Black Light Productions

Check this shiz out

2010-10-20T22:47:00.002-04:00

something pretty cool popped up on the web a few weeks back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjtDymL-vJc

awesome.

Phil Season 2 Planning

2010-10-11T23:45:00.004-04:00

I've been able to play Reach a bit and toss around some ideas, and I'd like to say a few words on the second season of Phil.

Right now stuff is being prepared for it, and to be honest I'm actually pretty pleased with what I've got so far. The real content won't be tackled until later this year, but all the planning is going along nicely.

It won't be nearly as many episodes. Right now the consensus is 3-4 "parts" of approximately 10 minutes each. But to be honest I really like the direction this is going so far, I think it would be an excellent end to this fun series.

In addition, there is a possibility it will be filmed via HDMI so that would be even more exciting.

Once again, nothing is 100% but we are definitely putting something together in the hopes that it does become a guarantee. When it becomes 100% though, I will let everyone know. Trust me, I want to make it become a reality as much as you do.

Reach Week

2010-09-20T00:05:00.003-04:00

So this week was the big one, got my hands on Halo: Reach and tore through the campaign on normal co-op. Right now I'm soloing it on Legendary; mainly for the achievement and all the nerd glory that brings.

Legendary on Reach is...well, difficult. More difficult than any previous Halo in my opinion. I remember having to do the Halo 3 scoring achievements (for the Hayabusa armor) and going Legendary with a few skulls on and it being somewhat less frustrating. It's quite a challenge, but also fun. The Elites in this game can be pretty fearsome, especially those with the heavy weapons and explosives. Good thing PP/DMR combo still rocks the house.

Anyway, been busy with completing that, trying to work on some more videos, everything as per usual.

Phil Finale

2010-07-27T23:54:00.005-04:00

HERE

I know it's been a long awaited one, so I hope you enjoy it. I had to squeeze in quite a lot into 10 minutes of time. The ride has been long, delayed, and delayed again; but it's finished.

Since I know most of you will ask, I will attempt to answer here as best I can:

First and foremost, will there be a Season 2? I don't know. It's a possibility and I have some ideas tossing around, but I can say for certain it won't be until Fall until I know for sure where the direction is headed. I'm not a fan of beating a dead horse though, so it could be the series ends there. We'll see.

However, I do have plans for something different when Reach hits. It won't be a series necessarily (although there will be an overlaying theme), and it will be less story centric, but so far I'm pleased with what I've got in mind.

In addition, I have some other odds and ends I will upload to the YT channel from time to time, just little things while I bide my time until Reach.

I'll still try and keep this blog updated more and more recently, I find that now I actually have some free time since I'm not worried about pumping out videos. And I do want to add more stuff to our channel, I think now is the perfect time to start.

Anyways, enjoy the finale and tell me your thoughts about it in the comments.

EDIT - The audio from YT sucks I realize. I'll be posting the HQ version on Vimeo shortly.

Fourth of July Weekend

2010-07-08T22:48:00.003-04:00

Been a bit busy here with 4th of July weekend and all, sorry bout that. But I read comments on the last question and it seems a lot of people think that Reach won't be a resurgence of machinima.

I find that odd, I was inclined to think the opposite. It seems the vast majority of interest swelled right when Halo 3 came out, and while I don't expect a similar uprising for Reach I figure it would be a decent one. Then again, it isn't quite a revolutionary game in terms of the Forge/Theater Mode aspects. I guess we will know in September. Hopefully there will be some new stuff happening, seems stuff is few and far between for entertainment now.

I got an interesting email a few days ago, asking why it took so long to create something 5-10 minutes in length. I figure I might outline it for a few of you why it does so.

I work most days until about 5 or 6. After arriving home, eating something, showering, etc, it is somewhere in the vicinity of 6 to 7. This leaves, absolute maximum, 5 hours a night for everything else I need to do: groceries, maintenance, Futurama, etc. Once the clock hits 11 I have calls to make, then I turn in early because the day starts at 8 AM.

Consider each episode has 40+ hours invested into it (I honestly think I've taken over 50, closer to 60 on this last one so far, I am a slow editor) if I can spend 10-15 hours a week on an episode then that is a good week. If lady luck smiles upon me this means at least a month for the way my process works.

That being said, I hope to finish it up by this weekend and then ship it off to appear on the web sometime in the future. I'm actually trying to squeeze it under 10 minutes.

Okay, enough with the boring complaining portion, on to the speculation.

I notice that bungie is rather unique in it's area of theater mode, etc. I wonder why a lot of other games haven't really taken this step. Now there are a few who have done this, but to me it seems relatively little in terms of implementation for a lot of benefit.

Anyway, when I see Halo machinima, I think it is really limited to comedy about online gaming or soldiers. Anything else to me doesn't really seem to fit well; the concept of being serious with armored characters doesn't get to me for some reason. Now it's not to say I don't like any serious stuff, I guess I just haven't watched enough. I did see a couple The Forgotten Spartans and I must say it did have some well done fight sequences, but overall my knowledge is limited. Any more serious inclined videos out there that you would recommend? Your take on which you think Halo could be used for?

Predictions

2010-06-25T18:20:00.004-04:00

Been working a lot recently, but I've found a couple minutes here and there to put into the Finale. No real estimate yet but it should be here next couple weeks.

I've been reading the responses to the last post and it seems a lot of people were pulled into machinima around Halo 3 release, which is pretty interesting. I wonder if the Reach release will be just as big, it's certainly something to think about.

Anyways, some people ask what I am doing for work; I'm actually working 2 jobs over the course of this summer. One of them is a pretty low level desk job, which doesn't really suck up too much time. The other has me doing a lot of blue collar work, such as moving furniture and fixing up apartments for rent. In this hot summer it can be pretty brutal sometimes.

This week I was also able to catch up on a few shows, namely the newest RvB series. I really dig the animation stuff, it is pretty seamless and fits well with the series. This last weeks (I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it) hosts a pretty amazing fight scene. Taking a look at their original videos compared to the most recent ones really shows just how much they have taken strides to find the next best thing. I'm not sure if it's partly due to experience of the crew, or additional qualified individuals, but it's awesome.

So yeah, got a new question I am curious to hear answers for, what are your thoughts on the future for the machinima community? Do you think Reach will bring about a fresh interest? Or do you still think it is as strong as 2 years ago? THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS GO.

A real blog post

2010-06-16T01:54:00.003-04:00

So, part of the new direction we are taking with releasing 13 part 2 is one of more liveliness. That is to say; not going awol for large periods of time and keeping more in touch with fans and letters people send me. One of the things I would like to do is post on the blog at least once per week with updates, links, or just bits of talk.

Today's will be just be a simple question since it is 2 AM here and I have work in 7 hours; you can answer in the comment section below this. What got you interested in watching machinima? Was there a specific video you watched that sucked you in or have you been a fan since the prehistoric era?

Sampler

2010-06-07T23:08:00.009-04:00

Couple more screengrabs, also going to put a teaser on the YT channel (small clip from the finale) Tuesday or Wednesday, whichever day I get off from work.

EDIT - 6/9 - I put up the preview tonight, you can view it here. It's not much, but hopefully people get a kick out of it. Keep in mind what you see now may be different in the final version.

Almost...hnnnggghh

2010-05-26T18:45:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone, couple things I'd like to answer based on the volume of messages I've received.

First off, yes, we do plan on releasing the finale. Soon.

Second, we are not waiting for Halo Reach. This 5 month wait already is cruel, that would just be pure evil.

Third, long story made short - I have been unable to work on Phil at all until very recently (May 16) which accounted for the large gap between 13 part 1 and 2. I am very sorry for the enormous delay, but there are some things I just can't control.

What normally accounts for most of the delay between regular episodes (work, education, just overall time sunk into it) on top of a multitude of technical issues that were just one after the other in addition to a diminishing amount of availability. Thus, with the purchase of a new OS (Windows 7), new(er) controllers, repairs to the xbox, and a new copy of halo 3, I was able to get back on schedule.

I included a couple screen grabs from some of the stuff I worked on today.

What would a climatic finale be without a car chase?

I know, I know

2010-03-26T15:18:00.003-04:00

It's coming. Very slowly. Myriad of issues which I won't delve in to but it's coming soon.

Deeply sorry for the long wait, but just a little longer.

