Machinima [Part 2]

Chance and I have spent more time in front of a blue screen and a computer monitor than we have sleeping this last week but we have successfully matched all 82 shots in live action and composited them together with our captured footage from Halo: Reach.

And if I may say so myself...it looks darn good.

It wasn't easy looking at a laptop screen in the blue studio while trying to recreate the correct angles that we took in Halo. We surprised ourselves during the editing process at how many times we lucked out with precise (yet accidental) head turns and body movements that synced flawlessly with the game footage.

Not to mention the climactic fun of seeing the clips come into fruition after hours and hours of hoping that they would work.

The length of the final film is looking like it will be shorter than expected. Due to our awesome (not really) dialog we have shorter shots that move quickly and yet cover the story adequately. In hindsight we are glad we aren't looking at a 7-10 minute film for the sake of editing time and for the sake of the audience's attention span...thanks YouTube.

At this point in the editing process all live action is merged into the game footage leaving color correction and sound editing for rest of the weekend. Color correction is crucial for getting that 'in game' look to apply to our live footage. There will always be that look of virtuality that we will not be able to get with live action; two separate worlds indeed. Thankfully though, both Halo: Reach and the Canon 5D mII film in 24 frames/second.

Sound is huge. Watching the clips without sound backing them up is very boring and leaves little to be desired but that may be due to me watching the clips over and over and...over again.

From the few people who have seen our progress, we are getting smiles and good jobs all around. We hope the internet (specifically the internet gaming) community will pick right up on the idea of live action meeting their favorite game. Who knows, with enough posts we may get this thing to go viral.

It's amazing how much the internet community eats up Halo machinima vids. We have our fingers crossed in hopes that Bungie (the people who made the Halo franchise) pick up on our film and re-posts it on their website where millions of users/players visit daily!

Until next week,

~Alan

Machinima [Part 1]

Machinima (pronounced /məˈʃiːnɨmə/ or /məˈʃɪnɨmə/) is the use of real-time graphics rendering engines (a game engine), mostly three-dimensional (3-D), to generate computer animation

And when it comes down to it, there isn't anything better than playing video games for homework...10 hours of video games to be exact. Last night my co-producer, Chance, and I played 10 hours of Halo: Reach to capture the 67 shots we needed for our latest film tht mixes live action actors mixed into a machinima world of Halo: Reach.

The process was as follows:

I. Storyboard the film. When dealing with a digital world you need to know what your shots are doing and how they're flowing because as we learned, plot can go south very quickly. You can see our storyboards here.

II. "Acting" it out with virtual characters. We had to suit up our avatars and move them through a given level with the positions of our "real" actors in mind. I imagine there is some kind of expensive technology that could merge us and them but we made due.

III. Capturing the scene in HD. We purchased a PCI-e HD capture card by Aver Media that allowed us to capture anything that was plugging into the hdmi slot (for us, the xbox).

Ten hours later we have 67 raw shots that need to be arranged, cut up, and corrected to prepare for the live action shots that will be done in front of a blue screen.

So far so good.

Your friendly neighborhood giant,
~Alan

Skype Film Execution

The deed is done and the result is a Skype music video...or sorts.

I had 5 contributors volunteer their vocal talents to the project. I laid down a basic beat with my own voice and made it a youtube video that sent to all who helped me. This allowed everyone to build off the same beat with a consistent tempo.

I found that people got a tad embarrassed and for decent reason (they were after all making funny noises during a vidchat that's being recorded) so the depth of the layering didn't go as deep as I would have preferred.

This resulted in a semi-anticlimactic song that makes for a fun listen for about one time through (or maybe I've listened to it myself one too many times...).

The images you see on the screen are all layered screen captures of the individuals who helped me. I attempted to sync all the audio with the appropriate video but I gave up on that around 3am. The result is a rather abstracted view of the Skypees and yet has a flow in and of itself.

All in all it was a good project, stressful, but good. Screen capture software lacks nearly everything you need it to do so my frustrustions were technical alone.

View Skype: The Music Video here.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Giant,
~Alan

Skype Film Production

Alas, I have begun the first stages of the Skype Film project.

It took me several passes to get an idea solidified. At first I anticipated writing out a script about a boy who is trying to Skype with the girl of his dreams but she gets bogged down in a conference chat with him and like 4 other friends.

Then as I thought through the kind of process that would involve (filming the skit 6 times anchored off one character's dialogue and hoping it would sync up in the end) I began to consider other things to film. By far the most difficult part about a Do It Yourself (DIY) film is finding a subject matter that s interesting enough to make the film about.

In class today I had an idea: Make a layered music video.

How, you ask? I would begin the film by laying down a simple track with my voice (something simple like a bass beat or something). I would render that and put the sound on youtube as a video. The next person who helped me would watch/listen to the youtube link with my voice and during a Skype conversation with me, add a beat on top of mine.

The idea would be to have at least 5 or 6 layers of beat to create a Skype...techno song? Yeah, something like that.

If you would like to help me in this endeavor and get your voice added to musical awesomeness add me on Skype. Do it now. alan.marsala (the one in San Diego)

We'll see how it turns out! I have a tendency to aim big and downscale as I go so bare with me.

Your friendly neighborhood giant,
~Alan