Of course, I had to improvise a bit explaining Guy's hair. See, some cuttress took about 40 yards too much off my mop during my last haircut. It was my first time bringing my custom to this particular lady, and though I gave her stills of episode 7 and said, "My hair needs to look like this in 3 to 4 weeks," she roundly ignored me, as most cuttresses and cutterers do. Yet I still tipped her because I hate to be seen as a cad. It's something I need to work on, this Cuttress Distortion Field where no matter what the cuttress is doing to my hair, I say, "Yes, looks great! Sure, it's wonderful! Yes, wow, hey, look!" It always happens! It only takes a few steps out of the salon before the CDF wears off, and I go, "Gosh. This is nothing like what I wanted. I wish this were Best Buy and I could cram my haircut back into the blister pack from which it emerged and exchange it for a better one." Though it's my hair with which the cuttress is playing God, I feel I can't speak up and say, "Hey, that's going just a bit too far, there, missy! Let's take this scissor train back a couple clicks!" I suppose even if I did feel I could speak up in this way, it'd be way too late to do anything about it anyway. It is truly a bizarre phenomenon, the CDF, and part of my personality that I really need to work on.

But I can pay someone for that. You're here for free, and thirsting for entertainment, and my rambling about my dratted hair will provide none of that for you. So just be looking for a new, improv-ed LFTI video soon. Soonish. Well, sorta soon. I mean, we are gearing up for episode... 8. Ish. And Robb has to get this scene edited whilst we prepare for episode... 8. Ish. Just be aware that a new video is coming, and your patience will be rewarded. Soonish.

My Blue Period

2008-07-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

That title could sound gross, taken out of any kind of context, couldn’t it? I am, of course, making a reference to genius painter, bon vivant, and, later in life, all around hollow weirdo, Pablo Picasso.

Let me make myself very clear. This title is an allusion to Picasso and not, I repeat, not to an informational medical pamphlet about Martian female adolescence.

Okay, we’ve cleared that up.

Why am I talking about my blue period (you can’t not think of it that way now can you)? See, as Steve and Tanya have both pointed out, there are going to be some changes around the set of Life from the Inside. And I’m not just talking about the fact that Kathy has left the show. There are many new, exciting and immensely superficial changes going on as well!

Tanya also told you about the sofa and gave a sneak peek of it. Well, it’s common knowledge that you can’t change your sofa without changing your artwork. Don’t believe me? Tough. It’s common knowledge. It’s not my fault if you’re uncommon.

Who am I to buck common knowledge? I’m not like you. I’m not a doubter. So, we had to have new artwork on the walls. And since we’re too poor to afford real art (we have to sleep on the set for crying out loud), and we’re too snobby to put up posters, I’ve been working on a new painting for the (Mason’s) living room.

Here’s a glimpse of it. Now, keep in mind that this is merely a computerized simulation of what the actual painting will look like. And this is only one corner of it too. The final piece will be a triptych that will hang over the new…ooohh, there was almost a bean spill! That’s for later.

For now, there’s this.

Again, this is just the computer model. I’ll be painting the real one, so the final version will have much crappier color.

And that’s bout it I guess. I’ll talk at you later and…

OOOOOH-HO-HO!

You thought you were going to get off easy, didn’t you?! Sucker. You thought that I wasn’t going to torture you with music from the show, eh?!

Well think again.

Here’s the waltz I wrote for Episode 5 *side effects may include night terrors. That’s the title, not a disclaimer for the music. Though, I suppose it’s possible.

The especially maddening thing about this tune is that, in my opinion, it ends just as it’s getting good! But such is life. One of the hazards of being written for a short cue on an Internet sitcom.

This tune opens the third part of Episode 5. Why not re-watch Episode 5 and refresh your memory?!

…or take a listen to this.

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks at the exhilarating things we have planned for LFTI! Seriously! We’re gearing up to get some new videos out and everything! Imagine that?!

ROBB

Shhhhh!

2008-07-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't so much forget to blog yesterday as not remember to do so. What's the difference? Well, if I'd forgotten to blog, I would have woken up this morning and gone, "Oh, croop! I forgot to blog!"

