HALO Pitch Trailer

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digitalskylight

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Hey everyone,

Just wanted to briefly introduce myself. I'm Brendan, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the Halo series since Halo: CE came out. I've recently graduated from film school here in Chicago, and have been freelancing as a cinematographer for the past six months.

A few other film buddies and I are interested in making a Halo pitch trailer (something like the Mortal Kombat pitch trailer you may have seen back in the spring). However, we're looking for ideas as to what to include. We were thinking it would mainly be a montage of footage, but want your input. Clearly, we'd like to make the pitch revolve around the Chief, so we've brought in a few of our thoughts on that. However, we're more than open to suggestions from the community.

I wanted to note that we may not have a chance of doing work that's comparable to the short live-action spots we saw for the Reach and ODST launches, but I can guarantee we'll come close.

Check out my demo reel here, which should give you a basic idea of what I was capable of six months ago (I am in the process of updating my reel, which I should have done by next week):


Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

Thanks!
Brendan & crew
 
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You could do something along the lines of showing the spartans as a team(spartan II's of course) growing up then having their first full on battle with the covenant.(just giving a general idea) Good luck! :D
 
That's some great work you have there.

What you could do is a series of flashbacks over the career of the chief. Each flashback could be anywhere from 5-30 seconds, depending on how important you think it is. You could stage the flashbacks on a list, in a museum, ONI service record, or monument. A person, prehaps a child or ONI officer is reading it, each specific event when read prompts a flash, not necessarily in their mind but for the viewer. That's just my idea for staging it, of course you can do whatever you want.

here's a list in chronological order (I think) of events you could include.

His abduction as a child
His first experiences in bootcamp (obstacle course)
His physical augmentation as a teenager (surgery)
His is early missions without armor fighting rebels (film him but don't show his face)
His first time wearing MIJLNOR and Cortana
First contact with the Covenant
Then you proceed through the games storyline.

As for props and costumes you should talk to Peter Cooper of Operation Chastity, another halo fan film. It is being made in the UK. I'm sure he could give you some tips on the best way to make halo props for film. www.operationchastity.com

Hope I helped, Can't wait to see it,

-Devious
 
first of all the demo reel was superb. im a film student myself and everything looked very very well done. ok so about the trailer id have to agree with devious, id like to see stuff from early on in the timeline. i'd say definitely his training and his first contact with the Covenant. we all no wut our first reaction to Covenant was but id wanna see wut a spartan's, especially the chief's. good luck ill definitely be following this both as a halo fan and fellow filmmaker.
 
wow. That was very professional. As it should be after film school, right? XD I wish you were closer to where I am. My friends have been talking about doing a fan film too.
 
I'm going to do a fan film to do a promotional video for my book but this? this is something to look forward to :)
 
Guys, thank you very much for the feedback thus far. We sincerely appreciate your input. I know we will definitely incorporate some of the early 117 life, as that's too good to pass up.

In regards to armor, etc., I was recently watching the "Making of 'Deliver Hope'" and the FX studio discussed making the armor out of realistic looking/flexible material, as well as making it look "heroic" in proportions. Does anyone suggest something other than what the majority of fans have been building their armor out of, or is it pretty strong and not worth deviating from?
 
It completely depends on what you want to do with it.

The normal fiberglass pep armor is Very strong but not flexible enough for stunts like rolls or punches. It is quite cost effective, and is a very straightforward in construction. The foam armoring method is similar to the pep method but I'm not sure how well it would stand up to very intensive stunts, as it is only foam floor mat held with hot glue. The Legacy armor was mase by casting the individual peices in a casting foam. This foam is not cheap, as is the mold-making material, but it can be worth the money. Personally I would go with a combination of fiberglass and foam mat armor, as it is cost effective, and can put forward some great results if well done.

Feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance,

-Devious
 
i would like to see some filming of the some early contact with the covenant. possibly based on the novel contact harvest.
 
