Kris 'Drivaaar' Carter

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I enjoyed that, it was pretty good! Some good character bits, and some good gags, it worked well. The animation is minimal, but given the timeframe it was produced in, that’s fine. Pete’s voice acting for Lister is more motive, which si is good, and the Ben’s Rimmer usually hits the mark (although sometimes it’s a spot on David Mitchell instead of Arnold Rimmer!). Personally, I’d have shortened it a little, but it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

Nice work guys!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

>>Also thought it demonstrated the role that models still have to play in the genre – none of the lunar surface stuff would have been anywhere near as effective in, say, CG.

Or, say, Etch A Sketch.

I loved this film, definetely a DVD buy for me!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I’d rather live with Kryten. I hate housework.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Oh, I’d be a crap Holly. I’m Welsh.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Yeah, that’s Hol. Look at the nose! :)

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Sorry dude…. gotta say though your initial response did make me grin tho’!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Oh God, P2P, there was absolutely NO need for that imagery! Noooo!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I’d be more than happy to have Hattie back in the role. Let her have first refusal at least.

If she wouldn’t return, I’d happily settle for any of the following:

Bill Bailey
Kev Eldon
Mark Heap
Justin Lee Collins
Lucy Porter
Susannah Doyle (Joy from Drop The Dead Donkey)

An eclectic mix, if you will.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Call centres? Working in’t colliery down t’pit?

LUXURY.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Thread derailed epically! Free rum for all!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

The bad guy from Clerks: The animated series…

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I hate the film effect. Where’s the laughter track? I miss the model shots.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

2173… that’s good fun!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I will staunchly defend Series VII. It takes flak because it tried a lot of different stuff, all in one go. A re-jigged cast, new writers, no studio audience during filming, film effect production values, new CGI effects…

Yeah, sure some stuff didn’t work. The added studio audience laughter occasionally overwhelms dialogue. The CGI has dated horribly (although I still love that one shot of Starbug swooping into camera that they use at the end of the opening credits. Kochanski was not as interesting a character as Rimmer, and his loss certainly hurt the show. The loss of Rob Grant also had a huge impact, and I stand by my opinion that Beyond A Joke is hands down the worst episode of Red Dwarf EVER.

But…

Until Back To Earth, Red Dwarf never looked better. There’s some great Red Dwarf moments… the entire teaser of Stoke Me A Clipper, Lister replacing Kryten’s head in Tikka, great little character moments in Blue and Duct Soup… I remember Epideme just had me on the edge of my seat for the whole episode… the feeling of triumph when they finally found the Dwarf and Holly…

Does it work as traditional sitcom? I’m going to say no… but it’s not quite got to the comedy drama stage either. It’s in a weird sort of limbo in that respect… but it’s still funny. Certainly funnier than Hyperdrive.

Is it funnier, or as consistently funny as earlier Dwarf? No, but when it hits, it hits hard – the Munchkin song, Ace Rimmer’s escape, Lister’s arm removal, protocol-free Kryten. And when humour lacks it makes up for it with deeper character moments.

Is it funnier than Series VIII? Again, no. But Series VIII’s humour was not as clever or as witty as anything before it, relying more on crap puns, poorly telegraphed gags, slapstick and toilet humour.

Series VII arrived after a three gap when a taut, exciting cliffhanger had whipped up fans into a fervour. It was never going to meet expectations – but it does NOT deserve the drubbing it gets by a lot of fans.

Well, except Beyond a Joke. That DOES deserve a good kicking.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

It was awesome, Sam Rockwell is great in it.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Wordup Jeeves! Welcome to the G&T. That is all. :)

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I like how (according to IMDB at least) Anthony Fuscle, who played the 2nd version of Rimmer, has been in NOTHING else. Ever.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I’d be up for it. I’d even defend it – I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says it is.

Granted, it’s not good, but it’s not totally rubbish.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Pete mentioned True Lies – and the Avatar trailers make me feel the same way as I did about True Lies. It was alright… but that’s it. Although Bill Paxton was fantastic in it!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Better than the teaser definetely, but even though I’m a MASSIVE Jim Cameron fan-boy… eh, I’m just not feeling it.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Carl Wheatley / Wed, 2009-10-21 00:45 / #

Hang on Mr Carter, is that a University of Glamorgan hoodie I spy?

Indeed it is Mr Wheatley! I was there 10 years ago, but my wife’s studying there at the moment.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Rimmer and Lister have the best dynamic anyway, it’s the backbone of the show.

Also – Really must finish that comic…

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

He sounds like Paul Robeson on dope. :)

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Hey lego, glad you found the review helpful!

