Captain's Blog 08.10.09

It's coming....

Yes, the premiere awards ceremony of the year is approaching; the First Annual TMU Ollie Awards will be hitting an internet stream near you this coming Sunday (11 October).

This weekend, Roger and Ken will be playing host to the awarding of these prestigious awards to those film makers, directors, voice artists, modders, writers, composers, etc, etc, that have sufficiently impressed the filmic collective at TMUnderground in the last year, that they went ahead and nominated them for an award!

So, this weekend, tune into the Roger and Ken Show for 5 hours of celebration of some of the best machinima work in the last 12 months!

Be there, or be a small right-angled, 2 dimensional cuboid!

Captain's Blog 05.10.09

Chatnoir's "Death in Venice"

I can't say enough good things about this; suffice it to say it's a masterpiece of machinima by two people who (should) need no introduction.

I can't do it justice in any amount of words (in my opinion, to do so would belittle it); you MUST watch this movie.  It's simply exquisite; nuff said.

Captain's Blog 22.09.09

Jesus...

What with work, real-life, The Ollies, slipping back into online gaming a little (D&D Online, now free, so have dabbled in that a little.  Don't think it'll hold any concerted interest for me long-term, but the missus does like to dip her toe in the water from time to time...), I seem to have had little time to do much of anything...

Except, of course, beavering away on Episode Six, penultimate episode of Season One!

Managed to sit down this weekend and actually get some shooting done; the first four scenes, in fact, and part of the sixth.  So it's coming along quite nicely, really.

Episode Seven will be the biggy, and am already swirling ideas around for the big changes coming in Season Two... can't say much at the moment, but it should ratchet things up nicely, tension wise! :)

Actually got some time (following the lurgy attack) to sit down and run off some lines that had been outstanding for a coupla friends, so with some luck and a following wind, I'll be back to where I should have been by this weekend.


Well, back to the grind... fare thee well, phantom reader!  Til next time...

Captain's Blog 06.09.09

THE OLLIES 2009 OFFICIAL NOMINATIONS

"(Listed in no particular order)

Best Picture
Saving Grace by Sisch; Temporary Night by Nukester; The Shadow over Innsmouth by JosephKW

Best Director
Sisch; JosephKW; Nukester

Best Actor
GoofParade; AnotherNewDawn; K4 (Tinman)

Best Actress
Sisch; Dulci; Ellie; Bella
(It was so close for 3rd place we decided to split the last one rather than make a snap decision about who should go on the shortlist)

Best TMU Newcomer
Act3scene24; Rage; IceAxe

Best Writer
Act3scene24; Sisch; thebiz

Best Drama
Kate Lee's The Afflicted by Sisch; Temporary Night by Nukester; Anonymous by Act3scene24

Best Comedy
The Clarks by act3scene24; Do You Like JosephKW Movies? By Macwemyss; Jesus V Easter: MS Edition by Mefune Akira

Best Western
The Phantom of The West by BenTuttle90; Theory of the Heart by Pookashells; Rio Diablo by TheMGMKid

Best Romance
Temporary Night by Nukester; The Story of Us by Jase180; The Lounge Singer (2009) by Dulci

Best SCI-FI
Saving Grace by Sisch; The Gray People by Moonlight Pictures (D.L. Watson); Coming Home by Lizard

Best Action
Valentine’s Day by Michael B6; Sitting on Top of the World by Bricks Films; The Expedition by animatechnica

Best Arthouse
Rochelle Rochelle by Biggstrek; Whitefish by thebiz; Clockwork by IceAxe

Best Fantasy
Angels V Demons by Capemedia; Grayskull by Rage; Kayna – Rik Vargard

Best Horror
Saimaya by Mefune Akira; Shadows over Innsmouth by JosephKW; Dark Tides of Innsmouth by JosephKW

Best Musical
Temporary Night by Nukester; Jesus Christ Superstar (Act 1 Scene 1) by Jase180; The Lounge Singer (2009) by Dulci

Best War
The Sniper by WarLord; Memoirs of Meuse River by Pookashells; The Expedition by animatechnica

Best Mystery
Transience by JosephKW; November: Pilot by Pookashells; The Dead Cases by Jase180

Best Trailer
For My Love, Theodora by act3scene24; November: Teaser Trailer by Pookashells; KoT: The Final Trailer by Rik Vargard

Best Soundtrack
Temporary Night by Nukester; Kate Lee's The Afflicted by Sisch (music by Sherwin Liu); The Intermediate by Sisch

Best Composer
Nukester; Biggstrek; Norrie

Best Sound Editing
Saving Grace by Sisch; Sorrows of the Spy by Orky; Temporary Night by Nukester

Best Sound Design
Saving Grace by Sisch; Temporary Night by Nukester; November by Pookashells

Best Set Use in a Machinima Movie
Cleopatra IV by TheMGMKid; The Expedition by animatechnica; The Grey People by Moonlight Pictures


Best Costume or Makeup in a Machinima Movie
The Expedition by animatechnica; Cleopatra IV by TheMGMKid; Saimaya by MefuneAkira.


