Half-Life Short Film Grabs Attention

switchfeet writes "For any of you Half-Life fans out there, this new short film based on the game by The Purchase Brothers is really garnering some attention on pretty much every gaming site out there. 'It's a mixture of live action and game footage, and makes smart use of in-game sound effects, and some really fantastic location hunting. ... The Purchase Bros describe the production as 'guerilla style with no money, no time, no crew, no script, the first two episodes were made from beginning to end on a budget of $500.'"

Comments

Very Cool!

[tedgyz]

Maybe some studio will pick up on the idea and make a feature-length film. We need something better than Doom!

Re:Very Cool!

[Shrike82]

I heard Uwe Boll is free. I'll give him a call...

Re:Very Cool!

[sanosuke001]

Their site actually said Valve had flown them out to Seattle and has been in touch with them regarding the project. I think their first episode was fantastic and would love to see more. Valve throwing them a bit of cash could definitely increase their vision. A full-length movie would be amazing.

Re:Very Cool!

[tepples]

The rights for making a feature-length of Half-Life (1) were sold back in 2003.

But when a company sells the movie rights to a franchise, isn't such a contract usually written to expire within five years or so? Do you have a citation that we could look at?

Re:Very Cool!

[ucblockhead]

If Valve is smart, they sold the rights to the plot and characters, not the setting. That would allow something like this, set in City 17 and featuring known of the main Half-life characters, to be done without effecting those rights.

We need these guys to get hired by valve

[jack2000]

I enjoyed their work and can only wish for more.

Re:The problem

[grumbel]

The movie is not about Gordon Freeman, which elegantly sidesteps that problem.

From Valve

[Barny]

Valve had this to say in the latest steam news...

The short film Escape from City 17: Part One, viewable on YouTube via the link below, was inspired by the Half-Life 2 episodes and chronicles the escape from City 17 by some members of the citizens resistance. It was created by The Purchase Brothers, a commercial directing duo, and their small team based in Toronto, Canada. They have been Half-Life enthusiasts from the start and have created this short, the first in a series, on a shoestring budget using handmade costumes, some donated equipment, and the Source SDK, not to mention lots of their own blood, sweat and (we assume) tears. It was sent to Valve unannounced, and we were blown away -- the production quality certainly exceeds that of the usual community-made movies we see. We're told the second episode is nearing completion, and we can't wait to see what's in store. We hope that you enjoy the series.

PLEASE NOTE! This live-action video contains scenes of blood and harsh violence, and may not be appropriate for younger audiences or sensitive viewers.

Seems they liked it too :)

Re:It's indeed great

[richy freeway]

Except Gordon Freeman isn't in this video...

bad "marketing" angle

[njen]

guerilla style with no money, no time, no crew, no script

(Time) First of all, as someone who works in CG, I can say without a doubt, that those effects would have taken a while to do. You don't just whip up cloud vortexes and comp them in a mere hour. It's this kind of talk that helps support the belief that you can push a button, and a computer takes care of all the effects.
So it would be prudent to say that the actual filming of the live action component was done in "no time". The entire film from concept to final would have taken at least a few weeks, if not a couple of months I imagine.

(Money) Second, they would have had to work with legitimate copies of 2D and 3D software. If it was done with anything other than Blender, then that's at least a few thousand dollars right there.

(Script) Third, it's the story that makes films great. Without a good script, a film is meaningless. I mean look how much effort the storytellers of the game put in to tell a great story in an fps shooter. I don't think it's a wise thing to boast that one has no script.

I am not trying to belittle the film, as an amateur short with the given constraints it works as best as it can. But I just wanted to expand on the angle that they are trying to push their film from.

Re:bad "marketing" angle

[Lumpy]

Yes and no. it's easy to hide the bad CG with "shakeycam"(tm) because nothing stands still long enough to allow most viewers to see the poor placement or bad blending. Also their "shakey cam" was not all hanheld shots but some of them were done in composting to add in some camera movement. Unfortunately many people can see that because they used too little of a sample of shakyness and looped it causing a repeating pattern.

for highschool/college newbies This is a great job. but I would consider it a rough edit. It's not complete, the muzzle flashes are horrid simply because they are CG in instead of firing flash blanks. no real squibs, etc.... and for those of you that say you cant to the real stuff on a zero budget.. I say HA. I have rigged squibs for less than $1.00 each that are as safe as the $150.00 each hollywierd ones. and using blanks is as safe as the hollywood shots. it's all in camera angles you never actually aim the guns at the other actors.

It's a great fanfilm from someone brand new in the filming industry. but it needs a lot more editing and clean up the sg so they don't have to use shakeycam to hide the rough placement.

Just a part time pro that has been doing what they do for far far longer. They have an awesome start. If they keep refining their skills they will do FANTASTIC things.

Re:bad "marketing" angle

[Lumpy]

Hollywood blanks are easy to make yourself. All you need is reloading equipment and the right stuff all bought at your local gun shop. I can make a pistol look like it fired a rocket because it has so much muzzle flash and leftover fireball.

No I wont tell you how. But it's not hard to do once you understand gunpowder and wadding.

Money where my mouth is.

[Marauder2]

I will pay for this on DVD/BluRay/Download.

I would love to see this taken to completion. This is what I have been hoping for in a "HalfLife Movie".

Re:Valve

[Saffaya]

IIRC (read long ago on gaming sites that are now long forgotten), Valve was created by ex-microsoft employees. Half-life's first incarnation was not as good as they hoped to be. Thanks to their wealth (from being rather early microsoft people), they were able to scrap the game as it was, keep the really good parts , and expand those, polishing the whole until they were fully satisfied with their work and finally released it to the world.
Their financial independence made possible the heavy reworking that lead to the genesis of half-life as we know it. A luxury most of the developping teams nowadays can not afford.(blizzard being the exception)

Just to say that the qualificative 'group of dedicated gamers' does not fully describe Valve, imo.
It rather makes me think of the players who wanted more out of the FPS experience and wrote counter-strike, the half-life mod.

Re:Valve

[Guspaz]

Except, then the Counter-Strike team was hired by Valve. And previously, the Team Fortress team was hired by valve. And then Day of Defeat team was hired by valve. And then the Narbacular Drop team was hired by valve.

There's a pattern here; even if Valve's executives aren't a "group of dedicated gamers", a large proportion of their best staff is. And those executives certainly have a pretty commendable attitude at running a business. They encourage community works (Black Mesa, for example, or this film project) where other large companies would squash them.

And how many other companies have a chief executive who not only encourages customers to e-mail him, but actually responds to many of them? Not enough.

Re:It's indeed great

[mrchaotica]

Yeah, but actors with no lines don't get paid nearly as much as ones that get to say stuff. Would you want the part of Gordon, when everyone around you gets lines, but you have to just stare at people (with the option to take a crowbar to them, admittedly)?

I'm a mime, you insensitive clod!

Re:It's indeed great

[FloydTheDroid]

You'll need to watch Freeman's Mind if you want that.

Re:Valve

[ucblockhead]

I wish other companies would realize that this attitude has made Valve money. Rather than attempting shut down Counterstrike for touching their precious IP, they looked at it, bought it and thereby made lots and lots of money.