Neverending Nights » Neverending

So why did we do machinima instead of live acting?

NeN Admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:57:41 +0000

So thousands – perhaps millions! – of people have told us, “Man! You guys are really funny! But why did you guys do Machinima instead of a live acting video of some kind?”

I pondered this for a moment. Then dug through the archives of videos we had done, for live action – and found my answer. Because, in front of the camera, we’re really horrible actors! (Hey! You! In the back! I heard that about we’re bad voice actors too!) At any rate, Adam and I had made a video back in 2004, while we were out camping – to essentially spoof ourselves! We made a video, as Peter as Grayson – in the modern world. (Pay attention to how we emote sometimes; you will see they’re references to how the characters emote in Neverwinter Nights). This videos dates all the way back to 2004. The story was fun (there’s some mistakes that we overlooked, “Hold on, let me get a note and a paper so I can write a note to my loved ones…”) – but the real fun happens at the out takes at the end (because that’s Adam and I at our best!)

Neverending Skewl Daze.

NeN Admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 07:56:50 +0000

If, at any point, while I was writing NEVERENDING NIGHTS, someone would have told me, “Hey! Peter and Grayson could be used for some kind of school project!” I would have laughed. If someone told me that they would to have Peter, Grayson and Neverending Nights be a part of their final paper in College – I would have scoffed (and warned them that doing so would doom them to failure). So when Poppy (our beloved Salt Vendor) came up to me with the idea of using Neverending Nights for her College class paper – I couldn’t help but chuckle. Since it was for her class, she wrote the script herself (with a little input here and there from Adam and I about how the characters would react) – but since a large part of it had to do with things that were way too intelligent for Adam and I to understand – we left the writing of the majority of the script to Poppy for this. The script was voiced by Poppy, Amiee, Adam and myself; who had experience recording for Neverending Nights. But the rest of the people on Poppy’s team had not done anything like this and had to be a part of the project – and thus voice characters. Some really got into it, some were really monotone, and some were VERY giggly (that may have been the wine). At any rate, this was exceptionally fun to do (even if we didn’t understand the subject matter at hand), to work with new people and see them in front of the mic, and see how they designed their own characters in the toolset and how they laughed when voice and character were combined to make them come alive.

The Outtakes are by far my favorite. Be advised there is CUSSING in the out takes and it is NOT child friendly.

- Tawmis

Neverending Nights – Episode 01 to 10 (Recap)

NeN Admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:15:53 +0000

Links to the episodes, feed to the Facebook page. All of our episodes are also available on our YouTube Channel (which you should subscribe to if you haven’t already!) as well as direct downloads from the website here!

Episode 01 – I figured I’d repost these episodes every once in awhile and discuss something about them. For example, it seems like a good place to begin with the very first episode of Neverending Nights! (And by all means, feel free to click “SHARE” to share these videos on your wall and bring us some more fans!)

Episode 02 – With Episode 02, we did away with the attempt to make the episodes look “Wide Screen.” We tried to go “Full Screen” – but couldn’t get the video card to properly capture… Yes, we – at the time – we using a video capture to try and capture the episodes. (Like I said, we were still learning)…

Episode 03 – This episode introduces the now (in)famous map that Peter and Grayson would try to use in their quest to slay the dragon. Listening to this episode, I sometimes wince at the quality of the audio and acting! So amazed at how much we improved in every regard (writing, acting, quality)

Episode 04 – This episode introduced two jokes… The “That’s our campfire!” and the “One Eyed Elf” drawing. I feel like in this episode, we were getting a better feel for how “machinima” worked… but we still had quite a bit to improve upon (and we did in later episodes!) There are some classic moments in these older episodes, however.

Episode 05 – This was the first episode to include one of our friends, that began the long line of “personal jokes.” For Poppy, she absolutely loves salt (she puts salt on everything – including on her salt!) This episode was also the last episode to be a part of the PC GAMER UK bit. Ironically this episode would be the catalyst for the ongoing joke of “Pepper Flavored Salt.”

Episode 06 – This episode introduces Alan the Astounding. There was plans for Alan the Astounding to have an ongoing role in the series (he would go after the heroes for stealing his magical coin regenerating purse), however the actor was unable to schedule the time needed to record the lines later down the line.

Episode 07 – This episode begins the ongoing joke that goes on throughout the entire series about the “Ice Cube Monster.” The explosion of the “Ice Cube Monster” is a spoof of anime cartoons (where, when something explodes, it’s shown from ten different shots of the same thing exploding). This episode also makes use of the salt that was gained in Episode 05.

Episode 08 – This episode introduces “Amiee the Armorer” who seems to have a pretty innocent role. But as it was revealed in the third and final season, she was actually working for the Forces of Light and keeping an eye on Peter and Grayson (which explains why we continue to see her throughout the series as a vendor, where ever Peter and Grayson end up!)

Episode 09 – This episode is interesting, because it was originally voiced by someone named Chris, who was later replaced after a falling out. So there’s an extremely rare version of this video out there on the web with the original voice actor.

Episode 10 – This is the episode that introduces the Pawl the Dorf character. This episode is the first episode that shows the goblins, that ended up becoming extremely popular after the debut of the three main goblins in Episode 11.