Instead, I knew very well as the day progressed yesterday that I was not blogging. "I need to blog," I constantly told myself. But I never did. So when I got up tis morning and realized I hadn't blogged, I went, "Oh, shoot. I didn't remember to blog."

You can see the difference, I trust.

Anyway, part of the reason I didn't end up blogging is because there are all kinds of fun things to discuss, but I can't. Yes, you heard that right. I can't discuss our plans. We're going all stealth on your asses and keeping our next, post-Kate steps a secret! Well, they aren't really a secret so much as a surprise. What's the difference? A secret means we'd be trying very hard not to let anyone know anything and probably keep it that way into the foreseeable future. Or forever, like Bush and all his terrorist-proof evildoing.

Instead, we're keeping it a surprise. This means we're kinda loose-lipped with our plans amongst friends around the dinner table or when congregating before going to see WALL-E, but we're not gonna reveal anything online. What we're doing will be revealed eventually, at the right time. Surprise!

You can see the difference, I wager.

Anyway, without being able to rely on the juicy fun that is to come on the show as a source of blogging fodder, I sorta went blank yesterday.

But do not fear! I will write a blog post today instead! And it will be fantastic! It will be about remembering and secrets and forgetting and surprises! It will be mysterious and teasing! It will provide needed distraction without providing any of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals! It will be my shortest post in years! And best of all, every single sentence in its final paragraph will end with an exclamation point!

The Following Conversation Never Took Place

2008-06-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

The headline is true. The following conversation between the three producers of LFTI never really did take place. Our actual conversations on this topic were much less colorful and interesting, though the real solution is probably going to be more viable and humorful.

* * * * * *

"Okay, so Kate will not be a regular part of the show anymore. What do we do?"

"I say we add a new character to replace her."

"I agree."

"Really? I don't think so. It's been done to death."

"True."

"Isn't that the 'sit' part of 'sitcom'?"

"No."

"I agree."

"So if we don't replace Kate with a new character, do we just leave the cast at four characters?"

"That's a bit unbalanced. We need a fifth character to—"

"Non-character."

"—Yes, non-character to create the 5-person imb—"

"Non-person."

"—Yes, non-person to... imbalance... what was I saying?"

"Probably something about cake."

"No, I get it. We need a 5th... something in Kate's place. But what? An animal? We could add an animal to the cast."

"Like a shark? Yeah, we could put a shark in the cast, then the other characters can all spend the next episode jumping it."

"If you don't like the animal idea, just say so."

"I don't like the animal idea."

"Yeah, me neither. Could it be some kind of super-sentient, non-corporeal being?"

"What, like in Star Trek or something?"

"Er... Yeah. Er... No."

"No."

"No."

"Inanimate, then."

"Probably. Not much choice left if they can't be human or animal or non-corporeal."

"Okay, so an inanimate object. Sounds cool. Unique. I don't think this has ever been done."

"Vegetable or mineral?"

"Vegetable."

"I don't know. No one likes vegetables."

"I love vegetables! Some of them, anyway."

"It could be a tree. That's vegetable without being a vegetable."

"Oh. Right."

"No, we don't have to stick with such rigid boundaries! There are many things that are neither vegetable nor mineral! Like an awning."

"I think that would fall under mineral."

"Really?"

"Technically. If its not animalistic or vegetablistic, it falls under mineral."

"Missiles are ballistic."

"Ha! Ha ha. Ha."

"Okay, well, whether it's a mineral or ballistic or not, I think we need to find something that would fit into the situation. You know, the 'sit' of 'sitcom.'"

"Fit in like in the apartment?"

"Yeah."

"The keyboard! That fits in perfectly, both in the apartment and situation-wise."

"It does kinda work..."

"Except the keyboard has been in every episode already, but has not been called out. It needs to be something new."

"Yeah. Maybe... the sofa? No, also been there."

"Not the new sofa."

"Oh, yeah! The new sofa!"

"Shhhhhh! Don't give that away! It's a major plot point for #8!"

"Sorry. Should I delete my tweet about it?"

"I did that already."

"Good."

