This weekend I visited Los Angeles for the Newgrounds screening at Animation Breakdown, hosted by the Cinefamily theater. What a great time! The event was curated by Sean Buckelew, with an emphasis on 2000-2004. It was also organized by Jeanette Bonds, who I didn't realize was elementalbadger here on NG. She made Trusts & Estates, which should be required viewing.
Also in attendance were Mockery, El-Cid, Bowz, RomeoJR, AlmightyHans, StrawberryClock, DonkeysBazooka, Tomamoto, Jaxxy, Evilzug, seanjames, MarkAguilar20, MikeSalyh, Pikanjo, Emanhattan, Mexifry, lonewolfgame, Shadorath, zappawadda, thepixelizer.
I noted three usersnames I must have mistyped: Fr0stcrunch, FullMoonness and Alphazxe. If you read this, respond and let me know your correct NG username. Also if you didn't tell me your NG name or didn't get to talk to me, still feel welcome to make yourself known in this thread!
Some locals came out for dinner but couldn't make it to the screening - shout out to gene-goldstein, OdellAtkinson and GuitarmasterX7!
There was a late-night Smash tournament in the theater after the screening & reception. Xander Mobus (the announcer in Smash) was there and did a Q&A. Turns out he's Motley-Fool here on NG and has voiced a bunch of stuff!
The screening was an hour long, followed by a Q&A. The biggest surprise of the Q&A came after I answered a question concerning the most satisfying / rewarding aspect of NG. I explained how I'm most satisfied when someone tells me NG is what inspired them to learn Flash and make something, and now that thing exists in this world when it otherwise may not have. The theater broke into applause, which isn't something I normally get in response to a Q&A answer and it was a really special life moment. Afterwards, lots of people came up and told me they are one of those people who got inspired by NG. That's the best feeling ever. I'm aware that a lot of people nowadays are focused on platforms such as YouTube and Steam, but we'll keep working to make NG the best and these stories of inspiration should continue long into the future.
Something that was noted and that I agree with is that artists still get the best feedback on NG. So everyone who has been writing reviews and giving quality feedback - THANK YOU. I need to write more reviews myself, too. We may not may not always compete on traffic but we can definitely outperform in the department of having an appreciative, interesting community that gives quality feedback. I'll also note that we're competitive on ad rates, so be sure to sign up for rev-share if you upload here!
This was the first time NG ever screened at a movie theater but hopefully won't be the last. NG is turning 20 next year and in addition to being home to great new artists of the future, we'll continue to celebrate artists of the past and make sure history doesn't forget them. Most web content eventually becomes a dead link but that isn't the case with NG and we should all be really proud of that.
Now I just gotta wrap up the Halloween Spooktacular, expect that next.
I'll close things out with a picture of B on the big screen and a group shot of some of us who made it past 2am:
