The deathstar trench run minecraft style
December 4, 2011 3:38 PM Subscribe
Well of course you're ship's gonna catch fire if it's made of wool.
posted by Gator at 3:52 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by Gator at 3:52 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]
I hope this is a fair question - I'm asking this without any snark. Why do people do stuff like this? (Wouldn't this much effort be be better spent on something original?)
posted by newdaddy at 3:59 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by newdaddy at 3:59 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
well small zenon certainly loved that - so much so he just gobbed/spit on the computer (which is high praise).
posted by zenon at 4:03 PM on December 4, 2011
posted by zenon at 4:03 PM on December 4, 2011
People do stuff like this because it amuses them. If they felt this time would be better spent doing something original, they'd probably do it.
posted by Nabubrush at 4:23 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Nabubrush at 4:23 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
newdaddy, for some people it's the process of making something that's the most enjoyable part.
Designing/creating something original requires a lot of different skills and lots of time. If the creators were to make that video with all original work, then they'd have to learn cinematography and choreography, write their own miniature screenplay, and get their own voice actors. The easiest way to doom a creative project is to get lost in the concept phase and never actually make anything. But, hey, there's already a well-known scene from a film that accomplishes the concept part, so they can just skip all that other work and get to business.
I think it's the same mentality as people who build model airplanes, or anything else from a kit. It's about the mechanical accomplishment of putting it all together and getting it done. Sometimes you don't want to have to design a new spacecraft just to build with LEGOs, because the fun part for that person is building with LEGOs, not designing a spacecraft.
At least, this is how I approach it. I love to write, but if I have to make original characters and a consistent universe I'd never get anything written. So, instead, I used to write fan fiction, borrowing someone else's IP just because it freed me to do the part I loved the most.
(besides, don't underestimate the potential of people who enjoy making stuff based on other's ideas or visions. It's how many creative industries flourish).
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 4:24 PM on December 4, 2011 [4 favorites]
Designing/creating something original requires a lot of different skills and lots of time. If the creators were to make that video with all original work, then they'd have to learn cinematography and choreography, write their own miniature screenplay, and get their own voice actors. The easiest way to doom a creative project is to get lost in the concept phase and never actually make anything. But, hey, there's already a well-known scene from a film that accomplishes the concept part, so they can just skip all that other work and get to business.
I think it's the same mentality as people who build model airplanes, or anything else from a kit. It's about the mechanical accomplishment of putting it all together and getting it done. Sometimes you don't want to have to design a new spacecraft just to build with LEGOs, because the fun part for that person is building with LEGOs, not designing a spacecraft.
At least, this is how I approach it. I love to write, but if I have to make original characters and a consistent universe I'd never get anything written. So, instead, I used to write fan fiction, borrowing someone else's IP just because it freed me to do the part I loved the most.
(besides, don't underestimate the potential of people who enjoy making stuff based on other's ideas or visions. It's how many creative industries flourish).
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 4:24 PM on December 4, 2011 [4 favorites]
Wouldn't this much effort be be better spent on something original
Why do people make cover songs?
Also, this is original.
posted by empath at 4:25 PM on December 4, 2011
Why do people make cover songs?
Also, this is original.
posted by empath at 4:25 PM on December 4, 2011
Why do people do stuff like this? (Wouldn't this much effort be be better spent on something original?)
There's all sorts of folk art and hobbyist stunts that could be criticized on the same basis, at various brow heights. Why play a cover of someone else's song? Why draw fan art? Why write to an established genre? Why make a quilt in an existing style? Why take photographs of other people's architecture? Why do anything that's not fundamentally a process of original creation independent of anyone's existing work?
People enjoy making things, and have varying creative and artistic strengths. The best singer in the world may be a terrible songwriter; a gifted sculptor might have trouble working without a model; someone with a knack for crafting filmic Minecraft dioramas might not know where to start in scripting an original dramatic space battle sequence.
