Name: Matt
Age: 26
Country: UK
Email (mirrored): uk [dotty] ftd.org [atty] ftdgolem
own-age.com nick: Golem
Movies:
FTD - A Q3F Disaster Movie" - Comedy, Q3F
For the people that don't know you, tell us a bit about yourself.
Good evening/morning peeps. (Please accept whichever greeting is appropriate to your timezone.) To help me start talking about myself, I'll tell you something that a good friend of mine once said. They commented that I'm never satisfied with knowing 'What'. I always ask 'Why?'
I go by two pseudonames online - 'recurring' and 'Golem', the latter usually used for gaming. I was born and raised in South East England. I've been playing and tinkering with computers ever since I ever was. My fiance says that when I was born, there wasn't an umbilical cord to cut - it was a modem cable! :) Apart from my activities online, I work full time in government working on local ICT projects for the benefit of the world and its people.
I have several loves, but pertinently, I've always been a bit of an artist. I always liked creating something new and weird out of any scraps. I've composed several music tracks and I've recently got into learning professional comic-style line-art, so I'm the one who does all the art for the LlamaLAN events. See what I've done for LlamaLAN here! ) I like to play with software and hardware tools and learn their ways. (I built the Yoda-Speak Generator here. I know... Sad!) All of this is why I very much enjoyed messing around with
I video and audio editting.
Fiance? Congratulations! I'm always happy earing news like this, do you have time to dedicate to her? You seem to have a lot of extra activities...
Thank you. :) It's not easy but I make sure to see her almost every day. Some days it just can't be helped and I'm too busy. Lately it's been tougher as I recently moved home, only two weeks ago today. I've got only nine days left to get my flat straight in time for my flat-warming party, to continue my part in organising a charity event at work while trying to finish my elaborate outfit for it all at the same time. She's quite understanding though. I'm lucky to be with a girl who, while she has important needs, recognises that she can't always come first place, and will often do what she can to help.
You mentioned LlamaLAN? Very nice, I've been surfing there and seems a nice solution to setup a private lan party withouth having any troubles or worries, has this companie been sucessful?
It has had good success and has collected a handful of loyal subjects... I mean, recurring attendees, with plenty of new faces each time it's run. I don't deal with most of the organisation, although I do a fair bit of Kanonfodda-poking. I chuck in ideas when they come to me. I really enjoy my role in their team and I'm glad they like what I do enough to ask me back each time... that my services are free may have something else to do with it. ;) It started off very small and has grown slowly. That's probably the best way for a LAN party. :)
You built a yoda speak generator, hmm?? Herh herh herh. I see that, a very resourseful human, you are.Actually i know how this works since i've worked in a similar program :) How long it took you to built this? I supose it was a bit hard for some of the details!
The initital work took me about two to three weeks or so I guess. It wasn't solid work, it was just a mini-hobby at the time when I had spare moments. But it needed a lot of refining, and that's where the interweb users came in. I provide a way for those who play with it to send in funny or misformed results. I've received a lot of 'reports' and continually try to improve the engine. I'm having to do less and less refining, which is a good sign. But to get it to where it is now has taken a year and four months... doesn't seem that long. :)
Ever heard of own-age.com before?
Heard of own-age before now? Sure! It was when I created my first and only proper game-based video and I was hunting around for places to host it.
Someone in the clan told me of this fantastic site, filled with like-minded nutters all wanting to display their moving collages of CGI gore. Sounded perfect, and behold, I found own-age. If the question meant to ask if I'd heard of own-age before making the video: No. :)
Own-age is the only game-video focussed site I know of. There are other sites that host videos, sure. But one of the aspects of own-age I really like is how much the site encourages people to keep creating, helping us to squeeze out our artistic juices into a pleasing end result. It's a very active community. I'm not a hugely active community member because of the time I have, but I like to keep up with what people are creating. Some of the ideas I've seen in these videos are truly brilliant and original. And I like it when something's original. :)
Own-age.com did the same for me, do you see many videos?
I don't get to see as many as I'd like each week. I kinda do a bit of a video sprint leading up to a LAN party event. :) But as you've asked, I'll be honest and controversial here: I'm not a fan of endless frag-fests. I like to see a little story here and there, even if it's only one or two small stories nestled amongst the carnage. I really like some of the work out there and one of my favourites is 'Requiem for Demos'. From amongst the endless frag-glorifying/trick-jump videos, there are some true masterpieces, and while I'd love it if more video makers followed their lead, I suppose that would take away their novelty somewhat. The real clever stuff will always be here, but I wonder if we'll be seeing greater numbers of story-driven videos that are more quantity than quality, making it even harder to find the really excellent work going on. Why? Well, in just a few years, games will look much more realistic and increasingly be offering us ways to find mods and create machinima that resemble proper cutscenes. While I'm sure people will still be very creative, it will become easier and easier, and so we'll be seeing more of it.
Unfortunatly eggious didn't reply to my contact about this interview, he would be someone that i would have liked to do it.. what ideia + technique did you enjoyed the most and why?