"It can't be the sofa. I think it should be something portable, and something we haven't seen before."

"Yeah, we don't want two characters—"

"NON-characters!"

"We don't want two non-characters who can't leave the apartment."

"You mean we don't want one character and one non-character who can't leave the apartment."

"What, as they say, ever."

"Let's focus."

"A book. A lamp."

"A pencil. A bottle. A toiletry."

"A Christmas ornament. A bag of peas. A phone number."

"Isn't a phone number non-corporeal?"

"Not if it's written down."

"A hat. A shoe. A pair of socks. A dirndl."

"Shorts. Jeans. Underwear."

"Oh, all of that stuff!"

"Clothes! Mason's clothes!"

"Oh, yeah! A pile of Mason's clothes! Think of all the symbolism that could bring!"

"And the irony."

"And the marketing options."

"This is great."

"I think we can do this."

"So it's settled. We'll replace Kate with a pile of Masons clothes..."

"They should be clean."

"...with a pile of Mason's clean clothes..."

"In a laundry basket."

"...with a pile of Mason's clean clothes in a laundry basket."

"This is exciting!"

"I can't wait 'til our fans see this!

"I can say for certain that there are no MASSIVE FAILURES in our future!"

A (Not-Quite) Goodbye

2008-06-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

"Three's Company" replaced Chrissy with Cindy, "Wings" replaced Lowell with Bud, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" replaced Joel with Mike.

And now...

"Life From the Inside" is going to have to replace Kate.

We are very heartbroken to announce that Kathy has decided to leave the show. While we are going to miss her terribly, we know that this was a difficult and carefully considered decision.

Rest assured, we have no intentions of killing Kate off. We decided long ago that no one in the LFTI world is ever completely gone from the show as we never know when we're going to need a specific character in order to tell a story. So, while Kate will be gone, she will not be "departed". Also, killing one of your main characters on a sitcom is never a good way to get laughs. Unless we decide to turn this into some sort of zombie sitcom.

Zombie sitcom - that could be funny. Robb, write that idea down on a 3x5 card!

Now we embark on the journey of figuring out how to bring in a new character, knowing we are not going to just bring in a new actor and try to pass them off as Kate either (although I did once suggest we try that with the cheesy soap opera thing of announcing "the part of Kate will now be played by so and so" - but apparently I am the only person who finds this absolutely, oddly hysterical).

Nope, we decided that Kate is Kate and we're just going to have to find someone - or something - else to fill the void that Kathy is leaving.

Ideas we've already tossed around include a robot, a magic genie and David Spade. Yes, I realize he's already on "Rules of Engagement" but as soon as the producers realize the only funny people on the show are Patrick Warburton and Megyn Pryce, Mr. Spade will be looking for work. Again.

But I digress.

We are very sad to lose Kathy as part of LFTI. She is and always will be one of the three creators and developers of the show. A little bit of her heart and soul will still be in every episode we make.

And we will miss her.

Although, if she's anything like Joel Hodgson, she will enjoy amazing success touring the country with her new prop comedy show!

Tanya

No Longer Just a Blip on Blip

2008-06-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

We have been featured on Blip.tv! Hooray for us! We have been placed on the front page. In fact, if you go to Blip.tv right now you’ll see…that we’re not on the front page anymore.

But that’s fine. The fact of the matter is that we were there once! Yesterday in fact. Here’s a screen grab for proof.

Sure, you’re thinking, “he could’ve Photoshopped that! Big deal! I have a picture of myself with my arm around Ghandi! That doesn’t mean that I met Ghandi or even know who Ghandi is!”

Again, what’s with your suspicious attitude? Have I ever given you reason to distrust me? And why would you have taken the time to Photoshop yourself into a picture with Ghandi if you don’t know who he is? That seems strange to me. No, I’m not judging you. I’m just saying that it doesn’t make much sense.

And yet, you’re the one who is questioning me? Maybe you should tend to your own house, friend.

Anyway, I’d like to thank Eric over at Blip for his support. And kudos to Tanya for playing publicist on this one. She rocks.

