Storyland 3 *Megathread*

davetheminogue

Hi,

It would be great if you could check out our promos for Storyland RTE 2011.


Promo 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmyaCYTWNS4


Promo 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12fTDdUBYQs

If you like it- please join us on facebook.

Or you can follow our blog here
http://www.rentafriend.ie/wordpress/

Sorry for the poor format, its my first day

AnonoBoy

Who's yer man with the long hair in Promo 1? He seems familiar.

The 2nd promo doesn't tell the audience anything about the show though. For something that long I'd be expecting to get a bit of info.

davetheminogue

David Thompson is the guy with the long hair.

And 'promo' might be a bit misleading. It's more of a teaser of sorts.

AnonoBoy

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/

So the first 4 Storyland entries are now live on the RTE website. What does everyone think?

Here's my thoughts:

Lucky Run - The owes money to a gangster mixed with 'dude where's my car'? storyline doesn't do anything for me. There's nothing in the first episode that wasn't in the trailer really, it's all just so dull. It's boring and by far the weakest and most unimaginative of the lot. Perrier's Bounty did this storyline last year (and did it badly) - can't understand why RTE think adding a pregnant girlfriend and a loss of memory into it will make it any better.

Street Cobra - Going by what I'd previously seen of Street Cobra on Youtube I thought this was going to be better than it was. Some good gags but the sucked into a computer game thing isn't great. Hopefully it'll get better.

Free House - Jaysus. Let's see how much story we can cram into 2 minutes! Nearly turned it off after the meets a girl, sneaks into his house during a funeral, tries to ride a girl in his room nonsense at the start. Way too much crammed in there and it made it unbelieveable.

It picked up with the bitch-slap fight with his brother and the toilet gag. There's some good writing in there so hopefully now that the set up is out of the way it'll improve. Hard to buy he'd just find his dead father and not be too bothered though.

The Outlaw Concy Ryan - Expected more from this one. The Limerick accent isn't inherently funny so the lines need to be a lot tighter. One or two good lines but the dip-to-black style with the same little musical sting under it all the time wore a bit thin for me. The set up took too long as well, didn't need to spend as much time as they did introducing the location - perhaps they should have just landed us into Concy at his house after the opening titles.

StreetCobra

Hey everyone!

Joe from the Street Cobra team. Just wanted to say I'm enjoying reading the feedbak. Can't say fairer than that for our reviews anyway.
I'll be the first to admit we had some 'Act 1' problems, both technically and from a story setup standpoint.

Glad and flattered the initial poster had seen the little things we'd done previously. And maybe we should have just played it safe and remade what we'd done, but there's nothing like an opportunity to make you through out what's worked and start getting ambitious, but a ridiculous concept and two ridiculous characters is a lot of ridiculous to set up and use in five minutes for the casual viewer, I will admit.

And in relation to all the comments about the production values, I can't speak for the others but I'm sure they'd say the same, I don't know what happens to the files when they're transcoded but the quality seems a lot lesss then we'd hoped.

I can say with my hand on my heart that ours (apart from a few shots at the start we didn't realise were underexposed until the edit and had to be artificially bumped up in the grade) looks GOOD. We had a full HD copy that flowed well and you've no idea how much it BREAKS MY HEART to see the way it's turned out. And because ours is full of graphics and motion it seems to judder the whole thing to a halt.
We were just saying how frustrating it is that something three of us can knock out in an afternoon and lash up on youtube looks 50 times better than the thing you spent weeks and a load of money on (and the money IS on the screen)

Especially, when you're hassling all and sundry to go and watch/vote for it!

Anyway, we've learned a lot and now I know how they're going to be shown, if we do manage to scrape through(fingers/toes/knees/elbows crossed) we can make adjustments and focus less on the visuals and more on the characters and their interactions, because two people bickering in a room will be passably watchable at low quality and we've already had some really good ideas. I now see why everyone goes for the mocumentary.

Anyway, really glad to know people are out there watching and also can I just say how heartening it is to read some rational criticism and analysis rather than the usual.....

'Dis iz ****!! I H8 deez duckheads!! Ure not funnie!! Hope U die!'

