You Suck at Photoshop

You Suck at Photoshop is a 2 season, 20 episode Webby award winning web series that chronicles fictional character Donnie Hoyle’s messy divorce and rampant emotional problems through a series of Adobe Photoshop tutorials. You Suck at Photoshop is unique in the sense that no characters are ever shown on screen, and instead the viewer is presented with a screencast of Donnie’s computer monitor. The dialogue is all presented through voiceover, along with Skype calls from Donnie’s friend sn4tchbuckl3r, who seems to be constantly begging for Donnie to join him in World of Warcraft. Occasionally, minor characters such as Donnie’s wife or his characters can be heard talking to Donnie off screen.
Although You Suck at Photoshop contains a well thought out story arc, each episode stands on its own not only as an informational Photoshop tutorial, but also as a piece of comedic fiction. While Donnie presents his information condescendingly to the audience, the techniques he uses are actually quite useful and it would be relatively easy to learn the basics of a professional level program just by watching this series.
You Suck at Photoshop was initially distributed through YouTube, and it was meant to be a one-off series. However, Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe (voices of Donnie and Sn4tchbuckl3r respectively, and the masterminds behind the series) were contacted by Rob Barnett, who had been formerly employed by MTV, VH1, and CBS and asked to create Barnett’s web television channel, MyDamnChannel.com. Much of You Suck at Photoshop’s success can likely be attributed to many of the episodes reaching the front page of the popular social news website Digg, as well as many users speculating that the series was voiced by popular comedians Dane Cook or Dane Cross. Due to viewer demand, the series was brought back for a second season, as well as spawning a spin off series titled Sn4tchbuckl3r’s Second Chance.
You Suck at Photoshop makes it apparent that with a good idea and clever writing, you don’t need massive resources to create quality web television content. Hitch created the first episode in only two and a half hours, which is amazing compared to the week long shooting schedules per episode of other web series. By working within the confines of what the team had, they were forced to rely on something more than fancy production techniques. Donnie was a character that the audience could relate to, and effectively made learning fun. You Suck at Photoshop can be equated to Sesame Street for the now nearly grown up Generation Y.

Dorm Life

by Steve D'Ambrozio


Web TV, is the new form of entertainment in the 21st century. There are a variety of shows on the web. From ‘The Guild’ to ‘Casual Sex’, to the Streamy award winning ‘Dr. Horribles Sing-Along Blog’, they all have a mass following.
The web TV show, I chose to review is ‘Dorm Life’. This show is based at a college on a dorm floor. The tag line for the show is “This isn’t Real Life. This is Dorm Life.” The show is a comedy. Season one which the show calls ‘semester 1’ has 20 episodes. Currently there are seven episodes of semester two. Attention Span Media are the producers of Dorm Life. According to their website “Dorm Life is a multifaceted, mockumentary-style series targeting 18-25 yr olds. It follows the lives of ten-college student thrown together on the same dorm floor. Full of mischief, adventures, rivalries, and romance, the comedic series carries a broad appeal from teenagers to college graduates of any age. The series launched Feb 4th and is centered around the www.dorm-life.com portal. It was a 2008 Webby Honoree.”
Two of the cast members have previous acting experience and one of them is involved in future productions. Jack De Sena who plays Shane and Nora Kirkpatrick who plays Courtney. Nora will be staring in the upcoming movies Transformers 2, Growth, and How to make love to a woman. Jack does not have any upcoming films.
Hulu has a ranking of TV shows that are shown on their website. Looking at Hulu.com and the Most popular shows category, as of 4/6/09 ‘Dorm life’ was the most popular TV Web show of ‘All Time’, ‘Today’, ‘This week’ and ‘This month. The second place for all time is Dr. Horribles Sing-Along Blog. This shows that Dorm life has a great retention rate. According to the Attentionspanmedia.com Blog site Dorm life beats the rest of the top 50 web TV shows. “Dorm Life Episode 1 to 8 retention was 170% higher than the average top-50 web series.” and that dorm life “retained 95% of viewers from episode 2 to episode 8.” Which was during Season 1.
Dorm life’s budget for the first season was approximately $300,000. They shot the show at a small university in LA on an actual dorm floor. The producers got the whole dorm building to themselves. Having an entire building to your-self to shoot episodes I think is ingenious. This saves on production costs. The cast was able to move into the dorm rooms and actually live there and develop a relationship with the other cast members and they’re surrounding.
The producers also see the show as a franchise. The current characters will move on but new freshman would move onto the floor. This keeps the show continuing past four ‘semesters’ and an opportunity to attract new viewers. If the producers keep using the model for success that they are now then the retention rate will continue to remain high and be one of the most popular web TV shows around.
Overall, Dorm life is a goofy, campy and fun show that shows the trials and tribulations of dorm life in a college. This show was a great find and is a must see for anybody who is looking for some college humor on a rainy day.

