Daemon Productions Blog

Daemon Productions website!

2011-05-04T23:08:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, back with news of a new website with its very own forum!

Check it out here.

Daemon reviews The Egg

2011-04-22T21:06:00.001-04:00

'The Egg' by Animatechna is an iClone machinima based around some of the questions that have kept people up at night since the dawn of time, like 'is there a God', 'is there an afterlife', 'why are we here', and 'why oh merciful God why are they letting the asshole who made Alien vs Predator make a Three Musketeers movie in 3D that involves flamethrower turrets and has Orlando Bloom as the villain'. What, that last question hasn't kept you up at night? It should.

My scruples with animation tools like iClone and Moviestorm notwithstanding, all I really care about when going into a machinima like this is, 'is it cleverly written', and it is. It could be in Halo for all the difference it would make in my eyes, though I will admit that visually the short is very imaginative, even if the facial animations hiccup at the same rate that a hummingbird flaps its wings.

There are a few clever twists to some of the things we usually hear in these kinds of scenarios, like reincarnation and our true purpose in the universe, which like I said is all I could really hope for. The actual dialogue, however, alternates between being clever and being expository and wooden.

We've all seen the dramatic short of the one guy who monologues all by himself, but far more heinous in my eyes are the dramatic shorts where there is more then one person, but the other person only exists to further on the story without actually contributing anything. The human character in this story is an example of that. All he does is ask questions throughout the entire short. His character has no chance to develop or become interesting because he plays one note during the whole concert.

The character of God itself is also rather interesting, but his portrayal opens up a few questions, namely, 'why is God white'? Personally I think it would have been great if the God character would take on whatever form would appeal the most to the person he was talking to like, say, a loved one or a parent, something like that. Would have fit a lot more considering what we learn in the short.

There are a few other discrepancies and overall inconsistencies, but those are small complaints. The short is fairly inventive and I'd say it's worth a look. Honestly, these are the kinds of shorts that I'd like to see more of in the community, even if this short did commit the atrocious act of portraying a God character who is not Morgan Freeman.

Daemon reviews Drop Dead Confidential

2011-04-22T20:35:00.001-04:00

'What's this? A review of an online web radio series? But I thought you were a machinima critic!'

I am, and there's a very good reason for why I'm reviewing this when it's not necessarily in my area of expertise. When I can think up said reason, I'll be sure to let you all know.

It was the middle of the night. I was pulling an all-nighter, as I am wont to do, thanks to finals month and Legacy, when I decided to go listen to Drop Dead Confidential. I'd stumbled across the site a few times, and frankly the idea of an online radio show was actually pretty intriguing to me.

Growing up as a kid I used to listen to a lot of my grandparent's radio dramas on cassette tapes. That previous sentence just made me realize how old I'm actually getting. My two favorite serials to follow were The Shadow and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I'd always listen to them before going to sleep, and when I found out that you could find some of these broadcasts online, I was ecstatic. Not to sound melodramatic, but these radio dramas were a pretty large part of my childhood, so I was really glad to see that Nadia had made her own radio drama. I was even happier when I started listening to it and found that it was addicting as cocaine and about as enjoyable...not that I'd know anything about that or anything.

I really like Drop Dead Confidential. I devoured the four-episode series and the two spin-off episodes that have been made so far, and at the end all I could say was 'I want more'.

The plot is your usual story of a rabies-like rage virus causing a zombie apocalypse, but unlike Flesh Candy it makes the right decision by focusing entirely on its characters. Remy Ross (voiced by Nadia Rodriguez), a Boston police officer, is suspended after she kills a murder suspect named Linda for making unnatural noises when she should be dead. Linda, it turns out, is the first of a horde of rage virus-infected zombies, and as Boston is overrun Remy must fight her way through the city to reunite with her five-year-old daughter (played eerily well by Jenn Michelle) who is in the care of her lawyer ex-husband, Heath Ross (played by Tori Kamal. Yes, that Tori Kamal). That's pretty much the gist of the series so far, and I gotta tell ya, it's been an absolute blast.

First off, the technical aspects of the show are great. The soundtrack is very effective, the sound effects and music all work great (though the firearm audio gets a bit repetitive and could use more variety). The voice actors all do a great job with their roles, which are really fun and likable. The highlight for me was in episode four when we're introduced to a crazy lady who does nothing but quote movies. I absolutely loved the scene to death and, while I won't give away exactly what happens, I will say that I was sad when it became clear she wasn't going to be a recurring character. I'm sorry, I can't help it if my ideal zombie apocalypse scenario involves partnering up with someone who will help me blow away zombies with a mounted machine gun on top of an old jeep while quoting lines from old movies. The only other scenario I'd prefer would be teaming up against the zombies with Batman on a T-Rex.

Like I said, the series so far is four episodes in total, with a spin-off series called 'Drop Dead Diaries' that expands the universe of the series by giving us more information that, while not directly necessary to understand the plot, does help to further our understanding of the characters.

If you're a fan of radio dramas or zombie stories, I'd say give it a listen.

You can find all the entries at the Drop Dead Confidential blog. I'd recommend starting off with the pilot episode.

By the time you get to the end, you'll definitely want more. Trust me. The Shadow knows.

Halo Legacy teaser trailer

2011-04-20T23:29:00.001-04:00

Halo Legacy teaser trailer

This has been the big project I've been hinting towards. Six directors from Daemon Productions come together to make seven Halo-based miniseries, with a full runtime of approximately 4-6 hours. Each series will be split into three episodes (except for Randomjack's, which will be six), and each episode will be between 10-15 minutes long. This will be going on every week starting from May 7.

Which every series will have its own unique plot and characters, there will be a few recurring characters and interconnecting plot threads between each series.

We'll be releasing a second, full trailer next week in order to promote the series. Stay tuned for that!

Crashed Episode 4

2011-04-02T23:01:00.000-04:00

It is up.

Compatriots should hopefully be up soon.

Daemon reviews Tempus Maximus

2011-04-02T22:52:00.000-04:00

Tempus Maximus is another one of those machinimas that I knew was going to be big even before it was released. I was first introduced to it while browsing around for some voice talent and was then shown the trailer as a kind of impromptu 'demo reel'. My curiosity was piqued at the FX and overall visual quality. Clearly this project was being handled by someone who knew what they were doing. Color me intrigued, if slightly cautious.

Then it was released, and there was much rejoicing and critical acclaim. It even made it to the front page of Bungie's site, a feat that I haven't seen done since Ataraxia. Clearly this video was going to be special...or be another Ataraxia. Considering that this video turns out to have a run time double that of Ataraxia's and about ten to twenty times the run time of most garbage that M.com regurgitates as 'content' that I have to sit through, I decided to hear a few other opinions before I dove in. After hearing Jack give it a positive review I finally decided it was time to stop putting Tempus Maximus off and give it a shot.

The final verdict?

Meh, it's okay.

If I bring up Ataraxia a lot in both this review and in general, it's because Ataraxia was a landmark in my machinima watching career. Suddenly, large ambitious projects weren't something to be welcomed with open arms, but to be closely scrutinized. Ataraxia was like that bad first relationship that made us all become more cynical of the world around us, afraid to reach out lest we just be rejected again.

And to be honest, most of the things that hindered Ataraxia make return appearances in Tempus Maximus. For starters you have the latinized, nonsensical title (though I'll grant that Tempus's does make a slight bit more sense when translated), you have a skeleton crew of three members in a desolate location who are guarding something of importance to the UNSC, only to start being followed by something ominous that picks them off one by one, all of which leads up to the dramatic reveal which ultimately makes no sense.

For those who don't know, the big dramatic reveal here is that the Forerunner artifact the team is supposed to...defend? Analyze? The film wasn't really specific on this point...whatever, the point is it's a 'time machine' that sends people a few days backward in time. How exactly it works and why it sent the protagonist back to that particular moment in time and to that particular location are never really explained. More importantly, if the Forerunners had a time machine, why didn't they ever use it to go back in time in order to stop their entire race from being tentacle raped by the Flood?

See, this is the problem I have with machinima series like Deus Ex Machina that take place in the Halo universe while bearing only a fleeting connection to the story's setting and characters. The resulting machinima has almost nothing to do with the Halo canon, which in the end just makes it more problematic then if it had just been an original creation.

Almost none of this machinima's backstory makes sense. Most of the plot centers around the idea that they're on a planet with no oxygen (or at least that's what they're told at first for...some reason), but really, how could anyone have been fooled into thinking that such a lush planet had an oxygen poor atmosphere? Christ, between Ataraxia's Carbon Monoxide plants and this film's attempts to pass off a lush forested Halo ring as being oxygen-poor it's like none of these writers have any idea how basic respiration works. Even then, they make a point about how one of the characters has low oxygen while he's inside a building, implying that the building has no form of life support systems, which makes absolutely no goddamn sense.

The characters were remarkably under-developed, which for a machinima of this length is inexcusable. Unlike Ataraxia, which had some moments of dialogue that were chillingly good, Tempus lacks those brief bits of genius. Its obligatory moment of introspection about the nature of time travel is completely ham-fisted. For the record, unless you regularly ram your own flaccid dick up your own ass, then no, having sex with yourself does not count as masturbation.

The characters themselves were for the most part an unlikable bunch of idiots, from the character of Mack who warns the two not to go to the portal and then acts amazed when they go to it (even though there are literally no defenses around the artifact itself), to the protagonist who steps through the portal and immediately complains about how the portal supposedly didn't work as if he was some kind of spoiled brat complaining about their latte being served wrong. Special attention should be given to Clay who treated the act of sneaking around a giant confidential relic with the same air as a high schooler dragging his friends along for a night of spray-painting giant day-glo penises on the side of grocery stores. The voice actors did an alright job with the lines they were given I guess, but as far as making us care about the characters was concerned the script dropped the ball. I guess it's a good thing that we got to see them all die twice.

There are so many abandoned plot threads in this machinima that the result looks like my first attempt at knitting a scarf. We never really learn what happened to the previous crew, and the way the ending's done we're supposed to believe that some epic victory was accomplished. But let's really think about this for a second: there are two copies of Peyton running around on Earth. Wouldn't that be a pretty huge problem? Wouldn't people eventually notice that there were now two Peytons running around on Earth? Why would the UNSC let the two Peytons get away from the top secret base without some kind of debriefing? Also, we're supposed to believe that now that the UNSC knows about the portal and has control over it that everything will be all hunky-dory. This is the same government that authorized the kidnapping and abuse of young children to make into super soldiers, often times with the sole purpose of being expendable, and we're supposed to believe they'll use the ability to time travel responsibly? The ending should have involved Peyton destroying the portal to prevent that kind of technology from falling into anyone's hands. And don't even ask me to try to decipher how the time-travel is supposed to work here, my doctor says that it'll just lead to another aneurysm.

The cinematography was pretty good. Some moments were bad, most of the driving scenes were exemplary, but for the most part it was just kinda there. There is some FX work which went pretty well, though the rain scenes had a few flukes. As far as cinematography and body acting goes, it's all good, but there aren't really any shots that will 'stick with me'. When I think of good cinematography, I think of the works of TGO GMBH and 2 Ghosts 1, which had images that could move us emotionally and tell their story through the visuals as well as other narrative methods. Tempus has a moment that attempts this shortly after the protagonist steps through the portal, but it doesn't really approach the same level of quality. It's adequate and that's pretty much all anyone can say about it.

The music was alright, though I think it belonged in another movie. While the music itself is undeniably well-composed, it doesn't seem to fit the tone of the scene it's in more then half the time. The music is far too energetic and pumped for a machinima about a conspiracy involving a time travel portal.

Overall the scope of the machinima is just underwhelming. The Time Machine it is not. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was a brainier time travel story then this and seemed a lot more plausible, and when I can say that a movie that involves Abe Lincoln lounging around a shopping mall and Napoleon going bowling seems more plausible, that says a lot.

I must stress that it is a fairly enjoyable machinima. It does have some good moments in the filming and there are times where the dialogue even works. But as a whole the movie just falls flat for me.

Honestly guys, I don't like it when I have to criticize a machinima that does its damndest to be engaging, intelligent and well-filmed. These are the kinds of machinimas that I want to see more of: plot-focused machinimas that none the less have good production values. And I'll be the first to say that Tempus Maximus is worth seeing. But it's far from perfect and isn't nearly as good as everyone has claimed it to be. I wish I could live in a world where large projects could get me excited, but unfortunately with machinima the more you put into the production, the more likely it is to crumble. Hopefully in time that will change.

Now go forth and be excellent to each other.

Randomjack reviews Tempus Maximus

2011-03-31T01:00:00.002-04:00

Today a friend of mine linked me to this machinima, claiming that despite being forty minutes long, it would be worth the time it takes to load (pretty damn long, on my internet connection).

Having just finished it, I'd say he was probably right. I don't regret tying up my bandwidth all day to load Tempus Maximus in high quality.

Although it had it's flaws (almost all machinimas do, to me at least), I still found it to be an enjoyable and well made film. What it lacks in any areas, it makes up for in ambition.

The premise is based around a moderately elaborate time travel plot. It isn't as complicated as something like it could easily get, but there is enough non-linearity that you have to pay attention. Although it begins with a familiar - three man squad on a mission to an abandoned base - storyline, it slowly gains momentum and picks up as the film goes on. It actually reminds me of Inception to some extent: although no one element (the characters, cinematography, ect) is particularly outstanding, the sheer uniqueness and ambition makes it work. It's aiming for the stars, and managing to reach the stratosphere. I'd prefer this to a more cleanly produced 'regretful guy committing suicide' short any day, because of the bold (so far as machinima is concerned) nature of both the concept and the scale.

For something with as much shouting as this, I'd expect there to be major problems in the voice acting. Surprisingly, that was rare. The material was fairly well handled, with an all around competent cast. Heck, as somebody who was just casting for a very large machinima myself, I'm glad to know about these guys.

As I've said, the production values are a ways from perfect, but good enough to not hinder the story. The cinematography is above average, and has its moments, although overused sweeping/circling movement leads to me not knowing what is being emphasized and what isn't. The framing is a bit off at times, and the 180 rule is tossed out the window. However, the visuals never fall into outright bad territory, so this is only an occasional annoyance.

Effects play a prominent role, from time-of-day colour correction to inserted displays or screens. In many cases, such as the opening, they are spectacular. In others, they fall a bit short (such as visible masking boundaries during rainy scenes). Just like with the camerawork, it never falters enough to be definitively awful, and sometimes comes out very nice.

My personal favorite part was the musical score. There is a prominent soundtrack, with several parts that stood out as especially fitting. Ranging from orchestral to quiet, the music adds a very nice touch that helps to round it out. Some was selected, and some was scored, but all of it was well done.

Overall, Tempus Maximus was worth watching and showed a nice degree of skill and effort. There are many junctions at which this kind of machinima could have gone off the rails, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it stayed on track. Could it have used improvement? Yeah. Is it still high enough quality to justify the forty minute commitment? Yes.

Daemon reviews The Tunnel

2011-03-20T21:09:00.005-04:00

I don't understand this.

