Sort of like ‘The Office’…except about a family…sort of
I watched a video yesterday from CollegeHumor.com, and I was blown away by the production value and the visual effects, but the writing just wasn’t funny. They were spoofing The Matrix, and they didn’t do a great job. I won’t bother posting it here.
Fast forward to later in the evening, and I’m browsing the bios of some of the folks I follow on Twitter, and I stumble on twitter.com/nevadagrey. She’s a writer in LA, and she writes and produces a show on YouTube. It’s the opposite of the CollegeHumor thing. Not a huge production value, but I think it’s very funny.
Nevada Grey writes, produces, and directs it (and plays the role of the mother, I believe). The acting is pretty darn good, and Noell and I laughed aloud several times while we watched the first episode, and then the second…
Here’s the thing though: When I first watched The Office, I recommended it to people I knew, and some watched it, and they reported back that it wasn’t very funny. I realize there are different senses of humor, so I cautiously recommend you watch this video. I think it’s very funny. I’m curious to hear what you think.
It only has 1,320 views at the time I’m typing this. Realistically it should have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. Someone should give her a television show if she wants one, if she doesn’t already have one.
And this leads me to a bigger question — Why aren’t there more shows out there like this? Now that we have the ability to produce full video shows and distribute them to the world at such a low costs, examples like this should be popping up all over the place.
Who’s next?
Anyway, on with the show…
November 25th, 2008 at 6:22 am
great show, Izzy! Thanks for the recommendation on this show. I’ll be doing a review of it soon.
…and actually there are loads of people jumping into the online video medium. Some are semi-pros like Nevada Grey, who work in the industry in one way or another and some are complete amateurs (and yes, there are the big professionally sponsored sites like Sony’s Crackle.com, 60Frames or strike.tv etc.)
Anyhow, let me introduce you to a few of the amateur/semi-pro shows that I get a kick out of in order to get you started (and in so doing, answer your questions about people doing shows online)
Comedy:
- Casanovas.tv (the idea is an old one, remember the odd couple, but the writing makes it worthwhile)
- watchtheguild.com (cute show about a WoW gamer meeting up with her online guild for the first time)
- Italian Spiderman (a very clever and silly take-off of campy 60’s films. Too difficult to describe in two sentences, but really funny) –> this ones on Youtube
Thrillers:
- Luke11-17.tv (self-help guru by day, drug-addled killer by night)
- Project X on webserials.com (a little bit x-files, a little bit Stephen King and a whole lot of Alien)
- Pinktheseries.com (the first season won a Webby, it’s an interesting bite-sized show about a female assassin whose biological clock is ticking)
Documentaries:
- thebindlestiffs.com (a documentary about one of the last travelling circuses in the US)
- American Dreamers (on crackle.com, an exploration of some of America’s eccentric artists and creators)
….and there are so many more coming out every month!
It’s interesting to note that a standard monetization model hasn’t really been found for online video, so for now, the folks putting their shows up on the web are real pioneers.
Thanks for the post IzzY and all the best to you!
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
The reason why more aren’t popping up is because screenwriting is one of the most learning intensive career paths in the world, and most screenwriters suck extremely bad at first and that’s not a bad thing.
We are all newbs at one stage. It’s just they don’t know they suck. Once they work that out, they can spend the 10 years or so studying to the max and become as good of a writer as Nevada. But then there is the learning curve of directing, producing, acting and editing, coupled on top of all that.
You rarely see screenwriters as good as her. Constantly delivering quality on a regular basis. She’s a professional. That’s why there aren’t more shows like this.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Steve,
Excellent comment! Thanks!
You sound like someone who has followed Nevada Grey’s work. What else has she done? And are they online so I can watch them?
December 17th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I loved it ,I didn’t know such shows existed (I’am a newbie as you can tell.) thanks for turning me on to this.Maybe I might try my hand at this kind of work in the near future.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thank you all so much for your kinds words regarding my web series! And especially to Izzy for recommending it. When I began the series, I knew how to write (I’m an optioned screenwriter) and direct, but had no idea how to use a camera or edit — I wish I knew about this website 6 months ago - the production values on the episodes would have been at a much more professional level. As it was, I had to learn everything from scratch, spending endless hours combing through thousands of pgs of manuals. The information here is amazing and it’s much easier way to learn. Watching the instructional videos is like taking a master class in cinematography, editing and post production.
I just posted my latest episode, which I’m most proud of and is close to my heart… It’s about a mom dealing with her first Christmas without her kids… I’m told it’s funny, sweet, and a little bit heartbreaking… http://tinyurl.com/3r48sp
Thank you again for all the great work you’re doing here, Izzy. I’ll be visiting this site often!!