Put on TV! .com

In case you didn't see it: here's the scoop.

Good news! The wheels are turning... and we've got a brand new shoot coming up this Tuesday to create more Gamers content for this website! It's been months since shooting ended for the pilot itself, and we're all excited to be jumping back into it again.

Along with brand new video content, I'll be able to update the site much more frequently this coming week. We've got some cool stuff on the way, so stay tuned!

I apologize for the recent lack of updates to this section... let's just say that my past week at work was crazy busy. It looks like next week isn't going to be much better, although I do get to fly to Las Vegas for a shoot on Wednesday!

I've corresponded with a ton of people about Gamers in the past several days. Remember how I pointed out that things in this industry can move at a snail's pace? Well, that's not so much the case with Gamers anymore. We have several meetings in LA next week, and we're even sending off the pilot to a couple places in Europe! Can't. Talk. Specifics.

The word from *most* of the people "in the biz" who are excited about this project is "OMFG DON'T POST ANYTHING ELSE ONLINE!!!111!!1! IS IT REGISTERED WITH WGA???". That sentiment is probably really valid, and I've been debating whether or not to post the pilot online these past few days. My decision: by the end of the month, I'm posting the pilot on this site for everyone to see.

More good news: I've rounded up a bit of funding to shoot some more Gamers content for this website. I'm thinking that 1-3 minute shorts will give people a much better idea of what the show is about, and who the characters are. Keep checking back for more updates (including the forums that I promised), and until then check out these new screen grabs from the pilot:

Round 1 is over... great success! This weekend I managed to reply to a ton of your emails (and slip in an RFK run in WoW!). Now that the initial BANG WTF reaction to this website is out of the way, I'm going to be spending most of the week trying to get the news posted on some bigger sites. Also, stay tuned for new clips and images from the pilot in the next few days!

As far as the progress with networks goes... yes, THEY'VE TAKEN NOTICE! We've made 100x more progress in the past week since this site was launched than we ever did in the months leading up to now. I apologize for not being able to talk specifics, but you'll be the first to know once I find out anything solid. I'm already in the process of putting together new material for upcoming meetings and pitches that are a result of this website.

For those of you who don't despise Myspace, join our new myspace group. I've added more of your emails to the Help the cause! page, and I'm going to get some forums up and running by the end of the week. I thought that this email in particular was really cool, so I've decided to post it right here. Enjoy!

TOPIC: Greetings to you good Sir || EMAIL: (private)@blizzard.com

Good Evening!
First off I just want to say well done on the orchestration of your television pilot, I enjoyed it greatly, perhaps a little more than most will and I'll tell you why ...
I should introduce myself :)   my name's Terran Gregory, and I'm a 26 year old filmmaker living in Irvine, CA working for Blizzard Entertainment.  I was on-site and hands-on in the production of the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft", among other promotional videos that Blizzard has produced over the last year.
But the kicker is I grew up in Spokane.  I hung out at the Pizza Rita that you shot a few scenes in (man I miss Pizza Rita ... they've got the best root beer ...).  Graduated from North Central in 1999, and produced my first few short films around North Spokane, shooting in locations like Northtown Mall.  My friend and fellow filmmaker Ezra and I went to the same Trade-a-game, and attended the Incon Sci-Fi Fantasy convention from 1994-2003 and had lots of friends in the Spokane LARP scene.  We produced two short films for Incon a few years back:
http://www.rufuscubed.com/films.php?f=6
http://www.rufuscubed.com/films.php?f=11
Henceforth, watching your movie absolutely blew my mind.  Not just for location, subject matter, and the fantastic absurdity of it all, but because I remember the struggle of making movies in a scene with no infrastructure to support you.  Every person criticizing you on youtube has no appreciation for the scale of the undertaking you are working on, or how many things you *are* doing *perfectly*.  Should step one see through to the steps in the future I can only imagine how awesome it will be.
I'd love to chat it up some time, swap stories and go into more detail about the crazy journies associated with filmmaking.  My MSN is ***** or AIM at *****.
In any case, take care, and keep up the excellent work!
Best regards,

