Jon CJG's Blog

News: Finale delay, submission links

2012-02-01T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Here are the latest video submissions:

Arby 'n' the Chief Short #4
Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E13

Sorry again for the lack of updates. Work is starting to pick up for me again at school and sleeplessness is beginning to crawl its way back into my nights.

Which is also the reason that I have a bit of bad news for you: the release of Arby 'n' the Chief's sixth season finale will be delayed, airing not on the 4th but on the following weekend, on the 11th. On the 4th I'll instead be releasing another director's commentary, this one for the twelfth episode, "Severance."

I know, sorry.

It's not from a lack of trying, though. I'm working at it, I'm twenty-six pages into the episode's script, but I still have a couple more scenes to write and I need more time. And with this being the finale and all, I'd rather not half-ass it.

Thank you for your patience, and I'll try to make the commentary entertaining. I know that's impossible with my monotone voice, but I'll attempt the feat nonetheless. And remember, if anybody offers you robot porn, just say no.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E12: "Severance"

2012-01-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

It's been a while but the newest story episode, "Severance," is now here:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E12: "Severance"

Like I said in my previous post, I believe this is one of my best episodes to date. Very action packed.

There is an issue with it I didn't notice until later on, however -- the way the shots are cut when Kylie's bodyguards are introduced establishes which voices belong to each player, but at some point in the editing I got mixed up and switched the voices belonging to the bodyguards. The character voiced by Ian speaks first so we cut to his avatar first, but afterwards it starts cutting to the other guy every time Ian speaks. I hope it isn't too noticeable or confusing.

I can also see why people might be a little annoyed with a certain plot point in this episode. All I ask is that you perhaps reserve judgment until the final episode, there's still a couple of surprises in store.

And comments, comments, comments. Please leave them. I want to hear what everyone thinks!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief New Year's Special 2011/Behind the Scenes Part 2

2012-01-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Here are my latest submissions:

Arby 'n' the Chief: New Year's Special 2011
Arby 'n' the Chief - Behind the Scenes: Part 2

Sorry again for the delay. I've been hard at work on the next story episode, Severance, which is finished and should air around 10:30 AM today. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and thanks to the extended period of time I had to work on it, I believe it's one of my best episodes to date. There's a lot that happens. I hope everyone's pleased with the unfolding of events.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief: Christmas Special 2011

2011-12-24T11:02:00.001-08:00

Hey all,

The Arby 'n' the Chief 2011 Christmas Special is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief: Christmas Special 2011

Have a vurry murry Sexmas, err'body.

Thanks,
Jon

News: Hypermail S01E12, Christmas break

2011-12-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

Yo dudes,

Sorry it's taken me a while to post this, but here's the latest episode of Hypermail:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E12: "Chilling Out"

And I'm also sorry to say that the story episodes won't resume until January -- the 14th, to be specific. I recall a comment somebody made on this latest Hypermail video, in which the guy said "I'm sure he has a good reason for doing this." Yeah, the reason is so I can have a decent stress-free Christmas break and not want to wrap my lips around the end of a 12-gauge.

That being said, I'm currently having a pleasant Christmas break. I've finally had time to sit down and beat Skyward Sword, which was amazing (though I still wouldn't put it quite above Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. I'd probably rank it third, above Wind Waker). Then after Christmas I'll be able to play Combat Evolved Anniversary, Saints Row the Third, Dark Souls, Gears of War 3, Sonic Generations (finally a 3D Sonic that doesn't gargle nutsack), and a couple others.

I haven't left you with nothing though -- expect a Christmas and New Year's special, airing on the 24th and the 31st respectively. They're not that long, a few minutes long each, but it's something at least.

I appreciate your patience, and I hope you all have a nice Christmas too.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Behind the Scenes: Part One

2011-12-11T18:51:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay. The 'behind-the-scenes' episode I said I'd do outlining the production of an episode of the series is now available:

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Behind the Scenes: Part One *

* SPOILER WARNING: A section near the beginning of the video covering my outlining process displays (accidentally) some events taking place in the final episodes to come. Don't read too closely at my notes or read the video's comments if you don't want the last couple of episodes partially spoiled for you.

Mind you, a lot of the ideas you'll see in my notes were never and will not be used. A lot of the stuff I write down during the outline phase doesn't end up working and I just abandon it. But there are one or two things in my notes displayed in the video that are true which have yet to be revealed in the story, sorry about that, my mistake. But they don't give away that much, thankfully. There's a lot that happens in the next episode; even if you read every last detail in the video, there's still some surprises in store.

I hope this will give people a much better understanding of the amount of work involved in producing the series, and perhaps be more understanding of the gaps and delays between the release of episodes. This video covers the brainstorming, outlining, writing, breakdown and voiceover recording processes and is only the first part of two. It's an extensive process I think, but it's not even the worst part -- the writing is the fun stuff. The second part will cover the filming and editing processes, which can really suck sometimes. This on top of essays, film shoots and late-night edits can be incredibly stressful. Don't get me wrong, it's a comfortable gig, I wouldn't choose anything else over this, but it's a lot.

I'll probably need to cut down the runtime of my content overall after this season ends, especially over the next term, which my teachers keep warning me contains a significant spike in workload. It's pretty worrying. I'll figure something out, though. I hope everyone will be understanding of that, too. I'd like to keep up with expectations, but I'd also like to live past thirty.

This episode isn't very funny or anything, but I think it's informative with some decent insights. I hope it's helpful or entertaining in some way. I always hate when I watch behind-the-scenes content from my favorite shows and they barely talk about the writing process, I'd kill to hear that stuff, so I talk quite a bit about my writing process in this video. It's my favorite part, and the most important, in my opinion.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. If you have any good recommendations of other software or ways to improve my process in general, please post a comment if you'd like to. Except Speakonia, I've gotten a million e-mails about that. Microsoft Sam and Mike don't sound the same. Their pronunciations and inflections are off, people would pick up on it and get pissed off, I guarantee it.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E11: "Femme Fatale"

2011-12-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

The eleventh story episode of Arby 'n' the Chief, "Femme Fatale", is now available. Sorry for the delay, this was another late delivery for me, took some extra time to process I guess:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E11: "Femme Fatale"

Had a couple of problems with this one. For one I was incredibly sleep deprived this past week. I know that doesn't make much sense since I had four weeks to work on this episode instead of three or two, but I assure you all that extra time was needed -- my first term at school is reaching its end and assignments are really building up. Through Monday to Thursday I've had only eight hours of sleep altogether to go on, at all times either working on school work or working on the show, and on Thursday I began the edit for this episode around 7PM when I got back from campus and finished at 7PM the next day -- another solid twenty-four hours with a couple smoke breaks in-between. I'm fucking fried.

I know some of you think I actually used the free time to play Skyward Sword. I wish. I've had it for over a week now and I still haven't played it, I have absolutely no free time. Though if I did I couldn't play it anyway, I don't have Wii Motion Plus and it's sold out in the stores I've checked.

Also at the beginning of the episode, you'll more than likely notice some weird popping noises when the first female character speaks. Her raw audio data was a bit messed, it kept going super quiet and then at a normal volume again, as if the microphone had a loose connection or something. I edited the sound to the best of my ability to even out the levels, raising the gain at the quiet parts, but that's what caused the popping. Sorry about that. It doesn't last for long.

Also, I don't know if I like the way this episode turned out that much. That's not to say I didn't do my best on it, I was satisfied with the script when I finished it and I paid as much attention to shot composition as I ever do, was really meticulous with the editing, but I don't know, it just seemed to turn out a bit flat overall. Doesn't have quite the 'wow' factor that Cradle to Grave had, I feel. That was one of those episodes where everything just fell into place, I really liked how that one turned out.

Maybe it's just because I'm so incredibly tired and I can't judge it effectively. I'd really like to hear what you guys think of it, so be sure to leave comments.

By the way, I very much appreciate the e-mails some of you have been sending me. I don't often respond, but I read them all. Very encouraging, thank you.

I hope you enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief Short #3

2011-11-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I know some of you are upset that the new story episode is taking another week. I'm sorry about that -- like I said, the actress that voices Kylie, who plays a large and pivotal role in the episode, was absent for the entire past week and unable to fill the role. If I had written out her character it would have destroyed the outline that I have for the next few episodes. Thanks for your patience.

I have, however, released a third short which, if you place your anger aside, I think you'll all enjoy:

Arby 'n' the Chief Short #3

Thanks,
Jon

News: "Femme Fatale" delay

2011-11-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Bit of bad news. I had originally intended to have the next story episode "Femme Fatale" ready for air this upcoming Saturday, but was recently informed by my cast director that the woman who voices the role of Kylie is absent for all of this week, so I'm unable to get her voice work for the episode until Monday next week at least. She plays a pivotal role in this episode, as the title clearly implies, and writing her out of it would cripple the season's end that I have established. So I'm pushing the release of the episode a week so that it will air on the 3rd of December instead. I'm very sorry about that, I hope you all understand. Thank you all for your patience.

This upcoming Saturday then, in "Femme Fatale"s original slot, I will be making another short, couple minutes long. Then after the story episode, on the 10th of December, I'm planning to release that behind-the-scenes episode I mentioned earlier, so hopefully you'll get a kick out of that.

Thanks again,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E11: "Hypermail Anniversary Edition"

2011-11-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Newest Hypermail is now available!

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E11: "Hypermail Anniversary Edition"

I don't thank Bungie/343 Industries nearly enough for giving me most of the tools to do what I do, it's about time I did.

And sorry it's a bit on the short side. I was exhausted this week. Final projects and exams are creeping up on me.

Hope you enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. I realize I just screwed up royally by having Arbiter say he started the series by bashing one of Halo 2's map packs, when in reality it was the Halo 3 Heroic map pack. I'm pissed about it and the best I can do is own the mistake.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E10: "Cradle to Grave" Director's Commentary

2011-11-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Instead of another short, I've decided to upload a director's commentary for the latest story episode in the series, "Cradle to Grave". I haven't done one in a while and people have asked for another, so there you have it. I know a lot of my commentaries suck so I tried to make this one interesting. Takes a little while for me to get going but it does get better.

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E10: "Cradle to Grave" Director's Commentary

Hope you enjoy.

I'm also thinking of making a behind-the-scenes episode which would walk people through the creation of a full story episode. If there's enough positive feedback on that idea I might go through with that.

Thanks!
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E10: "Cradle to Grave"

2011-11-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

The new story episode, "Cradle to Grave", is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E10: "Cradle to Grave"

I know a few people have been hounding my online account activity and checking my game history for episode spoilers, then spamming them in the comments. The title of the episode sort of foreshadows its events, but the spammers have got it a little wrong anyway.

If you don't want an episode spoiled for you, avoid reading comments until you watch the video. Simple.

Hope you enjoy!

And please leave comments, please! As I said before it's one of the few perks of this job, reading what people have to say!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief Short #2/Hypermail S01E10: "A Vereh Scareh H4110w33n"

2011-10-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Sorry I didn't update last week, it was a combination of busy-ness and laziness. Put it off so long that I figured I might as well post the link to short #2 along with this week's Halloween-themed Hypermail so it wouldn't be overlooked in a separate blog post underneath.

Arby 'n' the Chief Short #2
Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E10: "A Vereh Scareh H4110w33n"

I hope you enjoy, and happy Halloween!

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. If the whole Hypermail episode doesn't put a few smiles on people's faces, I think its last shot might.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E09: "Remission"

2011-10-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

The new Arby 'n' the Chief story episode is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E09: "Remission"

Thank you for your patience and your strong support through e-mails and comments, they are all much appreciated.

