Questionable Films



		Do you know what really STEAMS ME UP? Episode 2 - 29/07/09 The second episode of the Steams series is finally finished, and this time I'm focusing on TV adverts. If you get annoyed with how many adverts you have to watch during your favourite programmes, or if you find certain adverts extremely irritating, then this is the video for you. Failing that, if you just want to laugh at the sight of me in the shower, then click below! *** Random Update - 23/06/09 It recently occurred to me that I originally intended to use this homepage as a blog, and yet I've barely written anything this year unless I've had some content to show. Let's rectify this situation RIGHT NOW. It should come as no surprise whatsoever to hear that Steve 4 is in production and everything's going smoothly. The script should be finished pretty soon, and what I've got thusfar is really good - the story is hitting all the right notes and I have rather shamefully found myself laughing at the jokes, so I suppose that's a good (if not slightly embarrassing) sign. As for the animation itself... well, I'm just going to wait and let you see it for yourself. While I'm waiting until the script and voice work is finished before properly starting, the new intro and a few animation tests alone have completely blown everything I've animated before out of the water. The simple, slightly depressing fact-of-the-matter is that I've had an expensive graphics tablet and Richard Williams' incredible book on animation (by far the best animating guide I've ever seen) for some time now, and have simply neglected to really use them. Until now, that is! The bottom line for Steve 4 is that the entire thing is frame-by-frame and there are no repeated library graphics. Remember how in all the previous episodes, Steve's face would always be exactly the same in each scene? And how everyone stayed completely motionless when they talked? And how everything was drawn with the line tool, so the cartoons looked like they'd been made by a robot? Watch out, because all of that crap is gone. In other news, the second and third episodes of the Steams series have been scripted, so they just need to be filmed - expect to see them on the site within the next couple of weeks. I'm not going to reveal what they're focusing on, but I've mentioned the new topics to a few friends and they've all agreed that they're very irritating subjects, so hopefully you'll watch them and think 'oh yeah, that SUCKS!'. Finally, in my Shaq Fu review I mentioned the shaqfu.com website which is dedicated to finding and destroying every copy of the game. The admin was pretty happy that I linked to his site in the article, so there's now a nice link to my review on his site - cheers! * Chinese Candy Extravaganza - 11/06/09 I recently managed to acquire a lot of Chinese sweets from both my friend Phoebe and my brother Matthew, so we decided to sit down, eat them, and share the experience with you for your own personal entertainment. Trust me, if you thought some of the stuff in the American Candy 2 article was bad, you haven't seen anything yet. I hope you enjoy this, because we certainly didn't! * Shaq Fu Review - 17/05/09 Way back in 2007 I reviewed the Mega Drive's absolute worst game, the notoriously awful Dark Castle. One and a half years later and I've managed to find a game that, believe it or not, is even worse - it's a 1994 fighting game for the SNES starring basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, and it's called Shaq Fu. It is as bad as it sounds. Read and enjoy! * Super Random Crap Cartoons 2: Turbo Edition - 12/05/09 That's right, the random crap section has been updated with three classics! They all have pretty amusing backstories, so I decided to make a little article explaining and showcasing these epics. Click below to SEE SOME FAIL! * New cartoon LOLWUT?!!?! - 07/05/09 I was speaking to my friend Katie the other day and she seemed quite down, so I offered to make her a short cartoon to cheer her up. She was worryingly enthusiastic about this, so I loaded up Flash and decided to knock something together. The result is barely 30 seconds long, but I've been watching it on repeat for the last twenty minutes, so that clearly indicates good things. Enjoy! * Do you know what really STEAMS ME UP? - 21/04/09 Today marks the beginning of a brand-new video series, entitled 'Do you know what really STEAMS ME UP?'. As the name suggests, this series focuses on me picking things that really annoy me and then tearing them a new one, so be prepared for fury. Without much further ado, I give you the first episode, and I kick-off the series by complaining about useless rubbish on Facebook. Hurrah! * American Candy 2 - 31/03/09 My friend Sally recently donated more American chocolate to me, so I figured it was about time I sat down and made a sequel to last month's candy article. This time I brought my brother Matthew along for the ride, so you get to hear two people complaining about how bad American chocolate is! * Climbing Snowdon - 10/03/09 A couple of weeks ago I went with my brother Matthew and some of his friends to Wales where we climbed Snowdon, one of the tallest mountains in Britain. It was pretty knackering and there were some hairy moments, but we all had a great time and I made a little video while we were there. I've now edited the video together for your viewing pleasure, and you can watch it by clicking below. Enjoy! * Tom eats American candy, hilarity ensues - 16/02/09 I recently got myself a little selection of American candy, and decided to eat and review it for your viewing pleasure. There are a few surprises here - including the funniest name for a sweet I've ever heard - so take a look and be prepared to GET HUNGRY. Click