Day 13 Part 1 uploaded

2010-01-07T13:07:00.003-05:00

Woah...seems like they had a much large setback in their schedule or something, didn't realize it would take that long to come out on YT. I see people have ninja posted it elsewhere though, haha. It has been out a few days, I've just been on vacation these past few weeks so I haven't gotten around to updating the blog yet.

Day 13 Part 1

Part II coming along soon.

Day 13 Part 1 uploaded + news

2009-12-13T00:33:00.004-05:00

So good news/bad news. Good news is that Part I has been uploaded, and will most likely be available this coming week. Its a little less than 7 minutes; Part II is shaping up to be around 8 or so.

Bad news is that I've been informed Machinima is taking a break for the holidays starting next week, and as such will not be able to post Part II until January 3rd/around that day (hence the upload of Part I now). So, turns out they won't be consecutive after all; but should only be a break of 2-3 weeks inbetween, depending on their schedule. So not terrible. Besides, it's the holidays, you all should relax and enjoy them :P.

In the meantime, I have a short video I've been working on that I will be posting to our YT account sometime inbetween. It's not terribly long, but hopefully it will entertain you all. There will also be a sort of "FAQ" type video posted as well, so take those two as copouts to tide you over in the space until Part II goes live.

I'll post again when Part I is available.

Day 13 screenshots

2009-12-06T21:41:00.006-05:00

Part I just finished, Part II underway. I'm trying to get both out consecutively. It's long.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T13:06:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Eat a lot of food if you are American, if you aren't, well, eat a bunch anyway. Day 13 Part I (and hopefully II) coming out early December!

Phil - Day Twelve: "Semifinals"

2009-11-03T17:37:00.009-05:00

is available:

HERE

Day 13 (aka, the finale) will be out sometime in early December. It will be longer, as good finales usually are.

EDIT- it's finally up, go give it a watch!

EDIT2- Little bonus peek at the venue for Day 13:

EDIT3 - Changed the formatting a bit, as 13 is long enough to split into 2 sections, part I and part II, that will hopefully come out consecutively.

Day 12 uploaded tomorrow (Nov 1st) and reupload of Phil Review

2009-10-31T17:37:00.002-04:00

Hey, so after a monstrous delay, I will be uploading Day 12 tomorrow (sunday nov. 1st) so expect it sometime this week. It clocks in at roughly 8-9 minutes (fairly lengthy) depending on how much I cut from it today. I'll post a new post when it is available. Reminder that this is the second-to-last episode of the season. Day 13 will be significantly longer. Remember, upload time -> view time usually takes a bit so prepare for it mid-week by my best estimate.

Second, Capt. Jack Hammer had to reupload his Phil Review due to copyright restraints, so I've updated the links for it and it is once again under our favorites.

Cheers.

Day 12 preview

2009-10-11T12:56:00.002-04:00

Wasn't quite able to finish it up, as I am juggling Mid-Terms at the moment, but I am uploading a short 1 minute preview of the episode as a small cop-out to tide you guys over til it comes out fully. Hopefully this raises a couple of questions :). I'll make the link active when it's up on YT.

LINK.

Crawling to the finish line

2009-09-28T15:04:00.000-04:00

Just need to redo a couple video clips for 12, and should be ready for release. Fall break coming up which = lots of time for the season finale. Aiming for a Sunday upload/midweek release of Day 12 this week.

In other news, 'Phil' is now in England, enjoying the sights.

Slow Release

2009-09-18T10:01:00.001-04:00

Sorry guys, sort of left you in the dark there, if you haven't already guess we are delaying release of 12 for a bit yet, trying to get stuff sorted out. I promise it's coming soon though, almost finished. Now I need to hit the sack, as I've gotten about 10 hours of sleep in the past 3 days.

Update - 8/31

2009-08-31T10:02:00.004-04:00

Hello ladies and gents. Been a while, sorry about that, getting settled back into this new semester has eaten up all my time as of late but I'm finally able to get back into making episode 12. I really like it so far, so hopefully you all will too heh. Still aiming for an early September release, with a follow-up late September/early October release for the season finale (Day 13).

I'm also gonna take some time out of your day to answer a few questions. So if all you wanted was an update you can just read the top paragraph.

Q1: Will there ever be any sort of Phil T-shirts, DVDs, etc?

A1: Nope. There is nothing legal about selling that sort of material, and even if we did sell T-Shirts that didn't pertain to Microsoft/Bungie but strictly to the show, then we would still feel as if we were falling into the "corporate" regime and become souless money-sucking bastards.

DVDs are also illegal, and you will never see one available for money.

If there becomes an overwhelming desire for T-Shirts to be made, we will reopen that possibility but as of right now there is nowhere near that amount of interest.

Q2: Will there be a second season of Phil?

A1: As of right now, it is uncertain. There will 100% without-a-doubt be a satisfying conclusion to Season 1 (ie, we aren't gonna leave everyone hanging) and we will leave it open for a second season. If we do manage a second season, it will not be consisting of episodes but rather one short film sort of deal (a 20-30 minute video). I do already have a plan in motion, but whether or not that becomes finished is a different story. We have a very strict time-frame.

Q3: What are your plans after finishing Phil?

A3: We've been sort of quiet about this because to be quite honest, we were unsure ourselves.

Right now, Rudy (aka the guy who voices Phil) will be taking a year abroad in England starting in October (which is why we have a very strict time-frame for the creation/voice recording of a second season). A very awesome opportunity.

This however, puts to a halt any of our future plans. So what will I do? Well, to be honest, not really sure. I would like to improve on my voice acting and perhaps flesh that out a bit more on some other vids of other machinimas. Maybe go chilling on some VA forums or something.

Major point is, if things start to slow up in terms of 12/13 release dates, it's because we will be cramming for a second season-movie.

Q4: I noticed you poke fun at other videos.

A4: Haha, Yes, I have been and I enjoy doing it. Everybody we make fun of is someone who I admire or appreciate greatly. It is my way of saying thanks for all the hard work that they put into entertaining people.

TL;DR-

Almost finished with first season.
Unsure on second season.

Phil - Day Eleven: "Second Round"

2009-08-14T01:44:00.005-04:00

It's active:

HERE!

6 1/2 minutes total. A bit short, but the finale will make up for that haha. I hope somebody gets all the references in this one, I didn't think they were too uncommon. The HQ version will not be extended, but I may consider putting in different music for that one. I really do like Hyp's song that I used though, it's timed almost perfectly. We'll see.

Day 12 (semifinals) to follow up sometime the first week in September.

Finale to arrive somewhere in Late September/October.

EDIT - its on YT! Link above.

Day 11 next week.

2009-08-07T12:02:00.002-04:00

I will finish it sometime this weekend, and upload it then so be prepared to see it early-mid next week!

EDIT - (8/9)

This is actually the first episode I had to go back and add stuff to, since I felt it was a bit too short, haha. I think it needs a bit more early buildup... Anyway, wasn't able to export it tonight, but will most likely upload it tomorrow (monday) once I finalize the audio parts.

Hypothesis's New Album on iTunes!

2009-07-31T11:51:00.003-04:00

Hypothesis has just released a brand new album 'Clockwork" which can be found on iTunes here! We should all support this awesome band for the hard work they put into their music; and judging by the amount of questions I get about their work I know a lot of you dig them. So yeah, go and support them!

Day 11 coming soon.

Coming soon

2009-07-29T19:10:00.002-04:00

So yeah, if you haven't noticed I decided not to put a Day 11 preview up on our channel, since I didn't want to spend a day messing with the export/upload process I just decided to forgo it and concentrate on the entire thing. My goal is for the beginning of next week, but most likely it won't debut til the end or so. I'll keep you posted.

11 in progress

2009-07-23T10:25:00.001-04:00

For some reason there is a lot of raw video to sift through for this one, despite my earlier predictions it wouldn't be as hard-drive consuming as Day 10. Oh well. Bout halfway there, expect a preview up on our YT channel probably Sunday for those interested in a few spoilers. No more over-used 300 references, I promise.

..and we're back!

2009-07-18T16:40:00.003-04:00

I managed to (seemingly) fix it by using the famous "do-it-yourself" repair guide! So far it's running smooth, I managed to play a game back in theater mode and so far so good! Unless something else arises, we should be back on schedule, albeit a slight delay. I would presume early August now instead of late July for the release date of Day 11.

And I will let you know if anything changes.

