Dave & Steve's Video Game Explosion-Burly TV
 

Anyone see these guys on this video game show on TBS? Thursday nights late at night. Where the hell did they find these tools? They totally ripped off the Twitch idea, with the Siskel & Ebert look. The larger guy even has Kevin's glasses. But Kevin doesn't look like a pig like this dude. At least Kev's a good looking guy who can get a date. And the skinny guy is a total tool. He doesn't even look at the camera. Makes me want to punch him. Kev, you gotta see this thing and laugh. This makes me want to do another video game show real, real, bad...Right after I pop some crystal meth and wonder how this show got on the air. They have this ad thing with Sobe drinks too, that they talk about throughout the show. It is the worst video game show I've ever seen. Gamepro TV was better than this. Ya, I'm hatin'. They're on TV, I'm not. But how they got there is beyond me.

I'd be happy to mail you my copy Kev, so you can see it. If I see them at E3 I'm choking them with an X-Box controller cord. It's also a big enough controller for bludgening!

[This message has been edited by George Roush (edited January 11, 2002).]

I forgot to mention I saw that show, it was really late, sometime in the morning. First thing I thought of was Twitch, but this *show* can hardly be called a show, it's really bad. I mean is it that hard to make a quality VG show? Seems pretty easy to me, do reviews, previews, release lists, news...and these two dorks do none of that. The episode I saw they had just gotten a Cube and talked about Rouge Leader...for the entire show. Oh they also interviewed some guy by the name of Miyamoto (not THAT Miyamoto). I guess it was a joke because he talked in Japanese and they didn't translate anything. Oh, and they showed some Sobe drinks too. Why do the dumbest people get the best jobs and do nothing but **** it up? Dumb people. Dumb stupid people.

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--Life is full of tasks to be completed, but right now I am so far behind I will never die

From where I'm standing, it's just SSDD.

"Here comes 2!"

Here's the link about the show as well. I say we all e-mail them asking who they blew to get on TV.
http://www.burlybear.com/shows/videogame/index.html

Admittedly, I haven't seen the show; but after watching the clips on their website, I can already tell how heinous this show's gotta be. First of all...that guy is HUGE. Admittedly, I'm not a thin man...and television makeup and sitting him next to a skinny guy DOES make a big man look even bigger. But...DAMN. The joke interview with the Japanese man was weaksauce and a major time-waster.

It really isn't as easy as you'd think to do a good game show in the States...there are politics involved with distribution and networks that are tough to slog through and every single person you involve wants to have their own "creative input" on what goes into the show. You start with one vision and what ends up on screen might be completely different from what you imagined. But unless you have the money to finance the thing yourself, that's the nature of the beast. These guys obviously shacked up with Sobe for financing, which is the reason for constant plugging. Twitch had assistance from EA, which meant at least eight interview segments with EA personnel, each one plugging their games. But at least we got into the EA Sports bar at E3 that year http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif

Twitch was 100x better than this crap, though...at least we were somewhat credible, and the show had good production values. *Sigh* It really does make you wonder why a show like this gets done and we have to just suffer, knowing that we have the experience and ability to do something that trounces it, but haven't got the connections yet.

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

Hehe...well, read the message boards on that site, with regard to the game show, and you'll see the intellectual level of the audience they're drawing. I don't feel so bad now http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

Speaking of fat dudes, I was looking at the extras of Jeepers Creepers, and you see the director Vincent Salva (I think that's his name, there may be another "i" somewhere in there). He is freaking HUGE. I mean, there is chubby, big, overweight, and then this guy. Holy mother of cracked pavement. He seems cool though...he did some cool shots in JC (most notably *sliding* from car to car in a dialog scene). He also did Powder a few years back...don't know how this guy got his start or how he gets to do a movie every 5 years or so. From watching all of extra stuff, it seemed to me like he was really open to suggestion from everyone, and changed quite a bit of stuff...makes me wonder what ideas he had are his, and if they even made it on screen. Movie could have definatly benefited from more money as the last half really suffers (plus he cut 20 pages out of the script...I'd like to see the original script).

