LoadingReadyRun

LoadingReadyRun
Web address http://www.loadingreadyrun.com
Type of site
 Comedy
Created by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders
Launched 13 October 2003

LoadingReadyRun, often abbreviated to LRR, is a Canadian sketch comedy website, based in Victoria, British Columbia, founded by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders. Since its launch in October 2003, a new video has been posted to the site every week, without fail; all of them are written, performed and edited by members of the "LoadingReadyRun crew", which consists of Graham, Paul, their friends and guests. On December 30, 2014, the final video in the long-running series was posted. Since then, LoadingReadyRun has continued other video series, both independently and in partnership with other websites.

The theme of the website is based on the Commodore 64 and its humour is often video game related.[1] Some of their videos have been featured in film festivals such as the Comic-Con International Film [2] in San Diego, and shown on major television networks, including G4 Canada [3] and CNN.[1][4] They are currently in their eleventh season, and since January 2010 their weekly video has been hosted on The Escapist Magazine. In September 2013 LRR launched their "Last Season of Sketches" Kickstarter campaign to fund their 2014 (final) season of weekly sketches, which were becoming too difficult and time-consuming to produce. The LRR Crew has said that they are only retiring the weekly video, and that other projects will not be affected.

Cast

Crew Anchors

The current core LRR crew consists of:[1]

  • Graham Stark (Founder)
  • Paul Saunders (Founder)
  • Kathleen De Vere
  • James Turner
  • Alex Steacy
  • Cameron Lauder
  • Brendan "Beej" Dery
Supporting Players

In addition, others have been featured in a number of videos:

  • Wes Borg
  • Andrew Cownden
  • Gibb, the site's mascot, a Yeti puppet
  • Natalia "Tally" Heilke
  • Brad Kirkland
  • Johnny_Lunchbox
  • Nathan Mosher
  • Adam Savidan
  • Tim Sevenhuysen
  • Kate Stark
  • Raymond Steacy
  • Morgan vanHumbeck
  • Ash Vickers
  • Bill Watt
  • Ben Wilkinson
  • Matt Wiggins
  • Jeremy "Jer" Petter

Notable work

Weekly LRR Films

Loading Ready Run began as a series of short one- to two-minute short films, posted to the LRR website on a weekly basis; the Crew has never been known to miss that weekly deadline, even while traveling. In 2013, Loading Ready Run announced that the Weekly Videos were becoming too labor- and time-intensive to produce on a weekly basis without impacting other projects, and began a Kickstarter campaign to fund one final year before retiring the videos in 2015.

How to Talk like a Pirate

Part of a fictional 1970s-style language-learning series, this video teaches the nuances of pirate speech.[5] It was released for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, 2006. Subsequent Talk Like a Pirate Days have led to the video being recirculated once a year.

Three PS3s

Posted around the release of the comparatively scarce and expensive PlayStation 3, this video features Paul brazenly claiming to own "three PS3s".[6] The video spread quickly when it was posted to YouTube, with viewers (many of whom didn't recognize the intended ironic tone) posting death threats and incensed comments as well as video parody responses. In truth, the entire crew owned zero PS3s; they borrowed two of them and the third was a hollow display model.[7] With the launch of the PlayStation 4 in 2013, Paul recorded another video, in which he now claims to have four PlayStation 4 consoles. Otherwise, the theme and tone are the same in both videos.

Halo: The Future of Gaming

In preparation for the release of Halo 3, LoadingReadyRun produced Halo: The Future of Gaming, providing a "look back" at the impact of the Halo video game series, and extrapolating into the future.[8] The video was one of LoadingReadyRun's most popular videos for several years.[9]

Friday Nights

Friday Nights was originally a four-episode commodoreHUSTLE spin-off miniseries, detailing the crew's growing obsession with Magic: The Gathering, created in association with Wizards of the Coast.[10][11][12] The series has since returned as part of a regular monthly installment. Additionally, LRR has hosted a number of other Magic related videos, including visual spoilers for new magic cards, all in association with Wizards of the Coast.

Desert Bus For Hope

Loading Ready Run is perhaps best known for its Annual "Desert Bus For Hope" event. On 23 November 2007, the group started a marathon game session of Desert Bus (a minigame from 'Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors') called Desert Bus for Hope to raise money for the charity Child's Play. The four-man team took turns playing the game continuously, with more hours added as more donations were made. The event was broadcast live via webcam, and garnered attention both from the media, and Penn & Teller, who called in, sent pizza, and made donations. By the end of the event, $22,805 had been raised, including donations from Penn and Teller themselves.[13][14][15]

On 18 November 2008, LoadingReadyRun officially announced that it planned a second marathon run of Desert Bus which began on 28 November.[16] The second Desert Bus lasted slightly more than five days and raised over $70,000.[17] The crew later produced a music video entitled Desert Bus Killed the Internet Star (a parody of Video Killed the Radio Star) describing the events of the marathon.[18]

On 25 August 2009, the third marathon run was announced, set to start on 20 November 2009.[19] At 18:42 GMT-0 on 26 November 2009 the marathon completed, raising over $140,000 (after all e-cheques had cleared) for Child's Play.[20] One notable donor, going by the alias "Octopimp", donated nearly $10,000 alone, becoming a mascot of sorts in the event's live chatroom and in turn inspiring many other high-number donations and auction bids.

