Wednesday, February 25, 2015

JourneyQuest Virtues

Today I revisited the Renew JourneyQuest page and saw that there are currently 2,262 fans (of a needed 4,200) willing to #renewJQ for a third season with a pledge of $100 or more. Seeking support to fund JQ3 flashed me back (over three years now) to the tail end of the Kickstarter for JourneyQuest Season 2, At the time, ZOE and DG released a series of five 'Virtues' clips to both reward fans who had backed already, and to help promote the end stage of the campaign.

The first (Honor) was the fan favorite, still having more than twice the viewership of the others.


The other four released that week were (click the image to go to the video)

http://youtu.be/CdCjoYJnK2Q

http://youtu.be/y1dw8h5BXWU

http://youtu.be/EJENk8oOwww

http://youtu.be/vOXWdZvbRj8

At one point, Dead Gentlemen asked fans to submit their own ideas to this series. Unfortunately, video editing isn't in my basic bardic repertoire (yet), but I did have plenty of creative fun laying out the beats for two additional ones using clips from season one: Courtesy (focusing on the Sword of Fighting), and Purity (focusing on the orcs). Over the years, I revisited these and came up with a third, Refinement, using a few similar beats, and a clip from Season 2. I didn't mind the repetition because I thought it finished stronger. Those three follow.

COURTESY 

SWORD: Figured I’d be drawn by something with testicles, not a runty twinkler in a pus-colored robe. Why does he smell like crying?

[Camera snap] / [Motivational layout]
COURTESY
Showing politeness in attitude and behavior.

SWORD: Wow, that just keeps getting higher, doesn’t it? Come on, ribbons, let’s go get you killed.

SWORD: Bye bye, he-squealer! Try not to get your fail-blood on me.

SWORD: Is lady-bits all worked up?
SWORD: Yes! Fall! Fall, you limp-wristed sack of estrogen! FALL!

[Fade to end card]
COURTESY
Suck it up, wuss. 

PURITY 

KURN: Hey, beautiful. Ever wanted to rut with an Orc?
NARA: Rot, you stink. I’m guessing you wipe with that hand.

[Camera snap] / [Motivational layout]
PURITY
Freedom from adulteration or contamination.

KURN exploding into sauce.

WREN: ugh, that’s terrible!

SWORD: Blech! Orc!

CARROW: Blech! Orc!

GLORION: It's like sulphur and asparagus.

WREN: Hey I... didn't get your name.
RILK: Well, that's because I didn't give it to you.

YART and GRELLNOCK gasping

GLORION: Mmm, pungent.

[Fade to end card]
PURITY 
Sorry, Shaun.

REFINEMENT 

WREN: Hey I... didn't get your name.
RILK: Well, that's because I didn't give it to you.

[Camera snap] / [Motivational layout]
REFINEMENT 
Elegance of feeling, taste, language and manner.

WHARRGARBL: Hey, Humie! You can go @#&% yourself!

KURN: Did you ever want to rut with an orc?

GRELLNOCK: And then the elfmaid was all like, take me now you green-skinned love stallion!

RILK: I like cheese... and religion.

YART: I have always yearned to be female.

[Fade to end card]
REFINEMENT 
Don't judge me.

At some point, I may try to fancraft these, but if you want to fancraft them yourself or, better yet, design your own virtues video, please do. I'd love to see and share the end result!

-LMG

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Fancraft posts will be released every Wednesday (subject to content). Do you have a fancraft story that you'd like to share as a guest writer? Send your proposal to LMG@zoefan.net.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Spoon of Positive Reinforcement

Everything's Great!!!

Do you remember the Spoon of Positive Reinforcement? If you are not in the know, it is an intelligent magical spoon voiced by Brian Lewis and made its first appearance in Standard Action Season 2 Episode 0 (Trailer).  You can watch that appearance at the 6m56s mark.

I realize the show mocks what Martin calls 'hippie jargon', but a multitude of the self-help books I've read profess the merits of positive self-talk. With that in mind, I decided to have a fun little experiment.

Thanks to the generosity of Joanna Gaskell (the show's writer/actor/producer), I was able to acquire the Spoon's audio track from the episode. I then cut Spoon's encouraging gems with Audacity and set them into .mp3 files. Finally, using iTunes, I took it a step further and polished them into .m4r files -- iPhone ringtones.

