We’re back! Highlights from a 1997 VHS tape of the 1992 film “Death Becomes Her”. Presented by David M. Green.
Featuring:
– Ericsson mobile phone TVC
– Payphone update with Andy Matthews
– Telstra TVC with jingle “Making it easier for you”
– West End Draught TVC with Showdown 1 tie-in
– DV Milk TVC with Rex Hunt
– Libra Ultra Thins TVC crime scene clean-up
– Cosmopolitan magazine TVC featuring man with woman’s voice
– WorkCover TVC Think Safety Talk Safety featuring bear trap blindfold
– Westpac Classic Plus TVC
– Coca-Cola TVC with polar bears and seal
Footage recorded from Channel Ten Adelaide, 1997 and used here for review, parody and satirical purposes.
Special thanks to Alexis Kotlowy, John Hnatowych, Gerard Kotlowy, Emmanuel Photakis, Tim Wray, Annika Samuelsson, Carolyn Lawlor-Smith, Richard Sidey, Andy Matthews and Rex Hunt.
It’s the end of another year this year. And what an end of a year it’s been. Also, the rest of the year was eventful.
I started 2013 with no regular work and by March I’d run out of money. Well, I say “run out of money”, but I mean it in the first world sense. I got down to my last $9 in the bank, but I still had a car and other things of tangible value, etc. But it was still pretty stressful.
At one point, I applied for a job as a school crossing guard with the Boroondara Council. It was basically this scene from the 1985 motion picture “Lost in America” starring Albert Brooks:
I wasn’t successful.
But I did do this for $150:
Salvation came with the AFL Season and my return to Crocmedia to panel their fabulous “AFL Live” football commentary to 100 radio stations around Australia. Best radio job I’ve had.
[Sports writing mode begins]
The most memorable moment was the Adelaide v. North Melbourne game, Round 9 at Etihad Stadium. The Kangaroos had lead for the entire game, only to have the Crows kick 5 unanswered goals in the final quarter, culminating in an Adelaide goal with only 15 seconds left to give my home town a miracle 1-point victory. It was a fairy tale ending. I’ve never heard Rex Hunt call anything as intense as that.
I don’t leap out of that panel operator’s chair onto my feet very often, but that was one of those moments.
[Sports writing mode ends]
After the AFL season finished, I started some weekend panelling at 1116SEN, using the ole MTR studios in Richmond. So finally, that move from Coburg to Hawthorn to be closer to work (2 days before MTR shut down) has actually paid off. Only took 18 months.
And actually, since I moved in July from the eastern side of Hawthorn to the western side, a stone’s throw from Richmond, I’m close enough to WALK to work in about 15 minutes. The route takes me down Bendigo Street past the old GTV Channel 9 studios, now luxury apartments. To use my favourite cliched broadcasting expression, it’s “absolutely sensational”.
Please enjoy this guided tour of my new place:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T2pT_bdvAU
It’s much better than the last apartment. Cheaper. More space. Laundry taps and an exhaust fan in the bathroom (as mentioned). And the insulation is excellent. That 40 degree day in Melbourne the other week? Barely noticed it. Place doesn’t even have air conditioning. The insulation alone is just so effective.
2013 has been another year of media delights. In addition to 20 throw-away episodes of my “need an excuse to upload something” vlog series “Life of DMG” (as seen above), I also made a few videos with TV’s Shane Crawford for his website. I was basically Richter to his O’Brien. Shaffer to his Letterman. And to a lesser extent, robot skeleton to his Ferguson. Though I can’t seem to find those videos online any more, you can see part of one in my most recent showreel, where I took one for the team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Y9CBJ_BZs
31 Questions – The TV game show all the kids are listening about – returned for its second season. We shot 9 episodes, 7 of which were broadcast-able. They aired on community TV stations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and New Zealand. And will soon air in Adelaide after they finish repeating the first season.
Season 2 was a step up in many respects. Better graphics, better editing, a flashier scoreboard, more defined characters and some minor touches here and there. Although it wasn’t quite the step up in lighting and audio that we had hoped.
There are always challenges and setbacks when you’re making a television show. We had to make do with reduced studio time, simultaneously throughout the production my parents back in Adelaide were splitting up after 29 years of marriage, and worst of all I had a really bad haircut 2 weeks before we started taping.
But we had some good crowds towards the end and the laughs were there. And what our crew managed to do with those limited resources was quite impressive. Not bad for $4,000?
This is my favourite episode. It was the Season 2 premier, but it was actually the last episode we shot:
And in case you missed the memos, 31 Questions is indeed coming back for a third season. We raised $3,262 with our recent crowdfunding campaign and we’re back in the fabulous RMIT University televisual studio from late February.
This will be the big one. So stay posted if you want to come join the studio audience or BE ON THE SHOW.
Back in Adelaide, after talking about it for years, my folks have finally sold the family home at Seacliff. I remember the day we moved in: 17 March 1992, just before my 5th birthday.
It’s a great house. The big walls all around the outside got me quite used to privacy. Everywhere else I’ve lived has seemed quite exposed by comparison. And aside from 9 months in 2000, when the second storey appeared, I lived there 18 years until I left for Melbourne in 2010.
