By Jim Rossignol on September 20th, 2010 at 8:35 am.
With Valve talking about making the Half-Life movie themselves, you have to wonder whether they might be well advised to hire this chap for the process. His trailer for short film I’m The Freeman looks about as good as we could hope a Half-Life movie to be. Assuming it was to CG, in the spirit of the TF2 shorts, of course. Go take a look, if you’ve not seen it already. Hell, go watch it again. I can’t wait for the full thing. (And the other movies on the guy’s site are quite something, too.)
20/09/2010 at 08:38 Stochastic Gamer says:
That was amazing!
20/09/2010 at 08:45 Plopsworth says:
He should team up with these guys . They made a pretty good student-film homage.
20/09/2010 at 09:34 lethu says:
Pretty awesome, never seen this one.
20/09/2010 at 08:56 Rich says:
Good gravy that was impressive.
20/09/2010 at 09:01 MonkeyMonster says:
Oh my… *goes off to change pants*
20/09/2010 at 09:09 Cooly D says:
woaaa amazing, ….speechless
03/11/2010 at 08:17 lamarr? says:
thank god gordon was too.
20/09/2010 at 09:15 Jannakar says:
Considering the enormous problems that other similar projects have (Civil Protection – I’m looking at you), if he get anywhere close to finishing it he deserves a medal. Or something.
04/11/2010 at 22:04 Medic says:
A job at Valve should suffice
20/09/2010 at 09:19 hmrf says:
Woah!
20/09/2010 at 09:35 lethu says:
Impressive stuff.
20/09/2010 at 09:44 Ian says:
Not bad I suppose. :)
20/09/2010 at 09:48 Xercies says:
I can see where he gets his sound from, yes theres the Star Wars sound when the Striders come.
Looks pretty impressive i have to say.
27/10/2010 at 11:41 BoX says:
Actually that music is from “Signs” (2002, M. Night Shyamalan)
20/09/2010 at 10:01 MrThingy says:
Oooh! I remember this guy. He did an awesome little film with 2 WWII robots battling it out in a US harbour a few years back.
Loveliness.
:]
20/09/2010 at 16:00 crooon says:
Ah, yes, I knew I remembered that name from somewhere. That was awesome (too).
20/09/2010 at 10:10 whaleloever says:
Great stuff, but Freeman does look like a right dick in that suit.
20/09/2010 at 10:22 JB says:
Well, that’s the first time I’ve watched a trailer for anything at all and thought “Damn, I wish that trailer was longer”.
20/09/2010 at 10:30 Jakkar says:
Well, that was..
.. Short.
20/09/2010 at 10:54 sexyresults says:
Teaser/trailers usually are.
20/09/2010 at 10:47 Kast says:
He’s got the feel of the games down perfect, imo. I want more!
20/09/2010 at 10:53 Alexander Norris says:
His chest needs to not have the proportions of a keg of ale when he’s outside the HEV suit, but apart from that it’s really good.
This is the same guy who did this, incidentally.
20/09/2010 at 10:59 Cooper says:
I really hope Gordon doesn’t appear in the possible film.
Seriously, there’s a reason there are no mirrors in Half Life 2 and he isn’t voiced.
Moreover, they’ve got a chance not to go over the events of any of the games and add to the world – instead of films-of-games which simply convert the story of one game to the screen (which is why they are often crap). There’s some good writers at Valve, they should be put to good use,
There’s the whole seven hour war which would be a great setting.
20/09/2010 at 11:21 Fede says:
From his site:
This time is a fan movie thing, I’ve always been in love with the PC game “Half-Life” so I’ve decided to work out a project that would have been a trailer for an hypothetic feature film of Half-Life. Again, is not live action, althought I would have love to have the chance and the time to work out something like that.
So, here is the teaser, but at the end there won’t be any short movie, just a trailer which it will be a lot longer, packed with more contents and telling a little bit about the story.
