The Pollock Preamble

THE POLLOCK PREAMBLE

The new WoW-Gmod hybrid machinima series is finally here! Pollock, Ivan, and Ben and their misadventures are yours to be enjoyed.

This isn't the first "official" episode but it is an short, direct introduction of the characters and their situation, since it IS NEEDED to understand the series. Good thing for you, it's not complex as you would expect.

The first episode of the series comes this Saturday if all goes well: "Meet the Pollock", as it will be called.

A big thanks to Sen and Macrador for helping with the voice acting and Jeremy for helping with the dialog and the character of Pollock!
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This series is the first of it's kind for me, editing-wise. Mixing WoW models and TF2-Garry's Mod backgrounds and props, I can make the detailed character models of WoW into a real-life setting...such as sunny California, the old Soviet Union, or Krakow, Poland!

-Nicolas Giordano

CF UPDATE: March 2, 2010

Chef Films Update – March 2, 2010
So in my last CF Update, I announced my new machinima, Pollock. I’m proud to present to you, its trailer!

MEET THE POLLOCK TRAILER

Meet the Pollock
Meet Pollock, Ivan, Ben, and their crazy adventures in their new city and lifestyles. As a secret agent against the Soviets (The 1991 “fall of communism” was a hoax; can’t believe you all fell for it; it was just a mere covering of power), Ivan never told his best friends Pollock and Ben about it until security forced him so. Diffusing a bomb planted in Pollock’s dirty laundry and saving them (and the entre Lower East Side of Manhattan), Ivan had to tell Pollock and Ben what was going on. Because of the new threat, they moved cross country to sunny California, where it’s hot and the ladies hotter. Here Ivan must continue being a secret agent and find a new home to stay in expensive Los Angeles. Pollock and Ben must live with the knowledge of immediate danger following them wherever they go…but that doesn’t mean they can’t have some damn good fun!

Those are all finished footage by the way (a big thanks to Sen for voice acting Lord General!). The movie will be released between next Wednesday to Saturday…depending on how extensive the transitions and musical selection needs to be.

To repeat/summarize the characters for you:
Pollock: The main man, Jeremy Stewart’s prime creation. Once living in Communist-oppressed Poland, he escaped to America and ever since has a deep mistrust to Russians and total hate to Communists.
Ivan: Ex-Soviet who released the cruelty of the USSR before anybody else. Ivan’s pretty bad ass: fighting in WW2, assassin for Stalin, Stalin’s personal bodyguard, and KGB. He escaped with Pollock to America and is probably the only Russian Pollock tolerates. Currently he works as a secret agent against the new underground Soviet regime.
Ben: Fourth-generation Italian living in New York City, he gave Pollock and Ivan their first home in America, and over time they became good friends. Ben always wanted money and power and tries to attain it.
Not to reveal much of the plot, dumb Pollock messes up with intelligent Ivan and middleman Ben has to control it. Heavily based on comedy, I’m confident Pollock will become well liked among you guys.

Trev and Eroth: Episode II – The Great Bank Robbery
The “official-typed-out” script of Trev and Eroth: E2 is being typed at the moment and I’m glad I’m doing it. Translating text from paper to PC you notice many things than can be improved and such. There’s no official release date yet, but it will take a while. I’m guessing by the end of May (it’s THAT big) and since it’s so big, I’ll need many voice actors. Keep an eye out in WeGame or my site for voice acting positions.

The Golden Three Months
The next three months will be an exciting time for machinima I predict. Myndflame’s stepping up the site and their work, the Peasant will be released (next three months, right?!), Origano + Farinar combination, Wish Upon a Gnome 2 (if we go back a couple of days), more Erunno comedy, and Pollock (of course)!

Cheers!
Nicolas Giordano
Chef Films

The Trev and Eroth Backstory

*The very important needed information about the movies!*

First of all, Trev and Eroth is based on a near future Azeroth, only by a couple of years. The war against the Lich King is still going on and skirmishes between the Horde and the Alliance have grown larger. Unofficially, they are at war. Officially, no declarations of war have been made. Due to the military build-up and war expenses the world economy is failing. A nine-month recession has led to many jobs being lost and the questioning of both the Horde and Alliance governments. Now, this should sound familiar: the current real world economic and governmental situation, so keep that in mind when watching the movie.

