Superman vs. Aliens

Superman explains how he will deal with the aliens. (2:14)

Robin vs. Bomb

Robin gives a press conference. (2:23)

JP's Corner #12

2010-03-08

That last couple weeks went by so painfully slowly. And this week just flew!

No time for a proper blog today. We’ve got a big shoot weekend and I have to learn my lines.

We’re shooting three full-length skits this weekend. That’s nothing new for us. But they all present special challenges: one involves a lot of green screen, one has a pretty big cast and one requires me to be funny.

Every time I get scripts, it seems like Daddy Zach and Daddy James top what they sent out last time. This week is no exception.

I know I sound like I’m just spouting the party rhetoric when I talk about how geeked I get when I read a script, or that I laugh out loud when I read them at work. But you’ve got to remember, I’m as much of fan as you are.

I get scripts and I want to tell everybody how cool they are in copious detail. Luckily, I’m able to restrain myself and only share with The Red Head. Comedy’s all about timing and I don’t want to spoil the skits for you.

But this week’s scripts are extra great. I have to at least give you a little tease:

Our big ensemble skit of the week is so random, but so funny. There is nothing I can compare it to. The concept is so out of left field that I can’t imagine what psychotropics Daddy Zach and Daddy James were on when they came up with it.

I can’t even tell you the title because it doesn’t have one. At least, I’m assuming it doesn’t have a title. The script I have has is simply titled “Date”. If that’s the best the Daddys can come up with, they’ve just lost some cool points and I take back everything nice I’ve said about it.

It’s going to be directed by Jason Axxin who’s directed some of our classics: “Time Traveling Geek”, “Gang Initiation”, “ALT-F4” and “Superman vs. Aliens” to name a few. So, you know it’s gonna be good.

Our second skit is not titled “Date”, but oddly enough features Kelly and me on a date. It’s one of those witty-observations-about-men-and-women-that’s-really-eff’d-up skits that the Daddys do so well.

And Kelly’s in it!

I had so much fun acting in “Dating Solutions” with Kelly that I just can’t wait for this! Plus, Kelly is SMBC-Theater’s good luck charm; every vid she’s in gets great numbers due to her awesomeness.

And our last skit? Well, all I can say without ruining it is that it contains my very favorite camera direction in all the scripts this week:

“Satan can’t believe this sh*t.”

(My second favorite camera direction of the week comes in the middle of one of my lines of dialogue in Skit #2 and requires me to make “tongue waggle noises”.)

Hopefully all this will serve to pique your interest over what we’ve got coming up. I really, really, really wish I could tell you more, but James knows where I live and is a cutter. And Zach is always quick to point out that if I disappeared, no one would miss me.

So, I’d better keep my mouth shut and get back to work. But if you want more sneak peeks, make sure you follow my twitter feed @JP_Nickel and the SMBC-Theater twitter feed @smbctheater this weekend for set pics.

Now, I’m off to learn lines and think of better blog topics for next week!

Best,
JP
jpnickel [at] gmail dot com
Twitter: @JP_Nickel @JP_Nickel
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jpnickel

www.FiveCentProductions.com

JP's Corner #11

2010-02-24

I’ve been getting some wonderful compliments on the last few skits. Thank you all so much for taking the time to e-mail/Facebook/Twitter.

It’s rare that I’ll say this, but I really enjoyed watching BOTH SIDES. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of everything we put out. But generally, I can’t watch myself because I’m super-critical of everything I do. Any skit I’m not in, I’ll watch repeatedly. But with the skits I’m in, all I can see are the choices I should have made.

It’s that whole hindsight being 20/20 thing. I know a lot of actors who can’t watch themselves.

But BOTH SIDES is one of the rare skits I can watch and not get distracted with self-criticism. I think a big part of that is because the skit was just so cool to be a part of. Not fun. Everything we do is fun.

This was cool.

Last summer, Daddy’s Zach and James shot some green skits with Marty the Wizard up in northern California at the top secret SMBC Compound. But that was almost a year ago.

BOTH SIDES was the first skit we shot in LA on the green screen. And we shot it after we’d gotten our production machine running more smoothly.

