Coffee Break Episode 1 (Part 1 of 4)

Triple Shot Productions presents:

Follow us on Twitter @CoffeeBreakTV

3 Swirlies

“Why don’t we go back to that ‘feel good’ movie idea we were talking about? You know, the one where people were donating organs, something like that?”

I had a really hard time giving this one a rating. It’s a premise we have seen before (the writer writes and we see the film as they change) and technically, it could be much better. But… for all the wooden acting and the jokes that we have seen before, these two guys do have charm – and they have a pretty good comedy instinct with some good timing. And that’s the hard part. Acting, forcing yourself to come up with fresher jokes, all of this is stuff that you grow into if you keep at it long enough. A plain ol’ instinct for timing and sense of humour, well that’s the kind of stuff you can build a career on.

So it’s rough. There’s a weird break that I assume to be an opening titles after what TV people call a ‘long tease.’ I wasn’t sure what was going on, at first. It kinda felt like it could have been an ending, so why was there still five minutes left?

And yes, it is too long. The characters suffer from lack of real goals and stakes, so the scenes sort of drag (while still having some funny lines) along until a resolution is forced by a new character. The ‘film within a film’ was mostly fun, but it went too far when it broke the forth wall and had the fictional girl mugging at the audience. Again, we’ve just seen that exact beat before.

But, in the end, I gave it 3 instead of 2 Swirlies because I do think it is worth watching.

Let’s see how part 2 works out. If it more of the same, that 3 will drop down.

Great thumbnail, though!

HOT GIRLS IN PRISON! Season 2 Episode 1 of Hot Girls

3 Swirlies

“No… I’m pretty sure he was murdered.”

Another of the biggest YouTube channels right now is The Station. I checked out what turned out to be the first episode of the second season of “Hot Girls.”

Right off the top you have to know two things.

One, you really have to commit to watching the whole thing. It’s on the long side, and it drags in places, but the pitch perfect parody of the opening for the Sopranos is worth it – even as long as it is. While it could have been tighter and we would have gotten the joke and moved on, I really respect that they stuck with it and saw the moment through. So set aside the six minutes it’ll take to watch it, and don’t let yourself drift away after ten seconds.

Two, I had a hard time understanding if this was an actual series, or just a sketch parodying reality shows? Each episode has its own title, instead of Hot Girls 2: In Prison! or something. I thought maybe I was watching Episode 1 of the new series, Hot Girls in Prison! But then, I’m not very smart.

There’s a lot to be admired about this episode. It’s well shot, very well edited, and there’s some nice jokes that show the sense of humour in the show is smarter than the rest of the bunch. There’s some call backs, attention to bits (like I said earlier) and some nice character-y stuff going on, like how they think they’ve been hardened by prison, when it’s actually both an affect and manifestation of their eternal shallowness.

I’m pleased to say it is the writing and conceptualization that shines. Besides the two main cast, the acting could be a smidge better. And, like I said, the pacing of the whole episode could be a lot tighter. The last minute or so is an overlong clip trailer for their new season, which I could have done without. And the “previously” clips that starts it, while they set us up for some of the gags and the backstory for the episode nicely, made me impatient – that’s where I almost clicked away.

If it wasn’t for the length and the pacing, I’d probably give them a 4. But I will definitely be watching more. Maybe right now…

From YouTube:

Retweet: http://clicktotweet.com/apjL6

Buy the Hot Girls Soundtrack: http://bit.ly/9s8vRd

Buy A Hot Girls T-Shirt
http://www.districtlines.com/Hot-Girls

Click here for HOT GIRLS Season 1 playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…

Created by the Station

Starring:
LisaNova
http://www.youtube.com/lisanova

KassemG
http://www.youtube.com/kassemg

Billy Tangradi
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1813729/

Lonnie Kellogg as Parole Board Member

DP- Layne Pavoggi
http://www.youtube.com/popum42

Edited by- Blake O’Neal
http://www.youtube.com/stationtutorials
and
Geoff Yano
http://www.youtube.com/oogafilms

Sound by Diego Tovar
http://youtube.com/musicthedisco

Camera Operator: Sean Finnegan
http://www.youtube.com/gotfinnegan

Produced, Written and Directed by: Ben Donovan
http://www.youtube.com/thebdonski
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0232949/

“Sunrise” written and performed by MidiMafia
http://www.youtube.com/midimafia

We Can Dance
Thug Paradise
Reaching High
You’re My Perfect Day
Wicked
Get Sweaty
The Final Combat
Courtesy of APM MUSIC LLC

P.S. Why did YouTube go and change the embed options? I can’t seem to get a player with a border around it anymore. I liked that look…

You Suck at Photoshop – Ep.2 “Covering Your Mistakes”

MORE: http://www.MyDamnChannel.com/BigFatBrain

4 Swirlies

This is an old one, but this episode made me laugh each time I’ve seen it.  I came across it like most people, looking for tutorials on how to use Photoshop.  What I like about it most is the smoothness of the screen performance.  Anyone who’s tried to used those screen capture tools like Camtasia, will tell you that it isn’t easy to do a lot of cuts.

The story about his marriage falling apart continues throughout the other episodes, descending into a police standoff and a train ride to nowhere.  But I’ll let you watch those on MyDamChannel.