The artistic creativity behind it blew me away. Save the opening title and closing obituary and credits, the entire experience gives no written or verbal narrative, and open to interpretation. The most gripping part of Requiem for me personally is the lengthy run, up the gleaming path, of the guy who is passing/has died. This sequence juxtaposes the image of the player who jumps and turns into a bird, reminding us of the thing the girl is looking at throughout the entire video. I believe he represents the server Demos, poor thing. Anyway, I am mesmorised by the length of time each single shot lasts on the screen, during the 'running' sequence, in a genre where generally the imagery is very fast and intense. Yet Requiem is intense on a whole different level. It has a subtle drama and a story that draws you in due its skillfully crafted imagery and choice of music. Did I sound too gushy? I'm not sorry, the vid deserves massive credit. :)
Don't you think that becoming more easier, will demand more work for people to create something new?
That doesn't mean people will stand up to the demand, or even notice it. I'm reminded of what Garry's Mod for Half Life has given us - a brilliant way to create web-comics using Half Life 2's Source engine and models. What we've got is a plethora of pretty naff comics, some I think are intentionally dumb. We've also got some works of genius. Both produced by the same tool. The really devoted and talented artists and video makers devote time to extract a masterpiece when a creative craft requires it. Most of the rest of us get too bored trying. That's the difference between crafting out of a quest for pure fun rather than for the love of the artform. Making it easier means it's less hard work. Making it easier will allow the talented video makers to spend more time on their video technique, but could potentially allow many more less quality works to crop up. That said, bad production and/or editting doesn't necessarily result in rubbish. But it usually does. :)
Am I being too harsh? To leave this one on a positive note, I'd hope an easier job of capturing game footage would result in more practice at this very varied genre.
What games do you play, or have you played before?
What games, eh... how far back should I go? I've played through most of the LucasArts graphic adventure games and loved them. I took on the Space Quest and Police Quest series' too... am I showing my age yet? If we're talking online, I started on co-op Doom over a serial cable, but Half Life Team Deathmatch was my first online affair. I was in a clan known as the Organ Donors, and I'd use that trusty crowbar any chance I could. OD were a fun lot. Then I played QWTF, then messed around in Team Fortress Classic, carried on diligently and loyally in Q3F and tried to hold on as its community dwindled. I still play vanilla Battlefield II but am looking forward to the next installment from EA. I've tried FEAR and Far Cry multiplayer, and now you'll sometimes find me playing around on a Half Life 2 Team Deathmatch server.
You play hl2 dm?? That games has a lot of potential for a great movie.. a lot more than q3f! Don't you think you could take advantage of that creatng new concepts and ideias from that engine?
An interesting idea, m'lord. I do very much love dabbling in something new. The physics in HL2 and excellent sound effects could all lend well to something very amusing, or dramatic, or something in the best of both worlds. Another great video favourite of mine is "Still Seeing Breen", a music video made with the Half Life 2 engine, complete with lip-synch! Again, a very different kind of game-based movie. Maybe I'll think about this when I have a few minutes. :)
Tell us a bit about your movies.
When I started movie making, it was while I was in the Q3F clan FTD. I did a couple of silly little ones to record our more fun evenings. For example, we've had "HE Testing Ground", "One Minigun, 200 Bullets and 50 Spanners", and "FTD Fireworks". However, you can find only one movie from me on own-age - "FTD: A (Q3F) Disaster Movie". After quite some time of playing with FTD, I turned around one day to find that they were following me about and doing whatever I was doing, which was a pretty silly thing to do, believe me. I got shot of the 'Frag Test Dummies' clan after being Clan Leader for about two or three years, but we'd had some wicked fun and I wanted to commemorate everything we'd done together in Q3F. One thing is common with these videos - humour. If I'm going to waste hours upon hours of my time, it should be on something that people are going to enjoy, even be entertained by. I'm also painfully aware that what may be funny to me may not be at all funny to anyone else, so trying to figure what what works isn't easy. I hope I got it right for the guys in the "Disaster Movie".
You did, that ending is hillarious! Do you feel the need for a special knowladge to make a movie?
Special knowledge - we humans are blessed with a sense of humour. :) Most of us are, anyway. Looking back on it, I do regret not using more advanced features of the software or being more creative with my scene transitions. One thing I did in "Disaster Movie" was to mess around with time - a LOT. I
learnt how to speed up and slow down replays in the Q3/Q3F engine and created some scripts to use while watching and recording them to image files. I had done this work to create one of the previous videos I mentioned earlier. The dancing scenes were a massive challenge. I thought up a sequence of the excellent gestures created by the Q3F team, and then I spent a very long time putting it into a very long script. The dance scene required a pooling together of a great number of players from the community, most of whom I'd never spoken to, and trying to ask them to do as I say (whacking a single button on the count of THREE) and letting it ride. I'm happy to say this worked out very nicely, and looked brilliant!
A small note on the timing of action and music in "Disaster Movie" - it was a complete accident! I'd not seen any of the work from the own-age community before editting this one. After I'd placed a few scenes of combat-action, I noticed that the video looked really good where the music effects and rythmn were in time with the scene. So I carried on. :)
Do you think gaming companies should bet more on unnoficial gaming movies?
