NEW VIDEO: STRANGER IN NEED

[Ross Scott]

 

 

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

 

Here's a new video that was meant to be simple, but I ended up spending entirely too much time on it. This was made for a film festival that Machinima.com contacted me about, saying that if I made a video for this, it would open up a portal to a new universe and humanity would transcend into a state of pure energy. The festival isn't over yet, so I'm not sure how accurate their claims are, but either way, it was an excuse to make a new video. Part of the rules for the festival were that the video could not be part of an existing series, like CP or FM, so this is something else.

 

I'm expecting this video to be hit or miss with people. If you like surreal or mysterious stuff, then this should be right up your alley. If you're expecting jokes or explosions every 10 seconds, then probably not. Personally I'm very happy with how this came out, it might be my own favorite of the videos I've done so far. The atmosphere is pretty much just how I wanted it and the voice acting and sound are great. I recommend watching it full screen in a dark room and not turning it off once the credits start.

 

This is the first video I've made in Source Filmmaker and will also be one of the last. I was originally going to attempt this using the Unreal 3 engine, but I wasn't able to get enough functionality from the ported models in time, so the video was made in Source instead. As a result, this video just BARELY got done before deadline. For every advantage SFM has, it also has a shortcoming compared to Source SDK and the whole experience just strengthens my resolve to stop animating any videos in the Source engine. If you look for them, I'm sure you'll see lots of flaws with the animation in this video. I'm fully aware of all the shortcomings, it was simply the best I was able to do by the final deadline. I may make some small improvements for the downloadable copy later, I haven't decided yet. In terms of animation, I think it needed a few days more of polishing, but the vast majority of people will only see the online copy anyway.

 

Anyway, I hope people enjoy the video, this is the LAST one I'm going to animate in any form of the Source engine (not counting FM). I'll still keep making videos, but Source is hell.

 

- - -

 

You can vote for this video in the festival, but as I understand it, you can only do so via twitter, and then there will be a judge panel to decide who has the best vote (I am not making this up). What happens if a video gets the most or "best" votes? I DON'T KNOW. My guess is

.

 

 

EDIT:

 

Looks like my 36 hour sleep deprivation paid the price on the credits and I made a typo with the name of the LEAD VOICE ACTOR. It should be Kamran Nikhad, not "Karman." It will get corrected on the downloadable copy.

[Alyxx Thorne]

That was awesome! Really creepy ending too.

[PapaFrita]

I closed the curtain to watch it...

you scare the shit out of me, Ross!

[HLPrincess]

I liked that creepy laugh...

[Twilight Sparkle]

That's one hell of an ending. Great video, and the music in the credits is quite catchy too.

 

 

Lol'd at the part with Father Grigori in the backseat

 

[GnI]

I followed your advice to watch in a dark room (it was pretty easy since it was 11:40 PM when I started watching it).

 

 

So I jumped up in my chair, when saw the guy sitting in the back seat. Also had *WTF?* reaction at the ending. Yes, scary movies do scare me. Since I don't watch them often. And I somewhat like occasional scare.

 

Edited December 3, 2012 by Guest (see edit history)

[The Scoutman]

Damn Father Grigori, gets me every time.

[AAA]

Well done all around. I definitely would have given up a lot sooner were I in his shoes.

[K0Z]

I don't know about you guys but some of us did transcend to pure energy form. . . honostly its not as interesting as you might think.

 

The video was great by the way, seemed like there was a lot of people in the credits and its nice to see a lot of people coming together to make stuff like this.

 

 

THERE IS A DEMON NAMED 'FINAL DEADLINE' ROSS, CAN YOU DEFEAT IT?

[Ross Scott]

The video was great by the way, seemed like there was a lot of people in the credits and its nice to see a lot of people coming together to make stuff like this.

