SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FILMMAKER

Here at Nerd Eyes Only we’re always looking for cool new content to show you. We like to think of ourselves as promoters of new and interesting talent, in pursuit of which we start our new “Support your local…” series. Here we will highlight new talented individuals and teams we have stumbled across and think you might enjoy.

This week we have the new Short film put together by Hertfordshire based film company Not Twice films and Director Carl Thomason. The Fallen Goat, is a suspenseful horror short shot on a number of visually pleasing local Hertfordshire locations and with a cast headed by Paul Cooper who’s performance binds the whole thing beautifully. The entire film has a feeling of unease spread over it that culminates well in a dramatic final act reveal. While on occasion let down by more amateur actors of the cast it never removes from the overall composition and the potential displayed by Director and crew go along way to suggest even more interesting projects will be on the horizon.

Paul Cooper and Elspeth Mary Jane Dewick look down upon “The Fallen Goat”

The Fallen Goat is exemplified by well distributed long tense silences and it builds tension to a biting point. Paul Coopers performance throughout is solid and brooding creating a character who’s inner torment mirrors the atmosphere of the short perfectly building in tandem to a crescendo. Not to mention his truly exemplary facial hair marking him as the most debonair farmer we’ve ever encountered.

The plot reveals major characters to be quite disturbed individuals and one is left unsure as to whether one should empathise with any of them at all. The feel of the short is once or twice put off kilter by asynchronous injections of humour which have the delightful effect of unnerving the audience. It forces them to laugh and among such disturbing events and this adds to the tone of “wrongness”. This tone is also displayed well by musical cues throughout be it tense, dramatic or unnerving. We also noted on multiple viewings that the shorts ending works a subtle sense of ambiguity into a dramatic third act event making us question whether it took place at all…

 

N2Films Poster Roster

The Fallen Goat is definitely the latest work in a journey for Not Twice Films and Director Carl Thomason. It has a greater degree of polish that some earlier works lacked, that progression of the last 5 or so years where perhaps technical know how limited earlier interesting premises is a joy to see.

If you cannot wait for the release of The Fallen Goat later this year we wholeheartedly recommend checking out some of their earlier works. Particularly Broken Bones A British crime short that explores an anglicized version of principles of honor and the samurai code of Bushido. The enemy, a look into an interview with a serial killer where all is not what it seems, or The Hostage, the story of a man under siege by some surprising aggressors. But if the Fallen Goat has specifically peaked your interest it will be shown by Hitchin films from September onward, and with Applications to over 20+ film festivals worldwide maybe to a place near you. Unfortunately most will have the long wait for Public release sometime next year, but we promise it’s worth the wait. Tense, stark and foreboding The Fallen Goat will have you on the edge of your seat!

Below are some useful links to look into Not twice Films and where you will find any news concerning the Fallen Goat:                                                                                                    YouTube                                                                                                                                         Facebook                                                                                                                                       Twitter                                                                                                                                         Vimeo

Cast and crew on set for the fallen goat, Left to Right: Liam O’riordan, Stephen Emery, Paul Cooper, Levi Day, Szymon Madziel, Carl Thomason, John Brimm, Mark Scullion & Andrew Gannon.

 


youtube-god-2016

It’s time once again for the most prestigious award in internet history the renowned and highly sort after YouTube God Award for 2016! Our previous winners Jesse Cox, Wil Wheaton and the Warpzone have ascended to the heavens and now it is time for another deity to join the pantheon.

First thing first though here are some special mentions who didn’t quite make it into the running this year but who are definitely worth your attention and maybe future inhabitants of YouTube Olympus:

Pennyarcade tv, Total Biscuit, boogie2988, Andre “black nerd”, Awe me – man at arms reforged.

Now to the countdown…

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#5 Sky Williams

This channel seems to have  taken on a lot of changes lately and as such has left us nothing but curious about the direction it will go. Driven by the charismatic Sky himself and largely League of legends based content, we find ourselves constantly surprised by how we’ve been drawn to this channel. Now the irregularity of the channels content however enjoyable has seen it sit lower on this list than it perhaps might’ve been but we cant wait to see how it develops. Maybe a future winner we’ll wait and see!

Links:

Channel       Facebook       Twitter       Google+

bored gamer banner#4 Bored Gamer

Star Citizen may be one of the most ambitious gaming projects to ever be undertaken, directly related to that endeavor our next runner up Youtube.com/boredgamer. In concert with the Star citizen channel itself Bored stands as the guide for our journey with a game that has hopes very high here at nerd eyes only home base! With any luck they will continue to thrill us as the ongoing open development moves forward. Also watch this space for some of our very own star citizen content soon…

Links:

Channel       Facebook       Twitter       Twitch      Redacted     Patreon

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#3 Jonathan Pie

Let’s just be honest 2016 was a difficult year to say the least. The angry and some times controversial voice of Jonathan Pie has often struck true with the hearts and minds of people across the world. Primarily Britain-centric his rants and diatribes about the world of politics have you both thinking and laughing in the best of ways!

