Liking the sound of these E4 videotones a lot - even though I'm not completely certain what one of them is or looks like... I'll have to have a hunt round on the old t'internet for some samples...

I'm thinking it's probabaly like having a snippet of Big Brother's Princess Nikki on your phone, and every time you got a call, instead of a ring, you'd get her popping up sitting in the diary room chair saying, "Who is she?"... That kind of thing, I guess...

Should be fun, though - good luck to all who have a crack at it...

And I might as well stick this here as a little aside, rahter than starting a new thread:

Haven't seen PlatinumJo on here for a while...

What of the New Magazine etc??... The world needs another Online Sitcom!!... I'm not sure if anything is going to get going via the Forum, in all seriousness - but I still think it's a fantastic idea... In fact, it'd be an ideal second WOO for Baby Cow - if they got it going under their umbrella, like a 'Where Are The Joneses?' sequel exclusively made by 4Laughs contributors, we'd be well away... I'm hopeful...

hey seth, yep have been quiet for a while...i'm still here though, just took some time out to mull various things over. have still got all the original enthusiasm but still not sure how to go about getting everything together. i love the idea of a joint project with lots of 4laughers but it's hard to discuss things properly. lots of people have shown interest though which is a great start. i've been working on some audio stuff as we have a community radio station that's looking for shows...thought it could be fun. def still want to do the online sitcom as well...ok need to think this through...need a flipchart and some marker pens....highlighters....maybe make a piechart...

Make a pie instead and I am in Jo

Benkins

Did someone mention pie?
Drat this diet!

Hello...

I think the enthusiasm is definitely here - people are really keen to have something to get their teeth into... Something meaty... But it is the logistics of it that are the stumbling block...

That's why it really needs a solid 'producer'/'producers' working their magic to get the ball rolling... Particularly for a filmed endeavour, which is far harder to organise...

Audio is a different matter - and may well be the way to go for now... I like the sound of that - we could definitely all pull together something along the lines of what 4Laughs users 'Waiting For Death' have been doing, or even try for an audio 'sitcom'... And get a decent podcast series in circulation... Could be fun, I think...

I have instantainiously (is that spelt right?) fallen in love with the audio sit-com idea. If there was somebody willing to be 'Chief Editor' then use of different 'houses' in the street from each submission could be strong together, cut about, logically or otherwise!
Once the characters/houses were established then the intermingling of characters via collaboration would be a breeze (emailing attached audio files of characters, for insertion of responses from other characters etc... many ways to do this, but it could all be polished in the final edit... perhaps a little time consuming depending on peoples abilities, commitment, etc, but I'm sure the time element would improve, and chief editor would just need to set a cut-off point for storyline... making some episodes longer than others perhaps, but I think initially just getting ideas out there and people collaborating etc would be the main drive... as I said it would be a work in progress, most audio creations are... this is a really long bracket!) in comparison to video (needing to be in same location to film together).
I am very excited! We have to get this going, I think this is the way forward, podcasts are a great stepping stone. Other creations would follow... Radio, Television, Film, Sweatshirts, Lunchboxes, Character-based Lollipops... the world is our lobster!

That's exactly right - podcasts are a fantastic showcase these days, and are picking up steam all the time...

Once the framework of who the characters are going to be and the kind of stories and situations they're going to get into are established, it would be pretty simple for everyone to record their own material and email it off to a central person(s)... Even all the appropriate sound effects and music etc. could all be added at that stage in the final edit, too - the key thing would be getting a fun voice performance down from everyone who wants to take part... That would work out nicely...

I'm liking it... Time to formulate some ideas... Now where's that whiteboard/piechart...

Will you stop going on about pies - some of us are on a diet!

Okay... We'll just make do with a classic blackboard and chalk then - the fumes off these marker pens are doing no one any favours anyway...

brilliant we've collectively come up with something pretty promising here. audio is definitely a format that will allow us to produce something as a group. i'm going to start thinking up some ideas along these lines. it's actually quite exciting because it's so simple to achieve. wonderful...pats on backs all around...

Just a word of caution. Yep, if it's a sketch project then you'll have no worry about plots but if it's a sitcom then you really need strong plot and subplot.

That means the boring and time consuming hammering out of threads first. The scenes would then be farmed out to the writers as and where their characters / units / houses were needed. But if we start down that path without an agreed plot(s), we'll just have a sketch show that seems 'connected' but without the emotional and dramatic tug of a real sitcom.

