I use Moviestorm on a daily basis, but I have to switch fairly regularly between Moviestorm version 1.0.4 (our current public release) and the cutting-edge (read: broken) development version, which is only accessible by compiling and running our current source code. If I’m running a demonstration, or answering posts on the Moviestorm forums, I’ll boot up 1.0.4. I’m also currently writing a whole bucket load of documentation, though, and that’s being written against the latest development version.
The problem with the dev build is that it changes daily. In fact, often it changes hourly. And, every so often, you’ll find a little bit of functionality that hasn’t quite been raised to the usual high standards of absolute perfection that we’ve come to expect from Moviestorm. Little bits like this genuine example from the current dev build:
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of this year’s Online Machinima Film Festival. I’m really annoyed that I couldn’t be at the ceremony this year, but my run-by-idiots ISP didn’t switch my new ADSL line on until a few hours ago. Anyway, gratz to everyone, and congratulations to the OMFF team on a job well done.
A little while ago, I was asked to make a short comedic music video for Moviestorm to demonstrate some ideas we were trying out with the future technical implementation of the software. The result was the now-infamous Clubland Will Never Die, which features Yours Truly exploring his feminine side.
I seem to have started a trend. That renowned director, Alan Smithee, released a parody video today featuring non other than our illustrious CEO, David Bailey.
Peter Rasmussen was one of the cornerstones of the Machinima community. He died earlier today.
Hugh and I have already put up a short tribute to Peter on the Machinima For Dummies blog, but I want to take a few lines to add my personal thoughts as well. I Hate Sheep is my personal blog, covering whatever subjects I happen to be interested in at the time and containing no opinions but my own. This particular post is as personal as it gets.
First of all, a little about the man himself for those who didn’t know him. Peter was a very independent guy, a loner in many ways. I got the impression that he couldn’t help but furrow his own unique path through life – he was one of those people who simply couldn’t have done it any other way. I wouldn’t want to leave you with the impression that Peter was unsociable or uncommunicative, though. Far from it: he was immensely likeable and always eager to help others, and to share his considerable experience and expertise. Like many Machinima heroes, he did all of this willingly and with no expectation of any sort of payment or reward.
He was also a superb – simply superb – director. He possessed an inate feel for camerawork and way of simplifying characterisation down to the pure minimum. You can see his skill in pieces such as Killer Robot or Stolen Life. Stolen Life, in particular, is a flagship piece, and easily amongst the best machinima ever created. It was a deserving winner of the Best Picture award at the 2007 European Machinima Festival. To my eternal chagrin, I still haven’t got around to buying a copy of the DVD.
I didn’t know Peter very well, if I’m being honest. I have no doubt, though, that he’d be staggered by the amount of people who held him in the highest possible regard. I have an email thread in my in-box between Peter and myself, and a note on my to-do list reading “Contact Pete R to finish conversation”. I’ll never be able to tick that box now, and I have no doubt I’ve missed out on a fascinating and worth-while conversation.
Now, look. I’m on your side. You know that. I’m all for encouraging creativity and new talent. But, please, I’m begging you …
Stop making machinima movies with Carmina Burana as the soundtrack!
O Fortuna is a great piece of music. I’m not saying it’s not. Very evocative, very dramatic. I can see why, when you dragged that mp3 into your video editor, it seemed like a good idea. It’s bound to make your halfass movie feel like proper Dramatic Stuff.
Don’t make that mistake, please. O Fortuna is so over-used, it’s not even funny. It was already a cliche after The Omen. By this stage, it’s even a cliche as a machinima soundtrack. There are plenty of other great pieces of classical music. Why not look at Wagner, or Elgar, or one of the really great choral composers like Bach or Handel?
At the time, it seemed like a good idea. We were drunk, so was everybody else – why not take them back to our room and get them to recount their top 3 “machinima moments”? What could possibly go wrong?
Well. As you’ll hear if you’re brave enough to listen to the first of four interviews, when we’re as drunk as that and we think we’ve got a bleep machine, we use language and concepts that would make my prostitute blush. The thing I feel have to stress is this: we really, genuinely did believe that all our filthy expletives would be bleeped in post-production. We originally recorded this under the banner of Machinima For Dummies and Wiley Publishing. In the end, the filth-to-pre-watershed ratio was just so high that it was virtually un-bleepable. So we sent it to Overman. Not even his mad zound skillx were enough to bleep it properly, so we left it uncut and released it as an Overcast special. The only thing that’s bleeped now is any mention of Wiley or Machinima For Dummies.
The Overcast Episode 24 is – I really can’t stress this highly enough – NSFW. But, if you like the sound of a drunken Yorkshireman slurring obscenities into a microphone – and I know of at least one of you who does – then this is for you. There are another three to come, too, and they just get worse.
My poor mother would be so ashamed. Thank god she has no idea how to use the internet, and so never reads this blog.
The final, absolutely definately last cut of the BloodSpell feature has now been released onto teh interwebx. What’s that I hear you cry? A trailer to whet your appetite? Why, certainly, Sir, Madam or Thing.
The full meaty BloodSpell goodness can be downloaded for free from www.bloodspell.com, as if you didn’t already know.
The title of this post will make no sense to anybody outside of the UK, by the way, so don’t even try.
Apologies to anyone reading this via the Machinifeed, who must by now be thoroughly sick of hearing that Machinima For Dummies has been published. Between us, Hugh and I have announced it on darn near every Machinima site on the net.
I’ve known about this for quite some time, but I’ve been under a Non-disclosure Agreement that prevented me from telling anyone. It’s been hard to keep my mouth shut, but now I no longer have to.
Moviestorm, which already has the potential to be the best Machinima platform in existence, will be retailing for the princely sum of $0.00. Zero, nil, nada, ziltch, zip, diddly-squat – NOTHING. That’s right. Moviestorm is going to be free.
This is awesome news, and it means that the barriers to entry-level Machinima creators have been lowered even further.
Watch this space for more exciting Moviestorm-related news in the near future. For now, go pester Short Fuze and beg them to let you join the beta test. Tell them I sent you, if you like. That’s unlikely to carry any weight, but it’ll make my ears tingle.
We only finished writing the book last week. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon, and they’ve already discounted it. It’s not even published yet! Give me a chance before you condemn me to the bargain bin!
