Comments on Lost Bets Productions: When life gives you lemons...

You know Red, I never thought of using email. Duh...

2009-08-12T10:10:53.044-07:00

You know Red, I never thought of using email.

Duh!

Seems so 20th century :-)

-Trike

Trike, we do accept comments by email :) A...

2009-08-11T17:09:23.273-07:00

Trike, we do accept comments by email :)

And yes, the crowd was becoming distracted for some reason. If you listen close, you might guess what it was.

Red, you asked for feedback. One of the reasons I...

2009-08-11T16:34:04.605-07:00

Red, you asked for feedback. One of the reasons I haven't commented on the clip itself much is that it's difficult to do so without spoiling the end.

Actually, I thought it was pretty good. My biggest gripe was that the end forfeit was fairly protracted (not in itself an issue), but the audience were obviously getting restless for some reason and there was a lot of noises off.

But definite kudos to Johnny and Kat for risking what they did, especially given the live nature of it.

Mind you, having seen the earlier trailer, there's some other interesting stuff being risked, isn't there? :-)

-Trike

This video is selling like hotcakes but I'm no...

2009-08-11T15:36:29.209-07:00

This video is selling like hotcakes but I'm not hearing much feedback about it. What do you think, guys?

Crosis: Well, I was going to have a closing credit roll that credited me with all of those roles and more, but you were one o f the first to convince me that my credit sequence was way too long so I shelved the idea.

And I would be completely remiss if I didn't point out that there's way more than enough credit for YBYA to go around. To Crosis himself, of course. To Prudella, and to Johnny and Naomi (formerly Kat). And to every fan who's shared ideas that inspired YBYA. They're all wearing some pretty important hats, too.

Dave35: Sorry, I missed your post earlier. I'm not going to make any promises about when a real site will be ready, at least not yet. But once enough progress is underway that the light at the end of the tunnel can be seen, I may make predictions as to when it'll launch. Fair?

And believe me, I want to do more interactive games. I will do more interactive games. But they'll have to wait until I have my own site... C4S won't let me sell them and they are so much work that I just can't afford to give them away for free (again).

Hey all... I've been meaning to post a comment...

2009-08-11T10:29:12.632-07:00

Hey all... I've been meaning to post a comment all weekend long (but was busy with the real part of my life).

Thank you to everyone for supporting this endeavor. I'll try to answer as many of the comments and questions as I can. First of all however, I want to point something out. Red takes his credit on the videos as "Producer", a title which sells short the effort he puts into these videos. For a standard 2-3 person, hotel room shoot, Red is not only the "Producer", but he is also could be called, director, lead cameraman, lighting, audio, and executive producer (that's the part where he pays the players). That is a LOT of hats to wear on a normal set, throw in 10 players and a studio audience and it's a fucking miracle that this show was as good as it was. If Red could have truly sat back and been a "Producer" that night, it is very likely that he could have made a different decision about the players in question.

Moving on.... It is unlikely that rounds 1 and 2 will make it out. In addition to "blurring out" parts (something that is much easier to do with a still shot in photoshop than with moving video), the Hi-Lo trivia round features questions that include trademarked names (e.g. How much sugar is there in a can of Coca-Cola?). All of the companies we mentioned employ large teams of lawyers who like to file law suits about such usage. While we'd probably fly under their radar, getting sued would put a damper on our ability to bring you high quality strip game videos. Round 2 (beer pong) is where the majority of the hateful images occur, and would mean too many blurring and editing hassles. That leaves us with a game of Basketball in which 2 losers must bring themselves to orgasm with the aide of some toys, a race of sorts to see which girl has the best technique (and the losers lose their clothes and then some...), and one game where we find out what happens when someone volunteers at a lostbets.com gameshow. The good news is that you won't have to wait very long for the next installment. How long? (stop back later tonight and you'll see).

Keep the comments coming folks. Rumor has it that Red might be seeing some old friends really soon and making some new ones. Fun times... fun times...

Yes Mir, I have seen that site, although I haven&#...

2009-08-11T07:11:16.286-07:00

Yes Mir, I have seen that site, although I haven't seen any of their material. We're not affiliated with them. Their stuff does look fairly similar to ours (minus the females) but not having seen any of it I can't really say for sure. If it is basically a gay version of our material, well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I'm flattered.

hi red and crosis i cant agree more with arc you g...

2009-08-11T07:03:58.790-07:00

hi red and crosis i cant agree more with arc you guys do great job but please could we at least have a tease as to when the website,message board etc will be ready and i hate to keep on please please please another interactive game...

have you seen this? it is like a gay version of yo...

2009-08-11T00:09:17.978-07:00

have you seen this? it is like a gay version of your show?

www.biggaystrippinggames.com

mir

Whoops... I meant the former of course.

2009-08-10T20:02:02.847-07:00

Whoops... I meant the former of course.

The latter, LotfW. That'll change once we have...

2009-08-10T19:54:49.139-07:00

The latter, LotfW. That'll change once we have a message board (which I really am working on, I promise) but with a blog it's just too easy for comments on old posts to get lost.

Red Sorry the situation turned into what it is...I...