The short video two weeks ago was supposed to put me ahead of schedule at this point but unfortunately it hasn't. Essays and group projects for my classes have eaten up a lot of my time and I was under the wire again getting this episode out. I was on very little sleep all this week to begin with -- I slept on Thursday at midnight and woke up at 4AM, finished a 1000 word essay, took the bus to school, attended classes and stayed on campus editing a group film project and didn't get home until about 7PM, and from there I sat at my computer for 23 hours straight finishing this new Arby 'n' the Chief episode and handed it off to Machinima.com on Friday at around 6PM, just barely in time.

I'm not looking for sympathy, I know this ridiculous workload is my own fault. I started this season of twenty-minute episodes well before my school term, before I was even sure I was attending school at all, and when I did know I was attending I figured the workload would be manageable, that the structure offered by getting up for school every morning would help me manage my time better than I was without it. Not so, it's just too much. Most days when I get home from school all I want to do is fall into bed, but I either have to go out and write for the show or sit and edit for hours and hours.

It'll be another three weeks before the next episode comes out. Next week will be another short, the next one Hypermail, and the next one a story episode. I'm really sorry about that, but the fact is I need the extra time now. It's too much for me to handle. Thankfully next week is midterms and most classes are cancelled so I'll have extra time to work on the show, and if I can get the episode after the next one out in two weeks then I'll do it. But no guarantees.

Because of the panic of getting the episode in on time you might notice a few errors that I only caught after I woke up this morning, viewing it again. I spelled one of Arbiter's subtitles wrong, I spelled 'really' with three L's, which I'm really angry at myself about. That and displaying a shot of Master Chief walking into frame twice in a row, one of him playing Scrabble where it's too close and blurry and I forgot to scale it properly, a shot of Duncan where it starts before the actual gameplay is in motion... they're minor but it infuriates me that I didn't catch them and they might shatter the illusion for some people. Sorry.

And sorry about all the "First Strike!"s. That was me being stupid and forgetful yet again during the gameplay capturing. A single scene in machinima can consist of many individual gameplay films -- in the case of the TOSERS takedown scene, eight or nine. So I spend like fifteen minutes setting up a shot, I make the first kill and "First Strike!" comes up, and I don't want to go back and set everything up again. And I constantly forget it's there. I hope you guys can just block it out.

That said, I'm overall satisfied with how it turned out. Some of you might be interested to know that the very last shot of this episode was the first image I had in my head when creating this season from scratch early on, so everything really revolves around this episode from a writing standpoint.

Enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E09: "Dukes of Dongs"

2011-10-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

The new episode of Hypermail is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E09: "Dukes of Dongs"

It was great to see the tremendous amount of support in last week's short video comments. Also in the many e-mails you've sent in. Thanks a lot guys, it's much appreciated.

Hope you enjoy this one. I really like the script for this episode, I thought it turned out really funny. Hope you guys think the same.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. I know I probably don't have to say this, but regarding the 'dick cancer' joke in this episode, the target of the joke is not cancer and is not intended to offend anyone diagnosed, or who knows a friend or relative who is. I chose the e-mail because I thought it was funny, and the joke's real target is Chief's ignorance, as it usually is. Enjoy!

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief Hiatus Short

2011-10-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here's the short I mentioned would air this week in place of Hypermail:

Arby 'n' the Chief Hiatus Short

I noticed some asking why I'm even bothering to make this and not just take a week off instead. Machinima's been very flexible with me but they insist on at least some form of content per week to keep interest and page hits up.

Enjoy. I think it turned out quite funny, actually.

Thanks,
Jon

News: Arby 'n' the Chief schedule hiatus

2011-09-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Bit of bad news, for you guys at least -- the Hypermail/story episode schedule will be held back for a week. This is due to the fact that for the past few weeks I've been consistently under the wire, pulling all-nighters to just barely meet my deadlines which is causing headaches for programming over at the Machinima.com offices.

This Saturday, instead of the next Hypermail episode, there'll be a couple-minute-long "hiatus short", then the regular schedule will resume -- Hypermail on the following Saturday, and the next story episode on the Saturday after that. So yes, the next story episode will be three weeks apart from "Blackout".

I know it sucks ass, I'm sorry to fans of the show that are fed up as waiting two weeks is already pushing it. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot I can do. I still am and always have been a one-man production force (except for the great voice talent at Machinima.com helping me out).

This hiatus will put me a week ahead of schedule and allow me greater flexibility throughout the weeks to come to work on the show around my school work load, and it will mean less headaches for Machinima.com programming.

I hope you guys understand.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E08: "Blackout"

2011-09-24T11:01:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

The new Arby 'n' the Chief is now available here:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E08: "Blackout"

Hope you enjoy! Also comments, plixy plex.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E08:"Voices of Raisins"

2011-09-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

The new Hypermail episode is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E08:"Voices of Raisins"

Reading the comments, some people seem to believe I put out these mini fanmail episodes between the story ones for no reason other than to punish you or something, to keep you waiting purely for the sake of waiting. They're put out to give me more time to work on the main show guys, because I simply can't do a 15-20 minute episode every week on my own. It's too much. Especially since my first school term has started. I know it's a while to wait but please bear with me. Or I'll send the bear to your house.

Enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Master Chief's Happy Face Foundation is not a genuine, thinly-veiled plea for cash, Chief's just being an an asshole and abusing the show, as a joke. Don't send me anything. Except cookies.

P.P.S. Sorry for sparking another religious war. I just felt it was important to address my excessive use of the word 'faggot' and reaffirm that I use it with no true maliciousness. I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable watching my show.

P.P.P.S. "QUIT PUSHING YOUR HOMO AGENDA, HURR"

I assume the motivation behind statements like this is to live in a world consisting of less effeminate crybabies. Pot, meet kettle. Yes, it's black, just like you.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E07: "The Storm"

2011-09-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

New Arby 'n' the Chief is now available here:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E07: "The Storm"

Getting this episode out in time was a fucking gong show. I'm now attending film school so I'm juggling classes on top of producing the show now, which is doable but only just. I pulled an all-nighter meeting the deadline for this episode, finished the cut at around 7AM, rendered and delivered it at around 7:30 then bolted out the door to attend a full day of classes on no sleep, which is a little less than awesome. I considered cutting it short but this episode has one of my favorite cut-to-black endings I've done so far and I didn't want to sacrifice that.

Please, please leave comments. One of the few pleasures I get out of doing this job is to read what people have to say, regarding what they liked and didn't like. I appreciate all the 'likes' but it's not nearly as satisfying as reading comments from you all.

Also I'm sure there's plenty of plot-holes in the show, I'll be the first to admit, but I'm an idiot and I do my best to fill in as many as I can think of. If there's one you spot that's obvious that I didn't spot, please call attention to it in the comments and if it's appropriate I'll try fixing it in a later episode, it's happened before (like the fact that the toys had the hacks for the wedding to begin with, someone pointed that out and that ended up being somewhat of a plot device for this episode).

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E07 - "Silly Billies"

2011-09-03T12:09:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

The new Hypermail is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E07 - "Silly Billies"

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E06: "Fired Up"

2011-08-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hey,

The new Arby 'n' the Chief episode is out now:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E06: "Fired Up"

Leave comments, or else.

Hopefully this one gets received a little better than the last one.

Thanks,
Jon

News: Hypermail, Sonic the Hedgehog script exerpt

2011-08-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

The new episode of Hypermail is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E06 - "Aliens and Monsters"

Hope you enjoy.

Also, at the end of my last lengthy blog post I mentioned I was working on a Sonic the Hedgehog screenplay on the side in my spare time. I thought I'd share a chunk of what I've written so far with those that might be interested.

Sonic the Hedgehog screenplay exerpt

It's just a chunk, five pages or so. If anyone would be interested in animating to it or something that would be awesome, I'd kill to see this on film.

There's no title page on it, I'm putting this out there uncredited with no intention of earning any sort of profit from it. Like I said, it was just out of love for the character and I had fun writing it.

Thanks!
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E05: "Chaos Theosis"

2011-08-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

The new episode of Arby 'n' the Chief is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E05: "Chaos Theosis"

I'm quite proud of the way this one turned out, some of my best work I think in terms of writing and cinematography. Though some of you may be disappointed in that there is no live action portion in this episode. Sorry about that. Unfortunately most of this season's story takes place in the game world and I have to keep it moving along. But don't worry, more live action bits will come.

Also, thank you very much for the e-mails some of you have sent me in response to my previous TL;DR post, made me feel much better!

And please leave comments!

Also, there's some particularly foul language in this episode. I'm not sure if I need to reiterate this, probably not, but by using some of the offensive terms in the episode my goal is not to offend, merely add an authentic edge to the portrayal of online play, which as most of us know is just as foul in reality.

Thanks,
Jon

UPDATE: Boy, people are really not liking this episode, are they? The likes are high, but going by the comments, people are really torn on it. Which really disappoints me because I actually thought people would like it, I was actually excited to put this one out. I thought the script turned out well and although it was focused primarily on the hackers, there was still enough humor to make it appealing -- albeit much darker humor. I thought people would appreciate the investment in the villains which would ultimately make their eventual confrontation with our heroes more engrossing. Not so, it seems. I see a lot of people regard the dialogue between the hackers as pointless drivel rather than revealing of character, which I don't really understand. Several have even suggested just skipping to eight minutes in to skip that portion and get right to Arbiter and Master Chief.

But I get it. People want more funny. I'll keep that in mind for next time. Sorry, everybody.

News: Life, goings-on, school, Sonic the Hedgehog

2011-08-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I haven't done a blog post like this in a long while. I'd apologize, but I know it's probably gonna be another long while until the next one, so there's not much point. I wouldn't want to insult you. I'm just not much of a blogger. I'm not much of an anything, really. I'm pretty much constantly just sitting around writing material and working on the show. I only really ever go out to sit at cafes with my laptop and a coffee, and to eat. For a couple months my diet consisted almost exclusively of Junior Mints and fucking banana milk, with the occasional burger so I wouldn't drop stone dead from malnutrition. I have a hard enough time handling my own messed up neurotic brain to take on another one and hold down any kind of meaningful relationship. I get bored in most social situations extremely quickly, not out of any kind of arrogance but not much holds my attention these days unless it's something I'm working on. Going out for a drink at a bar is one of the most boring things in the fucking world to me, but most of the people I know get great enjoyment out of it, and that's how it should be. I really wish I could be like that. The same actually sort of goes for movies and video games, which I try very hard to make time for but it's a tight squeeze. I'm a workaholic, I guess. I'm a gigantic loser in basically every aspect of life save for making films; my outlook is, I suck dick at everything else, I might as well be good at this. To top it off, my show involves playing with toys and filming it. It's fucking embarrassing. When people ask what my job is I sidestep it by being as vague as possible. 'Oh, I write some content for a website'. Especially if they've just finished describing their own job and it involves heavy physical labor, in fear of getting punched in the face or something if I told them the truth.

"Yep, lots of heavy lifting, eighteen hour days. Pay's shit and the boss is a major asshole. So what do you do?"
"I work from home filming toys and overlay it with text and shitty voices."
*Ambulance*

So there may not be many posts like this, but you're not missing anything, I'm not a very interesting person.