At the very beginning of Trev and Eroth, the current Alliance government is being led by Grand Marshall Boosh and his administration of the Nationalist Party. Jorge W. Boosh faces his re-election in a month against Labor candidate Simply O. O is a famous rapper and actor from Stormwind who entered politics. He promises the Alliance people a peace treaty with the Horde and a quick economic recovery. He exploits his skin colour and roots from the ghetto to his advantage: he is regarded as a symbol of hope.

Trev is an average dwarf factory worker in Ironforge living from paycheck to paycheck. He has no real goals in his life and lives in the moment, mostly in a bored reality. His youth was filled with more adventure as he fought in the Second War and traveled to Kalimdor during the Third War. Trev actually killed Archimond just as the wisp spirits attacked. Of course, no one believed him and the night elves got the credit: Trev saved the world from it’s biggest threat and he gets nothing in return. In turn, he loathes all forms of elves and distrusts humans. His hatred against the Horde is no surprise either, having fought two wars against them. A new hatred against the greedy arose as of late, when he lost his job at the factory due to the economic crisis.

Eroth is a gnome straight from Gnomeregan, but unlike his average gnome, he isn’t interested into engineering and tinkering. Rather, he loves to play the piano and have fun. During his college days he met Trev (after he quit during the first week) and the love of his life, Ruthe. He graduated from the Khaz Modan School of Business and Accounting and got a job in a Bank of Azeroth in Ironforge. After a couple of years of dating, Eroth finally proposed to Ruthe…but that would be the beginning of the end.After that point, Eroth adapted into some sort of “prized possession satisfaction” mindset: having now acquired the most important thing to him (Ruthe’s hand in marriage) he became less and less innovated and active, and lost his outgoing charm Ruthe fell in love with. Shortly after, the bank he worked for fired him even after a multi-billion gold bailout from the government. This hurt Eroth’s self-esteem badly but saw a way to cooperate himself: he decided to start playing piano as a living, but to all his auditions he went to, his low self-esteem and nervousness broke into his playing. As a result, he never had a good chance at making a band or musician, but kept telling Ruthe otherwise so she wouldn’t get angry and “leave”. But she found out and she did leave, noticing her fiancée isn’t the gnome she fell in love with.

So both Trev and Eroth are in a bad situation. Trev, having lost his job cannot pay his debts and bills. Eroth, having lost his job and self-esteem, is even worse off due to the debt of two people (Ruthe won’t pitch in) and his inability to support himself emotionally. With the elections coming closer, Trev, Eroth, and the world carefully await for the brighter tomorrow…or should they take matters into their own hands? After all, desperate times calls for desperate measures…

Trev and Eroth: Desperate Measures TRAILER

The world of Azeroth will never be the same again!



Trev and Eroth live in a world forever changed by their actions. May it be directly or indirectly, they will set off a series of events that changes how the people of Azeroth look at their leaders, their history, and themselves...

The first look of Trev and Eroth, all the footage of this trailer is seen in the actual movie. Well actually, the first half was going to be the introduction but it got scrapped. But the second half, real movie footage! Currently, I'm a two scenes from post-production and have faith I can finish this by the 5th of December. That being said, I hope you like it and watch Trev and Eroth: Episode I -Desperate Measures!

But don't get confused about the word "episode". There's only going to be four and its not going to be a series of short movies that go into the hundreds. They're about 10-20 minutes each, with Desperate Measures being the shortest (but I'm unavailable to give you a number yet).

WeGame Topic

Myndflame link coming soon!

*PLEASE NOTE: Do not get confused with a previous movie of mine called "Trev and Eroth: Episode I". That's an out-dated, piece of garbage, that does not relate to the current storyline and quality.