Then the fun began. After uploading them to my iPhone, I changed my Sent Mail sound to Spoon's "It's all going according to plan!". And to help me revisit my objectives for the day, I set a daily noon-time alarm with "You can do anything you set your mind to." Yes, I can feel you judge me from here -- it's cutting through the space time continuum right now and bombarding me as I write this. But I tell you what -- it's working. I've been using both of them for four weeks now and it's been brilliant.

Give it a go. I bet you'll like being reminded every time you receive a text message that your hands smell very nice ;)

--LMG

Ringtone Downloads

Standard Action posted these publicly on Valentine's Day.
[ MP3 | M4R ] "Everything's great!!!"
[ MP3 | M4R ] "It's all going according to plan!!"
[ MP3 | M4R ] "You can do anything you set your mind to!"
[ MP3 | M4R ] "Your body temperature is squarely within normal human range!"
[ MP3 | M4R ] "Your hands smell very nice."

[April 2021 update -- I discovered these links had been dead for a few years, so posted a new set over on the zoefannet's google drive. --LMG]


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Fancraft posts will be released every Wednesday (subject to content). Do you have a fancraft story that you'd like to share as a guest writer? Send your proposal to LMG@zoefan.net.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Open Call for Fan Interviews


One of the things I've learned from over three years of interacting with fans, cast and crew is just how amazing everyone is. There is such a vast array of talented and passionate individuals all excited about this little niche of the multiverse.


Clip of Zoe Adastra from e04 Rude Mechanical

For several of the cast and crew, we can hear about their back stories and experiences through various podcasts, social media,  interviews, and commentary tracks. I'm not saying I'm sick of those (because I'm not!), but I have met and interacted with many talented and interesting fans being amazing fans. I hope I'm not alone in wanting to read about all of you, because I'd like to add a regular feature here on ZOEfan.net where we interview you, the fans.

Now I'm not a Charlie Rose nor a Terry Gross, but a way we can make these work are through text interviews. If you are interested in being featured here, please download, complete, and return our Text Interview for Fans (.doc).

I look forward to hearing from you, reading your stories, and presenting them here for other fans to enjoy.

Zseskag!

Link Master General

P.S. If your email to interviews@zoefan.net is bouncing, please try this alternate email: zoefannet@gmail.com.


Around the ZOEverse: Feb 16, 2015

Standard Action Season 3 Poster
Photo Credit: Meg Super Photography
The following are news items by ZOE and affiliated productions published the week of Feb 9-15, 2015.

Zombie Orpheus Entertainment


+ We're thrilled to announce that three ZOE shows have been accepted to the Hollyweb Festival this year... [FB]

Chop Socky Boom


+ Can't wait to share the screen with all these amazing shows at Vancouver Web Fest... [FB]

Dead Gentlemen Productions


+ Hey look! It's Trin Miller! Great info here too... [FB]
+ Demon Hunters Tuesday! Silent Jim and Bijou: A Study in Contrasts [FB]
+ Episode 9 of DeadFM is live! [FB]
+ Want the isolated Jewelry Commercial from this week's DeadFM?...[FB]
+ February DG Newsletter: A DG Valentine for you. We're Busy making content! [Web]
+ Only 6 days left and just over $30k short. Will they make it?... [FB]

Gamer Chick


+ Thanks to Snobby Robot for this fun write up of the show! [FB]
+ Happy Valentine's Day from all of us here at Gamer Chick! [FB]

Standard Action


+ Sold auctions are packaged up and ready to go, and new auctions are up!... [FB]
+ Standard Action presents Episode 3.6: Dancing with Dragons! [FB]
+ Standard Action is an official selection for HollyWeb Festival 2015!...[FB]
+ We just posted Episode 6 of Season 3, and it's clear we're not done yet...[FB]
+ Happy Valentine's Day From Everyone's Favourite Spoon [Web]

Transolar Galactica


+ Hey Robot Rundown Kickstarter Backers, be sure to respond to your Kickstarter surveys! Also...[FB]

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If you have news links for Around the ZOEverse, send them to news@zoefan.net.