Links:

Channel       Facebook       Twitter       Google+

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#2 Cinnamon Toast Ken

There are many things that sell a channel to its audience and with Ken its charisma up the wazoo! Our first runner up provides regular gaming content and the odd Vlog or two. However we have to admit Ken is a bit of a marmite creator. Built around his effervescent Personality this is a channel you will either love or hate!

Links:

Channel       Twitch       Twitter       Google+      Instagram

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#1 Russel BrandYouTube god trophy

In a year of darkness, more often than not this winning channel was a voice of hope. Now twinned with a podcast “under the skin” where Russel interviews interesting and varied voices across a wide variety of subjects. The trews works well to inform and enthuse, while ultimately his opinions might not always be shared they are always well meaning and well researched. But it is particularly its undying sentiment of hope that has won out this years YouTube god. Thank you Russel and team, in a year where we really needed it you helped us to look forward and see a better future!

Links:

Channel       Facebook       Twitter       Google+

Welcome to the Apocalypse! (Happy New Year)

Needless to say with Britain’s vote to leave the EU and the election of Donald Trump as President of America, the apocalypse has never seemed so near at hand!  So to help you prepare for our impending doom and organise your scouting trips into the  wasteland, here’s a gift from us to you! Your very own Fallout themed Calendar. Just print it out and begin your transition to Vault life!

Januaryfebruary

march april mayjunejulyaugustseptemberoctobernovemberdecember

vault-tec-calendar

 

These are the chords you’re looking for!

All in one place here we’ve got a bunch of songs from all you’re favourite fandoms with basic chords for each and everyone! Feel free to add your own in the comments or send requests for future songs. If any are unclear or incorrect feel free to comment and let us know and if there’s enough interest we’ll knock together a instructional video for any and all people require.

Have fun guys!

 

tribe-themefalling-labyrinthflash-gordon

 

 

red-dwarf-theme

adventure-time-theme

edgeofnightLordOftheRings

 

 

 

 

scott-pilgrimpokemon-themedeath-song-castle

 

 

 

 

 

supernaturalmonty-pythonbuffy-musical-song

 

 

 

 

 

ballad-of-serenityavenue-q-internet-is-for-porn

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this it, mortals? Is this all the fury you can muster?

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Thanks to showfilmfirst.com we had the opportunity to run down to Leicester Square Empire, to get an early look at the new Warcraft movie. Now, we can let you know before you drop some cash, from Stormwind to Ironforge what was max-level enjoyment and what was more like an escort quest through Felwood. Plied with free booze and shuffled into the cinema like a horde of the undead the tension was palpable. The fears that have plagued fans of this franchise since the films announcements were heavy in the air some were completely unfounded, some….were not.

The tone and look of the opening minutes are familiar to anyone who has ever watched a Blizzard cinematic. The first sights of iconic Game areas such as Goldshire and realistic interpretations of World of Warcraft area maps initially brought waves of nostalgia. However as the movie progressed it grew into annoyance as the mention of things only recognisable to those of us that played the game became seemingly near constant. The 3D as far as we could establish added no value to the story and in panning or quick moving shots of combat for example were hard to follow and headachey to watch. Especially annoying as these scenes were some of the more interesting visually had they not been hamstrung by the 3D. The score was much of what one could expect from a high fantasy title, appropriately highlighting moments of quiet or tension but nothing to write home about.

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– The floating city of dalaran (CC) Warcraftmovie.com

As far as the story goes if your already a World of Warcraft fan You already know this story. If not the feeling of watching seems to be akin to that of watching the Dungeons and Dragons movie(2000). Suddenly you’re thrust into a world you don’t know with rules, characters and institutions that are not explained well by the film. These are not the only similarities to the D&D movie, unfortunately it’s sense of humour or playfulness is not recreated. A story moment that really baffled us came when Orgrim Doomhammer(Robert Kazinsky)openly rebelled against the rule of Gul’Dan (Daniel Wu). Somehow a bunch of random Orcs got the chop instead of him and he conveniently is not to be seen for five minutes, in which time we were like “Did they just…”.

