a change once more

unfortunately i must once again scrap a project. after doing more thorough research into the methods of making machinima i discovered that the time needed was simply unavailable to me. as of such i have created a new film totally original in narrative from the first two. sadly no robotic snake vomiting chickens, space pirates or spy's shall be involved in the plot. that being said i'm not saying i've abandoned my style completely "cough ninja cough"

it is about a young man who awakes to discover he can see peoples thoughts in the form of thought bubbles floating above their heads. i have the privalige of shooting this with the schools new HD camera over the christmas break and am happy to say that pre production is 100% finished. things like the storyboard and script will be posted shortly.

important copyright information

as i was looking through the blizzard website i came across this. luckily they are fully supporting people who make machinima assuming they follow some conditions

a helping hand

i have found a useful weblog dedicated to helping people new to machinima

what is machninma?

machinima is the use of models and backgrounds taken from things like computer games which have files that someone half way skilled with a computer should be able to access in a fairly short period of time. it has quickly grown in popularity featuring in shows such as South park (the episode make love not warcraft) and there is even a show which uses soley machinima (xavier renegade angel).

in case i have not explained it aptly enough i have posted a link to several websites below


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima
http://www.machinima.org.uk/
http://www.machinima.com/

cash in hand

as is natural whenver new technology appears, one of the first things people do is find a way to make money off of it. popular meems and blogs are selling advertising space and making the owners of the sites a tidy profit.

a new way of doing things

as i have researched the making of machinima i have discovered an interesting fact about the making of all animation. in retrospect this is very obvious but it was a thought that simply had not occured to me as i have as of yet only had expirience in making standard live action films. this is the fact that all voice overs must be done before the creation of any actual images (due to having to have the charecters lip sync properly) and because of this editing and filming are efectivley the same thing.

example

machinima is a relatively new way of making amateur film and is more akin to old fashion special effects so i shall post an example of a short film made using a machinima program

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX1qyk_-F0U

machinima

there have been some blows done to the production of the film in terms of practicality both towards fitting all the narrative needed into five minutes as well as methods of filming that i may be unable to do to the standard i wish. because of this i have decided to put the current film on indefinite hold and use the new technology of machinima to create a film that is more visualy interesting and narratively practical.

do describe my film in one sentence. "a man searching for his son". i plan to have voice actors in this so my schedule shall remain much unchanged save that i will not have to spend as much time looking for locations as it will simply be scrolling through files on a computer

dilemma

the exciting thrill a minute film that was planned has had its practicality called into question. because of this i'm forced to consider not doing this and creating a totally different and much more practical film. i need to find an appropriate medium between practicality and the afformentioned script or i will have to simply scrap the project and start over

first page

A story of a cordoned off city filled with monsters and traps controlled by an eccentric crime boss bent on creating the world’s greatest death show featuring fabulous prizes
Dialogue
Boss: welcome gentlemen to DEATH CITY (close up on death city line and sound edit to make voice booming for those two words)
Henchman1: i still say we should have called it killsville
Henchman2: that names stupid. My vote was on the slaughtertorium
Boss: oh we are not getting into this again
Henchman1: killsville rhymes. Stuff that rhymes sounds better!
Henchman2: slaughtertorium is one word. That makes it cooler!
Boss: SHUT UP. Your lackeys you don’t get a say in this.
Henchmen give him dirty looks
Boss: (frustrated) fine well name the next one killsville
Henchmen2: and?
Boss: “sigh” and the slaughtertorium
Henchman 1 and 2 high five in the background
Boss: now as i was saying
Maincharecter1: what the hell is going on here?
Boss: as i was saying before the jerk in the dress interrupted me
Maincharecter1: hey there robes
Boss: like anyone cares. Now as i was saying. Were going to put you into a city and all you need to do is escape. Assuming you can get past the traps, zombies and poisonous flying monkey sharks that we have filled the city with and find your way to our ingeniously disguised exit.
Maincharecter2: did you say monkey sharks?
Boss: you can JUST escape OR you can kill people along the way for the reward of $100 a head
Man1: I get payed more to kill bugs. Make it $200
Boss: $45
Man1:$60
Boss: $50 and that’s my final offer
Man1: done
Man2: damnit jeff your so fuckin stupid
Boss: moving on. Paying attention to what i have said constitutes as a legal contract so im afraid your all stuck with this now
Man3: i wasn’t paying attention
Man1: then how could you respond to what he just said?
Man2: godamnit jeff your a full fledged retard ya know that
Man1: i have a problem (says in hurt voice)
Main charecter1: this doesn’t seem legal
Boss: oops Q and A is done. Time for sleepy gas so we can put you in DEATH CITY (same edits are done as above. Potentially could use same clip twice)
Main character 2: i hate sleepy gas (says in pouty way)
Boss: oh and some of you are gonna get turned into monsters
Main character1: wait what? Falls over unconscious
Boss: night night

The suggested brief I have been given for my coursework I have cut and pated from the OCR website...

'A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or
animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
 a poster for the film;
 a radio trailer for the film;
 a film magazine review page featuring the film. '