Raise 'em high

Raise 'em high
Originally uploaded by JCriquet.

So long, MAPS 2006. Love to you all.

The podcast's last hoorah...

The Suit Up! podcast was a fun, experimental part of the Suit Up! project. I first heard about podcasts on an episode of ABC Radio National's Background Briefing, but, like so many people, it wasn't until the release of iTunes 4.9 that I actually started listening to them. The grass-roots nature of podcasting, the way it put power in the hands of people, and the way it was free from censorship was just... electric. I had a few early favorites, including The Dawn And Drew Show and Geek Speak Radio.

When the Suit Up! project began, I got excited: here at last was something possibly worth podcasting about. I had the facilities to record myself at my disposal at school, and had lots of stuff going on to discuss. But despite my enthusiasm, podcasting and me just didn't work out. For one, I'm dull; I'm not well-suited to talking to no-one, as I just end up running off at the mouth and making stupid comments that beg to be edited out, but never will be because I'm no sound editor.

Secondly, it can get exhausting, not to mention pointless, blogging about every bit of your project and then regurgitating it for your podcast. It does nothing for you, and it's just tacky.

Thirdly, and this remained the main reason there are no more podcasts, I had no online server space to which I could upload my podcasts as soon as they were recorded; they'd either hang around til I found a way to get it up online, or they'd have to be compressed to ridiculous quality levels to fit on my measly 10MB Optus webspace. You really need server space to make a successful podcast; it's the best way to set up a good RSS feed, crucial to the subscription model that makes podcasts different from downloadable sound-files. It's that RSS feed that makes it possible for iTunes or iPodderX or whatever podcatcher you use to retrieve new episodes once they become available.

I just found the never-before-released fourth enstallment of the podcast. I still don't have any server space to make a dedicated and clean link, but I've uploaded it to MediaFire: SUPodcast004. Enjoy my rambling one last time, because I don't plan on making more of these anytime soon. I'm also taking down the link to the podcast feed, even though I do love that icon. Anyways, it's all about video-blogging now.

My kingdom for a website... well, not my kingdom, obviously.

I was looking at the recent traffic statistics for both this blog and Suit Up!'s website. Both have gone up a bit since last week, so hey to all you newcomers. Sorry that there's not much to look at on the ol' website at the moment. I can't honestly say when something will be up, but it's on my mind all the time. It just something that we didn't cover enough this year. I asked a mate of mine who works in this field if he could make a website for me. He said he could do it for $1000, mates rates. I lol'd.

I've been toying with the idea of just making a website based on a Blogger template. It's not such a crazy idea, really. I could have multiple pages. Link to whatever I want. I could easily update it. I'm yet to think about it fully, but it's an idea that I'm kicking around. If anyone has some advice on this matter, I'd love to hear it.

The Army Of The Five Monkeys

The Army Of The Five Monkeys
Originally uploaded by JCriquet.

We did it!

The DVDs have landed!

They're here! The DVDs have arrived, and for the most part, they're looking lovely. Everyone's stuff is looking pretty schmick, from what I've seen; I've only snared myself a copy of Adam's Me And My Friends and Stan's Adelaide's St Peter's Cathedral and Let Me Tell You About It but they're both professional efforts. Mine are not right though, which sucks: the printers have not printed the discs properly, leaving a large circle and DVD logo where there should not be either. I know where the mistake has been made, but it's not my mistake, and I'm a wee bit incensed. Nevertheless, everything else about them seems cool. I'd take them back, but then I wouldn't have anything to give my lovely cast tonight.

Tonight? Why, haven't you heard? It's the screening tonight!
7pm, Friday, 1 December
Marion Cultural Centre
287 Diagonal Rd
Oaklands Park, SA
FREE ENTRY!

Hope to see anyone and everyone there!

Bottom's Up!

Go see Suit Up!'s very own Guy O'Grady (Harris) when he treads the boards next week in Urban Myth's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The show runs from the 7th til the 9th of December; it's a short run but it should be fun!

