If you're visiting here then you've probably seen the video already! Be
A Sniper Today took four weeks to make, features my clan mates "acting"
and a backing track written and sung by myself.
It's not the first time I've tried writing music videos but so far it's
easily the most successful! Obviously I'm quite proud of it, and for
those that are interested in how it came about, then read on!
For those of you after the Free
MP3 of the song
then click here!
How hard Can It Be
to make a TF2 video?
"I've got this great idea for your next video" said Richey, my friend
and work colleague. He was the one who came up with the original idea.
It was so inspiring that I almost set the lyrics up straight away.
So I asked the members of the clan I belong to (4twin) if they would
help with Be A Sniper Today! and it was generally a positive response! I'd written out
the first draft of the lyrics and recorded a version of the last verse.
That evening we started to do some video recording of the last verse,
as I thought they would be the easiest to get sorted.
It didn't take long to come up against a problem - hiding the hud while
being a spectator required sv_cheats to be turned on! And also, once
I'd turned the HUD off I found I couldn't bring up the console to turn
it back on again! Luckily after some help from the TF2wiki about
scripting I was back on my feet.
So I'd originally thought that scripting would be much harder than
directing. Well, mostly but at least scripted models don't need to
listen to everything you say and then try to interpret what you've
asked them to do! Saying that everyone who helped tried really hard and
despite a few slip ups and frankly hilarious out-takes, we got that
night's work done.
I then put everything so far together and showed the
guys. This original version of the last verse is still
available on the 4twin forums, and you
might notice that the pace is slower than the final version.
It was, however, proof of concept and I was raring to get the rest of
Be A Sniper Today done.
However, real life has a tendency to get in the way of these things and
the whole project moved at a far slower progression that I'd intended.
I had to forget various scenes because I couldn't get them right or we
just didn't have the time to record any more.
I couldn't have finished this if it wasn't for the help of my clan
mates, nor the support of everyone who helped me spread the word and
kept asking how it was going.
I'm not sure if there will be another video quite like this - perhaps
the next one should be for a different game?
Either way it feels like an achievement and if you there enjoyed it?
Well, my work is done!
For those who've not seen it here it is:
Tools Used:
- Magix Movie Studio
- Renoise (music)
- Goldwave (sound recrding)
- Fraps
- TF2 (of course!)
