Insourcing Sneak Peek

We're putting out our first taste of Insourcing. This snippet is part of Episode 4. Enjoy this for now and know that more will come when we finish filming sometime in January...hopefully. Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m737uF1Ihes

The Quest for Swag -- A Team Billy post

One of the biggest and first fans of the Bulls Deep podcast sent in a rough proposal for Official Bulls Deep t-shirts supporting both Team Billy and Team Bj. They look great and really need to be made. This got me thinking about other ways to slap the Taurian Films logo on other things.

Sad fact of life: Doing stuff costs money. We've been lucky in the ways of moochery so far. Our actors work for free, the camera and editing software have been lent to us free of charge and the set for Insourcing is the site of Bj's day job. The podcast is very similar. We talk via Skype, which is free and the editing software is part of the above-mentioned software we're using through the kindness of others.

But there are expenses at play. We'd like to get some extra storage capacity to hold the Insourcing footage (bad form to fill up work issued laptops with such buffoonery) and there is the matter of raising the profile of the podcast.

Team Bj and Team Billy have been working on scams and angles to snag a buck here and there, but had not considered Bulls Deep gear until Wendy's email popped up in out feedback box (taurianfilms@gmail.com). It seems so obvious now. I plan on doing some research on how to get this stuff done on the cheap so we can keep prices low and still swing some profit (I'm so looking at you little Indonesian children)

Be on the lookout for further announcements about Bulls Deep and Insourcing gear. If I can work up a functional business model for it, you'll be able to buy your own crap soon.

Looking forward to April..Team Bj

...already...not just because it's my birthday month...but Team Billy has enlightened me to Script Frenzy. A month-long scramble to write a feature length script in the same vein as NaNoWriMo, which our own Team Billy successfully completed. Personally I like screenplays more. It's been forever since I attempted a straight up narrative book type of format, but I will with NaNo next year...but I have a few things I can see myself writing out to a full length feature, things I hope to actually get done. We shall see how it goes.

Closing the book on November -- A Team Billy post

Today is the last day of November, and the end of my NaNoWriMo adventure. I won (woo-hoo), crossing 50K on the 29th. That actually means I did the 50K in 28 days because I did take a day off in the middle of it all. While there is still plenty of story left to write, it's no longer the all-consuming center of my existence. That means I can actually have some fun again.

December should also bring some new Insourcing stuff, provided Bj can wrangle his talent. It's looking like that late-December/early-January release window has gone bye-bye.

The upside is that some cool lessons were learned. Tops among them is to make sure the "local" talent is actually local. Having to work shooting around the schedules of two people that are hardly ever in town is a bit of a momentum killer. The next project will hopefully not be limited as such.

But enough with that quasi-negativity. The next shoot should yield us enough footage to slap together some type of trailer just to prove something is being done. That and having Santa sneak an external hard drive under Bj's tree would make December a success in my book.

Team Bj can in fact still type

So I am waiting to be able to edit the 7 Alpha show...so it will be up later on for our four fans and our family members. I should edit it Wednesday night when we record, but alas I am tired as hell by the time day ends and I don't get to finish it. I'll try to make sure I get back to schedule and staying on it.

In other news on my end anyways...I am making some strides in the comic book area of Taurian projects in some upcoming work with Ben Tinsley and his company. Could prove quite fruitful. We shall see...

I will type more later, typing with the whole broke finger thing is not fun to do.

This is why we have guests -- A Team Billy post

Bj and I welcomed an old partner in crime to the podcast this week, one Miss Aprill Brandon. We put out an A show as solid as any we've done (available at http://taurianfilms.podomatic.com/), then went on to record one of the best podcasts ever. I'm not just talking about Bulls Deep, I'm talking about any that I listen too as well.

Bj and I went out of our way to load the B Show with as many "girly" things as possible, and the result was far more entertaining than we could have hoped for. Seriously folks, there is complete epic-ness headed your way on Monday. Our girl Aprill steps up and represents for all the ladies out there in a Bulls Deep battle of the sexes.

On the downside, Bj is still fighting the echo problem that has bugged us since last week. The problem has been identified. It's the internal mic on the laptop he's using. Shouldn't be a problem when we throw down 7A and 7B with FOP (Friend of the Pod) Kevin Miller. There is a way around the echo in 5A, 6A and 6B. Just crank your speaker balance to the left. Apparently the echo is only on the right channel.