I actually have a term at university coming up in September, finally got into film school. Haven't been yet. A few years ago I went straight out of high school into university to pursue a career in game design, and I fucking hated it. Most of my teachers were idiots and assholes. And I'm not saying that out of some juvenile lashing out to authority, some of my teachers were cool, but they weren't enough to elevate the experience from being extremely boring and shitty. I stayed for one
term and then dropped out to take the job with Machinima and I've been doing that ever since, which I'm super grateful for because not only did it make me realize my true interests lied in story telling and not game design, but it also let me develop my skill immensely. I might not be that great still, but there's a concrete jump in quality in every new season of shows I do, and that really cheers me up, to know I'm at least getting somewhere.

Not to knock what people might enjoy, but if I'm being honest, I detest pretty much everything I've ever written before the latter half of Arby 'n' the Chief season four. Not that I consider everything after as gold but from that point I felt the stuff I was putting out was at least passable. The first and second seasons are alright, but that was when the episodes captured a raw, undisciplined energy that I had, and when I started trying to control that energy with drama and structure I just fucked it up, hence the dip in quality around season two and three. Save for Wedding for some reason, that one just sticks out like a sore thumb. Probably because I was wasted when I wrote it. Digital Fruitcakes was a major episode, something clicked for me with that one. I could finally mix comedy with dramatic structure effectively and I think I've managed to stay fairly consistent since, though there's still highs and lows.

I'm looking forward to school starting, it'll get me out of the house, and although it's probably the last thing you'd expect given what I've written thus far, I'm quite looking forward to collaborating with other like-minded people. I'm concerned too, though. I've spent so long outside of the school system and being in complete creative control of my show that I think I'd hate being told what to do. Not to the point where I'd speak out or be rude or anything, it just peeves me. I also hear horror stories of lots of pretentious film school students that like to name drop old directors and obscure black and white foreign films from the 1940s, purely for the sake of the reference; I'm not saying those films don't deserve the praise they get, name droppers just piss me off. 2001: A Space Odyssey is probably my favorite film of all time, which could be considered quite cliche to film buffs, but it really is because of what a visual film it is, without being in-your-face about it. Conversations are realistic, there aren't any cool one-liners, and everything is shown, not told, and it's because of that that it's the only science fiction film that makes me genuinely feel like I'm venturing into the unknown -- the last twenty minutes or so are surreal and god-tier.

Anyway, we'll see how school goes.

Other than that, not much else is happening. I'm feeling pretty good about season six of Arby 'n' the Chief so far, episodes are turning out well. I was actually freaking out about it earlier on though believe it or not. Around episode two or three I was really struggling with the direction I wanted the season to head in, if I want everything to tie up as nicely as possible by episode thirteen and reach certain payoffs I have to be super careful about what I establish at the start. I couldn't decide how to make it work at first, questioning if I was going about this season in completely the wrong way and I was gonna ruin my reputation by not meeting the quality of season five's end -- and at the same time Machinima sent out a mass e-mail to all its subscribers describing the new season: "It promises to be the most action-packed season yet!" I was shitting myself, I had a miniature nervous breakdown that day.

Things are okay now though, I think I'm on a good track. I finally figured out the ending I want for season six. It's subject to change but I think it's super cool so far, and it's made me feel better about the direction I'm taking knowing what's ahead. Like I said in one of my video commentaries, I believe knowing your ending is key. Keeps everything in line.

Other than the show, I'm also working on and off on a side project. I'm trying to write a short story/screen play based on Sonic the Hedgehog. That may sound like the lamest thing ever, but it's not some fan-fiction bullshit like some fake ass purple hedgehog that can use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into his super mega hyper form to defeat some retarded spikey metallic death angel or whatever the fuck, or a love story between Shadow and Shrek (yes, Mike-Myers-Shrek the ogre, I'm not making that one up).

I'm trying to write something that's a reworking of the stories in Sonic 3&K and Sonic CD, revolving around the core crew: Sonic, Dr. Robotnik, Amy, Knuckles and Tails, and the antagonists would be Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic, but the setting would be more modern, taking place in Sonic Adventure's Station Square (a game of which I'm actually a huge fan. I hate most of the 3D Sonic games but I love SA 1 and 2, the first one moreso. They can be buggy, but they have well above average storytelling).

Originally I wanted to try writing my own rendition of Sonic's origin story, which I thoroughly researched, but his true origin story is, I'm sorry to say it, a bit daft. There are some things I think are cool about it: for instance, Ivo Robotnik was once Dr. Ovi Kintobor (the name reversed), a kind scientist who worked in an underground lab on the planet Mobius and used the Chaos Emeralds to absorb the planet's evil (which is a bit vague but whatever), and Sonic, once brown in color, accidentally dug through the earth and fell into his lab and the two ended up becoming friends. It was actually Ovi who gave Sonic his red frictionless shoes so he could break the sound barrier without starting a fire. I like the idea that they were once friends. But there are things I hate as well: Ovi was actually lean and skinny, but one day, he tripped over some cables or some shit and hit some buttons or something he wasn't supposed to, and the evil contained in the Chaos Emeralds transferred into his body and also 'morphed' his body with a rotten egg that also happened to be in the room, which changed his body into its current egg-like shape, hence 'Eggman'.

Morphed with a rotten egg? Are you fucking kidding me?

The evil within the Chaos Emeralds also reversed the letters on the name tag on his lab coat, so it read Dr. Robotnik instead. Boy, how evil is that? What the fuck.

So I thought, in my reworked story, that he would always have an egg-shaped body, but because he was overweight, not because his DNA was morphed with an actual fucking egg, and that the reason for Ovi's evil transformation wouldn't just be 'the evil contained in the Emeralds made him evil', which seems too generic and vague to me, but rather that Sonic himself did something wrong, like set fire to his lab during a speed test run and destroyed his life's work, something along those lines, but that causes a whole bunch of other issues... I'm still working at it.

By the way, I don't seek to infringe copyright or make any money off this, this is just a personal project I'm working on on the side purely out of love for the character. It actually devastates me that the character, who used to be a silent, reserved bad-ass in quality sidescrollers with sharp platforming is now associated with extreme campiness and bad, glitchy games, and I want to give him back his dignity for entertaining me immensely as a kid for so long.

I'm trying to write one particular scene of the story, in media res, as a test to see if it would turn out cool. It involves Amy boarding a bullet train in Station Square carrying a mysterious briefcase, but it trolls you for a while and it turns out it's not Amy but actually Metal Sonic in holographic disguise working under the command of Robotnik and the briefcase is a viral weapon meant to infect people from station to station with mind controlling nanomachines (or something like that, still working on it). Sonic chases down the bullet train from the rear along the track in a protective visored mask and body armor with an EMP grenade launcher, bursts in and dukes it out with Metal Sonic through the subway cars, then they keep fighting at the next station until Knuckles and the Chaotix burst in in full gear to help Sonic. They fight Metal Sonic while Tails, being a mechanics expert, is giving him instructions via radio on how to disarm the device. Probably sounds kind of dumb, but just to give you an idea. I'd love to do a Sonic CG movie or flash cartoon or something, maybe collaborate with a willing artist on something. I visualize the action being very grounded, not fantastically absurd like Dragonball Z- style laser fights, and character X dies or something but then WAIT -- the power of the Chaos Emeralds revives him and no longer is he Super Mega Hyper whoever, but Ultra Super Hyper Mega whoever and beats character Y. Yawn. I want it to be more subtle and bad-ass. Like the cartoon at the beginning of Sonic CD. Fuck, I wish that was a show.

Seriously, if there's any flash artists out there interested in working with me on the likes of that, maybe send me an example of your work and I can have a look. It would be non-profit, purely for the sake of the character. contact.jcjgraham@gmail.com.

I've also tried writing a story based on the characters from the extremely underrated MDK games. Especially the second one, which kicks a lot of ass. Nothing solid yet, though.

So yeah, that's what's going on with me at the moment. The script for the new Arby 'n' the Chief coming out next Saturday turned out pretty cool I think, so I hope you'll enjoy the episode when it comes out. Thanks for all your support, guys. If you've actually read this far, thanks and congratulations.

Peace,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E05: "Maximum Overdrive"

2011-08-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hey,

The new Hypermail is out:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E05: "Maximum Overdrive"

It's short, I know, but solid. Good ending I think, definitely one of my better ones.

Also, some food for thought for the length complainers... given how long the story episodes are, I was initially asked only to produce one minute long quick-gag episodes to fill the alternating weeks, but I chose to do this instead. Something to think about.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E04: "Dough Eyes"

2011-07-30T10:18:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

The newest episode of Arby 'n' the Chief, Dough Eyes, is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E04: "Dough Eyes"

Please leave comments!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E04: "The Gun Show"

2011-07-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Hey,

The new Hypermail episode is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E04: "The Gun Show"

I notice a lot of people questioning whether or not the e-mails are authentic. They are. The arbiterandchief@gmail.com address is set up and shown in most of the episodes, why would I make this shit up? Is it so far fetched?

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E03: "TOSERS"

2011-07-16T12:12:00.001-07:00

Hey,

The new episode is now up:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E03: "TOSERS"

Enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Gus from Rooster Teeth does not voice a character in this episode, I don't know how that caught on.

P.P.S. If you're offended by Arbiter's "I love Americans" line, please lighten up. Ask yourself what it is exactly you're offended by. The joke's target is only the differences in slang between different cultures, and Arbiter can insult the Cody and Cameron characters without them realizing it, not out of stupidity but lack of knowledge. There is a difference.

Possible slight "TOSERS" delay

2011-07-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Another brutal edit, not quite as severe as the Collapse one but still rough. Just finished up at 7:15 AM, started around 11 AM the previous morning. I'm uploading the video to Machinima now and they may get it in time rendering this warning useless, but there's the possibility it could be delayed a couple of hours. I'm really sorry about that, if that's the case. But again, it's a maybe. Check Machinima's channel around 10 - 10:30 AM anyways.

I think you guys will really like this one. Action packed. Runtime is 17:27.

Thanks!
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E03: "From the Ashes"

2011-07-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

The new episode of Hypermail is up:

Arby 'n' the Chief - Hypermail S01E03: "From the Ashes"

Short, but sweet I think. One of my better episodes, I think it turned out alright. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E02: "Hard End"

2011-07-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hey,

The second episode of the story episodes is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E02: "Hard End"

Please leave comments! Enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief: Hypermail S01E02

2011-06-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

The new episode of Hypermail is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief: Hypermail S01E02

I skimmed the comments so far and noticed a few people are upset with the fact that the main episodes are now two weeks apart. I'm sorry for that, I know that wasn't the case during season five but it was just too much of a workload, that season was killing me near the end. I bit off way more than I could chew and barely had any time to myself. With the schedule I have now, one week is spent making a short Hypernews episode and at the same time I work on a main episode script. Then the next week I have the main story script ready and I can produce that episode. With season five I was always furiously writing during the production process, back and forth, including all day weekends. Please let me have the breathing room. :(

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S06E01: "Genesis"

2011-06-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Well, here we go again. The season six premiere of Arby 'n' the Chief is now available:

Arby 'n' the Chief S06E01: "Genesis"

Please leave comments, let me know what you thought! Last season your comments, good and bad, helped shape it for the better. gimmemoar plex. Or mail alternatively, at 'contact.jcjgraham@gmail.com'. I always enjoy reading fan mail. Or hate mail, your choice. Try and keep the death threats to a minimum though.

Hope you enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Please see the post below if you're interested in downloading the tunes I made for it, you'll find a ZIP file with all of the tracks so far.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief Season 6 Trailer/E3 2011 Skit/Season 6 Soundtrack

2011-06-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I know I'm a bastard with this blog barely ever updating the damn thing. It's been a rough couple of weeks.

