Clear Skies (machinima)

Clear Skies
Engine(s)	Source engine Eve Online
Genre(s)	Space Western
Running time	39:14 (Clear Skies) 45:57 (Clear Skies 2) 73:33 (Clear Skies 3)
Created by	Ian Chisholm Richie Powles
Voices	Ian Chisholm Richie Powles Shazia Rochford John Guthrie Dan Ellis Ricky Grove Robert Brian Duff Mark Kindell Darren Blake Mark Germany Andy Carter Brett Hawkins Fay Wheeler Andrew Salter Nick Mahon Paul Rochford Ken Roberts Kate Ertan Francis Capra Ellie Smith Brett Hawkins Kerrie Holland Ewald Gartner Roseanna Webb Kerry Rose
Release(s)	May 29, 2008 – May 29, 2011
Format(s)	Windows Media
Website http://www.clearskiesthemovie.com

Clear Skies is a machinima series created by Ian Chisholm, that is based on the fictional universe of the game Eve Online. The first film was released on May 29, 2008, followed by two sequels in 2009 and 2011.

Plot

The plot follows the crew of the Minmatar Tempest class battleship Clear Skies as they try to make a living in New Eden. The story begins with the ship's captain, John Rourke, negotiating the price of repairs for the ship at a space station, presumably following a pirate attack. The repairs leave them out of cash and looking for a new contract. Rourke finds a contract to transport Mr Smith - "an idiot in a shiny suit" - a short distance through the fringes of normally safe Empire space, with an unusually high payout. The crew grudgingly accepts what they are convinced is a death trap ...

Characters

• John Rourke voiced by Ian Chisholm
• Solomon Burke voiced by Richie Powles
• Charlie Fodder voiced by John Guthrie
• Tarquin Smith voiced by Dan Ellis
• Sascha Culhane voiced by Shazia Mirza
• Falcon Hausmann voiced by Ricky Grove
• Guy "Ghost" Stone voiced by Francis Capra

Production

The first two films were created using Editstudio 5, CoolEdit 96, FRAPs, the Source SDK and PaintShop Pro. For the production of the third film Chisholm used Sony Vegas Pro 9, Adobe Aftereffects, Paintshop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Cooledit 96, FRAPs, IPISoft Markerless Motion capture, Softimage XSI and the Source SDK.

Reception

The reception to the films, while mostly confined to forums of Eve Online, has been overwhelmingly favourable.^[1][2][3] Notably, CCP have featured Clear Skies on the player news page and on the ingame news section.^[4][5]

One the main distribution platform, EVE Files, Clear Skies has been downloaded via BitTorrent over 13000 times^[6] and Clear Skies 2 notes over 23000 torrent downloads^[7]. Within the first 24 hours since release Clear Skies 3 has been downloaded over 5000 times via BitTorrent^[8].

Massively.com's James Egan calls Clear Skies a "machinima masterpiece".^[9]

In the year of the release, the first film won the Mackie Award in the category Best Long Format Film at the New York Machinima FilmFest 2008 ^[10][11] and the Grand Prize Jury Award of the Machinima Expo ^[12]. Clear Skies 2 won the Jury Award of the Machinima Expo in 2009^[12] and the public choice award at the Atopic Festival de films Machinima 2010^[13].

Notes

1. ^ Clear Skies http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=783871
2. ^ Clear Skies 2 http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1069015
3. ^ Clear Skies 3 http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1518865
4. ^ Clear Skies 2 released http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3050&tid=7
5. ^ Breaking News: Clear Skies III released http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=4586&tid=7
6. ^ http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies.wmv
7. ^ http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies2.wmv
8. ^ http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies3.wmv
9. ^ Massively.com - EVE Online meets Half-Life 2 in machinima masterpiece http://www.massively.com/2008/06/09/eve-online-meets-half-life-2-in-machinima-masterpiece/
10. ^ EVE Online film 'Clear Skies' wins at Machinima Filmfest 2008 http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/11/03/eve-online-film-clear-skies-wins-at-machinima-filmfest-2008/
11. ^ Awarded game films http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/spielzeug/0,1518,596918-5,00.html
12. ^ ^{a b} Machinima Expo Jury Awards (2008-2010) http://vimeo.com/channels/machinexpo
13. ^ Atopic- estival du film machinima 2e edition http://www.humanatopicspace.fr/2010/12/laureats-2010-atopic-festival-du-film-machinima-2e-edition/