Blog Posts from "Shijima's Reviews" - Gameriot.com

Interview: Chrille "The Fat Cow"

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:06:52 -0400

So my laptop broke for a week, and I couldn’t write anything because everything was on my laptop. Before it broke I had just received my answers back from The King of the Feral druids “Chrille the Fat Cow” in the interview I asked him about his movie making endeavors, real life, and his fate in WoW…

For the fans let’s get some basic info!??!!

Heya! My name is Christian "The Fat Cow" Schmid and I like turtlez ... You probably know who I am when it comes to in game information so let's see if you are interested in RL information instead then! I’m a 20 year old Guy who lives in Sweden in a small town south of Malmö. I've been working as a landscaper now during my 1 year break before going to the university this autumn. Hmm, I just realized how hard it is to actually write something about you, wow! I'm an athletic person who loves to do sports and that’s one of the reasons why I'm trying to be so competitive in game as well. There are probably tons of people with more raw talent in computer games then I have, but I just want you to know that raw talent isn't everything!

How did you get into make WoW movies?

Which of all your movies do you like the best?

I'd say the best work is The Fat Cow and The Pro

How do you pick the songs for your movies?

I've very picky with the songs and I spend hours and hours trying to find music that I personally like and feel that it fits with the movie. It's the worst part of creating a movie, believe me! Finding music = horrible.

Would you ever consider making a movie not based on feral spec?

Definitely, but it feels like I'm letting the fans down if I'm not continuing on the path of the Feral.

Which was your favorite duel? Was it hard to get footage for that duel?

My favorite duels are against Rogue's and Mage's and I'd say that the duel against Noone and Dubble We is my Favorite. Especially when I'm using sprint in then intro to avoid FB's while killing his WE.

Do you like making movies or do you just do them because people keep bugging you about when the next movie is coming out?

It was a lot of fun, but the eager to produce movies isn't there anymore. I do it for my fans and to become better at the game but the enthusiasm is fading a bit. We'll see if I can catch that enthusiasm somewhere in the future. I'd love to find it again

When do you think you will stop making movies?

I can't say, because that totally depends on how long I'm planning to stay around.
To be honest, this pressure I've had on my shoulders since the end of Vanilla wow is starting to become a bit overwhelming. I demand to much of myself and the expectation of me always being able to be within the top patch after patch is a bit mental really. Just look at Neilyo and some other players having hard times to adapt to Wotlk, I mean this game is evolving so fast that it sometimes evolves away from your play style completely. This forces you find new ways to enhance your old play style, to be able to keep up.

How much fame have your movies brought you?

I can't put a finger how much fame it has given me, but I do know what the fame has given me. It has made me grow as a person, and I know how to handle all the spam and flaming after all these years. I'm a completely different person now then I was before, I had it and that is in a positive way. When you are in the public eye the pile you'll received of stuff to worry about and work with, but it depends a bit on how much you care about the ones who are interested in your opinions and answers. You can just ignore everything that is a horrible publicity really.

Where do you get the ideas for your movies?

I'm a very creative person, I love to paint and work with Photoshop etc, so getting ideas isn't really my main issue. The issue is more like, am I able to execute this or is it to hard for me.

Which do you like editing more arena matches or duels?

Duels fo sho!

I would like that thank Chrille for having to the time to answers all my questions. Coming up during the week will be Goo’s interview

Movie Review: Flekz 6... Also upcoming interview update.

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:41:59 -0400

A few movies came out this past weekend. To my excitement Flekz 6 was one of those movies, so I began downloading the movie. The trailer for Flekz 6 had been released a few weeks back. Waiting for the download to finish I though to myself, “What if this movie would fall short and wasn't good at all?”” A few minutes later the download finished, so I double clicked the movie and began viewing.

You can find this movie here:

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=117305

Before I get further into this review, I wanted to say that I watched this movie last Friday. By the time I began to write this article on Sunday, Flekz 6 was the most viewed and downloaded movie of the weekend, landing over 78,492view/downloads in the span of 3 full days.

The movies I review are PvP movies with some type of editing. If a rookie director can mix a good soundtrack with some editing, he will receive a good review from me. While directors that have come out with more then 3 movies I expect a bit more then just showing me for the millionth time that you know how to play your class. So when a movie titled “Such and such 4” is released I’m expecting to be entertained more then anything. Your efforts of showing me how good your play style is have long passed in the first 3 movies you made.

