Concept Sequence | Hard Justice (2023)

As is written in the video's opening slates, this is what I'm calling a concept sequence; early renderings of a group of scenes from one of the first chapters of a large story I'm planning to tell through a machine cinema series of episodes with a beginning, middle, and end.

The show is called Hard Justice, a soft reboot of a satirical machine cinema series of the same name about cops that I made with Halo 3 over a decade ago that I'm not fond of in retrospect, though, relatively recently, I saw potential in its premise and characters and decided to rejuvinate it with my now more developed writing and cinematic storytelling skills.

I suspect some will be disappointed that I'm continuing to use Halo Reach, but I do so not out of laziness, but because, after taking the time to experiment with multiple Halo games across multiple platforms, I still consider it the best machinima option for what I want to write, all things considered.

Factors include the ability to control four players myself via offline multiplayer split-screen, armor aesthetics, variety, and access, the ability to play as Elites, overall art design, urban map design and variety, and improved Forge and Theater modes relative to those in Halo 3.

I also took time experimenting with an alternative shooting method adapted from a very old Halo 3 cinema project of mine, Final Moments, with which I use my camcorder to record a monitor displaying captured gameplay footage for a realistic-looking POV and handheld camera effect.

This was originally intended for every shot but I decided against that after seeing how it looked after a partial shoot and edit.

Image quality and screen glare was a bit of an issue despite boosts in contrast and saturation in editing, and using raw capture for shots allows for precision cinematic framing that I think's better overall.

The current plan is to limit the handheld effect to certain POV shots.

So a bunch of time was spent experimenting just to get back to square one in a way, which kinda sucks, but I think the time was worthwhile to be sure of the right way to execute this.

Regarding tone, you can expect this show to walk a fine line between serious subject matter and comedy, the latter sometimes farcical, similar to Arby 'n' the Chief; except, obviously, now with a focus on making fun of cop and action movie tropes.

I want the show to be an over-the-top satirical examination of both the pros and cons of policing with some commentary I consider valuable, held together by a story that transcends the politics of the matter of policing, about individuals manifesting great change and people from all walks of life seeing the value in each other and working together to salvage a future in a world that's all but destroyed.

As funny as I want the show to be, and unlike when I made the first version of this series over a decade ago, I've researched police departments and operations extensively with the hopes of writing the show in a somewhat grounded and authentic way at the same time.

I intend to tell the story in chapters, of which there are currently at least twelve, including a prologue and epilogue, spread across three broad acts.

I voice all the characters in this concept sequence but plan on changing that for the final product; now that I've given people an idea of what I'm building with this upload, I plan to open the production up to voiceover auditions, allowing anyone interested and with decent audio recording equipment to record lines they read from screenplay sides or samples I provide via the submissions page on my website and send me their files.

When I do so, I will announce the submission opening on Twitter.

The full production may require visual effects shots for key moments involving depicting objects or actions I can't achieve with Halo Reach alone, possibly involving Blender and/or Source Filmmaker; I'll have to either build the required assets myself or get someone skilled with that software to help me.

If you're interested in helping me with this, which I'm willing to pay some fee for, and you have the relevant skills, I encourage you to send me an e-mail along with some examples of your work.

I read all my video comments; any feedback on this to help me better shape the final version of this series would be appreciated.

I'm sorry I've been sluggish, I felt drained after the Arby 'n' the Chief finale, but I also have many plates spinning simultaneously, developing multiple projects.

I was getting ready to produce my Mediabyss episode on Arby 'n' the Chief but put that on pause when I couldn't get in the right head space for the recording and realized my outline needed more work and jokes.

I got a stupid idea for a Professional Reviews episode on Spider-Man for PS/PC, so that's a new thing I'm developing.

I'm also developing a new, self-contained Arby 'n' the Chief comedy episode about the series getting a ridiculous reboot.

I'm working on organizing my entire library of personally produced music, renaming old tracks to fit a unifying labelling format, with the intent of releasing everything on platforms like Spotify and in the form of one or two new albums purchasable via platforms like iTunes.

I'm considering removing the project each track was initially created for from each track name, such as 'Arby 'n' the Chief' or 'Paulie Frost', since those labels are largely redundant, as Paulie Frost isn't anything yet, and tracks made for Arby 'n' the Chief are used in other projects of mine, and vice-versa.

Thank you all so much as always for your viewership, patience and generous support of me.