The Sneaky Elite - Halo Reach Machinima

It was a good short film.

Spoiler

I honestly wouldn't have guessed that the Spartan was a hologram. That was a good ending.

 

I loved the idea so much and hated part of the execution to the point where I wish I had worked on it with you, because I'm jealous I didn't think of it first. Well I did, just not in this medium D:

The reveal shots are great and the music fits VERY well, however, the disappearance parts could've been much more clever, mostly in just that it would've been better if they were one-shot, one take, not quick cuts.

1) The first "disappearance" played right into expectation when you cut from the front view of both people (that is, with the elite standing behind the spartan) then cut directly to the spartan's face. It becomes pretty clear exactly what you were going to do (even if you hadn't read the title of the piece) and would've been much more surprising had the initial angle been framed in such a way that you didn't need to cut.

What I mean is, had the entire disappearance and reveal been one congruous take, I honestly would have no idea what was going to happen when he turned around. You could have done this by making the spartan bigger in terms of screen real estate (similar to those screenshots that play with depth perception where it looks like one character is a giant holding another character in their hands). So you'd have the spartan walk toward the camera, which was lower and closer to where the spartan ends up (maybe showing just their face), thus obscuring the elite from vision for a second where he could drop down (if you shift where they walk slightly to the right), or move behind cover of that pillar thing with the small pond around it (if you shifted their path slightly to the left). Then the reveal would be the camera moving to one side as the spartan turned around (all in the same shot, mind you) showing that nobody was there.

2) The second disappearance where he fades into the palm tree was a VERY clever use of still frame. However, this too could have been better had it been one long shot.

Again, and like the version in the final cut, the character walks toward the camera, but instead of cutting to him turning the corner, you should have continued pulling back, SHOWING him turning the corner in the same shot, leaving the elite in plain view for the audience to see.

Then you would've cut back to the character turning back around the corner, seeing nothing, then the elite popping out.

While you still use a cut, it would've heightened the reveal that he was behind the bamboo, practically in plain sight all along, because we physically saw the space he was in before he was gone. So when he pops back, my initial reaction of "WOW THAT WAS CLEVER" would have been "WOW HOW DID HE DO THAT."

3) This one is an issue continuity wise. You have the elite ride up the lift, and you plainly show the space the real spartan emerges from, completely empty. It was a clever use of hologram (like the person above I didn't call it) but I feel cheated, that you cheapened the piece because that space was safe, there was nothing there. This would've been nonexistent and smoother (methinks) if you had the real spartan in the hallway to the left, popping out just as the elite mistakes his hologram. He would be completely obscured, and logically (for both players of Reflection, and people watching the machinima) it would've been sound.

A lot of that sounds like I'm talking down to you, I realize, and what I'm about to say would only heighten that interpretation, but I'd really like to help direct your stuff in the future if you'd have me. The idea and some of the execution was extremely clever, but it could've been cleaner imo.

 

I thought it was VERY clever.

Spoiler

The hologram at the end fooled me lol.

 

Sarge said what I was thinking. Obviousness on the hiding. That's about my only concern. Otherwise, it was really well done.

 

The entire time I was watching the vid I just had a feeling that the spartan was eventually gonna catch on and get the elite. It was a pretty good video, definantly one to watch until the end.

 

As short as this was it was very entertaining. The music fit well and it was just plan fun to watch. I'd like to see more of this. I could even see a series of these, kinda like the road runner cartoons where the elite never wins but is always trying new ways to sneak up on the spartan.