As of Saturday, June 12, I have eleven months to go in my chemotherapy regimen. Performing in New York City at The PIT with Better Than The Machine again, with lots of great friends in the audience who then came to celebrate afterwords, was a great way to mark this day!

Thank you all.

–Reid.

Since my last entry, I’ve missed several topics I wish I’d blogged about. Knowing full well from prior experience that if I gave each of these many topics their own posts, I would quickly feel overwhelmed and, just as quickly, give up. So I decided to write about each of these many topics in one entry I’ve dubbed a “twitlog.” Aware of my propensity for verbose verbiage, I decided to treat each story as a Twitter post by limiting each of them to 140 characters. Onward!

-Last Vid: Bobby Fitzsimmons (of screen & stage) vlogs. Los: great! But whycome so few hits for funny video? I want to play Bobby’s cousin.

-New Vid: Crazy lady thinks cat is her son; boyfriend aghast. YT Comedy Spotlight! Moms Day dedication: to all moms, not just the crazy ones.

-Ebert: Why I Hate 3-D (And You Should Too) I’ve been saying that! If only I were a movie critic, they’d listen… and pay! Er, just listen.

-Rachel moved up and out to D.C. Rebecca is graduating on Friday and got into law school. I’m writing in my blog in the middle of the night.

-Dad and I met current Minnesota Senator and former SNL writer and performer Al Franken the other day. He was extremely nice and personable.

-How could I have possibly forgotten to mention burping as a side effect of iron overload? Hmn… maybe it’s because I’ve been busy burping?

-Weekly bar trivia, I think I love you.

-The Fam is going on a cruise next week to honor Boo’s graduation & acceptance into law school, Roo’s promotion & move, and my 1 YEAR TO GO!

-I’ve been feeling well enough to restart physical therapy. Crack! Snap! Oops! Those exercises hurt enough that I’m not sure I can do PT. Ow.

-I went to my first Derby Day party/benefit. Mmm… mint juleps. It was a blast until the last 90 seconds-we had to watch some horse race.

-The Levin Fam is being honored by the ADL for community service & leadership. I serve the community by making videos about boobs and farts.

-My ANC is great, but my platelets are so low that I’m off chemo until at least after the cruise. Note to self: don’t get stabbed on cruise.

-Funny parody of Jay-Z & Alicia Keys’ Empire State Of Mind. Star Wars, I admit I’m still in love with you despite George Lucas’ best efforts.

-I’ve tried so hard to enjoy the new Steven Page-less BNL album. It’s very, very okay. But it lacks a certain… Steven Page.

-New “Give A Shit” lyrics: Earthquakes, volcanoes and the oil spill/My candidate still says, “Drill, Baby, Drill!”

Whew, okay I think that does it. This turned out to be a fun challenge. Maybe I’ll wind up making more of these. We’ll see how I feel about it a few days out. At any rate, I enjoyed doing this enough to create a new category for these things (’cause you know, this entry wasn’t already in enough categories).

For the record, “twitlog” is a double portmanteau, and I love me some portmanteaus. First, of course, there’s the Twitter-weblog combination, which is an apt description of all these Twitter-style stories in my blog. Second is the more self-derisive combination of “twit” and “log”; with the “twit” being myself, and this effort being the only “log” of what happened in the unintended space between more frequent and detailed blog posts.

I’m such a nerd.

–Reid.

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Now playing: Guster – Jonah
via FoxyTunes

Better Than The Machine’s sexy new video “Med School Porn” proves that while med school’s expensive, paying the bills doesn’t have to be anything but fun! Also, of some noteworthiness, this our 100th video on YouTube! That’s a helluva lot of videos on YouTube! Trust me, it took a long, long time to for the five of us to count that high on our combined fingers and toes. We kept reaching 99, until Matt Gallo revealed that he’s missing a toe. And if you think that’s sexy, you’re gonna love this video:

“Med School Porn” was directed and edited by Ballard C. Boyd. Rachel Popson guest stars as “The Girl Who Is Not Christina, For Once,” which is to say, she was the girl who poured beer on herself. Rachel’s a great actor that we went to school with. Rachel and her girlfriend Joanna (an alumna of BTTM) participated in a triathlon last summer to raise money for leukemia patients and studies. They participated in my name (and someone else’s too), which was an amazing thing to do. So, Rachel’s good people. As if you couldn’t already tell that by her agreeing to appear in one of our videos wearing only erotic underwear. Sometime this spring or summer, I think Rachel and Joanna are going to come stay with my family, which should be a lot of fun, and it’s certainly something I’m looking forward to!