Ross Scott is a talented machinima director, no question. One of the best working today. He's got great comedic timing and his animation is unmatched. His series Freeman's Mind and Civil Protection are probably some of the best comedy machinima out there today. Therefore it makes perfect sense that his most recent installment in the funny buddy-cop comedy romp would be a suspenseful horror flick.

Don't get me wrong, I love The Tunnel. It's probably the closest a machinima has ever come to genuinely scaring me. Its atmosphere is uncannily good, and the citizen's appearance alone was astoundingly effective. But am I the only one who thinks that seeing this as a Civil Protection entry kinda contradicts the whole enterprise? Having the two cops still joke their way through the situation, while realistic as it might be, nevertheless undermines some of the tension. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

I mean, I guess you could argue that having them talk this way throughout the first half or so of the episode helps immerse the audience in about the same way that lounging around the house helped immerse the player in Heavy Rain, and hey, I can't argue with the results...but am I the only one who finds it odd? It's just such a complete tonal 180 from the usual show. It'd be like watching an episode of Seinfeld that features Kramer as a serial killer.

As far as the rest of the video goes, I can't really do much but say 'IT'S GOOD. GO WATCH IT' and then copypaste that a few hundred times. The cinematography, animation, sound design and music were all exemplary. The story itself I thought kinda ended too soon and didn't really bring closure to anything. We never do really figure out why half of the things we saw happen...happen. Like, if the citizen didn't die, then whose body was that in the tunnel? Why was the citizen crazy? what were all those critters at the end and did they have something to do with the crazy citizen? None of it is ever explained, which is a shame because the story itself was really engaging and immersing and the ending we get is a bit of a cop-out. I'd love to have known what was going on in there, but I guess part of horror is leaving things to the imagination, right?

Once you get over the initial shock of Civil Protection going from buddy cop comedy to slow-burning nightmare fuel the experience itself is really good. So if any of you were actually on the fence on seeing Ross Scott's latest machinima, and actually care about my thoughts on its overall quality, then I'd say it's definitely worth a look.

Daemon Productions Vlog 3/19/11: Two Upcoming Videos

2011-03-20T00:13:00.000-04:00

No videos today, but I did manage to break out of prison in order to explain why, and when you can expect to find new ones.

Daemon reviews Flesh Candy

2011-03-19T04:59:00.002-04:00

Flesh Candy. Right off the bat I have to give kudos for the name. I don't really nag on this aspect as much as I should, but there are a lot of good and bad machinima series out there that lose me from the start because of poor titling. A machinima with the name 'Flesh Candy' just begs to be watched, doesn't it? It's like naming your film 'The Mexican Porn Massacre'.

Flesh Candy is a zombie-themed machinima, which honestly aren't as overdone as everyone says they are. The setting is a post-apocalyptic military base, and the series focuses entirely on the soldiers who live there. That sounds good on paper, but in practice it proves to be very underwhelming. It took about six minutes for us to realize who these people were fighting, and we don't get a glimpse of the zombies until the very end.

The main problem with this episode is the focus. The writers are so intent on introducing us to the members of the squad and their motivations (usually through bloated exposition) that we learn almost nothing about the state of the world or the zombies themselves. When you're dealing with a zombie story like this that takes place in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, we need to see the zombies themselves immediately in order to establish an air of dread. Just a few shots in the opening of the zombies ripping at an old bloated corpse before the choppers arrived would have accomplished this perfectly.

When the dialogue doesn't lend itself to exposition it's pretty tolerable. There are some good one-liners peppered throughout and the characters seemed likable enough. But we spend so much time seeing this group of people as soldiers that we never see them as survivors, which is probably one of the most crucial aspects to focus on in a zombie apocalypse tale.

The visuals are of course stunning. This is the same group that made Crossfire, after all. The visual quality is great, as is the color correction, though I'd be open to seeing the show become more stylized over time. There's some really good sound design (particularly at the end), but I get the feeling that the composer wasn't really giving it his all. The music never seemed to leap out and seize me, but instead just laid back and vaguely established the mood.

Overall though, I liked Flesh Candy. If I'm nagging to learn more about the world that the story takes place in then someone did their job right. I'm sure most of my questions will be answered in future episodes, but if there's one thing I need to get across to the makers it would be that unless we can view these people as survivors of the zombie apocalypse, then you're not telling a good zombie story.

Crashed Episode 3 and Vlog Update!

2011-03-13T00:51:00.001-05:00

Episode 3 of Crashed was posted to M.com! Also, I'll be starting up a weekly vlog to keep you guys updated on what we're doing every week.

3/12/11: Tranter Films and Crashed Episode 3

Crashed Episode 3

Daemon reviews Sniper's Philosophy

2011-03-08T20:17:00.009-05:00

Sniper's Philosophy

So today was Mardi Gras. For Catholics (like me), today was our last day to indulge before the Lent season started. Many celebrate this by getting wasted while losing their dignity for plastic beads, but I decided to celebrate by gulping down a huge milkshake and getting one last super angry review done before Lent begins.

Today's victim is Sniper's Philosophy, another withered, uninteresting log on the growing fire of dramatic, sniper-centric shorts. What's the big deal with snipers anyway? You never see dramatic narrations about the lives of pilots, cooks or the hundreds of pencil-pushing officers that are required for a modern military to function. One of my relatives was a sniper in Afghanistan, and he spent most of his time staring at the scrub. Snipers, and soldiers in general, are bored almost 90% of the time. The life of a soldier is long stretches of tedium peppered with brief moments of action, and I guarantee you that not all soldiers spend their time talking about errand boys sent by grocery clerks.

But hey, even though the subject matter is unoriginal, maybe this time the approach will be note-worthy enough to make it stand out.

And it certainly is note-worthy in the fact that it's actually very well written...by other people, including Isaac Asimov, Mary Ann Radmacher, and probably many others. Not since Greviousrock's unauthorized additions to Deus Ex Machina have I seen such blatant plagiarism. What wasn't blatantly stolen is by far some of the worst monologing I've ever heard, and considering the volume of dramatic monologues I've had to listen to over the years, that is saying a lot.

I'm sorry, but no one talks like this. And if I ever meet someone who does, I'll do the human race a favor and peg him in the balls with a spiked bat. And I won't even describe what I'd do to the bastard for his overuse, misuse and general abuse of the word 'objective'.

So alright, there's nothing new about the presentation, but maybe if the visuals were good and the art style unique it would compensate, right?

But this is where the short falls short most noticeably. This short has what has got to be the worst shaky-cam I have ever seen. I've seen videos that parody the shaky-cam that have better shaky-cam. It shakes when he's running. It shakes when he's walking. It even shakes when he's not doing a single goddamn thing. And it's the worst kind of shaking, the kind that jostles the image about to make everything so incomprehensible that you can't make anything out. It's like they handed the camera to Michael J Fox in the middle of an earthquake and he decided to jerk off with his one free hand while filming. I feel like I should have taken some Dopamine before watching. It makes the handi-cam filming of Cloverfield look static by comparison.

I'm gonna be frank, nothing takes me out of a machinima more than camera shake done in the theater mode. There's no way you can persuade me that it looks better then camera shake done in post-production with Vegas or After Effects. It's far easier to control the shake when you're working with a mouse instead of analog sticks.

That's not all, though. Even when the screen isn't shaking as if the cameraman was filming while bouncing on a trampoline, the cinematography is pretty flat and uninteresting. The color quality is astonishingly poor, and it's a bad sign when I can't tell if it's the capture card or the director's attempt to be 'artsy'.

The sound design is functional and the voice actor does as good a job he can with the material he's given, but as a whole there's really nothing noteworthy about this short. It takes most of its key dialogue from notable writers and gives nothing back in return.

And then, and then, it has the gall to ask us what we want to happen next in the story.

I'll tell you what I want to happen to that smug, arrogant, monologing little sniping shit skit:

That's all I've got. Treasure this flaming nugget of rage, it'll be the last you get to see of my angry side for a while.

Daemon reviews The Virtual Flicks Open Machinima Contest

2011-03-06T23:16:00.002-05:00

Well, the deadline for the Virtual Flicks contest has come and gone, leaving us with a whopping twelve machinima entries to look over! Some were dramas, some were comedies (intentional or otherwise). Some were good, some were bad (and a lot more were just average). We've got twelve videos to review and I'm barely staying conscious so let's get to critiquing before my eyeballs turn to ash.

Rich Barlowe: Private Eye

Man, do I miss the day where machinimas didn't need extraneous color correction. When it's done well, it looks amazing. When it's not, you get this. It's almost impossible to pick out any of the details in the video because it's so dark, and what you can't see is all brown. I get that the video is a homage to the old noir crime thrillers, and that the extreme darkness was probably intentionally done in order to match that art style, but even when half the frame is shrouded in darkness you could still make out important visual details in the old noir flicks. That's not the case here.

The story itself has all the trademarks of the crime thriller, and it's here that the line between homage and knockoff begins to blur. See, homages tend to take the source material they're referencing and use it to tell their own unique story (Sin City is a perfect example of this). With this short you've got the monologue-spewing narrator whose entire vocabulary is cynical observations and similes, and the hard-assed police chief who never gives the narrator a break (the Chief in particular should be commended for trying his best hand at pulling off a Joe Pesci impersonation. He didn't do a good job at it, but he tried so hard I feel that he should at least be commended for trying). Watching Barlowe analyze the crime scene made me yearn for the realism of CSI Miami. Say what you will about the awful puns on that show, but trust me, they're not nearly as bad as the similes. Oh god, oh god the similes.

Second Chance

A film with average to pretty good cinematography and production values undone by poor directing choices, an awkward script and lazy voice acting. I could just leave the review at that but I guess I'm obligated to explain things a bit more.

There's a scene at the beginning of the film that shows a flashback to a war scene. The sequence is about one minute long and consists of two sides exchanging machine gun fire behind sandbags, with no music or spoken dialogue for the entire time. That entire sequence could have been cut and it wouldn't have changed anything. Then the two war buddies started talking and I yearned for the silence again. I don't believe that every soldier should sound like a gruff badass, but they also shouldn't sound like they should still be in high school.

Also, I must ask...why did they cast a guy doing a falsetto voice for the protag's wife? Did the guy lose a bet or something? It took every ounce of will power in my being to keep watching after hearing that falsetto voice say 'Hi honey, how was work'.

It's kinda hard to rate this on its story since it's supposedly a part one rather then a standalone work. I have no idea how the three murders play into the story or all the details behind the guy's execution. I do know that modern executions are usually done via lethal injection and not lethal drugs, though. In case it wasn't obvious I probably won't be giving this a second chance.

Curiosity

Already covered this.

Deluge

Deluge (or 'Delgue' according to the video title) is baffling to me. I remember watching several key parts and wondering, 'was I supposed to find that funny?'

There's a sequence where one of the Spartans runs in front of his team mate, shoves him aside, and sprays the hallway with bullets for no adequately explained reason. This is done with CGI (again, for no real reason), and it looks absolutely absurd. Combined with the soldier's exclamation of 'clear' I almost felt like I'd just watched a really bad outtake from Red vs Blue.

The voice acting is also pretty weak. I remember one line where a soldier discusses how they need to move fast in order to avoid being disemboweled, and the delivery is as if the guy was telling his friend to hurry to the cafeteria before all the chicken fingers were eaten.

The whole thing is just messy. The CGI's lackluster, the story's off, the cinematography rarely rises above average, and the voice actors just didn't care. So why should I?

One Bad Situation

You starting to see what I mean about the overuse of visual filters?

Visual filters are fine so long as we can still see the characters clearly. I don't even think it's the visual filters, I think it's just people not knowing when to leave the brightness and contrast settings alone. Whatever the cause, the visual quality isn't very good, though the focus effects looked pretty promising. The score was good too, for all the difference that makes.

The voice acting isn't good, both in acting and in overall audio quality. There were more pops in the voices then when I crack my knuckles in the mornings. The voice of the Recon spartan was particularly guilty of this. It really shouldn't be that hard to find convincing voice talent, especially here of all places.

The story is your usual tale of heroic sacrifice by a spec ops sniper who's the best at what he does (and what he does ain't nice), with an ending slapped on that plays out like Inferno, only with all the humor sucked out.

The Real Gassy Mexican

Yeah it's pretty good.

Not much else to say about it really. It made me laugh a few times. Dan did a good Gassy impression. There were a few nits to pick (the Joker wasn't in Batman Begins), and I am curious as to why Dan's logo appeared before the VF logo (Dan must be pretty hardcore to get top billing in front of the site that's hosting his work), but it's pretty good. I'm not entirely familiar with the use of Minecraft in machinima, but I've seen enough to know that the filming was above average so...yeah. On to the next video.

Fall of City 8

I have literally no idea what the hell is going on at any point during this video. I feel like I just watched a segment of Half Life: Full Life Consequences without the narration and captions. What is going on here? Am I dead?

The Evil Banana

Riddle me this: why would a machinima that's centered around a 'tripped on a banana' gag take place on a darkened city set with dark Half Life 2 music playing in the background? The tonal whiplash is so extreme in this video that I feel like I should be in traction.

The voice acting comes off as underwhelming (the way the character says 'aw man that's a classic' doesn't match his body movements), and I have no idea why that one Combine was wearing a dress.

If the tone had been a bit more consistent this probably would have done a lot better.

Doctor's Orders Episode 2

This is probably one of my favorite up-and-coming comedy shows. Its humor is inventive, the characters likable, it has great CGI and visual effects in general, a good voice cast, music and cinematography. Not much more to ask for, really.

One problem I have with a lot of comedy machinimas is that they all have really similar styles as far as dialogue is written. We've all seen this setup before: Character A says something, Character B then refutes it by pointing out an extreme scenario, and Character A then replies with a comment that confirms the exaggeration and drives home the punchline. While this show uses that format as well, it works a lot better here. For instance, there's a segment when the Surgeon General pays a visit to the hospital and does an examination. The Surgeon General tells him that according to her record, 188 out of 189 of his patients have died. The head doctor then replies, 'Well at least one of them is still alive', leading the Surgeon General to point out that he was fully paralyzed with no hope of recovery. The doctor's response? 'Quitter'.

It's a very creative, well-written show. Its gags are fresh and it flows along at a brisk pace. Hopefully as time goes by it'll become more popular with M.com.

Super Space Gordon and the Robot Ninjas

As soon as I saw that TGO GMBH had submitted an entry I gave up any hopes of winning the contest. The man's a legend and it's no secret that I'm a really huge fan of his work. He has a unique art style reminiscent of the Scott Pilgrim movie (and Quentin Tarantino in his earlier works), and his sound design is some of the best in the business. The whole video plays out like a retro video game parody, which have been done before but not nearly as well as this.

I'm really at a loss for words so far as describing this video. It's so inventive and good that I'm finding myself with little to say as far as criticism goes. The soundtrack was really good, and as usual in a TGO video, the cinematography was absolutely dazzling both in its framing and quality.

TGO deserves a lot more then what he's getting, and it's good to see him in a position where he can benefit from being so talented. That said, his entry wasn't my personal favorite. That honor goes to...

