David M. Green: Purveyor of fine humour

Tag: RMIT

  • 31 Questions & Mad As Hell: Two Season Threes

    I’ve just come out the other side of the busiest 3 months of my life. Hence the void of blog.

    So let me fill you in (not sexually)…

    Season 3 of Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed my time writing for the show and it was an incredible experience to work with some very talented people, the best of the best, and who until now I’d only known as some names in the credits of TV shows I used to watch when I was 16-years-old.

    Several of my scripts made it to air. “Bum Tree” was my favourite. That was my first desk piece and sitting in the studio audience watching that unfold was, and I don’t use this word very often, awesome.

    I also feel I’m a better writer than I was three months ago. Previously I’ve tended to avoid topical comedy due to the usual very long gap between recording and broadcasting  whatever it is that I’m creating. But working on Mad As Hell put some of my RMIT journalism skills to practical use, and more than anything taught me to respect “the joke”.

    Every script needs jokes. That seems obvious, but often I can write what I think is a joke, only to look at it a little more closely after lunch and realise that it’s not actually a joke at all. Comedy scripts need jokes. Only the jokes in a script make an audience laugh. And after all, that’s the whole purpose of comedy. So my personal bar is now set a little higher.

    In addition to writing for the show, I also fulfilled another childhood dream and appeared in a sketch. See if you can spot me in the closing song on the season finale. And by the way, I couldn’t have chosen a better song (and I can assure you, it wasn’t me!)…

    Meanwhile, while all that “madness” was going on, I was also making my own show. You know that other show I do? I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here before… Anyway, it’s called “31 Questions”. And Season 3 of THAT show wrapped up production last week too.

    Jeeze, 3 seasons? Who’d have thought, aye? AYE!?!

    It’s gone from an idea for a pilot in mid-2010, which was approved, then rejected, then cancelled, to a 6-month battle with RMITV to make a second pilot, which was finally approved, then to waiting around for 9 months while some managerial politics played out, after which we were finally given the green light for a season in 2012.

    The goal of the first season was to make a game show that was funny. For no money. I didn’t spent much time worrying about the technical aspects of the show, so long as they fulfilled the bare basic practical requirements. I wanted things to be as simple as possible. Need a scoreboard? A whiteboard will do. It works.

    When I look back at Season 1 now, it looks like a skeleton. Hey, don’t get me wrong. Skeletons are funny. They have a certain boney charm. But it is what it is: community television. With all the splendor of a person with no skin.

    Then we met Hugh Johnson. He told us we should make a second season, work on the “game” side of the show, develop our “characters” and tailor the comedy around the boundaries of “the game show”. So we did. Again, for no money. And season 2 in 2013 was a step in the right direction. We applied many lessons from the first season. The DMG, Anthony and Sophie characters were more refined. More thought was put into the questions and selecting the contestants. We shot more material than we needed so we could edit out the stuff that didn’t work so well.

    But with a more complex production, combined with less time in the studio, we got caught out too many times with lighting and audio issues, and running out of time and having to make do with a rushed job. It was good. But it wasn’t good enough. Imagine a skeleton with some rotting flesh hanging off it. Funny? Yes. Entertaining? Sure. But would the other TV stations invite it to their swanky skin parties? I doubt it.

    So we went back to Hugh. He told us we needed to make a third season. And REALLY do it right. He even offered to be series producer. This was the big one. No holding back. Season 3 would be about making sure every single aspect of this program was the absolute BEST it can be.

    And by Jove, I think we’ve done it. A skeleton with a system of mighty organs, with flesh and clothes and everything.

    It takes a team of people to make a television show. But it takes a GREAT team of skeletons with functioning digestive and respiratory systems to make a GREAT television show. And 31 Questions Season 3 had, without a doubt, the best symbiont skeleton people crew we’ve ever had. And probably the best in Australian community television.

    There are some real stars in that photo and I reckon I’ll still be working with quite a few of them many years from now.

    It was also incredible to have Joe Murray on board as the senior director. He directed “The Late Show” on the ABC back in the early 90s, among a plethora of other shows. The wisdom and experience he brought to Season 3 has been a godsend and it was a real honour to work with him.

    So we’re now well into post-production. Expect 31 Questions to return to your screens of varying sizes sometime in June. I’ll get back to you when I have specific dates and times and cities.

    I am completely biased, of course, but we’ve got 8 GREAT episodes coming up. There’s something like 15 new segments, plus the old favourites, interesting trivia and fun facts, cool contestants, a swathe of gags and a few more surprises. It’s not just a great “community” television show. It’s a great television show.

    We haven’t even finished editing yet, but we’ve already had one glowing review. Prolific comedy blogger Katherine Phelps was in the studio audience for our Season 3 finale. Read her thoughts here.

    But aside from basking in the laughter and the applause, maybe the most satisfying moment came the other week when 31 Questions was labelled “a flagship show” in an official email from RMITV – the same organisation that said in February 2011 that 31 Questions was “not viable for RMITV”.

    So what have I learned from all this?

    1. A mistake is only a bad thing if you don’t learn from it.
    2. Consistent competence leads to greatness, and
    3. People are attracted to success.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Next stop Adelaide, I think.

  • 31 Questions Season 2 Episode 4

    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!

    PLUS our Ep 5 contestants are recently evicted Big Brother housemate Rohan Mirchandaney (CAN YOU BELIEVE THE TIMING!?!?!) AND the wonderful Dani Leever!

    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.

    Fortunately, there’s always YouTube.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Where would we be without YouTube? Though it helps IF YOU HAVE A FREAKING INTERNET CONNECTION…

  • 31 Questions Ep #04 with TV’s Pete Smith!