Two videos recently went up: an Arby 'n' the Chief short for Machinima's E3 live stream, which can be found here:

Arby 'n' the Chief E3 2011 Short

And the trailer for the sixth season of the main show, found here:

Arby 'n' the Chief Season 6 Trailer

I hope demands for a new season were shared by a majority and it's not starting to get too old for people. The voices do grate me a little personally, but I do still find the toys interesting as characters and feel like I have the creative juice for another stretch of episodes.

This season will, in a few ways, be what I intended my older show Hard Justice to be, back when I had no idea how to construct a plot and I approached writing like a chimp with a bucket of Lego, popping random blocks together into small, ugly and non-definitive shapes; a major difference this time being that the gaming world in Arby 'n' the Chief is portrayed as such, a gaming world. In Hard Justice, the game environment and all its visual limitations are portrayed as reality to the characters, which I think ends up snapping a few threads in the audience's suspension of disbelief. Not that I'm knocking machinima videos that do so, it's how I got started and I had a blast doing it, but for me, at this point, it feels like hitting an off chord. Treating the game world as a game world really works in Arby 'n' the Chief's favor I believe, and gives characters more freedom to act in a realistic fashion. This combined with improved storytelling skills I think will make for an entertaining season.

Here's the synopsis:

"Four months have passed since the wedding crash punctuating season five. The toys are still banned from playing Halo online. Master Chief resorts to drawing on the walls and burning holes in the carpet to fill his days. The Arbiter, having not spoken to Claire in some time, has become a full-blown alcoholic and has convinced himself he has absolutely no control over his life. Greg has been nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, on the online battleground, to combat a rise in in-game cheating and hacking, the OMN (Online Multiplayer Network) establishes an organization named the TOSERS (Terms of Service Enforcement/Response Squad), consisting of moderators of varying ranks and within different divisions who are deployed to police online matches. In response, a ruthless clan of hackers known as Chaos Theosis rises and threatens to wreak havoc online with an illegal software patch commonly referred to by underground hacking communities as FragBan, which allows patched players to place an irreversible console ban on any player he or she frags in the game as well as steal that player's personal account information, unless TOSERS is immediately dismantled and its moderators are removed from gameplay. The toys soon come across news of TOSERS, and a program the organization is introducing that allows for banned players to be processed and possibly chosen for employment as low-level moderators with limited parole access..."

It will definitely be a more action-oriented season. It's really the best direction to head in to truly take advantage of the show's medium, an action game, and all of its assets.

A bit like the intro to the episode Digital Fruitcakes, the season revolves around a villainous 'super' team, though instead of a pack of noobs they're skilled hackers. Each of the members of this hacker clan Chaos Theosis represent the the worst of what modern online play has to offer: the Spartan in red, Adam, is a hyperactive eight-year-old who constantly throws tantrums, breaks controllers, screams over his microphone, shouts obscenities at his parents and wets and shits his pants so he doesn't have to stop playing to go to the toilet; Kylie, the female player in light purple, deadly and efficient, is also a promiscuous tease with a full friends list, a personal army of a hundred desperate males itching to lash out at anyone who causes her a hint of distress; Duncan, the bulky Earth-colored Spartan is a fiercely competitive professional player and intolerable misogynist. Arbiter and Master Chief become 'game police' (as absurd as that sounds but I think it'll play well on-screen) and work their way up the ranks and eventually fight to stop the clan.

I hope you'll dig it. The first episode comes out on June 18th.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. As a little apology for lack of updates, I've assembled all the little tunes I've made so far for the sixth season, half of them are new and half are from season five. They're all in there, the Hypernews theme, Technodicks theme, everything:

Arby 'n' the Chief Season Six Soundtrack (ZIP)

They're short and not particularly that good even, essentially just loops, I'm far from a music producer, but I feel they give scenes the punch they need to be effective. I know people have asked for them, so here they are, enjoy!

News: Arby 'n' the Chief Season 6 Trailer/Premiere Delay

2011-05-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Sorry to be the bringer of lame news to anyone who was stoked, especially since I pretty much wrote it in stone by having Arbiter mention the release dates himself in Hypermail, but the releases of the season six trailer and following premiere episode have been pushed back a couple weeks. It's nothing on my end, the trailer's done already, but Machinima.com will be very busy with E3 coming up and will be pushing out a lot of content, and they'd like to start airing my new season when the expo's over with and things have settled down. I was just informed myself. Sorry, guys. The trailer is now scheduled to come out on the 11th, then the premiere episode on the 18th.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n 'the Chief: Hypermail S01E01

2011-05-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Well, season six of Arby 'n' the Chief is on its way. More will be revealed when the trailer for it is released next week, and then the first episode the week after.

Arby 'n 'the Chief: Hypermail S01E01

To pass the time, I've just put out the first episode of a sub-season called Hypermail where the toys strictly answer fan mail (or hate mail). Hope you guys like it. These episodes will also be appearing in between each episode of the main season to give me more time to work on episodes, as production on those is far more intense.

Also, season five has been archived with the rest of the old videos below.

Thanks for tuning in, as always.
Jon

Video: "Collapse" Director's Commentary/Rooster Teeth Collab

2011-05-17T03:06:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the late update. I recently put out a director's commentary for the season five finale, "Collapse":

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E13: "Collapse" Director's Commentary

Also, this is pretty late, but a couple weeks ago I traveled to Austin, Texas to work with the great folks at Rooster Teeth on a couple live action shorts. Here's the first, where the entire crew mistake me from Gary Busey (bad guy from Lethal Weapon):

OMG, It's Gary Busey!

There's another called A Pirate's Life that isn't on YouTube yet, but is up on Rooster Teeth's main site. I wrote the script for that one. :3 Though it was about 20% ad-libbed.

Details on my next thingy will be up soon.

Thanks!
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E12: "Cheaters" Director's Commentary

2011-05-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I'm currently working at outlining my next project, and there's a couple more director's commentaries coming your way to fill the airing gap. The first is a commentary for cheaters:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E12: "Cheaters" Director's Commentary

Hope you enjoy. For those who don't enjoy listening me drone on and on in the slightest, there is actually a solution, dunno if you guys know about this yet. Don't watch it. I need time to work on more episodes, this shit isn't easy.

I'll go into detail regarding my next thing as we come closer to the premiere.

Thanks!
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E13: "Collapse"

2011-04-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Guess the heads-up was unnecessary, the episode seems to have uploaded on time.

Here it is, the season five finale of Arby 'n' the Chief:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E13: "Collapse"

I'd like to thank everyone for your support, and also for your critiques and helping me grow as a writer. Hope you enjoy.

Also please leave comments! I enjoy reading them. Let me know what you thought of the episode and the season as a whole.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Possible 'Collapse' delay

2011-04-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Note the word 'possible'. It should come out today. Possibly even on scheduled time, this heads-up might not even be necessary, but Machinima.com didn't receive the episode from me until late last night so it could be held back a few hours or something.

Typically my deadline for episodes are to have them uploaded to Machinima.com by Thursday morning. I needed extra time with collapse -- it's a monster of an episode. Even longer than cheaters (31 minutes).

I really busted my ass on this one to get it out this Saturday, non-stop all week, weekend included, and then a grueling 30 hour crunch edit. Worked at my computer from 1PM on Thursday to 4PM Friday, no sleep, just a few smoke breaks here and there, I'm fucking fried. I started uploading the episode to Machinima.com as soon as it was rendered but due to the episode's length it took forever, they didn't receive it until about 10PM last night.

They do have it now, and I see that it was taken out of the folder I uploaded it to on their end at around 9AM this morning. I'm not familiar with the process of adding episodes to the Machinima.com programming queue but given that they only just have it now they might need a little extra time to get it on YouTube. Maybe it'll be up on time. But if they need a few hours, cut them some slack.

Just wanted to give you all a heads-up.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E12: "Cheaters"

2011-04-16T10:25:00.001-07:00

Hey,

New Arby 'n' the Chief is out:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E12: "Cheaters"

Thanks for being patient and giving me a week. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Please leave comments, I like to read them!

Thanks,
Jon

Imposters

2011-04-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

I've received a number of e-mails from people regarding their encounters with people on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. posing as me. One particular character on Facebook has been doing so and asking for people to donate Xbox 360 consoles and spreading false information regarding episode releases.

To be clear: I have no public online presence besides this blog. If you see someone claiming to be me on Facebook or Twitter or whatever, it's not me. Don't believe them, no matter how much these lifeless cretins insist otherwise.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E01: "House of Cards" Director's Commentary

2011-04-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yo,

As I previously posted, no new episode this week, just a director's commentary over top the first episode to give me some more time to work.

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E01: "House of Cards" Director's Commentary

Sorry I start rambling, I didn't think I'd make my stupid theater story last that long and I'd restarted the commentary a butt load of times already. But you'll be pleased to know the extra time has been worth it, the script for Cheaters was 34 pages so get ready for another long episode, and I just finished the filming of it and it turned out better than expected.

Thanks,
Jon

News: 'Cheaters' episode delay

2011-04-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Sorry to do this, but I'm holding the release of the second last episode of season five, Cheaters, for a week. It'll air on April 16th instead, followed by Collapse the week after.

The scripts for the two are almost done but still a little wobbly and I don't want to rush out something sub-par. The past few episodes have been quite difficult, particularly Double Trouble and Stag Night, the latter being a twenty-five page script (Cheaters is even longer than that), typed and produced in a week. I'm exhausted, to be honest.

So this week instead, in response to a number of requests via e-mail, I'll be re-releasing the season premiere episode with a director's commentary. This will give me some nice breathing room to make the end of this thing cool.

Admittedly, watching what looked cool in the big picture on paper actually play out, Stag Night's major plot point was predictable. But there's still some surprises in these last two episodes I think people will like.

I hope everyone's cool with it, I'll try to make the commentary enlightening and interesting. Thanks so much for your support of the show. I also appreciate your e-mails, I've gotten some really nice ones, you know who you are. I'm grateful.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Anyone looking for an excuse to get some 'thumbs-ups', consider mentioning this in video comments and spreading the word a bit. The more expected the commentary episode is the better, I don't want everyone annoyed on Saturday. :(

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E11: "Stag Night"

2011-04-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

New Arby 'n' the Chief is out. This one's a beast.

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E11: "Stag Night"

I'd also like to thank everyone that sent me their experiences with hackers/cheaters, very insightful! Keep them coming, if you have something to share.

Thanks,
Jon

Request: Gathering info for new project

2011-03-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hello guys,

I can't go into detail regarding what I'll be working on after this fifth season of Arby 'n' the Chief as I'm not even quite sure myself yet, but whatever it is I'd like it to revolve around the world of hacking and/or cheating in online games, the Halo series and Reach in particular. So to gain a little insight and craft a storyline that's true to the subject matter, I'd like to ask of anyone reading this who has the time to send me an e-mail describing your personal encounters with hackers/cheaters online (or through system-link tunneling, XBConnect, XLink Kai), if you've had any and would like to share! These can be outlandish, unfair or physics-defying events that you've witnessed during a game as a result of hacks or whatever, or horror stories like accounts being hacked, passwords being stolen, and so on. I'm not seeking to participate in these activites myself and am not asking for step-by-step instructions or anything of the sort, I'd simply like people to describe their experiences for the purpose of fiction writing, and perhaps if I have any fans out there that are actually modders themselves they might be able to shed a little light on the mechanics behind it for me so I can write something believable. Maybe point out some links to informative websites you know of. I have a very basic understanding of how it all works but it's a bit rusty.

