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.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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

Hey all just want update everyone on the status of the project.

First all of, I want to thank each and everyone one of you who participated (or even at least tried to) in our previous events.

As you may have heard, at the moment we are working on a trailer for the film so we have our hands full with editing and capturing.

There is also some work that needs to be done using Garry's Mod, so if you have experience in lua scripting or extensive Garry's Mod modding, please send us an email to: dodforevermovie@gmail.com with some info about yourself and your work.

You will be paid for your services (up to $100) so if your experience meets our requirements I would love to work out some kind of compensation plan for your work.

That's all for now folks, so stay tuned!

Back to editing lab I go…

Vlad

Thank you all so much for your help capturing all of the 20 player scenes! This is a major step towards the completion of the dodForever movie!

As promised, without further delay, I present the winner of the raffle grand prize:

--------> [SRRP]Maj.Gen.Jumpin Joe <---------

Congratulations to you Joe! Please contact me to claim your prize. Here's the info I need:

1. I will need you to select your platform (PC, Xbox360, PS3 or Wii)
2. Your shipping address

If for any reason you wish to decline the COD:BlackOps game, you may select one of the three prizes below:

1. $20 Steam Gift Certificate
2. HL1 or HL2 Game Server (either public or private) for 3 months. You pick the game, mod, addons, etc.
3. 50GB Webspace & Seedbox on my 1Gbit Up/Down bandwidth server (it's quite fast!) for 3 months.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you all again for your participation, but this is not the end! In fact, we are now fast at work on a trailer/teaser we plan to release in the next few weeks (our goal is by end of next week).

The release will be accompanied with the next event schedule! This time, the stakes will be higher with fourteen 30 player scenes.

The next prize will also be something very cool as well… like I said I will upping the stakes :)

Thank you once more, and have a very pleasant evening and night. STAY TUNED!

Cheers!

-Vlad & dodForever Team

Hey hey!

Thank you all for attending Tuesday's event! It was our best, most productive session yet. We had a wonderful cast of people and everything really worked out well.

There are two main scenes left to capture, and the next event is:

--- Thursday November 18th 2010 @ 7PM EST ---

Please try to join Ventrilo at around 6:45PM EST so we can get started as soon as possible.

The winner of Call Of Duty:BlackOps will be announced after the event!

Thanks again and hope to see you all there again!

-Vlad & dodForever team

Hey all!

Thank you to everyone who was there last night. We were able to get almost all of the harder scenes recorded.

The next event (Part II) is scheduled - TONIGHT - Nov. 16th - @ 7PM EST!

If you haven't already done so, please review the brief guide located here: http://www.maidenseye.com/movie.html

Tonight's scenes are mostly more straightforward we should be able can capture them all quickly.

Please start joining vent at around 6:45PM EST. Vent Info:

Host/IP: dodforevermovie.nationvoice.com
Port: 4374
(There is no password)

Hope to see you there!

Thanks

-Vlad