Dominic Cooper, who we here have never been a particular fan of here, plays one of our heroes King Llane Wrynn. While not terrible he did nothing to change our opinion of him in this, probably not helped by his pretty boring dialogue. Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar felt like a more annoying of version of Matthew Broderick’s character in ladyhawke, granted that might be someone’s deal but it wasn’t ours. In contrast Travis Fimmel as Anduin Lothar was very engaging on screen and was probably the only thing to make rooting for the Alliance palatable. Surprisingly the CGI Orcs tallied a lot in the win column, the voice acting was on point and the textures of the wholly unbelievable creatures almost felt real at certain points. Probably one of our biggest fears going in the Orcs were one of our biggest wins coming out. Durotan(Toby Kebbell) and Draka(Anna Galvin) particularly held up well and often out performed real life actors on screen. A surprising failure was the make job upon the character Medivh(Ben Foster) upon his transition to evil. It was just poor and we could not work out why at all.

cc - Warcraftmovie.comOrgrim Doomhammer(Robert Kazinsky) near the Orc War parties Encampment in Azeroth (cc) Warcraftmovie.com

All in all the Warcraft movie was a bit of a Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. In that it was an excuse for fans of a franchise to see characters from their game do cool things on a movie screen. It was really more a 2 hour World of Warcraft trailer than an epic high fantasy movie worth watching in its own right. But it’s the movie we got and I guess it could have been worse! What we wish we would have gotten was something that took itself alot less seriously, while the moment a guy got *sheeped* was funny it was probably one of three laughs across the entire movie. Our advice for any future venture into Azeroth for movie purposes is go crazy with it. We want a Last Starfigheresque 80’s fest, kid falls into the main character of his favourite videogame and adventure ensues. Definitely take yourself less seriously and be more accesible to people not already fans of the franchise. Let us know what you thought, Do you agree?

cc - WarcraftMovie.com

 

Top 5 Quotes:

– “He wishes to lie with me…You would be injured…You would not be an affective mate”
-“Do i go in?” “I don’t know it’s never done that before”
-*Sheep*
-“Quick thinking slicing it’s head off like that”
-“Aaaaaaagh” *baby thrall*

Anduin Lothar (Travis fimmel) ready

to do battle with the Orc threat!
cc – WarcraftMovie.com

RISE MORTALS!

YouTube God 2015

Welcome back, it’s that time of year yet again, time for us to crown a new Deity in the YouTube Pantheon. It’s YouTube God 2015 baby! To those who are still unaware this is the third year of YouTube God, a self titled award given by nerdeyesonly.com to the producer we think has stood out on YouTube over the last year. To date there have been two victors, the first being Mr Jesse Cox, self-proclaimed “dark YouTube god”. The Second, Wil Wheaton and the tabletop team who celebrated their victory only last year. But it is time for their ranks to swell once again as a new god must be named!

This year was yet again a difficult task to elevate just one YouTube producer to Godhood. Many fell by the wayside, so before we get onto our finalists please check out our honourable mention list for this year:

Yogscast Kim (Predominantly Minecraft content) /yogscastkim
Literally geeky (A nerdy Book club)
 /geekocracy
Lucahjin (Lets Player)
 /lucahjin
D&D Channel (acquisitions inc content specifically good) 
/DNDWizards
Boogie 2988 (Vlogger, Sketch comedy) 
/boogie2988
Black nerd comedy (Vlogger, Reviewer) 
/BlackNerdComedy

NOW HERE’S THE COUNTDOWN!

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#5 Penny Arcade TV

Making a return to our list after a year fallen from grace is the YouTube arm of the successful web comic Penny Arcade. From creators Mike Krahulik, Jerry Holkins and their team, It’s Penny Arcade TV at number 5. They seeded fourth the first year of our competition and failed to rank at all last year but new and quality programming has brought our attention swinging back. We’ve particularly enjoyed their new show First 15 where Jerry and mike play the “first 15” minutes of a game and comment as only they can. We hope to see more in the coming year and won’t rule out potential victory in next years competition should they build on the success of the last year.

Links:
Twitter                                                           Facebook 
YouTube Channel                                         Main website 

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#4 Hot Pepper Gaming

Based on a straightforward concept; eat something very spicy and review a game before your allowed to take a drink, this format was almost destined for success. The ever-changing hosts keep the show fresh and the variety of spicy food/style of game mean that two episodes are never alike. One of the recurring hosts, Jared(Pictured above), makes for particularly entertaining viewing due to his dramatic, charismatic and sometimes surprisingly witty demeanor throughout. Upon the start of each video one can always expect Hilarity to ensue with tidbits of knowledge imparted here and there. We often look forward to videos from this channel with great anticipation.

Links:
Facebook                                                        Twitter
Jared’s Twitter                                                YouTube Channel

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#3 Awe Me

Our second new entry in the running for YouTube God is the Awe Me channel. With it’s two flagship programs Men At Arms Forged and DIY Prop Shop it is a force of inspiration and ingenuity. You want to know how to craft a golden snitch or watch guys forge a real life Pyramid Head sword to destroy things, this channels got you covered. With excellent production value and genuinely intriguing subject matter this is a great a channel that almost makes up for the time between its content.

