Creating a quick video sketch

I don't just give advice on here, I also take my own advice (well, most of the time anyway).

I just uploaded another short video sketch to Funny or Die.  And getting it done was fairly easy (okay, it took forever to get the right cat picture, but that's because I'm a little anal about certain stuff).

Anyway, shooting the sketch was quick and fun. Sketches don't have to have all kinds of props, and sets, and whatever. Here's what we did. My friend Sally wanted to do a scene where she played an interviewer. I said, okay, how about I play a surly photographer who you're interviewing - and we just try improvising the whole thing, for like 2 or 3 minutes.

So, Sally came over and we sat down in front of my computer. (Yep, didn't even use my good camera, just the built-in iSight on my Mac.) I did spend a little time getting the lighting to look decent, but that was it.

Then I hit record, and we just start improvising. Got it in one take - but it would have been okay if we needed to do a bunch of takes. The thing is - we've done a bunch of improvs together in the past, so we trusted each other, and knew how we worked together. This is the value of experience and why it's a good idea to work on your improv skills - you never know when you'll be able to put them to good use.

When we were done, I spent a few days doing a little bit of editing - like trimming some stuff where I went off on a rant that didn't really work in the scene - and added a couple of credit cards and some opening and closing music from the Garageband library. And that was it! Is it perfect? No. But it's done and up and we've been getting a lot of positive feedback on it.

A New Day - Interviews With Martha

The point is - don't wait for a part - create a part. I'm going to be doing some more of these. In fact, I'm looking for a female in her 30s (give or take), who is good at improv, and is interested in doing a weekly online show about current events along with talking about the general craziness of life. So, if you fit that description, live in the Los Angeles area, and are interested - drop me an email and we'll talk.

I'd like to shoot a couple of shows and see how it goes. If it works, we'll talk about a longer commitment to the show.

Cheers,

Michael