Escape from City 17 is the Coolest Fan Film You'll Watch this Week
Escape from City 17 is the Coolest Fan Film You'll Watch this Week
Posted 02/17/2009 at 7:37am
| by Paul Lilly
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Fans of Half Life and, well, things that are cool are advised to take a five and a half minute break from the daily grind and check out the fan film Escape from City 17 - Part One.
Directed by The Purchase Brothers, the life-action fan flick started off as a test project to experiment with various post production techniques, but has now turned into a multi-part series. The directors claim the short film was shot with "no money, no time, no crew, and no script," and that it only took $500 to make the first two episodes.
Check it out, then hit the jump and offer your critique.
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jcollins
February 17, 2009 at 3:44pm
I thought it was decent for a no budget independent. The Sanctuary webisodes were in the same vein (although with higher power actors). Certainly better than some of the Sci Fi channel special movies...
wolf17
February 17, 2009 at 3:34pm
That was pretty cool!
"Life is about living, not stressing" - a very smart girl :)
Havok
February 17, 2009 at 11:03am
I saw this after the Steam news team posted the lik on Steam. Valve was blown away by it, and so was I. MAybe, one day, we'll see these guys make a full fledged Half-life movie! Backed 100% by Valve!
Kinda doubt it....
But, shmeh. Wicked cool. I personally liked the mixture of the 3d game footage and real footage to give you the full effect of Half-life 2. Oh, and crowbars for the win.
OMGWTFBBQ
lostcause64
February 17, 2009 at 8:53am
Considering the length of the film, it's really well done. I'm not worried about character development or anything like that for this type of clip. If these guys are going to do a full length film based on HL, count me there!
John
Try to be smarter than the object you're working with! It will make things easier, and might just save your life...
decapitor
February 17, 2009 at 8:09am
As a proof of concept this is really pretty amazing, but as a chapter 1 in a film it makes no sense. Did the characters even have names? I mean that was the worst acting I've seen in a long time. As a huge fan of HL I think that the effects and recreation of City 17 was spectacular for the money they were working with, but the main reason HL is so good is that it's the only video game I've ever played that made me care about the characters at all...
Caboose
February 17, 2009 at 8:39am
Don't forget, this wasn't a big budget film. 9 times out of 10, your friends aren't that great of actors, and unless you've had professional training or are just a natural born actor, your acting will suck. I think for the budget that they had and what was available to them, it was amazing!
I found that the first chapter made sense. Now, where exactly it is in relation to HL2 is unknown (is it before, during or after HL2). They mentioned getting to a missile silo. That leads us to HL2: EP2.
I felt so sad and a little depressed once I finished HL2... I've never had a game do that before. That's how epic the Half-Life series is!
Anyone notice the crowbar used? The sound effects were awesome and the costumes amazing! I've always wanted a really well done Half-Life movie, and I think I might get the chance (if they ever release a DVD, I'm buying it for sure!)
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
jcollins
February 17, 2009 at 3:42pm
I'm fuzzy on the timelines now, but I am assuming it is just before the destruction of the tower. That makes me think it is at the end of HL2 (that's when the aliens suck you into the other dimension when the tower explodes right?).
majorsuave
February 17, 2009 at 7:45am
The short is amazing. I hit the jump yesterday when firing up Steam to buy the discounted L4D.
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