I’ve been wanting to get Blip’s attention for a while. Blip is seriously one of the best video hosting sites on the web. It’s even won awards for it. And it’s not just a big popularity contest on there. In fact, you don’t really know how popular shows on Blip are since they don’t let you see other people’s stats. And I like that. Not that we have bad stats. Our stats are good. But I don’t like the fact that stats can influence people’s taste and trends. I personally believe that the quality of a video should be more influential than a video’s popularity.

We’ve been on there for a long time. But that doesn’t mean that they had any idea that we existed. It’s the whole “if a tree falls in the forest…” thing. If an Internet sitcom is on the Internet but nobody see it, does it make a sound?

The answer is, “yes.” A lot of sounds. As the sound editor for the sitcom, I can tell you that it makes about 30-40 man-hours worth of sound. Horrible, horrible sound.

Was that an awkward transition?

I guess my point is that you should listen to some sounds from the show. Musical sounds to be exact. How about the Kate and Guy Theme from Episode 6? Sure, why not!

I was going for a sort of “duet” quality with this one. Piano and vibraphone. Hope you like it!

And thanks again, Blip.tv!

And if you want to see our show on blip.tv, go here!

ROBB

I’m Gonna’ Stick a Boot in Yo Camp!

2008-06-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

A boot camp without a military-style march is a little like having a poodle give your graduation commencement speech; a lot of barking with no motivation.

Though, now that I think of it, a poodle would have been great at my high school graduation ceremony. At least then I’d remember who the hell my high school graduation speaker was. As for my University graduation ceremony, they could have had a poodle as commencement speaker for all I know. I didn’t attend. Why should I? No dog orators.

You know, the more I think about this, the more ridiculous it seems to me. I mean we would never have had a poodle speak at my high school graduation. It wouldn’t have made sense. We were the Bulldogs. We would have had a bulldog speaker. But that would have been even more problematic considering how close the mic would have had to be. And bulldogs do a lot more snorting and drooling than they do barking (they have respiratory problems due to all the inbreeding), so the mic would’ve gotten covered in slime and dog saliva becoming a potential electrocution hazard.

Bulldog speaker at high school graduation = cool. Electrocuted bulldog speaker at high school graduation = smelly.

Okay, you may think that I’ve gone off on a tangent, but it is graduation season. A time to inspire!

And I was inspired to write a march for Guy’s Boot Camp in Episode 7.

See? It all makes total sense now, doesn’t it?

With the Boot Camp March, like I said, I was going for a military-style march. A John Phillip Sousa affair. While I don’t think that I really captured the essence of Sousa, I think I captured the essence of sounding like a march. It feels more British to me than traditionally American (á la Sousa). But what do I know? I’m not an expert on international military march styles.

Perhaps you are? Why not take a listen and tell me.

Listen to this song while doing your own boot campy workout!

Use it to brighten up that boring, unmotivated housework!

Play it at your graduation ceremony instead of Pomp and Circumstance! There’s too much circumstance at graduations now anyway! And I guarantee that it won’t spook the poodle!

ROBB

Graphical Fakery

2008-06-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

If I write this quickly, I can still make my Monday posting deadline! I should be in bed, but blogs come first.

Now that you've seen the final part of Episode 7 (hopefully several times so our YouTube count can go sky high), I can reveal the following graphical items. Since Robb only has two hands, I took on some of the designing duties for numero 7. Here, then, are my contributions.

You can click on any of the pics below to see them larger.

If I were to go chronologically—and I am going to go chronologically—the first graphic up would be the batteries. Yes, believe it or not, those batteries had fake labels! You never know when something's going to get a decent close-up, so you just have to design things as if they will.

The "copper top" color on this label looks way off, but that's 'cause I had to adjust it for printing. I never can get the hang of color calibration.

Then came those obnoxious customers on their Bluetooth headsets. We wanted to put a capper on their obnoxiousness, so we came up with the credit card idea. Ah, but which credit card should it be? Why, the American Express Black card, a card so exclusive, no one even knows if they really, truly exist! Well, that's not true. They do exist. But I'll never see one in person, that's for sure.

