David M. Green: Purveyor of fine humour

Tag: crew

  • 31 Questions Episode VIII: The Wisdom of Friends

    By the way, hope you’re enjoying these sequel title gags. Got a bit tricky to find titles after 7…

    Anyway… 31 Questions! We’re done!

    And the ratings are IN. We broke all previous records this season with the Channel 31 Ratings Machine indicating 46,000 people in Melbourne & Geelong tuned in to our 4th episode on June 28. Beats the hell out of our previous best of 37,800 for our Season 2 finale last year. These days with all the competition from the plethora of digital channels, YouTube, PacMan and hula hoops, that some damn good figures.

    I assume.

    Personally, I reckon the best episodes of Season 3 are 1, 6 and the finale. And what a way to go out. Highlights of Ep 8 include the contractually required “Sophie’s Choice” segment, in which contestants Aaron and Naomi sing for points; Sophie and Anthony’s all-French exchange and one very special cameo.

    If you missed the season finale when it aired on C31 Melbourne & Geelong on July 26, or you haven’t watched it on YouTube yet, look away now as I ruin the surprise.

    A wonderful moment and by far the biggest round of applause we ever received of all the episodes.

    31 Questions: the little game show that could, has come a long way since that first pilot 4 years ago. So many people have helped make the show possible. A nice way to illustrate is to take a look at the crew photos, starting with our 2nd pilot shoot in 2011.

    Also note, I’m holding a pot plant above Simon Eastwood’s head:

    Season 1, 2012:

    Season 2, 2013:

    Season 3, 2014:

    Just by these 4 photos, you can also see how the whole thing has evolved: The set, logo, lighting, the number of people involved and just the general level of organisation too.

    Funnily enough, I didn’t begin with the crew photo from our 1st pilot because our level of organisation in those early days was not sufficient to organise a group photo.

    This is the closest I’ve got from our disastrous first shoot in 2010:

    Side note, get a load of the Question Mk #1 jacket:

    I believe that was a rush job the night before… Where was I?

    So my point is literally hundreds of hands and thousands of fingers have worked on 31 Questions. 99 per cent of them for no money. And it’s the little touches you don’t even think about that bring out the best in a big project like this. People solved problems and did things on this show I don’t even know about. You could even say we got this far thanks to “the wisdom of friends”.

    I probably wouldn’t, but I mean you COULD say that, if you wanted.

    Any way you look at it, it was teamwork made this show. It wasn’t perfect, but we had far more hits than misses. It’s just about the best community television can be.

    And I’m damn proud to put my name on it.

    Hope you enjoyed watching.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green

  • 31 Questions starts 9 June 2012 on Channel 31 Melbourne & Geelong!

    I’m not quite sure how we did it, but somehow… we shot 12 episodes of 31 Questions in just six days. Not consecutively, obviously. Whoa! Don’t get me wrong!

    We spread those studio dates out over six weeks…

    Oh sure, that’s pretty poor by commercial TV standards. They shoot something like five “Deal or No Deals” a day. But for community TV, that is pretty spectacular.

    And it’s all thanks to that great bunch of people in the photo above. We were blessed with a fantastic crew who came in week after week to work for nothing more than a sandwich and a slice of pizza.

    What an incredible experience. If they had these sorts of facilities in Adelaide, I would have done a TV show years ago. But instead, I had to move to Melbourne to make this happen. But hey, can’t complain 😉

    It’s given me the opportunity to work with some exceptionally talented people…

    And I’ve made some new friends along the way…

    The actual taping of the last two shows on May 17 went off mostly without a hitch. Oh, don’t get me wrong. There was a hitch.

    During the final round of the final show, the tape malfunctioned and stopped recording. It also caused the back-up recorder to stop as well. So we lost the last segment and annoyingly had to re-shoot it.

    So that being the case, you may notice a few in-jokes about deja vu towards the end of episode 13.

    But these things happen. We’re lucky the guys and girls in the control room noticed it early and we didn’t lose more footage. And luckily for us, that was the only time that happened to us on the whole series.

    That fear was always at the back of my mind. I could just imagine shooting two episodes back to back, only to then discover none of it had been recorded. It’s every TV-maker’s worst nightmare.

    But thankfully that didn’t happen and it’s now all “in the can”, or more accurately, that little plastic case the DV tapes come in.

    And before I forget, a BIG THANK YOU to the many people who made up our studio audience. Our last two nights in the studio had our biggest audiences to date. And it really made the whole experience so much better.

    Fortunately also, we were able to record the important second half of the Gerard Kotlowy cardboard cutout gag. See previous blog entry.

    I think cardboard cutouts are up there with boats and golf in terms of hilarious concepts. We had a lot of fun with that cardboard cutout:

    Actually that video pretty much sums up the show. A few people goofing around while others freak out.

    As for 2D Gerard… he seems to be developing a mind of his own…

    He’s now taken his rightful place on permanent display in my apartment. I’ve set him up just inside the entrance.

    The first time I arrived home after setting this up, I forgot “Cardboard Gerard” was there and upon opening the door I experienced one second of absolute terror as for some reason there was a suited screaming man in my home. I suspected that would happen. Hilarious.

    However, I’m less certain how to explain this… When I arrived home the NEXT night, it was almost as if Cardboard Gerard was expecting me…

    An additional side effect I’m now faced with is the prospect of finding places in my apartment for all the other props and tidbits we used on 31 Questions.

    A prospect I’m very much enjoying…

    So we now move on to the NEXT stage of television… the editing.

    This may take a while.

    In the mean time, I’m proud to announce OUR TIMESLOT!

    Episodes of 31 Questions will be broadcast for the first time Saturdays 10PM on Channel 31 Melbourne & Geelong – starting 9 June – and repeated Fridays 1.30AM from 15 June.

    It’s not exactly the timeslot we were expecting, but hey, we’ll take it!

    I’ve done radio shows in worse timeslots. Who could forget 2007’s “Brain Damage” on Radio Adelaide 101.5FM, Wednesday nights midnight to 1AM, hilariously wedged between “The Albanian Program” and five hours of the BBC World Service?

    Everyone, that’s who.

    If you’re outside of Melbourne and Geelong, sit tight. We’re looking at other community TV stations around Australia. And there’s YouTube as well. So there’ll be no excuses for not watching 😉

    Unless of course, you’re a blind person.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Livin’ the dream.