Media Presence - New Show Part 2

When you're a do- it-yourself-er, you need to figure out how you're going to distribute your show. One thing to keep in mind with a new show is you certainly want it to be available to a wide audience so many people have the opportunity to see it. To start, I purchased a website. As some of you may know, I've struggled with this website and yes, occasionally swore at it as you think you fixed something only to find out, you didn't. Or added a great new feature that is exciting, only to find out, nope, you did that wrong also! Yes, I finally just deleted the comment section which never seemed to work! Thus, I was not looking forward to setting up and maintaining a second website for the new show.

Well, to widen the audience, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter accounts were created for our show. The thought of trying to keep all these sites going was overwhelming because each site has unique ways of communicating.

Then, it happened. Have you ever had an experience when you discover or are given critical information just when you need it? Serendipity? Divine intervention? Whichever it is, it happens at a perfect time. I heard about a friend's YouTube page which consists of fun, simple videos and has over 2.2 million subscribers! It's called DavidsTV. Check it out - here's the link DavidsTV - YouTube.

Thus it was decided. Our show would be broadcast on YouTube and simple announcements would come through the other media outlets. The good thing about YouTube

is if you have enough subscribers, your page can have advertising which the page would receive a portion of. One only needs about 10,000 subscribers - a girl can dream!

Unfortunately, it appears until we post a video, people can not subscribe. Right now, we are working on a trailer. Once that's available, I'll send the links to our various media outlets including YouTube so you can subscribe!

So if you've made it to the end of this blog, here is a little teaser. Our show's tag line is 'more wine?' It is aptly called 'Judy Clark After Dark'! Enjoy!

Next up: Branding.

Exciting New Show - Part 1

Welcome back! As mentioned before, I took some time in February to work on a new show. The original goal was to release the show this February. That goal quickly moved to March and now September is looking hopeful. There are several different reasons for this. One biggie is the amount of time and effort it takes to create something this size. I've had a vision of this show for a long time used Bedtime Stories as a start to help me learn the process of creating a show. It's funny because, at the time, Bedtime Stories was a real struggle. Now with that experience under my belt, Bedtime Stories seems like a piece of cake! It was one set, one actor, one editor, etc.

To tell you a little about the show, it is called 'Judy Clark After Dark' and will star me along with two of my friends; Gisèle Clements and Amy Hoffman. It's more of a talk show with funny videos and occasional guest stars. Think Lucy meets Tracy Ullman meets Adult swim meet Dave Chappell. It also has more adult themes than Bedtime Stories.

The show starts with me inviting people into my home for a cup of coffee and enjoyable conversation. My kitchen was going to be the set and friends would be invited over to joke around, show funny videos, and maybe even a little food and drink. At first, it was just going to be hosted by me with a guest. Then Gisèle and I started to create video skits. Gisèle and I really play off each other well so I invited her to be a host. Then our friend Amy joined us for some videos and before you know it, Amy also became a host and it morphed into more of an ensemble.

Then COVID hit with social distancing. Worse yet, before we were able to film any of the episodes, Gisèle moved to Canada. Not the Canada close to us, the Canada far, far away in a different time zone - New Brunswick. She is actually now one hour ahead of us. Because of COVID and the restrictions at the border, we are not able to film in the same location, but now, she is soooo far away, it's impossible. So the dream of filming in my kitchen died. Now we have to film over the computer in a meeting fashion.

Pictures from our first episode.

This presented a whole bunch of new technological challenges. As you can see, lighting was an issue our first show. Internet searches on how things are done did help but our budget is small at present and each new option had to be tried. Many failed. For instance, we learned our computer cameras are not great quality so we changed to our phones. I do use my laptop to record the episode and my phone to film so I had to be in the meeting twice, hide the computer me and make sure the sound on the computer was off as to not 'rebound'.

Next, if you've ever been in one of those meetings, it's hard to know when to talk so we had to create a loose script to make it look a bit more seamless. Lastly, and one issue we are still dealing with, is our sound quality. We have tried a number of different options, headphones, mics, etc, and are still working on that. So all the technical aspects take time and are still in the process.

Here is a picture from our second episode. Lighting is a bit better and you can see we are starting to hit our grove as an ensemble.

Hope you're enjoying our new journey.

Next up: Media Presence.

Acting Reel!

Hello everyone. You're probably thinking, hey Judy, you're an actor, don't you have an acting reel? Why, yes, I do! So glad you asked.

The reel actually starts and ends with an acting class. The class consisted of us coming for a film audition. We were given the script a day before and had to prepare. Then we had to wait in a room, nervous with all the other actors, waiting for our audition. One by one we were called and performed the script as best we could. Then we all gathered and watched our videos. One very important thing I learned is every actor was different! We all looked and sounded different. We all did well and at that point, it really was just up to what the director was looking for. I loved how this clip starts because I am my occasionally clueless self! That was not acting! LOL

The second clip is my performance as a waitress without lines which I thought was convincing!

The third clip is the first short I did for the Buffalo State students. It was really early morning, and we were filming at one of the student's homes whose parents were sleeping upstairs. I inquired how loud I could be because my character was very upset at the death of her son. They did 'do what you need to'. Yes, I woke the house! It was the first time I heard - 'wow, you're a real actress!'

The fourth clip was a PSA (Public Service Announcement) on heroin/drug addiction. I had realized, at this point, I do pretty well in average mom roles.

The last clip is back to my acting class. We performed the scene again and were asked to add something different at the end. All I could think of was my Polish Heritage and my grandmother and came up with 'babushka.'

Enjoy!

Also, we are working hard on our new series Judy Clark After Dark but the process is slow. So we are going to take the month of February off from these posts. We will restart in March and hopefully have a new show to share!

Oh and by the way: GO BILLS!

See you soon!!