Chef Films
Nicolas Giordano

The Machinima Oligopoly: 3D Animation

There comes a time when even the best of machinima gets outdone by another machinima. Years ago it probably was the use of Model Viewer, then probably professional-end effects from high-end programs like After Effects. Now, its custom animation, or, 3D animation.

The definition of machinima varies from person to person and even “officially” it has a couple of differences.

• Such as in Wikidictionary, it’s defined as: “The rendering of computer-generated imagery using low-end (real time) 3D engines such as those found in video games, as opposed to the high-end, complex 3D engines used by professionals.”

• The popular definition from Wikipedia: “the use of real-time three-dimensional (3-D) graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation

• and the basic definition from Urban Dictionary: “The art of using a pre-rendered gaming engine and making it into a film.”

It’s interesting how we went from a strictly low-engine games only definition to a broad free-for-all definition. So…which one’s the correct one?

Well, that depends who you ask. Currently, there is a schism between those in favour of 3D and those against it. Those against it will like the Wiki-dictionary definition. Those in favour of it will like the Urban Dictionary definition. The debate over the true definition of machinima (which will allow or not allow 3D animation) may continue on forever, but I want to make at least a temporary ceasefire.

The primary concern of 3D machinima is directed towards newcomers into machinima. People fear that our “industry” is advancing too fast, into the realm of Hollywood professionalism, and this will create a high entry barrier into machinima. Think of it like an oligopoly: the top four or five machinimators make a machinima with the best effects and 3D animation. Naturally, because of it’s eye candy, it’s going to be a hit. More and more people raise their viewing standards and when they see a standard edited movie (not totally newbie, but not totally well edited neither) they refuse to see it. This means the “little guy” can’t advance through the machinima world while the big players (aka “the Elite”) get all the attention.

So what can the little guys pass through the high barrier of entry? How can they break up the machinima oligopoly? They could go through a violent revolution or they could use a story and time to their advantage. That’s right, time.


The Advantages of Non 3D Animators

One major advantage anti-3D animators fail to realize is the gift of time. But first, lets talk about story. People always say stick with the story and effects won’t be a problem. That’s good and all, and I most certainly agree, but it’s like picking a girlfriend: sure she may be the smartest, well-mannered, most compatible girl you ever met, but if it got no beauty to it, it’s ain’t gonna happen. It’s a sad truth, but human beings need a somewhat attractive* mate and it’s a sad truth that a machinima needs to look somewhat good. (*standards vary).

Like standards are needed in a girlfriend, standards will be needed in a machinima. You cannot expect you can and will date every hot girl in your school/workplace, but you can guarantee someone pretty is going to be your girlfriend one way or another. Machinima needs to have a good standard of editing/effects quality to become popular; story alone won’t get you there. Imagine the best story ever told and it looked like this:

You’d probably wouldn’t of watched it in the first place or liked it. It’s like a library book: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Okay, then why did you pick the ones you checked out? … Exactly.

The Second Advantage: Time

3D animation is way above a decent quality standard. But what they fail in is in time. Time can be used to beat the oligopoly and become a successful machinimator if you are quick enough. You see, it took Percula eight months to make Blind, a fully 100% 3D animated machinima (which totally pissed me off, too many Alliance deaths!). It’s hailed as the best machinima by some, the most over-rated machinima by others, and some don’t even consider it a machinima! No matter where you stand in the issue, 8 months to make 7 minutes of machinima is way too long. But it covered for its lengthy production time by making it 100% 3D animated.

In eight months Percula made a movie. In eight months, Oxhorn made seven. That’s a impressive comparison, 7:1. Starting with Red Snapper and Inventing Swear Words in Feburary 2006, he continued to make the Taruen Kilt and Birth of the Forsaken byMarch 2006, and finished it off with Inventing Swear Words 2, the Anti-Elf Anthem, and the 12 Days of Winter Veil in December 2006. By making several less quality (effect-wise) movies, he had an increased chanced at getting noticed. If the first one failed to break through the “newbie zone” he could make six others were as the big player only could make one.

