Rorie (Level 23)

Hey duders,  
 
A quick programming note: This week's Screening Room will be for Groundhog Day at 3 PM. We had to push it forward an hour due to some internet outages. We'll also be trying to take some of your Skype calls this time around! If you want to try and work up a banner in 24 hours, feel free to give it a whirl!
 
Sorry for the short notice on this, but this is on Streaming if you want to queue it up.  
 
We've been talking about shaking up the format a bit for the Screening Room and maybe make it more interactive for you guys, so we have some ideas that we want to try out. Next week we'll give those ideas a while!

I'll confess something: I spent an absurd amount of money on the old Decipher Star Wars card game in college, well more than I could afford. I built up a pretty solid collection, now entirely worthless ten years after Decipher lost their license to the Star Wars universe when Lucas wound up owning a portion of Wizards of the Coast and shifting the card game license over to them, where it quickly foundered and died. 
 
What's the point of that story? It doesn't really have one, aside from the fact that I picked up a shitload of Star Wars lore from the cards. You know that dude who looks a bit like a devil in the Cantina scene? Two big horns and fangs? His name is Labria, an information broker and spy who's frustrated that he has to live on Tatooine due to his shady past. The bartender who hates having blasters in his bar? He goes by Wuher, and wants to perfect his cocktail skills so that he can work for Jabba as his personal bartender. Hell, I could probably name you detailed histories of each member of Max Rebo's band if I had a gun to my head.  
 
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah: I'm a fucking dork. Join me. Screened's wiki queue system has been loaded up with heroes and villains from your favorite genre films and television series, which will let you help build out our wiki pages while also gaining extra points for your contributions. Won't you check it out and grab one of the tasks in there for yourself? It'd be fun! Wouldn't it be fun? I bet it'd be fun.   
 
So it might be a bit late to get the best Spike quotes in the system, but there's plenty of other characters to tackle (and, come to think of it, Spike could use a good biography). Take a look!

Reference. He doesn't actually throw out his hand, but I always thought he should.

Hey dudes, 
 
We're thinking of running down to SXSW this year. Just a little crew, me and Joey probably. We were curious, though; what would you guys want to see from our coverage of such an event? SXSW, if you're not aware, is a bit more indie-ish than most film festivals, and indeed is still mostly focused towards the music part of things. So it's a lot of panels, a few screenings of films, and a lot of drinking. 
 
We're looking to get a hook as to what you guys might want out of this. I will, if at all possible, check out the screening of Source Code, which I believe is debuting there, and hopefully see Paul as well. We'll probably only be there Friday - Sunday, but it should be a fun few days. So what would you want to see out of one writer and one producer at an event like this? Matt trying to bug all the hot girls he meets to be on camera? Interviewing people on the street? Panel writeups (we'll do what we can in the time provided)? Any ideas welcome!

If there's one thing I like about the Screened community, it's that you guys are supportive. At times, perhaps a bit too much so; I think it's easy to appeal to the people who come in to the site on a daily basis, but I also want this site to grow like a monster from Power Rangers when that lady shoots her electricity into it. (Anyone notice how the little monsters would always kick the Power Rangers' ass, but then as soon as it was super sized it always started losing?)
 
Anyway, take a moment to look over a video feature I've done and give me pointers as to what you would like to see done better. I'm aware that my speaking voice isn't perfect - I actually got a lot better after speech therapy a few years back, but I'm sure I could work on enunciation a bit more. Possibly also ensuring that my scripts don't have a million "s" sounds in a row; saying something like "the best gesture" is pretty tricky. I've also heard that I move my hands too much, which I've tried to work on by keeping my hands in my pockets for some of the recent shoots. Anyway, be "honest and unmerciful" and let me know what you'd improve on our recent video features, specifically when it comes to me as a host. I'm sure I'll improve over time, but constructive criticism never hurt. Unless it's insulting, I guess.