You don't have to of course, only if you have the time and feel like sharing. Please send your e-mail to the Hypernews address, arbiterandchief@gmail.com, and put "Re: cheat/hack stories" in the subject line, or something like that.

Thanks muchly,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E10: "Hypernews II"

2011-03-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Here's the new Hypernews:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E10: "Hypernews II"

Hope you enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E09: "Double Trouble"

2011-03-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hey,

The new Arby 'n' the Chief is out:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E09: "Double Trouble"

I started having second thoughts about the last scene with Arbiter and Trent after I had finished and submitted the episode and wanted to re-write it, fearing I may have let a little too much of my nihilism bleed out in Trent and created an overly-serious tone. I also feared that Trent's "sinking ship" analogy might be considered a little offensive since the disaster in Japan was so recent but I might just be being paranoid about that. I hope people don't connect the two, it's only meant to show Trent's take-all-you-can-get view of the world. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Please leave comments! I read them all.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E08: "Da Bomb"

2011-03-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

The new Arby 'n' the Chief is out:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E08: "Da Bomb"

I notice a lot of people are confused about the skull. I may have went a little overboard with the emphasis with the end shot. You saw the same logo on the security guards in episode one when they're gearing up and loading their weapons; it signifies their affiliation with the cutthroat competitive clan Noob Control mentioned in episode 3. Focusing on the skull on Claire's chest (showing that despite her and the Arbiter being friends again she remains "tagged" by Trent and unobtainable) rather than her helmet at the end seemed more appropriate as she says "Are you up for the challenge" implying the real challenge will be taking down the wedding and everyone involved.

Also please leave comments! I enjoy reading them and I'm glad when people point out any inconsistencies, keeps me in line when writing the rest of the scripts.

Enjoy!
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E07: "Time Wasters"

2011-03-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Here's the new Arby 'n' the Chief:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E07: "Time Wasters"

Sorry for the delay, I just got back from ECCC (Emerald City Comic-Con) in Seattle. For future reference, if you don't see a blog post on here Saturday for the latest submission you can just look up Machinima on YouTube and check their latest channel uploads.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E06: "Drunken Halo"

2011-02-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

The new Arby 'n' the Chief is out:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E06: "Drunken Halo"

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E05: "Hypernews I"

2011-02-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Here's the new Arby 'n' the Chief:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E05: "Hypernews I"

This episode is sort of a one-off, stepping out of the storyline just for some lulz. The entire episode is the taping of Arbiter and Master Chief's first episode of their time-travelling gaming news show, Hypernews. The story will resume next episode.

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E04: "Rock Bottom"

2011-02-12T10:06:00.001-08:00

Hey,

Here's the fourth episode of Arby 'n' the Chief!

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E04: "Rock Bottom"

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E03: "Low on Hearts"

2011-02-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

Here's the third episode of Arby 'n' the Chief's fifth season:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E03: "Low on Hearts"

I hope with this episode people will start to see where I'm going with this season. Enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E02: "Duck Love"

2011-01-29T11:37:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Here's the new Arby 'n' the Chief:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E02: "Duck Love"

I know a lot of people wanted to see the conclusion to the wedding crash, but I'm building up to it. Plus there's a few nice surprises between now and then. And it's a weekly show, it won't be THAT long. I hope you enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Been going over some of the comments, some e-mails -- some of you need to chill out, seriously. I know this season is a departure from season four, the episodes of which stood individually story wise, but I wanted to try something different this time and there's no need to start spitting venom just because there's a drop in action from the season opener. Skipping to the action at the climax then telling the story from the beginning, building up to that moment, is a storytelling device used plenty of times before.

Originally that opener wasn't even going to be in the first episode. It was just going to start in the apartment, but then everyone would've thought that was too dull. I wanted to start with a bang, but now I feel like that's blowing up in my face, if you'll pardon the pun.

The news show stuff seems irrelevant but I am going somewhere with it, it serves a critical purpose in regards to Master Chief and Arbiter's involvement with the wedding, so don't get angry just because everything's not all spelled out for you right away. There's thirteen episodes, they're coming out every week, and it'll all be over before you know it anyway so just try and enjoy it, FFS. Thanks.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S05E01: "House of Cards"

2011-01-22T10:20:00.001-08:00

Well, here it is:

Arby 'n' the Chief S05E01: "House of Cards"

Hope you guys enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief Season 5 Trailer

2011-01-15T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I know it's not much, but here's the trailer for the upcoming fifth season:

Arby 'n' the Chief Season 5 Trailer

I just realized I really dun goofed though, at the end of the trailer it says the launch date for the first episode is January 15th... which is today, and it's supposed to be next week. Way to fuck up the launch of a new season at the very start, go me. Sorry about that. This trailer was created well in advance and I mixed up the dates. Needless to say, I feel pretty fucking stupid.

The first episode should come out next week, on the 22nd of January.

Thanks!
Jon

P.S. If you'd like to do me a favor, click on View All Comments, CTRL+F search for my comment (username DigitalPh33r) regarding the incorrect date and thumb that shit up. I realize how horrendously lame begging for thumbs is but at least there's a practical reason this time and not just attention whoring.

Alternatively, search for "PLZ THUMBS UP GAIZ" to narrow it down.

News: Arby 'n' the Chief Season 5 Details, Soundtrack

2011-01-03T04:39:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I've been really hard at work on the upcoming fifth season. Tons and tons of writing and rewriting... tedious, but creatively rewarding. I'm really trying to up my game this time around, try some new things.

The most significant new aspect of this season is a much more story driven approach overall; each episode picks up from where the last leaves off, culminating in a strong finale by episode thirteen (seasons are thirteen episodes long) that will tie back to the first episode in a big way. The season in its entirety revolves around the Arbiter and Master Chief finding purpose in their lives, as well as, within Halo: Reach, crashing the biggest online video game wedding in human history, the groom being hotshot gamer and loaded corporate tycoon Trent Donnovich, notorious for his ruthless business ethic. I can't say much more than that right now other than there'll be interesting twists and turns, Greg the mute tarantula will play a meaty role throughout, and a trailer should be available soon.

Also, to tide over devoted fans until the season premiere, I've uploaded six short tracks, more or less loops but I feel they're half decent. These tracks make up the season five soundtrack so far, but I'll probably end up composing some more later on:

Arby 'n' the Chief Season 5 Soundtrack (FileFront)

Track 01: Arby 'n' the Chief Main Theme
Track 02: Less Than Three
Track 03: Trent Donnovich
Track 04: Hypernews
Track 05: Storming the Church
Track 06: Noob Control

You'll need WinZIP or WinRAR.

I think I've gotten a lot better. Most of my old musical attempts are shit. I didn't bother uploading these to Newgrounds, the Audio Portal only takes two tracks a day, and everyone will just complain that they're basic loops anyway and not worthy of submission. See what you think!

Hope you all had a happy new year. Stay tuned!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Happy holidays. Here's a little video to spread some Christmas cheer and nod to the show's fifth season, which I've been working hard at.

Arby 'n' the Chief Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E13: "The Spider"

2010-12-11T10:39:00.001-08:00

Hey,

Well, we've reached the end of another season. Here's Arby 'n' the Chief's finale for its fourth season:

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E13: "The Spider"

Hope you enjoyed the fourth season overall!

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. I incorporated the kitchen sink filling up with water in the episode because at one point I actually left my sink running before heading out and flooded my apartment, my landlord had to come in and suck all the water out and rip up the carpeting. I was washing a bowl with my headphones in listening to music and just forgot about it. Derp.

P.P.S. I recently did a little skit for the Inside Gaming Gamer's Choice Awards, check it out along with the rest of the ceremony footage here:

Video: Inside Gaming Gamer's Choice Awards: Arby 'n' the Chief Skit

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E12: "The Mail Room II"

2010-11-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

The new Arby 'n' the Chief is available, "The Mail Room II":

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E12: "The Mail Room II"

I know some people might be disappointed that there's been two fan mail-answering episodes in a row as opposed to narrative-driven ones and they qualify as individual episodes of the season, but I thought it would be justified if I made this one longer and funnier, and I think it is.

However, the season finale is up next (my seasons consist of 13 episodes), and it will be a narrative one, and a special one!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E11: "The Mail Room"

2010-11-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

Here's the new Arby 'n' the Chief, "The Mail Room":

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E11: "The Mail Room"

As I mentioned in my previous post, this episode is not story-driven, rather the entire episode consists of the characters answering questions from fans.

I will be reading the comments, so let me know if you'd like to see more of these kinds of episodes, and don't forget to e-mail arbiterandchief@gmail.com if you have a question! Can't do another one without moar quest chins!

Thanks,
Jon

News: The Latest

2010-11-11T06:34:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Well, here's the One Life Remaining season finale:

One Life Remaining S2: Episode 13

There's things I like about how the season turned out, and things I hate, but I think it turned out alright overall compared to what I've done before.

I'm currently developing a new show. No third season of One Life Remaining, and not Hard Justice. Something better, in Halo: Reach most likely as it still has the easiest and smoothest cinema mode out of anything else, and Machinima done in Reach with the new character animation is at least a lot more tolerable to watch. I want to make something action-packed that really takes advantage of the real-time video game setting visually as well as in regards to the story. Like The Shield meets ReBoot. More details later.

Also, the upcoming Arby 'n' the Chief is kind of a short one. Sorry to disappoint after a spike in episode length but I need the breathing room to catch up on everything. It's also not a story-driven episode, rather it's an entire episode dedicated to that fanmail segment I mentioned earlier, "The Mail Room". I think people will like the more organic feel to it with viewer input and enjoy it just as much, though.

Thanks,

Jon

Video: ANTC 10, OLR 12

2010-10-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Here's the latest video links:

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E10: "Night of the Evading Dead"
One Life Remaining S2: Episode 12

I had a high bar to meet/jump with Arby 'n' the Chief after Digital Fruitcakes, I think I got lucky with that one. The idea was decent and the script came together nicely in an amount of time that allowed me to concentrate on the presentation.

This latest one, Night of the Evading Dead, was a bit of a nightmare (pun not intended). I bit off more than I could chew, working far too long on the script that ended up being overwritten (minus the "mail room" segment it was about 14 pages, as opposed to the usual 8, approximately). It was also a technical pain in the ass -- I lost all the sound from my footage, and I had to replace all the sound effects by hand with what I had in my library. Sorry about that, I hope you can enjoy it anyway.

I cut out the "mail room" segment for this week, also. Sorry, I'll start it in the next episode.

I think the episode turned out okay for the most part, but I feel it still falls a little short of Digital Fruitcakes despite trying to surpass it.

Also there is a new opening credit sequence, hope you like it.

Thanks,
Jon

News: Arby 'n' the Chief Mail!

2010-10-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I saw a comment recently that there's not enough fan involvement. So I came up with this idea today to add a brief segment to future videos, "Arby 'n' the Chief Mail", in which they answer a small handful of specially chosen e-mails per week delivered to a specific e-mail address: arbiterandchief@gmail.com. If I have time I might get it at the end of this week's episode (which is Halloween themed, by the way, and another long one. Finalized script ended up being seventeen pages after six partial drafts).

So if you have a question you'd like to ask Arbiter or Master Chief, why not mail arbiterandchief@gmail.com? You might end up seeing it answered on an episode. Also try and keep it brief for display purposes.

