If you’re that anxious for anything, I do occasionally post some goofy finds and creations from other JS members on our Xanatos facebook page. If you like our kind of stuff and if you’re interested in my warped findings, become a fan:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xanatos/48999482881

Thanks yall,

-Xanatos

We do have a couple of gems straight from Stev’s Youtube Channel though. I got a lot of silly flack for uploading two videos I made for my media production class with Jack and I on my personal channel, and since Stev and I appear in this one, we wanted to put it on his channel. Check it out:

And since we won’t probably be making anything video wise for a month (our last was the CS For Kids Extras video if you haven’t seen that one yet), I thought it would be cool for me to make little “for fun” blog-type posts.

Here are what I would say now are the top three machinimas that inspired me into the machinima making scene – all vastly different from each other. Only two different games though, as the majority of what I played back in the day was Counter-Strike and Battlefield, so naturally, my favorite pieces are from those engines. These videos have seemingly been forgotten as of late, too, as they are relics from the 2003-2005 period. Keep in mind that the links that follow are reuploads from another source – you can find higher quality direct download links probably by doing a little searching.

3. PUBMASTERS by TechWarrior (CS1.6)

A clan in a competitive environment from CS1.6 back in 2005 makes it’s way up the ladder to only pull pranks and do outrageous maneuvers on opposing clans in actual league matches for reactionary purposes. The video essentially is highlights from the season in a music-video/replay like format, and is edited with special effects and music for extreme effect. Not technically a machinima, as the majority of footage in this video is from actual CAL-M CS1.6 league matches (the fact that this joke-clan made its way up the ladder just to pull stuff like this makes it even funnier and more real), but it’s just too damn well choreographed on the maker’s part for it not to be mentioned here. A hilarious outing, incredibly well edited and made, and just too damn interesting. Another CS1.6 video very much worth mentioning that goes hand in hand with this is one entitled MONSTROUS: Counter-Strike Gone Bad. If you’ve seen Pubmasters, but haven’t seen this, do so now. You’ll probably find it even funnier.

2. OURS AGAIN by MuNansen (BF1942)

Back when the “Requiem for a Dream” music wasn’t so cliche, and back when seeing an effectively shot and edited piece from the Battlefield engine was a rarity (it still is, even with Battlefield 2’s replay features and onward). Very well put together action video about a U.S. group defending a small town from an impeding German force set to Clint Mansell’s music. It’s a bit long and a little too overdramatic with the music, however it goes without saying that it’s very effective. How the director was able to choreograph beginning-to-end action sequences is really impressive, and something that isn’t easy to pull off in an engine like Battlefield 1942 with virtual actors. Seriously. How many headaches did it give ‘em. I got horrible ones just doing half-assed, two day efforts on Source Mod Todd videos. BF’s engine would be a pain in the ass to make a video like this for. Mu’s hard work paid off for him though, as this video eventually got a spot on television.

1. CLAN WARS – CLAN VS NOOB by tfg (CS1.6)

This, in my opinion, is the grand-daddy of all grand-daddies. A clan made up of “noobs” wants to hang out with the “best of the best”, so by baiting them with a false pretense, they don’t exactly get what they hoped for.. Released right around the time that CS: Source debuted (even includes a scene that’s funny now just to see the old original Phoenix model), this has production quality unheard of for a CS1.6 video. Clan Wars is full of hilarious scenes and is simply worth watching solely for how well it was made. Even features an original soundtrack that’s superb. I miss directors like TFG. He really knew his shit and filmed in a setting that people like I can compare to. It takes mad balls to try and film something that isn’t a Source-SDK choreographed effort (which also takes mad balls), but rather, one that designs very clever sets, deals with in-game actors, and effectively uses the game engine to his advantage all the while pulling off shots that make you go, “how the fuck did he do that?” (especially at an extensive, entirely custom animated fight sequence near the end). For something like that to yield an amazing outcome is awesome to see. Be sure to check out TFG’s other work too – he made a few other excellent machinimas in Counter-Strike and even a couple documentaries. Back in the 2004 era, machinima had some prime fucking directors that were all in their twenties and early thirties. This elite machinima-making crowd eventually all moved on with their industry jobs. Then Youtube came along, and now it’s mainly just a bunch of kids.

What happened.