Anyway, back to the sketch. Christina came up with the idea and wrote the original draft. She then asked me to take a look at it. I’ve found that I always really enjoy working on second drafts of Christina’s scripts. She lays down superb groundwork that forms the plot and some of the character’s voices, and so the first thing I do when she asks me to look over something is just to read the script and understand what she’s doing. Then I take a pass at some light editing, which is mostly trimming it down by saying, “Oh, these three lines could be just this one line and it’d make perfect sense,” or, “this line could just be these two words, instead of explaining all that,” which is easy for me (ahem, on other people’s work, not necessarily my own verbose sketches or blogs, so much) and that’s something I like to do.

Then I take a third pass which is the really fun part of working on Christina’s sketches. To me, they seem so well formed already that I don’t have to think all that much about plotting, I can just add a lot of jokes. She sets them up so well that I go through her scripts fast, and just see jokes all over and add them. She and I try to get together and write whenever I’m in town, and it’s a very different way of working than I’ve ever worked with a writing partner before. I have to say I really enjoy it, whether in person or not. Now, just so this doesn’t sound tooooo egotistical, I will say thank goodness for Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” feature, so that when we’re working through email, she can see exactly what I’ve done to her script, and she can go with some of my ideas and quickly delete all the ones that don’t work outside of my brain.

I was just looking back at what I had added, and a lot of it was Matt’s pizza guy, which seemed so funny to me on paper. But I’ve got to hand it to Matt and Ballard for interpreting those words and then really selling them. Matt mugging to the camera is just hilarious, and I think it really sells all those lines for a great laugh. Matt’s versatility just keeps expanding, especially when I think back to the first video I ever shot of him. I’m really impressed by how he can help jokes on the page really become the jokes that work so well on the screen.

Producer Christina also did a really good job of producing this stuff, which included getting Rachel on board, and buying props and setting costumes and things like that. Producing is clearly a job we should have given her several years ago.

My favorite moment in the sketch is not from any script I ever saw, and that’s when Carlos walks up, and Matt signals to him to go away. I thought that was really funny. I would guess, but I don’t know for certain, that this was something Ballard came up with while filming. His mind is very attuned to building laughs and jokes that really add a good beat here or there. Ballard also did a good job working in a really weird location. Having slept on the floor of Christina and Alex’s apartment last time I was in The City, I can tell you that the door is around a big corner, so that basically, where Christina and Rachel were sitting was a backwards “L” shape away from the door. I don’t know where Ballard stood, but the going back and forth and keeping Christina so close to the camera really gave the appearance that everyone could see each other, which they probably couldn’t. I trust Ballard and his director magic fully to be able to do that–we’ve shot so many things at his very, very small studio apartment and none of them really look like the same place. I don’t think I could pull that off.

I think the one and only thing that I wonder how other people feel about is Christina’s last line. Again, I don’t think that was ever in a script, so I’ll bet there was some brainstorming that went on before they shot the video. In looking over my edits, the ending I wrote was that the pizza guy leaves and Christina looks to Rachel and yells, “And you put all your clothes back on!” to which Rachel responded, “Oh yeah, I forgot.” Which I will admit sucked. I figured someone would come up with something, like Rachel saying, “Oh, but I’m so comfy!” or “Oh, no just girl on girl, then, either?” I guess I thought of those too late (15 seconds ago), and they probably wouldn’t have been used anyway. But the first time I watched it, I was pretty startled at what Christina ended up saying! In watching it an extraordinary number of times, I think I’m desensitized to it now, but on first hearing it, I shouted, “What?! Where’d that come from?” Like I said, I don’t mind it so much now. Neither, apparently do YouTubers, who are eating the video up. The video was briefly featured on the YouTube Comedy page, and even more briefly on the YouTube Videos page. The search for porn seems to have really helped us out.

All in all, I’m quite happy with this sketch, and I am quite happy to have another sexy sounding video that will continue to attract potential masturbators for a long time. Hah! I’ll bet they’ll be none-too-happy.

–Reid.

P.S. Matt is not actually missing a toe. Sorry to wait to reveal this ’til the end, you creepy, creepy, nine-toe-fetishists.