NaWhatWhoMo? -- A team Billy post

I'm pretty much devoting myself to writing this month with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). If you listen to the podcast, you've heard me and the Beej talk about it. 50,000 words in 30 days. Snoogins.

I wasted no time in this endeavor, starting at straight up midnight on the 1st. I wrote for two hours, went to bed, then wrote for another two after my Texans beat the Buffalo out of the Bills. Total word count for Day 1: 4,328. Beefy.

The minimum pace to succeed is 1,667 words per day. I'm gunning for 1,700 words per week day and 2,000 words per day on the weekend. I want to get as far ahead as possible and stay there because Thanksgiving is a killer. I've only done NaNoWriMo once before and flamed out at 27,000 words.

I'll be making updates here on the blog and briefly mentioning it during the podcasts. With a little luck, I'll make this project call me daddy.

Been going Bulls Deep for a month now...a brief team Bj post

Doesn't seem like that long, but we are up to 4 Alpha, which hit the Internets today. We are slowly hitting our stride as far as length of the podcast and the schedule we have mapped out for ourselves. As we figured with the guests we have it opens up the door for more people. Kevin being on the broadcast brought in some folks who otherwise wouldn't have heard us. We're getting some steadily good numbers on the daily rankings on Podomatic which is cool. Having the guests we have planned in the future will only increase that. It's good all around, though the 4 Alpha and Bravo shows are hampered a bit by my constant sniffling from my bout with sinus congestion or swine flu or oncoming death of some kind. I don't know, at least my voice can be immortalized on the Web forever.

I love it when a plan comes together -- A Team Billy post

Depending on how you count them, the sixth Bulls Deep podcast hit the webs today. You might not think that's cool, but I do. What's really cool is that the show is slowly gaining a following if the stat factory at Pod-O-Matic is telling the truth. If that really is the case, this podcast thingy is doing its job.

And what job is that? I broached the podcast idea to Bj as a way to build an audience for the web series Insourcing prior to the release of the first episode. People would listen to the podcast and follow us to the series, provided they liked the podcast to begin with. So even though we rarely talk about the show (aside from episode 1A), each installment of Bulls Deep is in fact a commercial for that show.

It also seems the podcast is likely to take on a life of its own, which is not a bad thing. Since we record both episodes for the week in one session, maintaining the A & B shows shouldn't be an issue any time soon. I'm also looking into ways to raise the profile of our little show. There are various podcast syndicators for lack of a better term that can deliver new audiences and open up some opportunities for us. We're getting close enough to a point in the development of Bulls Deep that I'm comfortable presenting our program to these outlets. It could be tough. We're not for everyone and Bj drops f-bombs at a remarkable rate. And we're going to be tough to pigeonhole format wise because our A and B shows cover such different topics. All the same, it's worth a shot.

Don't Bite Your Friends -- A Team Billy post

Recorded Bulls Deep episodes 3A and 3B last night. We had our first guest on the 'cast, my friend Kevin Miller, to talk about stuff ranging from our time in the Navy to old-ass movies to children's tv.

Kev stepping in and played it like a pro. He meshed with BJ and myself, and probably came off a lot more polished than either of us. Not exactly a tough task since neither Bj or myself could talk straight to save our lives. If Bj is in an outtake mood, there will probably be a laugh or two at the end of each podcast.

With Insourcing in schedule hell, the podcast is really moving to the front of our agenda. It's fun and fairly easy to pull off (at least for me, Bj does all the editing), so we know we can at least rock this on a regular basis. We're also exploring the possibility of advancing the brand in Second Life. I say "we," but that depends on how long Bj can stay in the game before getting banned for horse-whipping strangers with a lightsaber. That dude has anger issues. At any rate, I've managed to avoid the creepy polygonal humper areas and have found a couple of pretty cool artist communities. There is potential for something - not sure what yet - so long as Bj can avoid lightsaber aggro or polygon humping.

On a boat, Bulls Deep style -- A Team Billy post

Episode 2B of the Bulls Deep podcast hits the web tomorrow, but this guy is already looking at the yet-to-be-recorded episodes 3A and 3B. Bj and I will be welcoming our first guest to the podcast, one Mr. Kevin Miller.