20/09/2010 at 11:57 Jake says:
@Cooper, I agree absolutely. I think Valve would feel the same way. Although this fan made video is an amazing piece of work, it would be a really terrible full length film if done in this way. Gordon isn’t a film leading man and repeating the game’s plot would be a mistake as well.
20/09/2010 at 13:11 karry says:
“repeating the game’s plot would be a mistake as well.”
Right. Because when movies based on games invent their own plot, it always nonerringly turns out for the best, right ? What the hell are you talking about ? Name at least one movie that actually followed the game’s plot, and then you can reason if it was a mistake or not.
20/09/2010 at 16:37 Jake says:
Quite a lot of films based on games try to adapt the game’s story, but all are rubbish, and whether they are terrible because they try to be too much like the game, or too little, I think is up for debate. But regardless, all computer game movies are terrible so there is no defence there, but that wasn’t my point anyway.
A film based on Half Life 2′s exact plot would be terrible too, because Gordon Freeman may be the best game character ever, but he is not a leading man, and a film where you watch him run around with an arsenal in his orange suit shooting things, depicted in part in this trailer (where he looks too bulky/action hero-y already), would not be so great in my opinion. I would guess it would be like most computer game movies. Earlier in the thread there is a link to The Box fan film – I don’t know if it is actually based on Half Life or is just inspired by it, but that seems like a HL film with more depth – and true to the spirit.
And then, as Cooper says, Valve have great writers, I am certain they could write a story that worked better for a film than adapting HL2s plot.
20/09/2010 at 16:53 Jake says:
Also Escape from City 17 hasn’t been mentioned in the thread yet: http://bit.ly/aE36UW
Some dodgy acting, but I reckon this is the way to do it, rather than starring Gordon.
03/11/2010 at 08:27 lamarr? says:
i think,as a major fan of VALVE, that they could, possibly, go through the 7 hour war in first person, through the eyes of a survivor. then, they could show the defeat of earth, the arrival of gordon, andthe movie could end, then waiting for the sequel that bridges the gap by looking into the mind of juditho in her search for the borealis.
20/09/2010 at 11:04 Mannnnnn says:
Really I’m just looking for something that has Alyx nude or sex scenes.
Why is it only pervasia wants to cater to our actual masculine needs and the high-end gaming / CGI-industry shuns us geek-horndogs so?
Oh, the suffering.
20/09/2010 at 19:20 sbs says:
well…. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/02/26/rudely-awakened-by-the-vortigaunts/
kind of an alyx sex scene in there.
20/09/2010 at 11:37 Dozer says:
The video author doesn’t know how to name YouTube videos evidently.
Was that Gordon shouting out ‘Strider!!’ halfway through? What a break from the franchise.
20/09/2010 at 12:14 jeremypeel says:
I kinda assumed it wasn’t. More likely generic squad guy #4. Has anyone else watched this guy’s hilarious WW2 mech short film?
20/09/2010 at 11:51 Grey_Ghost says:
Wow. That is pretty impressive for a fan made short. What little there was looked just really damned good.
20/09/2010 at 11:54 Shazbut says:
Damn. Very impressive
20/09/2010 at 11:55 Shazbut says:
That was meant as a reply to Plopsworth, but they’re both impressive.
20/09/2010 at 12:03 zornbringer says:
looks pretty sweet. but thats half-life2 the movie. what about some die hard like movie that replays half-life1? half-life1 had the better story imho.
20/09/2010 at 12:43 dtgreen says:
Un-frakking believable!
20/09/2010 at 12:46 Unaco says:
I wasn’t expecting much (I’m a cynic, it’s a Monday, I was up at 8am)… but that did actually make me smile a little. Few complaints/niggles though… Gordon is too bulky/hunky out of the HEV suit… and, that looks to be mostly HL2. When I saw the monorail at the start I thought it was all going to be Black Mesa and HL1.
20/09/2010 at 12:49 yves torres says:
I want to watch this, NOW!
20/09/2010 at 13:01 Gary W says:
This is merely the first step of the following process:
1. A trailer is released on the Internet that shows some 5-second glimpses of “cool shit”. Fanboys everywhere agree that it is indeed “cool” and “the best thing ever”. NeoGAF ceases to function for at least a week.