Terran Gregory
Associate Video Editor
Blizzard Entertainment

Using google I came up with a quick list of pages that have blurbs/articles about this site:

http://www.thelastboss.com/index.phtml?s=gamers&dt | http://jeuxvideo.blogue.canoe.ca/jeuxvideo/2007/03/01/gamers_la_serie_tele | http://endangeredgamer.blogspot.com/2007/03/gamers.html | http://mediumentertainment.blogspot.com/ | http://www.destructoid.com/pilot-trailer-for-up-and-coming-tv-comedy-about-gamers-30116.phtml | http://baltgames.lv/v2/news/3070/ | http://gameplayer.se/news.php?pub_id=6051 | http://ambernight.org/archives/2007/03/01/506 | http://terazine.heypo.com/article/New_TV_comedy_series_about_Gamers_needs_your_help_putgamersontv_com | http://www.aeropause.com/archives/2007/02/gamers_tv.php

I've had a few people asking about this, so here are some pictures from behind the scenes of the Gamers shoot. These are some shots from day 2 of shooting. Click the thumbnails to enlarge!

Thank you to thelastboss.com for this great bit of coverage from yesterday. I even saw an article about Gamers on a site from Latvia! I'll be gathering up links like this today and posting them here.

Status update: I have been contacted by several smaller networks and streaming content internet sites in regards to Gamers. These inquiries range from interested to "send me everything you have on the show". Unfortunately, I can't talk specifics as of yet (but rest assured that you'll be the first to know when I can!).

I am overwhelmed by how fast word has spread about this project in just a matter of days. That said, I never pictured this undertaking as a sprint to the finish line. We've definitely managed to get the word out... but there are plenty of people who haven't heard about this whole thing yet! It could be months before get solid interest in the show. It's up to me and everyone who believes in this project to keep getting the word out until someone listens.

I've got a lot of updates planned for the site today, the first of which is this. My sophomore year at college (3 years ago), a couple of girls wrote an opinion letter to the campus newspaper entitled "Gamers losing points with women". Here is the link to the article they wrote: GONZAGA BULLETIN: "Gamers losing points with women"

As someone who isn't ashamed of being a gamer, I took it upon myself to write a response, entitled "Certain women losing points with gamers". Here is the link to my response, which was also published: GONZAGA BULLETIN: "Certain women losing points with gamers"

If there is anything that sums up who I am, and why I decided to create this show, it's that letter. Now back to responding to your emails (again, I am soooooo sorry for the delay!)

"I don't care what you put in the show or how the reviews turn out - Gamers need to be recognized. I support this show for the name and philosophy alone - content is simply a bonus. There are a lot more gamers, nerds, and geeks in this world than most will ever realize - media execs would do well to realize the benefits of playing to our tune. gl and I hope your LFN (looking for network) works out

-David Barnett

Michigan State University
Telecommunication,
Information Studies and Media
Game Design"

I've added a bunch of new emails to the Help the cause! page. Deanna, my friend and co-worker who produced Gamers, was kind enough to record a quick message for the camera, which has been posted on YouTube. I'm probably going to be creating my own video message to respond to many of the most common questions etc. that I've been getting in your emails.

Again, I'm sorry if I'm taking forever to respond to your emails. I've made it my priority to respond to media inquiries first... but that doesn't mean that I'm forgetting all the awesome messages of support and personal stories that you've been sending me!

For everyone from the media who has been asking: yes, I am working on a press release, and I will post it here as a pdf as soon as I get it finished. Thanks!

I've been on a shoot all day long and I'm going on about 2 hours of sleep... PERFECT time to respond to emails! I'll be spending most of the night trying to get back to everyone who has been kind enough to email me their thoughts on the show.

The amount of attention that this site has garnered in just 24 hours is incredible, and it is helping our cause behind the scenes in a huge way. Thank you, thank you, and thank you again. Fans like this are why I created this show:

"You have no idea how often I had thought a movie/tv series of my friends and me screwing around would be a good idea. Of course I always came to the conclusion that no one would get it...our humor anyway. All those crazy nights in eachothers' basements for days at a time running on pure caffiene, and all the insane stuff that happened.

It's about damn time someone catered to us. You know, the real gamers, not just Halo or any other current gen franchise...those of us who hunt for Panzer Dragoon Saga, Radiant Silvergun, Dragon Warrior II-IV, and Phantasy Star for months on end. I seriously want to help in any way possible to get this project realized, it's insane and in touch. We appriciate someone fighting for us, as we've always been there and always been misunderstood.

Good Luck." - Kelly

So what's the next step? Putting up scenes from the pilot online, and eventually the full pilot itself. There is also some fan submitted content related to the show that I'm hoping to post soon as well. As always, keep checking back for updates!

