Nigel and Friends Needs Help!

It's the eve of the one-year anniversary of the NoParking Berry YouTube channel! Hooray!

Alright, I'm just going to be flat out honest with you! Nigel and Friends! Is! Crap! Looking back at it, it is simply an unoriginal, poorly-made, creativity-lacking, cheap, effortless little comedy that I can't believe I was hoping to be the flagship series of my YouTube channel. The only episode I don't find to be too bad is the first one. I've came up with the idea in 2011 (Nigel and Friends basically started life as Samsung Windows phone videos I created to entertain myself), and I started to make the first few episodes for YouTube a year later during the summer. I was 12-13 years old when I was making those things, back when I didn't thought too much about quality. As much as I enjoy playing the characters, the show is realistically speaking 99% unlikely to win a fanbase or appeal to a wide audience. As I got older, learned and understood more about quality in entertainment, the goods and bads of cliches, what makes a show groundbreaking, what can trigger the show to hold a hatedom for reasons involving its quality, and what can get the show to win a small fanbase. Thus, now I see my previous attempts at making the episodes as old shames. Well, you know what they say: if at first you don't succeed, try, try again! Nobody's perfect the first time. They learn from their mistakes, then try to improve.

I haven't totally threw away Nigel and Friends yet, but it is on a long hiatus since the fifth episode was made (with on-and-off attempts by me at making new episodes with my crappy, AAA-battery-fueled camcorder), until I'm ready to make some improvements to the show before those stuffed animals of mine ever see the light of YouTube again! Yes, the first season is far from complete yet! And during said long hiatus, I was enjoying playing and joking around with Nigel and the gang, treating them almost like real friends...while keeping in mind that they're inanimate objects brought to life by myself. I've made episodes six and seven of the show, both featuring Nigel's Italian Uncle Luigi, but they have yet to see the light of day; they might even have to be remade again!

Anyway, here are the four ways I'd make Nigel and Friends a better SuperMarioLogan-esque YouTube series.

#1: Use a better camera and software:

A major reason why I'd hesitate to make episodes of Nigel and Friends is the Vivitar video camera that runs on

AAA batteries that run out too fast, has a low resolution of 640x480, a tiny SD storage for clips, and crappy sound quality. Also, the episodes were edited in mediocre glory with VideoPad. Now, it isn't that VideoPad's a weak software (it is more exciting than Windows Movie Maker), it was probably because there was no effort in me to make the show look more imaginative. Now, I was advised on the importance of picture quality and editing to the videos. The camera of the iPad Mini, which I used to make a trailer for Nigel and Friends, had a beautiful HD ring to it. So, that got me into wishing all subsequent Nigel and Friends-related videos were like that. Unfortunately, the iPad is broken now, so that means I'd have to wait either for a brand-new high-resolution camcorder, or for the iPad to be fixed. As for editing, you might have seen in a few of my videos from August 2014 onwards how my editing skills improved from my earlier ones. This also applies to my choice of software; although I'd still use Windows Movie Maker for projects that I didn't exactly intend to be such crowning acheivements, I'm now experimenting (and succeeding) in trying out more impressive video editors, like Wondershare and CyberLink PowerDirector. In particular with the latter, I taught myself how to put a video in the PIP track against a photo background, add the Chorma Key effect to, and out came my first green screen test!

So, with the combinations of HD camera resolution, eye-popping software, and improved editing skills of mine, just think of the possiblities of Nigel and Friends ending up being more amusing and pleasing to the

eyes! Right now, I'm imagining a scene where Doyle has a confrontation with his shoulder angel conscience, who is a PIP element with a Chorma Key effect! So many pretty effects!

#2: Script the series:

Unless they are projects with voiceover provided by myself, such as Maxwell and Marty in "Adventure!", The Eye Doctor is Your Friend!, and My Rant on Lois Griffin!, I usually didn't care to script whether videos that were recorded on camera. What I usually do as opposed to scripting is to think up the idea, come up with what quotes the characters to say, and before the camera turns on, whatever good lines, moments, and jokes that were popped up in my head are rehearsed. It's what I'd like to call pre-improv. But often, once I'm ready to record, I'd forget what great lines I came up. So the delivery of dialogue and acting comes out as incredibly bland at best and as poor as a preschooler's venture at making a video at worst. Oh, how I love self-deprecating! And I don't feel good about stammering as I perform.

Anyway, now I think it's best to script the episodes because it allows me to keep those great ideas from my head onto paper. Plus, it gives me much more flexibility. I guess the reason why I don't script Nigel and Friends, or any other videos that are recorded by camera is because much of the action is done in my bedroom, so I wouldn't have the computer with the script to look at. And I don't have a printer. Here an idea: I'll just take pictures of the script with my phone, and look at those as I act as the characters. And whenever I pause to go to the next page with the camera still on, it's be edited out, of course. But, that doesn't mean I'm saying no to rehearsing prior!

#3: Don't be a Cliche Storm, and have more imagination:

Like I said before, I've been reading about cliches and unoriginality, and the dangers of them, reaction-wise. And boy, is Nigel and Friends guilty of this! What I used to do was, when I've watched an interesting episode of a cartoon, I'd try to rip it off using the Nigel and Friends gang. For example, the episode "The Bad Word" is a copy of the infamous SpongeBob episode "Sailor Mouth", with little differences between the two things. Another thing I feel bad about the show are the cutaway gags, a la Family Guy. They are poorly done, and practially stolen from Family Guy! For example, "The Bad Word" had a cutaway with Toucan Sam guffawing at the movie theatre at a Chris Rock movie, to the annoyance of the other movie goers. It's an obvious ripoff of the gag from the Family Guy episode "Stew-Roids" with the seagull watching an Adam Sandler movie! Talk about plaigarism! Although, I would like to have the characters lampshade their poor use of cutaways. So, if I want to do those gags that Family Guy's so famous for, I must create some of my own style, and use them in

moderation.