    Best ep yet.

    But of course, I would say that wouldn’t I?

    Thanks for the Twitter love, folks!

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Pete Smith = Pure class.

  • 31 Questions Eps 4 & 5 taping

    Last Thursday April 19 was our third day in the studio, making low budget TV history. We successfully shot episodes 4 and 5 of the game show all the cool kids are ignoring: 31 Questions.

    This time we had the ability to play VTs (video tapes, for the uninitiated) and the crew had a few flying hours together so technically speaking, things were running smoothly. But the slight problem this time round was the embarrassing reality that virtually no one came to see it!

    Not including contestants and crew, the studio audience for the second show of the evening consisted of two people… TWO!

    This is one of the things stopping me from doing a REAL show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival; How the hell am I supposed to get people to pay $15 to come see me do stand up, when I can’t even get them to come see something far more interesting FOR FREE?

    I don’t know how those real comedians do it? Maybe they’re just really funny… Nah. That’s crazy talk.

    Still, it didn’t stop us from putting on a show. Two shows, actually.

    It’s a great atmosphere. There’s a lot of laughter in that studio when the 31Q gang is in town, but everyone knows they’ve also got a job to do. Though too often I find myself worrying about things – like whether the guys in the control room are getting all the gags and Jesus I hope they didn’t forget to press record on the tape – instead of throwing caution to the wind and just enjoying it.

    Ahh, when the burdens of producing fall upon the talent… but then of course if it were any other way, it wouldn’t be my show. I’d be hosting someone else’s TV show.

    But luckily I have the very talented Riyana Kasmawan sitting beside me in the producers’ chair. There’s no actual chair. But she is worth her weight in gold and we couldn’t do this thing without her pulling the strings off camera. Thank you thank you thank you!

    And I know I’ve said this already, but we really do have an outstanding crew working on this show.

    This is the biggest single creative project I’ve ever undertaken. In many ways it would have been much easier and simpler to do another single camera comedy show, something like my webseries Too Easy but for television, all shot on location with just a couple of people.

    But I’ve done that. And I’ll do it again. But here was an opportunity to make a REAL television show, using a real television studio with four cameras; equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And you can’t do it with just a couple of people. You need a big crew. You simply cannot get around it. And as such, you have to delegate. But them’s the breaks. So why the hell not?

    Of course, as impressive as all this is, this is NOTHING compared to any run-of-the-mill TV show on one of the commercial networks, or even the “under-funded” ABC.

    The first thing I noticed when I walked into the ABC studios in Elsternwick, the home of “Letters & Numbers” and “In Gordon Street Tonight” amongst others, was the ceiling. Take a look at the number of lights in the above studio photo there. Times that by about 12 and that’s roughly how many lights the ABC has in just the ONE studio!

    But if the alternative is sitting in the rent-free east wing of my parents’ resplendent house in Adelaide, working some dead end customer service job and lamenting the lack of progress with my television career, which is very much what I was doing in late 2009 before I moved to Melbourne… I’ll take this any day.

    So seriously, you’re running out of chances! Come join our studio audience. It’s quite likely after this, they’ll never let us make another TV show again.

    We’re back in there taping episodes 6 and 7 tomorrow, Thursday April 26. 7pm to 10pm. Studio A Level 2 Building 12 RMIT University, Swanston Street, Melbourne. Free lollies!

    Oh, and one last thing…

    If you thought being a TV game show host was going to greatly enhance my sex life… guess again…

    Exert from a recent conversation on Oasis Active:

    daisy909 says:
    Haha where are you performing?
    superdude87 says:
    I’m making a game show for Channel 31
    daisy909 says:
    Ohhhh really
    daisy909 has removed you from their contacts. You can no longer send any messages to this member.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    31 Questions: The greatest TV game show this side of Swanston Street and still technically within the Hoddle Grid of the Melbourne Central Business District… What an achievement!

  • Popping voxes for RMITV

    The other day I swung by my alma mater, RMIT University, to record a short promotional video for RMITV Student Television at the university’s O-Day celebrations.

    And I had a freaking fantastic time!

    Basically I walked around with a talented camera-operator named Emma (didn’t catch her surname), doing vox-pops and joking around.

    We recorded about 40 minutes of footage, 15 of which was really good (in my opinion, anyway).

    Someone else edited together a 7 minute video for the Student Union website, which featured some fancy cut-away footage spliced in there and a “best of” the day’s vox-pops.

    They also did that thing where they cut to a second camera that I’m NOT looking at, while I’m doing my PTCs (pieces to camera), and which, if I can be honest, I absolutely hate.

    It makes it look like I’m presenting on Video Hits or some teen show where they assume the audience is so depraved of an attention span you need to keep putting in cuts to the same thing from different angles. Sometimes they change it to black and white or put it in slow motion as well. At least RMITV didn’t go that far…

    Seriously though, great edit. It’s far more swish-looking than I could manage. It’s supposed to be on the Student Union website, but I can’t seem to find it… Little help?

    But anyway, I acquired permission to upload ALL the good footage to the Internet here so YOU can see the good stuff that didn’t make it to the official video.

    So here they are separated into three easy-to-digest videos!

    #1 – Who are you & what are you studying? (Keep your eye out for a cat and a giant bowling pin…)

    –

    #2 – Are you a member of a club or society? (I make two Thai girls sing their national anthem in this one!)

    –

    #3 – Have you heard of RMITV? (Turns out some people understand television better than others…)

    –

    I think I displayed just the right amount of smart-arseness. What do ya reckon?

    Everyone there at the RMITV stall was a pleasure to work (and slack off) with. I wish I could do this sort of thing everyday!

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    And that was a damn fine shotgun microphone.