The only thing worse than giving bad news is giving bad news badly. Or, now that I think about it, the only only thing worse than giving bad news badly is probably receiving bad news given badly. Like if someone came up to you, all smiling and jolly and slapped you on the shoulder and said, “Hey, congratulations on someone pouring water on your mom. She was an old witch anyway, so I’m sure that was a perfect painful death for her.” But you didn’t know she had died, and also she wasn’t a witch, and you got along with her quite well. Something like that would definitely be worse, and maybe the worst.

Hmn. I don’t know. This is why I’m not a scientist.

“How To Give Bad News” was directed and edited by Ballard C. Boyd and features our good friend Elisabeth Hansen. Elisa and Matt have been a real life couple for quite a while now, and she and I graduated together from the theater program at Pace. It was neat to get her into one of our videos. The bare legs Matt drags in belong to Mr. Carlos Cabrera. You can tell from their beautiful caramel completion.

This particular video was shot the same night as “How To Juggle” was shot, but it’s been in the boiler for quite a long time. I have notes about it in my notebook dated from last summer. I think the bit with the legs needed to be figured out, and when that was figured out, it was just good timing to film two Iowa Training Films at once.

I was also not there when this was shot, so this might just be all I know about the video…

Oh! Well, as a result of this video and “How To Juggle,” Carlos and Matt and I have been talking about developing some other recurring sketches, or developing some existing sketches into a recurring format. It seems fun and also a bit easier if we have a blank week. And, let’s see… yep, that’s it. That’s all I know. If anyone who was there wants to add anything to the record, go right ahead.

It is also worth mentioning that, by some counts, whatever video comes out next week (this, upcoming next week) will be our 100th YouTube video. By some other counts, it will be our 99th video. It has to do with having to remove “Special K with Birth Control” and making the remixed “Super K with Birth Control.” I want to make a tribute to 100 videos, because, well, that’s a helluva lot of videos. The tribute won’t be our 100th video because I am not feeling up to working on it right now, but it’ll come along soon enough. I promise it will be very silly.

Enjoy your newfound power of giving bad news as a pair of naked legs, and make sure to check http://bttm.net next week for a brand new 99th or 100th video from Better Than The Machine!

Don’t let the machine get you down. Seriously, it’s an insurance nightmare.

–Reid.

Grab your green beer and join Better Than The Machine in celebrating our new-found Irish heritage that we just made up because, of course, “It’s St. Patrick’s Day!”

“It’s St. Patrick’s Day!” was directed and edited by Ballard C. Boyd.

I don’t know all that much about the creation of this particular video, and what I do know is basically from emails that got crisscrossed with mine. I don’t mean to imply that’s a bad thing; in fact, I mean exactly the opposite. That I didn’t have to manage the NYC minutiae from Denver is further indication that Christina is handling the producer job very well out there, which is quite a relief for me. Also, I’m disclaiming myself in the event that anything I say happened in a certain way didn’t really happen the way I say it did. You’ve been warned!

As a response to my asking whether anyone else realized that St. Patrick’s Day was coming up, Christina showed me some ideas for a St. Patrick’s Day sketch that she had written up, and I think the gang out in NYC had bounced some ideas around which might have been part of that typed up script. At one point, I suggested that a good angle might be satirizing how many people claim Irish heritage (jokingly or not) just to act like it’s fair game when they get totally and completely knockdown, blackout stupid drunk on St. Patrick’s Day in NYC. Whenever people act stupid, I believe it is our duty to point and laugh at them, whether through a satirical comedy sketch or, in many cases, through actual pointing and laughing.

Anyway, a bassinet with a note attached appeared on my front porch. The note read, “Finished Sketch For St. Patrick’s Day.” I know better than to look a gift bassinet in the mouth (so… many… babies…), and I really like this sketch, so I don’t know what else happened to get it made. I’m fairly certain it was filmed and cut on Sunday, which I have to give Ballard some mighty big credit for, because he’s sick and it’s always nice to have more time, so that shooting and editing on the same day can be avoided. Despite these apparent handicaps, though, it looks great and it flows really nicely from scene to scene. Ballard’s apartment continues to seem like a mansion with many distinctly different rooms on video, whereas in person, if more than two people are in the apartment, they are breaking the fire code. We’ve done a pretty good job creating sketches for holidays, which has left us with quite a backlog of non-holiday sketches that have been–and continue to be–shot. Which is really good.

