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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoW Moviewatch: The Thaenor Chronicles, Chapter One
by Moo Money 
Apr 2nd 2008 at 12:00PM
While the visuals are well done, the voice acting leaves something to be desired. I also have to wonder why he only released the high-quality version on archive.org. If you'd like to follow along on his progress with the movie, check out Stormscape's blog.
[Via Warcraftmovies.com]
If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.
Previously on the feature that was previously and still known as Moviewatch ...
Filed under: Machinima, WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Stormscape Apr 2nd 2008 7:03PM
You may have noticed that on that list of drama movies, one of mine is 14th, sorted by rating, and 16th sorted by downloads. There are 193 movies in the category.
And as far as downloads go, take a moment to look at the gap between the first one (TotP III) and the next few on the list. While you're there, compare that 193 to the number of movies in other categories.
I'm wrong? The facts seem to disagree.
TotalBiscuit Apr 2nd 2008 7:23PM
If you want to argue semantics then I suggest you take a look at the genre my movies are posted under (underground > gold-farming) and explain to me why a deliberately lo-fi series of documentary-style machinima in an even more overlooked category, creams your view-count several times over.
Sure, Tales has tons of views. There's also several very good reasons for this, not least of which that it doesn't suck. There are plenty of other machinima on there that don't suck either. However, it's also not posted on Youtube, and Warcraftmovies in this case, is the best place to view it. You quite literally have to go there to find links to the movie, so of course it's going to have a far higher view-rate than anything else, that can be watched on a variety of more popular, streaming sites.
Relatively, your genre is among the more popular ones, behind perhaps PvP and comedy. Making excuses for your lack of views is a cop-out. Lest we also forget that the comment rating average is no way what-so-ever to workout how popular your video is. You have a grand total of 16 comments, and less than 1000 views on Warcraftmovies. It's hardly an accurate measure of anything.
In this case however, you are guilty of what you accused me of earlier, derailing the topic to try and 'keep your argument alive'. My argument is exactly the same as it always was. Your movie sucked, you got called on it, you whined about it, blamed others for some imaginary PR disaster, and succeeded in making a complete ass out of yourself.
I'd better stop before you attack me with your l33t samurai sword.
Stormscape Apr 2nd 2008 8:17PM
(Fact: Drama has 193 movies, out of 21,603 on the site. Oh yeah, that's the big genre alright)
"a deliberately lo-fi series of documentary-style machinima in an even more overlooked category, creams your view-count several times over."
This just supports my position. Your paragraph on TotP3, if relevant at all, also supports my position.
And now you've resorted to outright lies.
I actually have a grand total of 792 comments and 32,685 downloads on WCM as of this posting. Not that impressive, granted, but still in the same ballpark as the competition.
I've done no whining, made no excuses. I've only corrected factual errors and incorrect assumptions.
For example: "you obviously delete all of the negative remarks from your Youtube channel"
The only thing I've ever deleted from youtube is accidental double-posts and power-leveling spam.
I wasn't the one who derailed the topic, I wasn't the one who had to resort to name-calling, and I'm not the one who's ego has now kept him from quitting while he was ahead.
TotalBiscuit Apr 2nd 2008 8:44PM
"I've done no whining, made no excuses. I've only corrected factual errors and incorrect assumptions.
For example: "you obviously delete all of the negative remarks from your Youtube channel"
The only thing I've ever deleted from youtube is accidental double-posts and power-leveling spam."
Sure you have :> I admit it, I lost at the 'I've done no whining' remark.
"I wasn't the one who derailed the topic, I wasn't the one who had to resort to name-calling, and I'm not the one who's ego has now kept him from quitting while he was ahead."
The topic was that your movie sucked. Last time I checked, that was still the topic. I'm not calling you names, I'm saying your movies sucks. The only ad-hom in this thread came from you with your juvenile remarks (see such gems as 'Mr Bigshot').
You're the one who's keeping this going. You should never have posted such ridiculous statements in the first place 'PR DISASTER! OMG!' and now rather than bowing out and accepting the views of your betters, perhaps learning from them and becoming a better machinimator, you wish to drag out this purile discussion.
Here's a tip. I was always ahead, I always will be ahead. I'm a lot better at this flaming thing than you are, do yourself a favor and leave while some shred of your dignity remains intact. For god's sake learn to stand behind your own work and better yet, produce material worth watching, rather than whining when you get called on it.
I have nothing further to add to this discussion and I'd like to save those reading the trouble of making them read my views over and over ad nauseum. In your case however, I'd suggest you do just that, you might learn something about how to conduct yourself in this particular arena.
