The Escapist Goes to Epic

A few weeks ago, The Escapist's Team Humidor visited Epic for an exclusive, unprecedented, uncensored look at how the award-winning studio operates. And we brought a camera.

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I dont want to rain on your parade, but whoever did the voiceover for that video sort of had a rather dull voice.

That person with the glasses and the maroon jacket can't be Russ himself, can it?

sammyfreak:
I dont want to rain on your parade, but whoever did the voiceover for that video sort of had a rather dull voice.

I came to the comments to post exactly the same :-). It sounded like some robot: bleep, bleep, awesome, bleep, sportsroom, bleep, bloop, joke, interview.........

Sibren:

sammyfreak:
I dont want to rain on your parade, but whoever did the voiceover for that video sort of had a rather dull voice.

I came to the comments to post exactly the same :-). It sounded like some robot: bleep, bleep, awesome, bleep, sportsroom, bleep, bloop, joke, interview.........

Wonder what will it be like if Yahtzhee is doing the commentary and the music he will be using for the video.....

That sound at the start of your movies is much louder than the actual sound in the video. Please, tune it down ~~

The narrator sounds like he just woke up and isn't really interested in what he's recording ~~

Bah, it's all good, not like they aimed to produce a full lenght documentary on Epic. For the 6 minutes it runs for everything works...

sammyfreak:
I dont want to rain on your parade, but whoever did the voiceover for that video sort of had a rather dull voice.

Meh, it was perfectly fine for what it was: a dude from The Escapist talking about their trip to Epic. I don't need every video to have a narrator that sounds like Yahtzee.

Sibren:

sammyfreak:
I dont want to rain on your parade, but whoever did the voiceover for that video sort of had a rather dull voice.

I came to the comments to post exactly the same :-). It sounded like some robot: bleep, bleep, awesome, bleep, sportsroom, bleep, bloop, joke, interview.........

Me too, unfortunately. But Gears of War looks like my ideal shooter, was it not so violent.

Ok, nice video, but I had the hardest time hearing Cliff.

Oh yes, the voice over was more like "*yawn* mkay... well... this is Epic, blah blah... you know the story so we're going to get this short" more than "woah! men, we're actually standing in front of awesome Epic Studios and we're about to take you into the most a-may-zeen..." :)

While I'll agree with the comments about the blandness of the narrator, I thought the rest of the piece was solid. It was well put together with good music. For a first effort, it was a good job. Keep 'em coming.

Gears 2 is looking very very sexy i just want it more and more as time goes on its starting to hurt

Russ was that you? Because if it was you look awesome.

oldmanscene24:
It was well put together with good music. For a first effort, it was a good job. Keep 'em coming.

"first effort" ... lolz

Good to see you here. Thanks for the kind words.

Crap_haT:
Russ was that you? Because if it was you look awesome.

That's me at the end, with the microphone, yes. I hope by "awesome" you mean "dashing." Otherwise, that's kind of creepy.

Russ Pitts:

oldmanscene24:
It was well put together with good music. For a first effort, it was a good job. Keep 'em coming.

"first effort" ... lolz

Good to see you here. Thanks for the kind words.

Crap_haT:
Russ was that you? Because if it was you look awesome.

That's me at the end, with the microphone, yes. I hope by "awesome" you mean "dashing." Otherwise, that's kind of creepy.

I'm not sure what it is. Maby it's that fact that I never tried to imagine you, therefore would have no awe struck look when I see you. Either way, dashing fits perfectly.

I always imagined Russ looking like his forum avatar...

sammyfreak:
I always imagined Russ looking like his forum avatar...

Give it ten or twenty more years ...

Russ Pitts:

sammyfreak:
I always imagined Russ looking like his forum avatar...

Give it ten or twenty more years ...

If there's any of you left then. This Nike ipod thing is dangerous, people.

Andraste:

Russ Pitts:

sammyfreak:
I always imagined Russ looking like his forum avatar...

Give it ten or twenty more years ...

If there's any of you left then. This Nike ipod thing is dangerous, people.

He might get lost one day and fall of a cliff in Pakistan.

I want that pantry.

thebobmaster:
I want that pantry.

The PopTart collection is impressive. And they have the makings for peanut butter sandwiches. Mmm. Peanut butter sandwiches.

Maybe I should have spent more time in the pantry. I'm buying new pants again this weekend. It's stopped being funny at this point. Clothes I wore in high school no longer fit. I need more toaster strudel in my diet, I think.

Russ Pitts:

oldmanscene24:
It was well put together with good music. For a first effort, it was a good job. Keep 'em coming.

"first effort" ... lolz

Good to see you here. Thanks for the kind words.

You know what I meant. Mmm... toaster strudel ...

As someone who has also taken a long time off from video production (and made my first short documentary recently), I'll offer a few more unsolicited observations.

The opening music (while used in the Gear of War commercials as I recall) set a slow/somber mood to what I thought would have been a pretty exciting opportunity.

You re-used a couple of the early shots (how many stairs and Mountain Dew close-ups do we really need?)

I couldn't see what the framed artwork was on the wall. (Awards, I'm guessing.) When shooting things with text, it's easier to read if the camera moves left-to-right, so we can read along.

The narrator is on Xanex.

I also discovered the limits of on-camera microphones the hard way. You can get an affordable clip-on at Radio Shack or Fry's. Nothing loses an audience quicker than having to strain to hear the interviews. (Especially after we turned down the sound on Escapist's logo intro!)

See this link to learn how to make a $14 steadycam. I made one. It's awesome and it really costs only about $14! (It's more of a weighted pipe than a "Steadicam," but it does the job.)
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

I'd lose the jokey "interview" at the end. I dunno, it just seems less professional than the rest of the show.

I don't mean the critique to be harsh. I would really like to see more of your video work here. It's great to see this business covered by someone who really knows and cares about it. Best of luck!