Matt’s great in this sketch. I especially like the hair dryer bit in which Matt looks sort of like a dog with his head out the window of a moving car. Very funny stuff. Statistics show that people love it when Matt’s on screen, so hopefully a whole sketch with a happy, liquored up, jig-dancing Matt Gallo will attract a whole crowd of people who need their days brightened. I know watching him jigging got me through a rough day of brain chemo. I just looped the video on the jig, and can only imagine that Matt’s character happily goes about his St. Patrick’s Day from there. I haven’t actually seen the end of the video beyond the jig, because I don’t really care for that particular group’s sense of humor. I dug the jig though.

I submitted the sketch to some editors of various video sites, in the hope that with the advance notice, slight as it may be, the video might get featured somewhere. So keep your four leaf clovers close and hope for a big hullabaloo!

All right, that’s quite enough brain chemo-induced silly stupor for one evening. Aaron, Go Bra! Whatever that means.

–Reid O’Levin.

First BTTM Video To Hit Two Million Views!

I’m proud to announce that Better Than The Machine’s “Foreplay?” (the video we made in 2007, not the home game version we released for our “ages 18 and older” fans) hit two million views on YouTube sometime during the past few days. I had been watching it constantly in an attempt to be the two millionth viewer, then I was sort of half watching it so I could at least tell people on what day it hit two million views, then I got sick and just forgot about it. But that doesn’t make it any less significant, and it doesn’t mean I’m any less happy or proud!

As for the cause of the sketch’s continued success, I can think of no better analysis than that given by Carlos Cabrera, who said, “I’d like to thank people who clicked on our video in the hope that today would mysteriously be the day YouTube lets nudity and porn on their site. We owe our success to these angry, would-be masturbators.” True dat, Carlos, true dat. By which, of course, I mean there is true data to back that masturbation assertion up. For more on this momentous occasion, including the video itself and many more sexual allusions, please visit bttm.net.

How To Juggle (An Iowa Training Film)

Juggling may save your life one day. But it probably won’t.

This was the first Iowa Training Film directed, edited, and made to look like a crappy old VHS tape by Ballard. It was written by me.

Matt and I have talked about wanting Iowa Training Films to once again intentionally include over the top continuity errors, like the one found in the very first Iowa Training Film, How To Give Advice (hint: watch Matt’s hands and arms right after the “Good Advice” title). With that goal in mind, I got to work thinking up something very physical to teach. I came up with juggling and two different ways to very obviously mess with continuity. The first way was to cut to an obvious body double just for juggling and the second way was to cut to Matt with his arms behind his back and have someone standing behind him with their arms around and in front of Matt, juggling. Stunt arms!

They (those out in NYC) went with the first option and Paul played a body double juggler for the second time in a BTTM video. The first time, he stood in for me and juggled while wearing a bear costume and riding a unicycle. We got paid for that sketch… for some reason.

I’m a little sad that Iowa Training Steve (as Matt has named his character, so as to differentiate between this Steve and all his other characters named Steve) was not wearing a tie for the first time ever when we were trying to make an obvious huge continuity error which would have been furthered by him wearing a tie and Paul not wearing one. But he didn’t, and I’m only a little sad and I fully acknowledge that I am an OCD prick sometimes. I think the intended gag still works, and the second half of the video with Matt throwing juggling balls at Christina, who reaches to catch them waaaay too late, turned out exactly as I’d imagined. Very funny work all around, Iowa Training crew!

Oh, and something to look forward to for all you Iowa Training trainees out there: Matt also wrote a new Iowa Training video that was shot the same night as this one. It most likely won’t be released for a while, just to give both videos some time to breathe on their own. Matt’s video features his actual, real life girlfriend, so make sure to pay attention for it in the coming months, all you Matt Gallophiles! (Law enforcement has strongly advised us that calling you “Matt Gallo’s stalkers” only gives you undeserved validation.)

Sick Lovin’

Two lovers reveal to each other that they’ve been unfaithful in some… irregular ways.

Then they get down to some sick, sick lovin’.

As per usual, Ballard directed and edited this one. I wrote and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote the script, with constructive criticism and input along the way from BTTMers and David Reiman, who happened to be around when I was working on some long ago forgotten draft. There were many drafts. Ballard really pushed me to get this to production, and he gave me guidance on how to make the whole thing work.

