For a second machinima interview, we had to travel to America. How did we do this?!? Well it wasn’t pleasant, let’s just say it included a twelve hour flight in a cargo plane and an elephant and leave it at that…

But enough of that, we were lucky enough find Jim Raynor, who was really happy to set down with us and have a chat. He was enjoying himself so much; it was hard to put the gag back over his mouth when it was done. Now with out further a due, here’s the interview:

 

JoeIce: Name, Alias, Age, Location, and if possible, National Insurances number and weird fetish?

 

My name is Andras Ostrom, aka Jim_Raynor, Dr. Dras, or Don Sforza. I live in Boston right now. No weird fetishes unfortunately.

 

JoeIce: Before we start talking about your recent work, we have to travel back in time and talk about your first experience with machinima?

 

Jim Raynor: After I saw the warthog jump video, I was inspired to make a Halo 1 machinima called Halo: There and Back Again. Basically what I did was combine single player and cut scene footage to Arcturus Mengsk’s cinematic speech from Starcraft.

 

JoeIce: Before you started to be really known for your work, you created a couple of short machinima’s, one being Canyonero and the other was Halo: There and Back Again. What was your thinking behind them and why did y our create them?

 

Jim Raynor: With those early videos I was just trying stuff out, experimenting. I don’t know where the ideas came from; they just struck me as good ideas for movies. And because I’m a big Simpsons and Starcraft fan. But the main reason I created them was just to make a good movie, because I loved movies to begin with.

 

JoeIce: Now, what you are most recognised for is “Gladiator Evolved”, a retelling of the opening battle in “Gladiator” between the Romans and the Barbarians. Why did you decide to recreate the scene?

 

Jim Raynor: Because it’s cool... No but really, I saw Saving Private Cyan. And the first five minutes I was holy crap, that’s amazing. But when they started talking, it all went downhill with unfunny writing and little boy voices. But the action was just great. And I also saw Biohazard around this time, which was also an influence. So, what I set out to do with Gladiator Evolved was to make the best dang action movie ever. And I love the movie Gladiator, so I put two and two together and came up with this idea. I also chose Gladiator because I like those kinds of movies where you get chills down your spine, and that’s what I wanted to do with Gladiator Evolved. I hadn’t seen much of those before in machinima.

 

 

JoeIce: Is there anything you learnt from making Gladiator Evolved that prepared you for creating more videos?

 

Jim Raynor: Yeah, it’s that you need a clan with a whole lot of people in it who are willing to help before you get started shooting big scenes. Because while doing Gladiator Evolved, I would wait more than half an hour sending out invites, trying to get a full party.