So Kev and Thomas, any updates to the E3 thing? I've already put aside the dough for it.

That and I'm sharpening my X-Box controller cord and writing "For Dave & Steve" on it.

For the love of all things funny you HAVE to get George on tape doing that Dave & Steve run-by at E3. Complete with slow-mo, diffrent camera angles and a rocking sound track, it could be the surprise hit of the season (look at that clever pun!). I'll pay to see it. It would be great as a hidden feature on the DVD.

Just noticed I've passed the 500 post mark. That means between Kev and I, we cover half of the posts on this board. I've never felt such pride. http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif Kev you post on any other boards here? I can never seem to catch up to you...that must mean your cheating.

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--Life is full of tasks to be completed, but right now I am so far behind I will never die

From where I'm standing, it's just SSDD.

"Here comes 2!"

I've seen that show a couple of times. I thought that it would get better after the first time but that obviously didn't happen. How much time do they have per show anyway? I swear they waste 95% of the time talking about that damned drink or how they were suppose to review a game last time (and they STILL don't review it). What a bunch of doorknobs.

Rumpy, big Victor Salva fan? You should check out his early stuff...

...like his tapes of him f'ing a twelve-year-old boy.

I had no idea anybody was allowing Salva to work again, after the flap with "Powder."

I heard about that years ago when powder came out, but I only heard "that the director was an ex-con". One of the reasons why powder bombed if I recall correctly (that and it sucked being the other reason). Is it actually true? I sure don't hold the guy up in any regard...again, I'm not sure how this guy keeps finding work!

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--Life is full of tasks to be completed, but right now I am so far behind I will never die

From where I'm standing, it's just SSDD.

"Here comes 2!"

Not that moral fortitude was ever one of the primary criteria people working in Hollywood were judged by...but yeah, Powder's sucking probably had a lot to do with it bombing, too. http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif

George, I'm going to start planning something on the DVD tip at the beginning of next month, so we'll be talking about it soon enough. I'm thinking of a "documentary" approach, sort of...but with lots of game footage too. I just want it to BE something - to stand on its own rather than being a collection of game footage. If I can get Jason to help out, I'm thinking of outfitting all of us (except Thomas, cause he's actually working) with DV Cameras to shoot as much footage as humanly possible. Every major event, etc... I really want to COVER the show and create something memorable.

Rumpy: This is the only place on the VE Forum I post (and pretty much the only forum I post on, at all). I just have a lot to say, I guess http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

As I'm currently working on a pilot episode of a games show for a nationwide channel here in Finland I can attest to how difficult it is to get a show on air and make it atleast a bit like you had envisioned it. There's so many people you need to please with a show, not to mention making it commercially viable.

Having worked on cable tv where money was non-existant it's quite a shock to work in a more "pro" enviroment which just seems to mean you have to pay a lot more people a lot more money to do stuff.

It's pretty much impossible to do a show without some sort of sponsorship since ad revenue is very limited. In our case, Sony is going to be backing up the show which automatically means we'll cover PS2 the most but of course for the integrity of the show we will be covering the Gamecube and Xbox as well. We are actually going to be doing a casting call in a few weeks and try to find a girl who looks good, is natural in front of the camera AND knows about games...that's gonan be pretty damn difficult.

I think I'm gonna give Kevin a call from the office so we can talk what we need to do regarding E3, the show's gonna come up fast so we better be ready as early as possible.
I really want to somehow sort out this PAL/NTSC problem..would be so good if we could share footage somehow. I can definitely get the betacams that shouldnt be a problem, I doubt there's more than a handful of games we might want to film a bit as we wont have b-roll footage on them.

(I'm actually starting a diary of sorts now and keeping track of all the stuff that we are planning for E3, it will be interesting to read after the show)

Getting as much footage as humanly possible gives Kevin plenty more options in the editing phase and it helps to have lots of background footage for future use as well.


[This message has been edited by Riot (edited January 12, 2002).]

Side note: Just found out Anthony is leaving/left IGN...where's his next stop? Apparently Dave Z is going to Visual Concepts.