Best Special Effects
The Grey People by Moonlight Pictures; Shadows over Innsmouth by JosephKW; Valentine’s Day by MichaelB6


Best Prop for a Machinima Movie
Tarison’s Bluescreen Sets by Tarison; Roger Thong by MarvellousGuppiMovies (Guppi); Castle Grayskull in Greyskull by BudBundysMullet


Best Short Form Film (<10 MINS)
Clockwork by IceAxe; November - pilot by Pookashells; She and I are Us by Nukester.

Best Long Form Film (>10 MINS)
Temporary Night by Nukester; Saving Grace by Sisch; Shadows over Innsmouth by JosephKW

Best The Movies Film
Temporary Night by Nukester; The Shadow over Innsmouth by JosephKW; The Gray People: Chapter One - Moonlight Pictures

Best Moviestorm Film
Saving Grace by Sisch; Clockwork by IceAxe; Café Insomniac by Hardycapo

Best iClone Film
Coming Home by Lizard; The Expedition by animatechnica; Soulking by Allpoint

Best Other Machinima Movie
Little Pablo by act3scene24; Sweet Nothingness by Overman; How it all began by Cloneposer


Best "Mash-up" or Anymation Movie
Saving Grace by Sisch; The Sniper by WarLord; The Windmill Song by Cloneposer


Best Screenplay
Temporary Night by Nukester; Kate Lee’s The Afflicted (Sisch and Kate Lee); Saving Grace by Sisch


Best Subtitled Film
Into The Reich by Harry; Emperivium by Harry; Next Door by Neonoir

Best Non-English Movie Award
Captain LeBorgne by RikVargard; Unfaithful by Meowan; The Writer by Laviv42

Best Live Action Movie
Dial for your Life by JosephKW; The Tell Tale Heart by Timothy Richmond; The Mice by Moonlight Pictures


Best PR Campaign
The Grey People by Moonlight Pictures; The Last Close Up by TheMGMKid; Whitefish by TheBiz


Best Movie Poster
Shadows over Innsmouth poster by Burkey1993; StarQuest: The Freighter poster by act3scene24; The Afflicted poster by Sisch


Most Helpful Community Member
Dulci; Ken; Chris62.


Funniest Comment on a Movie
(Due to the low number of submissions this year, this category was withdrawn with no clear shortlist)


Best Comment on a Movie
(Due to the low number of submissions this year, this category was withdrawn with no clear shortlist)


Most Entertaining Guest
Norrie; Act3scene24; K4

The Thong De Roger Award for Outstanding Contribution to TMU
Ken White; Dulci; K4


As before, the online form is

HERE

or via PM to Killian here on the boards.

This form is even easier to complete than the last (you don’t even need to type anything other than your name!); all you need to do is:-

1: Click the link above,
2: Fill in your TMU FORUM ACCOUNT name,
3: Tick ONE choice only for each category you want to vote for and
4: Hit SUBMIT

It can’t be any easier.

You have until September 27 2009 to vote on the nominees. Please note that there are NO abstentions for this final round; you MUST vote for every category.


So get VOTING HERE and have fun!

We would like to thank everyone who nominated in Round One and we hope to get as many votes as we did in the first round for Round Two and good luck to all the nominees!

Thanks

Tom and Killian"

Captain's Blog 22.08.09

Episode Five is out at last.


A new update to the Odyssey website as well, giving some background detail to the episode (as there are for the others). And, I'll be on R&K Sunday night (once again... one day I'll get that pesky Ken to take this chain off my ankle...), discussing the events of Ep5 and where it takes the Odyssey universe.

Two more episodes to go in Season One...

Captain's Blog 10.08.09

Been a while since I last updated; with the TMU birthday celebrations, work, working on Episode Five and so on, it's been a bit manic :)

Any road, Tom and I launched the first Annual TMU Awards this weekend (named "The Ollies", in honour of the great reviewer of TMU days (thanks to K4 for the idea)).

Nominations are being sought from all registered TMU Forum members; there are 45 categories up for grabs, with some nice prizes up for the winners (not least of which are shiny forum badges and hopefully some in-game Olly props as well!).