2 Ghosts 1

This is one of the most beautiful machinimas I have ever seen in my entire life. Scratch that, it is the most beautiful, in every single way. This is art, ladies and gentlemen. Plain and simple.

This isn't the first machinima to make use of the Nine Inch Nails track, but it does a really good job at using the track in a unique way. The animation easily trumps Martyrs. Frankly I didn't think I'd ever see animation this good in a machinima.

From both the music and visuals there's a distinct sense of underlying insanity mixed with sublime beauty. While we never know for sure what happened on the ship (though the reference to Lovecraft's novella 'At the Mountains of Madness' suggests that the crew simply went insane), it doesn't really matter. It's not about why things happen, but what things are happening. It's about creating a distinct, breath-taking beautiful experience. The ending shot of the astronaut screaming in the vacuum of space while the explosive decompression of his helmet sends a stream of blood and broken glass trailing through the void is one of the most haunting and beautiful images I've ever seen. If you had framed that shot and put it in a museum, it would not have looked out of place. A very good entry and a sure-fire 1st place winner.

So that's that, my thoughts on the entries in the contest. It was enjoyable watching the majority of them and it's good to finally see Virtual Flicks hosting more events like this. If nothing else it introduced me to what's now one of my new favorite machinimas.

Now if you excuse me I have several hours of sleep that I need to catch up on. Toodles.

Our Last Stand and One Last Struggle

2011-03-04T14:49:00.000-05:00

Two new videos comin' at ya live from our newest member of the team, Digital Virus!

Our Last Stand

One Last Struggle

Epic Shelley Time

2011-02-27T21:53:00.001-05:00

We've permanently changed the machinima game.

This is an entry for Paul Shelley's 'Now THAT'S Paul Shelley' contest. It's an Epic Meal Time parody.

Listening to Junkie do the impersonation will change your life!

Daemon reviews Untitled

2011-02-26T02:21:00.002-05:00

I'm just glad to see that people from that bygone era of machinima are still alive and kicking. Now we just need Khan to explode back onto the scene and I might be able to convince myself that machinima doesn't suck anymore.

Well would you look at that! Scant days after I wrote this in my Unlucky Elite review, Khan just appeared out of nowhere and uploaded a machinima! Now what are the odds of that?

Considering that I've been following this guy like a hawk I'd have to say they'd be pretty high. Khan's always been one of my favorite directors at M.com because we're pretty much in this for the same reasons: we want to make people think and feel in ways that they don't usually think or feel. You can see that in a lot of his works, especially Misconception. I didn't always like them, to be sure, but what's important is that his heart was in the right place. The guy makes quality machinima that focuses on narrative.

It says volumes about him when, instead of being nervous, I actually got excited that he was going to make a Call of Duty machinima, an engine that ranks below Runescape as far as aesthetic appeal and usefulness goes. Would this be the machinima to break Randomjack's open challenge to make a good machinima in the Call of Duty engine?

Short answer:

Khan breaks the challenge over his knee and uses the pieces to fight off legions of commentaries and stupid comedies. Not only is Untitled the best CoD machinima I've ever seen, it's one of the better machinimas I've seen in recent memory.

For starters, it's beautiful. Khan's always had a real talent for cinematography, color correction and in general convincing us that what we're watching isn't game footage, but film footage. The more I watched and took in the framing and the detailing for each shot, the more it dawned on me that maybe the engine wasn't what was weak, but the film makers who work with CoD. If CoD machinima is capable of looking this good, then there's no longer any excuse for other CoD machinimas to be crap. The bar has been raised, people. Time to start expecting more from the engine.

The song itself, 'Abide with Me', is the real MVP here. It compliments the visuals and fills the whole project with a sense of grandeur. But what exactly does it mean in the context of the video?

This is where the genius of the video really shines. Khan's been a fan of making videos that don't wear their moral on their sleeve, which is something I agree with. See, what a work of art means to the creator is far less important then what it means to the audience. The audience are the people who need to like your characters, follow your plots, and ultimately watch your movie. They need to be able to follow what's going on while still being given enough range to come to their own conclusions.

While you could argue that this film could have easily been named 'Abide with Me', that takes away the open nature of the film. This film is about more then just its song. The song is just a literary tool, just like the cinematography. The point of the video is not the song, it's the song paired with the imagery to pose a simple work that the viewer must find meaning in. It's like a Rorschach test of machinima.

So what did college-educated Daemon think it meant?

Well, I did some research and found out that the song was written by Henry Francis Lyte as he was dying from Tuberculosis. The song itself is basically Lyte asking if God will stay by him, even after death (what with the constant repetition of 'abide with me', which means 'stay with me'). Combined with the visual imagery of a battle being played over what we assume is a nuclear missile being launched, I'd personally say that the video poses the question of 'Does God still love us and care for us after all the horrible things we do to each other'? It's certainly an intriguing question that anyone who has ever questioned their faith has probably asked themselves at one point or another in their lives.

Of course there are many arguments you could raise for what this video is about, and that's what makes this video so great. It accomplishes what Curiosity set out to do, without having to flat-out say what the questions are. It's machinimas like these that make me glad to be a part of this community and remind me why I started making machinima in the first place. As if the rest of the review wasn't an indicator, definitely go check this out.

Daemon reviews The Unlucky Elite

2011-02-22T16:17:00.003-05:00

Even though I never played Halo 2's multiplayer all that much, I was still sad when I saw that its multiplayer was being closed down. Why? Because to me it was the final nail in the coffin of what was, in my opinion, the 'Golden Age' of machinima: the Halo 2 era.

The first machinima I ever watched was episode 66 of Red vs Blue. The first series I saw that made me convinced that machinima was something to be interested in was The Heretic. Many of my favorite machinimas, like Opus Machinima and Be Human, date back from that glorious period. And one of the people who was part of that golden age was Kokobear, alias Jamies98 (though technically they're both aliases. Guy must be a secret agent or something).

The guy has made some fantastic stuff in his time. Space Dementia, Melody, Brothers in Arms...all of them inspired and amazing on pretty much every level. Amidst all this was a series of videos called The Unlucky Elite. It was well-made and the humor was great, feeding off from the same idea fountain as such great series as Tom and Jerry (to say nothing of Bugs Bunny or the Roadrunner cartoons). It's the same basic premise: Party A tries to kill Party B. Part A fails in increasingly hilarious ways while employing increasingly elaborate traps. Repeat.

It's a comedy style that works well (as evidenced by the longevity of the aformentioned cartoon shows) and Jamies98 uses it well here. The gags were inspired and unpredictable (one of the main problems with most comedy machinimas is that you can telegraph their punchlines coming from miles away) and it moved at a brisk pace.

Since this is a prequel to the series it's set in Halo PC. You could argue that Halo Reach would have also worked, what with it taking place before Halo 1 and all, but then we wouldn't have had the opportunity for all the amazing gags we see.

Halo PC is, in my opinion, a very underrated engine. Even if the game itself is more then a decade old, the options it offers to film makers is pretty robust. Plus, the relative low resolution of the graphics means that otherwise cheesy effects like the bullets and birds look perfectly fine, instead of looking like deleted scenes from Birdemic.

While I'll never quite understand how exactly Queen's 'Under Pressure' fits in to this kind of video, I can't deny that it works really well. Then again there is that universal law that says Queen can make anything awesome (see also: Highlander, Flash Gordon).

When describing the overall success of The Unlucky Elite many people are quick to assume that it's just because of the physical comedy. That's true, but it's more then that. It's physical comedy done with proper pacing and stellar production values. It's good because it's good, and there's really not much else to it.

I'm just glad to see that people from that bygone era of machinima are still alive and kicking. Now we just need Khan to explode back onto the scene and I might be able to convince myself that machinima doesn't suck anymore.

But I wouldn't get my hopes up for that.

Daemon reviews Sanity Not Included Season 2 Episode 1

2011-02-13T22:26:00.005-05:00

Sanity Not Included is the definition of 'critique proof'. Will anything I say have any impact on this video whatsoever? No. Will that stop me from saying my piece on it? Hell no! I'm a rebel, baby!

Since this will probably come up, yes, I did go into this video with poor expectations. I didn't really follow the first season after the first few episodes, and even then I only looked forward with vague disinterest. Even if I was interested, it's another comedy series, and lord knows we have enough of those. Secondly, it's in that increasingly popular genre of comedy that I like to call 'ramcoms', or 'random comedies'. Examples for this genre are Family Guy and, of course, Robot Chicken, the oft-cited source of inspiration for this series.

I'm not a fan of either show. Partly it's because I don't like the style of random comedy, but mostly because I simply cannot be assed to follow most TV shows. Therefore the prospect of random comedy in the hands of people who aren't professional writers or comedians wasn't very promising.

Don't get me wrong, I like GuitarMasterX7 and Dexterboy124. They've done some good work in the past and Master Chief War remains one of the funniest Halo machinimas I've ever seen, and certainly one of the most technically inspired. But Sanity Not Included is just tortuous to watch. Seeing all these scenes flash by and building up to nothing was eerily reminiscent of the mind-breaking scene in A Clockwork Orange. When I wasn't being horrified to my very core by the sheer inanity of it all, I was scratching my head that people genuinely find this funny.

See, the thing with random comedy is that it's like a firecracker. You set it off once and sure it'll be loud and fun, but it won't last for long and you're probably not going to remember much of the aftermath. The only scenes I do remember were the ones that were so obnoxiously offensive that they literally had me yelling 'what the fuck' at my laptop screen.

And of course I couldn't proceed without mentioning the 'interactive' segments of the video. Now, I'm all for experimenting with audience interaction, and there are lots of really cool things you could do with it, like a 'choose your own adventure' series. Adding an option to add a few seconds on to an ultimately pointless scene? Not quite the best use of interactivity. Let's face it, the only reason most people do it is to get more views with less effort.

There was one good scene though, and that was the one at the very end between Dexter and the (drunk) GMX7. Why? Because it had time to develop and I was able to make sense of it. It just proves my point for me: these two are undoubtedly very funny and talented guys, but random comedy just doesn't suit them as well.

But hey, what do I know. This video's going to get millions of hits and people seem to like it, so I guess they know something I don't. It's like getting angry at Stephanie Meyer, Michael Bay or Glenn Beck. Yeah they're untalented hacks, but they entertain the masses and make lots of money, so can you really complain about the quality of their work?

Maybe not, but that didn't stop me from wasting twenty minutes of my life in order to do it. Sanity Not Included isn't all that good, and I guarantee that all the other ramcom knock-offs that will get made because this made money won't be any good either.

Daemon reviews Martyrs Part 1

2011-02-12T00:20:00.002-05:00

It's no secret by now that I'm not a big fan of Story Mode. For a while I didn't know who to blame for this. At first I thought it was the new host until I saw one of his previous shows, 'Science of the Movies', and was just blown away at how different he seemed. Now I just feel sorry for the guy. He went from doing 'Science of the Movies' to 'Story Mode'? Yeesh. While I'm still not sure who is entirely to blame for the show, one thing is certain: someone needs to pay for not giving Martyrs the slot on Story Mode that was ultimately taken by Two Guys Play Dead Space 2.

Yes, once again I find myself in the unusual position of screaming at you, the reader, to watch something. Just like Grind Rider, The Heretic and Opus Machinima, this will probably become one of my oft-referenced machinimas that I'll frequently use in comparisons when talking about the unimaginative and the mediocre. Which is good, because I was starting to feel a bit conscious that my list of favorites is mostly Halo-filled.

As some of you probably remember, a few weeks back I did a review of 'The Dark: It Gazes Back', a review that put me in hot water with a large community of machinima makers who used engines such as Moviestorm, The Movies, and iClone to make their films. I made the point that, while these are undoubtedly good tools to use, they are not without their flaws and these little niggling flaws do have an effect on immersion. This is nothing against the engines itself, because all engines have flaws and limitations. You just need to know how to work around them, which is something that Cornetto did not do as well as he could have, leading to the infamous 'Kitty Pride' moments of It Gazes Back.

Martyrs is a peerless example of the power of these animation tools. The animation here is amazingly life-like. I honestly don't think in all my years of watching machinima I've seen animation this good. Reprisal ain't got shit on this.

That would be good enough, but the writing is actually above par as well. The interactions between Wheels and Damon were really fun to listen to. Not much else in the way of story so far, but then again it's the first four minutes and it looks like the writers were going for in medias res, so I'll give them some time. That alone should be pretty indicative about how I feel about the story: not only am I interested in seeing where this plot goes, I'm willing to let it take its time to get there. See, I can be generous when I feel like it!

It's not completely flawless, of course. The blood effects were a bit unusual, but I'll let those slide because it's probably due to the engine. What I can't let slide are the oddly synched gun noises and the score. At first the score is great, it helps build the atmosphere and tension, but when the gun fight breaks out it's like the composer went off for a smoke break. What, no awesome fight scene music? I can't stress enough how cooler that fight scene could have been if we'd gotten something Matrix-esque. You know I'm right!

Nagging aside, this is still an amazing piece of work, and I seriously have to wonder about whoever runs Story Mode if they consider the return of Sanity Not Included to be news-worthy while this doesn't get a mention. If I wanted to watch a bunch of obnoxious guys screaming for no reason I'd go to a frat party, but I'm here for machinima, so whoever runs Story Mode, take notice: Martyr is one of the most impressive projects I've seen as of late and if episode two isn't featured like it should be, there will be hell to pay.

Daemon reviews Singularity Part 1

2011-02-07T12:08:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know, I'm a very busy guy. In addition to my responsibilities as head of Daemon Productions, a group that contains at least nine video makers (to say nothing of voice actors, composers, or FX artists), I'm also a full-time college student in pursuit of a literary degree. I don't have a lot of spare time as a result. That's why machinimas like Singularity are a godsend. I could have left in the middle of the video, finished my assigned readings, emailed assignments to my crew members, and made a cup of tea without missing a single thing.

Some people might argue that it's unfair of me to review Singularity immediately after reviewing Fierce. 'Some people' don't know that I am a rebel who does not respect the laws of mortal man. Also, like Curiosity, Singularity represents another experimental video that, with some tweaking, could have actually been really good.

I mean, let's take a look at the setup. You have a first-person perspective of a man wandering through (what I'm assuming is) the aftermath of a battle. We know it could work because it was used to astounding effect in Call of Duty 4.

Heck, comparing Singularity to the nuke aftermath sequence it suddenly becomes very apparent why Singularity doesn't work. The CoD nuke sequence was richly detailed both in its visuals and audio. You could play through that sequence dozens of times and notice something different each time.

Singularity lacks that richness. There is no color correction or significant audio editing. There's no attempt in either the cinematography or sound design to make it look or sound like we're actually assuming a first person perspective as opposed to, say, a flying camera's perspective. There isn't even all that much going on. Yes, you see some Falcons flying in the beginning, but we don't know why and they're never seen for the rest of the video. Yes, we see one body, but that's two things happening in a five minute video. Besides, I've seen High School food fights that had larger body counts.

