#nerdvsworld

NerdVsWorld was at the Sci-Fi Weekender a couple of weeks ago with our good friends the Galactic Knights.  For months we had been planning a flash/freeze mob that would take place during the party on the Friday night. All throughout the day we held rehearsals in private, the Galactic Knights who would be leading the mob, and the members of the public, both costumed and non-costumed, who would be adding their lightsabers to the eternal struggle of the Jedi Vs the Sith.  (We have videos of these rehearsals coming soon) Here is what Matt (@Static_Airwaves) and Joel (@TheEditingShop) have put together from their footage of the event.  Big respect to these two heroes of the steadicam, for managing to get this footage.  No-one could have predicted the sheer mass of bodies that both the GK and the steadicam crew would have to fight through in order to bring you this video.   From a personal point of view, waiting at the side of the dance floor for my cue whilst trying to conceal my lightsaber, was the most nerve-wracking 40 minutes of my life.  It was all made worthwhile but the enormity of the crowd's reaction and the sense of being part of something huge. A massive Thank You! to everyone involved, I look forward to many more NerdVsWorld and Galactic Knights collaborations in the future. Enjoy the video Until next time,  Take care, and be excellent to each other

Well, Episode #1 of the new NerdVsWorld Podcast (http://wonkyspanner.com/podcasts/nerdvsworld) made it to air despite the best efforts of the snow to thwart our studio access.  It is a little later than we had hoped so the references to the final episode of Fringe refer to last Friday’s episode.  Did you watch it? What did you think?  Let us know on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/NerdVWorld) or on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/nerdvsworld) .  I personally loved it and was moved to tears by the brilliant John Noble... not for the first time in the history of this show.  I would like to dedicate a future episode of this podcast to talking about Fringe, lamenting its passing, and also lamenting the diminishing science fiction presence on television. 

Anyway, here are links to the other things we chat about in the show.  Thank you for listening. 1) Film picks for 2013: http://www.nerdvsworld.net/post/40837679341/films-to-look-out-for-in-2013 (I know Sin City 2 is missing off the list, but that is only because it hasn’t had a confirmed UK release date yet.  All films in the list at the above link have their UK release dates listed with them)

2) S.H.I.E.L.D.  A great blog from Geeky Girls Love Sci-Fi, gathering all the news of the Almighty Whedon’s new show.  Check it out here: http://geekygirlslovescifi.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/shield-latest.html 

3) HMV Closure - A great blog from “A Thing Called Music” http://www.athingcalledmusic.com/as-his-master-loses-his-voice-can-the-indie-r 

4) Our musical interlude was very kindly provided to us by Oxford metal band Crysis.  The track we played was “We Will Rise” and is available on their EP “The Deviant”  Go buy all the things at http://crysis.bigcartel.com (p.s.  At the time of recording we didn’t even know if we were going to have a musical interlude, it was something I had entertained but had never got round to organising.  Kial at Crysis is a friend of mine and he very kindly let us use his music.  Without it we would have had to cut the entire HMV discussion, which whilst it might have started out with a bit of flippancy was a topic that I was keen to cover and loathe to cut from the ‘cast.  Kial, I owe you and the boys a drink.)

5) The Valve Box: http://www.nerdist.com/2013/01/console-yourself-with-nvidia-and-valve/ 

6) What would your ideal home theatre be? http://www.nerdist.com/2013/01/some-geeky-home-theaters-to-make-you-jealous/ 

7) Fancy being on the mission to Mars? Read more here http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121474-Mars-One-Releases-Astronaut-Open-Call-Qualifications 

During the recording of the NerdVsWorld podcast I mention a list of films to look out for in 2013.  Here is the full list of nerd interest films, along with release dates, for 2013. (Note, release dates are subject to change)

