Monday, August 07, 2006

Radio Free Charleston Production Diary: Episode Three

The third episode of Radio Free Charleston is finished, and may be posted later this afternoon. This is a bit of a departure show for us. First of all, my host segments were shot against a green screen. I'll tell you more about that later. We also feature our first music video by a local band, and the first chapter of "Pentagram Flowerbox," a recurring cartoon by Third Mind Incarnation about Satan living in a trailer park.

We have a wonderful musical guest, Eduardo Canelon, who ran off to host a music camp before we had a chance to find out what the piece of music he performed was called. Evidently, this music camp is being held somewhere with no cell phone coverage. I'll update you on Eduardo's music as soon as he gets back. He's the mastermind behind Latin Music WV and we'll be telling you more about that in PopCult in the coming weeks. Eduardo is also the leader of Comparsa, an eight-piece Latin band that will appear on a future episode of RFC. He treats us to a very cool, laid-back Spanish number, performed on the Radio Free Charleston studio fire escape.

Our other musical guest is Three Bodies--no mean feat, since they haven't performed together in over fifteen years. "Shingles And Tar" is a vintage music video, which was hastily assembled in the summer of 1990, the day before it was due to be shown at a film festival. I got a call from Brian Young, and headed down to an editing bay at West Virginia State College with a handful of tapes of stock footage. We combined the stock footage with a short film Brian had made starring Kris Cormandy, the lead singer of Three Bodies, and wound up with a decent little music video. As the night wore on, and the deadline loomed, we slacked off and ended the video with what may be a world record for the most nuclear explosions ever used in a rock music video.

For reasons of copyright and ox-mistreatment, this video was re-edited last Friday. Brian hasn't seen this version as I write this. Hope he's not mad. Since we were dealing with fifteen-year-old videotape, and a short production window for RFC, there is one glitch in the show. At the very beginning of "Shingles And Tar", the audio is a little warbly. You can find an MP3 of the song here, which is all clean and neat and warble-free.

We wrap up the show with a public service announcement of great importance.

After we finished the show, we noticed that an unintentional theme had emerged. The show seems to be a bit hot. Perhaps subconsciously influenced by the record heat we've had in the valley of late, this episode of Radio Free Charleston has a recurring flame motif. In fact, the heat is the reason we used a green screen, instead of shooting on location. We actually shot the host segments twice. The first time, we had audio problems that were insurmountable. This was actually a good thing, because I was experimenting with my "look" for the show, and the particular combination of facial hair and old fedora that I tried for the first shoot imbued me with a look not unlike that of a fat Jed Clampett.

So we rescheduled the host segments for two days later. When faced with the prospect then of shooting on a rooftop in 104 degree weather at two in the afternoon, my resistance to the idea of using the green screen melted away, and we absconded to the secret RFC studio. I prefer shooting on location, but I think the show looks all right this time. In many ways, this is our hottest show yet! We've got fiery Latin balladeering, a neighbor from Hell, lots of nuclear explosions, and an oppressive heat which we defiantly flip off by shooting in an air-conditioned studio. Watch for episode three of Radio Free Charleston later today at the Gazz TV page.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another great show. Eduardo is fantastic. I can't wait to hear his band. The devil cartoon looks good, too. And who knew there was a Three Bodies video?

Keep 'em coming!

Anonymous said...

Loved the show, but after reading the production notes, all I can do is wonder what "ox-mistreatment" is, and what a "fat Jed Clampett" looks like.

Please give us more Devil Talk.

Anonymous said...

It's great that you're showcasing local music, but who's responsible for that moody stuff that you play over the credits? Are they local, and do they play out anywhere? Is there even any place in town that would hire a band like that? Some of us Mountain folk like more adventurous music.

Rudy Panucci said...

Mouintain Woman said: "It's great that you're showcasing local music, but who's responsible for that moody stuff that you play over the credits? Are they local, and do they play out anywhere?"

I'm afraid you won't be able to see them playing out. Them is me. I write the end credit music myself. I don't think folks would want to come out and watch me slap away at the computer when there are real musicians available. The end music for episode three was written in seven minutes, just before we edited the show. I'm flattered that anybody noticed.

I'm really flattered.

Anonymous said...

Why is this show so good, when the other show at theGazz.com is so awful?

Anonymous said...

I looked up thee-uh-bromoecacayo which is labeled as devil talk in your video show. As best I can tell, it means either some kind of chocolate, or it's the name of Italian stomach medicine, the kind that's packaged as little pink plastic-looking crystals that you dissolve in milk and then drink the foam BUT NOT THE LIQUID for gods sake or you'll get sick. Anyway, be careful with that devil stuff. He come creepin up yo drainpipe, boyeee.

Who's the weird skinny chick with food fallin out of her mouth in the video? YEE-UCK!!!

Anonymous said...

This new Radio Free Charleston was, in the words of the King Of Pop, "devilish". We're going to have to pray extra hard for your heathen souls.

Anonymous said...

You write your own music? Good God, what kind of budget do you have for this show? You've got original animation, in-studio band performances, AND an original orchestral score? I'm still trying to figure out how something this good came out of the Gazz. I don't mean to knock my home state here, but compared to the other Gazz TV programs, Radio Free is just head and shoulders above. This is better than most local broadcast television. Let's not mince words. It's better than ALL local television broadcasts. Let's have more behind the scenes dish about how you make this show.

Anonymous said...

When do we get more of Eduardo and his band?

Anonymous said...

GReat show, but the green screen stuff wasn't as cool as actually seeing you on location around town. Given the heat, it's understandable, but don't make it a habit. Now I just need to figure out what to be scared of more, Satan, Aliens, or the guy in the video who eats and makes nuclear explosions.

Anonymous said...

I think that guy who says ya-hooo in every show is my grandfather. You are so insensitive, considering how he met his end. He met it through a personals ad, and it didn't work out. She was a psycho bitch, man. She constantly showed up at his workplace, painted his car yellow one night with nail polish, and mailed him one of her ovaries. He made a omelot with it before he realized he was doing cannibal stuff, so he flushed the whole mess down the toilet. At first, he thought he had joined the Egg-Of-The-Month Club, and it was the fruit of a exotic bird butt. I guess butt is impolite - I should say cloaca. I should always say cloaca. In fact, I do, as often as possible.


Cloaca.

Anonymous said...

Damn! I thought I could come here for intelligent discourse on Satan, and all I get is cloaca talk. Damn the internet! Damn it up the ass!

Anonymous said...

I know this post is about RFC, but did anybody notice that the new Foxy Commander show doesn't have Foxy Commander in it? While this ought to be a good thing, they actually found somebody worse to do the interview. That's another reason RFC Rocks....no musicians being put on the spot trying to answer moronic questions. At least you could see the band this time. If I did a show like that, I wouldn't promote it either.

Anonymous said...

What's the chance of Radio Free winding up on real TV?

Anonymous said...

Does anybody even watch this stuff?

Anonymous said...

Looks like the local music scene is old farts on this show, and retarded jackasses on the other. Pretty sad.

Deal with it.

Anonymous said...

Reliving the glory days again. Pathetic...

Rudy Panucci said...

Not reliving, these are NEW glory days! Interesting to see the envy didn't die while we were away.