The Big Picture: E3-mageddon: Crossover

[Lono Shrugged]

I am really, really disappointed that a movie critic would accept such god-awful production values and put them to air. Critic videos always face a certain level of scrutiny. But holy shitballs, that was atrocious. Buy a freaking soft box light and even a cheap clip mic. I have a couple of spares lying around I would gladly post they are that cheap. Maybe upgrade from vhs or dv. It's like finding out that this food critic you respect eats pot noodles for dinner. This is not about technical ability. It is just sheer laziness. The content was lost on me completely due to the horrible washed out 'lighting' that a first year film student would not accept and echoy sound that is inexcusable.

A critic of movies must be regarded as above the average filmgoer in terms of appreciation of the craft. You don't need to be Roger Deakins. But when a guy whos reviews you take about 10 minutes out of the week to watch produces something so painfully and obviously bad. You really need to question your bookmarks. I am shocked that you could look at that and say "That is the composition and lighting I need" and then be critical about the way any film was put together. I am being hard about this because someone fucking has to be. If I turned in a video like that I would be fired and I have never proclaimed myself an expert on anything.

Next time use a clip mic or even use your mic that you use for your VO. Get a cheap video light and put some butcher's grease paper on it to diffuse it and soften it. Put a reflector or tin foil on the coffee table in front of you to fill out your face. Pick a backdrop that either has something in it properly in frame or nothing at all. use only natural light for the background until you get a proper kit. Take down the posters or feature them in shot. Not one or the other. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing half a poster with the light shining off it. Think about composition and what it tells us. (Why does the douchebag, macho gamer still have a NES?)
Get a new camera or use an iphone 4s and up if you are stuck. The 4s can take a clip mic to record sound. This may sound silly but get some matte make up for your face to cover the sheen. Ask for help on that one. I keep some in my kit bag and use it exclusively for guys to get rid of that sheen. This is the bare minimum you need to look good on camera. Jim Sterling took a lot of shit in the early days and now his pieces to camera look better and better because he takes this advice onboard. You and your audience deserve better than this.

 

[Olas]

Wow, a lot of people on this site are just getting their first glimpse of the game overthinker I see. Ya, It can be a little painful to watch outside the discussions, but I guess you have to view it more as a hobby than anything approaching professional. Bob may have been better off keeping it off this sight though, it'll probably scare more people away than it attracts.

 

[CelestDaer]

I enjoyed the Game Over-thinker back when it was what the big picture is now.
Attention internet reviewers:
We do not care about your storyline crap.
That is all.

Agreed, that goes for ALL internet reviewers. I DON'T CARE about you telling a story to liven up a review, I WANT THE DAMN REVIEW!

I... kind of knew who everyone was when the episode started...? I haven't watched GO since Bob joined the Escapist, though, since that's about the time he started the storyline... And it was so disjointed and awkward to me, I found a bit of joy in noticing precisely where Bob merged the two videos together for his spots on the couch... And that's really the only thing I enjoyed in the video.

 

[Necromancer1991]

While I will admit that the "gaming community"(use the phrase loosely) and the gaming industry does have a large number of bad habits, I don't think making a character rattle off what amounts to a checklist of them is the best way to go about handling the issues. With Jim at least he's willing to tackle issues separately and in detail rather than trying to stack them like Lincoln Logs to take out "In one fell swoop" only to land on his face and have the stack fall on top of him. It just comes across as a strawman since you are oversimplifying the issue for the sake of brevity. As for the Game Overthinker, I'm in the group that, whilst liking the discussions, tend to skip the skits since you don't execute them very well IMO.

 

[Redd the Sock]

**sigh** this is why I'm finding Bob's opinions on video games and geek culture less relevant these days: hoping people find games they find fun at E3, immediately after lambasting whole genres and art styles for appealing to a demographic he strawmans as latently racists, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic children. I hope you enjoy something, but if you like these you're probably a bad person.

 

[Strazdas]

judging from last GDC conference, looks like retrothinker decription of E3 would be more fitting for GDC. sight.

But Overthinker - Scoreboard, leaderboards spreasheets and points IS FUN to some of us. we LIKE STATISTICS.

 

[Vigormortis]

That...was a chore to watch. I mean no disrespect, but that was thoroughly awful. I get the points you were trying to make throughout, but most of it just came off as pretentious.

I occasionally enjoy watching "The BIG Picture", but this was just painful. I don't think your crossovers and your Game Overthinker show are for me.

Is it wrong that I feel bad about everything but being white and having a penis?

If Tumblr is to be believed, then yes. In fact, not feeling bad about them means you're worse than Hitler.

[sub](yes, I just went Godwin in here)[/sub]

snip

Jebus, Scrump. You are just on the ball with ninja'ing me in this thread. Save for a few minor points here and there you are mirroring everything I was thinking and was planning to post.

I'm just....gonna go sit over there in the corner and let you do all the leg work. Seems you've got this handled.

 

[Zhukov]

Aw Christ.

Mr Chipman, I generally like you. I like Escape to the Movies, even when I completely disagree with your appraisal of a movie. I like The Big Picture, even when... actually I don't think you've ever pissed me off with that one. I think you're a smart dude and I enjoy listening to what you have to say.

But Gameoverthinker is just painful. It has been ever since it stopped being basically Big Picture About Games and morphed into the Bob Fingerpuppet Show.

It's the kind of painful that makes me pray that nobody walks into the room and looks over my shoulder while I'm watching it.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

What was Bob trying to accomplish with this again? I mean christ, I've seen some awful stuff but I think MovieBob needs to stick to movies.