2009-08-10T19:47:47.616-07:00

Red
Sorry the situation turned into what it is...I can understand what you went through that day. I do the same thing. Instead of saying how you feel or doing something your gut tells you to do, you do the opposite and regret your decision later.

Different topic...
What is best thing to do...bring expansion of ideas from old posts forward to recent posts or comment on the original post?

Believe me, gb, I learned a lot of lessons ...

2009-08-10T18:28:32.935-07:00

Believe me, gb, I learned a lot of lessons from this incident, not the least of which was "don't promise what you can't deliver." In my defense, I really thought we would be publishing YBYA, and I was excited to tell you guys about it, but I should've been more patient and not jumped the gun.

Reader: I try not to sound like too much of a weepy girly-man on this blog, but honestly, comments like yours (and Arc's above) really move me. I mean, "I was lucky enough to find your site not too long after you started"... so, not only do you buy our work and think it's worth the price, but you consider yourself lucky to be able to do so. That's a high compliment indeed and I thank you for it. And we'll keep on making the best videos we can as long as we're able.

Crosis...thank you for salvaging some of the YBYA ...

2009-08-10T14:13:43.251-07:00

Crosis...thank you for salvaging some of the YBYA footage.

Red...lesson here for you, if you promote something as much as you did YBYA and then decide not to distribute it your paying customers are going to want to know why. I can understand your decision to can most of the footage because of the persons involved but you need to understand people do not like to be kept in the dark.

gb

Hey Red, I was lucky enough to find your site not...

2009-08-09T02:47:30.555-07:00

Hey Red,

I was lucky enough to find your site not too long after you started, and I've enjoyed it ever since then. I hope you keep up the good work.

When I first heard you weren't releasing YBYA because of some tattoos, I also wondered why you didn't just blur them out. Now that you've given us more information I completely understand where you are coming from. In the end only you can decide if the footage is usable. If you can make something good out of the bad situation then more power to you, but if you think that the footage should be scrapped then I (and I suspect most of your fans) will understand.

I hope that wasn't too long winded (it was longer but I trimmed it down ;). I just wanted add my support, and I appreciate you keeping your fans in the loop.

-Reader

Anon 12:46: Thanks (and thanks also for being a re...

2009-08-08T19:08:05.755-07:00

Anon 12:46: Thanks (and thanks also for being a repeat customer), but please sign your posts. You can stay anonymous, you don't need to sign up for a Blogger account, but please pick a handle and use it.

Trike: Thanks to you also for your support. YBYA #1 isn't a total loss and especially after seeing this one I'm hoping we can salvage a good chunk of it, so you'll be seeing more of those lovely ladies in stages of undress.

Jack: Actually, I sort of disagree. The really old-timers here will know that most of the material from my very first shoot ever (featuring Ashton and Mia) was never published and probably won't be, because it frankly sucks. It was my first time ever doing this, and I had no clue what I was doing. But I have no regrets that much of that material is essentially wasted, because I learned so much from the experience that every shoot since has been better. Similarly, YBYA was my first time ever trying to do anything like a live gameshow. And yes, I did think it went pretty well... but there were also some major screwups caused by my inexperience. For example, just look at the set and the backdrop. It's a shame about YBYA, but even if most of YBYA stays on the cutting room floor, it'll live on through the vast improvement that YBYA2 is sure to be. I came away from YBYA with a head full of ideas of how to do it better.

Arc: Comments like yours mean more to me than I can say. Thank you. I'm very glad you like our work, and we'll do as well as we can to keep a good variety going.

Red, Croisis, Prudella and everyone else who makes...

2009-08-08T07:42:31.771-07:00

Red, Croisis, Prudella and everyone else who makes this site happen...Thank You! This is by far the best site I've had the joy of stumbling across, regular updates with a constant variety of games, girls and forfeits...what more can anyone ask for? I look forward to many more amazing videos. My only concern is I gotta have them all, and with mid-week updates, it's enough to make my bank account weep ;) Keep up the great work!

Arc

I understand you not wanting these tatoos, let alo...

2009-08-08T06:46:39.235-07:00

I understand you not wanting these tatoos, let alone promoting people with hate attitudes. I would think if you were willing to show their faces you could photoshop out the tatoos, or at least put your lost bets logos over top of the offensive tatoos.

My view if the first YBYA game was good creating game 2 will not be the same and you will be forever comparing YBYA 2 to YBYA 1.

Take some time and photoshop YBYA 1 and then hurry up a get working on YBYA 2 as well.

My two cents, and a whole lot more if you keep up the good work.

Jack.

Red, thanks for explaining what happened. I know ...

2009-08-08T02:53:29.444-07:00

Red, thanks for explaining what happened. I know it's taken you a while to get to the point where you felt you could talk about it.

In hindsight, we all make decisions (or fail to make decisions) that we regret later.

When it was explained a while back that it was offensive tattoos that were the underlying issues, I'll admit that I did think "well, how offensive can they be?". Now we know - or at least have a pretty good idea - and it's pretty ugly.

So credit to you Red for taking the hit and pulling the full version of YBYA. I'd like to think I'd have done the same thing.

