FREEMAN'S MIND - EPISODE 5

Youtube

640x480 WMV (47MB)

Well I've been extremely busy, but I would have felt bad not getting SOMETHING out for Halloween. This isn't really Halloween themed, but this section takes place in one of the creepier parts of Half-Life. I'll be the first to admit this one has a few shortcomings. It's not really anything new for the FM series, but I'm still having some problems pacing everything because I'll record the footage ahead of time before I know everything I'm going to say. So there are some sections where Freeman is a little rapid-fire with his commentary. This can be kind of neat in the sense that it makes him appear more manic, but I still want to avoid it. I spend less time trying to perfect FM than I would with CP as it's just commentary on top of game footage. Also I apologize but this episode has a little bit of volume clipping. I tried my best to clean it up, but I may have to look into getting a better mic as mine's pretty cheap.

My main goal with the series is to keep moving forward with it so I can get more episodes out as I have a lot of ground to cover. Unfortunately production will still be stalled for a little bit longer, but I'll make an annnouncement as soon as I'm done with Noesis, then I'll really move into full gear on this stuff. The current release rate of Freeman's Mind is NOT representative of how long it takes to make an episode, I've just been too busy to make more. So it may take a little while, but the pace WILL improve.  

In other news I'm getting closer to finishing the design of the website, but the coder helping me has gotten pneumonia and has been too sick to work on it lately, so lets hope he doesn't die on me. 

updates

Hey people, here are the updates I was talking about. First and foremost, I have to finish the second Noesis guide so I can free up more time to work on machinima. I'm getting close, but it might be another week or two, but after that there will be a big jump in production. Here's what you can expect coming:

Freeman's Mind - I can get these out much faster than CP and I really need to step up the pace if I'm going to get through all of the Half-Life series. I'm hoping to have another one out by the end of the month, then a lot more out after that, but I'm not setting any deadlines since that's already backfired on me before.

Civil Protection shorts - I may release some CP episodes that are very short in nature. I'm not sure whether I want to count these as actual episodes or not, but I'd like to be able to release more of CP without it taking forever. Depending on how much time volunteers have to work on it, this could also come out this month, but I'm making no promises.

15+ minute episode - this will be the scary episode, called "The Tunnel". It's already been partially produced, but it still has a ways to go. This will likely be the next big episode to come out. I was originally hoping to release this by Halloween, but that's not going to happen now because of everything else I have to do. I'm hoping it can be done by sometime in November.

20+ minute episode - this one is also partially produced, it will be called "Open Forum" (as in the Greek kind, not an internet one). It will mainly focused on dialogue and will introduce several new characters. It will also require a lot of facial expressions, which I'm leaving to someone better at that than myself. So when this one comes out depends on how busy everyone is, but I haven't forgotten about it.

New website - work has resumed on this again, it might come out this month, but it depends on whether the person helping me will have time to finish the coding and if I have time to make a new logo for it.


I also have a ton of other ideas of things I'd like to do, but that's what's going to be coming in the semi-near future. For everyone frustrated with the pace of things so far, I feel the same way.

NEW EPISODE: OIL'S WELL

Youtube

Medium quality (800x452) 70MB WMV
 
High quality (1280x720) 211MB WMV

Well the new episode is finally out, it took about 1-2 weeks longer than it should have for a lot of different reasons and has been the most problematic release so far for several other reasons. This episode contains an enormous amount of custom content I hunted down on the internet, as you'll see in the credits. So thanks to everyone who let me use their maps, models, and textures. The tone of this episode is a little different than the others as it was intended for an environmental contest that ended up getting postponed, but I'm releasing it anyway. It's a little fact-heavy as a result, most of the humor is towards the end. My primary reason for making this though was an excuse to use a one-liner I'd had in my mind for a while (the "hybrid car" one). And for those wondering, I took the corny title from the old computer game by the same name.

You should by no means assume anything said in Civil Protection or Freeman's Mind necessarily reflects my own beliefs, however this is one case where they do. The theme of this episode is how we're in big trouble once we run out of oil. The research I did on the topic suggest that things are going to get pretty ugly in the future. One expert interviewed by National Geographic says that the world oil supply is plateauing right now and we have about 6-8 years before it will start to decline and this guy was right on the money about when the U.S. was going to be be unable to rely on domestic oil back in the 70's. Besides what Mike mentions in the video (I won't spoil it), I think our only realistic solution is figuring out how to get cellulosic ethanol production to work on a mass scale (this isn't the same kind made from corn, sugar, and other crops). I'm not really a miltia type, but the more I read about the situation, the more it makes me want to live in a cabin out in the woods with guns and a bunch of canned goods. That would be a good place to be if society starts to fall apart. It'll be at least 10-20 years before things really get bad though.

If you hate this episode and think it's being too preachy, don't worry, this is probably the first and last episode of CP with any sort of "message". I'd rather focus on making funny, strange, or exciting videos anyway. Finally, check back in a few days and I'll have an update about what you can expect in the future with regards to CP and FM.


EDIT: I forgot ANOTHER person in the credits!  Oh well, his nickname is "JakeyB" and he did the port of "The Postal Dude" model I used as a cameo in this episode.

quick post

Well after a 16-hour long editing session, the final video is done.  I still need to do the final render, encoding, upload it, make a graphic for it, and distribute it.  Since my computer isn't the fastest and this is at HD resolution, this is going to take hours and I'm too exhausted to finish it right now.  Sorry I didn't make it by when I said I would, but I'll have it up by midday tomorrow.

EDIT:  I'm trying to upload the video right now, but my internet has cut out 5 times now.  I'm hoping it will hold up at least long enough to get it up.