[BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

[imported_John-Paul]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

Praise from Caesar!

Thanks, Smiley_ie! Your projects have been a huge inspiration for me, especially the humour conveyed in each and the perfectionism that comes through so clearly, so it was wonderful to hear from you. I absolutely cannot wait to see "An American Baby In Iraq." I've been anticipating it ever since seeing the trailer and I just know it's going to blow everyone away.

Thanks again for your feedback, it really means to a lot to me.

[Keyelite]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

I just watched it, and it seems you have the basics nailed down..
smooth interesting camera angles. From the diving in the water to some of the water shots.. etc, were great. Unique story too..

Great use of a reverse shot for the helicopter part


Also, I agree totally to your statement of "The biggest advantage, of course, is you can load the bf2demo files and take your sweet time exploring possible angles, filming sample shots and experimenting with a wide variety of camera movements. Of course, you can do all the same things using BattleLauncher but it does take longer. I don't even want to think about how long it would have taken me to achieve the same shots by recording cam files and then rendering each and every time. Half the time I attempted an elaborate shot, I got it wrong and had to start over and that's where Fraps was particularly advantageous."
That is EXACTLY my defense for my movies, especially my upcomming one. You hit it right on.

Overall this movie was much more enjoyable than some of these movies..
Great job, looking forward to more

[imported_John-Paul]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch] "Khalid's Surprise"

Thank-you, Keyelite! Your movies were also a primary source of inspiration for me. In fact, it wasn't until I watched "Ambush at Mashtuur City" that I decided to get my act together, especially when it came to learning the basics of Adobe Premiere Pro. The editing and cinematic feel to your movies really opened my eyes to what was possible and I know your next film will open my eyes even further.

Of course, I've got a long way to go before being able to achieve a similar standard. I'd like to learn a bit of 3DS Max for future projects and I'm sure that'll consume a lot of time, too.

I figured you and I were using Fraps for very similar reasons. On a different thread, I expanded on my rationale, writing:

"I used Fraps primarily to expedite the process. My preferred method when filming is to shoot from a variety of different angles and to then evaluate the footage within its proper context. I like to see how it looks and 'feels' when edited together with other clips. So, for every shot that made it into the final film, there would have been at least half a dozen alternatives. Using Fraps enabled me to shoot things very quickly, evaluate the footage and then shoot some more. Had I used BattleLauncher, it would have been necessary to create new camera files and render a wide array of experimental shots and I just figured that'd take way too long.

"The other reason was due to my desire for smooth camera movement on the more challenging shots. I think we were kinda screwed by DICE on that front. They made it unnecessarily difficult to achieve fluid camera movement. Not impossible, just difficult. Unless you're doing a static shot or relying heavily on the chase cam, it can be a real pain to move the camera smoothly through a complex range of motions. One of my shots, which in the project was called 'Fly-By Palms' -- the shot that involved fast movement past the palm trees, sweeping along the beach and simultaneously moving closer to the action -- involved movements that were very hard to get right. Had I been forced to create cam files and render footage again and again until it came out exactly the way I wanted, it would have taken 3-4 times as long as it did. Ideally, DICE would have included some sort of camera positioning and path-creation tools, allowing film-makers to easily plot out the camera movements and paths within the 3D environment (the way animators do). I just don't understand why they expect us to move the camera manually.

"Anyway, thanks to the lack of tools for movement, it's often a choice of using very simple shots or pouring in hours and hours of hard work to get something right. For me, by-passing the need to create cam files and to pre-render every single shot really cut down the time it took to capture the footage I needed."

In other words, I think so long as you're using a computer that can handle the performance hit, Fraps can be a very good option; it certainly doesn't deserve to be maligned. Too often, it's used by people whose computers struggle during the recording process, so in some circles, it has a bad reputation.

Thanks again for your comments. Always nice to hear from a fellow film-maker and Equilibrium fan. :)

[imported_Ph1L]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

Very nice.. I was thinking "wh00t, has he really made a model of a shark into BF2?" .. but then it was a ah-1z! LOL :)

Well done... Want to see more.. longer, and more action. Nice music & grapich. 11/10 .

[Keyelite]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

Yeah, the 'Fly-by palms', which i assume is the shot where the MEC swimmer dies.. is very nice

Do you have any filmmaking backround on you?

[Canuck]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

Wow, very good movie, definite 10/10, another keeper added to my movie library.

|D|-Jaws needs to see this

[|D|-Jaws]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

Hi, everyone!

This is a BF2 movie I completed last weekend and although it's my first, it's one that I hope you'll enjoy. If you do have both the time and inclination to check it out, I'd really like to hear your impressions.

(Oh, but please don't give anything away within this thread. I'm very keen for people to see it without knowing in advance what happens. Thanks!)

File Size: 72MB

http://rapidshare.de/files/12067758/Khalid_s_Surprise.zip.html

http://files.filefront.com/Khalids_S.../fileinfo.html

This may be a double post and if so, forgive me. But I just wanted to say again, outstanding job.

[RS-Rom]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

THAT WAS AWSOME! I kept wondering what's coming! GREAT suspense!
Great graphics.

I'm wondering if you can come up with other ideas like this. It was very different.
9/10

PS: When you shot the guy in the water, you should have tried the gatling gun, and see if bullets went in the water. The you could show bullets going by him in the water.