To be sure the card was not 100% AMEX, I decided to reverse the letters, in keeping with the palindrome/reversal theme of the episode. Since we never heard the name of the obnoxious customers, I was free to name him anything I wanted. Oh, and make him a lot, lot older than he actually was.

Next up, the ABSRD flyer. The goal with this was to make it look like Jennifer had whipped it up herself in a few minutes. I took the party invite Corrie had done herself for Episode 1 and tried to simulate her handwriting. As it is, I think it looks like a guy trying to get his writing to look like a girl's writing.

The hardest thing to do on the flyer, aside from making the panels fit properly between the folds, was the drawing of the little dog chasing the Frisbee into the grain thresher. My drawing skills have atrophied over the years, so this took some warming up to get it right. I wanted the thresher to be evil-looking, like no living being could survive a run-in with the thing. Then there was the doggie. Was this really Stumbles, or did Jennifer draw a different dog because the memories were still too painful?

Now we come to final and most exciting item on this graphical tour!

I know. Right. That took me, like, three minutes. But even this hat design has a back story. See, I figured that Guy, after buying everything else for his boot camp, realized that he needed a hat. So he dashed into a mall to one of those make-your-own-hat kiosks. Sadly, in his hurried state, he could not remember how to spell "sergeant." Of course, the poor girl getting paid $2.36 an hour couldn't spell it, either, so this was the result.

And lookie there! Just under the wire! My post is on time!, Well, I hope you enjoyed Episode 7. See you real soon!

Out With the Old (Couch)

2008-06-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, which means it's my turn to blog. You would think I would be better at remembering this, being the person who suggested we each take a day as our designated blogging day, but alas, I am not.

What usually happens is that I get to work on Friday and I think "I need to blog today." And then the rest of the day happens and it's suddenly 6 o'clock and I think "I forgot to blog today. I'll do it tonight when I get home."

And I don't. I fully place the blame on "Dr. Who" and Netflix.

But, not today! Today I remember to blog! Because I actually have something to write about.

There are big changes happening to some of the "set pieces" (also known as my living room) around here at LFTI.

Unfortunately, our couch has shuffled off this mortal coil and is no longer with us. Here it is, patiently waiting to be picked up and taken away to wherever couches go to "rest". (Please ignore the vacuum cleaner that is on the sofa. That has also gone to "rest". Well, it got a lot of rest at our place because it was not a good vacuum so we kind of stopped vacuuming very much with it. I know.).

I had hugely mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I was very happy to get rid of that couch. I mean, the frame was broken and it was a large couch that didn't provide a lot of seating area.

But, on the other hand, that couch was the first piece of furniture Robb and I purchased together. And, it was overall a good couch. It was comfortable, it hid dirt really well, and it was lightweight so it was easy to move around the apartment as needed.

Hours after the old couch was carted away, a new one was delivered. Here's a sneak peak...

I hate to say it, but I LOVE the new couch. It's really comfortable. It's smaller and yet there is more room to sit. But it is MUCH heavier than our old couch. It's also twice as expensive. Do they price couches by the pound?

I'm sorry, you want to see the the new couch in it's entirety? Well, you will just have to watch our next episode! Yes, I am that mean! I said it was a sneak peak, didn't I?!

The night before the old couch was removed, I told Robb we should take some photos of it. He laughed at me and reminded me "We have 7 Episodes of a show and promotional photographs that include that couch. I don't think we'll forget it."

And we won't.

Goodbye old couch

I leave you with a photo of the couch being hauled away. Robb has nicely protected the identity of the movers...

Lemonade Anyone?

2008-06-04T11:20:00.001-07:00

We’re back over 1000 subscribers on YouTube!

We’re almost back to where we were before the “Great Subscriber Hurricane of Aught 8.” The storm that swept through YouTube wiping away any and all subscribers who weren’t firmly nailed down. Total virtual carnage. I would say it was a tragedy, but that would be…well…dumb.

But we’re happy to be back to 1000+ subscribers! A special thanks to YouTube for the feature on the entertainment page! As always, it’s been a great help to our little show and we appreciate it so very much.