That's right - the planning out of the project is absolutely crucial...

In terms of the actual writing of the thing, I saw it more as a 'Four Rooms' type piece (if anyone's seen that) - which was a collaboration between four directors, who all wrote their own essentially short films set in hotel rooms, which were all connected by the character of Ted The Bellboy... It was a great experiment and paid off nicely, in many ways...

So that could be one avenue to explore - we'd really be looking for a connecting setting where events can take place, or a floating character who can interact in any given situation... Which should ultimately retain the core goal of allowing as many people to get involved as possible and jump in and out as they wish...

I know nothing about audio or video or how all that technafolgical stuff works, so I am probably talking out of my rear (slightly smaller these days but still huge) How about having a number of people in a Lottery Syndicate, (work mates or relitives?)They could be linked to each other by the money, (half a milion each) but have a seperate story of the way they spend their cash, they would be easy to put together although not linked, and everyone has different dreams of how to spend their winnings so you could use your own dreams and expectations....
You have a start for the story in the way they each react to the winning, then the slow realisation of what has happened to them, then the stories of the cars the houses, the pretty woman shopping experience, and the begging letters and sudden appearence of long lost relitives etc, etc, etc.....

I may not know about the technical bits but I am more than willing to help with any writing required.

Ok I'll go now just an idea I had in my head... best of luck with what ever you come up with...

Too ease up on the logistics we could make up a podcast about podcasts..(bear with me here)

In the old days when you 'twiddled the dial' on a radio you scrolled through all manner of programs.

We could simply have one main 'godlike' character who is simply clicking through different podcasts trying to find something in particular...

So one week he could be looking for podcasts on the subject of 'religion' or 'bats' or anything really and the show would be made up of whatever the users could come up with on that theme. It allows people to do short sketches, long 'bits' recurring bits and will fit all manner of styles.

If no one wants to do this I might have a bash myself...

Again, I really like these ideas... of the syndicate, or god podcast hopping ('God cast Podcasts' might be a nice name), but again, I think its a case of getting it started and go from there... if one idea doesn't work then atleast the people will be in place to steer it in its new direction. I don't want to be part of an unorganized rabble, but one of these ideas needs to get off the ground... and at the moment I can contribute ideas and audios etc, but I can't dedicate myself in terms of editting (So I'm all talk and no trousers).

The Lottery idea has some nice angels to explore... For some it works out, for others it's an albatross etc... And either makes them or breaks them...

Or the 'Godcasts' has a lot of versatility, too... With the given theme running each episode...

My own idea for the pot, would be a spoof 'Sports Radio' service - full of commentaries of wacky, pointless sports... Or interviews with weird sports stars etc... Could be an interesting one...

I guess we'll have to have a poll when a few more have had a chance to chip in with their own suggestions...

QUOTE]Originally posted by Seth Gecko:
The Lottery idea has some nice angels to explore... [/QUOTE]

Nice angels...

Well that's embarrassing - should be ANGLES...

Not angels...

And just time-frame wise... Maybe we should use this week, up to Sunday, for the idea posting - then hit the Polls 'Super Tuesday' style, err, next Monday...

Mmm, toupee, Monday/Tuesday - you been on the sauce Seth?

I have been having some typing trouble the last two nights...

It's strange when you read your own stuff back - the mistakes aren't always immediately noticeable... Just tiredness, I guess...

there are some good ideas for the sitcom here. i like the 'god casts podcasts' idea but it removes the sitcom element and makes it more of a sketch show (which is obviously an option). i think a possible route is having a group of people who are forced to meet up regularly for one reason or another such as with the lottery syndicate thing (good idea too). i thought maybe some sort of group such as AA or another self-help thing. maybe people coping with being abandoned by their partners? or just people who always get on the same bus or drink at the same pub. just a senario where unlikely people, who aren't friends, are shoved together. a neighbourhood watch group could work too, perhaps they are the only residents in a one street hamlet. then each episode either focuses primarly on one character (different each week), or everyone gets an equal chunk...and just talks about events since they last met or something.

ALSO i don't think we need a strong plot because we're not going down the heavily scripted sitcom route. each individual scripts their own piece. it's really just about loosely tying things together so that it's a character comedy rather than just sketches. i still like comedy to be pretty random and free. i don't think we should get bogged down in sitcom-plot hell.