References:
http://www.tilzy.tv/dorm-life-returns-for-a-second-semester-with-carls-jr.htm
http://news.tubefilter.tv/2008/10/25/love-is-in-the-air-as-dorm-lifes-romance-with-hulu-continues/

Can a web series make the Jump?

by Ryan Albahary

College Humor started out as a website years ago created by two college friends, Rick Van Veen, and Josh Abramson. The website contains pictures, videos, blogs, and other articles about many different topics that the college aged kid would be interested in, there is something for almost anyone inside. The website has many original web-series created by the producers and founders of the site. The site also features original videos from the producers that are short one-time packages. The site features a way for the public to upload their own original idea. For the most part these are just friends having fun and making a living doing it. Over the years their popularity has grown and it landed them their own TV show, which they based off of a few web-series, they created in order to fill a full half hour time slot. The show takes place in the College Humor office staring actual employees.
On the College Humor website the company has had many successes with web series such as “Jake and Amir”, and “Hardly Working”. College Humor was one of the front-runners in web-television. These web series work very well online as short snippets of comedy. Some shorts tend to be better than other but one bad show isn’t going to turn away viewers. This is different when it comes to a TV show. The show needs to start off big and keep its viewers intrigued to tune in every week and wanting more. This is where The College Humor show falls short. It caused viewers to not want to watch the show after the first episode. College Humor has played out their comedy. Although it intrigues some, it is no longer all that original but after watching the same joke over and over again for 20 minutes it gets old.
The show doesn’t hold up for a full television series. The combination of “Jake and Amir” and “Hardly Working” doesn’t work together for that long of a period of time. The show was made to be watched on a smaller screen in shorter periods of time. Each episode of The College Humor show can be split up into at least three or four webisodes and they would in fact work better that way. It is easier to ignore story and character arc in a short webisode where you usually don’t have time to start to care about the character and get to know them. There is no character arc or story arc in any episode. Every episode could be the first episode. Nothing from past episodes are ever brought up and there is no real story line that follows through the series except the co-workers relationships with each other that doesn’t change. Each character stays exactly the same throughout the series and it gives you no reason to want to watch the characters after awhile. You tend to not care for the characters after awhile because they keep doing the same dumb things and it never works out as they planned.
The story throughout each episode barely holds up. After each commercial break you come back and the main story of the episode is not being paid attention to at all. The show is missing a substance that makes you want to keep watching it and the acting doesn’t hold us as a legit show. The show is shot in mostly medium shots, and medium close ups. These shots are more than often captured with a camera being hand held instead of steady on a tripod. Now when used appropriately the hand held shot is fine but when used for almost a full episode the shake becomes more of a disturbance and with no emotion being showed it doesn’t add to the attitude of the show. The shake is also more noticeable on the TV screen versus a smaller player such as the one used on their website.
In short The College Humor Show get ahead of itself when attempting to make the switch to the silver screen. After watching many of their web series and Television series it is safe to say that College Humor is best kept online. I viewed a few episodes of the series on TV and the ones I missed I watched online and I was able to enjoy it slightly more online but still found my self breaking up each episode and not watching them fully through. The College Humor Show had a good idea however it didn’t work out right and it’s a shame that it has gotten some bad publicity because of the show.

References:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/24/050124fa_fact2
http://www.collegehumor.com/thecollegehumorshow
http://newteevee.com/2009/01/27/collegehumor-serious-about-its-tv-show/
http://coedmagazine.com/2009/02/13/the-college-humor-show-sucks-balls/
http://coedmagazine.com/2009/02/13/the-college-humor-show-sucks-balls/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CollegeHumor

Private High Musical: How Music Grabs an Audience on the Web

by Stephanie Haas

Private High Musical is a seven episode web series which parodies the Disney movie High School Musical. The series is about a girl who is a virgin at a new High School and is trying to find her place. The lead role is played by Taryn Southern who is a becoming a celebrity in the web series industry. Private High Musical also stars Mr. Belding’s Dennis Haskings who, according to tilzytv.com, is the star of the series. He plays the perverted school teacher who gives words of wisdom in the episode entitled “First Period.” Despite the great cast, the series is based off song and lyrics because without it, the web series may not have been as popular or recognized as it is.
The musical lyrics for the songs used throughout the series tell a story of what is going on and the whole theme of the series is supposed to be about learning how to get laid and getting high. This theme mixed with stereotypical high school characters creates humor for the viewer. With lyrics like “Welcome to our senior class, you’ll never have a problem getting any ass,” it is easy for the viewer to stay tuned to the next episode in hopes of hearing a new song that rhymes with sex. According to webtvhub.com, “if you’re looking for an actually entertaining musical, look no further than ‘Private High.”
Since Dr. Horrible, there had been no other web series that used music to capture their audience and tell a successful story. The series has been so successful that the series has gotten picked up my MTV to be turned into a television series. Tubefilter.com reports that “as part of the deal, MTV acquires the rights to the series, though Southern will remain a producer and actor in the show.” The use of music and witty lyrics, this web series has the potential to be successful and while maintaining its raunchy humor.

So That's What Happened to Baseball Cards

Back on Topps is a continuing comedy web series that airs every Tuesday and Thursday. To briefly summarize the plot, twin brothers Leyland and Lief Topps, heirs to the Topps sports card company, find out that their uncle has sold the family owned business to Michael Eisner. Aside from not only having the company being sold out from under them, the sinister Gaylen Briggs was hired as their boss in order to raise company revenue. Each episode consists of Lief and Leyland scheming up different ways to make Topps profit, giving the viewer a behind the scenes look into world of baseball cards.
The series becomes quite funny as the episodes progress. Back On Topps contain all of the elements that are found in what is becoming a standard web series (whatever that may be). Each episode can stand on its own and has a different plot than those that precede it. At the same time characters and references to jokes in previous shows tie each episode together connecting the series. This type of connection works well for the Internet because the interlocking of jokes and references create an ongoing illusion of time and interaction, while the brevity of each episode allows the audience to get what they want and leave. While the humor is very similar to that of The Office, or 30 Rock, the show brings a new face to a very dry yet clever breed of humor.
While each episode averages between six and seven minutes, each show presents a dilemma, solution and final outcome. Twice a week Topps viewers receive two storylines whenever they decide to log on. While the average television show will air once a week for twenty-two minutes plus commercials, I can’t help but wonder what’s a greater bang for your buck. I bring this question to surface because before and after each episode there is an advertisement for Skype, the webisode’s sponsor. While this seems reasonable, in several of the episodes the characters plug Skype openly and blatantly within the plot. While I thought that shamelessly plugging the show’s sponsor in the middle of an episode was just comic effect, the repetition of advertisements in multiple episodes is very peculiar. While product placement is apparent in every form of media, this type of marketing takes the viewer away from the show. It also makes me wonder if this type of advertising will become a regular trend in this newly recognized realm of television.
Overall I would definitely recommend Back on Topps to other viewers. By the third episode, I was completely hooked and found the characters very relatable. While “office” humor is becoming a popular trend in television comedy, this show offers it’s own brand of sarcasm and lyrical slapstick that I have not seen in a very long time. While I am also not sure I agree with the sponsor’s advertising concepts, the show has a much higher production value in both aesthetics and dialogue then the majority of web television.

I don't like this blogmajigger, but Viralcom must be heard about!