@#*^$!

2009-07-11T22:00:00.010-04:00

EDIT - After a couple rushed filming sessions today, the xbox regained it's triple red faster than I expected it to. I have the day off tomorrow, where I intend to purchase the supplies necessary to fix the problem. While it is suggested to be a permanent fix; Day 11 will be postponed for a little while as I am going to be filming the rest of the series in one giant lump in case this crazy shit happens again. As of right now, I am postpoing the release date into "August" since I am not taking any chances.

Phil - Day Ten: "First Round"

2009-07-03T14:40:00.004-04:00

It's out! On YT:

HERE

The extended version to debut on Vimeo sometime soon. Give it a watch!

Day Eleven in July.

EDIT (6/10/09) -

Sorry for the big delay. The extended version is now up on our Vimeo account here.

Day Ten to be uploaded on Monday

2009-06-27T18:10:00.002-04:00

I'm exporting the "final" draft right now, fleshing out the one or two errors I find with it tomorrow, and uploading it Monday evening. Most likely won't debut for a few days after that, but just letting you know it's coming sometime in the next few days.

Day Eleven to follow up in July.

Day 10 nearing completion

2009-06-21T20:12:00.002-04:00

Just some updates - Day 10 is nearing completion and man, it is long. The longest episode to date and probably will only be trumped by the season finale (aka Day 13).

There will be two versions of this episode going online, the edited (without "certain" music) version that most people will see on YouTube, and then an improved and longer (with "certain" music) version that will go on Vimeo. For those who have seen the promo, they might understand what the word in the quotes mean. If not, those who wish for a few spoilers should check it out. Keep in mind that the promo is a very small portion.

My goal is to get this video out somewhere around Monday the 29th, possibly the weekend before if I get lucky.

That's all.

3,000,000! One year!

2009-06-15T15:17:00.004-04:00

This actually happened a couple days back, but collectively all of our Phil videos spread across several sites (well, at least all the ones I know about) have gotten over 3,000,000 views total!

Also, we (almost) have 4,000 subscribed! (almost) Wicked.

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who enjoys the show and helped us to get here, cause honestly, if you people didn't like this stuff I wouldn't have gotten this far.

ALSO, it was our one year anniversary like.. a month ago. Or something. Anyways, that's also a landmark. Also, because people have asked me, I put a link to our "Cast and Crew" right next to our FAQs link in our link list to the right. So I guess nobody will ever click on it then.

Once again, thanks to everyone! More to come, so lets hit that 4 million marker before ODST comes out and everyone forgets about Halo 3 machinima!

Some Updates

2009-06-13T23:04:00.002-04:00

Day 9 is out if you don't already know....go HERE to watch it!

Day 10 promo is also out on our YT channel, go watch if you want some teaser action. It's a hefty episode, I'm most likely going to have to trim it to get it under 10 minutes. For those who don't already know, this is NOT the last episode, there are 4 more to be exact...leading up to a very climatic, lengthy, and satisfactory finale for the season.

Anyways, back to work and such.

Phil - Day Nine: "Morals"

2009-06-03T18:12:00.017-04:00

Update (5/11/2009)- It is back! Via YouTube. Link below:

HERE

Day 10 should be out the latter half of June. Preview is up on our YT channel now, here.

Day 9 HQ version here.

Stick around.

PS - Go see Up if you haven't yet. It's awesome.

Day 8 back up and stuff

2009-05-30T20:08:00.002-04:00

It's back on YouTube here, and for those who didn't read the edit below, Day 9 will be uploaded middle of this upcoming week, so a tiny bit off from our guesstimate but it's official at least. 7 minutes long (average length I guess, not the monster 9 minute Day 8).

Day 8 is online ->

2009-05-28T18:29:00.004-04:00

HERE...via our Vimeo. Remember you can turn off the "HD" version if you want to view it in less-than-high definition. Day 8 will return to YouTube in less-than-high quality rather shortly, so for those who prefer YouTube just sit tight, it should be back up in the next couple of days.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

EDIT - I will be uploading Day 9 onto both sites respectively on June 3rd (Wednesday). Mark that date somewhere on yer calendars. A couple days late, but not bad considering our track record : /

Two posts in one day

2009-05-27T21:37:00.003-04:00

Just like to say our Vimeo account is here (there is nothing there yet); I will begin uploading the extended (what is currently on our YouTube) version there shortly. It's added to our link list as well; and I will be adding videos once a week (Day 8 this week, Day 9 the next, then some updated editions of our older vids).

I also just took down Day 8 from our channel. It will be back up on Vimeo sometime soon and back on YouTube approximately sometime this weekend. Sorry for the inconvenience, but we are attempting to set up an organized system of sorts.

Day Nine imminent + Machinima + HQ versions

2009-05-27T15:20:00.005-04:00

Don't fret, Day Nine - "Morals" is almost finished, and is actually looking to be rather on the short side (7 minutes - oh well). We are aiming for an imminent release as soon as we work things out.

So, here's where the boring information comes:

First, Day Nine (possibly Day Eight, although still unsure) etc. will be posted via Machinima's account. A lot of people have asked why Day Eight is different, this is due to:

a) We wanted to post our videos in high quality, something that is difficult to do with the size limit.

b) We thought our fanbase would remain similar, but alas we have taken much too long of a break (huge miscalculation on our part). If it hadn't been for Bungie.net/HBO we would have probably not even gotten the word out beyond a couple thousand.

We sat down and decided that really, in the end, we want to reach out to everyone who enjoyed the first half so they may see the conclusion of the series.

So, we are planning to release extended-ish versions of episodes in HD (HQ) on Vimeo (I am setting up an account as we speak). As time progresses, we will place our earlier episodes on there as well, but for now, as we upload an episode we will also place it on Vimeo around the same time for those with speedy connections and a drive to watch it in HQ glory (which makes it a million times better, in my humble opinion). I'll be putting links to our higher quality versions/channel up later once I get everything worked out.

Anyways, look for Day Nine, its around the corner. My guess is sometime within the next 6 days. Then it's on to the UXLT.

Progress Update

2009-05-22T23:07:00.006-04:00

Bout 60% done or so; here are a few screen grabs that might pique your interest:

yeahhh

Yo

2009-05-18T16:27:00.002-04:00

Sup. Day Nine is coming along nicely, we are aiming for a release around the end of May for those who are wondering. The episode starts off with a bang, which has kind of been interesting to work on. Anyway. For those who can't direct their eyes like 6 inches to the right, the title is "Morals," and some clever people out there might already have an idea what this may be about. This episode is also a nice bridge between our first 8 episodes and our upcoming "UXLT" episodes, just in terms of style and blah blah blah boring blah

Phil - Day 8 + etc.

2009-05-10T12:49:00.000-04:00

Glad to see a lot of people out there have anticipated our return! Good to be back! If you haven't seen it already, Day Eight is right here:

LINK

I also want to thank Bungie/HBO for putting us up on their blogs again, really helped to get the word out (as I think a huge majority of people still think we are AWOL). Thanks a bunch guys!

Day Eight: "Ghostbusters"

2009-05-06T17:32:00.004-04:00

It's out! You can all put away your torches and pitchforks now.

Link is here.

The HD version looks to be decent, although sluggish (could just be my connection though). I'll reevaluate at a different time.

For those who want to download this episode, I'll be getting to that eventually.

Day Nine will be ready by the end of May if all goes well.

May 5th

2009-05-04T23:33:00.003-04:00

...is when it should be up and running. I uploaded it earlier today but didn't realize YouTube wouldn't recognize the widescreen in that format, so I'm uploading a newer one right now. Once it passes the inspection should be good to roll. Should be up sometime midday tomorrow.

EDIT (6:20) - Both versions I put up earlier today have had some odd saturation issues, I am currently exporting a new version that will hopefully alleviate the situation. Hold tight, hopefully this new one will work out fine.

2 AM bro

2009-05-03T01:59:00.003-04:00

...is the current time, Day 8 is finished and exporting; probably will still take me a day or two to work out all the kinks and little errors. I actually had to trim this episode so it would fit under the 10 minute limit; brought it down to a decently sized 9:10. That assuming this build is the final one we're going with.

There is this one part where we tried something...a little bit different. It's a one-time deal though, so don't go expecting anything further. Just thought it would be interesting.

Also, this is going up on our youtube account; we will also be 'favoriting' it as well because I'm sure a more people will see it is out that way.

