In Your Face, Chicago!

In the early spring of 2009, I got a fancy new DV camera and I decided the best way to test it out would be to create a weekly web series. Yes, I was insane. The show was called In Your Face, Chicago! and lasted all of 7 episodes before I got totally burnt out. But those 7 episodes are actually pretty damn good if you ask me. I realized that there was no place on the web where all 7 episodes could be seen together. So I present to you now the full, 7 episode archive of In Your Face, Chicago!

Episode 3: Let the good times roll from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 4: The Best Comic Book Shops in Chicago from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 5: Love fest in the Land of the Dead from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 6: St. Patrick VS. The Southside from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 7: Talk Derby to Me from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Haunts Against Hunger mini-doc

Way back in October I shot a mini-documentary for an ingenious event called Haunts Against Hunger.  Basically a bunch of very committed Halloween enthusiasts dress like zombies and hold a food drive.  The drive has grown nicely since it’s inception and now “home haunters” leave boxes in their front yards all month so people can drop off food.  As the video explains, they had a really successful drive this year.

Big thanks to all the folks that appeared and who support the food drive including founders Thom Kramer and Paul Daniels of Darkside Studios and guests Kitty Zombie and Ron Fitzgerald!

Talk Derby to Me

Our on again, off again web series, In Your Face, Chicago is on again…at least for one more episode!  This time, host Chris Biddle rubs (and throws) elbows with the ladies of Chicago’s Roller Derby League, The Windy City Rollers.  For this episode we headed to the UIC pavilion to catch a WCR double header; The Hell’s Belles VS. The Fury and the Double Crossers VS. The Manic Attackers.  In between the action, the In Your Face, Chicago crew got to learn some of the finer points of the game from the derby girls themselves.  Sure, Chris might have gotten a few bumps and bruises in his quest to once and for all figure out exactly how the game of Roller Derby is played but you can’t put a price on knowledge.

Huge thanks to everyone at the Windy City Rollers for being such great hosts and for putting on an awesome show.

Beads! Boobies! Burlesque!

Just because Chicago is about a thousand miles north of New Orleans that doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in some pre-Lent revelry!

Beads! Boobies! Burlesque! is a mini-documentary about Vaudezilla Production’s Mardi Gras-themed show of the same name,  which took place at The Blue Bayou Bar and Grill every Thursday in February 09.  Check out the short to see Chicago’s finest Burlesque performers strut their stuff on the city’s only bar top stage.

Please note:  THIS FILM IS NOT EXACTLY 100% SAFE FOR WORK.  There’s no nudity…but just barely.

Special thanks to all the performers who appear in the piece:  The Honey Buns, Paris Green, Lady Jack, Wham Bam Pam, Salome Slaughter and Vaudezilla producers/performers Red Hot Annie and Keith Emroll.

More info about the show right here: http://vaudezilla.com/

Oh and that really excellent photo on the main page of the site of Vaudezilla’s Red Hot Annie is by photographer Peter LeGrand. I especially like that shot because that’s me in that picture holding my camera up in the air while filming this very mini-doc.

Some really great photos of the show featured in this short (plus tons more) can be seen here:  http://bcjphotography.com/gallery/events/20090219_bluebayou/

‘Chicago = Awesome’ = a winner!

Hey now!  Did you vote for my entry in the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid video contest?  If you did, THANKS!!!  I placed second which is actually kind of just what I hoped for.  Second prize is $5,000 worth of video production gear!!  I’m a glory hog and wouldn’t have minded winning the whole thing but man oh man can I use that equipment.  I even get to pick my own stuff so Crapbot Productions will soon be getting a full gear upgrade!  Looks like my call to Rod Blagojevich to ask him to pull some strings for me in exchange for a piece of the prize really paid off.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about you probably aren’t from around these parts.  The Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Committee sponsored a video contest and they promoted the thing like crazy.  Everyday as I walk through the loop I pass at least three advertisements encouraging people to enter.  So it’s hella exciting to win something that’s so high profile.  More details about the contest can be found here: http://www.nbcchicago.com/station/as_seen_on/Finalists-Named-in-Why-Chicago-Video-Contest.html

And you can watch my entry “Chicago = Awesome” here:  http://www.nbcchicago.com/station/as_seen_on/Chicago_Awesome_Chicago.html

If you’re in the Chicagoland viewing area on Thursday be sure to set your alarm for 6:40am to see me and the other winner on channel 5 be introduced by an “Olympian.”  I’m hoping it’s Aphrodite.

Thanks for hooking me up....douche.

Interested in entering some video contests?  Check out this website for contest listings and this site for general video contest news:  http://videocontestnews.com

Sweet pwn Chicago

What was really amazing about the Chicago screening was the local press it generated for us.  I got to do my second public radio interview and this time it was for the Chicago Public Radio show, Eight Forty-Eight.  It went great and the producer mixed some music and quotes from the film into the final segment.  It turned out awesome.  The podcasted version of the piece is on-line and you can hear it by clicking RIGHT HERE.

After the show aired I heard from a writer at the free daily paper, the Chicago Red Eye.  That paper is everywhere in chicago and they actually did a little thing on us back in july.  Well this time they wanted to mention the screening in their weekend edition.  I thought they’d give us a little blurb but instead, look what we got!

That thing is huge!  It was like a third of a page.  They even used this very blog as source material apparently since they quoted me from my posting about the screening at Reggies.  Do you know how sweet it is to see yourself quoted in a paper you read every day?  Lemme tell you, it’s pretty sweet.  The only thing that could be sweeter though is if the quote they use is “It is on like Donky Kong.” Hell yeah it was.

The actual Chicago screening at Reggie’s was last night and while we had a good turn out, the whole event was kind of crazy.  The White Sox had a make or break playoff game Sunday and when I walked into the club, the game was on every TV and the place was full of people who were there to watch it.  I had calculated that it would be over just in time for the movie to start but thanks to a rain delay both the game and the movie had to happen at the same time.  Thankfully, the kind of people that care about nerdcore aren’t usually the type of people to care about the playoffs so a lot of people showed up for the screening.

Still…..trying to turn off the baseball game and start the movie did not go over well with the regulars.  We had the whole place rented out though and so at 6pm Nerdcore For Life was running on all 20 of the clubs screens and plasmas.  It was a pretty cool way to see the movie and the displaced sports fans all left to seek refuge at the nearby Wabash Tap or the South Loop Club.  After the movie we even had quick performances by The Former Fat Boys and William Sides Atari Party.  So it was a good night.