Let’s move on shall we? Every time I praise YouTube, no matter how sincere I am (and I am sincere, they rock), I feel a little like I’m praising our new alien overlords or something. Kowtowing so that I don’t get sent to work in the virtual spice mines.

We can talk “Lemonade.” I capitalized that word because I’m not talking about the beverage, I’m talking about the tune from Episode 7.

What?! Did you really think this was going to be a post where I didn't subject you to more music?! Come on, you knew it was coming. You had to. Don’t be so naïve. Don’t act like this doesn’t happen almost every Wednesday! Unless you’ve never read this blog before…

In which case, welcome! Please excuse my earlier rudeness. This is the LFTI blog where I share music from the show with you, the interested reader (and listener). It’s highly fascinating and pleasing and not at all tedious.

If you aren’t new to the show, then stop laughing! It’s not tedious! Stop saying that! Can’t you be respectful to the new person? Why do we always have to fight in front of company?!

Sorry about that.

Let me tell you a little something about the song that I’ve aptly titled “Lemonade,” from Episode 7.

I was kind of going for a Leon Redbone type thing (never heard Leon Redbone? I’ll bet you have, even if you didn’t know it. Check him out, he’s great). Some may ask “why do you emulate so many other styles of music instead of just trying to solidify a musical identity for the show?” Okay, no one has ever asked that question yet, but they could. And I would say that I feel like the musical emulations are the musical identity of the show. Plus it’s fun for me. And in this case, I wanted to make it sound like we’d found a tune that was already written and placed it in the show because it was so apropos!

Enjoy Lemonade!

Apologies to Leon.

ROBB

Type Thats, Great!

2008-06-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

When Tanya and Robb brought me on board as producer for LFTI, they probably did not realize they were gaining a lunatic. Not just any lunatic, of course, but a font, typography, and typesetting lunatic.

I've always been fascinated by text. I spent lots of time as a small child trying to draw perfect block letters. I'd take the plastic, all-caps letters (yellow Futura medium) from both our copies of The Alphabet Game and tape them onto construction paper to make signs. I cut out matching letters and numbers from the newspaper to make my own Iran Hostage Crisis count-up sign. I hand-lettered every single one of my campaign posters for Vice President in 8th grade and President in 11th. One of the best things about the Mac when it came out was, for me, that its handling of text was much better than Print Shop on the IIe.

My love for type has never diminished. It served me well post-college, when I worked as a book designer at Birkhäuser Boston, right through to the present day, when I get to contribute to the "online conversation" regarding the fonts candidates use for their campaign materials.

Unfortunately for Robb and Tanya, it currently serves me well on Life from the Inside.

I am of the opinion that text, fonts, typography, and typesetting, while flying under the radar of the general public's awareness, are some of the single most important elements in adding a sheen of professionalism and style to any project. Most of the quality we strive for in LFTI is applied to the usual concerns: camerawork, writing, editing, music... Very few people might notice if a font is improperly stretched, or if a wayward apostrophe has made its way into an pluralized acronym, or if the hyphens in a block of text are disconcerting to the eye though they may be properly placed.

Robb does 99% of the graphic work for the show, including all the titles, credits, graphic elements, DVD menus (yes, DVD MENUS!), blahdee blahdee blah. And I have to say that 99% of everything he does, text-wise, is fantastically great. Unfortunately, now that I have wedged myself into the picture, I'm here to catch the remaining 1%. If I see some kerning I don't like, I'll say so. If the leading between two lines is too tight, I'll point it out. If there's a space between a word and an asterisk, I'll call for its death. If four fonts are being used where two will suffice, I shall champion the cause.

Sometimes, where text is involved, there's a trade-off between correctness and aesthetics. To me, correctness should win out most of the time, because there is usually an aesthetically pleasing way to correctly render an awkward block of text.

If I'm going to prattle on about this topic, I really should give an example.

