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A Movie Making Nerd

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A Movie Making Nerd

By: James Rolfe
Narrated by: James Rolfe
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About this listen

James Rolfe is an independent filmmaker and creator of the Angry Video Game Nerd web series and feature film. A Movie Making Nerd is a personal account of his origins, starting with an early love of making home movies before the rise of the internet and digital video. Rolfe candidly details moments of triumph and failure in both life and filmmaking—from his time in special education school and struggles during adolescence and college, to personal relationships, finding employment, and raising children. Every recollection in A Movie Making Nerd, whether happy, funny, or painful, shows how one might turn a childhood hobby into a life-long calling.

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As a huge fan of James’ for years now. Hearing such an in depth look over his life as a film maker/creative individual. I couldn’t help but relate so much, As creative individuals. We always look at different aspirations as time goes on. I always was a film maker myself. But there was always other stuff I wanted to dabble in and achieve in. This book really hit home and was incredibly touching and inspiring.

Touching and Relatable

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I've been a huge fan of James ever since back in the day, although never did I ever think James had ever gone through that many traumatic experiences in his life during his youth. Some of the things James got into were very chilling to listen to, but to hear how he came out stronger on the other side and never let any of it bring him down is truly inspiring. The book may not touch on many controversial topics such as screenwave, hearing James' lifestory in such detail was amazing

I definitely would recommend this book for anyone who is not only a fan of James but a fan of inspiring stories to begin with

an awesome inspiring story

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I've been a fan of James since the early days, and I've followed him on & off as the years have gone on. Thus, this book was right up my alley.

I binged it a little under a day, only really stopping to sleep, so needless to say, the book kept my attention.

It's a fascinating deep dive, starting in extremely early childhood & ending (more or less) in the present day. Through this book, we see that the journey from A to B was rarely a straight one, with the universe itself seemingly conspiring against James every step of the way.

On a personal level, I was genuinely surprised by how similar mine & James' lives were, and I suspect this will be a shared experience for many readers.

I've heard some people complain that there was too much of a focus on smaller moments & little anecdotes. James does go into great, often graphic detail about the events of his life. Everything from scarring childhood incidents to his first experiences with sex, drugs & alcohol, and even the birth of his children are recounted beat for beat. In total, maybe half the book focuses on his AVGN career.

For me, this is what I love about memoirs & autobiographies. I love getting a vulnerable, unfiltered insight into the heart, mind & soul of another human being, whom at that point, I'd only gotten to know as an outsider looking in.

Hearing the book narrated by James himself only doubles this appeal.

If what I've described doesn't sound appealing to you, however, then this book probably isn't for you. It also doesn't touch upon more recent controversies such as Screenwave in any great depth.

This is understandable, as these controversies (whatever form they may actually take from James' perspective) are still ongoing, and if there is any drama to be acknowledged, it still probably affects James' livelihood.

I personally wasn't reading this for details on that situation in particular, but if you are hoping to have things like Mike's departure acknowledged, you should temper your expectations.

This book is a chronicle. A high & lowlights reel of the periods of James' life that are personally significant to him.

This also means that the exploration of the AVGN side of his history is more rooted in his personal life. Don't get me wrong, there are a bevy of anecdotes & funny behind the scenes stories, but don't expect everything to be covered.

You'll find no mentions of Irate Gamers nor Cheetahmen here. That's not to say he skims over all difficult points in history (far from it), only to say that they had to have a significant impact to him personally.

All of this is to say that if you're interested in a deep dive into the life & history of James Rolfe, this book is for you. If you're expected a huge, behind the scenes extravaganza on the Nerd specifically, though, you might be disappointed.

What might be significant to us, may be only be a tiny blip for James, so do keep that in mind.

There's also some technical errors with the audio itself. At the end of a lot of chapters, you can hear him shifting in his chair, as well as some general background noise that cuts harshly between takes.

There was also one point where he flubs a line, and forgot to edit it out. It's minor, but worth noting.

It's clear that James recorded this using his usual recording set up & likely edited this himself too.

This has the aforementioned technical cons, but it also invites a certain injection of personality from James that a cleaner, more professional set up may have lacked; small things like James chuckling in disbelief at something ridiculous he lived through or the audible choking up at his harrowing moments.

I'd have preferred if the technical errors weren't present (and hope they're edited out in the future), but James putting this together himself at least invites a rawness to the delivery that I really appreciated.

All-in-all, I had a blast listening to this book. It's certainly not for everyone, but I got exactly what I wanted & gained a greater appreciation for James, work he's put in & the life he's lived.

An excellent goodbye to the past...

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Loved it. Well worth the listen. Hearing it in James voice too made it so much better. Will probably give it another listen some time.

Charming memoir from a cult filmmaker

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