Rarely will you get a movie that should be reviewed by other film directors. Why do I put it like this you might ask? It’s mainly because when you watch Flekz 6 you are looking at something that is consider actual art. This is a movie that only people with substantial amount of editing experience can see the mistakes made.

My overall reaction to this movie is that, you should experiences it for yourself and see what you think. I consider this an actual piece of art work that should be given an award. The director went above and beyond the regular standards of PvP movies to make something that was out of the ordinary. I was amazed at the caliber of editing and creativity that were put into this movie. It has pretty much everything you can think of and more…

This week I’ll be posting my interview with Chrille. Also I’ll talk about the sneak peaks I have seen from Metabolic and Rokzilla new upcoming movies.

Movie Review: R-1 by Rokzilla

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:02:11 -0400

I received mail on Gameriot asking me to check out a rogue movie. So I proceed to follow the link not knowing what to expect. Once I saw the name of the movie I figured, here we go again. Some lame rogue with a funny name running around just killing people for an hour, with bad editing and a special thanks message at the end of the movie.…Yeah I put my foot in my mouth after I saw Rokzilla intro.

You can find his movie here:

http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=111727

The gigantic Crits that appeared on the screen caught my attention. It’s just a video game, but I said “holy **** I wouldn’t have wanted to be that guy!” After watching the clip of the 10k+ crit on some warlock I think. I said to myself “and this was just his intro!” So I kept watching figuring that it might be a fluke. After about a minute I was hooked, and all the doubt I had went out the window. I had to hand it to Rokzilla he picked some very entertaining footage. He mixed in both BG’s clips and Arenas clips, which was nice to see again since a lot of people just do straight arena movies nowadays. I never try to judge any movie on the directors play style, but the Crits and tactics he was using brought something to the movie that I couldn’t describe. Rokzilla’s camera views are great and I couldn’t complain about them. Everything was clear, and focused on the action, and he left the boring parts out, which is always a plus in my book. The comments he put in were nice, and the transitions of the encounters were near perfect, both these elements combined are what most movie maker should always try to incorporate into their movies. Editing like this made Rokzilla’s movie flow much better then other movies I have seen. That’s one part of directing that people tend to forget. You as the director are supposed to lead the viewer in the direction you want them to see, and not have the viewer playing the guessing game while they watch your movie..

The music was very well picked, and it helped the movie keep its fast pace. A good soundtrack will always help excel a movie, even to the point where you go to U Tube and look up the songs, because they keeps playing in you mind.

My overall reaction to this movie is simple. If you haven’t seen it go watching it, if you have seen this movie watch it again. If you’re an upcoming movie maker learn from this movie and if you made a movie and didn’t feel it was good enough, than copy this movie. After I finish watching his movie I saw that its rating on Warcraft movies was rather low, and then I saw the release date. To my surprise this movie had been released awhile back, though he did land 36k which is very impressive he should have gotten more… Keep up the good work and I can’t wait till you release your next movie.

Movie Review: Rd Wrath Arenas. And a day spent meeting some of the members of Doom Squad...

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:11:39 -0400

Yesterday was a very eventful day, I got the chance to meeting some of the Doom Squad members and talk with them on vent, but I’ll talk more about Doom Squad later in the article so let’s get back on track. I had a chance to watch Rd Wrath Arenas movie.

You can find his movie here:

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=116299

I downloaded the movie, which was almost 1 Gig. Figuring it was this large because of editing. Yet to my surprise I found out that he had recorded in a very high resolution. It was amazing to see how clear the picture was. I guess this was the reason that he didn’t do much editing to the movie. His intro was nice, and he showing off his season 5 mount. After watching some of the first few matches I could say that his transitions from match to match were very well done despite the low amounts of editing. His views were good and clear also; he was able to catching almost everything that was happening on the screen.

This movie had dance/trance music playing throughout the whole thing. The slow pace of the songs didn’t help the movie out. I thought that it took away from the movie, since it’s a rogue movie and they are usually fast paced. I rather a mix of music fast paced rock/dance music, but that’s just me.

Overall this movie wasn’t bad if you’re into watching straight arena matches I recommend it. It was a bit long for me; I got bored after about 15mins of watching Rd killing people in arena. Could have Rundown done better? Yeah he could have since he had the nice resolution already, compiled with some nice editing, which would have gave this movie platinum status…

For all you guys other there that like watching the Doom Squad movies I’m going to have a treat for you. I spent most of the day yesterday talking to some of the members of the guild. Hearing what’s going on in their guild and listening in on some of the members doing arena. I also was given a chance to watch a sneak peak of Metabolic’s new upcoming movie, all that I have to say is that it will not disappoint. He did have a small preview set up, but something happened and it's no longer working.