Probably, if they want to keep up. The issue now is that adverts aren't working so well. Everything's going digital, which is putting more control in the hands of us the viewers. Look at telly trends, and you'll already see advertisers working out how to get around the numbers of people who record and fast-forward through the ad break. There are even utilities that eradicate the ads for you, completely and efficiently. Pop-up blockers are common place. Yet the online world is a big ball of wool for these corporations. Product placement and endorsements are nothing new, but I suspect we'll be seeing more commercially available lipsticks, soft drinks and Jeeps in our online activities, whether we want to register their existance or not. Online racing games are now featuring actual changing adverts on their billboards. 'Viral' emails working their way round offices and homes are very effective. As the YouTube and MySpace thinking grows ever more, all the corporations will be thinking of is the next clever way they can use us to their advantage. Games will come with more features to export video, complete with cool post-production effects, and they'll feature little logos or splashscreens advertising themselves. What's to stop some other company paying UbiSoft or Microsoft or AnyOtherSoft to include their own unintrusive ads in whatever video footage is created from
these games?
Actually we've seen a few movies with publicity in it, were do you think it is the line between "doing sometihng for fun - getting payed to create"? I for exameple don't do things the same way if i'm getting payed to, will pub ruin creativity in your opinion? Or is it something that editors will adapt easly to?
I once saw an interesting experiment in a school classroom. They organised three groups of kids to take part in painting or some such thing. The first group received no encouragement. The second group were told they would receive a reward for doing good work. The third group were rewarded for good work without being told they would be. It was the third group who produced the best results. It was thought that this was because kids do their best when they do something for the enjoyment of it. Those that were working to receive something at the end didn't do as good.
If someone is creative and they are receiving money for their work, I guess the line that distinguishes the two depends on the terms. I like designing web sites, but I keep it a hobby because I think a deadline rids someone of their best creative moments. An artist may be less daring because they risk losing time, or they may feel that following a familiar formula will be received better than risking a client's disappointment on something unusual or new. I don't know what you've found from your own experience but I've noticed that some of my best creative accomplishments result from flukes and accidents during experimentation.
It would really depend on the terms. If someone is talented enough to make good money on it, make sure you keep the terms in your favour, in favour of your craft! And if you really HAVE to give an ETA, make sure you're modest - that is, don't expect too much of yourself. Be realistic, leaving plenty of room for lots and lots of error, refinement, and polish. Don't risk converting your fun hobby into a burden.
What is the feedback you received so far?
Surprisingly excellent! First, I was really happy to see how much people were enjoying it. The video was receiving very high marks, even from longer-term registered users (Most of the guest scores were 10/10). I was even happier when the vid received some special own-age recognition in the form of the "Enjoyable Video" award and the very humbling "Most Unique" award, an award that has been given to only 11 of the videos available on own-age! I used that award to find other videos I enjoyed enough to keep on my hard drive, so cheers to the man in charge! :) At first, I received some negative comments because of the video's quality. I'd optimised it for download and not really focussed on providing a decent quality video, so I produced a high quality 250mb version so that everyone would be happy. :)
Someone also commented that the dancing HAD been done before in a UT video, and that the credit sequence has also been done before. I'd never seen these other vids but was a little saddened that these aspects weren't original. What did I expect for using a Benny Hill rip off? :)
I apreciate machinima, but even more i apreciate the effort and creativity on making a movie. Which do you think that are the goals to a good movie?
I reckon a movie maker needs to think about an aspect of his material that's not been explored before, whatver the goals are. Want to make a frag-fest vid? Fine, but think about creating something that will keep someone in his seat and off the CLOSE button. Why should anyone watch your new video? Have you done something new with the soundtrack? The style of the video? Another video I enjoy watching EVERY time is the "R3 ET Clan Trailer". It's a frag-fest video and it takes itself pretty seriously, but watch how cleverly crafted it is, and especially experience its use of music. Brilliant. So, in short - give your audience something new. :)
For me R3 ET Clan trailer is the most perfect trailer around, not only by showing a new recam style, but for all the other details worked around, because if you don't keep your overall quality, the movie wont have the same impact in the viewers, don't you agree?
Smireboule probably used a score and more techniques that I didn't specifically notice, but I bet the trailer wouldn't have hit the sweet spot without them.
When you care enough about what you're doing to make it PERFECT, you'll be toiling away for hours, and then you'll pause for a second. A little voice in your head tells you that no one is going to notice if you tweak that little colour in the corner, shift the beginning of the scene back a couple of milliseconds, stitch in that direction rather than this direction, whatever. I've been putting together a pretty magnificant Darth Vader costume and I've learned that, while 95% of people won't notice the accuracy of colour, material, or size, there's a massive difference to the OVERALL picture without it. The same must be true of the best videos.
Thank you for your time, i can see that you carefully think in many details and do that extra work to try to suprise people.. hope everything goes well with your zillion projects!
LOL - many thanks for making me feel special. ;)
Premonition (lame trailer)
Proclamation (lame thread)
Tania's tips for a top movie
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Posted: 1.12.07 @ 8:08 PM
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