So...I Tried to Cover Chicago's Bit Bash Festival

shouts out to @patrickklepek and katie for interview bombing me!

i seem waaay less uncomfortable than i actually was being on camera without the interview audio...

#secretbeers

@patrickklepek great video (in terms of content and quality)! What model camera were you using to record this?

It's all of the stuff that seems to go wrong when you guys are doing things that give this site so much charm. I'm glad you used the video anyway.

I have that same Zoom recorder and you end up doing much more interesting things with it than I do. I love that thing. You can do a lot with very low overhead now. You can record good audio from that tiny little thing for hours.

Really bummed I missed this! I saw Patrick tweet about it and completely forgot about it. Either way very cool video.

Congratulate Katie on her patience, Patrick. It's not everyone who can shoot off-the-cuff, improvised nonsense and with pro fade-ins/outs.

I'm having traumatic flashbacks to Will Smith's Shake Weight experience...

Man, I should've been not-lazy and gone to this.

Edit: this looks amazing! this is a great video Patrick.

That was a graceful recovery. Its a good thing you do VO really well. I think your wife had decent camera work, kept you framed in the picture pretty well. Could have used subtitles on the interviews. Feel bad they are getting interviewed and we don't get to hear what they say.

@csl316: SAME

Cool vid Patrick, keep em coming

More videos like this please!

Whats best about this is the chemistry between the host and the camera. You should date her or something.

Kinda wanna watch the video, but I don't want Patrick's face in the preview to disappear from my screen.

Cool video Patrick!

Glad you still shared this with us Patrick! I think your wife did a fantastic job filming. It's really endearing to see a husband/wife combo working in this way.

Great music selection for the background! Love that bluegrass section, and it fits really well with the footage.

The director commentary worked very well too. I'm sure it made editing a lot harder and time consuming, but it was the best option to share this content with some level of professionalism ;)

As far as Bit Bash goes, I would absolutely go to this some year now knowing what it is. It looks like a lot of fun. Chicago isn't too close to me, but I think it'd still be worth the road trip. Also, my tall ass would have knocked that Move controller off Dave Lang's head easy. Get bopped son.

@patrickklepek I really enjoyed this video! I know all that audio stuff is frustrating but please do more coverage like this. It's rare to see coverage of these kinds of events and I'm totally diggin' the casual feel of just wandering around and checking things out.

Can't wait for the next one!

Killer Queen is amazing. They had the machine at this years GDC. We'd play it in the morning before the main doors opened up. Got a few games in at the end too. It seems like every match always ended with the queen dying even when we were trying for the slug or economy victory.

@patrickklepek It never really occured to me that there would be a "video game community" in a real world location. Do you know how can I find events like these in the bay area?

Mistakes happen and you made the most of it; it's very similar to the PAX video with directors commentary that Kyle Bosman did.

"So..." Really?

Have you ever noticed how people come across much more sincere and friendlier when you cannot hear them in a video? (Not saying these people are unfriendly btw. I am talking about how people come across, not how they are, just with their body language and without a voice.)

@patrickklepek Too bad this didn't come out how you intended, but I'm glad you still did something with it! Still came out pretty great. In any case, nice work and the effort is appreciated.

Bit Bash was really a ton of fun, though. I spent the whole 10 hours there. Got to meet some other duders, play a bunch of great games, talk with developer Doomlaser and have him kick my ass in an agonizingly long Nidhogg match, talk with Patrick and his wife Katie, play and win some rounds of Gang Beasts (which, by the way, was moved outside onto the large inflatable screen at night. That was awesome. That game stole the show for sure.), and was briefly graced by the presence of the Lang Zone(!). Joust was also way more fun than I thought it would be. Most of the people left by the end of the event were outside playing that, and I joined in and loved it.

All in all, I had a fucking blast. It's nice to finally see Chicago getting events like this. Lord knows how overdue they are. And if anything, Bit Bash proved that there is certainly an audience for it here, because this place was PACKED at the peak hours.

Also, around 5 minutes in, I am forever ingrained in GB video content. Mission Accomplished.

I was hardly able to look away from that guy every time I saw him, which was frequently.

I'm really impressed that Patrick took what he had and actually made something out of it instead of just pitching it, since it's really quite a small event compared to other gaming-related conventions. Thanks for putting in the time and effort to salvage this, Patrick!

I played a bunch of Killer Queen this weekend at NYU's No Quarter exhibit! I'm terrible at it, but the game is kinda fun once you get into a groove.

edit: I likened it a bit to Joust meets Smash meets some sort of CTF mode

I think it's only tradition that Katie now only ever wear black v-neck t shirts when she records things.

No video footage of the elusive Big Breakfast? The BMOC, the master of the glass bottling, the leader of Team Get Bopped Son himself, Dave Lang?

Wonder what the feasability of Giant Bomb hiring a freelance/part-time producer for Patrick for stuff like this might be.... Not a full time staffer, but just a recurring freelancer could be a cool idea and add a little more character to some of the Chicago-land stuff instead of Patrick having to do everything on his own.

Supply Drop Scanlon.

Nicely done Patrick! I think you made the most of the footage and the camera work seemed really decent. Looking forward to more Chicago endeavors

Mistakes may have been made but this was still entertianing.

why is everybody wearing t-shirts 3 weeks into Sept?

what is going on in Chicago?!?!

how did the Bears beat SF last week?!?!

lol...

He was there with his wife and children, and was wearing the dad-est outfit you could imagine.

omg this video was adorable! Cool to see Katie be a part of the video as opposed to running across the screen during Spelunkin, or whenever that was haha.

Bit Bash looked like a great time. Intimate. And open! Looked nice and breezy in there.

Audio seems fine from what I heard, but I guess it must get worse inside. Nonetheless glad this video made the light of day. Would love to see more like it.

I want to see more of Patrick out in the field ! :)

It's not really an event I'd be all that interested in going to I think, but I liked watching this nonetheless, and honestly, if I hadn't known that that was Patrick's wife, I wouldn't have known it wasn't a professional, she did a fine job with it. Even though it didn't record as you had wanted, you guys did a good job, and the explaining over the video is a fine substitute I feel.

I really enjoyed this feature. Please make more like it, Mr. Klepek!

@mercanis said:

Yes. Audio would be cool, but hey, it was great to see some field reporting anyway.

No sense crying over spilt milk. Had fun listening to the commentary anyway. After you check your equipment once, check it again. :P

@elpork: I thought the same thing...

No, he did the whole PAX panel with Drew. Sorry Katie, you're still not a proper GB employee.

You did such a good job fixing this and editing, I'm curious if it wouldn't just be better for you to have the camera yourself and overdub later. You can do a few stills on location with a tripod or setting the camera something stable while you give yourself 10-30 seconds of camera time with the rest over dubbed. I think this would be the best of your situation. (Assuming you don't want to rely on someone else)

@the_nubster said:

Eh, so they're tied. Close enough.

Yeah, seeing that much of him was a bit unsettling...

But, the rest was great! That stinks about the audio, but this was fun, too. I would love to see even more videos like this. :)

This is why this site rocks. Fucked it up? Oh well! Watch it anyway.

It's charming.

Audio be damned, this was pretty cool. Thanks to Wife of Scoops for the assist!

I don't care what Patrick says, Katie's camera work is great!

I hope to see & hear more from the Chicago bureau soon.