To cast your votes, go HERE and complete the form. Submit it once filled out et voila! Job done!

First round votes need to be in by 31 August 2009; the top 3 in each category will be posted, and the second round voting will take place. The top nominated in each category will be judged the winner.

So, if you're a TMU member, pop over to the voting form and give us your nominations!

Captain's Blog 12.07.09

Finally got around to stitching all of the Finale pieces together into one long movie; it clocks in at 1hr 35mins all told!

Uploaded it to BlipTV but (after taking nearly 8 hours to get it on there, due to several issues), it failed to convert to Flash, so I can't embed the buggering thing anywhere :(

Oh well; it was more of an experiment to see how it worked out than anything else, so no biggy. It clocked in at 545mb (just too big for Vimeo as well...). The sound quality isn't great (as I had to re-encode the 5 completed files; I binned the Magix files and shot pieces ages ago to conserve space, so couldn't re-do all the pieces again), due to the audio tracks being encoded twice.

Any road up, it's here for those who have an interest in such things (it's just the 5 finale pieces all as one long movie; no additional material).

UPDATE: I finally got the host I wanted! I received confirmation tonight, so have moved the full site for (hopefully) the final time! It can be found HERE.

Captain's Blog 08.07.09

Work proceeding slowly on Episode Five... slowly but proceeding :) Done some initial shot work on Episode Seven for the exterior scenes and some mod work for Season Two.

New content added to the Odyssey Website (moved to ANOTHER host due to potential issues); check it out if you're so inclined :)

Should be appearing on Roger & Ken this coming Sunday to discuss "Castaways", so don't be afraid to Skype or PM Roger any questions you might have about the episode in specific or the series in general... or, indeed, anything at all (there's an hour to fill, after all, so it's best we have something interesting to talk about!).

There's no rest for the wicked... :)

EDIT: 11 JULY 2009: Grrr... the new, super-dooper webhost decided to stop working this morning, so have gone back to the 425mb one for now (buggering thing...). Apologies for the unconwenience...

Captain's Blog 04.07.09

Odyssey: Episode Four is released.

An Odyssey Aid Team, on their way back to the ship after delivering medical aid to a distant colony, is forced down on an unexplored world.

There, matters are complicated by their need to work with some unexpected “visitors”; a situation which is not made easy by the feelings of the Aid Team’s commander, Lieutenant Commander M’raal...

Please enjoy and comment!

Now work commences to Episode Five... aiming to complete the current season by November or December at the latest.

EDIT: The new and improved Odyssey site is available now here; please bear in mind that it's a free host site and there's a bloody annoying Google ad banner smack across the top of it (unless you have Firefox and NoScript tuned to turn off googlesyndication, in which case it doesn't bother you). Please feel free to make suggestions or throw ideas into the mix for this as it will accompany the series as it goes along. Once the site is fully complete and all the basic details are filled in, I'll be moving it to a better host.

UPDATE: I've also mirrored the site HERE (better, as there is no honking banner; just one pop up when you first surf in, apparently), so will probably transfer the site to this host for now.

Captain's Blog 02.07.09

Odyssey Season Two Writers Wanted
In order to “spread the load” a bit next season, I’m looking for 2-3 outside writers who fancy taking a crack at an episode or two to free up some time for me to concentrate on other projects and not drive me mental trying to do 7 scripts in advance again! Plus, it gives the series a “shot in the arm” to introduce new ideas, concepts and a fresh pair of eyes to look over the universe.

I’m open to pitches and ideas for 45-50 min single episodes (initially) from interested parties. Please be aware that, due to the arc-based nature of the series, I may ask for some tweaks and rewrites here and there as part of the process and a brief synopsis of the idea, cast list and basic episode plan as part of the decision making process.


Advance notice of the post I'll be making once Episode Seven pre-production is underway; with a couple of extra scripts "in hand" and some fresh ideas, it will enable to me to take a breather a bit and not have things so manic next year!

Episode Four is cracking along nicely; 12 more pages to complete shooting and then the clean up/edit etc to commence. With some luck (and a following wind) it will be out sometime between this weekend and next (dependant on how fast things get done). Then, it's all guns blazing to pre-prod on Ep5 (pre-credits teaser and first scene already shot and awaiting VOs for that, so have a slight edge on that one).

It's all go Chez Cave at the moment!

Captain's Blog 01.07.09

Quick visit to say that the teaser has been released for Episode Four, "Castaways".

(Scuttles off to carry on slaving over a hot keyboard...)