By Pat French
Rooster Teeth, the internets’s premier production studio, have been making me laugh for 11 years. Their initial endeavor was the hilarious (and occasionally deep and brilliant) Halo machinima series Red vs. Blue (which is still ongoing, there are new episodes on Mondays). Machinima, for those of you just tuning in, is animation made through video game graphics. Over the past decade they have followed up with more machinima, live action comedy, game reporting, and an array of animation. Now they’re taking the big step into making features, starting with a Sci-Fi comedy called Lazer Team.
The indi-gogo page for the film describes it as follows:
In the late 1970’s, the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence project received a one time signal from outer space. It looked exactly as theorists thought a communication from an alien civilization would — unfortunately it has never been decoded. Or so we were told. Unbeknownst to the general public the signal was translated and told us two things:
- We are not alone.
- The galaxy is a dangerous place.
Our story is live action sci-fi comedy that takes place decades later in the aftermath of this event. We will be holding a conference call for all our BTS-level and higher supporters on Tuesday June 17, 2014 during which will we cover the plot in greater detail.
There’s a wonderful sort of symmetry to Rooster Teeth making a crowdfunded movie. Back in the day, before indigogo or kickstarter existed, RT offered their fans the option to become “Sponsors” and receive exclusive content and premiere access in exchange for donations. That’s right, they were crodfunding before it was cool.
I received the email about Lazer Team this morning and the when I checked the indigogo page they had already reached 109% of their goal. There are still 30 days left to donate, and they have some fun prizes for each donation level. Anyone who pledges at least $10.00 will get updates about the production and access to the aforementioned conference call on June 17th (now where the devil is my wallet?).
This is exciting news. Rooster Teeth is a rare example of an independent American company growing and making their craft without having to compromise their integrity. Their content maintains the same level of irreverence, sarcasm, and dirty language that it always has, and has only gotten better in quality. They have always maintained a classy relationship with their fanbase, and delivered a solid product.
If you’re interested in checking out more about Lazer Team, here is the link to the Indigogo page è https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lazer-team-by-rooster-teeth
And if you have never watched any of their videos, check out their home page at www.roosterteeth.com Video game fans: there’s plenty of stuff for you here. Anime fans: check out RWBY, it’ll be your new favorite thing for a little while. If you enjoy laughing: click away, they’re funny people.