The Great Tree

Cycreim · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:07 pm Post subject:

It's okay Jean, we ended up having quite a crowd by the end. It's no surprise there were crashes. This is going to look amazing though.
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Durin Mephit · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject:

I appreciate the turn out. In some cases, such as today, all I really need is for someone to be standing there, part of a crowd. Because these events attracted crowds. Any time there was a DRC member in Ae'gura, a crowd formed. If there were multiple DRC members, it quickly became a lagfest. And because we are reproducing these events, we will experience some of the same issues. Smile

Friday, September 22, I have planned for more filming for this same scene, only privately on the Great Tree shard. In that case we will not have a large crowd, and rather than playing yourselves, I'll need people with Kagi keys and costumes from Ashtar to represent DRC members. Others will need to dress up as the people who attended _today's_ session, as faithfully as possible, and stand in the same places those people stood today. In this way, we will recreate the scene one more time, with the DRC members, and fit them into the footage from this morning.

And hopefully by then we will also know where this scene fits into our episodes. And if not, well, once you see the combined effect from a test render, I know you will want to find a place for it anyway. Twisted Evil

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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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Moiety Jean · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject:

I was hoping to volunteer as Marie Sutherland, but amazingly, I crashed out of Uru very shortly into designing a new avatar on Great Tree Shard. Didn't even get into the world. Something is seriously wrong with the way my computer is handling Until Uru and I have no idea what to do about it. Sad

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~Moiety Jean

KI#44727
"There is a certain beautiful danger when a group of geeks get together to entertain themselves." ~Orin Drake

Professor Askew · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:05 pm Post subject:

I've heard of people running into these kinds of problems before and they all went away with a clean re-install of UU. I haven't had to do it so I don't know first hand.
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Professor Daniel Askew - Securing our reality from the machinations of the Station Masters.

Moiety Jean · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:39 pm Post subject:

I might have to look into doing that. I'm nervous about losing my access somehow, though, because I have no idea what my Kagi Key info was, or if they sent it in an email, or to where, or even if I'd have to resend the Key at all. It was a long time ago that I set this up.

Actually, I thought I had my own account, but the only place I've been able to log in is under Brian's account with my own avatar. So confused.

(::hates computers::)
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~Moiety Jean

KI#44727
"There is a certain beautiful danger when a group of geeks get together to entertain themselves." ~Orin Drake

Professor Askew · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:18 pm Post subject:

Then I wouldn't do it without expert advice. I know I've had to do it in the past...not for maintenance, just because I was switching to a new computer. I, too, was afraid I'd need my kagi key and have to dig up ancient e-mails. But, I reinstalled and logged in like it was just another day. As long as I knew my Username and password I was good to go.
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Professor Daniel Askew - Securing our reality from the machinations of the Station Masters.

Moiety Jean · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:21 pm Post subject:

Ok. I do know at least bri's username and password, so I can access that account. I need to figure out if I ever did get my own Kagi Key. I thought I did, but I just don't remember anymore. ::bonks head on desk::

Edit: I guess I don't have my own Kagi Key. There was never any reason to get one because Brian had one, and we only had one computer that is capable of playing UU. It's fine, it just means we can still only offer one player at a time for filming.
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~Moiety Jean

KI#44727
"There is a certain beautiful danger when a group of geeks get together to entertain themselves." ~Orin Drake

janaba1 · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:11 pm Post subject:

i am lucky to have a shared kagi key,
so if you need me for anything on the shard
just let me know.

jana Razz

Durin Mephit · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject: Artists Challenge

Your mission:

Come up with a "watermark" image that would look good for use in Episode 2. This will go in the corner of interview footage.

Your source material: The Echo Logo (archival image courtesy of archive.org)

Fight!
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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Daedalus · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject: Re: Artists Challenge

Durin Mephit · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:08 pm Post subject:

I knew you'd say that. I had to dig for his current e-mail address. But I found it. Muahahaha.

Edit Update - Dus sent me the 13.3 megabyte PSD file...
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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Durin Mephit · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:53 am Post subject:

OK. I just finished looking over Episode 3's script, and I'm back to looking at Episode 2 with a critical eye. (Not an evil eye, just a critical one.)

After my experience with Episode 1, I think I need to realign our expectations... both of my own abilities and in what we can accomplish as a group.

I love Episode 2 the way it is now. It is very artsy, very crafty, and if I didn't have to do eight more episodes after it then I would be willing to spend the time and effort to cast Episode 2 the way you've envisioned it. But it's too fancy for my abilities and time. The number of filming schedules to do Episode 2 the way it is currently written would guarantee that this episode is not done for a full month from now (or later), and I would rather put something out in two weeks and move on to Episode 3.