2. Everyone forgets about said trailer within a month or two.
3. Two years later the movie arrives. It is three-and-a-half hours of “shaky-cam” action scenes, badly paced with non-existent characterization. Roger Ebert tears it to shreds.
See also: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars prequels, District 9, Snakes on a Plane, Watchmen, Mortal Kombat: Devastation etc.
In summary: go and watch something decent, perhaps a film by Terence Malick or the Coen brothers. Make a mental note to skip all cutscenes in future.
20/09/2010 at 13:23 Muzman says:
Yeah, cuz those Lord of the Rings movies sure were universally hated failures.
mmmhmm
20/09/2010 at 13:31 MultiVaC says:
Exactly what I was thinking, what was wrong with the Lord of the Rings films? I thought District 9 was pretty decent as well.
20/09/2010 at 13:51 AlexW says:
And Roger Ebert is such a trusted source of high-quality discourse, not at all alternating between being a yes-man to such hilariously hideous movies as The Happening and Knowing, and being an utterly insane old man incapable of seeing the merits of a new medium. It’s a good thing we have him to tell us that Snakes on a Plane is not a competitor to Citizen Kane.
Pssst. It’s not a trailer for a full HL movie, just a standalone trailer and a potential case study in the effect of great camera work on a scene.
20/09/2010 at 13:55 Nick says:
District 9 was good, althoug a bit heavy handed with its preaching at times. Snakes on a Plane was mindless fun, which is all it was trying to be (and I dare say most of its detractors hasven’t even seen it), Watchmen was great, Lord of the Rings films were ok.. but suffered from too many needless and poorly written additions and characters having complete personality transplants that removed the whole point of the character and everything it stood for.
20/09/2010 at 13:57 AndrewC says:
Guys, don’t mess with Gary W, he knows *Malick*.
20/09/2010 at 13:58 Huggster says:
Yeah because “A Serious Man” was such a great film.
Lord of the Rings brought back epic movies, the trilogy is a success.
p.s. Citizen Kane is not the pinnacle of cinema, I can see it was innovative but not the best film ever.
20/09/2010 at 14:03 Alexander Norris says:
I’m happy to see that Gary W doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about, and that the proud tradition of hapless speculation and snobbery is alive and well.
20/09/2010 at 14:09 AndrewC says:
I find it difficult to take Gary W’s words seriously, yet can’t figure out why somone would try to film-troll a gaming blog.
Also: DON’T YOU SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT MY LOTR OR SO HELP ME GOD I WILL FLAME YOU LIKE ANOR AGAINST UDUN!
20/09/2010 at 15:52 D says:
Gary W would be right if 1) the movie is 30 minutes long and 2) Roger Ebert never hears of it BECAUSE it is a FAN MADE movie.
21/09/2010 at 00:53 Adventurous Putty says:
Off the top of my head, I can tell you Roger Ebert gave 3- and 4-star reviews to at least three of the movies mentioned (District 9, Watchmen, Lord of the Rings), so I call bullshit. Obvious troll is obvious.
20/09/2010 at 14:45 Longboot says:
I wonder how a full length movie like that set in the first person would play out. Valve, I’m looking at you for the answers.
20/09/2010 at 14:56 Rich says:
God no. First person is a bad idea, just look at Doom.
Also, Freeman’s silence works (for me) in HL et al. because I’m playing him and providing my own internal monologue as I watch things unfold. It wouldn’t work so well in a movie because you’d just be stuck behind his eyes without any control.
20/09/2010 at 16:04 Juhkystar says:
Has everyone forgotten this already?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo
This could be how Valve does their film, albeit animated of course.
20/09/2010 at 16:43 Pax says:
I love that shot of Gordon running at the striders with the rocket launcher at the end. That’s just how I imagine a geeky guy trying to be an action hero would run in such a situation (though I guess he is a little bit past “trying” to be an action hero by this point.) I can just hear his inner monologue though: “Yikes! That was close! Yipe! Even closer! Come on, come on, almost there…”
20/09/2010 at 16:57 PHeMoX says:
Ouch, that I’m the Freeman logo is very anticlimactic, it needs a kick-ass logo to go with the kick-ass trailer!
