WoW Moviewatch: Valley of the Damned, Episode 01: Forbidden
by Michael Gray 
Jun 10th 2009 at 12:00PM
Valley of the Damned, Episode 01: Forbidden is the first part of an ongoing series by Cerinne, whose previous credits were mostly focused on raiding videos. Valley of the Damned is a character-driven story which takes place before the Scourge Invasion and the Third War. Lady Fierine Calloun is a noblewoman who comes to Dalaran to be trained in the ways of magic, and begins uncovering more about the "dark arts" than she was expecting.
For a first episode from a relatively new machinimist, I was fairly pleased with Valley of the Damned. The voice acting needs a little polish, but I thought the actors did a pretty good job portraying their characters. The scripting did a good job of setting the pace and tone for the series' world, but hopefully the next episode will be a little faster paced.
The animation is based purely on in-game graphics, with the odd filter thrown in here and there. I actually found that to be a strong point in favor of Valley of the Damned, because it lets the viewer "live" in the story the same way they'd escape into the game. It roots the episode to our in-game experiences, instead of creating a wholly different world which just happens to be using WoW graphics.
[Via WarcraftMovies.com]
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
efrdman2008 Jun 10th 2009 12:12PM
To be honest, I did not enjoy that very much. The voice acting sounded cheap, kind of like what you would expect from an 8th grade play. Whenever the camera scrolled in or out, it would start and stop.
I think the movie watch should be focusing on more professional works instead of beginner stuff like this.
Mordockk Jun 11th 2009 12:13PM
tru it was a little haphazard but we were all noobs once. if we give constructive criticism, then the calibur of sequels will only get better. unless your the guy from How To Paladin...
elfennau Jun 10th 2009 12:41PM
Professional? It's a hobby for these people, polished or not.
Keyra Jun 10th 2009 12:42PM
"I think the movie watch should be focusing on more professional works instead of beginner stuff like this."
While I can empathize, I must disagree. There are many who are just starting along the path of machinima and may even become tomorrow's animators in whatever studio or game industry. That WoW.com features their works gives them exposure and is a good critique with the initial write-up.
Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of complete pricks out there (especially during the summer months when the kids are home from school) who, instead of providing anything in the way of feedback on what they could improve upon, just scream up and down about how much it sucked, "Oh, God, not another Belf" kind of thing...
Your critique at least shows what could be improved, and I have to agree with you there. It sounded too much like they were reading their parts to themselves instead of interacting with one another. Flat, not much emotion.
efrdman2008 Jun 10th 2009 1:10PM
I am pleasantly surprised. I though I would get the crap flamed out of me....
Metema Jun 10th 2009 1:16PM
Seriously if you cant find the voices to fit the characters find the characters to fit the voices... how was that mage who greeted her not a gnome? her voice was perfectly high pitched and annoying
Thander Jun 10th 2009 1:52PM
I have known many real women with voices like that. Why can't WoW humans have a voice like that?
Naix Jun 10th 2009 2:53PM
The voice acting was sub-par at best. The script was simply horrible, I had to stop the movie at "Isn't it obvious that someone is dead." Why would it be obvious?
/facepalm
Meethan Jun 10th 2009 3:03PM
It's nice aint it? I'm working with this guy and I get to be in episode 2. already finished the lines.
Catiya of Feathermoon Jun 10th 2009 3:21PM
I have got to say, I absolutely loved this. To me, the poor voice-over was entirely cancled out by the fact that this first episode contains an intriguing and original character plot that I can't wait to see more of. In my opinion, the camera angling was quite good and artistic, the effects were simple and affective, the music was soft and appropriate. To the artist- please keep up the good work! I can't wait to watch the next part. :]
Morviusmaximux Jun 10th 2009 4:11PM
That was awful. For a first time machinimator, I would expect sub-par editing and visuals but that's not an excuse for such a painfully bad script and voice acting. The voice actors sounded either bored or were entirely over doing it and the script was down-right rediculous. "it was deemed necessary but something ELSE might become necessary." *gag*
thebitterfig Jun 10th 2009 7:12PM
seems interesting enough, story-wise. the style was very good, i think, even if the voice acting and such were beginner-ish. not bad, beginner-ish. go back and watch episode 1 of "chronicle of the annoying quest," for an example of a machinima which is good enough to call for more episodes, but not perfect in itself.
NathanTB Jun 10th 2009 8:45PM
I have a question - is there a working version of WoW Map Viewer that someone can link me to? I'm interested in trying my hand at machinima creation, and while I guess it could be as simple as logging in and trying to find an empty area, if I want to do it, I'd love to be able to do it with the tools that people whose work I admire use.
Keyra Jun 10th 2009 6:00PM
Go to http://www.wowmodelviewer.org and look through the information that they have there to help you get started.
The map viewer will only work with pre-3.0.2 WoW, and while they have a model viewer that will work with WotLK, you will be limited to only ONE speaking emote. What I would recommend is to have a separate installation of WoW on your machine and start it through the update process, but stop it when it begins to go for 3.0 and then just never play that installation. Use this solely for your files for machinima. The map viewer will work with this setup and you can use the older model viewer which will give you a full range of the speaking emotes - you just won't have any DKs or anything after 3.0.2.
Sel Jun 11th 2009 8:51AM
http://wowprovider.com/
The new modelviewer is there.
Krymzin Jun 10th 2009 6:03PM
I think a lot of people who overly criticize scripts don't stop to think about the length of the media it is being used for. With a short film like this one each scene needs to account for not only what is going on inside each visual frame, but also give us a sense of the characters, their motivations and their relationships with each other - even if that isn't exactly what the actual scene is about.
Take the line about the murder scene being obvious for example. Within the first few moments of the movie we can already tell the Kirin Tor mage is someone who barely comes up for air in a conversation. When she gets on the scene her first action is to blurt out questions as loudly as possible rather than take a moment to actually see for herself. The Evidicus character and she appaently know each other, just as it is apparent that he has no patience for her at all. Given the tone and wording of his response you can also tell that aside what he reveals about the actual plot, he feels absolutely no shock, horror or disdain about the murder. In fact he seems to find it amusing somehow. An odd response for a high elf, especially since the victim was probably his instructor.
I thought this movie had a lot of little moments like that, and I found it refreshing to not have to be spoonfed scene by scene.
A good first effort. Not without its problems, but enjoyable. I'd like to see the next one.
Lemons Jun 11th 2009 5:16AM
I thought it was pretty good! Then again, anything is a step up from belfs dancing to pop songs.
I liked the way this movie presented Dalaran, it had me believeing it's a gigantic city rather than the postage stamp that exists in-game. The voice acting wasn't the best, but it wasn't so bad that I had to stop watching (a problem of many machinimas). I'll definately be watching the for the next installment.
zweitblom Jun 11th 2009 6:10AM
Reading the comments first I expected much worse. While there were a few hickups on the way, I found the story quite engaging and the voice acting actually *above* average, given that it is the hardest part to get right. I mean, seriously, have some people here seen a different video? I am looking forward to the next part, and that's saying a lot.