We’re all a little excited this week, because Dice Productions had a little cameo appearance on The Culture Show on BBC2 last night… even if that cameo was only about two seconds long. But hey, we were on the Culture Show (on the telly) so who cares, right?
As you can see from the pic above, Message in a Bottle was included in a little montage during Josie Long‘s segment on the rise and rise of online comedy, which focused squarely on Funny or Die UK and Popcorn Comedy, in which we’ve had a little more active role through October’s Electric Cinema screening. Ian’s giggling face was also spotted on the show enjoying Popcorn Comedy at the Roxy Bar and Screen in October.
If Josie is to be believed (and I think she should be), online comedy is where it’s at. We totally agree that being able to produce and distribute your own content gives you so much more artistic freedom to experiment and not be so precious about ideas. Like Jon Petrie attested, you avoid the ‘too many cooks’ situation. As everyone knows, an overabundance of chefs does not good comedy make.
Now these creations are making their way into the clubs, bars, cinemas and underground Victorian toilets of Britain, through nights like Popcorn, there’s never been a better excuse to pick up a camera or sit down at your computer and create something hilarious, challenging or downright baffling.
If we’re honest, a glimpse of Ian’s face (above) and Louis’ hands are not the only things exciting us this week. Hopefully we can tell you more about those things some time in the near future.
The website is the UK branch of Will Ferrell’s hugely successful approach at online comedy. Funny or Die UK is run by James Serafinowicz who is also brother of our own personal hero, Peter Serafinowicz. What’s special about Funny or Die UK is that no one so far has put the amount of effort, professionalism and backing into a comedy video site that has as much an aim to promote emerging talent as it does to provide star comedians with a new media platform.
As Message in A Bottle never really had a proper chance to say hello on the blog , here it is:
- There’s a 21″ Cintiq up for grabs! The voting system isn’t the most obvious, so here’s handy visual aid. Click ‘(Read more)’ near the top of the sidebar, and give a nice fat star rating under my name. We’ll love you forever.
