ILY Update 10/2/09 (a long one…take it in strides)

Yes, yes, here we are in the month of October with another update on the happenings of I’m Leaving You. We’ve had a good two months here, spitting out all three parts to JMD cologne, one called Security Deposit, a second addition to “Things That Are Funny” and now “Want To Chop” going up today.

Although we’re pleased with the visible output of ILY, it’s been a lot of the “behind the scenes” work throughout the past two months that has paved the way for tomorrow’s greatness with the show. I’m proud to announce that we have officially added two new full time saps to the line up. Although they have been helping out the whole time, Randy Skidmore and Justin Edge have taken sacred vows and have officially been put on the ILY payroll (lollipops and PBR). Randy, owner of SubPar Design will be handling all of the web programming, most of the graphic art you see, and will be doing some writing. Justin Edge will be our other full time writer, as well as a contributor to some of the graphic designs and of course, continuing to star in the sketches.

Immediately after the acquisition of these gentlemen, a 4 hour meeting in Wilmington, NC was held at which 10 hours worth of work was accomplished. Productivity was so high, Henry Ford called my cell phone to tell me he felt the tremor. The discussion was concerning mainly, the eventual redesign of the site, but also a few new scripts, entry in some film festivals coming up, putting together full episodes, and a lot of brainstorming about “getting the word out” about ILY. We concluded the meeting by confirming that the best way to “get the word out” was to expose yourself in public, however non of us were willing to commit.

We have also come into some pretty heavy duty software for the site, thanks to our wonderful friends Jason Roberts and Blaine Barbee keeping a keen eye out. Lastly to mention here is our extremely thorough and well written article on Wikipedia, written by Justin Edge. Although it was very well done, it got taken down shortly thereafter for lack of morals (and when I say “morals”, I mean “sources”). So we’re going to have to get into a magazine or newspaper or something to legitimize us, but we’ll discuss that further below.

Data: What to look for these next two months will be the FULL EPISODE, the new character, “Tanny”, some stickers available on the site to order (we’re going to put t-shirts on hold for a bit and start small with stickers). We have run into some funny stuff with copyrighted material, so we went out and got our own music machine. Look for ILY actor, Ramsey Boyd’s name at the bottom of some of the upcoming skits. He is going to be helping us out with a number of projects, lending a very talented hand in the music department.

We will find out November 1st if our entries to the aforementioned (August Update) 2009 Carrboro Film Festival (November 22) made the final cut. After analyzing the Carrboro community and getting some advice from some natives, we decided to enter one dramatic sketch and one comedy: “File>Eject” and “Kyle in 4B”. Cross your fingers. Jengo’s Playhouse owner and Cucalorus Coordinator, Dan Brawley, has given us the go to walk around at Cucalorus Film Festival November 11-15 to pass out ILY info. But of course, we’re not going to simply “pass out info”…we’re going to dress up in full ILY costume and pass out ice cold crappy beer with the website splashed all over it. That’s what we’re going to do. And anyone who doesn’t like it can arm-wrestle the Edge Ninja, and that’s final!

High Fives: So, what we will need these two months…As mentioned above, we are going to need some hard earned legitimacy to get that fantastic article about ILY back up on Wikipedia. Anyone that has connections with any newspaper, magazine, online journal…anything would help, I assume. And of course, we’ll “hit you back” with a link on the site and some first rate jibba jabba. If anyone has any connections with a place of business that would like to carry the ILY first episode dvd’s once they come out, let me know. Any place that would make sense to carry the, what will be, free dvd’s up front in a display box, let us know about. Even if you don’t have any connections but have some ideas for where they should go, send me an email (dan@imleavingyoutheshow.com).

We also are in need of spending some time with an IP Lawyer. If anyone knows or could recommend an Intellectual Property Rights Attorney or any attorney that deals with patents, let us know. For some of the skits coming up, we will need some bigger guys that could serve as “bullies”, and also some people that will just make up a crowd (going to need about 15-20).

Lastly, until we have the new site up where you will be able to comment, we don’t know how people feel about the show and the skits. Let me know what you think about the videos. Let me know what’s workin’ and what ain’t. We have no idea unless people tell us. The good, the bad…I want it all. What’s the funniest one, what’s the least funniest? And if you know someone who can get into this wild behavior, get their “azzzz” on the update list! Tell someone you know. Hell, tell someone you don’t know!

We’ve got some high hopes for the show and it’s not about just entertaining ourselves. Let us know what you’re thinking.

