April 20, 2008

Hello there. Thought I better update the blog (partially since Kevin & Kyle have been nagging me to). Well, the new maps for Halo 3 have hit and seem to be very popular, especially the two remakes Blackout and Avalanche. Anyway, I made two quick videos about the maps. I started and completed both of them within about 2 hours on Tuesday morning. For the little amount of time I spent on them, they are chalk fill of laughs. The best one (in my opinion) is called "OMG NEW MAPS!". Please go check it out. The other video, which is called "Downloading...", is also worth checking out. Now time for some movie updates.

Since I've been very busy the past few weeks, I have been unable to work on any capturing/editing/any movie making. However, I have been coming up with some new plot ideas in my mind. This upcoming week is not nearly as busy for me, so hopefully we can get some stuff done, like capturing footage from the fan episode. And speaking of that...

How did the fan episode go? If you weren't there, you're probably asking this question. Let me tell you, it was a little (how should I put it)... hectic. There were some confused players as well as some disruptive one's. But with me and my soft heart, I didn't boot one person. Among all the players though, there were a few who were incredibly nice and who were big fans of the MTE series. I played a few custom games with them and they showed me some recreations they made of MTE maps. I was quite impressed. If I ever need any additional help, they will defiantly be high on my list. So will I do another fan episode? Maybe. I think though, I might hand select most of the players who behaved in the last fan episode, with 1 or 2 new people, and maybe a few fellows from Team Timeout. So if you want to be in a future fan episode, just remember not to beg and plead and annoy us. We're incredibly happy that you like our machinima, but hounding us just makes us want to avoid you, and we don't want that. Unlike some other machinima makers, we want to involve the fans and make them feel as though we're not some higher being. So behave accordingly, and who knows!

We hope to have the fan episode completed before the month is out, and then we really want to step up production on the MTE series (it's already almost May and we're not even half way through our season 2 schedule!). As for the new series, we'll work on it casually in-between Marlins, and then kick it into a higher gear during the summer. Like you may have heard, we want to get a couple episodes completed before we release the first one. So roughly around late summer/early fall. We want to do a good job on the series and make absolutely everything to our liking.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this unusually long blog post (I hope you're happy Kevin & Kyle). Remember to submit you votes for the TPMAs before the April 26th deadline, and stay tuned for info on a possible live podcast episode to announce the winners!

Fri. April 11, 2008

We got some big news today! Sign-ups for the Marlin the Elite fan episode are up! The first 13 people who sign up get to be in the episode. Sorry, those are the party limits for Halo 3. The actual production of the episode will take place this Sun. (April 13th) at 1:00 P.M. (Pacific Standard Time). All instructions on how to join are in the video. Hurry and sign up, because there are already 5 slots that are filled! Also, the next episode of Marlin the Elite came out today: Episode 13: Unlucky?. Please go and watch that. Next up, we got some more news from the Halo Machinima Wiki site. Marlin the Elite AND Thomas Productions have taken spots on the Editor's Pick and the Highest Rated lists. Also, user Epeu (a.k.a. Kyle) is #1 on the featured users list.

 

Lastly, remember to vote in the Thomas Productions Movie Awards. Deadline is April 26, so get those votes in!

April 6, 2008: PART 2

Just a super quick update. I just checked and we're currently #1 on the Editor's Pick on Halo Machinima Wiki!

Also, I recently found out that Kevin and Kyle put us on the front page of HMW (as seen in the last post). Turns out you can edit the front page as well!

April 6, 2008

UPDATE: Voting is now open for the second annual TPMAs (Thomas Productions Movie Awards). Click here to vote! Voting ends on Sat. April 26 at 11:59 A.M. (Pacific Standard Time), so get those votes in!

Another kind of quick update. Today were going to record a new episode of Marlin the Elite as well as record a new episode of the TPCast. Also, were starting up the second annual TPMAs (Thomas Productions Movie Awards). We've made some improvements in the voting system by making nominees. The voting system isn't up yet, and I'm hoping to make it easy to use, but it'll be on the TP website. A deadline for voting still has to be chosen as well. So stay tuned! The new series I talked about in my last post will be happening; that's all I can say. Lastly, we've moved up in the "chain of command" on HaloWiki Editor's choice:

Also, were in this section on the front page as well:

So this is very good news. Help us out by visiting the Marlin the Elite Wiki page. Thanks!

