ANIMATED SHORTS: BORG WAR, SDCC AND MORE

[MattBrady]

DEUX EX MACHIMINA – BORG WAR DOING TREK CON
ANIMATED SDCC EVENTS; EMMY AWARDS, HOMER ON LENO & MORE

by Steve Fritz

According to the FAQ, Geoffrey James’ pals were upset when Star Trek: Enterprise went off the air. It wasn’t that the latest Star Trek franchise set the fans on fire, but that there would be no more Trek-based programming coming for the foreseeable future.

So what does the established freelance journalist with credits such as Wired, Computer Gaming World, ComputerWorld and The New York Times do? Why create his own animated Trek film, entitled Borg War.

He did it with a relatively new animation technique called Machinima. As stated in the interview below, it’s a down and dirty form of animation employing and manipulating what’s found in the latest generation of video games. With a relatively sophisticated home system, some relatively inexpensive software, and some major blood, sweat and tears, James created a totally original movie utilizing the characters of Tuvok, several key Klingons, Barclay and Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

The payoff? Well, he reports the film has become quite, quite popular on the ‘net. He’s also be given the ultimate compliment, a public screening at this year’s Trek Con, which will be held at the Hilton on August 10th in Las Vegas.

Still, the real issue is this new technique. This is what James had to say:

Newsarama: I recall G4 having broadcast some things like this. Was that one of your inspirations?

GEOFFRY JAMES: When I had thought of doing this, I thought I had invented an entirely new artform. I had no idea that anyone had ever done it before. I had never heard of fan films. So I was operating completely in the dark.

Then when I started showing it to my friends, they said “you should check this out.” That’s when I found out there is a fairly active Machinima community that makes these kinds of videos and there’s also a very active community that enjoys these films.

NRAMA: So how do you pronounce it? Opinions differ…

GJ: Sometimes it’s pronounced “Mash-in-ih-ma” instead of “Machine-ima.”

NRAMA: Basically it takes the video of various games and makes original movies out of them…

GJ: Right. Sometimes it’s done by groups of people manipulating a multi-player game. They’re actually filming downput, inserting their own dialogue live. The way I did it was everything was programmed. I can run each raw scene over and over again, making little changes and tweaking 20-30-40 times until I get exactly what I want.

But really, what it is is using a computer game as an animation engine. There are some conveniences to that. Now computer games packages are much simpler than professional animation packages, which tend to be much more baroque. They also make some assumptions, some good some bad, that makes it less of an effort to do a production like this. It would be very, very difficult to make a feature length movie by themselves with a professional animation package. A short is about all you can expect. But with Machinima, I was able to do a full movie in about 18 months of working on my spare time.

NRAMA: Are you familiar with Fred Seibert?

GJ: No.

NRAMA: OK. He runs Frederator Studios and produces shows like Fairly Oddparents and Wow Wow Wubbzy. Fred has a site called Random Cartoons which will be for people who create their own cartoons, ala Mike Judge, Parker & Stone. Would you say Machinima is kind of an extension of this?

GJ: No, I consider that a separate artform. Where Machinima is pushing is of a single individual to make an ultra-real film to where you can not tell the differences between reality and a film. Essentially the director becomes a puppet master. Essentially that’s what Machinima directors are pushing for, the ability to make something like Lord of the Rings at home. If anything, the only limitations of the art form are simply mechanical. Computers aren’t fast enough for that kind of work. But the concept is there. What I expect seeing in the next couple of decades is stuff coming out of computer games and software that compliments computer games that makes Machinima much easier. If that happens, you’ll see quite elaborate movies that will be either very realistic or even very fantastic using these resources.

NRAMA: So what you’re saying is if I had the gumption, I could take the entire Lord of the Rings or Final Fantasy games and make my own movies out of them.

GJ: People are already doing that. That’s being done quite a bit. As those games become more and more realistic, you’ll see these movies start looking more and more like full-on animation engines. There are space combat games out there that produce realistic images about as good as animation was in 2001-2. I admit people are harder to do realistically, but the software is continually getting better.

The thing about full-on CGI animation is you need a lot of horsepower to stoke those engines, a lot of RAM. We’re talking about renderings that take about a minute a frame to produce that needs huge rooms and a load of people. I think what’s exciting about all this is you can make a feature film with basically one person and a few hundred dollars of software. I did mine with computer that cost about $1,000 and about $200 worth of software. We’re not talking about multimillion dollar studios here.

