Hello all, this was my entry to the Blizzcon Movie Contest this year. Sadly no prizes won. :(
It's a 3 minute action scene following the Battlecruiser Savior as it gives air support to Alpha Squad. Purely fictional, no relation to any existing Starcraft lore.
Might be there are too much voice packed with actions, use dialog sparingly, or slow down action when there are dialogs. Also voice does not stand out enough to direct attention.
Dialog was more mordern than it should have been. It didn't feel starcraft like to me. Also it was packed in with too much action. The voice acting also reminds me of modern warfare 2, which isn't a good thing.
Another reason I could think of is that the video is kind of repetitive, same type of action, same type of battlecruiser view. Even though you switched from Zerg forces to Protoss, it didn't really change much.
It was awesome to watch for the first minute, then it kind of lost it's power because it showed the same type of action over and over.
Maybe it's my weakness for military language, but I totally dig it.
I think it's neither too much voice, nor too repetitive.
The voice acting wasn't too bad, imo. A few lines could've been better, but all in all it's better than most other amateur voice overs. Which is probably also due to the distorted radio voice.
Remember that Alpha Squadron is an elite unit.
They're not your average redneck marine, but battle-hardened professionals. It's just logical that they also coordinate and comunicate better than normal troops.
However, as other people have pointed out the voice acting was a bit weak. Plus it was difficult to understand what people were saying during parts of the video. Also, the first half was a bit repeditive (you should have had more than just hydras).
Wellmade video indeed, one thing that might have gotten you minus points is that there isn't really a change of pace/something new that happens in it.
But even so, it looks amazing. It's a shame that only WoW videos won :/
even if the storyboard of the entry i suggested to nico was cut down heavily due to limited time :-/ ... I would hardly call 'a crit(t)ical incident' as pure world of warcraft. A shame it couldn't be finished, but even more I was surprised that it got the third place. Well, Tychus made his job, ain't he? :D
Regarding your machinima Suhnder, it looks well made, but it's indeed to repetitive. Something is missing in there, it looks really good, but it misses bit of oomph. A bit more into the direction of the starcraft introcinematic and it would be completely awesome. Some chat on the bridge, slow and calm commands, cut to the battlefield were everything explodes and dies, cut back.. everyone calm and focused on their job etc :)
I think it’s too much action, too fast and too crowded/chaotic for BlizzCon. You always have to think about how it’ll look on the big screen in front of the crowd when they present this, so, yeah, I doubt it’d get close enough to what they expect from you. That’s why the WoW stuff works better, it’s never tiny stuff, always big characters & scenes :) It doesn’t need so much action, they’re more into humor & storyline, because it mostly works better with the crowd.
If you had used the Storymode models and made the stuff from inside the Battlecruiser and than outside only for the cannons & targets, you’d have probably won at least 3rd. And the Voice acting was horrible and not enough starcraftish, as was said already.
Some backstory on the project: my original idea was to have the entire film take place from the point of view from the battlecruiser's gunner. I watched videos of real-life military footage from helicopters and such and thought, it might be cool to have a Starcraft take on the modern war style. Sadly I couldn't get the camera to do what I wanted - attaching it to the Battlecruiser while it moved over the map and have it be able to pan left and right, and still look convincing. So with 2 weeks left in the deadline and getting nowhere, I decided to scrap it and go for traditional cameras instead. The action and battle was already set up so all I had to do was shoot some coverage and make sure the models didn't look too awful closeup, and find angles that didn't lag the game too much. (Some angles I wanted.... the game went down to 2 fps)
In retrospect you guys are totally right - there was a lot of opportunity to put some actual plot in there and intercut characters with the action scenes. Also the dialogue didn't change styles when the style of the film changed, which was probably a big blunder. :)
You should have submitted this for the epic battle contest, at least you would have won a one year of Curse Premium. Other than that I really enjoyed the video, a true epic battle scene.
I approve of this message. Join the Dominion. Why? Because it's bad ass.
