Making a Machinima.Need capture card

Gamertag:JAVO1996
Fav colour:black&dark red
character:spartan
reason: i like the envolvement in machinema
capture card: no

 

Gamertag:sgt bk scrandy3
fav coloururple&gold
character:spartan
reason:because i love my dazzle
capture card:yes

 

Gamertag: o1000LioNs
Fav Colour: Navy Blue
Character: elite
Reason why you want to join: I have nothing to do on Xbox Live anymore.
Capture Card: no
Age: I am 13. So if you don't want a kid in it I'm fine.

 

Okay, I can't stress this enough: you NEED to plan out machinima. How are you going to edit the film, trim the voices, change the camera angles etc. when you're not the one recording it (let alone carry out any of the advanced techniques)? How are you going to tell the person exactly what you want them to do? What's to say that the person capturing it won't just get bored and opt out?
First off: Buy your own capture card. If you're serious about it, you need to take that £40-200 leap first.
Second: Get better people to do it with you. Random people from this forum aren't always going to be available for shoots, and may, again, opt out, leaving you suddenly missing a possibly major character. You should consider getting people who you know IRL to help you with it. That way you can do it offline and save the hassle of Xbox LIVE (including mic problems and the fact that you can't lower guns etc.).
Third: Know what you're filming! Are you all just going to show up on a forge set and expect a machinima to just happen? In all fairness, I have no idea whether or not you have a script or a plan or whatever, but my guess is that you don't.

Bottom line is that machinima needs to be taken more seriously, and that's if you want it to even happen. If you want it to be any GOOD, you have to employ hours of heartfelt time into the thing. And yes, it really is the easiest way to tell a story that you can upload to YouTube.
Sorry to rain on your parade. If you need any help, I'll be happy to help, however I can't actually use my capture card or do any acting as my 360's kicked the bucket and is being sent away sometime this week.

 

Gamertag: II MattLoaf II
Favourite Colour:Purple.
Character: Spartan
Reason why you want to join: I enjoy pupateering for Halo Machinima. (You can find me in several video's on YouTube. Just go to my YouTube channel and view my favourites.)
Capture Card: Yes.

 

I REALLY wanted to say this, but the way I was going to say it would have made be sound like a total douche.

When I do my machinima, I personally do all of the body acting MYSELF, and if needed, I'll bring a friend over to help.

The voices are another thing, because Xbox Live mics...
They ****ing suck. It is NESSESSARY for a successful machinimator to use a computer mic to record his voice. And to get other's voices, grab people you know and trust over Xbox Live and get them to get Skype. You can get good quality over skype, and you can tell him exactly how you want him to say the line. You can also hire a person on machinima.com's forum, or grab a RL friend.

Before you even decide making a machinima, create your story. What's going on? How long will it be? etc. There are some machinima that ARE improv. Such machinimas are "Meet the 360 avatar" or "GMan Squad". Avatar is different. It never was to have a storyline, but GMan Squad, on the other hand, has a LONG story arc. It makes sure that thing x, y, and z happen, while still being a improvised show.

And just to finish my post, Machinima is a dying breed. No... GOOD Machinima, is a dying breed. Most machinima going onto machinima.com and youtube are poorly planned and thought out machinima. Of course, there are few directors that continue to keep the par of machinima, but most is becoming small "lets burn some time" videos.

 

Agreed, even Jon CJG aka Digitalph33r's work is becoming unwatchable. The only machinima I watch anymore is the work of Rooster Teeth, and when you watch their live action shorts vids, you can see that it's not just a bunch of people over Xbox live or evern a few friends round one guy's house with a load of capture card wires lying around. It's an entire office, with easily tens of thousands of pounds worth of equipment. Obviously how much you spend on machinima shouldn't determine how good it is, but the blunt truth is that generally the more money you spend on machinima, the more committed you are to it. No-one would spend all that money and then rush it and make it mediocre. Especially if they expect a profit out of it. I know that's not the case in this situation, but nonetheless:

1) Plan it out in the LONG TERM. Not just the story, right now that should be a low priority compared to how available your actors are (and will be in the future). How long will it last? Will your current video/audio/voice capture methods be feasible later on, when (if) it attracts an audience?
2) DON'T rush it. Watch some of digitalph33r's machinima guide vids for tips on cutting corners etc. without it spoiling your machinima (you can't cut many corners, but watch it anyway, the info he provides is gold)
3) Keep it simple. For example, don't include tonnes of actors. This will only confuse people ("who's that guy again? Is he *Character 1*'s brother or *Character 4*'s cousin?"). It will only lead to more confusion with voices, more difficult editing, and more chance of an actor having to 'mysteriously vanish' because the voice actor for him can no longer do the voices (for whatever reason)

That;s all I can really say. Long story short, think about what you're doing carefully. The novelty of making machinima dies FAST.

 

maybe ill join i build alot of sets so.....