Oxhorn could be described as an extreme example, but the logic still rests. By the time a big player makes a 3D animated movie you, as the newcomer/less experienced machinimator, can make at least a couple of good ones. You can outrun the 3D animator by making several less quality ones with a good story and decent/good editing and effects.

What if the big machinimator doesn’t purely use 3D animation, but 15% of their movie is? You still got an advantage: generally the level of custom animations is higher than the best non-3D editing and effects, which the big player will still use and it still takes more time than the standard quality to make.

Time is the advantage; so keep at it!

In the end, its not 3D animation that is killing machinima, it’s people’s attitudes.

• Viewers: Don’t dismiss the machinima of newbies and lend out constructive criticism if asked.
• Machinimators: If you want to become something, keep trying to advance. Don’t say “It’s arlight, lets stop.” Keep advancing. Listen to advice, ask for it too, try out new tactics, don’t think because the big players are big you can’t join them; it’s a matter of strategy (time). But most importantly, be legit: Don’t do machinima and expect to become big if you’re just doing it because you saw Arby ‘n the Chief or Tales of the Past 3 and thought it was cool. To advance you need to LOVE doing this. I think that will push you forward better than anything else can.

Thank you for reading this lengthy article; it’s been brewing inside of me for quite a while now.

-Nicolas Giordano

Chef Films

Needing Voice Actors: Tar'lok, Charlie, Nap!

Hello, hello fellow Machinimators/machinima fans, and you're in a voice actor recruitment page!

Two characters are needed to be filled, for my upcoming machinima Trev and Eroth: Episode I - Desperate Measures. My voice acting friend and I tried to do these parts for our selves, but they sound too alike the other characters we are doing; so, I need some help. And I hope you're willing to volunteer.

An important note to know, if you try out for a part and get it, be aware these characters will appear throughout all four episodes. I'll need you again in the future, then once more again, and one last time after that.

Our first position is
Warlord Tar'lok

Warlord Tar'lok is the Secretary of Internal Military Affairs of the Horde. During the war against the Lich King, Tar'lok's job became boring; most of the Horde troops were in Northrend freezing their asses off. But, some notable things the secretary did before the war was the crackdown of Burning Blade and Shadow Council within Orgrimmar, squad missions through Dustwallow Marsh, and the defense of the Crossroads from constant low-leveled Alliance attacks.
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Tar'lok is a fiercesome orc warrior, bound by honor and loyalty to the Warchief. If you want to take up this part, you will need to have a strong orc voice, one showing strength but with wisdom as well.

LINES: "I can't do that... I'm loyal to Warchief Thrall and the Horde."
"Charlie...nothing is going to happen this summer. The war is still going on, the economy is in the trash... nothing's gonna happen..."

Our second position is
Charlie

Charlie is the secretary and paperworkboy for Warlord Tar'lok. He manages the Warlord's schedule and files. Unlike the Warlord, Charlie isn't a grim, strong, leader of the Horde. Rather, he is an innocent, optimistic taruen geek. While the economy is going downhill, Charlie looks at the bright side. During the chaos of war, Charlie likes to focus on other things like playing video games or browsing 4chan (which would be a contradiction of "innocence"...).
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Charlie doesn't need to have a deep, taruen voice. Any moderate geeky-type voice will do. A voice that shows followship, not leadership; a voice that's optimistic, not pessimistic. The nerdy-ness of his voice doesn't need to be extreme, but notable.

LINES: "I have faith in our economic secretary! (He looks at the side and the secretary isn't there.) Um, where's the economic secretary?"
"Wow, sir! Maybe you should take a vacation!"

Our last position is
Nap

Bonjour from the Alliance! Nap (short for Gnomeregan's greatest hero: Napoleon Blownapart), is a corrupt Alliance government official. Showing a keen interest in the Grand Marshall candidate, Simply O, he plans to use him as a symbol of hope in dark times to get elected, and then, make him his puppet. Nap, no matter how small he is, has a grand obsession in power and wealth; but undergoes it secretly and with patience. In the end, he wins.
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Nap is a french-accented gnome, renowned for his height as a powerful government official. He sounds somewhat innocent to the things going on, but inside he's aware of his plans. The most important factor in trying this part, is that you must have a good french accent.

