Mithrandiryod Productions

Man….the things to do at the beginning of a year.
So much time and so little to do….wait, strike that reverse it…thank you!

The Glue:
Welcome to 2010, the first release of the year is fast approaching and with self imposed deadlines in place, I’m working as effectively as I can to make sure that the 2010 season starts off on schedule. With all the goings on recently, it’s been rather hard to get a fair bit of work done for MYP, but now that I have clear time in my schedule, I’m moving forward steadily. As such, I thought I would highlight a few cool bits as my final behind the scenes piece and for the start of the 2010 season.

First, I thought I’d give you a small update on my new production space. As I mentioned previously, I’ve moved to a new residence and a major side benefit of this new residence is the fact that there are spare rooms for use as exclusive studio space, and sound stage space. While I may not be using said sound stage space at present, I do have plans for it in the near future. In the meantime, however, I’ve moved into and finished setting up my studio space, and am hard at work producing new shorts for the 2010 season. I’m a little behind at present, but I thought I’d still give you a little glimpse at the new digs and a few new materials that I’ve obtained in this transition. Do enjoy the pictures, but note that some of the production studio is still under construction.

I mentioned previously that I’d gotten some new toys during the holidays…and these new toys were currently in use for production purposes. While producing Tango Squad last year, I noted that the vocal quality I was getting out of my dubbing was quite below bar for what I wanted. At the time I used it because there was no time to properly research and obtain something else, but during the hiatus I made the time and decided to invest in an item that will likely be used not only for dubbing sessions, but also quite possibly for on-location shoots, as well as a couple of new ideas I have coming down the pipe. I selected the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder by Zoom as pictured (Luckily, this product had just had a price drop). It features 24-bit/96 kHz linear PCM recording in WAV format, and, while not only having on board audio direction mikes it has the ability to plug in XLR and 1/4″ input jacks, allowing it to function as a portable recording studio should one have the need for such things (I may eventually). Having used it now for several long dubbing sessions I can comfortably say that it is a vast improvement, and you can all look forward to improved vocal clarity in the upcoming episodes.

We continue on a tour of my new holiday toys with the item that most plagued me during production during the last year. Now you may ask yourself, what else could he say, well I would pose the question back to you, what are the two things a filmmaker must have in order for his story to be shown without distraction. Good audio (including the score and dubbing) and good video. Anything that is lower quality immediately takes your audience out of the experience. Because of this during the hiatus, I sought to improve the video quality to the best it could possibly be, and keep my budget in a reasonable range to not go broke. After reading several reviews, I decided on the Blackmagic Intensity Pro (Which had also just conveniently come down in price). The Intensity Pro fully supports NTSC, PAL and HD video via HDMI, component, composite or S-Video inputs. It also supports Adobe Premiere CS4 for capture and integration, which I currently use to edit. I’ve also read that it supports Final Cut, as well as several other video apps. After installation, it worked like a dream, the capture quality was MUCH better, as I began capturing at 1080i from my 360 and was able to get some really quality footage. It should be noted though, that it did cause a major hair pulling out event last night, as when I went back to mess with the footage in the time line, the audio captured wouldn’t playback through my built in video card. After several hours of research and fiddling, I was finally able to figure out that the problem lied with the edit sequence within Premiere and when switched to another HD sequence all audio worked properly, so disaster averted. All in all, I’m VERY pleased with the new toys and will be pushing them hard to get the 2010 episodes out on time.

Now that you’ve seen a glimpse of my new digs, onto the more pressing matters, like actually producing something with these new resources for 2010. I’m pleased to say that I have, what I hope, is a fun lineup for 2010. I’ve tossed an turned a few times, trying to decide the actual order of release for the two series in question, whether to release them concurrently, the new one first, etc. I’ve finally decided on a set lineup for the year, which I will effectively announce when I release the promo later in the month. I do hope you enjoy. I again must apologize for leaving everyone in a lurch during the last half of 2009. My poor planning left me with nothing and forced me to go on hiatus while I plotted my 2010 season. Hopefully, 2010 should streamline itself into 2011 and we won’t have this problem again (assuming I don’t get writers block).

