A Day of Defeat Film

Hey all,

I want to wish everybody reading this an amazing new year! May all your resolutions and goals come to be.

Many of you, I'm sure, are curious to know the status of the project and what the future holds. Will this film ever be released? What has changed? And most importantly, Is this guy Vlad a total ruski bum who cannot keep to his promised release dates?

Ah, yes. Let's get some answers and updates in order then...

- Will this film ever be released? -

The answer is "I really hope so, and trying my best to ensure this."

- When? -

That's a bit early to tell still. Please read on why…

- Why? What has changed? -

Well, lots of things have indeed changed...

First of all, sometime in late-December I had to make tough decision about the fate of the Prologue (the machinima section) of the film. You see, Valve's recent patches and engine changes have removed many crucial camera features and controls within demos. The "smooth" function still works, but nearly any kind of effects, most importantly the "zoom" or "fov" effects are no longer functioning properly. And although the footage we captured was fantastic, editing it would look silly without the correct camera settings.

My next option was to recreate many of these scenes using GMod, which does have all the camera settings I need. However, after working with at least 2 programmers we realized that the scope of actions required would demand some truly serious programming. Almost to the point of creating a brand new mod.

So, I had to make a decision and as much as I want to make this prologue sequence work, I simply cannot forget my other non-dod work. Not to mention the potential $500+ programming price.

In short, for the prologue section to be full realized, a new custom game mod would have to be created. Certainly exciting, but this would deviate far too much from goals I hoped to achieve by making a dod film.

- Vlad, you suck. Get your act together you dirty soviet commi! -

You're probably completely right to think that (maybe except the dirty soviet commi part--I do take showers people). I do admit, quite shamefully, that I made a terrible mistake by promising release dates to you all. I was (am) new to this movie making thing (but I love it a lot) and so this helped me learn an important lesson that nothing is exactly as it seems when you're working on a movie. Especially an ambitious one like this. From now on, I will research far more meticulously.

Metaphorically speaking, I was trying to jump a floor without using the staircase. The most bitter part about it, is that I nearly pulled it off. Thanks Valve :(

- What now? _

Well, while I was working out all these problems with the prologue, Brandon Newton has been doing some amazingly incredible editing work with the frag footage many of you provided.

I have already begun active work on a cool 3D bullet scene, and I plan to contribute some editing work as well.

As new things come up, I will post updates.

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For those of you who dedicated their time and effort to the prologue scenes and work, I cannot thank you enough. It was incredibly kind of you to do that. For this reason, when a movie does get released we will include the names/tags of everybody who participated no matter how small your contribution.

You deserve it.

Please stay tuned.

Cheers to a fantastic 2011!

-Vlad