Hey everyone,

My apologies for not posting up a reply to this sooner- I became really busy around the holidays with film work, and just now found the time to squeeze back on the forum.

We have a short pitch script that is pretty much complete (a few words need to be changed around, and possibly one scene), but my crew and I are very excited to get started on this.

Also, I put together a newer cinematography reel that includes some newer things we've done:


What we specifically need right now is a great MC helmet to run green screening tests on (to see if it will key out well, etc.), either to rent or purchase. Would anyone be willing to help out?

Thanks!
Brendan
 
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Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction with getting a Mark V MC helmet made? Those that sell casts seem to only have made the Mark VI versions. We'd like to stay true to the original.
 
Someone DID make MK V helmets for sale a long time ago. I don't think he does any more. You might be able to get one second hand.
 
First of all, I LOVE your reel. Looks really nice. As others said, I think you may need different materials for different scenes. I would have maybe one suit in foam and another in fiberglass/resin so you could do some stunts but also have some sturdy stuff to do other scenes. I would offer to lend you guys a helmet but I only have a MK VI suit partially completed. As far as Mk VI suits go, I know Thorssoli has molded a lot of stuff and he keeps the molds so that he can recast them at any time; you may want to send him a pm and see (sorry if this isn't correct info, Thorssoli) He charges for his stuff but it's top quality. Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or anything I'd be glad to help any way I can!
 
I'd like to through in some extra information for the sake of details.

1) the Master Chief's name is John
2) during the training they were refered to by their name then number. Example "John 117"
3) (correct me if I'm wrong whoever is reading this) John was taken from his family at age 5 close to 6
4) Lastly, the people who took the Spartan II candidates left flash clones in their place that would only live 5-7 years.


I have read most of the books, so if you have spacific questions feel free to PM me or just ask on this thread. Hope I was able to contribute, and I can't wait to see the final product.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the post. Jester and I have been in touch and it seems like the best route to go is the Reach Mark V helmet that you can buy in the armory- I notice very little difference between this and the original CE Mark V helmet, except the Reach one seems much more detailed and would make for better pepping. If this is incorrect at all, or you guys feel like this will stray too much from the original, speak up. We want to keep this as true to the storyline as possible- none of that all-too-familiar story/character mutilation done out in Hollywood.

I'm 99% happy with where I have the script. I can foresee us starting to shoot some things in the beginning of April if all continues at the speed it's going.

In response to chitwood, I have to say that we will include snippets of what you've mentioned. It'll be a great montage to fill people in during this short pitch trailer. The only question I have is in regards to confusion. I'm rereading First Strike yet again, and I see that he's referred to as John 117, but in the 2nd or 3rd Halo game, he calls himself S-117 (Sierra 117). Any thoughts on that?

I am going to run a few green screen tests of how we might go forward with a live Cortana- I plan to have a test shot by Tuesday, and the clip up by Tuesday evening. Please keep in mind that because we haven't casted anyone yet, it will probably be a plain-looking girl (no offense) that you'll see.

I am working with a couple of local producers my age right now to try and get casting sessions for Cortana, the Chief, and a couple other famous faces in.

We will be as transparent as possible with this whole shoot (aside from what specifically is in the trailer until its release!)- it's important to us to keep the members of 405th updated on the progress. We'll try our best not to fade off into nothingness for a year like I heard Operation: Chastity did (they had their reasons, no doubt).

Keep the posts and suggestions coming!
 
Ahh yes. I remember that...
So as I said it's was name and number in boot. The Sierra 117 is a code name given to him, not unlike Ghost in CoD. I'm pretty sure this is when the Spartan II were collecting covenant tech. This was before most of the UNSC knew about the Spartan program. The way humanity depeloped the shield for the mjolnir armor was through the use of the jackle arm shields.

So all in all I believe the code names were used from the time the Spartans first got their armor until most of the UNSC knew about them.
 
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