Strange Company Blog

BloodSpell officially finished

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

BloodSpell, our five-year project that ended up creating one of the most ambitious Machinima or even indpendent animation projects ever devised, is finished.

You can read my reflections on the project, or download the DVD, watch the film, or watch the making-of documentaries if you haven't already!

It's been a great journey.

Wait until you see what we do next!

When We Two Parted - more than 50,000 views

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When We Two Parted has now been viewed more than 50,000 times worldwide. Wow.

I'd never expected this little film to have that much success. It's awesome. Thanks to everyone who has helped get the word out.

When We Two Parted featured on YouTube

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I'm very, very pleased to announce that When We Two Parted has just been made a Featured Video on YouTube UK! Woo!

When We Two Parted release

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Yep, it's a new short film! "When We Two Parted" is an adaptation of Lord Byron's famous poem of loss and longing. It's rendered in a non-photorealistic style that I'm quite proud of. The main site is byron.strangecompany.org - you can watch and download higher-quality versions there!

BloodSpell DVDs now available

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

BloodSpell's Special Edition DVD set, with commentaries, documentaries and more, is now available from the BloodSpell site! Yay!

We're back!

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Apologies for the delay - after the BloodSpell DVD preparation, we took a month off. We're now regrouped, and back into the swing of things.

We're running a weekend of Machinima at the roleplaying convention Conpulsion, over the 22nd and 23rd of March, featuring how-to sessions, and showings of BloodSpell, Stolen Life, and War of the Servers. Full schedule here.
We're also running a couple of sessions introducing Machinima and teaching how to make your own at the Leeds Young Peoples' Film Festival, on the 2nd of April. Should be a good day.
Hugh just came back from Bologna, Italy, where he spoke on Machinima at the YoungAbout festival, including a panel with some very impressive names from all over academia. Very cool!
The BloodSpell documentaries and DVD image are nearly ready for download - more news in a couple of days!
And our new project kicked off today - more news soon. It's something very different...

Finally, I received the horrible news that Machinima pioneer Peter Rasmussen died a short while ago. I've known Peter for years, and this is a dreadful loss. I'll write more soon, but right now I just can't.

It's the end of the year as we know it

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Merry Christmas to all, and a happy New Year!

With 3 days to go, we're rather excited, as our little two-day shoot Fair Trade ad is about to hit 100,000 views. Will it do it before the year's out?

Other than that, we're pretty much logging off. 2007's been a great year for us, between the launch of Machinima for Dummies, the feature-length cut of BloodSpell, Fair Game, the infamous podcasts, "Hugh Hancock is awesome" in a major newspaper, and other Stuff We Can't Tell You About TM.

We'll have one more post over at Machinima For Dummies on the 31st, discussing the year's events in Machinima (HBO aquisitions, Moviestorm, Bioware hoovering up Machinima creators, feature films, and more), and then, in keeping with our Scottish roots, we intend to lose about two days over Hogmanay.

And then, in 2008, we'll be back - with the DVD special edition of BloodSpell (with about 90 minutes of additional features, which I'm putting off editing by writing this right now), new Machinima, new content on Machinima for Dummies (including the updated version of the Moviestorm tutorials, and a GMod tutorial for HL2 - promise!), and other exciting stuff.

I can also announce that 2008 will mark our first non-Machinima series - a cooking show. Stay tuned.

It's been a great year for Machinima - perhaps the best ever. Looking forward to 2008. Out.

BloodSpell Machinima Feature Film released

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

BloodSpell, the feature-length movie from Strange Company, is now available for viewing.

BloodSpell has been four years (and one month) in the making. It's a "punk fantasy" adventure story, about a world where some people are infected with magic in their blood. When that blood is spilled, the magic comes out, to harm or heal.

These people have been forced into slums and magical hiding places by the Church of the Angels, who believes they must hunt the "Blooded" down and bring them to their Angelic master to be "cleansed". The story starts when a young warrior monk in training with the Church discovers that he has magic in his blood, and has to flee into the world of the Blooded...

We've got epic battles across clifftops, gladiatorial fights with enormous monsters, cockney guardian demons, love, family and all that good stuff. We've also had some great press - we were on bbc.co.uk and the BBC World Service last week, and before that we've hit Suicide Girls, USA Today, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, BoingBoing, SFX magazine, and loads more places.

For those of you who watched the series version - this is a completely recut and in many cases reshot version of the story.

