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WoW Moviewatch: Yesterday's News
Today in WoW Moviewatch Staff Picks, we'll take a look at a team favorite. It was recommended by Dawn Moore and ratified by Anne Stickney. You'll see why as soon as you start watching it. Yesterday's News by Slashdance is an older movie that managed to speak about the inevitable changes in WoW while using that as a metaphor for life as a whole. It's really a beautiful work and one that I hold up as an example of how machinima is truly art. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
WoW Moviewatch: Slashdance vs. Ulduar
We recently asked our intrepid WoW Insider staff about some of their favorite machinima. First up among the answers is Dawn Moore's favorite, Slashdance vs. Ulduar. In this movie, a raid group prepares to face Ulduar, only to find the raid is much more difficult than they were expecting. This is what Dawn has to say about the video: The setup is so perfectly wanky. The use of those long pans with some epic score has become so cliché among novice film and machinima makers in recent years that you kind of groan when you see them. To see the fourth wall come down on it at the end is absolutely delightful. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Maintenance day loot from WoW.com
WoW.com is giving more loot cards away today, thanks to an extremely generous donation from WoWTCGLoot.com. Why? Because it's maintenance day and because we feel like it! Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of five different codes: one of two Slashdance codes, one of two Tiny codes (these are horses for the Alliance and raptors like the one pictured above for the Horde), or one Path of Cenarius code. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline to enter is May 20th at 10:00 AM EDT, so leave a comment while you can and win! Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes). Good luck!
WoW.com TCG Loot Giveaway: Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuits and Slashdance
Since we're in the middle of a pretty lazy Sunday here at the Wow.com secret world headquarters, we decided it might be cool to reach into the old prize box and pull out a few goodies for all you evening browsers of WoW news and information. In particular, we're going to be handing out a few TCG loot codes courtesy of our good friends at Upper Deck.For starters, let's throw out two codes for some Slashdance grenades, which will make everyone in the blast radius break out into dance. Pretending you are the Music Meister optional. We'll also give away an old but goodie - a code for 50 Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuits, which will make the targeted vanity pet grow. Use it on your Teldrassil Sproutling and pretend you have a pocket druid healer (actual healing ability not included).Leave a comment below before 2:00 am EDT, and we'll pick a few of you at random to get these codes. It'll give us something to do while we wait for more submissions for our October Guild of the Month contest.
WoW Moviewatch: Warrior's Dream
Sam Pierce, the director and producer for Slashdance, dropped us a note to let us know the final, full-length cut of Warrior's Dream is available. And every moment of this breathtaking video is gorgeous. The video scored 3rd place at the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest, and it's easy to see how it did so well. Like many BlizzCon machinima entries, Warrior's Dream was originally released in a smaller, 3-minute version in order to conform with the contest guidelines. Now that the contest is over, the Slashdance group retooled the video to its better paced, full featured glory. This video is just absolutely wonderful. While the authors provide interpretation for the Fantasia-like framing, I'd recommend watching the video before you read that summary. The words "wonder" and "fantasy" can't describe this video adequately, since it really is a soaring, imaginative journey through Northrend. For me, it manages to capture the "wow!" and "look at that!" in the World of Warcraft, and does so in an open, embracing approach. It's a great movie, and one worth sharing with friends. As a final note, this is a video I immediately shared with both WoW friends and non-WoW friends. It's a beautiful film, and one I think most people will enjoy. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Comment to win some Saturday night swag
Good evening, WoW.com! Tonight we have a surprise giveaway. Right in front of me are three Slashdance loot codes, courtesy of Upper Deck. Each code grants you 100 Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.s which you can use to get your raid burning up the dance floor! Or the auction house, or the Horde/Alliance tunnels before Alterac Valley starts, or... you know, wherever it would be most obnoxious. Do you want one of them? All you need to do is leave a comment to this post before 11:59 PM EDT this evening, which is a little less than five hours from now.When the clock strikes midnight tonight, I'll be turning off comments on this post and randomly selecting three winners. You may only enter tonight's giveaway once. We have ways of finding out if you've commented multiple times, so don't hose yourself out of a loot code. Comment with a valid email address, because we'll be using that to send you your loot code.If you don't win one tonight, don't worry! Upper Deck was kind enough to give us a whole load of loot, so we'll be giving them away pretty often until we've bled ourselves dry.Update: Congratulations to our winners InsiderFan, Jon B., and Friend. They're our winners this evening! I'll be contacting all three of you via email shortly. Again, if you didn't win tonight, don't worry. We'll be giving away many, many more of these in the near future. Just keep an eye on the site.