[Keyelite]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

i dont think those bullets do that, anyways bullets disintegrate like 3 feet in the water, they never go all the way down to the bottom.. (i believe)

[imported_John-Paul]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

Thank-you! For me, what's awesome is receiving feedback and all these wonderful comments, especially from people whose BF2 movies have provided me with so much entertainment and motivation.

|D|-Jaws, I actually felt a bit guilty hearing from you because I thought "Hostile Acts" was really one of those landmark BF2 movies and I still owe you some proper feedback on the thread. I've been meaning to watch it again, so I'll do that today and get back to you.

Keyelite, you wanted to know if I had any film-making background ...

Aside from playing around with a video camera as a kid (and editing with a VCR), I don't have any experience in creating movies. This was my first attempt at using NLE software and doing something that involved direction, shot composition, sound mixing, etc. There was a lot to learn, yet I've emerged from this experience convinced that I have a long, long way to go.

My background is chiefly in screenwriting. Even on that front, I don't have a lot of experience. At 20, I had a project optioned by 20th Century Fox but unfortunately it never got a greenlight. I've spent a lot of time teaching myself screenwriting in the years since that contract expired, however I'm yet to attempt another screenplay.

To be honest, I really want to get some experience in making short films before trying once again to write anything intended for theatrical release. Once I started seeing all these great BF2 movies, machinima struck me as a fun way to learn the basics.

[Buck4]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

That was great nicely well done. I was expecting a submarine from bf42 to appear :: ) i,ve made the rest of my clan watch this to. Look forward to your next masterpiece.

[Smiley_ie]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

My background is chiefly in screenwriting. Even on that front, I don't have a lot of experience. At 20, I had a project optioned by 20th Century Fox but unfortunately it never got a greenlight. I've spent a lot of time teaching myself screenwriting in the years since that contract expired, however I'm yet to attempt another screenplay.

Hey JP . I Hope you copyrighted it to yourself ..... At the moment im doing a short film, Not bf2 Film. Iv'e done tv adds and still doing adds. But anything you send of make sure " You made it IT yours " Its a fooked up business when push come to shuve.

[imported_NeoRicen]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

FINALLY finished downloading and it was awesome, absolutely loved it. But I have a few questions:
Did you use motion blur in Premiere? Because it looks like you did and it really made the movie look fantastic.

How on earth did you make the camera so smooth, many of the shots you used would have required the use of a mouse but doing movements that smooth with a mouse is next to impossible, did you use a joystick or something like that?

Did you use Fraps or Battlelauncher? Because you must have one hell of a computer to get such a smooth framerate.

It's also nice to see I'm not the only Aussie 'in the business' so to speak.

It's also nice to see people referring to it by the name Machinima, I avoid using the term here so I don't have to explain what it means in case people don't know (which wouldn't be suprising).

Good work, keep it up and we'll be seeing many great things from you in the future (I hope).

[imported_John-Paul]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch] "Khalid's Surprise"

Sorry, NeoRicen, for taking so long to reply. I've been doing a lot of reading lately and scarcely spent a moment in the forums.

I'm really glad you enjoyed the movie to such an extent, not least because it was all done with Fraps and everyone here knows you're not exactly a fan!

Regarding your questions:

No, I didn't use any kind of motion blur. I wanted to learn about it for this project but realised it wasn't going to be necessary. In order to get the camera movements I wanted, I had to shoot everything using a wide array of speed settings during playback, ranging from 5% to 100%. What I found was that re-adjusting the speeds of the clips in Premiere gave the footage a very natural-looking motion blur, although I can't take credit for the end results because it wasn't intentional and I've not yet developed a proper 'method' for achieving that blur.

Also, there was a lot of variety amongst the speed settings used in post-production. For some of the clips shot at 25% the normal speed, I sped up the resultant footage by 400%, for other clips I went as low as 150% ... it just depended on the nature of the footage and what looked right/wrong after speeding things up. I should probably learn about motion blur so that the results are deliberate ... rather than incidental to the process.

As for the smoothness of the camera shots ... well, that was a bit of an ordeal. I used a joystick for some, a mouse for others, and sometimes a combination of the two. The other thing I did was create profiles depending upon the type of movement involved. Some profiles allowed me to use the keyboard for certain movements but also allowed analog control via joystick for different directions; it all depended on the nature of the shot and, to be honest, it was still very frustrating. For a couple of the shots, I spent more than four hours trying to get fluid camera movement for just a few seconds of footage. Not too many people are willing to go to those lengths but for me, it's a must. Jerky camera movement can be very distracting.

Of course, therein lies the other reason for using Fraps instead of Battlelauncher. I didn't want to create dozens of useless cam files every time I screwed up the camera movement.

Oh, and yes ... my computer does have some power. I built it specifically for film-making projects and I've got to say, it was well-worth the horrendous credit card debts. (The specs are mentioned earlier in this thread.)

I can definitely relate to the problems associated with use of the word 'machinima'! I've had to define it so many times I've lost count. Now I just say to friends and family members: "I'm doing half-assed animation" or "it's 'virtual' film-making."

Who on Earth came up with the word "machinima" anyway? That's what I'd like to know ...

[Sir. XaliaS]

Re: [BF2 MOVIE/Parody/Sketch ] "Khalid's Surprise"

LOL, nobody understands it, but It's one of those words that I used to describe one of my hobbies on my CV, its good if they don't know what machinima is, it just makes it look really cool.

Google says: Machinima (a portmanteau word for machine cinema and/or "machine" "animation") is both a collection of associated production techniques and a film genre (film created by such production techniques).