WoW Moviewatch: Frozen Fate
by Michael Gray 
May 7th 2010 at 12:00PM
This video is a little longer than your normal machinima, clocking in at 10 minutes. However, I think the time is entirely well spent. The story is straightforward but very well scripted. I am especially excited that this video was created using in-game footage. While there was definitely some editing, the movie was created almost entirely out of a character's viewscreen. That's pretty exciting, especially when you consider how well Travis pulled the entire experience together.
I hope the teach agrees to let other students use machinima for their projects; it seems like Travis did a good job.
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 email at machinima AT wow DOT com.Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rakah May 7th 2010 12:13PM
Oblivion music?
Ozzard May 7th 2010 12:17PM
Given the Bethesda credit at the end, it seems likely :-).
jmac28083 May 8th 2010 2:55AM
The music at 1:04 was from The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. The music at 9:33 was from The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (Made by bethesda also) (and one of my top 5 fav games of all time).
exogenesis. May 7th 2010 12:19PM
For a school project, I think this is excellent work. I don't know much about machinima - in fact, the closest I've ever coming to making any is recording 30 seconds of game footage with FRAPS - and although it's very rough around the edges, I think it makes it all the better. Very good work Travis, let's hope your teacher likes it too!
Vitos May 7th 2010 12:39PM
I really enjoyed this. I also enjoyed some (unintentional) little things that most people (who don't play wow) wouldn't understand.
I really liked seeing the orphan and a quick second of lag-porting when he was heading out to fight the scourge. A very nice film.
Avan May 7th 2010 12:48PM
He really seems to like putting the camera in front of the lighthouse beam.
SaintStryfe May 7th 2010 12:59PM
It's the kind of shot video people, especially professors, love. Easy transitions, full of subtext and meaning (as relates to time - passing, continuing, ect). And in WoW's case: easy to setup. Go ahead, try it.
Tokkar May 7th 2010 1:16PM
Ah, lovely <cough><cough> YouTube. "An error occured. Please try again later."
Anne Stickney May 7th 2010 4:08PM
This was really well put together, honestly. What kind of grade did he get?
zweitblom May 7th 2010 4:15PM
While this movie was certainly nicely shot apart from the jitters during camera movement it failed for me on the level of emotional involvement. Compare with for instance 'Return' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP0RosrDtns) or the classic 'Here without you'. There is something missing in this video.
zweitblom May 7th 2010 4:24PM
After watching it again - there is surprisingly little story in it for ten minutes. Man gets called up for military, travels to Northrend and dies in his first skirmish. You could have told that in maybe two minutes.
Demolock May 7th 2010 5:41PM
Just tell the guy to release and run back...
Dreyja May 7th 2010 5:55PM
Wow. This vid really is a homage to the what the assignment was for. There were moments when the "camera" swung around or came up from below where I was a bit blown away.
Great work!
Certainly it was long and low on story but that was not the point. It was chalked FULL of visual goodness! :D
Wildthings May 7th 2010 6:08PM
Now THAT was good Mech.. I, whom faithfully play horde. (Place dutiful "For the HORDE" here) like seeing a part of the game I have never experienced.
For putting this together in ONE night, this guy is a genius and deserves some major Teacher love, along with all of yours.
Sure it was simple, but thats what pulled me in. I was like, Awww... He died.. =*( It brought back all those first time emotions of coming to a new place and finding yourself WAY over your head.
Now this is what should be posted, this kind of work.. Not that trash from yesterday.. I hope that guys fans riot honestly.
Keep up the amazing work! A+
jasonlstroh May 7th 2010 8:36PM
I was anticipating him to die and be raised into Scourgelord Tyrannus... XD
Moorit May 7th 2010 9:29PM
Wasn't that the level 1 warrior outfit he was wearing? Poor guy, no wonder he died in the end. ;)
Really great movie though.
Snuzzle May 7th 2010 11:05PM
Nicely done! There are a LOT of shots in there that must have taken him AGES to get perfect... mostly the ones involving the NPCs (ie, having to time it so that the penguins are visible when the boat passes, waiting for Clara to go to the well, etc).
And in a way, it's pretty fitting that he's just some average schlob in the level 1 warrior kit. Even if you don't know WoW, you can compare his armor to that of the guards helping attack and see that his armor is clearly inferior.
My only (minor) complaint would be that when he was roused from his bed and running to attack the scourge, he was the only one. It would have been nice to see some other rag-tag recrutis or some guards rushing with him. It couldn't have been TOO hard to pay at least a half dozen fellow players a bit of gold and have them run with him, could it have? Hell, gather some random lowbies in Stormwind, have them take the boat to Northrend, turn on Fraps and say "The first one to reach the gates gets 100g!" Guarantee it'd be a mad scrabble to the gates.
Hope he gets a good grade though!
Karth May 7th 2010 11:05PM
Hey folks,
Though I can't prove it. I'm Travis. The creator of this little project. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things, and thank you all for your Wonderful comments. Even the negative ones. I actually shot the project over a couple of weeks. A couple of hours of work at a time. I had to shoot almost everything many many times, because working inside of WoW is so difficult. (finessing the mouse for smooth movement, coordinating with my friend, following him from the correct angle, etc.) It is very easy to ruin a shot. I also had to wait on my friend to be available.
It was the editing that I did all at once the day before the project was due. From 10 in the morning the day before, through to the next morning. Although, I found during that process that I was missing some shots. So I logged on by myself with my clone of the character to get what I needed.
Yes, the character was a level 1 warrior, lol. I play Horde almost exclusively, but I wanted a character that my teacher could more easily relate to, so naturally I chose a human. My friend and I made a copy of the same character on each of our accounts. The Bars and Tone and countdown at the beginning were required for the class, and I originally just posted it on YouTube to watch it in class if my DVD didn't burn quickly enough.
In the class we are taught editing in Final Cut Pro. It wasn't until after I shot all my footage with Fraps that I found out that the format Fraps saves to isn't compatible with Macs or Final Cut. So I downloaded a 30 day trial of Sony Vegas(Which works Completely Differently From Final Cut!!!) and learned how to use it as I put the video together. And with a lot of help from forum posts and youtube tutorials, It finally came out ok using Vegas.
As for a grade. I actually still haven't got one, But after watching the movie my teacher seemed enthusiastic and I expect an A. We talked about how Machinima works for about half an hour afterwards and I have high hopes for future student's permission to make machinima for their projects.
Thanks again for all your Kind Comments!
Terrë May 8th 2010 5:13AM
This is a great little machinima. I really liked the editing, the cuts and transitions and, although, for me, there were too many long pauses that could have given you more story and emotion, it was really interesting to see what can be done with the least technology and effects.
I did one for a uni project as well and got an A - and there's no way it was as sophisticated as this one - so hopefully, your teacher will see the love and give you one too.
catastrophic6969 May 8th 2010 12:48PM
Why did a level 1 noob try to take on an army of Nerubians?