Atlas Shrugged scene (made with "The Movies")

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This trailer was made with a game and application called The Movies that looks pretty cool. Here is the online game at another link: The Movies Game.

The filmed scene gives a small feel of what a movie of Atlas Shrugged could be like (although I bet Rand would be rolling over in her grave with the music selection and the overuse of echo effects on the speech). The guy used animation characters and backgrounds from the game to make the different shots, then added audio from the audio-book and fed music into it. The scene is from Galt's speech and it shows clearly that the speech can work on film.

I think the Baldwins and their people and the people at Lionsgate should at least look at this for the sake of curiosity, if nothing else.

The game/application looks like it is a wonderful tool for storyboarding movie ideas and making demo scenes. I checked the price and it is only about 20 bucks. (There is an expansion pack of stunts and effects for another 20 bucks.)

(Hat-tip to Tyson Russell on RoR here.)

Michael

[Adrian]

This trailer was made with a game and application called The Movies that looks pretty cool. Here is the online game at another link: The Movies Game.

The filmed scene gives a small feel of what a movie of Atlas Shrugged could be like (although I bet Rand would be rolling over in her grave with the music selection and the overuse of echo effects on the speech). The guy used animation characters and backgrounds from the game to make the different shots, then added audio from the audio-book and fed music into it. The scene is from Galt's speech and it shows clearly that the speech can work on film.

I think the Baldwins and their people and the people at Lionsgate should at least look at this for the sake of curiosity, if nothing else.

The game/application looks like it is a wonderful tool for storyboarding movie ideas and making demo scenes. I checked the price and it is only about 20 bucks. (There is an expansion pack of stunts and effects for another 20 bucks.)

(Hat-tip to Tyson Russell on RoR here.)

Michael

Hi Michael

Thank you very much for posting this!

The music certainly isn't Max Steiner (for better or worse) and the echo effects are certainly used extensively. I didn't have a problem with either though. If they help to lend a modern feel to what might otherwise be thought an old book, that's fine by me.

I guess the trailer illustrates a key point - that if anyone's going to film AS, and if they're going to include any version of Galt's speech (as surely they must), then they need to find appropriate visuals to support the words. That's quite a challenge, and I'm not sure this trailer has yet got it right. But it's a nice first try, and at least helps us understand the problem.

Best regards

Adrian

[John Dailey]

~ As I said on RoR, am UNimpressed.

~ Great speaking voice and very good nuancing in the speaking; also, I really did like the music. Somehow, the 'echoing' fit...to me.

~ But, all scenes had nothing to do with the speech content (howevermuch condensed). The scenes should have been some kind of historical collage/pastiche rather than...irrelevent drama-scenes of a worried female (Dagny? Hey, her 'short' hair was ok, though some didn't like it) and a helicopter in a hurry to crash somewhere.

~ A+ for effort AND 'style', but, F- for end result.

LLAP

J:D

[Chris Grieb]

I'm glad I watched it. The last scene is not my vision of the valley.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This should not be seen as a final product but as brainstorming with a kind of animated storyboard program.

I think it works wonderfully for that. I may get that program later to horse around. It looks like fun.

John, from your criticism, you sound like you aren't aware of how it was made. There are preset backgrounds, characters and actions within a video game about making movies. You cannot change them. You can only select them and manipulate them according to the game controls. The idea of using VO to get around the program's limitations was quite clever.

The voice came from the audiobook version of Atlas Shrugged and apparently there is a possibility of adding echo/reverb within the program (or it was done outside and later fed into the montage).

In short, this project cost the price of the software and the price of the audiobook and the price of the computer. That's not bad brainstorming on that budget.

Michael

[John Dailey]

~ Mike, I'm a bit aware of all that, but, I'm grading according to WHAT was 'selected' to be used visually in terms of relevence to audio content. Might's well have 'selected' some vid-scenes from TombRaider or Gears of War, know what I mean?

~ Like I said though, I do give it an A+ for effort; ok?

LLAP

J:D

PS: I'm not one for 'audio books' since I don't drive l-o-n-g commutes or cross-country vacationing, but, to hear this guy do all of Galt's speech...I'm tempted to pick it up.