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.

Thayle Wallpaper

So it's not that catchy of a post title, but as requested by atomicspacekitty, here is a wallpaper available of Thayle, who has appeared in one version or another in two of my films so far. I hope you enjoy! I'm always open for requests. Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my work.



Download at 1280x1024 resolution available here.

Yes, I like blood elves.

Defining productivity: I can usually never be sure if I've been productive or not. This week has been one of those where I haven't done a damn thing. I've ground 50k honor on a level 66 toon... but not much of anything else WoW or Machinima-wise. I'm in a slump creatively: I know exactly what I want to do, but I cannot bring myself to, so instead of creating something I will hate, I've put my efforts into things less productive machinima-wise and more productive game-wise. Hopefully, I'll totally burn myself out on the game so I can get back to more important things!

Go figure.

I did, though, enjoy pretending Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 was CS3. Pretending being the key word there. I enjoy making pictures of peoples characters for friends. This one is Illfey and my pally, doing what they do best (aside from dancing on mailboxes.) I call it "Motivation To Honor Grind."

Spring and Easter Eggs, thy deceptive arts.

I've been really excited about the response to my video, "In For A Penny: Prologue." I thought like the others, most people would go 'wtf is this?' and move on, but they didn't! There's been some confusion, I think, regarding exactly what this movie was, but that's okay.

Myth: "IFAP:P is a trailer for some almost complete movie!"
Dear Blizzard if only that were the case. I made "IFAP:P" with the idea that it would be part one of the series... telling the backstory for the full Film Noir when it's ready. As for the complete movie part, at one point, I had two minutes of footage in Adobe Premiere; then I switched to Sony Vegas, and spent half a year learning not to suck at it. While I still have some of the pieces of it from Premiere, it wasn't rendered in a good quality. I will not be using any of that footage, and will be starting over. I was excited I'd completed part one, and many people were expecting me to already be done with part two! ^^

Myth: "But the poster says 'Spring' so it will be ready in a month or two!'"
When I started "IFAP:P" I worked on it for a couple weeks last summer. Then I got completely distracted by other things in (that scary ass thing) 'the real life', got a new video program, started work on the Film Noir instead, then stopped all together and made 'He Will Redeem Us.' So when I put 'Spring' it was literally a year from when I first started the project. When I picked it back up in December, I figured that since it didn't say Spring 2008, there wasn't a need to redo the entire scene. (The part where Thayle walks out of the poster was already completed at this point.) I used 'Spring' for a couple other reasons symbolically, with it playing off the bringing forth of new life, and a counterpoint to the name 'Penelope.' I'll let you figure that one out.

Myth: "Cake is better than pie."
The cake is a lie!


So, after my family's vacation is over, I'll be working on a side project, which will be a music video. It will be my answer to why everyone always asks why my stuff is so dark and sad, why I use Blood Elves so much, and it will also be pretty pervy. You like pervy, right? The music will be a custom parody. I'll keep this up-to-date with pictures from the music video as it comes along. I'm going to challenge myself on creation with this one - I have an idea of something I want to do, but it will be damn hard to accomplish. We will see!

So thank you to everyone who watched my movie, the support for it has me excited to keep going! Also, how many Easter Eggs did everyone find, I've been kind of curious to know if anyone noticed. ^^

I did the Night Elf cheer this morning.

My cats must have thought I was crazy, but yes, I did that silly ass cheer when I woke up this morning. I got my first recommend at WCM, and I yelled so loud it got my husband up out of bed. Where's my champaigne!



WHOO!!

WCRadio.com's WoW Idol Contest

A while back Rob (who performed the violin on 'He Will Redeem Us' linked me to the WoWRadio site and suggested for a laugh that we submit the song there for their WoW Idol contest. What the hell, why not? Well, apparently we made the finalists. There are some really entertaining songs up there from some talented people. Give a listen and vote for your favorite.

You can listen to all the songs here and when you are done, head to their frontpage and vote for your favorite in the drop down box on the right (in the ON AIR section.) Of course I'd love it if some voted for me, but I'm all about voting how you feel, so pick your fav and enjoy some fun warcraft music!