Blip Festival: Intros'n'Addendums + Other Things

Longest dinner of my life.

Hopefully, this entry will effectively complement and provide closure to the last two posts. I've been pretty vague about things so let's see if I can tie up some loose ends.

Blip Festival (Nov 30-Dec 3)
I think it's safe to say things are pretty much confirmed for our involvement with a four day festival celebrating all things chiptunes*. We're going to cover the entire thing and release it as an official DVD. We're still working out the details with The Tank and 8bitpeoples (the festival's parents) regarding ownership and distribution but the time for that will come later. For now, I'm just glad that a) it's happening and b) we're covering it. The day after he told me about it (approximately one month ago, after the last Pulsewave show), I emailed the Tank's director of electronic music to express our interest in shooting the event.

Apparently, they were just talking amongst themselves about hiring a video crew for documentation purposes. I was relieved to know it was going to be us but horrified that it was such a close call. Because really, if I had to deal with losing that gig to someone else in addition to finding out about the other documentary within the same week, I may have slipped into a very serious 2-or-3-day depression (during which, I'd probably do and say really stupid, regrettable things).

But why the big fuss? If you bothered to follow the link, you'd see that the Blip Festival is the biggest event (30 artists from around the globe and counting) this particular music scene has ever had anywhere in the world for as long as it's been around . And, given how rabid the fans in Japan and Sweden are, it's an incredible stroke of luck that it's happening right here in New York. Those who know me know that I don't particularly care for the concept of [God]'s Will or whatever brand of fatalism people subscribe to these days but I have to believe that I did something good to end up as the benefactor of this kind of coincidence.

Right so, the process of putting together a feature length DVD and distributing it internationally is going to serve as an excellent warm up for what we can expect with Play. That and the show is almost guaranteed to blow my mind.

Olde English Rules

This next bit has next-to-nothing to do with me (save the three or four frames in which I can be seen) but is more important than anything else I plan on talking about in this particular entry. The guys transformed the multipurpose room in our apartment into the set for a featured video on youtube.
It's only been up a few days but the View Count has already climbed past 216,000 and garnered a number of #1 Honors. Impressive and definitely deserved. If you haven't seen it and could use a good laugh, check it out (hi-res version).

Video Games Live

I just got back from a few days of editing with the guys in Jersey. Things are finally nearing some sort of forseeable end with the VGL Webisodes. We've got versions (ranging from Done to Possibly In Need Of A Complete Revision) of the trailer and all three installments cut together and plan on having everything wrapped up by the end of next week. I'll have more news on this after that point in time. And, speaking of official DVDs, Tommy is planning on having the Brazil performance filmed by a professional crew with real equipment (cranes, jibs, etc) for an eventual DVD release...we're seeing if we can get in on the editing process since he mentioned that he wanted us to be involved in some way.
PLAY

With everything else that's been going on, we've gotten a little sidetracked. Once this Video Games Live stuff is over, we'll focus on finishing the press kit...that is, assuming there's any time between then and whatever prep we need to do for Blip Fest.

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Right so I think that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll find some spare time to cut together a video for one of the artists performing at Blip Fest and see if they'll play it in the background for that song in lieu of the work of the projection artists that will be part of each night's performance. Won't say who for now. time to go.