Question for you all

[Unstoppable]

I was wandering what do you guys think about this idea. What if Deus Ex the game was turned into a movie using the cutscenes and in game action. Do you think people would be hooked by it, or is it too niched type? Hmm.

[Crispy]

It wouldn't be nearly as interesting to watch as to play.

 

On the other hand, taking the storyline and making a movie out of it, without sticking religiously to the pacing, point of view, and precise order of events in the game - now that could be done. But you'd need to approach it from a screenwriting/directing perspective, give JC more of an actual character, and cut viciously to make it work as a movie.

 

You'd also have to show the player things more directly - e.g. showing the effect of the Grey Death on the population would have to be made much more explicit. So using gameplay footage would be a bit... well, meh.

 

You'd also have to pick an ending. I'd probably go for the Illuminati ending - less unresolved than the explosion ending, and less weird than the Helios ending. While I loved those two endings in the game, the Illuminati ending is more cinematic in my opinion.

[demagogue]

Your biggest audience, DX fans, will already know the story. But they might be happy watching it again if it was packaged together well, for the same reason some people who've played games sometimes like to watch walkthroughs of other people playing their favorite levels, just to see things from another point of view. That's your audience, I'd think.

 

You could also add some story to it, dialogue for the in-game sequences, making it more in the line of original machinema, and if you have good voice acting and good dialogue, that could be quite fun to watch. Go to the machinema site and look around at some other projects that have been done and you'll get an idea of what works and what doesn't.

Edited May 20, 2007 by demagogue

[Unstoppable]

Guys, I managed to scrap an experimental cut for Act 1. I will be adding more effects and already started. (Like keyboard effects along with voices when JC does something like get caught)

 

http://four.fsphost.com/Unstopie/Experimental_Cut_Act_1.wmv

 

It's only 39 or so MB. Let me know what you think. Just testing stuff out. Will look at the machina webpage you told me. Thanks.

[Unstoppable]

The Playstation 2 CG is way better .

[demagogue]

I didn't give you a link: http://www.machinima.com/

[Unstoppable]

I didn't give you a link: http://www.machinima.com/

 

You're talking to JC Denton. Links are for the weak. So did you get a chance to see the clip I put together?

[Vadrosaul]

Its pretty good, though I could not understand most of what the narrator at the beginning said. I’d also suggest a version without subtitles. The dissolves are an excellent touch

 

 

Some of the actions make little sense. If this is a movie style breakdown of Deus Ex, why pick up the crowbar and smash crates? But I digress. Those are things that can be refined upon the next cut; this is a good early start.

 

Maybe by the time your final cut is ready the High-def pack will be completed.

[Unstoppable]

Its pretty good, though I could not understand most of what the narrator at the beginning said. I’d also suggest a version without subtitles. The dissolves are an excellent touch

Some of the actions make little sense. If this is a movie style breakdown of Deus Ex, why pick up the crowbar and smash crates? But I digress. Those are things that can be refined upon the next cut; this is a good early start.

 

Maybe by the time your final cut is ready the High-def pack will be completed.

 

I could do high def but that would reduce the objective of mass reproduction. Due to it being very large. I"ll have to experiment.

 

Really I was thinking of putting it on youtube or a website. If you're able to play it with Divx the screen is much smaller and looks less choppy more refined. Maybe taking up 1/4th of your screen.

 

I'm going to try and compress it and see how much I can squeeze it from 39mb. That way I can estimate the total length of the entire film. Thx for the tip about the intro I'm gonna have to do the voice over again.

Edited May 20, 2007 by Unstoppable

[Unstoppable]

For those interested but those that did not reply to the thread here's the final cut of Act 1.

 

http://four.fsphost.com/Unstopie/Unstopie/...Movie_Act_1.wmv

[demagogue]

I think you've got the pacing down really well ... it doesn't drag, it hits all the high points, but it still keeps a logical sequence so I'm not lost (although maybe that's me having played it so many times, but most people who watch this will probably have played it). Also, the dissolves were done pretty well. Remember, there are more than dissolves though. Watch a movie and pay attention to the types of cuts ... there are crash cuts, fades, dissloves, back-and-forth cuts, also you might consider playing with the images themselves -- zooms, pans, etc -- there are lots of editing tools you might play around with. So I might encourage you to be creative and play with some more tools.

 

It might be cool if, e.g., when you frob a newspaper or text that you throw up a choice quote as a subtitle, because the readables are such an especially nice touch to this game, and help fill out the story. This will probably become more important as you get to more interesting/important readables later in the game.

