The Vana'diel Players

Be afraid. FFXI + Shakespeare? Stranger things have happened. (this post adapted from some conversations this morning, both over IM and in person) Well, my movie idea is to do it in the game world of FFXI, with actual players performing as actors. Then dubbing over with Quark voice talent :) But I was kind of stuck on how to approach the story. I want to have a broader appeal than to "people who play FFXI." Thus, my new idea. The Vana'diel Players. Shakespeare in FFXI. Do some famous scenes, and hilarity ensues. Everyone loves shakespeare! Plus the medieval fantasy setting fits the period nature of the works. I've been working on some of the technical aspects as well. Camera work, what character animations are available, good locations for shooting, video recording and compression methods. I'm shooting in widescreen :) The game looks surprisingly cool when you turn off the names floating above everyones' heads and crop the top and bottom of the image. (That eliminates the visual portion of the gui entirely.) You can zoom in closer and see the really quality animation job Square has done. And I found some technical helps as well. Ways to edit the FFXI data files themselves. I can do things like make my character invisible to facilitate camera work. I can change the appearance of people's outfits so that they visually have whatever costume I like, without having to pay through the nose for expensive gear. I've been working on this for the last couple of weeks on and off when I can't sleep at night... I've got a demo reel at the moment. Next I'll get a script together. Then recruit my actors, which shouldn't be too hard - I've got access to a large body of sympathetic players. I'm hoping to finish a script and start getting actors this week. Then maybe two three-hour sessions for shooting footage. Then I'll need to teach myself Adobe Premiere, which shouldn't be too hard, for the basic stuff. I'm pretty handy at that sort of thing. My first project besides the demo reel will have an audio track already completed - the ever so famous "Dungeons and Dragons" skit. "I attack the darkness" and all that. Following that and getting into shakespeare will be more difficult, due to needing to record dialogue. I plan to record the dialog first and then act to the timing of that. Oh, it'll be fun :) I enjoy FFXI, but I'm kind of wanting a break from the level treadmill. And I've always been a fan of the locations, scenery, characters, and all of that in the game. Well, that's the current state of my plans. I should be getting some still shots up here on the blog before too long. I'll keep ya posted!