The Green Screen Show

I went to a taping of Drew Carey's new show, The Green Screen Show.

The show concept is: take any live improv show ( like Whose Line or Second City ) and then do the show with a green screen as the backdrop. Then they pass the tape to animators who fill in the background and props with things relating to the improv as it progresses.

You'd think these improv creative extraordinaire type people could come up with a better name then The Green Screen Show. Maybe Improvamation or Aniprov or Whose Line Cartoons.

They taped four shows at the taping. It was fun at first but then it became work. If you have ever seen Whose Line you know people shout suggestions from the audience and the players use those in the improv. Each suggestion had to be re-filmed at the end. We had to stick around and the director had us recreate each suggestion so they could get the person who said it on film.

I had always heard horror stories about how people got trapped in the Friends studio and had to watch the same scene over and they couldn't leave. In comedy prison for 4 or 5 hours. I thought this taping would be different. We were trapped there for 4 hours. Five if you count the time outside in line. I was starving by the end.

I hope that the animators are really good. If they do some cheesy animation it will ruin the show. The animation is going to have to add comedic value for the show to work. If they just straight animate what the improv is about it's going to fall down. The animators are going to have to become part of the improv and play riffs off of the comedians improvs.

Also I think that these improv guys are too used to the standard improv style. Where everything goes to the fourth wall. The fourth wall is an invisible barrier between the audience and the players. The players use this wall for most of their invisible prop interactions. Like if you were to open a door you'd open it on the 4th wall, toward the audience. Or if you were writing on a blackboard you'd do it on the 4th wall. Mainly so the audience sees the front of you. The problem is going to come when the animators now have to animate these props on the 4th wall. They will have to block out the players.

The players aren't used to such a big space. The stage was huge they could have added near and far shots. Lots of room so that the animators could add stuff between the two actors. Instead they did the standard Whose Line come front and center, close proximity.

Also I think that the camera men aren't quite sure how the whole thing is going to work out. Most of the shots on the monitors didn't leave much room for animation. I saw mostly just tight shots on the players. Perhaps they had some wider shots that they weren't showing on the monitors. I hope so.

I think that once they see the product and value that the animator's add they may start to change their improv technique for the show. Let's just hope it doesn't get canceled before then.

Pier Pressure

There are a couple of summer time events that I enjoy on the pier. First, Dancing out under the stars by the sea. The Twilight Dance Series! Last year I boogied to the Afrokelts one night and then salsa music another.

Then movies on the pier at the Santa Monica Pier Drive-In. Last year they showed Jaws as one movie.

The best part is it's all free.

Tyson!

Dude is such a nerd. He can't even skate. Apparently all the cool dogs are doing it.

Not only can Tyson skateboard, but he taught himself. No training involved.

Web Comics

I put a links page on my website. It has links to my favorite web comics.

Dead Men Tell No Tales

I am looking forward to a trip I am planning with my girlfriend. We are going to try to go white water rafting. I think we will go to either the Kaweah river or the Merced river. It should really be a lot of fun.

She tried surfing for the first time a couple of days ago. She stood up in the white water twice. I think she really enjoyed it. Hopefully she'll get hooked.

Mind

There are a lot simpler paths to mind control than neuroscience and nanotechnology. Try religion or environmentalist causes or Mickey Mouse.

Strange

Isn't it odd how you can be so in love with someone that all you see is beauty and goodness. They seem so perfect. You just want to stare at them all day. Talk to them all the time. You'd do anything for them, drop everything move to Spain. They they are gone. And all your friends say, "Oh, thank God that bitch is gone. Did she die? No? Damn shame."

Realization hits you that all of your friends are saying that they really disliked this girl. Then you see things more clearly and wonder why you were so blind.

Worse than your driver's license

I've thumbed through gamer magazines before and thought, "Why do the game development teams look so disheveled, and just plain horrid?" Now I know why the computer industry is plagued with the stigma of nerdism. We just got invaded by Game Informer magazine. They gave us no warning. All of a sudden we were gathering for a team photo. Then individual discipline photos. I had no warning. I am wearing my spectacles today, my hair is all jacked, I'm wearing a stained T-shirt and I haven't shaved in a while. Doing my best to promote the programmer stereo type. Crappady Crap Crap.