Robb had designed a bit of text on an upcoming DVD menu (yes, UPCOMING DVD MENU!) to fit nicely into a rectangular space. The work "jukebox" (yes, JUKEBOX!) had to be split, so he designed it as "JUKE" on the fist line and "-BOX" on the second. Now, the text fit beautifully, four characters on both top and bottom, but I could not stand the hyphen being tied to the second half of the word. That is simply not done. It gave me a case of the frownies every time I saw it. Since I am now tweaking and redesigning that particular DVD menu, I changed the layout to "JUKE-" and "BOX." It made the text top-heavy, but it was correct. However, knowing that I was changing a very particular design choice that Robb had made, I thought I could compromise. I was willing to—GASP!—have the word split, but not hyphenated! "JUKE" and "BOX" would fit more nicely into that rectangle without a hyphen. Perhaps to some, this would have been the worst choice out of the three, splitting a single word into two sans hyphen. To me, I'd rather have the hyphen gone than have it on the bottom. And jukebox was probably two words at one time, anyway. It's not like we were splitting "grottos" into "GROT" and "TOS." Blech!

I have not finished the menu redesign, but I think we agreed to keep the hyphen on the top, probably because I whined enough about it.

So what does all this pain-in-the-assery get us? From my point of view, it gets us closer to looking great. When no detail goes unnoticed, when we can concentrate on the small things that most people simply don't understand or don't even notice, we can give everyone a better show. Then, if people do know and do pay attention, they will hopefully appreciate the care that was taken to make LFTI a top-notch piece of time-wasting entertainment!

Press, Stress and Egress

2008-05-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

I said “egress,” not Egrets. “Egress” means the action of coming or going out. To burst forth, spill over, be released, etc. Wikipedia has an entry on “egress” all about signal leakage from coaxial cables which isn’t near as compelling—or gross—as it sounds. An Egret is a kind of Heron (see photo). A Heron is a kind of waterfowl. A waterfowl is a bird that lives on or near the water. Water is that wet stuff we need to consume in order to survive.

Clear? Yes? Well, it doesn’t matter anyway because I’m going to talk about some press we got recently.

LFTI has been mentioned in this article from The Times of London (Online Edition):

Read the article!

So we’d like to thank Francesca Steele (the journalist) for the nice mention and attention she’s given our show! It was a pleasant surprise. We only found out about it through a Google Alert, so it was completely unsolicited and, well, surprising.

You know, I say “unsolicited” as if we have ever gotten press that was solicited. We have never solicited anyone for press. And that last statement isn’t near as compelling—or gross—as it sounds either. Not that we’re above soliciting people for press. But who has the time for that? We have a show to make! There’s no time left over to make sure that people actually watch it!

Anyway, check out the article for yourself! It’s complimentary. Francesca likes the show. Otherwise, why would she mention it? There’s no shortage of Internet stuff to write about. Therefore I will not take umbrage with the two opening sentences; “It seems anyone can make movies these days. Or sitcoms at any rate.” Even though, it is true. We are “anyone.” It was not a judgment of us specifically, I’m sure.

It wasn’t, right?

No. It wasn’t. Definitely not. But one can get a little gun-shy in this whole Internet sitcom business. It requires a tough skin at times. However, we always have our fantastic subscribers to carry us through. Over 1000 of them on YouTube! We just hit that number recently. It was a big milestone for us. One that we are sublimely proud of. A true source of comfort.

Which brings me to my next topic:

We no longer have over 1000 subscribers on YouTube!

NOOOOOOOO!

A glitch! It was all a glitch! Evidently YouTube was having an issue with their subscriber counting mechanism. It seems that people who “unsubscribed” were not being deleted from the count, which meant that the number of subscribers given on people’s channels didn’t match the actual number of subscribers.

Well, YouTube went ahead and fixed that little glitch.

…Jerks.

We just need 12 more to get back to 1000. We lost about 42. That’s actually not as bad as some poor YouTubers out there who lost hundreds. So we’ll take this little hit if it means that we won’t be deluded anymore in the future.

Tell your friends to subscribe!

Now to the “Egress” portion of this post (see definition above):

Episode 7 has been a great success! And I have absolutely no doubt that it is entirely due to my music. Now Tanya and Steve may tell you differently, but they’re more deluded than we were when we thought we had over 1000 subscribers. (Sorry, I’m having a hard time coping.) It’s all about my music!

