Thursday, April 29, 2010

Video Update + DnD

Hey everyone, I figured I’d give you all an update on what’s going on with my video series, and talk about some other stuff while I’m here.

My initial promise was to have my manga related show and an episode of Hollywood Genocide premiering before the start of May, but I won’t be able to get either out in time. It’s not via a lack of trying though. I’m in the middle of recording for my manga related show while grabbing scans, music, and clips for the video itself. I’ll finish recording tonight, and start editing either tonight or tomorrow, but I’m giving myself a long leeway to edit. I know for a fact I’m not very good at editing, and it could take an entire week to put the project together. I’m hoping that’s not the case, but I’d rather cover my bases then back track when I inevitably underestimate my workload.

As for Hollywood Genocide, that’ll be my project after the manga show. Hollywood Genocide is going to be my more consistent series since it takes so little time to write and will likely attract a much larger audience. If I finished the manga show on Tuesday for example, I would start HG on Thursday or Friday. I’m shooting for two videos a month at minimum, but I’m hoping to do three to four for right now (with perhaps more in the future once I can get a system implemented to cut down the time needed to write, record, and edit).

There’s a third series I’m brainstorming for that I’m tentatively calling “Wasted”. I won’t say too much more for now, but it will be separate from my manga related shows and Hollywood Genocide. Again, no time table mostly because the show will require money for props, costumes, and lighting. I definitely would like to see an episode of it out before the end of summer.

That’s it for video news, though another series I’d like to talk about involves the Dungeons & Dragons campaign I’m a part of alongside Skitch, LordKat, AngryJoe, Sean, Paw, Y Ruler of Time, and Spoony. So far we’ve had three sessions, two character deaths, and we killed a bunch of Egypt shit, and best of all I’ve recorded all three sessions. Originally I wanted to turn the series into an animated venture, but finding an animator is tough. From my understanding even the most basic of animation is a ridiculously time consuming product, so finding someone hasn’t been easy. If anyone knows anyone who might be interested, send ‘em my way and we can talk it over and go over what we can do. I know some people suggested turning the recordings into a podcast, but honestly that’s a lot of work and I doubt it would be much fun to listen to. Since we play on a virtual table top we reference stuff no one else would be able to see, and it’s not all terribly exciting. With the animated shorts, I’d literally take our funniest moments, and combine them into brief two – three minute scripts. With the raw recordings you’re looking at four to five hours of us yelling at Sean to finish his turn. If a lot of people (and I mean a lot) really want to hear them, AND I can’t find an animator, then I might release them after editing them severely, but I’m telling all of you that you’d enjoy the series 20x more if we could find an animator or some way to visually tell the story.

Also, just for my own curiosity would anyone be interested in reading a brief recap of all of our D&D adventures as they happen? Basically after we play a session I’d just update everyone on what happened. Might be a different way to judge what parts of the sessions people would like to see animated. Hit me back with a response peeps. That’s all for now. Until then this is Three Dog AWOOOOOOW! And you’re listening to Galaxy News Radio…

Thursday, April 15, 2010

TGWTG Anniversary + Video Update

Hey everybody, I’ve recently returned from Reno where a group of TGWTG talents filmed the 2-Year Anniversary special! There’s a lot I want to say, but I will omit the information that must remain secret (aka, the good stuff). Enjoy my comments about the trip, and at the end I will have an update regarding my own work.

