So. 

As of today we have officially wrapped principal photography of Video Games: The Movie.  It’s very surreal to say (or type) that out loud.  As an independent filmmaker everything is an uphill battle, and yes the name of that hill is $money$.  Paying for each shoot and trip out of pocket has not been easy (thanks visa & amex) but I know the final film will be well worth it. I can just feel it.

While I know we still have a HUGE amount of work and financial needs ahead of us in post production to make a great film, I had to take a moment earlier and *sigh* in relief.  The shooting part is done! It’s been a crazy year of events, travel and amazing interviews (yes we have been filming for 1 year!).  As a filmmaker I am always looking for that next great sound byte to edit into each section of the film, the best visuals to help tell the story, etc.  But as a gamer I’ll be honest … I’ve had to take some deep breaths before some of these interviews. #gaminggods

During our final push the past couple of months we have had the pleasure of interviewing some real gaming greats like Mr. Cliff Bleszinski (total badass), Brian Fargo (what!!!?), Rob Pardo of Blizzard (he’s as cool as you would imagine.), several FANtastic guys over at Naughty Dog, the lovely Alison Haislip, Clare Grant and Ms. Chloe Dykstra!  

In about a month we will be launching our Kickstarter campaign for the film where we will be trying to raise approx. $110,000 to pay for post production (editing, music composition, archival footage, motion graphics, music licensing, etc.)  To be honest, it is a bit scary to launch a Kickstarter since there is no way to know if people will support us…but I’m hopeful that my fellow gamers and lovers of great documentary film will rise up.  Fingers crossed.  

Stay tuned for more updates on our KS and post production shenanigans.  

Onward!!

–Jeremy

One of the item’s on our “VGTM Bucket list” has always been to travel to Raleigh, NC to talk with the good folks over at EPIC Games, who are responsible for not only some of the biggest technological milestones in gaming but some of the best games ever made.  Our video vignette recap of this shoot, which you can see here – Video Games: The Movie – Epic Games Shoot Vignette is proof that we have in fact successfully checked this off our list & shooting schedule.  It was a real thrill to finally see behind the curtain (& film!) of one of the world’s most prestigious and successful game developers.

We had the privilege of sitting down with several key individuals inside Epic including Mr. Mark Rein himself, Vice President & Co-founder of the legendary game studio.  Not surprisingly Mr. Rein’s insights into what makes the modern game experience special as well as the future of the industry as a whole were spot on.  We were also very excited to speak with Jim Brown, lead level designer for all of the Gears of War titles who gave us some true insider’s info into what makes Gears such a successful franchise.  Wyeth Johnson, Art Director and Greg Mitchell, Cinematic Director at Epic also gave great interviews, each with their unique and surprisingly specific POV’s on the history, culture and future of videogames.  

We are in the home stretch of filming and hope to wrap all our interviews early next month.  Fingers crossed we can make our self imposed deadline and get onto the difficult but exciting task of post production.  Look for our official kickstarter to hopefully launch directly after our shooting schedule is wrapped. 

–Jeremy

On our last trip out to LA we shot some great footage at the Spike Video Game Awards, The Machinima Awards as well as a few interviews in and around the LA area.  To our delight Mr. Max Landis, renowned screenwriter and pop culture icon, agreed to an interview with us and WOW were we surprised at his in depth and unconventional thoughts on gaming culture and the industry at large.  Speaking of “gamer culture” one of Max’s more insightful answers was to our question,

“Where do you see gamer culture headed in the next 10 to 20 years?”  

He basically blew me away with his answer which (if I may summarize) posits the notion that there is no such thing as “gamer culture” anymore. The logic he gave was because gaming, technology, music and movies are all part of a bigger 2012+ culture that everyone accepts as normal, i.e. gaming is no longer a sub-culture, its main stream and If you don’t know what video games are or how huge of an impact they have had and are going to continue to have on life as we know it…your a dinosaur and will be extinct soon. It was kind of awesome to hear someone like Max Landis say this because he is very respected in many circles and his opinions fall very much in line with my personal hopes for “gamer culture”. We, the gamers, are no longer the minority and never will be again…which is kind of amazing when you think about it.  

-Jeremy

What can I say…this interview was a surreal moment in my life and a big part of my inspiration for doing this documentary.  I’ve been playing video games since I can remember and like most people my age I have very fond memories of my Atari 2600 and local arcade (aka “Pizza Hut”) filled with Atari game cabinets.  Needless to say it was a real thrill to have the opportunity to meet and talk with the man responsible for not only the formation and fame of the 1st globally recognized “video game company” (Atari, Inc.) but widely accepted as the father of video games in general. We spoke about everything from the inspiration for PONG to his ultimate exit from Atari, his relationship with Steve Jobs, his biggest hopes & fears for gaming and where he sees the industry headed.  Something I didn’t foresee was our conversation deep diving into ambition, the philosophy of gameplay and his take on “flow” in gaming.  Nolan is a supremely interesting guy and my admiration for him has only grown after spending some time behind the camera with him.  I can’t wait for us to start editing his interview into our finished film. Video Clip coming soon here in the video section of our site so check back!

–Jeremy

Ahhh Seattle, your home to so many iconic game studios; Nintendo, Valve, Bungie, Microsoft, 343 Industries and on and on.  For this trip we were focusing on 2 of the greats – Microsoft, home of the Xbox 360 & 343 Industries, the new home of Halo and creators of Halo 4, the latest in the legendary series. We started our shoot at 343 where we joined Dolby Laboratories for an exclusive interview with Halo 4 Audio Director, Sotaro Tojima, who is one of the more interesting individuals we have spoken with on the topic of game audio. He has a unique and passionate point of view for the medium and it comes through very clearly in his interview.  After Mr. Tojima’s interview we had the pleasure of sitting down with lead Halo 4 producer, Chris Lee.  Now that Halo 4 is officially completed and in stores you could feel a combined sense of relief and exhaustion around 343 and Chris was the 1st one to tell us our senses were correct. It was clear from Chris’ interview that a third sense was also present among the 343 Industries team. Satisfaction. The reviews are in, the consumers have spoken and Halo 4 is a runaway hit and we were thrilled to visit the team who created it.  Next we headed to Microsoft where we had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Kudo Tsunoda, Corporate Vice President & Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios. The 1st and obvious take away from meeting Kudo is that Kudo knows & loves games. His passion for all things interactive was evident in his candid and straight forward answers. While we didn’t get any insights into what the next Xbox will be, we did get a great interview and were then walked around the entire campus to shoot b-roll, which turned out terrific. Thanks Microsoft!  

–Jeremy

Gearbox!!  (Insert witty Clap Trapp quote here).  We were super excited to head over to Gearbox a few weeks ago to film interviews with Gearbox CEO & Co-founder Randy Pitchford, Co-founder & Creative Director Brian Martel, VP of Business Development & the voice of Clapp Trapp Mr. David Eddings, & the venerable Mikey Neuman, Chief Creative Champion at Gearbox. Not surprisingly they all gave very insightful and in depth interviews and we captured some really fantastic b-roll of their studio.  We also had a chance to geek out in Randy Pitchford’s office, aka “a shrine to every game console ever created”.  I thought my console collection was extensive…until I saw Randy’s.  And it’s not just for show either, Randy knows gaming history like few we’ve talked with and his predictions for the future of the industry are deep and interesting to say the least.  We will be posting a video clip or two from our Gearbox shoot soon so be sure to check back in the video section here on the site.  Onward to Seattle (343 & Microsoft Game Studios shoot is next!)

–Jeremy