The Seven Hour War (HL2/GMOD)

HenryTPrice · August 2008

Hi, a movie deicated to the 7 Hour war, you can find the link reguarding the time line:
http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

And the movie:
Part 1 :
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nC3NEb6l5u0
Part 2:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dLCVQ4d7spo&feature=related

UncleSam · August 2008

A few things you should probably look at:
You have a few spelling errors in the text overlays, I'd be sure to run all of that through spell check and then review it line by line.

There really didn't seem to be much of a story or narrative to the videos - just lots of shooting and people dying. The camera wasn't even focused on the action most of the time in the first sequence, mainly on the ground in between them. Maybe if you followed one soldier or unit around as the events of the Six Day War unfolded around them, you'd have a story to tell, and something more compelling. Right now it just looks like a few minutes of messing around in Gmod with some titles added in.

The other thing that stood out as really odd was the way the citizens would just stand there as they were slaughtered. It looks kind of silly, and I don't think you were going for comedic effect. You could probably look into making scripted paths in the future, to get the citizens to run away, or at least a scripted sequence to have them cower. That might be outside the scope of just Gmod, but if you used Hammer, the level editor for HL2/Source games, you could probably set that up pretty easily.

The slow motion is really, really overdone. If you have to use slow motion, you should reserve it for a few really, really special occasions. It just makes it painful to watch. Really painful. That combined with the really poor lighting in some scenes. I just can't see what's going on in a few, and the light rarely frames up the action.

bombardier · August 2008

So are these your videos?

CheerfulBear · August 2008

Test champer!!!

Also, tell the person that is recording to stop floating the camera around in nonsensical ellipses. It's so incredibly boring to watch. Actually the entire thing was incredibly boring to watch.

.Tripwire. · August 2008

There was nothing interesting in the visual compositions, so as CareBear mentioned it was too boring to sit through. The camera choreography had far too much motion, try some static positions next time. You can convey a lot of devastation without moving the camera at all. And never loop a maneuver shooting unchanging subjects as you did at the onset of the first video, it was a little silly!

A good effort for an introductory project, but now you should try studying the techniques of editing and cinematography if you want to advance this sort of work. Justify your shots and trim your presentation to as short as necessary to tell the story! And tell a story!

HenryTPrice · August 2008

Thanks all for the constructive critism, I will try and perform more interesting shots, hehe with story line and what not.

desperaterobots · August 2008

As a sort of first attempt at this kind of thing, this is kind of cool. So as its been suggested, try focusing on telling a very particular story with the tools you have using some conventional techniques. Some of the camera moves in the videos would be pretty great in isolation but you can't overdo sweeping camera moves or they really lose their impact. Check out some David Fincher films for moments where nifty camera movements really work for more than just visual flair.

Agoodz · September 2008

Donnie Darko music?

Really?

Penny Arcade

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