20/09/2010 at 19:11 Ashbery76 says:
LOTR WTF? These films are classics.
20/09/2010 at 21:44 stahlwerk says:
According to his homepage, he’s working as a pre-viz supervisor at Weta Digital in NZ. So to get him, Valve needs to get Peter Jackson’s approval…
.. oh my!
*head asplode*
20/09/2010 at 21:54 stahlwerk says:
I can’t really fault anything a 40 year old man does in his free time (I assume) when the product is that awesome. Also, it looks better than the Source Engine.
*ducks*
20/09/2010 at 22:39 theblazeuk says:
Great work. Using the game’s soundtrack would be even better – but I’d hate to sound like all the negative whingers on this page!
This isn’t the official adaptation, there’s no call to take this as anything more or less than something cool that someone’s made in their spare time because someone agrees with you that HalfLife is that awesome .
21/09/2010 at 04:58 Moonracer says:
looks very nice. My main complaint(?) was that it was several disconnected scenes from across the story line too much to cover well in one movie.
Also agree with others that Gordon should not be a main character in any real Half-Life movie. Blue shift and Opposing Force dealt with that issue perfectly.
21/09/2010 at 08:38 Magus says:
The biggest problem for me, is the second gordon freeman says one word, the entire mistique is ruined.
The silent antagonist is what really makes it such a good fps character.
Inside gordon’s mind is good for a laugh, but I fear any serious attempt would ruin the character forever.
22/09/2010 at 23:53 Pizzalover1997 says:
That… would be the greatest….movie…EVER!!!
23/09/2010 at 01:18 Number6 says:
Now that’s more like it.
25/09/2010 at 01:30 logzlo says:
a film version of Concerned, a comic series about the hilarious exploits of Gordon FROHman , whose story takes place a short time before Gordon freeman’s, occasionally even intersecting Mr. freeman’s path. he receives downgraded versions of Gordon’s equipment, and has his gravity gun taken away because he abuses it. Hope you enjoy it if you can find it!
25/09/2010 at 17:38 aznathira says:
I got chills twice, and i watched it twice
29/09/2010 at 04:59 James says:
I think that if it’s going to have Gordon in it, the movie should be in first person view, that way it will have the direct feel of all the games. Also, I’ve always wanted to watch a movie in first person, instead of “through the view of a home movie camera” like in Cloverfield or maybe some short scene in first person like in Doom 3.
11/10/2010 at 23:22 Kon-Tiki says:
Yeah, and the music is from Signs. Still, good job
14/10/2010 at 15:09 aaoo says:
omg this shit sucks!!
17/10/2010 at 01:26 maxx says:
I feel the might have the potential to pull off an intellectual action movie with Gordon Freeman as a silent protagonist. He doesn’t have to say anything, but his face could still be expressive, and all the other characters can do all the talking, just like the games. Scenes where Freeman gave a situation some thought and then tackled it (like the games) without uttering a word sound like they could be artsy fun, if they were done right.
I vote Hugh Laurie as Gordon Freeman. Although he’s a little old for it…just needs some makeup work. :D
19/10/2010 at 19:18 l says:
only prob they could just hand it over to starwars and they can add a jar jar in there so easily and mess up freeman and give him a voice actor lol keanu reeves i hate movie companies they sure know how to ruin all my favorite intellectual storyline games and turn it into spirits within cloverfield haha
23/10/2010 at 15:51 Dev Kanchen says:
Holy sweetness! :)
26/10/2010 at 16:54 Слава says:
Круто нах !
08/11/2010 at 13:25 Ghost10251 says:
Oh my freakin’ god that was amazing, The only thing that could top this would be an actual movie of that.
05/12/2010 at 15:35 Brownie Points says:
oh my god such awsomeness!!!!!