Okay I can't hold back after reading a comment like this. A lot of people in the credits did about 5-20 minutes worth of work, and were so hard to get a hold of that if I had to do it again, I would have done all of their work myself. I was hoping to assign some of the easiest jobs to other people to help save time, but that proved fairly disastrous overall. Also the people in the credits are just the ones that DID something. The majority of the volunteers ended up not doing anything. Now some other people really did do a bunch of work though, so it's definitely a mix. One person did more work in one night than 15 people were able to do in over 3 weeks. In the future, I'm really going to have to reconsider how much help I ask for, on average about 80% of volunteers who offer to help, never do ANYTHING (or even reply after the first email) and of the remainder, about 75% of them will disappear randomly.

 

To volunteers: If I asked you for something simple, and you did it and replied faster than a week, congratulations, you're not who I'm referring to. Also if you had the courtesy to tell me you were too busy to help, I also appreciated that. All other volunteers: what the hell guys

 

 

So I jumped up in my chair

you scare the shit out of me, Ross!

I actually wasn't even trying to scare anybody with this one, although I did want a tense vibe

[Psychotic Ninja]

To volunteers: If I asked you for something simple, and you did it and replied faster than a week, congratulations, you're not who I'm referring to. Also if you had the courtesy to tell me you were too busy to help, I also appreciated that. All other volunteers: what the hell guys

 

The way I see it, it goes down like this:

 

You: "I need volunteers for a mystery video

 

Random people on the internet: *Oh hey, it's a mystery, so if I asked for help, I'll get a sneak peek of this mysterious video, maybe even see the whole thing before anyone else* "Hey Ross pick me! I want to help!"

 

You: *Tells them what to do or whatever it is you do*

 

Random people on the internet: *This isn't what I expected at all*

 

So then they walk away not realizing that they're further delaying great work, and making your job harder. That or they're like me and they easily get destrac- *starts up Skyrim*

[Collective Foal]

Critic mode, activate:

 

Okay, so I'm not sure how big this guy's balls are, but if I saw a mob of people walking at me with instruments of death, I would slam on it and leave that town forever. So I felt that was a little unrealistic. Otherwise, the entire video was quite unsettling in nature and made me rather anxious, though there was never any real action to show the reasons as to how he was brainwashed, but I imagine you did that to add to the mystery, something I personally hate, but I know I hate it for right reason. It drives me nuts.

 

Overall, great job Ross. I enjoyed watching this, especially your "TRY THE SOUTH ROAD" cameo, which made me laugh a little.

[GnI]

Critic mode, activate:

 

Okay, so I'm not sure how big this guy's balls are, but if I saw a mob of people walking at me with instruments of death, I would slam on it and leave that town forever. So I felt that was a little unrealistic. Otherwise, the entire video was quite unsettling in nature and made me rather anxious, though there was never any real action to show the reasons as to how he was brainwashed, but I imagine you did that to add to the mystery, something I personally hate, but I know I hate it for right reason. It drives me nuts.

 

Overall, great job Ross. I enjoyed watching this, especially your "TRY THE SOUTH ROAD" cameo, which made me laugh a little.

 

That is precisely what makes "brainfuck" type movies/videos so great! There are lots of space for interpretation/imagination!

[Wheatley]

Great video, Ross, I'm just sorry the Source Engine ate up so much of your time.

It was pretty unsettling, I didn't find it frightening at all, but it has a certain kind of creepy air that I enjoy quite a lot.

 

Okay, so I'm not sure how big this guy's balls are, but if I saw a mob of people walking at me with instruments of death, I would slam on it and leave that town forever. So I felt that was a little unrealistic.

 

Hitting that many people would probably total the car and could have killed the guy, lol. That and he might not have wanted to go to prison.

[GnI]

To volunteers: If I asked you for something simple, and you did it and replied faster than a week, congratulations, you're not who I'm referring to. Also if you had the courtesy to tell me you were too busy to help, I also appreciated that. All other volunteers: what the hell guys

 

The way I see it, it goes down like this:

 

You: "I need volunteers for a mystery video

 

Random people on the internet: *Oh hey, it's a mystery, so if I asked for help, I'll get a sneak peek of this mysterious video, maybe even see the whole thing before anyone else* "Hey Ross pick me! I want to help!"

