Scout’s Dishonor
August 15th, 2012

Posted by Matt

Have you done your good turn for the day? If not, click the link for this week’s video, below.

LoadingReadyRun: Scout’s Dishonor
Unskippable: Death by Degrees
Checkpoint: Final Fanstasy Apology
Feed Dump: Libyan Cinnabon
Loading Time: Editing

Our video this week was filmed at great personal expense. I don’t mean financial expense – mono, the site covered the cost of props and costumes. I mean bodily expense. We filmed this episode in UVic’s ‘Mystic Vale’ – that’s a parcel of forest land owned by the school, and holy hell was it ever overrun with mosquitos. WIthin minutes of arriving we realized that we were going to need insect spray, (which of course we didn’t bring) so we sent James to go get some. In the intervening time between our arrival, and James’ return with some Deep Woods Off, we got EATEN ALIVE. I know Graham’s bite count was in the teens, mine was well over 22. I don’t know about the others, but the liklelihood that one of us contracted malaria is very high. (Or it would be if malarial mosquitos were a concern here in Canada).

This is probably going to be one of my last blog post for LoadingReadyRun – at least for the next year – as I’m headed back to school at the end of the month, and I’m not going to be in Victoria much for the weeks until then. Fear not though, as I understand that Kathleen will be taking over my blogging and site updating duties, and she’s actually a witty and capable writer (unlike the hack that’s been doing this until now). I’ll probably do an official final post before I hand over the torch permanently, but in case I don’t have a chance, it’s been a thrill writing these for you, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed having them read!

Cheers!

Occupied
August 7th, 2012

Posted by Matt

Feeling trapped? Take you r mind off it for a while by checking out our videos for the last week!

LoadingReadyRun: Occupied
Unskippable: Atelier Iris 3
Checkpoint: Snickers & The Sea Hag
Loading Time: Loading Time Returns!
GPLP: Cursed Crusade (PT10, PT11)

The writing credit on this week’s video goes to our good friend Andy Cownden, and because I had no involvement in the production of this video at any level, I’m going to leave the majority of the writing credit for this blog post in Andy’s hands too!

This script was written during a particularly severe bout of cabin fever I experienced this past June. I had just come off a theatre gig and found myself swimming in time and trying to not to spend much money. It’s easy not to spend money if you don’t go out much (except for exercise, groceries, etc.), but you go a bit stir crazy. And so, “Occupied” was the result of emotional catharsis meeting a bizarre sense of humour. LRR aficionados may be interested to know that the premise for the script was loosely inspired by Crapshot episode 34 – The Slam.

Cheers!

Fear Itself
July 30th, 2012

Posted by Matt

This week’s video is here, and it is frightfully funny.

LoadingReadyRun: Fear Itself
Unskippable: DarkStar One: Broken Alliance
Checkpoint: Square Enix Versus Rumors
Feed Dump: Mugshots

This is one of those somewhat uncommon (recently) videos that was shot and prepared a full week in advance of release. Graham, James, and Kathleen were all out of town this weekend, so last week we did double duty and shot Jonny Four and Fear Itself on subsequent days. This particular video was shot at a couple of locations around Uvic, (a board-room in the Clearihue building, and the parking garage under the University Centre specifically), as well as back at our office. Despite the location changes, this shoot was pretty straightforward, but we made sure to get footage for a Loading Time episode, so you can plan to watch that on Thursday.

One other update from behind the scenes was that we held a major DesertBus Planning meeting this weekend (via Google Hangouts). The hangout proved super useful, actually, as we connected planners in five cities, between two provinces (and a state!) and carried it all off without any significant hitches. It also sounds super impressive to think that our planning crew now spreads this wide. Desert Bus is going to be awesome this year, guys. Seriously.

Cheers til next week!

Jonny Four
July 24th, 2012

Posted by Matt

Hey Bros and Bro-ettes, Jonny is back on his game, and it sounds like he had quite the night, so check in with him down below.

LoadingReadyRun: Jonny Four
Unskippable: Max Payne 3, Part 2
Checkpoint: Gamer Marketing
Feed Dump: Dakota & Madison Work Stuff Out
Loading Time: Building Planes

Given that this week’s video is the fourth in a series, and was filmed on a Friday when I wasn’t around, I don’t actually have a lot to offer in the way of behind the scenes insights, other than to tell you that the pink… thing the Graham is wearing in this episode is the same pink…. thing that Bill wore as a part of his West Coast mother-Lovin’ G’s gang outfit from the first season of commodoreHUSTLE.

In other news, I understand that there will be no Loading Time this week, as the Friday video shoot interefered with our abilty to record one. That said, there will be one for the next video (which we shot on Saturday) and I know there’s a plan for another different sort of Loading Time in the coming weeks that you should find pretty interesting.

As a final note, I thought I’d also let you all know that we laid down some commentary tracks for a new DVD on Saturday. I won’t say what it is, or when it will be available, but we have something in the works for you, and we hope it’ll be ready soon.

Cheers!

Pocket Planes
July 16th, 2012

Posted by Matt

Attention passengers! Flight LRR-001 direct to Lulz is now boarding at gate 3. Please have your tickets ready, and ensure that all crates of live bees are secured at this time.

LoadingReadyRun: Pocket Planes
Unskippable: Max Payne 3, Part 1
Checkpoint: Games & Movies
Feed Dump: Cons, Moms, Bones & Waffles

So, as you are no doubt aware, at this point, the LRR crew has a bit of a… problem with Pocket Planes. Maybe “problem” is the wrong word. Pre-occupation? Obsession? ALL CONSUMING INABILITY TO SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM IT’S 8BIT ENTICEMENT? ALL GLORY TO THE POCKET PLANES. *ahem*

Anyhow, needless to say, when this script came in from our friend and forumite Alexander Roederer (AlexanderDitto) this video instantly went on our ‘to do’ list. What didn’t instantly go on our ‘to do’ list was the visuals. We had initially planned to film this video live action, but between a lack of suitable locations, and a whole bunch of necessary prop searching and prep time, we started to wonder whether we were even going to be able to get this one done. However, a combination of inspiration and apathy struck! (I mean, why do ourselves what we can nominate Graham to do in Post, amirite?) I certainly feel that the authentic game graphics really sell this video in a way that live action really couldn’t have. It turned out great, and we didn’t even have to write it, or shoot it! Laziness won the day! (Graham and Kathleen slaving away in the pixel mines notwithstanding)

Speaking of laziness, Alexander even provided me a write-up of his process to include in this blog post, so I can let him take over from here! Enjoy:

A few weeks ago Kathleen managed to infect me with Pocket Planes, and so for the last few weeks my dreams have consisted mostly of obsessively routing crates full of bugles and mice from Berlin to Moscow.

Some nights ago I was working late at the office (as grad students are wont to do) and I took a break to check my planes and ship some more event items off to San Diego (SKY CHAIRS UNITE) when inspiration struck: Pocket Planes sure is a weird, warped version of the airline industry! It sure would be funny, trying to book a ticket through Pocket Planes. And suddenly dialog and funny situations started popping up in my head, and I hastily typed them out as fast as they came out of my brain.

I polished up the script while watching Graham, Jer, and James do a Magic Live Draft (YOU SHOULD WATCH THEM THEY ARE FUN), and voila! This script was born! Thanks for using it, guys! <3

Thanks to you for your script, Alexander, and thanks everyone for watching!

One final note – should you decide you’d like to give Pocket Planes a try, the name of the LRR flight crew is “Sky Chairs”. You are welcome to join us by simply typing in the crew name on the game’s flight-crew screen!

Til next week!