Also, I shall no longer make direct ripoffs of other, better cartoon episodes. I may take influence from them, but still use my own style of humor, storytelling, and potential twists to make it stand out a bit.

Finally...

#4: Have some of the characters actually have some character:

I don't think much of the characters on Nigel and Friends actually have any character strong enough to contrast from each other. While a couple of the pre-existing folks, such as Garfield, do some personality that either differ slightly or exaggerate from their original, the other guys apparently have dirt-level personality.

Now, we all know that writting good characters with depth isn't so easy. But, during the hiatus, I tried to develop the characters some more. Here are the character descriptions I'd like to feature on the show:

Nigel is the Only Sane Man (or polar bear) but he'd come out as very cynical, and very prone to condescend his friends, to the point where it's debatable whether or not he is even grateful for the group of buddies he has to begin with. Nevertheless, he'd show kindness, helpfulness, and support for them if he feels to. He also doesn't know jack about his Jewish heritage, much to his guilt.

Garfield is not only EXTREMELY gluttonous, but also rather sociopathic, showing little care or empathy for anyone. Only on rare occasions will he ever actually show off his good side.

Doyle and Ratty are both insecure, slightly scatterbrained, and obnoxious. So as such, they're often abused and ostracized by their peers for comedy. However, of the two, Doyle is smarter, less gulible, but more neurotic than his buddy Ratty.

Mickey Mouse is kind yet sometimes egotistical, given his fame, Arthur Read tries to be as level-headed as Nigel (only lacking the condescending attitude), and Elmo is a snarky three and a half year old with a bit of an attitude who mixes his young naive way of thinking with some precocious knowledge.

Fozzie Bear is the dumbest, loudest, siliest character of the group, providing a whole lot of non sequitur moments. He also takes pride in his jokes, even though, just like on The Muppet Show, everyone thinks they're terrible. However, as scatterbrained as he is, Fozzie is at least smart enough stand by his own positive opinion of his style of humor, and reminds his folks that he knows what effort is.

Bugs Bunny is his usual nonchalant self, with some arrogance mixed into him. Daffy Duck, on the other hand, is nicer to his peers, his egoism isn't so prominent on this show, but has concern over his famous lisping, which is exaggerated a bit on Nigel and Friends.

Kermit the Frog simply acts as the calm, level-headed foil to his eccentric, boisterous old friend Fozzie Bear.

He also has a recurring uncontrolable tendency to eat whatever flies buzz by.

Fun and fluffy Fluffy is seen by Nigel as one of the best of his friends, because she is a well balance of wisdom, supportablity, and eccentricity. As one of the few female characters on the show, she acts as a sort of motherly figure to the more immature male characters when she wants to.

Woodstock is a Butt Monkey and Chew Toy (though not to the extent as Doyle and Ratty), due to his small size.

He tries to come out as level-headed as the rest of the gang, but is often underestimated.

Howard and Eaglet can be seen both in and out of the Nigel and Friends universe as basically copies of Doyle and Ratty.

Toucan Sam can be comedically seen as the bland one of the group, with a bland voice lacking the Britich accent he used in the Froot Loops ads. He also has prejudice feelings for any cereal that isn't his own.

Buzz Lightyear is incredibly egotistical, narcissistic, incompetent with his supposed heroism, and has the attitude of a stereotypical gym rat.

Sally McNoggin is an eight year old who'd zigzag from being a level-headed, precocious Lisa Simpson-like

girl, to a bit of a bratty, snarky shrew. She is also self-concious over the fact that she is the token paper doll of the group...that is until the days that she made some paper doll friends of her own! Here's the five girls:

Yes, between November 2014 and January 2015, I've decided that Sally shouldn't be lonely, and have some buddies of her own kind. Lisa Simpson is a perfect person as her BFF. And I, being the As Told by Ginger fan that I am, just had to include Ginger Foutley, Dodie Bishop (who I want to make nicer, more good-natured, and more ambigously gay than on the show she came from), and Macie Lightfoot. Now, Sally is a happy camper...especially with Lisa! However, her new quartet of friends won't be used on Nigel and Friends until I make an episode where Sally feels unhappy with her status as the only two-dimensional one, then seeks to find other paper doll friends!

Anyway, back to my proposed characterizations, Genevieve, Nigel's mom, is a stereotypical Jewish mother who nags a lot, sometimes abuses her son, and acts occasionally anal retentive. She is also in a sibling rivalry with her more famous chef brother, Luigi.

Now these sound like characters and not cardboard cutouts, don't they?

So, making these proposed improvement to Nigel and Friends may make the show longer and more difficult for me to make (especially since I have other things under my belt), but they are the only ways to make it watchable and maybe it'll win a small fanbase once it gets those improvements going. But like I said, I'm not ready to officially resume production of Nigel and Friends right away until I get my better HD camera, better editing software, and better writting skills all accumulated. If you like the first five episodes the way they were (or at least think of them as so bad, it's good), I have nothing against you. I've just learned not to lack so much effort into making my videos for YouTube. In the meantime, I have so many other YouTube ideas I need to bring out.