Get Lamp interview extras

(Probably already mentioned here, but not recently…)

Jason Scott has been posting his interview film rolls from the Get Lamp archive:

archive.org/search.php?query=col … publicdate

There is a whole lot of this stuff. I mention it because (of course) I just saw my own name show up – but I’m in the movie for about two minutes, and now there’s like 40 minutes of me that you can download if you want. And equivalent amounts of all the other Get Lamp interviewees. Plus more people who didn’t appear in the film.

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Good call. The Adam Thornton interview was quite fun and it was interesting seeing his perspective on the underlying differences between the TADS and Inform design models. Just waiting for Howard Sherman to buffer now…

Excellent news; thank you! I purchased Get Lamp almost entirely out of interest in seeing Demian Katz interviewed, and in the end product, he was either barely in it or not in it at all (I may have blinked and missed it …)

I dig Get Lamp either way, but still :slight_smile:

Jason Scott is a true hero. You just have to love that guy.

Excellent! Downloading some of it now, always good to have more pleasure to look forward to :slight_smile:

This:

archive.org/details/getlamp-rpinsky

Is awesome! Thank you for pointing this out.

Yeah, so far I’ve looked at -

Peter Nepstad: I’ve been playing/reviewing Lovecraft games he curated. His section is almost entirely on 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery, so it’s the best extra footage I’ve seen so far in terms of one person talking about just one game at length.

Dave Cornelson: 'Cos I wanted to see and hear the author of Cattus Atrox. Good wide-ranging interview. No insights on Cattus Atrox, though.

Andrew Plotkin: I downloaded his due to peer pressure. I don’t want to be punched! More seriously, Andrew is always asking difficult questions. Since he’s the one being questioned in this interview, I don’t know who he expected would answer them :slight_smile:

Paul O’Brian: Another good wide-ranging talk.

Dan Shiovitz: I wanted to see and hear this inky chap. Some different perspectives here.

John Romero: I love to hear the Apple II stories, and Romero has them. In fact he’ll be speaking at the Apple II Kansasfest in a week or two.

I’m not sure if these qualify as interviews. For one thing, the interviewer is absent, both literally and figuratively. His question are often cut out, so that it takes some time to figure out what the interviewee is responding to. I’m not sure if this is an aesthetic choice or if the interviewer is simply embarrassed by his stutter. And then there’s the issue of the interviewer being rather passive (perhaps “comatose” is a better way of describing his technique?). When one of the nuttier subjects pontificates that he invented emotion in IF and hence all IF since 1996 that deals with emotion is derivative of his work, the interviewer just lets it slip. Many comic opportunities are lost because the interviewer is mentally not present. As far as I can see, it’s a guy pointing a camera at his subject and letting him/her indulge in self-exegesis. “When did I break my IF cherry?” seems to the favourite question people ask themselves. Does anyone care? People like Stephen Grenade and Adam Thornton are mentally solid enough to handle the absence of an interwiewer and talk interestingly, but the rest is just mush.

Not an Errol Morris fan, eh Jacek?

Oh J-J, I’ve missed your sneer, your unexamined sense of superiority. I must admit that while you’re out sniffing Edmund Wilson’s panties, I’m in your house, sniffing yours. You are SO right! Of course! How stupid of me to enjoy that interview without thinking of it your way. How very intolerably thick of me to go about trying to enjoy things in my own, simple-minded manner.

Though you know, a part of me does wonder, and please forgive me for this lingering whiff of apostasy, that if the footage contains such obvious defects, is so raw (here’s the inevitable reference to the condition of your “manhood” during one of your marathon rants at the latest antics of those insufferable harlots of Jersey Shore, as with the other hand you’re throwing popcorn at your face, guffawing, shifting in the discomfort of your still-sealed pyloric valve), that maybe, just maybe, they were cuts intended for the director’s own use, and, please forgive my faithlessness, that they were released out, and please hold your outrage, out of the kindness of his heart (oh, I know all too well that men of your caliber don’t have a use for such vestigial organs) for the community’s perusal!