The style in this video is almost a Hollywood inspiration from what I can see. The Battle Cruiser's targeting cam shots were very reminiscent of District 9's style (in which the director is a fan of; because his Halo short film used it as well). The Scale seen is also a very shocking effect, but made personal with so many dynamic close ups. I feel this video is more on the realistic representation of the Starcraft universe. As such, the only thing I'd do different is add more cannon types to the BC to really flesh it out. Add the guns on the Hyperion, which almost act like Vulcan Point Defense guns to gun down the targets that get real close, and have the actual laser batteries act as heavy weapon platforms that would resemble the power of an artillery shell.
A real nitpick is that the Mothership should've been Gigantic. It's massive. Real, real massive. I would've nuked the base and then at the end, the MS would've appeared, warping in more crap and ended it right there, simply because a single nuke wouldn't destroy it and the fact that I love leaving action shots on endings that intend the action to continue. Thats just my opinion though. I loved it how it was.
The voice acting was actually pretty good and I noticed the subtle changes in voice to try and fit unit archetypes. At the beginning when the Marines were calling for Air Support, it sounded a little rugged, and dialog contained notions of how the Marine is a less disciplined individual (also shitting his pants in fear). The BC sounded like the crew, is seriously not seeing much with their real eyes, but their ship's "sensor" eyes. To operate these things, they are highly trained, and educated. They are also in a state where they still feel some what separated from the carnage below.
Despite the comments on the Voice Acting, I'd say it was well done; and while it does not entirely fit what we usually see in the games stereotypes, I'd like to say that if SC was more realistic? This is how I'd imagine it.
I like it, though the dialogs... they may be written good, but in your voice is the problem, it's like "nothing special", no emotions, no screaming nothing. It sounds like "hey, easy".
However, the graphical work is very very well :)
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Hello all, this was my entry to the Blizzcon Movie Contest this year. Sadly no prizes won. :(
It's a 3 minute action scene following the Battlecruiser Savior as it gives air support to Alpha Squad. Purely fictional, no relation to any existing Starcraft lore.
Enjoy!
Truly epic. I approved
However your weakness is in voice acting. It does not convey the scene well. Guess that's one reasons it didnt win.
Thanks for the feedback. :) Did you think that the dialogue writing was hard to follow, or that the voice acting itself was not good quality? Or both?
@Suhnder: Go
Might be there are too much voice packed with actions, use dialog sparingly, or slow down action when there are dialogs. Also voice does not stand out enough to direct attention.
Dialog was more mordern than it should have been. It didn't feel starcraft like to me. Also it was packed in with too much action. The voice acting also reminds me of modern warfare 2, which isn't a good thing.
Another reason I could think of is that the video is kind of repetitive, same type of action, same type of battlecruiser view. Even though you switched from Zerg forces to Protoss, it didn't really change much.
It was awesome to watch for the first minute, then it kind of lost it's power because it showed the same type of action over and over.
Maybe it's my weakness for military language, but I totally dig it.
I think it's neither too much voice, nor too repetitive.
The voice acting wasn't too bad, imo. A few lines could've been better, but all in all it's better than most other amateur voice overs. Which is probably also due to the distorted radio voice.
Remember that Alpha Squadron is an elite unit.
They're not your average redneck marine, but battle-hardened professionals. It's just logical that they also coordinate and comunicate better than normal troops.
That was a battle scene of truly epic proportion.
That was a badass video.
However, as other people have pointed out the voice acting was a bit weak. Plus it was difficult to understand what people were saying during parts of the video. Also, the first half was a bit repeditive (you should have had more than just hydras).
Wellmade video indeed, one thing that might have gotten you minus points is that there isn't really a change of pace/something new that happens in it. But even so, it looks amazing. It's a shame that only WoW videos won :/
@Zarakk: Go
even if the storyboard of the entry i suggested to nico was cut down heavily due to limited time :-/ ... I would hardly call 'a crit(t)ical incident' as pure world of warcraft. A shame it couldn't be finished, but even more I was surprised that it got the third place. Well, Tychus made his job, ain't he? :D
Regarding your machinima Suhnder, it looks well made, but it's indeed to repetitive. Something is missing in there, it looks really good, but it misses bit of oomph. A bit more into the direction of the starcraft introcinematic and it would be completely awesome. Some chat on the bridge, slow and calm commands, cut to the battlefield were everything explodes and dies, cut back.. everyone calm and focused on their job etc :)
I think it’s too much action, too fast and too crowded/chaotic for BlizzCon. You always have to think about how it’ll look on the big screen in front of the crowd when they present this, so, yeah, I doubt it’d get close enough to what they expect from you. That’s why the WoW stuff works better, it’s never tiny stuff, always big characters & scenes :) It doesn’t need so much action, they’re more into humor & storyline, because it mostly works better with the crowd.