April 1, 2008

Well happy April Fools to one and all! Let's see what Marlin has to say about April 1st. This will be the last Message from Marlin for a while, since we wanna get rolling on some new episodes. In other news, we've been playing with some ideas for a new machinima series. It is waaaaaaaaay too early to even be telling you about this, since we're even not sure if it is really going to happen. I can tell you one thing though. If we're going to be making a new machinima series, it's going to be NOTHING like Marlin the Elite. 'Nuf said. Lastly, you might remember in my last post that there's now a Marlin the Elite wiki page. Well, I discovered that it was listed among Hollywood Halo and DigitalPh33r as the editor's pick.

For those of you with bad eyes, it's listed as #4. I'd say that's pretty good considering that we're ahead of Hollywood Halo and that DigitalPh33r has 2 pages. So thanks to Kevin and Kyle for kick-starting this! I've joined the Wiki bandwagon by creating a page for Thomas Productions. So go check those out. And without further ado, goodbye!

March 30, 2008

Got a quick bit of news. Kevin and Kyle have created a Marlin the Elite Wiki page, which is pretty cool. Please go check it out. 

March 17, 2008

Hi. Just a quick update. The website has been updated with some new changes:

• Bigger blog window on the front page
• Partners
• New About Us page
• additional pictures
• (there might be some I forgot about)

So go check it out.

March 16, 2008

Hello. We have a new video out, A Message from Marlin: St. Patrick's Day, so please go and watch it. Also, Gruntsrus.com is going to help promote the Marlin the Elite series by posting new episodes on their website. This might confuse some of you, so here's a quick Q&A:

Q: What is Gruntsrus.com?

A: It's a site/community that posts and discusses news about the Halo franchise.

Q: Will Marlin the Elite still be posted on YouTube?

A: Yes. New episodes will be uploaded to YouTube. All Gruntsrus does is embed those videos into their site.

Q: Because of this promotion, will there be any evident changes in the Marlin the Elite episodes?

A: Only one. Gruntsrus.com will be put in the beginning credits (just check out the latest Marlin and you'll see what we're talking about).

Q: Will more sites be promoting Marlin the Elite?

A: At this point, no. We haven't gotten any other offers from any other major Halo sites. However, it would be great to get some deals with other sites and spread the Marlin love.

Hope that took care of any questions you might have. Keep watching the YouTube channel, cause Easter's right around the corner!

March 11, 2008

Hello. Got some nice updates for you. Our movie that I was talking about in my last post, Italian Spiderman, is now on YouTube. I also submitted the film to Machinima.com. They said that the uploads on their site take a couple of days (they review everything before they put it on the site) so it's not up there yet. Most likely by Friday it will be. Next up, that Blow Me Away Halo 3 Music Video that I made back in September just broke 92,000 views! So keep the views coming and lets make it 100,000! Next, a well-known Halo site has offered to help promote Marlin the Elite. I won't say which site it is because we're still working out the details and it's not official yet. But hopefully this'll work out and we can get some more dedicated viewers. And lastly, you might remember a movie we did called Commercial Sabotage. Well Kevin and Kyle drew some funny pictures after the filming of Commercial Sabotage (above) that I thought I might share with you guys. So that's it!

March 8, 2008

Hello everyone out there in Internet Land! Marlin the Elite Episode 12 has been released on the intertubes. Also, we released some out-takes from Commercial Sabotage. So go check those out. In addition, we have some new movie line ups  for the near future. We just got finished filming a Halo 3 style Italian Spiderman trailer. I'm going to try something a little different though. I'm going try and post it on a website called machinima.com. This will hopefully bring in more attention to Thomas Productions. So this next week will hopefully see the release of that. And finally to conclude this blog entry, a slew of holidays are coming up, which can only mean one thing...

Feb. 24, 2008

The new movie called "Commercial Sabotage" is now on the internets. Go check it out.

Feb. 23, 2008

Just a quick update: We filmed a new live action movie yesterday and I finished editing it today. So it should show up on YouTube tomorrow. Make sure you follow the directions on the description before you watch it.