So I get back from my shoot this morning... and things on this site are starting to snowball! I've been contacted by a few local media outlets and some advertising people. I'll keep you posted on how all of that goes.

To address a lot of the "haters" at Digg.com: I'm sorry for existing. To everyone else at Digg: thank you for all of the feedback and support!

I'm am scurrying to get through your emails and get some of them posted. I've updated the Help the cause! section with a handful of new emails for now, as well as our first Webcam Video from Dehcallmeandy!

I'm going to devote my evening to replying to emails and the general gaming community on this site, so check back later for more. Again, thank you so much for continuing to get the word out there and for all of the great emails!

Yeah, so I totally shouldn’t be awake right now. One of the “perks” of working in the film production industry are the bizarre hours that you work on shoot days. It’s 3 am here right now and I have to be up at 7 am. Ugh.

Instead I’ve stayed up in order to put a dent into replying to all of your emails. *Thank you* so much for all of the great stuff that you’ve been sending me! As soon as I can I’ll get to posting more of it here. A lot of you have many hopes and concerns for the show, and I’d like to address all of them. Many of the hate emails are great too… some of you are absolutely hilarious. Bear with me as I deal with the overload, and keep the messages coming.

Woo hoo! We just made the front page of digg.com! I’ve been reading digg forever, so to actually be featured on the main page is pretty freaking sweet. I’m going to pray to the Bandwidth Gods that we don’t have too much of a problem with traffic.

Anyway, the feedback that all of you have been emailing me is absolutely great! I’ve posted some of it in the Help the cause! section, and I’ll continue to post more tomorrow!

A common theme in many of the emails that I’ve been receiving is that people are concerned that no one is going to actually put this show on TV, so perhaps it would be better suited for internet broadcast. Honestly, I personally believe that internet broadcasts will replace TV in the not so distant future… so I think that having this show be internet-exclusive is an extremely viable option.

This site has been up for about 6 hours and the emails/comments etc. are already flowing in. I apologize if it takes me awhile to get back to you… I have a bit to wade through.

Also, destructoid.com featured this site on their front page! I really appreciate all of the comments we’ve been getting over at destructoid; both positive and negative. I’ll reply to a few of them here:

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Merc: Better than expected! Although, I was expecting the worst. I'd need to see something other than a clumsy montage of jokes, though, before I can judge.

Good call. Both of these trailers were made for the so-called “network” people that we are pitching the show around to… and they have very specific tastes and expectations for this sort of thing. Perhaps I ought to focus on creating yet another trailer specifically for gamers?

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HawtPawkitHero: I've been waiting for a show like this for way too long. If they can make this like full 30 minute shows with a plot, intertwined with Mega64 style comedy (which is sort of what I see in the pilot) this show will be a hit. However, their hopes and dreams to be on network television are... a little bit bloated. What would be done (if a network picked this up) would be A: Pretty much all of the cast would be thrown out B: Most of the comedy and scripting would be reworked to fit "What the Network deems 'funny' " and C: The show name would be renamed to Gamerz: Also, Cocks.

THANK YOU! I’m glad that people are worried about this, because it’s obvious that the only way that a show like this works is if it remains authentic.

I’ll get this out of the way right now: if I don’t retain creative control, I will not sell this show. It’s that simple.

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Kif: Anywho, it doesn't look bad. It looks more like the kind of show you'd expect to see on Youtube than on an actual TV. I think it would be better suited for the internet. Unless it does awesome.

The show might very well be better suited for the internet… but also keep in mind that this is a “spec pilot”, made on a nothing budget to demonstrate the show. If the show actually gets picked up, I’m sure that we’ll re-shoot the entire thing.

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Barbara: How could anyone think this and the word good could live in harmony.
Dark_Inchworm: I couldn't stomach even half of that trailer. I'll pass on this one whether it hits TV or or not...

To each his own! If there is one thing that I can appreciate, it’s that a lot of you are going to outright hate this whole thing. Whether what you have to say about the show is positive or negative, I’m not afraid to post it here!

I’ll be updating the site yet again later tonight with more emails, webcam messages etc.

I've taken several random screenshots from the pilot... click on the thumbnails to enlarge them. Enjoy!

Well... here we go. At this point I am wide open to suggestions about what to add to this site, or how to clear up anything that you may be confused about. I've been intentionally vague about certain aspects of the show in order to protect the concept; but I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have via email.

If you like what you see, then help get the word out there! I'll be posting regular updates about what is happening with the show, so check back often. Thanks for your support!