Saturday, January 12, 2008

Machinimasochism

["Machinimasochism": 1) The Art of making machinima and submitting it to be critiqued, ripped apart and misunderstood by probably 80% of the people that watch it, but yet you keep coming back to make more. 2) The laboring tediously in front of any editing program which is actively fighting you back while making machinima.] Can I coin that? Can that be my Steven Colbert-esk word of the year? Probably not, but it sums up what most people that make art on the internet experience, I think.

I've spent the last few hours trying to get Quicktime Pro and myself to skip merrily through the apple fields together. Unfortunately, most of my formats seem to be allergic to Apples. Alas.

My teaser is up for "In For A Penny," my film noir that Matt so gloriously pointed out the acronym for was "IFAP." So, in the spirit of "IFAP," you can view the Teaser for the Prologue by clicking here. Yes, right here. These buttons. Yep. These. Will the entire movie be Blood Elf "Romance." Sadly, no, although since very few people click links on WCM that aren't recommended, perhaps I should have called it "HOLY SHIT PORNO" then it would get some exposure! Enjoy, and... yes, you are allowed to enjoy it like that.

/sels off

5 comments:

Hermes said...

Wall of text coming up.... lol

I left a comment on your "in for a penny" youtube space and to my delight you also have a blog. I hope you continue to update this page so I can get in your head and find out what makes you tick... /devioussmile

I am an aspiring "machinamator" and your work, especially "to the fairest," truly, truly inspires me. That video was magnificent. I am actually working on my first movie, a music video, set in various locales, but the gist is it is about a Night Elf who fell in battle somewhere in Outlands and awakens in Trisfal and tries to re-assembe her memory with flashes - bits and pieces - of fragmented memory... and in the end reveals a life full of pain, sorrow, and heartbreak. The song I am using is Shakespear's sister "stay."

Anyhow, I am doing this old school, traveling to locations and shooting and then assembling with Windows Movie Maker. This will probably be arduous. Especially having to go out and buy certain outfits, etc. and avoiding getting GANKED. (pvp server) I am thinking about checking out Vegas though and trying the bluescreen technique w/ wow model viewer.

To get to the point... because brevity is in fact wit no? I have so many questions to ask you. What goes thru your head when you sit down to create a video? What tools do you use? What motivates you? What artists inspire you? What server do you play on and do you only play Blood Elves lol?

Anyhow, I will stop using up your comment space.... Selserene, here's to more posts on your blog.

cheers.

Selserene said...

Thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate it. I'm glad to see other people getting into machinima, it's really a fun way to express yourself using tools available to everyone.

I use Fraps, Modelviewer, Mapviewer, Photoshop, WoW:TBC, Sony Vegas 8, and for the rain/snow I've used Particle Illusion (yay for demos). I'd definitely recommend something other than movie maker, so if nothing else you can use the chroma keying function (green/blue screen.) There are the home versions of both Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas available for under $100 if the professional versions are too steep. Both I believe have Chroma keying, I know Premiere Elements does (I used that for TTF.)

Music really inspires me; everyone has different tastes so whatever gets in your head and makes you lose yourself to the song or picture or video - I think that's where people should go for inspiration. Musicians such as Tori Amos, Emilie Autumn, Bel Canto and Faith and the Muse usually inspire me. I usually have the images come into my head for a story before anything else, even the story... I'm just a very visual person. Writing the lyrics for "He Will Redeem Us" was something completely new, I might try something like that in the future as well.

I play on Shadow Council with pretty much all my toons. I have 4 alliance 70s, and my 60+ Belf that I've been playing alot lately. You noticed my blood elf obsession, huh? ^^ Then again, a film noir starring dwarfs might have just been a bit odd.

There's my wall of text to answer your wall of text. =) Thanks for watching my videos!

Anonymous said...

Love the 'in for a penny' teaser, totally awesome!

Will be tracking your blog through mine and waiting for the release.

Can I ask who the artist and title of the song used in the trailer are please?

Thanks.

Selserene said...

"Waking Will" by Bel Canto

Anonymous said...

Thank you! Managed to find it through Google and the lyrics.

Thanks :)