52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Giggle Fits

Giggle Fits (#40)

Another one that was pretty tough to memorize. Felt good to pop one out that was just Zach and I again. There's an unassuming simplicity to this sketch that I find pretty appealing, sound issues notwithstanding. 

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: YouTube's Not Funny

YouTube's Not Funny (#33)

There's something about hearing "This is hilarious" that instantly makes you not want to laugh. I guess so much about humor involves the element of surprise that the joke loses power if you know to expect it. When you have somebody waiting for you to laugh at something, "that's a lot of pressure." 

Tried to disguise the ambient noise with "YouTube noises" that are supposedly coming from the computer, but I don't know how successful I was. I just moved into this apartment, so we didn't really realize how noisy things would be. Ah well. My new roommate Nate totally stepped up to the plate in the 11th hour though and went toe to toe with Zach for us!

And speaking of Zach, YES. Zach is back. Woooooot!

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Stop the Anti-Bullying Campaign

Stop the Anti-Bullying Campaign (#12)

Ah, the persecuted bully. Finally, one of them has the courage to stand up for themselves! I think the bully's bloated sense of dignity is my favorite part.

I've recently started to discover the power of the monologue for the low budget sketch writer. Amazing what a high quality story you can tell with just actors in front of plain black backgrounds. We got a lot of love for Audition a month or so ago, which had a similar set up. So I figured I'd try something similar with this. What do you guys think?

I think this is the best utilization of Zach that ATX has done so far. For whatever reason, a lot of these sketches have focused a lot on Matt and I, with Zach stuck playing the straight man. It's always bothered me a bit, because he really has a powerful stage/screen presence. Expect to see a lot more of that guy in future sketches.

Really proud of how this one turned out. It's a lot more grounded than some of our louder, wackier stuff. Excited to pursue more grounded, story/character central humor in the future.

Project ATX: 52 Sketches in 52 Weeks

A little less than a year ago, I moved out here with two of my best friends from college. We split a crappy one bedroom apartment in North Hollywood that has since acquired a permanent aroma that can only be described as "dude stink." We're awesome actors, we're gonna be famous one day, blah blah blah, you get it. Anyway, we quickly got the idea to film some of our own stuff in the name of wowing the world with our jaw-dropping talent. So we bought a Canon Vixia and started calling ourselves filmmakers.

And Adventure Team Extreme was born. 

Me in Melvin Becomes a Man, an ATX short film.

We shot a couple of shorts that Matt directed and wrote, and I directed my first short film with ATX as well (pictured above), but I've always felt like the process was a little slow. In one year we've made four Youtube videos, averaging between 200-300 views for each. This totally makes sense for the first year, as we've all still been getting over the whole "Holy cow! This place is big and scary!" phase. But now it's time to kick it into overdrive, baby.

The harsh fact is that in LA, nobody cares about your short film. Short films multiply out here faster than rabbits, so it's tough to convince somebody to sit down and watch your 15 minute masterpiece.*  That's a lot of time in internet years! Think about the Youtube videos that you click on. Unless it's from a source you're already familiar with, I'll bet that they usually aren't much longer than two or three minutes. 

So I've started writing some micro shorts. Two minutes tops each. When we launch in the next few weeks, we're gonna release a new short every week. My goal is to have 5,000 views for the final episode. Not sure what we're gonna call this yet... Turbo Tuesdays, maybe?

We can't wait to tickle your eyeballs.

Anyway, my hope is that, as we start to gather a following, we become more valuable to potential agents, casting directors, etc. It'll also be a good way to show off my writing chops, and therefore any screenplays I send to big shots would have a better chance of being taken seriously. So if you enjoy them, share them! Uh, you know. Please?

The material that we've got so far has turned out pretty great, so I'm excited for everybody to see it. And of course I'll keep you guys posted on everything ATX on this blog as we go.

Nathan

*There are, of course, merits to doing short films, but I'll discuss that later.