Sorry guys it has been a while… I have been busy with university but I’m REALLY keen to get back to Two Sides of a Bullet. Like I’ve said many a time, the first episode is almost completely done and I’m just waiting on one voice actor to give me his lines. Once that’s done I can go hard out on the preview for Episode 2 at the end of episode 1, the trailer for the series itself, and episode 2 itself.

Can’t wait ^_^

EDIT: fixed typos, it was originally typed on my iPhone

So I have now heard back from all my main voice actors for episode 2! Tori Kamal has sent me his lines and HolyJunkie and Sean Mayes are both on board to voice act for episode 2. I should be receiving lines in the next week or two and then I just have to organise extras.

However, as soon as I receive the lines from my main VAs - and voice my own lines - I’m going to begin editing episode 2. Once the rough cut is done, I’ll finish off the trailer, add a preview to the end of episode 1, and I’ll be ready to begin the marketing campaign.

Very soon after that is under way, I’ll release episode 1 and hopefully episode 2 soon after. I’ll probably send out lines for episode 3 when I release the trailer to keep the momentum going.

In other (somewhat) big news, I made a creative decision that will affect the whole production. I realised that my colour correction - while looking pretty cool - in effect made the machinima look too processed and unnatural (as much as natural can be applied to a video game -_-). So I significantly toned it back so that it wasn’t too far from Halo: Reach’s original colour scheme.

I realised that - while it is good to use colour to differentiate your machinima from other machinima made in the same engine - it’s also good to keep it looking like the original engine so as it can still be relatable. I realised that the primary reason I make, and watch, Halo machinima is because I love the game. Therefore, my audience will want it to be relatable, but different from all the other halo machinima out there.

I hope I explained that correctly… I’ll post a picture of the detective in the sunset as a comparison shot in like an hour or so.

See you real soon ^_^ (I’m excited!)

So yeah, I just realised how long it’s going to take to actually get episode 1 out. I’ll probably want to have episode 2 mostly edited (~a month or so) so I can figure out what to include in the preview at the end of episode one. And for episode two to even start being edited, I need my voice actors.

I have sent out lines to my main VAs and so far Tori Kamal is the only one to have replied (He’s so reliable =) ). I’m going to resend just in case the others didn’t receive the email. I have got almost all of episode 2 filmed though. In fact, it’s been sitting on my hard drive for months.

Furthermore, I also need some of episode 2 for the trailer which will definitely be coming out before episode 1. In the mean time, as I said in another post, I’m going to get back on to projects I haven’t finished. The main ones I’m working on are my Reach Montage, a Halo 3 machinima (I need like 1 shot to finish it, just haven’t gotten around to it -_-) and a Battlefield 3 funtage. I’ll also try and get a machinima tutorial done.

Hopefully 2SoaB episode 1 doesn’t take too long to come out…

See you real soon ^_^

So my final voice actor Mike (Mike’s YouTube Channel) submitted his lines today. He just recently bought a new mic which was the reason for the delay. I’m probably going to toy around with the edit a bit, but the big thing Two Sides of a Bullet episode 1 is missing is music.

Now I was thinking of trying to get a composer but that would take more time. I think I’m going to stick with music from video games (which Machinima doesn’t seem to have a problem with) and music from Garageband and Soundtrack Pro. I’m mainly sticking to using music from CoD4 and Halo 3: ODST. Both OSTs have nice dark tones to them which fits perfectly for 2SoaB.

Also, I sent out lines for episode 2 to my three main voice actors, Tori Kamal, HolyJunkie and Sean Mayes. I’m going to have to confirm that Sean Mayes is on board for the project before I release episode 1 because he doesn’t have any lines until episode 2 but is listed in the episode 1 credits.

Before I release episode 1 I’m going to do a Machinima Tutorials with TIMGIE! special episode where I just do a pre-premiere overview of the project. It won’t reveal anything about the story but I will go through effects and shiz that I did to it.

Finally, I’m going to come up with an ad campaign through Reach Screenshots, movie posters and a trailer and I’m going to post them on Reddit, HBO and Waypoint and such.

Anyway, that’s what I wanted to say…

See you real soon ^_^

I finally got around to re-re-re-rerecording the second scene of episode one of two sides of a bullet. It was easily the most difficult scene to film in the whole episode; and it only consists of two characters talking!

I’ll talk about it more when I do a behind the scenes video, but I’m pretty sure I’ve filmed everything I need to for episode one. All I need now is my final voice actor to send me his lines and I can finish it off. In the meantime I’m going to work on the trailer, some movie posters and just some photo- (well, screenshot) manipulation art for the end credits. I’m also debating as to whether I want to include a sneak-peak of the next episode after the credits. I think I will because in my opinion, I focused a little too much on character introductions in the first ep. and didn’t have a strong enough ‘hook’.

I want to get episode two out as soon as possible after episode one is released, so I’m going to start sending out the lines to my voice actors today. I’m still unsure as to whether Sean Mayes is on board because he did email me back, but I sent him some sample lines and he hasn’t replied.

Oh well, I’ll find out. See you real soon ^_~

OHAI,

So after going over the voices in episode one of Two Sides of a Bullet, I’ve realised I need to add a few lines, redo a few lines and I completely missed out on one character -_-

So I’m just waiting for my VAs to do that. In the meantime I’m working on my montage that I’ve been chipping away at since like, the middle of last year. It’s coming along nicely (but really slowly), and all the clips fit the music well, but there is one clip that is just so fun to watch. It’s easily the best syncing I’ve ever done.

Also, I’ve just been working on projects that I never got finished (and that I actually want to complete). I’ve gone back to a Halo 3 machinima that has - in my opinion - the best editing out of any of my machinima to date. So I definitely want to finish that.

I also started working on Ballads of Reach 2 today. If you don’t know what Ballads of Reach is, it’s a Halo Music Video Montage that I made for my clan’s channel VSOTBcommunity. It’s pretty enjoyable to watch (even though I made it) and I rewatch it every so often. It’s also a lot of fun to make because it’s really the only machinima project that I actually use body actors other than myself for.

Finally, I bought Magic Bullet Looks 2 from Red Giant Software (It’s a colour correction plugin). I thought it worth the $200 considering I knew I’d use it in pretty much every project I’d ever do. It just has a really nice selection of colour correction and image enhancement elements and it’s really easy to get a nice look to my films with it. The last image I posted on the blog was created with Looks 2. Although sometimes the interface bugs out and gets too big for my laptop’s 1280x800 display -_-

Oh well,

See you real soon ^_^

For real this time.