- There is nothing good about Philadelphia. It’s an ugly town that just feels miserable. Plus the Eagles suck. I like nothing about it.
- Exception to the above: Philadelphia’s airport is fantastic. Security is quick and easy plus the staff is friendly. I’ve never had a problem with gates, finding where to go, or my bags. I’ve checked bags twice in Philadelphia, and both times they were retrieved without any damage. I have no complaints.
- Exception to the above: Actually I have one. I wish the place had a McDonalds or Burger King or something because when I got there I hadn’t eaten. I looked for a place to just grab a quick burger, and ended up spending $10 on a floppy ass burger at Joe’s Burger Shack or something generic like that. If I ever fly out of Philly again, I will make sure to eat at the Train Station in Philly first.
- First five minutes in the car with Bhargo, dude has a meltdown. A hilarious meltdown, but still. He was teetering on the edge of insanity people!
- Leading up to this event I asked people if they wanted to get drinks one night. They said yes, and then when I got there on the first day, they had all just left the pub and never went back. I never got my Irish Carbomb…
- Speaking of alcohol, I learned that Yeungling is pretty much an East Coast beer. They didn’t have it anywhere over in Nevada.
- Roomed with Paw. Apparently I snore. I also can apparently take like four pillows to the face and not wake up. Paw makes a shitty roommate. No late night quasi-gay conversations.
- First night there I’m woken up at about 2:30 when Benzaie arrived. He wanted to get a video of him greeting us all. I hugged him to play it up, then locked myself out of the room. Had to walk downstairs barefoot to get a new key. Could have been worse. I’m glad I was wearing pants.
- Benzaie is still French, tiny, and balding, but now he also has a small patch of skin on the front of his chin where hair just refuses to grow. It’s pretty funny.
- Met JewWario. Of everyone at the event, I probably was excited to meet him the most. Guy is hilarious despite what he says, plus he’s got a real kick ass Jojo cosplay outfit. We really wanted to film a Jojo cross over while we were there, but didn’t have the time. We might still do it though.
- Also met CinemaSnob, Film Brain, and Phelous for the first time. All very cool guys, and I want to have sex with CinemaSnob’s voice.
- On one ride, myself, JewWario, and Phelous nearly died laughing at Pokemon jokes. Jason hits a bump and smacks his head into the van. “JASON USED HEADBUTT! IT WASN’T VERY EFFECTIVE! HAHAHAHAHA!” We were… very tired.
- Breakfast buffet sounds awesome, but I wasn’t impressed by it. They had a large selection, but everything was cold. Don’t get me wrong, I ate it like no tomorrow, but I was still disappointed. I was also disappointed when I grabbed a cheese quesadilla, only to find out there was no cheese in it at all. Jason will vouch for me.
- I beat Linkara in Advance Wars. LET IT BE KNOWN!
- I also got my monkey ass handed to me by Doug in Marvel VS Capcom 2. To be fair, I just button mash. I didn’t figure you’d need much strategy to play Juggernaut.
- I am now in love with Poppin’ Music. The game is a blast, but it really helped that the machine had “We Are” from One Piece. I played that song probably… twelve or so times.
- Played another game… can’t remember the name, but it was like DDR except instead of hitting buttons you had to wave your arm over/under sensors. It was a blast, and I got a real workout out of it. I wish I had discovered it sooner.
- Desert is disturbingly effective. It was cold out every day, but if you don’t put on sun screen you get burned. By the end of the trip we almost all had sore throats. So dry…
- I didn’t see a single cactus. I call desert bullshit.
- Did see a tumbleweed though. I laughed.
- Bhargo is insane… in a good way. At one point he just randomly stated that he had a vision of himself crying blood as a penguin walked into a portal, but then he screamed for the penguin to turn around, but the penguin only turned halfway around before walking through.
- We spent a good chunk of the trip adding meaning to that. Apparently the penguin is a member of an ancient sage cult of penguins who are unattached from the world, but Bhargo manages to make one of them feel love, and said penguin decides to sacrifice himself to stop the Robot Zombie Unicorn invasion. We’re… all pretty messed up.
- Around Day 4 I regretted not bringing more than one pair of socks.
- Hanging out with the TGWTG talent was like being at my old high school lunch table again. I’m not sure how, but we went from a serious discussion on religion, to Jason raping strawberries.
- Last day I went out with Benzaie to try some new American sodas and candy before he left. He tried Mountain Dew Voltage which he didn’t like, and Red Vault which he thought was good but “[he] could taste it killing [him].” I was upset they didn’t have Mountain Dew Code Red. That shit is great.
- There’s something hilarious about watching Benzaie double fist a Payday and a Butterfinger at the same time.
- Benzaie drew muscles on me. For a few glorious hours, I was Triple H.
- When I took a shower afterwards, it looked as though someone had murdered a classic cartoon character.
- On my flight back I got stuck behind two kids who were unbearable. Seriously, they were screaming, singing, fighting, crying, laughing… all the shit I hate children for. Honestly, I would have been able to get more peace out of that trip if I held my cat the entire way. (BTW, Liam is an awful cat).

I can’t say what we did in Reno, but trust me when I say you guys will really enjoy it. I didn’t appear on camera for too many cross overs, mostly because time constraints cut down what I actually had planned, but we plan to make up for that later. Some stuff we’ll film at our homes.

Now onto my own personal stuff, I’ve been waiting too long to start filming stuff, and I’m currently trying to take control of my life, involving finding a home for my mom, getting into shape at the gym, and producing videos. I always had an excuse for not wanting to film, but not anymore. I have two ideas planned, and neither will require too much editing work. First, I’ll be working on Hollywood Genocide. To be honest, I’ve had this thing on the back burner for over a year. I was originally going to film it at the last meet up, but decided consistency would screw me up. After that I wanted better lighting, and then I wanted better editing skills. Despite having neither, I’m done with putting it off. The format for the show will be… ever evolving. That’s my adorable way of saying I haven’t the faintest fucking clue how this will all work. I have a structure in my head on how the first episode will go down, but the show could easily change after that. I’ll be looking for fan support on that to tell me what to change. For those curious, or maybe never read my articles, Hollywood Genocide is where I play Terry Ash, a quasi-gay guy who enjoys celebrity news way too much, and pretty much spends the show mocking celebrities. Shock humor abound!

The second show is a manga show—though not a review show. I still plan on doing Two Tone Reviews, but as of now, that show is insanely difficult to produce because well… I’m a perfectionist asshole who is never satisfied with what I write. I’ve written about ten different versions of my Air Gear script which went from humorous, to serious, to long, to short, to eventually, ad libbed. My problem is I need to gain experience filming and editing. Writing I can do no problem, but I have terrible skills in editing. A review is a lot of work… especially since there’s so much wrong with that series… SERIOUSLY!? WTF?! BARACK OBAMA TAKES OVER THE BODY OF A 15 YEAR OLD JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL?! WHO WRITES THAT?!

Anyway, the second show is going to be manga related, and I won’t reveal too much more about it. It won’t be humor-centric; it'll more like Familiar Faces or Linkara’s recent look at the Power Rangers (which is awesome so you should go check it out!). For a time table I want both shows to be done before May, and I want help. If you don’t hear me talking about these shows, please bug the living crap out of me on Twitter, Facebook, Skype, whatever. I need to get these done, and the first hurdle is doing the first episodes. Well guys, that’s about it for now. I’m still exhausted from the trip, and my back is killing me from sleeping in a chair at my cousin’s place. Catch you all around later!