On my final note the highlight of the yesterday was when I had the chance to chat with the very friendly Chrille about WoW. We covered a lot of the subjects in WoW nerfs and buffs, and how he likes playing feral in arena. Which lead me to ask him for an interview about his movies? He agreed and I’m planning on setting up something in the near future.

Up and Coming: I sit down with the editor of the Drakedog movies. Review some more movies this week, and talk about setting up an interview with an ex-high profiled movie maker.

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:29:56 -0400

I got the chance to sit down with Goo, the behind the scene’s man responsible for some of Drakedog’s latest movies. We talked about how he hooked up with Drakedog, the effort that is put into making a Goo style movie. How he likes working with Drakedog on movie projects.

I’m also reviewing a few movies this week, mainly new comers since I haven’t heard or seen any major releases coming out this week.

The best for last you could say. I’ve been hunting down some of the best movie makers in WoW trying to land interviews. Most of them are scattered across the world, so I’m waiting on responses. Then I asked myself, who would be a fantastic interview to snag that is local, God works in mysterious ways; at that point I looked up at my laptop screen and saw the World of Ming blog. Who better to interview then the man, the myth, and not so legend yet… Ming! He has amounted quite a bit of movies under his belt. Which were high rated and also extremely downloaded by his fans and haters. I’ll be putting my best efforts to land an interview with Ming and ask him some questions that a lot of his fans want to hear about his movie making accomplishments and any future projects.

Movie Review: Terribadsize - 2450+ RMP

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:30:33 -0400

Today’s review was recommended by a friend of mine. He suggested that I would like the soundtrack of this movie. So I followed the link that he gave me, at first I thought I was going to have to stream the movie since File Front is broken. I found out that I could download the movie through WEGaming, which was very cool, this made me like this movie even more before I watched it. Let me warn you guys now this is a arena only movie healer aspect.

You can find the movie here:

http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=115789

His intro cracked me up, as did the ending of the movie. The camera views were good, Terribadsize didn’t shake the view or have erratic turning. He also scrolled out as much as he could so that it was easier to see what’s was going on around him. This helps with filming because when you edit you have a lot more to work with a larger view then a smaller view, (This is a tip for all you up incoming directors). The one thing I really disliked was how he transition from encounter to encounter. I’m not a mind reader, so let us know that the fight is done and that you have just started another fight instead of a fast fade away.

The music he picked was really good; I enjoyed listening to all the songs. The play list didn’t have a set pace, so it worked in some of the encounters. Combined with some funny comments, which made me say, “What is he going to say next,” Like I said earlier I cracked up at the end of the movie. All I have to say about the ending is this “who is she and can I have her number!”

Overall this was a good display of what most movies should be like when you’re making that first movie. I would like to say that directors that play a healer and make movies. Have it rough, most of the times as a healer your to focus on what’s going on with the fight that you forget your filming or you mess up the shots that your taking. That’s was another reason I liked this movie, Terribadsize was able to keep it clear and set on most of the actions. Even the Mod that he has, which shows him what type of CC is being casted add comic relief. It reminded me of something my old GM would say. “You need to get a Mod that shows you what the hell is being casted so you move,” I hope you guys enjoying watching this movie as I did, even though RMP is played out. Terribadsize adds other elements to make this movie enjoyable. I’ll look forward to your next movie.

Movie Review: Mongi Feral 2.6k

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:12:35 -0400

Today's review is on a rookie director named Mongi from the Arthas server. I figured after people thought that I was bashing Chrille, I would look for another feral druid movie. The WoW Gods must have heard my prayers.

You can find Mongi movie here:

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=116073

For a 24 minute long movie it seemed never ending. The format that Mongi was using was repetitive and simple. Mongi transitions from encounter to encoutner were not bad although they lack details, still pull it off in the manner Mongi transitions to the next encounter, so I never was like “Oh that fight ended?” At no point during this movie did I feel lost or had no clue what was going on. Also Mongi was able to keep the camera on the action, though it was due to her play style and not fancy editing.

