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In June of 2006, Andre, aka "jixsts2" won "Best Movie of the Month" for Ooh La La, an exciting music video set in a near-future underground nightclub. But before that, in January, he garnered an honorable mention from the public vote for his film The Mod-O-Raters, the second place winner of our 1st Anniversary themed movie contest.
Sims99: What was your reaction to finding out that your film was chosen above all of the others as 'the best' for that month?
Andre: With Ooh La La, it was mixed. Excitement that my movie won and that people took the time to vote for it. Shocked too, because I know of one other movie which I thought might win, and fear knowing that my next movie would have to be way better!
Sims99: Where did you draw inspiration from for this movie?
Andre: The Mod-o-Rators: Well I knew for the contest I wanted to attempt something different that people haven't seen before, and so the comic book idea came to me. So I just focused on that and everything else pretty much came with the territory. With Oh La La, the music gave me all the inspiration I needed. When I listened to it for the first time I immediately saw it taking place in some futuristic setting, and that allowed me to get away with some of the more imaginative events
Sims99: What was the most difficult shot or moment in your movie?
Andre: For The Mod-o-Rators, creating the comic book effect was the trickiest, and editing was particularly hard my editor had a tough time previewing the clips with all these effects added to them. With Ooh La La, the dancing, at first, because when I started work on this I attempted doing it with green screening. So the difficult part was finding dance moves that matched in 10 minutes of footage. This turned out looking horrible and I looked for other ways of getting the dancing scenes to work (hence extracting the animations). I think in the final movie the establishing shot was probably the hardest because my lady sims kept walking either too fast or too slow (I needed them to appear in the shot when the camera was at a certain position).
Sims99: How long was production time on this movie from start to finish?
Andre: The Mod-o-Rators took about 2 weeks I think, but I thought up most of the ideas and scenes while I was still away on holiday. Ooh La La on the other hand, months! I think I made my sims and sets somewhere around November 2005. But then for a long time I didn't work on it at all and when I picked the project up again I created everything from scratch. I think production time was around 3 months.
Sims99: What is your favorite scene in this movie?
Andre: The Mod-o-Rators: Probably the part where the Queen of Quitealot attacks her poor thief. The lasers looked so cool to me.
Ooh La La: The last scene of course with all the sims dancing together. I got chills when I put those clips to music and played it back for the first time.
Sims99: Is there anything you would change about this movie, or were you 100% satisfied with the outcome?
Andre: The Mod-o-Rators: If I could go back and change something I'd film it in large size instead of medium. With Ooh La La, I was never too fond of the robot scene. Looking back, I'd probably keep it but make the set a little more vibrant to be more representative of an alternate dimension, which is what it was supposed to be.
Sims99: What future movie projects can we expect to see from you in 2007?
Andre: I wish someone could tell me! Well I don't want to say too much because at this moment I'm not working on anything in particular, but another series project would be nice. I miss doing those.
Sims99: Do you have some advice for new filmmakers?
Andre: Lots, I just wish they'd actually take it to heart! I've seen so many new filmmakers who release their movies saying they've read every tutorial and guide out there but then they still make those first timer mistakes. I think the most important things are to watch other movies, take this hobby seriously and then go on your merry way making the movie, really focusing on making it good and not just rushing it for your "15 minutes of fame".
Sims99: What was your favorite movie(s) featured on sims99 in 2006?
Andre: I particularly liked Todnyc's Fixer series, Tracechops' Kick and Taizu's Monster Ball, because they were all so different from what you usually see in Machinima.
Sims99: Of your OWN movies, which is your favorite and why?
Andre: It's hard for me to pick a favorite. I'm a very tough critic when it comes to my own work and I see flaws in each of my movies, but if I had to pick one it would probably be Egyptian Eyes. I've always liked how the story was told in a somewhat unconventional way and that you really had to watch it several times to "get it".
Sims99: Of your OWN movies, is there one you dislike or would have done differently and why?
Andre: Probably Angel. The movie is terribly cliché and I think I must've been in a very happy place when I made it.
Sims99: What do you like to see in a machinima movie?
Andre: Something that's different which hasn't been done before. I like it when directors think out of the box.
Sims99: What are your thoughts on the future of machinima in general?
Andre: Well personally I'd like to see machinima mature a little and focus more on the older, adult audience. I think currently there are only a handful of movies that would appeal to them. I'd also like to see more well planned series or single movies driven by dialogue, since I enjoy them way more than music videos.
Sims99: How did you get started making machinima?
Andre: I got a new graphics card at the beginning of 2005 and wanted to see if it would be able to capture video using TS2. So I shot a few clips, strung them together, slapped some text on it and called it a movie. It was ridiculously bad but luckily at that time sims machinima was still in it's early phases and my newbie mistakes were excusable.
Sims99: Do you see machinima as having big-screen potential in the future?
Andre: Most definitely, but for that to happen directors will have to take machinima more seriously and stand together to promote the good films so as to grab the attention of TV and movie producers.
Sims99: What are your other hobbies besides making machinima?
Andre: Oh nothing that's particularly interesting; reading, watching movies and writing, that's about it.
Sims99: Tell us something about yourself that's plausible, but untrue, and something that's unbelievable, but true.
Andre: That my room represents an ancient pharaoh's tomb. That I got 4 speeding tickets in the first year of having my license.
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