Be Serious For 30 Seconds: Seriously Awesome Short Film

Funny guy Fred Armisen and fellow Portlandia star / ex-Sleater-Kinney singer Carrie Brownstein launched a big collaborative video project on YouTube last week called "Be Serious For 30 Seconds", which is something that is very hard for us to do at Fruitless Pursuits.

It's not quite a competition, but more of a challenge. Users are asked to create and upload a video using the following criteria:

Rule 1: It has to be serious.
Rule 2: It has to be 30 seconds or less.
Rule 3: No more than two people in it.
Rule 4: At least one 5 second dramatic pause.
Rule 5: At least one cutaway to an object.
Rule 6: Do your best acting.
Rule 7: It needs to end with a door slam.

There's even a rules explanation and sample video by Fred (I can use first names because we go way back).

But seriously guys... watch this awesome video submission.

It's an interesting project idea, especially considering there is very little serious content on YouTube (or the internet for that matter.)

Click through the jump for two more favorites and Fred Armisen's sample video.

For some reason I can't upload the third video, but here are some kids nailing Rule #6.. Do Your Best Acting. The girl in the video is a regular Dawn Weiner.