Episode 3: Food

Sandwich Making Competition from The VP Club on Vimeo.

On February 24th we filmed our third episode as the Video Production club this term. The theme for this show was food, and some of the videos featured included a rap about organic food in the Ashland Co-op, a cooking show where the host was stoned, and a saga about a script writers struggle to write a script for a movie centered around a fast food worker. Jon interviewed local chef Buck Gray, a couple brave souls tried the Asian delicacy balut (duck fetus) and we had a sandwich making contest for the audience to participate in. I would say that this show combined the audience centered activities that we had during the video games special combined with the guest / interview depth that emerged with the beer episode.

Our next episode will be this next coming Thursday and will center around students final projects, tests, and stress. We have filled out the paperwork and have the forms in place to become a full on club next term and we will be asking for funding so that we can improve certain aspects of the show. These aspects include set design, props, and better snacks.

Again, I would like to emphasize that we meet every Wednesday evening at 7:30pm at RVTV, so if you want to come pitch ideas, hang out, and get involved don't be shy and come on down.

Fast Food from Jotham Porzio on Vimeo.

Episode 2: Beer

Caldera Interview Part 1 from The VP Club on Vimeo.

We took a couple huge steps forward with this new show. It went a lot smoother, I think we had better content, and it took us less time to set up everything. We definitely spent more time on pre-produced videos. The Standing Stone brewery talk-through turned out really good, and for not having a voice over, the Caldera walk-through turned out really good with that music. We also did interviews in the SU like usual, and we interviewed drunkards at Omars the night before. All of these videos were filmed and edited the week of, meaning we could theoretically do a pro weekly show. This is of course if none of us had other obligations like school and work. Other things that went better, we had better food for everyone like veggies, hummus, and chips.

Some issues that we still need to work on 1. We still needed an audio guy, we were one crew member short unfortunately so we had a few moments of panic / yelling during the transitions. 2. Some other sources of yelling, which is really something we need for the next show, is communication between me(the director) and Jon (the host) Since the format of the show is a little up in the air, there is a lot of last minute changes. The way we had it set up when it really didnt work was that I told the technical director, who told the floor director, who told the host. This was literally like playing a game of telephone where the host got something completely different from what I had intended. I think we can work around this by giving the host his own headset to wear during the videos, so we can all be on the same line. 3. I think we all realized that filming stuff the night before is not the best way to do things. We really should have everything done and ready the day before, that way we can write up a rundown / script that we can go off of, and so everyone really can be on the same page. 3. Something that we did not get to change form the first show that I would of liked to was adding bumpers to take us out to video and bring us back to live. Although we are getting better at the transisitons, I think it would help everybody.

That being said, the chaos and changing plans as we go is part of what makes it so much fun. It also allows for on the spot creativity, sporadic interviews, and random on stage sword fights. Having a plethora of commercials, PSAs, student videos, as well as the on topic videos really helps by giving us time to get everything together for when we come back to live. I honestly think we could do this show live by next term.

Hours wise, I am probably spending a couple hours on this during the off week and upwards of 20 hours on the week of the show working on it. Another goal of mine is to spread out the work and also assign some parts to other club members. We are getting lots of new members and having a weekly meeting really has helped with getting everyone involved. In case anyone out there doesnt know, we meet every Wednesday at 7:30 pm at RVTV. We use these meetings mostly to either pitch ideas or organize what we have and make a schedule for the show.

Our next episode will be about food, and its open submission as always. Pictures and sculptures, as well as videos are welcome, and are due by Wednesday, the 23rd at 7:00 pm. Please email souvp@yahoo.com or bring it in person to RVTV. The filming will be Thursday the 24th at 8:00 so come on by if you want to check out the action live!

Cheers!

Standing Stone Brewing Company: How We Make Beer from The VP Club on Vimeo.

Video Game Show

Super Mario Bros. Wii from The VP Club on Vimeo.

Overall the video game special went really well. We had a lot of fun, and gained a lot of valuable experience. The show is airing again tomorrow night (01/27) at 11:00 on channel 9 and roguetv.org if you want the full on experience. Otherwise you can watch all the clips online on our vimeo page at vimeo.com/thevpclub.

