You should know I’m obsessed with videosongs.

The rules of videosonging are very simple:

1. What you see is what you hear

2. If you hear it, at some point you see it

If anything, I have broken the rules here because it’s not really quite a song. It is a piece of music, certainly, but not something you’ll be singing to yourself later (though if you are a drummer, you might end up with the beat in your ear for a few minutes). Still. The principle is sound.

And that’s it. I’m really happy I decided to spend a few hours last night working on this, because otherwise it wouldn’t have posted until probably 2am. As it is, I’m afforded a bit of time to actually enjoy Twelfth Night. And, you know, eat something. Which I haven’t really remembered to do today.

Thanks for watching. Hopefully I’ll keep up with this space a bit better. Though I’ve said that many, many times before.

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“Huh.”

“What?”

“It’s the new episode of Jigsaw.”

“What about it?”

“It’s… it’s like he didn’t spend nearly as much time on it or something.”

“What, so it’s fairly concise?”

“No, I mean — well, yes, actually. Maybe that’s it.”

Went back to work today. Had to film after. No time! No time!

Drumming tomorrow. I apologize in advance if it’s late.

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I forgot how long and hard split-screen stuff was.

Taping down the tripod so nothing moves. Fixing the focus. Locking everything down as tight as possible. Thinking all the blocking through in multiple dimensions. It’s a little hard to get everything set, especially when you’re like me and you refuse to bother with storyboarding.

On the other hand, when it comes to the actual filming, when everything is all finally crystalized, it often only takes one take. Three hours of planning, eight minutes of filming.

I’ve been really enjoying this project from the standpoint of bringing back things about the show that got lost somewhere (and by “somewhere,” read “in my attempt to create normal TV-style content and expand into realms I didn’t sincerely want to go”). There’s been a purposeful focus on old stand-by situations that haven’t been around as much in season four. Milton and Kranium banter (including the cry of “Mil-tooooooon” that helps me find Kranium’s voice before every shoot). Kranium talking on the phone. Lump listening to the radio. Toy theater (the first instance of which was all the way back in season one, and I didn’t even know it was called “Toy Theater” at the time). Somewhere along the way when planning season four, I forgot that I was more interested in characters than in a story that makes sense, or at least in a story that lasts longer than one episode. A focus on continuity makes it hard to keep myself entertained. Which might be seen as a failure, I suppose. But I’m okay with that.

Which isn’t to say that these things are the most popular elements of Jigsaw. Just the things I enjoy doing the most. Which has to count for something.

Where does this leave season four? No idea. After this I’ll probably take a few months off (due to producing/directing duties at work), finishing off season four on an irregular schedule starting maybe mid-March and going until early June. Unless, of course, I come up with a bunch of ideas, in which case I’ll just start filming. I’m not terribly concerned about keeping up a regular schedule with the rest of the season; rather, focusing on taking a decent amount of time to make each episode as good as it can be. I know I can do the regular schedule thing with pretty good success. Instead of stretching myself in the direction of mainstream TV, I should maybe just think about how I can increase the quality, and punch up the funny.

Pipers tomorrow. Drummers on Wednesday. Then, rest.

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I knew when I came up with the concept that this was going to be a little later posting than I’d hoped.

Yeah, this is one of those “It takes eight hours to shoot four minutes” videos. I’m not entirely happy with the sound, to be honest, but I hit a point where I just couldn’t work on it any longer.

Also possibly the most expensive episode of Jigsaw ever, as I had to buy $50 in D&D stuff. Had to, he said as if he didn’t relish the excuse to finally pick up the Red Box.

Just so you know, all four of them had actual characters generated with a combination of 4E player manuals. Most of the dice rolls are authentic as of writing the episode (earlier this afternoon). I decided not to knock Regibor prone because I didn’t want two prone minis on the game map; I just wanted Kranium’s fallen cleric on the ground, so I fudged the Hulking Zombie’s power. Like any good DM who wants to have a more poetic outcome.

And yes, I am contemplating doing an entire series of “Jigsaw plays D&D”, except I’d probably use Gamma World instead, because I just don’t have that many miniatures, and I’d much rather purchase weird mutants and robots than wizards and trolls. I mean, it’s a pretty slim margin there, but this shit’s expensive, yo.

Yes, this may be the most geeky I’ve ever been. Here, at least.

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25% of the way through the impromptu Jigsaw 12 Days of Xmas project, and it dawns on me that with each passing day it will become more and more difficult to do these things with only two hands. This realization happened as I was attaching chickens to my fingers with rubber bands so I could have them dance on Lump’s bed. Heck, I’m not even sure I’ll have enough rubber bands, if it comes to that. I’ll have to scrounge around.

The song is an original, recorded this morning. I took the first measure of the melody of the 12 Days of Xmas and riffed on it while thinking about Edith Piaf. Came out way better than it had any right to. Like so many things I do while hung over.

Now I have a bit of time to sit back and contemplate. Colly birds. Calling birds. Colly. Calling. Hmm.

I may have to go for the obvious jokes here. Hope you’ll forgive me.

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