2nd year collaborative project

[PGoomba]

Hi all

I was wondering how many folk would be interested in doing a collaborative project with me for one of my university units.
My initial proposal for the project is as follows, though I'm more than happy to discuss alternative products:

Produce a Knightmare parody video, unlike the ones seen on Youtube at the mo. I'm thinking something along the lines of using KM footage, but as a set of stills similar to the animation you see in Monty Python. Voiceover could be used for dungeoneer and the team. I'm sure there's plenty of things we could do to mock the incompetence, dim-wittery and attitude of some of the contestants. At the moment there would be room for a script writer + other dialogue and idea contributions, director, editor, animator, sound editor. My area of expertise is video-editing, with a bit of colour-correcting, sound editing and after effects animation and very small amount of Photoshop. If I were to do this at home, I have Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop and Soundbooth, all on Windows. If I were to do this at Uni, I'd be using the Final Cut Studio bundle on MAC.

Now more about my study and the unit requirements:
I'm studying Digital Film & Video at London South Bank University right now (50% film theory, 50% film creation course). The unit is only a semester long (the write-up for it has to be in on 10th December). I know that might not seem like much time, but I don't actually need to come up with an end product and even if I do, it will only be used as an appendix as far as the unit is concerned, though I'll be more than happy to finish the product and output it. What's REALLY important is that I show evidence and do a write-up on the whole collaboration process. So in other words, lot's of discussion about the product and really getting stuck into the whole process of making it. My unit co-ordinator for this project is only 50/50 on my proposal at the moment, as he is unsure that using a 'community' will work, so I really need people who are genuinely interested in helping. The only thing I think I can really offer for your services is credit on the final product, but it could be a really fun project.

If anyone's interested, please reply to this post and we'll take it from there.

Many Thanks
Paul

[BBrooks(KM Forever)]

Hi Paul,
I love the idea,a Knightmare parody would be great. There's been a lot of really great and funny stuff on here (check out Jester's Corner) over the years that you could get ideas from.
I would certainly like to help out with some of the visual gags and the dialogue,if you reply to this post by giving me a few ideas to work on (i.e which room is the scene set in or which character's are in it) and I'll go off and try and come up with something that's funny.
Then i can post it on here and see what everybody else thinks of it (Hopefully they'll laugh ) and then we can get a discussion going where everybody can brainstorm loads of ideas (which will probably be funnier than mine,......or not ).
I would just like to point out that;
There might be some Copyright issues with using KM Clips or stills from the original series in the project so you might want to check up on that. If that's fine then the Monty Python idea would be brilliant (The Dungeoneer has just conquered the Final Floor Puzzle and as he's collecting the Quest Object the Giant Foot comes down and (SPLAT) Ooohhh Nasty) or you could speed the footage up and do something like The Goodies.

I look forward to a reply.
Good Luck with the Project.

[PGoomba]

Thanks for the reply BBrooks

I would have replied sooner but obviously the board was down for the weekend. I've had a think about a few ideas and some dialogue so let me run some of this stuff past you
I think maybe doing a shortened version of a whole episode, probably without the intro sequence mainly because I can't think of anything to do with that at the moment.
One scene could include the dungeoneer walking into a bomb room. The team start to talk about the room and they get a bit caught up in the asthaetics of the place - "You're in a bomb room. There's one exit ahead of you. The floor consists of nice grey tiles that would like great in my kitchen........" and so on and so on (I'm imagining a Scouse and a Welshman as two of the advisers for some reason). Eventually, the dungeoneer says "erm.....you said something about a bomb". The guys then quickly rush to get him out of there - "oh yeah, erm..........LEG IT!!!!". We could then follow it up with a half time show of sorts. Maybe as the dungeoneer leaves the bomb room, one of the jesters (lets say motley) runs in from another door and treats us to some of his usual joviality. However, he is blissfully unaware until the last second that the fuse is wearing out - BOOOOOM!
Could have a wall monster riddle session - with extra tough questions which leave the team thinking WTF?!!! The team then get punished Mortal Kombat style in the next room for getting maybe only 1 question right (and they probably got a lucky guess on that one). I'd say the dungeoneer gets dicapitated by a giant swinging pendulum axe thingy, with blood flying everywhere.
One scene could have a team end up in Merlin's room. The old geezer starts jabbering on for ages and a message comes up saying something like "if you want to take a coffee break, go right ahead coz this is gonna take a while". Maybe Merlin could give the player some bizarre spell, like 'FART'' or something.
As far as style and themes go, I mentioned before about Monty Python, but for comedy style also check out Metal Gear Awesome http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/297383 and Jimboloony http://www.youtube.com//jimboloony321. Better switch on that profanity filter though. lol

