You Can Conte on LFTI

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

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.

LFTI Contest Scandal Exposed!

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!"

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!

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!

For Want of 30, the 24 was Lost

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!

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

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

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!

Have a Swingin' Christmas

And a very, very, very hap'nin New Year!

Here's a little video that we made for the holidays. Just some extra split screen fun. Since the Amber Turnipseed video was such a blast to make, we decided to do another in a similar vein (we won the Turnipseed competition by the way).

Hope you like it!



You can also see the video on YouTube. Please feel free to rate and comment! it would be the perfect Christmas gift!

Happy Holidays!

ROBB

Winner!

So, the winner of the "Very First Contest" for Break A Leg was announced last night -and it's US!

Yay!

Here is the winning video again, in case you haven't checked it out.



I can't tell you how much fun this was to make. It took Robb and I about 3 hours all together to film - which doesn't include Robb recording the song and editing.

So, thanks Break A Leg people!

While it was fun to see everyone else's entries, I think you can figure out why I can't help but have a special fondness for this one.



Tanya