Humber Connected: Cinema Gems
(Originally broadcast February 7, 2011)
Today's House Blogger was Catherine Schwab
When the first lead the way with the first production and we
gathered on the set for a group photo, director Tyler Newell’s snazzy purple
“Joker” blazer garnered him some, “Why so serious?” comments from the crew. The
tone of the show and in the studio and set was anything but serious and seemed
to mirror the director’s snappy wardrobe choice. The blazer and the
Transformers shirt underneath put everyone in a good mood right from the
beginning, and everyone seemed to have fun contributing their expertise to the
production. It goes without saying that the final show had everyone on the edge
of their seats and about to fall off from the hysterical laughter. The crew on
set had to have heard us all laughing from the next room.
The show itself, Humber Connected: Cinema Gems, produced by Mike Johnston, introduced us to hosts and critics Sean Morrison and Joe Di Nardo. What might seem like your basic movie review show is suddenly turned on its head when Morrison and Di Nardo introduce and reveal clips from really terrible movies and then proceed to talk about how much they loved these movies. You have to hand it to producer Mike Johnston. The fact he recollected all these crap pile movies from various stories told to him by his friends and then went to find clips for these movies are just amazingly innovative. Adding two electrically animated hosts as Morrison and Di Nardo makes the whole mix complete comic gold.
That said, our hosts were just as much on the ball as the rest of the crew. Intervals in screen time were left for them just to banter back and forth, completely unscripted. They both pulled it off convincingly and humorously. If you hadn’t known that it was unscripted, then you never would have guessed it yourself. Even mistakes, slip ups, and mispronunciations were played up as if actually scripted, resulting in perhaps some of the best unintentional comedy. Overall, there was a great chemistry and level of communication between the cast and crew in most positions. It looked like Sean was having fun making wild code hand signals for floor manager Prabh Shah, though I don’t know if they actually ended up using any of it.
The run through was just as funny as the final show and got everybody confident and stoked for the on air show. VTR had some problems (but nothing’s ever perfect the first time, that’s what rehearsals are for, right?) so the run through was done with no video clips until we reached Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. That clip had everyone wanting to see the other clips, expertly chosen by Johnston- he even included that signature moment from Trolls 2. Oh mah gawwwd. As director and producer, Newell and Johnston worked closely to bring us the best out of this show. They kept level heads, a fun energy and everybody had a great time.
Problem solving was commendably rife within the making of the production. Photographer Sheldon Rodrigues had to resort to using a PC in order to delete files off the camera memory card. When he subsequently discovered that the camera’s flash was too strong, he used a piece of paper over the flash to act as diffusion only to find out the paper got burned- which might have accounted for that burnt toast smell. Graphics operator Andrew Wood made some impromptu credits and had them ready to go for the end of the show. Even Brent Huckfield and Adam Vegys made it in just in time to hang around, help out and enjoy the show. But nobody could fix that darn shader with the busted router. But I suppose it could have been much worse, with our hosts showing up green and purple. Amidst the video clips and the hosts and the laughs, I don’t think anybody noticed if the pictures on any of those monitors were different.
Humber Connected: Cinema Gems gets a solid five out of five stars :)
The show itself, Humber Connected: Cinema Gems, produced by Mike Johnston, introduced us to hosts and critics Sean Morrison and Joe Di Nardo. What might seem like your basic movie review show is suddenly turned on its head when Morrison and Di Nardo introduce and reveal clips from really terrible movies and then proceed to talk about how much they loved these movies. You have to hand it to producer Mike Johnston. The fact he recollected all these crap pile movies from various stories told to him by his friends and then went to find clips for these movies are just amazingly innovative. Adding two electrically animated hosts as Morrison and Di Nardo makes the whole mix complete comic gold.
That said, our hosts were just as much on the ball as the rest of the crew. Intervals in screen time were left for them just to banter back and forth, completely unscripted. They both pulled it off convincingly and humorously. If you hadn’t known that it was unscripted, then you never would have guessed it yourself. Even mistakes, slip ups, and mispronunciations were played up as if actually scripted, resulting in perhaps some of the best unintentional comedy. Overall, there was a great chemistry and level of communication between the cast and crew in most positions. It looked like Sean was having fun making wild code hand signals for floor manager Prabh Shah, though I don’t know if they actually ended up using any of it.
The run through was just as funny as the final show and got everybody confident and stoked for the on air show. VTR had some problems (but nothing’s ever perfect the first time, that’s what rehearsals are for, right?) so the run through was done with no video clips until we reached Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. That clip had everyone wanting to see the other clips, expertly chosen by Johnston- he even included that signature moment from Trolls 2. Oh mah gawwwd. As director and producer, Newell and Johnston worked closely to bring us the best out of this show. They kept level heads, a fun energy and everybody had a great time.
Problem solving was commendably rife within the making of the production. Photographer Sheldon Rodrigues had to resort to using a PC in order to delete files off the camera memory card. When he subsequently discovered that the camera’s flash was too strong, he used a piece of paper over the flash to act as diffusion only to find out the paper got burned- which might have accounted for that burnt toast smell. Graphics operator Andrew Wood made some impromptu credits and had them ready to go for the end of the show. Even Brent Huckfield and Adam Vegys made it in just in time to hang around, help out and enjoy the show. But nobody could fix that darn shader with the busted router. But I suppose it could have been much worse, with our hosts showing up green and purple. Amidst the video clips and the hosts and the laughs, I don’t think anybody noticed if the pictures on any of those monitors were different.
Humber Connected: Cinema Gems gets a solid five out of five stars :)
Check out these "behind-the-scenes" photos from todays production!
Today's Production Team...
Producer - Michael Johnston
Director - Tyler Newell
TD/Switcher - Jason Browne
Assistant Director - Matthew Pirruccio
Floor Director - Prabjot Shah
Camera 1 - Matthew Cooke
Camera 2 - Victoria Marrone
Camera 3 - Kayla Smith
Shader - Andrew Sullivan
Audio Operator - Rob SalvadoreGraphics Operator - Andrew Wood
Teleprompter - Bryan Dominchini
Video Playback/Record Operator - Jonis Hassan
Blogger - Cat Schwab
Photographer - Sheldon Rodrigues
Host - Joseph DiNardo
Host - Sean Morrison
Director - Tyler Newell
TD/Switcher - Jason Browne
Assistant Director - Matthew Pirruccio
Floor Director - Prabjot Shah
Camera 1 - Matthew Cooke
Camera 2 - Victoria Marrone
Camera 3 - Kayla Smith
Shader - Andrew Sullivan
Audio Operator - Rob SalvadoreGraphics Operator - Andrew Wood
Teleprompter - Bryan Dominchini
Video Playback/Record Operator - Jonis Hassan
Blogger - Cat Schwab
Photographer - Sheldon Rodrigues
Host - Joseph DiNardo
Host - Sean Morrison