Is it even worthwhile for me to discuss narrative structure in a video like this? We have no idea what the characters, setting, or plot are for this series, which isn't good when the first episode should make us want to watch more. If the rest of the series is going to carry on exactly like this episode, then count me out. After all, my textbooks aren't going to read themselves.

Unexpected 8 and more news on Halocraft II!

2011-02-01T14:44:00.000-05:00

Unexpected 8 got uploaded on Saturday, and so far it's done marginally better then usual. It'd better be featured on this week's Story Mode or there will be hell to pay!

Unexpected 8

Also, you guys remember that old trailer mash-up I did for Halo and Starcraft that didn't get uploaded to M.com due to copyright reasons? Well, FBWalshyFTW liked it and asked if he could post it on his channel. I agreed thinking it'd be good for some free advertising. So far the video's gotten 25k views and was featured on Kotaku! W00T!

'Fierce' Machinima Review

2011-01-28T15:19:00.003-05:00

I knew I was going to have a problem with Fierce as soon as I learned that Rage was supposed to be part one of a trilogy. You see, I thought that Rage was supposed to be a plot-less, one-off video. An extended fight sequence in the same vein as Out of Control. The trailer immediately corrected this assumption by telling me that, in actuality, Rage was the first chapter of an epic trilogy that would redefine the way we look at war and tell the story of the brilliant tactician Colonel Gatton. A more fitting name for him would be 'Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film' since I'll be damned if we've ever seen him once.

There's no reason for me to critique this thing based on its merits as a narrative. Where would you even begin to critique it in that manner? There is no clear protagonist, no set objective that the protagonists or antagonists are trying to achieve, and not even the most subtle hints towards a three act structure. I can barely even remember any of the lines of dialogue because every single line is the same regurgitated military jargon that you'd hear while playing Call of Duty. There is no characterization here, just worthless, plot-servicing junk.

The few characters that we are presented with are your usual pick-and-mix. There's your squad of gruff-talking Spartans (who I swear were all voiced by the same person), there's the token female support character who ultimately has nothing to do with the storyline (which I will start referring to here on out as 'Dolphinie Syndrome'), and there's the inevitable guy who commits a heroic act of self-sacrifice (which was blatantly ripped off of Sam's death in 'Fall of Reach). I don't count that as a spoiler because it's almost a requirement of these videos to have at least one act of martydom during the series running.

The lack of a stable plot and solid characters is something you'd expect from a video like this. I'd be perfectly fine to let the lack of plot go by unchallenged if it weren't for the fact that this is also one of the most poorly shot machinimas I've seen in recent memory.

I lost count on how many times the 180 rule and the Rule of Thirds were broken. The action is constantly being shot too close to make out the fights, which are a series of poorly choreographed Spartans shooting Elites on generic Forge World maps and campaign footage. The overall capture quality is astonishingly poor, which is compounded by the director's apparent love for adding in zooms in post-production which means that every ten seconds we're treated to the lovely sight of blurrier visuals and visible interlacing. It's the machinima equivalent of watching a B-level horror movie and suddenly noticing the zipper in the monster's costume.

The action itself is also too pervasive. Without characters we can relate to and feel invested in the battles are nothing but light shows, and even if we did care in the slightest the battles themselves are too long for any of it to matter. I think there was only one scene in the entire episode, the briefing, that didn't take place on a battlefield. That's two minutes and five seconds of plot (if you can even call it that) for a fourteen minute and thirty-seven second battle sequence. I didn't even bother paying attention to what they were saying because I knew that it was only going to lead to more people getting shot.

The sound design is choppy at times as well, there was a recurring sound effect of what sounded like spiker shots (Landfall trailer, perhaps?) that seemed very out of place. I will admit that the vocal filters were well done, even if they did make the soldiers sound that much more robotic and un-relatable.

I mentioned before that the action was poorly choreographed and I cannot emphasize that enough. ArmedShadowFox's idea of 'changing the way we look at war' is making us look at the same Spartans shoot at the same Elites behind the comfort of chest high walls ad nauseum. If he was trying to tell us that war is boring, then he definitely succeeded.

As Fierce came to a close I couldn't help but wonder, 'what was the point of any of this'? Lack of narrative aside, videos like these are just old. We've been watching gruff-talking Spartans fire at Elites since 2005, and it's been parodied and lampooned since at least 2007. It's 2011. Enough is enough. It's time for directors to start trying something new.

Silent Night and Sunrise Perspectives!

2011-01-23T18:06:00.000-05:00

Shit, forgot to post Silent Night! Sorry guys!

Silent Night actually found its way onto Halo Waypoint, which was slick as all hell!

In other news, Sunrise Perspectives was uploaded yesterday. It was a quicky that Larry and I did. Just an epic sunrise matched to Also Sprach Zarathustra. Nothing big or special, just your weekly dose of awesome.

My scatterbrained thoughts on 'The Cape'

2011-01-17T00:07:00.005-05:00

So I went on a ski trip over the weekend, and while there I got a chance to watch the second episode of 'The Cape'. I gotta admit I wasn't exactly eager to watch the show when it came out. Part of it was because to me it looks like an attempt to quickly cash in on the superhero wave, especially now considering that 2011 is going to be dominated by superhero films. The other part was the fact that 'The Cape' was by far one of the least dignified super hero concepts I've ever heard.

It's petty to pick on a name, I know, but this just doesn't seem the kind of name that I can imagining striking fear into the superstitious criminal mind. I would have thought that no one would be able to take capes seriously after they were so heavily lampooned in The Incredibles. What's the guys catch phrase gonna be, 'look out or the cape will smother you'?

Despite my earlier concerns it wasn't really all that bad. The character of Vince Faraday was pretty convincing and likable enough, and the circus troop that he trains with has a lot of neat people too (particularly the midget, whose beatdown on Scales was probably one of the highlights of the episode I saw). Keith David's character was by far the MVP. I dunno if it's his voice or just his overall presence, but the man owned the show.

While the good guys are well done, the villains leave a lot to be desired. Let me just be blunt here: writers? I get that Cain is an infamous figure from the Bible as the first murderer and criminal, and because of that his name has a certain charm and weight to it...but enough's enough. From now on you can't name one of your villains 'Cane' unless the protagonist is 'Able' and you're doing a retelling of the Genesis story that takes more artistic licenses then the recent film adaptation of The Tempest. It's like you weren't even trying, guys. I wouldn't mind it so much if this 'Cain' bloke didn't act like a psycopathic chef and look like Fabio. Hardly the guy I'd imagine being named 'Cain'. I seriously wonder if the guy ever got rejected from cooking school and that's what made him turn to evil, in the same way that Hitler was rejected from art school and that's what prompted him to become dictator...or something like that.

Another villain that made me roll my eyes was Scales. Guess what his gimmick...er I mean ability is? He's covered in scales. That's the best you got? A gun-wielding bloke with a bad skin rash? It doesn't help that he's played by the same actor who played the soccer hooligan in Eurotrip. Honestly I'd be more afraid if they brought back the soccer hooligan. Soccer hooligans start riots while guys covered in scales get their ass beaten by midgets.

The whole 'scales' thing might have worked if they pulled a Two-Face like in The Dark Knight or even a Joker a la the original Batman, where the guy starts off like a normal guy and then suffers an accident that gives him his deformity. I mean, you can't just shove a guy covered in scales in front of the audience and expect them to keep a straight face without explaining it. Otherwise they'll just keep wondering if he spends all his salary on lotion.

He's also by far the stupidest character in the series. There's a part where The Cape is stalking a smuggling operation on the docks where a group of people are smuggling something in through stuffed animals (cough Batman Begins ripoff cough). For no reason Scales walks over and rips open one of the animals, bringing out the contents and smiling like a dumbass. Seriously, why did he do that? Was it so we, the dumb audience, could learn what was inside?

Then it gets really stupid. Cape attacks the guards (again, just like in Batman Begins). However, because Cape isn't as awesome as Batman, he gets his ass handed to him by a guy with a bad skin rash (and who would later get his kneecaps broken by a midget with a wrench). Scales then wraps the guy up in chains and dumps him to the bottom of the river.

Hey Scales, here's an idea...SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE! You obviously want him dead, so why not put a bullet between his eyes, and then wrap him up in chains to make sure he stays at the bottom of the water? I don't think escapists can shrug off bullet wounds to the head by dislocating their shoulders.

The fights aren't exactly anything special. The cape basically acts like Zorro's whip which is something I'm fairly sure a normal cape can't do. The whole thing looks absurd, and this is coming from someone who thought Thor's boomerang hammer and the Green Lantern's 'sausage man' costume looked pretty slick. While The Cape's vanishing effect is pretty neat, I'm fairly sure they used the same effect every time. '57 ways to disappear' my ass, Keith David. If they'd varied it up with like a flash bang cloud every now and then it'd be much better. Plus the whole series is filmed in that 'holy crap a movie that's even greener then The Matrix' style that the Saw movies used, which just screams cheap. Films that overdo the filters like this usually do so because they don't know how to establish mood through normal lighting. You know, like talented people are capable of doing?

A few people have told me that the show's supposed to be 'tongue in cheek' (a synonym for 'campy') and a homage to the old superhero TV shows, but is that really the best idea for a show in this day and age? Is there really a place for campy superheroes since Spiderman 2 and The Dark Knight emerged on the scene? Superhero flicks have been dominating the box office for the past few years now, producing not only some of the largest grossing movies but also some of the overall best films. Is now really the best time for a tongue-in-cheek superhero TV show? I dunno.

Overall it's not bad but it's not very good either. I think this is another show I'll be skipping out on.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go write the script for my new superhero show 'The Gloves'. I'm currently at the climactic scene where Gloves confronts his arch-nemesis Feathers, a man covered from head to toe in feathers due to a tragic tar-and-feathering accident. With dialogue like 'the gloves are off, Feathers' I'm sure the show will be a smash hit!

Haley is on M.com!

2011-01-16T23:20:00.000-05:00

Haley, the final result of months of work, the epic magnum opus that began in 2009 and was originally known as Ghost Ship, is finally complete and opened to widespread acclaim! SUCCESS!

Expect a director's commentary tomorrow. In the mean time, here's Haley!

Ghost Ship...with commentary!

2011-01-14T18:28:00.000-05:00

So I decided to release the pre-screen copy of Ghost Ship that I distributed back in May of 2010. I also did a director's commentary for it. Let me know if you want to see more of these!

Ghost Ship

...w/ Directors Commentary

Unexpected discussed on 'Warriors of Reach' Podcast!

2011-01-03T04:56:00.002-05:00

Warriors! Come out and pla-ay!

Unexpected Chapter 6: Behind The Scenes

2010-12-22T03:58:00.016-05:00

I'm here to discuss my first freelance work, on the sixth installment of Unexpected.

From this episode on, I have been drawing storyboards, essentially planning the camerawork in advance through (very rough) sketches. Before you see this, I agree - my drawing is pretty hurting...

Let's work with the final scene, as it translated into final version the best.

In the establishing shot, we see Myronn and Dex enter to view the assault they perpetrated. Removed from the incident, they are distant and together in the frame. They look over the barriers like castle battlements.

Dominant, they are comfortably framed with plenty of space, looking down. They exchange comments about the fight, in one of the prolonged group shots natural to the series.

As they go on, they are now very large in frame, visually trapping the destruction between them. They aren't back-lit, and very shady from this perspective.

As Dex remarks the rebels were abducted, not killed, A Stylus soldier looms over one, ready to process him. He is high in the frame and low angled, looking down at the helpless rebel whose pistol is beyond reach.

A well tuned squad leader, Myronn knows medic Shultz has arrived and asks for the casualty report. Larger and on a different vertical plane, he is dominant.

They both serve to frame Shultz, showing that he is one of them, and drawing attention, as he reports no casualties. The close clustering of them establishes them as a tight knit unit.

Myronn commands the two from this three shot. The white environment provides a clean, focused background devoid of distractions - like the squad's.

Myronn exits right to the rest of his team, leaving the two with some tasks. He breaks up their tight group to move on and deal with more business. The door acts as a framing device. As before, he is closer and larger than the others, drawing our attention as the main focus of the scene.

That concludes this behind the scenes glimpse of Unexpected. Mostly, this was to show the storyboards themselves, though I might write another article, going more in depth.

Crashed Episode 0

2010-12-20T18:20:00.000-05:00

Today the first episode in a new series by Paul Shelly (creator of Outpost Isil and Outpost Coagulation) was uploaded to M.com under the Daemon Productions label. You can view it here.

I'll probably start doing a weekly vlog in order to efficiently convey all the stuff that's been going on here at Daemon Productions recently. I'll also start pumping some life into this blog so people might actually think it's worth visiting. There's so much going on here and so much to look forward to!

But first I have to finish finals, so until tomorrow this'll have to keep you sated. Enjoy!

Black and Gray

2010-12-02T19:16:00.000-05:00

So after 'Why I Paint' proved to be such a success I figured I'd try another experimental piece.

The result is 'Black and Gray', a poetic machinima in a similar vein to 'Why God Why'.

The response to B&G hasn't been nearly as good as it was for Why I Paint, but it's still largely positive. You can watch it here.

Haley Trailer

2010-12-01T19:29:00.000-05:00

The trailer for 'Haley' (aka Ghost Ship 2.0) was released today. I'll probably be releasing it in early January, after which I'll also upload the original cut of Ghost Ship that I distributed for pre-screenings so you can see how it's evolved.

Trailer here

Unexpected 6, Why I Paint, Halo Reach: Deliver Hope remake and other news

2010-11-27T16:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the slow update guys, I got a new laptop and I'm just now getting back to restoring all my old bookmarks.

Got a slew of new videos for you guys. First off is episode six of Unexpected. The second is a remake of the Deliver Hope trailer, made by my friend Jimbothy. Lastly there's Why I Paint, a short video I made in order to test a new filming style.

As most of you might know, I'm working with Randomjack and HolyJunkie on making a prequel series to Unexpected titled 'Dead Letters'. It's already been fully written and Jack's gotten a fair bit of work done on episode one. It looks absolutely fantastic so far and I can't wait for all of you to see it finished!

I'm also starting work on a new kind of series that could be realistically done on a weekly basis. More on that later, though.

Master Chief Sucks at Halo Campaign Episode 8

2010-10-25T12:34:00.000-04:00

Well, that's a blast from the past, ain't it? Yes, I FINALLY made episode 8. I said I was gonna finish this series, and damn it, I intend to finish it! Click here to watch.

Also, Yurei made the semifinals in the Bloodshot contest! Super psyched!

Bloodshot 48 Hour Zombie Entry

2010-10-18T00:09:00.000-04:00

Good evening, peoples of the Daemon Productions blog! I decided that my usual insomniac habits weren't extreme enough and took it up a notch with this 48 Hour contest where you write and make a six minute video on a certain subject in 48 Hours. The result is Yurei, a video about a priest who is killed by zombies and resurrected as a ghost to reclaim his temple so that he can perform the necessary rites to send the souls of the dead to heaven. He decides against it and plots to use them to do his bidding. The devil catches hold of this, and uses the now-zombified body of the priest to corrupt the priest into his service.

