Preproduction Day Eight: Big (Brother) Update

Big news. As I'm sure some of you already know who have been keeping up to date on the RobTroid: The Movie blog, this film will be featuring my real life family members. I strive for realism in my art, and what better way to show my dad calling me a freeloader and telling me to get a job than to cast my dad and make film him calling me a freeloader and telling me to get a job? Makes perfect sense. As I've been reflecting on what kind of mood I want to convey in this movie, the soundtrack always comes into thought. Obviously, it's going to have an exceptional soundtrack, because I have an exceptional taste in music! I'm thinking it should have at least one Lillian Axe song. Two more days till we start filming!

Preproduction Day Seven: (Mr.) Big News

I have some big news today. The script is coming along great, and I have no doubt that it will be finished before I start shooting (I'm just kidding, I have a little bit of doubt that it'll be finished in time), but that's not the big news I have for you today. I have confirmation from my dad, in real life, that he will be appearing in my movie as...himself. Now that you've all taken a minute to breathe and think about how awesome it'll be to see my dad in his film debut...actually, that was all I wanted to post about today. Dad's gonna be in it and it's gonna be a good time. Okay, bye!

Preproduction Day Six: Script Shuffle

I couldn't come up with a clever title for this post. Now that I'm finally done capturing footage from the dreadful Twilight Princess, I can focus on scripting, and the script is actually coming along really well. It's fun to be able to get into writing a (hopefully) captivating story, it's really liberating A. it's a "movie," as opposed to a video, and B. nobody's gonna watch it anyway, so fuck you! I didn't mean it... Two, maybe three people will watch it, not including me. I don't have the script finished, but I should probably have a draft done by Friday...which is the day that I start filming. Oops.

Preproduction Day Five: Twilight Really Fucking Shitty

Tonight, I finally beat Twilight Princess. Now I remembered why I hate it, because it sucks! Come to think of it, the depth that I'd like to go in may require footage from other Zelda games... UHHHHHH... I need to sleep on it. While I could just rip the footage from Youtube, that'd be a lot of sifting, but even more sifting if I were to capture the footage myself. The main point that I want to get at is why Ocarina of Time is, well, the be all end all. While it's not my personal favorite, it remains the template for all Zelda games, and Twilight Princess is no exception. The whole game is basically just trying to be Ocarina of Time again, but its main downfall is in the storytelling department. Nothing that happens really seems to matter. The mission, the quests, why do I care? Why does Ganon show up just to show up? This game tries so hard to be epic and huge, but it neglects the proper elements of storytelling that would bring more weight to the actual game. I'll talk about this in the movie, but these are just my underlying thoughts leaving the game. It sucks.

Preproduction Day Four: Twilight Fart

It's really not that bad. I'll admit it. I don't want to give anything away, because the bulk of the movie is going to be talking about it, spoiler alert. I did Yeto's Mansion, Temple of Time, and City in the Sky! All I have left to do is the super lame Twilight World and Ganon's Castle. They're so lame! It's gonna be great. Once I'm finished capturing footage from this shitty game, I can finally focus on scripting the rest of the movie. My brother's confirmed to co-star in it, so it's sure to be good. He's assured me: "I'm really an excellent actor, slow at the studio. Course, today's Friday." He's my brother, and I love him.

Preproduction Day Three: WHY DOES ZELDA TURN INTO SPARKLES

Today marks day 3 and, believe it or not, I have a script! Yayyy... Actually, it's just a few scenes so far, but they're really funny. If I think it's funny, and I know no one else will, that's how I know it's funny. I'm striving for realism in this. The challenge with making a film out of a short skit is to keep it in tandem with what makes the characters and jokes appealing in the first place. The reason why Wayne's World worked was because they took the skit out of the basement and into the greater universe. The jokes come from how the characters interact with others in their world. To have the character of RobTroid come out of the Palace and into the world lends itself to a number of funny situations in his interactions with friends, family, and the opposite sex, so that's the angle that I'm going for, the gaming falls into place itself. That being said, Twilight Princess. After the Lakebed Temple (the worst level of all time), the game really picks up. Arbiter's Grounds is an appealing dungeon, not too challenging, not too easy, good balance. The plot is still lacking, at least for a Zelda game, and Midna is still an uninspired bitch. There, I said it. The things that happen don't seem to make much sense, at least in the grand scheme of things, namely that these events which occur that are supposed to be powerful and strong moments just come off as contrived. Why does Zelda need to turn into sparkles to save Midna? Why does Zant need to cast a gold pyramid around the castle if Zelda already turned into sparkles? If Zelda already turned into sparkles, then how is she still alive at the end of the game? WHY DOES ZELDA TURN INTO SPARKLES!? This game sucks.