Kevin is a friend from my Navy days. We'll relive some of our more entertaining tales from those days for the A show as I prepare to tackle a submarine comedy for NaNoWriMo this year. He'll stay with us for the B show to talk about his current blog project (probably) and the messed upness that is children's television.

The quality of the content in the podcast is getting better, and hopefully the technical end will come along as well. I picked up a new mic in hopes of no longer sounding like I'm talking through a tin can and string.

Bulls Deep recording shall soon commence. --Team Bj

Podcasting is interesting. The results of it also interesting. The site that hosts the podcasts, podomatic, has a feature that let's you see stats of downloads, subscribers, page views and all that nifty stuff regarding your podcast. Very cool stuff. It's nice to see there are people looking at the page and not just that but listening to the podcast. And the numbers are such that I think we can safely say at least two people more than our family are accounted for and listening to the show.

Awesomesauce.


Big ups to Beijing.

We have some things lined up in the coming weeks, guests and show topics, so it should be fun. It will take a bit more time to truly settle in and really rock the podcast world, but I think we can do it.

Putting the "odca" in podcasting -- A Team Billy post

Bj keeps beating me to the blog, leaving me with little more to say than a hearty ditto. All the same, I'll not be shut out or scooped.

I also liked the initial podcast even though I was sure I was going to hate it. It's not as laughtastic as the B show is going to be, but that was more or less by design. Eventually people that we don't know are going to stumble upon Bulls Deep, so some sort of introductory show was in order. The A shows should loosen up as we move forward. At least I hope they do.

We're working on getting some guests to the podcast. These guests will range from the Insourcing cast to some of mine and Bj's more verbose friends.

As for Bj and I, we're going over the pair of podcasts we recorded last week (1A and 1B) and seeing what we can do to make things better. We'll better define and settle into our respective roles as we move along, with the ultimate goal being getting the podcast closer to the conversations that inspired the idea to begin with.

And the podcast is born --Team Bj

So I am still learning about RSS and whatnot, but it seems easy enough. Post in one spot and then just repost your feed to, well where ever else you want it.

To that end you can find Bulls Deep 1A on Podomatic, podcast alley, podcast.com and ideally soon...iTunes as well. There a couple of other sites I was trying to post on but they seem to want to give me issues. Not cool, but I will work to figure them out.

I liked the first podcast. Listened to it several times now, can't wait to start editing the second one. And of course we figure things we like and don't like and will do and won't do next time. Trial and error, but hey we're off to a good start.

Testing

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-e5e275259c3443bc63a7e7d43ea16d78}

Team Bj went Bulls Deep for the first time and it was awesome...

The first two podcasts have been doing. I am awaiting an opportunity to edit them. Some minor technical difficulties are going on right now. But ideally they will be out Friday's for the A show and then Monday for the B show.

They were interesting.

I have made some mental notes of what I thought we should do and shouldn't do and just things to make it better next time. In anything of course you don't start out immediately being perfect, you have to learn things along the way so I look at it like that and as nothing but positive. It will be a fun podcast to do, hopefully people pick up on it and it can drive attention to our projects.

Pod People - A Team Billy post

The podcast is set to begin this week. Bj and I will roll out a pitiful attempt at being witty as part of our all-consuming pimp campaign for Insourcing.

The format will be simple. We'll start by talking a little shop, including how production is going and what we like and don't like so far. From there, we will do a little quick-hit news discussion ranging from entertainment to sports to random oddities. The cast will wrap up with a featured topic discussion that we will set prior to recording. Ideally this will be funny, but likely end up awkward and lame. You should still listen because it's fun to watch (or listen to) people fail.

Coming up with a name was a bit of a challenge. Since this will be an official Taurian Films podcast, we figured a Taurian-themed name was in order. First we decided on "Shooting the Bull." It seemed like the obvious choice, which turned out being the problem. There already is a Shooting the Bull podcast. No bueno. After much lamentation and sifting through bullish cliches, I gave up. Only after giving up and letting my inner 15-year-old take over did the name finally emerge.

