James Rolfe: Self

Quotes 

• James Rolfe : Some people have asked me "why are you so busy?". Most of the people who I've heard from are very nice and they mean well but there's some who are just mystified or just can't fathom like "why don't you have time anymore?". Um, take a wild guess. What's the biggest thing that's different now? I have kids. I don't think I need to explain that for anyone who doesn't understand what a big responsibility and time commitment that is then ask someone who is a parent and they will tell you all about it. The kids are awesome by the way, they're doing really great, big thanks to my wife for helping keep this whole thing going. You want to talk about behind the scenes commitment, that's what that is. I must stress I do not want to burn myself out working on these epic kind of videos all around the clock, I want to be there for the kids, that's my choice to balance my work and family life.

• James Rolfe : So when you have a project to do but you don't have enough time, what do you do? You get help. While most of the fans watching are really awesome and already get it, there's some people who are trying to be counterproductive to the whole thing by saying they don't like Screenwave or they don't like them being involved in the videos or whatever it is. Do these people not want me to have any help? Do they want me to suffer and do everything myself? They probably just haven't logically thought it through. Screenwave helps me make the videos. Without them, if I was doing it all by myself, you'd probably see only three videos a year, would you want that? And it wouldn't matter if I worked with somebody different. Over the years, people have given me shit for working with ScrewAttack, GameTrailers, it doesn't matter.

• James Rolfe : Hey everyone, I'm so glad you're still watching AVGN after 15 years, I'm so glad to have people with a good sense of humor to appreciate this stuff and I hope to keep the entertainment coming.

• James Rolfe : Strangely, this desk is from the 80s. I've had it since I was a kid and back then they didn't consider that computer wires would ever have to go under here so the entire bottom is boxed in so for the first time ever I had to drill a hole in it which was surprisingly difficult; this was some really tough 80s wood.

• James Rolfe : Some people have felt the need to point out whenever there's a basic episode that's lacking the multiple camera angles. As if I'm not aware. I'm a guy who makes movies, I like different camera angles. If I had the choice, every episode would be as dynamic and cinematic as possible. In recent years we've had some pretty interesting camera angles like the underwater shot in Echo the Dolphin and the one continuous take in The Immortal; it can't be overlooked that we just put out the Vegas episode not too long ago; that was a monster and a miracle we pulled it off in a pandemic. It must have been over a hundred hours, I just remember spending so much time writing the script and sneaking in every Hunter S. Thompson quote possible, then it was tons of green screen filming myself and Tony separate and then I sent a rough edit to Screenwave and they just did the rest of the post-production and effects shout out to Yoshiboo, that episode was a giant project and put us behind schedule; the point is I'm always going to want to do a big episode like that and that's why we need these basic ones to get caught up again. Remember the Crazy Castle episode? That was epic, what came next? Super Pitfall. You need to balance it out so you'll definitely see another crazy one when we get there again.

• James Rolfe : I think there seems to be a misconception that I don't do anything, I have no involvement and they do all the work. That is not true. I am working on AVGN and a ton of different videos; they help me, they collaborate on the scripts but I still write too and have the final word on everything, I'm still the performer, I oversee the editing, I request changes, I'm still there. The kind of help they offer is unique because they're on the inside circle with me and have an up close understanding of how everything works with my type of production, so hating on them for the work they do is not fair to them and it's not fair to me.

• James Rolfe : It's been a long time since I've done any kind of behind the scenes thing. The last time I did a room tour was in 2016, I think not a whole lot has changed since but I want to share with you a few of my technical updates, the basic setup of a Nerd episode, I'll talk about some of the projects that you don't see, the ones that are all about maintenance and I'll even address a few complaints of the asshole-ish variety which does not represent the majority of you but yeah, that'll be fun. Also check in real soon for the Cinemassacre Podcast; it gives me the chance to talk a lot more and answer some fan questions.

• James Rolfe : Hey, uh, guess what? I just realized I record this entire video and realize this mic is not plugged in, the shotgun mic is plugged in so, hey, at least you can still hear me right? Back to the video.

• James Rolfe : Also my camera lights and everything are plugged into two power strips so when I come into the room and go to work all I gotta do is flick one, two, and everything comes on, I'm set to go. The purpose of all this is to shoot episodes as quickly as possible. Now, sometimes that can't be done for example the Vegas episode was a lot of extra work and there's always going to be something like that but for a basic episode this simple setup greatly improves my workflow otherwise I would have to set up the camera frame, the shot, set the focus, set up the lights, set up the microphone and check and adjust everything by having it all set up beforehand; it saves me a lot of time. Now, the only little problem is that I'm locked into this position. Whenever I need a different angle of the room, let's say if the Nerd is over at the NES shelf or something; that means everything has to move. The microphone, I have to take this wire down and then the lights, you can imagine how much of a pain these are, the camera has to go on a tripod so that means the teleprompter needs to be disassembled, the wire that plugs into the power has to come out then I usually have to switch to battery and then oh shit, I forgot to charge it. Anywhere I want to look there's so much crap to move out of the way and that's all very time consuming and that's nothing unusual, it's very common on a movie set that most of the time is spent setting up shots and very little the time is spent actually filming but when I'm short on time and trying to be as quick, as convenient and efficient as possible, I just stick to the couch shot. I'll set up a different angle when there's a good reason and if it's worth the price of time, I even bring in a second camera for some of the b-roll and close-up shots but if the Nerd is in the shot and has to be lit and miked everything has to move. In a perfect world I could take as long as possible but lately we've been doing two episodes a month with contracted brand deals and deadlines, not to mention all the other videos I'm working on so when I'm behind schedule and in a rush, I have to stick to the single one-shot setup or else the video won't get finished in time.

• James Rolfe : The other comment that I get every now and then is that I should quit AVGN. Sometimes it's from fans who mean well, they can tell I'm getting burned out or whatever but hey look, this is fun, it's a lot of work but it's fun, and most importantly this is my day job, this is how I pay my bills and support my kids. You want me to quit? I'd rather be doing this job than something boring. I'm lucky and I know that most of the people who say that are nice and kind and they just mean "hey, you don't have to keep doing this, you're allowed to quit if you want" and I appreciate that but what I'd also like to hear is "hey, you're allowed to do a basic episode or do them less often" rather than going to the most extreme to quit. Maybe someday the time will come but not now and if and whenever it does, I'll let you know. And hey, don't you want me to make it to episode 200? I'm almost there.