SNL Digital Shorts

SNL Digital Shorts are short video segments created for airing on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." The segments are recorded with consumer grade digital video cameras and edited on personal computers. [cite news
first= Dave
last= Itzkoff
title= Nerds in the Hood, Stars on the Web
date= 2005-12-27
publisher= New York Times
url= http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/arts/television/27samb.html?ex=1293339600&en=1c057b9f6aaea137&ei=5090 ]

Though not the first filmed shorts presented on "SNL", Digital Shorts are a series of shorts specified by their digital creation, as stated above, as well as having the same crew members behind the filming of each Digital Short. The Lonely Island is largely responsible for producing the comedic shorts. Most of the shorts were written by Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg in collaboration with "SNL" hosts and cast members. The shorts generally take fewer than five days to complete. Schaffer has directed all the shorts and Taccone along with his brother, Asa, have produced music as necessary. It is usual for the episode's hosts and musical guests (the latter on rare occasions) to take part in the episode's short, and several shorts have included celebrity cameos.

The short "Lazy Sunday," which aired December 17, 2005, was viewed more than five million times on YouTube alone before it was removed due to copyright infringement. In late 2006, however, NBC began uploading "SNL" shorts on YouTube themselves. The short "Dick in a Box" which aired in December 2006, was viewed more than 28 million times on YouTube. It was available uncut on YouTube with a special warning, stating that the sketch contained explicit language that was censored from the television version. The short also won an Emmy award.

List of shorts

2005-2006: Season 31

2008-2009: Season 34

The Shooting

"The Shooting", also known as "Dear Sister", [The short was originally unofficially known as "Dear Sister" on YouTube when it was first uploaded. However, a blog post from the official website of Andy Samberg and Digital Shorts director Akiva Schaffer claimed the title to be "The Shooting" instead. This was regarded by many to signify the official title, until an NBC recap of the episode listed the short as "Dear Sister". See [http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/recaps/#cat=32&mea=1497&ima=28489 NBC recap] .] was broadcast during an episode aired April 14 2007. The episode was hosted by actor Shia LaBeouf, who took part in the sketch along with members of the "Saturday Night Live" cast. The short satirizes the final scene of "The O.C."'s second-season finale.cite web
first= Chester
last= Tam
title= SNL Digital Short - The Shooting
date= 2007-04-15
accessdate= 2007-04-15
url= http://thelonelyisland.blogspot.com/2007/04/snl-digital-short-shooting.html] [" [http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/11864730.html SNL Digital Short inspired by the O.C.] "]

Expanded plot

Keith (Bill Hader) writes a letter to his sister, as Dave (Andy Samberg) asks what he is doing. As Keith responds, explaining he hasn't seen his sister in a long time, Dave suddenly and inexplicably shoots him. In the following overly-dramatic, slow-motion death overdubbed by a cue of "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap, Dave is seen visibly shaken as Keith, in shock, collapses. As Dave gathers his bearings, Keith suddenly shoots him in return, having recovered from his injury long enough to exact his revenge to the same music cue.

After both men have fallen to the ground from their separate shootings, another man, Eric (Shia LaBeouf), enters looking for them (saying he's "just thought of the funniest thing"). Dave comes back to life to shoot Eric, who collapses, once again to the same music. The sister herself (Kristen Wiig) enters the scene, and begins to read the letter until she too is shot several times by each of the three men on the ground, with the music cue restarting with every shot, until she collapses too. She ends up being shot 17 times, total.

The short ends as two police officers (Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen) are observing the crime scene. One finds the letter, left on the table near the brother's body, and begins to read. The letter is revealed to be a prediction of each shooting, in detail, and ends claiming that two police officers will come across the letter and then shoot each other after reading it. Laughing it off, the reading officer turns to his partner, and they immediately shoot each other to overlapping "Hide & Seek" cues.

The letter

The "Dear Sister" letter itself, as transcribed from the short. It is read towards the end of the video, by one of the two police officers.

Dear Sister,

By the time you read this, I'll be dead. This is how I think it's gonna happen: Dave will shoot me, then I'll shoot Dave, then Eric will enter and get shot by Dave. Then you'll come in and get shot by Eric, Dave and I multiple times.

Love, your brother Keith

ps - Then two cops will read this letter and shoot each other.

Controversy

Virginia Tech shootings

Due to music clearance issues,Fact|date=August 2008 the NBC network, which broadcasts "Saturday Night Live" and distributes clips, did not release "The Shooting" on its official site or YouTube immediately following broadcast. On April 16, 2007, two days following the initial air date of the sketch, the Virginia Tech shootings occurred. The massacre, which took place on the Virginia Tech campus of Blacksburg, Virginia, saw 32 people killed and 25 more wounded by the actions of Seung-Hui Chocite news |coauthors=Donna Alvis-Banks, Matt Chittum and Albert Raboteau |title=Tech shooting victims: Moving forward |url=http://www.roanoke.com/vtvictims/wb/115937 |publisher=Roanoke Times |date=2007-05-07 |accessdate=2007-05-08 ] before he himself committed suicide, making it the deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history. [cite news | author = Allen G. Breed
title = Va.Tech Gunman's Motives Still a Mystery | url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/28/AR2007042800250.html | publisher = Washington Post | accessdate = 2007-04-30] [cite web |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18140540/ |title=Fact File: Deadliest shootings in the U.S.|accessdate = 2007-04-28 |work=MSNBC] The sketch, viewed under this new context, was considered to be in bad taste and suffer from poor timing following the shootings,cite web
first= Corey
last= Clayton
title= SNL short a lot less funny due to Virginia Tech shootings
date= 2007-04-16
accessdate= 2007-04-19
url= http://harddrivelife.com/2007/04/16/dearsistersnl/
work= Hard Drive Life] and perhaps as a result, NBC never uploaded the clip to YouTube or its official site. The short finally reappeared four months later, in a repeat of the LaBeouf episode, aired August 4, 2007cite web
first= Noam
last= Cohen
title= Taking Violence to a New, Technological Absurdity
date= 2007-05-07
accessdate= 2007-05-07
url= http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/technology/07link.html?ex=1336276800&en=bf26e2d93b95d92b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
work=The New York Times]

pin-offs

Despite the initial attempts of NBC to enforce copyright protection and remove access to the sketch on YouTube and similar viral video sites, viewers uploaded the short even after the videos were removed several times at NBC's request. Despite these obstacles, the short became popular enough to beget a wave of re-enactments and parodies using the same use of "Hide and Seek" and slow-motion to violent scenes.

References

External links

* [http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#cat=2260 SNL Digital Shorts on NBC.com]