Allow me to provide some small clarification to what Jill’s Song is, in the general sense. Jill’s Song is not only a standalone film, but is also in fact a companion piece and effectively a type of teaser for another, much larger film (currently in early production). This other film focuses on the events that occur after the therapy session seen in Jill’s song, as well as the events before. Jill’s Song is a character piece meant to introduce Jack Stone, and give a bit of insight into his feelings.
I am extremely pleased with the responses we have received. It’s original intention (and that of the larger movie) is and was to try and push machinima into a new or different territory. Regardless of whether one enjoyed Jill’s Song or found it boring, it is practically unanimous that it succeeds in exploring new ground. There have been some criticisms, which were honestly expected, which I am going to address now:
1. The story was long winded, and did not keep my attention.
A: Yes, this is one of the pitfalls of not doing a “Red vs Blue” style show. People are watching machinimas with the presumption that they are going to be “wow’d” by snappy game references and zippy visuals. For those kinds of people, Jill’s Song will probably dissappoint. I am actually really suprised how few people gave this criticism. That being said, it has been the biggest complaint, and we are totally fine with that. For those of you who were put off by the lack of variety in the film, please do not let that dissuade you from enjoying the upcoming, larger film. Jill’s Song is intentionally very focused and limited, and I think that works for what it is; however, I can guarantee you that the larger film has far more variety and will hopefully keep you guessing and interested.
2. I was distracted by the horrifying eyelids from the main character. They looked like freakish mutant growths. Also, the main character’s stiffness was rather distracting. (This includes some of the other criticism regarding the animation.)
A: I would have loved to solved both of these problems, and I tried. Unfortunately, it was not feasible to fix them. The way that Source performs body animations, and the animations presented, they simply were not versatile enough and ended up looking terrible. It was basically impossible to create decent body animations for the character while sitting down; the two did not blend very well. The eyelids are exactly as Valve modeled them, so it is not fair to blame me… blame Valve. I have accepted that we are not going to achieve photorealism any time soon with the Source Engine, so I would like to ask that any character flaws be taken with a grain of salt. Remember, this is just a video game we are working with.
3. The ending credits sequence was really weird and totally put me out of the mood that I had experienced after watching the main feature.
A: The ending credits might appear a bit (unintentionally) silly, but every single shot used is relevant to the larger story of Jack Stone. The credits were a deliberate choice, and though they may seem weird at the moment, they will make a lot more sense in time.
If anyone wants to field any additional questions or complaints, please go ahead and speak them. I will try to answer anything that comes up.