So keep an eye out Friday for the first episode of "Bulls Deep: A Taurian Films podcast"

Podcasting -Team Bj

You know I don't know why I didn't get into this stuff years upon years ago. Podcasting is easy as hell, you just sit and talk about...well, whatever. There are thousands out there, some good, some bad, some just strange. There are tons of ways to upload and publish the blogs to get them out there as well.

We here at Taurian Films will have a bi-weekly podcast going starting next week hosted by Team Billy and myself.

We tested some of the technical issues last night and the recorded quality sounds good and it is recorded right to an mp3 file which is great and I can easily fix it should I need to fix anything in the first place. It should be fun. It will be open to us talking about Taurian projects naturally and whatever else comes up, oddball news, movies, sports, etc. Should be fun.

Can't wait to start it.

In other news, writing and editing continues. Did some more phone call tweakage last night. Will get to some of Sunday's shoot this weekend I believe.

Sunday --from Team Bj

So we did some shooting Sunday.
Haven't had a chance to look back on it yet, but I will.
The shoot went OK, I wanted to get to more, but I realized I can hope for only so much material for us to cover to make it quality work. So I will adjust other shoots accordingly. I'd say we have 2-3 more depending on how the next two go. Better planning on my part will make them run a bit smoother. But I am still happy over all. Mason is good as James and Robert is just awesomeness as Dicklan. It's fun.

In addition to that I am working on a couple of audio projects. One is an audio play (like the old school radio shows) the other is a fan dub. Fan dubs are taking animated works and dubbing them over with new voice actors, music and fx, like any major studio does with anime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJsz17wKMBg
Nothing fancy at all here just playing around with what could be the intro theme to the dub.

Doing these mostly for practice using Soundstage and with audio editing in general as I think that is an area I could be stronger in and since I don't have formal school training on this, any project that give me some experience and trial and error with this I am all for.

Stupid Sexy Flanders - A Team Billy post

Not even one full episode into the writing of the new project and I already have to change the name. It would appear that The Brothers Grunt was an MTV cartoon circa 1994. Oddly, I had never heard of it. It was pre-Beavis and Butthead, which could explain why. Stupid MTV with their never showing videos and retroactively stealing good ideas and their long hair and their Dan Folgelberg. I hate it and I hate it's stupid face. If MTV was a box full of kittens, I'd run over it with a lawnmower.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards calling it The Brothers Mung now. Mung is a word I really like, and I knew a dude whose last name was Mung once upon a time.

Looking ahead - A Team Billy post

I haven't had a lot to do since finishing the Insourcing scripts and sending them Bj's way. In fact, my involvement with the project is more or less limited at this point to waiting for Bj to send me rough edits so I can gripe about sound levels and/or let him know the guys are nailing their parts. To pass the time I've been brainstorming ideas to come up with the next project I will be trying to shove down Bj's throat.

As of right now, that project appears to be a mockumentary-style serial called "The Brothers Grunt" that follows three grown men that still live with their mother. Two of them are just lazy, the third is mildly agoraphobic and subscribes to many paranoid conspiracy theories. I haven't quite finished the script for the first episode, but it seems like an idea that might have legs.

On the Insourcing front, Bj is set for a big night of shooting on Sunday. I will both figuratively and literally be peeing myself with anticipation to see what goodness comes from this session.

Updates from Team Bj Land

Mason, Vegas (cameraman) and my best friend Jermaine are on my youtube list so they can see the rough cuts of "Insourcing." Haven't spoken to Mason or Vegas about since they were added to it, Jermaine watched it last night. He thought mostly the same about it as I as far as the lighting goes. But other than that "them shits is funny."

He and I go back to first and second grade so I hold his opinion in high regard. We have some planned collaborative work in the future.

Sept. 27th should be the next shooting day. I have to check back with Mason again to see that he is still golden for it. Robert is. Looking at having another person there to operate a boom mic. Listening to the eps with good headphones you can notice the audio levels as the camera was at different spots when we were shooting and using the mic on the cam, well that does that.

The exact eps...I was thinking 3-8, but we may not do the eps where Bobby G is as we don't have a Bobby G just yet. So I will work around it. I do hope for 5-6 eps worth and then a 3rd shoot to tie it all off.

We shall see.

