COMEDYBANGBANG

     Comedy Bang! Bang! is a tv show on IFC featuring some of the most well known comedians of tv. The show is a parody of a talk show, the set obviously not completed and the host is consistently a poor interviewer. The show focuses on surreal and outlandish humor, often altering reality. In many episodes the furniture talks to the host openly. The characters are over the top, the celebrity guests are caricatures of themselves, and the whole show is a whacky 22 minute ride.

     Comedy Bang! Bang! is the brainchild of former Mr. Show writer Scott Aukerman. The road to the show was a long one, Aukerman started running the show live in 2002 as Comedy Death Ray. A Comedy Death Ray podcast was started in 2009 and in 2011 the name was changed to Comedy Bang! Bang! 

The television show on IFC was spun off from the podcast in 2012, Aukerman bringing on comedian and one man band Reggie Watts to cohost. The show features a similar brand of comedy as the podcast but with a television twist.

The podcast is a celebrity playing themselves and a comedian playing a character. The entire show is improvised on the spot and Aukerman releases everything recorded.

Comedy Bang! Bang! works so well because it's so original. There's nothing before like this, the most similar thing is Mr. Show which was purely a sketch show. The combination of improv and sketch creates something that comedy has never done before. The sketch's are weird, the guests are weird, but that's what they need to surprise the audience. It's also incredibly impressive, that we see these comedians develop these characters on the spot.

     It should be noted, for those looking at the television business, that many comedians featured on the show and podcast are getting series of their own. The Kroll Show, Review, No You Shut Up!, The Birthday Boys, and even Parks and Recreation feature Bang! Bang! regulars and continue to be reviewed highly by critics. 

     Each episode promises something new and original. If you're bored with comedy today you shouldn't be, the comedy revival started at improv and is moving up to tv. Networks have figured out how to package these weird and niche markets and thus create incredibly creative content.

    Scoot Fluxerman is gathering a bunch of his funny friends in a tv studio and making something truly unseen on tv before.

Cross-media learning

Though we deal mostly in the medium of video as filmmakers, it is important not to forget how important other media forms can be, not only as we create, but as we learn. I don't know about you, but I have a 4-hour drive to make during academic breaks. I've looked for ways to pass the time constructively, and I recently came back to a great answer: filmmaking podcasts. Instead of surfing through constantly changing channels for something I don't mind listening too, I've loaded my phone with hours of talk radio targeted just to me.

After searching iTunes for the best filmmaking podcasts, I've settled on the Down and Dirty DV Film Show. You can check it out here. Spearheaded by Anthony Q. Artis, this weekly show is a great resource for filmmakers with the time to listen. It packs in current film news, tips and tricks, and interviews with industry professionals into a 1-hour show. What's even better, if you can listen in with the show live, you can call in to ask questions of the professionals themselves!

The hosts have a no-nonsense, guerrilla attitude about them, but they definitely know what they are talking about. In fact, they have so much knowledge, they have been able to fill two books with it. Anthony Q. Artis authored both the Shut up and Shoot: Documentary Guide and Shut up and Shoot: Freelance Video. The engaging book is filled with practical information, with an immediacy that would thrill any student looking to just, well, shut up and shoot. I found the book myself last weekend, and would agree with the favorable reviews it's gotten on Amazon.

If you're looking for anything more, make sure to check out their website, http://downanddirtydv.com. There are lots of options out there for filmmaking learning on the go as well. In fact, the site FilmmakerIQ lists over 40 different podcasts here! If only there was enough time in the day! Hit up the comments if there are any other valuable podcasts out there that you subscribe to.

Mugglenet!

Okay, I know, dorkiest thing possible, but whatever. There's this site called Mugglenet that is a source for basically everything Harry Potter (the title is a link to it). They have news about the movies, books, video games, and actors, caption contests, Harry Potter dessert recipes, trivia- okay, basically, if it relates to Harry Potter, it's on that site.

But this isn't just a post about the site- the creators of the site have a podcast that comes out pretty frequently and has been going on for years. Because the new trailer for the last Harry Potter movie just came out yesterday (if you haven't watched it yet, stop reading and go do that right now), their podcast for this week is an analysis of the trailer. In the last "trailer talk" of theirs that I listened too, they had images from the trailer to go with it so that you could follow along with what they were analyzing. I mean, it's pretty dorky, but if you're really excited for the last movie and you want to try and make sense of some weird clips/shots that were too fast, it's fun. So if you're a Harry Potter fan and you have a few extra minutes lying around, I suggest you go listen to at least a little of Mugglenet's latest podcast. And maybe watch the trailer several more times.