Well, that’s it kiddies. This should be the last production update you receive until I’m actually ready to release something this year. That’s not to say I won’t give small tidbit updates via twitter (I still say that twitter is useful, if not used over obsessively, for getting quick news blurbs out when you don’t want to write a whole article), so if you want to stay apprised of all the current goings on, you can check the twitter feed on the front page to the right of the glue here, or if you’re really OCD, you can subscribe to my twitter account and follow all the quick ramblings from there. Anyways see all of you on the other side of the new year.

Till next time…

admin MYP 2010 Season, The Glue Machinima, MYP, Tango Squad

The Glue:

Not to get you to involved in my life, but I’ve been hinting at a major development that effects MYP and me, and today I can reveal that, yes, it is a new place. What does this mean for MYP? It means that MYP gets it’s own studio space, FINALLY!!!. Plus, there’s even a little extra room for a sound stage in case I need it. I may shoot some more pics later once things settle down, and it may end up resulting in some new film shorts. For now, I’m ecstatic and just trying to settle down after the move. I may end up having to beg for forgiveness if I delay the Machinima release because of production delays, but I am doing my best.

Anyways, just thought I’d announce the new location. Production is still running ok…I’m going to be taking a large bulk of time here in a week and won’t be stopping production till it’s really done (Aside from…you know celebrating Christmas). I’m still re-cabling and setting things up correctly to make sure I’m ready to roll forward, but it should be pretty cool.

As far as removing my old work from the web, I will be doing that before the end of the year, so again if you want to watch it one more time…now’s your chance. I should have more of an update before the end of the year, so stay tuned.

admin The Glue Halo, Machinima, MYP, Studio, Tango Squad, XBOX

We’re working on it we’re working on it….

The Glue:
Wow things sure are slow on the site, but that’s to be expected when I won’t have anything to show till the new season.  There hasn’t been too much to write or twitter lately because of various reasons (school being one of them). For now I thought I would post a little something to show that I am not dead (rather you could consider my absence a brief “hiatus”), in fact I am very much working for next year.

I know that anyone who still checks this site, or my YouTube page is probably actually concerned when I’ll release something new and is still interested in what I’m doing. To those of you whom this applies to, “Thank You.” I don’t expect everyone to share this view. I know as well as anyone, that in the current climate of internet popularity (which I’m still sure I’ve never had), you’re only as good as your next project. With that I’d like to first say that I am indeed working on a couple of projects that I intend to start releasing starting in January (somewhere in there).  And after a long break from my last release, I hope to be able to produce a steady stream of decent content with only a few minor hiccups along the way. That being said, I thought I’d take a bit of time to give you a bit of behind the scenes content of what’s happening with MYP.

The 2010 season for MYP, I’m happy to let slip, will be featuring the second act to my first machinima series: Tango Squad. I tinkered around with the thought of leaving this as a brief introductory series to introduce myself to machinima and work on technique. While I did learn a lot, during my brainstorming, I was able to develop a whole series of stories that span at least three acts. The first of these, act one, was guard duty. It was simple, and I tried to do several things with it, humor and serious wise. Act 2 will feature Tango Squad as they continue where we left them last…trying to recover the item they were guarding. I can’t promise that it’ll be the best thing you’ve ever seen, but I’m rather proud of where I’m taking the series as a whole, and hope that people will enjoy it. Act 3, is tentatively scheduled for 2011 and will be the finale of the series. I may do a one shot here or there based on it, but otherwise, that’s all I have planned for Tango Squad.

But wait, the fun doesn’t stop there. While Tango Squad was being released, I noticed that several of the comments, yes I read them occasionally (even if they are discouraging at times *shrugs*), were very disappointed that the machinima was “just another Halo Machinima” or simply stated, “why can’t there be machinima from another game, Halo’s been done to death?” I thought about this for a while, and soon after wards scrapped a Halo script that I had been writing (and wasn’t too happy with) and started working on something else. As such, I am also developing yet another machinima that is not made from the Halo 3 engine, that I hope the masses will enjoy. I don’t want to say what it is just yet, but hopefully you’ll get a kick out of it.

