NerdQuest is a movie that I am glad exists and that probably doesn't sound
like a glowing recommendation but stick with me here. for those of you not
familiar Nerdquest is a crowd-funded 65 minute long feature film directed by
Mike Jeavons who you might know better as Mike J and produced by Mat Williams who
you probably know better as Welshy. it is a film about nerds not so much on a
quest as LARPing but that's not the point
the point is that five ish years ago a bunch of people spent about eight days, I
was there three, in some woods in darkest soggiest Buckinghamshire making a movie
about a LARP event that turns into actual murder and it was so much fun I
mean I arrived on the Monday because I'm not in any of the night scenes and they
just finished the night shoot and everyone was shattered and then we
filmed in the woods for two days while everything around us slowly turned to
mud and despair but still. there's a scene in the film where we're meant to
be dancing and partying and having a really good time and I basically did a
lot of swishing my dress around because I couldn't really move my feet because
every time I did it made a large sucking noise. plus I was in a single-layer
stretch velvet in a July when it rained constantly luckily I came prepared with
boots which were never at the same again never the same again really
Mike's then-fiance now wife Grace fed us I desperately tried to keep my
necromancer staff out of the mud because it's not really supposed to get wet
and I was very glad of my amazing Chinese bun style updo because if you're
gonna be filming for three days 10 hours a day in rain and wind and stuff and you
don't have a mirror updos are your friend if you're into hair tutorials and
you'd like to know how to do a Chinese bun slash Marie style updo there is a
link appear probably but look you're actually here for a review of nerdquest
right so nerdquest is perhaps a movie that tries more than it succeeds but I'm
still glad it's a thing that exists and if you haven't seen it then this review
is going to be spoileriffic and there are actual decent twists in it which you
may not anticipate which I would like you to experience so you should either
go to the link which is up here or Mike Jeavons's youtube channel or go to the
description box yes those still exist and find yourself a link in fact you may
have been watching live stream of the movie which went up
just before this video did right. everybody back? great. the plot it goeth
thusly this is John a total dork whose dad died a few years back. he enjoys
LARPing. for his birthday he invites his friends to Lordquest a LARPing event
in the middle of nowhere slash Buckinghamshire. Gavin John David and Dom
arrive immediately have their mobile devices taken for authenticity sake by
Cougar a dude and a crown and a cape he likes to dramatically swish about. the
place is generally a bit disappointing David tries to hit on the only woman in
the forest which goes real well our heroes take part in a rubbish mock
battle a guy gets his eye put out and Cougar has to take him to the hospital
the tent has an annoyingly sticky zip which doesn't work properly and all in
all they're generally miserable. next morning everyone's gone because they're
dead or about to die. and so our heroes make their way through the woods David
is murdered and Dom gets kidnapped by the villain who turns out to be...wait me?
I mean her? but where is her boyfriend? you know the ginger oh dear "I am NOT
being killed by a ginger" car-related shenanigans, we find out that Joan's dad
died under mysterious circumstances remarkably similar to these, the nervous
guy we picked up earlier dies, Dom gets stabbed in the shoulder - really not doing
well is he - and the ginger guy is not the villain wait it's Cougar! John gets killed
and a thousand film brand fangirls wince and sympathy Gavin kills Cougar and
credits roll there are a lot of things I like about nerdquest, not just that I was in
it. I like the fact that everything in the LARPing battle foreshadows
everything that happens in the rest of the movie: we never see Gavin die David
is hit from behind Dom is stunned by Marie and then stabbed in the shoulder
and John is stabbed to death by someone he thought was his friend. I also like
that they unmasked Marie when she's lying on the ground because really why
would you not do that? also the costume smelled like a teenage boy inside and so
I was really glad they let me lie there without my face covering. Oh
incidentally that is not me getting hit on the head with sugar glass the general
sentiment being we just met you we're not gonna hit you over the head with a
bottle which I guess fair enough I like that
it's John who kicks off the plot but that it's Gavin who's the hero of the
piece. Gavin is the one who steps up and takes action and he's the one who gets
the most defined arc he goes from do I care really to the one who makes the
plans and tries his best to get them out of there. John hides things - really,
really important things from his friends and ultimately he pays the price for it
I like that none of the heroes are completely irredeemable twerps they may
be grumpy or act like jerks or act like they don't really like each other much
but there is a sense of camaraderie there which lends the movie some heart
and it's probably because they do really genuinely like each other in real life
turns out movie making in somewhat arduous conditions can be a bonding
experience. nerdquest was shot on film so it's not an HD the light was not
great - the weather was atrocious and technical issues meant that it needed
some pretty heavy colour correction which you can probably still see it's
quite blue in places like not metaphorically blue I mean literally
blue the aforementioned weather issues meant that everyone was wet through for
at least two solid days the script had to be hacked down no pun intended because
there wasn't enough time or light to shoot it and there are lots of places
where the budget such as it wasn't does show but it exists and that it exists is
a testament to every single person who showed up and rolled with the challenges
and got on with whatever needed to be done and made the thing because
ultimately to borrow from Theodore Roosevelt for a second and despite what
YouTube would have you think it's not the critic who counts. credit belongs to
the man who does actually strive to do the deeds who spends himself in a worthy
cause. as much as I love to pick apart movies and what makes them work and what
doesn't and as much as people on YouTube you know prefer that ultimately it's
much more fun to make your own thing however flawed it might be after all if
you've made something and you see some things which you don't like about it
then you can I do better next time right? there is something about making
something and going from the start of the project right the way through to
completion that is just so much better than starting 12 things and never
finishing any of them even if the thing you finish doesn't have the amazing
potential of the 12 things that you start it it's complete which none of
those twelve things are and there is value in getting it done which may well
be a pretty solid moral for a lot of areas of life actually. happy All Hallows
slightly early if you liked this episode do subscribe thank you as always to my
patrons and I'll see you all next time I promise I'm not aiding and abetting a
bearded serial killer with a flair for the dramatic in real life
well not as far as I know