WoW Moviewatch: Things You Need
Things You Need is a submission to the machinima category of the 48 Hour Film Project by Stone Falcon Productions, Oblivious Films, and Slashdance. It's a little raucous, and a little rowdy, so your mileage on this film is going to vary according to your taste. It's the story of a down-trodden gnome who encounters a magic shop, gets a tub of magic paint, and hijinks ensue. I really enjoyed the first part of the film. It was cute, amusing, and the musical portions were pretty darn funny. I loved the shop owner, and the dialogue and play between the two characters. It was lighthearted, fast paced, and totally worth the time. I'm not as sold on the gnome's female companion, created using the magical bucket. She's stereotypically vacuous and unsatisfying for the gnome, who decides to erase her. There's two schools of thought on this. The first is the obvious concern about the misogyny, the creation of a "perfect" woman, the exploitation of her, and the immediate use of her for base purposes. The other side to that discussion, of course, is that you can interpret the piece as a criticism of that kind of behavior, questioning the motives and character of a man who would do such a thing. Ultimately, though, I don't know if there's a lot to be read into it except a joke, and whether or not you find the joke funny. Like I said, your mileage is going to vary. [Via WarcraftMovies] If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Countdown to Wrath giveaway special: Slashdance loot cards
What are you possibly doing up this morning? Didn't you stay up late last night and play Wrath like a normal person? Oh well, since you're up and around, let's give out some free stuff. The good folks at Red Sun Comics (hit them up for all of your comics and collectible needs -- here's their Warcraft stuff) have kindly supplied us with not one but two /slashdance loot cards. Yes, that's right, now there's an item other than the Piccolo that will make your friends dance with joy whether they want to or not.So here's the deal: leave a comment on this post telling us why you're up at this ungodly hour, and we'll pick two lucky winners to nab two different /slashdance loot cards, good for the ingame G.R.E.N.A.D.E. that'll make your friends (or raid, or just random people in the IF bank) dance like maniacs. You can be in anywhere in the world, as long as you play on a US or EU realm (because that's where the codes work).Enter a comment before Saturday night (November 15 at 6pm Eastern), because after that we'll be closing the comments down and your chance to win will be over. And do go check out Red Sun Comics -- they were nice enough to hook you all up, the least you can do is find some cool stuff on their site.
WoW Moviewatch: Redshift: Pursuit
Redshift: Pursuit, by Slashdance, is a direct sequal to the piece "Redshift: Ty'zamar and Aislynn," and pretty much cements Redshift as an episodic series. A "diviner" has a foreseen the death of a Night Elf, and the conflict ensues from there. We brought you the trailer for this piece back in October, and are happy to be able to see the final product. I was impressed with "Redshift: Pursuit", mostly for story and narrative purposes. I felt like the causal action from scene to scene was fairly meaningful, though the opening sequence was a little slow for my tastes. (It's probably just my personal preferences, but I like openings to get banging to action right away.) Of course, the shout out to the Amani trolls really brings the story "home" to Azeroth, for me. Inclusiveness with the game's lore helps us identify characters and motivations, and provides a more solid base for the action to take place. I will definitely be interested to see what Redshift brings us next. If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Blizzard updates emote list, you applaud. Bravo!
