How to Make a Camera Stabilizer for $7

Christopher Penn, creator of the Financial Aid Podcast -- which, ironically, is an audio-based podcast -- has a great tutorial on how he built a handheld stabilizer for his video camera... for $7.

Granted, you need a couple power tools and the common sense to use them properly. But if you're mechanically inclined, you can make yourself a pseudo-steadicam for less than the price of breakfast. Not bad.

Cross-Post: STBD Grounded?

Kownacki and occasional STBD crew member Jeremy Brok are not pleased.
STBD creator Justin Kownacki is supposed to be speaking on Monday at Blogference, a social media conference in Israel. Instead, he's at home in Pittsburgh because a connecting flight from Delta was canceled due to rain.

Follow the timeline (to be updated when possible) here.

10 Things We Love About Pittsburgh

How could we leave out bridges? Photo by Bridgepix.
The folks at the Church of the Customer blog are moving to Austin from Chicago. On their way out the door, they stopped to mention 10 Things They Love About Chicago. Then they encouraged their readers to create their own lists in their own cities.

Thus, some of the STBD cast and crew -- Erik Schark (Rich), Ryan Ben (Tim), Rick Hertzig (Glenn) and Elise Yacovone (one of our new cast members, whom you'll see in Season Five), as well as creator Justin Kownacki -- pontificated and came up with the following:

Ten Things We Love About Pittsburgh:
10. Enough great locally owned coffee shops that I never have to resort to Starbuck's. (Rick)

9. I love playing a game called "Left / Right / Straight" in Pittsburgh. You get in a car with a bunch of friends and the person in shotgun at each intersection tells the driver "left/right/straight." It's a great way to see this beautiful city. (Ryan)

8. Inexpensive housing and low cost of living. Where else can you get hardwood floors and convenience in a nice, livable area for only $400+? (Elise)

7. The library system. You can search through all of the area libraries and find pretty much anything you want: graphic novels, movies, TV series, etc. You can then request that the item be sent to your local branch, and they'll send you an e-mail when it's ready to be picked up. You can even see where you are in the queue for it. It's fantastic, and it's actually a huge step up from the NYC Public Library system. (Erik)

6. Nature. Pittsburgh is nestled in a temperate river valley, which means the summers are pleasant and the winters are mild. It's bordered by three rivers and features dozens of parks, nature trails and bike paths -- great for the outdoorsy among us. (Justin)

5. Cuisine. Notable restaurants we've frequented lately include Abay, Gypsy Cafe, Red Room, and Zaw's in Sq Hill. Plus, Deluca's in the Strip for breakfast - the best buckwheat pancakes in town! (Elise & Rick)

4. The financial support for the arts. I have friends who moved here from NYC and founded a theatre company. They got instant support from businesses, grants, even a donation of a performance space. They also immediately got press and media attention for their efforts. This doesn't happen anywhere else. (Erik)

3. Driveability. Granted, our public transit isn't what it could (or should) be, but the resultant dependency on cars means everyone has a different route for getting everywhere. Say what you will about the frequent gridlock on the Parkways, but you can get just about anywhere in Allegheny County in 40 minutes or less, no matter the time of day. (Justin)

2. It's a small enough place that the media takes note of things I've promoted (PodCamp Pittsburgh, STBD, Creative TreeHouse) yet it's a large enough place that the country notices when something happens here. I feel like I can actually make a difference not only to Pittsburgh and its residents but also in how the country and the world views Pittsburgh. It's very empowering. (Erik)

1. The neighborhoods! Within the city limits, you have such a great variety of completely different neighborhoods -- from chi-chi Shadyside to up-and-coming arty areas like Lawrenceville, and the ever-popular South Side. (This is why, when people complain that "there's nothing to do here," I get so mad!) (Elise)

What do you think of our list? Agree? Disagree? Add your own suggestions!

What Makes Comedy Funny?

A woman's child dies. Tragic? Almost definitely.

A guy slips and falls down. Funny?

That depends on your entire life history.

Comedy Is Context

Drama tends to appeal to the human audience's broader sense of justice, of right and wrong, of tragedy vs. exultation. Deep down, we can say with certainty whether something is a positive or negative event. And, by and large, the bulk of humanity agrees with the typical evaluations: war, sickness and death are (usually) bad, and love, marriage and success are (usually) good.