Zach Graber
RTVF 65i
Webisode Review
Viralcom

“Viralcom” follows several interconnected story lines based within or around Viralcom Studios, which is a professional studio likened to the ones involved with major motion pictures except this studio exclusively produces viral videos. Unlike some web-series like “We Need Girlfriends,” this series does not seem to have much of a future with any other medium besides the Internet. This over the top and ridiculous comedic series preys on memes created through the Internet for its own humor and there is no doubt it is funny, but only if you get the references. Cameo appearances are made by Internet celebrities such as the guy from “Chocolate Rain” and YouTube webcam star username DaxFlame. There are also special guest co-stars such as Michael Showalter, from Stella, and Sam Reich, from Collegehumor.com, both of which have experience with producing content on the Internet. This is the quintessential piece of web content that criticizes web content.
Joey Mandarino and David Young are both comedy sketch artists who got their starts in New York City. After working with Comedy Central and making Variety Magazine’s “10 Comics to Watch for 2007” they decided to move out to LA where they produced this web series. A part from being the creators, writers, directors, and executive producers for the series, they also act as writers struggling to write a viral video that actually has a story. This is just one of several plotlines that climax at the viral video awards show, the “Webbys.”
The Webbys is where the web series really drives home its thoughts on viral videos. Basically everything that Viralcom spent millions of dollars to produce lost and two 12 year olds who were given some money to just be violent and rambunctious and video tape it swept the awards. This web series actually brought up one of the most pertinent topics in this class in regards to what is successful on the web with current technology. Viral videos get millions of hits, get tons of media attention, and even become memes that translate into life outside the computer, but amateur camera people produce almost all viral videos. Meanwhile, people with an education in this background, such as myself, struggle to get recognized in the same fashion without conceding their creative and professional vision. There is no doubt in my mind that sometimes two 12 year olds with a camera can do something that is worth watching, especially using a medium as casual as the internet, but this web-series really brings to light how impactful that can be on people like us.
In regards the technical mechanics involved, the absence of pixilation and good audio lead me to believe it was compressed in H264. I did notice some artifacts in episodes 2 and 10; episode 2 had strange horizontal lines whenever something on screen moved left or right and episode 10 had black that wasn’t as dark as the other episodes. This lead me to believe that either they employed a different person to perform the compression or if they experimented with other compression types. They didn’t particularly utilize any camera techniques as a result of shoot for a smaller screen, but the script was more of the focus than the actual visual content. They did use a really creative technique where they would shoot a viral video and purposely make it look like it was using the worst compression tool on the web (just like YouTube looked back in the day), then zoom out and fade the effect to normal H264 compression when the shot started to include all the behind the scenes action that was producing the viral video. In regards to distribution, a Google search will reveal that they have their own site that hosts all the webisodes at www.joeyanddavid.com and they also have a username specific only to this webseries at http://www.youtube.com/user/ViralcomSeries. However, their videos have also been found on other sites such as Collegehumor.com, funnyordie.com, and dailymotion.com.

More like a Drunken Debacle.

The real test of history in this webisode series is "can the narrator make it through with out vomiting?" Drunk History is an online video series that features inebriated people sharing their version of a specific event in history. The recounted stories are then re-enacted, by professional actors while the drunken commentary plays in the background. This webisode series is the brainchild of comedian and actor Derek Waters. An idea that stemmed from an evening of drinking and chit chat about music. Derek Waters, the genius behind it all, listened to close friend Jake Johnson babble on about legendary Otis Redding. “Otis Redding before he got on that plane knew he was going to die man,” said Jhonson. All Waters could imagine was Otis Redding sitting next to Johnson saying “man shut the f*@& up.” On the spot Derek knew he had something. The concept is drunk people talking about something they are passionate about (particularly history), but the comedy lies in how the story and celebrity reenactment occur. Derek Waters pitched the idea to long time friend and director Jeremy Konner, who loved it and immediately jumped on broad.

The intention behind these crazy drunken narratives was not to create a World Wide Web phenomenon, but to have some fun. Drunk History is a YouTube series, also appearing on Funnyordie.com. Within its first six months of being posted on Youtube, episode one, which is titled Hamilton vs. Burr; featuring Mark Gagliardi, a second city alum, as the narrator and Michael Cera, Arrested Development star, as Alexander Hamilton received 1.5 million views. The opening clips of each episode introduce the narrator as well as the amount of alcohol they have consumed before their story begins; “On August 6th, 2007 Mark Gagliardi drank a bottle of scotch and then discussed a famous historical event.” This is then followed by a smooth dissolve into our inebriated storyteller. Each episode, the narrator does the voiceover, as the viewers see flashbacks involving well-known actors, in full costume, mouthing the impromptu dialogue described by the narrator, including all expletives and sound effects.

