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In case you’re curious, the song at the end of Episode 6 was written and performed by Alan Wilkis, who also wrote and performed all versions of the duder theme. He’s new-york-based and super-talented - you can check out more of his music at his myspace page
Check out this pretty good review of Episode 6 from our friends at Tilzy.tv:
“Sex. Secrets. Betrayal. Extravagant projectile orgasms. It’s like any other season finale.
Duder, the Seinfeldian long-form comedy-drama from Brooklyn, finally completes their first season with the show’s sixth episode, which is one of its best.”
duder: Episode 6 - Promo on Vimeo
So the big question is: what in the heckfire happened in there, yargh? (and if you know, keeps those lips sealed, por favor!) Closest guess gets a free duder: Season 1 DVD!!
By crazy happenstance or whatnot, I live with this dude who just launched an Internet Video website called Tilzy.tv. The site is a yellow-pages of sorts for Internet Video, specifically episodic shows as opposed to random youtube-like clips. After wandering around the site for a while, I really sort of like it. For one, it’s really easy to watch a preview of a show - and if you like what you see, you can just as easily head to the show’s website (Josh, my roommate, is really big on allowing users easy-access to producer’s websites, which is great, we’d rather people come straight to our sites, I think).
Anyway, I recommend checking it out, you’ll probably find a show you’ve never heard of that’s pretty funny, etc. And it just shows you how Internet TV has grown in the last year - shows are getting more mature, some are actually watchable, and the Internet allows them to be more satisfying than many tv shows, because you can interact with them: post comments on the show’s blog, give story ideas, and who knows what they’ll think of next…
So I’ve mentioned Superdeluxe.com before but I have to again because there are a few shows on this site that, in my opinion, are the most creative and innovative on the Internet.
Today I want to mention: “The Maria Bamford Show.”
I’m struck mostly by the simplicity of the show: “The Bammer” plays all of the characters, she dresses up her apartment as different make-shift sets (the conceit of the show is that she had a nervous breakdown and is filming this from her parent’s house), and that’s basically it - she’s so talented at creating distinct characters with very different voices, talking-speeds, mannerisms, and they don’t feel like caricatures.
Now I don’t know what the budget of the show is, but it doesn’t look like it requires so much money, and I just think this is a great example of how you can do so much with so little on the Internet, the producer just needs to be creative enough from the outset, creating a framework that addresses the low-budget, rather than try to hide it and make something that looks like real tv, and that utilizes the raw talent of the actors, writers, etc. Maybe what’s so unique about the Internet at this point is that everything is so small, that this raw talent actually has a chance to show through. Who knows?
So the series is coming along - this episode was a bit simpler than the others, basically just 3 characters, doing their things. Filming with the cats was crazy (our sound guy got gashed) but he’s fine, and they were pretty cooperative all in all - not sure how we got Oatmeal (the larger one) to sit on that couch arm for that long, but who knows.
Any thoughts on where the series is going, should go? Oh, you should go to Maracuja, the best bar in Williamsburg - amazing garden and the owners are really great people.
-matt
So just to put all rumors to bed (finally) the actor who plays Zev Abrams (Dru Lockwood,) is not dead, he’s not even maimed (though that tractor accident rumor I heard was really convincing, good job). No Dru moved to LA to pursue his dreams, and he’s doing really well I think, we wish him the best - and really appreciate the work and the time he gave duder. What did you think of Zev? This is your chance to riff about him, go crazy, I’m practically positive he checks these boards often!!
So this is one of the reasons we had a slight delay in releasing this recent episode, but also cause we shot episode 6 at the same time, so expect episode 6 in the coming weeks woo!
-matt
So here’s our first “duder-mini” which basically is just a short snippet of duder, not a monologue, but some kind of scene. We actually shot this a while ago and I wasn’t sure where I was going to put it, but decided it could best live on it’s own.
In case you’re curious, the song playing in the background is: “There I’ve said it again” by the King Cole Trio.
So I stumbled upon SuperDeluxe.com sometime a few weeks ago and I’ve been going back pretty regularly since. And there are a bunch of sites sort of like this out there, so it makes me think, why has this one in particular kept me coming back?
Superdeluxe uses a lot of features that other web tv sites do (user-generated video, social networking, spotlighted directors) but what really makes it different is that it’s hired certain artists/producers to make original content specifically for the site. And basically they chose really funny people to make content for them, which is why I keep coming back. Most of the content is episodic also, rather than random clips, so really this site is the closest thing I’ve found to a television channel on the web: there are shows that I can’t really find anywhere else, which sets it apart from Network2 for example, which feels more like when you press the channel-guide button (which is useful but I think the Internet should allow all of these tools to be integrated).
I like the feeling of exclusivity that I get from Superdeluxe. And it’s really easy to comment on videos, too. And since the shows are sort of telvision-quality, commenting is exciting cause it actually feels like you’re talking with content-creators that you respect.
