Butterfly Effect News Online show

A friends who new comic trying to do a new show we are working on how to format and shoot everything

Sorry bud. Bad sound, worse jokes. Actually the "jokes" are torturously painful, so much so that it's unwatchable.

It's very difficult to do comedy if you're not funny. I would recommend trying standup first, that way you can find what actually works & what doesn't, then after a year of performing regularly you can try & write news parody or sketch comedy.

As for the sound you need to get rid of that room tone, mic your man or boom him. Also hang up some heavy blankets off camera to deaden the sound a bit. Right now it sounds like someone's bedroom.

Run some ads & find real comedy writers. He's got a bit of an onscreen presence, but he needs to tone the mugging down a notch or two, this isn't stage. But you definitely need material. Well written material, then you can work on timing, delivery, etc. Hmm.. the name's weak too. Sorry.

The intro visuals seem a bit dated, the titling after that when we see the announcer doesn't look like news. Watch some real news, copy the style of their graphics. Lose the coffee cup & whatever that other thing is, & get rid of the national geographic map on the wall, green screen the back or keyframe out that pale green wall then put up some fancy news style graphics in post. Big revolving world is usually a news staple. Your PIP shots work ok, but we need jokes. There's another style of comedy where it's so bad that it's actually good. Personally I don't really care for this style of comedy, but the worst movie of all time (The Room) now has a huge cult following.

If you want to go this route, what I would do is run a stock-ticker news reader across the bottom that's attacking the show. Saying stuff like, "Sorry folks the comedy writers didn't show up. We didn't have the heart to tell this guy he's not funny. Honestly, why is he wearing a black shirt? What newsman wears a black shirt? If you think this is lame, imagine my job running the stock ticker news reader thingy, I have to type all this while listening to him. AND my mom checks my spelling. You know he stole that map from school. They're still looking for it... Hey is that my coffee mug? Son of a .. OWWW... mom just slapped me. Hey.. guess what, I'm watching something else on another channel."





but thanks for sharing

Invest in a a H4N Zoom it'll really boost up your sound quality

New one
I'm gonna look into the H4N


About the jokes not being funny one it's subjective and 2 not my part of the job. I can't control the content the talent needs to work on that. I didn't find that as bad as you did

Sure, comedy is somewhat subjective, but certain comedy shows are popular, they appeal to a lot of people. Their jokes have a broader appeal. I promise you from all my years in the business, this show, with these jokes, isn't one of those. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but that's the reality. I won't bore you with my comedy credentials, but look at your demographic, the age group of your leading man. Then watch some of the comedy that draws a huge crowd from that demographic, like the material of Daniel Tosh, either his Tosh.0 show or preferably his previous standup shows. Learning how to craft a joke, so it's not obvious, the audience isn't as stupid as we think. Clever wordplay goes a long way in comedy.

But content aside ... well, it's never really completely aside, content is king. If you don't start with material people want to see, I don't care how good the visuals are, it will never fly. If you're working on a project, your name, your future is all invested, the content has value to you, help them develop it.

Now, your visuals & audio, bump em up. You don't need to spend a lot of money. FCPX can remove that room tone. Key out that green wall, step it up, make it interesting. Your titles are as bad as the jokes. There are a ton of guys on here sharing amazing titles, free. Plus FCPX comes packed with many more. If it's going to be a news show, why not make it look like a news show?

That's what The Daily Show does, also SNL Weekend Update. But at their core, the success & tremendous appeal of those shows, begins with the writing. I would love to see you do well, really.

That[s not reality, that’s personal opinion. There’s a difference. There are people who disagree with said opinion on the jokes. How about we get off the subjective stuff like talent whether people like it the jokes or not and we can constructively go over things less subjective to improve. You not finding the jokes funny is not really much can be done about that. Again I think some of the jokes were good some were meh.. some fell flat. But the same thing happens when I watch weekend update not every joke is a gem


True the visuals can look more professional True we don't have the budget of the daily show but we can sure do some better background and titles and what not

What we're discussing is production. From pen to screen. My comments are on pre-production all the way to post, even promo.

If someone wants to make something that appeals to his friends, family & a few followers on youtube, great. But some here intend to strike it big, that's why we talk about demographics & large audiences. Ratings & box office results aren't subjective, they're reality. The kind of reality that can make or break a career. Some people will let reality's cold slap in the face alter their direction, other's won't. If someone wants to stubbornly argue against the science & solid statistics of box office bows & viewer ratings, I guarantee their run in this business will be very short.

The comedy shows I mentioned, all began small, with just a guy in a room with a pen & paper. That's why I urge people to check the early standup material of those comics. They all had it then. Now they have a team of writers, yes, & maybe not all the jokes make you laugh, but a higher percentage do. That's why the shows draw huge audiences, people want to laugh.

Whether comedy, drama, romance, action, or whatever, it all begins with the content. If we're not presenting something interesting, I don't care how many light leaks & lens flares you cram into it, people will click to the next channel.

However I am not responsible for the content so critiquing the content doesn't help me in anyway. I have no input in that part of the show so regardless of whether I agreed or not with said opinion don't have much power to change it.


So I don't concern myself with such issues. Now if you are discussing a way we can position him or backgrounds or whatever to make the jokes go over better I can deal with. But whether the jokes are funny are not is a relative term that I can't change

If I can get everything great but the content is weak I've done my job. Hopefully some will disagree about the content and might enjoy it

Well, perhaps if you re-read what I wrote you will find plenty of "technical" comments too.

But if you care about the art-form & your future in it, you will find a way to influence the content... make friends, suggest writers, ideas, etc.

If you just want to do it as a hobby, then fine, have fun.
But if you're serious & want to make a success from this business, then you would be wise to work on quality projects.

Someone in the industry told me many years ago, "It's better to have a very small part in something great than to have a large part in something bad."

If you can't tell the difference, or just want to argue, well... it will never be much more than a hobby.

Either way, as they said in the Indiana Jones movie... choose wisely.