Mild state of shock

A Team Billy post

I have seen the nearly completed first two episodes, and it's hard to describe exactly how I feel. People throw around the word "bonerific" an awful lot these days, but that is really the best word at the moment.

Everything is working so much better than I had anticipated. Actors are bringing their own style to their roles (in a good way) and even though Bj is lamenting over a ton of technical stuff, the production value is better than I expected. Of course the bar for me is pretty low since my last major production was "Der Movie," my 12th grade German project. That little stink bomb was awesomely bad.

Edging toward completion...

The following post is courtesy of Team Bj.
So cuts of episodes 1 & 2 are currently online on a super secret youtube page for cast/crew consumption and comments. I am liking what I have done so far. Of course part of me is nitpicking some of the technical stuff, lighting, sound, composition in the scenes. But the notes I am making are things I can fix in future episodes.

Robert is golden. His facial expressions are classic and some of his ideas and ad-libbing is great and adds to the script. Love how he is really getting into this role. Anxious to see more of Mason and I's interaction is Travis and James from the little bit we have done so far. I am still working to tweak my portrayal of Travis and find my niche with him.

The important thing for this really for me is completion. I have tried many times over the years to get some projects off the ground, original and not original ones. Along the way people have flaked, equipment becomes scares, I have gotten too busy or admittedly disinterested in the work, but even for something short I did not have something I worked on to the end to give me that sense of completion. I can't sell short the role I had in organizing "The Pact" that Jermaine and I worked on together under the banner of Jigsaw Entertainment. But he did the shooting, editing work on it. I just got him the script and actors, and I suppose that's no small feat either.

But this is hands on work and and I feel like this project will give me that and a sense of something to build on.

Can't wait for more.

Shooting shooting shooting....

From Camp Awesome AKA Team Bj
Robert as Dicklan is awesome.
His monologue provided the shots come off as I hope they do, is going to be great and the highlight of the episode. Definately look forward to seeing more of him.

We're looking at shooting again on the 27th, I have to check with Robert to see if he is working anywhere and if he is not, I am shooting for episodes 3-10. Seven eps, yeah seems like it could be a lot, but as long as we bring our game, it should be doable.

In the meantime I will be re-reading scripts as I have been, cutting together the first two episodes, I hope to have them out by the end of the weekend, depends on how my Saturday and Sunday go.

Like a boss

Team Billy - Got my first glimpse of Robert's portrayal of Insourcing's king of lower-middle management. All I got to see was a brief scene, but good stuff all the same.

It's also important because with Robert's scenes taken care of, we're almost at 100% for episodes 1 & 2. Not bad for two night's shooting. Team Bj may or may not agree, but based on the amount of work done in the first shoot and the funky scheduling problems associated with our actors I'm guessing the series should debut in mid-December. It may be good to go earlier, but I like to leave space for bad stuff to happen.

My role in this process is minimal. Bj send me rough edits and let's me make suggestions that neither of us expect to be acted on because reshoots for dinky stuff is almost out of the question. That means I'm thinking a lot more about the release time than he is. He's trying to get the next shoot lined up while I'm wondering if the guy at the T-shirt shop would put the Insourcing characters' faces on thongs. (Don't care what anyone says, that's an awesome idea)

Team Billy approves of the progress

I've seen the rough edits for the first half of episode 1 and nearly all of episode 2. Verdict: I am impressed.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was skeptical of getting this shot. There were times when it looked like it wouldn't happen, but Team Bj is nothing if not determined. Is it perfect? Of course not. We're talking about an inexperienced writer, inexperienced actors and an inexperienced director. But we're learning, and learning fast.

I showed the footage to Mrs. Team Billy and she laughed...for real...out loud and stuff. This is a big deal. She's by far my toughest critic. I eagerly force everything I write on her in hopes of pleasing her. Her usual response is "It's not your best work." Nevermind that she's never bothered to tell me what my best work was.

What really excites me is that it's only going to get better. I freely admit the scripts for the first few episodes are weak (not bad, just not as good as the others). If Bj and the guys are making this stuff work, I can't wait to see what they do with the scripts I actually like.

First shooting day... A team Bj posting.....

It went pretty well. My only complaint really was lighting. Which I expected to be an issue as that has always been a weakness of mine. This was a reason I pushed for shooting one or two episodes at first and then going back to look at them and see what needed to be fixed, rather than having a huge chunk of eps that had the problems I saw.