At some point last year, Ballard told us that he really wanted to direct some two person conversational sketches, and asked us all to write some. I’d written many two person conversational sketches back in ’07, but based on their relative unpopularity (both inside and outside of the group, which sometimes included me), I figured I should avoid the format. It turns out, as with many things, I didn’t know what I was talking about. Two person conversational sketches are no longer to be feared!

I got down to the task of developing a couple of two person sketches without all that much physical action. For whatever reason, an early draft of this very sketch was the first thing that I came up with, and the first thing I pitched. I had intended it to be cutesy, with the different kinds of kisses. It was more like two kids put in an adult situation. However, nobody was really happy with that take on the idea because it was, admittedly, unfocused. Seven or eight drafts later, with help from Ballard and input from everyone, this thing is chock-full of lots of sick, sick Levin.

I’ve got to say, when I first turned this in, I sincerely did not picture myself in the sketch. I had no plan to be in The City when I came up with it. And then, a trip to NYC happened and we didn’t shoot it, and I continued not to picture myself in the sketch at all. I just intended it to be an easy one to knock off for two people in the group.

But alas, it just so happened that it made sense to work on it, and then film it the last time I was in town. I mention this because I must acknowledge what a real trooper Christina was in shooting this. She goes the distance for her comedy. There was another ending that escalated the entire thing even further that we shot several times. It included what I dubbed a “doggy kiss.” I think the cut as it is now is better without that, but I have to give Christina even more credit for licking my lipstick-and-petroleum-jelly-covered face when that brave comic act didn’t even end up in the sketch. Maybe it will make it onto some gag reel or something… we are approaching 100 videos on YouTube… hmm…

In the end, I’m happy with how it turned out and I’m glad Christina is still talking to me after the shoot.

–Reid.

Better Than The Machine’s newest video, “The Sex Talk,” takes on the age old question, “Where do babies come from?” It turns out I was way off. Waaaay off.

“The Sex Talk” was directed and edited by Ballard C. Boyd. It was written by Better Than The Machine and Will Nunziata. It was originally conceived and written for our seventh stage revue, It’s Not Me. It’s You., which was our first revue in which Will directed and co-wrote material.

“Seesaw,” as it is known in our live shows (I’ll get back to that), was a short “blackout” sketch in a show of longer sketches. Blackouts basically pop into the show between longer sketches, just for a quick joke or two, then the lights blackout. As you can see, their name is especially imaginative. We have several blackout sketches throughout our revues to keep the show’s pace changing, so that the audience doesn’t know what to expect next (too many blackouts in a row might lead to epileptic seizures… the audience wouldn’t see that coming, now would they? Hmmn.). In my experience, blackouts seem to require more forethought than longer stage sketches for us, because they don’t have a normal number of beats (thus you have to get more stuff out in less time), and also we’re still not very good improvisers (“Hello, I am a duck, and this is my brother Ted. Ted the duck. We are seeing Avatar. Quack!”). Which is okay, because we’re not an improv troupe. But we do use improvisation to flesh out our stage sketches, once they’re beated out, thanks to the tutelage of Coach Nunziata.

In the stage version, Carlos and Matt went up and down on an imaginary seesaw as Matt told Carlos where babies came from, thus giving “The Sex Talk” it’s originally shorthand stage name “Seesaw.” We have one or two word descriptions of every live sketch that only make sense if you’ve been around since the creation of that sketch. For instance, we have a sketch we call “Videogames,” which is about a guy and his girlfriend and his relationship changing with his other friends as a result of having a girlfriend. There are people playing videogames in the sketch, but the videogames really aren’t the focus. It makes sense. To us, at least. It can be hard on new stage wizards and lightning and thunder gods and techies.

It’s useful to have these short names because no one ever remembers the setlist, even when we’ve been doing a show for months, and even when the setlist has been hung in 15 different places backstage. So Paul will run back, pulling his clothes of and ask, “What’re we doing next?!” and we will say, “Cat Molestation!” And he’ll say, “I know that, but I mean what’s the next sketch?” And so on.

Paul is also in the stage version of this sketch as the kid’s dad, but Carlos, Christina, Matt and Ballard went out to Jersey to shoot this and at least one other video, and meanwhile Paul had to work that weekend if he ever wanted to see his puppy alive again. Christina was a better pointer to “inside” anyway. The kid in this video version that replaced Carlos from the stage version is also named Carlos. I think he’s Carlos’ nephew. I’m not sure of his last name, because Carlos hasn’t told me what it was, so I just called him L’il Carlos in the credits. I don’t know this for sure, but I’m guessing Ballard shot Matt talking about innocuous things with Li’l Carlos, got some 2-shot footage and some close ups of the li’l guy, then released Li’l Carlos to go about his li’l life, in a place where he could not hear what Matt was saying in his close up. I apologize if I’ve ruined the magic of movies for you.

