Tag Archives: fan-made

Short film: ‘Portal: No Escape’

August 24, 2011Short film, VideoDan Trachtenberg, fan-made, fan-made film, portal, short, short film, Video gamesScott Meisner

Whether or not you’ve played the innovative video game from Valve known as Portal doesn’t matter here. This short from LA-based filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg fuses top notch cinematography with a gritty, pulsating score that will blow you away. If you’ve played the game and know your Portal lore, there’s no question that you’ll fully embrace the Chell-like female protagonist and her quest to escape from the shackles of Aperture. The CGI work is fantastic and actress Danielle Rayne will pull you in and never let go for the five-and-half-minute duration. It’s guaranteed that by the end of the film you’ll be foaming at the mouth for more. In less than one day the video has gone viral–it’s nearing 700,000 views. With such a large fanbase formed already, it’d surprise me if Trachtenberg never returned for a second installment.

Portal the movie would be hard to manufacture for mass audiences due to lack of dialogue (GLaDOS is noticeably absent here), but as Trachtenberg has proven it can work wonders in the short film space. Has Valve got wind of this? Do I smell a Portal web series in the works? I’ll keep you posted.

Now flick on HD, turn up the volume, and mash play!

‘Lost’ fan? Watch this fan-made short film.

January 18, 2011Television, Videofan-made, Lost, Lost-inspired, short, short filmScott Meisner

The Man Who Brought Us Here is a fan-made short film inspired by the events of Lost. It’s true, the acting is mediocre but the production value is high. The short plays out in the same mysterious fashion as the show did, and the classic Michael Giacchino soundtrack adds to that effect. And yes, the short was filmed on the actual set of Lost, if somehow you didn’t notice.

[Thanks, Rob M.]

These unofficial movie posters are better than the real ones

December 30, 2010Images, Moviesfan-made, film posters, movie posters, posters, unofficialScott Meisner

2010 was packed with some great movies including the mind-bending Inception, the action-packed Tron: Legacy, the Western True Grit, and the thriller Black Swan. For the most part film posters do a fine job at advertising movies before and during their theatrical release. But there’s something about these unofficial, “alternate” posters imagined by graphic designers and illustrators that instantly captivates my interest. Many of them are overly simplistic and yet very effective at the same time. Check out my favorite fan-made film poster for Inception above, and then peer into the gallery below to see a bunch more. Don’t you agree that these alt-posters are intrinsically better than the real ones? (After the break you’ll find a listing of all the contributing illustrators.)

[Via Flavorwire]

Continue reading These unofficial movie posters are better than the real ones →

Fan-made title sequence for The Walking Dead will blow you away

September 27, 2010Design, Television, VideoAMC, animated, animation, Daniel Kanemoto, fan-made, spec, The Walking Dead, title sequenceScott Meisner

Check out this utterly brilliant piece of art created by Daniel Kanemoto, a long-time fan of Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel The Walking Dead. In his spare time, talented graphic designer Kanemoto used After Effects to combine Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore’s The Walking Dead artwork and music from Eels (the track is called “Fresh Blood”, how fitting) to create an animated spec title sequence for the upcoming AMC adaptation. You certainly do not have to be a fan of Kirkman’s work to truly appreciate what Kanemoto has done here.

He says: “Just so there’s no confusion, I’m not affiliated with the production in any way — I’m simply a huge fan of both Frank Darabont and Robert Kirkman, and this is my attempt at creating a cinematic introduction to one of the all time great “continuing stories of survival horror.””

Word got out about Kanemoto’s masterpiece when Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof tweeted about it (“We are arriving at that unique moment in time where the term “fan-made” becomes moot. This is extraordinary.”) and blogger Cory Doctorow posted it on BoingBoing. The video reached an even wider audience when EW’s Jeff Jensen interviewed Kanemoto to discover his inspiration for the spec. You can read said interview here.

Now I am oh-so-interested to see if the editors and animators of the upcoming show can out-perform Kanemoto’s fan-made title sequence. We shall find out when The Walking Dead premieres October 31 at 10PM on AMC.

[Via @DamonLindelof; Vimeo]

Classic Sonic looks grand in 3D

September 5, 2010Technology, Videofan-made, pre-rendered, pre-rendered video, SEGA, Sonic, Sonic & Knuckles 3D, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, Video gamesScott Meisner

YouTuber BlobVanDam used 3DS Max and Adobe After Effects to recreate the Mushroom Hill Zone level from the classic Sega Genesis game Sonic & Knuckles. Unfortunately for us this is simply a pre-rendered video; it is not a playable game. Still, doesn’t it look fantastic?! Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, a 2D side-scroller using pre-rendered 3D character models, is currently being developed by Sonic Team and is the closest we are going to get to something like BlobVanDam’s creation for now. The game is expected to hit all major consoles later this year.

[Via Joystiq]