Here are some clips I found particularly funny:
It’s possible you’re thinking, “How much improvisation goes into duder?” - so I thought I’d talk a little bit about it. First of all, my favorite shows, which might be overly clear after watching our show are “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Office” (British version), “Arrested Development,” ‘Strangers with Candy.” I love Christopher Guest movies, etc. I’ve always been attracted to the rhythm of improvised or partially improvised dialogue - because there’s less of a clear build up toward a joke, eveything’s so organic, and I think this raises the potential for humor, since we’re not expecting things so much (sometimes the actors themselves are not even expecting what’s going to come out).
With that said, we don’t improvise so much on duder. yet we’re heading in that direction more and more. We work from a full script ahead of time, but we’ve discovered that it’s usually the things we add under our breath that are more funny (to us at least) and we’ve been encouraging this more and more. Here’s one example from episode 1:
We liked little add on lines like after Zev talks about how the little homeless girl has no home address but an email address and Glen mutters, “Little Insensitive” or that Zev should “wash his hands” after sleeping in the homeless shelter.
As I said I think we’re moving further toward the improvised style and there a bunch of reasons for this, one being that as actors, we’re more comfortable with each other (and our characters) which makes it easier to play around with each other. Also, the scripts are less focused on storyline and more on character I think, so there’s more room to play.
Here’s another example from Episode 4:
While you listen you can scroll down to original script we worked from:
———————-
Scene 3b
Reveal: GLEN’s apartment.
JUDY, GLEN and STEPHEN are watching this film on JUDY’s CPU.
Judy: (to STEPHEN) Wow um…I really…I like the question mark thing at the end uh…
Stephen: Right on…
GLEN smiles.
Judy: Yeah it’s like, “Is it over or not?” you know…it’s…
Stephen: Yeah I just…I hate films that end you know –they’re just so final and like…blah…(chuckles) I don’t know yeah…it’s just, it’s always been like a pet peeve of mine you know…
Judy: (sort of flabbergasted) Uhuh…
Stephen: But thanks for watching, it’s still rough obviously um…(takes the DVD out of her CPU, we see it labeled “The Spoon”)
(JUDY nods, GLEN is just sort of in love and blinded to how bad the movie is)
Stephen: (to GLEN) Anyways, I gotta go meet some editor peeps but, I’ll just come over when I’m done?
(GLEN nods, they kiss on the cheek)
STEPHEN exits.
Judy: (smiling) He’s cute…I like em…
Glen: Really?
Judy: Yeah of course…
Glen: Cause I wasn’t sure like with The Spoon and everything…
Judy: No. Yeah I mean, he’s totally full of shit, but like I find that really attractive…wait is he a Stephen with a ph or a V?
Glen: Uh, does it matter really?
Judy: (like this is really bad) Oh is he a V Steven? That’s ok…
Glen: No! He’s a ph but…
Judy: Oh really? That’s great. Go you! (GLEN rolls his eyes.) Hey Glen, who’s this Megan girl, is she like one of Ricky’s ex’s or whatever?
Glen: Yeah why?
Judy: Um. Well. I got this like cryptic email from a Megan Reiley who like wants to meet up and talk about I assume Ricky or whatever…
Glen: What?? That’s- let me see-
Judy: (bringing up email) Yeah it was so random I was like, how did this girl get my email and it’s not like Ricky and I are dating or whatever- here…
Megan reading Email: You don’t know me, but I think we should meet before you make a huuuuge mistake…
Glen: Four u’s?
Judy: And look at her signature at the bottom.
Megan reading email: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by. M.
Glen: Robert Frost- oh no…that’s so sad…
Judy: It’s sort of stalker-esque don’t you think?
Glen: She’s definitely a nutjob…
Judy: But is she hot though is the question…
Glen: She’s attractive but…like…her psychosis definitely muddies the waters you know…
JUDY’s phone starts buzzing. She can’t get up cause her computer’s on her lap.
Judy: Little help…
Glen: What?
Judy: Hand me my phone dude I can’t get up-
Glen: (sees it’s RICKY calling) Uh oh.
Judy: (smiling) Ricky! Hey what’s up…um…ice cream and a walk sounds pretty cheesy but great…(laughs) Ok then- I’ll see you there…yup…bye…(GLEN shakes his head.) Shuttup…
Glen: So are you gonna meet crazy Megan or…
Judy: I sort of want to actually but I probably won’t- hey, uh, speaking of nutjobs…should I like not come home tonight- are you and Stephen with a ph gonna have wild b sex everywhere?
Glen: Oh yeah probably- uh…we’re really really intense, no it’s like, really serious… crazy…
Judy: Ahh! You have a partner that’s amazing- come here- (they hug)
Glen: (feigning excitement) Oh stop!
Judy: I’d so much rather have a partner like, you guys can go skiing or whatever, solve mysteries – you’re like the Bobsy twins…ok dude get out I have like 2 seconds to look pretty…
Glen: (leaving her room) What a world…
Judy: (closing the door, shouting) Do you need any condoms?
—————————–
But you always need to strike a balance between adding little improvised snippets and keeping the scene moving. And it’s always dangerous because sometimes things we think are really funny are actually not, too “inside-jokey” etc.
I’m curious what people think, first of all, is this sort of closer examination of duder interesting at all, and also what you think about the direction the show is going…
-matt