Author Archives: BlueGoggles

2012: Year of the Goggles

Blue Goggles Films is undertaking a crazy project this year. We’re setting out to make at least one short film a month for all of 2012. That’s right! Each month we’ll be busting our butts to make a new video game related short. The only real requirement is that I want them to be somewhat topical. All that means is that we probably won’t be doing a Parasite Eve short anytime soon.

We got some fun ideas in store and can’t wait to share them with everybody. We’re really looking forward to staying busy and to continue working with new and old cast members as well as our badass crew. Let the year of the Blue Goggles begin.

That’s Awesome! – The Lion King Rises

My love for great trailer mash-ups continues with The Lion King Rises. It’s actually kind of frightening how well this person matched up The Lion King to the newest Dark Knight Rises trailer. Check it out!

That’s Awesome! – Top 5 Games of 2011

I didn’t get to play everything that came out this year. This fall was extremely tough due to the sheer number of games that came out all at once. I missed some big titles that I’m still dying to play but they will have to wait. Even with some omissions, I had a hard time narrowing it down to only 5 games. This isn’t a list of what I deem the best games of the year, this is just a list of my favorite games of the year. Enjoy!

Dark Souls: This game is simply mean, but that’s what I love about it. Dark Souls reminds me of my childhood playing frustratingly hard games on the NES. So then, why is it one of my favorites of the year? Due to the crushing difficulty, when you do succeed at something, you jump up in the air and scream and shout and dance. The game’s difficulty makes it so damn rewarding

 

Mortal Kombat: This is another game that plays on nostalgia for me and it provided me with so much joyous carnage. It’s the first game in years that I had people over and we played in the same room together. Needless to say, we all reverted to 13-year-olds and cheered when we performed fatalities on one another.

 

Portal 2: While there have been some funny movies this year, I would probably say that Portal 2 is the funniest thing I’ve experienced this year. On top of that, it’s simply an incredibly well-crafted game. Valve always does an amazing job at telling story through gameplay and Portal 2 is no exception. I’m in space.

 

Batman: Arkham City: I don’t know if I can express how much I love Rocksteady’s take on Batman. It’s dark, gritty and brutal, yet stylized and other worldly. While the story is great, super exciting and pushes Batman to his limits, the real reason I can’t get enough of this game is because it makes you feel like Batman. The stealth stuff is awesome but I simply love the combat system in this game. There are few things as gratifying as clearing an entire group of thugs out in one massive 50 plus hit combo.

 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: People have been taking “staycations” just to explore the world of Skyrim. I know I would if I had the vacation time. Just simply wandering around Skyrim is a game in and of itself, and then there’s hundreds of quests to go on too! I’ve been playing this game for a month and haven’t even scratched the surface of it. If I could only pick one game to play for a year, it would be Skyrim hands down, no contest.

Behind The Scenes Countdown to Holiday Short 2011: Photo 4

Don’t mess with Boom Op, Alan Koda, or you might face his angry scowl! We think this has to be some sort of camera trick because we’ve never seen Alan angry in person. The sound team made up of Alan (alankoda.com) and Clayton De Wet (ClayToneProductions.com) is amazing. We love having them on set. We met with them last night and they are starting to work on the post sound for our holiday short.

Photo by Roy Moore/ControlImages.com

BIT Parts – Web Series Teaser

Check out the teaser for our upcoming web series, BIT Parts! We couldn’t be happier with how things turned out and wanted to give everyone a sneak peak at what’s in store. Check it out!

Your video games are their jurisdiction

In the world of video games, we (the gamers) are an alien conspiracy theory few believe in. The B.I.T, an FBI-like agency for games, dismisses these crackpot ideas, but two of their agents join forces to uncover the truth about the gamers.

Starring

Jolyn Janis
Brian Villalobos
Shannon McCormick

Featuring:
Bobby Ray Cauley Jr.
Sam Eidson
Tom Parker
Jacob Watson
Kurtis Ray Wheeler
Emily Breedlove
Andreas Fabis
Chris Baldenhofer
Kelly Campbell

For Partnership Opportunities, please contact us at info@bluegogglesfilms.com or (512)  481-7325.

That’s Awesome! – The Cabin in the Woods

I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out for years now, literally. It was filmed before Chris Hemsworth was Thor. It may have even been before his cameo in Star Trek. All I really knew/know is that it’s a horror movie co-written by Joss Whedon which made me pay attention. Anyway, the movie is finally being released this April and I couldn’t be more pumped. They just put up this great trailer for it. I can’t wait! Check it out!

