It has been suggested to me (through the SR movie thread) that I should produce the Shadowrun movie myself in the form of webisodes. While I do love the idea, it took my a long time to develop what I had just for the trailer (available @ http://maxpayne2.levels4you.com/downloads....author=eralston )

You guys can log in with username: eralston pass: 12345
(like something an idiot would put on his luggage)

I did learn a lot from the experience, meaning a series could be produced with less effort given my greater knowledge, but I still am coming up short on time (still have to go to college you know). Time or no, the idea is still too good to let go it entirely, so I have devised a plan.

To test whether a web-series would be enthralling or not, I will create, in Max Payne 2 unless I find a better engine (newer games would look nicer, but MP2 gets the job done and I already have everything together for it), a short movie (~5-10 minutes) of unadulterated Shadowrun.

I have begun pre-production (writing, art direction, feasibility, and risk) for this project. My progress will be reviewed (at least weekly) at my blog @ eralston.com

Anyone interested in offering help (or other moral support) can e-mail me @ erik.ralston@gmail.com

This is the proving ground for telling a Shadowrun story (not just showing a sequence of Shadowrunesque images) and people actually liking it. If you ever want to be a person who likes Shadowrun, or tries to convince someone else to like it, then see if you can't take part in making it a reality.

Your link is a little broken. had to remove the ")" from the search field

Repeated from eralston.com (just so you guys don't have to sift past MTG and my opinions on my Blog):

What I really need to do is play out a single mission undertaken by a single team. The mission type will be "retrieval" (as the SRC calls it). That will be the "A plot" of the short.

The "B plot" I am being more guarded about, but concerns an interaction between two characters.

A "C plot" is under conceptual construction. It will concern some sort of betrayal amongst and characters.

The soundtrack of the short, while I haven't ruled out other music, has been tentatively set as an ironic upbeat latin jazz song, La Fiesta (The Maynard Ferguson recording).

I could crawl back to Nightwish, if I did the current frontrunners are: moondance (though it would have to lengthened and the "heys" kind of take me out of the experience), Nemo (though I wanted something instrumental), The Siren (singing again), Eternal (by the extremely moody, Evanescence) would be ok

I am still attached to the irony of la Fiesta (especially if there is a tragic ending to the Short).

The script should take form over the course of next week. I'll probably be secretive about its details, but I'm not beyond spoilers.

In hopes of gaining beter performances from my actors that them just standing and talking, I've started to go through the list of MP2 animations. Did you know there are hundreds?

This might take a while.

I'm also looking for a few opinionated people to take a crack at critiquing the story treatment's first draft. Know anyone? have them e-mail me @ erik.ralston@gmail.com

The script is done! Or at least it is beeing polished, edited, and analyzed instead of written. At a concise 5 pages, it will be modified (especially dialogue-wise) once a final decision on the music is made.

Speaking of, anyone have any brilliant ideas for music? Ever hear a song that just screams SHADOWRUN!!! to you? I'm looking for something that's 5-8 minutes, but exceptions could be made for something amazing. Any genre, as long as it captures the essence of Shadowrun.

In the mean time, here's a teaser:

"'Sounds impossible.'
'Does that mean you’re backing out, chummer?'
'No, Mr. Johnson. That means this is just the down payment'"

Wow...doesn't that just need a context...

Sounds like interesting fare, but I can't seem to get it to play. The ".rar" files do not recognise WinMedia, QT or DivX.

.rar is a compression archive format, like .zip.
WinRAR is the decompression utility, free trial for the first 30 days, and nag-ware after that.
I belive ZipGenius also handles .rar files, and it's also free.

Thanks, Paul.

and just to add a program, as does WinACE, i think, and is also trialware/nagware

So is ZipGenius trialware/nagware too? Just curious.

well, nagware and adware are different things, to me atleast. nagware is where you always have a popup saying "hey, you're past the trial time by XXX days, could ya pay us now?"

Correct. However, even some adware uses nagware to get you to remove the ads.

I started some test modeling today. A little rusty on building geometry, I started with the buildings that will populate Seattle. You can check out my progress @

http://www.eralston.com/SR_album.html

More screenshots to come.