Not only that, when I got the script, there was no mention that we were shooting green screen. The Bosses tell me as little as possible about upcoming shoots, lest I form opinions and try to share them. (Example: Whenever I want to fuel James’ ulcer—which I have named Pepé—I ask him if I can change a line. James turns red with rage. I laugh. James beats me like a Chason. I shut up.)

On the day we shot BOTH SIDES, I stepped into the Bachelor Pad—that’s Producer Supreme Angel’s name for where we do our LA shoots—fully expecting it to be like any other shoot: furniture rearranged, lights set up, Chason begging for his freedom…

Imagine my surprise when I saw the living room empty save for a ginormous green screen taking up the entire room. I knew there was the green screen up north at the Compound. But it never occurred to me that it was portable, or that I’d be in a skit that used it.

It wasn’t like stepping into someone’s apartment. It was like stepping onto a soundstage.

Like I said: totally, utterly COOL.

We always do our best to be professional. Or, at least, as professional as we can be within our means. (Labor laws be damned, Chason has lost his status as a US citizen and is the property of SMBC-Theater, Inc.) But there’s just something about the feeling of stepping onto what feels like a soundstage and thinking, “Wow. We’re really doing this.”

It felt as if we’d stepped up our game. You could argue we step up our game with every shoot. But this green screen skit was a huge leap. BOTH SIDES was our biggest green screen endeavor at the time.

Like everything, there was a learning curve. I saw a rough cut and was more than a little nervous about how the final product would turn out. In the skit, the tables we sat at caught the light reflecting off the green screen. So when the green was chroma keyed out of the shots, parts of the table disappeared as well.

Luckily, Marty the Wizard hates his family and Chason still responds to the crack of the whip. So the time was taken to get the effects just right.

I was so happy with the final product that I was able to take myself out of the equation, watch the skit as if I wasn’t in it and just dig its awesomeness. Judging from the numbers and the comments, it seems like all y’all dig it, too, which is great.

Plus, how funny was that news ticker?

Meanwhile, DATING SOLUTIONS has had SMBC-Theater’s best opening weekend ever! We passed 100,000 views in a week. We actually passed up the total views of one of our most popular skits, ULTIMATE STARING CONTEST, which has been up for seven months and re-linked like crazy.

I’m proud to have been a part of DATING SOLUTIONS and had so much fun acting with Kelly. (I wish we’d taped some of our rehearsals.) But I can’t watch it. I look at my chubby face and think of all the choices I’d make now, having had a chance to watch it. That’s kinda how I react to all the skits I’m in. “That reaction was too big.” “That reaction was too small.” “Wow. That would’ve been funny if I’d stressed the right word.”

Kelly has told me that she re-watches herself in skits as a way to learn and be better a better actor. Since Kelly is awesome and more talented than me, she clearly has a better grasp how to do things than I do.

Long story short, due to my perfectionist nature, I’m always surprised when any skit I’m in gets good numbers. So, I am blown away by how well DATING SOLUTIONS is doing.

It’s been a great feeling for all of us at team SMBC-Theater to see the numbers shoot up and read those (mostly) positive YouTube comments.

That means it’s once again time to thank you, our loyal viewers, for all your help over the last few months. Whatever it is you do—watching the skits week after week, re-linking, subscribing on YouTube, making donations, sending emails & tweets—it all helps to resuscitate my near-dead self-esteem. Oh, yeah, and it helps make SMBC-Theater more likely to get noticed by the Hollywood Grand Poobahs, and that’s not a bad thing, either.

Sincerely, you are all awesome.

I’ll close this week by asking one more time for a little advice: What blogs/websites do you go to regularly that you think would appreciate our particular brand of humor?

As we make a bigger marketing push this year, we’re trying to connect with websites that can give us the all-important re-link and fuel word of mouth. As always, feel free to e-mail me directly with your suggestions.

I’m asking you for advice on this because, obviously, our fans have the best taste when it comes to what look at on the internet :)

Best,
JP
jpnickel [at] gmail dot com
Twitter: @JP_Nickel
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jpnickel

www.FiveCentProductions.com

Zach's Plea

2010-01-16