Reservoir Dogs (Re-Release) - Out Now

Django Unchained - Out Now

The Last Stand - 25th Jan

Wreck-It Ralph - 8th Feb

A Good Day to Die Hard - 14th Feb

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - 22nd Feb

Cloud Atlas - 22nd Feb

Oz: The Great & Powerful - 8th March

John Dies At The End - 22nd March

Oblivion - 12th April

Evil Dead - 19th April

Iron Man 3 - 26th April

Star Trek: Into Darkness - 17th May

Man of Steel - 14th June

Much Ado About Nothing - 14th June

World War Z - 21st June

Despicable Me 2 - 28th June

Monsters University - 12th July

Pacific Rim - 12th July

Kick Ass 2: Balls to the Wall - 19th July

The Wolverine - 26th July

The Worlds End - 14th August

Elysium - 20th September

Enders Game - 25th October

Thor 2 - 30th October

Carrie - 29th November

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - 13th December

Howdy folks,

I would like to take a moment to wish all of my followers the most wonderful of New Years.  Thank you all for your support in 2012, and here's hoping that 2013 is a great year for us all.

This time of year finds many people reflecting on what they've achieved in the past year, and setting out their goals and dreams for the next.  Truth be told, I have been reflecting on what exactly NerdVsWorld is, and where I want it to go, for some months now; and a New Years Day blog seems as good a place as any to lay these things out.

2012 was a great year for me both personally, professionally and academically.  I achieved a First Class BA (Hon) in Audio Engineering, which meant all those missed blog posts and extended absences from the NerdVsWorld universe worth it.  See, when I kept apologising for not posting because I was busy; well, that was what kept me away. Forgive me now?

I am also extremely lucky to be a graduate with a job, sadly too few of us can say that in the current climate.  I am also very lucky that I'm working in a job where I get to surround myself with creative people and keep working on creative projects.  The first series of NerdVsWorld was shot exclusively at my place of work during my days off, and if it hadn't been for the talents of Joel Rundle, Lee Fitzpatrick, Matthew Stacey and Josh Woodman then the show would never have made it to air. More on that later.

But it is my personal achievements that I'm most pleased with, for reasons that I'm sure will resonate with many of us that enjoy and embrace the nerd and geek subculture.  I'm sure that I 'm not alone when I say that my geeky tendencies as a kid led to me being bullied for liking Star Trek, for enjoying maths, for understanding computers, for reading comics…etc, etc.  The thing with bullying is that it stays with you, no matter how much you grow up, no matter how much you shrug it off.  For me it led to a problem with crowds, nothing crippling but if I could avoid them I would.  So hopefully you can understand why it was such an achievement for me in 2012 when I made it to my first Convention, the SFX Weekender 3. It was AWESOME.  I had no idea what I had been missing out on.   Fortunately this was at the start of 2012 and the confidence it gave me kickstarted a whole year of saying "Yes" to more things and doing more things that scare me.  This, in turn, led to me finally doing the NerdVsWorld Youtube show; putting myself out there to an entire Internet of potential scorn and mockery.  Fortunately the corner of the web that we occupy has been very, very kind to me.

Which brings me nicely to talking about the show, what we achieved and where it's going.  It was a fun experience, I think we all learnt a lot from it, and I'm taking those lessons with me to other things.  But sadly the Youtube show of NerdVsWorld will not be coming back for a second run, at least not in it's current format.  What we learnt is that shows like this have a limited life span, the nature of a "News" show means that they are only relevant for a very specific moment in time.  The fact that the show, at best, had a three day production turnaround because of all the different academic commitments of those involved, meant that the "News" that we filmed for the episode would have already done the rounds on Facebook and Twitter by the time the show came to air.  This led to low views and a dishearteningly low take up for the channel. 

So what's next?  Well, NerdVsWorld as a channel will be sticking around and both I and the crew that I assembled for the show will be lending our skills and experience to a variety of nerd-interest video shoots, as well as shooting the occasional sketch for NvW.  We have recently filmed a campaign video for an Indiegogo project that will be launching soon, and we have a very interesting shoot coming up in March of this year.  You will hear all about it here first. I promise.   