Enjoy in < 3 days.

Closing In

2009-04-29T20:50:00.002-04:00

As we near out deadlines, just popping in to say a few things:

First and foremost, Day 8 will be ready to roll sometime during the first week of May. Exactly when this is still remains to be seen. Maybe you should brush up on Phil in the meantime (wink).

Second, I just updated the FAQs to their newest version. If you have a question, please look there first before sending me an email/message. This brings me to number three:

Third, starting May 5th, I will resume checking YouTube messages again. Due to the large influx we received after Day 7, I was unable to answer a large amount of them. If you did not get a question answered, I apologize, but feel free to ask again May 5th.

Fourth, our video will be posted on our YouTube channel, as well as any other site we may post it at. Make sure you look for it there first.

Fifth, we are very excited to drop back into the Machinima world again. Seems like we've been gone a while.

Winding down

2009-04-12T11:11:00.003-04:00

Whatsss upppp. Figured since we are closing in on May here that I would let you all have an update.

If you haven't already seen, Hypothesis put out an album of all of their music in the first season of Phil, so be sure to check that out! Some of the songs have yet to appear, and their music is really topnotch.

Second, as we count down the days until finals and then May, we are planning on getting back into the full swing of things. We still have 6 more episodes to finish up season 1, and then we will see where it takes us from there.

I want to thank everyone for being patient with us, I hope you have had some good stuff to watch and fill you in during our absence (if you haven't seen it already, Cpt. Jack Hammer interviewed me on his show a while back).

Less then one month left! Be seeing you all in a few weeks!

Season 1 Album! Check it out!

2009-03-10T15:57:00.003-04:00

So many of you have been asking us and Hypothesis about the music in Phil, well the great people at Hypothesis have composed an album consisting of all the music in the first season, including tracks that will come to appear in later episodes yet unreleased! Check this out immediately; if you don't have their page bookmarked you should! HERE!

Enjoy it; the music is awesome.

-Jordan

So...

2009-01-23T04:10:00.003-05:00

Alright, sit tight, we have important news. This is gonna be long, so grab a chair.

First, we have decided to postpone Day 8 until further notice (obviously), and everything after that until May 2009. Apologies to everyone eagerly awaiting our videos, but this is for the best in our current situation.

While we definitely appreciate everyone who views our videos and enjoys our work, it was never meant to be a full-time thing. This is not to say we don't love the show and our work to death, but we never anticipated the massive amount of viewership and feedback we have gotten so far. Don't get us wrong, we are thrilled that everyone appreciates us and our work so much, but it seems to have scaled exponentially and well beyond our expectations.

If you haven't heard back from any message you have sent me in a month or so, it's because I haven't the time to respond. I'm sorry, but considering the amount I get it is unfeasible to answer them all. That is why I set up the FAQs (purely for your benefit) and if it is something incredibly important, email is the best option.

Anyway, my point is, we are two students who lead very busy lives in seperate locations, and creation of our work is simply impossible. So we have decided to postpone all production until May 2009, when we are both done with school and able to proceed with Phil. Day 8 got delayed and delayed, and then to top it all off, the xbox on which it was filmed got our favorite friend, the triple red. It's only now available, and Day 8 will be finished when I get some free time.

Day 9-13 are definately going to be created, albeit not until spring/summer 2009. If you are a fan of Phil, you'll not want to miss it, and hopefully you can find some other show to occupy your time (there are a billion good ones out there).

For those of you who will hate on this decision for delaying (which a bunch will no doubt do) keep in mind, for the 1000th time, that this is OUR show. As much as we appreciate and love your viewing and feedback, ultimately it is something we choose to do of our own free will. We owe you nothing, and you owe us nothing. No we will not upload a video we do not feel is worthy of being uploaded. No we don't require assistance, although the enthusiasm is appreciated. It's our hobby, not our job. We are not required to do anything. Please, just enjoy the show for what it is and stop making such an enormous deal of it.

I'll try to continue to check email and such. We hope to see your eagerly anticipating faces in May when we can hopefully return full-throttle to finish up the Phil series. We are posting the titles for all the future episodes so you can dream about how totally epic and awesome it will be :). Thanks to all the fans and cool people who have stuck by us, and who will hopefully continue to stick by us.

So May 2009. Look for us then. Look for Day 8 (hopefully) before then. See y'all soon.

Our thanks,
Jordan and Rudy

PS: Cpt Jack Hammer recently interviewed me on his show, so if you want some juicy info on us, you should go HERE. I recommend checking his other videos out as well!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-27T13:20:00.001-05:00

Happy Holidays to all of you! Both Day 8 and 9 are close to completion, and will be here shortly. Sit tight.

-Jordan

Woah

2008-12-20T01:29:00.002-05:00

Been a while. You guys are in definite need of an update on our status, sorry for the bit of AWOLness there.

Day 8 and 9 are coming bundled together. Trying to get both out by Christmas, although long distance voice work and other technical mumbo-jumbo has set us back a bit in terms of production. Rest assured, they are coming as quickly as possible.

I would also like to point out that we now have over 2000 subscribers on YouTube. Thanks everyone for sticking with us this far! There is definitely more to come! In honor of our fans who we appreciate so much, we will be holding a small fan contest in the near future, so make sure you stay tuned for that and more Phil!

In a bit of sadder news, for those 3 or 4 people who visited the forums, I'm going to be taking them down. Not for any malignant reasons, just because I simply don't have the time to maintain them or be in them as much as I used to, and we don't want any 'official' things lying around unsupervised by us. Feel free to create fan-based ones, I apologize if I haven't replied to your posts in a while. You guys were cool and I hope you will stick with us. Probably will take em down round the same time Day 8 and 9 go live, so at about christmas time.

Sorry to any we may have offended with our abscense. We are still live and kickin'.

-Jordan and Rudy

Major Update, reporting in.

2008-12-02T11:12:00.002-05:00

Corny jokes aside, heres the lowdown:

-Currently, Day 8 is not online. We are largely focused on bringing the best possible quality and the distance has slowed down our production. It's largely a 'build-up' and a 'story' episode, and I'll post a few spoilers at the end of this post. We do not have a clear release date set, initially I had hoped to post it before exams started but alas, I didn't. So the most likely release date is sometime after exams, which end for me next week. Sorry about the delay, but it is necessary.

-Day 9 will be released shortly after Day 8, partly to make up for the delay, partly because I will have some free time. Expect both before Christmas.

-We are pushing back the remakes until after the season finale is completed. More on this in the future.

Sorry for being out of it the past few weeks, but as this semester wraps up at the University, things have become quite hectic. Bear with us.

Now, for some interesting Day 8/Day 9 stuff:

Day 8:

-The final 'named' character will be introduced. After this, there will be no more official 'named' characters this season. This character will have the ODST helmet permutation with purple colored armor. Hopefully this will leave you guessing :).

-It will take place on the map 'Blackout' during a FFA match.

-The fourth clan member will be found this episode.

Day 9:

-Title is "Morals"

-No new characters introduced (first episode ever like this).

-VIP match.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T12:45:00.001-05:00

Have a good one. I'll be chowin' down on the pecan pie myself.

Been a while

2008-11-23T23:01:00.000-05:00

...since I've updated this, sorry. Heres the scoop:
Unfortunately, we'll be pushing Day 8 back to early December. Finals week is coming up, I'm going to be leaving for almost a week for thanksgiving, and school got kicked up in preparation for finals.

Sorry for the delay, but hopefully it will come out like December 2nd or 3rd.

-Jordan

HUGE update (its big)

2008-11-12T16:07:00.003-05:00

So couple major changes coming your way. This is gonna be long, so bear with me.

First of all, I would like to say that Phil - Day 8 is nearing completion! It's scheduled to be released late November, if you want it here sooner than that you can all yell at Rudy to finish his lines so I can put them in. Just kidding, don't actually spam him with hatemail. Because its the same email address.

Second, our videos will no longer be submitted to Machinima.com or their YouTube account. Instead, all new videos (Day 8 onward) I will upload low quality versions to OUR YouTube account (so make sure you subscribe to us!) and possibly higher quality versions on another, higher quality streaming site.

