Assignment 2 on winning finished. SO MUCH WIN!

well... it's done..... assignment two on the theme of winning... suffice to say that things did not go according to plan with this one from start to finish. The video is here, so enjoy the 50 second teaser trailer for the upcoming PC version of Nerf's Human Versus Zombies:

Now as to what went wrong... well its a really long list, but the short version is that external events really went and messed things and that is nobody fault. But the biggest screw up was actually my own: I failed to take in to account that the when filming in two different venues, you got to make sure the background match or are at least similiar in appearance. So that caused me a lot of problems when I looked over all of the rough footage. Long story short: the original plan had to go out the window.

So with what footage and tools I had, I managed to use most of it, as well as some tricky work with Hypercam and PowerPoint to create the game trailer above with the empahsis being on the survivors winning the war against the zombie hordes, which worked out rather well... I might just reuse the footage for something else if I can get things to work out... I'll upload that video if I ever get round to actually doing something with it. At the moment, I'm running the risk of having too many irons in the fire, and snuffing the fire....

anyways, enjoy the video y'all!

Assignment 2: ....

In the immortal words of Cartman from south park... well... I'm not going to say it here, but you can find it via Youtube here. Honestly. this has been one of those projects were if it could go wrong, it HAS gone wrong....

I won't bore you all with a ranting list of what has gone wrong but I've had no choice but salvage whatever footage I can from busted laptop, one external hard drive, and one memory stick and somehow figure out what to do with all of it.... damn lightning, damn surge protection, damn it all to hell.

so what are the tools that I have available to me to do something at this point?
Whatever footage I've got in the draft.
some random horde footage
some random nerf game footage - which I doubt I can use for anything
Microsoft movie maker
free sound editor
hypercam
powerpoint
I have no idea how to put this in to something related to winning at this point.

In case anyone is wondering... unforseen complications prevented me from getting the right footage to finish the draft along with a generous donation of my own stupidity... that's why the last minute screaming, hair tearing, etc etc etc....

Sod this.... I'm gonna go smoke a pack, drink a litre of coffee, insult the universe and get back to work on this later.

Five hours later... So apparently... I didn't post this during my lunch break before I went for my cigarettes and coffee.. and since I've had sometime to think - think not calm down - I've got an idea that could work.... but i'm gonna be busy as heck trying to cut and compile something that is at best two-thirds assed - as opposed to just plain old half-assed. A game trailer of somekind... showing how survivors win against zombies... something like that... might work....so i guess I'm making a game trailer for the digital version of Human Versus Zombies... rated "M" for mature, coming to a PC near you....

Hopefully I can punch out a draft by tomorrow morning or something.... cos I ain't missing a NERF Game for this!

Assignment 2: Rough Draft.

Weeeelllll.... Its been a series of good news bad news moments all damn week....
The good news is: Got an awesome video camera.
The bad news is: Preferred venue is NOT available.
The good news: Managed to find a zombie horde.
The bad news: The horde can't make it to the alternative venue for filming.
The good:  Have ALL the props in order
The bad:  The other actor might not be free for filming...
Bad: No longer have the awesome video camera.

So the original script, is below - this has gone straight OUT THE DAMN WINDOW... hell I don't think any part of it was actually used....
 

Dialogue	Action	SFX	Camera angles	Props
A: How’s it look?			Close up as he peeks through around the door	Tac vests Blasters: Assilisav Stampede SMG Zombies will be dressed in street clothes/civilian casual.
K: Looks clear	Switch on the lights.	Light switch	Over the shoulder as he looks at his team mate
Corridor is littered with corpses.
	They step out in to the corridor		Fixed camera (A) angle, targeting doorway
	Zombie moans and struggles to rise	Zombie moans	Close up on zombie face as eyes open and then zoom out as it struggles to stand up.
	Kill it	Gunshot	Zombie will be on its knees, one knee, hand reaching out.
A: You said clear!	Another zombie moan, and the horde starts to rise	Zombie moans	Fixed wide angle (B), covering the corridor, and the horde of corpses.
K: I said looks clear!			Snap close up of the duo
A: Now what?
K: Well… one belt left for the Vulcan	Another moan	Minigun spinning up	Tilt down to the weaponry
A: And evac’s three minutes out	The horde is on its feet/knees/one knee	Pump underslung shotgun.	Pan to the horde
K: If it gets here	Shambling forward		Pan angle but fixed on advancing horde.
A: You are pessimism personified	Look at each other, raise weapons, and open fire.		Fixed angle (D)
	Horde gets cut down		Fixed angle on the horde (C) Close up on one or two of the horde twitching under gunfire.	Twitching as they get shot, and fall to the ground permanently dead.
	Drop the Vulcan when its empty.		Fixed angle (D) for Vulcan drop, tilt if necessary	Pile ammo chains underneath it.
A: What?	One grins at the other		Fixed Angle (D)	Dead horde on the ground.
K: 9 kills each. Round draw.	A zombie twitches, tries to rise		Fixed angle (c)
	Gets two in the head, drops dead
A: 10 to 9. I win.			Fixed angle (d)
K: Whatever.	Starts walking forward		Fixed angle (c)	Dead horde on the ground
A: Sore loser much?	Moves to catch up
K: You wish.

But what we did film is actually available on youtube - very roughly chopped and put together of course. That can be found here....

Now... with everything going FUBAR.... I have no idea how to proceed next. The only good thing is that I've got a Nerf Game coming up... so I might be able to shoot this thing, going low tech, with cellphone cameras, with the horde, with the whole run and gun routine.

To salvage that footage, I either need to reshoot/rethink the ending for it and still somehow showcase winning. Or do a lot of close ups on "zombies" getting slaughtered up close, jerking as they get riddled with bullets and dropping, in a venue that is as similiar as possible to the coridoor used in this rough assignment and hope people don't notice the difference.... bloody hell... I'm not sure which is a longer shot at this point....

Power: Version 3.0 UP!

Well folks, its been a long bumpy sorta ride but i got there in the end. The audio is still a bit choppy but that is a function of my poor quality equipment and software more than anything else - if any one is willing to donate money to help me up my game - donations much appreciated, but donations will probably be spent on prototyping nerf grenades and and on finishing my NERF Masterkey Stampede. Anyway, enough of my babble-chat: here is the final video:

See ya all next project!

Power: an Update.

Well it’s been rough going over the past two weeks or so since I first uploaded the first rough cut video (for the Nerfers that get that particular joke +1 experience point. For the games that get that second joke, +2 experience points, those that get both jokes: +5 experience points).

So I’m not going to talk/write too much here. Instead what I’m going to do is just showcase this little video below, which is the updated version – at least, as updated as it gets at the moment. The sound effects and some audio have been added and a couple of major prop glitches have been fixed since the rough cut. Of course, the most obvious of these has been substituting the chair with a sofa which makes a much more effective barricade….

Of course, this is the version that I am most happy with at the moment. There were a few others, without SFX, without Audio, without music, but all those different versions just didn’t work quite as well as this one…. What the final version is going to look like… I ain’t too sure yet. Anyway, enough blabbering. Here it is:

 

 What is still missing and still needs refinement is the same thing as always: The audio, the timing and of course the special effects. Hopefully, I can do something about that and update shortly.