Captain's Blog: Privateer Part One and Moviestorm Projects for the future...

As discussed briefly here and elsewhere, Privateer is also a go!

Part One (reminiscent of my writing of old, in that it's 12 mins of mostly dialogue, required to fill in the background and kick start the story) is available in the usual places...

I enjoyed getting back into MS* and reacquainting myself with my projected "replacement" for The Movies; I could never get the hang of iClone (I just never had the time to delve into it's complexities, even back when all my free time was "free" to spend on movie making activities, and I certainly don't have the time (and money, and suitable machine!) these days!).  I'm just sad that Moviestorm appears to have just been dropped wholesale (despite the assurances as recently as 3 years ago that development was "on hold" while they concentrated on their new endeavour); no new posts can be made to their forum since July this year (it looks like the forum was effectively "shut off" around then); no staff contact works, the membership has probably scattered to the four winds and their only method of contact now appears to be through Leakbook (which I refuse to use for a variety of reasons), but it still does the job nicely, with all the extra content that's been added over the years by the talented modding community.

If only I could get to grips with the texturing and additional model content side of the modding workshop; I can bring in Sketchup models fine, but adding new textures to models is currently beyond me, which precludes certain types of movies from being made.

Still, got more plans for MS movies going forward (the resurrected idea for Shadows of Albion, my "between seasons" project vaunted in 2009 that morphed into me joining forces with K4 to create Blackstar Rising, went to my wife to be written then disappeared when her laptop effectively exploded and the WIP script (such of it as she'd managed to get written) bit the dust as she had no backups of anything; this one may be revisited and finally made as MS now has the available content to do a sci-fantasy tale).

Lots of life left in the "old dog" yet, and testament to the incredible community and developers who came up with it to begin with that it's still more than capable of turning out decent flicks even after 5 years of sitting fallow on the shelf, gathering dust...

 

* - as a "bronze subscriber" of old, I have the option to sub for a fiver a month or £25 for a year, so bit the bullet and went for the latter; as mentioned elsewhere on here, I originally thought that  £150 was the only perpetual option available, but there is a £50 "theme bundle" license that, because I own all the other packs I've purchased over the years, might be a better long term option when I've got 50 squid free to chuck at a piece of software; just about to go through the pain of moving home so have other priorities at present!

Captain's Blog - Fortune and Glory: Part One released on Vimeo

Designed purely as a fun project and inspired by Biggsy's latest "experiment", here's Part One of a short serial emulating the 30's and 40s serials; no mods, music straight from The Movies game, no VOs and "silent movie" type title cards' enjoy Fortune and Glory on YouTube...

Or, alternatively, you can watch on Vimeo instead... your choice :)

UPDATE - I had a warning notice from YouTube arrive overnight saying it had been taken down because of "hate speech"!  Needless to say, I was shocked, appalled and concerned that something so innocuous would be seen as such, until I figured out "hang on; the Youtube algorithm has probably had a fit because of the newsreel footage of Hitler and the German army that I included as scene setting right at the top!", so have sent off an appeal against the strike and takedown, so we'll see.

UPDATE 2: They refused to reinstate it following an appeal, so I did write to them to ask what it was that was causing the issue so I could re-edit and reupload it, but no reply so far.  As a result and rather than risk any further chances with strikes against my YT account, I've decided just to up these to Vimeo in future rather than YT, just in case.

In the intervening time, you can exclusively view Part One on Vimeo at the link above 😁

Captain's Blog: New Projects Underway!

Yes, I've at last sat down and started something 😁

First, a The Movies project, inspired by Biggsy's Last Day in Justice silent short. Very cool little short with some clever editing work and appropriate music, it inspired me to metaphorically punch some Nazis, so Fortune and Glory is on the designer's desk right now; no real mods (as my TM install saved folders appear to be pretty corrupted, and didn't install properly after moving from the (apparently) damaged backup drive I had them on.

Next, a project from an unfinished script I started writing years ago for TheBiz collaboration project, which I've now started filing in Moviestorm; Privateer, a steampunk tale of adventure and derring do in the clouds and on the battlefields of an alternative earth...  I just need to source a decent couple of airship models (as the ones available on Sketchup didn't really come out that well on import).

The second one has enabled me to reacquaint myself with very rusty skills and relearn how to do stuff in MS, so the first set of shots are a bit choppy :)  I don't really have much time to go back and reshoot these at the moment but will do so eventually; I just want to get the shots down and done first then see how it looks, then worry about the rest later.

I'm about halfway through the written script as it stands at the moment and I even remembered how to import Sketchup props so was able to find and bring in a horse-drawn carriage that enabled me to shoot the first scene and not have to completely redo it (I did cut a bit of dialogue out as it was getting very long and talky, so chopped a chunk out which a) doesn't add much and b) didn't actually take away anything from the story anyway, so it's all good 😆)

Deep War is currently on the backburner; just as Mr DeBoing agreed to start building some mods for me, his external drive went poof, taking with it all the remaining bits of Tank and any enthusiasm at present to do any mod work (despite his first attempt at the "hero sub" looking extremely cool!)  So commiserations to Mike there as he lost quite a bit of personal data, which is more important than him catering to some old hack in his kitchen writing scripts and coming up with little movies!

I'm also toying with finally getting around to Shadows of Albion, the long-teased and never really started sci-fantasy script I was going to do as my "between seasons" project (which instead turned into Conquest: Blackstar Rising", which I don't regret one bit.  Mixed blessing, as in the intervening years, MS now has sufficient proppage and costumes etc for me to finally be in with a stab at making this, so that's floating around in the back of my mind, too.