I will be launching a podcast with Si & Ady from The Wonky Spanner.  I had an absolute blast as a guest on one recording of the Si and Ady's Eclectic Technicolour Podcast of Awesome!  and we will be collaborating to bring you a monthly NerdVsWorld podcast which I hope will bring to the nerd sphere something that I feel is missing; and that is genuine, impassioned, raw and undiluted opinion on all things nerd and geek.  More details on this coming soon.

Before I  finish I'd like to give a huge shout out to the team at Geek Pride. There is a positive fuck-ton of Nerd interest sites out there at the moment, and sadly most of them are just reposting things that they've found on i09 or blastr, etc, etc. (I know I've done it  too, but I at least added an opinion to my posts) Geek Pride are doing something different, and they're actually building an engaged online community.  Other than  The Nerdist and The Escapist, this is the only site I go to for original content.  Matt has built a great team over at Geek Pride Towers and is doing great things.  He asked if I'd write for him and I said YES!!! and to my shame I have not written a single article for them yet.  Matt, I am so sorry, you may never get an article from me* but you will always have my support and the support of NerdVsWorld.  *(you will definitely get an article from me, eventually. Promise :) )

Seriously folks, their Facebook Page went from virtually nothing to over 10k likes in a year.  Go and like their page, follow them on Twitter and show your Geek Pride. 

Going to finish up by making the resolution that I WILL blog more this year, and that I will make 2013 an even bigger and better year for NerdVsWorld.  Thanks for joining me for the ride this far, let's see how far we can take it.

Until next time, you know the drill…

Have an amazing 2013

Take care, and be excellent to each other.

Brendan

Howdy folks,

So the news from the Marvel Liveblog today was the announcement of a new team for Avengers Assemble from issue #9 onwards.  Joining the editing team of Lauren Sankovitch and Tom Brevoort, will be writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Stefano Caselli.

Stefano Caselli is currently the artist on The Amazing Spiderman books, and he will be leaving that series to concentrate fully on his new task of bringing Avengers Assemble to live on the page.

Speaking on her new task of writing Avengers Assemble, Kelly Sue remarked that

"These are the AC/DC Avengers. When I saw the movie, I managed to keep in together until Iron Man came onscreen and Back in Black blared. I bounced up and down in my chair. That's the moment I'm writing for." 

Before proceeding to tease some details of the first story arc: 

"The first arc is kind of an Amazing Race thing where the Avengers are teaming up and competing with each other. Spider-Woman is with Hulk and Thor with Iron Man." 

It was also revealed that Spiderman, Wolverine and Scarlet Witch will also be appearing in the first arc in smaller roles.

Speaking of the direction for the books from #9 onwards, Tom Brevoort said: 

"These will be tight 'get in, get out' adventures, focused mostly on the classic, 'public' Avengers from the movie, drawing in other characters as it demands. Big impact." 

I for one am looking forward to seeing where this takes the Avengers Assemble series. What are your thoughts?

Hello NerdVsWorldians,

Work is under way on Season 2 at the moment, but we thought we would put together a collection of clips of us messing about whilst filming, a couple of fuck ups, and some pieces of banter that didn't make the cut during this season.

Watching the episodes back whilst gathering the clips together was quite an eye opening experience for me.  I could spot a very evident progression in terms of my confidence in front of the camera as the season progressed (I still cant watch the first episode back without cringing), as well as a developing consistency in terms of shooting and production.  It has been quite an experience, passing through a range of emotions for me, and I'm sure for the whole team as well.  It started off being a very nerve wracking process, and I think that showed, but over the course of the series it became more and more enjoyable.

The point of the first season was to see what worked and what didn't, and to develop ideas for season 2.  It has been a great experience and I hope you've enjoyed watching them as much as we've enjoyed making them. Season 2 will be starting soon and as well as the News round up show, which will become "The Geek in Review", we are also working on some short sketches to put up between episodes.  Really looking forward to sharing these with you.

On behalf of all the team, THANK YOU for watching and for your continued support.

Until next time,

Take care, and be excellent to each other.