Meanwhile, comedy appeals to a different part of the human condition: the intellect. In comedy, we don't require an emotional response for the laughs to be effective. Instead, we need a disconnect between the expected action and the actual action. That's the rift that causes surprise, which leads to amusement / hilarity.

But that rift is dependent upon what YOU expected to happen, and what YOU expected might not be what I expected to happen. That's because we all approach new information from different previous experiences, which determine whether something is confusing, surprising or offensive -- to US.

It also explains why one person might find the Three Stooges hilarious and someone else might find them unbearably idiotic.

What You Ate for Breakfast Determines Your Sense of Humor

Everything you've ever done, seen, heard or experienced influences your worldview today. The less you've done, the more easily you're surprised, and therefore the more likely you are to find something funny: your frame of reference is small enough that EVERYTHING is new / strange / different.

Thus, even if you don't laugh WITH someone, you're well-prepared to laugh AT someone (because they're different, and laughter is a safe form of self-defense.)

Meanwhile, if your life is more cosmopolitan -- if you have a wider basis of experience to draw from -- then you're less likely to be surprised by simple humor. You see the jokes coming. What 90% of the public finds surprising is second nature to you.

Congratulations: you're the kind of audience Hollywood hates.

YOU appreciate jokes that require lengthy set-ups and payoffs.

YOU enjoy witty turns of phrase and intellectual acrobatics.

YOU understand conflicts across multiple layers of characterization.

In short, you're an audience that requires more work from a storyteller in order to be surprised. This means you're in a rarefied niche. And you're incredibly hard to reach, because there are fewer artists with the tools necessary to surprise you.

This is why black comedies, satires and dialogue-driven comedies are in such short supply: their audiences are, by nature, much smaller. This means they're more work to make AND they're less-profitable.

And, meanwhile, the Scary Movie franchise keeps on chugging...

STBD Story Meeting and You

On Monday, several STBD regulars convened at a pair of tables in the Shadyside Crazy Mocha to float ideas for Season Five of STBD. We discussed goals and concepts for various characters, and for the series as a whole.

As with any brainstorming session, some ideas and insights were spot-on, and some weren't received quite so warmly. But exchanging these ideas is an integral part of creating the series WE want STBD to be.

What about you?

We'd love to open the story creation process to the audience as well, since you're the ones who keep coming back for more. Do you have specific ideas you'd like to pitch for Season Five? Would you like to try your hand at writing a scene? Let us know!

We're considering the merits of an STBD wiki. Would those of you inclined to provide ideas be interested in the wiki format?

Feel free to post comments here, or to email jkownacki somethingtobedesired com.

What Makes Comedy vs. Drama?

When you're writing or filming, you tend to know if you're creating comedy or drama. But do you know why? If you knew why, would you be better able to make GREAT comedy or GREAT drama?

Definitions

When what you expect to happen DOESN'T happen, that's comedy.

When the WORST thing that could happen occurs, that's drama.

These definitions are overly simplistic, but they apply in nearly every circumstance.

Examples

In Casablanca, the worst thing that could happen to Rick is that he'd meet Ilsa again. Then she walks into his bar. Then she needs his help. THEN she tells him she's married. And THEN she tells him she's still in love with him.

That's drama.

In It's a Wonderful Life, the worst thing that could happen to George Bailey is that he'd get stuck in Bedford Falls his whole life. Then he does. Then he goes broke. Then he gets into a fight, crashes his car and considers suicide.

THAT'S drama.

And just because a story has elements of one side, it doesn't mean it can't have elements of the other. (In fact, it needs some amount of balance, or else it becomes melodrama or farce.)

For example, in It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge... but his guardian angel, Clarence, jumps into the water first, pretending to be a drowning man so George will have to save him. (That's drama.)

Then, after rescuing Clarence, George discovers he's hopelessly antiquated and out of touch, rendering him nearly inoperable in public. That's comedy.

THEN, when Clarence finds his opportunity to help George see the error of his ways -- showing him what his life would be like had he never been born -- he does so. At first, this is comedy. But as George sees just how dire everyone ELSE'S lives are as the result of the absence of his, the situation very quickly turns from comedic to desperately dramatic.

Without that ebb and flow between comedy and drama, most satisfying stories would fall apart from a top-heavy nature.

Practicality

Whether you're writing a blog, filming a video, recording a song or otherwise telling a story, what kind of story is it? What will make your drama more dramatic or your comedy more comedic? What's missing from your story that will help counterbalance it?

Length Matters, Part 2

Last month, there was some debate about the length of STBD episodes.