That's the ideas I've got for the moment. I've gotta say, I'm quite enjoying the prospect of doing this, but for my unit co-ordinator to accept this collaboration, I think we'd definetely need more collaborators. I can do some animated effects and movement of characters in After Effects, but as for lifting some of the chracters from still shots from the show, I think a specialist in Photoshop would definetely come in handy here. So please, if anyone is interested by all means chip in. It's looking pretty good on paper at the mo.

Thanks
Paul

[PGoomba]

BTW, as far as Copyright is concerned, we could probably get away with 'fair use' if it was taken from the master copies; however, any footage will probably be ripped from whatever's on youtube, which would have been ripped from a TV showing, so it might be contentious but what can we do? We've got no original master footage.

[BBrooks(KM Forever)]

I'll see what I can do, give me about a week and I'll post it back on here and see what you think.

BTW I mentioned The Goodies in my last post, if you haven't seen the show before then I suggest you do because if you ever want any inspiration on how to do a parody then The Goodies is the show to watch. The show was about an agency of three men (consisting of Tim Brooke-Taylor,Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie) who do Anything, Anywhere, Anytime and it was huge in the 70's and early 80's. In the first three series the plot mainly consisted of somebody arriving at The Goodies office to give them an assignment to do, but after series 3 The Goodies started to have their own adventures, and this was when the series really took off. The Goodies was kind of a live action cartoon with speeded up footage and very funny visual slapstick gags strongly reminiscent of the silent movie era, this combined with surreal comedy plots and wiity dialogue equals some of the funniest half-hour episodes ever seen on television.
Any movie/TV show/Fad or piece of news(i.e the punk movement or the Martial Arts craze) that was popular at the time was more than likely parodied on The Goodies .

For example;
The episode "Radio Goodies" came about when pirate radio stations were all in the news.
The best known episode "Kitten Kong" came about from all of the Monster movies that were around at the time.
and the episode "Kung Fu Caper's" came from the Martial Arts Craze of the seventies.

It's inspired comedy lunacy which influenced other acts and comedies such as The League of Gentleman, Reeves and Mortimer and The Mighty Boosh.
Check out some of the clips on YouTube there's also some complete episodes on there too. The Theme Tune is very catchy and once you've heard it, it's very hard to get out of your head (well... it is for me anyway ) so you have been warned.

You could certainly get some inspiration from this Legendary Trio particularly for the visual gags.

If you could post anymore ideas then that would be great.

Cheers.

[PGoomba]

Thanks for the suggestions BBrooks. For the moment I'm going to have to go with another project for collaboration as no one else has been forthcoming with this one thus far. I know from previous discussions with my unit co-ordinator that he would not accept the collaboration as it is right now.
However, I don't intend for this thing to just die as I think an animated Knightmare parody has real potential. Obviously, I cannot prioritise this project at the moment but I'll post back when I can with more stuff (Iand I promise to watch some of the goodies stuff).

Thanks

[Mashibinbin]

Whilst I'd have loved to have been involved living on the on the 'posh side' of the River Mersey and could have fulfilled your Scousual obligations I wouldn't have been able to justify the travelling costs down to you unfortunately hence not showing interest. Sorry.

[PGoomba]

if a group of voice actors could get together, that would obviously be ideal. However, although a little difficult, any voice work could be scripted, recorded separately and then synced together.

Thanks anyway. I'm sure we'll find a way around it.

[BBrooks(KM Forever)]

Paul,
This is one of the first one's I've finished, there's another sketch that I've nearly completed which I will post on here in a couple more days.
Please comment on what you think about it (this includes everybody else as well), so we can get a huge brainstorm going and get loads of ideas for this project.

[BBrooks(KM Forever)]

Paul,
This is one of the first one's I've finished, there's another sketch that I've nearly completed which I will post on here in a couple more days.
Please comment on what you think about it (this includes everybody else as well), so we can get a huge brainstorm going and get loads of ideas for this project.

