About ten years ago, my husband and I were discussing the classic Abbott and Costello "Who's On First?" routine, when Nelly Furtado's hit song, "I'm Like a Bird" came onto the radio. The line, "I don't know where my soul is" quickly became "I-Don't-Know is on third base" and I was subsequently challenged to create a parody that mashed the two together.
The lyrics were written quickly, which I attribute to the fact that I love both the song and the comedy routine and knew them well at the time. Not wanting to swipe someone else's karaoke version, we contacted our actor/musician/composer friend, Reston Williams to ask if he could re-create the instrumental for us, incorporating the Take Me Out To The Ballgame theme into the beginning, which he expertly did. The plan was to record the parody and make an accompanying video in the nearby park and baseball diamond, with myself playing both parts.
But, you know, life happens... I became pregnant, and that wasn't the "look" we were going for.
Some years later, we fell into the hands of some producers in New York who created many projects for us, one of which was a revitalization of the Abbott and Costello franchise using puppets. The project fell through because it was all a scam (see my husband's blog about all that here: http://alexander-galant.blogspot.ca/2013/11/i-was-duped-dont-let-it-happen-to-you.html?spref=fb) but we had already privately commissioned the puppets by the time we came to that realization. Despite the bogus project, we loved our mini-Abbott and little-Costello! Our puppet-builder was Kanja Chen of Chensational Puppets who did an amazing job, didn't he? See the comparison below!
The lyrics were written quickly, which I attribute to the fact that I love both the song and the comedy routine and knew them well at the time. Not wanting to swipe someone else's karaoke version, we contacted our actor/musician/composer friend, Reston Williams to ask if he could re-create the instrumental for us, incorporating the Take Me Out To The Ballgame theme into the beginning, which he expertly did. The plan was to record the parody and make an accompanying video in the nearby park and baseball diamond, with myself playing both parts.
But, you know, life happens... I became pregnant, and that wasn't the "look" we were going for.
Some years later, we fell into the hands of some producers in New York who created many projects for us, one of which was a revitalization of the Abbott and Costello franchise using puppets. The project fell through because it was all a scam (see my husband's blog about all that here: http://alexander-galant.blogspot.ca/2013/11/i-was-duped-dont-let-it-happen-to-you.html?spref=fb) but we had already privately commissioned the puppets by the time we came to that realization. Despite the bogus project, we loved our mini-Abbott and little-Costello! Our puppet-builder was Kanja Chen of Chensational Puppets who did an amazing job, didn't he? See the comparison below!
So, a couple of years passed by, and we found ourselves looking at two beautiful puppets that were begging to be used, with the perfect backup music for a parody sitting in a computer.
Why not combine them?
Kanja was contacted to help manipulate Abbott, we asked our actor friend Adrian Gorrissen to have the important job of being Costello's right hand, and scheduled a shoot date in August 2013 in our kitchen with a green screen.
Want technical stuff?
The vocals were recorded on iPad using Hokusai with a MiC by Apogee, video was on an older Panasonic DV camera (thanks to Ted Ambrose for helping us with a high-quality transfer of our green-screen footage!), and Alexander Galant (who also directed us) edited it on a combination of a 1999 version of Adobe Premiere and a 2013 version of - ummm something... Let me look - HitFilm! Which is awesome for greenscreen and image tracking, but it's funny how some of the new softwares don't have some of the basic control that older softwares do.
Kanja was contacted to help manipulate Abbott, we asked our actor friend Adrian Gorrissen to have the important job of being Costello's right hand, and scheduled a shoot date in August 2013 in our kitchen with a green screen.
Want technical stuff?
The vocals were recorded on iPad using Hokusai with a MiC by Apogee, video was on an older Panasonic DV camera (thanks to Ted Ambrose for helping us with a high-quality transfer of our green-screen footage!), and Alexander Galant (who also directed us) edited it on a combination of a 1999 version of Adobe Premiere and a 2013 version of - ummm something... Let me look - HitFilm! Which is awesome for greenscreen and image tracking, but it's funny how some of the new softwares don't have some of the basic control that older softwares do.
The baseball diamond backdrop is ink and watercolour, painted by me.
And then, after a few harmony tweaks (the original song was a soundscape of harmonies, but it was too much for this parody, so we pared it down to a choice few places so the dialogue would stand out) and fixing a small video glitch that occurred in the upload...
... we looked at each other in amazement.
More than a decade with this idea on back-burner, and it was...
actually...
finally...
finished!
**If you have something on your back burner, I encourage you strongly to take some time, dig it out, polish it up and get it done. It is an awesome feeling of accomplishment.**
At long last, may I proudly present "Who Is On First?":
Hope you enjoy it!
And enjoy watching the original routine, and the original song's video, too! Their links are in the info box under my video on the YouTube page.
I thank everyone who was with this project on its long journey. It wouldn't be what it is, without you.
And then, after a few harmony tweaks (the original song was a soundscape of harmonies, but it was too much for this parody, so we pared it down to a choice few places so the dialogue would stand out) and fixing a small video glitch that occurred in the upload...
... we looked at each other in amazement.
More than a decade with this idea on back-burner, and it was...
actually...
finally...
finished!
**If you have something on your back burner, I encourage you strongly to take some time, dig it out, polish it up and get it done. It is an awesome feeling of accomplishment.**
At long last, may I proudly present "Who Is On First?":
Hope you enjoy it!
And enjoy watching the original routine, and the original song's video, too! Their links are in the info box under my video on the YouTube page.
I thank everyone who was with this project on its long journey. It wouldn't be what it is, without you.