View Single Post
Old 11-11-2007, 02:58 PM   #1
Vandalist
Hall of Fame member
 
Vandalist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 237
Vandalist is notable
Guide: Making Your PvP Movie

The following is a guide I wrote for those of you looking to either make your first PvP video, make a better video, or improve your ratings. Although some things may seem debatable, hopefully this will help many of you out there.

__________________________________________________ _______
__________________________________________________ _______


Table of Contents:
1) Pre-Movie Decisions
2) Filming Made Fun
3) Workshop: Editing the footage.
4) Musical Decisions
5) Rendering Your Masterpiece
6) The Secrets of Uploading & Submitting


__________________________________________________ _______
__________________________________________________ _______

Chapter 1: Pre-Movie Decisions

The first thing you need to do before making your pvp movie is make some decisions and do some work. First, take some time, and go view the last few pvp movies that came out for your class. If you are a mage, go view the last 2 or 3 pvp movies that came out. After watching them, read the comments given to those videos. See how people are thinking.

The biggest mistake video creators make when trying to 'impress the audience' is assuming how they are going to think. Most people change their way of thinking on a constant basis as they learn and grow. You need to have their thoughts of the class fresh in your mind, and thats where watching other similar movies comes in. You can also pickup some cool and unique ideas from doing so.

Next, pick out your music. Why so early, we didn't even start filming yet? Believe it not, the music is the soul of a pvp video. It sets the mood, the 'epic feeling' that most people want to get. Does that mean you should go find some epic-game-music? No, again you need to see how people are responding to popular music and what not. So you have two roads you can take. You can either 1) Go with the crowd, pick the popular music a majority of the people listen to and like to hear. OR 2) You can choose your own music, make the movie your own masterpiece with your own types of music.

If you want to go with the crowd, check out a bunch of movies, see what people are using, and DON'T USE THEM!
Wait, what? He just told me....
I know what I told you, Don't Use Them! The top songs used in the world, songs you might hear on the radio or commonly in videos, are overused, and will just get annoying over time if they aren't already. HOWEVER, think of who wrote them. If a band makes a song that is used a lot, lookup the band and listen to other of their songs. You might find one thats just as good and barley ever heard. Those are the songs that will keep the viewers happy.

Now, if you want to go against the top music and maybe find some other music that you might like, things get tricky. Theres a lot of music in the world to choose from, so your going to have to do a lot of listening. Find some music you like, and if you think it works, use it. It's that simple, but it does get complicated too. You need to consider what people might really just go against. Techno and beats that sound like it might have been from a boss fight of another game might work great for a 'pvp, battle, and fighting' movie, but a lot of people don't care much for techno, and will pass off your movie as not-so-good just because of the music. Again, even if your going with music you like, at least think about it before completely choosing it.

So, now you've got a bunch of music you like, set it aside in a folder. Feel free to get 10+ songs. 20 is my recommendation, more if you want. Why? You never know how your movie will evolve as your editing it, and what song might fit more with the scenes than other songs.


__________________________________________________ _______
__________________________________________________ _______


Chapter 2: Filming Made Fun

Okay so, put together a play-list of your favorite music to PvP to, and go PvP. Most of us know, music is what helps us PvP. Wait, didn't know that? Music calms your nerves. Even if it is some heavy rock metal song, it will still calm your nerves. If you enjoy it, you'll be more calm, and more focused. Focused people can concentrate to great lengths, and that will actually help you PvP better. Music is used in therapy because it helps calm down doctor's patients. Music plays in elevators to calm you down and take your mind off long and annoying trips up and down, and it helps to calm people who are afraid of close spaces. Music is in movies because it gets you into the mood of the movie. Listening to music while PvPing will keep you in the mood and keep you focused and in control.

Now your PvPing, filming, and having fun. There is some rules you need to know.

Rule 1) Never Ever Think Twice about recording a fight. If your a horde, and you see another alliance standing anywhere near you, start recording. Dont think twice for any reason. Many people think "oh crap, people will probably think this fight will suck, ill roll him and people will think...." WHO CARES WHAT PEOPLE THINK! This is not the time to impress your audience, nobody is watching except you. Record it anyways. Many times people have nearby friends, guildies, or just other players who are willing to help out the player your attacking. What if you find some low geared newb standing there, and you attack him? Then you kill him and a rogue jumps you right after that. Then a priest comes out and heals the rogue, yet somehow you kill them both! Wouldn't you just kick yourself if you didn't record it because it looked like an easy fight?

Most often than not, a fight is harder and more interesting than it first appears it will be. Record everything, and you'll be happy when you get those crazy hard long fights that you conquer and know you got it all recorded.

Have you ever heard the phrase "Screenshot or it didn't happen." Most people don't want to believe your great without proof, so why not just record everything as you go?

- - - Note - - -
If your computer is a junker that has low HD space and you can only record a little while at a time, then go into your editor (most likely Sony Vegas) and render your footage to take those 500mb - 2GB files and reduce them to very small files. Sure this is going to take longer and be very time consuming, but hey, your the one with the crap computer. Sorry

Rule 2) Don't stop PvPing. Don't take breaks. Don't go out to pvp for 30 minutes then go run an instance. You become more aware of your in-game surroundings and become more alert and understanding of situations in PvP the longer your playing. In a sense, you get better at pvp temporarily the longer your at it. If you pvp for 30 minutes, then take a long break before going back at it, chances are your going to be a little off your game once in a while. PvP for as long as your able to, but change up the settings. Don't try one place or battleground for too long, or you'll actually get tired of it and lose focus.

Rule 3) Don't go all battlegrounds. During peak hours try different zones. Even try out places you might not expect a 70. For example, try /who 70 stranglethorn - if you see 8 level 70 horde there, chances are there will be a similar amount of alliance there (unless your server is really off balance in factions). So head on out there and see what you can find. Changes in scenery not only keep you interested, but it would keep your viewers interested. If your bored, don't you think your audience might get bored too? We all battleground, we all have seen countless players die in them. Too much BG footage in your video will contribute to killing any interest in the movie.

Rule 4) Avoid low level fights. If your 70, fight a 70. Don't go looking for 69 and lowers to gank. ALTHOUGH, everyone once in a great while you might fight a lower level who really, really knows his sh*t. He knows how to play, and he knows how to pvp. On the off chance you got some amazing footage of lets say a level 69 that was an epic fight you won and you want to use it, you'd have to use some fancy editing tricks to hide his level in your video. However, I do recommend against this, but i've seen it done in movies many times before.

So keep at it. Keep fighting, get as much footage as you can. Average pvp movies start with anywhere between 30 minutes and 5 hours of footage before editing even takes place.

The more you have the better off you are. The more variety you have, the better as well. If 50% of your movies take place in Shadowmoon valley, you probably don't have enough variety there.

Good luck not getting pwned!

(Continued Next Post)

Last edited by Vandalist : 11-11-2007 at 03:03 PM.
Vandalist is offline   Reply With Quote