Links:
Facebook                                Twitter                            YouTube Channel

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#2 Jesse Cox

Again we found ourselves unable to continue without mentioning our very own YouTube “Dark” God. While again he fails by the slimmest margin to claim a second title his channels consistency and quality mean we had to recognise the first inhabitant of Nerdlympus once again in the run down to our victor. Speaking of…

Links:
Merchandise                              Google+                                                      Twitter
Facebook                                   Podcast SoundCloud                                 Tumblr  Twitch                                        Channel Link                                               Minecraft Server

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#1 The Warp ZoneYouTube dark god trophy

Always a bridesmaid never the bride The Warp Zone made up of Davis, Schroeder, Fish, Odem and Ryan have finally done it they have ascended to a higher plane and taken their places as our new YouTube Gods!

It is the consistency, variety and quality of their content that has finally landed them the victory. Their nerd related parody fun; Lets plays, music parodies, drinking games, Podcasts, Vlogs and comedy skits are always a draw in the YouTube news feed. Will they join Jesse in Darkness or the tabletop team in silence over their rise to divinity we don’t know but we’re curious to find out!

Links:
Merchandise                                       Facebook                                     Twitter
Instagram                                           Google+                                      Channel Link 

 

App-ocalypse Now!

AppStoreslightsabergrey

In the age of the Smart phone and the tablet there’s a host of Apps to choose, from your lightsaber simulator to the ever classic fart noise maker. So to help you out, here are some suggestions, both obvious and obscure, to add to your nerdy collection!

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Cussifly (£0.59)

Ever been re-watching Firefly for the 769th time and thought “I really wish I knew what the Chinese meant” and “damn wouldn’t it be cool if I could use it to?” Well, now your prayers are answered. Cussifly allows you to search for Chinese phrases used in Firefly by index, character or episode. You can also filter the list to only include cursing! Once you have selected a phrase, you are presented with the English translation, the Chinese characters, how to say the word and the episode, character and context of the phrase as it was used in the show. As an added bonus, whenever you open the App it also plays a selection of sound-bytes from the show’s awesome score.

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Take away Apps (free)

The staple for any nerd is obviously the huge array of take away food apps, be that directly with Pizza Hut, Subway or Domino’s or a conglomeration of your local favourites like at Just Eat or Love Food. If you don’t think your local has their own app, have a look you might be pleasantly surprised!

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Dark Horse comic library app (free)

Have your favourite Dark Horse comics at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere – along with comics from their digital partner, Dynamite Entertainment. Read a huge number of free comics, as well as thousands starting at only 99 cents. Never be bored on a train or long journey again!

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E-Reader Kindle/Kobo app (free)

Not a comic book fan? Don’t have space for your E-Reader of choice? Then the Kindle and Kobo apps are for you. Have your entire library at your fingertips at any time. You never know when you might want to dip into George R R Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” for some death and dragons, or need quick access to you zombie apocalypse literature to fight the ravenous horde…

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iButtons – awesome soundboard (free)

Up to 240 sounds for your use, varying from noises to pop culture references, games and internet memes for instant use whenever you need to reveal “I used to be an adventurer like you….but then I took an arrow to the knee.” or to tell your best bro to “Suit up!”

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Social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Steam (free)

An obvious but necessary mix is that of the social media apps. Not only the conventional Facebook, Twitter ensemble, but also Steam, YouTube and Twitch, among others. Allow larger than ever amounts of inter-connectivity as well as the chance to upload a variety of media, at a moments notice, all for free.

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D&D Player Assistant (free)

The D&D Player Assistant is a good way to keep a lot of information in one place for your adventures. Easily changed and held safe for instant use, it has a handy NPC generator, die roller and notes section to help the Dungeon Masters out there, as well as the player. Especially good for those of us forever losing character sheets, it’s no longer a problem, just check your phone/tablet!

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Level Counter (free) ~ Munchkin Level Calculator (£3.99)

Existing as both a limited freeware version and official Munchkin accompaniment. The level counter apps provide an easy way of keeping track of your accumulated level, gear level and a handy D6 dice generator. They work as the ultimate helping hand for your Munchkin games, be they Vanilla or Cthulhu.

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Voice Plus – audio editing voice software (free)

This free audio editing software provides hours of enjoyment as well as a wide variety of cool effects for any kind of project. It allows you to replicate favourite characters like the Daleks and Darth Vader as well as replicating underwater speech and turning audio clips in reverse. This is just the tip of the iceberg and all you need to do is hit record and then tap one of the many effects to create your new sound!