WATCH:
Youtube

In this video, there’s an introduction from the cast members, the original video with commentary by STEV and Xanatos, behind the scenes of the Extreme Gore segment, and some extra footage that wasn’t included in the original cut.

Here’s the “headspack” addon referred to in the video:
http://www.garrysmod.org/downloads/?a=view&id=13971

Now, we could’ve talked on and on about the production of this video for hours, and we didn’t get through shit in this video, quite honestly. I guess for the sake of comedy, and the fact that we are limited in what we can all fit in during eight minutes of video. So now, to add to that, I present to you, a lengthy writeup with some trivia regarding CS For Kids and its production!:

A WRITEUP ON CS FOR KIDS – BACKSTORY & TRIVIA:

The idea behind Counter-Strike For Kids was inspired by none other than a Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job sketch. Particularly, the Lazy Horse Mattress scene with Will Forte.

What I originally was going to do was make a Source Mod Todd type video in which he pitches the kid-friendly mod for Counter Strike, and randomly throughout his commercial, there are very abrupt, quick, shocking cuts of extreme gore segments in CS:S perhaps done by an outside source as Todd reacts in frustration to what’s being inserted – basically, what you see in the extreme gore segment now, but randomly placed throughout the video. Personally, I think what the video is now was the better choice as it suits the mainstream more. What do you think, what would you have liked to see more?

But the real frontrunner of the format in which CS For Kids is in now was coined by MrSentual, who wrote a number of the lines in the “Extreme Gore” segment and had the idea for “calling within the next fifteen minutes, throwing in…” The rest is history.

After I pitched the idea to STEV, that’s when (as mentioned in the video) we went and got some food at Wendy’s, which isn’t the nicest place in our area as it seems to be run behind the counter by an ex-con lineup. He wrote down the lines for the first segment in which he voices, the whole “Tired of having your kids…” bit. The recording of the eight year old kid saying “weel gun” was actually from a YTMND I had found ages ago, originally saved by someone I knew during my old CS days in CAL. We incorporated it around Stev’s bit.

So now we had a beginning and an end. Now for the middle. Thinking about it a bit too much, and looking for ideas on a format, having the concept of what essentially is a list of bulleted items came to me after watching the T’IRD sketch from Tim and Eric Awesome Show (you could say I’m a fan of Tim and Eric Awesome Show).  And then I was able to write the middle portion, including all the jokes like the poorly made cut-ins like “<BIRTHDAY PARTY> has been planned.” and “GOING TO PUT THE <BIRTHDAY CAKE> AT <BILLY’S HOUSE>”.

Back to the beginning of the video, the first thing that was edited was the flash transition between the Counter-Strike screenshot and the photoshopped screenshot that made them all clowns holding nerf guns and pookeyballs. All the skins that you see after that were found on FPSBanana.com (MrSentual made the skin for Stev’s character, the nerf guns, etc).  No, CS For Kids is not a real mod. We just skinned the shit out of Counter-Strike Source, in both segments.

Yes, the puppy exploded. It’s a HE Grenade replacement. Kid friendly. Now, onto the actual interesting stuff.

The giant pistol pulled out during that final battle sequence in the “FOR KIDS” segment was completely an accident. I downloaded it particularly for the Extreme Gore segment, and didn’t mean to expose it in that last shot of the Kids segment, but I later thought it was pretty funny that amidst all the kid friendly weapons to pull out the most insane fucking pistol and kept the shot in the final cut.

The exteme gore segment was made mostly in Garrysmod. The CS shots were zombie skins and I downloaded a blood pack to make things extra gory. ONE THING I DON’T THINK A SINGLE SOUL NOTICED IN THE EXTREME GORE SEGMENT is that the majority of the text is REPLACED via a .txt file edit in the game files. Next time you watch it, try to read what’s on the BUY MENU (my favorite is what is in place of the “machine guns”) and what new text pops up when the person plants/defuses the bomb. The text is probably way too hard to read in the original upload because the quality got dumbed down, but maybe on machinima.com or on this Extras video which has better quality.

All the exploding terrorists and guys who get their heads shot off were shots contrived in Garrysmod. I was happy with doing the voiceovers for this segment, as a number of the lines were improvised on the spot and fit very well.