More specifically to this video, there's a good reason to tackle this sequence rather than some from-whole-cloth original space battle notion: the very limited toolset available here for an in-Minecraft show means that being able to rely on viewers' broad familiarity with the original film and this specific sequence goes a long way toward making engaging what is otherwise a very static and rudimentary film work. We know what they're referencing, we know the original shots and the original dialogue, so these slow pans work in a way they might not otherwise.
posted by cortex at 4:26 PM on December 4, 2011 [7 favorites]
There's all sorts of folk art and hobbyist stunts that could be criticized on the same basis, at various brow heights. Why play a cover of someone else's song? Why draw fan art? Why write to an established genre? Why make a quilt in an existing style? Why take photographs of other people's architecture? Why do anything that's not fundamentally a process of original creation independent of anyone's existing work?
People enjoy making things, and have varying creative and artistic strengths. The best singer in the world may be a terrible songwriter; a gifted sculptor might have trouble working without a model; someone with a knack for crafting filmic Minecraft dioramas might not know where to start in scripting an original dramatic space battle sequence.
More specifically to this video, there's a good reason to tackle this sequence rather than some from-whole-cloth original space battle notion: the very limited toolset available here for an in-Minecraft show means that being able to rely on viewers' broad familiarity with the original film and this specific sequence goes a long way toward making engaging what is otherwise a very static and rudimentary film work. We know what they're referencing, we know the original shots and the original dialogue, so these slow pans work in a way they might not otherwise.
posted by cortex at 4:26 PM on December 4, 2011 [7 favorites]
Death star trench run? pfffft. When they do the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs, then I'll be impressed.
Twelve parsecs is 3.7 x 1017 Minecraft blocks, so it will have to be significantly less...
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 5:00 PM on December 4, 2011
Twelve parsecs is 3.7 x 1017 Minecraft blocks, so it will have to be significantly less...
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 5:00 PM on December 4, 2011
Twelve parsecs is 3.7 x 1017 Minecraft blocks, so it will have to be significantly less...
Just go through the Nether and cut it by 7/8.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:09 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
Just go through the Nether and cut it by 7/8.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:09 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
Also, there's a fun parallel here between the sort of radioplay-with-props retelling of the scene as Minecraft machina and C-3PO's own campfire performance for the ewoks in Jedi.
posted by cortex at 5:48 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex at 5:48 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
On the one hand, I appreciate the nerdiness of doing this.
On the other hand, Wedge didn't fly in a Y-Wing. Hmf.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:22 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]
On the other hand, Wedge didn't fly in a Y-Wing. Hmf.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:22 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]
I very much hope that when George Lucas goes back to the Star Wars films to remaster them for VR in 2025, he has the wisdom to put redstone torches in Darth Vader's ship. It just really works.
posted by running order squabble fest at 7:38 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by running order squabble fest at 7:38 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
I gave a hearty laugh when you see the little TNT bomb dropped into the exhaust port. This was fun.
posted by kokogiak at 8:14 PM on December 4, 2011
posted by kokogiak at 8:14 PM on December 4, 2011
newdaddy: These are the droids you're looking for.
posted by eyeballkid at 8:19 PM on December 4, 2011
posted by eyeballkid at 8:19 PM on December 4, 2011
Seriously? I guess it's impressive in the sheer volume of unnecessary effort (compare to the tallest skyscraper in the world), but it's unwatchable. I'd much rather see a machinima from a game with decent graphics. And since (I'm pretty sure) you can convert an AutoCAD drawing into a Minecraft world, the manual effort is even more pointless.
I hate to be a hater, but lump me in with the haters.
posted by mad bomber what bombs at midnight at 9:41 PM on December 4, 2011
I hate to be a hater, but lump me in with the haters.
posted by mad bomber what bombs at midnight at 9:41 PM on December 4, 2011
This right here is why I love the Internet. There was a sheep on the Death Star!
posted by DiscourseMarker at 11:04 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by DiscourseMarker at 11:04 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
Well, this video is proof that Death Star was an inside job.
Who wants to help me work on the documentary "Loose Credits?"
posted by drezdn at 6:56 AM on December 5, 2011
Who wants to help me work on the documentary "Loose Credits?"
posted by drezdn at 6:56 AM on December 5, 2011
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Also, I want to see a cow jumping around on the death star, that would make this the greatest minecraft video of all time.
posted by Huck500 at 3:49 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]