.....sort of stuff that normally people are so eager to share.

Right, that's my two hundred cents worth.

Well, hopefully I'll be back to explain what went wrong with episode two, but either way I'm looking forward to reading more!

Cheers, Lads (I sexistly assume)

Joe

AnonoBoy

franlk wrote: »

Me thinks you may be rooting for the second batch of entries in storyland and you want to bash everyone in this pool.

Not at all. I'm offering honest critiques of what I watched and giving credit where I think it's deserved. Obviously these are just my opinions and other people will think differently.

As StreetCobra above appreciates, we're just giving our honest opinions, hardly just trying to bash everyone in the group - and for the record I have nothing to do with any of the entries in either group.

I've never seen any of Outlaw Concy Ryan's previous stuff on Youtube - can you post some links?

Galvasean

StreetCobra wrote: »

Hey everyone!

Joe from the Street Cobra team. Just wanted to say I'm enjoying reading the feedbak.

Nice to see gracious acceptance of feedback. Good luck with future episodes.

davetheminogue

Our first episode has gone live, voting is open till next Tuesday

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-rent-a-friend.html

(vote for us)

AnonoBoy

davetheminogue wrote: »

Our first episode has gone live, voting is open till next Tuesday

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-rent-a-friend.html

(vote for us)

Hey Dave. Some nice funny moments in that.

The two leads work well together. I'd say ye'd sail through the other group - you're facing stiff competition from The Last Security Man and the Masterplan though.

davetheminogue

Cheers anon,

Competition is definitely tougher in this round and we're up against people with big fan bases so it'll be a hard one to call.

davetheminogue

Hey check out our entry this years storyland and then if you like it please give us a vote

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-rent-a-friend.html

Also, check out our promo's here http://www.youtube.com/user/Thanklessfilms

Galvasean

I watched the Masterplan there. It was quite funny. Like School of Rock but with more surreal humour.

Miguel_Sanchez

The Masterplan and The Last Security Man are definitely the best of the bunch.

leecronin

One last push on the final day of voting! If you still haven't voted why not give The Masterplan a blast? Think of the kids...

Cheers,

Lee

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-the-masterplan.html

geeky

Batch 2 is way better than the previous one, and I'd agree on the Masterplan and The last security guard being the best 2. Better production values, better gags than any of the other entries so far.

Interesting to note that The Masterplan is the only show that's not 'for mature audiences'. I hope Storyland's more studenty, 20-30-something base won't hurt it. Wartgirl is a decent idea but the acting is a bit wooden (and who discusses genital warts with their ma?), while I wasn't too keen on rent-a-friend. Still, there's no outright stinker in the group.

AnonoBoy

geeky wrote: »

(and who discusses genital warts with their ma?),

That's her Da I think isn't it?

geeky

AnonoBoy wrote: »

That's her Da I think isn't it?

The woman at her kitchen table who's trying to cheer her up, then takes her out to meet the"muffia"? Unless.... :eek:

One hell of a twist.

AnonoBoy

geeky wrote: »

The woman at her kitchen table who's trying to cheer her up, then takes her out to meet the"muffia"? Unless.... :eek:

One hell of a twist.

It was her Da in the trailer.

geeky

AnonoBoy wrote: »

It was her Da in the trailer.

Ah right - either I've made a major mistake or they changed it. Still, a dad is just as 'WTF'!

AnonoBoy

geeky wrote: »

Ah right - either I've made a major mistake or they changed it. Still, a dad is just as 'WTF'!

Dad in drag. Always a winner.

AnonoBoy

Results for the second group are out. Wart Girl has been eliminated - can't say I'm surprised really, the other three were much better.

leecronin

Huge thanks to all who supported and voted for The Masterplan. Congrats to all the other qualifiers - see you in round two!

Invisibleprince

Hi Everyone

I am one of the creators of this STORYLAND The Last Security Man

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-the-last-security-man.html

I am interested does anybody think Storyland is a great/terrible idea? Has anybody any horror stories about things that have happened to them in the course of their attempt to win? It would be interesting to hear.

