Here is the story of how the Contradiction audition prank came together =D
The Beginning
If I had to nail down how this entire thing started, I'd have to guess it was with a series of gifs. In particular prolly this one.
OMG! "Would it mean anything to you?" is totally this generation's "Do you know where I can find some sailors?" >,< pic.twitter.com/386XCmzce5
— Steve Kim (@Fobwashed) July 17, 2015
This tweet got a bit of traction and I was followed by both Rupert Booth (Jenks) and John Guilor (Ryan) on Twitter. Seeing this as a chance to maybe get something silly done, I contacted them both and lo and behold, Mr. Guilor responded =D
Silly Thing
Contradiction is an amazing game due mainly to the incredible cast of characters. Having John's ear, I laid out that I would love to put something together with him and Rupert for Giant Bomb. The initial pitch was a simple video of Jenks asking Ryan if he's ever seen "this" before referring to the GB website and Ryan responding to his line of questioning. At this point, John CCed in Mr. Booth and also got the blessing of Tim Follin =]
Initial Requests
With both John and Rupert on the chain, I shot for the moon and threw out three ideas.
- A video of Jenks asking "Do you know about Giant Bomb?" with Ryan replying that "It's a website about Video Games".
- A video of Jenks coming up to a tree with the police sketch of Jeff Gerstmann pinned to it and recreating the scene where Jenks comes upon the devil horns carved into a tree.
- A video of Jenks delivering the devil horns question to Alex, Vinny, and Austin.
At this point, John informed me that himself and Rupert were around 100-200 miles away from each other so video between the two would be impossible but that he'd be willing to supply some audio.
With this being an audio bit, I figured it'd work perfectly with the Beastcast. Rupert then also replied that he too could supply audio and would also be able to deliver on the devil horns video!
They were both constantly apologetic that they couldn't provide more which was kinda crazy because it was super cool that they were down to do any of this at all =D
The Audio Bit
With it decided that it'd be an audio bit, I thought it'd be a good idea to send it in under the guise of the file being an unused clip from the game itself. Reason being that I needed something they'd actually listen to while not being worried about spoilers as they hadn't finished the game at this point. Now what I needed was a script and I can come up with some jokes maybe but writing isn't my strong point so I recruited the help of one Janine Hawkins =D
The Script
With the help of Janine, we eventually came up with this script. (It was like, 99% Janine. I did like, maybe the formatting... Some of the formatting)
We went with a somewhat slow burn start to lull the GB East guys into thinking this was actually an audition and not a prank, then drop a few hints before going full on jokes time. We also tried to keep it short so that the joke wasn't beaten to death and also so that the bit didn't take up too much time on the Beastcast.
I sent it off to Rupert and John to look over and record their parts and they both dug it. They also had some little touches they wanted to add as well!
The Delivery
While all this was going on, I had spent a bit of time priming both Austin and Alex for the prank. I started telling them over the course of a few days that I'd been in contact with some people from Contradiction and that I might have something super cool for them. Leading up to the next Beastcast recording date, I finally let em know that I had gotten my hands on the audition audio between Rupert and John and that it was glorious and needed to be played on the Beastcast. I told them I'd send the file to Brad and that he would confirm that the file was what I claimed it was so that they didn't need to worry about playing something crazy on air! Of course, Brad was in on the whole joke~
The Aftermath
When I got this message from Alex, I knew the deed had been done.
The next day the Beastcast aired and the prank went off beautifully. To the point that Vinny was afraid they were encountering spoilers even >,<
@Fobwashed@jennatar "No, they're talking about *us*, Vinny" makes me happy every time I hear it
— Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart) September 20, 2015
It was so damn delicious~ -_____-
And of course, once it was live and the prank was played, this was unleashed upon the world!
*EDIT Vine is dead so here's a new link to the video*
https://twitter.com/Fobwashed/status/844728315373993984
Happy @austin_walker, @alex_navarro, and @vinnyCaravella enjoyed the audition! But would THIS mean anything... https://t.co/r207IKjxZE
— Steve Kim (@Fobwashed) July 24, 2015
Thanks
John Guiler and Rupert Booth for being so great and helpin a duder out!
Janine Hawkins for really comin thru with a great script on short notice~
Hamst3r for some quick deinterlacing and video editing wizardry =D
Brad Shoemaker for being an accomplice in some trickery!
Austin, Alex, and Vinny for enjoying being pranked =D
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