It's kinda obvious that the video was made in 48 hours. There are a few video and audio bugs and the story doesn't make a lot of sense. Rest assured that I'll be going over this with a fine tooth comb after I get back into a regular sleeping schedule to fix the bugs before sending it to M.com for Halloween. Regardless I still think that it hosts my finest work when it comes to cinematography and I urge you all to check it out!

Club Errera, That Old Lighthouse and FLAG Tournament Promo

2010-10-16T06:34:00.001-04:00

BOOM! Sudden updates.

So I finished three pieces recently. First is Club Errera, a short comedy piece about two guys who party a bit too hard at an alien night club. Second is That Old Lighthouse, a Daemon Productions debut for our cinematographer, Jack. It's made in the Source engine and involves two people talking about a lighthouse. Yeah. It's awesome.

And lastly there's a promo for the FLAG Tournament, an annual Halo tournament that raises money for Breast Cancer research. Links will be added as the videos are posted!

Club Errera
That Old Lighthouse
FLAG Promo M.com Respawn

Borealis and Merveilleux

2010-09-23T00:07:00.000-04:00

Golly, am I really that far behind on updates? I blame Reach.

The first video is 'Borealis', a collaboration between myself, Robert Meritt and Drift0r of Euphorian Films. Working with them was a blast and they're a great bunch of guys! Hopefully this won't be our last collaboration. Borealis can be found here.

The second video is 'Merveilleux', a video set to 'Clair de Lune' that highlights the city of New Mombassa and tries to capture the sense of sublime wonder that fills you as you navigate through the dim city on your own in ODST. That video can be found here.

The Chopping Block Reviews

2010-09-14T14:15:00.000-04:00

In case you guys didn't already know, I've joined fellow M.com Director Cory Crater, 'Doctor's Orders' creator Brandon Prater and RandomJack on a review shot called 'The Chopping Block' where we take a look at recent mainstream machinima releases. So far we've reviewed Ataraxia, The Forgotten Spartans Episode 9, and The Widow. Check them out!

Merveilleux

2010-09-10T01:31:00.002-04:00

It's the simplest things in life that we treasure.

Kick Some Grass on M.com

2010-08-28T21:12:00.003-04:00

Looks like you...

'Kick Some Grass' contest entry

2010-08-22T16:20:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! So I decided to make a video for Spoony's 'Kick Some Grass' contest. You can watch it here.

Halocraft II: Arrays of Liberty

2010-07-26T19:24:00.001-04:00

The Star Craft 2 release trailer remade with cutscenes from the Halo games.

Due to the fact that I wronged all of the members of the M.com staff in a previous life (or the very least whoever wrote up the copyright laws for usable game content in machinima), this can't be posted on M.com. But you can still view it on my channel, so at least it wasn't a total loss.

Video can be viewed here.

Unexpected Episode 5 is up!

2010-07-25T20:29:00.000-04:00

Expect the unexpected.

Despite being released on Sunday and having some kickass scenes with Source, Unexpected 5 didn't make the Director's Spotlight, which is odd considering that there were a grand total of three live action films in the spotlight instead. Lika-sum booooooooooooooo-dee!

But oh well. Life goes on here at Daemon Productions, and we've got some neat stuff in store!

MOS PSA 3 and Zantive Episode 2 are up!

2010-07-24T13:18:00.000-04:00

Murphy's OnSet PSA 3

Zantive Episode 2

Both are up, so...yeah. Go watch them.

Unexpected Chapter 5: "Operation LIVE"

2010-07-19T14:29:00.003-04:00

Unexpected Chapter 5 has been sent in to the good ol' folks at m.com. I posted the final version minus the pre/post rolls.

Take a look here.

I'll post some pictures for Chapter 6 in a few.

~Sarge

New Moon Lulz Edition Part 2 Delays

2010-07-16T22:30:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, as some of you may know I came down with a stomach bug earlier this week so I've been under the weather lately and as a result I haven't been able to work on NMLE Part 2 all that much. I know it's a bummer to all parties involved and believe me, I wish I wasn't sick either, but there you go. I'll make sure that part 2 is worth the wait and you'll soon be able to expect NMLE installments at the regularly scheduled weekly intervals again.

Thank you for understanding guys!

The Halo Reach Firefight E3 video commentary is up

2010-07-16T11:16:00.000-04:00

About friggin' time.

Do the people at Respawn just bounce tennis balls off the wall all day or something? It shouldn't take a month to upload a video. But whatever, it's finally here.

Murphy's OnSet PSA 3: 'Slick Promo'

2010-07-11T23:00:00.001-04:00

Slick promo bro.

When Murphy is told to make a commercial for the latest Modern Warfare 2 map pack, he decides to have a little bit of fun at the game's expense.

Part 2 of NMLE will be released this Wednesday. I was out in Wyoming last week so I didn't have the chance to do any editing or filming.

New Moon Lulz Edition Part 1

2010-06-30T22:38:00.001-04:00

It is here. You should watch it.

Zantive Episode 2 and NMLE Part 1

2010-06-30T02:46:00.000-04:00

So, episode 2 of Zantive is FINALLY completed. Click here to see that I'm not lying.

Also, the first part of New Moon Lulz Edition premieres tomorrow. It'll be 30 minutes long. Way I see it is there's no point in making anyone sit down to watch a 2 hour film in one sitting. Even the best comedians would have a hard time making anyone be entertained by this horrible film. So, in the interest of preserving the sanity of the audience (as well as my own), NMLE will be split into four parts, one being released every week. First half hour premieres tomorrow.

Start spreading the news...

2010-06-22T20:35:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I'll be boarding a train to NYC to participate in the Algonkian Writer's Conference, which will last from the 23rd to the 27th. Needless to say this is exciting as hell and there will be mucho pics upon my return. Don't expect much from me while I'm gone or upon my immediate return...except for these things.

Reach Firefight Analysis
New Moon: Lulz Edition
A surprise film

And hopefully, the completed and scored Zantive Episode 2.

Also, saw the first rough cut of Unexpected Episode 5. It OWNS. If this doesn't put Unexpected on the map then I don't know what will.

0905 Hours was released...

2010-06-15T22:14:00.000-04:00

...two days ago, apparently. Not that I would be able to tell since it was buried under all the E3 videos.

Unexpected Episode 4 is out!

2010-06-15T00:36:00.002-04:00

Unexpected Episode 4 has been released! Watch it here.

Flying high, into the sky...

2010-06-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

So as some of you may have learned from the recent reveal from Bungie at E3, there are space fighting segments in Halo Reach. This reveal inspired me to make a quick video using the E3 footage (as well as cutscenes from other games) set to the US Air Force song, 'Wild Blue Yonder'. You can view it here.

Also, the voting for Machinicast has begun. To vote, just register here and be sure to vote for Unexpected and/or Manifest Destiny! Let's make Daemon Production's first foray into Machinicast a good one!

More preview images for Unexpected 5

2010-06-13T22:20:00.002-04:00

Yeah...what the title said. Sarge posted a few more images of what's quickly shaping up to be the biggest episode of Unexpected yet, not just from a story standpoint but a technical one as well. Here are the pictures:

One, 21 guns...

The Holy Junkie

A group of soldiers listens to the radio

Scott chats it up with Cidwick

The Holy Junkie during 'Operation: Live'

Two Neocanadian citizens

Machicast Results for First Round

2010-06-12T21:04:00.002-04:00

Hey viewer(s), as you know some Daemon Productions Originals were submitted to Machinicast. The first round has completed leaving us with our top four in each category. Manifest Destiny and Unexpected (particularly Unexpected) were judge favorites and placed pretty high in a few of the categories!

Action/Drama Series:
Unexpected: 22
The DC Chronicles: 21
Vae Victis: 20
Cry Havoc: 20

Best Story:
Hight Fever: 44
Unexpected: 33
Manifest Destiny: 32
Spartan-Beta: 30

Best Picture:
Hight Fever: 65
No Russian: 59
Pathogen: 59
Unexpected: 56

Needless to say all of us at Daemon Productions are very thrilled at having our series place in the final rounds of voting. Unfortunately, this is only half the battle. The next round of voting will be decided by you, the people. So stay tuned here so you can find out where you need to go to vote for your favorite series! It's all up to you now!

Unexpected Episode Five Teaser Image

2010-06-12T20:16:00.001-04:00

'Operation: Live' goes global...soon.

Manifest Destiny Episode 3 is up!

2010-06-12T18:15:00.001-04:00

All hail Oz.

Also, I made a quick promotional video for Virtual Flicks.You can view it here. Any fans of Clockwork Orange will probably approve of this.

Zantive Episode Two Preview Images

2010-06-10T10:12:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! Sarge sent me the rough cut of Zantive Two (a few lines will be changed and music will be added, but besides that this is the finished version) and frankly...it kicks ass. Sure it took a long time to make, but trust me, it won't disappoint, and from here on out these episodes won't take nearly as long to make. Below are some preview images of episode two.

Junkie consults COALMINER

The man in black fled across the desert...

The Founder

Dan confronts an unruly civilian with his hammer.

Dawn giving a speech to a group of Legacy citizens

Cowboy Dan at his computer

MOS PSA 2 is up

2010-06-09T21:29:00.000-04:00

Witness the madness here.

Episode 3 of Manifest Destiny will be airing this Saturday. There was a slight delay due to music licensing issues, so I took the time to play around with the visuals a bit to make the film look prettier. We'll see how that went on Saturday.

Zantive Episode 2 is nearing completion (for real this time). 0905 Hours and Unexpected 4 will also be uploaded soon.

The Holy(junkie) Trinity: 0905 Hours and Unexpected Episode 4

2010-06-06T01:14:00.000-04:00

Greetings comrades! As I said in a previous post, Unexpected has become a Daemon Productions original series ever since Angsty Studios dropped it due to a lack of views. Episode four was finished early today and sent in to M.com. I've been helping Sarge and Junkie cowrite the scripts for the other episodes (I finished episode seven earlier today), so hopefully that will give it the edge it needs to succeed.

But that's not all that happened today. I just sent in 0905 Hours to M.com. This is the first film of many to be made by HolyJunkie that will be hosted as Daemon Productions Originals, and hopefully it'll be up on M.com soon.

So with these two videos I'd like to officially welcome HolyJunkie and ODST Sarge into the Daemon Productions family as directors! YAYZORZ!

MOS PSA 1 is up!

2010-05-28T22:26:00.000-04:00

First PSA is up. Not much else to report except I'm currently relaxing in Lake Placid.

Manifest Destiny Episode 3 and Murphy's OnSet PSAs

2010-05-22T23:35:00.000-04:00

Manifest Destiny Episode 3 is rendering as I'm typing this entry. Because it's about 12 minutes though the only place you'll be able to see it is at M.com. However, do to a new submission policy I can submit larger files then before. This'll be one high-quality ass-kicking episode.

If you're wondering if this is the episode where everyone whips out their guns and starts fighting, then I'm sorry to say that it's not. You'll have to wait a bit for the mayhem to ensue. With Episode 3 comes the end of Act I of Manifest Destiny. The scene has been set, the characters introduced, and the plot is well in motion. It's all uphill to the climax from here.

In other machinima news, I've made two PSAs in Murphy's OnSet that should be on M.com fairly soon, one of them being set in Reach (if you want to see some outtakes from this PSA, then check this out). I figured that I'd use the Beta to beta test another important aspect of the upcoming Halo game: machinima making.

Everything looks promising. It's not exactly ideal right now but it is doing a few things right that will in all probability glisten like vampire skin come the full release.

Speaking of glitter skin, it looks like New Moon: Lulz Edition will be completed after the first week of June. I'm pushing it back so I can make sure I do it right, and also because I'm planning on doing a few other things with NMLE to both promote Zantive and widen my userbase.

Starting tomorrow the final work on Ghost Ship begins. My hope is to have it finished by May 25th so I can submit it to Machinicast. I'm almost certain it'll get some kind of award. And if not, the feedback I get there will be almost certain to make it a hit when it's released in full on M.com.

FLAG Tournament

2010-05-19T18:28:00.001-04:00

One of my friends helps host a fund raising tournament in Halo 3 called FLAG, or 'Fight Like A Girl', which raises money for Breast and Cervical cancer. This next tournament will be its fifth time running. The tournament has been very successful over the past four years, raising upwards of $5000 dollars in the last tournament. Bungie has sponsored this tournament in the past and has already agreed to post footage on Waypoint in support of the drive. Last year they ran a 2vs2 portion where people could play with some of the Bungie guys.

Below's a link to some of the 2vs2 footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn_QFoNophA

And pics of Bungie setting up.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedonwan/sets/72157622548414229/

Bungie's Dave Gasca plugs FLAG in an article on B.net below:
http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=BreakingIn_Gasca

The competition is done online with a fee of $10 donated to participate in the events. A lot of aspiring MLG players put this on their resume.

As of this moment there isn't a site up and the event is scheduled to take place about the time Halo Reach is released. When a site is made and a definite time is determined I will post both here.

Below are the emails of the event coordinators if anyone has any questions. I'd really like to see this become a big event.

dna_617@yahoo.com (The friend who told me about the tournament)
karitoyama@gmail.com (The main coordinator)

Some links to sites that talk about previous FLAGs:
http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxvoices/archive/2009/10/19/fought-like-a-girl.aspx
http://twitter.com/FLAGtournament
http://hawtymcbloggy.com/2008/10/04/3rd-annual-%E2%80%9Cfight-like-a-girl%E2%80%9D-halo-charity-tournament/
http://davidrcole.com/fight-like-a-girl/

LOLOLOL DISREGARD THE PREVIOUS DISREGARDMENT, I DON'T FALLATE PHALLI

2010-05-18T00:14:00.000-04:00

Just finished talking with Eades, who confirmed that I have permission to continue Unexpected as a Daemon Productions Original. There was a miscommunication between various Angsty members, but that's been resolved. Look forward to Episode 4 being released in the near future.

HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS

2010-05-17T18:46:00.000-04:00

Yeah...remember how I said that Unexpected would become a Daemon Productions Original? Well...I might have spoken too soon.

Since Angsty has to meet a certain quota of videos every month they might need to keep Unexpected. I'm not entirely sure about whether or not this is true, all I know is that when I last asked Eades (Angsty's head) about Unexpected on May 14th he said that I could do whatever I wanted with it. So I'll follow up with him and see what Unexpected's status is.

Even if it does stay with Angsty I'm not going to give up on Unexpected so easily. I'll try to make sure that I remain a co-writer for the series even if it's their show. Since it's Junkie's and Sarge's child I don't think there'll be much difficulty there.

I'm still hoping that Unexpected remains open. I honestly do think that I could give it the new direction that it needs to become a success. But in the end, I'm glad for it no matter where it is.

Give us your poor, your tired, your viewless masses...

2010-05-14T18:49:00.000-04:00

The trailer for Ghost Ship went live on M.com earlier today. Overall the reception was great and it looks like I have everyone's attention.

I have some more important news, however. Unexpected, an Angsty Original Series directed and written by my co-workers ODST Sarge and HolyJunkie respectively, has been dropped by Angsty due to a lack of views. I've been a fan of Unexpected from the beginning, so when I heard the news I offered to continue the series under my roof. Episode 4 and on of Unexpected will be Daemon Productions Originals.

