Beyond Black Mesa Trailer - Short Indie Film

[Hectic Glenn]

See the trailer below, Beyond Black Mesa is a short independent fan film based around Half-life. The trailer depicts Adrian Shephard working with resistance fighters against combine civil protection to get out a warning about an impending invasion.[br]It has taken 2 years to create on a budget of just $1,200 and is worth checking out. More on beyondblackmesa.com. Thanks to Jerry_111 for the tip![br]

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[ríomhaire]

Not impressed. Too many filters, bad voice-over, nothing actually happening but people running a lot, soldiers with glowing eyes? I know the overwatch troops eyes show up in the dark in Half-Life 2 but they don't have headlights in their eye sockets. And what was the magic wrist thing with the cliche (and pointless) spinning hologram, and the health kit, which again is glowing and the people bursting through walls at them? Are they supposed to be zombies? If they're normal zombies they're a bit too fast. If they're fast zombies they have a bit too much skin and in either case they're missing a little something off of their heads. The worst part was the grenade explosion. Just wow.

Further proof that good special effects and costumes mean nothing. And please don't start up with "but it's good for a fan film!" It's not. All they are doing is running. Running running running. I could film myself running. Nothing interesting happens in the entire trailer and seeing as trailers are supposed to be the parts of the film that grab your attention the most then either nothing interesting happens in the entire film or they're just super-bad at making trailers.

 

[Rebel Racer]

>implying you could do better

 

[ríomhaire]

>implying you could do better

I think most people on this forum prefer posts to actually have some content in them. Example:

I could not do any better from a technical side. I could not film anything that well or do the effects so well. I'm not sure if I could do the voice over any better. On the other hand, I reckon I could come up with a more interesting trailer than everyone running around a lot. I don't care about these characters and nothing interesting has been shown at all. It's boring. It might be well made, but all that does is make it a well made and boring.

Or if you prefer to play this retarded meme:
>implying that not being able to do something better means you cannot criticize it

 

[MJ12]

I dislike this, extremely cheesy. I can see a lot of work was put into this, but I am not impressed. My biggest problem are things like the magic wrist thing, Adrian wearing a bandanna over his mouth to look super awesome badass, slowwww motionnnnn, etc.
But I am also totally baffled, despite all the work that has gone into this trailer, there was no effort to make the zombies into headcrab zombies, or the civil protection, look like civil protection. Now, if your argument is that "this was like the first wave of combines so they had different uniforms", fine, whatever, I'll bite. However, headcrab zombies replaced with regular zombies just screams of laziness.

>implying you could do better

Isn't there like, an official banning rule for anytime anyone uses this argument?

 

[Vegeta897]

Very well said Riom, I agree.

I also chuckle at the idea of a trailer for a short film. It's like having cliff's notes on a short story. Or a demo for a flash game.

 

[Warped]

it would have been cooler if they added some main character you knew from the storyline, even for just a bit of the trailer but what everyone else said, it felt uninteresting

 

[s1e9a8n5]

What most don't seem to understand is that it is inspired by Half Life. It's not trying to be Half Life. So of course there are going to be differences.

For something that was done by fans and under a budget, I think it's pretty damn cool. They certainly could have made the trailer more character centric but other than that, it's good. I didn't have a problem with the voice over. I love the grenade blast that sends the guy back. Jumping through the glass window. The flip kick to the leg. Very cool. The true test will be whether or not they can act.

 

[robotman5]

this looks AWESOME!

 

[Gorgon]

seriously, can't wait for escape from City 17 part two. the producers are taking long time to make this part.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PurchaseBrothers

 

[Tony]

It's decent but it doesn't top Escape from City 17.

 

[Born]

Ouch. Cringe to say the least. I'll give them credit for the effort they put in, but immediately I found myself drawing conclusions; it just doesn't come close to the outstanding quality of Escape from City 17. Speaking of which, where's part 2?

 

[Krynn72]

Anybody who thinks this looks good probably also liked the shitty Hitman movie. Hitman was a lame action movie adaptation with a few of the major hitman "features" thrown in as gimmicks. This looks like its trying to be a blockbuster action movie (AKA the shittiest genre of movies man ever invented) with a few major half-life "features" thrown in. Its halflife dumbed down for people who have been go "omg cool" at explosions and slow-mo effects that have been around since the 90s.

Unless it pulls out some kind of wildcard with a great story to it, this is going to be a lamefest. And there is no evidence to suggest that they have such a card to pull.

 

[Jerry_111]

I came when I saw my name.

 

[Kaptain H]

I wanted to like this video, but the whole direction of it feels really cheesy and off. Even the costumes managed to annoy me. It also wasn't clear to me what time period of the storyline it was set in.

 

[Lucid]

Could've sworn I saw this months ago... anyways.

Adrian is now a hipster with a motley crew of teens intent on taking down an oppressive regime of gas mask wearing hoodlums in a disused industrial area.

 

[Cornerstone]

Half Life dumbed down is like dividing 0. Good for $1200 but Escape was obviously the better. At the end of the day, it's watchable.

 

[kupocake]

And please don't start up with "but it's good for a fan film!" It's not.

