It is Cortaca weekend, which means a great game, great friends, and great times. For ICTV this means the most watched, and most important show of the year. Gridiron Report, Bombers Live, and all other sports shows are going to be covering the game in the studio and on the field. There are going to be hundreds of views online and hundreds of yards of XLRs will be laid out. Tensions are going to be high. The game will be broadcasted on channel 16, ictv.org, and on Time Warner channel 325 all over New York! This is going to be the last Cortaca I will be attending in person, however next fall when I am in LA, I will be attending in spirit. For a division three game, this event draws a lot of people out for a weekend of celebration, and school spirit. To everyone planning to go to the game tomorrow afternoon, have a good safe time! To everyone not able to attend the game, be sure to tune in to channel 16, or Time Warner 325!
There is always something that goes wrong when filming, and sometimes it's something you didn't see coming. What do you do when there is no clear solution? You improvise. Sometimes this is easier said than done. During the filming I was doing for Life and Death Saturday we ran into a problem with lighting. There was a huge glare coming from the highest windows in our circle apartment, where we were about to film a fight sequence. For some reason, there are no curtains on those windows, and they are too high to reach. We decided we would make the adventure to the top of the window with a tapestry to diffuse the harsh light from the sun.
We ended up taking a milk crate, stacked it onto a chair, which was stacked onto our end table, which was stacked on top of our coffee table, which was stacked on our kitchen table, all to fix our lighting issue. With the help of our crew, I was able to successfully put up the make shift scrim, solve our lighting issue and get us back on track to film our fight sequence.
Sometimes you have to work with what you have when you're on set and trying to get things done. When there is no time to waste, you have to improvise, learn from your experiences and keep moving forward. Now we just have to remember to get that tape down off the windows before our next apartment safety checks.
Every year there are a handful of commercials that stick out, and go viral. Earlier this year, in April, Kmart released a commercial that blew up. Their commercial easily racked up 19.5 million views on YouTube and was plastered all over social media. The commercial is to advertise free shipping on their website, a store clerk exclaims you can "ship your pants" for free. Customers, in excitement, ship more things for free, including shipping their bed. Of course there is always that group of overly sensitive people that gets upset and has a mini outrage to get some attention. They criticized Kmart for their inappropriate pun, which only helped the commercial to gain even more publicity. Everyone else seems to love the hilarious commercial, and so do I. This was a genius move for Kmart, they set out to get attention and appeal from a younger crowd and they accomplished just that and more. If somehow you missed this commercial, make sure to watch it below.
Kmart proceeded to follow up their huge success with another commercial that they released in mid May. This time they took their puns to the gas. Advertising some "huge gas savings" to solve all your "big gas problems." Although this one did not do as well as the shipped my pants commercial it still went viral with 6 million views on YouTube. 6 million views for a commercial on YouTube is still very impressive, and a great success. Most commercials get nowhere close to the amount of views Kmart has. If you haven't seen this one yet, definitely be sure to check it out below.
Another, more recent commercial to go viral this year is a Geico commercial. Geico has been known for great commercials for a while now. Including their gecko series, and cavemen series. This commercial features a camel in an office excited about Wednesday, hump day, and it has accumulated over 12 million views on YouTube. The camel goes around the office enthusiastically asking his annoyed, and obviously unamused coworkers what day it is. The end of the commercial explains that people who save hundred of dollars by switching to Geico are happier than a camel on wednesday. There was even a Rush Night video this year that parodied the commercial to get freshman to sign up for the ICTV show, The Encore.
Next Saturday will be the last shoot of the season for Game Over. Which is going to be weird since a lot of the cast and crew will be graduating. But last weeks shoot (April 13) was pretty awesome. It was a specialty episode- GAME OVER: FEMINISM EDITION!
Four ladies (including myself) hosted the show and reviewed comic books, TV shows and video games that were empowering to women and feminist culture. I got to say, it was pretty fun being sassy about nerdy things... But I usually am so it wasn't that different of a day for me.
Next weeks episode will also be another specialty episode. Last year, our finale was a "Gameboy/Hot Tub Time Machine Episode". The hosts go back in time to the 80s to meet previous hosts and end up ruining their lives. This year, we'll be going back to the 90s and probably going to do the same thing but with other previous hosts. I guess Game Over really likes ruining lives...
I will be taking a break from writing about the usual juicy drama's that catch my eye on television and focus on a show that's a little more close to home. Over the past semester I have been hard at work producing my very own ICTV show: Boys of 213. Even though filming only began January 29th 2013 the show has been in the works since over a year ago. (March 2012 to be specific) and has literally been my baby over the past year.