 

You: *Tells them what to do or whatever it is you do*

 

Random people on the internet: *This isn't what I expected at all*

 

So then they walk away not realizing that they're further delaying great work, and making your job harder. That or they're like me and they easily get destrac- *starts up Skyrim*

 

Well, probably. But even I have enough common sense to understand if I volunteer for something that I can't do, he will be counting on me doing my job, and if I didn't do it - it will slow him down, because he would need to find a replacement.

 

I love to help people out, especially would love to do so on such awesome videos. But since I don't have any skills in video-making, and didn't see any announcement for looking for anything matching my current skill set, I have enough common sense not to volunteer, because I don't want to be more of a burden.

 

So I can't comprehend what those guys (or to be more gender-neutral - people) were actually thinking..

 

P.S. I often feel a bit philosophical (or talkative) late at night (Chem.. 4AM ), so sorry if this was a bit off-topic.

[Ross Scott]

Psychotic Ninja: Yeah, I can only guess. Either that or volunteering for one of my videos is their way of writing a suicide note.

 

Okay, so I'm not sure how big this guy's balls are, but if I saw a mob of people walking at me with instruments of death, I would slam on it and leave that town forever. So I felt that was a little unrealistic.

Man that would damage your car:

 

R1a3A6q05f8

[K0Z]

Okay I can't hold back after reading a comment like this. A lot of people in the credits did about 5-20 minutes worth of work, and were so hard to get a hold of that if I had to do it again, I would have done all of their work myself. I was hoping to assign some of the easiest jobs to other people to help save time, but that proved fairly disastrous overall. Also the people in the credits are just the ones that DID something. The majority of the volunteers ended up not doing anything. Now some other people really did do a bunch of work though, so it's definitely a mix. One person did more work in one night than 15 people were able to do in over 3 weeks. In the future, I'm really going to have to reconsider how much help I ask for, on average about 80% of volunteers who offer to help, never do ANYTHING (or even reply after the first email) and of the remainder, about 75% of them will disappear randomly.

 

I recommend creating a delicious pie graph displaying the precentages of work done by volunteers, amount of volunteers who did little or nothing, precentage of volunteers that dissapeared randomly due to ritual sacrifices. Delicious Pie, graph.

[Psychotic Ninja]

Psychotic Ninja: Yeah, I can only guess. Either that or volunteering for one of my videos is their way of writing a suicide note.

 

 

 

 

An internet famous person responded to me .

[Humin]

My impression at the end:

 

ONE OF US; ONE OF US.

 

[av3nger]

The video was great by the way, seemed like there was a lot of people in the credits and its nice to see a lot of people coming together to make stuff like this.

Okay I can't hold back after reading a comment like this. A lot of people in the credits did about 5-20 minutes worth of work, and were so hard to get a hold of that if I had to do it again, I would have done all of their work myself. I was hoping to assign some of the easiest jobs to other people to help save time, but that proved fairly disastrous overall. Also the people in the credits are just the ones that DID something. The majority of the volunteers ended up not doing anything. Now some other people really did do a bunch of work though, so it's definitely a mix. One person did more work in one night than 15 people were able to do in over 3 weeks. In the future, I'm really going to have to reconsider how much help I ask for, on average about 80% of volunteers who offer to help, never do ANYTHING (or even reply after the first email) and of the remainder, about 75% of them will disappear randomly.

 

To volunteers: If I asked you for something simple, and you did it and replied faster than a week, congratulations, you're not who I'm referring to. Also if you had the courtesy to tell me you were too busy to help, I also appreciated that. All other volunteers: what the hell guys

 

 

So I jumped up in my chair

you scare the shit out of me, Ross!

I actually wasn't even trying to scare anybody with this one, although I did want a tense vibe

 

I'm guessing the guy who did all the work in one night was Sean who animated the car?