In regards to actual production I'll play little part. Junkie will still be the main writer and Sarge will still be directing. Now however they'll have me to cowrite and supervise the series. I wouldn't go so far as to say the series is bad or has major problems, but I think that putting my personal spin on the story might be enough to bring the series out of its slump and into the spotlight.

Due to Episode 4 being in the midst of production during the announcement, you won't see my alterations until Episode 5. But check it out regardless because seriously, it's Unexpected. It's an original series made by one of the best production companies in Machinima today (and all the other episodes will still have access to Angsty's VAs and Music departments).

So welcome on board Unexpected, welcome to the Daemon Productions family.

Build me up, Buttercup.

2010-05-13T13:28:00.002-04:00

One of the most crucial elements when telling any story is the build up to the climax. There are many ways to go about this and in my time here I've seen an untold number of machinima films fall short in this respect. And this isn't just a few films, this is a large majority spread out across almost all the machinima genres: horror, comedy, action, even tragedy. In this article I'll cover all these different genres with multiple examples so that you, the reader, may learn how to better pace your machinimas.

Most of you who've taken some form of English class probably know that any narrative work is divided into several parts which illustrate the different stages of build up. These stages are the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution (also known as 'denouement' to all you cheese-eating, wine-sipping, surrendering frog men out there). The exposition establishes the initial elements of the story. Characters, plot, and themes all get introduced here. Most of the rest of the story will be the rising action, which builds upon the already established elements by either developing them further or adding new ones to supplement them (new characters, plot twists, emergence of new themes, etc), ultimately culminating in the climax, the state of greatest energy in the story. It could be the funniest moment or most action-packed moment or even the most serious moment, but the climax is the key moment. Everything prior to the piece has been working up to this moment. Following the climax is the falling action, which is basically the cool-down exercise for the piece. Everything's calming down to the resolution, or the end of the piece. Lots of machinima films get this pacing wrong by either starting at the climax and attempting to maintain that state of energy throughout, or by staying at the same relative area of inactivity and thus not really having a distinguishable climax at all. Below are some examples of various machinima series and shorts that have befallen pacing issues in varying genres.

First genre to cover is comedy. I'm sure by now everyone's seen or heard of EuphoriaFilm's short, '2 Guys 1 Boat' which centers around...what else...two guys in a boat. Arguing. For the whole duration of the film. This is a big no-no for pacing. If you start off with an argument, the only way to build it is to yell louder. It's like a fire: eventually, it has to burn out. It's not supposed to be kept sustained for a long period of time, it grows tiring and boring really quick. Arguments are supposed to be the height of a conflict, if you start something at its height then naturally all you can do is either sustain it throughout (which is boring) or taper it down (which is anti-climactic).

On the other side of the spectrum, let's look at Com3back's short 'Why God Why'. It begins with a man lamenting about the state of his life and ends with him still lamenting and then killing himself. There's no real build up to the suicide. He starts depressed and ends depressed. Ideally a short should be like a roller coaster: slowly builds up pace until it races down to its conclusion. If you don't build anything up, you're not a roller coaster. You're a train with handle bars. If you want the audience to be stunned or effected by your short, you need build up, which means not starting on the same key you end on.

Renaldoxx's 'Post Traumatic' suffers from this exact same predicament. It starts off on a tragic note and ends on a tragic note. In order for a story to be powerful, you need to build it up to an effective climax. You cannot play the same note throughout, it just won't work.

Continuing with the tortured roller coaster metaphor, a lot of action machinimas have some build up but instead of doing a series of large, sloping mountains they just have a smaller series of hills, which isn't nearly as dramatic or powerful. Darknal's The Forgotten Spartans is a criminal example of this. I don't think there was a single episode that went without an elaborate fight scene, and I think there were some that even had two. If you have a large fight scene in every episode, then it begins to lose its sting and becomes boring. Just like how you shouldn't end on the same key as when you began, your climax shouldn't reach the same pitch every time either. If you play the same card every single time, eventually your climaxes become boring and the slower parts become simply unbearable. So don't do that. Vary things up a little.

In order for a short or a series to be effective, it needs to develop and build up instead of being static. Characters can and should be expected to change throughout the series, as should plots and themes. By pacing your series effectively you can make the focal points of your pieces have greater impact upon the audience, which will make the audience more willing to keep watching.

The Great Reveal

2010-05-06T00:02:00.001-04:00

Yes, it's time for the unveiling of my big project.

Looking over this now I can't help but feel that it's a recipe for disaster. Most successful machinimas are made in either Halo 3 or other current-gen games like Gears of War 2 or Half Life 2. They tend to be short, usually not going longer then eight minutes, and are either action or comedy.

Introducing Ghost Ship, a fifteen minute horror machinima filmed in Halo PC. There's no comedy and little action, just one man alone on a ship with a ghostly crew that wants to kill him. Why? You'll need to see it when it comes out to know that.

Needless to say this is easily my most ambitious project yet, and arguably one of the most ambitious machinimas made in recent months if not years. Ignoring the fact that it's flying in the face of convention, this video will also have no dialogue, instead relying on its music and visuals to tell the story. Horror is also a considerably small genre in machinima, namely because most directors find it easier to make people laugh at dick jokes or cringe at poorly penned dialogue then to get them to be scared.

But why am I telling all of you this when you can see the trailer for yourself here? I dunno. Because I like the sound of my voice. Or typing, or whatever the equivalent is...forget it.

Halo Effect 2: ODST is live!

2010-05-04T16:54:00.000-04:00

Insincere Endorsements can be found here.

Hopefully this goes down well, from the comments a lot of people seem to like it.

I haven't had the chance to try out the Reach Beta yet, hopefully tomorrow I'll have the opportunity. I've heard it's a blast.

I'm currently working on a trailer for my big project which should be done tomorrow (I finished making the music for it earlier today, and by 'making' I mean 'compiling'), and after that I finish filming for Episode 3 of Manifest Destiny.

That's all for now.

Our Darkest Hour is live!

2010-04-30T19:12:00.002-04:00

If you don't hear from me in a month...SEND LINK!

I have a feeling this'll be another big video like Halo Effect was. Maybe it might even land a spot on Bungie's homepage. Who knows. Just glad that it managed to get out before the Beta went live. God would it have been awkward if it had aired afterward...but anyway, there it is!

Filming for Episode 3 of Manifest Destiny began today. Lemphek (the composer for Zantive) emailed me some music samples from the score he's composing for Zantive episode 2. Considering Zantive's overall urban setting he decided to go for an industrial feel which I have to say works really well. The episode should be up by mid-May.

I'm also working on a trailer for my hidden project. It should be done in about a week (the trailer, not the video, the video itself will take a bit longer).

That's all for today!

The Codex/The Heretic Discussion

2010-04-30T01:54:00.000-04:00

By now it's no secret that I'm not a fan of fanfic machinimas, or the fact that they seem to be the preferred storyline in most machinimas today. But I don't hate all fanfic machinimas outright, and there are several fanfic machinimas that I actually consider to be good if not exemplary machinima. Two series in particular that have kept drawing me back are The Codex and The Heretic by Edgework Entertainment.

The Codex is a relatively old machinima series. Comprised of twenty episodes released from February 9th to August 13th of 2005, the series went on to win in six categories of the Rockets on Prisoner awards and was described by Chris Anderson (editor-in-chief of Wired magazine) as being 'the best machinima production he had ever seen'. The series has also been considered an equal to Red vs Blue, with people going to The Codex for action and drama and RvB for comedy.

Let me repeat that last part for emphasis. The Codex was able to hold its own against and was even considered an equal to Red vs Blue, the phenomenon that put machinima in the public eye. That's a noteworthy achievement in and of itself.

The story is the quintessential fanfic premise of Spartans vs elites, although it should be remembered that this was also the first series to attempt such a plotline. Calling it out for being cliché in that regard would be like accusing the first Die Hard movie of being a cliché action film even though it's the film that started most action cliches.

Gotta respect the classics.

What makes The Codex better then the other fanfic series to come after it is that it has one of the most interesting cast of characters to ever come out of a machinima, particularly the elites.

That's right, for the most part the elites, the supposed bad guys of the series, are the more interesting characters. Is this bad? No. In fact it's probably what made the story so great.

When you think of the greatest villains in film history, who do you think of? Darth Vader. Hannibal Lecter. The Joker. Why are these considered some of the best villains of all time? Because they're interesting.

...and because they're intimidating, terrifying and criminally insane.

Whenever I write I try not to think of the 'bad guys' as...well...bad guys. It really comes down to the difference between a villain and an antagonist. A villain is someone we generally tend to associate with being evil, which means that your character could very well falling into the pitfalls of being a caricature or an unbelievable conglomerate of stereotypes.

On the other hand, antagonists are simply the opposite of the protagonists. They're not necessarily evil, in fact they can be decent people, but for some reason or another the protagonist has to compete with them. This makes for more interesting storytelling because you find yourself caught between who to support.

In that regard, the elite characters here are superb. The main antagonist is Praetor, the commander of the elite forces. His task is to find The Codex, an assembled library of all the Forerunner's knowledge, while contending with a rebellious Cleric who represents the religious hierarchy of the covenant and fighting off a group of Spartans. The conflict between Praetor and the Cleric is top notch. Their dialogue is fierce and riveting, especially the Cleric's. Even though the Cleric is a villain, you can't help but like him because he's so well-spoken.

The Cleric (left), opening a can of verbal whoop-ass on Praetor (right).

Another reason to like Praetor is that, unlike the other series to follow Praetor actually seems like a legitimate commander. He isn't some all-powerful general barking out orders to be done. Most of the series centers around how he resolves the conflicts with his orderlies, the Cleric and the Spartans, which makes him seem a far more realistic military figure.

Also of note is Praetor's right hand officer, Anda Sofadee, the female commander of the Special Forces operatives who has to deal with rampant sexism amongst her superiors, especially the Cleric. While not as major as Praetor or Cleric she is still a very interesting character.

The human characters are sadly not nearly as well-penned. The three main human characters are Candice McKenzie, the cautious leader of Blue Team, Jack Foster, the reckless leader of Red Team, and the Chief, the Spartan commander. While Candice is decently written as a caring leader who won't risk her teammate's lives unnecessarily, Jack is the opposite. He's a trigger-happy commando who often runs right into the field of battle, killing dozens of soldiers in the open with a shotgun or dual-wielded pistols. He's the kind of overblown gun-happy cardboard cutout that you'd expect of more contemporary fanfic series like The Forgotten Spartans.

Hope you're a fan of John Woo movies, because this is pretty much how every scene with Jack ends.

The Chief also seems a bit two dimensional. All he really seems to do is bark orders. Compared to the other characters of the series, particularly Praetor, he seems kinda flimsy and underwhelming. But they are by no stretch bad. They are still good characters, and hey, at least you'll never hear any of them say 'Avenge me, Cosmic'.

The cinematography for the series isn't mind blowing, but it is relatively good. Unfortunately the first few episodes suffer from what I like to call 'Early RvB Syndrome'.

For those who maybe didn't play Halo 2 or didn't film with it, what I'm talking about is the way that it's filmed. Halo 2 didn't come with a theater mode, so the only way to film in Halo 2 was to have a 'cameraman' player record everything through the HUD and then letterbox away the lower and top portions of the HUD to block out the gun, health bars, etc. Unfortunately this also left the crosshairs on the screen. There was a way to bypass this, however. While not as big a part of the game as Halo 3, there were skulls in Halo 2 that could be found in the campaign that had various effects. One of these skulls was the 'Blind' skull, which removed a player's HUD in all the games he was in until he turned his Xbox off. Thankfully later episodes take advantage of that technique.

It's like watching the 1933 King Kong...except in Machinima.

The story is well paced and well told, alternating nicely between the elites and the Spartans, ultimately culminating in one tremendous battle for the Codex.

The battles quickly become repetitive and aren't very impressive. One of the things that always irritates me about a lot of fanfic machinimas is the bodycount the battles tend to have, or more specifically, how one-sided that body count is. In the Halo canon Elites were considered the equal of the Spartans in regards to fighting prowess and strength, and yet in the battle scenes of The Codex they get slaughtered like wildlife on open season.

The score for this series is fantastic. Easily memorable (and unfortunately for me, very catchy), it adds the perfect edge to whatever scene is in progress. The voice acting is also some of the best in a machinima, particularly for the elites.

So that's The Codex, an all around good series. So what about The Heretic, the second series by Edgework Entertainment? Frankly...it's easily one of the best Halo machinima series of all time.

On the two year anniversary of The Codex's release, Edgework Entertainment released the first episode of The Heretic, a series that took place shortly before the events of The Codex. Running seven episodes (with the last being a half hour long), The Heretic more then met the already considerable bar that had been set by The Codex, which is largely due to the story's focus.

The Heretic tells the story of Dove Antenatee, the 'heretic' of the title. He's a high cleric for the Covenant whose devotion to the Forerunner gods leads him to question the Prophet Hierarchy. His story is dynamic, emotional, and above all else, believable. I could write an entire article simply on this character, he's that complex and detailed.

Characters like Dove Antenatee make literary critics act like excited schoolgirls.

Both Praetor and the Cleric (here called Kilrah Saburee) make appearances in the series, with Praetor now taking a role as Dove's friend and protege and Kilrah as the Seraphim captain that's ordered to hunt Dove down. Somehow both characters managed to be improved in The Heretic, particularly Kilrah, who makes Joseph McCarthy and his stint in the Red Scare shrivel in comparison. Kilrah is threatening, devious, cold and calculating, but above all else, he's dangerous. And he'll make sure you know it.

Kilrah (right) unleashing yet another can of verbal whoop-ass on Praetor (left).

The human characters also make a return, and this time around prove to be far more interesting. While Jack is still the same trigger-happy gunman from The Codex, in this series we get to see more of the man underneath. The Chief also seems a more fleshed-our character here. While he still seems to mainly exist simply to occupy the vacant slot of 'human leader', he fills out that role with considerably more personality then he did in The Codex.

The story in The Heretic is also still as compact and well-paced as the one in The Codex and basically centers around Dove. The elites retreat from their positions in human space to go hunting for him, and the humans, hearing about the defective elite, try to find him as well. Just like in The Codex, both sides meet up in one final battle, which is helped tremendously by the profuse use of some of the best CGI ever used in a machinima series.

Seriously. It took three years for RvB: Revelation to come along and knock The Heretic off its throne, and in that time, it was king. The space battles here are simply incredible, and unlike in Revelation where the CGI is jarring and unfitting (which is by no stretch the fault of Rooster Teeth since it'd be very difficult to make the models match those used in the game), here it's incredibly natural, with the transition from gameplay to CGI almost seamless (although this is probably mostly due to the old graphics Halo 2 had). Also, unlike a lot of CGI used in machinima these days, here it has a purpose. It isn't thrown in just for the sake of having something pretty to look at. It's used as a tool to push the story, plot and characters to greater heights.

