Whole Story: Fire Hydrants
September 12th, 2011

Posted by Matt

Fire hydrants: Stoic, unflinching protectors of our livlihoods. Have you ever wanted to know more? Today, we give you the Whole Story.

This video marks the second appearance of Nigel Fitzgerald Brouwer, and marks the point at which “The whole Story” has officially become a series, rather than a single video. As such, Paul provided me a few words with regards to his inspiration.

The Whole Story series was inspired by, among other things, John Hodgman’s Areas of my Expertise and Lore Fitzgerald Sjöberg’s Alt Text videos for Wired. I love the idea of a historian not only being incorrect but actually flat out lying, but speaking with enough authority to seem semi plausible. As with the Spam episode, instead of just making everything up whole cloth, I found it was funnier to get the small details correct even if the larger parts of the story were completely silly. For instance, the modern fire hydrant was indeed invented by Birdsill Holly around the time mentioned in the video. Big thanks to Tensen for providing the great drawings of a dragon attacking a plasma tv and with its nose caught in the 6 pack ring (the most dangerous weapon mankind has ever developed). I was also quite happy with what I came up with for the diagram of the Fire Hyrda. It is the combination of 4 highly detailed engine cross sections and I feel it gets across the ridiculous complexity of the 23 foot long machine.

Checkpoint is available to view over at PATV. Today’s episode is titled: Project – Buy Our Shit

UPDATE: There it is! Unskippable is now online! Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers

Cheers!

Getting In Touch
December 28th, 2010

Posted by Matt

Your inner “guy who likes funny videos” implores you to watch this week’s update.

This video was written by Paul, and I think he’s tapped in to a topic with which we can all relate, so enjoy. Keep your eyes out, too, there are a few references in this video that you should be on the lookout for. Keep your eyes sharp.

Big thanks to Cmaeon for the use of their offices for this shoot. If there’s one thing we always need it’s a convincing office/cubicle set – and what better way to be convincing than to use a real offices and cubicles? Thanks again!

Unskippable this week was Vanquish. Check it here.

Cheers!

James Cameron’s Desert Bus
December 2nd, 2010

Posted by Matt

Coming soon, to a computer screen near you: It’s this week’s video.

Sorry about the late blog update, between the end of desert bus, and some serious sickness on my part (I barely got out of bed on Tuesday) this kind of fell through the cracks. In lieu of my own words, I present to you some things Paul had to say, because he wrote the video.

This video actually started with a completely different idea, I wanted to make a video that was a series of trailers for a Desert Bus movie. As I started going through the different movie options (Desert Bus of the Travelling Pants, The Desert BUs Runs Thought it, Field of Desert Bus, etc.), the one I kept coming back to was a parody of a James Cameron film. I have nothing against James Cameron, Terminator and Titanic were great and Avatar was a least fun to look at, but his increasingly ridiculous movie budgets and even more ridiculous box office returns makes him the perfect person to make Desert Bus: The Movie with the silliness it deserves. Once I had the idea and decided to do it in the format of one of those puff piece DVD documentaries, the pieces came together pretty quickly. I was especially happy with the shots of the CG artist working on placing every grain of sand and Katheen’s shot, in which we used a full body green screen to green screen her onto a bigger green screen! How’s that for tricky? I am also proud of how my photoshops of the Terry Gilliam and Stanley Kubrick movie posters turned out.

Unskippable this week was Yakuza 3: Part 2.

Gary
September 7th, 2010

Posted by Matt

Monday’s update is up, and like Gary, it’s a little late to the party. Check it here.

Sorry about he late update on this one. The whole LRR crew spent the weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo, with spotty internet, and most of our day yesterday was spent on a ferry home. A big thanks to everyone who attended our panel, screening and meetup though! It’s always great to see you guys in person, and we had a ton of fun.

This script has been floating around the LRR office for a while now, possibly since before last PAX. I seem to recall having it planned, and then failing to get it scheduled for shooting in time to make the PAX deadline. On the other hand, I could just be pulling that out of my hat. My memory on the issue is spotty at best. Regardless, we knew PAX was coming this year, and planned ahead to get it shot in time. Of course, Blizzard wasn’t exhibiting at the Expo this year (they had been the year before) so a quick rewrite was in order to make the video fly. For what it’s worth, I think it turned out great. Paul’s always awesome at frantic confusion, and I think he knocked this one out of the park.

This week’s Unskippable may actually rate a my all time favorite. The ending slayed me. I won’t spoil it – just go watch it, then sit there scratching your head.

Unskippable Live
August 23rd, 2010

Posted by Matt

I didn’t manage to get a post up about this in time for the live stream, but in case you missed it, the first time, you have another chance, right now!

This morning at 10AM PST, Graham and Paul dove into the world of Legaia 2 in order to bring you the very first Unskippable Let’s Play!

They spent several hours playing and riffed the game unmercifully from start to finish (of the event, not the game). Now you have a chance to relive the experience!

Check it out, right here!