The pace of the movie is moderate so you don’t really miss anything, with the music helping out a lot, mainly a mix of Rock music with a techno song at the end, since Mongi showed full length arena matches that were over 5 minutes long you need something to keep you watching other then the string of crits.

Overall this was an alright movie if your into learning peoples tactics and play styles. The entertainment factor was low mainly relying on the big numbers that show up while Mongi shreds people up. I consider this more of a how to play type movie, which helps people learn or gives them ideas on what to do in arena.

Movie Review: The Fat Cow 10 Arenas

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:55:45 -0400

Today I jumped on Warcraft movies to see that my fellow druid Chrille had dropped another movie. Having seen all of his previous movies I was excited to see what he had shot this time around.

You can find the movie here:

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=116119

After my last review I figured I would watch a movie that was directed by a season veteran. To my surprise this morning I saw that The Fat Cow 10 had been added to Warcraft movies. I also would like to congratulate him for knocking out 10 movies, a hard task to reach, but that being said it’s time to get to work.

The intro was no different from any of his other of his movies, which helped to set himself as a bad @ss. I felt that this was going to have some of Chrille’s superb editing skills, since his last few movies he has showcase better transitions and editing. That wasn’t the case here; this is a simple PvP movie displaying tactics instead of entertainment. Even the best director can sometimes choose to display slower paced footage and less glamour to get the point they are trying to express, though Chrille did slow down the footages to show off what he was doing it didn’t make the movie better. The transitions to the next encounters are ok, they don’t hurt the movie at all, but they could have been better. Chrille moves the camera around, a bit erratic; I think it’s mainly because he’s keeping track of his partner. It didn’t take away from the movie, unless you the viewer feel like it does.

The music wasn’t bad, somewhat of a slower pace. At first it felt like it was going to be a mix of everything then it just turned out to be all dance music. So if you like dance music enjoy the beats. I personally don’t listen to dance music that much anymore, but I can’t say that he music was bad or ruins the movie.

Overall this was an ok movie, but it can’t compare to some of his earlier work. The duel with the mage was fun to watch, but got boring since the music for this duel wasn’t really to my liking and kind of out of place for me at least. I recommend this movie if you want to see Chrille do his thing, which I can’t say he’s not bad at all. He shows big crits and well played performances. Its water down compared to the rest of them, but still good enough to give a 4 out of 5 rating.

Review : Furious Gladiator

no.spam@gameriot.com (Shijima) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:43:00 -0400

This is a priest/mage areana move. When I saw the title of this movie I followed the link. Which can be found here.

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=115641

I had to stream it, which wasn’t a big deal I mainly download the movie to watch it over. Looking for things I missed the first time around.

The opener was simple and straight forward. Unlike many other titles I've watched that have flashy openers with all types of graphics and story line setup. These openers can be entertaining, but sometimes take away from the movie itself, mainly because the director is trying to top the opener with the rest of the movie. This movie doesn’t follow that type of format, which is refreshing and brings me back to when everyone used these type of openers at lvl 60. Styles don’t fade away they just get recycled.

Ronlol is filming the footage, but has a UI in the way, so you lose sight of what is going on and at times getting confused or lost. You can’t tell when the priest or mage are doing something that either turns the match or outsmarts the opponent unless the priest moves the camera in those directions, or the event happens to the priest. They try to show some of the tactics they use.

The transitions from fight to fight are some what smooth. You go from watching one fight to the next without a clue till they tell you that you are watching the next fighting, since everything is straight to the point you don’t get slow down or fancy graphics to enhance the entertainment and viewing aspect. I’m not saying this is bad, just it would have been better if they worked the camera angles better or warned you when they where attempting something instead of seeing someone drop dead out of the blue an then the screen changes.

The music is not bad, since it’s mainly heavy metal. They move the pace from fast to moderate, which helps the movie move along.

Skill wise I have not a clue how they are doing. I just assume from the title that they have to know what they are doing. Since the Ronlol camera skills lack it doesn’t help you see if he’s a good priest or not. I’m not saying he’s bad at all, it’s just that I can’t tell, and showing winning clips doesn’t mean anything. Now when it comes to editing they need help, granted this could have been their first movie out so no harm no foul.

Overall this is a straight to the point arena movie, displaying wins against all the comps they went against, the edit is lacking, but with the help of the music you get through the 15 minute. With better camera views I would have liked it much better, I’m not hating on them just saying that they did an alright job. Let’s hope the next movie comes out clearer.