Time really flies when you are working like a cow.

Felt just like yesterday that I was at Queensland, scoffing ribs and $2 Bundaberg ginger beers. And today, we have BAM6. I sit here in my office, with my suitcase, camera bag, tripod and duffel bag, waiting for the day to knock off so I can go help my fellow CouchWarrior members to help set up for a long night of exhibition matches and hype.

The last few weeks have been hard. I haven’t had any time to practice at all with all the BAM logistics stuff+ planning and the Community film editing. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, and anyway I plan to start practicing after BAM really intensely.

And it’s entirely of my own choice anyway. Lesson learned: don’t try to finish 5 episodes of Community in less than one month and a half. If I do shoot a few episodes at BAM, I’ll only do one or two, and really take my time to polish them, maybe a month per episode. I’m quite happy with how most of the Buttonsmash specials turned out especially given my limited time frame, but I’m well aware they could use improvement. Take Colin’s for example- the most rushed one. I left out the Dusty Cartridge presents bits and I had camera focus issues and volume issues. And with Baxter and Falco the discrepancy between the microphones (I borrowed one from the venue) created a lot of issues. (I’ve since bought another mic.) I can definitely do a better job with more preparation and more time.

At BAM6 I’m more focused on shooting a ton of B roll footage for Chad or New Game Plus to use for trailers, and for my own purposes. Also, calling them Buttonsmash specials pretty much mandated I finish them before BAM, essentially creating a deadline for myself.

But it’s cool. It’s still fun being creative and things like trying to fit “It’s Raining Men” onto an FGC video gave me a lot of joy.

http://dustycartridge.com/videos/community-the-australian-fgc-episode-08-adric-falco-middleton-sam-baxter/

http://dustycartridge.com/videos/community-australian-fgc-episode-09-colin-colonov-tan/

On the CouchWarriors side of things I’m pretty happy with how things turned out this year. I was pretty pessimistic about BAM returning after the last BAM, but the addition of NGP has added a much-needed boost of passion and expertise to the table. I will never forget the first meeting NGP attended. I left feeling impressed by Jason’s enthusiasm and passion for the task and the FGC, and how much stuff they knew about fighting games. I will also never forget the first time I ever heard the words “BAM7”- it was from an NGP staffer’s mouth.

We were struggling for ideas to make BAM6 really pop, to have a big selling point like we did last year with the return of Humanbomb- but I’m really happy with our New Challengers theme- a newbie tournament is something we’ve wanted to do for ages, and I hope it will be a big success at BAM6. I hope we continue to make this a focus and bring new blood into our scene after the stagnation of the last few years. I’m also happy that we managed to put together the paid flight to Singapore SEAM 2014, the custom art stick prize for the New Challengers tourney and so much more in time for the event.

http://couchwarriors.org/wp/the-new-challengers/

To be honest, I’ve felt that our organisation has been a little shakier than in the past. Previously we would always be on the ball for staffing, scheduling etc. This year it feels like we are slightly behind, but I think that’s because of the transition period- Loki is trying to step down and let us handle a lot of what he previously would handle. Loki is god, and he did basically a shit ton of stuff like clockwork, so inevitably there would be a bit of bumbling here and there as we tried to follow his example. But we will improve, and he’s right- if we never learned to do it ourselves we would never wean ourselves off the teat of Loki. And the man deserves a break, or to simply trust that we can handle business if he’s ever otherwise occupied.

But yeah, looking forward to tonight and this weekend. Hopefully it all comes together well- the brackets, the scheduling, the stream, the social stuff and pre/post event activities and that everyone who attends locally and from interstate has a great time. That’s all I want from BAM6.

(P.S. I disqualified myself from UMVC3 again :P)

Enough words- time to get some bloody work done. To all the CouchWarriors staff and everyone who’s helped with BAM so far- good shit guys, see you in a bit.