I see it as the democratization of animation. That’s what Machinima is all about.



NRAMA: Well, I don’t see any of the other forms of animation going away. It’s just Machinima is a new one. In a way, it kind of reminds me of the down’n dirty punk rock/DIY era, when bands produced and distributed their own 45s and LPs.

GJ: It’s very much like that. Machinima has very much a kind of punk sensibility, to the point where when I was nominated for some Machinima awards I came to the realization that I was older than most of the other people there by 15-20 years.

NRAMA: How old are you?

GJ: I’m 53, and everyone else there was in their 20s. I certainly felt weird.

NRAMA: So there already are Machinima fests? Are they developing and growing?

GJ: It’s really hard to say. There’s a body of thought that says Machinima is just another production technique, and that the really talented Machinamists are getting hired by the game studios to do their in game cinematics. That’s happened quite a bit. So a lot of people who are looking to do new projects are going to use game engines that have used some of the newer breeds of animation. At the same time, the game companies have learned to make their animation easier, more accessible, to these people.

What’s then happening is you are getting these mergings of these two industries. Low end animation packages are becoming much easier to use. At the same time, the game packages are adding more features for things you can do with them.

At the same time, you must always remember that animation is always an afterthought with these game packages. They are more concerned, logically, with the game engine. Now though, they are adding their own in game animation that’s outside the game. In the process, they are giving guys like us all the things we need in the form of the camera angles, settings, character designs and all that.

NRAMA: But wouldn’t it be the case that if someone did a film based on Kingdom Hearts that Disney would get its shorts in all kinds of knots over their rights?

GJ: There are two issues involved here. The game makers lease out the rights from the owners of the IP [intellectual property]. Within this there are two forms of intellectual property here. Game makers are concerned over the possible rights issues of the intellectual properties, but they love Machinima because it’s turned into a ton of free advertising for the game. So they have Machinima contests, they post Machinima on their sites, they actually encourage Machinima like crazy. They have even helped distribute documents on making Machinima. They love it.

At the same time, they try to maintain some kind of control over it.

NRAMA: They don’t want you trying to get your Trek film into the theatres and charging admission.

GJ: Not so much that. They do want to make sure you don’t degrade their IP by putting in things that are racist, sexist or repulsive.

Now the other issue is when the license company grants the license to a film like Star Trek II to a game company, there are concerns about the original license. That varies greatly, depending on the individual company. For instance, George Lucas and LucasFilm has been fairly open about fan films in general. CBS/Paramount hasn’t been anywhere near as open, but they haven’t been totally closed, either. They’ve kind of set up a sort of benign neglect. They are well aware that fan films are being made and they are good for their franchise, but I assume, based upon my knowledge of corporate law, they don’t want to lose control of their IP either. If they let people use their IP’s officially, they might lose control.

In my specific case, CBS/Paramount is very aware of Borg War. They know all about it. We worked hard to get a specific, official approval to show it specifically at this TrekCon. That’s the first time that has ever happened. No one has ever done that before. In the past, we’ve done parody films, but no one has really ever done a serious work.

Now what’s interesting is the reason why this was all done. It seems the maker of the game had a serious dust up with CBS/Paramount in 2004, and gave up the rights. The gaming rights are now back in CBS’s hands. That vastly simplified the rights situation, relative to Borg War.

What I’m not hoping is this won’t be the last time this happens. There’s some gorgeous work going on and I hope this will allow the work to get to the public in a meaningful way. The way things are set up, the unofficial deal is we can’t make any money on it, we have to give it away for free. You can’t get into this with the idea of making money. It’s not your stuff, you know?

It would be a different situation if the companies made a firm statement saying we don’t want you doing this. But the truth is there’s a lot of fans currently doing it and there’s a lot of Machinima. I’m not trying to get away with anything. I was just trying to make a movie for my friends.

NRAMA: So were you trying to stay within Star Trek canon?

GJ: Yes. I had my friends who were much more aware of canon to review every scene. I also discussed plot points with them ahead of time. So there really was an attempt to make it fit. At the same time I was trying to tell a story that was different from all the other stuff out there.

NRAMA: In your own words, what is the story of Borg War?

GJ: Star Trek meets Alien. The Borg go to a planet that was colonized by pods, and as to who assimilates who is a matter of how you see things.

NRAMA: So did you have issues with Alien, too?