Since the project files for Day 1, 2, and 3 are gone (forever), we will eventually remake these episodes while updating them with better quality sound/video. This will probably occur sometime during December. The dialogue/plot will stay the same, perhaps one or two very minor tweaks, so nothing majorly new there. Its simply so I can have all of the project files. They will be uploaded to our YouTube/other higher streaming site as well.

Day 4-7 will be redone as well, with a couple bonus scenes added, some existing scenes cut, and generally get a face lift. This will occur also, in the future.

Overall, NOTHING will change majorly. I am doing this mainly for organizational purposes, both on mine and the viewers end.

Day 9 will be released soon after Day 8, probably in early/mid December.

We are also looking into a website. Now I have gotten very gracious offers from people online to help us on this matter, but as always real life comes before virtual, and I'm sorry to disappoint you (I am very grateful for your interests though). A friend of mine will be helping with the setup when the time comes, but as of now there is no set date.

With this website will come the opportunity to download our videos in (presumably) both low and high quality versions, although this is also, TBD.

So in summary, here is a brief timeline:

Late November: Phil - Day 8
Early/Mid December: Phil - Day 9
Late December: Phil - Day 1, 2, 3 remade.
Late December/Early January: Phil - Day 4, 5, 6, 7 revisited. Possibly later.
Mid January: Phil - Day 10
(FUTURE - Phil - Day 11, 12, 13 (The epic season finale) )
TBD - Website/Downloads

If you have any questions/comments/concerns, I will be happy to answer them as best I can. There are a few details we are keeping secret, so don't be disappointed if I don't give you an exact answer.

Bear with us, some exciting Phil coming your way.

-Jordan

FAQs update

2008-11-09T14:15:00.007-05:00

They've been updated. If you have a fairly common question, please look there first. Due to the volume of similar questions being asked, from now in my replies I'll be sending you a link and a nice note, rather than answering your question in detail. Nothing personal, it's just taking up too much time. Don't worry, I won't hate you for still asking questions, quite the opposite in fact.

Also, while I have been getting a lot of praise, I've been receiving fairly little criticism. There used to be a time when I would reply to such comments on videos, but this too, has gotten to be too time consuming.

DO NOT send me your plot ideas for Phil. DON'T. They will not be read and will be deleted.

Anyways, breakfast time. Mmm...burritos.

-EDIT-

Expect some changes coming up around here.

-Jordan

Update - Nov 6th

2008-11-06T16:58:00.002-05:00

So, heres the downlow:

Day Eight is overall 1/2 done. No exact date of release yet, but most likely mid-late Nov. Our goal is before Thanksgiving.

This is also the first episode not being edited in iMovie, not that anyone cares. The intro has been reworked a tad, you may notice a few minor differences in the title and/or overall feel of it. I like to say that cause then I sound knowledgeable about computers and editing and camera work and whatnot.

My gamertag is out there, if you haven't seen it already.

Now heres something interesting: If you check out my gamertag on Bungie.net, you'll notice my current armor permutations/color have not yet surfaced in Phil.....hmm...very interesting indeed...

All Saints Day + Gamertag

2008-11-01T12:52:00.003-04:00

Sup. Halloween was awesome. Not nearly the giant party it has been in years past, but pretty cool nonetheless. I got my 15 seconds of fame, there was a surprising amount of drunk/stoned/both people that recognized my unoriginal costume and gave me fist bumps (aka terrorist fist jabs) and high fives. It's pretty cool to know how many other people watched Doug back in the good ol' 90s.

Since everyone's been asking me what i look like, who exactly BLP is, etc, I figured Halloween would be the perfect time to do so. Pictures commencing whenever someone tags me. And no, you can't know my Facebook, sorry (although I'm sure some of you will find me anyway).

However, you can know my Gamertag: Noperator. If you ever want to hit me up, chill, play some Halo 3 or whatever, feel free to. Couple quick Dos/Don'ts though:

I don't really accept random friend requests unless I fosho know you.
Don't give me ideas for Phil. I will interrupt you and say no thanks.
Don't ask to join BLP. We're not looking to accommodate anyone else, so I will politely decline all of these requests as well.

Other than that, lets have fun. One quick thing though, I suck pretty bad at Halo, so you might want to place me on the opposite team :/

Happy post-Halloween to y'all.
-Jordan

Boo!

2008-10-30T17:37:00.003-04:00

Okay, it's not Halloween yet, but its close. I think this year I might have to whip up the Quail-man costume and traverse the greatness that is Franklin Street on Halloween night. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about (basically everyone), its okay. Just assume its a really bigass street party with thousands of drunk people getting into fights and feeling each other up. Good times, good times.

As for Day 8, status:

Filming is complete. Footage is 1/3 recorded. Voices are 1/2 done. Who knows, we might get this out sooner. However, don't hold me to that.

Oh and a little something interesting. Part of this episode is filmed in Halo 2. WTF? BBQ? I know, its wack yo.

Happy Halloween y'all,
-Jordan

HALOween contest entry & more

2008-10-28T00:29:00.008-04:00

We are still very honored Bungie.net put us on their blog. I dunno if you've checked Day 7, but its gotten quite a bit of views (320,000!) and we are very grateful for that.

Phil - Day 8 possibly 2nd or 3rd week in November, although nothing is definite. This our first long distance voice recording too, so bear with us as we make the transistion.

Also, deviss123 posted a vid of himself playing the BLP intro tune on his guitar. I have zero musical talent, but that sounds spot on to me! Check that out here.

As a last note, my LIVE account will become reactive soon as I get a mic. I'll let you all know my GT then.

Peace out, girl scouts.

-Jordan

Exciting News

2008-10-25T14:54:00.004-04:00

So Mander popped in to inform us that Bungie.net happened to feature Day 7 recently, which to us is a pretty big honor. It seems perfectly fitting to be Day 7 too, haha. Anyway, check that out here. Awesome.

Oh yeah, and we're uploading a submission for the HALOween contest.

Wish us luck, or go ahead submit something yourselves! In which case, we wish you luck as well!

PS - Don't forget to download Hypothesis's new EP Believe the Hyp vol. 1, available at their website.

Cheers,
-Jordan

Phil - Day Seven uploaded & Hypothesis FREE EP!!

2008-10-21T11:26:00.014-04:00

The free Hypothesis EP "BELIEVE THE HYP VOL. 1" is out!! Download it at their Myspace. Now! What are you waiting for? Go!!

Oh and Phil - Day Seven: "Deja Vu" has been uploaded to Machinima.com. Now all you gotta do is wait until it goes live, links are here:

YouTube

Machinima

What a good tuesday, no?

I should also probably take this time to sneak in some bad news: Phil - Day Eight will be released late in November. The last new character in the series will be introduced, and it will set the stage for the remaining episodes in the season. We are taking the extra time to put forth our best effort into production.

Blergh

2008-10-20T13:10:00.003-04:00

I'm updating this a lot recently, hmmm. Anywho, I'm trying to export Day Seven as we speak, just shy of 7 minutes. Dunno when it will be uploaded, probably tomorrow when i work out the kinks. Then its up to the good folk at Machinima.com when it goes public.

Got quite a large load of work coming up these next 2 weeks, and considering the magnitude of Day Eight it might be pushed back perhaps as long as a week. I'm sorry babee, this hurts me as much as it hurts you.

On the lighter side of things, expect Day Seven sometime in the near future. I've also added the new playlist so you guys can check out some of the machinima that we really admire.

In good news for those music fans, Hypothesis is scheduled to put their kickass EP Believe the Hyp vol. 1 up for FREE download tomorrow. Make sure to download those fly beats and support their music!

I have no idea why the title of this post is "Blergh" btw.

Mixin' It Up

2008-10-18T18:01:00.002-04:00

So, while I'm waiting for the footage to import and I made a new playlist on YouTube of our favorite machinima videos that I've seen so far. I'm sure most of you have watched them before, but if not, you should definately check em out.

In other news, uh, well not much to say. Look for Day Seven early next week, prolly Mon/Tues. It's taken the most amount of time for an episode yet.

Some Production Updates

2008-10-17T00:52:00.002-04:00

Day Seven is going by rather sluggishly unfortunately, it's looking more like a release sometime early next week.

In other news, After Day Eight and Nine are presented, a small break over the most part of December will ensue to allow us to prepare for the 4 final episodes. But don't fret, we'll try and release a short video we've been working on to tide you over.

Also, we're currently working on bringing androids up to speed. Lol.