Update for the Holidays

After a rain delay during our October filming, we recently finished up the remaining shooting for our upcoming web series, BIT Parts. We couldn’t have done it without our amazing cast and crew. We had such a great time getting to know everyone. We had an incredible cast of actors bringing our characters to life. From all our wonderful guest stars to our lead agents, I couldn’t be happier with our cast. The crew was phenomenal. Everyone went above and beyond the call of duty and we can’t thank everyone enough.

We’re curently editing the 6 episodes now. While they are in rough form, they already play well and look great. We’re working on a badass logo for the series and about to start working on the music. We’re looking to have near final cuts by the end of December so we can then start doing color correction, sound design and visual effects during January.

On top of working on BIT Parts, we’ve made some additions to the website to help expand the Blue Goggles family. At the top of the sidebar to the right, you will notice “YouTwitFace” (thanks Conan O’Brien). Clicking on “You” will bring you to our YouTube page. “Twit” will direct you to our Twitter feed. And “Face” will take you to our brand spanking new Facebook page. Please subscribe to any or all of these methods if you are interested in staying in the loop on all things Blue Goggles related.

I think that wraps it up for the time being. We’ll keep you posted on new developments as they occur.

That’s Awesome! – L. DiCaprio (J. Edgar Parody)

That’s Awesome! – NES TMNT Theme Song

That’s Awesome! – Attack the Block US Blu-Ray Announced!

Hooray! Easily, my favorite movie of this year has been the UK horror/comedy Attack the Block. I saw it a couple times in the theater and was dreading not being able to watch it for another 6 months or so while I waited for it to be released on Blu-Ray here in the states. Luckily however, the movie gods have smiled down upon me and the DVD and Blu-Ray will be released here in North America on October 25th! Sweet! I can’t wait to watch this film again and share it with anyone who has eyeballs and hasn’t seen it. This announcement totally made my day!

That’s Awesome! – Indie Game: The Movie

I found this trailer a little late but I love it and wanted to share it. It’s a trailer for a documentary about indie video game development. The makers of the film did successfully raise the money they needed to finish the film which is really exciting to me. I can’t wait to see the finished product.

BIT Parts: Pre-Production – Week 2

We’ve started location scouting and have a number of options at this point. We’re going out again this weekend to look at some more. In communicating with one of the potential spots, they offered to blow up a car for our pilot episodes. It’s not every day that someone offers to blow up a car for you. It’s a pretty amazing/hilarious offer.

Other than than, I’ve just been doing a lot of storyboarding. My first pass is generally a bunch of stick figures with initials on their faces. It’s sort of my way of doing a quick edit of each episode. Next I’ll translate them into a program so they look a lot better and everyone can understand them. At this point, I think the only person who could make out my drawings is me. They are pretty awful.

That’s Awesome! – Give Me A Hand

I stumbled across this amazing shirt design over on riptapparel.com. Derek Eads is the artist and I gotta order me one of these.

BIT Parts: Pre-Production – Week 1

It has begun!

Our new series couldn’t be off to a better start. It’s been an exciting week. The casting process has been fantastic and we’ve met some great people. We’ve got two fantastic actors locked in as the protagonists. Jolyn Janis will be taking on the role of Agent Zero and Brian Villalobos will be bringing Agent One to life. We’re really excited to have both Jolyn and Brian onboard and BIT Parts will be better for it. We’ve also cast Shannon McCormick as the nefarious DeBug. Shannon’s going to have a lot of fun with the role and I can’t wait to unleash him into the world.

Behind the scenes we’re incredibly stoked to have Josh Jones as our cinematographer. I love Josh’s work, he gets the material, and he is really going help me bring this world to life. This week we’ve been busy nailing down the shooting schedule with our cast and crew. I’m excited about shooting in October. It’s easily my favorite month. I’ve got my wedding anniversary, Halloween, and we’ve had good luck shooting during that month in the past too. All in all, things are shaping up nicely.

That’s Awesome! – A Cappella Matrix

Ever since the a cappella of the Inception trailer, I’ve been a sucker for movie a cappella mash-ups. My latest obssession comes from Matt Mulholland who does a multitrack layering of him himself recreating all the sounds from the lobby shootout scene in The Matrix. Check it out!