And the ever present, niggling beast of Odyssey that never seems to want to completely go away...

So, lots to keep me occupied... I just need to finish scripting and shooting all these and then see what's next 😊

Captain's Blog: In which I go all "Youtubey"

Well, I've only just gone and done it!

I've finally updated my Youtube channel after years of neglect, and those who have an interest can find the entirety of the completed Odyssey episodes uploaded there if they have any desire to watch or rewatch them.

 The playlist comprises -

• The initial subtitled pilot episodes (in all their "gory glory" 😉), all combined into one long video;
• The 6 part finale (my first endeavour to include voice actors), again combined into one long movie;
• Episodes 1-7 of Season One;
• Episode 1 of Season Two;

I've also included the Interlude Episode that was due to sit between Episode 1 and 2 of Season Two... and which now stands as the last existing Odyssey episode, effectively.

Well, enjoy or not as you desire; once again, even after all this time, honoured and humbled by the experience of working with a stellar voice cast which I was lucky enough to get for this, from the regulars to the guest stars... love yah all, guys, and thank you for allowing me to make my imagination reality with this, even if we never got to finish it!

As an addendum, I'm still toying with the idea of an "Oddyseymentary" to act as an overview of the series and outline what the actual plan and end was supposed to be; an insane, massively ambitious end it would have been, too, and with enough hooks that there could have even been a follow up (mostly planet-based, think more DS9 than S:NG)... but that's potentially a tale for another day... which is edging closer as I went back and reviewed the episodes when I uploaded them and got all nostalgic again...

Captain's Blog: Lament for Times Past and Whither Hence?

 ...which is just pretentious double-speak for "what shall I do now?" and "where have all the flowers gone?", in effect.

Well, there's Deep War that I'm intending to make (underwater sci-fi mini-series; I don't have the resources, either voice actors nor time, at the moment to commit to a longer option), amongst a few other half-baked ideas whizzing around in my brain, but if there is no audience these days (with TMU seemingly all but abandoned except by a few die-hards and the movie site effectively slowly ageing away like a fine wine.... no surprise as the dearth of regular content over the years that's been uploaded seems to suggest), is it worth expending some much time and effort as I used to?

I'm being honest, here; I used to love making movies and a lot of that was satisfaction that the finished product struck chords with a lot of people who made some very nice (and, I'm pretty sure, overly nice) comments (that I'm almost definate in some cases were a lot nicer than the product actually deserved!)

Well, there's always a market for smart, intelligently told stories, so I'm told, so we'll see 😜)

Which segues me into my long point; whilst it's sad to see the old girl (TMU and the attendant community) slowly ebbing away, to be honest it's not a massive surprise.

Some left when their passion to make movies left them...

Some left when the cost of making movies became too high (either in terms of cash to purchase the needed resources to make the films they wanted to make, or in terms of time they could spend on such projects)...

Some have moved onto bigger and better things (mainly the iClone community, which appears to be the only one of the "Big Three" of my time still surging ahead, with The Movies slowly withering on the vine, harder to get working with each iteration of Windows, it'll eventually die off completely when the last user can't get it running on their machine, and Moviestorms left to rot as Short Fuse drop what could have been a world-class, easy to use animation engine into the dust to concentrate on their new VR pre-viz tool)...

(/rant on

In an ideal world, MS would have been kept running alongside the development of this, but sadly this ain't an ideal world; I can still vent my frustration at the company for not prevailing with it, even in the face of the obvious need for them to move on to other things to keep their company afloat.... but, still charging £150 for the full product (and a load of packs I don't need as I bought them with points years ago) as a permanent license is ridiculous, given the complete lack of support and development the product has had in the last few years.  I'd buy it in a heartbeat, I like it that much, but not for that price.  And there's no option for a permanent license other than that; everything else is "rent for x period of time".

Drop the cost and I'll think about my last purchase from you in deference to the initial efforts you put in to creating a decent tool whose future was let slip by lack of development and promotion, despite a glowing start.... 

/rant off).

It's a shame, but I suppose it was idealistic to expect the "old crew" to still be hanging on in there, 9 years after I had to withdraw, still soldiering on with the same passion, wit and intensity as when I left.

I salute, applaud and respect the efforts of thebiz, JohnnyEx, Mac, Bezzer, Biggsy and the crew (not to mention the Big White Bwana, Ken himself, without whom our little "haven of insanity in a crazy world" would have long ago sunk to the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker) to still keep the old ship a-sailing, even as the leaks sprang open and she slowly began to slip beneath the waters, but am resigned now to realising that those heady days of fun and laughter, tears and anger and late-night movie production meetings til the early (very early in a lot of cases, thanks Chris, K4 and Norrie😉) hours are long gone, never to return.

I've spent many a happy and nostalgic hour pouring over the forums and re-reading some of the old threads; remembering faces old and new, conversations, dramas, jokes and above all the hours and hours of effort we all threw into our passion..... making movies.

Well, for me at least, that passion has experienced a resurgence and I'm back at in, in some form or another, for a while at least.

It'd be nice if there were a few more of the old crowd still around who'd like to take a spin around the block with me as well, if only the "once around" for old time's sake...

Wow, that was a lot more melancholic than I was expecting to write, but "nostalgia weighs heavy on the soul and mind, as age weighs heavy on the body" as someone should have said (if they actually haven't already, and I'm just paraphrasing without realising it 😏)

Damn my stream of consiousness writing :)