Script translated well it seemed. Mason was good with his lines as was I I like to think, I could be biased in that regard. Just need to shoot the caller from the first ep and my scene with Robert and then the tail end of ep. 2 with him as well. Looking to do that hmm....I will call him today and see if he can't run up here tomorrow evening for that.

With episode 3 and onward I seek to fix the lighting issue. Looking at some equipment now that won't bust my bank.

I have tested the funny on a couple of co-workers here and they got some laughs out of the brief bit that was seen so it gives me hope for the rest of the series.

Just need to fix the lighting and we will be golden.

It's alive!!!!!!!

Filming officially began last night on Insourcing. Bj and Mason shot the majority of the first three episodes, namely the stuff that just involved them. As promised, Team Bj sent me a rough edit of the episode one intro, and I was impressed. I wasn't expecting much, but it looks great and the the guys made the jokes work.

Apparently there are some lighting issues with some of the other scenes, but I like what I see so far. The scene Bj sent me was one of my least favorite as far as the scripts go. It was the first thing I wrote for the series and I didn't really have a grasp of the characters and direction yet. If they can make me like it on video, I can't wait to see what they were able to do with the stuff I actually like.

They've set the bar pretty high for Robert when he comes in to shoot his stuff. Needless to say, I'm geeking out a little today.

This has been a Team Billy post

On the precipice of the cusp of the edge of something

The following is a Team Billy post


So Team Bj found a set and will begin shooting as soon as he can wrangle his actors. I'm both excited and a little nervous. It's cool that they are going to get to it, but wondering if the humor on the page will translate to the screen. Naturally I think it's funny, but I'm apparently a poor judge of my own work. (just ask my friend Kevin about my now infamous Charlie Brown drawing or my wife about pretty much everything I do)

I'm comforted by the fact that I've gotten to meet the major players involved. Bj knows me well enough to have a grasp for the rhythm and flow of the comedy. Both Mason and Robert came to our meeting back in July with some great ideas for their characters. Mason really seems to grasp the role of straight-man and looks like he has a few mannerisms that will give the character James a little more depth than was written. Robert came to the meeting with strong vision for the boss character. So strong, in fact, that it changed the way I wrote the character from there on out. His character went from almost part of the background to a scene-stealing beast.

Team Bj will be sending me either semi-edited or near-finished footage as he works on it. That will be the test. I'll either get a chuckle or start writing my manifesto on how Team Bj is molesting my artistic vision.

Insourcing has found an office source

Wootness has insued in the land of Taurian Films.
We now have an office to shoot Insourcing in. I asked my boss, big big boss, at work about using the facilities and he gave the OK. It would be scheduled and carried out after hours so it would not interfere with anyone's job or my own, so he said it was cool. As long as it was not an all the time thing...so no...no reality TV show will be able to be done here, but Insourcing will....great great news. Now to just get in touch with Robert and Mason to get their schedules and we can begin. All the scripts are written so I will need to do some re-reading and logging, making note of props, people and all that. But the biggest hurdle for us, location, has been jumped. Rejoice.
-Team Bj

Testing...

Team Bj is testing new super awesome blogging features....

Creating controversy

The following is a Team Billy post.

Being bored as I currently am, I've decided to stir the pot a little. I've been discussing production difficulties with Bj lately (actors' schedules, finding a proper set, whether or not to buy one of those "Hang In There" posters of a kitten on a tree branch, etc.), which has led me to think about what part of making this series is the most difficult.

On first glance it would seem clear that Team Bj faces many more obstacles. He has all of these problems to work out before he even starts recording, then an all new set of issues once that little red light on the camera lights up. My role - on the surface - appeared to involve little more than sitting on the couch trying to get my wife to laugh at dirty jokes.

But let's go a little deeper. Bj has to work a schedule around the actors' availability, but the actors exist. Bj has to find an office in which to film, but that office exists (somewhere). Bj will have to edit the footage from the shoots and piece it together into some logical order, but that footage will exist at that point. When I started writing, there was nothing. We're talking Old Testament darkness, people. I had to create these characters and squeeze words out of them. I had to create their lives and their work and their hopes and dreams and still somehow work in Wilford Brimley.

