Moonchalk's Archive Diary #2: Distortion - The First RPG Maker Animated Film (Part 2: Conception and Development)

Started in January 15, 2023. I was making my experimental, slow movie made in a video game engine without a script, story, characters, and music/SFX, which the film served as a minimalism piece portrays all the scenes about place's dissolution that looks like an unfinished storyboard. This is a "no budget" film at all XD.

Also, I took several inspirations from some films like Andy Warhol's Empire and Lav Diaz's filmography, as well as Kadokawa and Harumaki's maps. The first one looks like doing nothing but watching the entire scene is the skyscraper?! Moviegoers hated the movie, of course, why not? Only art film euthusiasms do. This is the one I was looking for.

Back to the development, I'm using RPG Maker MV is very simple for films to make movements with the camera using SRDude's Camera Core plugin by putting plugin commands that allows to move the camera to each scenes.

A trial version of Bandicam allows to record scenes at least 1-2 mins like a gameplay. Why trial? Of course, I blocked the watermark by using "cinematic border" picture to keep away from that.

Originally titled Minimal as a "proof of concept" short film, with only two scenes in a single place and edit into cross-fading scenery from color to black-and-white within one minute and 30 seconds, released on YouTube on January 15. After the short film was released, I was planning to make it more 98 scenes in 49 places in order to edit into a feature-length according to YouTube, but the idea was omitted due to lengthy frustrations, so I reduce it with 58 scenes in 29 places instead. The film took the development within 2 or 3 days to make and officially named it Distortion.

NOTE: This post is came from my own archive on WordPress before I deleted it and then moved into the text file on Google Drive.

Distortion - A RPG Maker Animated Film

Project Title: Distortion

Type: Feature film

Role in Project: Director/Editor

Length: 47:19

Description: Set in a fantasy world about the thirty places (15 insides and outsides) became distorted into minimalistic colors after everyone else left without a trace. It features as an experimental, non-narrative form, and without characters, music, and story.

Note: It was the first non-narrative movie made in RPG Maker MV engine as well as using editing software and several MV plugins to incorporate camera movements and editing, especially the latter's cross-fading dissolution and minimalistic scenery. It was released the exact date of January 22, 2023, exclusively on YouTube.

Link: Distortion (2023) on YouTube

Moonchalk's Archive Diary #1: Distortion - The First RPG Maker Animated Film (Part 1: First Experience with RPG Maker)

Let me get this straight about the RPG Maker and media things.

I took few years of development experiences with RPG Maker. I have been experimenting several elements in the game engine, known as RPG Maker MV since late 2018 like "cutscenes" and "battle sequences", which I am still interested at RPG work. But no, I only choose more story-driven adventure than RPG, so I made like demo versions or prototypes of several titles like Jared's Salvation and Shakusski. It did not well-received or little-to-no success enough to the RPG Maker community.

After that, I saw "Creative Cutscene Content" Game Jam on Itch.io, a place for RPG Makers where it allows to make cutscenes at least five minutes to watch. So, I only watched Yanzilla on YouTube, which is kinda funny that Yanzilla is eating the game developers and admirers XD. This is like an inspiration of such scenes, but not yet enough to do it more, instead I'm working and experimenting prototypes at the same time.

TL;DR, after the drama, publishing small prototypes, and cancellation projects of mine. I shifted from game making to filmmaking with RPG Maker because it's such a waste for developing smaller, bad games with bad scripts, which none of them liked that except Moonchalk and Tetralogy of Night Conversations, which is my last two game projects. So, I am really expressed with desire of minimalism and animation in films after I remember something about my short film known as Teenagers in Chester Street. This is my first experience of filmmaking on RPG Maker.

In January 2023, I am searching "films" or machinima" made in RPG Maker, but only I found was short films (e.g. Space Punk and Hikikomori Simulator) and web series (e.g. Slimey and Atis's Gaze). None of them made such 40+ min feature-length films made in RPG Maker means I am the only one who is really, really expressing much desire on making of my own first feature-length film. First things first, "no dialogue" on films is the most important goal for my film debut. With just less than 60 minutes for sure, I like that.

NOTE: This post is came from my own archive on WordPress before I deleted it and then moved into the text file on Google Drive.

Moonchalk's Archive Diary #3: Twins - First Concept and Depression

When the Film Development Council of the Philippines announce the celebration of the 50th edition of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), which is conducting the MMFF x FDCP Student Short Film Competition, I took some time to think the story without a possibility of writing complex story in paper or script (except only a transcript as dialogues that allows to make the animation) with the theme "50". Starting on the halfway of the second week of October, the short film is developed with RPG Maker MV, a video game development tool that traditionally used for role-playing games and now used for adventure and horror games as well as "shorter, experimental films"; this later claimed these films behind Studio Moonchalk's Distortion and Love and Friendship, both developed and directed by myself.

I proposed the short film as the first RPG Maker animated film not only to be selected but submitted at the festival, as well as Studio Moonchalk's first short film to utilized fully voice-over in a RPG Maker.

Originally titled The Memory of Friendship, it tells the story recalled "friendship" (still retains the theme "50") about two people, Stefano and Constance, met for the first time and developed a close friendship (this was inspired by the first friendship between the main characters Steven Universe and Connie Maheswaran from the CN's series Steven Universe) until Stefan's death by accident, this left Constance traumatized by his death before the second friend, who is Stefan's girlfriend, comforts her and developed more closely as friends. Expanding five decades of Constance's daily life—from friendship to family and abandonment—older Constance encounters Stefan as a spirit for the last time and he tells her how he saw Constance every time he counts. He says his last goodbye to her and ascends to the afterlife. Constance is now reunited to his family, gracefully.

In a brink of social media addiction and depression over lack of development of a short film, this was scrapped due to reasons: First, it won't be qualified because of the rule about the runtime within just less than 5 minutes. I believed the short film will be more than 5 to 10 minutes, exceeding its story. Second, it lacks of hiring friends, members of Diwa Cinematiko, and families as voice actors due to their conflicts between schedules and work time. And lastly, the procrastination won't get away from interacting with social media and spending more time with listening music and watching films than working on a short film.

First Post

Hi, it's me Moonwriter. I was creating my very first post on Blogger under Adsense, and of course, it's likely to say I'm writing on my own here about lifestyle or somewhat. I don't know, just my first time here. That's all.