But it's not just a fan film, is it? People don't just make these things for the sheer fun of it. They make them to demonstrate all the gimmicky stuff they're capable of doing as film-makers trying to go pro. That's why there are canon-poking things like holographic displays and glowing drama eyes, and that's definitely why there's several minutes of running everywhere and slow-mo dives through windows.

The purchase brothers, these guys, that one video about 'the package' that seemed Half-Life related? They're pretty savvy. Half-Life 2 is the perfect franchise for filming compelling science fiction on a low budget, but it's also a franchise that comes with a massive audience whose time is expendable. It all translates into a promo-reel that has been watched by several thousand people. I'm not saying these guys aren't genuine fans, I'm not saying people should feel used and offended when stuff like this comes along. I'm just saying, of course it's fundamentally flawed: it's not just for us and our fanperson expectations.

 

[StarBob]

Ok that was boring. The only thing I can even draw from it was that the chick was kinda cute.

 

[love_nutz2]

Takin' a bit of liberty with the source material aren't they, Escape from city 17 was a better hl2 short film. And giving Shephard a voice? REALLY, And when has the rebels fighters had access to hand held holo GUI tatical read out devices, and why is there a large Asian man (no offenses to the guy) in this, the rebels are low on food and that ****er must be eating the supplies!


I agree with Ríomhaire on the combine eye lights, way over done, why is Shepherd quoting G-man? did he over hear him talking to freeman.


WahWahWahWahWahWahWahWahWahWahWah! Like I said Escape from city 17 was a better hl2 short film, it left it ambitious like the HL2, didn't cross deeply into freeman mythology, there was a little reference here, there and etc


Simon must glaring at this thread with villainous intent, eye boiling red with even the name shephard appearing in front of him. Good.

 

[Suicide Machine]

this looks AWESOME!

**** you and your stupid sig.

I'm sorry.

 

[Bob-taro]

I dislike this, extremely cheesy. I can see a lot of work was put into this, but I am not impressed. My biggest problem are things like the magic wrist thing, Adrian wearing a bandanna over his mouth to look super awesome badass, slowwww motionnnnn, etc.
But I am also totally baffled, despite all the work that has gone into this trailer, there was no effort to make the zombies into headcrab zombies, or the civil protection, look like civil protection. Now, if your argument is that "this was like the first wave of combines so they had different uniforms", fine, whatever, I'll bite. However, headcrab zombies replaced with regular zombies just screams of laziness.



Isn't there like, an official banning rule for anytime anyone uses this argument?

Oh, good grief, you all can pick it apart if you like, I thought it was emotive and clever and showed some technical talent. You always run into this problem though when you are a fan of something and someone does an adaptation. The fanbase usually complains, "they didn't get x, y, and z exactly right - booo!". Well, the kind of people who do this sort of project are creative, and creative people are also likely to change a few things. Did you all get over the vortigaunts being reskinned?

 

[Asknoone]

But it's not just a fan film, is it? People don't just make these things for the sheer fun of it. They make them to demonstrate all the gimmicky stuff they're capable of doing as film-makers trying to go pro. That's why there are canon-poking things like holographic displays and glowing drama eyes, and that's definitely why there's several minutes of running everywhere and slow-mo dives through windows.

The purchase brothers, these guys, that one video about 'the package' that seemed Half-Life related? They're pretty savvy. Half-Life 2 is the perfect franchise for filming compelling science fiction on a low budget, but it's also a franchise that comes with a massive audience whose time is expendable. It all translates into a promo-reel that has been watched by several thousand people. I'm not saying these guys aren't genuine fans, I'm not saying people should feel used and offended when stuff like this comes along. I'm just saying, of course it's fundamentally flawed: it's not just for us and our fanperson expectations.

Yeah, but the bulk (read: the rest of his post) of what Rim said had nothing to do with its quality as a "fan film" (what is that, anyway?), but rather the overall quality of the film itself. Enough, I think, has been said of that - most of which I agree with.

 

[Colonel Kernel]

... and why is there a large Asian man (no offenses to the guy) in this, the rebels are low on food and that ****er must be eating the supplies!

Oh boy, good one, I Lol'd. Sig'ed.

 

[Blindasabat]

Oh, good grief, you all can pick it apart if you like, I thought it was emotive and clever and showed some technical talent. You always run into this problem though when you are a fan of something and someone does an adaptation. The fanbase usually complains, "they didn't get x, y, and z exactly right - booo!". Well, the kind of people who do this sort of project are creative, and creative people are also likely to change a few things. Did you all get over the vortigaunts being reskinned?

Hear, hear!

 

[MJ12]

Did you all get over the vortigaunts being reskinned?

VS.

 

[Cancer]

Too much color saturation, motion and general blur, and unneccesary use of slow motion. Also not a big fan of their implementation of the "HDR", the hard surfaces are literally glowing.

Escape from City 17 did a much better job...for half the budget.

 

[brad92]

Official synopsis:

"Inspired by the Half-Life Video Game series, this is an action packed short film centering around Adrian Shephard and a band of resistance fighters struggling to get out a warning about the impending invasion. "

Oh, the paradoxes!