Also do people think it is fair? It is based on votes and not quality so that in intself could be an imbalance, it also encourages populism, to the detriment of quality. Put it this way, if THE WIRE was up against IRELANDS GOT TALENT which would win?

RTE have said that it is a way of getting teams together, and for us it worked, we met some great new people and got the chance to work with them.
Some cynical people have suggested that it is a way to direct traffic to the RTE website increasing its profile, advertising revenue etc
Do people have any experience in this either?

Lets Discuss!

v.e.r.b.a.l

On a side note, I just watched The Last Security Man and loved it!! Very funny stuff, well-shot (especially the drunken night out) and brilliantly acted. Good job!

Galvasean

I'm not a huge fan of the voting system. It seems whoever has the best Facebook networkers will generally do very well. But then again I suppose that is how the industry works. Ypu gotta pimp it, so to speak, any way you can and viral marketing is a big thing these days.

FWIW, I quite liked the Last Security Guard. Looked, sounded and was acted very well. That and the Masterplan are my two favourites at the moment. Both have potential to go places.

AndyOHart

Yeah I actually really liked The Last Security Man, I will definitaly be voting for it.
But I agree, I am hoping to enter the Storyboard thing in a few years when I improve my films, and I would hate to lose because of somebody just having more FaceBook.

TheTrain

Storyland is a marketing hack's idea of developing content. More interested in pestering demographics than nurturing talent. I know a lad who was involved in the first year and it was a disaster for him. Storyland is a cheap, cynical way for RTE of destroying new writers and ideas.

RTE commissioners are on massive salaries to choose and develop projects, not to pass the buck onto the All Ireland Talent Show crowd.

Hardy Bucks deservingly won the first year but from a fairness point of view they already had a years head start and tens of thousands of Facebook friends. There was also the fact it was advertised as a drama competition (notice now how people are only entering comedies.)

Hardy Bucks won the second year as well, seeing as the Zombie Bashers show was on the brink of elimination until they had the very clever idea of guest casting a hardy buck. Suddenly the show had an influx of votes and won the whole thing.

While on the surface Storyland looks like a good opportunity, I believe it is damaging and creates two tiers. The "proper" Clinic / Raw primetime mediocrity and the rushed lipservice to innovation (the Hardy Bucks TV show, which unfairly dethroned them from untouchable heroes to just more RTE celebrities in the vein of Jennifer Maguire and Baz.)

Given the track record of the people behind the Last Security Guard, a real broadcaster would bring them into proper script development for a full tv show, not have them beg from scraps from a popularity contest.

That said, well done on the Last Security Guard. I voted for the Masterplan myself but if Ireland had a real broadcaster around, there would be no voting. Both projects would get proper development.

homerbert

Our new (and I'd like to think much improved) second episode of Free House is up. Please check it out, and maybe even vote for it at http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-free-house.html

I took on board a lot of the feedback from here and elsewhere, so I think it works much better than the first.

Thanks,
Eoin

v.e.r.b.a.l

I thought Rent A Friend was very funny. A great contemporary Irish comedy and the two lads were brilliant in it.

leecronin

Episode 2 of our Storyland entry 'The Masterplan' has gone live!

If you like it please do spread the word!

"With Nickoli installed as their guide, the boys are ready to take the next step towards small town superstardom. But with no singer in the band James thinks it might never happen. Never say never."

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-the-masterplan.html

Thanks,

Lee

davetheminogue

Cheers V.E.R.B.A.L I hope we got your vote! I directed it and co-wrote it with Der who plays Der.

This is the link to the show, it would be great if people could watch it and vote for us and then if they fancied sharing it on their social networks that would be great too!

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-rent-a-friend.html

davetheminogue

Hey TheTrain,

As writer & director of 'Rent a Friend' in this years Storyland I would respectfully like to disagree with some of the points you made.

Coming from the streets so to speak (as in I've only ever made stuff for youtube) I have found RTE's role in the production process to be helpful and very hands off- well more so than I would have thought. We've only been ever asked to review things in the same way any producer would ask a director/writer to rethink something.

