Interview with Ian Beckman!

[Glynbeard]

Hello MMOwned!

Today I bring to you an interview I had with Ian Beckman. Now some of you may be asking “Who is this man?”. Well, let’s find out!


Some random facts about Ian:

- One of the top rated members of warcraftmovies.com (the largest WoW movie site out there atm).

- Founder of Beckman Movies Productions.

- Produces all of the ‘Azerothian Super Villains’ series.

- Creator of other movies like The Day After Halloween, Kael'thas and the Santa Claus, and Zeldo the music video.

- His work was recently showed at the DragonCon International Film Festival and the Machinima Film Festival 2008, winning Best Student Work.





Links to some of the movies mentioned will be posted in the conclusion section of this interview and I highly suggest checking them out!

So sit back and enjoy MMOwned’s own exclusive interview with Ian Beckman!

[BREAK=Interview]

Questions:

1. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about yourself?
Well, I like to consider myself an independent filmmaker, playing with the likes of both live action and animation (and in our case, really machinima). I've live in good ol' California, grew up with video games from the Genesis till this generation gaming, and just finished up film school at Chapman University, now working for Machinima.com as a Segment Producer making all sorts of stuff for them.


2. What first inspired you to work in the areas of film/video?
A long time ago, Steven Spielberg attached his name to this stupid LEGO toy in which you could make your own movies, which I begged my parents to buy. That was my first chance to play with stop motion for the first time and even the fundamentals of editing and voice acting. And with LEGOs, you could pretty much build whatever you wanted. It was the perfect combo. For awhile, my buddies and I made small films on old camcorders until I discovered flash animation and got in on that craze. If you remember Albinoblacksheep.com in its heyday, you might even have stumbled on some of my work there without even knowing it.


3. When/Why did you start doing machinima?
In the beginning, I'd say, early 2006, I started watching Red Vs Blue, a simple show about players in the popular game Halo. And while Halo was big at the time, I was addicted to World of Warcraft and started asking, "why hasn't anyone done this in WoW, it's so perfect!" Well, it turned out that some people at Warcraftmovies.com had started, where I started to post some of my very early work. And that's where I found some of the early community members, the artists you probably recognize today.


4. Did you play WoW before going in to the creation of machinima videos?
Too much actually. I used to be a hardcore raider all the way until Blackwing Lair. After I had everything (every piece of gear you could have for a priest at the time), I crashed and burned out and focused my time on making movies and discovering machinima and that other little thing called college. I haven't played much since then, in fact only playing through a little part of Wrath up until recently.


5. What other video games interest you?
I'm a big fan of RTS games like Starcraft and Warcraft 3, so you can imagine my excitement for Starcraft 2. I'm sure that won't happen though, that game will never come out. For now, I've been playing a lot of Modern Warfare and other computer racing sims.


6. How did you get the idea for making the Azerothian Super Villains series?
During one of my classes in college we were tasked with coming up with a viral video and gain views. If you got 1,000 views, you got extra credit. So you can imagine I would simply tap into my YouTube channel resources to accomplish this feat with ease. From WoW, all the bosses were ridiculous events/fights and I wanted to parody them...especially with ridiculous quotes like "You are not prepared." Only a crazy villain who monologues would vocalize such stupid lines. And that's where it came from.


7. We've all heard Kael'Thas his voice. How the hell did you come up with it?
It's my voice pitched up a little bit to sound like a kid. And since I sound like a kid already (:P), it wasn't too hard to find his voice.


8. What are some of the reasons you decided to create a machinima based in the World of Warcraft? Why not another MMO?
World of Warcraft, they will tell you, is an easy engine to create machinima in. And then, there were NO other MMOs that were popular or pulled away my attention to make it. And nothing since then has pulled my attention away. If Starcraft 2 comes out, I'd be interested in making something in that engine. But for me, I think machinima in itself can be a dead end and I'd rather invest my time in my own properties, like flash animation or even live action.

9. After 7 releases of the anticipated Azerothian Super Villains series, do you have any regrets or ideas you wish you had taken in a different direction?
I think more recently, the series could have focused more on character development. The series has really examined Kael'thas more than anyone else and I really wanted to get the chance to look at each character throughout the series. One other thing that I didn't get to cover was how Kael'thas got to be the way he was, which was supposed to happen in Episode 6, but other ideas became better.

10. What were some of the hardships you had to overcome to get to where you are now?
I worked pretty hard through film school and spent a lot of time working, directing, and sound designing shorts, so I have a lot of those you can watch nowadays to be proud of.

11. Can we get any hints about what may be coming next in the series?
One more episode is coming, in the next month or two. I'm gonna finish off the story, like LOST in a sense. The end had always been planned out when I thought of doing the series and you'll finally be able to watch it. The one thing I wanted to do, which you did see a little bit in Episode 6 was a music number; that will appear again.

12. Do you have any advice for the users who are trying to become successful in a film/video related career?
Practice makes perfect and learn to take criticism/advice. Sure you could be like that guy who knows everything, but no matter where you go, its always good to have a fresh eye on ideas and concepts.

13. What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment throughout your career thus far?
I'm very proud of my thesis film "Blue Light Bandits" Trailer:[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_79ks-Spi0]YouTube - Blue Light Bandits Trailer[/ame]
But there are way more projects on my slate from shorts, to television pilots, and even low budget features. So many projects, so little time. ASV is small on my list of things to do, so perhaps telling you the latter will explain why I haven't been working on it as much.

14. Do you think we'll see "Produced by Ian Beckman" in our cinemas in the future?
I hope so. With a Directing credit too.

Thank you Ian! Have a good day.


[BREAK=Conclusion]

For links to Ian’s movies and other works, check out some of the following sites:

Personal website:
Beckman Movie Productions - Official Homepage

Azerothian Super Villains website:
Azerothian Super Villains Official Website

On Vimeo:
Ian Beckman on Vimeo

Warcraftmovies profile page:
WarcraftMovies.com - World of Warcraft Movies

Twitter:
Ian Beckman (ibeckman671) on Twitter

I really hope you enjoyed this interview and maybe even learned a thing or two about this machinima master. I really had a lot of fun doing this one.



Please post a comment on other influential people on the internet who you think might have something interesting to say and I’ll take a look at them as potential future interviewees.

Qhan

[Danne206]

Great interview!

[Alth]

Cool. The Blue Light Bandit trailer was cool ! Nice job

[Confucius]

Great interview Qhan

[Aldun]

Didn't he also write/sing "That's the World of Warcraft that you play"? I remember it being the first wow song I've ever heard ^^

[Glynbeard]

Didn't he also write/sing "That's the World of Warcraft that you play"? I remember it being the first wow song I've ever heard ^^

Yep, he has done many videos like that. I didn't have the time to post em all. Thanks for the feedback guys.

[ReidE96]

Qhan = best newsteam member. I'm happy for him to use my shoutbawx colour.