I ran into a few other technical snags, such as my graphics card can't do the calculations necessary to make levels that properly light characters and move their shadows.

Also, the person I wanted to help me do the music decide she didn't have any time, much to my dismay. I think I will end up just mixing my own. For those who are interested, here are the candidate songs:

DJ Tatana - Electro Classic (shooting music)
DJ Tatana vs. The Mystery - Soul Cry (shooting music)
Hybrid - Kill City (walking music)
Juno Reactor - Rotorblade (walking music)
Rick Wakeman - Future Memories (slow music)

PS Next time I'll make sure it's just a .zip

What codec are you using? I'm getting blank black screen, although the audio is coming through.

The videos are encoded in MPEG2

I have added screenshots of corporate buildings:

Renraku Arcology (as seen in Renraky Shutdown)
Aztechnology Pyramid (conceptually similar to the High tech & low life pict, but made taller for my purposes)
Novatech Building (generic)
Cross Applied Technologies Building (Generic)
Ares Building (Generic, but structurally engineered to be used in the story. [yes, that's a spoiler])

All the buildings also have lightmaps now making them very shiny

Downloading now, will check it out soon. (I'm in the middle of not doing my coursework like I should be doing but instead of that I'm chatting on DS and the WotC boards because I'm two weeks in and two weeks behind...ah...)

I also replied just now to the voice acting thread.

http://www.7-zip.org/ is an open source/freeware/ no nag program that will open just about anything, including RAR files.

Production has resumed!!!

I've posted some fresh pics just made today. They also give a glimpse of the ending of the movie.

I'm still looking for voice-actors! just e-mail an audition to erik.ralston@gmail.com

I've been saying I'd post the final movie two weeks from today. I hope I can keep my word.

Hey Era, if you don't mind me asking btu what other prodjects have you ever worked on?

as in films.

Screenshots are being updated DAILY all through this week just go to http://www.eralston.com/SR_album.html

The sets are coming together and the voices are being cast. I NEED MORE VOICES!!!

Mr. Platinum, I have actually only done off and on school-related film stuff, nothing one could call a "film". I am however one of the many people in the world with a movie idea they are in love with and want to share with everyone else.

I have a screen treatment for an SR movie which I had tried to peddle to WizKids to no avail. You can DL it @ http://www.eralston.com/downloads/Shadowru...n_treatment.pdf

You can DL trailers I made for the screen treatment (as part of a larger presentation made for school-work concerning the treatment) @ http://maxpayne2.levels4you.com/downloads....author=eralston using user: eralston pass: 12345

So, I suppose this is my second foray into shadowrun film-making, though the first was just a giant learning experience.

Well, production's going great. I'm starting to move past set design and into actual "acting" stuff. Or at least what passes for acting around here.

Check out this animation test if for a funny sneak preview:

http://www.eralston.com/downloads/teenyTin...y_anim_test.avi

Keep up the struggle and share the imagination.

I just checked your test and i really had to crank my volume to hear anything bro.

NOT DEAD YET!

So, I'm running light calculations on the last level as I type this. It's been a long, grueling task, and I must say that it's been a splendorous adventure through digital imagination, and a triumph of the human spirit that, despite all my hard work, is only HALF OVER AT BEST!!!

Sorry about re-negging on my Jan 1st promise, but I've been putting in more details and taking it slow because the voice work won't be in until January 12th at best. How about I take it easy this time and speculate I might have it by the end of January.

PS, More screeenshots @ http://www.eralston.com/SR_album.html as there always are.

thank you for clicking this thread, and NO ITS NOT DEAD YET!!!

So, this weekend I have secured time on a SOTA computer to try some capture of the first few scenes. I hope to walkaway with some sweet stuff. I don't know if I'll have anything to show, but have faith that work has moved into animating and capturing (the really hard, tedious part).

The script needed some massaging after getting back the first complete set of voices. there's a difficulty inherent in doing things for the first time that the team is feeling it's way through. It was ok, but we want this to be great.

I suppose the fan response has fallen to a dull "huh, you guys aren't dead are you?" Especially since we may miss the end of January release. But, failure remains not an option, so get worked bac kup people, this is going to be amazing.