Gravy,

Dan Bonne’
ILY Creator
Dan@imleavingyoutheshow.com

AUGUST 9, 2009
Thanks for tuning in to the ILY Update for the months of August and September. A number of awfully great things have happened since the last update. We’ve completed the JMD Cologne 3 part series (of which part 1 is going up right now), gotten fairly upset, earned some friends outside of the PC world, showed our true “bro” colors with “Kyle in 4B”, as well as ramped up the writing and filming quite a bit, making for a fairly exciting next 4 months. So we’ve tricked ourselves into thinking that we’ll be able to put out a few “real doozies” for August and September. This is all very exciting for us but two of the most exciting things to have happened were not skits at all. The first, is that ILY's graphic designer/actor, Randy Skidmore, has made the move from Austin, TX to Chapel Hill, NC... right in the thick of all the ILY chaos. The second event of note is as of August 8th, ILY actors/invaluable supporters, Shane Miller and Leslie Wilson are now “Mr. and Mrs. Miller”. They are very dear to every one of us and we wish them the best of luck in their new life.

Data: What to look for in the next two months will be parts 2/3 and 3/3 in the John Mark Davidson Cologne sketch which will be released on Friday the 14th and Friday the 21st, respectively. A new skit with "strange signs" will be released, as well as an introduction of our new character, "Tanny". The plan for a new "gossip" skit will be in the works, as well as the "I'm Leaving You, the show" Wikipedia article, and us finally getting ourselves together and seeing about getting some shirts up. Lastly, we will be combining the three "Remember This Place" sketches into one video and entering it in the 2009 Carrboro Film Festival in Carrboro, NC in November (http://carrborofilmfestival.com/).

High Fives: First off, we appreciate very much, all the offers from people to help out with filming. We've gotten a number of emails from fans in the last month or so asking to be put on a list for helping out. Please know that any help we can get with the skits is highly valuable and always needed. What we'll need here in the next two months is about 5 people who look like a bullies or a street thugs, for a dramatic sketch we have coming up. We will also need a number of people to act as "people in a crowd" in one short and one sketch.

This update has been one of the more "tame" updates because I'm busy pouring all of my social irritation and other wild thoughts into the new "Gossip" sketch. You'll have to look for all the comments that would ordinarily get me fired at day job, there in that skit.

Thank you all very much,

Dan Bonne’
ILY Creator

JUNE 6, 2009
Welcome to the I’m Leaving You update for June 5, 2009. A few quick things to note right off the bat: Before I forget, a big official “thank you” to everyone that helped out with RTP III. Second thing is that you will notice in previous videos ILY’s “Kristin Hardy” is listed as just that. However, “ILY’s Kristin Hardy” is actually Dr. Kristin Hardy now. The PhD was from UNCW in Marine Biology and we are very proud. Also worthy of note, RTP III’s Jason Mott has launched a blog style site for his writing which can be found at Pen and Cape. Although not a stranger to published works in the past, the launch of his website came right around the same time as his first published full length collection of poems entitled, “We Call This Thing Between Us Love”.

In ILY site news, the facebook page has been “fixed”, I believe, and people can now receive “updates”. I’m not sure how many people check these “updates” but if you’re part of the ILY fan page on Facebook you will get a quick one sentence bi-weekly update. I don’t even know where that appears…inbox maybe? Home page? I don’t know…let’s just admit that I’m sending these things into a black hole.

Data: Since the last update we’ve gotten some pretty good stuff up. Honoring the “big boy”, another Gossip sketch with “Uncle Tommy”, and the long awaited conclusion (well, I awaited it at least) to the stop motion “Remember This Place” series. What we’ve got coming up is a cologne skit, Mac Gossip sketch, some “strange signs”, this week’s poetry sketch (being added with this update) and a few others that we’re not even sure of. We have a few things on the back burner right now (MySpace, some skit ideas mentioned in April’s “data” section) because we’re trying to get a shirt design rolling as well as a full episode that will be available on the site.

High Fives: Here’s what we need for the next two months if anyone is interested: People…yeah, if you know anyone who is interested in being in one of these things (sketches), have them email me at dan@imleavingyoutheshow.com. I keep a running spreadsheet broken down by cities, of everyone who is interested and I can’t email you/call/inform/let you know when things are happening if I don’t know that you are interested. We need a ton of people on the list so that when the actual need is for 10 people, we can email 30, and 10 of those can actually make it. I need folks especially from the Raleigh-Durham/Cary area and from the Wilmington area. Anyone over the age of 30 is especially valuable. The other thing we need is some "advice". If anyone can recommend a lawyer (specifically intellectual property rights) let us know. We’re still small time, but it never hurts to be sure on some things. For the faux cologne sketch we’re going to need (I hate to even request this, but…) some… ”hot girls” from the DC area, which is were we’ll be filming that one on the 20th of this month. This skit is supposed to mimic some of those weird cologne/perfume commercials you see with “attractive” people walking around with the wind blowing and everything in black and white (it’s funny because that’s basically the script right there).

