Vaughn Chronicles

Oh my god, I can’t wait for this game to come out. Anyone that knows me, knows how big of a Star Wars nerd I am! Finally a Star Wars game that not only looks amazing, but bridges Episode 3 & 4! Not only that, but we get to explore more of the Dark Side. I’m so geeking out right now, and I don’t care!!! The game use not 1, not even 2, but 3 physics engines! This my friends, is a next-generation title in development.

It is funny how this all started from a Physics Tech Demo, and ended up becoming a game. Be sure to check out all of the awesome videos, including Developer interviews here!

I mean c’mon, the dude brings down a Star Destroyer… by himself!

/Geek.

~Vaughn

Ok, it’s rant time. It’s been a good while since I’ve had one of these liberating rants.

What sparked this urge to rant is actually a result of my boredom. It’s Friday, and with nothing to do, I hopped on Xbox Live, and downloaded the demo for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. The game is about the Invasion of NYC, and I’m guessing other American cities by the Nazis. It’s on a “Next-Gen” console, yet there is absolutely nothing Next-Gen about it… at ALL! Before playing the game you are shown a short clip letting you know that this game is “Powered by Unreal Technology”. That’s a bold statement, seeing as how if the game really is, the Developers did a shyte job at utilizing its power.

Granted, it was a demo I played, but based on this demo, I will never again play the game. The graphics, sucked, the controls, stupid and slow, and the AI, retarded. After playing Call of Duty 4, it’s my belief that EVERY console FPS should play the same, that’s my standard. The premise of the game is a good one, and has potential, but it just doesn’t deliver. If you can afford to even license the Unreal Engine, spend some money on Developers that can use it damnit! It’s not all the Dev’s fault, no, I spread the blame evenly, and making sure everyone gets a taste. C’mon designers, art directors, wake up! Seriously, why when Germans jump out of the Super-Nazi Blimp, do they ALL glide on the same path, as if tethered to the ground, even though the Blimp is moving away. In a Next Generation environment, that’s just laziness.

Are studios afraid of trying something new, are they afraid of actually trying, actually breaking the mold? Are they just stuck in their old ways, scared to use new technology.

 Ugh!

 ~Vaughn

Being home has given me an opportunity to actually get in on some good shows, but since my parents reluctantly refuse to buy HBO (I can’t complain, not my house), I can’t watch the ones I want to catch up on. Therefore, I am forced to deal with it, and try to broaden my outlook on HBO being the God of TV. Franky, I really don’t want to, but it couldn’t hurt right?

I’m currently halfway through The Tudors, via Verizon FiOS, which is by far, the best service in the county in my opinion, and thats really all that matters here :). I like the series, but I am going to wait until I finish it to hold all judgment. Theres a couple more I would like to check out, Californication being one of them. Not sure what its about, but it has David Duchovny, and thats all the reason I need to watch it. Oh, plus its about a writer struggling with some shit. I like to watch those sort of things, makes me feel warm inside. You’d think since I’m trying to get into writing, I would steer clear of stuff like that, wierd.

There is The L Word, and as somewhat intriguing as that show may be to watch, it annoys the hell out of me. Some guys would call me gay for that, but if I wanted to watch two chicks “make love”, why watch it on Showtime, for the story… lol? The L Word is mostly a R rated Lifetime show, in which I have a feeling mostly women watch, straight women. If that is in fact, true, what does that mean really???

Oh yeah, my question was answered on yesterday’s Cinematical writing column - The Write Stuff.. The Question was referring to the current Writers Strike. Below is the question, and answer by Cinematical’s Patrick Walsh.

Chris Vaughn asks…

Didn’t one of the major studios or networks sue YouTube for having their content illegally for millions? That says Internet content IS worth something. Yet they claim the internet is too young or the methods are too young.

The net is over a decade old, and the methods are over 5. How much more time do the suits need?!

Yup. Fox sued YouTube over leaked Fox programs. Viacom sued YouTube for a billion dollars. NBC made demands for YouTube to take down Saturday Night Live clips and eventually joined Viacom’s battle. I don’t think many could argue that the networks and studios know full well that there is loads of money to be made from the net, regardless of how they spin it.

As minuscule as it was, it was really awesome of Pat to answer my question, Thanks!

~Vaughn

Cloverfield (A)

Many might disagree with my scoring of the movie, but I really don’t care, this movie kicked my ass seven days from Sunday.

This flick was intense as any I have seen in a very long time. I don’t remember ever feeling adrenaline flowing as much as Cloverfield induced. This is a modern monster classic, and it does it so well, yet J.J. Abrams adds his own ingredients to the classic monster recipe. The main ingredient he adds is the cliffhanger, there aren’t any scientists letting the audience know what it is, where it came from, and how to kill it. Now, people hate cliffhangers, everyone does. Initially I felt a little ripped off at the end, but my imagination kicked in, and took over from there. That was the point, this was what so many reluctantly ignored, they were ignorant and they needed the ending to be spoon fed to them. Cloverfield to me represents a new age in filmmaking. Utilizing not only traditional mediums of advertisements, but introducing viral marketing, and ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) into the mix. Viral marketing is somewhat young, but not entirely new, it went so well for Cloverfield, that many fan sites popped up about it, and had everyone talking about it.