And I’ll prove it to you! I’m going to post a little something here, and you just watch, it’ll have over 6 hits before tomorrow!

Here’s Dixon’s Theme from Episode 7. The full version. The episode never contains the uncut version. So I thought that I would post it here. Hey, why not get 5 of your friends to listen to it too and help me prove to Tanya and Steve that I’m right and they’re chumps!

Get those 5 friends to forward it to 5 other friends each and you may find true love! Who knows?

It’s been a while since I pulled out the old saxophone, so, if you happen to be a skilled sax player, don’t criticize me too harshly (as a saxophone player myself, I know what restraint that’ll take and I appreciate it greatly).

ROBB

True-Life Lemons to Lemonade Tale

2008-05-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

We got lots of complaints about the length of my post last week, so I'll keep this one short.

HA HA! Not really! We got no complaints. Therefore, I intend to make this post even longer.

HA HA! Not really! I'm just gonna write and it'll be as long as it'll be. And I'm going to add tons of pictures.

HA HA! No, really. I'm adding pictures. Like this one:

In Episode 7 part 2, there is a bit o' schtick where Guy lunges at Ashleigh through stacked cups of lemonade. Physical comedy. Subtle humor. Always welcome. Well, it just so happens that the scene was not originally supposed to be that way. Circumstance and nature colluded to give us a shot that ended up being funnier than we'd originally planned.

As it was written, there was no lunge over the lemonade stand; Robb added it during rehearsals. Then, since I had been toying with Guy stacking cups out of boredom, we decided I should lunge through them. (I am a fan of prop humor. It was I who demanded—with measured reason, of course—that there be something in that basket when Olava grabs Guy's ass. The butter cookie cups make no sense, but it sure looks great.)

Once we knew that I'd have to go flying over the stand, Robb and I had to design it to be incredibly sturdy. We had meant to buy handles to attach to the underside of the stand so someone could hide underneath and hold it down when we shot the scene, but that would have cost us a whole $7, so it was nixed. The person underneath would have to make due.

Shoot day was incredibly windy. The stand blew over at one point (only Murray, the stand-in plasterer, was hurt, but he's recovering nicely now in the south of Torrance), so babysitting the lemonade stand became a full-time job. If someone wasn't sitting behind it and holding it down with their elbows, other methods of anchorage had to be utilized.

The blowing wind also created problems for the cups. Whether they were just coating the stand in a single layer or being stacked upside-down into a little fort, the wind would take them out at every opportunity. So we had to tape the cups down to the stand and to each other.

When the time came to shoot the crashing through the cups scene, it was obvious that taped-together cups were not going to fly apart in the proper aesthetic manner. There was definitely no way they were going to stay stacked up without tape long enough to shoot the shot. So I came up with a plan to turn the cups right-side up and fill them with enough water to keep them stable. This meant that, suddenly, Tanya and I were going to be getting all wet. It also meant we could really only do the take once. Okay, actually, it meant we only wanted to do the take once since getting wet twice on a windy day was not a wholly desirable activity.

Everyone was fine with the plan and with the wetness factor, but we were way behind schedule, so we had to hustle. We quickly removed the tape from the cups and re-set them with water inside. We did a couple rehearsals, making sure we knew when the lunge would have to happen, how I would get through the cups for optimal scatterage, where the camera would be, and when to stop the take if it was obvious the whole thing was going awry.

During one of the rehearsals, Tanya, who had to run around the front of the stand, accidentally bumped it. Some of the cups got upended, and Kathy, who had been the fortunate person recruited to hide underneath and hold the stand down, sans handles, yelped with surprise when the water came pouring down the back.

After some drying and some pouring and some final reassurances, Robb rolled camera, and we were off. The lunge went perfectly, and the resulting struggle in the muddy grass between Tanya and I was a ton of fun. Tanya couldn't stop laughing!

And that, gentle readers, is how necessity can create a funnier moment. Without the windy day, we would not have had our watery deluge, and I think the watery deluge adds a great detail to the scene. For episode 8, we're hoping for tornadoes. Who knows what kind of hilarity will come out of tornadoes!