Personally, I don’t think you need to change the theme itself, just maybe use a shorter edit, say 10-15 seconds so it’s more of a hook, or sting – and edit-down/speed up the best clips in the title sequence, while removing some of the others (personally, I’d keep the ‘Lister jumping with guns’ bits, but remove ‘Kryten’s head exploding’, for example) to get it to fit. Nice’n’short’n’snappy!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I need the goatee. I don’t need the widow’s peak. Eh, whatchagonnado.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

What about other visual effects, like split screen, slow motion, quantel? ;)

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

12 Monkeys rules all!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Okay, here’s my critique of the whole shebang. This is your judgement day bud. I gotta be cruel… there can’t be no favours. You guys have all obviously put a LOT of effort and time into this, so I feel you deserve a full and honest review. Figure I’ll go with the negative stuff first, so I can end with the positives…

So, the bad:

? Sound quality – highly variable. Some bits sounded good – the music quality was good, as was the recording for Lister – but Kryten and Cat’s (and to a lesser extent Rimmer) was very, very poor indeed. Definitely something to improve upon in later efforts.

? Animation – ah, now this is going to be a bit of thorny one, and I don’t mean to offend (I did my degree in 2D animation, so believe me, I know how much work goes into it), but there’s not a great deal of actual animation in it. Is it done in ToonBoom? There’s a lot of just… floaty movements of limbs, if you get me. As I say, I know it can be a HUGE undertaking, but get some key frames and some inbetweens in there, would just give the visuals more life. Or at least tone down the floatiness… not every motion needs to be eased in or out. But I’ve more to say about the animation in the ‘good’ bit, so hang in there…

? Pacing – at just under 7 minutes, the length is good – but even at that, there are bits of this that seemed to drag, and I don’t think I’d sit through 28 minutes of this, and certainly not feature length. It doesn’t need MTV style, Michael Bay cutting – but it could do with being a bit quicker of the mark. This applies to some of the line delivery too – Lister and Holly, although nicely in character, do rather sound like they’re Paul Robeson on dope….

? Visual style – The CG backdrops are quite basic, and dull. They detract from the hand-drawn characters. Also, the colours of the backdrops don’t help matters. I’m not saying they need to be so bright and vibrant that the characters don’t ‘pop’ out, but there is room there to play with that aspect. Can you render the CG in a way that makes it look drawn? Sort of like the effect on the Iron Giant in that film, for example? If the backdrops also looked traditionally hand-drawn, it would help the look gel more.

On a related note, some of the colour choices for the characters don’t help – Rimmer’s suit is a horribly garish green, and Kryten’s grey is too close to Listers, and doesn’t help when combined with the backgrounds.

Basically, if you’re going to animate, USE the medium, I think is what I’m saying… make the characters move, make it pop, make it colourful… As it stands, it’s more motion comic than cartoon, if you get my drift.

? Writing – Okay, so this is just a test and a teaser, and basically a souped up jab at Red Dwarf USA, so story’s not going to be paramount and that’s fine. However some of the gags do fall a bit flat, and some of Rimmer’s and Cat’s lines just feel really… out of character I guess. There’s also elements that just feel lazy – swirly thing alert and so on, just lifted wholesale from the show. I hope the full on series is better, and sharper than that. But again, there’s more in the ‘good’ bit here, so read on…

—

Okay the good stuff:

? Writing – There’s some great bits here. Although the pacing is a bit glacial, the hot dog bit works well (although as I say, could be pacier), and the Holly ‘beauty spot’ gag is actually pretty inspired for a pun. The characters feel right for the most part, although Cat and Rimmer tend to be more caricatured versions of the real thing. Holly is Series VIII bang on, and the writing for Lister is strong.

? Visual style – Fun likenesses of the cast all around (perhaps Cat and Kryten could be better, especially Cat’s hair, but still you can recognise ’em), and the hand-drawn stuff has it’s own unique look. And YAY! You guys have abandoned the ‘pencil’ behind the logo, which can only be a good thing, because quite frankly… it looked like a diagonal line behind the title. Which was a bit naff.

? Animation – the lip sync was very well done indeed (which I believe is one of the better features from ToonBoom, I think?). More like that please!

? Acting – pretty good all round for the most part, Kryten’s voice probably sounding the least like the real thing. Rimmer slips into David Mitchell style once or twice, but Holly and Lister are very well done – as I say, a bit lethargic, but still captured the characters well.

? Music – Shame you can’t use the actual music, but what you have used suits it pretty well. Could be a bit faster, a bit more rock, but it’s a good substitute.

? Sound quality – Recording on Lister and Holly was good quality. More like that please… again!

? Opening and closing titles – you avoided the trap so many web videos fall into, namely spending forever loitering on the opening and closing titles. They could still have been quicker, but they don’t overstay their welcome like so many others.

—

So overall… well, I liked it. It was pretty good. It wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t dreck either. I still think that if you’re going to go for the full series thing, the writing has to be stronger, the sound production in particular HAS to be improved, and the pace needs to be upped… I mean, I think 10 minutes max is good enough length for a solid web series… but that’s by the by. Still a solid effort, and you guys and gals deserve kudos for getting so far with it – as I say, I know animation takes a lot of time.

