John's Guide to the Galaxy.,... I mean Machinima

This is John P26's guide. I take NO credit for this. This was posted in the Halo 3 Section of Xbox.com Forums.

So you just heard soon you will be able to take any clip from your Bungie File share and upload it to the interwebz! Now before you poke a hole in your pants, you need the learn the basics....of MACHINIMA.

Machinima pretty much means you make a movie with a video game. Simple.

Before you get started and uploading complete utter crap to your youtube profile, you need to know the four T's and of course the to do's.

Time
Teens
Trust
and
Tale

First ask yourself.
Do I have the time to do this?(Could be 2 weeks to a month).
If you said Yes, then ask yourself.
Do I know enough people to make a machinima? And are they old enough to comprehend big words?
If you said yes...
Can I trust these people to listen to me and take it seriously?
and if you said yes...
Do I know what the story and genre the machinima will be?

Now the To-Do's

1. You need to make a forum and website to orangize the new machinima group and a name.

My reommend site for forums. It's easy, free, and a good starter.
Also Skype, you can get all your members in a chatroom(voice and text), to discuss ideas and etc.

2. Decide what you are going to do, are you just going to direct, write, voice act, act, edit?

3. Programs: You need a free sound recorder.
Here is one I use.
An editing software, I recommend searching youtube "Free Sony Vegas 8" /wink /wink
And you don't need a capture card...

4. If you decide you want to voice act. A PC headset is the way to go.

5. Before you go advertise your new site, make sure your forums has the rules, people wanted, and script sections.

6. Advertising: One of the best places is machinima.com, people are always looking for new groups.
Make sure that when you ask for voice actors they have a PC headset, a recording program, and can send you the sound files. If you ask for script writers tell them to write a 2 paragraph small script for a story, and location of your choice. This lets you pick the ones you want very easily. If you hire actors make sure they know what they are doing.
7. You now have ten members congratulations. But, wait!!! 3 of your members just got RROD, and 2 of your members are in England, another in Russia. Expect Delays. Nothing is ever going to be perfect trust me, oh and NEVER I repeat never try to film without the script writer, or only half of the actors.
8. Getting to know your group. This IS the biggest one. You need to know about everyone of your members, because they will stay longer. They will also be more mature during filming.
8 and 1/2(OPTIONAL BEST WHEN YOU HAVE A CAPTURE CARD): Intro video to kick off fanbase, get a bunch of your members, and just mess around and get interviews with everyone. If you don't have a capture card the best bet would be to set your PC mic by the TV, and record all of it, but it won't turn out as good.
9. The scripts:
Funny Scripts: 70% of all machinima(includes music videos), they include small children voices, loud sounds, jokes, tea bagging, recon, and racism.
Action Packed. 20% of machinima. No storyline, just aliens and humans fightin each other. Expect to hear mom yelling in the background when dialog pops up.
Story Script: 10% of all machinima. Usually have more than one episode, and are very good. Storyline, great dialog. Different map locations, plot twist, characters.

10. Congrats, you now have 5 scripts that are ready to be made films.

1. Make a date for filming, each script is going to need at least 5 days, again expect delays. REMEMBER TIMEZONES, ASK ALL MEMBERS WHAT THEIR TIMEZONE IS.
2. Sign ups. Make sign ups for all scripts. Actors, voice actors. What armor, what species, etc.
3. When you know that everyone can make it, and they know there roles. IT IS TIME TO FILM!
4. Make sure you have edited maps ready.

11. Filming: Congratulations. If you are reading this you must have the brains to organize a group of people. A skill you will need in real life, but can you control these people?

If there is one thing in machinima that you will hate it is this.
Expect:
People from 2 different countries hogging up the microphones yelling at each other.
People messing around killing each other.
People who go AFK for 3 hours in a hornet that does not respawn in mid air.
Little brothers that get on older brothers account.

Now if you are filming a funny script, all it really is, well it's people hoping around killing one another. Lots of head bobbing for jokes. Tricking little kids for recon. Really easy...aslong as the actors know there roles. Placement is not a big deal because of theater mode.

Action Packed: Just get Spartans and Elites fighting each other. Simple.

Story script: Colors, armor, placement, numbers of people, vehicles, explosions, weapons, head bobbing, actors, all need to be perfect! When you try for a scene repeat it few times so everyone knows where to drive their vehicle, who to shoot, where to die etc. Make sure your actors move around like in a movie, NOT like they are playing MLG.
If you mess up don't sweat, remember theater mode save all films.

12. Clips: Record your clips, get the angles and views you want, send it to Bungie.net. Make it into a WMV file when the feature comes out at Bungie. Open the clips in your editor.

13 .Editing: Make sure all your scenes are in order, study the script before editing. If you missed a clip go back and film again. So simple, you can't completely mess up.

14. Voice acting. Before this all voice actors would have signed up. Give them their lines, and tell them to send dialog to your email, add voice acting to video.

15. Upload, simple. Go to youtube or video site of your choice.

16. Advertise.

17. Flood of members. Don't get scared when you have 100 members, remember that you will need more moderators over time. Usually the people who joined first make good Mods. Make your forums bigger by adding new sections.

 

They will so be releasing something so you can render your video from your share to your computer.