Preproduction Day Two: Twilight Feces

Wow, how could I forget to post the other night!? Probably because I was still pissed off and jaded at having to play such a shitty game. Yayyy... To be fair...I'm going to tarnish my reputation by saying this, BUT, it wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's still the worst level of all time, but for some reason, it seemed to go by a lot quicker this time. Maybe it's due to that when I used to play Twilight Princess, I used the strategy guide by Prima, which is extremely detailed and tells you about every bit of treasure and collectible you could possibly acquire. I used the Zeldadungeon guide this time, and was genuinely surprised when I scrolled down to see that I was almost done with the Lakebed Temple. I guess the Zeldadungeon guide just cuts through all the bull shit and gets down to business, and the great news is that it's all uphill from here. The rest of the game is actually pretty solid. I'm very excited for replaying the Temple of Time, and replaying this dreadful game has inspired me to participate in PeanutButterGamer's Zelda Month in November. Maybe then, he'll finally return my calls...

Preproduction Day One: Twilight Poop

Today, we (I) began preproduction on RobTroid: The Movie. Y'see, normally, filmmakers go into preproduction after a script is written. Oops. To be fair, writing a script means knowing what I'm going to be saying, and since I'm going to be talking a lot about Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (one of the worst games ever made), I spent the bulk of today capturing footage for it, which unfortunately means playing it. It was awful. To a point. The first section, Ordon, Faron Woods, intro to the Twilight Realm,is savagely painful, but then it starts to pick up once you hit Kakariko. I don't want to get too much into it, because that's what the movie's for, but let's just say that tomorrow I have to do one of the most painful things I've ever done and will ever do. I think you know what it is. I'll keep you posted. In other news, I will be accepting donations of any clothes you may be getting rid of, anything that looks like it probably went out of style a quarter century ago is best, but I can work with just about anything as director, producer, lead, costume and wardrobe designer. I wear size small and X-small, but I've been known to rock the off-the-shoulder look.

Argumentation and You

I've been pretty active in Facebook groups and forums over the last few months.  I'm part of a few groups dedicated to music, whether that's fans or other musicians to network with, a few dedicated to Youtube gamers, which really is just a place for other "Youtubers" to post their Let's Plays.  The forums that I'm the most active on are Metroid forums.  I was part of a forum in April and May called "Metroid Lovers of the World," and the reason I had to leave was simply because they were too dumb.  It's easy to spot the more intelligent people in discussions because they're often the ones with differing views and can articulate them effectively.  That being said, it's even easier to spot the dumb ones, of which there are many.  Here's an example of what I consider to be a "dumb" post:

1. Here you can see the crater... The Metroid Prime is down there. ;D lol

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/scientists-get-first-look-inside-mysterious-siberian-crater

Or, in even simpler instances:

2. There is a cutscene in the beginning of Metroid Prime 3 that really confused and kind of bothered me. Since when do single shots of the Power Beam kill Pirate Militia, or have so much recoil...?

For reference, here's the clip that previous post was talking about.

http://youtu.be/ymr6rzQgJsI

Allow me to explain my logic for post 1.  Let's begin by dissecting the title.  There's a winky face and a "lol" at the end.  Putting "lol" in your posts a lot of the time can be filler.  Why does a post of only text need filler?  Who knows.  It's also a way to force a comedic reaction out of the reader.  The way I approach the latter is; would you laugh at your own joke?

If the answer is "Yes," then I beg the question; was it really that funny?

If the answer is "No," then you probably shouldn't be posting it to begin with, unless *hint hint* you're trying to begin a dialogue.  A novel concept, I know.

My logic for post 2 is that the poster was not able to look at that cutscene critically and say to himself "Y'know what, it's just a cutscene.  It's designed to move the game along."

I take issue with people asking questions that they know the answers to.

My reasons for joining these forums are pretty broad.  I have different reasons for each forum I'm a part of, and for the Metroid forums, it began as a place to bounce ideas for Metroid Month off of other people who were hardcore fans of the series, as well as promote Metroid Month.  Unfortunately, this really wasn't the kind of audience I expected.  Allow me to post an actual exchange of comments between users on the "Metroid Universe" Facebook group:

User A: I like Super Metroid. *1 like*

User B: Super Metroid is the best Metroid ever. *2 likes*

User B: Yes. *1 like*

Riveting.

This is the opposite of what this forum should be about.  What's the point in talking with someone about something if you both agree?  Sure, it can work most of the time, but if the posts consists of:

"I like this."

"Yeah, I like this too.  It's good."

-End of Exchange-

Then why am I wasting my time?

