My video host, blip.tv, have some really cool features for their users. One thing you can do is look at viewership stats second by second, to see where people tend to stop watching, or to see what bit people, upon rewatching, skip to. And sometime last year, I went through the videos and collected a rough list of “Things That Seem To Hurt Ratings.” The list included:

-songs
-long explanations of stuff
-title cards
-Milton shouting

So as you can see, I’m working my way through the list and putting everything in there.

This was a fun episode in terms of exploring some new camera set-ups, trying to use a few basic set pieces and create multiple spaces out of them. It wasn’t my initial thought going into season four, but it seems that this season I’m going to be trying to get away from my patented one-shot look. It’s been so long since I’ve thought in terms of multiple camera angles that I’m having to really think about how it all works. This is going to be more obvious in 404, where I needed to match turns and compose over the shoulder shots that didn’t distract and still have angles that allowed important action to be visible. You know, stuff filmmakers have to worry about. Anyway, it’s an interesting experiment.

One nice thing is, of course, I don’t have to try and get through three pages of dialogue without a mistake. I don’t know if my performances are getting better on the puppetry side of things yet, because I’m still getting used to the monitor. But by the end of the season, it’ll be interesting to look back and see if there has been any improvement.

My character voices are out of shape, though. That much is for true. They’re all slowly drifting back towards my voice, and it’s something I need to work on.

The other thing I really need is a double-jointed right arm. It can either be a transplant, or some bionic upgrade, but I’m finding with these weird camera angles that I’m not physically able to get all the movement I want out of both puppets. Yes, the answer would be to hire another puppeteer, and put the stage more than four feet off the ground. Sure. That would be the SMART way. But I’m too full of myself for that. Clearly.

And yes, I am strangely obsessed with Hell’s Kitchen. I hate the format, I hate the way reality shows twist all human interaction into a horrid middle school cafeteria incident, but Ramsay… there’s just something about Ramsay that I can’t deny. His passion for food and complete intolerance for incompetence is strangely comforting. Sometimes, when I can’t yell at all the idiots surrounding me for fear of social repercussions, it’s nice to let Gordon do it for me.

YES.

The challenge was to create a new mini-episode of Jigsaw every weekday in the month of February. Today is the final day.

Monday through Friday. 5 episodes a week. 20 episodes total.

Not only did I succeed, but I managed to get all but one of them up before the end of normal East Coast business hours. Only two of them were posted after 2pm EST. And both of those were lengthy renders.

Wish list for season 4?

• MORE RAM. Or perhaps a new computer altogether.
• A better lighting kit. So the lamp doesn’t surge halfway through a take, exposing camera tricks.
• Mic that actually feeds into the computer, for voice over work that doesn’t sound crappy. This may require item 1b.

Comments? Thoughts? What would you like to see in the next season (keeping in mind that I have no idea when that season will be, apart from “at least three months from now”)?

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m as surprised as anyone that I didn’t take advantage of the fact that this was episode 314 to make a reference to pi.

But then, it’s sort of a miracle that there’s an episode at all. Too busy to even explain how busy I am. Or, indeed, to finish writing this post.

I’m pretty sure I have invented the concept of the “pen garter,” but feel free to disagree with me in the comments.

(watch ep.313 in Quicktime)

I don’t have a lot to say about this episode, apart from the fact that it gives me a serious case of the giggles.

Yes, I admit it. A big motivation for me to make these things in the first place is so that I can enjoy them. I create stuff that makes me laugh. And this one? This one cracks me up.

I don’t even know why. Hell, most of the way through, I felt like I was treading water. There was no script. There was no real plan. Your behind the scenes talk for the day: this episode shows you what I actually did today, with a few omissions (having Frank & Regibor fill out paperwork and play with their new phone didn’t really make sense in the dramatic context, nor would it have fit in the episode to have them take a break and watch Pushing Daisies with Girl). I did, in fact, mow the lawn, go to the recycling center, buy stuff at Staples, make bread, load the dishwasher. I didn’t use the dustpan much, but I used it (largely to clean up the flour that Frank blew in Regibor’s face, a bit that didn’t make sense on camera due to the fact that none of the flour actually stuck to Regibor’s face, so it got cut).

I had no idea what I was doing today. Most of the footage was done by lunchtime, and then I sat around for seven hours trying to figure out a punchline. Which, you’ll note, I sort of never did, but managed to defer until later. To be fair, this storyline has been in the works, but I didn’t expect exactly this outcome (at least, not in this way, though the end prop has been ready for a few days). It’s a good thing I have a very well-organized junk shelf directly behind my desk chair, else the impromptu ten minute build of the transmogrifier would have been impossible. I fully expect the finished machine to look, well, more finished. But hey, sometimes expedience can be just as valid a design spec as anything else.

Anyway. I hope you enjoy this thing. I slogged through the process and then, while watching it for the first time (to check the edit timing before render), laughed until there were tears in my eyes. So frankly, I don’t really care if you enjoy it. Because I certainly did. Do. So there. Nyah.

Comments are, however, still welcome.