The end result of each episode really comes down to the team behind it. If it's not good RTE are not really to blame. If you look at the shows that were commissioned it would be hard not to agree that these shows chosen were not original (ish ).

Execution is the key. Maybe RTE should be more critical of the end result of an episode but being fair, if Rent a Friend is ****, it's my fault.

This is my first production with a crew, it's our first production with a budget (thanklessfilms) and the experience so far has been fantastic. Without Storyland we'd still be making ****ty stuff for youtube that nobody watches...now we're just making ****ty stuff for RTE that some people watch.

Obviously my argument comes from a different side of the fence but genuinely, for us, Storyland has been a godsend and a great opportunity, regardless if we progress further into the competition.

But I do agree; this voting system is horrible and it completely takes away any sense of joy in accomplishing the episode. Begging for votes is not what story telling is about.

Having said that, please vote for Rent a Friend

Dave
http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-rent-a-friend.html

davetheminogue

Our second episode is up for votes, some love and sharing would be great!

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-rent-a-friend.html

Sad Professor

All Storyland 3 threads merged. Lets keep discussion in here please.

Invisibleprince

Hi

Yeah I am a bit biased, kind of chuffed and relieved to have something anything out of RTE after so many years being ignored, couldnt even get them to read my stuff, I think they will now, co-wrote a C4 thing and this too, but still of course it is an impossible business.

Actually I dont think RTE are doing too badly really compared to BBC etc right now. RAW is comparable to a lot of the so-so drama on BBC and TRIVIA and SAVAGE EYE are comedy you could bring home to mother.

Also they did put me in touch with a really cool producer and DOP and sound person etc that I will work with again, even for almost no money.

The downside is that it is B.S. begging people for votes, it is demeaning and if you are sacrificing stuff already to "express your creative side" it really strips you of the option of being private, introspective and living in a fantasy world which someone concentrating on making fictions should do.

I am a bit less bitter about RTE than I was 15 years ago when I couldnt get an interview from them etc etc but I also have less interest in the Irish market in general, I am writing for the English market, which reminds me thats what I am meant to be doing.

And getting into comics of course, but that is another thread!

thanks for compliments on the show btw, delighted people appreciate it, the next episode is out today, we survive a little bit longer!



http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-the-last-security-man.html

Invisibleprince

Hi

Episode III is being filmed the day after tomorrow, the STORYLAND incredibly fast turnaround continues!

SPIELBERG and SIDNEY LUMET (RIP, brilliant director, 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker, Dog Day Afternoon,
Serpico and still made movies in his 80s) both credit their ability to work fast on their films on their experience working in TV. If that is the case then working on internet series must be great experience for working on TV, thruning around 3 mins per day, and not even full days, depending on the availability of the actors. I ramble.

This episode it all kicks off, we venture out beyond the shopping centre, new characters are introduced and things escalate.
The previous two episodes are here of course.

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-the-last-security-man.html

No voting for a couple weeks now, which is nice. It is a relief to have come so far, we will get three episodes into the story, it will be somewhat tragic if we dont get to episode 4, leaving the whole thing unfinished, cos 4 has so many mad funny jokes in it.

One day at a time eh?

AnonoBoy

I just watched the second episode of Rent A Friend.

Great episode, good jokes and that little kid is hilarious!

davetheminogue

Hi,

The 3rd episode of Rent a Friend has gone live and needs some votes. Please watch, vote and share it!

http://www.rte.ie/storyland/episodes-rent-a-friend.html

Dave

MeerKat17

Lucky Run, The last Security Man and the outlaw Concey Ryan have all made it through to the finals!

My vote is for Lucky Run!

AnonoBoy

It's a shame Rent A Friend got eliminated ahead of Lucky Run. Thought it was a lot more original.

v.e.r.b.a.l

I thought Rent A Friend deserved a spot, but glad The Last Security Man is still there.

davetheminogue

Hello,

We at Rent a Friend have gone and finished our series. We would have had out earlier but when you're shooting on favours your schedule flexes, bends and stretches to everyone elses time!

Please give it a share if you enjoy it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-0ZewNwnsE

Thanks
Dave