They tend to be 10 minutes long, every week. Our fans tend to ask for LONGER episodes.

I'm wondering if they shouldn't be SHORTER.

We tried 5 minute episodes throughout Season Two and Season Three. It didn't feel long enough to tell a rewarding story then. (That's why a lot of folks are asking us to go even LONGER.)

But if you look around the web, NO POPULAR SERIES is longer than 5 minutes per episode. That's actually the long end of the spectrum; most shows clock in around 3 minutes or so.

Granted, most shows are trying to tell a joke. We're trying to tell an ongoing, evolving story.

But they're getting 100,000 viewers an episode. We're not.

Does STBD need to go SHORTER to increase likelihood of adoption?

Dearly Beloved: How STBD Got Invited to a Wedding

For our final episode of the season, we at STBD were invited to attend the wedding reception of one of our biggest fans. He suggested that we'd be able to film anything we wanted to within the confines of the PPG Aquarium, where the reception was being held. All he asked in return was a small amount of footage of the reception itself.

This posed an unusual challenge: How could we explain, story-wise, a reason for multiple characters to be attending at a wedding? (And, more practically, how would we explain ourselves to the wedding guests?)

Backfiring Backstory

Originally, we'd intended to orchestrate the event as a full Vanity Press situation -- perhaps one of the authors or an ex-employee was getting married, which would explain the existence of Tabitha, Liz, Caroline, Rich, etc., being there. But when we were asked to keep our head count to 3 or less, we realized we'd have to scale back our idea.

At the same time, we had a continuity issue to deal with from Episode 29: The sequence with Alexxxis and Tim at Torque Denim was moved later in the episode than originally intended, which created a problem -- what was the favor Alexxxis asks Tim in the last scene?

Thus, thanks to a suggestion from Rick Hertzig (Glenn), we concocted an impossibly (and unnecessarily) complex conceit to enable Caroline, Dierdre and Glenn to essentially crash the wedding. We'd intended for Trent Wolfred (aka "the guy who got shot in the bathroom") to make his return at the wedding as well, so we squeaked him in as -- what else? -- the wedding videographer.

All we had to do was maintain a low profile, keep out of people's ways and shoot what we needed to shoot and no one would ever need to know what we were actually doing there.

Open Bar

So we arrive at the Pittsburgh Zoo, which is where the Aquarium is housed, and join the tram-load of guests being shuttled from the entrance to the reception. Since there are five of us, Rick ends up sitting alone. A fellow wedding guest plops down beside him and, feeling gregarious, introduces himself as the father of so-and-so.

Rick nods obligingly.

"And how do you know the bride and groom?" the guy asks Rick.

"Um..."

One bumpy tram ride (and awkward explanation) later, we're no longer anonymous. Thankfully, the guest appears to chalk our presence up to the eccentricity of the happy couple and totters about his business.

We slip into the Aquarium, explore the space and realize two very important things:

1. There are dozens of opportunities for beautiful shots here.

2. Almost none of them will work because the audio is trash.

Being an aquarium, there's a whole lot of running and falling water EVERYWHERE. This is not a quiet process, especially as it cascades off the walls of the interior, creating a white noise echo. EVERYWHERE.

Fortunately, Trent and Ann find the penguin area, which is shared by another large fish tank. Due to the acoustic arrangement, this is essentially the only "quiet" area in the building, despite the echo. This became the host locale for both their scene and an unused sequence with Glenn, Dierdre and Rob Sharp (egad!), whose cameo appearance remains (mercifully) on the virtual cutting room floor.

After the After-Party

Once we were sure we'd filmed everything we needed (or as sure as we could be, since the shot list was accidentally left in the car, which was a full tram ride away), we attempted to wrap things up in the elevator back to the top floor. As you might guess, trying to film dialogue in an elevator at a wedding reception is bound to not go smoothly. Thus, we retreated to the escalators at the zoo entrance, where -- in three takes, involving several escalator round-trips -- we nailed the final scene.

Coincidentally, this also happened to be the final evening of shooting for the season. After doubling back to Caroline & Dierdre's apartment to wrap things up with Leo, we headed out to a self-congratulatory celebration of our own -- a midnight breakfast at Ritter's Diner.

From champagne and wedding cake to black coffee and greasy home fries: STBD does it all in style.

(Should we mention that nearly every line of dialogue in this episode was improvised by the cast on the spot? Just thought you'd like to know...)