In case you missed it, here’s the stream from the Hello Giggles show at UCBEast tonight!
Sidenote: I have a really annoying voice and huge calves! Hooray!
Click through the photo to make reservations to the 1st Anniversary Hello Giggles show at UCBEast this Thursday at 7:30!
I’m getting on the mic for the first time ever and it’s going to be tragically hilarious.
Can’t make it? Never fear, the Hello Giggles UStream is here! (It would just do many more wonders for my self-esteem if you were there in person though!)
Team HelloGiggles ASSEMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Oh hi. You should come to this and watch me probably accidentally do something to embarrass myself! If you can’t make it, there will also be a livestream!
Hey lady!! I’m actually so not busy that I’ve had nothing interesting to post here, hence why you haven’t seen much of me recently! I’ve been on my personal blog though!
You basically already know everything you need to know for submitting to HG! You can send original articles or column ideas to info@hellogiggles.com and if they like them, they may choose to post them (if they’re single-serve articles, they may be posted as “From Our Readers” but you’ll still get credit! If they like a column or several-article idea, you may get a contributing writer page). That’s more or less the gist of it. The managing editor who reads all of the articles is a busy person, so be patient with a response and don’t get discouraged!!
Childish Gambino at Starland Ballroom NJ
I think I’m officially too old to still go to Gambino concerts.
“A day late, a buck short, I’m writing the report”
Yesterday my brain was too full of mush to edit and upload a podcast so here it is now! I had a really fun chat with Danielle from Comedy Nerds United on the show this week. Please check it out, I think it is very funny.
Episode Description:
Rachel’s guest this week, Danielle, is not just a comedy nerd on the internet, but also in real life! Listen and learn about her experiences studying improv and sketchwriting, as well as her work for the Hello Giggles website. We go WAY back to her roots on an island, discuss her high school adventures caught on tape, dwell on some accents, and talk about the art of the playlist. Miss D.R. tries Rachel’s D.R. quiz, and we round out the episode with a peek behind the sexiest cougar on the internet.
Look! I’m famous! (Well, pretending to be…)
“IT’S OUR TIME AT THE EDGE” OR HOW I LEARNED TO COPE WITH LIFE AFTER GRADUATION
This is the most revealing glimpse of my personal life that you’ll see on the public interwebz.
From the CNU Editors who brought you How To Write A Disney Channel Original Movie and How To Write A Christmas Special, comes a low-budget venture like never before:
How To Write an Indie Movie
By CNU Editors Danielle and Kristin
- DO NOT CAST MICHAEL CERA OR A MICHAEL CERA-TYPE. He’s a great guy, but he’ll turn your indie movie into a quirky mainstream movie faster than you can say “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”. This is a novice mistake.
- Cast Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, or Mark Duplass instead. But then again, if you’re making an indie movie, there’s a good chance that you already are Mark Duplass, aren’t you?
- Use hand-drawn illustrations/animations in muted/off colors for scene transitions and also titles/movie posters. Pink is also especially useful in movie posters to help your movie shout “HEY! I’M LOW BUDGET AND QUIRKY BUT FUN!” (see above.)
- The main character of your movie must come from a dysfunctional family that they are embarrassed to have. They will either spend the majority of the movie a) living and interacting with their crazy family, b) intentionally running from their dysfunctional family/past, or c) talking about their dysfunctional family and relating it to everything wrong in their life currently.
- You MUST include at least one song by Belle & Sebastian on your soundtrack, as well as at least one song that even you have never heard of before. Bonus points for obscure artists from before 1975. Even more bonus points for being able to sneak a non-mainstream jazz standard or two in (i.e. no Sinatra, unless it’s a rare b-side that fits the motif of the rest of your soundtrack). Basically, most people shouldn’t be able to recognize more than half the artists or songs on the soundtrack.
- The movie must be set in either Brooklyn, New Jersey, or some obscure town in the Midwest. No other locations are acceptable as the idea of “indie” is incapable of existing outside of those aforementioned city limits.
- The lower the budget, the better. Try to use a camera phone/hand-held camcorder for at least one scene, and NEVER use a dolly/tripod. You want that shaky effect.
- The main female character must own/wear a lot of converse/combat boots, and the main male character must own/wear a lot of sweaters and corduroys. Quirky hats and thick rimmed glasses could be worn by either party and/or the director of your film. Thrift stores come in especially handy in these types of situations. Everything vintage is fair play.
- There has to be at least one severely depressing moment in the film, even if it’s a comedy. At some point in the movie, someone is going to cry alone in a car/on a mountain top/on a roof garden, and we’re only going to hear the Velvet Underground song you layered on top of it because that’s how important your hand-picked soundtrack is to the film itself. (for further reference, see #5)
- 120 minutes? Please, that’s not nearly enough time for your characters to have a substantial story arc. You’re going to need at least 40 more minutes of seemingly useless footage that somehow “adds” to the depth of your characters/aids the plot in some higher way. Adversely, you could also go the short-film route and show off your artistic integrity by being able to get your message across in under 20 minutes.
Now that these rules are set in stone, hurry up and shoot your indie film before these guidelines become mainstream and lose their cred.
An article/poster design in which I finally give my otherwise irrelevant film minor a purpose!
I’ve officially lost my mind. SO TIRED.
I just downloaded the Whiteboard app for my phone. So far it’s pretty fun!