Also, polls. Market research, I guess. I have a couple ideas for a possible fifth season but I haven't made up my mind on that yet.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E09: "Digital Fruitcakes"

2010-10-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here's the new Arby 'n' the Chief:

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E09: "Digital Fruitcakes"

I felt a bit depressed after OLR 11's release, people didn't like it too much. So I channeled that negative energy and really buckled down for this Arby 'n' the Chief episode, I think you'll enjoy this one. Took forever, I worked a lot of late nights. The script alone took forever to polish, which I hope will shine through. Writing usually doesn't get enough credit.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Everyone that says the intro is a Conker's Bad Fur Day reference fucking fails.

P.P.S. For those that are interested in screenwriting and its form, here's the production script for the episode:

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E09: "Digital Fruitcakes" Script

Video: ANTC, OLR

2010-10-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Sorry for lack of updates, here are the most recent videos:

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E08: "B&" (2/2)
One Life Remaining S2: Episode 11

The latest OLR was kind of a bitch to get out and I'm sorry if things seem a bit rushed or unclear in it, I did my best. I didn't get a package of voice-overs delivered until pretty much the last minute and crunched all day yesterday to get the episode rendered and sent. I'll try and leave myself more time for the last two.

It's over the top, I know. And completely retarded since Kathryn just escapes from everything. But I wanna be able to go a bit crazy with it and use much more of what Halo 3 has to offer in terms of carnage instead of just have another finale like the first season that's just head bobs, not to mention I've only got ten minutes an episode to do that. This is the last time I'll be using Halo 3 anyway.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: One Life Remaining S2: Episode 10

2010-09-25T15:04:00.001-07:00

Hey,

Here's the tenth OLR episode:

One Life Remaining S2: Episode 10

I like the way this one turned out, hope you enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

Videos: OLR, ANTC

2010-09-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Here's all the latest videos:

One Life Remaining S2: Episode 8
One Life Remaining S2: Episode 9
Arby 'n' the Chief S04E07: "B&" (1/2)

This new episode of Arby 'n' the Chief is part one of a two-part episode. I wanted to come up with an episode that seemed like Reach was already out even though this episode was produced like a week before it did.

There's a shot with a pile of video games Arbiter has hauled out of a box. Being a total nostalgia junkie, each of those games were hand-picked. Most of them are relics of my childhood.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E06: "God's Work"

2010-09-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Here it is:

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E06: "God's Work"

Tried to have a bit more fun with it this time. Let the inevitable console war in the comments commence.

Also, I've actually just moved to a new place, so the next episode will have an entirely different setting.

Thanks,
Jon

News: One Life Remaining S2: Episode 8 delay

2010-08-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hey,

The eighth episode went up this morning but it's glitched, video ends about 40 seconds in. Obviously it wasn't me, just some fuck up during the upload. When I finish a video it's done at least a week in advance, I check it over, then send it to Machinima. It then goes into their programming queue and is uploaded whenever.

Unfortunately, since it's the weekend, I can't get in touch with anybody at the offices, so it's possible this won't get fixed until Monday. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Thanks,
Jon

UPDATE: For some reason it's available here in full, for the time being, on BlipTV:

One Life Remaining S2: Episode 8

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E05: "Giveth and Taketh"

2010-08-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Get it while it's hot. Enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. By the way, a few people have been e-mailing me about the actual scripts for the episodes I write. Here's the production script for Giveth and Taketh:

Arby 'n' the Chief S04E05: "Giveth and Taketh" Script (PDF)

You'll need Adobe Reader to check it out.

Also you may notice the dialogue in the video and the script don't match exactly all the time. The production script gets typed, and then either during recording (voices or video) or even editing, I'll throw in extra stuff or alter lines that don't work on the fly. Also you'll notice Chief's dialogue isn't completely fucked in the script. I distort it later during the voice recording/editing phase so I don't get that distracting spellchecker shit. Enjoy!

Thanks,
Jon

News: Reflections

2010-08-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I'm pretty drunk at the moment and trying my best to type coherently. Had a bit of the ol' Jack.

For a while now I've had an irregular sleeping pattern and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I figured a bit of alcohol would help me pass out but it's made me actually go back and revisit all the old Arby 'n' the Chief episodes that I've made over the past few years, so that I might gain some valuable insight on what made them so special and how to handle the episodes for the remainder of the newest fourth season so people can get that feeling they had when they watched those old episodes for the first time.

I actually really laughed at most of them. I probably sound like a total prick saying that I laughed at my own shit, but really, they did. But I'm mainly referring to the episodes from the first season. In the episodes from the second season I introduced some story arc bullshit because I was trying to branch out as a writer but it just didn't work, really. The third season is a mix of hit-or-miss episodes. I like "Wedding".

I so wanna be that one filmmaker that can go "Don't worry guys, other writers veer off their path of success, but I get it, man. I got it covered. I know how to stay retro, I know how to make people keep laughing". But that just wasn't the case for me, as I'm sure it has been for many others. You lose your "spunk" eventually at some point, you forget what made you popular. I wanna be the guy that never forgets it, but I'm starting to wonder if there's even such a person that exists. Fame is poisonous. Not that I consider myself "famous" or anything, in the true sense of the word, I'm just going by views.

I wanna post this before my drunkenness wears off because when I'm sober again, I'm gonna feel so self-conscious that I won't wanna post this message, and I don't want that to happen. I want people to know the human being behind the retarded videos. Oh man, I don't even know where I'm going with this.

This post is probably so retarded beyond what I can comprehend right now, and I'm gonna read it over the next morning and think about how fucking retarded it is, but whatever.

I'm drunk, but the reason you aren't finding many (if any) typos (lol "many" and "any" rhymes) is because my brain can still pick out those red zig-zaggy lines in Blogger's text-entry thingy that represent possible spelling errors and I go back and fix them compulsively because I'm slightly OCD.

Oh man, I can barely see straight. I just wanna collapse into bed, but I gotta finish this first. I WANNA finish this first.

Thanks a lot guys, really. I know I've been a dick in the past, but I've learned from it. Really, thanks for taking an interest in all the stupid shit I've made, it really means a lot. I mean Jesus, portraying drama in head-bobbing Halo 3 characters, what the fuck, man. But I thank you all who stick with it.

The next morning I'm gonna read this post and realize I should never have posted it and feel totally embarrassed, but I SHOULD post it. Alcohol is a truth serum, not some personality-distortioner. It's a personality revealer.

If you wanna be a writer, just do it man. Fuck, look at me. Look at Deus Ex Machina. The dialogue, especially in the early episodes, is utter shit. But you learn from it. The more you write, the more you learn, the better you become. Don't be afraid to write shit, guys. Write shit. Write lots of shit. You'll learn from it and write better shit until you eventually write something decent. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting there. I'm closer to there than I ever was, anyways. Did this paragraph just make sense? I dunno, I hope so.

I don't think I got to the point of this blog post yet, I hope I yet, but if I didn't, sorry, 'cause I gotta pass out now, seriously. There's some shit I gotta wake up for in the morning, so yeah. Thanks a lot guys for keeping up with my stuff and everything, really.

By the way, the upcoming episode of Arby 'n' the Chief is video game related, in response to the comments on the fourth episode about how it wasn't related to video games. Yes, I actually read all the comments. Seriously, ALL of them. I don't respond to them, but I read them. Same goes for e-mails.

Do what makes you happy, guys. Do what makes you happy. This is a shit ugly world and we all gotta find a way to make ourselves happy. Writing is a fucking horrible job but it's also wonderful at the same time and it makes me happy. Write if it makes you happy, and if it doesn't, find whatever DOES make you happy.

I gotta collapse into bed now. I'm very drunk.

I'm not glamorizing drinking, by the way. Don't drink, it's overrated. I don't even drink that much, this night was just a one-off, really, because I couldn't get to sleep, but I never slept and ended up writing this instead and probably doesn't make any fucking sense. I dunno, I can't really keep track of all the stuff I've written so far, all I can hold in my brain is like, the last two words I've written at this point. "This point". That's all I remember. All the other stuff? Gone. I hope you can make sense of it.

Goodnight, guys.

Thanks,
Jon

News: The rest of One Life Remaining

2010-08-20T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Before I go over what to expect from the rest of the season, here's episode seven:

One Life Remaining S2: Episode 7

I realize that some of the recent episodes haven't turned out the greatest, but I've learned a lot for next time. Second acts are hard to write and keep interesting. But things are gonna pick up pretty soon.

The upcoming eighth episode is basically the last episode leading to an imminent shit storm, and episode nine IS the shit storm. It's pretty much one long action sequence.

Then the third act begins, which is pretty explosive and disturbing -- episode twelve is balls-to-the-wall action, and episode thirteen, being the finale, is utter chaos, contrasting pretty significantly with the season's tame beginning.

Thanks much for staying interested!
- Jon

???: Rambling

2010-08-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

I typed and saved a very small portion of my nightly absurd internal mental ramblings. Maybe you'll find some amusement or gain some weird insight in this.

---

Maybe I'm delusional. Then surely everybody else must be delusional to some degree. Jesus. The world is being run by people as fucked as I am. They're also surrounding me. Oh shit. I probably won't be alive in a few years. Either we go through 2012's frequency/vibrational shift, or the planet explodes, or implodes, or gets eaten by giant raptors, or someone here's gonna shoot a nuclear bomb. And if I don't die, I'll probably be poisoned or irradiated, or possibly in a distant area from the blast but then more bombs will go off and I'll be trampled under the stampede of panicking people. Left to die. Imagine what it would be like starving to death. Holy crap, that would suck for real. That happens to people every day. People no worse than I am. I got lucky. I landed on my feet and hit the ground running out of sure chaos. Maybe the entire universe is inside the glass eye of a winged super-raptor with cool spikes and a double-bladed scythe, barking orders at a bunch of pissed-off werewolves with brilliant diamond body armor and cloaking devices in a world-wide battle over some fucking hovering trans-dimentional hyper cube that's comically over-mechanized. ...People are gonna think I'm "trying to be too cool" or something by typing something too imaginative like that. Who cares what they think. That's always the message in movies -- who gives a fuck about what anyone else thinks? No matter how good you try to bee, some guy somewhere is gonna hate you. Even if it's just that your face reminds him of some other guy at the dildo store that short-changed him earlier. You probably caught that "bee" typo by now. You read over it, looked back, examined the context, and then BURST into laughter, muttering to yourself how dumb I was for doing that. Did I type "bee," to a certain extent, purposefully, because my mind associated it with the correct word "be," or because my mind purposefully meant to type it correctly but I just had my finger on the E key a tad too long while I was scratching an itch on my balls? What the hell am I talking about? I'm thirsty. I can't believe it's almost twenty bucks cheaper to buy another entire Brita filtration jug with a filter in it than a replacement filter on it's own. That is so fucking stupid. It's like buying another Lexmark when your ink cartridge runs out. The world is filled with stupid fucking shit like this. How can we take any of this seriously? And I'm the worst out of all of us. I'm aware of this, and I don't do a God damn thing about it because I'm scared. Scared of everything. No matter how cool a face I try to put on at crosswalks.

---

- Jon

Video: One Life Remaining S2: Episode 6, Arby 'n' the Chief S04E04: "Aces and Spaces"

2010-08-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Here's the newest video releases:

One Life Remaining S2: Episode 6
Arby 'n' the Chief S04E04: "Aces and Spaces"

LOL DICKS

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. I know. It's retarded.

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E03: "Pirates"

2010-07-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

Hey,

So here's the third episode of Arby 'n' the Chief season four, called "Pirates."