TotalBiscuit Apr 2nd 2008 8:46PM
Oh and I meant to say 'I lost it at', rather than I lost. Losing isn't in my vocabulary, so you can probably tell :>
Jay Apr 2nd 2008 4:03PM
This has to be a joke. Cmon at the beginning, "Indeed may the blessing of the uh... light go with you.. excelsior"
TotalBiscuit Apr 2nd 2008 5:03PM
Incidently I watched your trailer, and it was better than the first one (there's a shocker..), but for god's sake at least credit the artists you stole the music from, as cliche as it is.
Xonate Apr 2nd 2008 5:44PM
I just watched it as well and it does look better. But it bothers me that I can't think of what that music is from even though I know I've heard it. Credits are so useful in this instance.
Monkey5 Apr 2nd 2008 7:02PM
If you want to watch professional movies, go to the movie theatre and PAY for them. Amateur movies are made as free entertainment - they have limited resources and are often someone working hard to express themselves. It may not be professional quality, but it's someone's work.
Go pay for professional movies and stop being so overly critical of amateur ones.
TotalBiscuit Apr 2nd 2008 7:15PM
This bullshit excuse is always touted by the ignorant.
Works are judged relatively to other works in that particular field. In this particular field, there's a metric ton of stuff that's better than this. Why not judge it harshly? You think just because someone put something on the internet they deserve glowing praise and admiration for it?
No. If you gave a damn about the genre you'd realize that encouraging people to produce terrible machinima only hinders the progression of the form, not helps it.
Compared to other machinima, this sucks. Compared to professional movies, it still sucks. What's the difference?
lilleas Apr 3rd 2008 2:39PM
its really too bad everyone in this thread is bashing eachother.. really its getting to be too much.. it was for entertainment.. people have opinions and they should just leave it at that.
Moo Money Apr 3rd 2008 2:44PM
I thought I was doing a good thing by featuring a video that didn't get as much play the first time around. I am appalled that he would exhibit such behavior over being complimented. I pointed out one thing constructively.
You may notice that the only reason the bashing got that ugly between TB and the other commenter was because that was the filmmaker and he absolutely flipped out. As long as he wants to say I "sabotaged his PR campaign," then I'm going to have fun with it.
lilleas Apr 3rd 2008 2:48PM
i agree he flipped out.. i just really am disheartened that people have that knee jerk reaction to things just because its the internet.. they think they can be jerks or whatnot.. i read this site for information and entertainment .. i just don't agree with how people handle things.. whether they think its funny or not
pseudostudent May 16th 2009 1:57AM
Moo Money - thanks for linking to this project. After watching it I have to say I am really looking forward to seeing chapter two.
Stormscape - Way to overreact over some really rather mild criticism about the voice acting! Put some of that passion into the voice acting for chapter 1 and you'll really have something.
tigress Apr 5th 2008 12:30PM
If you're going to work in any type of creative field, Stormscape, my advice is to work on taking criticism better. Even if you don't think it's useful, either calmly discuss it - maybe the critiquer isn't explaining it in a way you understand, or just smile and say thanks. This reaction takes too much away from your work and how people see you as an artist.
My other words of advice are to learn to pull yourself away from the critique and really understand and believe that they're talking about your WORK, not YOU. Don't take it as a slight against yourself personally. And always take critiques that aren't face to face with a grain of salt - people often sound harsher and irritated in text then they do when you're actually in a room reviewing work together.
Badger Apr 4th 2008 1:36PM
Please, calm down, folks. This is not worth getting abrasive with each other.
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Stormscape, you're obviously very proud of your work, and understandably so. Unfortunately, I suspect that you allowed your pride to be wounded by scanning only the surface of a handful of comments. I have often been guilty of the same knee-jerk response. The issue here is that you should practice graciously accepting constructive criticism without making the assumption that such commentary is meant only as an insult.
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Moo Money, I believe that you really did mean well when you posted this particular video. It was meant to draw attention to a lesser-known project, and the author of the video should be thankful for the additional chance at publicity. Also, you clearly stated that the project was a year old, implying that improvement was imminent by referring to the upcoming release of Chapter 2, and complimented the positive (i.e. visual quality) while commenting on the negative (i.e. recording and sound quality). I'd say this is a pretty good example of constructive criticism, and should have been accepted as such, rather than being labeled "sabotage." That's just plain excessive. Stormscape should chill a bit, step away from the keyboard, and just accept that it your comments were meant as a recommendation for how to improve upon his future work (as I've already mentioned).
