Orbidome - Halo 3 Gameshow!

I love watching those, sometimes it's a little annoying that the players don't listen to you, but the chellanges are always fun.
Get the FH Staff to do a special episode with them as the cast

 

Alright, I fully watched the pilot episode (which I tried and got bored out of after about 5 minutes the first time).

The concept is good, however the execution leaves me VERY bored watching it.

Loved
- The challenges. Especially the final level where everyone needs to work together.
- The overall concept.
- The Monitor as the host.

Hated
- The lack of clear direction. I'm not sure if you remedied this for other episodes, but the pilot was just "well what do they get if they win?" Gameshows are watched on TV not really for the challenges (as they are inevitably recycled, especially in long running ones) but because of the grandiose prizes. People want to feel like there's a chance they'll not only be chosen for the game, but they'll win big if they do. The only way of providing that experience via machinima is to have real world stakes, MSP, a game, I don't know. I realize you're a cheapskate (as you said in the pilot) but it holds true.
- Your Voice. Not the tone or accent as that really doesn't do much by way of disliking it, it might even spur American viewers toward watching it. However, your monotony and low-volume lead to a sleepy feeling overall. There were parts where you could have expressed excitement and didn't. Gameshow hosts are not only lovable and gregarious, they're loud, almost ostentatious. They speak their mind, do as they please. They're meant to be the person everyone wishes they knew in their private lives.
-The special effects. The special effects were alright, but they weren't showy enough. You used drab colors (like default black and gray) to convey information onscreen. I realize some colors would conflict with the bright yellow of Sandbox's palette, but that's what dropshadows, boxes and borders are for. The information isn't put onscreen trivially, it's meant to be seen, you need to draw the viewer's eye to it, if not for a moment.

I particularly liked your overhead view of the mongoose-line challenge, however it could have been improved with a small window (picture-in-picture) showing the people getting onto vehicles or even cutting to it.

-The editing. I can't quite say I hated how they were used, as it was quite sharp overall, however, you need to smooth your angles and maximize cuts. When you're panning over an area, you make sharp movements that jerk the camera around. They need to be as smooth as possible, because regular viewers DO notice when the shot is off. As for cuts, you should really build your challenge maps to have nice static camera angles rather than just shoving the camera where it appears it would serve the shot. After that, you can alternate between smooth pans and cuts and it would provide a nice contrast to it all.
-The final challenge. I realize I already stated that I loved it, but the problem that arises is you made it too difficult to be worth watching. Everyone is scrambling for items and the actual goal itself is left for the people to figure out (which could be remedied with an overview of the map BEFORE the people go onto it, a sweeping segment for introduction, which would accompany the already-present voice-over you provide for the players). Furthermore, the time is short. There was one segment that was 3 minutes long, but the final challenge was (and correct me if I'm wrong) 90 seconds, mightve been 2 minutes. Anyway, the final challenge needs to be grandiose in scale. You need to increase the time and make it easier for the people to grab items. With a newfound direction where players know they need to run to the hole and throw stuff in, you could cut everytime you see someone run over, show the item getting tossed in, then cut to someone else making progress elsewhere.

Even better than simply making it easier would be a making the pyramid an amalgamation of different challenges. A VERY SIMPLE puzzle on the inside, a few side stuff in the corners of the crypt, etc. Individuals would be off doing their own thing getting points ASAP and you could cut, providing variety. Then, the main pyramid would be a team-jump matter (for the final straw) and would have everyone working together as originally planned (for that segment only) making it the challenge worth the most points and only optional (since the easy points would be made on individual challenges throughout the map). Increase the time limit to 5 minutes and voila.

I have other comments but I'm going home, if you're interested, PM me.