Some of my college buddies and I recently watched on Netflix the 2013 film "Drinking Buddies" (Directed and written by Joe Swanberg). The movie stars (from left to right in photo) Ron Livingston, Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson and Anna Kendrick. Olivia Wilde's real-life fiance, Jason Sudeikis, even makes a small appearance in the film. 
The movie is a comedy more than anything else, but it does have strong romantic qualities. I'm not going to give away any parts of the film because I don't like being a spoiler, but if you like to laugh, like light-hearted indie films, and love beer, you'll find yourself enjoying "Drinking Buddies." 
I highly admire how director Joe Swanberg directed the film. He wrote the whole plot and outline for the film...but he never wrote any dialogue. That's right, the whole movie was improvised by the actors...and they did a great job under Swanberg's direction. In my opinion, the improvisational approach to the dialogue (with the visual style of the film) gave the movie a nice relatable and naturalistic feel. Anyways, I recommend you go and watch "Drinking Buddies" on Netflix!

As a long time Conan fan, I automatically get excited whenever I see Jordan Schlansky make an appearance on my television screen. Jordan Schlansky has been a producer and employee of Conan O'Brien's for some time now, ever since Conan had Late Night. And for quite some time now, Conan has been giving Jordan a hard time (...and many would say, a hard time well deserved) but every single second shared on the screen together, Conan consistently has brought me to tears of laughter. In the video above, Conan delivers again in the hilarity when he makes an appearance in Jordan's messy office unexpectedly and then continues to heckle him about his bad office habits. Hysterical. Click here to watch one of Conan's first packages with Jordan Schlansky back in the Late Night with Conan O'Brien days. 

IFC has some really incredible comedy original series', including Portlandia, Maron, and of course Comedy Bang! Bang!. I plan on beginning to watch The Birthday Boys and The Spoils of Babylon very soon as well, but if you have never seen one of IFC's comedy series' before, I recommend you do....NOW!!! They got some great stuff. 
The clip featured above is one of my favorite bits from Comedy Bang! Bang! ever. It comes from the first episode of the very first season of the television show, but it's a bit that has stuck with me. The always hilarious Will Forte plays an insane and reckless airplane pilot that explains his experience landing a plane in a shopping mall...I think that's all I need to say. Watch the clip to enjoy the absurdity.  

My group and I made this project for our RTVF64 class back in the fall (October 2013). This was originally suppose to be a longer piece but we had to cut it down to under 2 minutes for the project requirements. If you couldn't tell, "Baking Bad" is a spoof of AMC's Breaking Bad, haha.

Written by: Mike Bialek, Nick McGee, and Kyle Vizza
Directed by: Nick McGee, Mike Bialek, and Kyle VIzza
DP: Nick McGee
Edited: Nick McGee and Mike Bialek
Graphics: Nick McGee

Starring:
Tyler Krastins
Dan Johnson
Justin Chevalier

October 2013. Hofstra University. RTVF64

The video featured above is one of director Vern Moen's newest music videos, "Come To My Party" by Black Joe Lewis. Mr. Moen is a producer, director, cinematographer, and editor for the Long Beach Film Company, which is a production company based out of Southern California. 
I've been a big fan of Vern's for quite some time now. Myself being a big Cold War Kids' fan, I first noticed Vern when I realized he was the director for the majority of their music videos. Vern has also directed many music videos for The Dead Weather, Mando Diao, and Against Me!, as well as directing documentaries for Radiohead and the Foo Fighters. 
Vern does a great job at forming a strong visual aesthetic style for all the musicians he directs music videos for. With a strong avant-garde influence, Vern is very ingenious with how he creates his works. Like for example, in the "Come To My Party" music video above, Vern used an in-camera projection system with two cameras to then project what was being captured on the camera back onto the subjects. This created the cool look in the music video. Vern does a lot of neat and experimental things while in principle photography and in the editing room. From watching his music videos, I also can't imagine that he works on large budgets/workflows. The most expensive thing he probably has to deal with on his music video productions is renting cinema cameras from rental houses. But despite his low budget workflows (comparative to other music video directors), Vern has been able to consistently put out incredible music videos. I highly admire his approach to film/video production.

I was excited to see Seth Meyers on the cover of Time Magazine's first edition of 2014. I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail so I have yet to read the full article, but I am very excited to learn how Seth plans on adapting the beloved Late Night franchise when he takes over the show on February 24th. Seth is a much more low-key comic/entertainer than Mr. Fallon so I don't expect Seth to be as extravagant as Jimmy...but I like that. From what I have read from Huff Post, Seth's Late Night will be more news based. A sentence from the Huff Post article about how Seth plans to adapt Late Night also made me a very very happy man, "They'll (Seth's writers) also draw on Meyers' 'SNL' experience with more sketch comedy and staffers playing recurring characters." If this sentence is true, it'll mean Meyers' Late Night will resemble how Conan did Late Night . PLEASE PLEASE BE TRUE!

About a month ago, I saw this old picture of the Late Night with Conan O'Brien staff from back in 1993. I first saw the photo when longtime Conan writer/performer Brian Stack posted it onto his Facebook, and then I saw it again when Conan showed it on "Conan" when Louis CK was the guest that night.
If you haven't noticed, the picture features some greats. From left to right is Bob Odenkirk, Robert Smigel, a younger Conan, Andy Richter, and then Louis CK (I hope I'm not missing anyone!). All of these guys were writers for Conan for a period of time. Incredible. Its just a reminder of how many great comedians/producers Late Night with Conan O'Brien bred over its 16+ years...not to mention that pretty much half of the cast/writers for The Office were once interns for Conan during his reign as the Late Night host.