Psycho Mike E-mails

E-mails sent during the time the Psycho Mike episode was being cooked up (messages reproduced here without a specific "to" line were sent to all the writers and production staff, all the actors, or both):

Hi everyone,
Not too much being filmed this week. Most of you are needed for Friday's
Spring Sing thing; we basically just need a crowd of you to cheer
everyone on... (Faze and Buzz, let me know if you can make it to your
bits.)

Tuesday 11pm - USAC elections fun
Needed - Myles Nye, Tim Heiderich, Mike Pesses, Sean Heckman
Directors - See above
Audio/Video - Roberta Brodsky
Props - Chalk

Thursday 1:40 - Sean Hart Interviewing Himself
Needed - Sean Hart
Director - Myles Nye
Audio/Video - Nelson Hung

Thursday 6:30 - Host Shots
Needed: Mike Pesses, Ben Larson
Director: Myles Nye, Price Peterson(Dance of Dishonor footage)
Audio/Video - Crystal Liu

Friday 12pm - Fudgina
Needed - Sean Mount, Ben Feller, Buzz Reynolds(?), Faisal Ahmed(?)
Director - Myles or Tim??
Audio/Video - Crystal Liu
Props - Sign: "Free Fudgina"

Friday 6pm(time may change) - Spring Sing Talent Search
Needed - EVERYONE!!!(!)
Director - Ben Larson
Audio/Video - Roberta Brodsky

(WRITERS: Also being done: Dance of Dishonor, The Usual Sockspects, Book
Fair Fun)
Thanks
Roberta

From: Roberta Brodsky
Subject: Editing Schedule for Week 5
Received: 4.30.00 10:38 PM

EDITING for WEEK 5

Monday at 3pm - Price: Dead Girl's Poo, Rape Trail

Wednesday morning - Myles: Tap Dancing, Snickers, Doggies & Kitties
(Rizwan's help)

Thursday Night - Sean Heckman: Writer's 420 meeting
Sean Hart: Sean's Vagina, Kaiser Von Sock,
Book fair

Saturday All Day - Myles: Book Fair, Hart interviewing himself, Fudgina

? - Thor: Rizwan in a dress

MAINLINE --- Please post schedules for week 5's editing and filming, if
possible.

From: * *
To: Sean Heckman
cc: Writers and production staff
Subject: idea!
Received: 4.30.00 11:40 PM

So we're these two interpretive dancers: I'll be in a leotard with a tutu and kinked out hair. Sean will also be in a leotard and wearing a cup- to protect his penis.

The sketch will be set to music (like the secret agent man thing) and will feature the two of us doing our dramatic/interpretive dance (that I will brilliantly coreograph), on various areas on campus. We can dance among crowds and include the people walking around in our dance, hang from sculptures in the sculpture garden, and it would be really funny if part of the dance took place in the inverted fountain- like we were synchronized swimmers- we all of a sudden pop out of the hole in the middle of the fountain and begin to dance. What do you think? Let me know if it's possible so I can start preparing for it. Thanks, *

Your thoughts everyone?

It's got potential, the main thing is we'd need a clear cut shot list. If
there's going to be a dialogue, make sure you hit "reply to all."

-Sean

I'm a little disappointed that she mentioned a cup and then ignored the possibility of kicking Sean in the nuts while they're dancing. Otherwise, I have no problems with it.
Mike Feng

From: Roberta Brodsky
Subject: RE: Re: Fwd: idea!
Received: 5.1.00 3:18 PM

We've done synchronized "swimming" in the royce fountain, we've been in the inverted fountain, and Sean and I did a terrible version of an interpretive dance at the end of Episode 5 last quarter. Just so you know...
Roberta

Tuesday night's chalking USAC stuff is switching to THURSDAY night
(11pm) because USAC can't officially campaign until Wednesday.
Hart, Sean's vagina footage is found.
Everyone, keep tapes in the editing station so we can keep track of
footage, don't leave them in the camera bag.
Spring Sing is apparently at 5pm, do we still want to do it if Mike
can't be there?
Be nice to Mainline since their show got screwed tonight
MP3s aren't good to download, talk to Riz about putting them in the
right format so they don't sound like shit.
New camera, tapes coming soon.
Price, did you edit today?
Love
Roberta

From: Myles Nye
Subject: MB Psycho Mike: Comments, criticism, suggestions, reply to all please
Received: 5.2.00 12:33 AM

First correction, suggested by my girlfriend:

(There is a cross-dissolve and Ben wakes up)

BEN: It was all a dreamÖ it was all a dreamÖ (finds length of rope on his pillow) A length

of rope on my pillow! (looks under blanket) And no poop!