Ah, but that’s right, I guess it does defy the imagination to think that an interview could be anything but a grilling session, a chance to waterboard the interviewee for their flimsy, downright un-Pudloian thoughts and opinions. Can you imagine (such audacity) that these interviews may have been a sampling, a survey of the opinions, thoughts and personalities of IF developers and contributors, past and present. It’s almost as if these are rough-cuts from a work of history, not a segment of 60 minutes! The horror!

Well, that was a scary venture outside the accepted tenets of your church. I see why the elders forbid careless use of non-approved media and ideas. Absolutely dangerous, that stuff. I guess I will retreat back to under your bed so that I can watch you sleep. You’re so cute when you sleep. Sometimes, I take a rag out, wipe the drool from your chin, and I keep that rag. I do. I suck on it when I’m anxious.

When Adam proclaims that writing IF is only slightly better than masturbation, I’d expect a follow-up question. Respect for the medium demands it and I suspect the interviewer does respect the medium – why else would he bother interviewing all those people? This is just one of many oddities. Having said that, I still enjoyed watching the good folks of IF. That funny-looking fellow who says he invented emotion in IF and thereby “kicked the pebble that started the landslide” still makes me smile.

I squirm with delight when you, J-J, use the word “respect” in any context, but when you use it in the context of IF… well, I’ll spare you the details of what I do then. Supposing Adam was being provocative, which is not a terrible supposition, I don’t think that the interviewer was under any sacred obligation to call him out for it. As I suggested earlier his purpose may have not been to refine, challenge, or otherwise examine the thinking of the interviewees. It may have been a survey of the personalities, their answers being in a more historical context.

No need to tidy up your attitude, uncurl your lip, and turn all lovingly condescending on my account. You started with:

You’re not fooling anyone.

The funny thing about being famous (or in my case merely notorious) is that total strangers approach you with the familiarity of old enemies. I don’t mean to be rude, Handiquack, but do I even know you?

Wouldn’t that make the interview format redundant? Wouldn’t it be more cost-effective to simply ask people to film themselves on their webcams while propounding on the seminal importance of their work? And if Adam was indeed being provocative, doesn’t that imply that he anticipated an intelligent dialogue?

Did I hurt your delicate psyche? Oh, and speaking of “historical context,” what’s up with the V on Adam’s forehead? Is it a V for vagina (when Adam perambulates) or an A for Alhoholic (when he maniambulates drunkenly)? A tip to Howard Sherman: if you own a black leather sofa, perhaps your home is not the ideal venue for a video interview. But I loved the Star of David on your hairy chest. Awesome collection of pinball machines, Robb! So original to collect those things!

Oh I’m not worried about piddling things like your manners, J-J; I know you don’t have any. I must say that I am surprised at your delicate sensibilities, that after years of working on the IF community like a Jackson Pollock inspired monkey armed with a fresh poop-pallet that such a simple thing as over-familiarity would be what gets under your skin. Suffice it to say that you don’t know me, but it doesn’t matter because I’m your number one fan and I just know that we’ll be very, very happy together. I may not to be the stalker you deserve but… oh wait, I am the stalker you deserve.

Perhaps, though I can think of a number of reasons why he wouldn’t want to deal with every possible webcam and their low-res quirks. Of course, neither your or I have established that he wasn’t asking questions, the edits are simply too rough to tell. All we know is that we don’t really hear many questions. You’ve decided that fact alone made it worth attacking. Don’t bother interrogating me for your flimsy reasoning.

For our purposes it simply doesn’t matter what Adam anticipated. Your inability to see that is merely further evidence of your general lack of vision.

Nice! Oh I bet your thighs are still rippling from where you slapped them in self amusement, because you are indeed thigh-slapping funny, oh yes you are. Cutting right to the heart of everyone’s personal insufficiency, from taking pot-shots their choice in home decor to ridiculing their hobbies. Truly Pudlo is the very soul of wit.

Arcade games, actually – I’m sure the technology will reach your neck of the woods in 20 or 30 years, you pustule-fingered troglodyte. Or maybe the magic of the “solenoid” was discovered in the landfill which marks beautiful downtown Jacekville and everything looks like a “pinball” (ha haha) machine to you now. Jacek spies an ice-making fridge for the first time? PINBALL! Jacek encounters the rusted-out chassis of a Chevy Nova inexplicably abandoned in the window of the post office? PINBALL! Some poor, filth-covered wank is gonna try to install the first gas lantern anyone has ever seen out there and Jacek will be condescendingly shooing his fellow apes away as he confidently strides right up to it and attempts to “tilt” it.