The movie was shot entirely with a Panasonic HD mini-cam, and the budget for the flick was only $25 million. That it folks! $25mil… Most blockbusters are at least $100mil. The premise of the movie being a tape recovered by our Government was great, it really made you really feel you were experiencing something great, something on a very personal level, and something very tragic. A love story is thrown into the flick, and is one of the things that grab you further into the movie; you really feel their pain, and their love.

I would have given this movie an A+ if it had not been for a couple of things I feel inclined to nit-pick. First off, it’s that literally everyone at the going away party looked like a model. I know its NYC, but not everyone there looks like a model, trust me. Secondly is the character Marlena Diamond. Her humor didn’t feel right, it felt a little forced, and stale. Lizzy Caplan was pretty good in Mean Girls, but in Cloverfield she looked identical to Zooey Deschanel in every scene (not thats a bad thing at all, just if she was going to be like her, fucking be LIKE her and step up the acting, k?).

T.J. Miller was great as Hud, bringing a much needed comic-relief to a terrible disaster. Wonder if anyone else noticed the person with the camera was named Hud, as in H.U.D. (Heads Up Display), coincidence or not, good shit.

I do plan on seeing it again, just for the experience, if you haven’t, I insist you do, its quite a ride.

~Vaughn

Start: Hemet, California
End: Newport News, Virginia

I had originally planned on making 4 posts, each for a day of driving I did back to Newport News. I decided, in what a couple people called “laziness”, to just sum the entire thing up in one post. Its my blog, if I want to be lazy, I will :).

So, starting over, summing it up, here we go.

My initial plan was to leave Hemet at around 7-7:30AM, get a good head start, beat that awful L.A. county traffic, and get to my hotel a little early to relax. This didn’t happen of course, because women are too emotional :). I ended up leaving at around 9AM, which completely shot my mood and dipped my moral into the shitter. This would be my longest driving trip ever so far, and possibly the longest in my life. One end of the county, to the other.

Surprisingly traffic wasn’t all that bad that morning, minimal at best.  Highway was a constant 80MPH, with the occasional slow back down to 70-ish when passing the State Troopers (or called Sheriff’s Dept. in CA).  About 25min into the trip, I drove past a massive wind farm, which had to have had at least 500 windmills, giant ones, around 80-100ft tall. It was pretty amazing seeing these things move. Driving out of CA, thru AZ and into NM wasn’t very eventful. The desert was beautiful… for about 5 min, before it became the most redundant shit I’ve ever seen.

Oklahoma was the most fun to drive through. Not because it wasn’t desert, but the terrain was constantly changing, so I always had something to look at. Driving through OK was also somewhat boring, I think I passed 10 cops radar-gunning in a span of 30 seconds. This continues throughout the entire state. My hotel the second night in OK was awful. The room smelled like curry (the owners were Indian), and I happen to book the last room… above the main office.

The third day I was driving to my Grandparents house in Tennessee. I was there last year, but before that It’d been 10 years since I have seen the place. Most of their land was built into freeways, and the entire city looks completely different. Its a shame, they added 2 more lanes, wow. The traffic is STILL low, a lot of fucking good all that trouble the local government caused for so fucking little. Staying with my Grandparents was nice, I visited my Aunt and Cousin, with her daughter Jordan. That baby is going to be so beautiful when she grows up, red-ish hair with blue eyes.

Heading out of Nashville I managed to leave early, 6:20AM. It was nice, I was rested, one of 10 cars on the freeway at all times, just cruising. Around 9AM I stopped and grabbed a couple of breakfast burritos at McDonald’s. Although fast food, those little burritos are bloody amazing! On this last leg back to VA, I drove through part of the Appalachian Mountains, the views were breathtaking. Looking over you could see miles and miles of countryside. Now, I’m a city boy at heart, and despise living in the county, damn was it beautiful. Finally getting onto 64-east above Richmond I was psyched, but nearing Richmond, the new highway layout some retarded person, some idiot saw fit to appoint as engineer, was terrible, and confusing. I ended up accidentally going almost 50 miles south of Richmond. Calling my Dad, a.k.a. my GPS Dad, helped me get back on track. It was finally night when I got back onto 64-east, and I knew where the cops usually sit and hide on this route. So I cruised at around 85MPH with some other cars until my exit at Ft.Eustis blvd. A few minutes down Warwick and I was home.

It was so odd being home, as I had been living in CA for the past 4 months. My room was turned into a pseudo storage room. Hugging my girlfriend was so nice, seeing as how I hadn’t been able to for 5 days. She helped me re-arrange my room back to normal. I honestly don’t remember much else of that night, being tired as hell from 4 days of driving.

All in all, it was an amazing experience, I might do it again one day, but with someone else with me, to take turns driving lol.

~Vaughn

Well I started a new category, “My Life”. All posts about my life, or whats going on currently in my life will be in this category, pretty self-explanitory…. I hope.