From: Myles Nye
Subject: An idea so good it's worthy of Price
Received: 5.2.00 1:09 AM

Hey, what if Elian stars in the sequel to "The Sixth Sense"? In this one, see, it turns out that shrink's alive but his mom is dead. That wouldn't really be a surprise to anyone in the audience, tho.

Mike's an idiot. Spring Sing is at 8pm, not at 5pm. Does this mean I
tell everyone to meet at the station at 7?
Roberta

no. please tell everyone to meet at the station at 6:30. we'll need time to get the stuff and then people will be entering by 7 ish so we better be there filming by then. thanks roBERta

The Friday "Spring Sing Talent Search" will start be at 6:30pm. Meet at
the radio station.
Thank you
Roberta

Hi.

I am desperately searching for the legendary "Dance of Dishonor" e-mail
authored by a certain Kris Holcomb. It is the one wherein he dictates the
dialogue of the wacky scenario, and cannily interprets all of it for us.
You see, I require this electronic message to not only ascertain who exactly
will perform in the skit but also attain a record of the clever musings of
each character in relation to aforementioned and presumably devastating
"Dance of Dishonor." If this by-now legendary email is to be found in the
depths of anyone's personal computer unit, I would greatly appreciate it be
forwarded to ppeterso@ucla.edu . At that point, I will then notify any
persons associated with this piece of performance art and will hopefully
assemble a logistically appropriate filming schedule. In other words,
please put the cyberporn away, and check yo inbox from awhile back.

Much love and appreciation,

Baltimore Jones

p.s. many apologies for any and all grammatical errors and/or
inappropropriate or incorrect choice(s) of vocabulary.

Just to let you all know, we have had a phone installed in the TV room!

Please use this phone line for all your TV buisness, but avoid tying it up
for personal chatting, of course.

Also, if you need to call the number, the number is 206-3863 ... On campus
thats 63863 ... please don't call radio unless you cannot get a hold of
anyone at TV, and you need to

Okay, thats it!

Rizwan

Hey guys,

The editing has been great with the new equipment, however to avoid some of
those lovely "last minute" problems here's some things you need to know.

1. As has been said, mp3's have some problems unless you do a couple of
things in the computer to fix them. To fix a downloaded mp3 , call Tim or
Hart and they'll be able to tell you more. To make a long story short, mp3's
create this "choppy" sound on the music that is way too distracting.

2. When putting titles on the screen, do not put text across the full length.
The size of the computer screen does not translate to the size of the TV, so
try not to go past the 2/3 or 3/4 mark of a screen.

3. If you're doing a bit that's only 2 minutes and likely to be an opener,
leave a couple of seconds of video after the last line is said. The opener to
the last episode cut off right after Joe said his last line, so the "who is
this" part of the theme song was cut off.

4. WHEN YOU FINISH A BIT, consider that to be what's going up for the show.
One of the big things that seems to be creating problems is i think people
will finish a bit expecting Riz to make the minor techncial adjustments, like
fixing choppy sound, etc. This is one the areas where problems are stemming.
What you finish is what goes up (or at least assume that), so if a song has
problems, put a new one up. We're all good enough by now to know how to fix
things.

5. RELIGION EPISODE NEXT WEEK. See you then.

-Sean

About Sean's point 2 - writing text that goes to the edge of the screen -
there's a button on the window you view your project in (right above
where your video is shown) that has a little box on it (it's to the right of
the button that shows the scale of the video) Click on this and a pull-
down menu will drop down. Select "Title Safe" from the pull down
menu, and a white outline box will show up over your video. The
outer box marks the limit of the "Safe Area" - the area that will show
up on a regular TV. Everything outside that area won't show up on a
TV.

Clear?
Tough.