This episode kind of sticks out a little bit, you may notice there's no profanity and no tie-in to video games or anything; that's because this episode was used as portfolio material for admission to a film production program at a university here in BC.

I was still refused admission.

Fuck.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. I wish people would stop going on about the discontinuity in regards to the Arbiter being a university student in this episode. It acted as a gateway to material outside the confines of my bedroom. Who cares, it's not like this series made any sense when it started years ago anyway, it was always fucking retarded.

Videos: E3, Arby 'n' the Chief, One Life Remaining

2010-07-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I'm currently on vacation in the UK just now, here's the latest video releases:

Top 10 Gems of E3 with Jon CJG
One Life Remaining S2: Episode 4
Arby 'n' the Chief S04E02: "It's a Beta!"
One Life Remaining S2: Episode 5

Thanks,
Jon

Video: Descending Into the Well (Zelda: Ocarina of Time Machinima)

2010-07-02T03:05:00.000-07:00

UPDATED! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEeM_88PL4I&feature=player_embedded

I uploaded it to my lame old DigitalPh33r account. I'd create a "Jon CJG" but that along with every possible variant has probably already been taken by little poser fucks.

I already know that you don't descend the well as an adult, by the way. Just go with it.

Honestly, let me know what you think in the comments, I'm interested.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. It's still the same video it was earlier, just with improved BG audio.

Music: Villain Montage

2010-07-01T00:37:00.001-07:00

Was bored. Made this!

Thanks,

Jon

Video: Arby 'n' the Chief S04E01: "Out of Reach"

2010-06-26T16:13:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is, the Arby 'n' the Chief season four premiere. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks,
Jon

Music: Digital Cheesecake Invasion

2010-06-24T20:06:00.001-07:00

lol, check this out.

Thanks,

Jon

News: Batman: City of Scars

2010-06-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

Dudes,

You gotta check this out; an independently made Batman movie, shot in 21 days on a $27,000 budget, sub-titled "City of Scars". I just had to share it, it's a fantastic effort from writer/director/editor Aaron Shoenke. Spread the word!

http://scifiwire.com/2010/06/watch-awesome-fan-made-ba.php

- Jon

Video: One Life Remaining S2: Episode 3

2010-06-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hey,

You can view the third episode of One Life Remaining's second season here.

Thanks!
Jon

2010-06-17T10:43:00.001-07:00

Hey,

Sorry for the lack of updates again. Been pretty busy with E3 and stuff. Got a number of things to cake care of:

New Videos:
One Life Remaining S2: Episode 2 (View)
Arby 'n' the Chief S4 Teaser (View)

Airing this upcoming Saturday should be the One Life Remaining S2: Episode 3 as well as the E3 coverage that I'm doing, Top X Hidden Gems of E3 (haven't figured out the number yet, still gotta go through the footage and find out what worked and what didn't).

Also, looking at the comments for the Arby 'n' the Chief S4 Teaser, I think those at Machinima.com besides myself that worked on Arby 'n' the Chief in LA are taking too much heat, people think I'm coming in to "save" the series. I still wrote the majority of Arby 'n' the Chief in LA, so it was primarily my fuck-up. I screwed it up. Though granted, I didn't exactly have the greatest launching point, I started writing around the fourth episode in the season and the series was heading in a direction I didn't feel confident in, but I had to give the story a middle and an end anyway. My heart just wasn't really in it. I think a lot of credit needs to go to the voice actors and the editor on Arby 'n' the Chief in LA, they did a good job.

The premiere episode of Arby 'n' the Chief season four should air next Saturday.

Regarding E3, I do have a piece of coverage coming this upcoming Saturday as I mentioned, and I will be covering the top X amount of "hidden gems" at the event, the stuff other people aren't really covering that ranges from kinda cool to completely ridiculous. I try to be pleasant at each presentation even if it's completely retarded, I'll let the audience judge the exhibits for themselves. Seriously, there's some stupid shit here at E3 this year. It's hilarious.

I could cover the better stuff, but there's a million other places you can go for coverage hosted by people much better at interviews and performing in front of the camera than I am. For instance, all of my co-workers, like the Inside Gaming crew. I'm fucking terrible, anyway. I'm just here for comic relief, really.

Who do I think won E3 this year? Nintendo, man. They fucking kicked everybody's ASS this year. The 3DS, in my opinion, is the most amazing piece of hardware at the show. On top of that, Nintendo announced portable 3D revamped Ocarina of Time and Starfox 64, brought back Kid Icarus and Donkey Kong Country, had Kirby's Epic Yarn which looks insane, a fucking new Goldeneye revamp for Wii that's actually decent, and of course Zelda Skyward Sword (which I was expecting to be a little more original and inspired, it really just looking like Twilight Princess with Wind Waker's color palette), but no doubt it'll be fun anyway. Nintendo sure as hell didn't pull any punches.

Thanks,
Jon

Secret Project: Arby 'n' the Chief season four

2010-06-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hey all.

I was gonna save this until Machinima.com aired a teaser trailer for my new project, but that's at least a week away and it was already premiered publicly at CanWest 2010 anyway.

I'm doing one more season of Arby 'n' the Chief. This is not a continuation of Arby 'n' the Chief in LA. This is a continuation of the original series, and I will be handling all aspects of production again. No melodrama, no crazy plots, no new characters, just classic Arby 'n' the Chief, back-and-forth banter and wacky around-the-house antics. The first two episodes of this fourth season (picking up pretty much where "King" from season three left off, with the original opening credits and everything) are centered around the Halo: Reach beta (not unlike the Master Chief Sucks at Halo 3 video), and the remaining episodes will be sweet and simple shorts centered around either other popular Xbox games or other things (I have one episode idea where the Arbiter and Master Chief compete against each other to see who can draw the greatest dick picture on opposing whiteboards).

It was the two premiere Halo: Reach beta episodes that I showed at CanWest 2010, cut together without any opening or closing credits, and I'm happy to say that the audience loved it.

The catch? The episodes are shorter. They're extremely tedious to film, and I'm already putting a lot of work into One Life Remaining's second season which will continue to run alongside this new Arby 'n' the Chief season.

The big improvement in writing seen in One Life Remaining so far will also apply to Arby 'n' the Chief, so the episodes might be short but the substance will be there.

So yeah, there you have it. Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks. It's very much a gift for the fans.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. One Life Remaining season 2 episode 2 was supposed to air this Saturday and... it didn't. Again. There's some malfunctioning with Machinima.com's programming schedule I guess. It'll most likely go up this following Saturday instead.

P.P.S. CanWest 2010 was a blast and I met so many great people, the Rooster Teeth community's made up of some pretty nice folks.

Video: One Life Remaining S2: Episode 1

2010-05-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Well, it's finally up: the premiere of One Life Remaining's second season can be viewed here.

This one was a bit experimental and it's a bit thick with melodrama. Don't think I haven't picked up on it, the original script actually used to be a lot worse (enough that I cringed, after watching it play out with audio/video as opposed to merely on paper) but I cut out and replaced a bunch of dialogue near the end during post. Also, reserve your overall judgement until at least the episode after this one where there's a noticeable jump in plot (as well as tolerability to watch). High school drama in Halo, I know, I know. Gay. But... it's one of the worlds I know best.

Only this one episode takes place during that time anyway. The second episode jumps six months into the future, a short time after the events of season one, and starts right in Anthony and Chad's (and Peter's) apartment.

Thanks,
Jon

Music: The End of the Line

2010-05-18T21:38:00.001-07:00

Hey,

I made another tune that I plan to use for One Life Remaining eventually, you can check it here!

Thanks,
Jon

Music: Reaching the Cookie Jar

2010-05-18T01:49:00.001-07:00

Hey,

I just finished up a simple little tune for that secret project I mentioned, if some of you would like to have a listen. You can hear it here.

Hear it here. lol gettit?

Thanks,
Jon

News: One Life Remaining season two and CanWest 2010 details

2010-05-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

Yo,

The premiere of the second One Life Remaining season was supposed to air on Saturday, but it did not. As I've stated, programming is another department, this kind of thing is out of my hands, but I've told them what's up and it should be straightened out soon. So in the meantime, I'll go over what you can expect from the season.

The first episode acts as a prologue to the season, taking place four years before the events of season one. The second episode then begins a short time after season one's finale, the real beginning in a sense, and from there each episode takes place right after the last (except for the fourth episode which will be a flashback episode entirely dedicated to Kathryn's history).

The first season was very experimental and very much just a platform for a joke or two, there were a lot of filler episodes (until the last three). Not so in the new season, in which every episode is very story driven, each scene serving the purpose of pushing the story forward. No filler. I've also really tried to punch up the writing this time around, and structurally, I'm trying to make the story solid enough that if all the episodes in the season were played at once, it would be like watching a feature film, with appropriately placed major plot points. It's a lot of work -- I'm really throwing myself into this now. Nearly all of my free time, never mind my actual work time, is being put into this (and my secret project). During the time I'm not working, I'll either be playing Demon's Souls on PS3 for a couple hours, or I'm self-educating myself on story structure and professional screenplay writing, buying/reading a lot of books.

For any other aspiring screenplay writers, I highly recommend reading the books on the subject by Syd Field, including "Screenplay", "The Screenwriter's Workbook" and "The Screenwriter's Problem Solver". Those are a great place to start.

As I've been working on the new season, I've fallen into a number of depression pits in which I think to myself over and over, "Who the hell's gonna enjoy this and take it seriously? Halo characters? Give me a break, Halo machinima is so lame, nerdy, overused and boring to watch now. Who am I kidding, I can't write worth shit". But it's all part of the writing process. It sucks, and if you want to pursue writing as a career, you gotta be prepared to deal with the symptoms.

I hope people that watch will try and ignore the fact that it's done in Halo and focus on the dialogue and the music and everything else I try and exceed at to make watching lifeless Master Chief models moving around and bobbing heads tolerable. Trust me, I think it's just as lame as everyone else, but fuck it. Machinima's a great way to get film out there on a $0 budget, and working with the Theatre mode camera can really build your skill at capturing action within the frame in a compelling way which can easily carry over to live action when your career eventually calls for it. That's my plan.

Anyway, onto CanWest 2010. If you're unfamiliar with it and you happen to live in or near Vancouver, the website is here: http://www.rvbcanwest.com/.

I will be attending and showing the first two episodes back-to-back of my secret project (I'd just go ahead and tell everybody but I think Machinima.com might want to do some kind of promotion for it, in which case I don't think I'm at liberty to give details right now). The screening is on May 30th, and I'll be there to show the two episodes and then answer some questions afterwards from the audience. After that, I believe everyone has the opportunity to meet for drinks, which I will also be attending. The details are all on the website.

What I WILL say about what I'm showing at the event right now is this: chances are it's exactly what you think it might be.

Thanks for keeping up with my blog!

- Jon

P.S. Yes, my photo on the website is very, very gay.

Review: Iron Man 2

2010-05-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

SPOILER ALERT, KIND OF.

A cool fan of mine asked if I was gonna do an Iron Man 2 review, and I thought that was a neat idea. For anyone that cares what I think, that is.

It's very much become a cliche to say "the original is better" when it comes to just about anything, and there's a reason for that; it's usually true, and it applies here. However, Jon Favreau and the energetic cast, especially Robert Downey Jr., give Iron Man 2 just enough sparkle to make it a very worthy addition to the superhero movie library (where The Dark Knight still reigns supreme, but anyway...).

