CGE Keynotes On DVD? What Happened?

[DreamTR]

Anyone know whatever happened to the guy who recorded the keynotes at CGE and was planning to sell copies on DVD?

[Vectorman0]

Phosphor Dot Fossils had a baby! I think that's really all there is to it. I'm also eagerly awaiting the DVD, but I'm trying to be as patient as I can. (I still tease him about it occasionally in vbender)

[sidnotcrazy]

That is awesome PDF had a baby, but man I would love to have a copy of the CGE keynotes. Edited, unedited, I could really care less as long as all the content is on there.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I am working on these - slowly but surely. I've been asked about this a few times, and it basically boils down to this: when I got back from CGE, I was right back into the thick of getting the house ready, we had the baby in September, and I've been stay-at-home dad since then. I have also had other projects I've been doing to bring in money on a more immediate basis, but mainly, yeah, it's been looking after the kid. (Which I wouldn't miss for the world, by the way.)

I'm past the halfway point on the project, if that makes anyone feel better. Most of the keynotes are two cameras, everything's edited, and it's pretty lively. The CGE Stories keynote has some fun stuff in it, but I won't give away more than that. :p I also shot the auction and the alumni dinner, which will be included. (Well, highlights from the dinner - I don't think anyone needs to see two hours of the legends of gaming stuffing their faces. LOL)

As far as how "edited" they are, when you hear a game discussed, then as long as I have it available to me in some form, you see it, maybe just briefly. The Vectrex keynote talks about the color Vectrex prototype - and you get to see footage of that. Does it take a little bit of time? Yes it does. But getting back to the "legends of gaming" bit, these guys' stories deserve nothing less.

Hopefully this keeps everyone's appetite whetted for the finished project. I know it's taken longer that anyone would probably have liked, but baby comes first. Here's some quick and dirty screencaps from a couple of the bits I've finished thus far:

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q1-08/cgedvdtease1.jpg

If anyone's wondering how complex the editing timeline is on the average segment, here's a look at one I did a while back:

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q1-08/cgetimeline.jpg

Hopefully this answers everyone's questions. The CGE DVD project is still alive - it's just taking a little bit of time. But I can promise you it'll be worth the wait. :-P

[k8track]

Earl, as you know, I wasn't there and regretted missing it. For purposes of posterity and rewriting history, can you photoshop or videoshop me in some of the shots? I could even wearing a Batman suit or bath towel. Or perhaps just superimpose my floating head randomly, like it's whizzing around the room? When people watch it, they'll be like, "Yeah, I remember that!" That would be totally clutch.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I hinted in the thread about the PDF DVD that CGE '07 would be ready on DVD soon - whoever it was who said it'd make a good Christmas present, that's exactly what we're thinking. I'm coming down the home stretch on the final edit, and have some more screencaps to show for it:

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q3-08/cgepreview.jpg

(Anyone wondering what the shot in the upper right hand corner is: that's John Hardie handing over an award - in the form of a bronzed six-switch 2600 - to Al Alcorn, at the Friday night alumni dinner - not an event that most CGE attendees have been privy to...until now!)

This has been an incredibly long editing job, punctuated by numerous goings-on in my own life (not the least of which is my son!), so I appreciate everyone's patience. Hopefully the end result lives up to everyone's expectations.

I'll probably have another round of screencaps up before long from the last piece of the show that I'm editing - indeed, the biggest and most challenging piece of the show, from a production standpoint. Probably the biggest event at the show for many people, year after year. Something which went on long enough in 2007 to take up an entire DVD by itself. :evil:

[Vectorman0]

I can't wait. I was too busy with everything else at CGE to get to any keynotes. It will also be a blast to re-live the auction. When are you going to start taking pre-orders? :D

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

When are you going to start taking pre-orders? :D
Watch this space. :wink 2: Well, okay, this thread.

[ubersaurus]

I look forward to hearing Sean Kelly call me "Dinosaur Dude" during the CGE keynote XD

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I look forward to hearing Sean Kelly call me "Dinosaur Dude" during the CGE keynote
I can confirm that this is indeed on the DVD. LOL

More previewage for you, just to drive you nutz:

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q3-08/cgeprevue.jpg

This was, next to the auction, the single most complex part of the entire project. For those who were there and remember, Al Alcorn had a Powerpoint presentation, and I left one of my two cameras trained on the projection screen...and that turned out looking like crap. Thanks to stonic's remarkable social engineering skills, I was able to get the material in question and incorporate it directly into the video. Despite having only one camera's worth of useful footage, the first half-hour of Alcorn's keynote is one of the biggest edit jobs of the whole set! But at the risk of insulting anyone else's hard work, it's not a seizure-inducing, fifty-edits-per-minute thing for the short-attention-span crowd like that "Rise Of The Video Game" documentary - Al has lots of interesting things to show, and you have time to look them over just like you would have had if you were there.

