it`s finnally here! good god that took a while.

I think I spent longer working on this episode then on every other episode combined!

so yeah *that* intro. that was fun to make, here are some storyboards for it. just throwing them up here for easy access for when I make my powerpoint for the module.

detailing the general flow of the episode. obviously lengthwise it went far over the limit, oops. screenshot of the first intro animation as well. very bland now looking back on it.

 

the style of interviews in the older episodes were a lot less polished, they went on a bit long and were boring. in the newer ones there is a bigger emphasis on comedy ,effects and bitching.

the animation for the gameboy advance interview shell.

intro sequence for episodes 3 and 4.

the famous bomb skit, easily the most popular joke in the intro. I hate to play on racial stereotypes such as suicide bombing but Faisal just makes it so easy, he relishes in the reputation we give him. as for improvements,I need to figure out a better way for implementing graphics into video. the way I did it this time round was a combination of video editing software, Photoshop and flash. the base video needs to be converted about three times in this process so the quality takes a dive and there`s nothing I could do to stop it. 

oh god bloody Faisal,as soon as he hit the floor he pulled me down with him therefore making Fabiene`s grip on my neck tighter. I think all four of us suffered brain trauma that day.

faint glows seem to be best suited for overlaying graphics on video, makes the colours pop. a lot of these scenes are quite saturated I should research into a colorful filter for the next legend of fail stuff I film. bright exaggerated colours would suit the style very well.

diagrams for the ending sequence. I feel a bit twattish putting that `click here for the next episode` when there isn’t one up yet, but at least it serves as an incentive for me to actually make the next one 😀

quite a tricky one to make this. for all three flames and wand i had to erase sections of them on every single frame to give the impression they were behind us. looking back I really should have added ember trails to the flames and even a glow perhaps. but thanks to the expressions and sound effects this skit is funny enough.

when Fabiene hits Faisal’s hand in this shot he actually slapped it really hard!  always nice to capture real life tension on film.

this looks like simple enough shots but all four of us had to contort ourselves in ungodly ways to get the camera in the right position. easier for some of us then others. it made sense for this to be the last skit in the intro, I originally wanted the gameboys to turn on, but it didn’t read very well on film and the intro is too long already.

oh dear, the `outdoor` scene. my back garden is surrounded by about a million windows behind the camera so we ended up giving the neighbours a free Benny hill show. editing this scene made me realise just how limited my video editing software is. for the last run in the shot, there is the

1.grass chopping sound

2.fabienes “hey”

3.failsals “hey”

4.the rupee sound effect and

5.swiss`s scream.

the software only has space for 2 sound effects on the timeline, and that’s including the background music, so lo and behold it had to get converted again. methinks it`s time to upgrade to sony vegas or premiere pro.

notes on how to animate the intros, blah blah. also silly faces.

ahh now here is something interesting. some unused ideas in these notes. such as a sequence where we could all fumble to put the disc in and it would become a frustrated jumble of hands or one where someone is beaten to death with a gamecube/television

more ideas for intro animation. cut obviously due to running time.

this was one of the very first shots we filmed, we reshot it so many times. got to use some pretty glow effects and lol worthy sound clips. in case you don’t know what the competition for keys is all about, in game. when you unlock a door using a key, you earn 100 rupees.

some unused ideas for the grass chopping skit and various other nuggets of info.

notes for the rupee snatch skit.

okay this scene sounds simple enough to make. have the swords rotate around with the people to look like theyre doing the spin attack. but because the angle is shot from a window, it isn’t directly above us and the sword disappears behind our body’s at points. so had to go in there and erase parts of the swords on every frame. all of four of them. 25 frames per second. yup. *twitch*

more unused ideas. the shoulder tap one didn’t read well enough as it was small movements and a bit long, thought about chopping  it up and interspersing it throughout the whole intro sequence, but didn’t have enough faith in the idea to try. maybe i`ll come back and iterate it in future. the second skit would have been fun if we did it, but the camera placement of shots is pretty tricky to do it justice.

and for good measure,here is one last asset dump!

so there you have it. crude drawings for a crude idea. but with every episode comes new improvements so it`s bound to evolve into something entertaining 🙂 I know im getting ahead of myself but another game which would be perfect  for this format is super mario bros wii. a 4 player `sort of` co-operative game. it has a whole new level of dickery and arsing about and it`s so much easier to set up then the four gameboys lol.

also! while tinkering around with the tech and doing some research. there is a fabled 4 swords set up which uses 5 televisions instead of any gameboys. observe.

the gamecube had a peripheral released called the `gameboy player` which slotted onto the bottom of it, and it also includes a link up port. the very same port used to connect the gameboy advance to a gamecube. so in theory, it`s possible to use 4 gamecubes and televisons as replacements for gameboys. it would be the ultimate electricity and funds leech but good god it would be so much fun to play. I think a massive projecter screen would be best for the main screen and small monitor sized screens for players. maybe the quest for this setup will get filmed and could be integrated into legend of fail. just a random idea, I am very poor and have so little time so maybe not.

regardless, hope you enjoy the current series and I hope my tutor enjoys it too as i`m using episode 5 (a revised 10 minute version) and all these notes as my submission.