 

[pretzil]

The negrothinker? wtf?

 

[O maestre]

That was unbearable, I couldn't watch till the end. With all respect bob, keep your gameoverthinker stuff segregated from the escapist, or at least from your other shows, not my cup of tea at all. The gameoverthinker stuff use to be okay back when it was just commentary. Its hard not to interpret this as anything but advertisement for your other show. As others have pointed out, the "guest" appearances are kind of ridiculous when it is the same person, coming with his own confabulated counter arguments. This is a text book definition of a circlejerk... just with your self, so that makes this a session of....


Long story short, this was terrible, and hopefully you will return to your regular show. Please never do a "crossover" again, unless you do it with other people, not other characters other people

 

[wulf3n]

Isn't somewhat ironic that a 30 something white male who's only desire from E3 is to be surprised creating a parody of 30 something white males that implies they always get something? His own existence negates his parody.

Also...

Why is it the more Bob talks about gender issues, the more it becomes apparent that he's just regurgitating the words of others without any consideration?

Its starting to come across as though he doesn't actually believe what he's saying, but rather believes that he should believe.

 

[O maestre]

Its starting to come across as though he doesn't actually believe what he's saying, but rather believes that he should believe.

Well to be fair, that is the main and most identifiable trait of all pseudo-intellectuals.... or so I have been told.

 

[O maestre]

I am really, really disappointed that a movie critic would accept such god-awful production values and put them to air. Critic videos always face a certain level of scrutiny. But holy shitballs, that was atrocious. Buy a freaking soft box light and even a cheap clip mic. I have a couple of spares lying around I would gladly post they are that cheap. Maybe upgrade from vhs or dv. It's like finding out that this food critic you respect eats pot noodles for dinner. This is not about technical ability. It is just sheer laziness. The content was lost on me completely due to the horrible washed out 'lighting' that a first year film student would not accept and echoy sound that is inexcusable.

A critic of movies must be regarded as above the average filmgoer in terms of appreciation of the craft. You don't need to be Roger Deakins. But when a guy whos reviews you take about 10 minutes out of the week to watch produces something so painfully and obviously bad. You really need to question your bookmarks. I am shocked that you could look at that and say "That is the composition and lighting I need" and then be critical about the way any film was put together. I am being hard about this because someone fucking has to be. If I turned in a video like that I would be fired and I have never proclaimed myself an expert on anything.

Next time use a clip mic or even use your mic that you use for your VO. Get a cheap video light and put some butcher's grease paper on it to diffuse it and soften it. Put a reflector or tin foil on the coffee table in front of you to fill out your face. Pick a backdrop that either has something in it properly in frame or nothing at all. use only natural light for the background until you get a proper kit. Take down the posters or feature them in shot. Not one or the other. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing half a poster with the light shining off it. Think about composition and what it tells us. (Why does the douchebag, macho gamer still have a NES?)
Get a new camera or use an iphone 4s and up if you are stuck. The 4s can take a clip mic to record sound. This may sound silly but get some matte make up for your face to cover the sheen. Ask for help on that one. I keep some in my kit bag and use it exclusively for guys to get rid of that sheen. This is the bare minimum you need to look good on camera. Jim Sterling took a lot of shit in the early days and now his pieces to camera look better and better because he takes this advice onboard. You and your audience deserve better than this.

I wish the Escapist had an upvote feature for comments like this.

Besides your technical advice, it is strange that movie critics are prone to doing some very awful stuff when they are given creative reins to make a story of their own. If you don't have the budget to realize your 'story'. Animation or even still cartoons are a good example of a cheap but almost as effective method of delivering your story. Bothe Yahtzee and South Park used animation to attain success from limited resources.

 

[Ergoemos]

That was kind of cute. My impression was that this wasn't as much Bob's idea as it was Escapist's. I can't imagine that Mr. Chipman would really want to poison the waters of his other work with the vitriol that so often permeates Escapist forums. (Sorry for the sweeping generalization there, other pleasant forum-goers.)

Either that, or he was asked to give a Big Picture opinion of E3, and he had to fill more than three minutes.

Either way, a relatively painless introduction to MovieBob's other works and good opinions all around. I also thought, for a home made show, the editing and timing were good. There were no awkward "this is the same person talking to himself but it just seems like the uncanny valley" moments. That's actually pretty hard to nail down, so that was pretty good.

The opinions were good too (I did love pre-midlife crisis dudebro Anti-Thinker), but they were kind of perfunctory and a product of being asked to do this show rather than wanting to do this show.

 

[LazyAza]

I got 3.4 minutes in, no e3 talk, had to stop the video.

Bob, don't ever do this again please. I'm going to be as blunt and frank as possible; your overthinker "story" stuff is 100% garbage. So please don't bring it to the escapist. It isn't funny or witty or interesting or so bad its good or ironically entertaining or whatever it is you're going for with this kind of thing, its just tedious and annoying and its made this video unwatchable.

 

[Rellik San]

Well maybe I'm in the minority, but I quite enjoyed the video, as for those lambasting anti-thinker:
True fact: In his own universe he did online reviews of Gilmore Girls Fan Fiction.

I don't mind a levity and B-Grade production values if it makes the video fun and whilst I think they could be portrayed better, at least having various character supposedly representing the differing view points to engage in actual discussion content isn't a bad idea but yeah I'll admit it needs better structure.

Beyond that, I don't see a problem with a guy who has 3 shows and several columns wanting to do a little bit of in universe creativity.