Twilight Zone Movie - Could You Survive?

We have just completed a movie project for the owner of the Twilight Zone Combat Roleplay sim.

It took us just over 2 weeks to complete, and involved a lot of talented people. This involvement extended to include the owner and some of the members. Given the situation of filming in the midst of rolling out new server code, rollbacks, restarts, everyone involved did an awesome job, giving me the opportunity to grab some useful footage. I thank each and everyone of them. I also like to extend thanks to those that normally frequent the sim, that left peacefully while we filmed, to keep lag to a minimum.

http://www.wba-advertising.com/twilightzone/twilightzone.html

If you have a good audio system, you will enjoy the 5 layers of sound effects to the full.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Twilight%20Zone/96/128/344/

I have been tinkering again, adding and editing parts of the movie. Now the final cut is loaded and streaming from the link above http://www.wba-advertising.com/twilightzone/twilightzone.html

I believe, this is the Final Cut version.

Strange...I posted a reply yesterday. I probably went to preview and didn't hit Submit. =)

Great film, AWM. The chroma lightning is great...and the moody sound track
fits the piece perfectly.

Admire your work with actors...that's something I've yet to do.

-Infrared

Great film. Really enjoyed. Thanks for posting link.

Really excellent AWM. I like how you include the editing as part of the mood/story. I also really like how you are expanding the use of lighting and sound. I like that you actually have ambient sound behind the sound effects.

I like the 3/4 slanted floor shots a lot...hard to do well and you pulled it off. I like the composition of a lot of the shots, especially when the group arrives. The way you place things and the angles adds some nice tension.

You just keep getting better and better. And you are adding quite a vocabulary of techniques and experience to your toolbox...very cool.

One thing I am looking forward to in your future work is some subtle anims to add texture. Reaching out, lifting a hand, a turn...also I find when I play your stuff, the walks are often too fast...would like to see you add some slower walks..more deliberate movements.

I think of you as the rock of SL machinima, always learning, always trying new things..and always generously sharing.

Thank all for your comments.

I am exploring techniques to slow down the walking in SL, both inside the platform and outside. At the moment, I haven't perfected it. We have invested a considerable amount of funds and resources to this end. One of our systems is almost ready to take over this element. However, we eagerly await the full arrival of Mono, then we can deploy one of the most powerful avatar control systems, ever to be seen in SL.

Our animators create some cool animations given the limitations of the movements available. I have considered creating some shots in iClone and chroma keying them into the movie. My thoughts are, to use as many strengths of the platform as possible, forgiving the weaknesses. Other platforms are easier to create machinima, but we don't want easy.

The Twilight Zone movie consisted of over 50 sound bytes and short atmospheric tracks, done over 5 layers for volume and spacial balance. Some of the voice elements were created by our group members. We are very fortunate to have such a collection of talented people working in our groups. Without which, would make the whole process very much harder. I aplaud them all.

The lightening effects are by using the Glow FX effect in Sony Vegas, it is available in all versions. The trick I found was to set Glow to 0, and just use the Intensity and Supression sliders. If you combine that with the selective tool, it will only effect the light layers you choose, so not swamping the whole scene. Using keyframes along the time line, you can combine this with numerous other effects at the same time. On one scene, I use the Glow FX 3 times, each selecting a difference light mask to enhance the 3d layering.

[EDIT] lol.. I've been tinkering again, adding a few small edits, eachtime I revisit the raw data, I see more. I think it's time to put this one away and work on more techniques for the sequel...

To elaborate further on the lighting effects...

I used the Environment editor, atmospheric tab, to increase the horizon haze, also giving it, its own layers of colour, saving it as a template so I could recall it each time we shot.

This did 2 things for me...
1) Effectively reduced the overall content in each scene at great distances, so I could use maximum depth of veiwable range, but still have high frame rates.
2) Created layers of background, that I could use the Glow FX on, in a paralexing effect. Lightening could be applied to layers at several distances, by simply selecting the correct haze colour layer. Apply the effect to one or more layers of haze colour, could bring the lightening closer to the front of the scene.

The silhoetting of the distant buildings using this technique, still maintained a recognisable form, pulling the foregrounds into a sharper layer, therefore creating greater depth of feild.

I have been wanting to do a 'horror' style movie for a long time. I was a great opportunity for our group and myself, to do this project. It won't be our last .

Wow, the client tells me there have been a 50% increase, in people wanting to participate in his role play sim, since the launch of the movie.