Where: The Unley Village Green. Oxford Tce, Unley.
When: 7th, 8th and 9th December
Time: 6pm for pre-show entertainment, BBQ, stalls etc. This event is FREE.
8pm for A Midsummer Night's Dream
Price: $20 adults, $12 Concession. Various family tickets are also available. Call BASS on 131246 for further details. Tickets need to be purchased through BASS. Limited seating is available as picnic areas, so get in quick if you would like to book one of those.

Catch up...

I've been catching up on a bit of Rocketboom. I was so behind on my viewing, but now I'm only a month behind. :\ There were some particularly good episodes, so I'm glad that I went back and covered them.

I went to see Mario Spate's band play the other night, but sadly missed them - again! I did however buy their CD, and it's really great, so look out for it: "Empty Out Your Heart" by The Black Doves.

Trav Nash's side-project Robots Kill Children also played that night, and were also missed by me. By all accounts it was a mind-exploding sensory overload of completely unrehearsed choons and ad-libbed acoustics. I'll have to catch the next one.

And it was a couple of weeks ago now, but Lynda Ferguson should be congratulated on her fantastic work in Pastiche, a play that was part of the Feast Festival. I saw the opening night performance, and Lynda was so good. Congrats, Lynda; hope the rest of the run went well!

A Fistful of MAPS...

The screening is almost upon us, and with it comes our gorgeous poster! The graphic is shamelessly plundered from the original Italian poster for per un Pugno di Dollari so ssssshhutuuuup!

And MAPS is over! Much to tell, but I must now go to bed. More tomorrow, hopefully.

Thanks to Alan for starting the poster. He started, I finished. We stole.

Life Goggles | 4 easy steps to getting your videos online

Here's a great blog post that compares four different online video sites with regard to their sign-up process, uploading time and other factors. This is an interesting experiment, and one that I would like to see extended to other sites like Revver and blip.tv.

At this stage I would like to make Suit Up! available to as many sites as possible - I just want it to be seen. Even so, I have often wondered which offers the best quality - the LonelyGirl15 videos, hosted by Revver, look really great - not to mention the best exposure. We shall see!

Commentary recording (Sorry, Trav!)

I've been so busy the last little that I've barely blogged a single thing. That's why it's taken me a couple of days to get this pic up from our cast commentary recording on Tuesday night. Apologies to Trav Nash - I should've taken one more pic! :D Despite every recording issue under the sun, the commentary was lots of fun. Sadly, the levels were very very low, and the sound quality isn't as pristine as we like, but hey, in the end it's the content that counts, and my bad jokes are outweighed by the gold offered up by Nash, Guy and Lynda.

I am so excrutiatingly busy at the moment. The DVDs are due tomorrow afternoon. We're getting assessed next week. I'm working on two non-MAPS thingys to boot. It just never stops! It's almost over, but then again, I don't want it to end. :(

Nashember...

Trav Nash, Suit Up!'s most mischievous monkey has just posted a pile of dates for upcoming shows on his blog, The Unstoppable Zombie Corpse Of Trav Nash

"November 17th TRAV NASH new show DIESPACE
@ Rhino Room doors open @ 8pm and it's $10 @ the door

November 22nd TRAV NASH hosts RHINO ROOM
woooo!!!! doors open 8pm and $8.00 entry!

I know what your thinking thats a lot of Nash...how can I get more!
WELL!

November 25th SUPER SHOW with
Colonel Kernel, Dr El Suavo and Robots Kill Children
with Dj Zoo Keeper!
@ Rhino Room Doors open 9pm with $10 door entering fee!

WOW! yay talk about NASHember!"

Get along to the shows to support Trav's various vices!

Belittling...

Even before belittle league's excellent track "Rock And Roll Ombudsman" became the opening theme for Suit Up! it was used in the above film, The Headache, by fellow Adelaide Kino-ite, Kate George. This was revealed to me last night when I saw Kate and Justin at the gig. It was fantastic to catch belittle league again after so long. It also gave me the chance to square away a bit of film-making beauracracy; thank goodness that's out of the way. Morgan is an absolute gentleman; in addition to being completely cooperative with regard to my using his music, he also gave me a free CD! Thanks, Morgan!