So, the reason for my posting is because (big shocker) I pissed off another ragtag group of Metroid fans.

Yayyyyy.

For reference, here's the original post that I responded to and almost initiated a critical dialogue:

Thardus...A rock heap that kills me in the fucking corner!  Fuck you!

Riveting.

I responded, naturally, by posting my Top Six Worst Metroid Bosses video, as I felt it was relevant, seeing that Thardus was on that list.  And, wouldn't you know it, I actually got a response to it!  One of the users started talking about how he was really struggling on Mogenar and Helios, and I started saying why I disliked those bosses as well.  His reason for disliking was the difficulty of the battles, my reasons for disliking were because Mogenar is tedious, and Helios is uninspired.  We both agreed on our conclusion that the boss battles were not good, but the discussion didn't end at "Yeah, you're right.  Those bosses sucked."

This was the kind of discussion I wanted to have with other fans.

At some point, the gentleman I was exchanging with said that he disliked some parts of Other M, but said that he's "...not as hard on that game as most people are." I had no problem with this, and he probably brought it up as he was watching my video, so, kudos.  And then...

The administrator who's managed to stick his proverbial dick in every single Metroid forum on Facebook decides to chime in.  I call him the "administrator" because he was the administrator of the "Metroid Lovers of the World" forum that I eventually had to leave because I got fed up.  On this forum, he's just a regular user, so let's just call him "Admin."

Admin chimes in "I liked other m it's hard mode was actually hard"

That's a post that can be taken and made larger with the addition of other opinions, so I added my thoughts on it:

"The worst part about Other M was the god awful soundtrack and dreadfully short play time. I know I've said it before, Admin, and I'm saying it again! I'm still pissed off about it!"

To sum, Admin said that he thought the soundtrack was average, I said I thought it was below average, and then the gentleman whom I'd been talking with earlier chimed back in to say why he had used the guide on those bosses, and talked about how he didn't like Phaaze, the ending segment of the game.  I replied that I also disliked Phaaze because to me it felt like a cop-out, but that I still think Corruption is the best.  And then...

Admin chimes back in saying "Na prime 1 was best."

Not "Prime 1 was the best," just "prime 1 was best."

Admin doesn't speak, or spell, English very well.

After posting a clip from Commando (1985) in response, I proceeded to say how I thought that Prime 1 gets dull and tedious after you beat it a few times due to that the Space Pirates are way too strong for their own good.  I then went on about how I thought Echoes achieved a more equal balance and continues to age like fine wine, but that Corruption hit the marks with the exception of the forgettable boss battles and ending segment.  And then...

Admin chimes in with the logic "Yea but they mad it to easy with the hyper mode and other lame ways to make it easy"

See, now, one thing that really frustrates me is when people just make accusations or claims without any grounds or supporting evidence, so when he said "lame ways," that gave me pause.  So, I responded:

"'lame ways' deserves more description and justification.  Hyper Mode subtracted an energy tank every time you used it, so I wouldn't call that easy because it's actually counter intuitive to what you're trying to accomplish.  Staying alive."

First, I'll begin by saying why this was a sufficient response, please take note of the bolded and italicized sections below:

"'lame ways' deserves more description and justification.  Hyper Mode subtracted an energy tank every time you used it, so I wouldn't call that easy because it's actually counter intuitive to what you're trying to accomplish.  Staying alive."

Notice, to attack his argument as well as support mine, I bolded what he needed to do to make his argument more justified.  My logic being that if you think you're right, show me.  

Also take note that I stated my claim, and explained why I believe my claim to be valid.

This is not me being a troll, this is me trying to engage in civil discourse with people who share similar interests with me.

Admin replied "Though hyper mode used an energy tank it made enemy's and bosses to easy and even Nintendo said they dumbed down prime 3"

I replied "You were forced to be strategic with hyper mode and not rely on it A. because it's a stupid idea anyway, and B. because it slowly kills you.  Just because they dumbed down a game doesn't make it any worse, they just cut the fat off"

Granted, this was not my best retort, but take note that I provided logic to my argument on why I believed it to be strategic.  And then...

Admin replies "U weren't forced to be strategic but ok whatever keeps u happy chip"

Why wasn't I forced to be strategic?  I just wasn't?  Did I not provide enough argument to allow for a more legitimate retort?  I just explained where I thought the strategy lied in the use of the hyper mode system, yet somehow, my claim is simply invalid without any kind of counter evidence?  What's that about?  This is when my fuse got short.  I posted:

"My reservations lie with that I make assertions and provide evidence to support my claim. You say "No. You're wrong" allowing no meaningful retort or any reason for me to sway my opinion. I'm not asking for everyone to be experts at argumentation, but me saying "Hyper Mode forced you to be strategic because you could only use it X amount of times before it ran out and/or killed you" and you say "It doesn't force you to be strategic" and provide no backing evidence. Give me the data."