As soon as you see Robert's face in his first sequence when his suit is being disassembled on the stage of the Stark Expo, he gives a charming little look to the audience that gets you invested into his character immediately, and he keeps that level of energy throughout the entire film which really holds it together (I really consider him one of the greatest actors alive). In fact, the entire cast is fantastic, and you can tell that they're having a lot of fun together both in front of and behind the camera which bleeds into the film.

Mickey Rourke is captivating as always (if you haven't already, watch The Wrestler -- it kicks ass), but I felt his talents were somewhat wasted here -- I would've liked to see a lot more of Whiplash. In fact in some ways, Whiplash felt a bit tacked on to the story, though the montage of him building his suit with the whips with the powerful orchestral backing was an awesome opener. I was pretty disappointed that his final battle with Iron Man and War Machine was very short and predictable.

Scarlett Johansson, cute as a button, plays the Black Widow, the first on-screen female superhero I actually respected. Without any idiocy or unwarranted sass, she gets her jobs done and kicks a lot of ass while doing it.

Another thing that really helped hold the movie together was the chemistry between Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Tony Stark. I was worried that this time around that the crew weren't going to give their relationship the attention that they gave it in the first film, but they did, and even surpassed it in some ways (except for the annoying lack of Pepper Pots around the middle of the film when she's pissed at Tony).

I'm a fan of Sam Rockwell, but for some reason I found Justin Hammer's character quite annoying and forgettable.

I didn't mind the sub-plot of Tony Stark's technology killing him at the same time it was keeping him alive, but I felt it wasn't executed as well as it could have been. We didn't really get to see Tony too torn up about it, not only for himself but the fact that the entire Stark legacy would abruptly end. It wouldn't have taken much either, and it wouldn't even need to have much dialogue, if any; just a simple tiny scene where we can see the pain behind the strong, confident exterior would have been enough. It would have made Tony's path of self-destruction and following recklessness and drunkenness at his disaster of a house party much more interesting and painful to watch.

Don Cheadle did a better job taking Terrence Howard's place than I originally expected. His back-and-forth with Tony definitely worked.

One of the huge draws of the film is the fact that all the dialogue feels very natural. Jon Favreau is very generous with the ad-libbing and the cast, Robert especially, are happy to oblige. You don't ever get the feeling that dialogue is being read from a page.

Jon Favreau flaunts himself a bit in front of the camera this time around as Happy Hogan, Tony Stark's assistant and limousine driver, but it's okay. As the movie buff from Family Guy playing Yoda in the show's parody of The Empire Strikes Back hilariously put it, Jon Favreau seems like the type of guy that would do your laundry if you asked him, so his appearance is more than welcome. And given that Jon's the director, I personally love seeing him having so much fun making his own movie. It gives me the feeling that there's a very good, playful, and passionate energy that underlies the film.

The middle of the film felt a bit messy to me, I can't quite put my finger on it. The fact that Nick Fury kind of came out of nowhere bugged me a bit. I didn't feel any immersion into the world of S.H.I.E.L.D., the members of it were just kinda... there. However, the first act and the third act parenthesizing the film were very well done.

I also wish they fleshed out the story of Tony and Ivan's fathers a bit more rather than just being referenced occasionally, as it's Tony's father's past research that leads to Tony's significant discovery around the third act that allows Tony to save his own life.

Jon Favreau is a genius behind the camera, and a particular sequence comes to mind near the end of the film with Iron Man and War Machine in a botanical garden. Before the drones come and attack, there's a brief period where they're alone and talking back-and-forth trying to strategize for their retaliation and take proper positions. It's a big-budget shot as both characters are in their full armor walking around, but the camera very generously stays on them with nothing happening around them for a few minutes and they banter very genuinely; it's as if Jon Favreau is subtly telling the audience that he hasn't forgotten that these two armor-plated fighting machines are dynamic human beings, and their banter plays very nicely against the visual effects involved in the suits that they're wearing.

It's not quite the film the original was (the first Iron Man had flawless pacing), but as sequels go, Iron Man 2 is a great effort from Jon Favreau and crew that's definitely worth seeing and I eagerly anticipate the third installment, with fingers crossed that they never sacrifice character for plot. I'm pretty sure Jon knows what he's doing though. He's a smart guy, and currently one of my favorite directors.

Well, that was my impression of the film.

Yeah, I'm not good at conclusions.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. If you're stoked for The Avengers, stay for the end of the credits.

News: Halo: Reach beta impressions

2010-05-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have been e-mailing me inquiring about my thoughts on the beta, so I guess I'd better get on this finally.

In my opinion (let's just establish that obvious fact to limit possible hate mail), the Halo: Reach beta is a prime example of the whole being more than the sum of it's parts. Don't get me wrong, they put some pretty cool stuff in the game this time around, but some pretty lame stuff too (Armor Lock, anybody?). However, the end result is simply a fun game. A lot more fun than Halo 3 was.

I'll start with the weapons. The DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle) is pimp. Not quite as lethal as Halo 3's Battle Rifle, but it really feels right using it, especially with the expanding reticules if you try and spam the fire button and the reduced auto aim. The DMR is deadly in the right hands and very satisfying when a kill is had with it. Same goes for the single-shot Needler (I don't know the names very well). I'm also very glad that the pistol is back, not too over-powered but strong enough to support yourself if your primary runs out and accurate enough to land a few headshots now and then. On the downside, I can't believe the fucking Energy Sword is still in (pissing everyone off with it's generous lunge distance since Halo 2 and it's still around), being spammed in the face with the Focus Rifle is pretty annoying (a combination of the old Covenant Sniper and the Sentinel Beam, as if anyone ever used the Sentinel Beam), and the one that shoots four homing explosive charges of plasma is cheap as shit.

The cheapness doesn't end there however, with the introduction of the Armor Lock armor ability, the new thing to spam if you're a total pussy. Too many times I get into gunfights with a player, who knows he's gonna lose, then pusses out with Armor Lock and holds it as long as he can until his teammates can bail him out of his predicament. I called one guy out on it and he told me "it was strategy". Fuck that shit. I mean, if there's no one else around, it's easy enough to wait for his Armor Lock to expire and then promptly ruin his shit, but it's very annoying to run into that on a constant basis. I can see how it would be cool to ward off Energy Swords, Rocket Launchers, and vehicles hurtling towards you, but still.

The rest of the Armor Abilites I don't really have a problem with -- in fact, I love the sprint ability. Straight out of Modern Warfare 2 obviously, but it works here and it's very nice to have to get into the action quickly from your spawn point, not to mention getting through a sketchy, dangerous area. The Gravity Hammer/Energy Sword and sprint combo pisses me off though. The jetpack's pretty cool but I don't use it personally, you're eased up and down very lightly by its thrust and it's not too hard for people to pick you off in mid-air. It's also nice to have the cloaking to switch to if you feel like playing slower and stealthier, but combined with the Energy Sword or the Shotgun it can be infuriating to deal with from other players. I hate campers, as you have no doubt noticed.

I've also noticed a big jump in the quality of music just listening to the score of the Bungie intro and the main menu theme, really nice stuff. And Bungie has some genius user interface designers, all the menus are sleek and very functional.

I like the credit system they've incorporated, and I feel they're earned at a pace that's just right. I just hope that there will be plenty of stuff to spend those credits on and we don't all end up buying everything and having a massive stockpile of unused credits.

Grenade spam has always been a present and annoying phenomenon in the Halo games, and it's still very much here. Way too many players treat their left triggers as their primary fire. Learn to aim your gun, you fucks. I thought Bungie might have done something to limit it this time around, but alas... it's just one of those things we've all gotta put up with I guess. I can understand how limiting players to one grenade per spawn would suck.

The controls are great this time around, with all the player's offensive actions mapped to the triggers and the bumpers. It's a bit hard to get used to at first, but it quickly becomes second nature.

I'm getting tired now, so I'll stop there. Like I said, the game has some pretty extreme annoyances, but enough cool stuff for the skilled players to keep it attractive. I like it, and I'm gonna buy it when it comes out.

On a side note, I'm still working on that secret project I mentioned earlier (very much a gift for the fans) and it will be unveiled pretty soon. Stay tuned!

Thanks,
Jon

Video: One Life Remaining S2: Teaser

2010-05-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

A teaser for the new season of One Life Remaining has been released and it can be viewed here. On second glance, it doesn't really do the season much justice, but it was a total rush job -- I had originally intended to spend a bit of time on it and make it epic, but I was asked yesterday to whip it up and turn it in that afternoon ASAP so it could be aired today.

And it was not my idea for the Alan Wake stuff mixed in, sorry about that. I didn't even know that was going to happen. Especially that "HE KNOWS" thing that covers over 9000 percent of the screen... *headdesk*

And yeah, I finally got voice actors for this new season. I realize some people are raging because I used to refuse help (due to the hassles of co-ordinating people), but things are a bit different at the Machinima.com offices now. I have co-workers in the Los Angeles building, most with plenty of voice-over experience, perfectly willing to lend their talents and they also have a sound booth which means I don't have to worry about the quality being shit, and voices are recorded and delivered promptly so I can pop them right into the timeline. Please don't take it personally if I turned you down for a voice-over position in the past.

Anyway, I know the trailer makes the season look boring and melodramatic, but I ask you to please reserve judgement until you see the first episode when it airs, or better yet, the second (they're both already completed), and I'm personally looking forward to doing a sequence in the third one that I think is really cool.

As for the series as a whole, it starts out a bit ordinary and calm but things pick up relatively quickly, and by the time the finale comes along it will be insane.

Thanks,
Jon

Music: Desperate Measure

2010-04-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Made another little piece of music for Kathryn for something she does a bit later on in the new season, you can check it out here.

I've been pretty busy recently, putting a lot of effort into the new season of One Life Remaining, plus a secret project that I'm not quite ready to announce yet but I'm sure will please many people! Stay tuned.

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. Happy 4/20!

News: FAQ re-write

2010-04-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I recently read my FAQ that I wrote starting about two years ago, and I've just realized how much of a dick I came off as, which is pretty embarrassing because I know a lot of people look at it. Sorry about that, I'm gonna rewrite it pretty soon. Just goes to show how people change.

Also, there's a new post under this you should check out if you haven't already.

Thanks,
Jon

UPDATE: Same goes for those "Guide to Halo 3 Machinima" tutorials, they make me sound like a mega-dick. I hope those that check that video series just take the good and leave the bad, absorbing the info but dismissing the arrogant attitude.

Music: Very Bad Girl

2010-04-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hey,

So I wrote another bit of music for One Life Remaining. This one I'm planning to use as Kathryn's theme music, her being a primary antagonist in the second season. You can check it here. I think it's some of my best yet, I really played around with the velocity of each note.

Thanks,
Jon

UPDATE: The music has been updated with better percussion and other stuff.

Music: One Life Remaining Season 2 Theme

2010-04-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I wrote this little piece of music recently for my second season premiere of One Life Remaining that you might be interested in, it can be listened to here. The actual premiere probably won't air for a little while though.

Thanks,
Jon

Video: One Life Remaining S1: Episode 13

2010-04-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is, the season finale of One Life Remaining. I hope everyone likes it. You can view it here. I think it's just been uploaded so it'll take a little while for there to be an option to boost the quality, looks like shit at the moment.

Thanks,
Jon

News: Cave Story rocks.

2010-03-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

Yo,

If you have a Wii and you have access to the Wii Shop channel, you gotta check out Cave Story (under WiiWare). Heartwarmingly retro and rich with story and characters, it's one of the best sidescrollers I've ever played.

- Jon