-Trike

(from a different anonymous, but a repeat customer...

2009-08-08T00:46:23.778-07:00

(from a different anonymous, but a repeat customer)

Yeah, I don't know about others but I definitely wouldn't want the surprise of that tattoo popping out. You made the right decision as far as I'm concerned. Looking forward to the next try.

For quite a long time, I refused to say anything a...

2009-08-07T23:30:44.173-07:00

For quite a long time, I refused to say anything about why YBYA had been put on indefinite hold. This is pretty much why... because I didn't want to have to talk about this.

It's not the tattoos which are the problem, which is why I've rejected several suggestions that I blur or cut the offending ink. It's the people wearing them. I shouldn't have done business with them.

I was taken by surprise: I had never met them before, and this was one of the very few times I delegated recruiting the players. (It's actually just a little more complicated than that, but bear with me.) And we had planned the show to have eight contestants, so remembering the old adage about the show must go on, the show went on.

Later, I reasoned that I really did invest a whole lot of money in the episode, and convinced myself that we could go ahead and air it, just make sure not to show the tats. So we went ahead with teasing and promoting it. And then Crosis put a shitload of effort (a lot of postproduction was required) to edit together the first game, Hi-Lo Trivia, and it looked great. And at the end, he put a promo for the second game, which was Strip Beer Pong (with the losers of the trivia game serving as naked ball girls.) And while I was watching this, looking forward to bringing it to an audience, there it was in the promo: a nice big fat symbol of hate staring at me. And that moment, I thought to myself: I can't do this.

I shouldn't have done business with them. I should have said, "I'm sorry, you're not welcome here." I should have frantically revamped the show to deal with the reduced cast -- it would not have been the first time I've frantically altered plans due to a last-minute change. Instead I smiled at them, shook their hands, and wrote them checks. I felt dirty.

And that, my friend, is what happened. Believe me, nothing would please me more than to be able to have brought YBYA to successful publication (the plan was to do a DVD) but that wasn't in the cards. And I was pretty pissed about it, too... the joke I made was, first the Holocaust, then they ruin YBYA, these guys are really hard to like.

For the record I don't think I'm drawing a line in a "weird place". Looking over your list of where I went before: the sisters didn't do anything untoward with each other. All of the girls, naturally, consented to undergoing forfeits as a penalty for losing, including being forced to orgasm, being sent nude through a fast-food drivethrough, or being spanked so hard it leaves welts. The unfortunate losers of those games knew what they were getting in for.

As for the forfeit in Strip DaCunt (I never heard any feedback, laughter or groans for that pun), is that a problem? Are naked ladies not allowed to be patriotic? Are victorious clothed ladies not allowed to savor the sight of naked ladies singing the national anthem with them?

On the one hand, we've got all of the above. On the other, symbols of hatred. To me, it's pretty clear where to draw that line.

I would never do something like this artificially as a "marketing ploy". I don't run Lost Bets Productions to maximize revenue; it's just not my way. Ask anybody I've insisted take more money for the work they've done for me.

That's why Crosis had to convince me to publish this. I was willing to eat the financial loss as a sort of penance, but he insisted that what we can salvage from that day is worth seeing. Looking at this one, I think he's right. Oh, and by the way, did anyone catch what I said last Tuesday?

(pn above)

2009-08-07T16:37:43.316-07:00

(pn above)

Sorry crosis, but these tattoos were not so offens...

2009-08-07T16:37:27.857-07:00

Sorry crosis, but these tattoos were not so offensive (or noticeable) as to stop him from promoting the show. They weren't offensive enough to make him stop filming the show when they first appeared. There weren't even offensive enough to prevent these people from being in the show in the first place.

Now this show is going to be released in little chunks here and there as "scenes from the forbidden show," and honestly from the paying customer's perspective, it's just turned this show into a marketing ploy.

Enjoyed this, although it was a bit weird viewed o...

2009-08-07T16:28:05.742-07:00

Enjoyed this, although it was a bit weird viewed on its own without the surrounding context. There are some lovely-looking ladies in the background in various stages of undress which make me really want to see the rest... not that Kat's not lovely looking, I'm just greedy ;-)

Would it be possible to simply edit parts 1 & 2 down to remove the most offending tattoo parts and then, say, blur the rest, or is that too much editing to be worth doing?

I'm thinking they could be edited into a single part, with captions replacing the action. But since I haven't seen the raw footage, I don't know how much of an effort that would be.

-Trike

Pn.... trust me, the tattoos were MUCH more offens...

2009-08-07T15:56:22.552-07:00

Pn.... trust me, the tattoos were MUCH more offensive than anything you listed there...

With all due respect Red, you're trying to dra...

2009-08-07T15:47:13.550-07:00

With all due respect Red, you're trying to draw a line in a really weird place. Here are some of the things you have filmed and published on the internet, without thinking it would be too offensive:

1. Sisters.

2. A girl picking up food from a public drive-thru in the nude.

3. At least 3 forced orgasms.

4. Spanking so severe as to appear to leave welts.

5. Our national anthem being sung by naked women.

pn