Steben Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 For Spring Break this year, three of my friends and I are going on a little road trip. We're going to drive from our college, Auburn University (in Alabama), and go to El Paso, Texas, the home of a certain Atari warehouse, where in September 1983, between ten and twenty semi-trailer trucks were filled with copies of a certain Atari 2600 game, E.T. the Extraterrestrial. From there, we'll follow the road those trucks took to a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was at this landfill, twenty-five years ago, that these hundreds of thousands of Atari cartridges were crushed, buried, and covered with cement, a fate well deserved for what many consider the Worst Video Game of All Time. The documentary is the story of our journey to discover the truth behind this tragic event in video gaming history. And even if we don't find the E.T. cartridges' cement grave, we hope to at least, find ourselves. So why am I posting about this here, right now? A couple of reasons. First of all, I'd really like to showcase music from OCR artists or other people from the VG remixing scene. Due to copyright concerns, I'm not sure if I want to use actual VG remixes, but perhaps original music done by ReMixers would work well. Would anyone be interested in contributing? Also, I was wondering if anyone had any advice. My film making experience has been limited to a few short DVDs filled with sketch comedy, written and performed by members of my marching band's trombone section, to be watched on the bus during our trips to away games. Quality... is not paramount in these situations. Right now the plan is just to shoot this all on my DV camcorder, but is there any cheap way to improve the quality of my recording? And, we're planning on interviewing people on the way to our destination. Do we need to get them to sign any sort of release to use them in our film? Thanks everybody! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechaFone Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Fascinating! Sounds like quite a trip. I've been thinking about a bit of a journey myself, but just involving pictures and a deeper exploration into my life and thoughts. You'll have plenty of pictures right? You'll have to share in this semi-bizzare trip. And maybe even share a photo of some of the 'worst video game ever' cartridges. Hope you guys find what you're looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walrii Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 You'll have plenty of pictures right? Erm, I was under the impression that Steben would be taking video of it... so yes, he would have plenty of pictures (23 pictures per second of video?). Anyways, when you do finish it please upload it for free and preferably not on a place that is youtube / crappy resolution. We need to see the glorious failure of the E.T. game in high def! I'm no expert on law, but seeings how you're not exactly taping people in obsecene acts, I'd say that simply recording you asking them if you can record them and that they are okay with waiving their right to this content and then having them say "yes" would be okay. It's not like you're selling the documentary... (I think) To be safer though, here's a pretty short and sweet release form that would seem to fit your needs: http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualProperty/contract/release.htm I would recommend changing the words "The University of Texas" to your name though Oh, as for a cheap way to improve the quality of your recordings: 1) Use a tripod. Shakey cameras ruin interviews (usually) 2) Don't film in a windy / breezy area where the microphone will pickup a big "WHOOSH" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Cool idea. More advice for filmmaking, ignore if you know what you're doing: If sunny, film in the sun. Otherwise you'll get too dark people or too bright a background. If possible, use a big giant white something to reflect sunlight into someone's face so he/she doesn't have to stand looking right into the sun. Repeating for emphasis: TRIPOD! Use headphones to check audio. Remember to take some extra footage to use when cutting. Cars passing by is a good transition from one scene to another, if the cars stops somewhere, it's even better. If you can use the car you're all going in, do it. It's time-consuming, but it'll look good. Better to have the footage and not need it than need the footage and not have it. Have fun and good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDKenyon Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 This sounds very interesting. My only input is to buy/build a steadycam, as tripods don't work when you need to move. You can build one for ~14$ with this guy's tutorial: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/ Scroll to the bottom to see vids of the steadycam in action. It seems to work pretty well. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steben Posted February 17, 2008 Author Share Posted February 17, 2008 http://digg.com/gaming_news/Documentary_to_be_filmed_about_Atari_mass_cartridge_burial Our upcoming film is now officially announced. Please Digg it if you're interested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy In Rubber Suit Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 Good luck with that, too bad the E.T. landfill thing is a myth. Howard Scott Warshaw, who programmed E.T., says its fabrication and there's good reason to believe him because he was pretty high up in the corporate chain and he would've personally been there with a photographer to take pictures. Maybe on your way there you should contact him, see if he wants to go or something. http://beepbopboop.heavysixer.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=67 I got the information from that site but I know I read it in a print publication. I want to say Retro Gamer, but it possibly could've been Game Informer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steben Posted February 17, 2008 Author Share Posted February 17, 2008 There's evidence for both sides, of course. http://atari.digital-madman.com/ I don't think we're going to find any "proof" of the incident one way or another, considering all the evidence is crushed and buried under a slab of cement. But I have a feeling people will enjoy our documentary in any case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhsu Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 This is all the evidence you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenobio Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 Just saw your announcement on Kotaku. Goodluck on the movie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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