Some Updates here

2008-10-14T09:56:00.002-04:00

Okay so Day Seven will be uploaded either this weekend OR Monday/Tuesday OR somewhere similiar. After that, Day Eight won't be out until early November, and Nine will follow suit sometime in mid/late November. We are taking a small pause after that to prepare for the last 4 'Days' (for those who can't count, that's a grand total of 13 episodes) of the first season of Phil.

More updates in a bit.

Phil -Day Six: "Sexism" uploaded

2008-10-04T23:10:00.005-04:00

I uploaded Day Six a couple hours ago, so it's up to the gods at Machinima.com to consider release dates. It would have been out sooner, but I was having trouble with compression issues/quality. Links:

YouTube

Machinima.com

--EDIT--
I'm sorry about the awful quality guys, I was having trouble compressing it to specifications and it sucks. I know. Machinima.com's quality is better, but the audio track is slightly misaligned. I recommend downloading it from them, see how that works out. I'll work on this so it won't happen with Day Seven.

Anyway, some stuff on the new episode: A guest voice actor, and its just shy of 7 minutes, a bit shorter. Enjoy.

The D-L

2008-10-03T02:58:00.003-04:00

Day 6 turned out to be a effing nightmare BUT luckily for you all I've done about 2 weeks worth of work in about 5 days time, and it's almost finished. I originally said Sunday, but I'll most likely be uploading it tomorrow (Friday) night or Saturday morning. No telling when it will appear on YouTube though.

Its shaping up to be around 7-7 1/2 minutes, and for those of you who don't go to our forums, I've dropped an interesting fact about the new episode. So you should check out our forums.

Also, Hypothesis has dropped a release date for their FREE Mixtape, Tuesday Oct. 21st. Be sure to check them out then. You can listen to some of their stuff on YouTube or their Myspace, and ask them questions about any songs from our videos. I believe you can also download the "Don't Forget Me" Instrumental from their MySpace (The song featured as the intro for Day 3).

Day 6 Updates:

2008-09-27T16:52:00.002-04:00

So, the original plan for Day 6 has been shelved and scrapped, we may release what we have gotten done sometime further down the road, or maybe try and finish later on, who knows. But, sorry to say, we won't be releasing it. Instead, we will be doing a different episode than we had originally be planned. But the good news, is that we will be releasing Day 6 either next Sunday (10/5) or a day close by it. So stay tuned for that. More details to come.

PandemicStrike's review of Phil

2008-09-26T10:35:00.003-04:00

Hey, so Cpt. Jack Hammer of Pandemic Strike Productions just sent me a online review of Phil he had done. I checked out a couple more of his videos, and I have to say I think it's great how he reviews a lot of lesser-known machinimas out there, helping to shed some light on the community. Anyways, y'all should check it out here:

HERE!

His halotube reference in his review also reminded me that I neglected to mention that Halotube is back online with a new site. For those of you who don't know, Halotube is a YouTube for all things halo, from machinima to jump videos. Definetly a must-see for any halo fan.

Halotube

Aloha!

-Jordan

Some Info-mation

2008-09-24T21:37:00.003-04:00

First off, if you haven't heard the news, Hypothesis will be releasing a FREE collection of some of their hot beats (FYI, Hypothesis does the music for Phil) sometime in October so be sure to check that out.

Second, Day 6 is coming along rather nicely, much quicker than I anticipated. As soon as we do some voice work this weekend I'll know for sure or not IF it will come out the following Sunday (October 5th).

Androids isn't dead, and don't expect it to be either. 4 coming your way some time after Day Six is released.

Sayanora!

The music in Phil aka Hypothesis

2008-09-21T00:40:00.002-04:00

I've been getting a lot of questions about them, so here is a link redirecting you to a very informative post they've made that can probably answer some of your questions about the music:

HERE

They were recently featured in KevJumba's video, (a YouTube celebrity of sorts), which I can say is pretty freakin' awesome.

Phil - Day 5 (Sept 19th) and other information

2008-09-18T10:48:00.004-04:00

Currently Phil - Day Five: "Wally's Girlfriend" has just been uploaded to Machinima.com as of an hourish ago. No telling on how long it will take to clear their uploading process, so keep checking in for it. It is supposed to be up on YouTube on the 19th, so you could just hold out for it then as well :). Links:

EDIT:
Youtube is now up.

YouTube

Machinima

Its just shy of 6 minutes, sorry :( but let me know what you guys/gals think.

In other news, I'm holding off announcing the release date for Day 6. I want to get it out by October 3rd-ish (ie, 2 weeks from tomorrow), but it may take a tad bit longer than that. Also, join the forums people! That is all. Chao.

-Jordan

Update - 9/10/08 (join forums!)

2008-09-10T00:57:00.000-04:00

Hey all, here is just a quick overview of what's going down:

Phil - Day 5 is almost finished, but won't be up on YouTube until the 19th as stated. (I will upload it the night of the 17th, so it might debut on Machinima.com a bit earlier).

The reason I finished Day 5 so quickly is two fold: a) Its 6 minutes as opposed to 8 minutes. I cut a lot of dialogue that I deemed unnecessary. and b) Day 6 is going to take a shitload of work...for very unusual reasons. I sincerely hope it turns out the way I imagine it because it will be quite an interesting step in terms of halo machinima. Day 6 is SUPPOSED to be out on October 3rd, and I need a lot of work to make that deadline.

In other news, I have a side project that will hopefully come out sometime in late October. It's unrelated to Phil, but i think it will still be good for some laughs. Its a short, so I'm aiming for the 10 minute mark.

Anyway, that's whats up. Y'all should join the forums! It's kind of quiet in there.

Phil - Day Four: "Team Effort"

2008-09-03T21:47:00.004-04:00

...is currently uploaded to Machinima.com and awaiting the green light for approval process. It should be out September 5th, but in case it goes on their website earlier than that, I'll look for it tomorrow and upload these links as they become active:

Youtube
Machinima.com

I hope you enjoy it, its only 6 1/2 minutes long, but I think what it lacks in length it makes up for in depth. Adios!

--EDIT--

I realize it is up on machinima, but for some reason the audio track is slightly misaligned with the video (as is all of our videos on machinima). They are requesting a different format so hopefully this won't be the issue in the future.

Also, I'd like to say that Phil - Day 5 will be out on September 19th, 2 weeks from now. Expect *fortnightly releases from now on.

*thank you, anonymous poster :)

-Jordan-

Forums!!

2008-09-01T04:39:00.000-04:00

Yep, I just worked out all the initial kinks of setting up a free pair of forums for you all to enjoy. So pop in and say hello! We can chat on all sorts of interesting topics, and its a much easier way to keep informed of stuff too.

Check them out right here!

-Jordan-

September 5th release date

2008-08-27T13:48:00.001-04:00

Hey, so while the hard drive that is BLP is god knows where, we are still here making stuff. More importantly, Phil Day 4 will be released September 5th via Machinima.com or their YouTube account, so look for it then. It would have been out yesterday but as you know, we had to start from scratch.

Sept 5th, tell your friends. Glad you all are still with us. Peace out, girl scout.

-Jordan

A Black Day

2008-08-19T22:37:00.002-04:00

So, yesterday I accidentally left my backpack in the library after nearly completing Day 4. This wouldn't be that much of an issue, except my backpack contained my external hard drive, on which I keep the entirety of Phil and Androids.

Backed up? I have all of the raw video and audio data on this computer. However, without an external hard drive to store stuff on, i cannot create anything new unless i drop a couple hundred on another one (which I don't have). This is very disheartening, and I hope that it will turn up soon. If not, well...

WE ARE STILL HERE!!!!!

2008-08-11T19:27:00.004-04:00

Hey, don't panic!! BLP is still here!!!! And we are still making Phil!!!

As of yesterday, we have entered into a partnership with Machinima.com, and will be distributing our videos to them, which they will post on their website and their YouTube account. The reasoning for this is that Machinima.com is a very large distributor of machinima videos. They will be able to reach much more viewers than we would ever be able to, and we want everyone to enjoy our videos.

What does this mean for you? Absolutely nothing. We are still making videos, and if anything now have a drive to make more of them. If you wish to still be notified of new Phil episodes, then all you have to do is to subscribe to our favorites on our YouTube account. We will favorite our videos as soon as Machinima.com releases them, so you will be notified instantly. In addition, you can subscribe to Machinima's YouTube account, which will also notify you.

