What? You didn’t know that?
I forget how I even came across this video, but it’s great stuff.
No, it’s not actually porn.
It’s a machinima music video, done in World of Warcraft, and using a song from the Broadway musical, Avenue Q. Now, I’m not much of one for musicals, but I really want to see this show. How can you not go for an adult-themed Sesame Street parody with songs like “The Internet Is For Porn,” “You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love)” and “There Is Life Outside Your Apartment”?
But that’s not what this post is about.
No, this post is about internet videos, animated and otherwise. Flash was the king of internet video for a while, and some may argue it still is. Me, I think machinima is taking the crown. By using game engines (WoW, Halo and a few others being the most popular to work with right now) to handle most of the filming, it takes away nearly all the learning needed to actually produce a video.
Which isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Sure it makes it easier for more people to jump in and start making their own movies, which is cool. But it also leads to more people jumping in and making movies – who really shouldn’t.
Seriously. We do NOT need another Halo combat video with Linkin Park tunes.
But it does bring us stuff like this, which makes the bad videos worth sitting through.
Then there are the live action videos.
You know, stuff somebody actually had to write and film and get their friends to act in. Most live action stuff online is of the “hey, I got a camcorder, I’m gonna go walk around and find funny stuff to film” variety.
Lame.
But if you take the time to think out what you want to do, then sit down and do it right, the results can be great.
Oh, and you need to pick a target audience, too.
My current favorite example of this (because I watched 8 episodes in a row of it yesterday) is Pure Pwnage. (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “pwnage” is pronounced “ownage.” Check the wiki for an explanation if you like.) Pure Pwnage is all about the life of “pro gamer” (though I’ve not seen him get paid for anything, so “pro” is just a self-applied title) named Jeremy.
If you’re not into gaming, you probably won’t like the show.
It’s rife with geeky in-jokes (and the occasional bit of gameplay footage), and pretty inaccessible to the non-gamer. The cast is good and it’s hard to tell how many of them are acting and how many are like this in real life. Hell, it’s hard to tell whether or not some of the parts of it are real life or scripted.
Which is why it works so well.
If you’ve not seen it (and you’re geeky enough to enjoy something like this) check it out.If you’re not into stuff like this, well….there’s always Google Video. Just type in any search term and see what you get! Or you can just pick random.
You may luck out and get something like this. ^.^