Kitten with String

A couple weeks ago I asked a friend from a very long time ago if he would be interested in helping me with the script for "In For A Penny." We went over the first five I'd done then he wanted some alone time with it. Seventeen pages later, he's gone a little crazy with it. That makes for a rather long work, and may force IFAP to become episodic instead of a short piece.

Length isn't the most daunting thing though... it's Voice Acting. I didn't originally envision this with that many characters, simply because I have no one I know that is a Voice Actor per se, but I'm currently looking at at least 13 parts - small ones mostly, but still needing people willing to help. I put out the call to friends, and received a moderate amount of interest, and everyone that responded was sent test lines so I could see how their mic and voice sounded while reading lines...

Three weeks later I have four, yes four, people that have sent me back just the couple test lines. I feel in an awkward position. Somehow this little project I wanted to create just to create and share has expanded to something I cannot accomplish without finding people I don't know to aid me, and it puts me in a position I wasn't expecting. I can't imagine asking a stranger to read lines for me, for a project that is simply a monetarily free project created in the spirit of, well, creating. So really, I don't know what to do... I really think this project could swim or sink based simply on who I find for the lead parts, and I've really started to wonder what I've gotten myself into... and whether it's worth continuing.

Maybe I should have all the voices chat like Charlie Brown's mom and just use dialogue... in fact, I think Hollywood should do a remake of Casablanca just like that. We can call it... CasaWawa.

Compounding this is the idea that Machinima always seemed to me as a great refuge of the amateur is becoming a competition of special effects and cinematic programs, where Machinimators are looking to move into Hollywood-level production. It seems Machinima is being looked at as a vehicle to success; I've noticed an increase in Machinima related hosting sites recently, many being created and launched with some new movie in the hope to jetison their site to success. It makes me wonder if expectations for films to be professional grade will kill Machinima for 'kittens with string' like myself. I certainly hope not.

<3 A Kitten with String

Last Fire Will Rise

(Larger image)

The above image was inspired by a machinima I saw today on WCM. If you haven't seen it, check out Black Angel. Like many good machinima these days, it's in danger of being bumped off the page by the plethora of PvP movie spam. If you enjoy it, please give it and other machinima a spotlight vote when you check it out. Nothing vexes me more than seeing good stuff disappear with 300 views because someone had to show how awesome their Warrior/Druid 2v2 1600 arena skills are.