Okay, fine. All right. I’ll take a story from the vault for you because I can see this has clearly got you down. Paul and Matt once shot a video where they made a little girl, who had to be about the same age as Li’l Carlos, say, “you’re a fucking myth!” and her mom was watching the whole thing from 6 inches off of camera. So there you go, I hope I’ve restored the magic of movies for you. Or at least your faith in Better Than The Machine’s ability to permanently destroy one child’s innocence at a time.

Back to “The Sex Talk.” I like Li’l Carlos, he looked very concerned. I don’t know if he was easier to work with than all the kids Matt and Paul have worked with over the years, but I figure since his lines were cut out from the stage version, he was probably easy to shoot and send home (I also think it was shot in front of his home, which made this even easier). As for Matt, I think what he says in this sketch always gets dirtier and dirtier on stage. Which, you know, that’s cool if you’re into that sort of thing. And let me tell you, people on the Internet sure are into that sort of thing. Internet people like three things: dirty adult language, dirty porn, and Matt Gallo. I anticipate a major hit.

The first time I watched this, I was not totally keen on how it was shot. I did not like that Matt delivered his last line away from the camera, and I wanted a close up of Christina at the end. I thought it needed an extra beat, probably because I’m used to Big Carlos saying something in the stage version. Then I watched it again the next day, and I decided that, actually, I really like it. It somehow seems more real the way it’s shot than it would be with more cuts and stagey cheating of where and how people were faced. That’s why they pay Ballard the big bucks: he just knows these things.

I’m hoping to make it out there to NYC soon and shoot some stuff and perform on stage. I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that doing so will help me get healthy enough to go… which made typing this blog entry a real bhijtgc hb . Dammit, it’s very hard to do, see?!

–Reid.

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Now playing: Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down
via FoxyTunes

Better Than The Machine’s new Presidents’ Day video makes you decide if you’re on Team George or Team Abe in a debate/smackdown that pays tribute to our country’s forefathers.

The group came up with some ideas about Presidents’ Day sketches. Carlos wrote two different scripts, both of which were really funny. Ballard directed and edited the sketch with a neato keen new software toy that turned his handcam pans into smooth, smooth tracking shots. Paul and Carlos (the world’s shortest Lincoln) are totally on top of this thing–I think they’re both particularly good in this video. Of course, we mustn’t forget the second Matt Gallo cameo in as many weeks. This time, with a handle bar mustache, to boot! You just can’t beat Matt’s quick entrance into the sketch, only to be shot down immediately by Paul. You can’t. Trust me.

What did I have to do with any of this? Nothing. Nada. I just posted the video online. But–and I say this in all honesty–this has easily become one of my favorite BTTM sketches, even with the flagrant misuse of terms like “carpetbagger” and debate lingo. That’s okay, though. I’m a huge, huge Presidential history nerd and this video really hits the spot. Not only that, but I really, really like the way this was shot, with the constant smooth movement of the camera (so very smooth). It looks really sharp.

I think that very last shot with their hats flying off just as Carlos and Paul start going at each other is just brilliant. Speaking of which, my dad bought me that tricorn in colonial Williamsburg about 15 years ago. It’s served us well, so far in two very different sketches. Thanks Dad!

I also need to give Christina credit for producing her first sketch. She got people together, she tracked down costumes and she prodded some people who needed prodding. Nice work, CR.

All right, enough gushing. The crew just did a damn fine job with this one. Damn fine.

–Reid.

P.S. Damn fine!

It’s Valentine’s Day in Better Than The Machine’s latest video “Twilight First Date.” Interspecies human/vampire dating may sound titillating, but is this a case of eternal love gone wrong? Judge for yourself!

“Twilight First Date” was directed and edited by Ballard. He really deserves special accolades for editing during a trip to see his girlfriend and during the Super Bowl. Uproarious applause for Ballard and just as much applause for, and a big thanks from BTTM for letting us borrow him, to Kelsey.