GJ: Well, it doesn’t look like THAT Alien. Conceptually it’s sort of the same. It’s sort of a spider-hybrid Borg. Let’s say it has a very complicated life cycle.

NRAMA: How does it feel to do Vegas?

GJ: It’s sort of exciting. I think anyone whoever does a film wants it to eventually be scene in front of a large audience. So that’s a real opportunity for me personally. I’m also gratified that Borg War has gotten a 1 ½ million downloads. That makes it amongst the most popular Machinima films ever made. That’s kind of gratifying, too.

NRAMA: Are they at least flying you out there?

GJ: Oh heavens no! To tell you though, I didn’t even ask.

NRAMA: And you got complimented on the film by Tim Russ, huh?

GJ: Yeah. It felt cool to get complimented from people who were actually involved in Trek. Also, the people who actually worked on the game are extraordinarily pleased because even though their work is not available for sale, it’s still goes on. It didn’t go into the black hole of out-of-print games. That has to feel good in the end.

If you want to find out more about Machinima, check out the URL: www.machinima.org.
To get a peek at Borg War, check out James’ site: www.borgwarmovie.org
For the heck of all you Trekkers out there, for more on the Con, check out: www.creationent.com. They are celebrating the franchise’s 40th Anniversary after all.

HOMER DOING LENO/FAMILY GUY NEXT?

Get ready kids, Homer Simpson is doing a star turn .

NBC announced that Homer Simpson himself will be appearing on Jay Leno’s Tonight show, tonight. Yes, we’re sure that it’s totally staged, but so what. At present, there is no word as to whether Bart Simpson will be going to do Letterman, but you never know.

In related news, it seems Seth McFarlane told the Hollywood Reporter that plans for a theatrical version of Family Guy is in the works. To paraphrase McFarlane, the Griffin Family “won’t save the world” but it’s still very early in the scripting phase. Plans call for the film to hit the theaters in about three years.


ANIMATED EVENTS AND NON-EVENTS AT SDCC

As always, there’s going to be a lot of animated activity at this year’s SDCC. Here’s the short list of items brought to our attention.

• DISNEY/PIXAR TRIFECTA – Disney/Pixar will have three different items of interest. The first is an exact replica of the Brethren’s Court and the Black Pearl from the Pirates set. It will include photos of scenes not shown on the movie as well as new Pirates product lines. They will also debut three shorts by directors Ralph Eggleston, Katherin Sarafian and Andrew Jimenez, who will also be available for fan Q’s. This event will be held on Friday, July 27 at 10:30 a.m. at room 6 CDEF.

• PARAMOUNT UNVEILING CASSHERN – Paramount Home Entertainment will host the U.S. debut of the much-anticipated Japanese anime Casshern. The film blends animation and live action resulting in a new kind of hybrid filmmaking; both visually stunning and thought provoking. Doors will open for the debut at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 26 at the UA Horton Theater.

• LION’S GATE DEBUTS DR. STRANGE – The much anticipated animated debut of Dr. Steven Strange will occur on Friday, July 27 at 7:15 p.m. at Room 6 CDEF. Creators Frank Paur and Greg Johnson will be there to answer questions after the film.

• VIZ KICKS DOORS OPEN WITH NARUTO 2 – The first of the feature-length films based on Naruto, subtitled “Ninja Clash in the Land of the Snow,” will screen one more time at the con. Viz will host the event on Friday, July 27 at 4:30 p.m. The movie will had an extremely limited one-day screening a few months back.

• CARTOON NETWORK MEET THE STARS ALL WEEK: Cartoon Network is hosting a ton of panels, screenings and signings for just about all its shows. Here’s the short list:

- ED, EDD, n EDDY; Thursday, July 26, 12:30 p.m.; Location: Room 1 AB - Danny Antonucci, creator of Ed, Edd n Eddy. Samuel Vincent, voice of Edd; Peter Kelamis, voice of Rolf; Janyse Jaud, voice of Sarah and Lee Kanker; Scott “Diggs” Underwood, storyboard director; and “Big Jim” Miller, storyboard director.

- THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY & MANDY; Friday, July 27, 11:45 a.m; .Location: ROOM 6B - Maxwell Atoms, creator;

- FOSTERS HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS; Friday, July 27; 12:30 p.m. (PT); Location: ROOM 6B - Craig McCracken, creator of Foster’s and The Powerpuff Girls as well as Lauren Faust.

