overcast #022
This week I discuss the latest happenings in the independent artist revolution / music industry implosion (and why we should care), and review a number of new web destinations of interest to machinima makers. Recorded in an odd location this week, my apologies for less than the usual sound quality, as I had no means to pad the room to control reverb.
Thank you for listening! Your feedback is the sustenance of this show, so please bring it on!
This Week’s Hot List (URLs from the show’s content):
- Radiohead - In Rainbows
- Billboard: Nine Inch Nails Celebrates Free Agent Status
- Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust
- PC World: Pay-What-You-Want Albums are Catching On
- nymag.com: Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK
- Creative Commons
- The Music Industry Implosion
- Hollywood - Writers’ Strike
- Elton John - Shut Down the Internet
- Mike Jones’ Game Probe series
- Mike Jones Digital Basin (blog)
- New resource for free sounds: SoundSnap.com
- New Forums at IndyMogul
- Video Tutorials at IndyMogul
- The IndyMogul YouTube channel
- Celtx version 0.995
- Unreal Tournament III Beta Demo
- Valve: The Orange Box
- Lit Fuse Films: Ignis Solus (Team Fortress 2 machinima)
- Lit Fuse Films home page
- Half-Life Episode 2
Comment by Ricky Grove — November 3, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Nice show, Phil. Even with reverb, it comes through just fine. Like your take on the connection between the music industry and machinima. I think it’s there, too. Will make a huge difference if these guys can succeed on their own. And I agree that Machinima does not need to go corporate (a la Adobe) to be successful; counters the spirit of Machinima to begin with. Very good links for this discussion, too. Thank you.
Writer’s strike is complicated. Knowing some writers here in LA, there is a sense of “it’s due” about the strike. Issues of online + residuals are complicated and have more than one side. I dont’ think this strike will help either side, honestly. Plus the already struggling economy of California and Los Angeles are going to go into the tank. Hard to see the future on this one.
Thanks for the soundsnap link and the Indy Mogul. I’m also very impressed with Mike Jones’ series and blog. I’ll be writing about it at Machiniplex3 in the near future as well. Smart as a whip that boy is.
Looking forward to hearing your comments on HL2: Ep2. Don’t forget the “Garden Gnome” challenge!
Glad to see you back in the Overcast saddle. Thanks!
Ricky
Comment by todnyc — November 4, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Radiohead. Reckoner.
I feel like charging them rent for the space they consumer in my brain.
Comment by Johnnie Ingram — November 5, 2007 at 9:15 am
Great show, as usual, Phil.
There’s nothing wrong with drawing your storyboards with stick figures - most of BloodSpell was done in exactly that way! None of us (with the exception of Justin) can draw anything more advanced than stick men with blobs for heads and “J” written inside the blob to signify which one is Jered, so that’s what we used.
To a certain extent, Machinima is a tool that almost does your storyboarding for you. Certainly, you can whip out a machinima platform such as Sims 2 or Moviestorm and very quickly put together a sequence of camera shots. All you care about at that point is the composition of the shot, and the way they fit together. Even if your movie is eventually going to be shot in World Of Warcraft or something, you can still knock up a quick storyboard in Sims 2. Pre-visualisation is one of the primary appeals of machinima for conventional film-makers - there’s no reason we can’t take a leaf from their book.
Comment by Anthony Bailey — November 5, 2007 at 5:19 pm
The timing with the writer’s strike is kind of double-edged, as I understand it. Yes, there’s a risk of pushing viewers out of the mainstream and onto the Net. However, one of the most important issues in the strike is the writer’s wanting the establishment to grant them more reward/rights for digital content, and perhaps the feeling is that if they don’t ask for it now, then when? (Of course, the right answer for some may be to stop asking - to cut loose and go stake an independent claim out on this new frontier.)
Comment by KradProductions — November 7, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I believe Trent Reznor’s contract with Interscope was up as soon as “Year Zero: Remixed” was put on the assembly lines. He had a set number of albums he had to release before he could be freed from the contract, and “Remixed” fulfilled that. I just hope that “Remixed” isn’t perfunctory but from what he’s been saying on his blog it’s sounding like it’ll be good. As I understand it, Interscope unfortunately still has the rights to his past albums and retains the right to release a “Best of NIN” album if they are ever feeling the itch.
I’ve never been one to storyboard a lot. Normally I have an idea for how I want things to look before I shoot but a lot of things influence the way stuff turns out (input from the cast and crew mainly). I’ve found storyboarding really useful for doing reshoots though. It helps me avoid continuity issues by accidentally shooting something that doesn’t jive with other shots from the same scene.
“Looking forward to hearing your comments on HL2: Ep2. Don’t forget the ‘Garden Gnome’ challenge!!” - OMG. I just couldn’t do it! Once you have your showdown with the combine advisor in the barn things get complicated really quick.
Great show!