Our Video Game Documentary

[SubKamran]

This was made for History Day (MN), and the competition was today. We (our 3 person group) did not go on to state and that was the biggest disappointment ever.

I have no idea what we did wrong. We had a thesis, we backed it up, we PROVED it, and we had other people prove it. All within 10 minutes. The timelimit is 10:00 and we had 9:59. We even had room for G-man credits.

If anyone can tell us what we did wrong, I'd love to know. Otherwise, tell me what you think... everyone I've showed it to thinks it's amazing.

http://www.subkamran.com/lib/files/history day - video game documentary.wmv (40MB - Medium Quality) This is the version we had today (it was DVD quality for the competition though).

And, here's the National Winner of 2004; compare please. http://homepage.mac.com/robbyg/tudorice/iMovieTheater20.html

The theme this year was "Communication in History - The Key to Understanding". You cannot tell me we didn't stay with the theme...

Jeez, it just pisses me off. Well, we hope you like it, we did a lot of work with it!

 

[thenerdguy]

props to you, Very good. I made my wife watch it.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Heh...your wife. My little nerd is all grown up ;(

 

[h00dlum]

Pretty cool...

 

[15357]

F------ windows media player!

can't play wmv files!!!!

f------ sh-t it keeps giving me an error!

argh... can't watch this.........

 

[CREMATOR666]

Very nice! I recognized all the soundtracks as being HL2's

 

[The Dark Elf]

Well I dunno about the winning one, its a mov and QT doesn't like me so yeah.

But yours seems to skip and jump back and forth with no real flow to it. One second its space invaders, next its something about people traveling across the US, next its CS then Al Capone and so on. Makes it hard to watch and get into. Also watching other people play video games isn't very interesting, you'd have probably been better showing less of those, more impressive cutscenes and live action stuff, aswell as go from the past to the future in a line, not past, future, past, present, history teacher, past, future, al capone, g-man. There's other things I would have changed, editing, background music, general feel of it. But thats just my opinion, and you asked for people to be honest.

Anyhoo like I say, the other one didn't work.

 

[StardogChampion]

What do either of them have to do with communication?

 

[K e r b e r o s]

Holy shit, I learned something!

 

[lePobz]

That was excellent, nicely thought out, very well put together ... if I were the judge there'd be no competition.

Don't feel too cut up about not winning, at the end of the day, video games aren't everyones idea of education. No matter what happens, you'll always have this masterpiece.

 

[SimonomiS]

Well I dunno about the winning one, its a mov and QT doesn't like me so yeah.

But yours seems to skip and jump back and forth with no real flow to it. One second its space invaders, next its something about people traveling across the US, next its CS then Al Capone and so on. Makes it hard to watch and get into. Also watching other people play video games isn't very interesting, you'd have probably been better showing less of those, more impressive cutscenes and live action stuff, aswell as go from the past to the future in a line, not past, future, past, present, history teacher, past, future, al capone, g-man. There's other things I would have changed, editing, background music, general feel of it. But thats just my opinion, and you asked for people to be honest.

Anyhoo like I say, the other one didn't work.

Can you handle kids? You should be a teacher. :thumbs:

 

[PvtRyan]

Can you handle kids? You should be a teacher. :thumbs:

Poor kids

Nice documentary though, one piece of criticism would be the intonation of the voices, also you often speak to fast. But I know that's very hard.

 

[SubKamran]

Well I dunno about the winning one, its a mov and QT doesn't like me so yeah.

But yours seems to skip and jump back and forth with no real flow to it. One second its space invaders, next its something about people traveling across the US, next its CS then Al Capone and so on. Makes it hard to watch and get into. Also watching other people play video games isn't very interesting, you'd have probably been better showing less of those, more impressive cutscenes and live action stuff, aswell as go from the past to the future in a line, not past, future, past, present, history teacher, past, future, al capone, g-man. There's other things I would have changed, editing, background music, general feel of it. But thats just my opinion, and you asked for people to be honest.

Anyhoo like I say, the other one didn't work.

Hmmm, thanks, that helps a lot. For next year, I will have to keep that in mind.

Of course, this was our second documentary, and it doesn't even compare to our last one (which sucked). Also, something we didn't tell the judges, we started this Feb 18th, our script was finalized the 11th of this month, and we started filling in the middle of the documentary only this week. Hah! So, in that sense, I thought we did a damn good job

Also, last year's the theme was "Explore, Encounter, and Exchange". So the last winner fit.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Just watched it and loved it! I like the ending, with the 'opening doors' metaphorically and literally. Even though it wasnt a winner its a superb piece, good job.

