Yes, dear friends, this may not be in the same vein of some of my survivalist, Wildernesspunking. Nor is it psychological rant delving into political or environmental insanity. No this is just for fun and smiles.
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Many experts on aging and mental health say as one grows older they should try new projects/hobbies. A few years ago I started gardening in earnest. We’ve been doing these vids for almost a decade now, but when changes in my life started me down the WildernessPunk road, the Video projects were sidelined. We lost a couple of team members and all moved further away from each other, but most of us are still in AZ, so Tony Ballz and I picked up the Mantel. After editing our last video, Tiny Hands, which took place with the majority of the original team, we got most of the original team back together, and despite geographic challenges, we have jump-started the Daily Discord/Search Truth Quest project.
With two of our four person team both living in Tucson, Ballz and I took a greater role with the tech and production side of the fence. Although, in line with Covid high fashion, all four of us try to Zoom once a week. So with all this being said, please give yourself a break and take a few minutes to enjoy our newest creation.
(There is even a science fiction fight scene at the end!)
I know this isn’t WildernessPunk in the Classic sense. But These videos were a fun part of my existence before my life crashed into WildernessPunk in 2016. It took 3 years for us to shoot one again, but now things are better. My life is about a 100 times better. My kids live with me full time and yes, we have started up our videos again, much to the disappointment of You Tube and the general public, so sit back and enjoy…
Before you and I start down this road, let me state I am certainly not the most qualified or popular guy working with a team to shoot comedy videos for the web. However, if you aren’t either, this discussion could be more useful to you than to some internet celeb who has already quit his day job. Also, a lot of the technics my team and I will discuss would help in any sort of smaller video project such as a book promotion video or a ‘How To’ piece.
7. Focus more on Ideas than Dialog
Face it, we aren’t working with Brad Pitt and Meryl Streep here. Most of your crew might have a hard time remembering a long series of lines, and even if they can, they could have a hard time saying them naturally. Sure if you found some good one liners keep those in your head, but if you focus on the outline of the joke and go through it with your own words and voice it will come out better than forcing yourself through 6 takes to get some cardboard line out which might not have fit your character anyway.
6. Let your Props Create a Joke Instead of the Other Way Around.
We may need to acquire and make props, but instead of thinking about what you don’t have and then using time and money to bring it to a shoot, look around at your house, the local area, and your team’s homes. Most of us have odd items laying around. How can they be used to spark your creativity and make their way into a video? Can a Viking drinking horn become an 1830s hearing aid? Perhaps the hair you just brushed off your dog could be a fake mustache.
5. Be Creative with Scenery
Instead of filming a bunch of scenes in your living room try to never shoot in the same place twice. The world is full of chaotic and interesting places and most of them are free. Don’t worry about getting the A+ places into your videos either, since they are more likely places some people may have seen. I also say a B- place no one has found beats an A+ place everyone knows about which is full of people when you arrive.
4. Give Your Friends and Allies Small Roles
People will either want to be part of your team or be camera shy, but we are shooting for something in the middle. Get a pal or two to fill in a brief role. Maybe a non-speaking part works for some folks. Others might like the idea of speaking off camera better. They don’t need to have a reoccurring character, but an extra…er, extra in every video is going to help more than many would think. Also, you could use our trick and put them behind a mask or in a costume and just run after you growling.
3. Keep the Same Characters
Of course, you can always do what you wish, but this isn’t Saturday Night Live and many of us don’t have a wide span of acting skills. Also, with the glut of millions of videos and people competing with you, it might be better to focus on a certain theme or thread. Since getting well known is beyond difficult, in my opinion, you increase the chance to have a following by having running characters and some sort concept. With the pure chaos of the internet already in effect, creating more yourself could just get you completely lost in the entropy.
2. Use Voice Overs
Voice overs are a lot easier to get right than remembering a paragraph of dialog and nailing it. They can be great for adding extra jokes or connecting the plot to the footage. Voice overs also tie in odd ideas and help them make sense within your tale.
1. Write to People’s Strengths
Face it, if ‘acting’, and I use the term loosely, is someone’s 5th most important project, they probably have more on screen weaknesses than strengths. Common issues could include not remembering lines, stiff acting, not talking loud enough, and the list continues.
Focusing on their weaknesses isn’t going to help things, so focus on what they can do whenever possible. Could the guy who can’t remember lines be good with expressions? Is the soft talker great with voice overs? What about the guy who falls down a lot but can’t pronounce things? Use what you have going for you and try to ignore the rest. If this isn’t someone’s career or life passion, they aren’t going to be good at everything.
The Takeaway
We find ourselves living in a time where more people than ever can be in videos, bands, write novels, and other creative pursuits. This means there is more competition than ever before. If you are going into making comedies or really any other creative project, it might be better to look at it as a hobby with perks more than a profession or a revenue earner. If you are just going at it to have fun, then you will be happy when you achieve such a goal. If you are trying to compete against the endless masses, become famous, or turn a buck, well, good luck, but don’t come around me to spill your sour grapes, because my friends and I just made some wine.
Here are a couple of our Videos. Like, Subscribe, and Share but only if your love Freedom!
We just re-released this one. Please help it get some love.
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