This sketch is a big swish for teamwork. Christina and I worked on various drafts, Ballard worked on a draft, Carlos and Christina brought their A game performances, Matt Gallo played his cameo to the snarkiest degree, and some significant others (Alex and Katla) sat in the background and did some truly convincing background acting–I believed that they were a whole crowd. I’m really impressed by Ballard’s ability to make a two person conversation interesting to watch. I used to be afraid of directing those, I think.

I will admit that I saw the first Twilight movie (Twilight) under some duress. While it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, I don’t seem to have either the love-it or hate-it attitude most people seem to have towards it. What I’m more interested in is the current vampire trend–it’s just odd. I don’t understand where it came from, or how it came about. I think this obsession that a lot of girls and women have with the undead has got to mean something… although, for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it is. At any rate, this sketch was poking fun at the current vampire craze, rather than at Twilight or any other specific franchise or story.

The sketch actually started as a Valentine’s Day sketch with monsters, rather than a monster sketch that we’re tossing around for Valentine’s Day. And as much as I’m weirded out by (and glad we made fun of) the vampire fad, I originally pitched zombies. Other, more observant people in the group pointed out that vampires would be better. That’s why I’m glad I’m in this group, where everybody really makes one another’s ideas much, much better in a very constructive way.

I also really like the concept of vampire dentists and vampire accounts and vampire tax lawyers. They’ve got to live for an eternity unless someone kills them, so I’ve got to imagine they really must love those jobs. I wonder if there are any vampires who hold more exciting jobs. I wonder if there are any vampire astronauts or vampire rock ‘n roll stars. Weird.

–Reid.

Two Better Than The Machine videos for the price of… two videos! What a steal! I missed posting and analyzing last week’s video here in my blog so I’ll show it off with this week’s video! Hooray!

Last week’s video, “Prank Calls,” shows off Matt Gallo’s amazing crank calling skills. We even managed to get a microphone into the room of the person he called! Wowzers!

In this week’s video, “A Videophone Hello,” I got to phone in my performance. Videophone it in, that is! Hiyo!

And if you didn’t like that logline, well then, here’s another one just for you: In this week’s video, “A Videophone Hello,” I get to experience instantaneous modern communication without the use of my semaphore flags! What a time to be alive!

Both videos were directed and edited by Ballard C. Boyd.

The interstitial videos continued unabated last week and on into this week, which caused some confusion, as the they do, rather explicitly, advertise new videos in February and it is now, scientifically speaking, February. To anyone who is confused: we didn’t say when in February we’d switch over from the sketch comedy videos that advertise new sketch comedy videos in February to February’s new sketch comedy videos that do not advertise new videos in February. Thus, scientifically speaking, we won’t be in breach of contract for at least another couple of weeks. Phew!

These two videos were shot at the beginning of a single Better Than The Machine meeting at Pace. I wanted Paul and Matt to be in them, since we’d released Carlos and Christina videos the two previous weeks. I especially wanted Paul to be in something so that people would be reminded of his existance, which is good to remind people of every know and again. When “Prank Calls” was being shot, they shut off the video feed with me, so I don’t know what they were doing out there.

I do know, however, that both Ballard and I had ideas for me appearing in a video on the computer screen (which is how I attend meetings). My idea was more complicated and homoerotic, so we did Ballard’s idea–which is to say we did Ballard’s idea because it was easier, not because it was less homoerotic. All of us have now been in these interstitials. On the Xbox, I think we’d get a medal for that. Or something. I don’t have an Xbox.

Here is an interesting fact: if you watch “Prank Calls” on YouTube.com, there’s a big ad covering me up for most of the video. I’m just doing my part for the team. Remember that, the team.

The big reason for making these interstitials was that they were quick and easy, and could be thrown together while we hopefully buckled down and worked harder on other videos. It’s been an interesting experiment. There has been a lot of writing, scheduling and some shooting, but I feel like without, at the very least, a second editor available in NYC (to say nothing of another full time director), it puts a tremendous strain on Ballard. It was hard for Paul and I when the two of us were directing and editing videos full time, and I am thus both very impressed and very thankful for Ballard’s tenacity.

We may go back to full videos next week, but I’m not making any promises! There is still another unreleased interstitial with Carlos and Christina, and we could probably make more if we wanted to, so don’t push us! We’ll do it! Maybe!

–Reid.

P.S. I have found a staggering number of words missing from Firefox’s dictionary, the latest of which is “analyses,” the plural form of “analysis.” It’s true.