 

[SubKamran]

Just watched it and loved it! I like the ending, with the 'opening doors' metaphorically and literally. Even though it wasnt a winner its a superb piece, good job.

Whooo! You caught on! Also, when the G-man walks out. "Door to our past and present"...*nudge* Eh?

Yah, we tried to use a lot of visual cues to drive home our points.

Also, Dark Elf, this was our script outline:

KEYPOINTS OF OUR SCRIPT OUTLINE

►KEY POINT 1: History has always been a part of entertainment.
►KEY POINT 2: Video Games are the newest in the trend of communicating history.
►KEY POINT 3: Video games do not have to reflect a certain event in history but can reflect a time period of history.
►KEY POINT 4: Video games can be used to develop better skills
►KEY POINT 5: Video games are growing exponentially.
►KEY POINT 6: Communication is heavily involved with video games.
►KEY POINT 7: There are games that are specifically made for historical accuracy.
►KEY POINT 8: Oregon Trail; Backing up Point 7
►KEY POINT 9: Example of a game that focuses primarily on entertainment but still stays true to history. AOE II.
►KEY POINT 10: More of a first-hand experience and not necessarily as accurate. Call of Duty.
►KEY POINT 11: Example of games recording the present. Space and Gulf War.
►KEY POINT 12: Another example of Key Point 11. Terrorism. C&C.
►KEY POINT 13: Example of Key Point 11; First-hand terrorism. Counter-Strike.
►KEY POINT 14: Games not even reflecting a time period but fears of a time. Half-Life 2.
►KEY POINT 15: Introducing video game importance.
►KEY POINT 16: Introduction & History
KEY POINT 17**: Interviews
►KEY POINT 18: Not a “end-all be-all” but the potential is there. More of a ‘gateway’.
►KEY POINT 19: Introduction to ‘society fear’ games.
►KEY POINT 20: Possible semi-summary and intro to end
►KEY POINT 21: Re-state our thesis.
►KEY POINT 22: Ending quote; Cultural impact is great.

** Multiple Times are allowed

Preferred Layout:

• Key Point 16 [0:22- ]
• Key Point 15
• Key Point 1
• Key Point 2
• Key Point 17
• Key Point 18
• Key Point 9
• Key Point 17
• Key Point 7
• Key Point 8
• Key Point 3
• Key Point 11
• Key Point 12
• Key Point 13
• Key Point 17
• Key Point 10
• Key Point 19
• Key Point 14
• Key Point 6
• ? key point 20
• Key Point 22
• Key Point 5
• Key Point 4
• Key Point 21

We didn't use all of them, but we thought we put it into an organized layout. I don't know, you are the only person who's said it wasn't organized.

And to answer the question, "What does the topic have to do with communication?" Here's our response:

2. What does your topic have to do with communication?
Video games are communicating our history through letting the player experience it. Video games are communicating in the sense that they are reflecting pop culture. You cannot talk about how video games communicate history without looking at society.

So basically, communication in the sense of reflection. They're communicating an idea.

I think we didn't go on to state because the judges rejected our thesis because it was so... crazy. They wanted something hardcore, "Oooo, TELEGRAPH, yah that's communication! Oooo, Navajo Codetalkers, yup, that's communication! What? Video games reflecting society, opening a door to our past, this is perposterous!" Yah.

 

[DarkStar]

The judges probably consider video games a trivial topic.

Morons.

EDIT: Who's that blonde chick in the video? There's just a real quick shot of a photo of her. Haaawwt.....

 

[Zeus]

props to you, Very good. I made my wife watch it.

I love this guy because he's living proof nerds can get married

 

[ALEXDJ]

sorry that you didn't win, i think generally people still don't take video gaming as serious part of our culture, but wait just a little more and your efforts will be rewarded, i promise.

ps
people will grow in time to appresiat your work

 

[SubKamran]

sorry that you didn't win, i think generally people still don't take video gaming as serious part of our culture, but wait just a little more and your efforts will be rewarded, i promise.

ps
people will grow in time to appresiat your work

Thanks, and for that...

It's obvious a lot of thought and work went into this, Kamran. Sorry it
didn't get you where you wanted to go. Thanks for sending it; I've
forwarded the link around.

Marc

Also, for you broadbanders...

http://valde.subkamran.com/

 

[Sprafa]

I gotta agree with Fenric, there was a lack of sense in some parts, and god damn, hire someone for narration, that was pwetty annoying

 

[SubKamran]

I gotta agree with Fenric, there was a lack of sense in some parts, and god damn, hire someone for narration, that was pwetty annoying

Lol, that's what you get for recording it in segments with a computer mic. Like I said, we're going to fix all of that.