As of the now there are only four episodes posted to YouTube, there have been rumors of a fifth episode coming soon, but with the fame this video short has brought Derek Waters his attention has been directed towards other projects. With each new episode the stories become more historically outlandish and farfetched, while the narrators consume more alcohol then the previous one. Additionally, better known actors are hoping aboard the reenactment train and the narrators are coming from the “common” circle of intelligent people. Episode two, narrated by Eric Falconer, tells the story of how Benjamin Franklin, played by Black Jack, discovered electricity highlighting that Franklin’s fame and fortune should be credited to his son William Franklin, played by Clark Duke. Episode three, features Jen Kirkman recapping the story of George Washington’s slave Oney Judge. George Washington is played by Danny McBride, Oney Judge is played by Tymberlee Hill. Episode four narrated by J.D. Ryznar depicts the story of William Henry Harrison, played by Paul Schneider.

One wonders where the humor can be found in this webisode series. First, who doesn’t enjoy being the sober one while a drunken idiot goes off on a tangent about something they are passionate and knowledgeable about. Second, since episode one, not many of the narrators have made it through an entire story without getting sick, or hiccupping. Eric Falconer, who appears in episode two, makes a dive into the bottom of the toilet bowl at least three times, but folks don’t worry if the sounds don’t gross you out the imagine just might. Jen Kirkman, from episode three, gets the hiccups the moment she opens her mouth, while setting the new world record for most minuets to hold ones breathe, but at the same time “honoring her (Oney Judge).” J.D Ryznar, episode four, is sure to wish his mother a happy mother’s day, after for mentioning he has “had a lot of booze.”; followed by a pause in the reenactment as Mr Ryznar up heaves his insides. The comedy behind Drunk History is found within an immature and yet, just take it as these people are idiots, thought process.

The style and medium of Drunk History is that of a homemade video, but with studio production quality. For this reason, there is no homepage site to visit. It is a YouTube series, and the fan base is all word of mouth and blog postings.

Drunk History is by no means going to replace American History taught in our school systems. Nor should the contents of the historical event, being told and reenacted visually, be taken as the only truth. The creativity behind Derek Waters Drunk History is the play on the narrator. Derek Waters, takes someone who is emotionally invested into a historical event, gives them an enormous amount of alcohol (which EVERYONE knows only intensifies emotions) and waits for the mix to explode. The real creative credit should be directed toward the actors, who word for word, as well as, action for action (hiccupping in Episode 3) is what seals the deal. Additionally, credit should go to Jeffrey Konner who edits and shoots this series in such a way to capture the “oops” and “hahah’s” of the narrator. Derek Waters is the genius behind the talent, but that’s as far as his name should go with in this webisode series.

Cooking With Rockstars

Cooking with Rockstars is the side project of Jennifer Robbins, the producer, host, and sometimes editor of the show. Cooking with Rockstars is exactly what it sounds. Every once in a while when Jen gets a chance she will sit down one of her favorite musicians for an interview but unlike any other interview, this conversation is about food. CWR is primarily a music show where the artists get to talk about themselves, and secondly a cooking show where they teach Jen and the viewers how to cook. Every featured guest on the show has to contribute a recipe. Some are as simple as toast, others are intricately detailed recipes that can feed up to 28 people! Some starts are interviewed outside of a venue or in a diner, while others get the opportunity to actually cook in a kitchen in front of a camera.

Since this show is very much content oriented the quality definitely takes a back seat. Like any good web show there aren't any fast movements or weird angels, this show is very straight on. Most of the time it is a two shot of Jen and the featured artist and their respective close-ups. For other shows where the artists get to cook the visuals become much more interesting. For example, the All For Nots episode includes close-ups of the food that is being prepared and cooked. There are also reaction shots and cutaways, all of which makes the show that much more visually interesting. The episodes are edited in Final Cut and posted on her website along with Blip.tv. Along with footage of the host and the guest, the show includes footage of the artist performing Jen's website, www.cookingwithrockstars.com, is a great tool that enhances the web show. Attached to each episode is the recipe information about the artist, links to their music and a discography. There is also some behind the scenes information about the episode that tells who shot and edited the episode along with where the interview took place.