It was still nice to return to my home town and stay in my old bedroom. But I don’t have that any more. And the SA jaunts haven’t quite been the same. This year in particular, going back to visit Adelaide has felt less and less like visiting home and more like seeing a jigsaw puzzle with pieces gradually being removed and replaced.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Adelaide and there’s some exciting things going on at the moment. I’ve had many a conversation about local infrastructure projects with anyone who will listen. But it’s not where I want to be right now.
Ahh I’ll miss that house… But it will live on in so many video projects, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oQakmn_cAw
That reminds me, we really should get around to editing those 3 other Too Easy episodes…
So that’s about it for 2013. Well I did some other things. I went to Sydney for a bit. Bought a bookcase. Hosted a documentary series about webseries. Had a really nice sandwich, etc.
But my big news for the new year is I’ll be a writer on the third season of “Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell” starting February 2014! Coincidentally, my first day writing is on the 13th, which is the four year anniversary of my move to Melbourne.
How about that?
Best move ever.
Hope you’ve had a good year yourself and things are looking even better for 2014. I’ll see you on the other side.
You can buy me a coffee.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
No, I’m serious. Small cappuccino with one, please.
It was 31 Questions S2E04’s premier on C31 Melbourne & Geelong last Saturday evening. And now available in fabulous web-based YouTubed form (where available).
Special thanks again to Dan Ilic and Rex Hunt, who both made cameos in Ep 4. And the fabulous editing work from Dan Jones and Anthony McCormack.
Coming up on tomorrow night’s show, it’s the John Blackman episode with special guest… John Blackman (SURPRISE!), as well as Dicky Knee!
John Blackman was on Melbourne radio station 3AW with Philip Brady and Simon Owens again on Thursday night. He made some downright lovely comments about me and the show:
[display_podcast]
Good on Philip Brady for asking the tough questions. Parking is shocking around RMIT University, especially during the day.
Couldn’t have done it without an incredible team.
And in late breaking news, 31 Questions has an ALL NEW time slot for New Zealand’s Face Television. We’re now on Thursdays 9.30PM, starting September 12. Apologies to my Kiwi friend(s) for our ever-changing start date.
S2E03 of 31 Questions premiered on C31 Melbourne & Geelong Saturday evening. See above.
I enjoyed repeatedly slapping Anthony. And special thanks to this week’s contestants Richard and Simone. It was a tight game. Though not quite as tight as THIS WEEK’S game… Tune in on C31 Melbourne & Geelong Saturday 8.30PM (Look out for cameos from Dan Ilic and Rex Hunt!).
In other news, to the surprise of many (including us), Season 2 began airing in Brisbane this week! It’s now on the 31 Digital schedule, Tuesdays 9PM. Those Queenslanders have obviously been preoccupied with deciding the next federal government, so no hard feelings. It’s not like they also did it last year as well.
Na, Brisbane you’re great.
We were due to start airing in New Zealand on Wednesday, but thanks to our good friends at Australia Post, we’re now premiering NEXT week: 9.30PM Wednesdays on Face Television from August 21. Apologies if you haven’t worked out how to use YouTube.
But more importantly… 31 Questions BEGINS IN SYDNEY TONIGHT 9.30!
That’s me aged 9 in Darling Harbour. I assume that water feature is still there? I remember being excited because I’d seen it in the opening (or was it the closing?) titles of Aerobics Oz-Style before Agro’s Cartoon Connection. Anyway Sydney, I’ll talk to YOU on Twitter later this evening.
As for Adelaide… well I discovered their fabulous community television station has gone through some structural changes recently. I’m not sure exactly why. But I do know that their name, phone number and address have all changed. I also discovered this after I mailed them the first 2 episodes. In a media format they no longer accept.
As far as I can tell, it’s no longer called “44 Adelaide”, but rather “Channel 44”. Good move, in my opinion. Why limit yourself to Adelaide? They’re looking at the big picture. And the picture is magnificent. Assuming you’re in the Adelaide metropolitan area where the picture is transmitted.
Doesn’t look like 31 Questions will be airing in Adelaide until September or October. Though we might get a repeat of our first season before they start showing Season 2. I’ll keep you updated.
I’ve been getting more requests for ways you can throw money at me, and to a lesser extent, the show. I can now announce there are TWO types of mugs available from the 31 Questions online store:
Perfect for holding all types of liquids. And for the fabulous price of $20 + postage, you can support me, 31 Questions, community television AND own a mug.
I’m back at Crocmedia in 2013 and since the end of March, I’ve spent every weekend panelling their flagship syndicated radio show “AFL Live”. And I’m still loving it.
By process of attrition, I’ve become their senior panel operator and last weekend I racked up by 500th hour “on the buttons”, also surpassing the number of hours I spent panelling at Melbourne Talk Radio. This is now the longest stretch of time I’ve held a job in radio without being replaced by a computer or the station shutting down.
Here are some more memorable moments from AFL Live in 2012/13 with Rex Hunt, Peter Donegan, Sandy Roberts, Billy Brownless, Shane Crawford, Jack Heverin, Tristan Foenander, and a few surprises…
[display_podcast]
You can tune in on radio stations around regional Australia, or via the official AFL iPhone App.
I’d also like to introduce you to “The Croc Rock”.
From time to time, The Croc Rock helps me and the other panel operators out. Like so:
Triple M might rock footy, but do they have The Croc Rock?
I don’t think so.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Assistant to Mr The Croc Rock
