«*****
As soon as I saw the title I was certain that I had seen this back in the day on TMO. Despite a long run time of almost 15 minutes this is simply an amazing movie. The voice work is great and it is for a large part what makes the movie work but the idea itself is also interesting. Rather than creating a "how to..." video for the sake of newbies you have created a story of a newbie going through something that I know I have experienced on TMO. You take some clever, critical and spot on jabs at the TMO-community (And probably the TMU community as well) and for that I award you with five stars and my respect.

Well done!

Tie»

«Very funnny movie, a TMO classic for sure. 5 stars»

«Very Funny, It's Not Very Often I Sit Through A Movie That Long...»

«For my highest award, now here's a first,
A tutorial for "The Movies", it's certainly not the worst!

(and that should get you used to the level of poetry in this film!).

Unlike the usual dry video tutorials we're used to seeing for programs like "The Movies", this one is hilariously funny as it documents the many pitfalls of using the software featuring a hapless new filmmaker trying to get to grips with it (played brilliantly).
The director narrates the film using rhyme, guiding him on his way, while we can visually gauge his mood via a large "The Movies" mood bar at the bottom of the screen (by the end it's at irate level!).

The film is beautifully produced - the opening titles remain the best I've ever seen, extremely smoothly animated; the words jump and spin out at you in 3D! Even in the online-quality version, nothing as glossy as that had ever been seen before.
The music and sound effects are all from "The Movies" and have rarely sounded better, or been used with near-perfect comic timing.

So, as a well written and produced tutorial it works; the part about uploading to the website is now irrelevant, of course, but for someone new to machinima filmmaking there's much advice in this film which still holds up; especially if they're not using an external editor and are only interested in producing something completely from within the program to start with.

But it also has value in another way - there are many cameos and references to several members of The Movies community. It is like a very glossy snapshot of a website at a particular moment in history. Those of us who were there will have our memories jogged by this film.
That makes it very special indeed for some.

In the end, our hero decides "Not to TMO!", unamused at the 1-star rates for his unfortunately titled "The Baggage Boy" - but watch past the end credits for the TMO spirit to re-emerge within him in an entertaining fight sequence that anyone who has triumphed with this software will relate to.
"To TMO" I say!»

«Great movie! Thing is I remember those "how to" films as well. Funny how the movie maker was getting frustrated throughout the whole movie. :-)»

«Thanks -- and glad you all enjoyed! And to fix up the movie page, I'm adding credit information into the comments...

CAST AND CREDITS
TheMonk as TMOMovieMaker
rileyman as The Narrator
EthanRunt as the Store Clerk
JetCityWoman as the Police Officer
BiggsTrek as the Witness
K4OwnzAll as the Detective
EmeraldEdge as the Horse
Dulci as Herself
Sisch as Herself

Thanks to:
Gleem! for his ongoing modding support
Reacher for MeshManip
Mark Andrews and Nick Hudson for Reshoot and the Blender scripts
kuroken for his help in one special scene

Music:
The City of Prague, Philharmonic Orchestra
The Movies Big Band

Software used:
Adobe Photoshop (overlays and textures)
Fraps (in-game video capture)
VirtualDUB (video-to-image-sequence conversion)
DDS Converter (image-sequence-to-overlay conversion)
Ulead VideoStudio (editing, opening credit animations)
Audacity (audio editing)
Reshoot (game content extraction)
Dragon UnPacker (game audio extraction)
Blender (viewing mesh files, gathering 3D co-ordinates)
MeshManip (viewing and editing mesh files)
Riley's Make-Prop Utilities (mesh reconstruction, new props)
»

«I really enjoyed this - I think Not to TMO wins the day in the end, though "To TMO" has forfeited the fight. Very nice.»

«Not to TMO... but to TMU!
This is a fun movie with some great TMO disadvantages (not many advantages, eh?) Looks great in the highest quality! Added to favorite!»

«An all-around fun movie with as always exciting innovations from rileyman.»

«TMU or not to TMU»