A City of Heroes Movie - Fan Project - Any Interest?

OK, I've been debating posting this for a while, and wasn't sure where to post as I don't visit these forums all that much, but thought I'd give it a go just to see what people thought or if anyone responded. Going to preface this by saying this is a long post, and I apologize for that but wanted to see if there was any interest in this or not.


Some Background Information
For the better part of two years I've been working on a fan project of sorts and playing around with the idea of making a movie based on the City of Heroes content. I am a professional video editor in "real life" and an aspiring screenwriter. I used those skills way back in the day to win the action category of the second (and apparently last) annual CoH video contest with my "Evangel" faux movie trailer. After that I started working on the faux movie trailer that I would submit for the third annual contest but when the third annual contest never came I just started developing more and more and eventually turned it into a fan movie project. So I started writing…


The Movie
About a year later I finished a rough draft of a feature-length movie script based on my then-fledging super group The Guns of Paragon. The script is an action-drama story about a broken super group (the Guns of Paragon) that needs to re-form in light of a growing war in Eastgate - a war between the evil factions of Paragon and the Paragon military and heroes. The script explores a lot of the iconic places and people of the game's lore while focusing on a dramatic tale of this shattered super group that now must regroup to end this war.

And over the course of the last few years I've been refining the script and playing around with different ways to easily bring this movie to life in some shape of form as a fan project for City of Heroes. But the demorecord function has always been a pain in my rear. The positioning and cam mathematics become very burdensome when you try to get into more creative scenes, and making a 2 minute movie is one thing - but a 2 hour movie becomes just painful, especially with advanced fight scenes and heavy dialogue. And even the process of editing a demorecord file becomes painful. So I tried my hand at 3D modeling. I have a background in animation but I have next to no experience in modeling and most of my attempts at building 3D replicas of my supergroup mates and other CoH characters fails miserably. So I've bounced back and forth endlessly trying to find a way to make this movie without spending hours banging my head against a wall and/or without spending money to hire a professional.


So I've been thinking - if it's a fan project, why not ask the fans. The few times I've come to this forum I have noticed the amount of talent this community has. Through past contests I've seen people that have a far far better understanding of the demorecord function than I do. And through avatars, signatures, and links in profiles I've seen people here have great talent with 3D modeling and art. Overall there is just so much skill here that I thought I'd see if people would want to collaborate - instead of one man trying to do everything, why not see if people wanted to mess around on this thing for fun together.



Bringing it to the People
I thought it would be neat to maybe follow a pattern similar to Rooster Teeth and their Red Vs. Blue series - instead of trying to make a 2 hour movie just make little 5 minute chunks and release them here in the forums every two or three weeks. A little fan web-series made by the fans for the fans. And that's where I turn this over to anyone reading this to see if there's any type of interest/response/thumbs up/thumbs down or whatever.

With all of the people here that have talent in modeling, animating, voice acting, etc, do any of you have any interest in working together to make a fan project? Whether it be through in-game demorecording, 3D animation, or otherwise? Dedicating a few hours a week to working on something as a side project just for fun? Or am I crazy? I know it's a huge undertaking and something that would be a slow process of just working for fun in our free time and collaborating over the internet. But I think it would be fun if a handful of people were on board for it and if we could combine our separate talents to make a cool fan project for the CoX community to enjoy!


So let me know what you think. Reply here or send me a tell in game @Evangel




Thanks,

Evangel

"Memories" - The Evangel Farewell Video

The only thing I could provide is voice-over, but I would love to help!

I think this is a fine idea if you can get the right team together. A Pick-up-Group for an ambitious project like this can get rather daunting. I certainly hope the right talent comes forward to get your vision off the ground!

That sounds really ambitious. I think it depends on your script. One of the main problems with dialogue is the static faces. You can get around it somewhat by using armor and full-face masks so it might work.

Are you interested in sharing the screenplay at all? Or the first 10 pages so we can get a feel for it?

Cool, glad to hear it sparks some interest and thoughts.


I agree about the limitations of the dialogue and lack of moving mouths - another reason I started leaning toward 3D models but that became too incredibly daunting for one person, particularly one person with no formal 3D modeling experience! But I'm very open to any ideas people have whether it be demorecord or modeling or animation or whatnot.


I'll pull out the script tonight and get a 5 or 10 page section of it up here for viewing. I'll find a spot that isn't too revealing but that shows some of the more complex things I'm going for with the story. Would love to see what people think of it.



Evangel

"Memories" - The Evangel Farewell Video

Well, I think I know a bit about demorecording and filming in-game and such. I'd be happy to help.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I'm good for voice acting and assisting with script writing. I'm quite charming!

you can cheat a few emotions with demorecord. In the demorecord you'll see were the face model is being called.

