VG Theory Productions

Busy busy, indeed. Since spring semester let out to make way for summer break, i’ve been working on an indie movie project making a fairly nice salary – better than I get doing work-study at the college. Once that’s done, I will also be doing some more work-study during summer and again in the fall semester. Not a bad summer job lineup, if I do say so myself. This indie project, though, has been presenting me with quite a few interesting potential opportunities, including-but-not-limited-to acquiring a decent used van at a nice price. My director’s a pretty nice guy.

Eventually, when I find some free time and have the energy, I plan on revamping the blog and cleaning things up. I’ll be adding sections for all of my video projects, updating my bio, and things of that nature. I may even start posting a bit more regularly, though don’t hold me to that. I do most of my status updates as of late on Facebook. Feel free to hit me up and send a friend request, although I must warn you that I am pretty strict about the definition of ‘friend’, so write some sort of unique note to let me know who you are and how you came to know(of) me and we’ll see what happens.

There’s lots to discuss, but my mind is pretty drained at the moment, so adieu, comrades, adieu.

Making The Theory

In a bout of nostalgia, I have uploaded an ever-so-slightly earlier cut of Making The Theory, a documentary included with the ill-fated Video Game Theory, Volume One archive dvd(it shames me to admit that this mp4 version is actually higher quality than the final dvd version). I figured I would give it away online for free just in case someone gets curious. Eventually, whenever I can find a good way to do so, I will upload the entire archive of Video Game Theory episodes as well for the illusion of posterity.

I am not fooling myself. I know, in the grand scheme of things, this entire post is moot, minute, absolutely meaningless to the rest of the world…But it’s important to me. I want people to know where I got my start. I want people to laugh at the ridiculousness of a group of naive kids surrounding a shitty mic, talking out of their asses. For almost two years, Video Game Theory was my life. I take full responsibility for not giving the show it’s due, but I am proud of what I, what we – Dillon, Josh, and Addison – accomplished with no experience, no budget, and absolutely shite equipment. It was a tremendous learning experience.

I only wish the guys would drop by and say a few words.

Directed by: Ricky Coulter –
Vega: Pete Hess –
The Bad: J. Phillip Ruff –

Crazy improv antics.

Time flies, or something like that. It was a fairly hectic semester, let me tell you. Anyway, a new year, a new decade, and hopefully a few new shorts from Film Group this time around.

Between Physical Science, US History, Intro to Philosophy, Creative Writing, and, well, WORK, I am finding myself to be rather busy as hell. Even as I type, I am listening to a lecture from my Philosophy instructor, which makes typing kind of tricky, ironically enough. We’ve had a few film group meetings so far this semester, and it seems as though everyone will be working on some rather interesting projects. My own project, “The Wynter Project”, is currently on the back burner, but we will get to it as other films are completed, so that’s cool. Goodness knows I could use the time to finish up the script.

Just a quick update on my landlady: she’s still a bitch.

There is a small possibility of an experimental fake news podcast, depending on whether or not my employers(the college) approve of it or not. I honestly don’t know what to think about this. Working for the college has proven to me, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that I HATE Bureaucracy and Political Correctness. These elements of our fucked up society are both dehumanizing and decidedly bland, and when I found my studio for real, these will have no place in my business. I would very much like to follow the early Atari methodology, in that the employees work hard because they love the work, not because they’re being forced to do it. Fuck 9-5, fuck suits and ties, as long as you make multimedia magic, as long as you maintain respect for the studio and for the contracts, you are your own boss.

Well, anyway, it’s a nice dream, a nice change from the sterility of my current phase of life.

Description: The Carl Jr. features bumbling pitchmen in an infomercial trying to sell a “terra-freakin-tastic” GPS device called the Carl Jr., named by one of the pitchmen, Carl Carlson, after himself in one of his many fits of pretention. His unwilling partner, John Smith, has a knack for consistently failing miserably to keep Carl’s exaggerations and exclamations in check. Do ‘you’ know the running man?

Backstory: I’ve typed this up once before, to no avail, so forgive me if the quality suffers this time around. It’s 2 in the morning and I just couldn’t be bothered, so that’s that. The Carl Jr. is a project created during my 2009 Spring Video Production II class at National Park Community College. During our brainstorming sessions at the beginning of the semester, this was the only consistent idea to come about, but not due to any particular drive or effort.

The Carl Jr. had no single director. Presumably, this is obvious. It did end up having some writers, though the writing came in late to the game, as it were, and were the result of a quick rapid-fire back and forth between Phillip Ruff and myself, Ricky Coulter. We projected this new script onto the wall for use as a teleprompter, set up a green screen and a desk, and started reading.

The initial concept behind the Carl Jr. was that it was to be a relatively short commercial selling an as-yet unnamed GPS device that was supposed to stereotypically match it’s user’s personality type; that is to say, it was supposed to exaggerate these stereotypical qualities to ludicrous levels. If the user is black, the GPS personality would become a gangsta rapper-type. If the user was a dim-witted blonde with an insatiable urge to shop and little else rattling around in her brain, the GPS personality became, oh, I don’t know, an effeminate gay man with a taste for fabrics.