To be fair, I'd gotten frustrated at this point.  And then...

Admin chimes in "iv gone through this shit with u befor chip i ain't waisting my time again"

You may notice that Admin's quotes are very, err, sloppy, to say the least.  I want you to know, for the record, that I have not doctored the syntax, punctuation, or spelling of any of his quotes.  As I stated earlier, English is not his first language, so I'm not going to spend a great deal of time criticizing his wording.  That being said, it's clear that he knows how to spell and simply chooses not to, which doesn't help his case any better.

Moving on, I replied:

"No, clearly, because I'm wasting MY time trying to engage in a stimulating dialogue with other Metroid fans and I just get "No, you're wrong, I'm right." That's not dialogue, that's playground justice."

"Playground justice" is what I define as, when you're young on the playground, and someone does something, you ask "Why?" and they say "Because" and leave it at that.

Admin replies:

"Oh ok chip how's ur group going ??"

Notice, please, that this has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.  It should be telling because I now have to explain to you what he meant by that.  After leaving "Metroid Lovers of the World," I decided to make an exclusive Metroid forum called "Metroid Forum for Smart People." Said forum has less than ten members, because I don't care.  What I wanted to happen was to have Admin request to join, which of course he did, and me deny him entry, which of course I did.  Reason being: he's too dumb.

So, back to the topic at hand, I'm going to reiterate that Admin's comment had nothing to do with his flawed argumentation.  Therefore, I called him out on it:

"It's a very exclusive club that only smart people are allowed in, and unfortunately, that's a limited demographic. How dare you bring up topics that feed into my inner most insecurities. Also, once again not proving to illustrate your point and instead attacking the speaker is a fallacy of irrelevancy, specifically ad hominem. It does nothing to sway the audience in your favor and comes off as a desperate attempt to shift the attention away from the argument. Party foul."

Notice anything wrong with my claim?  Absolutely not; and I didn't  even need to provide further evidence because Admin did it for me!  How nice of him.  He said:

"U shore do like big words don't u does it make u feel smart"

Please take note that he neglected to provide a counterargument to mine, and continued to instead attack the speaker, being me.  This served simply to reemphasize my point of his fallacy of irrelevancy, specifically ad hominem.  I replied so:

"Not really, it's talking to people like you that helps me KNOW I'm smart. What's that? Is that another fallacy of irrelevancy coming into play? Now, that couldn't be, because I just talked about that!"

At this point, I was getting more and more snarky as he continued to dig his hole even deeper.

That was the bulk of that conversation, but the mediator in this brought up a point that I found interesting, for lack of a better word.  His quote, after telling us to stop arguing (and rightfully so!), is as follows:

"I'm also not fond of discussing what makes a game too easy because I find that it begins to wear away at what a game is about: Fun. I know some of you must have a challenge to have fun, which is fine, but when it conflicts with others' opinions and we don't go about it nicely, the thread becomes a place no one wants to be in anymore."

I'm fine with what he said here, but what I think the underlying theme is is that he doesn't want to be contrairian to the love of the series.  In my eyes, critically discussing and analyzing the merits, as well as faults, of a piece of culture, makes it more significant.  People enjoy art exhibits because of the interpretations they have.  Everybody has a different view on the same piece of art, and it's those differing views and opinions which transcend the boundaries of simple paintings, or in this case, games.  I would argue that games are an art form, most definitely, but that's a topic best saved for another post, perhaps.

Just because you're able to say that something is flawed doesn't mean that you like it any less, in some aspects, I think it can make you appreciate it as a series more, because it helps to establish contrast.  The tedious boss battles in Corruption help you to appreciate the more clever boss battles in Echoes.  I guess that these people have a love that's blind and refuse to view it from a critical lens, but am I alone?  Are there not others who view media in a similar fashion?  Doesn't it somewhat invalidate your fandom if you're not able to recognize the poor aspects of something?  I'm familiar with the KISS repertoire, so I'm able to say that I think Crazy Nights is a lackluster album, but that doesn't take away from my love for the band, it just transcends beyond simply that I like their songs.

So, these are just a few things to think about.  I hope you learned a lesson today.  The lessons I wanted you to learn were:

-never make a claim without evidence, 

-attacking the person using the very method he or she had called you out only serves to further demote your point

-discussing the flaws of any piece of art or media doesn't take the magic away, but it actually makes it that much more special

RobTroid: The Movie?