BloodSpell runs 84 minutes long. It's available for download or streaming from http://www.bloodspell.com/film/list/ , and was made in Neverwinter Nights.

BloodSpell feature release date: 21st. Plus StrangeCo on the BBC and more.

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It's a big week for us. The feature-length cut of BloodSpell, one of the very few Machinima feature films ever made, comes out this Sunday the 21st of October. We'll be running the premiere in association with the Machiniplex - there's a Second Life event planned, interviews and more.

And we've also been on the BBC! There's a discussion of BloodSpell in their print article around the Machinima Europe festival, and Johnnie Ingram and I are interviewed on the BBC World Service too!

RSS and WoWInsider Interview

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

First up - we now have an RSS feed! Enjoy.

Secondly - WoWInsider have an interview up with Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram, talking about the book (Machinima for Dummies), BloodSpell's upcoming feature release, and more.

Get it here.

Redesigned!

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Yep, it's a total redesign! Hope you like the look...

If you spot anything broken, let us know.

Coming soon...

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

There's some new, exciting changes to the Strange Company site coming soon. Very soon.

Like, "I'm mostly writing this news so that I can test the site" soon.

Hugh at the Un-Festival

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Just a quick note - Hugh will be at the Edinburgh TV Un-Festival on Saturday, talking about Machinima.

Sorry for the mess!

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The site\'s a bit of a mess right now - broken links and all.

Sorry about that. We\'re working on a new design, which will be up soon, and will be much, much better.

In the meantime, you can see most of Strange Company\'s films at the Internet Archive.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience!

Lots of press and appearances!

Wed, 16 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It\'s all gotten a bit active over here, so I\'ve got something of a list to post...

BloodSpell is being shown as part of a Machinima exhibit at the Pompidou Center in Paris between the 25th and 27th of May. The new opening scenes for the BloodSpell feature will then be previewed as part of a talk at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, which BloodSpell animator Justin Hall will be attending.
Hugh Hancock will be presenting a talk on Machinima, demonstrating Machinima techniques, and screening two hours of the best Machinima films at the University of Abertay in Dundee on June the 1st.
Strange Company are featured in the Guardian either once or twice in the next two weeks - more news as we get it, but check this weekend\'s, er, Weekend section.
Fair Game: The Sims 2 will be shown before screenings of Black Gold in the Glasgow Film Theatre, as well as at the Fair Trade Film Festival.
Machinima for Dummies, written by Johnnie Ingram and Hugh Hancock, will be released in mid to late August, and will include a version of the new Machinima package Moviestorm on the cover DVD.

And I\'m reasonably sure there\'s more I\'ve forgotten, and absolutely certain that there\'s more I can\'t tell you about yet! It\'s all happening over here.

Strange Company no longer associated with or hosted by Machinima.com

Thu, 03 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I\'ve just asked the administrators at Machinima.com to remove all of Strange Company\'s films from their archives.

I wish to reiterate at this point that Strange Company is no longer involved with Machinima.com or Machinima Inc in any way, has not been for over a year, and that we neither condone nor support Machinima Inc staff or board policies, actions or activities.

My post over there contains more details.

We\'ll be removing and moving links here on Strange Company for a while to point to better mirrors for our films - we\'re also intending to do a redesign and recapture of older films at higher quality, but that may happen later. Anyway, apologies for any inconvenience caused by broken links in the meantime.

Part 2 of \"The Overcast\" interview now up

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The second part of the extended “Overcast” interview is now available. In this part, Hugh and Johnnie gradually sober up with the aid of strong coffee, and talk about MovieStorm, copyright, AMAS, and more.

Hugh reviews IClone in 3D World magazine

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Nothing huge, but - I\'ve written a quick review of IClone 2.0 for 3D World Magazine, which you can find in this month\'s issue. Whilst it\'s a good tool for a few applications, I felt it still needs to mature a bit before it\'s really usable as a Machinima studio.

Strange Company on the Overcast, Part 1

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Johnnie Ingram and Hugh Hancock are interviewed over at the Overcast podcast this week, talking about BloodSpell, Machinima for Dummies, and other stuff. Part 1 of the interview is available here.

FairGame hits Esquire magazine

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, still quiet over here as we plug away on the book!

Esquire magazine mentioned our Fair Game video in a recent article on Machinima (although they managed to mis-attribute it - we\'re not quite sure how). Still, thanks to them for the linkage anyway!