But I'm going to tell you right now that the most complex part of it is, hands-down, the auction. I shot it like a live sporting event (even keeping in mind that I'd probably have a Fox Sports-style constant graphic keeping tabs on what item was up and what the bid was), and it's edited like one too. (And it's kicking my ass in places!) I'll have some screen shots from that as soon as I have a completed segment (the auction will be divided up by hour - hour 1, hour 2, and almost-an-hour 3).

We're gettin' close... :onfire:

[vectrexer]

Nice to hear it's close.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Are you ready for a CHALLENGE?...uh, sorry, I mean a PREVIEW?

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q4-08/cgeauction.jpg

See the entire N64 Frogger 2 proto bidding here - flash required. (http://www.thelogbook.com/phostv/) It's a little chunky from the Flash compression - it looks way better on a TV (in case you couldn't tell from the screen grabs here). :-P

I'm hoping to have final editing done this week, time and toddler permitting. :onfire:

[vectrexer]

Great job! keep it coming!

[rick weis]

VERY nice work! great stuff!

Rick

[NoahsMyBro]

That 2600 is BEAUTIFUL. I hadn't heard of that, and it was a great idea.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

More snapshots...

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q4-08/moreauction.jpg

Where else, either on DVD or on Youtube or, well, anywhere...are you going to see the look on a lucky winner's face when they pay a premium for the mystery box and find out that they've just bought...Fraction Fever? (But I kid Nick.) LOL Nowhere, I tell you!

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

If you were at the auction, the following screengrabs will need no introduction.

If, on the other hand, you weren't there...well, you'll have to wait for the DVD to find out what the heck all this is about. :D

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q4-08/moauction.jpg

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

EDITING FINISHED!

I'll be doing disc authoring soon, and at first glance the following is probably how the set will break down, though that could still change:

DISC 1

Jay Smith - Father of Vectrex (50:06)
Programming The Atari 2600 (58:00)
The Activision Designers (57:55)DISC 2

Al Alcorn: Where Did Atari Come From? (59:21)
The Making Of Intellivision (1:01:12)
The Future Of Video Game Journalism (52:42)DISC 3

CGE Auction 2007 (dangerously close to 3 hours LOL)DISC 4

CGE Stories (53:03)
Alumni Dinner 2007 (41:34)With the slight exception of putting the auction off on its own entire disc (trust me, it needs its own disc!) and the alumni dinner at the tail end, this keeps everything in chronological order keynote-wise.

More info soon. \\^_^/:rocker:\\^_^/:rocker:

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Stand by for pre-ordering ACTION!

We're probably not going to be able to have it on your doorstep by Christmas, but we'll be taking pre-orders soon with the discs arriving shortly after the beginning of the year. At least that's the plan. Stay tuned!

[vectrexer]

Stand by for pre-ordering ACTION!

We're probably not going to be able to have it on your doorstep by Christmas, but we'll be taking pre-orders soon with the discs arriving shortly after the beginning of the year. At least that's the plan. Stay tuned!




Uhhhh,,, COUNT ME IN!

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Okay, obviously that deadline slipped too. LOL At this point, we're waiting to finalize the cover art and that's all.

[sidnotcrazy]

*crosses fingers

I haven't seen teasing like this since my little brother held my Legend of Zelda cartridge hostage because he wanted to watch a ballgame.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I want to point out that there's absolutely no truth to the rumor that the CGE DVDs will come with a free copy of Duke Nukem Forever. LOL

[GrandAmChandler]

I am waiting to hand over cash monies. Keep us posted Earl!

[vectrexer]

I could kick in a few if it helps to move the set along to completion. :)

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

We're very close, guys - the master copies of all 4 DVDs are burned and sitting on my desk. We've got a couple of minor packaging artwork issues to hammer out, and we've had a couple of real-world issues pop up - such as my video business suddenly changing its identity from GreenhouseFX.tv to theLogBook.com Media (http://www.thelogbook.com/media/) out of necessity (which affects where the discs will be ordered from), and me having pneumonia and not feeling like getting out of bed, to name a couple - but despite those things, we're very close.

