“Years ago when I was making movies with a small group of friends, not a lot of people saw them. I always felt, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if more people could see these,'” he said.
In May 2004, he got his wish.
That’s when — just for kicks — Rolfe created his first on-camera game reviews, in which he bemoaned two Nintendo games, “Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” with exaggerated bewilderment that any game developers could be so lazy.
“What were they thinking?” became his bemused war cry.
The whole joke, Rolfe explained, was just how upset one obsessive gamer could get over games that were over 20 years old.
It was a smash hit with his friends who saw it on VHS. Two years later, they goaded the affable and mild-mannered Rolfe to lambaste more old school games, and his on-screen persona was born — to millions of YouTube views.
“It got popular right around when YouTube got popular,” he said.
By 2008 Rolfe made enough money through the Nerd that he could quit his day job freelancing as a video editor.
‘The Angry Video Game Nerd’ is a comedy series of retro-gaming video reviews. The movie will take viewers further into its fictional world. Cinemassacre ‘The Angry Video Game Nerd’ is a comedy series of retro-gaming video reviews. The movie will take viewers further into its fictional world.
The following year the Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition christened “AVGN” the Best Online Video Web Series. Rolfe’s website, Cinemassacre, generates more than 10 million hits monthly, and has more than 550,000 likes on Facebook and 111,000 followers on Twitter.
Fans often tell Rolfe that he’s relatable. It’s almost as if your knee-slappingly funny friend finally got his due.
FAN POWER: FROM YOUTUBE TO THE BIG SCREEN
In an attempt to capitalize on his unexpected success, Rolfe and a small crew of friends traveled to Los Angeles in April 2011 to secure funding for his dreams of producing a “real movie.” Producers wouldn’t listen.
The special effects scenes turned out to be a nightmare and significantly delayed the film’s production. Cinemassacre The special effects scenes turned out to be a nightmare and significantly delayed the film’s production.
So Rolfe and friends started a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo to raise what they estimated to be a portion of their film’s budget: $75,000. His dedicated following went well beyond that goal and donated more than $325,000 — a small budget by industry standards but still no small feat.
Rolfe developed a fan base without the help of a studio. And now he’s making a film without that, too. Filmmaking’s new landscape allowed it.
John Tintori, chair of New York University’s graduate film program and a veteran film editor, says that filmmakers need to be more entrepreneurial to survive in today’s environment.
“I don’t mean they have to sell out or compromise their art,” he said. “They got to take much more responsibility as to what their business model will be.”
Troma Entertainment’s Lloyd Kaufman, director of ‘The Toxic Avenger,’ (left) guest-starred in an AVGN episode about a game based on the character from his low-budget classic. Cinemassacre Troma Entertainment’s Lloyd Kaufman, director of ‘The Toxic Avenger,’ (left) guest-starred in an AVGN episode about a game based on the character from his low-budget classic.
Academy Award-winning producer Peggy Rajski thinks Rolfe’s story demonstrates someone who used the crowd funding system really well.
“Crowd funding is an opportunity to do two things: Market your film and also to generate backing for it,” Rajski said. “He already cultivated an audience that cared about his prior work. When he asked them to step up, clearly they were willing to.”
Rolfe’s relationship with fans has always been interactive.
Since the beginning, Rolfe’s fans have asked him to review specific games and even mailed him hard copies to make it happen. Now The Nerd’s basement is lined with more cartridges, discs and consoles than one person could reasonably want.
One of the staples of Cinemassacre’s website is ‘Monster Madness,’ in which Rolfe reviews a series of horror films every October. Now he’s bringing his own monsters to the silver screen. Cinemassacre One of the staples of Cinemassacre’s website is ‘Monster Madness,’ in which Rolfe reviews a series of horror films every October. Now he’s bringing his own monsters to the silver screen.
The most requested game review, by far, is for the so-called worst game ever made: “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” for the Atari 2600 from 1982. Rolfe never did an episode about it so he could give the fabled misfire the due diligence it deserves: a full-length feature film.
The plot for “Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie” revolves around the rumored New Mexico landfill burial of more than 1 million copies of returned or unsold cartridges for the notoriously bad E.T. game. The Nerd must go on an epic quest to prove to his fans that it’s just a myth — but he’s likely to learn otherwise.
A PRODUCTION LONGER THAN HYRULE’S TIMELINE
Producing a large-scale motion picture presented far more hurdles than Rolfe could ever have imagined. Working on the film while maintaining his Web series — which now has 117 episodes — stretched out film shooting from April 2012 to December 2013, far longer than he anticipated.
Rolfe sticks to practical effects as much as possible while shooting a monster attack for the movie. Cinemassacre Rolfe sticks to practical effects as much as possible while shooting a monster attack for the movie.
“It’s basically having a job on top of another job,” he said. “I sometimes envy people who get to make films and just get to do that but then again I have something really special with the fan base. And I don’t want to give up either thing so it was important to keep videos coming. But knowing, at the same time, that that would slow up the movie, so I was always being pulled both ways.”
As the production lagged on, Rolfe appeared and sounded more and more tired in his on-camera reviews: the realities of filmmaking’s difficulties evident in each video update.
The biggest obstacle that slowed production was Rolfe’s adherence to practical effects — special effects produced with animatronics, puppets and models instead of computer generated imagery (CGI).
Rolfe, like many other cinephiles, finds practical effects more appealing – even if he now understands why the industry relies so heavily on CGI.
Every single effects shot “was like this brainteaser that had some logistical problem to solve,” Rolfe said.
Now he is in the post-production phase, polishing off the final visual effects. And he hopes to release the movie by the end of the year.
Rolfe says the finished product will have an independent run in theaters and eventually go on DVD and Blu-ray. But he would like as wide of a release as possible.
“Hope this all starts happening soon actually,” he said. “It’s pretty safe to say by the end of the year.”
It’s been a long road. Fans are buzzing. And the Nerd is finally ready for his close-up.