My co-producer and I were driving back from Connecticut to Ithaca, when we started discussing ICTV and what kind of show we would want to produce if we could. I had already been thinking about this and came up with an idea to write about our lives. I'm always told to "write what you know" so I figured it was only the smart way to go. After discussing a few characters, more interesting plot lines, and a central theme....we had a show. The next day we sat down and wrote 10 pages of episode 1. The creative juices started flowing and before we knew it we were casting.
The show is about 3 very unique boys who, due to a housing mixup, end up living together in a 2 person dorm room their freshman year of college. The boys are: sarcastic and playful Noah, snobby and dim-witted Wesley, and quirky socially awkward Liam. The three boys get into trouble and find themselves among a crazy cast of characters. The show is a single camera sitcom, which we use a Cannon 5D Mark 2 to shoot. A unique feature of our show is that it's shot in a mocumentary style similar to The Office and Modern Family. We thought this popular format would work well to create the realistic, and intimate comedic feeling you will get with our characters.
Another feature of our show is the dorm room set. My co-producer lives very close to Ithaca and was able to pull together his resources over the winter break to construct our very own set that we put together each week in studio A of Park. Luckily we have a dedicated and hardworking cast and crew to help us every week not only construct the set but decorate it as well. We shoot it very similarly to a multi-camera sitcom because we don't include the 4th wall of the set - so it's like we're really peering into the dorm room of the three boys.
This semester has been a most difficult one but will prove most rewarding. After many issues with scheduling and actor's outside conflicts, lighting corrections, music recordings, etc. I have learned to love producing. I think audiences will really enjoy the characters and stories we tell, and can really relate to the situations.
Boys of 213 will premiere in the Park School Auditorium on April 26th at 8:00PM an then every day on ICTV of that week at 10PM.
Despite all the finals-related stress, it was a great experience to see the final project come together. The project was a lot of fun for me as I was able to develop my editing skills and work with new people; everyone was so passionate and wanted to make sure Dog House both looked and sounded great; Erica and Zack painstakingly color corrected each scene in After Effects while Alex made original music for the project. Their drive inspired me to do my best and I couldn't be happier with the end result.The lack of sleep we have is completely worthwhile, as I feel we've made something we can all be proud of.
Band Greeks also wrapped earlier this week, and while I'm sad to see the show end, it was an excellent learning experience. We'll be entering post-production soon, and the episodes will air this coming Spring on ICTV.
This semester has been a blast, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of everyone's hard work tomorrow at the Fiction Field Screening. Congratulations everyone, That's a wrap!
There is so much talent in the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. The number of fantastic productions that come out of the school is amazing. I have personally worked on five ICTV shows and one senior film thesis in my short time here so far. This weekend I'll be helping out on another film. This one is a CP2 (Cinema Production II) film, Open 24 Hours.
The basic plot is as follows: a man and his long-time girlfriend go to the store to get a morning-after pill, but after a meeting some interesting people they begin to think that this might be the perfect time to forget the pill and start a family. (disclaimer: I haven't read the entirety of the script. I read the treatment and that's pretty much the gist of it)
Even though I'm only boom op for the film, I am still really excited. We are filming in the Tops here in Ithaca (the one down past Wegmans). Because we are, y'know, filming in a supermarket, there are a bunch of things that need to be taken into account. One thing is that we can only do stuff when the store off of peak hours. Hooray for overnight shoots! The rough schedule of filming is 9pm-7am on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Other things that I've thought of that could be intriguing:
We are probably going to have to move some food packaging around so we do not see any logos.EDIT: Apparently we aren't worrying about that
Continuity would be a b!%&# over the course of filming three separate days. Customers or employees could move things around on Saturday that will mess up Sunday.
What kind of security/supervision will there be? I hardly think a supermarket will trust 20 college kids to roam in their store. EDIT: The Tops night crew is small, about seven people.
Almost all of the crew knows each other, and I predict lots of distraction. Everything is nice and organized, however, so there's hope!
I've never been to a shoot that has been shot on actual film, so it will be neat to see that happen.
So yeah, I am excited. It will be an interesting weekend to say the least. I wonder how much sleep I'll get...
I’m very excited to start using the JVC GY-700. It actually very fortunate that we have access to that particular model, as Band Greeks has be authorized to use the 700 as well; this is a great opportunity to use what I learn in class in the field!
Yesterday, I found an interesting trailer online for a documentary called Please Subscribe. The trailer features some well known Youtubers such as Grace Helbig (Daily Grace), Hannah Hart (MyHarto of My Drunk Kitchen) and Toby Turner (Tobuscus), and discusses the growth of Youtube, particularly, how the medium is changing from a simple pastime to a full-time career.
According to the film’s website, Please Subscribe also explores professional Youtuber’s backgrounds as well as issues such as how they attempt to stay relevant and “what they hope the future in this unstable, ever changing medium looks like.”
