A bit, but it's not very grating. There was a guy in my English Lit class freshman year who would say 'like' once every 4 words (on average). I wanted to punch him in the face so much.
We've got two more pilots we recorded some time ago. We're, shall we say, much more aware of the Pony situation now, so "real" episodes will be a little more hardcore. If the pilots do well, there will be some upgrades to the production values.
(There is another show in the works as well, entirely unrelated to this, but one thing at a time: I didn't buy that HD camera for nothing).
I've been exposed to too much poni. When the Scott Pilgrim picture came up, all I thought was "Oh, it's Scott Pilgrim." It took me a couple seconds to realize: "Oh, it's Scott Pilgrim AS PONIES."
I think I have a solution for the not-knowing-where-to-look issue that you guys have had with videos in the past. Even in this one, which seems more natural, it looks like Scott is just staring at Rym for a good portion of the video. Rym doesn't seem to have this problem in the video, and I think that's because he has a drink with him - he actively has something to fiddle with during the video, making his interaction seem more natural. Thus, he can look wherever he wants and it's fine. Scott, on the other hand, doesn't have anything on-hand to mess with, so his attention is 100% drawn, or so it seems, to what he's looking at.
The first live stream that you guys did, the April Fools' day uStream way back when, definitely felt very natural with the way it was shot, and the way you guys were acting. Remembering that video, you both had laptops, Rym had his wine, you were both acting natural and interacting with a live audience comfortably. Another element there *could* have been that since it was a live stream, there was the knowledge of a live audience that made the interaction flow much better. Dunno if that's legitimate or not, just an idea. So, maybe give that a shot. Food doesn't work so much, but a drink or something to mess with on-camera to divert some amount of attention, visually, away from the camera/each other/whatever, could go a long way.
I haven't watched the episode yet, but are you going to release the show as a new podcast or is it YouTube only?
If you're wondering about demand for a downloadable, put me down as another who would like to have an easily downloadable version of these. I know I can pull it down from Youtube, but I'd like a more formal, less shady method.
On the subject about the level of control in Equestria, in a MLP fanfic I've been writing, I used the main character as an author avatar for a little bit to contemplate the culture in Equestria.
He sighed, and looked at his watch: only ten o'clock. Time seemed to pass slowly in the library, but Michael busied himself in reading books about Equestria. Despite the long standing isolationism of the country, which had only changed within the last decade or so, it seemed that, culturally, ponies weren't much different from humans. Compulsory schooling, similar trades, crafts, and philosophical schools of thought; all those among the many things ponykind had in common with mankind. This made him wonder why, then, was Equestrian society so much more stable and, apparently, happier?
"Maybe it's just the amount of control that they have over their lives? They can communicate and reason with the other animals, they control the local weather, and Princess Celestia controls the movements of the sun."
He didn't give much credence to the last reason: There had been centuries of human scientific research to the contrary and, besides, there was a high possibility that it was a "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court" type scenario, where a person knowledgeable in natural patterns can frame themselves as powerful beings.
"Or, it could be the opposite. It could be a lack of control that spurs them to be peaceful. Cutie marks eliminate worker surplus in any particular field, or a lack of high technology in the more base level fields, such as agriculture, makes it so they have to work together efficiently to survive." Michael wrote out his notes on his notepad.
Also, you can very easily edit out ums and ahs and pauses in a video like this! You are already splicing in other footage, and the sound quality is excellent. Here's a trick I used to use back in the day while editing TV shows:
1. Get the footage, and make sure the sound quality is consistent (I used to be the sound technician on a lot of shoots too, so this wasn't too hard). 2. Ignore the pictures, and edit purely by audio. Make the link/interview/song intro/whatever sound smooth and seamless. 3. Look at the edit points. Which ones are jarring? Probably most of them. 4. Drop in cutaways over those edit points. 5. Finished!
By using tricks like this I managed to make all kinds of shit presenters and interviews look good enough for TV.
Disconnected anecdote:
I remember one music video TV show where I was meant to be the sound technician, but then I was asked to do some post-production on the audio, which lead to me editing all the links, which lead to me editing the pilot episode, which lead to me editing the entire 8 episodes of the season. The presenter changed outfit after every episode worth of links, to make it look as though they were shot on different days. But because he was such a bad presenter, and the director on the shoot didn't kick him into gear, to get good enough footage (based entirely on the audio) I used material from across all 8 episodes. This led to a whole new concept of the TV show, where instead of doing each link in one take (the presenter just wasn't good enough!), it was edited so the clothes and background were switching every sentence, or sometimes every few words. High energy! The producers loved it!
Unfortunately, as I was editing in the already-rendered closing titles, I noticed I wasn't credited as either sound technician or editor, as I was standing in on the shoot day for my boss, and the person who was meant to be editing had (I think) quit the company (funnily I quit the company a few weeks later).
And this was all based on making the audio flow better! If that is smooth, the eyes will ignore changing costumes and backgrounds, and jump cuts without cutaways (see every video blog on YouTube), and almost anything. But fuck up the flow of the audio and you're in the shit.