- CARTOON NETWORK TRANSFORMERS/ HASBRO / IDW; Saturday, July 28, 10:45 a.m.; Location: ROOM 6A - Sam Register, executive producer; Matt Youngberg, supervising director; Derrick Wyatt, character designer; and Marty Isenberg, story editor.

- MY GYM PARTNER’S A MONKEY; Saturday, July 28, 2:45 p.m. Location: ROOM 6A - Tim & Julie Cahill, co-creators of My Gym Partner’s a Monkey; Tom Kenny, voice of Jake and Tom Sheppard, writer.

- CLASS OF 3000; Saturday, July 28, 3:15 p.m.; Location: ROOM 6A - André “3000” Benjamin, co-creator and executive producer; Tom Lynch, co-creator and executive producer; Joe Horne, art director; and Tom Kenny, voice of Eddie.

- BEN 10; Sunday, July 29, 1:30 p.m.; Location: ROOM 6B – Alex Soto, supervising producer; Tramm Wigzell, director of development, original series at Cartoon Network; and Megan Smith, voice of Gwen.

• NICK NOT TO BE OUTDONE – You think Nickelodeon isn’t going to take full advantage of the Con? Here’s there list:

* THURSDAY, JULY 26 -
- 11:30AM-12:30PM -- Nickelodeon Presents: Making Fiends -- The web series that taught the world to fear giant hamsters is coming to Comic-Con. Also on hand will be Aglaia Mortcheva (Vendetta) and Peter Merryman (Grudge, Mr. Milk and just about everyone else). Moderated by Claudia Spinelli, Executive in Charge for Nickelodeon. Room 2

* FRIDAY, JULY 27
- 1:30-2:30PM -- First Look at The Mighty B! -- Be the first to get a sneak peek at The Mighty B!, a brand new cartoon about Bessie Higgenbottom (voiced by SNL’s Amy Poehler), the world's most ambitious and lovably unhinged Honeybee scout. Join Co-Creators Cynthia True and Erik Wiese; Art Director Seonna Hong. Moderated by Claudia Spinelli, Executive in Charge for Nickelodeon. Room 2

- 4:00-5:00PM -- Peter Fernandez, the original voice of Speed Racer and the new voice of Spritle (a character in Speed Racer The Next Generation) signing at the Nickelodeon Booth #2515

* SATURDAY, JULY 28
- 10:30 -11:30AM -- Into the Fire Nation: Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 3 Sneak Peek – A first look at what's to come in the third season, including clips from new episodes. Creator Bryan Konietzko, director Joaquim Dos Santos, Head Writer Aaron Ehasz (Futurama) and a voice artist Dee Baker (The Fairly OddParents), who voices Appa and Momo. Moderated by Eric Coleman, Vice President/Executive Producer, Animation Production and Development. Room 6A

- 12:30-1:30PM -- Bigger, Better, Bolder: Nickelodeon’s New CG Comedies –Kind of says it all. A ton of talent at this one. Moderated by Roland Poindexter, Vice President of Animation Production. Room 1AB

- 2:00-3:00PM -- Bryan Konietzko signing at the Nickelodeon Booth #2515 -- The first 500 people will receive a limited edition signed poster designed by Konietzko just for Comic-Con.

- 3:30-4:30PM -- DJ Lance (host of Nick Jr.'s new show premiering in August, Yo Gabba Gabba) signing at the Nickelodeon Booth #2515

* SUNDAY, JULY 29
- 10:45-11:45AM -- Super-Macho Sunday! El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera – Creators and Co-Executive Producers Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, Supervising Director Dave Thomas series leads Alana Ubach, Grey DeLisle, Eric Bauza and Carlos Alazraqui. Moderated by Rich Magallanes, Director of Animation Production. Room 6B

- 12:00-1:00 -- Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua (creators of El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera) signing at the Nickelodeon Booth #2515

- 2:00-3:00 -- Tom Kenny (voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) signing at the Nickelodeon Booth #2515

• Before I forget, let me give a special plug for ASIFA-Hollywood, who will be hosting a number of panels, programs and other cool stuff at the SDCC. This includes:

- Thursday, July 26th @ 3:30pm-5:00pm - ANIMATION ON A SHOE-STRING, Creating a Low Cost Animation Studio with Your Home Computer (Room 30CDE)

- 6:00pm-7:00pm - MAVERICKS, MAGIC AND MAGOO (Room 3)