If I might make a recommendation ... I've worked with journalists for the last several years, and I think that part of the problem with Stormscape's misinterpretation of your comments is that you made any comments at all. Often, those who write at some length about artistic work choose to describe the work, but remain emotionally detached (or, to coin a phrase, "purposefully vague"), in order to permit readers to make up their own minds about what they think. In the context of your initial comments, however, I think that some readers may have felt compelled to either agree or disagree with something you'd already said (i.e. your comments on sound quality), rather than choosing a starting point for themselves. In the future, you might want to just describe the film, then step back and let others express their views, rather than stating your own up front.
Please note: I have no idea if "Moviewatch" is meant to act as a REVIEW or simply a SPOTLIGHT. If it's the former, then I'm wrong, and your entire purpose for publication is to express your own views.
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TotalBiscuit ... Well, quite frankly, I don't know what to say. You're probably either an accomplished animator or sound specialist, and congratulations on getting your name out there through what is undoubtedly top-notch work. Not all of us are "pros," however (and not all of us have heard of your work - myself included). Your initial comments featured absolutely no semblance of constructive criticism; instead, you chose to be outright insulting in your first comment without actually making suggestions as to how Stormscape, an aspiring animator, could improve on his projects. "This sucks" is not the same thing as "This sucks, but I have an idea for how it could be fixed." Since you're obviously quite experienced with sound (and you don't hesitate to remind readers every few lines), maybe you could make some suggestions, rather than shooting the project down and pretending to be on the defensive in the wake of the animator's inevitable fit.
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Now, with that said ... We should all go have a beer and bitch about movie-making in general, rather than hurting each other's feelings over a ten-minute video game movie.
Stormscape Apr 4th 2008 3:52PM
That is all very well put.
After calming down a bit I realize I initially over reacted, causing a chain of over-reaction, and well... *gestures at the thread*
I would just like to, once more, make clear that I was not upset by any criticism of Chapter One. The movie has myriad flaws; I never disputed this.
The sole reason for my outburst, was that I felt the article was misleading. It gave no indication that I have released subsequent work in the 15 months since creating Chapter One, and made no mention of the new trailer.
Though mentioning it was from a year ago, Chapter One was otherwise presented--at least to my eyes--as current work. I was genuinely concerned that it would negatively affect Chapter Two's reception, and as I said, I over-reacted.
(I also have to wonder why Archive.org was getting flack. I use it because it is the only site that allows you to link directly to the file, allowing the download to take place without viewers visiting any superfluous web pages)
That said, TB compared me to Uwe Boll, and that just pissed me off.
Badger Apr 4th 2008 4:06PM
Well, there you go, dude. You've already gained more from sitting back and re-examining the "argument" than you would have from letting anger fester over a handful of comments that may (or may not) have been intended simply as constructive criticism.
If you look carefully at Moo's initial post, though:
"I dug out this gem from almost a year ago because [Stormscape Creations] is preparing to release the second chapter of [The Thaenor Chronicles] any day now!"
(Brackets denote links. I'm terrible with HTML or comment tags.)
You're right about a lack of references to additional material. However, a patient reader would figure out, from the fact that your next release is coming up very soon, that you haven't been entirely idle. Thankfully, this is not the General Forums, so you can at least grant a modicum of respect to some of this particular site's viewers.
It also suggests that the first Chapter is by no means "current work," and the lack of a link to the trailer might be something as simple as lack of awareness - that is, Moo probably knows the release date is coming up, but doesn't realize the newer trailer is already available.
This all ties in to a lesson that I learned when I still regularly played WOW: Whenever someone says something that appears unnecessarily abrasive or aggressive, you just have to step back and think about what they might mean, rather than what they say directly. (The fact that text doesn't exactly do much for "tone of voice" doesn't help.)
Archive.org ... Well, you've explained that now, and that's really irrelevant to the content of the film anyway. I'd just ignore sidelong commentary like that.
As for "Uwe Boll," though ... Holy crap, what a low blow. Ouch.
Moo Money Apr 4th 2008 4:30PM
Actually, if you look at the link to The Thaenor Chronicles in the very sentence that you cited, it links back to the trailer. Had he been nicer that day, I was actually going to put the trailer on as another Moviewatch. However, I'm also not a glutton for punishment and that guy does not deserve another spotlight.
Badger Apr 4th 2008 4:40PM
... Eep. My bad.
Sorry, Moo, half the freaking internet is blocked here at work. Thus, no clickage earlier. Good to know, though.