Still no luck finding a job, the whole process feels 10x harder than when I was out here the first time. Everyone seems to be too wrapped up in the holidays, but then again, so am I.

I have to look at the time I lived in CA as experience, not as wasted time. It was the first time actually living away from home, 2.500+ miles away no-less. I can’t let anyone tell me I failed, even though I feel defeated, none of my friends have attempted what I’ve done, at least I went out and did it. I’m going to miss California, It’s my second home. One day I hope to have a house on each coast. My mission now is to pretty much, when I get home, to recuperate. Get back on my feet as best as I can, and try to repair my credit. Paying rent, a car payment, a cell phone payment, Utilities and Insurance suck.

In CA possession is 9/10ths the law, but bills in CA are a 100% a guaranteed ass raping.

Instead of flying back to VA, like I used to do when I came out to visit Maggie, I get to drive home. According to Google maps it’s a 2,600 mile drive. Should take me around 4 days. She’s worried, but I guess any guys girlfriend would be scared if their boyfriend drove alone that long. I look forward to it, its just more experience, something to take in, reflect if you will. At least I will be home for Christmas, for a while there I wasn’t going to be able to, but thankfully now I will.

In other news, Mag’s grandfather isn’t in too great of shape. He’s back in the hospital with kidney failure. Everyone is expecting 6 months, but I don’t know why they keep saying that, the doctor hasn’t said anything yet. He’s a great guy, very much a man’s man. Seeing him pass will be heartbreaking, hopefully the ol’ guy has more fight in him.

~Vaughn

FRED CLAUS (D+)

I wasn’t going into Fred Claus with much expectation… okay, I really was. I always go into holiday movies with a good amount of expectation, no matter how bad the trailer was. The sad part was, the trailer for Fred Claus was much more funny than the actual movie. Christmas being my favorite holiday, I had my hopes up there. Two things killed this movie for me, Vince Vaughn and terrible CG (Computer Graphics).

First off, Vince Vaughn’s character, Fred, felt like the same characters he played in Wedding Crashers and The Break Up. You might know what I’m talking about. If not, I’m talking about Vince Vaughn’s signature “Ramble on about something, throwing in witty comments, then abruptly change the subject in which to confuse the person hes talking to”. That shit gets old, quick.

Secondly, the CG in this movie was one of the worst I’ve seen in a VERY long time! I was very, very disapointed with Director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers, Shanghai Knights). How could a Director let something as shitty as this slide? Was he high while editing this all together, were the people pre-screening it high before release? I don’t know what the budget was for this, but good lord was this a perfect example of laziness.

The reason I gave this D-rate movie the hardly earned “+”, was the fact that I really enjoy watching Paul Giamatti, Kevin Spacey, and panning shots from the legs up of Elizabeth Banks in a little elf costume (not as a short, stubby elf thank god).

BEE MOVIE (B+)

This flick is completely underrated. This movie was funny, fun to watch, and honestly a refreshment being with whats currently out in theaters. People complained about the lack of detail the movie had, but thats what I liked about it. Pixar does detail like no one else, so why does everyone else have to? I felt the lack of detail on the characters, but the complexity of their environments, like the honey factory was a lot of fun.

Renée Zellwege’s voice throughout the flick really bothered me. It sounded very nasally, and I felt her voice hurt the movie slightly. Her character didn’t feel real, the animation felt a little forced in some parts.

Patrick Warburton’s Ken was funny at times, but felt more annoying as the movie progressed, as we had to listen to the big man bitch about pretty much everything.

In the end, there were a lot of jokes I got, that the rest of the audience obviously missed. I think thats the reason Bee Movie isn’t getting the credit it deserves.

~Vaughn

I got myself and IMDB Page, check it out! Not sure if it will help or anything, but its worth a shot lol. I need to find some better pictures, I removed a not-so-good one, but it takes like 72 hours for their server to cron (update). Also one day I hope to add some credits to my page :).

The end of 2007 is drawing nearer, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do in life, which is sad because I’m only 21. It’s sad because I’m 21, and shouldn’t be as freaked out as I feel I am. I can’t wait to get my laptop back, so I can load Final Draft on it and get my writing back on track. I’ve been forced to use paper & pencil/pen, which isn’t all that bad, but I feel its a hell of a lot slower of a process. With no computer I feel completely unorganized, all my ideas are loosely sketched in around my notebook.

Christmas is also coming up, and I don’t think I will be able to make it home, which sucks. The traditions I’m used to are pretty non-existant at my girlfriend’s parent’s house. They give each other their gifts in the beginning of December, instead of Christmas morning… wierd huh. I’m not totally sure what I would like to recieve from people, but here is a small list

• iPod
• New Adidas
• Oakley polerized, matte-finish Gascan sunglasses
• 1 Year of Final Draft

Not that extensive of a list.

~Vaughn

So, after a few months of testing a few Blog software packages, I’ve decided to go with WordPress. Something about it makes me feel good inside lol. I like the the layout the most, its very clean, easy to read and easier to navigate. I’ll add a domain to it soon enough.

~Vaughn