Well, if the cat's already out of the bag, then Anthony's probably already left IGN and is now heading up the new in-house PR department at Visual Concepts...that's what he said the plan was, last I talked to him (about a month ago). Sounded like it was going to be a really good situation for him. I imagine Dave Z's heading over there is a direct result of Anthony being hired. I got a message on my phone from Chau about a week ago, asking about some old column I'd written about reviews and their purpose - I called his cellphone and only got the machine, so I didn't get to talk to him and see what's new. I'm sure he'll get in touch eventually.

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

By the way, Thomas, don't bother calling over the next few days - I don't have a voice to speak to you with. This cold flu is almost gone, but I've been coughing up phlegm like crazy and the side effect of that is, my vocal chords aren't working. All I can do is whisper right now. http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif We'll start talking about E3 soon, though...definitely.

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

The E3 sounds pretty sweet. George was telling me that you guys may be doing some taping down there. Well, maybe we can work something out and I can fly down there and shoot the **** for you. There's a chance I'll be moving down to Santa Monica sometime this spring as well.

Sweet dude, I might have to take you up on that. Jason only wants to be involved if he gets to be in front of the camera, but I nipped that idea in the bud. What kind of equipment have you got at your disposal, if anything? I was planning on going with Mini-DV for George and I, just shooting show b-roll and events; but if you have Betacam-SP, it'd sure lend itself to shooting interviews and stuff...gives us a couple different looks.

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

I don't have a Betacam, but an XL-1 which has a decent image for being 4:1:1 and not broadcast quality. I have seen quite a few shows on TV shot with the XL-1 and they are not bad. So, I figure, grab a wireless and some extra batteries and we can shoot a decent video of you guys. You guys can hash it out, and if you want, we can discuss the idea in depth.

I think Twitch killed Kev on wanting to be on camera again!

The XL-1 is a real good camera, I really dont think there's need for a Betacam camera at all...it's clunky and gives a far more "clinical" looking image quality than a good DV camera. Would be good to have a light you can hook up to the camera, the problem with those is the very shot battery life..but it is almost necessary as the lights at E3 dont provide enough light.

Well Betacam gives a little softer analog image, it's a good mix with DV which is really sharp and contrasty. I was only going to use it if we had a camera at our disposal, but since we don't, DV is fine. The Canon is great (that's what Thomas' cameraman used at E3 last year) but for cameras 2 and 3 I think something much smaller is in order. I know what a pain in the arse it is just to carry a VX-1000 around, so I thought we'd go micro...like that little handicam you brought for me to use last year, Thomas. They're really small and much more convenient...plus with the flip-out LCD it makes life a lot easier when shooting over crowds and getting other difficult shots.

Basically I just want to get as much as humanly possible on tape...so as the show gets closer and we know what events the companies will be holding, what celebrity appearances and whatnot, we can schedule coverage between the three of us.

And you're right, George...Twitch was all the on-camera experience I needed to know it wasn't for me http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

[This message has been edited by kdeselms (edited January 14, 2002).]

I got a great camera light and variable watt bulbs for it as well. I can always stick a mini-softbox on it as well to save your eyes and give you guys a nice soft illumination. The battery I have is a 4 hour battery which should be more than enough and I can always rent a battery belt for the XL-1. No news from The Hunted yet. I go back again tommorow.

Damn, dude...I was THIS close to going to work for MTV today. They were in dire need of a good Avid assistant/editor for this show "Dismissed," but when I talked to the guy (raspy voice and all) he said they needed someone with extensive Symphony color correction experience, and I've played with it for maybe 10 minutes. He asked me to send my resume just the same, though... It's MTV, but it's broadcast. I'd feel a certain amount of "selling out" by working there, but I want to get my hands on some broadcast shows!

The hunt continues...how's the situation looking with The Hunted, Lepanto?

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Kevin, the erstwhile "Hi-Fi"
www.videowrestling.com

It's like watching the behind the scenes of a movie, only it's unfolding right here. There a sign up for the final product yet? http://www.ve3d.com:81/wink.gif