independent

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 14:12, 10 August 2009

"'what's the diff?' you may ask ... Well, it as plain as Strong Sad and Pom Pom"

Strong Bad points out the differences between the two warring types of independent films.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, Strong Sad, Pom Pom, Homestar Runner, Marzipan, Strong Mad, Bubs, Coach Z, Senor Cardgage.

Places: Computer Room, Strong Sad's Room, The Field, The Movie Theater

Computer: Compé

Date: Monday, August 10, 2009

Running Time: 5:20

Page Title: Compy Compé

Transcript

{The typical shot of Strong Bad at his computer, which is now, of course, the Compé. As it did in Compy Catalog, the logo, which is in lowercase, has "com" in Westminster, with a gold, pixleated shine, and "pé" is in another italic, serif font, with a silver pixelated shine. This logo pops-up slowly and fades in while a shine appears in the background. The computer sighs as well, and at one point the entire logo shines from left to right, and when reaching the "é" sparkles the accent mark. The logo then retracts itself and fades-out. Shortly afterward, the screen is replaced with a desktop. The wallpaper is a shot of grass (where focus is on the bottom-left corner). There is only one (pixelated) icon on the desktop; on the top-left corner, which shows Strong Bad's head in an envelope, and it is titled "sbemail.exe". A pixelated cursor is seen on the bottom.}

STRONG BAD: Hey! Who taped the full-color photo to my computer screen? {Strong Bad puts his right bloxing glove up to the screen, and begins to move it around.} {normally} It won't come off!

{The Cheat is heard of screen briefly. Shortly after there is a cut to the desk, where The Cheat is to the left. Strong Bad turns around and looks at The Cheat.}

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises.}

STRONG BAD: What? {turns his head around towards, and points his left boxing glove to, the Compé} {surprised} Those are actual graphics? {turns back to The Cheat} And I can change it to be {cups his right boxing glove} whatever I want? {Turns back towards the Compé} {singing} Oh, best thing ever! {Cut back to the typical shot} Best thing ever! {He moves the mouse and right clicks the screen. A contextual menu appears with the items, from top to bottom, being "Options", "Sounds", "Icons", and "Change Desktop". The background is completely white with no shading or effects. The text is black.} {quickly and mumbled} this is the {singing normally} best thing ever! {Strong Bad moves the mouse northeastward and hovers over the "Change Desktop" option. The colors on this option invert. He clicks it, and the grass wallpaper retracts to the center, where an image of Strong Bad's is shown dancing in The Basement. This photo was taken from behind, with his torso being focused (on the left of the image). His butt appears to have cheeks is this photo and his right cheek has a lens flare on it.}

STRONG BAD: {rapping} To check my email {He slowly moves the mouse northwestwards, toward the "sbemail.exe" icon. When over it, it stops} all gotta do is click. All that old typin' made my boxing gloves {Double clicks on the icon. Every time he clicks the icon appears to pop-in like a button. An email pops-up.} sick.

Dear Strong Bad,
Does Strong Badia ever host an independent film festival?
-=Evil Gif=- Phoenix, Arizona

{Strong Bad says "a hideous growth on my butt festival?" instead of "an independent film festival?" he corects himself by saying "Err...wait. Independent film festival?" to which he then mumbles "Sorry about that. I get those to mixed up." Instead of "Evil Gif", he says "Evil Moms choose Evil Gif" {Pronounced as "jiff". He will pronounce this the same way later. He pronounces "Phoenix" as "fee-niz"}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Well Gif, the short answer is no. The long {Not typed in italic} answer is {Forcefully, after a shot pause.} NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! {After a short delay, he types these four exclamation marks.} {normally} Independent films are called that for a reason: they are independent of anything good {Not typed in italic}.