- Tawmis

Fake San Diego Comic Con 2011!

NeN Admin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:22:13 +0000

So Mario (who you might remember as the voice of “Daniel the Destructive”) works with me was reading about all these people going to the San Diego Comic Con while he and I were slaving away. I had mentioned, “You should make a fake status on Facebook, like you ARE at Comic Con.”

Mario nodded and said, “Yeah, like I met Stan Lee in the bathroom.”

And I added to that idea, “And got an autograph from him on toilet paper.”

We laughed.

Then it began.

I googled Stan Lee’s autograph and forged it on a piece of Toilet paper.

Mario wrote:
“Wow ran into Stan lee in the bathroom only thing I could get him to sign”

Next, Mario “ran into” Neil Gaiman.
Mario forged his signature on a spoon and wrote:

“ran int Neil Gaiman near the wizards of the coast booth he was eating ice cream so i got him to sign this after he was done ”

Next Mario ran into Joss Whedon. (It’s great how lucky you can get at a Fake Con!) He forged Joss Whedon’s signature and wrote:

“Heh joss whedon likes bbq chips:) serenity forever”

Then the big reveal – He met Tawmis of Neverending Nights! and he wrote:
“Best autograph of the day Tawmis from neverendingnights.com”

Mario at work with the items:

And me guilty of forging Stan Lee’s signature on toilet paper…

Fake SDCC2011 Was an AWESOME event!

- Tawmis & Mario

Final Episode of Neverending Nights…

NeN Admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:52:06 +0000

… Will be released in August. I apologize about the delay, but a few real life matters have taken over the driving seat of Life. Once those are attended to and settled, we can get back to Peter the Ranger and Grayson the Fighter, and how this all ends, once and for all.

Thanks for all of your patience.

- Tawmis

The Birth of “Neverending Daze” the Neverwinter Nights 2 Machinima…

NeN Admin — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:42:55 +0000

… began with this email.

From: Baer, Stephen
Date: Monday, May 1, 2006 4:07 PM
To: Tawmis
Subject: RE: Atari Introductions

Thanks for getting back to us so quickly. We would love to talk with you guys about doing some Machinima projects on NWN2. Are you guys free to meet at 11am at E3? If not, after 5pm?

Stephen Baer
Senior Global Product Manager
Atari, Inc.
www.atari.com

And this one…

From: Brandon Smith
Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 12:44 PM
To: Tawmis
Cc: ‘Baer, Stephen’, Shane DeFreest

Subject: RE: Some Machinima Scripts (Ideas)

Hey guys — we’ve been discussing your episode topics, the segments and some of your concepts over the last few days with Obsidian and Atari and have some VERY general comments and a “what if” scenario.

Shane is going to get in touch with you about some specifics, but I’m going to discuss some of the more general aspects of our project — and they are a jumbled bunch so get ready.

1) The original topics from last week felt like a solid guideline, Obsidian was looking over that group, but everything initially looked fine. HOWEVER, don’t feel like you are constrained to those topics at all at the moment. Be creative and do what you do – if brilliant new stuff comes up let’s do it!

2) Everyone completely agrees with the core cast of characters concept. It’s perfect and creates nice continuity, not to mention WotC does it too with their “Fab Five.” The first few episodes flow nicely and prove out your point.

3) Don’t feel as if you MUST teach people about NWN2, D&D or anything else. It’s purely a bonus, if it fits, sure, if it doesn’t don’t bother. Our goal with the episodes is to develop not only a segment that we will all enjoy, but also that fans outside of our community will find funny as well (that doesn’t mean dumbed down for a general audience! Get as deep and crunchy into the D&D stuff as you want). Again, the message here is don’t feel constrained and also feel free to poke fun at the very thing we’re promoting…

4) Okay, now the “what if.” If there were no boundaries and you could make the NWN2 Machinima episode or series of episodes you really wanted to make what would that be? Is it something that pokes at D&D, NWN2, Role Players or is it something more sophomoric in humor or is it something else entirely? Obviously, we have some approval hurdles with anything associated with D&D, but we’re curious to see what other creative ideas might be kicking around inside your heads if you were just let loose.

Let me know if this doesn’t make any sense.

Brandon

Neverending Nights – Through The Years: 2010.

NeN Admin — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 23:44:28 +0000

While things are on hold on the final production of NeN, I wanted to give you guys something to be entertained with…

Neverending Nights – Through The Years: 2010.

- Tawmis

So … Episode 65… is due… When Again?

NeN Admin — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 09:07:36 +0000

My apologies for the delay on Episode 65 – the final episode! – of Neverending Nights. Unfortunately a number of life changing events has tumbled into the pathway of life, which require my immediate attention. Fear not, it’s not been forgotten – it’s merely been delayed for awhile. Thank you for understanding and being patient.

- Tawmis

Neverending Nights Cast And Crew – Year: 2009.

NeN Admin — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:51:09 +0000

Neverending Nights Cast And Crew – Year: 2009.

- Tawmis

Neverending Nights Cast And Crew – Year: 2008.

NeN Admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:15:52 +0000

Neverending Nights Cast And Crew – Year: 2008.

- Tawmis