If you had used the Storymode models and made the stuff from inside the Battlecruiser and than outside only for the cannons & targets, you’d have probably won at least 3rd. And the Voice acting was horrible and not enough starcraftish, as was said already.
Its looks really nice, but you could made something nice story under it, instead of typical Hollywood story line.D
HOW THE FUCK DID YOU NOT WIN ANYTHING
Thanks for the honest feedback everyone.
Some backstory on the project: my original idea was to have the entire film take place from the point of view from the battlecruiser's gunner. I watched videos of real-life military footage from helicopters and such and thought, it might be cool to have a Starcraft take on the modern war style. Sadly I couldn't get the camera to do what I wanted - attaching it to the Battlecruiser while it moved over the map and have it be able to pan left and right, and still look convincing. So with 2 weeks left in the deadline and getting nowhere, I decided to scrap it and go for traditional cameras instead. The action and battle was already set up so all I had to do was shoot some coverage and make sure the models didn't look too awful closeup, and find angles that didn't lag the game too much. (Some angles I wanted.... the game went down to 2 fps)
In retrospect you guys are totally right - there was a lot of opportunity to put some actual plot in there and intercut characters with the action scenes. Also the dialogue didn't change styles when the style of the film changed, which was probably a big blunder. :)
@Suhnder: Go
The only one of the top videos I liked was the goblin swing one or whatever. The rest sucked
You should have submitted this for the epic battle contest, at least you would have won a one year of Curse Premium. Other than that I really enjoyed the video, a true epic battle scene.
I approve of this message. Join the Dominion. Why? Because it's bad ass.
The style in this video is almost a Hollywood inspiration from what I can see. The Battle Cruiser's targeting cam shots were very reminiscent of District 9's style (in which the director is a fan of; because his Halo short film used it as well). The Scale seen is also a very shocking effect, but made personal with so many dynamic close ups. I feel this video is more on the realistic representation of the Starcraft universe. As such, the only thing I'd do different is add more cannon types to the BC to really flesh it out. Add the guns on the Hyperion, which almost act like Vulcan Point Defense guns to gun down the targets that get real close, and have the actual laser batteries act as heavy weapon platforms that would resemble the power of an artillery shell.
A real nitpick is that the Mothership should've been Gigantic. It's massive. Real, real massive. I would've nuked the base and then at the end, the MS would've appeared, warping in more crap and ended it right there, simply because a single nuke wouldn't destroy it and the fact that I love leaving action shots on endings that intend the action to continue. Thats just my opinion though. I loved it how it was.
The voice acting was actually pretty good and I noticed the subtle changes in voice to try and fit unit archetypes. At the beginning when the Marines were calling for Air Support, it sounded a little rugged, and dialog contained notions of how the Marine is a less disciplined individual (also shitting his pants in fear). The BC sounded like the crew, is seriously not seeing much with their real eyes, but their ship's "sensor" eyes. To operate these things, they are highly trained, and educated. They are also in a state where they still feel some what separated from the carnage below. Despite the comments on the Voice Acting, I'd say it was well done; and while it does not entirely fit what we usually see in the games stereotypes, I'd like to say that if SC was more realistic? This is how I'd imagine it.
@Suhnder: Go
I thought it was awesome! In my opinion it beat the pants off of the videos that actually won. In my opinion. Good job!
Epic! I like it.
I like it, though the dialogs... they may be written good, but in your voice is the problem, it's like "nothing special", no emotions, no screaming nothing. It sounds like "hey, easy".
However, the graphical work is very very well :)