[Video] Machinima: Hitman: testimonial

[Mouse droidz 21]

After another one week of development I have made another machinima, may as well make a Channel topic soon because this is how I'm going to be making films

you can watch the whopping 26 minute machinima here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I9WrpbdM8c

after receiving a lot of good feedback I made another machinima this time changing everything up. I made a fan made film based on Hitman: contracts if you've played it and are familiar with the plot then you will understand some parts of this machinima.

summary of the machinima:

Testimonial is taking place during the events of hitman contracts when agent 47 is hallucinating. Eventually his bullet wound gets worse and his mind changes and he now thinks he is in a parallel universe. In this universe 47 kills targets that his mind is commanding him to do instead of the agency, and what he doesn't know is that the people he is killing may not even exist.

in hitman contracts style the film has no sunlight at all, it is either dark or raining

all music used is from Jesper Kyd's hitman blood money and contracts soundtrack

the build I am using this time is Slyvannor's utopia city

so if your going to watch this then give some feedback! and also just a quick note the start of the film isn't like the rest of it, the start doesn't have a cinematic camera but that's only for 1 minute. You can also watch this video in HD

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[mod-man]

i believe a blockland machinima this long shouldnt use text to speech voices. its ok for humorous videos, but i cant understand these characters at all at some points. sometimes the sound effects boom over the voices too making it impossible to hear. thats just the first thing i noticed from skimming through it though. im watching from the start now!!

EDIT: i also think you forgot to un-blur the title

[Mouse droidz 21]

i believe a blockland machinima this long shouldnt use text to speech voices.

well as a beginner its hard to find anyone that would like to voice act. I'm not known at all. And I make long videos because I guess that's my style, I really want to be a director when I grow up or a author I just love telling a story

EDIT: i also think you forgot to un-blur the title

Ah! that sucks, in vegas it wasn't that blurry and I just noticed that its really blurry on youtube. Sorry about that

[Kobewarrior]

a lot of the film looks like it could be made shorter due to various unnecessary scenes - specifically the ones that follow the characters as they run. there's instances where we see a guy run from one side of the street to another too often and for too long so i think that could be handled a little better.
there's also something about the camera that feels really off and that's probably because it feels like we're watching from the eyes of someone in the distance rather than having it be a camera focused on the character. the last one is my own quirk though so i don't know if anyone feels the same with that.

sometimes the sound effects boom over the voices too making it impossible to hear.

overall not bad progress :)

[Blockteen]

Hey it's me again. I'm glad to see HD, so there's a pro out of the whole video.

Now the Cons, yes the logo was blurred out, that's kinda ok since it's your first time making videos and near 30 minute films (remind me to pm Badspot about a real world Blockland Film Festival). Since I kinda skimmed through it since I don't wanna sit through the 26 minutes (also thx for the heads up in op), the text-to-speech voices were kinda hard to hear, since I use Sony Vegas you can utilize multiple audio tracks and gain the volume just so it's easier to hear, or listen to how each audio file sounds, if one sounds crappy, maybe take a good/semi-good microphone like a headset mic, and do those yourself, or use an easier to hear voice.

And maybe to give you some ideas/tips whatever, watch my short film I made for a school project with one of my friends who was in my class before I graduated, oh don't worry, we still keep in touch.
https://youtu.be/sSrh6It3gV4
AND, one final thing, I might have gone deep into "Describe Land" so I apologize for any bleeding eyes.

[Mouse droidz 21]

a lot of the film looks like it could be made shorter due to various unnecessary scenes - specifically the ones that follow the characters as they run. there's instances where we see a guy run from one side of the street to another too often and for too long so i think that could be handled a little better.
there's also something about the camera that feels really off and that's probably because it feels like we're watching from the eyes of someone in the distance rather than having it be a camera focused on the character. the last one is my own quirk though so i don't know if anyone feels the same with that.

For my next video I'll make sure I use the path cam mod so the camera is better than it was in my previous videos.
I'll also make sure that the next video is a bit more shorter

Hey it's me again. I'm glad to see HD, so there's a pro out of the whole video.

Now the Cons, yes the logo was blurred out, that's kinda ok since it's your first time making videos and near 30 minute films (remind me to pm Badspot about a real world Blockland Film Festival). Since I kinda skimmed through it since I don't wanna sit through the 26 minutes (also thx for the heads up in op), the text-to-speech voices were kinda hard to hear, since I use Sony Vegas you can utilize multiple audio tracks and gain the volume just so it's easier to hear, or listen to how each audio file sounds, if one sounds crappy, maybe take a good/semi-good microphone like a headset mic, and do those yourself, or use an easier to hear voice.

I'll try and see if I can use actual voices next time instead of text to speech, but if I use text to speech next time I'm going to use not just speakonia but others from the internet so its better. I'll also make the voices louder and nice short film btw

thanks for the good feedback guys!

I'm gonna make a channel topic soon instead of posting every video every week. That way its more organized :)

[Swholli]

Things I've learned from almost a decade of making dumb movies in blockland:

• Lock your camera down when possible, moving the mouse to look around or shake cameras tend to look bad in blockland. If a shot is moving at all, like a pan or a zoom, always use keybound inputs, never ever use a mouse, and keep it clean and smooth, too much movement makes the shot look terrible.

• If two characters are having a conversation, cut back and forth between closeups of them as to give the audience a reference on who's talking. Blockland's lack of lips tends to make this difficult. Using the talk animation alone is tricky if everyone is in the same shot. Don't be afraid to cut, and always add variety to the shot if the conversation gets too long.

• Cut out anything needless. In Blockland, some actions can take some time to preform correctly as it's nowhere near as easy as it would be in real life. If you have a shot that can be cut up without anyone noticing, always do so, long pauses between actions can kill your pacing.

• If you can help it, always have your audio track done first before you shoot anything. Blockland is a very limited engine for filmmaking and as such it should be treated like animation. Have the voices (even text to speech ones) laid out in good beats and pacing then shoot clips to fill in the visuals.

• If you're doing anything that's a serious tone (Blockland is usually not the best for anything besides comedies, though it isn't impossible), invest in getting as many different expression faces you can find and cycle through those based on the emotion you want conveyed. Human empathy is done almost entirely through facial movement (body language is important too, but in blockland this is literally impossible so stick to faces), and the more you can change your character's face for effect, the better.

• Finally, and this is gonna sound dumb but it's actually important, make sure you have fun when you're doing a project, especially one in blockland. Your creative energy shows through a project when you're into it and it'll always make the work feel worth it, and the audience will enjoy it more as well.

Your stuff has potential, and I appreciate the fact that you're trying to incorporate a story into your videos.

[Mouse droidz 21]

-snip-

Thanks a lot man, Good luck on your upcoming video. And just one thing I'm trying to find the most useful decals possible like casual clothes and all sorts of other useful decals but I just can't find any, do you know any faces and decals that are worth downloading? thanks for the feedback I'll be using this for my next video

[McZealot]

When your characters walked, they would run in short bursts, rather than a continuous slow pace. Hold C and continually walk, don't do slow stutter runs.

Also, get the physics camera mod. Your moving shots will look 10000x smoother.

[Arekan]

26 minutes is a hefty amount of time and I can tell you off the bat that an intro like that isn't going to be inviting people to watch any longer than a minute, because it starts a bad impression.
Rather you should do that thing TV shows do and give some sort of scene that can captivate curiosity and THEN do an intro.
Talking about your channel logo thingy mabobber btw.