Originally we had time, lots of time. Previous arrangements notwithstanding, there really wasn’t much stopping us from getting this done weeks in advanced. At least, that’s what I thought. The first day I was to do filming, one of my tires blew out. Not so much an issue, but my vehicle apparently uses “special” tires that require specific non-stock tires. This is where the troubles began. First they tell me it could take a week for my tire to come in, which already puts a previous vacation plan in jeopardy. Luckily, it was solved with a rental, but it was still an unnecessary expense. Then after coming back, I find out my tire is backordered… by nearly 60 days!

So I get picked up, since my car was still out of commission, and we do some filming. A two-man crew (Host + Cameraman/Director) made things take a lot longer and more complicated than it had to be. We got most of the primary segment filmed, but now it was late. I had to be taken home. On the way home, we get pulled over by the local police for an infraction. The worst part? I was within 5 miles of my own home.

So during the week, I finally get my car’s tire situation figured out. I recruited the assistance of one of my friends to help me film the second segment and any incidental recordings for future shows. Lo and behold, he gets very ill that weekend while at my house and has to head home, leaving me alone again. We are now 2 days from when we are supposed to have this aired.

I make it down to the location and we get filming done. In the middle of the day (as is customary when I visit that area) I get a gnarly headache. Ibuprofen doesn’t seem to be helping so I trudge through. We get the filming completed just after sundown and we go get dinner. After dinner, I am dizzy and my head is pounding, but I decide to head home anyways, as returning to my own environment helps greatly. Needless to say, the drive home was… interesting. Going through a mountain pass in the dark, seeing red, and barely keeping your eyes open was an adventure to say the least.

I end up getting home, get showered and make my arrangements to go to work the next morning. I lay down and I start to doze, when out of nowhere, I suddenly get up, run to the bathroom, and proceed to… I’ll spare the details. It was violent. Really violent. I never hurt so bad in my life. On top of that, it kept going until the following afternoon. I couldn’t get to a computer, and I couldn’t think straight. The project was due the following day, and I couldn’t even edit the footage. It all depended on me and knowing that fact made it worse.

So the pain and the *ahem* subsided and my stomach calmed down finally after near 16 hours. I slowly tried to rebuild and rehydrate, but it caused some more issues. as the night when on, the fierceness of the ejection was starting to catch up with me and soon, nearly 24 hours after it began, I felt as if someone had skewered me through the chest with a spear. It was unbearable and painful. So much so that I had to make a run to the ER (again, barely able to move, in the dense fog. Lots of fun…) and get checked out.

After that adventure, I got home and notified the affected parties of the situation. I was given an extra week. Since nothing else needed to be filmed, all I needed to do was edit the film. I kicked on the editor and began to manipulate the video, and the computer was being very sluggish. I was concerned as this system was mostly advanced and never acted in this manner. I tried to add another hard drive to offload the work and the system no longer responded. Pissed, I went to a local retailer and picked up replacements. I put them in, got the machine started, and began working on the project. I just had the first segment completed when it stalled. so I shut off the computer, as is customary, and I noticed a sizzling sound.

The sound was coming from one of my cameras plugged into the machine! The battery had over expanded, and the camera itself was too hot to touch. The culprit? The machine’s PSU had gone awry and blew past the system’s protection and powered the firewire port, frying the motherboard and the camera in one shot. I just lost $1.3k in 5 minutes. I was mad, devastated, and worried, as the camera was one of my tools, and was not mine to begin with. A plethora of bad circumstances and the deadline again was down to 1 day. I seemed certain this was doomed. Then the power of family came in and I was rescued.

I had no choice but to wait to the day of; the day I am supposed to turn in this episode. Surely, nothing should go wrong on this day, as it is a special day of the year… And I got replacement parts again. This time, changing out the power supply, I got the computer started and immediately set forth to complete the job. I got the voice overs recorded as well, and just before 11pm, I had finally finished the video.

This has been one hell of an adventure just to get the pilot episode off the ground. They say that once you start, it only gets easier. Well, I don’t think we have officially started per say, but we did get it off the ground somewhat. I just hope future episodes are a lot smoother than this…

So now begins the journey to attempt to write out a least a very minimal treatment on the few major projects I want to get made. I have to decide though, do I want to make the effort and make a series or just start out with trailers? If I do trailers and then decide to move onto a series, I may end up changing items from that original idea. But the advantage of making a series outright means that the story I want to convey will be told in full and not just snippets. Such a task to ponder.

What are these projects that I want to make so badly? Will, if I told you, there would be either no excitement when I release it, or expectations would be made and if I fail to deliver, would cause disappointment, of which I would like to avoid. I’ll make an effort to at least get started with something. Maybe by the time I’ve written down the first major project, I can at least move onto the next phase which is easy… filming.

After the last show this past Anime Expo 2010, we looked back at what we could do to improve on the format, but started to come up short. Things did not progress as smoothly as we had hoped, and some segments fell short due to some concerns about timing and execution. Being that also we were preoccupied with more pressing matters and my restaffing at the last moment made things more difficult.

As such, we are announcing that the Indecent Otaku Comedy Show will be on permanent hiatus until further notice. We do not have the resources to continue this project, but we appreciate all the help that Anime Expo has provided us to bring you this years show and our special guest, Danny Choo.

So what are the plans for the crew? Well we are refocusing now on Anime Expo’s current media project, “AX Live,” which airs on a weekly basis on Wednesdays from 7pm, and providing services and technology to better improve the look and feel of the show.

Enjoy this panel featuring William Shatner as he talks about upcoming projects, anecdotes, and other tales while answering questions from the audience.

Watch for the videos to be distributed soon!