WoW Moviewatch: World of Warcraft -- Haikus
by Michael Gray 
May 12th 2009 at 12:00PM
In honor of today's featured movie, I was going to write this entire post in haiku. It's possible, but I don't think it would have been convincing or effective. Still, I wanted you to know it was on my mind. You can share a little "ha ha" with me at our little untold joke.
World of Warcraft - Haikus was created by John DeVeaux for his film class at Emily Carr University. The project was to use pieces of "found footage," and fit it together in the context of a haiku. John took pieces from official trailers -- some are based on gameplay, while others come from different sources -- and framed it inside several text scenes.
The machinima is awesome, but it's all official stuff so I'm not really surprised. What impressed me, however, was John's sense of poetry. He pulled official game language to create several haikus, all with a very strong sense of urgency and epic intent. Each haiku lends importance and inspiration to the video, and I think ultimately created a much stronger experience. If John progresses into his own machinima, I think he could create some impressive stuff.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Carigon May 12th 2009 12:07PM
... i can't say i'm really impressed. I suppose that some effort went to constructing somewhat sensical haiku's depending on the situation, but really, it was just the editing together of clips someone else had made. Even making the haiku's can't have been too difficult, considering that most of them were the names of talents from specific trees (which will go together thematically because talent trees are... THEMED?)
meh, not my favorite.
Liked the music though
Faze May 12th 2009 12:07PM
Uhm, what was up with the way he named all the paladin spells in the beginning?
jjcoola998 May 12th 2009 12:12PM
Its really just meh,
But in the end I'm reading
Just another bump
kozom May 12th 2009 12:18PM
I'm upset Micheal
haikus aren't really that hard
oh well, its your loss.
If you wish to try
below are some of my rules
on easy haikus
Haikus are simple,
Please just try... but dont forget,
it goes 5-7-5.
Kaevex May 12th 2009 12:24PM
"it goes 5-7-5"
Is it me, or does your last sentence have 6 syllables?
kozom May 12th 2009 12:30PM
oops your right, i copied it down wrong its suppsoed to say
"it's 5-7-5"
fail on my part.
Epidenic May 12th 2009 12:21PM
Haikus are awesome
But sometimes they dont make sense
Refridgerator
Bushz May 12th 2009 6:31PM
They always make sense if its done correctly. Haiku uses imagery to portray its real meaning. So instead of saying 'Sea', the author might say 'Current of life'.
It's not suppose to be plain, boring and straight forward. It's suppose to make you think, give you an insight to the way the author see's or feels things.
L2culture :)
Marty May 12th 2009 12:34PM
I wish the haikus made sense instead of just randomly throwing together talents and spells. They felt like they were just a bunch of words.
Bronwyn May 12th 2009 12:52PM
Agreed. No need for me to type out the whole post i was going to make.. amounts to the same thing.
Anthology May 12th 2009 12:53PM
The plural form of "Haiku" is "Haiku"...
Tolkfan May 12th 2009 1:05PM
hai gais i jus finishued playng final fantazy and now i wunna know all abaot Japan and the ppl living their wanna lern there language and writ funy haikus i going to bay a catanna cuz i now now it the best sword in the world can slice metal an other staff
my char haz the sapphironth hair its super lolz
twh May 12th 2009 1:23PM
Meh. Haiku are so passe.
Wak-ka is where it's at. (It's 5-7-5-7-7)
And for all you culturally illiterate folks out there, Haiku were more than simple poems.
During the Heian era of Japanese history, roughly 900-1100 AD, Haiku was the primary source of expression for the peoples of the imperial court. Full of double meanings, varying context, and emotional expressin unheard of in western lands at the time. In addition, Wak-ka, zuihitsu, and monogatari, were some peoples' only method of communication, in some cases, was through this type of poetry.
Don't diss the old culture because of the Johnny and Jamie Come Latelys that are only in it for the anime and video games.
Keyra May 12th 2009 2:36PM
Yet another fail?
Some people seem to think so.
I rather liked it.
Zorganist May 12th 2009 3:05PM
I'm still waiting for someone to recreate The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins with Gnomes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPh12Q7cpeE
Video quality's not great on video but it's the cleares sound I could find
Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins...
Theloras (aka John) May 12th 2009 9:34PM
I am the creator of the video, so first and foremost, I would like to say a sincere thank you to WoW Insider for helping spread the word about my video.
To the few naysayers above who said, "Meh" about the video, you are of course entitled to your opinion, but for me making a machinima video was a labor of love and it has been a long time desire of mine to make one of my own (Martin Falch is the Man). Now that I have learned some of the ins and outs of Final Cut Pro, I hope to continue.
All told, I spent about 25 hours on the video over the course of a few days, first writing out several different haiku (my bad on the plural lol), then finding footage in order to put into the video, deciding which music to use, editing the scenes together, refining the sequences and then mastering it all together.
So thank you once again to everyone who viewed the video and I hope to publish more down the road.
Sincerely,
Theloras (aka John)