The fourth marathon run was announced on 4 May 2010, and began on 19 November 2010 at 6:00 p.m. PST.[21] Penn & Teller auctioned off an "Ultimate Desert Bus Experience Pack" which included a bus ticket and sand from the Las Vegas desert, signed by Penn & Teller themselves. The fourth run concluded after 5 days and 21 hours, with $208,249.82 raised. A fifth marathon run began on 18 November 2011 and went for six days and six hours, raising a total of $383,075.10.[20]

Desert Bus 6 began Friday, 16 November 2012, and breached One Million dollars in lifetime donations on November 19 at 6:46pm[22][23][24]

Annual totals

commodoreHUSTLE

commodoreHUSTLE is a series of videos created by the crew dramatizing their personal lives, officially described as "A web series about the creators of a web series".[31] In these videos, Paul Saunders is often portrayed as a technical genius without common sense; Graham Stark is abusive to his roommate Matt Wiggins; and Morgan VanHumbeck is an egotistical buffoon. The series has its own channel on YouTube, but now publishes its videos on the crew's channel on The Escapist. A running theme in the series is the group's dysfunctional nature and infighting. On the YouTube channel, Stark tried to unite them by forming a street gang called The Runners.

Unskippable

In December 2008 Graham and Paul tied for first place in The Escapist's Second Annual Film with Unskippable, a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 style take of the introduction cinematic to Lost Planet.[32][33] For winning the contest they were rewarded with a contract to produce a weekly video for The Escapist. The series airs every Monday and has satirized cinematics to games like Eternal Sonata, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and The Darkness. It has received heavy promotion on the site, including crossovers with Zero Punctuation where Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw joined the Star Ocean: The Last Hope episode and Graham produced a ZP-style review of X-Blades, which soon switched over to Yahtzee's review of Halo Wars.[34] The ending credits included the message: "People confused about Graham Stark's appearance at the start of this video obviously don't watch Unskippable and for that I pity them." They have also broadcast a one-off live special of Unskippable on The Escapist where they did a "Let's Play" of Legaia 2 in the humorous and critical style of the show. The two also appeared in episode 21 of Arcade as themselves. On the 25th of March 2015, Stark announced on their blog that they would be leaving The Escapist and subsequently ending Unskippable. Unskippable, with a tenure of six years, will not and could not be continued due to The Escapist owning the property of Unskippable. Their second show on The Escapist, Feed Dump, is continued on their personal YouTube channel.

CheckPoint

In September 2009 the LoadingReadyRun crew began a second series, Escapist News Network (ENN), for The Escapist, which was a parody newscast about video games similar to This Hour Has 22 Minutes. ENN was written and produced by Kathleen De Vere, Jeremy Petter, Paul Saunders, and Graham Stark, who also form the backbone of its cast. On 13 February 2011 the site announced that it would no longer be producing new episodes of ENN.

On 9 May 2011, LoadingReadyRun premiered CheckPoint, a successor to ENN, on Penny-Arcade's PATV.[35] The show is similar in format to ENN, with Graham Stark and Kathleen De Vere as news presenters discussing the previous week's video gaming news.[36]

On 6 December 2013, Penny Arcade announced that due to some restructuring they would no longer host 3rd party content on their PATV site.[37] Shortly thereafter Graham announced that due to time constraints the show would be put on indefinite hiatus and LRR would invest the effort which was committed to the show for other projects.[38] However, shortly after, Checkpoint Plus was added to the new LoadingReadyRun livestreaming schedule on twitchTV.[39]

Daily Drop

Daily Drop was a feature on The Escapist, made by the LoadingReadyRun crew. It was filmed in the basement of the Victoria Event Centre.[40] It consists of approximately 2-minute long clips of objects falling in, as recorded by a high-speed camera, and impacting the test area floor. A new installment was released every weekday between 7 October 2010 and 25 May 2011.[41]

Crapshots

Crapshots is a series of short, usually less than a minute, comedic blurbs. The episodes are labelled with miscellaneous redundant words relating to the video. Crapshots was started in April 2009, and can be found on YouTube at this channel. The first "season" of about 100 episodes was largely the work of Graham, Alex, and Kathleen, filmed in their home at the time. The second season, created as a stretch goal during LRR's 2014 Kickstarter, is a joint effort of the entire crew.

Feed Dump

Feed Dump, LRR's newest series on The Escapist, premiered 25 May 2011.[42] The show consists of a host and a group of co-hosts, typically two, riffing on various bizarre and/or humorous but true recent news stories. The show was initially hosted by Graham, though since late 2013 the show began transitioning to Kathleen (who was already the show's editor) as the typical host. It is a spiritual successor to "The Phailhaüs",[42] an irregularly updated series of bonus videos that had been running on the LRR site since 2008. The Phailhaüs in turn was based on Morgan vanHumbeck's 2006-2007[43] series "The Whatever Thing". As mentioned on "The Whatever Thing" DVD, that, in turn, was inspired by the show with zefrank.