LINES: "Rather, I introduce to you, monsieur, PWN Squad!" (Pronouced pown, not letter by letter.)
"We will leave you for your breakfast monsieur, and return for your inauguation in three hours."

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Send any auditions (or questions) to NicolasGiordano@live.com, put it up in Megaupload and give me the link, or contact my AIM: NicolasJGiordano. Files are to be send in .mp3 or .wav preferably. There's no limit on how many characters you try out for only your skill. Thanks for reading this and hope you find at least one position interesting!

Voice actors needed for Trev and Eroth: Desperate Measures

If you don't want to be committed to a machinima group but still wanna be in one, this is your chance. They're small parts but necessary for the plot of my story, Trev and Eroth (World of Warcraft). There is also one position of a more long-term voice actor if you're also interested.

Now, because these lines are so short there won't be auditions, just send yours in and whoever's first, gets it. (or whoever I like first, but there are hardly any standards.) Plus the fact it's civilian, news anchormen/women so no deep kickass warriors, I think almost anybody could do these if you give effort and credibility. But there are some small requirements for each.

Any race will be accepted, gnome, human, troll, etc.
CNN: Another twenty factories have been closed worldwide...

Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents.
Fox: The war in Northrend claimed another squadron of troops in the Icecrown glacier.

Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents. Simply O = "simply oh" just like the letter O.[i]
ABC: Laborer nominee Simply O is making several speeches for the election. The topic? Bailout plans.

[i]Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents. Boosh = "boo + shh"
Fox: Nationalist Grand Marshall nominee Boosh says that patience is the best way to solve this economic crisis.

Any race will be accepted, gnome, human, troll, etc.
CNN: The Siege of Westguarde has finally been broken through by Alliance air fighters.

Any Horde race will be accepted, like no gnome or dranaei accents."
BBC: Six million Horde are unemployed-

Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents.
Fox: Assault and theft crimes throughout Azeroth have increased to a new level.

Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents. Simply O = "simply oh" just like the letter O.[i]
CNN: Simply O wants to reduce crime if he is elected as Grand Marshall.

[i]Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents. O = "oh" just like the letter O.
Fox: O is just says a bunch of liberal bullcrap...

Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents. O = "oh" just like the letter O.
ABC: O's bailout plan is only going to put the Alliance into more debt...

Any Alliance race will be accepted, like no trollish accents. Boosh = "boo + shh"
ABC: Obviously Boosh doesn't have the resources to get us out of this recession. O shows he does and the public agrees. Why are you in favor of Boosh?
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(Submittion information further below. )
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This part is for a long-term voice actor, who will need to do more voices as more films are made. Fortunately for you (maybe?), this character doesn't have much air time in any film (thus less reliance) but he is an important character in the grand scheme of things. Because of this, he will need an audition.

Character Name: Nap (Short for Napoleon, you'll know why below.)

Description: A short, tempered gnome who is excellent in politics and warfare. He is Simply O's (Guy running for Grand Marshal (Alliance version of a President)). assistant, kinda like a Vice President. He is deeply "loyal" for O (more kiss-assy) because of their potential power. He talks in a French accent. <<

Audition lines: (Pwn = P'own. A "p" in from of own.)
Nap: Rather, I introduce to you, monsieur, PWN Squad!

Nap: (Thinking what to say) Um, they can raid places...take out ze Horde spies, um... kill Liches and stuff.... Military missions, monsieur. Their name's pretty obvious.
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SUBMITTING INFO
If ANY parts interest you (and I hope they do), try it out, save it and send it to NicolasGiordano@live.com. Alternatively you can tell me another way and I'll try getting it your way! I hope these are some simple lines that anybody can say! Thanks for reading it and if you try out, very much thanks to you!

-Nicolas Giordano
Chef Films