- 7:15pm-8:45pm - THE PIXAR STORY: TO INFINITY AND BEYOND (Room 6CDEF)

- Friday, July 27th @ 4:30pm-6:00pm - TREASURES FROM THE ASIFA VAULT (Room 3)

- 6:30pm-7:30pm - THE CHIODO BROS. STOP MOTION ANIMATION IN THE COMPUTER AGE (Room 5AB)

- 9:00pm-10:00pm - WORST CARTOONS EVER (Room 6CDEF)

- Saturday, July 28th @ 2:00pm-3:00pm - STATE OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY (Room 8)

- Saturday, July 28th @ 6:00pm-7:00pm - DRAWING THE LINE The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson (Room 4)

There will also be updates of more events at http://www.agni-animation.com/blog/index.html

And, for the record, both Fox and Adult Swim announced they will NOT be attending the SDCD this year. Warner Brothers Animation also reports that Adam Baldwin will not be at the much-hyped screening of Superman/Doomsday either.

ANIMATED EMMY NOMINEES

The 59th annual Emmy Award nominations were revealed, and the following animated programs are up for awards:

• Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)
Avatar: The Last Airbender • City Of Walls And Secrets • Nickelodeon
Robot Chicken • Lust For Puppets • Adult Swim
South Park • Make Love, Not Warcraft • Comedy Central
SpongeBob SquarePants • Bummer Vacation / Wig Struck • Nickelodeon
The Simpsons • The Haw-Hawed Couple • Fox

• Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More)
Good Wilt Hunting (Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends) • Cartoon Network
Hellboy Animated: Sword Of Storms • Starz
Secrets Of The Deep • Discovery Channel
Where's Lazlo? (Camp Lazlo) • Cartoon Network

The Emmys air Sunday, September 16, 2007 on Fox.

[DaVeO]

Interesting idea. But I didn't know what was going on in the trailer.

[Beheader]

It looks like the Borg meets John Carpenter's The Thing. And a really pissed off Worf. Not sure what Tuvok has to do with all this though.

[BanMan]

Originally Posted by DaVeO

Interesting idea. But I didn't know what was going on in the trailer.

War, my friend. It's war.

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by Beheader

It looks like the Borg meets John Carpenter's The Thing. And a really pissed off Worf. Not sure what Tuvok has to do with all this though.

Hey...gotta have a Vulcan somewhere. -s

[RunnerX13]

Was that trailer for real? It looked so bad.

[ParisCub]

Originally Posted by RunnerX13

Was that trailer for real? It looked so bad.

Unfortunately yes, it is the trailer for this "acclaimed"animated movie.

[kephren]

Originally Posted by RunnerX13

Was that trailer for real? It looked so bad.

If you're expecting anything resembling state-of-the-art rendered animation, you're going to be disappointed with machinima. Because computer games do their FULL rendering in real time, they're always about a decade behind full-rendered animation packages in terms of quality. In addition, since it took 18 months to make Borg War, I had to start with 2004 technology, which makes it look out of date even by today's computer game standards.

As for the film being "acclaimed," that's the first time I've heard that word. However, Borg War does track 4.5 stars (out of five) on YouTube, so I suppose that's acclaim of a sort. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...arch=Search&v=

I suspect that the reason viewers like Borg War is that it works as a story and, frankly, there's not a lot of other new Star Trek content out there to choose from. It's certainly not because I'm some sort of brilliant filmmaker or because the production is lavish.

The trick with machinima is to accept the current limitations of the medium and think of the storytelling possibilities that it offers going forward. How else could a single individual, working in his spare time, create an entire animated feature in a few months? Some computer animators (if working alone) work 18 months just to do a 5 minute short. Commercial projects require entire staffs of animators and rooms full of computers to get a feature out in a reasonable time frame.

[JLAJRC]

I liked the trailer. I think it would be nice to have it broadcast on tv. G4 would probably be best, but I wouldn't mind seeing it on SCI-FI or Cartoon Network.

[Evil@work]

Man thats damn cool. Way to put in the effort it takes to pull that off...its damn cool. I'm quit fond of the go-tee Jean Luc is sporting...damn cool

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by RunnerX13

Was that trailer for real? It looked so bad.

So did J. Stuart Blackton's Humourous Phases and Emile Cohl's Phantasmagorie BUT they are the first animated shorts ever.

