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!
Showing posts with label episode 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label episode 1. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Too Dark?
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
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
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Old Music Wednesday
¡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
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
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Music From the Inside
If you follow us on Twitter, you know that earlier in the week I promised to post a little music from the show. If you follow us on Twitter you would know that. If you don’t follow us on Twitter you’re just now receiving old news. Now, I don’t want to say that you’re out of the loop or anything, I’m just saying…well…maybe you should follow us on Twitter? It’s easy.
But that’s not the point of this post. I just wanted to share a couple tunes from the show with you. Share some tunes and shame you into joining Twitter.
No! I don’t want to shame anyone into joining Twitter! Forget about Twitter!
I’m sorry, I’m in the midst of a minor mental civil war here.
Let’s get to the music.
This is the “Theme Song” for the show. It’s a song I wrote called “Fine Print.” I think that it pretty much sums up Mason’s worldview. In fact, it sums it up so well, that we’ve only ever used it in the trailer! (and as some background music in Episode 1) It’s been written and recorded since forever. We always hoped to make a proper credit sequence and use it for that, but our show is always so long that we’ve never been able to.
(A little inside scoop: I’ve got a little “intro graphic” in the works for the next episode. It’s not a credit sequence, but it’s fancier than the title we use now. And what song accompanies it? ….Not “Fine Print.” Hmmm.)
I know this song has been up for a while on MySpace, but now you can enjoy it here without the threat of sexual predators.
This next tune is one of my all-time favorites. Seriously, I love this tune. I know it’s poor taste to say that about something that I created. But I don’t care. I like it. Plus, I keep forgetting that I made it. Probably because I’m not critical of it at all. I enjoy it independently of myself. If you’ve ever made anything you’re proud of, you can probably understand what I mean. It’s almost like the song wrote itself.
Well, now I’ve got it all built up. You’ll be expecting a lot. Well don’t. It’s just a good little tune. Maybe you shouldn’t even listen to it now. In fact, you know what?! I think the song is crap! It really sucks! It’s terrible!
Okay, I believe that I’ve successfully cancelled out those two paragraphs. I’ve cleansed the palette. Now you can enjoy the tune.
This is called “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Mason.” Yes! Like the short! It’s the theme from our Halloween Special. I was going for a “Peanutsy” Vince Guaraldi-type thing. I think it worked. It incorporates some melodic ideas from “Fine Print.” Though no one thus far has noticed. Even after I’ve pointed it out.
Now you can compare and see for yourself! The “A” section of “ITGP,M” borrows the chorus melody from “Fine Print.” Listen for it! Let me know if you can hear it.
As an added bonus, the tune has a sort of “Autumny” quality to it, which is a nice respite if, like us here in LA, you just went through a horrible heat wave.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little musical side journey through LFTI. I’m off to keep working on the music for Episode 7! There’s some fun music coming! Really. I’m quite happy with it.
Wait for it!
Join Twitter!
ROBB
But that’s not the point of this post. I just wanted to share a couple tunes from the show with you. Share some tunes and shame you into joining Twitter.
No! I don’t want to shame anyone into joining Twitter! Forget about Twitter!
I’m sorry, I’m in the midst of a minor mental civil war here.
Let’s get to the music.
This is the “Theme Song” for the show. It’s a song I wrote called “Fine Print.” I think that it pretty much sums up Mason’s worldview. In fact, it sums it up so well, that we’ve only ever used it in the trailer! (and as some background music in Episode 1) It’s been written and recorded since forever. We always hoped to make a proper credit sequence and use it for that, but our show is always so long that we’ve never been able to.
(A little inside scoop: I’ve got a little “intro graphic” in the works for the next episode. It’s not a credit sequence, but it’s fancier than the title we use now. And what song accompanies it? ….Not “Fine Print.” Hmmm.)
I know this song has been up for a while on MySpace, but now you can enjoy it here without the threat of sexual predators.
This next tune is one of my all-time favorites. Seriously, I love this tune. I know it’s poor taste to say that about something that I created. But I don’t care. I like it. Plus, I keep forgetting that I made it. Probably because I’m not critical of it at all. I enjoy it independently of myself. If you’ve ever made anything you’re proud of, you can probably understand what I mean. It’s almost like the song wrote itself.
Well, now I’ve got it all built up. You’ll be expecting a lot. Well don’t. It’s just a good little tune. Maybe you shouldn’t even listen to it now. In fact, you know what?! I think the song is crap! It really sucks! It’s terrible!
Okay, I believe that I’ve successfully cancelled out those two paragraphs. I’ve cleansed the palette. Now you can enjoy the tune.
This is called “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Mason.” Yes! Like the short! It’s the theme from our Halloween Special. I was going for a “Peanutsy” Vince Guaraldi-type thing. I think it worked. It incorporates some melodic ideas from “Fine Print.” Though no one thus far has noticed. Even after I’ve pointed it out.
Now you can compare and see for yourself! The “A” section of “ITGP,M” borrows the chorus melody from “Fine Print.” Listen for it! Let me know if you can hear it.
As an added bonus, the tune has a sort of “Autumny” quality to it, which is a nice respite if, like us here in LA, you just went through a horrible heat wave.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little musical side journey through LFTI. I’m off to keep working on the music for Episode 7! There’s some fun music coming! Really. I’m quite happy with it.
Wait for it!
Join Twitter!
ROBB
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