A Creepy Doll of Your Very Own
October 29th, 2010

Posted by Matt

The creepy dolls are coming. They’re coming for you. Staring into your soul. Their vacant eyes, beckoning you. You must resist. You can’t resist. It’s too late. They’re already in your mind.

Since the dolls have invaded your mind, you may as well let them invade your house too. As part of a very special (and extremely limited) Halloween run we’re bringing these hand-made (and individually numbered) creepy dolls to the store. There are only 6 (selling fast!) of them to be ordered, so don’t hesitate or you’ll miss out!

Ordering has the additional advantage of letting Graham get back to work. He’s refused to set foot in the office ever since we brought these in, so we need to get them gone if you ever want to see another video again.

You can register your pre-order here on the LRR Store. The order window is open for the next 14 days, but I can guarantee you they’ll have disappeared long before then. Don’t delay!

SOLD OUT!!! Thanks for you orders!

Desert Bus IV – The Countdown has Begun
October 27th, 2010

Posted by Matt

Ladies and Gentlemen, the countdown clock has started for Desert Bus 2010.

Over the past several months we have been hard at work organizing the best Desert Bus yet, and we can’t wait for the event to get started! With just over 3 weeks until we start up the bus for the 4th time we’ve decided to start our countdown and open up donations. As is with tradition LoadingReadyRun has made the first contribution of $100.00 which takes us a healthy 30 hours into the event.

We have been receiving some great stuff for the craft-a-long this year and with only 4 more days until our cutoff date, if you still have something you’ve made and have yet to send it out, you’re cutting it awful close. Along with the stuff you have been making we should be receiving some really cool stuff from various companies that wish to show their support, which means a lot of cool auctions and prizes for you guys!!

One last thing; As many (if not all) of you know in the past we have had 4 drivers working 4 hour shifts, this is no longer the case. After some discussions we decided to change things up. So this year instead of 4 drivers there will be 5 (James, Jeremy, Morgan, Bill, Kathleen) and instead of 4 hour shifts each driver will drive one 24 hour shift. Yup, you read that right, each of us will take one 24 hour shift, and if by some chance we get all the way to Thursday evening @ 6:00PM (we have never made it that far in the past) then James will jump back in the driver seat.

This year should be the best year yet and we can’t wait to get started. We hope you guys feel the same!

Make sure to check back here to see the latest news and information leading up to the event!

And make sure you follow us on Twitter & Facebook

Trapped
October 25th, 2010

Posted by Matt

DO YOU KNOW WHY I’VE BROUGHT YOU HERE? TO WATCH THIS WEEK’S VIDEO.

I came home from work today to discover that Jer had sent me a nice little write up about the genesis of this video, so rather than try to explain myself, I’ll just let him do it! (It’s Quizbomb tonight [which you should totally come to if you live in Victoria] so I’m a little pressed for time anyhow).

The idea for this video is one I had had kicking around my brain for a couple weeks before we started talking about Halloween specials. We had tried shooting “Blair Witch”-style videos before—pre-loadingreadyrun—but they always sort of devolved into a bunch of us walking around a park trying to think of what to film. My thought was that, by pairing this with Hustle, we could make it character-based, and give it some direction.

When I first mentioned this in a meeting, the idea was basically “While the crew is shooting a video, something bad happens and they are trapped in a scary situation.” From the brainstorming we did, we got that Matt was the jaded bad guy (but why?), and that there would be multiplying creepy dolls to freak Graham out. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to write this myself, but volunteered after Graham said he’d work on another forthcoming episode of Hustle.

This was hard to write, as it needed to cover a lot of bases. It needed to explain how the crew would actually become fully trapped, in a situation where they wouldn’t be able to just break a window or call for help. It also needed to explain every cut in the context of the video. That, in addition to story exposition left very little space for actual dialogue. I like fake-outs, so I wanted the video to look like a remake, before pleasantly surprising the viewer with Hustle. As is typical for Hustle, all of us display hammed-up versions our absolute worst traits, especially as called out by the forums.

To quickly answer a few questions:

The fact that the footage was found on a memory card is mostly a Blair Witch reference, but is partially an artifact from an earlier version of the script. In the original version, the entire thing was shot on iPhones, and the video ended with the camera/iPhone being dropped—in reference to previous Hustles. The original lead-in text had the footage found at a Genius Bar, on a damaged iPhone.

The basement is obviously not a Faraday cage at the beginning of the video, but becomes one later on. Presumably Matt set up some sort of antenna rig to block phone calls to-and-from the basement—something far beyond Hustle-Matt’s technical abilities. I didn’t have a stinger written for the video, but the concept I had involved Paul admitting that he had created some such a setup.

Finally, as should be obvious, the video feels like Hustle because it was written as Hustle. We decided not to name it Hustle to preserve the fake-out for folks looking at the website, and omitted the intro sequence as it seemed to break the flow. There are some other reasons, but they have to do with things you don’t know about yet. In any case, it uses the Hustle characters in a Hustle-like situation, and probably falls somewhere in Hustle continuity.

Unskippable this week is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Check it out here, if you dare.

SHIRTS! (and to a lesser extent DVDs)
October 20th, 2010

Posted by Matt

Are you one of the many LRR fans who ordered themselves a LRR Starburst shirt from our recent shirt design contest? Are you one of the many LRR fans who was starting to wonder if they were ever going to arrive? Well, take heed! They’re on the way! As I type this post the LRR crew are toiling away making sure that every single shirt gets bundled up in a nice little package for delivery right to your doorstep (or mailbox, or apartment unit, or P.O. Box, etc.)! That means the overwhelming majority (if no all) will be in the mail

and on their way by the end of the week!

Additionally, if you ordered a Hustle DVD with your shirt, you’ll be pleased to know that they’re shipping together, and you’ll find your self in possession of both as soon as they arrive.  We are sorry that it took so long to get these out, but there were a variety of hangups involved that were beyond our control, and they delayed us significantly. The shirts only arrived at the LRR office this morning, so we really are trying to get them out to you as quickly as we can possibly manage.

We hope that, despite the delays, you’re looking forward to wearing yours just as much as we’re looking forward to wearing our own.

If you didn’t order a shirt or DVD, you can still do so over at http://loadingreadyrun.com/store. The surplus Starburst shirts aren’t up yet (though they will be soon), but the Hustle DVDs are. Remember to check back for the shirts though, because they are limited, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Cheers!

Unaccustomed
October 18th, 2010

Posted by Matt

You’ve been randomly selected for viewing of this week’s LoadingReadyRun video. Please click over here.

This week’s video is a Graham written script, coming to you from a similar bizarro-world to that of Crime & Punishment. You may even recognize the costumes. Much like that particular video, this one was shot at UVic, adapting the buildings the best we could to look like what we needed. In this case, the Hallway and the “screening room” were actually in different buildings on opposite sides of the campus (and the screening room is in a building exactly opposite the direction James instructs Paul to go).

Unskippable this week features the return of the bad company in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Check it out here.

Cheers!