You know what? Fuck it. I'm gonna watch the ponies, all the way through. You guys make it out to be pretty decent, and even if I don't like it, it can't be worse than the time I subjected myself to Twilight, just so that I could legitimately complain about it, and not get caught out when someone says "Have you actually READ it?"
As a side note, though, I'd watch that series up there, even if I don't like the ponies so much. The discussion is interesting, even in the event that I don't care so much for the subject matter after watching the fuckin' ponies.
You do realize I'm not going to be as keen on it as you guys? It's more just a "Hey, this is okay" kinda deal, from what I've seen so far. I wouldn't seek it out so far, but I wouldn't switch it off, either. It might get better, it might get worse, I don't know. It's okay so far. I'm mostly doing this out of boredom, and if Y'all are carrying on so fucking much about it, there must be some reason to advance it up my entertainment queue. If it starts to suck, I'll drop it like a hot rock.
Edit: I should note that the first two episodes are much more dramatic than the rest of the show. If you watch one or both of the first two episodes and don't like it, watch the third episode, and if you don't like that episode, then there's a good bet ponies just aren't for you.
Edit: I should note that the first two episodes are much more dramatic than the rest of the show. If you watch one or both of the first two episodes and don't like it, watch the third episode, and if you don't like that episode, then there's a good bet ponies just aren't for you.
I'm up to episode four, with the needle wobbling a little back and fourth through the "Meh" section on the dial. I've seen better. I've seen worse. This is pretty middle of the road.
I have seen the entire show, and I totally agree with this. It greatly benefits from having a huge company fund the show though. Still, I for one prefer the Fry & Bender cameo in Wakfu over the Dr. Who cameos in MLP. Since I have seen neither Futurama or any Dr. Who I think this is a fair comparison.
No offense to ED, since I do read the no fan-fiction mode every day, but they will post absolutely anything with a pony in it.
They do have standards for fanfics at least, but it seems to be "If it's not clear that you know English, your fic won't get posted." I decided to edit a couple for people on ponychan and the ones that were rejected were kinda atrocious, so the bar might be pretty low.
Comments
(There is another show in the works as well, entirely unrelated to this, but one thing at a time: I didn't buy that HD camera for nothing).
The first live stream that you guys did, the April Fools' day uStream way back when, definitely felt very natural with the way it was shot, and the way you guys were acting. Remembering that video, you both had laptops, Rym had his wine, you were both acting natural and interacting with a live audience comfortably. Another element there *could* have been that since it was a live stream, there was the knowledge of a live audience that made the interaction flow much better. Dunno if that's legitimate or not, just an idea. So, maybe give that a shot. Food doesn't work so much, but a drink or something to mess with on-camera to divert some amount of attention, visually, away from the camera/each other/whatever, could go a long way.
I do know the more emails he gets on a particular subject the more likely he will post it up.
Lots of Gandalf-Girthing. Let's see how it finishes.
1. Get the footage, and make sure the sound quality is consistent (I used to be the sound technician on a lot of shoots too, so this wasn't too hard).
2. Ignore the pictures, and edit purely by audio. Make the link/interview/song intro/whatever sound smooth and seamless.
3. Look at the edit points. Which ones are jarring? Probably most of them.
4. Drop in cutaways over those edit points.
5. Finished!
By using tricks like this I managed to make all kinds of shit presenters and interviews look good enough for TV.
Disconnected anecdote:
I remember one music video TV show where I was meant to be the sound technician, but then I was asked to do some post-production on the audio, which lead to me editing all the links, which lead to me editing the pilot episode, which lead to me editing the entire 8 episodes of the season. The presenter changed outfit after every episode worth of links, to make it look as though they were shot on different days. But because he was such a bad presenter, and the director on the shoot didn't kick him into gear, to get good enough footage (based entirely on the audio) I used material from across all 8 episodes. This led to a whole new concept of the TV show, where instead of doing each link in one take (the presenter just wasn't good enough!), it was edited so the clothes and background were switching every sentence, or sometimes every few words. High energy! The producers loved it!
Unfortunately, as I was editing in the already-rendered closing titles, I noticed I wasn't credited as either sound technician or editor, as I was standing in on the shoot day for my boss, and the person who was meant to be editing had (I think) quit the company (funnily I quit the company a few weeks later).
And this was all based on making the audio flow better! If that is smooth, the eyes will ignore changing costumes and backgrounds, and jump cuts without cutaways (see every video blog on YouTube), and almost anything. But fuck up the flow of the audio and you're in the shit.
As a side note, though, I'd watch that series up there, even if I don't like the ponies so much. The discussion is interesting, even in the event that I don't care so much for the subject matter after watching the fuckin' ponies.
Edit: I should note that the first two episodes are much more dramatic than the rest of the show. If you watch one or both of the first two episodes and don't like it, watch the third episode, and if you don't like that episode, then there's a good bet ponies just aren't for you.