The Dungeoneer walks into the Bomb Room.

Dungeoneer- Where am I?
Advisor 1- You're in a brightly coloured room, the exit door is opposite you on the other side.
Advisor 2- Yeah, there's also some colourful floor-tiles (pause), Here there nice they would look brilliant on my kitchen floor they would.
Advisor 1- What them?
Advisor 2- Yeah.
Advisor 1- (pauses thoughtfully) Mmmmm you're right they are good, I wouldn't have them in my kitchen though.
Advisor 2- No.
Advisor 1- No they would be a lot better in the Bathroom, they would be a perfect match for the wallpa.....

(The fuse on the Bomb ignites, and is starting to burn down)

Treguard- Warning Teams, a hastey exit is needed if you are to survive this room.
Dungeoneer- What the hells that hissing noise?
Advisor 3- Oh don't worry that's just the huge Blackcurrant in the corner.
Dungeoneer- What!
Advisor 3- The huge Blackcurrant.
Dungeoneer- Call me Mr.Non Believer but I don't think you'd find a huge Blackcurrant in a Dungeon.
Advisor 3- I'm telling you it's a huge Blackcurrant, with a giant stalk on it, that's just caught fire.
Dungeoneer- Tell me, does this stalk look like a fuse?
Advisor 3- Well it's on the Fusey side, Yeah.
Dungeoneer- And is the flame reaching closer and closer to the Blackcurrant?
Advisor 3- Well....Yeah.
Dungeoneer- And lastly, does it have the words "BOMB" written on it in huge white letters along the side of it.
Advisor 3- Er...Yeah...How do you know that?
Dungeoneer- (sighs) Do I need to explain.

(All the Advisor's think for a second)

All Advisors- Aaaaaaahhhhh!
Advisor 1- Fucking Hell, LEG IT!

(The Dungeoneer run's across the Bomb Room and through the exit door at the opposite end, just before the Bomb Explodes).
(Treguard meanwhile has had to shove a sock down his mouth, to stop himself from laughing a lot).

[HStorm]

I reckon that sketch could do with a Dangermouse gag.

The audio play team might be able to help with this. I'll ask around the rest of the crew and see if anyone wants to join in.

[Dark Comet]

Sir, if it is required, I'd be happy to lend a hand with this grand vocal endeavour of yours.

[BBrooks(KM Forever)]

Paul,
Ok, here's Part 1 of another that I've finished (Hope you like it).
I'll be posting Part 2 on here soon.

(P.S) I'm sorry I've been so long posting this as I just haven't had the time.

[BBrooks(KM Forever)]

The Dungeoneer has walked into the Dungeon.

Dungeoneer-Where am I?
Advisor 1-You're in a slightly-old looking room, there's a table in the middle of it. Walk Forward.

(The Dungeoneer walks forward until he's level with the front of the table on the left hand side)
Advisor 1-Stop.
(The Advisor's whisper quietly to each other and laugh)

Dungeoneer-Hey Guys, what next?
Advisor 1-Oh sorry, turn slightly to your left.

(The Dungeoneer turns slightly to his left)
Advisor 1- (Trying hard not to laugh) Walk Forward, Quickly.
(He walks forward quickly and gets the full force of the corner of the table right in his private parts)
Dungeoneer- Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
(All the Advisor's laugh)
Advisor 2-Sorry we couldn't resist.
Dungeoneer-You Bastards.
Treguard-Quiet Teams, Manifestation is about to occur.

(A Wall Monster appears out of the far wall at the end)

Wall Monster-I am Granitas of Legend. Turn and Face me.
Dungeoneer-You try doing that when you're in my condition at the moment.

[PGoomba]

Hi BBrooks

Just letting ya know, I'm still here and I haven't forgotten about our unique brand of Knightmare. I'm just busy getting end of semester things done. I'd imagine I'll have a bit more time come Christmas / new year.
I'm doing my collaborative write-up on a job I did over the summer so we can pretty much go where we want with this thing. I'd still like to get on board someone with good photoshop skills to extract character stills. Or pretty much someone with a graphics tablet, coz that'll make the job a fair bit easier.

Anyway, good ideas so far. I'll be in touch.

Paul