We knew that Wrath was going to bring new emotes (and some of them were even suggested by players), and now Blizzard has posted the full list, complete with which emotes have animations and voices, and none or both. The /cower is the most hilarious one I've seen so far -- the Night Elf /cower is just terrific. And some of these are old and just not very well known -- /nosepick, I'm pretty sure, has been in there since the beginning, but I don't remember ever seeing anyone use it in game.Unfortunately, they don't mark which are new and which aren't, but I believe /incoming is a new one. I've never tried out /sing or /ding. and /doh looks new to me as well. But odds are that there are at least a few you haven't tried yet, and we do know that lots of the animations are new for sure.So get in there and try out some emoting -- if there's an especially funny one you find, let us know for sure.Update: Commenter Jason M. nabbed this cache of the page from the Wayback machine so we can see what's old and new for sure. Thanks!
WoW Moviewatch: Redshift: Pursuit Trailer
Fresh off of winning an Oswald award at BlizzCon 2008, the filmmakers at Slashdance have released a trailer for their next movie, Redshift: Pursuit. Pursuit will be a sequel to their first movie, Redshift. (The award-winning Interlude was a prequel to the same movie.)The premise appears to be revolve around the conflict that arises when the clairvoyant Aislynn (a former Night Elf turned Undead) foresees the death of another Night Elf in her visions and tries to prevent it, putting her at odds with her fellow Horde. That's all the trailer really hints at, but it's a gripping teaser for what's to come. On their website, Slashdance says that the full film version of Pursuit will be released on October 31. We'll keep a look out for it.[Via Vimeo]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.
Upper Deck announces new "Drums of War" TCG loot cards
The latest WoW TCG expansion pack, the Drums of War, hits stores in late October (the 28th, to be exact), and Upper Deck has revealed three new loot cards that will come along with it. These are pretty wild. Slashdance is a super common card that will give you a party G.R.E.N.A.D.E. that, when thrown, will explode into a dance party on any unsuspecting characters who happen to be standing around. Owned! Flag is probably my favorite -- it lets you plant a flag, Emissary of Hate style, with a "thumbs down" flag in your conquered opponent. And The Red Bearon will give folks who missed out on the War Bear another chance -- it's a black battle bear mount. All very cool (still not quite worth paying for by themselves, in my opinion, but that's up to you). If nothing else, folks playing the TCG will have a nice chance at some cool loot.But that Owned! flag is nuts. Hopefully that's not the only flag we get to stab into corpses in the future -- even if the" thumbs down" stays TCG only, I'd be a big fan of stabbing someone with a Horde flag.%Gallery-34033%
WoW Moviewatch: Slashdance
It's not new, but this short film by The Widget still has a valid point to make. World of Warcraft is all good fun -- but don't take it to extremes! Think this situation is completely unrealistic? Let's get a show of hands from all of you who know someone like this -- I'll even start it out, /raise hand. (Note: contains some unsafe for work type language -- so be careful where you watch!)Previously, on Moviewatch...
WoW Moviewatch: Redshift
Here's a cute little story without any of the special effects you see in lots of the machinima people make nowadays. It's an amateur production, but it's somehow all the more lovable for it. Especially having read everyone's comments about why playing through the Horde's side of the WoW story can feel so good, this story reminds me of some of the noble themes people love most about the Horde's story -- unity in diversity, letting go of the past, and moving on with the future.For those who don't know, the "vrriish!" sound at the end is the sound of a rogue's "sprint" ability being used, enabling him to run at high speeds.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
BlizzCon Machinima Contest
You may recall that there were a few contests going on at BlizzCon, one of them being a machinima contest (and the machinima that comes out of major contests like this is always incredible!). Well, in last night's contests session, we found out who won and saw the premieres of the three winning videos, and now they're available online for all to enjoy! Drama winner: Interlude by Slashdance Comedy winner: The Grind: Halloween Special by Oblivious Films Action/Adventure winner and Best in Show: Snacky's Journal, Episode 3: Freaked Out Over Fishing by Stone Falcon Productions And if that's not enough entertainment for you, there's also a few runners up you can check out at the AT&T Blue Room.
