Movie Project

Dungeons & Dimwits

                For our video project, our group focused on a hobby that we shared to display in a comical manner. The hobby we focused on was the broad genre of “Roleplaying Games”, focusing on the more generic tropes that even an outside viewer unfamiliar with the specifics of RPGs would understand and find funny.

                For the movie, we decided to split up the content into three main scenes:

The first is the players and game master sitting at the table, dealing with hyperbolic out of character business. These include a “power-gamer” trying to gain a mechanical edge over the game, a new player that tries to make their character interesting through an extreme background that doesn’t fit the situation, and a player that insists on changing game systems despite the cost.

The second scene is in a tavern with the players acting as their characters. This scene focuses on the behavior of both the players and the characters. The game master is interrupted while trying to describe the scene by the power-gamer who attempts flirting with an NPC (Non-Player Character). When the GM tries to get the story back on track, a second player interrupts to insert their backstory into the narrative and is shot down. When the GM scrambles to introduce a key NPC to the story, the power-gamer character interrupts with an out-of-character joke, taking the whole group out of the experience. When the scene resumes, the rogue character attempts to steal from them which causes the GM to snap and immediately transport them to a different scene.

This third scene is an outdoor adventure with the players continuing to act as their characters. The missing players character is noted as being there in a comical manner to highlight the GM’s forgetfulness and the rogue makes a successful check of their surrounding that doesn’t bear any meaningful fruit. The party travels onward and meets a group of bandits attracted by the barbarian characters loud singing and a fight ensues. The fight ends quickly with a lucky hit, causing the GM to rage and leave the table while the players are still confused about the situation.

                iMovie visual effects: The team used different transitions to make appropriate changes from one scene to the next or used jump cuts to represent the flow of the movies narrative. The green screen was utilized to create a more appropriate background for certain scenes. Visual effects were applied to certain scenes to better convey the actions or narrative.

                iMovie audio effects: The audio was edited to make sure the noise levels were appropriate. Background music and voice overs were applied to both create a coherent narrative and enhance the scenes they were applied to.

                The group enjoyed the overall process of creating the movie, from shooting scenes in costume and attempting to read difficult lines from the script to working on individual editing sections and combining the entire movie from segments and performing voice over work. We are happy with the final product.