Once that gig was done, I dashed to the Grace to catch Illicit Eve, but sadly only caught their last two tracks. Next time, next time. I did pick up some sexy new merch, though. Cool beans.

There is exactly one week left to get all things done for Suit Up!, including the DVD. Commentaries are happening this Tuesday! Menus are being drawn up as we speak! It's going to be hell, but we'll see how we go. Wish me much luck!

Illicit Eve or Belittle League... You Decide!

There're a couple of Suit Up! related gigs coming up, on the same night, no less. Illicit Eve, featuring our very own Emily Smart will be making their triumphant post touring return to the Grace Emily, Waymouth St, Adelaide. They'll be playing with Rejusa, flogging their new t-shirts and generally being rocktastic.

At the same time, just a couple of blocks to the south, Belittle League will be shaking his booty for the masses in support of Home For The Def at The Prince Albert, Wright St, Adelaide. Belittle League is responsible for all the music that's heard in Suit Up!, including the wondrous squelching opening track, "Rock And Roll Ombudsman".

Both these awesome gigs will be happening this Thursday, November 2nd 2006 from 9pm. Get along and rock out!

SUITUPtv.com

Our proper website is still under construction, and it'll be a few weeks yet before anything really cool is up there. You can visit there if you want, though, and maybe bookmark it for future reference. :)

SUITUPtv.com

Jump in...

Well it's been a lovely and relaxing holiday. I just hope I'm ready for the next two months, which are sure to be blisteringly busy. I have secured myself a bit of work experience, which should be fantastic, but might get in the way of the end of my work on Suit Up! This project is so important to me. I'll do the best juggling I can to get things done on time.

Do you all know about the end of year screening? Whatever else happens, you'll get to see Suit Up! there, and on the big screen no less!

ADVANCED MAPS 2006 SCREENING
7pm, Friday December 1st
Marion Cultural Centre
287 Diagonal Rd, Oaklands Park
South Australia

Hope to see you there!

Jeff Pulver and Network 2.0

Welcome to to the future of TV on the Internet. Let Network2 be your guide to tv shows only available on the Internet.

I've been watching quite a bit of Internet video in the last couple of days. It probably would've been to my benefit to have better researched what was already out there in terms of applying a model to how things would turn out. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure we'll still be fine. But there really is a lot of cool stuff out there.

My hot favourite at the moment has to be Cerealized, a genuinely funny 24-part series about three flatmates and three breakfast table bickering. I've seen four episodes: all good. The show started in October last year, and seems to be on hiatus at the moment. I've still got plenty more to see, though, so it's cool.

I've been watching them on Network 2.0, an off-shoot of pulver.com that is a directory of Internet-only shows. Since Jeff Pulver mentioned me (and Suit Up!) on his blog the other day, we've had a bit of a discourse about Internet TV, and he's let me preview some of the stuff they have in store for Network 2.0.

Here's the Network 2.0 definition of Internet TV:

An Internet only TV Show should be a source of video content that is orginial, consistently updated, and entertaining. It should not be alternate viewing or portions of broadcast content, an aggregation of user submitted, user generated, or viral video with minimal original contribution, or purely personal vlog with a dearth of general interest or entertaining material.

I think Suit Up! makes the grade in this regard, but we're also going to have to set up a dedicated RSS feed. Easy enough with the feed, but as I've mentioned before, it's the hosting that I think's going to be the tricky part.

Further reading:
Jeff Pulver being interviewed on Rocketboom.

The Australian: Live narrative short films aren't so diverse.

Creativity bypass | The Arts | The Australian

SHORT films aren't dying, only their relevance is. As Hollywood studios increasingly look towards the flashiest talent from the hottest new media -- the Zeitgeist-hitting, video-dominating YouTube or MySpace, for example -- the competent work of a film school graduate just doesn't look sexy any more.

Digital film-making has liberated the creative community and given it access to a medium once viewed as prohibitively expensive to work with. The internet has added accessibility to that low cost; but while the volume of such short films and videos has increased, they haven't exactly added to the greater good.