Before dumping on a technique, realize it sometimes takes years, if not decades, before it reaches mass acceptance (for example, just to use a more recent trend, timeline computer graphics from Tron to Toy Story OR go from Cohl's work in 1907 to Winsor McKay in the 1914 then Fleischer and Messmer in the late teens/early 20s and then Steamboat Willie).

What's most important is animation is a mix of art and technology. A new form of tech or technique takes time before it become art.

One other thing, and this I think is important, look at punk rock. I wasn't at the first concert of the Ramones, but I heard they were god awful. I did see Talking Heads when they were only a support act for Television, and they were a completely different band from the one that would later do Remain In Light or Fear of Music.

Literally thousands of gamers going buck wilde on Machinima will sooner or later start producing some really, really incredible stuff. I give Geoff kudos for putting together as good a quality film as he has with just a work station and some off-the-shelf software. Editorially, I'm going to plug guys like him or Brook of Broken Saints if only for the gumption they're showing for putting out their works in spite of multi-million dollar films from Pixar, Dreamworks, Fox, etc.

And, oh yeah, if you don't think the likes of Lasetter, Katzenberg and other Hollywood types aren't also watching these guys, you are very sadly misinformed. -s

[beta-ray]

Originally Posted by sfritz

So did J. Stuart Blackton's Humourous Phases and Emile Cohl's Phantasmagorie BUT they are the first animated shorts ever.

Before dumping on a technique, realize it sometimes takes years, if not decades, before it reaches mass acceptance (for example, just to use a more recent trend, timeline computer graphics from Tron to Toy Story OR go from Cohl's work in 1907 to Winsor McKay in the 1914 then Fleischer and Messmer in the late teens/early 20s and then Steamboat Willie).

Sorry, when he said "ultra-real" I was imagining something else. It reminds me of when (was it Kaz Hirai?) the Playstation folks mentioned that the PS2 would have Toy Story level graphics.

I only watched the trailer but it did remind me of fanfic. Ah well, hope it all turns out well.

On the other news... boy it sure took a long time before Casshern made it here...

EDIT: Although it might just be my old age, it does seem like the mash-up produced, while an interesting technique does lack some originality. Just my opinion of course.

[kephren]

Originally Posted by beta-ray

Sorry, when he said "ultra-real" I was imagining something else.

That's an artifact of the interview. I didn't mean Borg War was ultra-realistic. Gee, I wish.

What I meant was that when games have been converted to use massively parallel successors to the IBM Cell CPU, it will be possible to do ultra-realistic real time graphics on a production computer. Thus a group of actors could get together, learn how to control characters in the game (or game-like animation package), and create real-time scenes, in a virtual world, recording their own voices and end up with something that would look realistic in that virtual setting.

A crew of rehearsed actor/puppeteers could could make something like, say, Ice Age, in a one-night filming session, like filming a play on stage. But because the graphical definitions would be stored, you'd be able to arbitrarily set camera angles and re-film the scene from multiple angles, with all the dialog still being exactly in place, and then mix down the final movie.

Steve is completely correct that it won't replace traditional animation or fully rendered computer animation, where the style of animation is an integral part of the creation. Instead, what emerges is a different kind of animation that has its own limitations, but which is extraordinarily inexpensive, making an acceptable movie achievable by, well, by a second-rate journalist who lives in the middle of the woods.

Originally Posted by beta-ray

I only watched the trailer but it did remind me of fanfic

Uhhh... that just might be because it's a fan film. Was it supposed to be something else?

[SemperAskew]

Originally Posted by ParisCub

Unfortunately yes, it is the trailer for this "acclaimed"animated movie.

Like or hate it, you can see more series and shows in this style at http://www.machinima.com/
There are some funny ones, but like You Tube you have to hunt for them.

[kephren]

Serious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyOC7H6-sm4
http://www.machinima.com/films.php?id=22185

Funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcLx4b-ibJ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw

[deworde]

Never mind Vegas, how does it feel to be being trolled by Newsarama posters? I mean, having rude jackasses who still save their comic-store wages by living in their parents basements ignorantly insulting you online puts you in the same category with JMS, Steve Wacker and Mark Waid.
Movie looks fun, by the way! At the very least, better than "Threshold", the only episode to include an apology commentary...

[kephren]

Originally Posted by deworde

At the very least, better than "Threshold", the only episode to include an apology commentary...

Yeah, I think I probably got the "Janeway Turns into a Salamander" episode beat, even with the bargain basement animation.