The idea behind this film reminded me of our class discussion about McLuhan’s quote “the medium is the message.” Through the vignettes featuring famous Youtubers, the film offers to examine the medium, its relevance and its future. Since Youtube has such a presence in society and our everyday lives, this is a fascinating film that I definitely want to see.
More info on the film, as well as the trailer can be found here: http://pleasesubscribefilm.com/watch/
I'm hoping the link above worked! The market is what I've been so busy on my last month or two's weekends. I wanted to share this with you since much earlier in the class Arturo introduced us to Indi Go Go. The Market has started using it and we're hoping to raise $6,000 with in the next 31 days. So far after a couple of weeks of this project being on Indi Go Go we've raised 3,000! It's very exciting! Between the fourty or so of us working on the project adding it to our facebooks emailing it to people and asking people to personally donate the rates have been pretty successful! You can also check out the original promo we made!
Maybe some of you will be compelled to help us out! The money will be going toward new equipment and food for the crew among other silly expenses like damaged property. Just Kidding! (but not really)! ;-)
Honestly, it's an awesome cause and we're all very enthusiastic about where our little film crew can go with this on our resumes!
I've been waiting a long time for the next movie like The Notebook... you know.. something to really pull at my heart strings!
I'm such a cheeseball but I loved everything about it... unrequited love, rich vs poor, love then conquering all... perfect! I'm not sure this new movie that came out on Friday... Like Crazy... has such a happy ending but holy crap do I want to see it!
Maybe it's just the trailer... I mean I've been fooled before. But that song they use it just gets me everytime. I'm just waiting for this to come to Ithaca already!
It's about a student from England falling in love with an American boy while studying in America. They fall fast and hard, and before they know it it's time for her to go back when her student visa expires. They try to make the long distance thing work, and then try moving back together... but of course nothing works out as it should.
Now.... you guys would already know about this if you tuned into Entertainment16 on ICTV.... (shamelss plug) We preview/review two or three movies a week and at least one TV show! Plenty of inspiration for fiction field production students!
Hey guys- Just Desserts is tonight at 7 in Emerson. It's an end of the year awards ceremony/thingamabob for ICTV and WICB/VIC. So if you were involved in ICTV or WICB or if you're just a Parkie who wants free strawberries and chocolate cake, then feel free to come. :)
Hey guys! Just a quick thanks to everyone who came out for the To a Pulp screening last night. It was great having a solid amount of people there to watch our final season. I was really happy with how it turned out, and I think the rest of the cast and crew are, too. It'll be weird not having to send out costume information to the cast and prop information to the producers anymore- our set isn't even there anymore, we tore it down this past Thursday. But now that it's done, the two producers will be able to sleep and I won't have to worry about them ripping their hair out anymore. So yay!
If anyone wants to watch the last season of TAP (or even the first season of TAP), we should be submitting it for online showing on ICTV.org pretty soon. I know DVDs are also in the works, too. Not sure if it'll actually air, though (they just finished the episodes right on time for the premiere).
Warning: Shameless plug ahead. Hard hat required at all times.
Okay, so I'm an associate producer for the ICTV fiction field comedy To a Pulp. It's about a fictional college newspaper and the crazy people who run it (no, it's not just a show making fun of the Ithacan). It's a little like The Office, but our characters do differ and it's not shot in the mockumentary style.
Anyhoo- the premiere of our 2nd and last season is on Saturday, April 30th in Park Auditorium! Doors open at 7 and we'll start the screening at 7:30. We'll be showing a recap of season 1 as well as all three episodes from season 2. All of season 1 is on ICTV.org if you want to check it out. Hope you can make it, we've worked really hard to make it an actual high-quality show and we're really proud of what we've done.
Basically: if you want to see a puppet, Lord of the Rings battle figurines, and a sword fight with a golf club and a toucan umbrella, come to To a Pulp's season 2 premiere on April 30th at 7 in Park Aud. Hope to see you there!
Hey everyone. My name is Corinne Theis and as was said by everyone else on this blog I am a TV-R major video concentration. Last semester I added a minor in Speech Communications, partly because it gives you a different perspective on how media effects people and the way people view things. I'm not really all that in to professional sports, although I don't mind playing a quick game of base/softball, soccer, tennis, whatever. I love all types of music, right now I really love listening to country (and yea i know i'll probably get some heat from that) and i'm not that big into rap or screamo. I'm not really sure what I want to do in the future, probably either act in or edit a tv show, but we'll see what happens.
Also I'm really involved with ICTV and have met some of the most amazing and wonderful people though it. ICTV is also having its Rush Night, and for the .01% that don't know what that means, it the night when all the shows have sign ups. I really think everyone should go and sign up to work on a show its a great experience.