I don't think Adelaide Punk, for example, will have any problems setting itself apart from the mainstream, but I agree with a lot that is said in this article. I wouldn't say, though, that M.A.P.S. as an educational institution necessarily "encourage(s) social realism" as a rule.

somethingtobedesired.com and other Internet shows

somethingtobedesired.com - An Unpredictable Web Series
I only heard about this show from the aforementioned BizPodcasting article, but this show is pretty darn cool, and they've been doing the Internet series thang a whole lot longer than I have.

I've only watched two episodes thus far, but I must say that I am impressed. What I like best about this show is that it's made entirely in Pittsburgh by people who are passionate about the city and the community they live in. The show is set in a community radio station, and as such they play lots of local Pittsburgh content. This was one of the things I wanted to do with my project this year: give exposure to local Adelaide musicians. As it turned out, only one or two of them are actually going to get exposure. Maybe next time, eh?

Anyways, I think it's fantastic what they are doing for their city with this show. And it looks like they have a lot of fun doing it. I look forward to watching more, and possibly getting some ideas for some Adelaide-centric material.

Now that I'm on holidays, I might get a chance to watch some of the other shows mentioned last month on The Jeff Pulver Blog (and here). In the last month, I've been watching lots of Ze Frank (which is excellent), lonelygirl15, and Rocketboom of course. Amanda Congdon has just started her new vlog, AmandaAcrossAmerica. It's only five weeks long, I'd better get started. But yeah, these people don't need my help, and neither do you! Get out there and start watching Internet video!

Holiday fun...

It's holidays again for the Suit Up! team, and as such, it's time for Holiday Projects Mk II!

As far as Suit Up! is concerned, well... that's my main priority. I've got to draw up and design some DVD menus, design the website (with a nice, unifying theme, of course) and get that sucker up there on the web. Time I started making calls to people with tech know-how.

I'm also planning to go through the Suit Up! dailies and pick out the footage I want to use for our special features. It'll be fun to revisit, but I'm dreading finding "that one bit of footage we were looking for," etc.

Another thing that I want to do in the next couple of weeks is get my cast together so that we can sit down to watch the finished series. I'm a bit apprehensive about it, though. I have no idea how they're going to react. Nerves, yikes. The Internet's a big place.

Suit Up! gets a mention on BizPodcasting

I'm going to have to go all unprofessional here, because I've just found a mention of Suit Up! on another blog, one that I have had nothing to do with prior to this; BizPodcasting.com is a blog/podcast that serves as "a discussion about corporate and business podcasting with tips and guidelines". I found the post using Google's Blog Search tool.

Blogger/podcaster Jon Watson writes (13 Sept. 2006):

Suit Up! is an Internet television program out of Australia that's almost ready. The show is in "fine fine editing" stage and given that the most recent blog posts deal with issues with the end credits, it sounds pretty close to me.

Shows made specifically for Internet distribution aren't exactly common these days, but they're gaining steam. I'm not speaking of the Rocketbooms and Ask a Ninjas of the world, rather the full-length serieses (serieses?) that are able to give any main stream tv show a run for its money.

Thanks, Jon, for your kind words. I'm flattered to think that Suit Up! might "give any main stream tv show a run for its money," but I don't think we're quite aiming to do that here. And we're probably not "at that level", though we are certainly awesome. :D

For one, we're film-school students making this on a very low budget. We've gots the skills, sure, but things might turn out a bit less polished than other productions. Secondly, our format, episode length and delivery are different; our episodes are short, ranging from 2 to 4 minutes in length, much like Rocketboom. There will be six of them, released one-by-one over a six week period. At this stage, once that's over, that's it, but I do hope that in future we could make more episodes, provided the cast and crew are still interested. Thirdly, we're targeting a different audience. The show is rich with internet and pop-culture references that may pare down our viewer base. It's my hope, though, that those that do get the show will like it a lot.

I will have to put together a "What is Suit Up! page to go in the sidebar: I'll get to that in the next few days. In any case, thanks to Jon, and hello to anyone else reading out there who I haven't met personally: don't be afraid to say hi!