Of course Team Bj would argue that I had it much easier. He'll say stuff like "Billy's so smart and funny and people like him a lot. It wasn't hard for him to write this at all because he's incapable of NOT being funny. He can read the phonebook and have people peeing in their pants. I'm jealous of his awesomeness." Team Bj would say that the burden of putting such perfection on film is all but impossible, but do not be swayed. He's getting to live in my fantasy land, which is reward enough for all the sleepless nights filming and then the other sleepless nights editing and producing these shows that no one but our respective mothers are going to watch anyway.

Team Bj Update-ery

Yes I am not embarrassed about my un-like for Italian Spiderman. I just don’t get it. Billy has been trying to sell me on that for months and I am just not buying into it. I guess I should be more open to viewing stuff that is out there and see what the popular shorts are doing, but….gah…just can’t do I-Spiderman.

So we have all 15 episodes of Insourcing done which is great and the scripts are funny as hell. I’d like to start shooting the first one Saturday, well not start shooting I aim to get it done. I’d like to see how we do, how we portray our characters and some other little things before we launch into shooting blocks of episodes. The block shooting will be important as Mason attends school at UT in Austin. My bad for assuming he went to UNT and would be easily accessible anytime I needed him. But it can still work and he is more than happy to come up here on the shooting weekends.

We were going to use one office set, and still might I am keeping my eyes open for another though. Of course finding it in 48 hrs may be tough. I have enlisted some local people here to help me in my search so hopefully it will turn up something so we can get going, both Robert and Mason are eager to go, as am I....

Stuff you should be checking out

The following post is brought to you by Team Billy

Since we don't have anything of our own for you to watch yet, I thought I'd pass along a few of my favorite web series.

Anarchy for Breakfast - Not only is this really funny, but the actress playing Desdemona is one of my friends from high school. Truly great stuff.

The Guild - A very popular web series and one of the best, hands down. If you're not watching it, you should. That goes double for any gamers out there.

Italian Spiderman - Bj will respectfully disagree with my opinions of the ultimate awesomeness of this series, but Italian Spiderman is what made me want to start writing web serials. It proves how smart dumb humor can be.

You've got your assignments, now get to work.

What is Insourcing?

Insourcing is the web series currently in production by your friends at Taurian Films. How's that for a simple answer?

The series was born out of our need to do something that 1) could be done for next to no money and 2) require as small a cast as possible. The first thing that I (a.k.a Team Billy) wrote for Team Bj was a partial script based on our awesomely un-awesome kickball team back in Victoria. We were going to shoot this with our coworkers and teammates, but my mojo fizzled out about halfway through the script (finishing it is still on my to-do list.) After that, I set out writing my first web series script, Sand in My Cubicle - something of a mashup of Lost, Lord of the Flies and The Office. I wrote 14 episodes of that, but we couldn't get production moving on it because it involved a large cast and a beach setting. Team Bj relocated to Denton (i.e. real freaking far from a beach) and SiMC was shelved.

I fled Victoria shortly after Bj, settling in College Station. Bj was getting the itch to film something, but we didn't exactly have anything filmable under current circumstances. This inspired me to come up with a workable idea. I thought about what we should be able to pull off, and all I came up with was two or three guys in a room not really doing anything. And so Insourcing was born.

Insourcing follows two customer complaint operators, Travis and James, through their days. James is a hard enough working fellow trying to do his job with as little distraction and drama as possible. Travis is not so much concerned with his job and tries to keep himself entertained by creating as much distraction and drama as possible. They are led by their stalwart manager Mr. Dicklan (pronounced D'Klan), who strives to be their lighthouse in the storm and never passes up a training opportunity.

This merry trio works at United Family Products, a company that produces many of the products seen in infomercials such as the Spin Daddy pottery wheel, Shoe-in-a-Tube, Liquid Seamstress and the Sprechen Sie Spanish foreign language system. Bobby G. is the face of the company and one of the most popular pitchmen on late night TV.

How does all of this fit together? I've written out the entire 15-episode series and I'm still not sure myself. We're shooting for a late-fall release of the first episode and we hope you'll get a chuckle or two out of it. Until then, we'll keep you posted.

--Team Billy