Also, we will update this website with links as soon as videos are posted. So make sure to check it out.

ALSO THIS IS IMPORTANT SO LOOKK!!!!!!

ANDROIDS will now only be posted on our YouTube account. If you are one of the two fans of the series, it will still be posted via our account so don't let this Phil nonsense stop you from subscribing to us! We also may have special stuff for our subscribers in the future, and also we love our fans and want you to join our community!

We hope you bear with us as we make this change. Stay tuned, Phil - Day 4: "Team Effort" is long and nearing completion!

-Jordan, your friend from BLP

Forums?

2008-08-09T12:25:00.002-04:00

Hey y'all, we are sort of going through a bit of a hectic time here, trying to get everything organized into a more professional scheme of things. Our biggest concern is going to be trying to produce more videos on a more timely basis, as mentioned previously.

The other thing I was going to ask is, if we set up forums for maybe us and this community, is that something you guys (and gals) would be interested in? If so, give us your honest feedback on the newest poll to the right.

In other news, stick with us, things are about to get a whole lot better :).

Updates Galore

2008-08-05T20:26:00.003-04:00

So, right now our BLP team has about 1 1/2 weeks left together, before we head to different schools. What does this mean for you? Well, nothing really. We will be focused on the voice work for the remainder of Phil series as well as Androids (don't worry you few fans out there, its not dead!) while we still have the time. We want to do this because starting with Phil - Day 4 we wish to regularly release Phil episodes every other week (instead of the random hectic mess we normally have with release dates), and possibly Androids on a similar time frame.

Anyway, up to updating you on current events.

Phil Day 4 is gonna be released maybe as soon as this weekend. Its almost done. For those of you who don't like to check out little sidebar, its called "Team Effort" so you can fathom what the story is for that one.

Androids Episode 4 is coming, its just terribly delayed for reasons i can't expect you to believe. expect that "soon".

Gamertag

2008-07-28T00:38:00.002-04:00

Hey, so I've been getting a lot of requests for my gamertag lately, and while I would love to play with y'all, it is currently not active. Between juggling summer, a full time job, creating Phil/Androids, and trying to mack on the ladies (and failing), I just don't have time to play.

When it does become active again, I will also probably change it to something else, so I don't want to give it out now and cause confusion. That being said, while I love playing Halo, I'm not that good at it. I think I'm a 2nd Lieutenant or something. Not that rank is any indication of skill, I just don't play it enough to be good.

Anyway, keep an eye out for Droids 4 and Day 4, I promise they're coming!

Go Tell It On The Mountain...

2008-07-26T12:55:00.002-04:00

First off, Day Three is up if you haven't seen it yet.

Something else we wanna say is, if you like Phil, then go and tell everyone about it! We try and post it on different sites like Halotube, HBO, etc, but I know there is a lot of places I can't do/think of. Remember, the more people who like it, the more drive we get to pump these out quicker!

As for an update, we will TRY and get out Androids 4 tonight/tomorrow morning, and Day 4 for Phil is half recorded, half voiced. Dunno the exact date, but my guess is sometime at the end of next week (earlyish August).

Stay tuned!

Phil - Day Three: "Clan Macho"

2008-07-23T04:29:00.006-04:00

...is currently being exported and then will be immediately uploaded to YouTube/Machinima. Go see it:

HERE!

The final cut weighs in at slightly shy of 8 minutes, and probably is my favorite one so far in the series. A side note, we are now using this new microphone, which I hope you saw gave us a big boost in audio quality. Go and watch it! And tell your friends!

Also, I would like to say that if you like our series, go forth and tell others about it by posting about it on forums, favorite-ing our videos, etc. The more people watching the more drive it gives us to crank these puppies out!

UPDATE-
I added a "FAQs" section in our links/affiliates section to the right, check it out! Also, Machinima's got us on their YouTube channel/website also, FYI.

Day Three/ Ep 4 moved to Sunday

2008-07-14T20:01:00.003-04:00

Hey, first I apologize, I know I said Day Three and Androids 4 were planning to be out Weds/Thursday, but its moved back to Sunday. Reason being that half of BLP is going out of state this week and won't be back until Saturday, which puts a damper on editing time. So expect both this Sunday. Very sorry to disappoint y'all, but theres really nothing we can do about it. After this hectic week, things should become much easier for us.

There is good news, however. Episode 5 and 6 footage has been captured, and Day Four is in the process of being captured while we wait for our team to reunite, which means they will be planned for only a week release after Day Three and Episode 4 come out(since footage is a pretty big time sink).

Also both Day Three and Day Four will be 8-10 minutes long, it seems like that is the new average now.

Day Three/Androids 4 Updates

2008-07-12T22:18:00.002-04:00

So as of right now, both Day Three and Androids 4 footage has been captured, voicework is done, all that remains is a long and grueling editing session. Some notes about each for you guys:

Day Three is also long. It was originally the fourth in the series, but has been moved up a notch. Right now it looks to be also in the ballpark of 8-10 minutes, keep in mind thats before I edit it down a bit. Day Three is also pivotal in that it sets the plot for the remainder of the series, so make sure not to miss it!

Episode 4, on the other hand, had to be reshot, and its taken a while. It is only gonna be about 5ish minutes, but still good nonetheless.

Also, HBO (halo.bungie.org) featured us on their news after I posted on their forums, a cool site and worth a shout out in return: HBO

Thats it for now, stay tuned. Remember, both are HOPEFULLY gonna be released this upcoming week. However, with half of our crew going out of town, this may change a bit.

Day Two and "website" updates

2008-07-07T18:36:00.003-04:00

For all you who missed it, Phil - Day Two is up and running...

HERE!

Also, a couple of you may have noticed i started to update this site, complete with a banner i made in photoshop (give me a break, im no expert), direct links to our vids can also be found on the side, as well as a hit counter just for our own amusement.

Also, since I know people want to know, Phil - Day Three will be out sometime next week, probably that wednesday or thursday (the 16/17th I believe? maybe?). Don't quote me on that though.

Long and Boring Information

2008-07-06T21:02:00.004-04:00

Hey, so for the 3 of you who actually watch the Androids series, some bad news. Somehow, the video footage for episode 4 got corrupted. I tried to fix it for a while today, with no results. The only solution is to unfortunately, rerecord the footage, which honestly isn't THAT much of a setback, it just means that it isn't coming out tonight, and we are shelving it for a while in favor of script-writing for the rest of both series. Hopefully Day Two will tide everyone over

Also, I'm trying to get ourselves more involved with the whole site/publicity thing, as you can tell by the banner. I'm no computer genius, but I can at least color in a few rectangles.

Phil: Day Two - "Magic Mike"

2008-07-04T09:48:00.009-04:00

So Day Two is currently being exported and will be uploaded to Youtube/Machinima, etc. Expect it on Youtube within the next hour or so. Its about 7 1/2 minutes long, and here is the link:

Go!

EDITS

-I'm gonna try and get our videos up for download somewhere, so those who wish to get a high quality and true wide screen version can do so.

-for the 3 of you who actually watch the androids series, i apologize, but episode 4 will not be coming out this week, the video data has been corrupted and I am forced to rerecord it. No date in site yet, but hopefully Day Two will be enough to tide you over til then. Also Day Three and Four are planning to be shot at once, and when they are released they will be relatively close to one another. Once again, I'm sorry for the HUGE delay, but there is honestly no way I can release it yet.

I'll give you a little teaser though, the title is: "A Suicidal Mentally Unstable Robot"

Sorry to Dissapoint

2008-06-29T21:21:00.003-04:00

Well, unfortunately no vids tonight, both are about 80 percent completed after working on them for 8 hours today. I ran into some problems in importing the raw footage in good quality, which waylaid me a good 4 hours yesterday. now i just have to mess with the sound and that's annoyingly precise. Ep 4 is in the vicinity of 5-6 minutes, and Day Two is shaping up to be 8, maybe 9 minutes long. It's a doozy. Both of these puppies ARE going to be released to our youtube in the wee morning hours of July 4th (longer til Machinima puts it up), so you get a lovely double holiday gift from us.

Boring news stuff

2008-06-26T19:16:00.003-04:00

First, we finished the dialogue for Day Two, and I must say, I think you all will enjoy it more than Day One. All that remains for it to be finished is sitting my ass down and editing it all together.

