Hey guys!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of working crew at the 1st Annual Canadian Video Game Awards, which took place in conjunction with GDC Canada.

When I was first told about the crew openings, I was only told that it had something to do with Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run, and my very first thought was, “Holy cow, am I gonna get to meet Tommy Tallarico?” And then I remembered that he hadn’t been on the show in a few years now, and that made me sad. I took the job anyway, though, because god damn do I love me some video games.

Eventually, Aaron Mooney, the Post Supervisor for Greedy Productions, the production company that makes on EP/RotR, sent me an e-mail with the details on the job, and that’s when I found out that it was for the CVGAs. Lack of Tommy Tallarico notwithstanding, I was still super excited just to be a part of the event.

Arriving at the Vancouver Convention Centre at 11AM, I was surprised at the scale of the whole shindig, having never worked on an actual production or ever getting to see how an awards show was put together. The stage was massive, with an orchestra at the back and some guitars and drums at the front, lights everywhere. I went a little “kid in a candy store.”

At first, they had us running cables for awhile which, admittedly, was both easy and boring. We kept doing more of the same for the next couple of hours, setting up monitors, arranging the stage, etc. At one point, when I was looking up at the projector screens on-stage, I noticed the Video Games Live logo come up on the screen. It kind of caught me off guard at first, and I thought, “No way. There’s no way.” But it was definitely way. Video Games Live was going to be performing, multiple times, at the CVGAs. As excited as I already was about the show getting started, this sent me off the walls. VGL is playing tonight at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, but I had neither the money nor time to go, so seeing it up close and for free? As Hans Landa would say, “Ooo, I’ve got a bingo!”

That realization, though, paled in comparison to the moment I heard an all too familiar voice ringing throughout the room. A little bit nasally, a little bit cocky. I scanned the room, and my eyes settled on someone standing just to the side of the stage. He was wearing a leather jacket, the only one in the room. “Is that… ? Sweet Jesus, that’s Tommy Tallarico.” I would spend the next two hours attempting to say hi every time he passed or we made eye contact, but I just wasn’t man enough. Shortly after Tommy arrived, Victor Lucas showed up, and I had another fangasm.

Anyone who knows me will tell you this: I am madly in love with Robert Downey Jr. As far as I’m concerned, he is a man who can do no wrong, even when he’s doing wrong. I’ve never seen him in a role that I didn’t enjoy, from Chaplin to Sherlock Holmes. Good lord, the things I would do just to meet him.

Another thing that anyone who knows me will say is that if there’s one thing that I love more than RDJ, it’s comic-book movies. It would defy the laws of the universe for me to not enjoy a comic-book adaptation. The raging fanboy in me will not let it happen. I should note, though, that I won’t necessarily like every comic-book movie I see, I just won’t ever think of one as a waste of time. I haven’t seen Catwoman, and I don’t know if I ever will (not in the foreseeable future, at least), but I imagine that if I did sit down and watch it, I would be able to sit through it from beginning to end without wanting to off myself, which is an accomplishment in itself.

So, I caught a 10PM advance screening of Kick-Ass last night, and I’ve gotta say, it was a whole lot of fun. I came in with sky high expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed in the least. The score was great and added a lot to the film, while Chlöe Moretz was a total scene-stealer as the hilarious and very badass Hit-Girl.

I think my only complaints with the film would be that Mark Strong’s character was a little underwhelming, and the pacing kind of dropped off a bit in the middle of the film. It picked up towards the end, though, and boy… what an ending! I can’t wait for the sequel!

In other news, I recently had a chat with local musician Dorian Hare, and I’m going to be shooting a music video for his new (and so-far unreleased) single “Angels Do Cry”. The guy is mega talented, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing this project come to life. I’ll get you guys some links as soon as I can.

Cheers! And go see Kick-Ass!

- Steven

Howdy!

Today is Friday, April 9, and it’s a gorgeous day outside, save for the slight bit of chill. Today is also the first class of a 12-week portfolio course that I’m taking in my very last quarter at Ai. I’m not really too sure what the next three months are going to have in store for me, but I do know that I’m gonna need to get a haircut and some swanky new clothes. Or some swanky old clothes, if I can magic some out of the closet. Anyway, the bit of information out of all of this that’s relevant to you (whoever you are) is that by the end of this course I should have my demo reel put together for your viewing pleasure. Mind you, it’s not like it’ll feature a whole lot of anything that isn’t already up on the site, but still. It’ll be there to click on.

Oh, and keep an eye out for a site redesign in the next couple of weeks. I just got my business cards printed, so the plan is to rebuild the site to match.

Wish me luck!

- Steven

May 6th is creeping ever closer, and as a result my heartrate and blood pressure have been steadily increasing to the point where I might die of a heart attack before Iron Man 2 even premieres. It’s a serious possibility, folks.

For comic book geeks around the world, myself included, the next two years are absolutely loaded with serious pulmonary health risks, be it the possibility of seeing Whiplash’s Crimson Dynamo armor in IM2, the thought of Mjolnir smashing into Loki’s smug little face, or the fact that in a little over two years from now, the Avengers are finally going to assemble on the big screen. And let’s not forget the additions of the always-lovely Scarlett Johansson and Kat Dennings to the Marvel Movieverse.

Now, I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I might have something against DC, what with all of this Marvel gushing. I’ll be the first to admit that I’d pick Marvel’s heroes over their DC rivals any day, but that definitely doesn’t mean that I’m not absolutely clamoring for the last of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and his sure-to-be-incredible reboot of the Superman franchise.

I’ve got a lot to say about the comic book movies coming out in the next two or three years (Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Thor, TFA: Captain America, The Avengers, Batman, Superman, the Spider-Man reboot, etc. etc.), but I’ll be doing a little feature on each of those over the weeks leading up to Iron Man 2, so I’ll end with this: They’re all going to be so god damn good.

Keep it reel!

- Steven

P.S. I get a bulge in my pants every time I’m reminded that Kick-Ass comes out in two weeks.

After using a Twitter widget on my site for about a month, I’ve finally gotten around to getting WordPress to work! Just in case any of the three people who visit my site are really attached to that Twitter account of mine, I’ve included the widget on this blog too! If you really REALLY care, though, you should follow me at @SB_Writes so that I can be with you all the time.

Anyway, just wanted to get some content up on this blog so it wouldn’t be a big, ugly, empty page. I’ll update later this week with something a little more interesting than housekeeping.

Keep it reel!

- Steven