Lastly I’d like to thank those of you who have contacted me with feedback about skits. Right now, we don’t have a “comment” area for the videos on the site, so one of the only ways that we know what people think about ILY are the comments through facebook/youtube or emails directly to me. If you like it, let us know. If you think it sucks, let us know.

$5.69 Schlitz,

Dan Bonne’
ILY Chief Shyster



APRIL 3, 2009
Well, looks like that time of the month again (yeah yeah,, laugh it up), for another ILY email update. We’ve all been working pretty hard to bring you the good stuff and it looks like things are getting sweeter. Just last night, ILY sketch, Where is it? was shown at the Cheese Sandwich Film Festival in Wilmington, NC, not to mention ILY being contacted to do a skit to be shown during the “Cure for the Common Reading” event on May 30th, at Jengo’s Playhouse in downtown Wilmington. Just before you received this the fifth installment in the House Guest series went up, as well as Who Speaks Spanish? the week before, and Checkout Procedure the week before that. Yes, yes, the past two months, we’ve been able to put out a few things that we’re awfully content with, but are trying to put together some things here, in the next two months that will “see the past two months, and raise them one”. Of course, when I say that I just mean I’m funneling all of my dignity and bank account information straight into the mouth of “I’m Leaving You”. One quick side note (just because so many people are on facebook) . We had started a Facebook group for ILY, which many of you are “fans” of, but the video application has ceased to work, as well as the ability to “message all fans”. Since I don’t want to send email updates every week, I don’t really have a great way to send smaller “updates” each week when new skits are up. So you’ll just have to check the Twitter account every week or the “MySpace” one, when we get that set up. Otherwise, I’ll have my “status” on Facebook updated every week, and obviously you could just check the site every Thursday, which has been the time of the week we’ve been updating the site with a new skit each week. If you are new to the email list here, the two sections below are “data” and “high fives”, a collection of information about what’s happening in the next two months, and a section for all our needs and opportunities to get involved, respectively.

Data: Plans are still in play for the purchase of some lighting equipment and an HD ready video camera in the next few months here. We are going to try to get the ball rolling on some t-shirt designs as well as maybe putting up a full episode available online. As mentioned above, we will also be starting up a “My Space” page for ILY, which will actually be available fairly soon. In terms of actual skits, plan on seeing a conclusion to the Remember This Place stop motion series, a funeral home sketch, a poetry sketch, a reverse stop motion montage, a new character on the show who is 8 feet tall, who hangs around with a shorter character that’s 4 feet tall, a Mac vs. PC “Gossip” sketch, a beer commercial, a Culligan water commercial, another game show, and maybe ILY’s first music video.

High Fives: Needs for ILY include but are not limited to... a place to film an office sketch still, a few older folks (+50 years old) to star in the funeral home sketch (there’s no beating around the bush here, we’re looking for cadavers), someone who has access to a green screen, someone who has practical advice for legal aspects of copyrighting some things for the site as well as legality of using trademarked/copyrighted material on the site. We will also need a huge amount of people for a sketch coming up soon, here in Raleigh and also one that will be filmed in Wilmington (this one will be the third Remember This Place). As always, if you would like to help out in any way, please email Dan at dan@imleavingyoutheshow.com. We can always use people and would love to have you.

Thank you all for the phone calls, messages, emails, comments, etc. when skits go up. Without the feedback, I can’t really tell if these things are actually good, or if it’s just me laughing to myself in a dark room.

Bright, metallic, and so so tired,

Dan Bonne’, ILY Creator and Corporate Whore

JANUARY 28, 2009
Greetings to all, from a cold corner of Shane Miller’s middle school classroom. He has a teacher work day today, so I decided to come with him and help him “organize” his room, which basically involves us watching Cold War Kids music videos on his classroom projector and mocking the inspirational adolescent posters of woodland animals and parachutes. I came to spend the weekend here, in Greensboro, organizing some thoughts for the next two months, preparing two videos that will be going up right now as you read this (1/28) and filming some things here, and in Thomasville.

Well, a lot of exciting things have happened since the last update. We’ve been able to put up a good amount of videos, we’ve started a series or two, developed a plan for the purchase of an HD camera and some equipment, my recklessness in general, has grown stronger, Fall Out Boy has become worse somehow, Electric Six has gotten better somehow, Facebook tried to accuse me of stealing videos from my own site, ILY writer and web and graphic designer, Randy Skimore’s, company website, SubPar Design has launched, ILY favorites, Shane Miller and Leslie Wilson got engaged, “Field Montage” lady, Mary Batchelor, has left for her Peace Corp assignment in West Guinea, and we were contacted about filming a music video for Chapel Hill singer/songwriter Mike LeClair. So quite a bit has happened, and we’re very excited about the next two months to come. As promised, there was the rant, and here are the two sections I spoke about in the last newsletter:

Data: Just released today was the “Time Out” short, the first “House Guest” sketch (which makes the one with the toilet, actually the second one), and a stop motion sketch called, “Remember This Place”. As you can tell by now, the site breaks down videos into “sketches” and “shorts”. There is a third section, we’re calling “transitions” that we have been busy filming, but that will have to wait in the wings until the time when we can actually start putting together full episodes. What you should be looking for in the next two months are parts 2 and 3 to the recently posted video called, “Remember This Place”, as well as the third, of four, “House Guest” sketches. Another “Office Times” video or two will show up on the site, as well as another stop motion montage and a fireside video montage called, “Wait For Me”. Probably two or three confusing Shorts, a phone conversation between Randy and I, a hotel hostage situation, people reading lists of insulting things, and maybe, if we can get our shiz together in time, a funeral home sketch and ILY’s first music video.

An addition to our YouTube account, we plan on starting a MySpace page for ILY. Two things that we just added today were the use of the Twitter application, and a Facebook profile for ILY. Twitter, for anyone that’s unfamiliar, is basically just a social networking tool to alert you in a non-obtrusive way (unlike constant email updates) whenever there’s a new video, or whatnot, added to ILY. Our Twitter username is “imleavingyou”, so if you don’t have a Twitter account yet, you would just go to ILY and click on the “Follow ILY” button in the featured section on the homepage, or find us at twitter.com/imleavingyou. Similar to an RSS feed, if you signed up for a Twitter account (which is free), you would be alerted to ILY site additions by a browser application, homepage application, or just by checking Twitter.com. The nice thing about it is that you can “follow” (like adding facebook friends) lots of people and when you get your Twitter updates, it gives you everyone that you’re “following”. We're going to shoot for a new video every week, so keep your ear to the soil. The other thing that we added was an account for ILY on facebook. Search for us under, “I’m Leaving You”, and let the chaos begin.

High Fives: We will probably need the most help in filming the of the above, with the amount of people that we will need for the 3rd “Remember This Place” and the number of “extras” for the music video, as well as a place to film the funeral home sketch, and a banner for the front of it. If anyone knows anyone who can print a banner for cheap (one you would be able to see from the road that says, “Daisy Lee Funeral Home under new MANAGEMENT!!!”), please speak up. The building that we will need for the funeral home doesn’t have to be a funeral home, just some one story building with no one in it (maybe something that closes on the weekend) and that is a “stand alone” building (that is to say, no others attached). If anyone knows someone with this sort of business, let me know. The people that I will need for the last part to the “Remember This Place” will just need to have high socks and black pants. We will probably need about ten people, and we will be filming this one in Wilmington…probably (essentially, it just depends on where we can get the help). The music video will probably be filmed in either Greensboro or Raleigh, and we’ll probably need around 10-15 folks (dress will vary…probably just what you would normally wear). We are also going to need a new spot for the, “office times” sketches (maybe the same place as the funeral home sketch if the outside of it works out). At all times, we need to allegiance of people that want a role in these godforsaken skits, so if you have any desire to do so, please, please, by all means, let us know.

Thank you so very much for the interest,

Dan Bonne' Creator and Chief Writer

DECEMBER 6, 2008
Welcome to "I'm Leaving You"! First off, I want to extend a large "thank you" to everyone who has contributed to the launch of ILY, which includes you, if you are reading this. Please browse through everything and look around, but pay special attention to the "Contact" section and the "Videos" section. In the contact section, you will be able to sign up for our bi-monthly newsletter (which will probably be more ranting about something insignificant, than an actual newsletter) so you can "be in the know". The newsletter will be broken down into two main sections: Data and High Fives. "Data" will be the section where I will explain what's going to happen with ILY in the next two months or so, any ideas for directions that we'll be going with skits, and new developments for the site (new merchandise, new sections, yada yada). The "High Fives" section is basically a "needs" list. The High Five section will give the audience (you) a chance to get involved and help out. Things that I will probably need some assistance with would be something like: location availability (example, your neighbor owns a business that would be perfect to film an office sketch in some Saturday when it's empty), connections to other wizards in the industry (example, "hey, my friend's sister works for NBC! I can't believe I forgot about that. I should email Dan. He'd like that."), filming equipment/props/costumes (example, "My buddy owns a construction company and would love to pretend to run someone over with a bobcat in a sketch! Wait 'til I tell Dan!"), free time to be an extra/straight man (the show is basically built on the humor of seeing someone doing something strange and filming people's reactions to it), advice, information about something, or really anything else you can think of. Thanks again, and remember, that if you're confused…you're on the right track.

Dan Bonne' Creator and Chief Writer