-Tim

ChromaKey should be easy. There's a filter under the 'Image Control'
submenu of the effects menu (this is all from memory, so I may have screwed
up the names, but I'm talking about the menu where all the video effects and
transitions and stuff like that are), anyway there is a way to remove a
specific color from a clip. Just apply the ChromaKey or some other color
key filter/effect to the footage you want to drop the background out of, and
add a clip of video (or a still) into a Video layer below the layer you're
keying out (the background video should be in V1 with the doggies and
kitties in V2).
I can come in on Saturday to help you, but I find myself computerless
and in a bind about finishing my 2 segments for Monday (#$^@!), so I won't
get to stay, unless I can monopolize mainline's machine... which I don't
think is going to happen.
So what time are you working on this Saturday? Also, remember you'll
have to render all the video you're chroma-ing out, which will take a long
time. Riz will tell you the Trinity can do it 'live', but that involves
working with Rizwan, and will probably ultimately take just as long.

-Tim

Today was supposed to be the day I filmed Hart interviewing himself but, due to reasons entirely my own fault, it kind of pooped out. We are going to try again on Sunday during the day (Hart-- perhaps sometime after 2?) and we can discuss further at the meeting. I was only planning for the bit to be one or two minutes so, if it doesn't come through (and I think it will, but just in case) it shouldn't throw off the feel of the show too much; I know we have lots of other good stuff.

From: Price Peterson
Subject: Re: Sean interviewing himself
Received: 5.4.00 6:12 PM

>
> Any word on dance of dishonor? I'm still searching but can't seem to find it.
> -M.
>

Found it, y'all. Thanks!

BJ

From: Sean Heckman
Subject: Re: Sean interviewing himself
Received: 5.4.00 6:32 PM

Ummm, shit,

Is it me or is their a bit of a shortage on stuff we're filming this week? We
may need to do some quick and easy bits.

-Sean

Hey Myles,

I dropped off the fudge tonight with one of your roommates. I left a knife
with you, so you can cut, and shape the fudge however you want. Can you
bring glass dish and the knife to the writer's meeting on Sunday? Thanks!
Have fun selling and eating fudgina!

Ceci

From: Roberta Brodsky
To: Tim Heiderich; Myles Nye
Subject: Fudge
Received: 5.5.00 10:23 AM

You only have two guys confirmed for Fudgina at 1:30 (not12). Which one
of you is directing anyway? I can be there at 1:45 so that makes 3.
Thor never made the sign so one of you should make it when you go there.
Posterboard is in the editing room.
Mainline should have the camera back at 1:30. If they don't, sorry.
Roberta

Hi, this is a reminder to meet for the Spring Sing Talent Search tonight
at 6:30. The more people we have, the better.
Thank you
Roberta

From: Tim Heiderich
To: Myles Nye
Subject: Saturday
Received:5.6.00 1:15 AM

Myles -
I hope this isn't too inconvenient, but I won't be able to show up on
Saturday until about 3:00. I hope you can get by without me for a while,
but if it comes down to it, the manual may help with some things....

-Tim

Here's what I'm thinking. We are all working very hard (and doing great work), but we are also spending a lot of time on this stuff. I know the past week we ran into a lot of snafus, to the point where it's no longer even worth attributing blame. The result is that I, for one, will be doing most of next week's stuff next week; I was so busy trying to get 4.20 ready in time for Mon. that I didn't get a head start on book fair, and since Hart & Hart was aborted and Fudgina won't be done until Monday, that means a lot of work.

The fact of the matter is, I already spend all my spare time editing; I don't think I'm alone here. So what I would like to propose is, for the episode between religion and R.I.P. M & B, the one for which we have nothing planned, we consider doing either a re-run (Black History?) or at least a best of show.

Don't feel you have to respond right away; you can think it over and we can discuss at the writer's meeting. If I'm the only one this far behind, I'll shut up-- I don't want to whine or bog the show down. But frankly, unless the second camera shows up, I have no idea how we're going to get three shows started and finished.

We're all balancing two difficult things: putting on a good show and being functioning human beings outside (e.g. eating, sleeping, not failing). This is one possible solutions. Let's discuss on Sunday.

From: Rizwan Kassim
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Received: 5.7.00 2:03 AM

Tuesday night: Thor Erickson - Hosting Shots

Wednesday morning: Myles Nye - Book Fair Part 2

Wednesday night: Sean Hart - Book Fair Part 1, Hart 2 Hart

Thursday 7pm: Mike Pesses - Fudgina

Friday 8am: Sean Heckman - Eric Talking

Friday Night: Tim Heiderich - The Usual Sockspects