below to read! *** Tom goes to see Seven Pounds - 20/01/09 I recently went to see Seven Pounds with a friend, and my feelings about this film are so strong I felt compelled to write a review of it. Did I like it? Did I hate it? Click below to find out! * Happy New Year from Questionable Films! - 04/01/09 This year I'm planning to make far more films and animations than I did last year, plus I'm eager to keep the site updated on a regular basis. To this end, I present you with a new short film by Adam and myself - enjoy! ps. sorry about the sound quality, I didn't bring my camera back from Bristol. My dad's digital camera has a surprisingly high-quality video function, but the sound quality is balls. Whoops! * My thoughts on Steve 3, and some Steve 4 stuff OMGZ!! - 29/10/08 Hey guys, just an advanced warning that this is a pretty text-heavy update about the Steve series, so if you don't like reading or don't like Steve (weirdo!) then you can skip over this. For everyone else: I thought I'd let you know that work on Steve 4 is already underway as I am determined to have it done in far less time than Steve 3 took. While the latter episode was by far the most technically impressive thing I've animated, there was an awful lot of procrastination during its production and I'm certain I can make something better in a much smaller amount of time if I just get on with it. With the above said, rest assured that I won't animate a single thing until I've finished writing a really entertaining script. I'm not sure how many of you have been following Steve 3's progress on Newgrounds, so I'll sum it up in a nutshell - it's doing very well (it has a score over 4/5 and won one of the daily awards), but the written reviews make it clear the episode wasn't quite what people were expecting. While the general consensus is that the action is a lot better and I made a brave stab at a proper story, the jokes and Steve's one-liners took a severe dive. You'd probably expect me to defend the episode but in reality I completely agree, and I think the problem was I started with a decent - but not great - script, and then spent a ridiculous amount of time animating it. To sum it up, the fundamental problem with Steve 3 is that it comes across as sort of a comedy, sort of an action cartoon, and sort of a drama, but only manages to do bits of each and these bits don't gel together very well. I'm all for drama and proper stories in cartoons - afterall, if I ever make Tokyo Sunrise that's what the series will be about - but people don't watch Steve for these things, they watch it for the over-the-top action and crazy humour. This is why I made the series in the first place, and this is why I'm going to make sure Steve 4's script is great before starting it. There are some other pretty drastic changes to the series, which I've decided to put in a nice friendly list: -The series will now be drawn with the brush tool as opposed to the pencil tool. I was messing around with my tablet after making Steve 3 and did some quick doodles of the main characters, and was amazed how much nicer everything looks when you use big, proper brush strokes instead of the pencil tool, which makes everything look very artificial. -There will be FAR more character animation from now on. Several people commented that it's nice I've incorporated lip-sync, but that the characters look extremely robotic when they talk as they barely move at all and show very little expression on their face. -I'll end with a big one - I am no longer doing the voice for Jimmy. This has been a pretty massive source of debate in the reviews I've got for the series, even going back to the first episode, with some people loving how stupid he sounds and some people realising he obviously just sounds like Steve holding his nose. While I'm generally happy with my voice-work for Steve himself, I'm frankly not a good enough voice actor to voice two main characters in a cartoon and so I am now handing the reigns to Kyle Brown, a friend I met through work. Kyle is also into drawing and I think his voice is going to fit perfectly in the cartoon, so he makes an excellent choice for Jimmy. It's also really convenient to have someone acting in the same room as me, as I can tell them precisely how I want a line to sound or have them offer suggestions. Believe me, when I got voice actors off the internet to do the extra characters for Steve 3, trying to explain how I wanted lines to sound and getting them to do retakes in e-mails was pretty awkward! So, there you go. As soon as the script is set I'm going to get Kyle round and record the whole thing, rather than doing sporadic recordings like I've done in the previous episodes. I'll keep you updated as things progress, and hopefully I can get this one done in less than 20 months! ps. I've now bunged Steve 3 on the site (as opposed to just NG) and have made the Steve 3 comic accessible directly from the Comics page, so go have a look if you haven't already. *** The Everyday Adventures of Steve 3 is FINALLY FINISHED! - 20/10/08 I've got a lot to say about this one, but you're only here for one thing and so, after 20 months of delays, I am extremely proud to present you with The Everyday Adventures of Steve 3. I hope you all love it, and remember to vote - fives are particularly welcome! *** HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT - 19/10/08 That's right, Steve 3 is coming out tomorrow evening, at around 10pm. GET READY. *** The Mind Goblins documentary is complete! - 31/07/08 It took me a lot longer to finish than I expected, but the Mind Goblins documentary is now complete and weighs in at a very beefy 24 minutes. Go grab some snacks and enjoy this nostalgic look back at what it's like to make a film as a kid!