Also, I'll give you guys a heads up and tell you that after Day Three and Androids 5 comes out (early-mid July for both), you probably won't be seeing any new vids up for a little while (probably until early august). The reason for this is that we will be focusing on writing and recording all of the lines for all for Phil and Androids season 1. After this brief hiatus, we start pumping them out on a (hopefully) weekly basis.

Episode 4 possibly out this weekend, Phil Day Two will follow shortly thereafter. At the very very very latest, it will be 4th of July when both debut. Hopefully that won't happen though.

Update

2008-06-23T09:47:00.003-04:00

First off, if you have questions about the sweet beats you hear in the vids, check out the post below me about Hypothesis, the music group who we get them from (there is also a link to the right of this post to their myspace)

Second, some updates:

Episode 4 is gonna be out soon, hopefully by the end of this weekend or possibly sooner. All that needs to be done for that is about half of the voice work.

I finished recording all of the footage for Phil Day Two, and I must say, the quality is looking sharp. I can't say for sure when it will be out, possibly this upcoming weekend, but most likely longer than that (give me a break, I hardly expected there to be such a positive backing for the first one haha). One thing to note is the thing is gonna be LONG. I will probably make 2 versions, an edited and unedited one, with the shorter one being somewhere around 5-6 minutes and the longer one being somewhere 6-8 minutes, possibly longer. And thats not including credits. I know 1 minute doesn't seem long, but when overall about 2-4 hours of work goes into each minute you see onscreen, it factors in.

That's it for now.

MUZIK!!!

2008-06-22T12:47:00.003-04:00

Who is Hypothesis? What is Hypothesis?
Many questions about where we are getting these kickass tunes for our videos...
well the mystery is over...its from our good friends...Hypothesis (surprise!) formerly known as NC Instrumental.
Check out their myspace site listed under our links section.

Or if your too lazy to move your eyes to the right here is the link:

http://www.myspace.com/ncinstrumental

check em out. They're awesome.

New Androids episode and Phil Day 2 Coming Soon!

Wow

2008-06-20T16:08:00.003-04:00

Hot damn, I logged off early last night and came back on, and wow. There was a whole lot of positive feedback from Phil, a lot more than i imagined. 20,000 views, that's awesome. I'm glad you guys liked it. I guess this means I'll have to get off my ass and do Day Two.

I've been looking over the questions I have gotten and a lot were similar, so I'm going to answer a couple here in hopes people will see them.

1. What capture card do you use?

- I used to use an old DV canon camera that i would hook up to the video out on my tv (the same tv where the xbox was plugged into) and record whatever was playing on the tv screen to the camera's tape, then import that into the computer like any other camera. (DV port).

Notice, I said USED to.

As of last week, I got my hands on a fairly nice capture card, a Pinnacle one, to which I hook up the S Video and audio from the xbox directly into the computer. So now, I am (pretty sure) able to record in WIDE SCREEN (woo) and also in better quality, with no grainy overtones I used to get while using the camera. Therefore, starting with Phil - Day Two, all of it will be in widescreen (hopefully-still a bit uncertain) and better quality.

that was long, heres another one:

2. What's the Hayabusa guy's name?

-Wait til Day Two haha.

Anyway, glad y'all liked it, tell your friends, the more people watching the better. Stay tuned for Day Two.

Phil and #3

2008-06-16T20:54:00.011-04:00

Okay, we got not only one, but count em, TWO vids (and the crowd goes wild...wheee!). First is our newest video, one titled "Phil - Day One." It revolves around...well here, read the nice little description I'm putting on YouTube:

Meet Phil, a newcomer to the Halo 3 online community who tries to do nothing more than merely enjoy this wonderful game.

Enjoy it, I know I like it. I know that means oh-so-much to you though.
Link: HERE

Second, I got number 3 coming out for you soon as it also is uploaded onto youtube. Something major is that I think the audio cleaned up very very nicely for 3, hopefully we will just keep getting better as it moves on. Link to come when its uploaded.

EDIT - Okay 3 is up. funny story, i actually put it up yesterday but somehow set the privacy on the video to private instead of public.

Anyways, this was a long and arduous speech. To our loyal fan(s?), thanks. Let me know what you guys think of Phil.

Some News

2008-06-08T18:33:00.004-04:00

So far Ep 3 is being a fickle bitch to work with. 'Soon' is gonna be the time that we put that out. However, in other news, I have a side project I was working on while waiting for 3 to be finished, also 'soon' if possible. I can't say much about it except its called "Phil"

Number 2

2008-05-31T10:00:00.002-04:00

Yeah, i just put it up on the youtube account. Also went to machinima, but it will probably take a while before they put that up there. In the meantime, i came across this nifty site called Halotube that is basically a youtube for videos strictly made about halo, meaning all sorts of machinima, tricks, other little stuff. Its a smaller site, but nonetheless pretty cool. Anyways, we have an account up there also, http://www.halotube.org/m/blackliteproductions.

Cheers.

FAQs

2008-05-10T22:45:00.013-04:00

Some answers to some FAQs of yours:

Who do you think you are?
-We are BLP (Black Light Productions), a motley crew of 2 individuals (Jordan and Anirudh aka Rudy) who bring you "Phil."

What is your Gamertag?
-My Xbox LIVE account is currently inactive, as I do not have the time to play as much as I would like to.

What is that sweet-ass music I hear in your vids? Where can I listen to some more of that?
-That is Hypothesis, formerly known as NC instrumental. Their myspace page is located here, although a few songs we use are some of their older and unpublished work, as well as some sampler instrumentals they do. If you have any other questions about them, you should ask them. I just play their tunes. They have recently released a soundtrack with ALL of the music from Phil, so go check them out!

How do you film the Halo 3 game footage?
-External capture card: Dazzle DVC-100. I capture the video in theater mode with the software that came bundled with it.

For sound recording, I use a 20$ Logitech Computer Microphone (USB) in conjunction with Audacity (which is a free downloadable software).

To edit the video, I use Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0.

To make background music/sound effects, I use Garageband (Apple). The intro animation was created using Adobe Flash and the banner for this blog was done using Adobe Photoshop.

How do you lower the weapons in Halo 3?
-First, you must be in either a local or system link game. Then, for each character for which you want to have their weapon lowered, press and hold the A, LB, RB, Push in the Left Stick, and hold down on the Directional Pad for about 3 seconds. This works in Forge and any Custom Game type.

Hey, you guys are awesome, can I voice/act in your films?
-Sorry, but we aren't looking for outside help right now. It is a very personal experience, we work well enough with just us, and having additional cast people only makes this more complicated with long distance and voice work/quality, trust issues, etc. Its way too much hassle. We also film everything on one 360.

Dude, I have this movie idea...
-Please DON'T tell me. I'm sure its awesome. Make your own movie out of it, you have our full support. Not trying to be a jerk, but we're solid on ideas and we certainly don't want to be accused of stealing someone's stuff. If I see a message or email that looks like a suggestion, I will automatically delete it, case closed.

When is the next _______ coming out?
-We will post updates on when we think stuff will come out. Keep in mind, its a lot of hours of grunt work for each minute you see on screen, and despite what you think we lead very busy lives. Often times I say a date, and it ends up being a week (lol 6 months lol) later.

I like you. Can i send you a message?
-Of course! I try and read all of our inbox, although this has proven to be more difficult in recent times due to an increase in viewership and thus an increase in our daily mail. You can send us a YouTube message via our account or a real email at blackliteproductions@gmail.com (probably the best way to contact us directly).

Who does which voice?
Jordan: Zack, Wally, Chad, Pat, Sarah, Abe, and most of the random characters.
Anirudh: Phil, Magic Mike, Jake, Gregor, Jasper, and a few random characters.

KillerLily17 (aka Lily) was voiced by a special guest speaker, Veronica.

SOME SPECIFIC VIDEO QUESTIONS

Hey, why do the voices sound different in the earlier episodes?
We used a really terrible microphone back then.

What do the Red Team members say in the background in Day 4?
I don't remember.

In Day 6, you mention the game as 'Team Doubles' but really the gametype is 'Multi-Team.'
Jordan sucks at Halo.

In Day 7, what happened to Phil's skills?
See Day 8.

In Day 10, you can see the forge monitor. We even pointed it out to you in the preview, idiot.
Yeah, I noticed that and then made a note to redo it and forgot. I only remembered when it was already uploaded.