WoW Moviewatch: Lingering Memory
by Natalie Mootz 
Sep 24th 2008 at 12:00PM
Hey there, I'm the new WoW Moviewatch blogger since Moo unfortunately had to leave our hallowed halls. My first pick is a new film by Count Vrenna called Lingering Memory. The story follows a young Paladin's conflict with The Scourge at Caer Darrow. It's told without dialog or voiceover, with just a few titles by way of setup and some emotional music to carry the mood.
Count Vrenna asserts that this is his first time filming large battle scenes, but I wouldn't have guessed if he hadn't told me. The last scene showing rows of Death Knights -- including one of the Naaru, just like we find in Ebon Hold -- is chilling in its inevitability. Another scene I liked is where the hero confronts her fate and memories of her life flash before her eyes. It reminds me somewhat of Here Without You but without the love story. I've never quite gotten the hang of role playing but all these RP guilds making such cool recruitment videos sure make the idea tempting to try.
[Via WarcraftMovies.]
If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.
Previously on Moviewatch ...
Filed under: Machinima, WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shumina Sep 24th 2008 12:27PM
Very beautiful. Seems of a European bent in scope and style. Hope to see more of things like this without hammy dialogue or overinvolved exposition.
wowblogger Sep 24th 2008 1:16PM
Are you including videos on for example warcraftmovies.com? I am really inquiring as to whether you will be reviewing pvp videos. http://www.worldofwarcraftblogger.com
Natalie Mootz Sep 24th 2008 1:32PM
I prefer to review movies that are more than simply gameplay videos. If the movie in question has a story, is funny, dramatic, or has something else going for it than just gameplay, I'll take a look at it. (The "How to Paladin" series is a good example of taking gameplay videos to a Moviewatch level.)
Askawarlock Sep 24th 2008 1:14PM
Very beautiful piece. Nice editing, and great choice of music. My only critique is the combat seemed a little clunky, but it wasn't enough to take away from it overall.
I thoroughly enjoyed that, nice pick
iliya Sep 24th 2008 1:27PM
I wonder what the music's from.
If it's original, I hope there's a way one can get their greedy little hands on it, because that's some good atmosphere music right there.
Count Vrenna Sep 24th 2008 1:39PM
As much as I wish I had the creative flair to compose such beautiful music, it was actually taken from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford soundtrack.
An amazing movie, by the way, if you haven't seen it.
Thanks for featuring the movie, and I hope you all enjoyed it. =D
Moo Money Sep 24th 2008 1:57PM
Congrats on your first day!
Ghostmaster Sep 24th 2008 2:36PM
Welcome, Natalie. I think you will do a good job sharing machinima with us. Have fun :)
Keyra Sep 24th 2008 6:33PM
Hmm...I am hoping that this is a "part 1" of a work in progress? Because yes, I am interested in seeing how this progresses.
Now, on the critical side of things - the obvious one first: Don't overcompress. When saving your work, PLEASE save at the very least "Video for Broadband (512 Kbps)" if you're using those dreaded Windows Movie Maker pre-sets, or thereabouts (I recommend using MAGIX, Ulead or Sony Vegas with Divx encoding which is not only more powerful and enables you to do a lot more with your work, but also saves a lot of headaches in the long run. True, it can also create some, so be careful).
The reason I'm coming down hard on compression is that when you try to view it at full-screen, the artifacting (often referred to as the jpeg jaggies) is horrific if you're not conscientious about the compression. I realize that you may also be trying to keep it under YouTube's ridiculous size limitations, so you may also want to consider another site like LiveVideo, On The Air TV, etc. that are more lenient with file sizes and video lengths.
This one wasn't too bad as far as the compression, but there were parts where full-screen just didn't work due to the artifacting.
Okay, that one's out of the way. The next is scene progression. When working with transitions, keep in mind that a cross-blend may be more dramatic than a fade in/out (either black or white) and you won't lose the feel for the scene. That's not to say that a sudden fade out to white and back in again doesn't make for a striking transition, but it may also detract from the feel of the scene if all you are wanting is a simple "moving along to the next view" kind of thing. This one could have used a couple of cross-fades during the "we became..." sequence in my view, but that's me and how I roll :-)
Lastly, keep a close eye on the alpha. If it looks a little dark, when you upload it to a video sharing site and it undergoes their encoding into .flv format, it may get darker (YouTube is notorious for this). Again, this one wasn't too bad in that regard, but there were a couple of spots that could have used a tweaking. Conversely, some sites, such as LiveVideo, make it a little lighter, so keep this in mind as well when you're making your videos as to how the final product looks after encoding onto the site.
All-in-all, though - a good video with a nice feel and good attention to visual artistry! Kudos!
Blackhorn Sep 25th 2008 1:36PM
The alpha?
Could you possibly mean the "levels" and the "gamma"? Maybe you're just using the term alpha in a way I haven't heard despite many long years in the video, design, and compression industries.
Keyra Sep 25th 2008 2:50PM
Argh...that's what happens when I write a comment at work and my mind's divided between three different things! Yes, I meant "gamma", not "alpha". Well, at least it was still Greek :-)
Illirien Sep 30th 2008 12:27PM
Vrenna, this is amazing work. I'm not experienced with computer video editing at all, but I am experienced with film criticism. This is excellent.