Unlike most other web shows this one does not have a story arc, it doesn't have a narrative. In short, it is not a series. Every episode can stand on it's own with out others. Another interesting part is that this show was started in 2002, earlier then most content for the web, back when the internet was still a baby. As a cooking show and as a music show it definitely accomplishes it's goals. After watching the show I feel more informed about some of my favorite artists and I get the urge to go in the kitchen and start cooking,

As for marketing and advertising for the show I feel that because of the nature of the show it would be very simple. Any one who like indie music or food would love this show. This is especially attractive to young folks who like to try new food and flavors.

Good Web-Series, Now Just Make It For The Web

The web-series Break A Leg – The Sitcom is a good well-written series. The show is about a new writer who gets his show picked up by a network. The only problem is that the producer he gets is a moron who has no funding for the show along with no real set. All of the characters in the show are well developed such as Jennifer, a man hired as an artistic director that is always cutting a piece of fruit but never actually eating it, and Sebastian, the producer who always has a hands-free phone device and an energy drink in his hand. The cast is not just faced with no funding though. There is a threat of a tabloid publishing information about the actors in Break A Leg and the actors threaten to leave the show if the information gets published. Not only does this poor writer have to deal with a moronic producer and director, fundraising, and re-writing scenes because they casted two people who are the same person but the writer is the only one that realizes this, he has to deal with this circus of cast members who are threatening to walk at any moment.
Although Break A Leg – The Sitcom is well written, it is produced for TV not for the web. Each episode of the series is a 13 minutes act of a three act show, for instance there is episode one act one, act two, and act three. With each act being about thirteen minutes long I found myself loosing interest by the end. This show is also shot to be on TV as well. The lighting is nothing great and even worked the lights into the script so we see some lights in the shots and the audio just isn’t great at times. The way it was shot is done in a way of Arrested Development or The Office, which Break A Leg is styled after. I like stuff that is shot like The Office but it does not transfer well into the internet video and compression world. Break A Leg has a lot of wide hand held shots and slam zooms. All the movement in the frame of view does not compress well and you can see a lot of artifacts in the video. The style is there and it would look good on a TV but we are not viewing this show on TV and that is something the director should have taken into account when shooting this series.
Break A Leg – The Sitcom is a worthy mention of a web-series to check out if you want a laugh. The comedy is funny and the gags are pretty good. If you are looking for a show like Arrested Development look no further. The writing is there to make this a good series and the writing is what holds this series up because the production is such low budget. Although the quality of the production is a little lacking and close ups are missing this is a good web series to check out if you want something new and funny.

Brawny Production Style

A true test of manhood is displayed in Brawny Academy, a reality webisode series that puts a group of men who are trying to make themselves more rugged, more affectionate and more caring for their women. Created by two husband-wife teams, they have produced a series that explores the true emotion of men.

Located in the redwoods of California, this competition places eight-men who compete to win prizes and improve themselves at the same time. They are split into two groups of four and asked to complete in competitions that best describes the work that their spouses do on a consistent basis. Through it all they learn to better themselves for their wives but especially for themselves. They learn things that lead to a lot of emotional outbursts as well as a lot of male bonding.

This webisode is extremely creative and explores the ways that men think about themselves. The quality of this show is extremely high and they achieved their goal of showing manly activities, but at the same time making the men better for their girlfriends. It is a very emotional show as the men go from big-tough guys to emotional caring boyfriends and husbands. A thing that is evident during the whole season is the product placement. Everything that the men do to clean anything, to write anything they are using Brawny Paper towels. It is actually extremely funny to watch.

The techniques that the creaters use to shoot this are very unique and interesting at the same time. Every time an interview is shot, they shoot close but they are able to show a lot of action in a very interesting way. They film it so that they are right up in the face of the individual, instead of very wide shots. This is interesting because it is not annoying or distracting at all. During every competition they will follow the individuals and take everyone from point A to point B.

A consistent thing that all reality shows do is add twists and turns. This is apparent in this piece as well. Two men who were sent with the original eight-men in the beginning were hired by Brawny to act as life “distractions”. They were put on the show to make the men mess up and this is supposed to translate into real-life scenarios. They create this very well because until the time you know they keep you guessing.

This is a very unique and entertaining show. It explores something that you don’t see on a television show. The way they go about shooting and creating this show is interesting and very cool. I was happy to stumble onto this show and was eager to watch every episode. It showed me the true feelings that men think and the will power that they have to achieve a goal of becoming a better male-partner for their wife or girlfriend.