See, the biggest problem with this project was a serious lack of direction. Not even the idea’s originator wanted anything to do with the decision making process, and half of the group, myself included, was much more interested in working on “To Each Their Own Ending”, an ultimately unfinish-able Phillip Ruff masterpiece. So by the middle of the semester, we had a few particularly unfunny testimonials and little else. The idea was then for moi, the volunteer for any voice acting or narration that goes on at that school, to write up some dialogue to tie everything together into a commercial and, oh yeah, make these unfunny clips funny. Oi.

Phillip and I became quickly determined to salvage this project, and so the decision came to make the commercial into an infomercial, and, well, the rest is in the video. I would argue that the majority of the editing and post-production was done by myself, though I’m not trying to puff up my ego: merely that I did plenty of work to save the project. I’ll say this, everyone that ‘worked’ on the project ‘worked’ on it, if you know what I mean.

Credits: Woohoo, this time, the video features actual credits, so that’s a nifty bonus.

Be sure to wait until the end for my VG Theory Productions(www.vgtheory.com) splash(or ‘that piece of vanity’ as Juan Balderas calls it).

Tangled Threads is a work-in-progress short film I am directing. It’s about the chance encounter of an almost lifeless Croatian exchange student named Zvonimir and a borderline manic-depressive-suicidal American student named Gwen. It’s been in production since some time in January, I think, and it was supposed to be finished in time for our film festival this year. That didn’t happen, so work continues on the film.

Zvonimir, played by Ricky Coulter

Gwen, played by Cassie Henderson

The script was written in a hurry, under the assumption that the movie would be completed in time for the festival. Casablanca it ain’t, as you can probably imagine. It’s not exactly a bad script, but I think there are some pacing issues, which I am attempting to rectify somewhat with my latest updates to the script. As of right now, all of the dialogue scenes(i/e: essential shots) are basically taken care of. What’s left are some establishing shots, as well as a montage of some sort. I’m anxious to try a particular shot where we see a flurry of Gwens on the screen at the same time(without using a green screen). Well, it’s artsy in my head, at least.

Oh, we’re also currently lacking voice overs and music composition, but I do have an ending theme secured, and possibly an intro as well. Many, many thanks go to Stemage for letting me use this great music.

Unfortunately, it seems like it’s impossible for me to write stuff that isn’t inherently sappy or cheesy, but hey, at least I coupled it with implications of violence and destruction! More to come…hopefully…

Definitely needs more options…

So I wonder how to perk up visitor numbers on this site. I’m definitely busy as of late, which seems pretty bizarre for me, but there must be some way I can make this place interesting for people to read. Seeing as how the podcast is most probably dead(hah, as if it wasn’t obvious from the start), perhaps I should change the focus of the site to suit the studio in general, or something like that. Who knows?

My plans as of right now are as follows:

Resume studies during the upcoming fall and spring semesters,

(hopefully)Transfer to Temple University’s Japan campus for another two years of studies pursuing a communications major,

Find a job and get my own place in Japan somewhere,

Hopefully finish a book by then.

At the present, I am working for NPCC producing promotional videos and radio ads, which is fun in it’s own right. Definitely a job I don’t mind waking up for. It’s a very short gig, though, which is unfortunate but expected. Once it’s all said and done, I have to figure out what would be the most efficient and helpful use of the money I will have earned. One obvious option is to stick the money back for use in Japan, because I do know I will need that and more to survive over there. Another option is trying to get wheels, but it’s just not all that feesible to get a vehicle, even a motorcycle(which I really want), for around a grand. Which is unfortunate but expected.

I’m not sure if a lot of people really understand why I want to risk it all to stay in Japan for two years. I mean, yeah, i’m still attending school, furthering my education as it were, but why Japan? It’s a difficult question to answer. Or perhaps it is more simple but complex. Part of the answer is simply that it’s far enough from the place of my birth that I might just be able to feel as though I was able to get away. That might sound silly to all you normal people out there, but the notion of living here my whole life is a harsh vision that I would desperately like to set aside. Hot Springs isn’t all that bad a place to stay for a while, I guess, but it just feels like a holding pattern of sorts…like a place to die, rather than live.

One major part of the reason is just simply that I want to start my life over. The hand I have been dealt isn’t the worst, but I want something different. I want to sort of forget who I am now, who I was, and become someone else. Life is far too short to live dissatisfied, and that’s exactly what i’m doing now. It’s depressing. It might be somewhat naive to think that “if I can just make it to Japan, everything will work out”, but compared to the alternatives lying in front of me, i’m willing to take my chances with the unknown.

Ah well, that’s a good enough update for the moment. Don’t expect too many too often, but who can say what the future might hold?

Footage from the first day of shooting on my short film, “Tangled Threads”. It was a short scene, but we had a pretty interesting time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgYFJQpVFXM
Thanks to Phillip Ruff for compiling and editing the footage.

Yep, it’s been a while. Finally, I have some new content to share with you, whomever you be. What follows are clips from my fall 2008 Video Production class. Enjoy.

First up is “The Most Original Script…Ever!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN7alKo12XI

Next up is “The Great Debate”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwmXwNrDbXI&feature=channel_page

Finally, we have my personal favorite, “The Magic Skull”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9_lGXfOd1Y&feature=channel_page
Feel free to leave comments, and I hope you enjoy me warez. Later.