Star Fell ain't got shit on this.

The score is mostly comprised of similar tracks to the ones that appeared in The Codex, but considering the timeless nature of said tracks that's hardly a complaint. The voice acting also continues to be as incredible here as it was in The Codex. The cinematography here is also little short of beautiful, particularly in episode one during the opening scene and the night meeting by the beach.

So there you have it, The Codex and The Heretic, two timeless machinima series showing not only how a fanfic machinima should be made, but how any machinima series should be made. Its use of believable and interesting characters, personal storylines and CGI as a tool easily put it at the top in regards to machinima production. If you are a machinima director, you need to watch this series. It doesn't matter if you don't make fanfic machinimas or even if you don't make Halo machinima. Everyone from fledgling youtuber to M.com Director can learn something from these two works of art.

A Double Feature!

2010-04-24T13:33:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, got two videos for you today. The first is fan-trailer for the Reach Beta titled 'Our Darkest Hour', the second is a comedy mashup of Mass Effect 2 skits re-enacted in Halo 3 titled 'Halo Effect 2 ODST'.

Our Darkest Hour

Halo Effect 2: ODST

In other news, Episode 2 of Zantive is currently in the editing stage. I have almost all the lines needed to begin work on Episode 3 of Manifest Destiny. Somewhere in the mix I'll make the next episode of Murphy's OnSet (I already have all the lines, it's just that making this episode will require some advanced editing and I wanted to make sure I was comfortable in After Effects before I began).

And lastly, I have a large project currently in the works that hopefully will be finished by the end of May. It's easily my most ambitious project yet. More to come as it draws closer to completion.

I get knocked down/but I get up again/they're never gonna keep me down!

2010-04-08T23:34:00.002-04:00

So I made a remake of the Aliens trailer with Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST. M.com can't accept it because the audio of the trailer is copyrighted. So once again, I've been trolled by the copyright ghouls.

But life goes on as it often does. The second episode of Zantive should be finished in the near future and I have a few videos up my sleeves as well (I've taken great pains to ensure that these won't be stricken down as well).

Also, yes, work has begun on New Moon: Lulz Edition. When will it be released? That depends on if this movie makes me start gnawing away at my wrist like the last one did. I'll have a better estimate once I can at least get past the title screen without going into convulsions.

As to the Aliens remake, you can find it here.

Fansick

2010-03-27T05:40:00.003-04:00

The following is a list of all the major machinima series/videos that take place within the canon of their respective game, in whole or in part. Keep in mind that there are countless other videos that aren't 'major' and were therefore omitted from this list, and that I probably forgot several series when making the list.

Red vs Blue

Deus ex Machina

The Forgotten Spartans

The Heretic

The Codex

The Halo Wars

Pathogen

Pathogen II

Star Fell

The First Spartan

Outpost Isil

Point Zero One

City 17

Freeman's Mind

A Rebel's Diary

Out of Service

Vae Victus

The Olympia Chain

Spriggs

Let's take a look at the list itself. It includes nearly every major release in the machinima community, and many of the videos in question are considered 'quintessential machinima' by a wide body of people (ie, RvB, DEM and TFS).

What does this mean? It means that the large bulk of major machinima produced is essentially fan fiction. And that's a problem.

In my previous article I talked about how the gaming culture is encroaching on the machinima culture and that, as a result of it, the machinima culture is getting stifled. Unless the machinima culture is able to separate from gaming, then it will always be tied to it, and will therefore be unable to move on as an artform.

I can't think of a more glaring example of how the gaming culture is holding us back then with this current trend of machinima that take place within the canon of their 'patron games'. Maybe it's just because my passion is writing, but this simply irritates me to end.

Fan fiction is looked down upon in almost all writing circles in the same way that tracing is looked down upon in artistic communities. It's behavior that's expected of amateurs and it's assumed that they will eventually grow out of it. And admittedly, it is good practice, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't write fanfiction at one point. Of course, I wrote my last fanfic when I was approximately twelve years old.

Most machinima directors are also the writers for their works and are either teenagers or young adults. In other words, too old to be writing fanfiction. Keep in mind that these directors get paid incredibly well for what are essentially derivative works.

In many ways it's understandable why these 'fanfic machinimas' exist. If someone watches something made in Halo, their mind will drift to Halo, so why fight the current? Also, chances are if good that if someone's watching something made in a certain game's engine, that they'll be a fan of the game. So why not capitalize on that by making a film set in the game's canon? And I'm sure game designers love seeing that the stories in their games are so cherished by fans that the fans want to see the story continue through their own additions.

But that doesn't justify the fact that almost all major machinimas releases are derivative works. If machinima is going to bring in a wider body of viewers, it's going to have to start being more original. We need to start telling stories that are unique to our genre and can be found nowhere else. And what that means is taking risks and attempting, as film critic MovieBob calls it, 'big-idea stuff'.

Let me just make it clear here that I'm not outright condemning all works that make use of their patron game's canon, just the ones that don't do anything interesting with it. The works I'm criticizing are the ones that don't allow the canon to springboard themselves to newer, more interesting heights.

Red vs Blue for example. While it takes place in (or at least alongside) the canon in the Halo games, it carves out its own universe and doesn't rely on the canon as a crutch to tell its story. Not like the countless series out there that take place in the Halo canon and whose plots could be roughly summed up by the following line from Opus Machinima:

'A group of ragtag Spartans (complete with gruff-talking sarge) saves the world from a group of zealous elites hell-bent on killing the previously mentioned Spartans.'

'That might be a good idea except for the fact that it's been done ABOUT 137 TIMES ALREADY!'

Besides the fact that it displays poor writing skill to make story lines like this, it also alienates potential viewers. I don't think I've ever seen a 'Spartans vs elites' machinima that opened with an introduction that explained how the Human-Covenant war came into being, probably because the makers assume that if you're watching the film, you've played the game. This is part of the reason why Red vs Blue is so successful. You don't need to have played the games to understand any of the details of the plot.

Those series that do make extensive use of the game's canon always seem to latch on to the most basic motifs of the game. With Halo it's always 'Spartans vs Elites'. With Half Life 2 it's always 'Humans vs Aliens/Combine'. In both cases, by focusing on those motifs the series misses out on some of the deeper and more interesting themes that could very well make for an interesting series. Both Halo and Half Life 2 have wide, expansive universes to be explored, and it would be so easy to make a premise that's both original and exciting out of those universes that it's all the more infuriating that nobody does. Instead of having the focus be on the Spartans, why not have an elite-centric plot? Instead of listening to the ramblings of a rebel, why not listen to the thoughts of Dr. Breen, the man who essentially handed humanity over to the Combine to be enslaved and exterminated? Why not make a series on the Combine? Or the Forerunners?

But that won't happen because the people who watch these videos simply don't care. People have been watching Spartans kick elite ass since Alexander Winn made The Codex more then half a decade ago. They'll continue to eat it up because they don't know any better and there's simply nothing else to watch. And the Directors, who have the power to fix both points, seem to care even less.

Unsporting Conduct from M.com

2010-03-22T02:40:00.006-04:00

There is a common belief that good things come in threes. Holy Trinity, Third Time's the Charm, Three Stooges. But sometimes 'three' is just superfluous and useless. Like a third arm. Or a third leg (no, not that third leg).

Introducing Machinima Sports, the third arm of what's quickly becoming the Machinima Empire.

If Respawn was Batman Forever, then this is Batman and Robin.

What is Machinima Sports? It's a channel devoted entirely to gameplay for video game sports.

But wait a second. Didn't we already have a channel devoted to gameplay called 'Respawn'? Yes we did, but apparently Respawn was too focused on Modern Warfare 2 to appeal to everyone who plays sports video games, and so a new channel was made just for them.

Okay. That's cool I guess. I mean that's why Respawn was made in the first place, right? So gameplay videos could be appreciated on a channel and kept separate from cinematic machinima. Now the same is being done for sports video gamers. There's just one problem: Respawn's cord hasn't been cut yet and they're trying to deliver another channel.

Keep in mind as I'm telling you about this new channel that we're still dealing with the aftershocks of Respawn's messy birth and that now we have to contend with this Sports channel. We're still having countless gameplay videos thrown at us that we don't want to see. Director videos are still losing views because they're not getting the attention that they used to. And yesterday's Machinima Today was probably the first episode of Machinima Today that wasn't filled with gameplay, live action or game discussion shows. Congratulations, it only took five and a half months to get that straightened out.

Am I angry about this development? Yes, and so should every Machinima Director, or anyone who has any interest in machinima whatsoever! We've been petitioning the staff of M.com for months now to fix the problems with Respawn. We've been talking with M.com's staff and have been told that work was being done on a solution, and instead we get this? Frankly I'm not sure if this new channel means they're ignoring us or just actively spiting us.

This can't be allowed to continue. We've been patient with M.com while they've fixed up Respawn. I'm not expecting instant gratification, and it won't be easy to salve all these problems. I know that. But what am I supposed to think when new channels are being made for sub genres of gameplay while I'm stuck having to scroll through pages of gameplay videos to find one mediocre machinima?

I would end this article with a joke that the next thing Machinima will do is make channels exclusively for JRPGs, 8-bit arcade games and rhythm games, but frankly that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest and would only complete Machinima's apparent goal of forsaking the Directors program entirely.

Manifest Destiny Episode 2 is up!

2010-03-17T15:16:00.001-04:00

In what has to be a record-breaking period of time M.com posted the second ep of MD.

It's too early to tell how it's doing, though.

MD Ep2 Preview Images

2010-03-15T19:26:00.003-04:00

The second episode will hopefully be out later this week. In the mean time, here's some bio posters to introduce you to the series' main characters.

Ooh, epic sunset. Very nice.

Ricardo 'Richie Rich' Jackson, 'The Pilot'

Christina 'Madonna' Louis, 'The Pacifist'

Devon Ashcroft, 'The Engineer'

Lieutenant Samantha 'Sam' Dunne, 'The Soldier'

Commander Sean Ericson, 'The Mercenary'

Manifest Destiny episode 2 is done.

2010-03-10T23:35:00.001-05:00

The second episode of Manifest Destiny is done.

...

That is all for now.

Will you bite the hand that feeds you?

2010-03-08T20:38:00.002-05:00

According to the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences, machinima is defined as 'the use of real-time three-dimensional (3-D) graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation' and by pretty much everyone else as 'films made in video games'. Simply by looking at the definition we can already see that there is considerable overlap between the indie-film culture of machinima and the juggernaut that is gaming culture. Chances are if you're reading this you already know how this relationship has taken a turn for the worst in recent months.

Hear that sound, like bacon frying? That's thousands of machinimators recoiling from their screens and hissing.

Simply mentioning Machinima Respawn or any video on it is enough to inspire feelings of contempt in most machinimators, and rightly so. The gaming culture has absolutely no right intruding on machinima like this. Of course that then begs the question of where the line must be drawn, or if it's even possible to differentiate between where machinima ends and gaming begins.

Let us first consider that we all owe gaming a great deal. In addition to not only providing us real-time 3D engine 'canvases' to make our work, they also take time to program us various theater mode 'tools', in addition to allowing people to essentially profit off of gameplay footage edited together with effects and music. Developers actually encourage this. They want the community to have as much fun with their game as possible, even if it doesn't necessarily involve playing the game itself. With this in mind saying that we need to keep gaming and the gaming culture itself as far from machinima as possible is comparable to biting the hand that feeds you.

That said, just because our medium owes its existence and current prosperity to the generosity of the gaming industry doesn't mean it can act like a helicopter mom, constantly flying around us and showing us where to go or what to do. The existence of entities like Machinima Respawn proves that in order for machinima to step forward and become a respectable form of media, it will have to step away from the gaming industry.

But here comes the slippery slope. Machinima Respawn deals with gameplay videos. All machinima is technically gameplay since it's filmed within the game's engine. The only real distinguishing factor between gameplay on Respawn and 'actual' machinima is that 'actual' machinima is cinematic while Respawn's videos are about showcasing gamers and gaming in general.

Slipping even further, not all machinimas are truly 'cinematic'. There are far too many machinimas out there that are nothing but hollow shells stuffed with cultural references in order to compensate for actual depth or humor. As long as machinima continues to celebrate the gaming culture instead of itself, machinima as an artform will never progress beyond an internet phenomenon.

It'd be easy to say that the people who make these culture-centered machinimas are simply untalented, but that can't be the reason. The truth is rather obvious: the reason a lot of these videos exist is because a lot of machinimators are gamers and therefore want to celebrate gaming culture. For a lot of machinimators, making videos like these is their way of giving back to the developers who both made the game and also took the time to make it easier for machinimators to make films using their game.

The question remains unanswered: where is the line between machinima and gaming, and when is gaming crossing that line? Frankly right now the only serviceable answer I can come up with is to quote Potter Stewart: 'I know it when I see it.'

Alice in Narnia

2010-03-07T22:59:00.002-05:00

I have a theory about the recent remake of 'Alice in Wonderland'. Whoever was assigned to write the screenplay was told to 'write a screenplay based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll', but got mixed up and started writing one for The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, not noticing the mistake until a few days before the deadline. Realizing how royally boned he was the poor writer tried desperately to adapt what he'd already written to hopefully fit Alice, and...well, this is our result.

Movie...I am disappoint.

Well, it could have been worse I suppose. At least it didn't have the Mad Hatter start break dancing at the end of the fight.

Wait...

...god damn it movie.

Give them a pinch, not the whole shaker.

2010-03-06T02:35:00.003-05:00

This will be the first in a series of articles I'll be writing about the machinima field, which you can also find on VirtualFlicks and, eventually, Zantive's main site. But they will always be shown here first, so check here often for first looks!

A large percentage of both amateur and professional machinimators use Youtube as a primary means of distributing their work to the public. Not surprising, since...come on. It's youtube. It's a site that has visitors from around the world, and therein lies the problem. To the chagrin of many, the requirements to get a youtube account don't include proving that you have basic intelligence. This leads to millions of monosyllabic and/or hateful comments on videos which infuriate machinimators due to either their insensitivity or brevity. This ultimately culminates in many machinimators saying to do away with the opinions present in the comments section.

While I wish I could stand here and agree with those machinimators, the fact is the youtube crowd is a part of our audience and therefore needs to be treated with a degree of respect. Here's why.

First you need to realize what youtube is. It's a site that can be accessed by anyone. Not a site just for art critics or machinima aficionados or people who think nothing but happy thoughts and give nothing but happy ratings and leave comments with no less then three smiling faces in them; but regular, everyday people. We might look at a comment that says 'this sucks' (everyone who has ever made a video has gotten at least one of these) and think 'god, this person is an absolute cretin who should have never emerged from the primordial soup', the reason being that they didn't take the time to explain why they didn't like your video. If you don't know what's wrong with the video, how can you fix it, right?

In all likelihood, they might not know either. These are everyday people after all. How is Linkunpark401k supposed to explain that he thought your cinematography was poor? He doesn't have any real experience in cinematography, and besides, there's a 500 character limit. Not to mention he probably has school, work or other daily life things to catch up on. Somewhere in the space of your video, something went wrong; and that's all you need to know.