Hope that’s helpful – I’m looking forward to seeing where you take this next.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Awesome stuff. Yeah, I read The Forgotten (nice story, shame about the ending) – in fact, if you coloured the big double-page spread of all ten Doctors, then that?s been posted here somewhere before ;-) And RWADV, too – I know Rich, so I made sure to pick that one up even though getting the IDW stuff over here is a patchy process at best?

Yup, the spread was mine! I’ve got some comp copies of the IDW Who stuff kicking about if you’re missing any. Rich’s story made my brain hurt!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Do you do work for IDW, Kris, or is this for UK publications? Anything I might have read?

Also: do you draw, or just colour? (I don?t mean ?just? in a pejorative sense, I?m well aware of the significance of colourists; I just mean do you draw as well?)

Just the colouring, my line art is “bit crap” (just been drawing some stuff for Ben’s Jump-Leads guest strip if y’don’t believe me!). But yeah, I crayola for Titan and IDW.

Titan, done a few issues and covers for Transformer magazine, and worked on two or three installments of Rift War for Torchwood magazine (and another story called Jetsam). Also did the last two issues of TMNT: Fast Forward

IDW-wise I worked on Transformers: Devastation, Spotlights Arcee, Hardhead, and Cyclonus, also worked on All Hail Megatron 8 & 15, and coloured most of the Revenge Of The Fallen movie comic (had to sig my first NDA for that one! Whooop!)

Also for IDW, I did over half of the Doctor Who: Forgotten series (did the 5th, 6th & 7th Doctor stories, plus loads of 10th Doctor, and the big last issue with all the Doctors up to 10), and also the one shots Autopia, Room With A Deja View, and Cold Blooded War.

So yeah, you may have seen some of it! Hope you liked it, come to think of it!

My Dev-art Gallery…

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

hummingbird said it better, actually… :)

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Trena, considering the amount of effort the fan club put into getting the con set up, unpaid in their spare time, I’ve got to say… you’re sounding like a bit of an ungrateful arse.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Work in the elevator repair industry. It has it’s ups and downs.

Sorry Si – couldn’t resist!

My dream job is colouring comics, and I’ve been lucky enough to work on some good properties – Transformers, Doctor Who, Torchwood, uh… Turtles… hehe… but unfortunately the work is so sporadic, you can’t make a living off it.

My 9-5 is working in a loans call centre, having customers bitch and moan at me about rate hikes and mis-sold insurance. I’ve never been so close to to sliding a hosepipe from exhaust to car interior, and just topping myself in the parking lot.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

But it’s Dickens – but with cool inyaface rollercoastery CGI goodness!

Yeah, it looks like complete guff. I can’t believe it’s from the same guy who gave us the sublime BTTF trilogy.

It’s quite sad really.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Pixar are my tiny gods. TS3 looks great!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I was at the same hotel for the Transformers con back in August, parked in the NCP behind the hotel for 48 hours straight and the car was fine… my wallet on the other hand took a fucking BATTERING, so I was glad that I was giving four other people a lift back and that I could get some cash off them to help pay… it was something like ?28 I seem to recall..

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I think he missed a trick by not having Matt Smith’s age be 11, but hey, what’re y’gonna do. :)

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

FILM: Speed. Because it is gloriously stupid good fun.

BOOK: Truckers/Diggers/Wings by Terry Pratchett – a fantastic trilogy!

ALBUM: Yourself or Somene Like You by Matchbox Twenty – because it’s shorter than most Meatloaf albums.

ONE OTHER REALLY COOL THING THAT IS NOT A FILM, BOOK OR ALBUM: Any Transformers: Alternators toy – they’re just THAT cool.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

#Remind me of the babe?#
What babe?
The babe with the power.
What power?
The power of Voodoo
Who do?
You do!
Do what?
Remind me of the babe!

What a team! We are unbelievable!

That was pretty impressive actually! :) But then again, I am incredibly easily pleased.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Oh yes… er… Doug! Please go on Carpool!

*bowie* (and take a look at my enormous codpiece Sarah!!!) */bowie*

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

You do!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

What babe?

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Married a redhead. Got divorced. Married another redhead. Luv redheads!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Good ol’ James Speed, eh?

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Awesome!

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

As far as I’m aware, the eps are exactly the same as the regular disc versions.

The extra space wasn’t even used for porn, which is quite tragic really.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

And then I found the original copy of the Bible…

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Goldeneye… sweet jesus, the memories. I swear, ages 16-18, my mates and I just shot each other mercilessly on this game. Damn good fun though. Used to love just taking the piss with proximity mines, placing them around the body armour, in the hiding places, or better yet, all the re-spawning points, hahaha…. good times.

The mad race for that fucking Golden Gun…

Random Goldeneye memory – my wife bought me an N64 for my 27th birthday – Ebay, console+pad+Goldeneye, ?15 INCLUDING postage. Absolute steal…. and I immediately remembered my mate importing his N64 from Japan, day of release, ?700…. what a difference a decade makes.

Dammit, I’m choking up too! And shattering glass – YES.

[Author]

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