If you've been living under a rock where you could never, ever see machinima or fan videos about the World of Warcraft, you might not know the name Wowcrendor. For those machinima-less folks, I'll quickly explain. Wowcrendor is what he calls a "WoW director." These are the devoted fans who take the time to create movies and machinima based on our hobby. (We have a column about it here on WoW Insider. I'm just saying.) Wowcrendor's work is usually especially well received because he consistently manages to nail a funny but loving tone in his videos. He clearly loves both the game and the game's community, even though they drive him up the wall. I've always secretly thought his videos were his way of releasing that anxiety without its blowing his head off via internal combustion.
Well, Wowcrendor also loves machinima. In order to help encourage new directors to join the scene, he's recently launched WoWdirectors. His basic idea is to provide a place for brand new machinimators to go and learn his craft. While community sites like Myndflame have existed for a while, Wowcrendor is hoping to bring his same sense of basics and story to the scene. He's building some how-to guides, critiques, and generally trying to get folks together to talk publicly about the machinima hobby.
Check out WoWdirectors and let them know what you think. Knowing the man as I do, I'm sure he'd be thrilled to have your feedback. 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@wow.com.
Here's what I see as the irony to the statement that "make something other than music videos" line: some of the best Machinima are music videos, just more... creative ones. Hard to beat Gnomechewer corpus in my mind, and Blind is strongly tied to the music. The key, however, is that the use music to drive a narrative that goes beyond the music.
I think the distinction here is between a video that prominently features a song that's backed up by associated images or scenes from WoW, versus a self-sustained narrative or action sequence that may be complemented by some background music. "Darrowshire" would be an example of the former, and "Blind", to me, is better associated with the latter, both being excellent works of machinima in their own right. Personally I prefer seeing pieces where the story or action takes the spotlight and less of pop song parodies with dancing blood elves.
Actually, that has been featured here at some point. Just checked out one of the vids and I remember watching it before on here. Yes it IS good -- one of the rare exceptions, and I know there are other. I still enjoy wowcrendor more though. His humor reminds us of all the stupid things that we experience in wow, yet we still play it and like it.
After Wow.com posted Blind, they kept getting emails daily about Blind. "Why haven't you shown this yet?", they go so many of them they decided to post it again. Still got so many, they posted it a third time with "Yes, we have posted this before! Stop emailing us!"
Now it's gotten posted again.
So the joke is, "Why haven't you guys posted this yet?"
This is like the Blind discussion earlier today - why is it so hard to just move on by without comment if you've seen the video before? This is my first time watching the Bloodelf rap video, so I'm kind of glad it got posted again.
@Dreamstorm are you sure about that? unless you were just born this year. Look at this and tell me if BLIND hasn't been featured on wowmovie watch before?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dave Sep 23rd 2010 7:12PM
Win.
thebitterfig Sep 23rd 2010 7:22PM
Here's what I see as the irony to the statement that "make something other than music videos" line: some of the best Machinima are music videos, just more... creative ones. Hard to beat Gnomechewer corpus in my mind, and Blind is strongly tied to the music. The key, however, is that the use music to drive a narrative that goes beyond the music.
Xid Sep 23rd 2010 8:05PM
I think the distinction here is between a video that prominently features a song that's backed up by associated images or scenes from WoW, versus a self-sustained narrative or action sequence that may be complemented by some background music. "Darrowshire" would be an example of the former, and "Blind", to me, is better associated with the latter, both being excellent works of machinima in their own right. Personally I prefer seeing pieces where the story or action takes the spotlight and less of pop song parodies with dancing blood elves.
Dreyja Sep 24th 2010 2:36AM
Exactly. Let it be known that satire is SO much more powerful than ... well Pop.
Mecha Sep 23rd 2010 7:23PM
Phew... It's about time someone made a video like this.
catharsis80 Sep 23rd 2010 7:25PM
I always look forward to wowcrendor's videos. There really are no better WoW videos out there.
Dreamstorm Sep 23rd 2010 7:32PM
So you never heard of this Machinima called 'Blind' ?
Speaking of which, why hasn't it been featured in WoW Moviewatch yet?!
You guys suck!
/tollmode off
catharsis80 Sep 23rd 2010 7:42PM
Actually, that has been featured here at some point. Just checked out one of the vids and I remember watching it before on here. Yes it IS good -- one of the rare exceptions, and I know there are other. I still enjoy wowcrendor more though. His humor reminds us of all the stupid things that we experience in wow, yet we still play it and like it.
Hih Sep 23rd 2010 7:56PM
@Cath: Considering BLIND is still on the front page as I write this, I think Dream was trying to be a troll and just misspelled /trollmode off
crschmidt Sep 23rd 2010 7:56PM
Dreamstorm, you mean like:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/23/wow-moviewatch-blind/
Posted earlier today?
Drakkenfyre Sep 23rd 2010 8:21PM
You guys aren't getting the joke.
After Wow.com posted Blind, they kept getting emails daily about Blind. "Why haven't you shown this yet?", they go so many of them they decided to post it again. Still got so many, they posted it a third time with "Yes, we have posted this before! Stop emailing us!"
Now it's gotten posted again.
So the joke is, "Why haven't you guys posted this yet?"
Dreamstorm Sep 25th 2010 2:10PM
@ Drakkenfyre
Thank you :)
Callum Forbes Sep 23rd 2010 7:25PM
It's as if Wowcrendor reads my mind, epic video.
RetPallyJil Sep 23rd 2010 7:54PM
I think it's great that he's taking the time to help others to enjoy what he clearly enjoys so much himself.
crschmidt Sep 23rd 2010 7:55PM
"This movie was featured on Moviewatch previously at http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/02/16/wow-moviewatch-i-dislike-bloodelf-rap/ , but it was so cool, we had to make posts about it twice."
bennet Sep 23rd 2010 8:27PM
This is like the Blind discussion earlier today - why is it so hard to just move on by without comment if you've seen the video before? This is my first time watching the Bloodelf rap video, so I'm kind of glad it got posted again.
jasonlstroh Sep 23rd 2010 9:05PM
I honestly love WoWcredor's videos, and every time I watch a video, I classify it under one of 4 levels
Really Bad - Ex. Blood elf rap
Ok- Some of wow moviewatch'sworse choices...
Good - WoWcrendor like matireal, almost always favorated.
Really Good- Tales of the past 3 level, always favorated
I honestly hope that WoWcrendor starts up somegoodvideo makers.
Xantenise Sep 23rd 2010 8:22PM
This guy raps even better than the blood elf rappers!
GM Bekyn Sep 23rd 2010 8:37PM
@Dreamstorm are you sure about that? unless you were just born this year. Look at this and tell me if BLIND hasn't been featured on wowmovie watch before?
http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/07/17/wow-moviewatch-craft-of-war-blind/
wowcrendor Sep 23rd 2010 8:41PM
Oh man, this website is so awesome. That video is pretty amazing too.