Haven't updated in a while, but I can summarize:

All voice acting is in

All music is selected

Animating and Scripting are in progress

~14 out of ~28 script sets are done. (script sets are a generic term for a group of "actor" actions along with camera movement. The fact that I seem to be halfway through is rather deceiving, I am through what could be called the "easy ones" and they get exponentially more complicated from here).

Given my current rate of progress, I hope to be done by end of this month. My "last stand" date is the middle week of Mrach (spring break). If I'm not done by then, I'll probably just release what I have cut off the project's head after staking it through the heart.

Don't let it die! Well we are rooting for you.

Is there anymore work others could do for you? Anyone else willing to pitch in?

It looks very nice. Keep up the good work.

A calamity occured involving my video card. Monday week before there was an artifact on the screen during boot-up and by last monday I was looking for a new video card on NewEgg.

I am borrowing a friend's right now, enabling me to give this update, but I've stalled on development for this week; however...

This week did wonders for the technical side of things. No time to build meant a lot of time trolling Max Payne modding forums, gaining nuggets of wisdom and solving a huge technical issue about lighting.

As far as total progress: I was on page 4 of the 10 page script and aside from some momentum, nothing was lost other than my pride in my once great GeForce4.

When the new card comes, I'll apply my new knowledge of lighting and post some new shots (some levels have had considerable face-lifts).

Peace out!

Yay!!! I got my new video card in today and it's running beautifully!

The card, being better than my broken one, will let me do some things my old one will not which means I no longer need to outsource part of the requirements of the project to a friend of mine. (That means it's going to take shorter)

I should have new screenies by tomorrow!

New screenshots up on the site ( http://www.eralston.com/SR.html ).

I'm almost halfway through (time-wise) with the movie and things are really picking up. PLUS! Next week is spring break, so I have plans of finishing by then.

Also, I plan on featuring the movie in an independent film festival here @ Washington State University, so I NEED to have it done by April 3rd to meet the late entry deadline.

The waiting is almost over (for you and me both)

So, here I am at spring break ready to put this sucker to bed by the end of the week.

To start, I decided to do a little engineering (my profs would be so proud) concerning my next move. I checked every file I had for length and continuity (and finished lighting). Here's what I have:

I have 19 files right now (should get me through)

1 file (a recent conceptual addition) isn't even built

4 are built, but otherwise barren (no scripting, no characters)

1 is being scripted

4 need lighting fixed, but are otherwise ready

9 files are ready for filming.

In raw footage, the 13 (almost) ready set accounts for about: 12.6 minutes of film.

I must admit that the 12 minute thing is mind blowing considering that's only 4 pages of script! (oi, huh). Looking at the stuff, its edited form will probably shrink it quite a bit, but still, I am amazed that there is that much stuff (if one remembers, 12 minutes is more than what the total video was expected to be AND I STILL HAVE 5 PAGES OF SCRIPT!!!).

I don't quite know if I should feel exhilirated that I have so much or scared that it might actually be MUCH longer than I thought. (though the last half of the script is mostly dialogue while the front end was a lot of moving around and setting up).

The current set of screenshots is the last pre-release stuff I will put out other than blogging or ranting here.

Wow, so this thread recently passed 1,000 views. Nice clicking guys.

As I mentioned last time, I have been working my ass off for spring break, hoping to finish by Monday (the early registration for the Washington State University film festival).

Well, I'm only 292 seconds from the end (if my music cues work out) and that promises to be the most exciting 5 minutes of the movie.

keep trucking! I can't wait to see the final product!

Well, today is the last day of spring break and I am broken hearted.

I have failed to finish. (Mostly due to an interesting little problem with making character run over surfaces as uneven as the fountain). I still have about 3 minutes and 30 seconds left.

Unfortunately I won't be able to work on it at all until about thursday night this week due to school stuff (Computer Science isn't easy folks).

I have another weekend w/o any interruptions coming up, so I hope to have it by then. Remember that my next hard deadline is actually April 3rd (two weeks from tomorrow), so I might decide to spend an obscene amount of time polishing camera work instead of just releasing it.

I'M DONE!!!

Distribution is next and when that happens I'll start a new thread

The movie need only be verified by google and it will officially be released