WoW Moviewatch: Octopus by Jonathan Coulton
by Michael Gray 
Jan 11th 2010 at 12:00PM
What's really interesting about this video, however, is the annotations. The video's good, but Sabaska went above-and-beyond with his YouTube annotations. Using this feature, Sabaska outlined many notes, topics, and techniques he used in creating Octopus. This is especially helpful because it gives the audience a better look at the effort and work performed by machinima makers, and gives us a look behind the curtain. For many people just getting started with machinima, I'd wager it also gives them a little inspiration and useful tips. Octopus wasn't meant to be a tutorial, of course, but it's still awesome that Sabaska shared this level of information with us.
Octopus is a fun video, and it's one for which Sabaska should be proud. I'm eager to see what he does next.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.Filed under: WoW Moviewatch, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jared.daniels Jan 11th 2010 12:09PM
Dear holy goodness those things were annoying. There should totally be a way to turn them off because I just wanted to see the video. To be honest, I like that the guy put in the effort to make the video and it looks awesome, but I really don't care what he has to say about each and every little effect in the video.
Sorry, but that really irks me.
jared.daniels Jan 11th 2010 12:15PM
Oh... I found a way to turn them off. I recommend it for your first watch, it will make it much more enjoyable.
orco42 Jan 11th 2010 12:16PM
You can turn them off. Click the triangle in bottom right, then select first option. Problem solved!
Hairfish Jan 11th 2010 1:55PM
Thank you for the tip about turning off the notes; I hope Mr. Gray will add it as a footnote to his article.
I'll have to watch this video again without those distracting, annoying blocks of text. I prefer to think that the creators of fun videos like this one are wizards performing magic. I don't want to see behind the curtain!
ben Jan 11th 2010 12:21PM
Aww man, i thought this was gonna be "I crush everything". Why does Johnathan Coulton have so many songs about octopusses? i absolutelty adore i crush everything!
Lemons Jan 11th 2010 1:31PM
Whoa, that was really REALLY good for a first try. You can really see he put a lot of work into it. Kind of did himself a disservice with those annotations. There should probably be two versions of the video...one with and one without.
The Giant Jan 11th 2010 3:18PM
No need to have one without. You can easily turn them off using orco42's tip.
Thorie Jan 11th 2010 3:24PM
It's a fact that WoW Machinima gets twice as many viewers if they change 'the race' that always ends up singing. Regardless if it's a rap or not
Katalliaan Jan 11th 2010 3:41PM
I'd say that a blood elf isn't really the right choice for the "singer", but I doubt there is a right choice. Makes me wish that Blizzard used some of the effects he did (like the one following 2:36) in the game.
monkeyhouse Jan 11th 2010 5:05PM
i am sure that a lot of effort went into it - but it is overkill with the special effects, nauseatingly so. and the content has nothing whatsoever to do with the song (apart from a few fleeting clips). shame as normally i love the Jonathan Coulton (JoCo? seriously?) machinima.
Stone_Rhino Jan 11th 2010 5:19PM
You beat me to it. I just made a post along the same lines. Making a video with more than just a fleeting relevance to the actual song is critical if you hope to capture an audience that normally enjoys that material.
Stone_Rhino Jan 11th 2010 5:16PM
This video really bothered me. Not so much for what the author did. But what he didnt.
If you have seen ANY of the other Jonathan Coulton wow videos you know what im talking about. They all are extremely well done, and have quite a bit of relevance to the song. This guy tried, but having 50% of the video just be stock shots of the lvl70 ETC band is poor form. Also, the song would supposedly take place in the ocean, and instead he uses TB and a flying octopus? Im not sure what the though process was there.
Octopus is one of my favorite songs and I really wanted to like this vid, but Its just doesnt fit the theme of the song. Feel free to downrate me for having an negative opinion.
hitman10ten Jan 11th 2010 5:56PM
Wow! Thankyou very much Mr.Gray, and thank you all for your wonderful comments! I do agree that there needs to be some improving (well, this was all made in Sony Vegas only, so I was kind of limited) but I guess it works out well for a first music video!
Just for the people who don't understand my idea:
Rather than creating a usual, straightforward video 100% related to the music, I chose to add my own creativity and inspirations to the machinima aswell, for most of you this will be very unusual and you probably wouldn't understand the plot I was trying to create.
Basically, the singer (the blood elf was chosen as he fitted the 'singer' role well, I mean, most of his animations could work greatly with the plot) is the master, who had given the deadly octopuses the ability to fly. He then starts playing god, commanding his creations to attack civilians. But he begins to lose power over his creation as they see they don't need him anymore. This is projected by the way he is looking at his reflection (as a sort of "what have i done!") and the monsters dismiss themselves from their master.
The master then resigns to entertain the world as a 'enjoy your last moments' or maybe an apology for what he had unleashed, but in a sudden assassination, the octopuses murder their leader. The video ends with the master staring into the eyes of his killer!
I hope you viewers understand what I mean now! If not, well, its just a machinima!
Sabaska
SabaskaTheNoob on Youtube