 

As you already mentioned, the voice work needs help ... it's hard to understand and spoils the polish, but you already know this and want to fix it. So that's good. (My one piece of advice on that is to just use a generally normal voice, although well rehearsed and fluid; but don't try to force it too much to be artificially low or sinister or cool or anything because then it sounds, well, artificial.) I can say, though, that I still think it's a good idea to have good-sounding narration ... It helps fill in some of the non-verbal, action parts as well as fill in some blanks in the story or what's going on, and also to just fill in what's going on in the player's head when he makes some decisions.

 

I noticed you left out some classic bits in Act 1 ... the drink machine complaint by Hermann (he wants his orange drink), the woman's bathroom bit. But I guess there's so many little side things that you need to be selective, and non-story stuff might drag down the pacing. I'd recommend to just try some different variations, though -- taking things in and out -- and see how it "feels", how it affects the pacing. For the most part, though, I thought you were cutting pretty well and had good judgment.

 

On that note, from what I hear about editing, it's a process, it's all about picking at it a little at a time, over and over, getting the timing and pacing right, and the more you pick at it the better and better it gets. I think you have a great start with Act 1 -- it could still benefit from some picking, but even if you didn't add any more to it it's good for a "final" cut (just fix that voice work). I look forward to how you pull off future scenes.

Edited May 21, 2007 by demagogue

[Unstoppable]

Hm I understand where you're coming from. I can't put everything in there because the game in itself is massive. I cut out a lot and made it as fast as possible. The reason being is I thought i'd multiply act 1 by at least 20. Which means I'd have 19 more acts to go. So if I made Act 1 any longer, well you get the idea.

 

I definately could of used more angles and what not. However I decided to tell the story as I saw it. Through JC Denton's eyes. As for the voices that's how they are meant to be. Artificial. I leave the interpretation up to the viewer though. For me the way I see it, when he talks during the mission, is more of him thinking and his conscious.

 

He's really a cyborg and his neurons are wired. What would his conscious be like I kinda asked myself. So that's the voice I found. Sort of robotic but yet his human voice as well. It dosen't sound like him but I did what I could. After all I am not the original voice actor for JC.

 

I might do the other acts, it's a lot of hours of work. I really need to see more interest though. I've posted it in serveral places so i'm just seeing what people think. I really value what you said and will use it to better the future Acts if they were to be produced.

 

Above all else, this was very fun to do.

Thank you.

 

p.s.

If anyone knows of a free converter to turn WMV to DIVX i'd really appreciate it. It could cut down the file size greatly.

Edited May 21, 2007 by Unstoppable

[demagogue]

Well, what would be really cool for the voice when you put it that way -- and I'm just thinking aloud here, appropriately enough, not saying this is the definitive best thing or anything -- but if you want it to sound a little "robotic", it would be cool to put your loud, articulate voice recording (normal voice or played up, either way) through a filter that put an electronic edge on it. That would make it sound better and more consistent than trying to get your voice to do it unaided, I think. And then you could play with the filter attributes to get a really cool sound. And, as a bonus, it might also help you get a better sound recording for the video generally, so you could kick out two issues with one stone.

 

I'm almost sure that there's freely available software that does that. Anyway, just an idea.

Edited May 21, 2007 by demagogue

[Unstoppable]

That's what I did. I was a few steps ahead of ya. I probably just need to play with the options a bit more.

[Vadrosaul]

If your finding it hard to cut the material down to a manageable amount of time, why bother going the route of a typical movie? There's enough complex and thoughtful material in Deus Ex to makeup a miniseries worth, not just your standard 2-3 hour movie. I don't see it being cut less than 4 hours without feeling a rushed pace or not missing significant parts; I'd go the episode route IMO.

[SneaksieDave]

I'd forgotten how cool Deus Ex was. I definitely believe a re-play is in order (I've only played through once!) Of course that means I couldn't keep watching these spoilers... doh.

 

About the voice, yeah - it wasn't clear if it was supposed to be a sinister narrator, or JC in his own head, or what, and I couldn't understand almost one word from it. Still a cool thing to watch though.

 

Edit: about the encoding, you could probably use mencoder, in the mplayer package. I used it recently to convert video, and I'm pretty sure there were divx options. http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html

[Unstoppable]

I'd forgotten how cool Deus Ex was. I definitely believe a re-play is in order (I've only played through once!) Of course that means I couldn't keep watching these spoilers... doh.

 

About the voice, yeah - it wasn't clear if it was supposed to be a sinister narrator, or JC in his own head, or what, and I couldn't understand almost one word from it. Still a cool thing to watch though.

 

Edit: about the encoding, you could probably use mencoder, in the mplayer package. I used it recently to convert video, and I'm pretty sure there were divx options. http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html

 

ROFL no one can understand it cuz of my accent. Dammit. Glad you thought it was cool. Thanks for the link.

Edited May 22, 2007 by Unstoppable