I've been sitting at home watching the master discs - hell, it's better than ongoing weather warnings or 90% of what's on TV right now - and I think everyone'll be pleased: it all LOOKS awesome on disc, to a degree that even I was surprised with. The video part is done, we're knocking out a few final things about the package the discs will come in. Especially in light of the announcement that there's no CGE for a second year running, we're wanting to make sure we get this all right the first time.

[Buyatari]

SO how do we gt on this list end a PM or post here?

I want one!

btw. I have a set of audio tapes that was sold from a past years show if you have plans of duplicating those and need to see them let me know.

[Sniderman]

Cool Earl!

And I have videotapes recorded from CGE 2001/2002 if you want 'em for some future project. I think I got some of the talks too and the auctions from those years. Drop me a line.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

There's no list; orders will be taken at theLogBook.com Media (very similar to how orders are already being taken for the PDF DVDs) as soon as we're close enough to having everything finalized that we feel comfortable taking Paypal preorders. (There's a certain time frame involved with Paypal preorders, so we have to have a certain number of ducks in a row there where we're fairly certain that orders will be ready to ship X days after payment is received.)

Another thing I've been thinking over in the background of doing all this is the possibility of - later in the year - another DVD or two, featuring keynotes and other stuff that I shot in 2003 and 2005. I didn't cover either of those shows as exhaustively as I did 2007, but I did shoot some fairly unique panels that haven't been a recurring feature - Nolan Bushnell, John "Jawbreaker" Harris, Jerry "Channel F" Lawson, the 2005 Imagic vs. Activision panel, among others - and if there's a pretty good response to the 2007 stuff, I might give a serious look at putting the time into getting those ready for DVD. But I urge everyone to wait and see the 2007 show on DVD first - after all, it'll take a little bit of time for me to get the other stuff ready, maybe even this time next year, considering that I've got a kiddo to look after, and I'm going to be spending the next 2-3 months getting PDF Level 2 ready for a spring release.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

http://www.thelogbook.com/media/cge/gfx/cgedvd.jpg

In the words of...well...that guy who crashed and burned at the Death Star: "Almost there....almost there...."

This last delay is my fault: an unauthorized party gained access to the master discs.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q1-09/evancge.jpg

Fortunately the hostages have been released. :above me:

[Dan Iacovelli]

cover looks good, I wouldn't mind buying the DVD.
did you tell your son, the DVD is not a toy, No,no don't touch. :)

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

He's always into daddy's shiny round things. If it's not the CGE or PDF master discs, it's my Doctor Who DVD collection. At least he has good taste!

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Three words:

NOW TAKING PRE-ORDERS (http://www.thelogbook.com/media/cge/)
Technically, that may be four, but pre- is really a prefix.

First sets will start shipping late this month.

Alumni: if you were a guest speaker at the show, please contact me directly, because you guys get a special discount since you're on the bloody thing. :wink 2:

Have fun storming the castle!

[dave2236]

SWEET!!

Just paid for mine.


I missed the Joe, John, Sean interview because I was watching the booth.

[Dan Iacovelli]

I'll purchase mine after I get back from MGC.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I missed the Joe, John, Sean interview because I was watching the booth.
I had some fun putting that one together. And on that point I'll say no more. LOL

Thanks everyone for your orders so far - it's much appreciated!

[rick weis]

WooHooo!! just ordered mine!

can't wait to watch this one!

Rick

[vectrexer]

My Pre-Order is in!

Maybe we all have this following thought and /or finger motion now?

tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap.


I know it's close. That just makes the wait seem that much longer. Kind of like the last 10 days before VECTREX1 was picked up out here in Kali.

[vectrexer]

Lightscribed?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Those dual layers of love not enough to sell ya? Try out this beautiful sight:

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q1-09/cgedvds.jpg

The first 50 sets, ready to go!
Haven't already got one of these? You better head over here (http://www.thelogbook.com/media/cge/). :rocker:

[rick weis]

ordered one for me and my friend. can't wait to watch them. :)

Rick

[Felixthegamer]

I was out of town this weekend and what was waiting at home for me? One of these! looks great!

[hades]

I have to start checking the board more often. I've been excited about this since it was announced. Just ordered one before I went to lunch. :D

[ubikuberalles]

I got mine on Tuesday. Cool stuff!