Now, onto Crackbone’s recording. In all honesty, I should have ended the video right at the end of the Extreme Gore segment, but I had this mentality back then that just having a two minute video is cheating the viewers out of content. So I made a silly choice by adding two sequences – Crackbone’s testimony, and the George Lopez sketch. Completely out of place. The idea for crackbone’s testimony began when I recorded him transmitting in ventrilo yelling in response to a video he was watching of a snapping turtle attacking, ripping apart, and eating live mice. And we adapted the scene around that. Fit fairly well. All that footage I had the misfortune of having to film myself in GMOD, so there were a lot of key binds I had to hit in succession all the while framing a shot and recording at the same time. Total pain in the ass.

Lastly is our controversial George Lopez segment. This should not have been in the movie. A friend of ours made a silly little video in CS1.6 that basically involved his buddy go around a map yelling what you hear in the video. For some reason, we all found it hilarious. So, to fill the gap more, I asked the guy if we could use the audio from his video and he agreed. We reshot the sketch in CS:S. Upon making the first final render of the video, Wolfer had the great idea of putting a cheesy George Lopez head over the head of the CS Guerilla Warfare model’s face for the entire bit and shorten it up some (we originally had the scene run a little longer). I was skeptical at first, but Wolfer was 110% right in his idea making that scene better. Just seeing the Guerilla model would’ve been gimmicky and pointless, so thanks Wolfer for saving that bit. It also helped me think of the liquify face which I’m proud of. The George Lopez scene really shouldn’t be in the video anyway in my opinion, but hot soup! The original upload of CS For Kids from Summer of 2008 is currently far surpassing 7 million views and is the #2 most viewed video on the Machinima.com Youtube Channel (first being Master Chief sucks at Halo 3).

Anyway, that’s all. Hope you enjoy everybody.

TL;DR OMGOSH WHENS GMAN SQUAD 8 COMEING OUT???

-Xanatos

But we’re still here. And we’ve got a new video on the way. It’s going to be a special bonus video about our most popular video, CS For Kids, to get us jumpstarted back into the swing of things. In this one large overall piece, you’ll get an introduction with comments by the cast, a version of CS For Kids with commentary by Stev and Xanatos, a tutorial-like segment showing how the Extreme Gore sequence was built, and some extra footage. All in one video.

It’s fucking crazy that CS For Kids is almost the #1 most viewed video on Machinima.com’s Youtube page. It’s currently the second most seen video on their channel with a viewcount of well over 7-million. How this happened is pure viral chance, and help from partner promotion. I suppose people must like it, too. This is basically why we thought it’d be appropriate to make a sort-of addendum video to the original with everything stated prior. Will keep you updated, I’m hoping this release goes smooth.

Oh hey. The Janus Syndicate, as a group, turns exactly four years old on the 19th (We formed on that day in 2005). Time flies.

Also, to address the fanboys: YES, THE GMAN SQUAD WILL EVENTUALLY CONTINUE. IT’S JUST ON HIATUS RIGHT NOW FOR MANY REASONS (one being that we got a lot of unnecessary flack for Episode 7, I suppose we’ll talk in detail about this incredibly bizarre series at a later date). Episode 7 wasn’t the last. That’s why at the end it said “To be continued”. Source Wars fits this same category but is even lower on the priority level. Source Mod Todd is probably said and done. Just for the record. Ok, see you soon. Leave some interesting comments.

-Xanatos

Oh, and here’s what Gerald did to me this past Halloween:

“A Hard Game’s Night” has been selected in the third group of films to be screened at the 2009 Machinima Expo, a huge machinima event that takes place online in Second Life, held by the greats Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Ingrid Moon, and Damien Valentine. The expo takes place Sunday, November 22. Check out the website at http://machiniplex.net/expo/ for more information and revisit it again later for information on where in Second Life it takes place.

Looks like we’ll be making at least a commentary/how-to style video next, alongside another project. Will let you know when those are underway.

-Xanatos

I know we don’t have a very large following for our website and it’s decreasing even more due to our inactivity, but a few of you guys are still curious as to what the heck’s goin’ on. I didn’t see the point in making a post right away saying that our productions have come to a serious halt, but seeing as how it’s been some time, well, our production effort has been in a bit of a slump lately. A number of ideas are just not worth attempting, or I’m not comfortable with all the specifics within an idea, or something like that.