Ever since the advent of the RobTroid Christmas Special, I've been thinking about doing a movie.  While it's gone through several iterations, and I use the term "movie" loosely, what I'm referring to is a predominately plot driven RobTroid episode.  While having it be feature length would be very cool, it would also mean a lot of time and resources devoted to it, including hours upon hours of shooting, not to mention editing.  The length I'm thinking of going with this movie will be anywhere between 45-60 minutes.

So, what kind of movie am I thinking of doing?  The universe of RobTroid is so vast, yet still unwritten, that the slate is very clean.  Do I want to make a raunchy comedy?  A cathouse?  An art deco experiment?  An introspective character study?  A science fiction action adventure?  Well, the answer is, all of the above.

Granted, having too many elements in one movie comes off as not only confused, but also pompous and self indulgent *coughTERANTINOcough* but with the script still in the very early stages of writing, I have plenty of time to rewrite and revise before I start shooting.  It'll probably just be me and whatever friends and family are willing to help out with it.

Right now, I'm thinking something like Bladerunner...

Meets Miami Vice...

Meets Spring Breakers....

Meets Purple Rain...

So, if you're reading this, and are interested in being part of the dream, and are in the Seattle/Bellingham area, drop a comment and I'll get back to you!  If not, then your support, as always, is greatly appreciated.

Your Art and Why Nobody Cares

In addition to writing material for the new Axis of Symmetry album, I've been brainstorming some ideas for RobTroid: The Movie.  The roadblock that seems to keep coming up always seems centered around that I'll need a lot of help to make the movie happen.  With short 10-15 minute episodes of the show, it's less work.  Usually it's just me working on it, sometimes Joe helps me set up shots and bounce ideas around, but making a 45 minute independent movie is vastly more complex.  I'll need actors, camera and boom operators, and drivers.  So, why not send out a couple of feelers?  Ask some friends if they'd be willing to help me?  That brings us to the topic of discussion for this post; nobody cares.

I've been on social media for a good portion of my life, and I've also been on it long enough to know that it doesn't account for the entire world, but that does beg the question; if the average American spends 11 hours per day interacting with digital media, then what are they doing?  Here's my theory, and it's not actually my theory at all.

You're an adult in your late 20s; your young friend gives you a flyer for a house show he's playing.  You don't go.  Why not?  Taking any previous commitments out of consideration, let's say you're an adult in your late 20s with disposable income and a fairly open schedule outside of work.
Conversely, you get tickets to go see U2 play, arrive on time, and enjoy the show.  Why did you pick the already established band, who could probably pay their bills regardless of your attendance, over your young friend?  The reason is because U2 have already made it.

Well, duh, right?

If you look at someone like Hugh Jackman dating a super model, you say "Well, he can date whoever he wants because he's Hugh Jackman." Conversely, if you see your friend, who's attractive in his own right, dating a very attractive woman, you might say "What's she see in him?" This is because celebrities are already put on a higher plane than up-and-comers.  There's nothing wrong with this, it just is the way it is.  Therefore, the bulk of time spent on social media is spent following personalities who already have a large following.

This brings me to my next point; why nobody cares about your art.  The reason why nobody interacts with your art is because of social comparison.  Social comparison theory refers to how we view ourselves in relation to others around us, and how we use that as a gauge for measuring our own self worth.  Why don't people interact with your art?  Because that can make them feel inferior.

This is not to be taken as an ego trip, not at all, because it happens to me too.  My buddy, Nasty Nate, went and joined an up-and-coming pop punk band in the Bellingham area a few years back, and things are going really well for them.  Thing had already been going really well for them.  Nasty Nate is a stand up guy, got nothing wrong the man, I like him, though he would probably agree that I could play and sing circles around him, but he's more well known.  So, why do I feel inferior every time I see how well things are going for Nasty Nate?  Because I'm comparing my characteristics to his, and if I surpass him musically, in theory, shouldn't I be the more successful musician?  What am I doing wrong?

When people see that you're doing something that your'e passionate about, that scares them.  They think that something is missing from their lives.  This depends a lot on the person, too, so there are exceptions to this theory.  I do this a lot because I have low self esteem from growing up fat.

I'll admit, I've dumbed down the show since the first season facing criticism from what little viewers I have.  I've made the episodes shorter to accommodate potential audience members with low attention spans, I've improved the audio and video quality to give it a more polished look.  So, why does nobody care?  Simply put, they want to feel comfortable doing what they're doing, and seeing you doing something that requires hard work and commitment makes them feel like they have to up the ante, so to avoid feeling inferior, they choose not to participate.

So, y'know, kudos.