Some snags that we ran into were (1.) not enough time to set up. We ran into a few technical problems and just the overall setup in general took an hour more than planned. I apologize for the people who came at 8, got bored and left. We did have food for everyone though. (2.) not enough people helping. We were kind of short staffed in the first place, but when we did the whole "pull the names out of the hat to see who plays the game", members of the crew were constantly called up, leaving us short handed. This however, will be avoided in the future for obvious reasons. (3.) I dont think everyone was on the same page as far as the rundown of the show and everything that was going on. Part of teh reason for this was that we were kind of playing it by ear. We had ideas for segments and a bunch of stuff planned out but we didnt have a set timeline. That is another thing we will do before hand for the next show. (4.) We didnt have pre-produced graphics.. well not really. Jotham made some graphics before the show but for the next show we will need to make some "loading screen" type of filler for when we go to and from the videos. This will also help us avoid awkwardness ..("lets go to the video".... 30 secs later video starts)

The next show should be a lot better. For one, we will have guests on from Standing Stone Brewery along with a pre-produced walk through of the brewery itself. We should also have more videos made especially for the show. If anyone reading this wants to make a video, cartoon, photoshop image, photograph, or whatever, please do! The theme is beer, so go nuts! Also it doesn't really have to be new, if you have a good beer picture and want to submit it go for it.

Miles Inada on Video Games from The VP Club on Vimeo.

First show of this term

Some inspiration for all you art 351 ppl

The VP Club Presents

For my project I am producing a regular tv show for RVTV and the internet. There is a host, and talking and stuff like interviews and hanging out. We will hopefully have some live musicians in the studio, as well as a live audience. The atmosphere will be really laid back, with a few guests on at a time. Every show will have a theme that will propel the content. The show will have breaks during the interviews where there will be pre-produced content like pre filmed interviews with random students, informational pieces, animations, skits and shorts, etc. There will also be lots of room for submitted content, which will act as kind of a student showcase.

There are many aspects of this production and there will be a lot of people involved in order for it to go smoothly. The Siskiyou is possibly interested in doing a news report for every show as well. There is definitely accommodations for acting students to get involved in sketch comedy, although that would require a significant amount of work on top of what already needs to be done so I am only offering the video end of those if a group wants to come in and do something on their own. I have had a group of non-acting students say that they have the ideas and the go-getter attitudes to produce sketches if I could film and edit them. I have not had any contact with theater students however.

Production Schedule:

Field Shoots

Standing Stone Brewery - Filmed 02.01.11

Caldera Brewery - Filmed 02.02.11

Elmos - Pending
Assorted Dorms - Pending

On Campus Interviews(Wednesdays at 2:00 PM in the Raider Lounge area of the Stevenson Union)

January 19th - Video Games
February 2nd - Beer
February 16th - Cooking
March 2nd -Finals

Studio Shoots (Thursdays at 8:00 PM)

January 20th - Video Games

February 3rd - Beer

February 17th - Cooking

March 3rd - Finals

Production Meetings (Thursdays at 7:30 PM)

January 13th - Video Games

January 27rd - Beer

February 10th - Cooking

February 24th - Finals

Submitted content must be received by the Wednesday before every show.

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Here are some other shows that have creative freedoms and can pretty much do whatever they want.

Between Two Ferns

Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Check It Out with Steve Brule

Tom Green's Internet Show

Viral Video Film School

This is the best internet show about internet videos period. Its also better than the ones on tv, although Web Soup is pretty funny because I like Chris Hardwick and they make original shorts.

This is pretty straight forward, he probably uses an iMac or something, coupled with Final Cut Pro or even iMovie, shit idk. The process is simple, watch a buttload of internet videos, download them, record yourself talking about them, insert said internet videos, add text and background music and bam. It has to be pretty time consuming still though, to go through all the crap on the internet all day.

Anyways, I like the idea of using viral videos in a show. It makes for a good joke that is relevant to todays culture. Nothing says "stop channel surfing and watch me" like internet content on cable tv.

We totally stole this idea by the way, if you watched the first show Spencer does a segment titled "Web Riffs" which is the exact same thing as VVFS. Im not afraid of saying it, we stole the idea, straight up. But we dont need to have original ideas at this point in our career, some big studio is just going to steal your good idea and do it better anyways because we are poor and have limited resources. I say write down your good original creative ideas in a notebook or something, and when you are loaded you have a book of good ideas. Its like a piggy bank for ideas.