Looking back on a lot of our old videos, I can’t say I care for them too much, but at the time I thought they were something worth uploading, whether it be for a laugh or whatnot. I’ve never wanted to half-ass a project for the sake of having a video to upload on a regular basis, and I won’t start by doing that now. So I figure it’s best that we wait it out and take our time on videos. We’re still around, however, we’re just a bit occupied at the moment in real life and, more importantly, I think it’s best to wait for an idea that’s really worth going for (and that’s capable of being done) to start our next project.

Once we begin work on a brand new video, you’ll hear about it right away in a site post. So don’t worry about it, and don’t use words like Ringo here:

-Xanatos

WATCH:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRdJleJ64ec

A new video on STEV’S youtube page that includes a never-before-seen extended sequence to the “footrace” in Gman Squad Episode 2. An RL: The Game production. Starring Boris! Stev! Xanatos! Cookie Boy! Dragons! Wheelbarrows and more!

Also, MrSentual made a quick video edit and response to STEV’S new movie called “COOKIE REVENGE”. Check it out:

WATCH:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdy0r_f7jkQ

-Xanatos

ALBUM:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101460&id=48999482881

(Left-to-Right:) Boris, STEV, Xanatos

Not sure what’ll be next in the JS machinima department. I’m hoping to get a short in before we begin work on any projects requiring a major league effort and a lot of time. Will let you know what it ends up being.

I got an email this weekend that “A Hard Game’s Night” was accepted into the DragonCon Film Festival’s “comedy” segment in their machinima category. I’m thinking about going to Atlanta for the weekend of the festival (the first weekend in September) and attending if I can. The comedy machinima segment would be from 7pm to 8pm on Sunday, Sept. 6th. Cool stuff!

Also, two things to keep an eye out for – Nefarious Guy, creator of the film-noir/mob machinima “Clockwork”, is very near finishing the sequel to it entitled “Clockwise”. I had a whopping one-line cameo in the second half of Clockwork, and in Clockwise my character makes an appearance in a couple of big scenes at the beginning.

He’s got a great trailer posted for it, check it out, coming soon!:
CLOCKWISE trailer by NefariousGuy

Second, I have another small voiceover role in a large-cast machinima short that Phil “Overman” Rice is working on. Both projects are looking great and i’ll definitely post about them when they’re released.

Hot soup,
-Xanatos

Check it out here:

YOUTUBE:
A Hard Game’s Night – Left 4 Dead (HD)

A Hard Game’s Night – music video parody of The Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night song and opening title sequence from the movie of the same name.

It’s our first actual video in a LONG time that’s been posted on JsXanatos. It was meant to be a Machinima.com release, however, the question of the song being a true, full-blown ‘parody’ was in question since it’s such a grey area. To be a true parody, it would have to “make fun of, comment on, or critique the original work.” This does not exactly do that, and how could you make fun of the Beatles? Despite the fact that the song sounds so different and has different lyrics, the idea that it does not make fun of the original does not make it a parody, supposedly. There was also a lot of quarreling over the song – hope you like what’s in the final product.

Secondly, something fucking CRAZY happened. The video was on the machinima.com channel for about twenty minutes before the decision was made to take it down from there, and on the exact same day, a video was uploaded to the popular ‘BarelyPolitical’ channel called “Left 4 Dead Beatles”. Two brand new videos uploaded on the exact same day (July 29th) by two different authors with ideas for the same concept, yet two totally different videos content wise. I couldn’t fucking believe it. Crazy!

On a site related note, the dead links in the Audio Downloads section are slowly but surely being all fixed.

Anyhow, my video has been uploaded to my personal youtube for everyone to see. Enjoy!

-Xanatos

This video will also introduce another something NEVER BEFORE SEEN in a JS video – the use of the STAR WIPE transition. I know, incredible news. Oh, and we finally started recording our footage in widescreen 16:9 format to fill the whole Youtube frame. About damn time for that too.

I won’t spoil the other half of the concept not revealed in our last site post until we have our release post made. The video, again, is a short video. It honestly should’ve been created in a much faster time span, but recording footage in Left 4 Dead was the worst shit ever. You can probably imagine why. Ah well, still got it done, stay tuned this week!

Thanks all,

-Xanatos