Selected awards

Selected Awards
Video Organisation Award
The Pair Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2015 People's choice [44]
The Secret of the Sauce Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2010 Best writing [45]
Right to the Source Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2009 Best writing [46]
Eyewitness Accounts Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2008 Best writing [47]
How to Talk Like a Pirate Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2007 Best writing [48]
Suspend Your Disbelief Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2006 Audience Choice [49]
Best Male Performance (Andrew Cownden) [50]
University of Victoria Student Film 2005 Audience Choice [51]
30 Minutes or Less Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2006 Best writing [52]

References

  1. 1 2 3 LoadingReadyRun. "About". Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  2. ↑ "Friday, July 27 – Humor/Parody (How to talk like a pirate)". CCI:IFF 2007 Film Schedule. Comic-con.org. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  3. ↑ Torrent TV. "Episode One - Video 3 (Loading Ready Run)". G4Tech TV. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
  4. ↑ joeparedes. "LRR in the News". Youtube. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  5. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "How to Talk Like a Pirate". Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  6. ↑ LoadingReadyRun (13 February 2009). "Three PS3s". YouTube. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  7. ↑ LoadingReadyWiki. "Three PS3s on LoadingReadyWiki". Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  8. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "Halo: The Future of Gaming". Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  9. ↑ "Halo: The Future of Gaming". LoadingReadyWiki. 16 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  10. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "It's Magic". Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  11. ↑ Wizards of the Coast. "Community Cup Lineup". Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  12. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "Friday Nights". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  13. ↑ Graham Stark (28 November 2007). "The Finale". Desertbus.org. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  14. ↑ Rob Shaw (25 November 2007). "Magicians conjure up cash for deadly fundraiser". Victoria Times Colonist.
  15. ↑ Graham Stark (28 November 2007). "Twenty Thousand Dollars". Desertbus.org. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  16. ↑ Matt Wiggins (18 November 2008). "Desert Bus for Hope 2: Bus Harder". Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  17. ↑ Graham Stark (8 December 2008). "We did it! $70,000!". Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  18. ↑ LoadingReadyRun (7 December 2008). "Desert Bus Killed the Internet Star". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  19. ↑ 2009 Desert Bus announcement
  20. 1 2
  21. ↑ Paul Saunders (4 May 2010). "Mark your calendars!". Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  22. ↑ DesertBusForHope (16 May 2012). "Daddy Ashton: Beware The Moon". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  23. ↑ Heilke, Tally (16 May 2012). "Desert Bus 6 Announcements!". Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  24. ↑ Desert Bus for Hope (17 May 2012). "Announcement time!". Facebook. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  25. ↑ Stark, Graham (28 November 2007). "The Finale". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  26. ↑ "Literal Charity Drive Involves Penn & Teller Title Desert Bus". GamePolitics.com. 25 November 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  27. ↑ Good, Owen (28 November 2008). "Desert Bus Rides Again, Already Raking in the Dough". Kotaku. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  28. ↑ "Desert Bus 5 Poster". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  29. ↑ "Desert Bus". Desert Bus. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  30. ↑ https://desertbus.org/graphs/#years
  31. ↑ "commodoreHUSTLE". YouTube. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  32. ↑ Susan Arendt (19 November 2008). "Announcing The Escapist Film Winners!". Retrieved 20 January 2009.
  33. ↑ Stark, Graham (19 November 2008). "First Place: Unskippable 01 - Lost Planet". The Escapist. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  34. ↑ Croshaw, Ben (1 April 2009). "Halo Wars". The Escapist. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  35. ↑ Stark, Graham (9 May 2011). "Announcing: CheckPoint on PATV". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  36. ↑ "CheckPoint". PATV. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  37. ↑ Brahe, Tycho (2013-12-06). "Changes". Penny Arcade. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
  38. ↑ stark, Graham (2013-12-08). "CheckPoint cleared". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
  39. ↑ De Vere, Kathleen (2014-01-02). "Introducing the YRR of LRR Livestream Schedule/". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 2014-01-28.
  40. ↑ Stark, Graham (28 May 2011). "Daily Drop: Behind the Scenes". The Escapist. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  41. ↑ LoadingReadyRun. "Daily Drop". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  42. 1 2 Stark, Graham (25 May 2011). "Announcing Feed Dump @ The Escapist". LoadingReadyRun. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  43. ↑ "The Whatever Thing". YouTube. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  44. ↑ "10th annual Vancouver Island Short Film Festival a huge success". Vancouver Short Film. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  45. ↑ "Vancouver Island Short Film Festival Award Winners". Vancouver Short Film. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  46. ↑
  47. ↑
  48. ↑
  49. ↑ "10th annual Vancouver Island Short Film Festival a huge success". Vancouver Short Film. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  50. ↑
  51. ↑ "University of Victoria Short Film Awards". University of Victoria Student Film. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
  52. ↑

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