I mean, imagine if someone casually asked you what your favorite kind of music was while you were on your way to work, and you answered country, and then they suddenly started asking you a series of questions about 'well why do you like country?' You'd probably tell them (in no uncertain terms) to get lost. Same applies here. 401k isn't a master critic or an expert, he's just some guy expressing his opinion.

Of course, this is where everyone's going to say, 'but Daemon, if they're not experts then why should I have them get anywhere near my masterpiece?'

Good point. Why should we listen to people who aren't experts?

There's two reasons, really. The first is common courtesy. We all like to think that our opinion matters. Be it with conversations with friends or articles posted on the web, everyone likes to think the people they're talking to are really listening. If you turn a deaf ear to those people, you're not being courteous to them.

And why should you be courteous to people who will without hesitation call you a kike, a faggot or a nigger (or all of them in the space of one sentence)?

Because that's your job. Anyone who says that working in an artistic field is easy is wrong. Listening to disagreeable critics tear your work apart after you spent countless man-hours and gallons of elbow grease polishing your magnum opus is a heart-wrenching experience. But we don't give up. We take the blows, we move on, and become stronger so we don't have to get hurt again. It's like taking up the guitar: painful at first, but as you get your calluses it'll become much easier.

We listen to the ignorant and spiteful people who make up the youtube audience because, like it or not, they're our audience. You put a video on youtube, you have to deal with the consequences. You will get people who will give you very insightful commentary. You will get people who will make you want to tear out your hair in anger. Your job isn't to make everyone love you. The more you try to make people love you, the more they'll hate you.

There will always be that one machinimator who will tell you that the youtube audience is just too stupid to understand their vision, but that's never the case and they know it. What's there to get? We make videos for them to enjoy. If they're not enjoying themselves, we did something wrong.

Critiques are an essential part to the artistic process, and ignoring anyone's advice is a recipe for disaster.

Of course, that doesn't mean you can't bring a salt shaker with you the next time you check out the comments section. Just make sure it's meant for seasoning instead of embalming.

20K! WOOHOO!

2010-03-04T15:15:00.006-05:00

On VID Halo Effect 2:

I know I've bashed many a keyboard saying how machinima is about the message and not the views or money, but still, it's always good to get paid. Sure it would've been nice if all this attention had been focused on some of my more serious work (Manifest Destiny and especially Murphy's OnSet), and here I was thinking that I'd get my first paycheck from Blood upon the Risers, but what have I to complain about, right? I just got paid for doing my hobby! This combined with the surprising success of the first episode of Zantive has convinced me that it's time to take a step up in the machinima world. Expect more news in the next few days regarding what exactly that ambiguous phrase actually means.

VID Halo Effect 2 IS FINALLY UP!

2010-03-02T22:46:00.002-05:00

PRAISE THE LORD!

Took a bit but it seems like it's getting a lot of views. 577 ratings = wicked high views. This might be the one that breaks 20k!

Well anyway, work on MDep2 continues when I'm not being swamped with the drudgery of midterm exams and preliminary work is beginning for episode 2 of Zantive. Both will hopefully be out before the end of the month.

Ttyl,

Me

Zantive Episode One is up!

2010-02-22T22:27:00.002-05:00

Episode one of Zantive is up on M.com, and is enjoying overall success. So far only one out of every hundred is accusing me of being 'high-brow' as opposed to every ten, as I'd feared. GRAET SUCCESS!

Zantive Episode One

2010-02-15T10:54:00.003-05:00

Chances are if you're reading this you've probably already seen these, but if you haven't, episode one of Zantive is finished.

Episode 1: Sarge's Rough Version
Episode 1: Final Polished Version

Still waiting on VID Halo Effect, hopefully that'll be up soon. Work on Manifest Destiny 2 continues, as well as a few other projects which I'll be unveiling in the near future.

I'll say this much: March is going to be a very exciting month.

An Update disguised as a Rant (or is it the other way around?)

2010-02-09T01:49:00.003-05:00

Didn't think it would take M.com so long to upload Halo Effect. Won't really be all that cool now that the hype's worn off from Mass Effect but hey, what the hell. They're still uploading ME2 related stuff so it'll be somewhat relevant I guess.

Frankly it's been a pretty depressing past few days for machinima. Most of the director videos uploaded have been utter bollocks lately.

Daemon's Journal. February 9th, 2010. Machinima Today episode aired this morning, none of the films could live up to the title of 'good'. The internet is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The videos are extended montages and the montages are empty of talent and when the masses finally realize they've been sold, it'll be all too late. The accumulated filth of all their cliches and talentless writing will foam up about their waists and all the directors and comment tards will look up and shout 'Save us!' And I'll look down, and whisper 'no.' They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like Andras Ostrum, or Alexander Winn. Decent men, who believed in good story coexisting with good cinematography. Instead they followed the droppings of hacks and Digitalph33r wannabes and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the machinima genre stands on the brink, staring down into comment hell, all those idiots and hacks and egomaniacs, and all of a sudden nobody can think of a single fucking original idea.

Over-dramatizing a tad there, but that's basically where M.com is right now. Their gameplay channel isn't entirely self-sufficient yet so we're still crowded with gameplay videos, the game news shows aren't all that interesting because the people who host them are for the most part terrible speakers, and there's been an overall steady decline of big-idea material as of late.

What would it take to see more stuff like Unexpected, Rebirth, or Jonathan Quail? We need more directors who aren't afraid to try bold new things.

Needless to say this has been a huge inspiration for me to finish the second ep of Manifest Destiny as well as encouraging me to start on an all-new project (more to come on that later).

Halo Effect should be up soon, MDEP2 is in the works (still), no new word on Zantive since it's in Sarge's capable hands, and there's something new waiting for all of you guys in the near future.

VID Halo Effect 2

2010-01-24T23:08:00.002-05:00

Clickity click

Just a quick little something I made when I got tired of working on the second episode of Manifest Destiny. It's a rehash of the Mass Effect 2 release trailer with Halo cutscenes. Personally I think it turned out pretty beast.

Yes, MDEP2 is in the works and will hopefully be done in a week. Zantive's chugging on as well. MOS 6 is also in work and will probably be the biggest episode yet from a production viewpoint.

Book Review: 'World War Z'

2010-01-19T02:59:00.004-05:00

One decayed hand short of being a Left 4 Dead tie-in.

Set in a present-day post apocalypse, Max Brook's novel 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War' follows a United Nations Postwar Commissions agent charged with writing a report on 'WWZ' or 'The Zombie War'. After being told that some of the more 'intimate' and 'emotional' aspects of his report were omitted in order to focus on 'facts and figures', he published a book containing interviews from various survivors of the ten-year war. And thus, 'the oral history'.

The zombie menace of WWZ originates from a mysterious virus that causes those it infects to become the traditional rabid undead. These aren't the 'sprinter' infected we see a lot of nowadays, but rather the old school George Romero zombies. They can't live in extreme cold, they move slowly, moan loudly, spread the virus by biting, and can only be killed by head shots or decapitation.

Unlike Max Brook's earlier book 'The Zombie Survival Guide', WWZ is far more sober. The survivor's accounts of the incidents are grim and gripping, with a wide variety of characters interviewed from doctors and soldiers to otakus and astronauts. As would be expected from a book chronicling a world war the interviewees hail from all the corners of the world; from China and Russia to South Africa and Israel, which soon becomes a bit of a problem in regards to flow. It's not uncommon to have the story's focal character switch from a polite Japanese civilian to a gruff-talking American veteran in the course of a few pages, which means disrupting the immersion.

The size of the roles some characters play is also a cause for some frustration. Many of them are truly fascinating people, and yet most are isolated to their solitary ten-paged short stories. For those lucky enough to get a second or third story it becomes hard to keep track of who is who since each story is headed only by their country of residence. Although these are small annoyances they keep piling up, hampering the flow of the story like a road covered in speed bumps.

After reading WWZ I learned that Brooks was largely inspired by Studs Terkel's WWII oral history 'The Good War', which in hindsight explains the large amounts of historical deja vu I had while reading through the sections about America's rebuilding process. In general the history of WWZ seems genuine, and sometimes it's easy to forget that the whole thing's 'just a story'.

The main horror of the story comes not from the zombies themselves, but of the initial government reactions to the unfolding scare. Published after the events of hurricane Katrina, WWZ takes a stab at the American bureaucracy that allowed both Katrina and The Zombie War to occur. But that's not all. Behind the story of WWZ are numerous other current events that contribute to the outbreak; including Apartheid, Israeli-Palestinian relations, the aftermath of Hiroshima and the Three Gorges Dam. The world depicted before the outbreak is one that, in the hindsight of the survivors, was one already on the brink. The true terror of WWZ comes when you realize that that world is eerily similar to the one we live in today.

Final verdict: if you're a fan of zombies, then this book is a must-read. Despite the flaws in the writing style this is still a thoroughly engaging book with interesting characters and a fresh perspective of the modern-day zombie apocalypse which never fails to amaze.

Nothingness Update

2010-01-19T01:04:00.004-05:00

Got back from my fishing trip yesterday, great times were had by all.

I'm beginning work on the second episode of MD and Sarge is diligently working away on the first episode of Zantive.

This could mean one of two things.

Either this blog could gather dust for another week or so until updates are posted...or I could expand the blog to include such things as book reviews and discuss themes present in my work that I feel need elaboration.

Yeah. I'm going with option two.

For the two or three people who check up on this place, hold tight. Soon you'll actually have a reason to check up on it.

Gone Fishin'.

2010-01-11T19:13:00.003-05:00

MOS Episode 5 is up on M.com.

I'll be going down to Florida tomorrow to do some fishing with my relatives (dunno how cold it'll be, but at least it'll be better then here). So you probably shouldn't expect much for a week or so. Once I get back though I'll really buckle down and finish episode two of MD, as well as a short or two. Sarge will probably be done with Zantive Ep 1 by the time I get back (or shortly afterward).

That's all for now.

Until next time!

-Daemon

Zantive Teaser up on M.com

2010-01-08T18:42:00.002-05:00

Sauce

Teaser's up. Some people like. Some people don't.

Working on episode one script.

All that's left now is MOS 5.

They're catching up faster then I'd thought.

MOS Episode 4 is up

2010-01-06T23:11:00.003-05:00

M.com's catching up on its video uploads. Episode Four is now up for viewing on M.com's Youtube Page.

Next to look forward to is Episode Five.

V.I.D. Sagan is up

2010-01-03T16:58:00.002-05:00

V.I.D. Sagan is finally up on M.com's Youtube page, and it looks like everyone's enjoying it.

I'm glad they are, this is a video I wanted to do well, if nothing else because it means something. There's so little stuff on the channel that's meaningful nowadays, and I wanted to submit something that would make people think and open their eyes to the mysteries of the universe. I wanted to do for them with this video what Sagan did for me with Cosmos.

Well, anyway, that's that. Hopefully episode 4 of MOS gets uploaded soon...

'Zantive' Series Promo

2009-12-31T16:48:00.004-05:00

A brief look into the story of 'Zantive', the new original drama series created by CrownedDaemon Productions in association with Jakya Studios.

Loosely based on actual events, 'Zantive' tells the story of a young, optimistic leader who tries to create a Utopian city. Slowly it begins to dissolve into chaos, until one man finally challenges the leader, turning the entire city into a battlefield.

Looking forward to this, because Junkie will be doing most of the filming, which has always been my weak spot.

Cancellation of Machinidubs

2009-12-27T22:07:00.003-05:00

Hey, so the first ep of Machinidubs is up, but quite frankly it turned out poorly.

I have no idea what the hell happened to the audio, suffice to say: it's bad. Not a lot of people are enjoying the commentary. I'm going to message M.com and ask them to remove the video, and I don't intend on continuing Machinidubs.

And no, this isn't just me freaking out because people don't like it. Frankly, making these things is more work then I had originally thought. The whole point of this was so I could do something small on the side of my other series, but working through the second episode has been pretty difficult.

I mean, I was surprised. It did well on the premiere forums at M.com and the preview was well liked, but I guess those just weren't good indicators.

So there's the long and short of it. The audience doesn't like it, I don't like it, so I'm not going to make any more. Sorry for anyone who's disappointed or was looking forward to it, I feel bad about doing this but I don't want to make videos that people don't like and I certainly don't want to profit off of them.

Maybe I'll bring this back someday, but for now...farewell.

Happy Holidays from CDP!

2009-12-25T12:50:00.000-05:00

Here's the Murphy's OnSet Christmas Special!

You know, in case you didn't see it already.

WATCH IT AGAIN OR SOMETHING.

Episode 3 is up

2009-12-20T22:18:00.003-05:00

'Are you Experienced?'

Episode 3's up at long last. You can stop picketing outside Machinima.com's headquarters now.

Episode 5 is in the works.

Next item to look forward to is the release of the first episode of Machinidubs, which has already been critically acclaimed by several people.

HEY! THAT NOSE THING WAS A PRIVATE THING! YOU PROMISED TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! AJKDAGDAHDGDAGDGDADGHAJD

Pretty good, laughed quite a bit myself. Keep it up!
- CK

Euphoria Films, makers of V.I.D. Resolute

When do I get paid?

Sparky, a text-to-speech voice who is totally getting fired.

First!

Pretty much everybody else.

I can't make any predictions about when this one comes out. Just keep your eyes open laddies!

Zantive totally, liek, prevails and stuff,

Daemon

Murphy's OnSet Episode 4, and Manifest Destiny Episode 2 teasing

2009-12-18T19:37:00.003-05:00

So Episode Four's finished, I sent that in to M.com today.

Episode Three's still not up yet, dunno what's up with that. Just be patient guys, it'll be up eventually.

I had my last final exam today, which means that I have about a month and a half of relative freedom. Which means Manifest Destiny Episode 2 will soon be done.

All the problems that were encountered in Episode 1 have been fixed. I've come a long ways in regards to video making since then.

Be ready everyone, the wait's almost over.

V.I.D. Sagan

2009-12-16T02:40:00.001-05:00

A short video I made through the V.I.D. initiative (One Video, One Idea, One Day) that tells the story of a disillusioned naval officer who finds hope for the future in the works of Carl Sagan, the astronomer.

Eventually this'll end up on M.com's youtube, for now you can view it here.

The third episode of Murphy's OnSet should be coming out tomorrow, so keep your eyes open for that! Enjoy everyone!

Murphy's OnSet Episode 2 is up, Machinidubs: Resolute is finished

2009-12-12T00:54:00.005-05:00

First order of business, the second episode of Murphy's OnSet is now up on M.com's youtube channel and can be viewed here.

Secondly, the first episode of Machinidubs is complete, and I'll be sending it in to M.com in the next few hours. Not sure when this one will be up, my guess is Monday of the week after next.

No preview images today guys, instead I'd like to take the time to mourn the passing of a fellow machinimator. Matt Ferrante, who went by the alias Fortyniner325, committed suicide yesterday. A small dedication piece will be included after the credits in the first episode of Machinidubs. I can only hope that, had he been alive to see it, he would have enjoyed watching it.