{Clears screen}

STRONG BAD: And these days, they seemed to be locked in a civil war that will hopefully end in the extermination of both sides. I am, of course talking about independent films versus {Types "vs."} indie films. "What's the diff?" you may ask? {Types a period. He speaks the following quickly.} Because apparently you're in a big hurry. {Goes back to a normal pace} Well, it's as plain as {Cut to split shot of Strong Sad in his room with an old film-reel camera at his eye, and Pom Pom in the field with a bottle of water, which he is looking at.} Strong Sad and Pom Pom {Strong Sad lowers the camera and looks towards the viewer Pom Pom faces towards the camera as well.}

POM POM: {bubble noises}

{The left side of the half, Strong Sad's side, expands to take up the entire screen. We can now see a poster on his wall that reads "DON'T CRY" with a figure on it. There is a dead plant on a square pillar to which Strong Sad is now looking at, and pointing his camera, to.}

STRONG BAD: Strong Sad is on the independent film side. {Strong Sad moves the camera, which has been in his right hand, to the right, where he presses two buttons of some sort with his left index finger. He is now looking at the camera, which is pointed at the plant again.} He's the {unintelligible} artist-type that went to film school.

STRONG SAD: {faces towards the viewer, and holds his left arm up, index finger pointed.} I minored in holding on wide shots for too long.

{Strong Sad puts his arm down. There is a two to three second pause.}

{Cut to a movie theater screen. A few empty seats are shown on the bottom. On the screen is a black and white movie that consists of the dead plant Strong Sad was filming. There appears to be two puzzle pieces in front of the pot. The film zooms into what appears to be the shadow of the square pillar.}

STRONG BAD: {off screen} And he's making some boring, very personal, no budget film.

{Cut to a close-up Strong Sad in his room, still with the camera.}

STRONG SAD: Actually, I've succeeded in going lower than no budget! I'm making a the world's first faux-budget {He stresses on the "f" in "faux", with his mouth reflecting it.} film. The entire thing's being financed {His left hand moves to the bottom of the screen and moves. The viewer can hear paper moving} with {He pulls up several colored pieces of paper.} Monopoly money!

STRONG BAD: {off screen} And, best of luck to you.

{Cut back to the Compé}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Pom Pom on the other hand, represents indie films. The slicker, catchier name they came up with that seems to perform better in the eighteen to twenty-four {types "18-24"} demo.

{Cut to Pom Pom in a director's chair facing the film. There is a digital studio camera to the left of him on a tripod. There is a coffee maker on a desk to the right with cups to the left of it. On the right of his chair there is a traditional megaphone. "POM-POM" is stenciled in on the chair. He is talking on his cell phone, with sunglasses it appears, and is holding a water bottle.}

STRONG BAD: {off screen} He's a tech-savvy hipster who's Dad owns his own studio, {The logo for the studio appears in a corner-curved square (which has a shadow). The name of the studio is "Pom Pictures".} and relies on using middle names {The stenciled name on the director's chair changes to "POM THOMAS POM" with a popping sound.} and/or initials {The stencil then changes to "J. POM THOMAS POM"} to somehow {The stencil changes again to "J. POM THOMAS C. POM".} solidify indie cred {The final edit to the stencil, "J. WILLIAM POM THOMAS C. POM" appears on the director's chair.} He'll {There is then a cut to what appears to be a three-ring binder} spend a 30 million dollar budget {The three-ring binder opens to a page explaining the budget}, trying as hard as he can to make it look like he only spent a few hundred thousand.

{Cut to the movie theater as seem earlier. A penciled and colored animating drawing of the studio logo is shown.}

Easter Eggs

• At the end, click on "OOOoooooooo!" to see the poster and tagline of cyber.coma.static.
• Also, click on "hideous growth on my butt" to see a filming session with Homestar and Strong Sad.

Fun Facts

Explanations

• .gif, .tif, .png and targa are all raster image file formats.

Inside References

• The image of Lan Handermannek comes from Comic Book Movie.
• The characters on city (comma) state title screen are traces of Mike Chapman and Missy Palmer.
• The band, "She Likes Cloth", originates from Teen Girl Squad Issue 12
• Gold bars appear in this email.
• Strong Sad is seen smiling.

Real World References

• The animated intro in Pom Pom's indie movie is a reference to Shortbus.
• "Evil Moms choose Evil Gif" is a play on what CompuServe developers, who created of the GIF format, would say around the office, which was "Choosy developers choose GIF".
  • The CompuServe sentence, itself, is a play on the Jif peanut butter tag line, "Choosy Moms choose Jif".
  • The pronunciation of "GIF" in this sentence refers to the official pronunciation that CompuServe used.

External Links

• watch "independent"
• watch "independent" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "independent"
• forum thread re: "independent"