Ben X

I'm getting flashbacks to the Half-Life 3 thread: I think HL-related discussion does something funny to you, Mington. Maybe it soft-reboots you?

We already briefly discussed good trailers for (not universally thought of as) bad movies in the Ep 8 thread, where I mentioned Watchmen and Sin City. I often wish there were some way studios could monetise making amazing trailers for non-existent adaptations of comic books etc, because the trailers are often better and really all you need - you get to see what all your favourite bits of the property would look like in live-action and what the general vibe might be, but you don't have to watch two hours of bad decisions. On a tangent, as someone who hasn't played any of the games, I liked the Silent Hill movie! It really felt like being trapped in someone's disturbed mind (I'm sure the games did a lot of the prep work there). The only stuff I didn't like was the pointless Sean Bean subplot, which it turns out was forced into the movie by studio execs who didn't want a film with no male roles in it.

I love it, but it's pretty tricky! The sweat beads coming off DG are a nice touch!

"Firewatch team’s next game ‘on hold’ as it works on other Valve projects" - article at Polygon including statement from Jake: https://www.polygon.com/2019/12/3/20994257/valve-in-the-valley-of-gods-campo-santo-half-life-alyx

I hope Valve value Valley VR releases relatively rapidly.

There is a Discord but Slack is the active one. 051 is gonna send you an invite

Hey folks, @zerofiftyone, @Thrik and I are meeting in Nottingham for drinks next week. If anyone's in the area, please come along!

Hooray, new ep! Apparently Derek edited the excellent Half Life Alyx trailer, which I've seen nothing but good feedback for!

If it's the case that they all came in, did good work on Alyx and then make Valley as a VR game, I'm happy with that result even though I'm probably not going to get to play any VR games for quite a while - once I can, will be great to have a new awesome HL game to play and to see what the Campo Santo team can do with a 'walking simulator' game using high levels of VR interactivity and Valve money. And if Valley turns out not to be VR that's fine too. As long as it still gets made (or at least we get a different CS game instead, I guess)!

I don't think it has been mentioned (if it has, I forgot it anyway). Nice find!

Haven't watched it yet, but here's a vid of a trailer editor talking about styles of trailer:

Also don't burn yourself out looking after/worrying about everyone else - you've got to look after yourself first. I know it can be hard to prioritise yourself over family and close friends when they're having a hard time, but it doesn't help anyone if you end up having a breakdown. If possible, might be helpful to see a mental health professional (a therapist or whatever) to help you work up some techniques to deal with the new stress factors in your life. You don't have to keep going forever, and if you don't like the first one you try you can keep trying different ones until you find a good fit.

Great ep! Was fun to get an interview as well. Also, I finally realised that the reason you have a bumper at the start of the show is to mimic YouTube trailers - very clever!

Gotcha. Well, not that I have any knowledge of the short film circuit, but my advice: 1) give yourself a strict deadline for making the new version (a week? You don't want to be tinkering with this forever, better to learn lessons and move onto the next one) (Also, make a version with a public domain music cue for later use - even if it's a bit sloppy, better to have something than nothing.) 2) send it to every festival that fits your criteria but won't accept films that have been online 3) put it online and promote it as much as possible 4) send it to all the other festivals that fit your criteria, and at this point I don't see any reason not to send it to every festival going as long as it doesn't cost you anything. Make the most of that music licence! Even if you're not there to see the screenings, something good may come of them. 5) Make another short film! Also, you mentioned that having a trailer might be helpful but you're too burned out on this film to make one - do you know (or could you find) any editors in training whom you could ask to make one for you? It would be good experience for them.