Teaching Myself Animation, Ghetto-Style

Or should I just say DIY, and extra resourceful? Nellie and I did this last night in about ten minutes. I just wanted something clean and simple, colorful and cool-looking. I also like the bit of music, which I put together several weeks ago - it has that nice bit of upbeat cheer contrasted with weird jangly dissonance. I haven't settled on the final style or music, but I like what I've come up with so far.

(Edited to add newer, shorter version):

Short Comedy Film 1 of 12

Hop on over to the Bucket of Nerds blog for the first of our planned twelve short comedy films. We shot this yesterday in about 90 minutes and then I spent a few hours downloading the footage, editing it, and writing the music. (After a night out celebrating my boyfriend's birthday...and organizing a writing workshop for fellow comedy writers...followed by an evening with stand-up friends at Schubas...yes, I'm tired.)

It's called "Breakfast With Teresa," and it's 3.5 minutes with another 1 minute of bloopers. Teresa has her own in-house morning chat show but doesn't seem realize no one is watching, and isn't willing to be too flexible on the rules, even when Elizabeth is too scared to report live from the basement. Nellie suggests that they get around Teresa's iron fist by playing with time traveling text messages and sketch editing in the future. Guest appearance by Morgan Freeman. Sort of.

(Bonus points if you can catch the scene where a highlighted script is in plain sight. Ha!)

I am so thrilled that actors opened their mouths and my words came out. Nerdy words like "Would you please stop crapping on the boundary between magical realism and science fiction?" (Thank you, Teresa.)

I learned a lot. I already know things I'll do differently next time and I feel even surer now that I should be behind the camera more than in front of it, so maybe we'll experiment with inviting guest stars to play with us on our Sunday afternoon comedy jaunts.

Finding friends to play with shouldn't be tough - lots of people have put their name in the hat for future efforts, and my increasingly awesome boyfriend has organized a stand-up comics' weekly writing workshop (a feat in itself), and at our first gathering this weekend, there was more indication that roping more fun friends into this project won't be a challenge.

So go watch my first short comedy film! And please share opinions. We're putting it out there and we want to get better, so be honest (but gentle).

P.S. I'm not too proud a geek to admit that I hope people will notice that the music I wrote for the end of the clip is a remixed, sped up, Latin disco version of the opening clip.

Coming Soon...

Super busy. The other two Buckets and I wrote and shot our first sketch on Sunday. It was amazing. I love them. I'm editing it. I'm exhausted.

1-13-08 - Bucket of Nerds - 10 Minute Podcast

Okay, I'm cross-posting this (it's also on the Buckets blog). After Bucket of Nerds produced our first podcast, a mere five minutes, we decided we had at least enough chutzpah and hilarious moxie to ask people to listen to us for a full ten minutes. So here's a longer clip, with more weird jokes and girls snurfling waffles while laughing.A summary of select highlights:

• Can you speak in internet emoticons?
• Celebrity crushes.
  
• Does Oprah have a spaceship?
• Funniest thing heard all day: "Which one of you slammable dick caves wants to go home with me tonight?" (Courtesy of Mike Burns.)
• Ryan Reynolds is very good-looking.
• Elizabeth's bad waffle tastes like cats.
• Nobody cares Elizabeth is from Indiana.
• Teresa and Nellie taste the bad waffle, agree it's like tongue-bathing a litter of calicos.
• Teresa uses a Southern accent to ask, "will dipping the waffle in ranch make it not horrible?"
• No.
• Nellie is accused of being a Second City hipster.
• David Letterman is our favorite funny uncle who's busy to hang with us, but he was not Sesame Street's "Letter Man."
• Nellie's morning yawn sounds like a baby pterodactyl, which is almost a tribute to another of our favorite comedians, Maria Bamford.
• Elizabeth mocks her own poor navigational skills in character as an old, angry, vaguely Eastern European man.
• Nellie wonders about the real meaning of "doesn't know their ass from hole in the ground."
• Elizabeth suggests flashcards to acquaint oneself with the difference between the two.
  
• Why are loud annoying televisions being shoved down our throats at gas stations and grocery stores these days?
• An impromptu rendition of the Beach Boys' "In My Room."

The Buckets are Born

Bucket of Nerds -- It's Already So Much Fun

...and we haven't even really started yet. Stay tuned!

Nerd Yourself

Just a gentle reminder that things are cooking over at the Bucket of Nerds blog, where we're all getting crazy excited about tomorrow's photo shoot and the beginning of our comedy film making project.

Sloan is the person most to blame for the Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" shot-by-shot remake that we did for our Christmas party invite. (Photos at left of Sloan as Rick -- with bright orange construction paper hair, of course -- and me as the slutty blonde dancer.) But apparently that foray into bad '80's music wasn't enough, and last night she cut this sexy little montage of gerbil antics.


And one more picture, just so you will remember that Sloan is, in fact, a very cute girl, and not a faded '80's icon of limp-wristed blue-eyed soul.

And on to the video! Don't be ashamed to shake your booty with the beat. I certainly couldn't help myself.