Many of you may know James Rolfe.

Not only is he the driving force behind Cinemassacre Productions, but he is undoubtedly recognized best for his character “The Angry Video Game Nerd”. I believe that name singlehandedly reminds his fans of his crude, profane, yet delightful video reviews of retro gaming titles. I could go on for a while about how much I enjoy his work, but that’s not exactly what I wanted to discuss (I suggest checking out the AVGN page… as long as you are not easily offended).

One of the things I really admire about Rolfe is his philosophy in film making. Upon entering his frequently-asked-questions page, you get a nice explanation on how he works:

What does Cinemassacre mean?

Cinemassacring refers to the efficient way in which my films are made, without a ton of equipment or pre-production meetings, ignoring all the extraneous things that happen behind the camera, when all that matters is what comes up on the screen in the end.

The Cinemassacre is the lifeforce and driving power behind my work; the pure insanity to make these wild films. When the obstacles are stacking up and it looks like there is no way to finish a project, I just go on a rampage and “cinemassacre” my way to the end.

To cinemassacre is to let loose with what you’re doing. In doubt? Just “cinemassacre” it, the same way a crazy artist would splatter paint all over his work and let the art gods take control.

The cinemassacre is me, my one-man production company which I started when I first got my hands on a video camera, in 1989, making over 130 short movies that “massacre” both Hollywood and Independent trends, but with one main purpose: to entertain.

Bingo. I can’t really say a lot, other than the fact that I am reminded of myself. If you really know me, then you know that I hate planning. I don’t want to write a lame graphic organizer or some kind of chart before I even start the real thing. It sucks, no?

Camcorder2In a way, it comes to me as good encouragement. Because of my strong interest in movie-making, and because I am in a multimedia class at school, there’s no better way than to get a new digital camcorder for my films - schoolwork or not. Unfortunately, because of my financial situation, I am limited as to what kind of equipment I can use in my free time. For now, I have settled on something that can be afforded as a Christmas or birthday present. The Panasonic Camcorder you see to the left seems to be a great balance between price and quality. Of course, if I were rich, I would buy one of those slick HD camcorders with gigabytes of built-in hard-drive storage, but that’s not going to be happening anytime soon. Again, the Panasonic model will suffice because of it’s image quality, compact recording medium, and firewire capability.

With all of this, lately I’ve had a tendency to get excited about a future of independent film making. Here’s to good times.

Now if only I had a higher-end PC…