Because this script jumps around from scene to scene to scene, it is going to be a pretty big headache filming all of the pieces. It is a lot more work than for Episode 1, and I am not prepared to take on that much effort.

So, I am going to set some ground rules going forward for scripts, and this is going to apply to Episode 2 as well. Episode 2 is going to need to be rewritten. I'm sorry that I'm dropping this bomb so late, but Episode 1 really consumed more of my time than I wanted.

Ground rules:

1) Only use a few "sets" per Episode. Each set or scene requires its own independently scheduled filming session. Trying to film two sets on one session is a problem because "issues" always arise trying to migrate the volunteers from one set to the next. Trust me, I saw this problem during "Happy Explorers", so mine is the voice of experience. Every time you change sets it can soak 30 to 45 minutes.

2) Having multiple days worth of content on the same set is also a problem, unless you mind the same explorers representing different "parts" across the days. Remember that each day, there were often changes in the crowd. If you're going to do multiple days on the same set in one script, lay out all participants in advance and indicate which are the bit parts (where re-using an actor may not be a big deal) and which are participants that are major players. Even more important are participants who are present in both scenes, as it is quite preferrable to use the same actor in both!

3) No script longer than 10 pages. Ep 1 is 10 pages and runs 16 minutes; preferrably, we should get scripts down to 7 or 8 pages but I can probably handle a few more 10 pagers.

4) Events from November 24 & 25, and December 1, 4, 8, 10, and 18 under the "(unused)" category should not be added back into the scripts. The whole point of narrowing down the scripts was to make this project do-able, and bringing these materials back in only adds complexity. You must let go. Even little 4 or 5 line clips from these events is no good; you'll just add more set changes (see item 1 above). Feel free to refer to events from these days in SUPERtext, but nothing too detailed.

I have film footage for November 26, November 28, and November 29. The only part I don't have is of Phil in Kemo with MrM3Fan. During the filming for November 28, I did have a specific person in the audience picked out to represent MrM3Fan, so we'd need to get that person or that person's likeness to do the Kemo scene. I don't think the Kemo scene is really necessary. It doesn't add much.

In summary: I'm only human and unfortunately, when I look at Episode 2 (as written), I see a lot more work than I think I can handle, so it needs a rewrite.

Suggestion: Keep the flip-flop format between interview and other events, but try to work in the two events already filmed, and avoid drawing from other days that are NOT filmed.
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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Moiety Jean · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 2:26 am Post subject:

Does Episode 3's script need to be redone as well?
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~Moiety Jean

KI#44727
"There is a certain beautiful danger when a group of geeks get together to entertain themselves." ~Orin Drake

janaba1 · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:36 am Post subject:

your statement, marten, for many reasons is absolutely great, if i may mention this.
though, one of them I would like to emphasize. it’s the pleasure. if the fun is going,
the energy for the project and the intentions behind it is going to be finished. all efforts
will turn out to be in vain…

a suggestion to point 2)
in the above mentioned cases, if I were you, marten or who ever is leading the filmings,
I would inbetween ask the participants to quickly link out to their relto for changing their
clothes and/or their hairstyles, ages etc. so that new explorers are available for a different
set/gathering/crowd…
I don’t know if everybody will be prepared to do that, but I hope, as it is very easy and
funny, too, that there will be 2 or 3 at least willing to cooperate… and this will not take
more than 5 or 10 minutes more…

jana Razz

Professor Askew · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:43 am Post subject:

1) I think most people will be very surprised at how soon Episode One is coming out after Episode Zero so that buys us some time.

2) Marten, I think you're being overly strict and/or concerned about meeting a non-existent deadline. Projects of this magnitude usually don't get done. And this one is going along just fine.

3) At this point in time, my main contribution to this project is as a writer (I will have the Episode Five script done this week.) I would prefer not to be hamstrung where my writing is concerned. However, I agree whole-heartedly about the length of the scripts.

4) Marten, these restrictions you're suggesting are all based on the idea that you're doing everything. Might I suggest you NOT take that responsibility on yourself and maybe we should take some time now that you completely understand the flow of production to assemble some more crew? We had several volunteers step up in the early going who we have not utilized. There must be some other Fraps users out there who are willing to do some principle photography and releave you of some of the burden. I believe some people posted here about helping out in post-production as well. Whatever the case may be, maybe we should start broadening the overall responsibilities so that no one person feels the stress if certain goals or projections aren't met. In fact, there should be NO stress involved in this project. If it isn't fun...it isn't worth it.
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Professor Daniel Askew - Securing our reality from the machinations of the Station Masters.