Food Shmood

I hate eating. I just don't like it. It is a waste of time. All the cooking and eating and cleaning. If there were a pill I could take to fill my belly and give me all the appropriate nutrients I would take it all the time.

Every once in a while I enjoy cooking. Mostly baked goods like blueberry upside down cake or corn muffins. But finding food three times a day and then sitting to eat is so time and energy consuming. Actually, I'm supposed to eat 5 meals a day to get an even distribution of the 5000 calories I'm supposed to eat every day.

My attitude toward food is very odd. It goes against my family's history in many ways. My mother's side is Italian they have big meals with all kinds of pasta and meats. Then my dad, he loves eating, a lot. So where did I come from?

Grout Work

I did the grouting on my floor the other night. It wasn't as hard as installing the tile. It did take a while and there is still a film of sand on the tiles now. Every time I wipe the tiles down the film becomes thinner and thinner. Maybe in the year 3000 there will be none left.

This is a photo of me doing the grout. Unfortunately the picture is a little blurry, I told my girlfriend she should use the flash.

This other picture she took without my knowledge. It's not blurry but there should have been a crack. It would have made the shot more authentic 

A Day in Court

Actually I never made it to court. I sat in the jury assembly room all day. I waited and waited. Then, I got reassigned to a another court house completely. I have to show up there tomorrow.

The Mosk Courthouse is on Hill St. In downtown Los Angeles. It is across the street from the Ahmanson Theater and the new Walt Disney Concert Hall. If you ever have to do jury duty down there I suggest that you go up to the ninth floor. Up there they have a cafeteria called Top of the Court Cafe. It is your average crappy government cafeteria. I don't recommend buying a doughnut. I made that mistake. The reason you should go up there is that they have an open air balcony all around the top of the courthouse building. Great views of the Disney Music Hall and the theatre.

To the southwest you can see the Los Angles Times building. Although more interesting is the building between the courthouse and the LA Times Building. It has what looks like a skateboard ramp on the roof and has spots of graffiti up the sides of its walls. Makes you wonder, how do they get up there to spray that graffiti?

The courthouse is such an odd building. It has marble tiles all along the walls but it has linoleum floors. I guess they did the walls and then ran out of money for the floors. Every time I go into one of those older government buildings my head gets all stuffy. I guess they have bad air circulation.

Weird Al is my PT

My trainer Joey can take the lyrics of any song and change them so that the song becomes about working out. He is hilarious. I almost dropped weights on my head today because I was laughing.

A Surfin' Dude

This is actually a test post. I am trying the hello photoblogger out. This is kind of an old picture of dude on my broken surf board. The board snapped in half when I got hit by a wave.

Tile Work

I just spent the entire weekend laying the tile on my kitchen floor. The picture is of my kitchen gutted with most of the new tiles installed. It was actually kind of fun. In a weird monotonous way. Slather the crap on. Trowel it. Lay a tile. Slather the crap on. Trowel it. Lay a tile. Repeat. The mind gets to strange places in those repetitive situations. I kept repeating this little song in my head for some reason.

This adhesive was made for gluing.
And that's just what it'll do.
Some day this adhesive is gonna stick all over you.

sing that to Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Were Made For Walking and you'll see the insanity that started to set in my brain. Could have been the fumes. Or it could have been the intense pain my body was starting to feel over the twelve hours it took me to do the work.

One good side effect was that I invented the best tool ever! I was trying to scrape some dried adhesive off of a tile. I was using a towel, not strong enough. Then I tried a razor blade, too rigid. My fingernail did the trick. It always does. From washing dishes to cleaning gack off pretty much anything the fingernail is king. So when they find the gene for fingernails (if they haven't already), bam! I'll make a tool that just grows fingernails on plants or something.