0 100 Player
0 100 NEW "Deja Strange"
0 100 COSTUME 4 00538bbf 4.802000 0.208800 0.000000 0.593400 0.516500 -0.456000 0.604400 0.020000 0.000000 1.000000 0.660000 0.680000 0.550000 0.180000 -0.420000 -0.010000 -0.030000 -0.220000 0.640000 1.000000 -0.390000 0.470000 0.560000 0.580000 -0.210000 0.430000 1.000000 -0.380000 0.660000 0.570000
0 100 PARTSNAME V_HUGE_Pants.GEO/GEO_Hips_Monstrous_01 !hips_leather_02 none 0000111a 001f1f1f
0 100 PARTSNAME Right_Amp skin_bare !Chest_Tribal 001f1f1f 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME V_HUGE_HEAD.GEO/GEO_Head_V_Asym_Standard Skin_V_Head_05 none 00575757 00316131
0 100 PARTSNAME Smooth skin_wrapped_01a skin_wrapped_01b 00001133 00316131
0 100 PARTSNAME V_HUGE_BOOT.GEO/GEO_LLeg*_Monstrous_Hoof_01 !X_V_SKIN_Boot_Monstrous_Hoof_Bare none 00575757 001f0000
0 100 PARTSNAME Martial_Tassle_01 Martial_Tassle_01 none 00001133 00001c55
0 100 PARTSNAME V_HUGE_Hair.GEO/GEO_Hair_Fighthawk_01 !Hair_V_Hipster_01 !Hair_V_Hipster_01_Mask 0000547f 001e1e61
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME Horn_02 Horn_01a Horn_01b 0000547f 00001a26
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 001f1f1f 001f1f1f
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00001c55 001f1f1f
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 003c5561 00c06363
0 100 PARTSNAME Beard_Goatee_02 Beard_01a Beard_01b 00003855 00000a1f
0 100 PARTSNAME Robotic_02 Robotic_Banded Robotic_Banded_01b 001f1f1f 00001133
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 100 PARTSNAME none none none 00001a26 003fbeff 00000000 00000000 Costumes/AnimatedTails/AnimatedTail_Lion01_Huge.fx

The yellow text is a face texture that you can easily swap out for a different face. So you can do a super smilely face in one scence and a super frowny face in anther scence.

Getting a screenplay together for this project is pretty important but you're going to want to storyboard this project (like they do in comics).

Here's a 10 page script sample from the movie. I'm not going to attempt to explain the context of this beyond the fact that it's the first major action scene of the movie. City Hall's roof has just blown up while a city council meeting was taking place inside and the helicopter with the attackers inside is fleeing the scene -- nearby on the plaza, under the statue, the long lost leader (Target-Man) of the dismantled "Guns of Paragon" supergroup has returned and is contemplating using their beacon (a metal shaft that shoots a firework - think bat signal) to re-assemble the team.

A lot of characters and such in this. It's not a heavy dialogue section but it conveys some of the complex action I'm looking to attempt and some of the complexity of dialogue interactions between characters. It happens about 35 minutes into the movie.



Uploaded it as a PDF to a simple file upload site. Please don't repost anywhere and all that.
Guns of Paragon - Script Sample - 47.33 KB




Evangel

"Memories" - The Evangel Farewell Video

I actually have a decent (and free) storyboarding program that I use when my clients want to see storyboards of of their projects.

http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/storyboardpro (download links are on the lefthand side)

It's a bit awkward at first, but once you get used to it, it's an excellent resource.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Read what you posted, and I like the action. I can picture the flow, and chaos of what's happening just through the clipped dialogue. I imagine more character development comes before and after this snippet.

I only have one real gripe, and that you said this is "by fans, for fans". The amount of cursing might not jive with the "T" rating of the game, and a lot of fans. It is possible to limit the cursing without removing the movie's teeth.

For the record, I'm not offended by it...and I'm fairly sure you're aware of this potential "limitation". The cursing likely matches your vision of the film since you did write the script.

Just putting it out there!

I was picturing it in my head as I was reading it. Excellent dialog and imagery! I'm very excited about the potential of this project going forward, and would be glad to help in any way I can.

I would certainly enjoy providing some voice acting, if you're in need. Badge (bungeeball) in the protector server has been sitting on a great project we filmed going on two years ago in game, which I contributed to. Some day hopefully that'll see the light of day

Okay, that's not a bad writing sample. However, the main problem I see is that it's unfilmable as written. Very little of that action is supported by the game engine. It's a decent enough first draft, but it needs to be completely rewritten in order to make use of demoedit. My biggest recommendation is is to consider what you can do with the game engine and write action sequences designed around that. Look at Michelle's latest film to see what can be done to massage the existing game assets (models, emotes, etc.).

Action scenes should be written so they can be understood without sound. If you need dialogue to explain what's going on, then it hasn't been pared down to its essence.

Specific critiques about the writing: lose the f-bombs in the sluglines and text. As Gehnen noted, the game is rated T, so it's best to drop the rest of the profanity as well. I see what you're trying to do with side-by-side dialogue. Unfortunately it doesn't lend urgency but muddies the throughline. Stick with the basic format. There's a reason it's existed largely unchanged for nearly seventy-five years.

All that said, I'm willing to help on this project, too.

I'd also advise tracking down Aralcox's videos on YouTube to see some of what the game can do. Night Prayers is by FAR my favorite, although Pulse and Princess of Dusk are tied for second.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Nice Ev! Glad to see you are resuming your interest in getting this movie from paper to actuality! You know I'll help out where I can... It's been a long two years (seems like longer though) And I think this might just be my first post to the forums ... ever!

*Guess not... says I have two posts... wonder what the first was!*