Anyway, people have been laughing at you all over the Internet on this one for a couple days now. It’s one of those occasions where we can sort of tell you’re trying to troll, but your colossal stupidity and inability to process basic English betrays and humiliates you. You really need to read a few more books and try all this again.

OK, I’m off to get a cup of coffee from the Keurig and, hopefully, an extra game!!!

Aww, you feminised my name! What éclat! Clearly, you did not exaggerate when you called yourself intelligent, Handiquack.

And now you’re being sarcastic calling me wonderful! Is there no end to your repartee?

And just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any more clever, you totally redeem yourself with “St. Corpulent”! Amazing. Where do you get these ideas from, Handiquack?

How did you fit all those things inside your trailer, Robb? Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I meant “mobile home,” of course. What wonderful images that phrase conjures up! Being able to go on a vacation without having to pack your bags. Of course, vacation presupposes gainful employment.

Look out everyone, Lonc figured out a way to short-circuit the movie-making process!

Why is nobody recognizing the impressive cost-savings in shooting a motion picture over other people’s webcams?!?!

This is really great, and again, it’s one of those times where mindbending stupidity of the real Lonc comes through. I’d love to see a movie that Jacek made. It would be a single pixel in the middle of the screen that gets darker and lighter throughout runtime, and he would just [strike]e-mail[/strike] mail you the script so you could read it for 80 minutes, since he discovered how much more cost-effective it is to do sound that way.

(You’d also convince yourself that it was brilliant and obviously superior to the works of other film makers, thus engaging in a decades-long shitshow of being butthurt about your weak material being properly ignored, hahahah just kidding that would be ridiculous, you’d never do anything like t-- PINBALL!)

Now that you’ve given up replying to the substance of the argument you’ve taken just to quoting me and laughing? Your replies are getting a bit thin. Are you tired? If you want to go take a nap, it’s okay, I’ll wait and watch while you sleep.

On the other hand, the fluids I produced when you called me clever just now will serve as wonderful adhesive to stick your latest picture to the shrine wall.

I’ll be honest, what I’m really waiting is for you take-down of Pinsky. I really won’t rest until you’ve put him in his place, too.

For Newbies Only: you DO realise that “madduck” and “Ice Cream Jonsey” are sock puppets? For the last 18 hours Jacek has been trying to start a flame by shouting at himself. So far he hasn’t attracted any real people. Let’s keep it that way, guys.

This is all adorable, but silly.

  • First I travel to someone’s home or agreed-upon location, and interview them for 10-120 minutes.
  • I then later listen to the interview and choose statements that are coherent or indicate an idea.
  • These statements are kept in folders with named clips describing the content. This takes months.
  • Finally, I edit together all the statements into a coherent mosaic of ideas on a subject or issue.

When I put up the raw interviews for BBS Documentary, I took a lot of flak because people thought I was asking stupid or redundant or wavering questions, not realizing the entire purpose of the interview is not to do Inside The BBS Sysops’ Studio but to extract coherent statements for a film. So for this one I cut out my statements and just use the clips. If the clip is not contextually clear, that’s probably why it didn’t make it into the final cut of the film.

I have no time to create directed, edited full-length interview sets of this material - note that much of it was recorded in 2006-2008 and here it is 2012, so this was involved enough as it is. So smooshing together all these answers means that sometimes the thread seems lost, or weird, but often that’s because when I was making the clips, the follow-up question and answer wasn’t something I saw as being destined to be in the film. Obviously if something is in this collection that isn’t in the film, it’s more than probable I saw no place for it, so in general they might be informative in a strict sense but likely redundant or a long form answer where I needed a short one.

The “why not use webcams” line is the sort of thing a person who doesn’t understand anything about a process would say, so I won’t answer that one.

Finally, I am generally pleased with how the interview uploads have gone - even though some of the clips will be clunky and redundant, I was worried when I started the project how much interactive fiction history or story could be found, and it turns out there’s a lot - in-depth text interviews will supplement these nicely. Hooray for IF.