If you haven’t guessed by now, the bulk of my released work next year is going to be Machinima. No particular reason why, except that it’s the medium I’ve chosen to work in for a bit while I let a few other ideas stew and work on others that will take a bit longer than normal to produce. As you can see, now that I’ve gotten the scripting done, I have to actually shoot the game play prior to editing (side note: yes I know I don’t show my face in shots…there’s a reason for this, though I suppose if you’re relatively clever you can deduce who I am and what I look like). During that time I usually record the voice work and then proceed to primary editing. It does take a bit of time, but it’s usually worth it in the end. While it is only a standard procedure for most productions and I suppose if there is enough interest I’ll elaborate further. Though if you’re truly interested in how this is done in further detail, or just want more pointers, might I recommend digitalph33rs guide to making machinima? It’s fairly straightforward and offers several good tips for your machinima work.

Being on “Hiatus” has given me a little more time to think and work on what I hope will be an excellent season for MYP. Truthfully the hiatus was only necessary due to poor planning on my part, but with every problem one experiences, one also learns. As you can see, there is some work being done and I should have more to say on the subject soon. To everyone who is still staying with me during this “hiatus” I want to assure you that I am working very hard to ensure that I won’t need to go on Hiatus again for quite a while. Anyways, I’ll try to post more if I have some time or there is enough interest, but either way you should expect the next major announcement to be the 2010 Season starting, and a few promos being released *crosses his fingers*.

Till next time…..

admin The Glue MYP, Production, The Glue, XBOX 360

“How Appropriate”

The Glue:
For those of you wanting a major lengthy post this week. You aren’t going to really get it…sorry. This is just a quick note that I’ve started pre production for the 2010 season, and that I may, if properly motivated, post some random tidbits about the season later on. I’ll be gearing up to go into a big kick of production coming up soon, so I may miss a Glue here or there. If I miss a Monday, please don’t hold it against me, I’m working to deliver good content next season. I’ll still twitter every so often with status updates regarding whats going on.

Till then, I’m going to bury myself in work and try and get stuff done. I’ll post when I have something more relevant to say or update you on. FYI, some general changes coming down the pipeline, including the future of “The Glue” in general. Stay tuned.

admin MYP, The Glue MYP, Pre Production, Writting

What I did on my summer vacation…..

The Glue:

Well here we go, I’m back this week….finally. It was a nice logn vacation and I got to see lots of sites, and do many fun activites. But, I digress. This is going to be a bit on my vacation, so if you don’t like hearing the obligatory vacation talk….I’ll see you next week I guess.

My vacation was fairly nice. I spent a fair amount of time cruising around the Caribbean, touring various liquor emporiums, and sitting on the beach. Heck, I even found a new hobby for myself, that I’ll write about a little later on down the road (No, it was not bikini hunting….though there were plenty of participants in the sport that I saw during the vacation). The sand was nice, the surf was pleasant, and the sun….oh that bastard….burned my legs to a crisp. Much of the time I was attempting to hide in the shade to thwart my nemesis. All in all it was a good vacation, and a nice cap to my month of wind down relaxation time.

I’ve been taking a long bit of time to recouperate from my job, and my schooling. It was nice to get away from it all for a while , and finally sit on a beach….sip a nice drink….and write???? Yep, thats right, I wrote….alot. I’ve been taking my time that I have to try and get alot of writting done for various projects I’ve had in mind for a while, but just never got around to doing. Finally some time is going to be coming up soon where I’ll be able to do many more projects. Just like last weeks post noted, I’ve effectively closed the 2009 Season for MYP. What that means, to any who were confused, is that I won’t be releasing anything new during 2009. That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped working. Indeed as you see by the picture, I’ve started alot of preproduction work on many different items, and plan to have a bit to show during the 2010 season.

Some other things to note, I’ll be posting on a few tiny changes to MYP here and there. Nothing too major, just some items I’ve had on my punch list for a while. I plan on being much more organized next year, as to how the 2010 season is supposed to flow.

Till next week….

admin The Glue Vacation